Chapter 7: Princess Shaomin
Zhou Zhiruo let out a faint, wistful sigh. “Wuji, I’m already Madam Song now. If you truly care for me, then as long as you agree to marry me, I’ll leave my present husband and marry you even if the whole world laughs at me. On our wedding night, whatever you want to do to me, I’ll follow you.”
As soon as she said it, Zhou Zhiruo’s face looked as if it were burning.
Zhang Wuji was so stirred he stood up and moved to take her soft hand. “Zhiruo, I’ll marry you for sure!”
Zhou Zhiruo instinctively stepped back and clutched her collar. “I said that after we’re married I can do whatever you want... not now. I’m still Madam Song, so I hope Leader Zhang will conduct himself properly.”
“Yes, yes, of course. That was my rashness,” Zhang Wuji said hurriedly, nodding again and again.
“Wuji, do you really want to marry me?” Zhou Zhiruo asked again, joy and shyness mixed in her voice.
“Of course! I’m willing to take you as my wife.” Zhang Wuji walked over to her and looked at her affectionately.
Zhou Zhiruo gave a soft sigh. “Wuji, you really make things difficult for me...” In that warm moment, the two of them tacitly avoided mentioning Zhao Min.
The two of them sat quietly for a while. Then Zhou Zhiruo suddenly noticed Song Qingshu lying on the bed opposite, and thinking of how she was now Madam Song, she felt a stab of pain and sighed softly. “I’ve wronged Qingshu.”
Zhang Wuji comforted her. “Zhiruo, we were the ones who were meant for each other from the start. You never loved him anyway, so how have you wronged him?”
“But we can’t keep sneaking around like this forever.”
Zhou Zhiruo rolled her eyes, then looked at Song Qingshu with a chill in her expression. “Why don’t I just kill him? Then you can go back and kill Zhao Min, and after that no one will be able to stop us from meeting each other every day.”
“How could that be?” Zhang Wuji was startled. He liked Zhou Zhiruo, but abandoning Zhao Min was something he absolutely could not do.
“Wuji, I was only testing you.”
Zhou Zhiruo smiled slyly. “I already owe my husband enough. If I went and took his life too, how would I be any different from those wicked women in history? If you had really agreed just now, I wouldn’t dare have anything to do with you anymore. You want to be Ximen Qing, but I don’t want to be Pan Jinlian.”
After a moment of surprise, Zhang Wuji broke into a smile. “My little Zhiruo really is the kindest one...”
The next day, sunlight spilled into the room. When Song Qingshu woke up, he found the room empty. The bed opposite was also neatly made, with no trace of anything left behind, and he let out a long breath, thinking in confusion, “Could it really have all been just a dream last night?”
Then Song Qingshu’s expression darkened. He noticed that the sheets on the opposite bed had been changed. The difference was slight, but he remembered clearly that they were not the same as yesterday’s.
Why had the sheets been changed?
Song Qingshu looked up at the sky and murmured to the air, “If you have a spirit in heaven, you should know it isn’t your big brother not trying hard enough. It’s just that your wife is far too shameless, and she even rolled around in bed with Zhang Wuji.”
How could Song Qingshu know that last night the sheets had simply been soaked with tea, and Zhou Zhiruo had deliberately changed them for a clean set?
“Qingshu, you’re awake?” Zhou Zhiruo came in carrying a basin of hot water. Seeing that Song Qingshu was awake, she wrung out a towel and handed it to him.
Song Qingshu gave her a somewhat disgusted look, thinking that this woman had done something to betray her husband last night, and was now showing unprecedented tenderness and consideration because of her guilt.
“Why were the sheets changed?” Song Qingshu took the towel without showing anything on his face and asked knowingly.
Zhou Zhiruo glanced nervously over her shoulder and said softly, “They got dirty by accident, so I changed them.”
“Oh.” Song Qingshu did not press further. He did not dare push too hard either.
When Zhou Zhiruo went out to pour the water, Song Qingshu watched the sway of her waist as she walked away. Whether it was just psychological suggestion or not, her face seemed to have shed the awkwardness of a girl and was beginning to show the allure of a married woman, and he felt an inexplicable surge of irritation.
“Unlucky bastard, big brother will definitely avenge you.”
Since it had already happened, he had to face it.
Song Qingshu had never been one to run away. But considering that he currently could not even beat one of Zhou Zhiruo’s disciples, let alone the peerless Zhang Wuji, and that in the original story Zhou Zhiruo’s gentle exterior hid anything but a soft-hearted soul, if he was careless he might fail to get revenge and lose his life instead.
While he was deep in thought, a hearty laugh drifted in. “Brother Song’s complexion looks rosy today. It seems your injuries are almost healed.”
Song Qingshu looked up and saw that Zhang Wuji had actually walked straight in. The veins at the corner of his eye twitched violently, and he said coldly, “What are you doing here?”
Everyone present knew that Song Qingshu and Zhang Wuji had long held a grudge, so no one found his tone strange. Zhang Wuji did not care about his attitude at all, and instead smiled warmly. “I heard Brother Song has been troubled by his meridians, so I came to see whether I might offer a little help.”
At that moment, a sweet, bright female voice rang out. Song Qingshu had been filled with rage just now and had not noticed the person who came with Zhang Wuji. Only then did he realize that the speaker was a young woman with eyes clear as water and skin bright like jade, her lovely face flushed with rosy light. She was as dazzling as a flower just opening, so beautiful and radiant that one could not help feeling inferior and unwilling to meet her gaze directly.
It was Zhao Min, stepping in to defuse the situation because she could not bear to see the man she cared for mocked by Song Qingshu.
Song Qingshu glared at Zhao Min fiercely. Although her noble status naturally gave her a touch of aristocratic grace that could easily make others feel ashamed in comparison, Song Qingshu was a transmigrator, and on top of that he already harbored hostility toward Zhang Wuji, so of course he felt no such pressure.
After sizing her up, he withdrew his gaze. There was no need to fight over momentary pride.
Zhang Wuji really did have incredible luck with women, to be surrounded by such breathtaking beauties. But thinking that he already possessed such a stunning princess and was still coming after Zhou Zhiruo only made Song Qingshu even more annoyed.
Zhao Min was swept by his glance and suddenly felt as if she had been stripped bare and seen through from head to toe. She became very uncomfortable, slipped behind Zhang Wuji, and completely soured on Song Qingshu.
“Qingshu, yesterday I heard you mention that the four great divine physicians might be able to cure your meridians. I remembered that Leader Zhang inherited Hu Qingniu’s full medical legacy, so I specially asked him to come and see whether your meridians might be repaired.”
When Zhou Zhiruo spoke, she did not even look at Zhang Wuji once. Her tone was extremely cold whenever she mentioned his name, and Zhao Min and the others all assumed Zhou Zhiruo still harbored resentment toward him. Only Song Qingshu sneered to himself.
“Didn’t he say last time that he couldn’t do anything about it?” Song Qingshu looked at the two of them dismissively.
“Brother Song, last time I truly had no good solution at the moment. After returning, I searched through medical texts from every dynasty and finally found a method that might be worth trying.”
Zhang Wuji showed no trace of anger. His magnanimity made everyone silently approve of him. What a true gentleman.
“Oh?”
Song Qingshu was somewhat tempted. Ever since he had confirmed that this was the world of Jin Yong’s martial arts novels, he had become rather ambitious. Knowing the plot gave him access to countless treasures and martial manuals as if they were already in his pocket. But with his meridians completely ruined, all of that was nothing more than a mirage. In this chaotic age, even if he found treasure he might not be able to keep it, and even if he obtained a manual he would not be able to practice it. Now that he heard Zhang Wuji had a way to cure him, for a brief instant Song Qingshu even felt that if Zhang Wuji really healed him, he could let the matter with Zhou Zhiruo go. After all, the one who would suffer would be that unlucky bastard, not him.