A Figure on Jade Steps in the Wind and Snow 69

Chapter 69: Telling a Dream

Shen Zhishu’s arm, which was resting on Jiang Yu’s waist, could clearly feel Jiang Yu’s breathing. That person’s every breath was always very long, steady and powerful.

Her fingertips hung loosely, resting on Jiang Yu’s smooth and soft nightclothes, and she rubbed them unconsciously.

The night was as silent as water, the bed curtains were low, and a cold fragrance and warm air floated in the room.

Jiang Yu listened to the beginning of the story without a word and did not give any reaction, so Shen Zhishu continued, “As I was passing through the pine forest, I passed by a cedar tree, two cedar trees, three cedar trees, four cedar trees, five cedar trees…”

The skin under her arm trembled.

Jiang Yu suddenly turned over, from lying on her side facing in to lying on her back, and the bed sank a little with her. She turned her head to the side, looked directly into Shen Zhishu’s eyes, and said faintly, “I don’t want to hear this.”

“Then what do you want to hear?” Shen Zhishu raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you say you wanted to lull Your Highness to sleep?”

Jiang Yu answered irrelevantly, “What friend were you going to see?”

Shen Zhishu said, “I don’t know. I just ran into her in my dream, and I don’t even know what she looks like.”

Jiang Yu said, “Oh.”

She laid her head flat, and from Shen Zhishu’s angle, what she saw was her straight and long crow-black eyelashes.

Jiang Yu did not close her eyes, so her eyelashes would tremble from time to time, like the dark wings of a cicada.

After Jiang Yu had lain flat, Shen Zhishu’s arm, which was originally on Jiang Yu’s waist, was now on her lower abdomen. The temperature there seemed to be a little higher than at her waist.

—It was amazing, she could feel that person’s heartbeat from her lower abdomen.

It was very regular.

But it was faster than she had imagined.

She waited quietly for a while, but did not receive Jiang Yu’s next “instruction,” so she pressed, “What else does Your Highness want to hear?”

The moment her voice fell, her lower abdomen rose and fell, and it was Jiang Yu taking a light breath.

She took a breath, but she did not open her mouth to respond for a long time.

Perhaps she was organizing her words, or perhaps she was hesitating about whether to say it.

Just as Shen Zhishu was about to say something else, she suddenly saw the person in her arms turn to face her—

Her face was facing her, only a hair’s breadth away.

They were so close that Shen Zhishu’s nose almost brushed against Jiang Yu’s nose.

So the two of them were stunned at the same time, and Shen Zhishu quickly moved back a little.

Jiang Yu’s eyes were a little lighter than ordinary people’s, and her amber-colored pupils were unforgettable in Shen Zhishu’s mind.

Perhaps it was an illusion caused by being too close, but she always felt that this scene was familiar.

She opened her mouth and said in a low and flustered voice, “Why did Your Highness turn over so suddenly?”

Jiang Yu shrank down a little and raised her head, “I suddenly thought of something and wanted to look at the General while I said it.”

“Hmm?”

“General—” Jiang Yu said. “I once had a… friend.”

She paused here, it was unclear whether it was intentional or not.

Shen Zhishu did not hear the second half of her sentence for a long time, so she pressed, “And then?”

Jiang Yu pursed her lips and said, “And then she died.”

Shen Zhishu wanted to say, “So suddenly,” but what came out of her mouth was, “And then?”

“And then I was very sad and melancholy, but all of this seemed to be my own dream. When I woke up from the dream, I found that the past was a desolate wilderness,” Jiang Yu said softly. “Does the General occasionally have this feeling? Do you also have such dreams?”

Shen Zhishu thought for a moment and shook her head slightly, “Dreams and reality are very far apart, and I can distinguish them very clearly. Perhaps Your Highness… has been under too much pressure recently?”

“Perhaps,” Jiang Yu said in a low voice. “I still haven’t figured out whether I really have such an old friend.”

“Where does her family live, and what is her name?” Shen Zhishu gave her an idea. “Perhaps if you investigate, you can solve the confusion in Your Highness’s heart.”

But Jiang Yu said, “I can’t find it.”

This sentence came out almost without thinking. She lowered her eyes and looked as if… she was a little sad.

Shen Zhishu did not ask, “Why can’t you find it.”

She thought, There are too many unreasonable things in the world. Perhaps the person involved knows clearly, and if others ask too much, it will only tear open the scar, and every question will tear it open again.

The hand on Jiang Yu’s waist suddenly moved in a little, and then it caressed Jiang Yu’s back.

Her other hand was raised in an awkward posture and clumsily pressed on the back of Jiang Yu’s head, rubbing it not so gently twice.

Jiang Yu leaned forward and buried herself in Shen Zhishu’s arms.

Her voice sounded in front of her chest, sounding a little muffled, “General, I’m not happy.”

Shen Zhishu’s hand, which was on Jiang Yu’s back, slowly tightened. She found that she couldn’t say any comforting words for a moment.

She then thought, Perhaps it’s because in the face of life and death, gentle words always seem too light.

So she added more force to her arms.

Jiang Yu nestled quietly in Shen Zhishu’s arms, paused for a few breaths, and suddenly said, “General, you’re holding me too tight, I can’t breathe.”

Shen Zhishu’s hand suddenly loosened, and she said in a low voice, “Sorry.”

Jiang Yu did not answer this apology, her tone showing no emotion, “Say a few more words.”

“Hmm?” Shen Zhishu was a little surprised. “What does Your Highness want to hear?”

“Anything is fine,” Jiang Yu said. “Listening to the General speak from your chest feels very different. The General’s voice has changed.”

“What has it become?”

“It has become clearer and brighter, as if I am hearing it from the General’s heart.”

Shen Zhishu let out a light laugh and remained in her original position, “Then does Your Highness know what I am thinking in my heart?”

“I don’t know. Let me guess.”

“Mm, you guess.”

Jiang Yu did not raise her head and still pressed her cheek against Shen Zhishu’s chest, “I guess the General is now thinking about what to eat tomorrow.”

“That’s nonsense,” Shen Zhishu smiled. “Your Highness is so sad, but I’m thinking about these things. In Your Highness’s heart, am I such a heartless person?”

“Then… the General is probably thinking about how to comfort me if I cry.”

“Hmm, you’re half right,” Shen Zhishu said. “I wasn’t thinking about whether Your Highness would cry, but I was indeed thinking about how to comfort Your Highness.”

Jiang Yu’s head raised a little, her voice light and faint, “I am very easy to comfort. The General just needs to hold me a little tighter.”

Shen Zhishu blinked, “Didn’t Your Highness just say that I was holding you too tight?”

“That was to trick the General,” Jiang Yu said. “Actually, the tighter the better, preferably so tight that it really makes me unable to breathe.”

As her voice fell, Shen Zhishu said, “Mm,” and her arms around Jiang Yu’s waist and back suddenly tightened.

She then felt the full body temperature of Jiang Yu.

She also heard Jiang Yu’s heartbeat.

Jiang Yu’s heart seemed to be beating faster than before. Shen Zhishu listened without a word and smelled the overwhelming scent of cedar.

Her thoughts seemed to be soaked in a boundless pine forest and began to diverge in all directions without any order. For several moments, she seemed to have thought about many, many things, and yet she seemed to have thought about nothing, her mind a blank.

It wasn’t until an unknown amount of time had passed, and the very light sound of the water clock in the alley came from several courtyard walls away, that Shen Zhishu suddenly came back to her senses.

The heartbeat in her ear had calmed down a little, and she thought to herself, I wonder if Jiang Yu is still sad.

Shen Zhishu suddenly heard Jiang Yu call her.

She lowered her head, “Hmm?”

“General,” Jiang Yu said. “Will the General always be by my side? I’m really too afraid of losing a friend again.”

Shen Zhishu was about to nod, but she sighed in her heart.

—Fate is always a trickster, she thought. The reason she didn’t want to get married was because she didn’t know when she would die on the battlefield. What could she promise Jiang Yu now?

This friend and partner seemed to be no different, she thought with some absurdity.

So Shen Zhishu just gave a vague “Mm,” and the hand on Jiang Yu’s back patted her a few times lightly.

She heard Jiang Yu continue to ask, “What is the General thinking now?”

Shen Zhishu thought to herself, If I tell you the truth, you’ll be even sadder, so she said casually, “You guess.”

This time, Jiang Yu said, “I can’t guess.”

When she spoke, her head shook a few times, and her cheeks rubbed against Shen Zhishu’s chest.

It was a little… itchy.

Perhaps to change the subject, Shen Zhishu answered irrelevantly, “Your Highness, let me tell you another story.”

“Alright.”

“I said before that I was passing through a pine forest to find my friend,” Shen Zhishu recounted her previous dream. “I had known that friend for a year, but I didn’t know her name, or even what she looked like. I only knew that she came from the north, her voice was like clear dew, she loved to wear white, and her other hobbies were always strange.”

“Hmm?”

“For example, she asked me to teach her lightness skill, but after she learned it, she used it to jump into a lake.”