Chapter 496: Your Highness, what a huge mosquito!

Li Qingluo regretted it and no longer wanted to continue.

She was again coaxed softly by someone for a long while.

She felt wronged and wanted to cry, not knowing it would actually hurt this much.

Someone gently wiped her tears for her.

"Don't cry, can we finish?"

Li Qingluo, however, hesitated.

"Next time, will it not hurt?"

Duan Rongshi: "I don't know either. But the book says so."

Li Qingluo: "Then, then shall we continue?"

"I don't believe it; I can't even do this?"

"I endured the pain of piercing my ears, so I can definitely do this!"

Duan Rongshi: "Ear piercing?"

She actually compared ear piercing to this!

He couldn't help but darken his face.

He really wished he could give her a good beating.

But seeing her nose tip covered in dense beads of sweat from enduring the pain, his heart ached even more.

"Silly Luo'er, if it hurts, you don't need to endure it for me."

"Stopping here would be fine."

Li Qingluo lifted her head, her gaze locking with his.

Seeing his hair damp from holding back, a deep pity rose in her heart.

She extended her jade arm and tightly embraced him.

"A Shi, I believe in you."

"If we do it, let us become a true husband and wife."

"And I also don't want to wrong you again."

She lowered her gaze, her face flushed, not daring to look at him: "I've heard that for us women, this also brings pleasure; is it really true?"

Duan Rongshi laughed helplessly, pinching her nose tip and sighing.

"How would I know?"

"Luo'er, this is my first time too."

Li Qingluo gently bit her lip, "I also heard... that men feel pain the first time too. A Shi, does it hurt you?"

Seeing her still feeling pity for him at such a moment, his heart turned completely soft.

"Little fool, this bit of pain means nothing to me."

But after chatting like this, Li Qingluo relaxed quite a bit.

As they talked, they continued again.

After all, Duan Rongshi still restrained himself first.

Only after letting Li Qingluo completely forget the pain did he resume the interrupted process.

This time, she merely felt a little uncomfortable.

Slowly, it actually got much better.

Even at the end, she gradually sank into his waves.

Duan Rongshi did not continue the torment all night.

After it ended, he personally cleaned her and applied medicine.

"Shh, go to sleep."

After Li Qingluo finally fell asleep satisfied, Duan Rongshi kept staring at her over and over.

She didn't even know that he gazed at her sleeping face so greedily every day.

It seemed that if he glanced less, he would feel anxious and afraid.

Only then would he feel a bit at ease, able to sense that she had truly returned and was right beside him.

Even now, Duan Rongshi still finds it unbelievable that they two have finally reached this day.

During the days his wandering soul passed through countless wildernesses, mountains, marshes, wind, snow, scorching suns, he repeatedly had those nightmares day after day.

In every dream, she was absent.

Just when he thought he would forever be unable to escape darkness in this life, he finally found a trace of her soul.

However, in that world, she had already been cruelly killed.

And he, even if driven mad, would seek her remains from her past life.

To bury her, to inter her.

In that life, he himself had never met her.

This truth only heightened his fear.

A life never having met her, never having known the joy of mutual understanding and companionship—even if it were to avenge his mother consort, what joy could there be?

It was merely a piece of rotten wood that he himself didn't care whether lived or died.

Those not-so-real memories would haunt him his whole life.

It made him dare not risk losing Li Qingluo again; he only wanted to truly hold her in his palm.

Therefore, Duan Rongshi couldn't bear to let Li Qingluo suffer even a bit of pain.

Anyway, there's still a long life ahead.

Their days of staying together had just begun.

The next day, when Que'er pushed Li Qingluo awake, it was already mid-morning.

"Miss, miss?"

"Miss, you perhaps slept late last night? If you don't get up to eat some breakfast, it'll be noon already."

"The young master got up early and ordered tonic stewed for you, and also told the servants to watch you drink it."

"If you don't drink, the servants won't be able to finish their duty."

Zheng Mama also came in holding hot water.

"Good miss. Today is the first day of the lunar new year, the Old Lady's letter has arrived; please get up, I'll bring it for you to see."

Li Qingluo heard her grandmother's news and immediately sat up.

Que'er sharp-eyed, saw red dots on her large expanse of snowy-white skin from the neck down, and widened her eyes in a startled cry.

"Miss! How can there be mosquitoes in the dead of winter?"

"You've been bitten so..."

Zheng Mama smacked Que'er on the butt with a slap.

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

She smiled, eyes full of mirth, and hurried forward to adjust Li Qingluo's clothing.

"If you keep making noise, be careful that the young master's big mosquito hears, and you won't be allowed to attend close by anymore."

Que'er:?

"Is the young master sick? Sucking blood on the miss?"

"Good heavens, could it be that the young master has also been afflicted with the blood-sucking gu poison?"

Li Qingluo:...

She originally almost blushed.

Zheng Mama covered Que'er's mouth: "Stop spouting nonsense, my grandaunt!"

"You are becoming more and more like that Zhui Yu rascal, always clueless about propriety."

"Could it be that you truly aren't afraid of Your Highness anymore?"

"I heard that the Ministry of Punishments once had a punishment: using needle and thread to sew shut the mouths of those who talk too much."

"Are you perhaps also wanting to try it?"

Que'er then shrank her neck with a fearful expression.

"Don't… miss, mama, the servant knows she was wrong."

Zheng Mama's eyes shifted, speaking with a hint of teasing and half-serious: "Miss, I think you should hurry and marry off this girl; she's clueless all day."

"I think that Zhui Yu young man is also capable; you might as well ask Your Highness to test the waters, see if that Zhui Yu young man also has intentions toward our Que'er."

Que'er's face instantly redder than Li Qingluo's nightclothes.

She covered her face and stamped her foot: "Granny! Oh dear, what are you saying?"

"How could that Zhui Yu possibly… I…"

"Oh dear, the servant won't say it to you all."

"I'll go prepare breakfast for the miss."

After saying that, Que'er covered her face and ran off.

Li Qingluo: "Knowing to be shy, seems not completely clueless either."

"Could it be that Zhui Yu did something yesterday?"

Zheng Mama: "Yesterday Nan'an City was bustling like daytime. Que'er came back carrying a bunch of things: flower lanterns, candied haws, little clay figurines; that Zhui Yu really knows how to coax a little girl."

"Hehe, I see, these two are just a step away from tearing the last layer of the window paper."

Li Qingluo: "Que'er looks happy being with him. Tonight I'll mention it to Your Highness, to see what Zhui Yu really means."

Having dressed and risen, Zheng Mama hurried to tidy the bed.

As expected, on the messy sheets she saw what she had anticipated.