To Be A Virtuous Wife novel · Chapter 8 of 24
Chapter 8: One Bed
The Peony Court bedroom had one bed, one window, one chest and a pallet that Dongmei had made up on the floor with a long, meaningful look.
Then she had left and closed the door.
The prince stood in the middle of the room with his hands behind his back.
He looked like a general inspecting a very small, very strange fort.
"I will sleep there," he said, and pointed at the pallet.
"You're taller than it is."
"I have slept in worse. I have slept in a ditch."
"It's your house, Chengzhou. Take the bed and I'll take the floor."
"No."
"Then we'll both be stubborn until the lamp runs out of oil."
He considered this.
"You take the bed," he said at last. "I take the floor. And in the morning, my stepmother's maids will find us in exactly those places and be very disappointed."
"They'll be outside the door listening tonight."
"Then we will have to be a convincing couple."
"How?"
"I don't know. I have never been a couple."
He said it so seriously that she laughed out loud, and he looked startled, then pleased with himself.
She sat on the edge of the bed to undo her hair.
He turned his back to give her privacy, which was thoughtful and ridiculous in a room so small.
Behind her, cloth rustled.
She pulled her hairpins out one at a time and thought about nothing at all, very hard.
Then she turned around to ask where he kept his night robe, and forgot the question.
He had taken off his outer robe, and the green silk lay folded on the chest.
Under it was a plain white undershirt, and he was pulling that over his head.
His back came into the lamplight.
It was broad, and it was not smooth.
Pale ridges ran across it from shoulder to hip, a dozen old lines crossing each other in a pattern she had seen once, on an X-ray of a man who had been in a car accident and lived.
Keep reading free with an account. Start To Be A Virtuous Wife from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 7 · All chapters · Chapter 9 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend