Seeing his awkwardness holding Chang Suo, Gu Jin Chao said, “He’s quite heavy. Why don’t you hand him back to me?”
She reached out to take Chang Suo, but the child thought his mother wanted to play peekaboo with him. He giggled and hid his head behind Chen Xuan Qing’s back.
Chen Xuan Qing could only awkwardly support the child’s body, afraid he might fall.
“You should carry children less,” Old Madam Chen cautioned Gu Jin Chao. “Now that you’re with child again, you must be more careful.”
Chen Xuan Qing couldn’t help but press his lips tightly together.
Apart from Gu Jin Chao and Third Master Chen, no one else had known about this. Everyone immediately offered their congratulations to Jin Chao. Gu Jin Chao thought the child was coming too quickly; she was already exhausted taking care of one. How would she manage another?
After the evening meal, Second Master Chen stayed behind to speak with Old Madam Chen.
Third Master Chen left first, carrying the sleeping child, with Gu Jin Chao following behind. Upon returning to Osmanthus Hall, the wet nurse removed Chang Suo’s little jacket and carried him to the warm room to sleep. Third Master Chen sat on the luohan bed reading a book.
Gu Jin Chao, attended by her maids, washed her face and hands with a hot towel and changed her clothes before coming out.
When she emerged, Third Master Chen motioned for her to sit across from him and closed his book.
“There are some household matters where I shouldn’t interfere directly, so I must speak through you. I think it’s time to find a concubine for Chen Xuan Qing.”
Why would he suddenly think of getting a concubine for Chen Xuan Qing?
Since it was Third Master Chen’s idea, Gu Jin Chao didn’t feel she should object. She nodded and asked, “That’s fine. It would be good for the Seventh Young Master to have someone attending to him. Do you have someone in mind?”
“I’m not familiar with the maids in his household. But there were originally two chamber attendants. Perhaps one could be elevated to concubine status,” Third Master Chen said casually.
Gu Jin Chao acknowledged his suggestion but felt hesitant inside. Could this be because of her…?
She hesitated, then after a moment of silence said, “Seventh Young Master has been a county magistrate for a year now, and has broadened his outlook somewhat. It’s good for him to gain more experience like this. His spirit seems better than before. Those previous matters were just youthful indiscretions…”
Hearing this, Third Master Chen asked, “Are you afraid I’ll misunderstand?”
Gu Jin Chao shook her head: “It’s not that I fear you’ll misunderstand. I just want to be clear.”
Third Master Chen spoke softly: “Jin Chao, do you want to hear the truth?”
What truth?
Third Master Chen continued: “In my heart, I don’t like you speaking with him, but it’s not because I don’t trust you…” He paused momentarily, reaching out to hold Jin Chao’s hand. “Sometimes I’m not as composed as I appear. I don’t like other men looking at you too much. I also feel jealousy…”
He presented himself as tolerant and broad-minded, but he was still only human.
“So it’s impossible for me not to be wary about you and Chen Xuan Qing. Do you understand?” Chen Yan Yun looked into Gu Jin Chao’s eyes, with a hint of a sigh.
Gu Jin Chao merely sighed in response.
Of course, she understood. Everyone has selfish thoughts and emotions. Third Master Chen wasn’t a deity… and in some ways, intelligent people tend to be more sensitive. Gu Jin Chao wrapped her arms around Third Master Chen’s neck and lay against his chest, quietly listening to his heartbeat.
“Yan Yun…” she murmured.
“Hmm?” Chen Yan Yun raised his hand, the prayer beads sliding into his sleeve. He simply placed his hand on Jin Chao’s back, gently caressing it.
She wore a satin jacket with a Hangzhou silk surface. The diamond pattern was smooth and somewhat thin, and he could feel the bones of her spine beneath.
“I probably like you more than I realized,” Gu Jin Chao said softly. “I can’t imagine what I would be like without you…”
She had always looked down on women who lived dependent on men.
Her mother had been somewhat like that, living a lonely life in the inner compound, fighting over one man, and gradually becoming dependent on him. She had adjusted her preferences to suit his, losing her own identity.
When Gu Jin Chao was young, she had witnessed her uncle’s concubines fighting among themselves. At the time, she had disdainfully thought that even if she married, she would never be like that. She had been utterly selfish, thinking it was enough just to live well for herself.
Only when she truly came to depend on him completely did she realize things weren’t so simple?
“I’ve also wondered… what your life was like when you lived with Madam Jiang,” Gu Jin Chao revealed a slight smile. “You must have held her like this and talked with her, or worried that she wasn’t wearing enough clothes, or picked out dishes she liked. Mother says a woman shouldn’t be jealous, that it’s one of the seven grounds for divorce. But who can truly control their feelings?”
Gu Jin Chao had certainly thought about these things.
A man like Chen Yan Yun—who wouldn’t love him? She didn’t believe that Madam Jiang hadn’t been sincere towards him, or that his concubines hadn’t been sincere.
The more she lived with him, the more she realized how easy it was to like and depend on this man.
Chen Yan Yun was surprised to hear Gu Jin Chao speak this way.
“Jin Chao…”
“I haven’t finished yet,” Gu Jin Chao smiled. “I won’t say these improper things again, so listen to me finish. Sometimes I wish I had been born ten years earlier, so I could have liked you from the beginning. I want to know what you were like when you were young, and what you were like in your prime. You see, all these experiences belong to Sister Jiang. She accompanied you and surely loved you for more than ten years. Do you think I might be jealous of her?”
She held him tightly, which surprised Third Master Chen. But more than that, he felt joy.
He leaned close to Gu Jin Chao’s ear and said softly: “Jin Chao, you never say such things…”
That was because she had long passed the age where she could express her feelings intensely. She was accustomed to hiding all her emotions and expressing them in gentler ways. It wasn’t from suppression, just habit.
He kissed her earlobe, his voice full of pleasure.
“I never knew these things. If you’d asked, I could have told you about my past… Though I wasn’t as composed then as I am now. When I first earned the title of second-place graduate, I was very happy. I dragged my second brother to the wine shop to drink, and was caught by my father…”
Gu Jin Chao felt a tingling sensation when he kissed her, a warmth that spread to her heart.
His body grew increasingly tense. Sitting in Chen Yan Yun’s lap, she quickly became aware of his arousal.
His hands gripping her waist inevitably tightened, pulling her closer to him.
The feeling there became even more intense.
Gu Jin Chao couldn’t help but feel her body soften, losing strength, which allowed him to grasp her hands and turn her over, pressing her down.