To Be A Virtuous Wife novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Door

He knocked this time.

Two slow raps sounded on the Peony Court door, near midnight.

Yuwei sat on the bed with her hair down and the blue diary open on her knee.

She had been reading the same line for an hour.

She had not understood a word of it.

"Come in," she said.

He came in and closed the door behind him and stood with his back against it.

He wore a plain black night robe, loosely tied, and his hair was unbound.

It fell to his shoulders, dark and straight, and it made him look younger and a good deal more dangerous.

"You knocked," she said.

"I was told I'm a poor guest."

"There's no maid in the bushes tonight."

"I had them checked."

She could not stop a laugh.

He did not laugh with her.

He was looking at her.

"I need to say something first," he said. "And you can send me out afterward."

"All right."

"What happened in the shrine was not an act. It was not to keep you quiet."

He swallowed.

"I have wanted to do that since the morning you made my side consort drink her own tea."

"For two years I wanted nothing but a clear head. Now I want this."

"I did not expect to say that to anyone."

Her face went hot, and her heart thudded.

She put the diary on the chest.

"I wasn't acting either," she said.

"No?"

"I'm a terrible actor. Ask Dongmei."

She stood.

The floor was cold under her bare feet, and she crossed it slowly, with her hair swinging against her waist.

She stopped in front of him.

He was a head taller than she was, and he was breathing as if he had run up a hill.

"You're shaking," she said.

"Am I?"

"A little."

"It's the stillwater," he said. "Some mornings."

"It isn't. Don't lie."

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