Chapter 155: The romantic scholar.
Weijun laughed. His wife was more alive now than she had been during the tour of the city. "It was not like that. He didn’t cheat physically.....I would say more of emotionally."
"How is that?" She asked curiously.
Weijun rubbed the tip of his nose as he replied, "In short, with all that was going on back then, my mother was overwhelmed. Whenever my father returned, she would complain about everything that had gone wrong in our lives.
You know how my father is. He doesn’t say much. So, he didn’t tell her about his own struggles. Instead, he vented to his female childhood friend. He started spending more time with that woman. They went out to restaurants, shopping, horse racing, auctions.
Basically, they did all the things that people do while dating. Soon enough, the stories reached my mother’s ears. Her friends, the relatives, everyone was whispering about it."
Liwu groaned, "that is even worse."
Weijun sighed. "Apparently, my mother had the same thought, while the rest of us thought it was not such a big deal when my father explained the nature of his relationship with his female friend. They had not crossed any boundaries. His friend was also married. There was no evidence of inappropriateness."
Wagging her finger, Liwu refused to buy into it. "Nope. Friendship boundaries between male and female friends are complicated. Xixi and Cross are friends, or so she says. Him on the other hand...he is trying to date her!
For them, this is okay since they are both single. So, when he holds her bag, feeds her a fruit with his hand or hugs her when she cries, nobody bats an eye.
You can’t exactly say that there behavior is inappropriate. But if one of them were married, everyone would be raising eyes."
Their gazes held as she said seriously, "Why do you think I asked you to set boundaries between yourself and Manman on the very day we married? Boundaries are important."
He exhaled slowly and trailed his hand to her fingers. One by one, the fingers of his right hand tapped those of her right hand. "And I understood you," he said softly, "just as I understood that it was not okay for my mother to cry by herself in the dark, at 2 A.M. in the kitchen. So I went out and fixed the problem."
She touched his cheek lightly, still meeting his gaze. "And that is what makes you a good man. You know when to differentiate between what is good and what is not good. Except for when you badmouthed me to the press." Her hand dropped.
He laughed softly, "I was a fool, you are magnificent. Intelligent. Alluring. Valiant. Strategic."
The husky waves in his voice stole her breath. She thought of a clever reply, like something she would say back to Xuanji when he was teasing her. But he was not Xuanji. He was the devastatingly handsome mayor whose pillow soft lips tasted like cotton candy and coffee.
"And," he continued quietly, "I think that you know how great a woman you are. That bad luck was like dust, covering a golden treasure. My golden treasure."
Her breath shook. This was not some silly flirting like she had witnessed between classmates as a teenager. It was not filled with lust, like she had seen in some seedy clubs. This was careful, deliberate praise and words of adoration that were stronger than empty flattery.
She laughed nervously, "Your golden treasure, eh! I think that you just might be more romantically dangerous than that silly brother of yours. Where he uses expensive necklaces, you use rosy words."
His eyes lit up. "Well, I did get all that fancy education for a reason. I am a scholar, Mrs. Shen. That is why I can look into your eyes and describe them as luminous. Their glow is so enchanting that the moon envies you, my dear, because before your radiance, it pales. Even the stars scatter in shame when you smile."
Her lips curved faintly. She felt a bit of amusement and satisfaction with his praise.
He moved closer, each inch covered between them wad deliberate, like a predator closing in on prey. Yet his eyes held warmth, not menace. "Your beauty is woven with courage, intelligence carved into grace. When you walk, the world bends to watch. When you speak, silence itself listens."
Clear laughter fell from her lips before she could stop herself. But it was soft, because his finger was sliding down her shoulder, running over the bare skin. The air thickened, charged with tension. "What do you seek with such gilded words, Mr. scholar?"
In one move, her pulled her down, flipped himself over her. He leaned down, his breath brushing her ear, sending a shiver down her spine. "I seek you, Mrs. Shen. Not the world’s admiration, not the respect of the press. Not the approval of your family. Only you. The woman who dares to chase after shadows without a thought for her life. The one who fights kidnappers with a child strapped to her back. The one who gave her husband ten thousand rules on her wedding night. The one who dares to argue with me, warn me, and laugh in my face when I am being ridiculous. The one who rolls her eyes at everything she thinks is stupid. You are my fiercest rival and my sweetest solace."
Liwu’s heart raced. She told herself that it was overreacting to what was just friendly flirting. All these things he said, surely, he didn’t mean. She masked her thoughts with a cold smile. "So, I am the pain and pain killer."
He chuckled, low and rough. "Exactly. You hurt me with your mind and heal me with your touch. Tell me, Mrs. Shen, how can a man resist such contradiction? You are the storm that breaks me, and the harbor that saves me. Every breath I take is a prayer for your nearness. Even refusal cannot sever the thread that binds me to you."
She burst into more laughter. "What the hell? How can this be beautiful and cheesy at the same time?" This man could court the hell out of woman, in the eighteenth century, perhaps and her.
Liwu believed men did not court women with such deep and heavy words anymore. They gave flowers, cars, and jewels. Or, went on arranged blind dates and set a wedding date that very night.
Not Weijun. Apparently, he used his words. And right now, she couldn’t tell if he was being serious or still joking around, to prove his scholarly, romantic talent. Either way, with the way he was holding her, together with his words, her composure would wither.
She gulped and shoved at his chest. "If this is a game, you win, mighty scholar."
He fell back, on the left side of the bed, but kept an arm around her waist. His smile was triumphant, yet tender.
Neither was thinking of the spy they had come to capture. But the spy was thinking about them, from across the window of a hotel room opposite theirs.
Liwu was right, they were being watched.