Page 44 of The Scholar's Improper Wife

But aphrodisiacs did strange things. Made people act out of character. Maybe that was all it was.

Yun-si slept through the whole day, sending word that she was unwell so she need not face her mother’s morning sessions, her sister’s questions, or anyone who might look at her face and read what was written there. By nightfall she was still in bed,staring at the canopy above her, when a soft knock came at her window.

“Si-er.”

She knew that voice in her sleep. She shot out of bed and ran across the floor, pushing the window open.

Ting-zhi stood on the other side, one hand braced against the sill. His arm was bandaged. He looked like he hadn’t slept.

“What are you doing here like a flower thief?” she whispered in panic, heart pounding so hard she felt light-headed.

“I needed to see you.”

“If anyone finds you at my window—”

“I know.” He didn’t move.

She stared at him. He stared back.

Moonlight poured across the garden, stilling it into a silver painting. A gust of spring breeze blew, and peach petals drifted down slowly, enveloping them both in their sweet fragrance. His face, half-lit by the pale moonlight, was solemn—the face of a man who had made up his mind, empty of any mirth or smirks.

Then he said, very simply: “I love you.”

She went still.

“I’ve loved you every moment and every day. Every time you called me Zhi-zhi, every time you beat me at poetry games again, every time we talked, every time you shared your dreams with me, every time you were there for me.” There was a raw look in his eyes she’d never seen before. He gripped the wooden edge of her windowsill so tightly she could see the veins in his hands. “I’ve loved you for so long I don’t remember a time when I didn’t.”

She opened her mouth. Nothing came out.

“But I don’t want you to have to marry me if you see me as a brother.” His voice lowered, sounding so vulnerable her heart clenched. “Do you love me? Will you love me? Can you love me, as a husband?”

The questions hung between them in the dark.

Yun-si stared at the slightly disheveled man who was baring his soul to her, and thought about the kisses in the garden that she had called research. The twinkle in his eyes whenever he smiled at her. The warmth of his hug in the cold. The way she had spent sixty days counting without admitting to herself what she was counting toward. The manuscript hero who kept acquiring peach-blossom eyes and a crooked grin no matter how many times she scratched him out.

“I would never...” she drew a breath shakily.

Something shifted in his face. A flash of pain and the careful stillness of a man who had braced himself for any answer.

“...kiss my brother like that,” she continued. “And if you can’t understand that, then you’re the most foolish Flower Scholar in Shangjing.”

He blinked a few times, looking at her with an adorable confusion she had never seen on him. Then a relieved grin broke across his face. His dimples appeared. His shoulders dropped as though some crushing burden had been removed.

“I am a foolish Flower Scholar,” he agreed, still grinning. And there, it was back, the stars in his eyes.

He leaned through the window and drew her forehead to his lips, pressing a gentle kiss there. “Good night, Si-er.”

And then he was gone, vanishing into the night with that infuriating, effortless grace of his, hands tucked behind his back as though he hadn’t just unraveled her.

Yun-si watched him walk away. Walked back slowly to her bed as though it was a night like any other.

Then, under the cover of her blankets, she rolled back and forth in sheer delight, trying—and failing—to muffle her squeals.

Chapter 19

One week had barely passed since the moonlit confession, and already the household was preparing for the fourth of the six marital rites. The speed of it all made Yun-si’s head spin. She had hardly any time to catch her breath between the proposal gifts, the divination consultations, and now—now came the fourth rite: the sending of betrothal gifts. After today, after the Gu family formally presented their betrothal gifts and her family accepted them, she would be considered officially betrothed to the Gu family.

To Gu Ting-zhi.