Fields of Gold

Now that she had her reason back, Yu Xiaocao used her small fists to pummel the guy in front of her. However, her tiny bit of strength only tickled the fellow in front of her, who was in his prime and very strong. It didn’t seem to affect him at all as he continued to steal kisses.

His rock hard abdomen and a certain something seemed to heat up even more and become harder. It poked against Xiaocao, making her feel quite uncomfortable. She knew that it was pointless to struggle as it would serve to excite a certain fellow. After going through her options in her woozy head, she forcefully bit down on the fellow’s lips. However, when the iron taste of blood touched her lips, the fellow seemed to not care and continued to lick and nibble at her swollen and bright red lips.

She reached out a hand and accurately pinched the fellow’s attractive nose closed. He had to breathe sooner or later, which meant that he had to let her go! Yu Xiaocao’s eyes glittered with a crafty light. However, she didn’t expect that Zhu Junyang had a very good lung capacity and continued to ravage her lips for a long time before he finally let her go.

“Deng Tuzi, such a pervert!!” Yu Xiaocao scuttled away in that one moment when he had regained his mind. She glared at him in displeasure and her swollen and red lips were in a pout. Her eyes had a tinge of fury in them, which made Zhu Junyang feel quite puzzled.

“Tell me the truth!! Have you kissed a lot of women before? Which is why you’re not the least bit unfamiliar with the techniques?” Yu Xiaocao put her hands on her hips and had a sour, jealous expression on her face. She looked quite fierce at this moment.

“This prince is being wrongly accused. Other than you, who else is attractive enough for me to kiss? Don’t you know ah? All men instinctively know what to do, so we’re all self taught. In addition, this prince has been kissing you in my dreams for a long time. Isn’t it better that I seem practiced?” Zhu Junyang had a righteous expression on his face, and he was secretly delighted that the little lass was feeling jealous.

Yu Xiaocao glared at him suspiciously for some time and couldn’t detect a hint of guilt anywhere. Only then did she reluctantly say, “Hmph! This time I’ll let you go. If I find out that you dared to fool around with other women, I will make sure to drug you such that you’re unable to...perform!”

“Pfffft——” Zhu Junyang had almost just choked on his own saliva and he frowned. He used his pair of seductive phoenix eyes to inspect the little lass as he remarked in displeasure, “Where did you hear such nonsense? If this prince is unable to...perform, what are you going to do?”

Yu Xiaocao’s cheeks flushed a bright red and she leveled a glare at him and growled, “If you’re ever disloyal, then I will sweep you out of the door. When the time comes, we will no longer interact with each other for even a second. Thus, why would I care whether you can perform or not? Don’t forget, I’ve learned medicine, so I’ve naturally skimmed through and seen what certain conditions a man can have…”

“In the future, stop looking at those weird medical texts. It’s not as if we need to rely on your medicinal skills to make money! If you want to make money, next month when the ships set off to the western hemisphere, I’ll have them trade tea and porcelain for precious gems and diamonds. We can open a jewelry store, which doesn’t require much capital and make a lot of profit…”

His little wife was very good at a lot of things and most of these skills seemed to come out of nowhere. For example, the lass claimed that she had spent time with her village’s barefoot doctor when she was young, learning the basics. However, her skills were such that they sometimes even surpassed the imperial physicians. As for her ability to concoct medications...Zhu Junyang suddenly felt a bit helpless. His wife had too many secrets. In the future, it looked like he had a lot of cleaning up after her to do! 

“Why are we talking about medicine now ah? Be a bit more serious. Right now, we’re discussing whether or not you’re able to stay loyal in one relationship!” Yu Xiaocao had almost been taken astray by this change of topic and hurriedly went back to the problem at hand.

Zhu Junyang saw that his future little wife was brandishing her power, so, as a future husband who knew how to bend and sway with the situation, he hurriedly said in a solemn manner, “Don’t worry, this prince will absolutely be loyal to you alone. In my twenty-two years of life, other than you, there hasn’t been a second woman around me! My feelings are definitely more loyal and long-lasting than Little Black and Little White’s feelings toward you!”

Seeing that he was comparing himself to Little Black and Little White, a brilliant smile appeared on Yu Xiaocao’s face. Zhu Junyang couldn’t help but step forward a couple of times in an attempt to take advantage of her again. However, his plans were cut short by the sounds of people talking outside, “The banquet has already started downstairs. Why hasn’t the young miss gone down? Eh? Wutong, how come you’re not in the room?”

“Older Sister Meixiang needed me to help her out with something and I already got permission from the young miss. Yangliu, how do you have the time to come up ah?” Wutong was a bit puzzled by what had happened. It was clearly a very simple task that any maid would be able to handle. Why did Older Sister Meixiang need her especially for it? However, Meixiang was her young miss’s future mother-in-law’s personal maidservant. She needed to bury her doubts within her heart no matter what.

Yangliu had a bit of excitement in her voice, “The giant cake downstairs has already been cut and served and all of the other desserts have been displayed appropriately. It’s been a while since I last saw the young miss so I wanted to greet her on this special day and give her my congratulations!”

Yu Xiaocao could hear the sounds of the two maidservants approaching. She looked at Zhu Junyang’s lips, which had been injured from her bite, that stopped moving about two inches from hers and restrained a laugh as she said, “Wutong is back. Are you not going to hide again?”

The sound of a soft sigh came out of Zhu Junyang’s mouth and he looked at that delicate and pretty face in front of him and softly said, “Lass, let’s not wait until you’re sixteen. Can we get engaged before the end of the year?”

“It’s only a few months difference. You’ve already waited for this many years, does it matter if you wait a few short months more? That being said, an engagement isn’t marriage. Did you think we’d start becoming intimate right after getting engaged?” Yu Xiaocao quipped.

“After the engagement, you’ll have my name all over you and then those crazy wolves won’t dare to approach you anymore. Don’t think that just because this prince has been spending a lot of time at the barracks that I’ve neglected keeping an eye out on what’s happening in the capital. Don’t you think Duke Ronguo’s second son is interested in you? Every time you organize an event, he brings his younger brother along to shamelessly join you. That fellow has a face that attracts women. In fact, the first time you saw him, you were entranced by his appearance!” Now the one feeling jealous was Zhu Junyang.

His little lass pretty much had no defenses against men who had outstanding looks. Every time she saw Chief Steward Su Ran, her eyes began to sparkle so much that they could blind a person. If Chief Steward Su wasn’t an eunuch, Zhu Junyang would have long started a fight with the other fellow! The second young master of the Ning Family had been complimented by the lass for having a gentlemanly exterior and a refined appearance. In his eyes, however, the other youth was only faking it!

“Alright ah, alright! Stop bringing up these old rotten topics. How old was I then? I was only admiring him like I would a painting! Wutong and the others are almost at the door, are you still not going to leave now?” Yu Xiaocao pushed him towards the window and watched as he climbed over the windowsill and sat down.

Zhu Junyang turned his head around and, with a rascally expression on his face, threatened, “Kiss me one more time. Otherwise, this prince will just sit here and not leave!”

She could already hear the sound of the door opening behind her. Helpless, Yu Xiaocao pecked at his lips as lightly as a butterfly. As the sounds of people walking approached her, she forcefully pushed Zhu Junyang’s back and didn't care that they were up on the third floor. In her eyes, with his martial arts skills, even if he fell off a thirteen story building he would be fine, let alone a three story fall. 

“Young Miss, let this servant do it instead, alright?” Wutong saw that her young miss was standing in front of the open window and thought that she was about to close it so she hurried over and shut the shutters. At this time, Zhu Junyang, who was hanging off of the windowsill, saw the window being closed and licked his lips, wishing that he could continue. His little lass was truly too sweet. It was such a pity that her maids were too quick! However, in the future, there were plenty of other opportunities. Now he should go attend the little lass’s birthday feast!

Zhu Junyang gracefully walked into the banquet hall. By the time he arrived at his assigned table, everyone there had already drank plenty of wine and eaten until they were half full.

Zhu Junfan keenly spotted that there were some tell-tale teeth marks near his younger cousin’s lips and he secretly laughed. It looked like this fellow had tried to steal a kiss from a beauty. Not bad, not bad at all, the child was teachable and seemed to resemble himself during his youth.

“You stinky brat, where were you ah? How come you only got back now? If you came back any later, you wouldn’t be able to have a share of your little wife’s birthday cake!” There was a piece of cake in front of Zhu Junyang’s seat. That piece had the word ‘Cao’ written on it with bright red jam and it was obvious that it had been especially reserved for him.

“Imperial Grandfather, Imperial Majesty, my two imperial uncles…” Zhu Junyang greeted all of his family members one after another. His usually cold and icy face didn’t seem to be as frosty today. Instead he seemed quite lively, which made everyone at the table gape in astonishment.

The emperor emeritus was currently chewing on some sliced pig ears in chili oil and loudly remarked, “That’s the spirit ah! Young people need to smile more in order to make girls like them! You look the most like myself when I was young. I just remember, back then, although we were quite poor, there were still plenty of young maidens eyeing me in admiration…”

Imperial Prince Jing glanced at his father’s large face that was as round as a pancake paired with a fat double chin. Then he turned to glance at his younger son’s slender and well-sculpted face that was paired with alluring phoenix eyes. His lips twitched involuntarily——this old man was clearly too overconfident about his own looks! Junyang was obviously the son that most resembled his mother in looks. If the emperor emeritus had to be compared to someone else’s looks, then he should be using the emperor, who had large eyes and fierce manly eyebrows. 

Imperial Prince Sa stared fixedly at the teeth marks near Zhu Junyang’s mouth and he snickered endlessly. Finally, he couldn’t resist and teased the younger man, “Oh ho, Boy Yang, what happened to your mouth? You were only gone for a bit so how did that happen?”

Zhu Junyang idly touched the wound near his mouth and revealed a bit of softness in his expression. He immediately became serious to confront the insatiable curiosity of the older man and drilly said, “Nothing much, I wasn't careful earlier and was injured by a little wild cat who bit me…”

Imperial Prince Sa’s son, Zhu Junxu, was similar to his father and liked to tease other people. When he heard his cousin’s explanation, he snickered and said, “Oh ho! This little wild cat must know martial arts in order to injure our Royal Prince Yang, who has exceptional skills. Furthermore, its ability to target your mouth accurately shows that it’s quite impressive!”

When Zhu Junyang sent an icy glower at him, Zhu Junxu shivered and hurriedly showed his cousin that he wasn’t going to say any more. He buried his head down towards his plate to eat more delicious food as he silently cursed the other fellow, ‘Stinky brat. With your cold and stupid personality, it’d be a miracle if any girl liked you! Getting bitten by someone else is karma for you!’

When Yu Xiaocao and her sister came over to toast their table, all of the people there noticed immediately that her lips seemed to be a bit swollen and red. Hence, all of their expressions as they looked at her seemed a bit ambiguous. Under the slightly puzzled looks of Madam Liu and Lady Fang, Yu Xiaocao angrily glared at the criminal in question and pretended as if nothing had happened while she toasted each imperial family member at the table. After saying a few words of gratitude, she immediately fled. She was afraid that someone might link her with Zhu Junyang and spill the beans to her two mothers!