Inlaid With Jade - Chapter 35
Chapter 35
Slap
The Li family had no elders, so Lin Yu didn’t have to bother getting up early to pay respect as a new bride. So after Li Heming left, she lay back on the bed and slept for a while. But without the pillow she liked, she didn’t sleep well. Later, Zelan, who entered the room hurriedly, woke her up.
Li Heming had strange habits. He had no friends outside and no one to serve him at home. Lin Yu was different from him. If she drank tea or got up at night, she needed someone to serve her tea and light candles. Last night, Zelan would like to sleep in the outer room to serve her, but Li Heming didn’t allow anyone to stay.
Zelan didn’t dare disobey him, so she returned to serve Lin Yu in the morning. She worried whether the Master would pour tea for Miss if she were thirsty at night.
Zelan got up early. After Li Heming left, she saw that Lin Yu was still resting, so she prepared to send the quilt and clothes that had been changed last night from the bride’s room for washing. However, when she turned over the pile, she found something wrong.
“Miss, Miss!” She rushed into the room quickly, and after seeing the red colors, she realized Lin Yu was no longer an unmarried girl. She slapped her mouth and changed her words: “Madam! It’s bad!”
Although Zelan was impatient, it was the first time that Lin Yu saw her panic like this. She hurriedly got up from the bed and was about to ask what happened, but she held her waist and made a “hiss” sound.
Li Heming had left when it was not dawn yet, and she woke up after sleeping for two hours more. All the accumulated fatigue surged up in her body. Her waist and legs hurt, and her body was even more uncomfortable.
As soon as Zelan entered the room, she searched by the bed and knelt on the ground to examine the gap under the footrest.
Seeing Zelan like this, Lin Yu hurriedly lifted the bed curtain to look at Zelan lying on the ground: “What’s wrong?”
Zelan raised her head and looked at Lin Yu with tears in her eyes: “Madam, the virginity handkerchief is missing.”
Lin Yu was stunned. The virginity handkerchief was an essential item for a newlywed. The blood on the handkerchief symbolizes a woman’s innocence. On the second day, it should be given to the elders of the groom’s family for inspection before burning it in front of the ancestral tablets.
It was a terrible thing now that it was missing.
Lin Yu endured the pain and left the bed: “Have you looked for it? When was the last time you saw it yesterday?”
Zelan was about to cry when she heard Lin Yu ask. “I didn’t look carefully at that time. I just wrapped the quilt into a ball and carried it out. It should be in the quilt, but I didn’t find it when I looked just now.”
Zelan picked up the clothes for Lin Yu to put on and turned over the bed again.
Lin Yu asked her: “Have you found it?”
Zelan shook her head bitterly.
Lin Yu was silent momentarily, thinking, “Don’t worry. Maybe Li Heming took it. I’ll ask him when he comes back.”
Zelan still frowned: “What if Master didn’t take it?”
Lin Yu didn’t know, so she pursed her lips. “Let’s ask first.”
Li Heming was busy on the emperor’s errand, and Lin Yu waited until night. Today’s weather was still cold. In the evening, the sky was overcast, and it started to rain. The mist covered the whole city, and there was a chilliness.
Yesterday, Li Heming was too cruel. Lin Yu felt pain when walking today. She was so uncomfortable that she couldn’t even go out and only stayed in the room all day. When Li Heming returned, she was sitting by the stove looking at the gift list to see which things could be used and stored in Li Heming’s empty warehouse.
Li Heming went out early in the morning wearing only his official uniform. When he returned, he wore a thick cloak from somewhere. It should be the clothes he had placed in the Northern Office.
Li Heming was tall and looked even more imposing when he wore the cloak. When he entered the room, he threw his umbrella outside the door and blocked the candlelight by the wall.
Zelan saw Li Heming returning, tactfully did not disturb the newlyweds, and quietly left.
When Li Heming entered the room, he saw Lin Yu staring at him and said, “What are you looking at? Do you not recognize me after not seeing me for a day?”
He always said strange things to tease her. Lin Yu didn’t answer and softly asked, “The handkerchief… is it with you?”
Li Heming removed his cloak and replied, “What handkerchief?”
Lin Yu was too embarrassed to mention it, she stammered, “It’s the virginity handkerchief.”
Li Heming glanced at her slightly red ears and hung the cloak on the clothes hanger, “No.”
Lin Yu and Zelan searched the room almost thoroughly today but couldn’t find any trace. After Li Heming said he didn’t take it, she anxiously said, “It placed on the new bed. Think carefully. Did you take it away?”
Li Heming heard her anxious tone and asked: “Can’t find it?”
Lin Yu nodded slowly: “…Yes.”
She had been anxious about this matter for a whole day, but she didn’t expect Li Heming to say lightly, “If you can’t find it, then let it be.”
His indifferent tone indicated that he was unaware of the virginity handkerchief tradition. Lin Yu hurriedly said, “It must be burned before the ancestral tablets. Didn’t anyone tell you?”
Li Heming honestly didn’t know. He frowned: “Why burn that thing?”
“Oh, where do you get so many whys?” Lin Yu said: “Anyway, that thing can’t be missing.”
Li Heming asked her, “What will happen if it’s missing?”
Lin Yu clenched her fist slightly: “Don’t you know? The bloodstained handkerchief means the purity of the newlywed wife. If it’s gone, it means that I’m not innocent.”
The story between her and Li Heming has been tortuous and spread in the streets for a long time. Now that they were getting married, many people were waiting to see the joke. She lowered her eyes and said, “There will always be people gossiping, saying that I lost my virginity to someone else.”
As a man, Li Heming could not understand the handkerchief’s importance to Lin Yu. He seemed to have only heard the second half of Lin Yu’s sentence and said sternly, “Others? Who? Yang Jinming?”
Lin Yu talked about heaven with him, but he wanted to talk about earth. She frowned, “Why did you mention him for no reason? Why do you relate it with him?”
Li Heming looked down at her, “Relation? If nothing happened to the Yang family, the Lin family would have made an appointment with the Yang family, and you would have been waiting at home to be Yang Jinming’s wife.”
Lin Yu growled, “Who said I want to marry him!”
Li Heming understood better than anyone that Lin Yu was not married to him by fate. Since the cancellation of the engagement, he has forced every step. He said, “If I hadn’t asked the emperor to grant me a marriage, would you dare to say that there is no possibility for him? The gambling house even opened a bet in private, betting on when your Lin and Yang families would get engaged.”
Lin Yu heard him talking increasingly off base and raised her voice to scold him: “Li Heming!”
Her shouting stopped Li Heming. He looked at her for a long time and then returned to the topic at the beginning: “Since you care so much about that handkerchief, why not get another one tonight?”
After that, he bent down and pressed down on Lin Yu in the chair. He suddenly approached, and Lin Yu opened her eyes wide, thinking he wanted to do her again. If he did it again like last night, she would be unable to return to the Lin Mansion tomorrow. She subconsciously raised her hand to stop him, but her hands were too fast, her eyes blurred, and her hand accidentally fell on Li Heming’s face.
With a crisp sound of slap, the lights burst, and the thin shadows of the curtains swayed lightly. When the sound fell, Lin Yu’s heart trembled.
The moon outside was cold, and the drizzle swept the plum blossoms in the courtyard, but the atmosphere in the room seemed to be still.
Lin Yu watched Li Heming’s head tilt at her slap, and a half-palm mark soon appeared on his left cheek.
This slap was entirely an accident, but looking at Li Heming’s expression, he seemed to think otherwise because he knew best how he had forced Lin Yu to marry him step by step.
It was the first slap Li Heming received in the face. His jaw was tense momentarily, and the veins on his forehead burst. He turned his head coldly, his eyebrows twisted into deep wrinkles, and his eyes stared at Lin Yu.
This aura of him only a few people would not show fear in front of him. Being stared at by him like this, Lin Yu’s breath slowed down. She looked anxious and regretful.
“I…”
She wanted to say something, but Li Heming didn’t listen. He stood up, picked up the embroidered sword on the table without saying a word, turned around, and strode out without even taking an umbrella.
There was a cold rain outside the door. Lin Yu looked in a daze. Under the dim candlelights, she followed Li Heming’s receding figure, leaving only a trail of w*t footprints on the ground.