Chongfei Manual

When they ascended the mountain, the villa’s steward led the servants to wait at the villa’s entrance to welcome them.

Zhao Jie left the carriage to speak with the steward and Wei Luo called Jin Lu and Bai Lan inside to help her put on her clothes.

Jin Lu and Bai Lan knew what had happened. They had the discernment to not ask any questions and obediently did their work.

After they entered the villa, Wei Luo stayed in the same room as before. The only difference was that she would now be staying here with Zhao Jie.

Because Zhao Jie had work, he only stayed for the night. Early next morning, he hurriedly left the mountain to go into the city to supervise the river transportation work.

Wei Luo slept until dawn. She comfortably soaked in the hot spring for an hour before she looked for things to do. The mountain was covered in snow for most of the year. When they came yesterday, she saw that the mountain was covered in a layer of brilliantly white snow. No wonder it was so cold. She was dressed in a crimson cloak lined with fox fur and holding a hand stove as she walked around the villa. Last time, she had lived here for three months with Liang Yu Rong, so she knew the best places in the villa. But, it was bound to be slightly boring with only one person. She only walked around for a bit before returning to her room.

Just as she walked to a verandah, she saw a little gray squirrel under a pine tree in the courtyard. It was holding a pine nut between its two paws and looking at her.

Wei Luo became interested. Her eyes brightened and she asked, “Jin Lu, do we have any pine nuts left?”

Jin Lu said, “This servant will go inside to look.”

Unfortunately, by the time that Jin Lu came back, the squirrel had already climbed up the tree, jumped out of the courtyard, and fled.

Wei Luo was slightly regretful. When Zhao Jie came back that night, she casually mentioned this to him.

After listening, Zhao Jie smiled and said, "If you want, I'll catch one for you tomorrow."

Wei Luo quickly refused. It was nice to see a squirrel occasionally. If she had to keep one as pet, she wasn’t sure if she could keep it alive. She suddenly thought of the turquoise squirrel waist accessory that Zhao Jie had given her. Wei Luo took it out of a trunk, went back to Zhao Jie’s side, and asked, “I forgot to ask at the time. Why did you give me this?”

This time, Zhao Jie didn’t avoid answering this question. His hands pinched her cheeks and chuckled, “Back then, you looked like a rustling squirrel when you ate pine nuts in my carriage.”

So, that was the reason! Wei Luo immediately felt that this squirrel wasn’t that cute anymore. She slowly put the waist accessory back and said, “Oh.”

The young girl’s mood changed too quickly. Zhao Jie loudly laughed, “What did you do today other than looking at squirrels?”

Wei Luo honestly described her day, then she finally pushed towards the bed, “Big brother, you should go to sleep soon.”

In fact, it took a while to get from Tian Chang Mountain to Tong Zhou’s city. It took an hour by carriage and Zhao Jie had to leave before the sun came up. Even so, he wasn’t willing to live in the city. He insisted on going back and forth each day. Tong Zhou’s prefectural magistrate had invited him several times to say at his residence, but he refused each time. The reason? He wanted to come back and accompany his little wife.

After a few days like this, Zhao Jie finally had half a day off. He simply stayed by Wei Luo’s side and refused to leave. He hugged her while sitting on the bed with his eyes closed.

Wei Luo saw that he had thin black circles under his eyes. She guessed that he probably hadn’t been sleeping well during the past few days, so she scolded him, “Go to sleep. You haven’t had a good rest in a while. I’ll sit here and read a book. After I finish eating, I’ll wake you up.”

Zhao Jie didn’t move. He lazily said, “I’ll just stay here and keep you company.”

Wei Luo didn’t know what to do with him and could only go along with what he wanted.

Wei Luo was reading a book that contained many interesting folk stories. Feeling bored during the past few days, she had been entertaining herself by reading this book. Wei Luo had read up to a story called “The Emerald Locket”. This first half of the story was about a girl from a noble family, who fell in love with a scholar. She ignored her servant girl when she tried to dissuade her from privately meeting with him. They made a pledge to marry without their parents’ approval. Later on, she gave her body’s innocence to the scholar.

The rest of the story should been about the couple’s mutually harmonious and affectionate feelings and their happy ending. However, after that scholar finished his schooling and scored third place in Han Lin Academy’s examination, his heart became fickle and he failed to be loyal to his lover. He married the prime minister’s daughter. The girl from the noble family couldn’t accept his change in heart.

Before she died, she asked him why he had changed and that scholar actually said, “You easily gave me your body. After I thought about it later, I felt that you weren’t the noble and respectable girl that I thought you were. If a woman had self-respect and cherished her good name, how could she easily give her body to someone before marriage?”

The girl couldn’t handle the scholar’s derision. She left behind an emerald locket and threw herself into a lake to commit suicide. This locket had been the love token he had given to her when they had pledged to get married.

After reading this, Wei Luo was so furious that she almost couldn’t resist ripping the book. She blurted out, “If I was the girl in the book, I would drag the scholar with me as I jumped into the lake.”

Zhao Jie wasn’t asleep and had finished reading this story with her. He casually said, “I think the scholar’s words were right.”

Startled, Wei Luo turned her head and started at Zhao Jie as she asked, “What did you say?”

Zhao Jie realized that Wei Luo was angry, so he leaned against the window and smiled as he looked at her.

However, Zhao Jie’s earlier words were like a thorn that pierced Wei Luo’s heart. She had to get a clear answer. “Do you really think that the scholar wasn’t wrong?”

Zhao Jie stayed silent. Seeing that Wei Luo’s little face was getting uglier, he finally said, “Why are you being so persistent about this question?”

However, Wei Luo felt that he was tacitly agreeing from his attitude. Wei Luo pushed him away and left his embrace. With a tense expression, she questioned him, “Does big brother also think of me like that? Before we were married, we also privately saw each other and had a love affair. Do you think of me in the same way as the girl in the book? A person who doesn’t have self-respect?”

It was only now that Zhao Jie understood why she was angry. His heart skipped a beat. He reached his hand out to bring her back into his embrace. “What are you saying…”

But, Wei Luo was quicker than him. She jumped down from the couch like a rabbit, glowered at him, and said, “I don’t want to talk to you.” Then, she ran out of the room without even properly putting on her shoes.