Chapter 63: Consummation: Devoured Bite by Bite

The sweet pistil attracted the butterflies’ approach.

In the darkness, she was the only color left in sight.

Her pearly teeth bit a deep mark into her lower lip. Zhao Huairen’s fingertips suddenly exerted force, breaking free from her restraint with a fierce tug. In the next instant, she countered by seizing the woman’s wrists.

“Shizi—” The woman’s pupils contracted slightly as she yielded to the force and fell backward.

Their figures overlapped.

The rich, intoxicating fragrance finally landed in her embrace.

“Yiqing…” Zhao Huairen called her name, or perhaps it was a sigh of satisfaction. Her warm, spring-like voice carried a hint of hoarseness: “It was I who led you into the bridal sedan, and I who wed you. You were always meant to be my wife.”

“But we haven’t consummated yet.”

Two flushes of red bloomed on her fair cheeks. Zhao Huairen’s ears burned as the hand resting on the woman’s waist suddenly had nowhere to settle. “Yiqing, I…”

“Shizi.” The woman propped herself up on her elbows, her gaze burning into her.

“Yiqing, the surroundings here are too crude.” Even the woman’s hair carried a fragrance, its tips brushing lightly against Zhao Huairen’s neck, stirring a dense itchiness that robbed her of her voice. “We’ll… we’ll take our time later—”

The shy tail end of her words was devoured bite by bite.

Her breath hitched. Zhao Huairen felt as though she had drowned in the deep sea.

A moist sweetness tentatively explored at her lips. Though somewhat at a loss, Zhao Huairen instinctively parted her lips in the end.

It wantonly invaded her territory.

Sucking greedily at the tip of her tongue.

A numbing pleasure climbed up from her tailbone. Zhao Huairen squinted in bliss, her long lashes veiling the tide of desire in her eyes. As the woman licked sometimes lightly, sometimes heavily, she unconsciously gripped the fabric at the woman’s waist.

When the kiss ended, the divine beauty’s lashes were misted with moisture.

The woman licked her lips lingeringly, her gaze falling on Zhao Huairen’s face. “Did you like it?”

It felt very comfortable.

As if her entire body had been soaked in warm water.

Zhao Huairen pressed her thighs together. Amid her aloof brows and eyes, an indescribable alluring flush appeared. “I liked it… I want more…”

“You want more?” The woman stared at her slightly swollen thin lips, the corners of her mouth curving up. “Then call my name, Shizi. I want to hear it.”

Their flawless union eroded Zhao Huairen’s scant remaining reason with every inch of temperature unique to her. It could easily melt a snowdrift or thaw ice.

In her daze, she heard a rustling sound.

Zhao Huairen’s eyes flickered, her nose wrinkling slightly.

“Shizi?” As if punishing her distraction, the woman rubbed her earlobe and urged in a low voice, “Open your mouth.”

Her mind sank into a haze of temptation. Her slender lashes trembled lightly as Zhao Huairen parted her lips and called, “Yiqing…”

Her lips glistened with a sheen.

The woman arched her waist slightly, yet the soft sweetness she awaited did not come.

“Yiqing.” Seeming somewhat dissatisfied with her lover, Zhao Huairen furrowed her brows and called again.

Accompanied by a crisp “click.”

The darkness vanished abruptly, replaced by a blinding light.

Her thoughts sluggish and limbs weak, Zhao Huairen trembled her eyelids, frowned, and slowly opened her eyes.

That light was the harmony of moonlight and candle flame.

The woman’s figure stood tall by the carriage side, her face shrouded in shadow.

“Yiqing, why did you change clothes?” Her voice hoarse from the passion, Zhao Huairen lowered her phoenix eyes slightly, a trace of confusion in her gaze.

Clutching a pile of dew-kissed wild fruits in her arms, Yan Yiqing frowned upon hearing Zhao Huairen’s voice, her ears heating up in waves.

Had she been too lewd?

Why did Huairen’s voice sound so wet and sticky?

“I came to deliver fruits for Qin An,” Yan Yiqing paused in her words, her gaze landing on Zhao Huairen. The divine beauty’s visage was stunning, her collar loose, revealing a section of slender, white collarbone. “I heard the Shizi calling my name from outside the carriage, so I came up.”

The soft sound caught in her throat suddenly lost its breath.

A chill ran down Zhao Huairen’s spine, but the dampness between her legs embarrassed her even more.

“What’s wrong with you, Shizi?” Sensing something off, Yan Yiqing lowered the carriage curtain and bent down to step inside.

The night breeze carrying dew brought clarity.

Their temples had rubbed intimately, but… it had only been her spring dream.

Yet more mortifying than the erotic dream was that the object of her lustful fantasies stood right before her, real and tangible, even drawing steadily closer.

“Don’t come any closer!” Zhao Huairen almost cried out in alarm.

Her suspended leg unsure whether to lower, Yan Yiqing knitted her brows tightly. “You called my name, that’s why I came up.”

Self-annoyance, helplessness, shame.

Zhao Huairen’s mind was messier than an overturned ink dish.

“I don’t want others seeing me in disarray,” Her pearly teeth bit a bloody mark into her lower lip. Zhao Huairen clenched her fists, her voice lacking any confidence. “So, you can’t come over.”

Disarray? Your wife has even seen you bathing. Yan Yiqing grumbled inwardly but feigned propriety on the surface. “The Shizi is refined and otherworldly, unlike a martial roughneck like me. Naturally, you’d care about your appearance.”

Refined and otherworldly—those four words.

In this moment, they sounded like sarcastic mockery.

Zhao Huairen lacked even the courage to lift her head and look at Yan Yiqing. She unconsciously pressed her thighs together. Her clothes were perfectly proper—yet she felt utterly exposed.

What a strange fragrance.

It made one’s heart itch uncontrollably.

Her nose tingled as if brushed by a feather. Yan Yiqing’s eyes flashed slightly as she couldn’t help sniffing the air.

“What are you sniffing!?”

Yan Yiqing pursed her lips. “There’s a very soft fragrance in the carriage. I like it. Why are you being so fierce, Shizi?”

She likes it?

But that’s my…

Zhao Huairen’s cheeks burned as if about to smoke. She wished she could burrow under the carriage. Her head drooped as low as possible as she mumbled, “I don’t want to be with you. Get out.”

Unsure what she’d done to offend her again, Yan Maomao ground her teeth huffily but endured. “What about the fruits then?”

“What fruits?” Zhao Huairen furrowed her brows tightly.

An hour earlier.

She had left the tent and run into Qin An.

“Your subordinate greets Young Master Yan.” Qin An cupped her hands toward her, then said, “May I ask Young Master Yan, where did the Shizi mention picking those fruits?”

Yan Yiqing’s eyes lit up. “She likes eating them?”

Qin An nodded, her gaze toward Yan Yiqing carrying a subtle scrutiny. “May I ask Young Master Yan, this should be good news… why use your subordinate’s name specifically?”

Specifically using her name? I just grabbed whoever was available. A shadow flitted through her dark eyes. Yan Yiqing watched her expression, half-truthfully saying, “If I said I got them, I’m afraid the Shizi wouldn’t accept them.”

“How so?” Qin An asked.

“The mouth that eats grows soft. With the Shizi’s temperament… I needn’t say more.” Yan Yiqing lowered her lashes, her voice warm and hoarse. “She gets carsick; eating some fruits will make her much more comfortable.”

Qin An’s ambition was to make her way in court as a woman.

Yan Yiqing, at merely eighteen, had led troops into battle, annihilating the Northern Di’s Red Armor Army, beheading enemy generals, and reclaiming lost territory. The title of Great Yong’s First Female General echoed across the four continents. As a fellow woman, she had long admired her.

Upon learning she was to wed her own Shizi,

Qin An felt a surge of joy, deeming it a perfect match.

The Shizi differed from any man she’d seen before—no rotten habits of those scoundrels, no disdain toward women. If General Yan married the Shizi, she could continue campaigning without shackles.

It had been a union she favored.

But later, General Yan avoided her Shizi like the plague.

Now, though, General Yan seemed to harbor some indefinable affection toward her Shizi. Assuming she fancied the Shizi, she actually… still very much approved of this match between them.

“You fancy the Shizi, Young Master Yan?” Qin An’s straightforward nature made her questions direct.

Yan Yiqing was about to deny it vehemently but caught a nuance in Qin An’s tone, so she equivocated, “I am her wife.”

“Our Shizi is handsome and chaste.” Qin An straightened her chest, coughed lightly, and said proudly, “Your subordinate dares vouch that there’s no second man like the Shizi in the world.”

Not second—there isn’t even a first.

Huairen is a woman, one of a kind, the treasure she cherished.

“What exactly are you trying to say?” Yan Yiqing furrowed her brows slightly, thinking Qin An was another girl smitten with Huairen, like Zhichun.

“Young Master Yan, seize the opportunity—those near the water get the moon first.” Qin An clenched her fists, her eyes sparkling as she added, “In your subordinate’s view, the Shizi’s attitude toward you differs greatly from toward other ladies.”

Yan Yiqing’s expression shifted subtly, her gaze toward Qin An gaining appreciation. “You think she fancies me too?”

“The Shizi praised your beauty.” Qin An’s face was solemn, highly convincing. “The Shizi is elegant, you are stunning—it looks like a match made in heaven.”

“Well said!” Yan Maomao beamed with delight.

Qin An jolted at the sudden applause. “Young Master Yan, this is…?”

“No wonder you earned the Shizi’s trust. Honestly, I think you’re the most discerning person by her side.” A bosom friend was rarer than gold. Yan Yiqing wished she could grab her and drink while listening to praises of her and Huairen’s compatibility all night.

The renowned general before her—praise from her lips weighed like a mountain. She bowed deeply. “Thank you, Young Master Yan!”

“Tell me more about your Shizi,” Yan Yiqing supported her virtually, her dark eyes rolling as she probed, “You say she’s chaste, but aren’t there… many beauties around her?”

“Beauties they are, but that’s all for…” Masking key details, Qin An told everything she could. “Lady Murong and Lady Xie—there’s truly no entanglement between them and the Shizi.”

Yan Yiqing had been smug at first, but as she listened, panic suddenly gripped her. It was precisely because Huairen had so many beauties around that she’d assumed from the start Huairen must like women too—

But now it sounded like…

“With so many beauties, not one moved her heart?”

Qin An shook her head. “None.”