He went over to her suddenly and swept her off her feet in a princess carry. Xue Dongting yelped in surprise and clutched the arm that was wrapped around her waist. She looked at the fisherman. “What are you doing?”
Song Yuming’s eyes fell on her neckline where he could see a little something something faintly discernible. “You’re not wearing enough,” he said in a low voice.
Xue Dongting just then realized she was still in her nightgown. She instinctively gripped her chest to cover up, her face burning.
Song Yuming carried her back to the bed and said affectionately, “It’s cold out today and you’re not well. You should stay in bed. I’ll go cook.”
“No,” she said quickly. “I’m all better now. How can I always make you cook for me, that would be too…”
He cut her off with, “It’s fine. I cooked for myself before you came. It’s just a matter of adding another bowl and chopsticks.”
“But, we’re married now,” she said softly. “I should be doing those things now.”
Song Yuming smiled. “What we have now is time.”
Xue Dongting gazed at him, feeling something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. She smiled. “So you’re not going out today?”
He noticed her long, quivering eyelashes. “Do you hope I go out?”
She smiled and gave him a sidewards glance but said nothing. Song Yuming smiled helplessly. There was a lot of flirtation contained within that smile of the little wife in his arms.
He sighed gently. “I’ve seen my share of things as well. I came here to this place just hoping to spend the rest of my days with this beautiful scenery. I never imagined I would marry a girl as beautiful as you.”
Xue Dongting lay her head on his chest. “I’m beautiful?”
He nodded. “Very.”
“Mama Qiao said that with a beautiful girl one must always be prepared to pay a price for her beauty.” Xue Dongting was a bit sad. She already had experienced what that price was.
Song Yuming laughed. “You came to torment me. Marrying you will truly be tough going for me.”
Xue Dongting didn’t quite understand. She looked up at him and saw those resolute eyes yet contained a hint of a smile. Then she suddenly knew what the fisherman meant. She pounded his chest in indignation. “What are you thinking about in the middle of the day? I’m hungry!”
Her blows to Song Yuming’s chest were to him but a tickle. He grasped her little hand and laughed. “Alright, what do you want to eat?”
Xue Dongting’s heart was melting. She tilted her head and thought. “Maybe some congee… And sweet cakes.”
“Mm?” he said. “Sweet cakes?”
Xue Dongting suddenly remembered this was Clearcreek Village. She shook her head. They only sold sweet cakes back in town, where was he going to get any here? She smiled. “Nevermind, just congee is fine.”
Song Yuming nodded and set the beauty in his arms on the bed and went out.
Xue Dongting watched him leave and shut the door, feeling pleasantly sweet. She turned to the incense burner on the table and closed her eyes, taking in the dragon saliva incense’s delicate aroma. So he din’t know that stuff was valuable. If he were to collect more it would be worth a lot of money.
But they couldn’t just go and sell the lot of it to the incense shop. Not only would the shop not have the money to buy it all, even if they did they wouldn’t buy it. Dragon saliva incense was extremely precious, no shop in some remote border town on the east coast would spend a lot of money to purchase such a thing.
She suddenly had an idea. Third Prince loved dragon saliva incense. He had once went to great expense searching it out. If she could sell the incense to the third prince, mixed with some medicine, maybe she could kill him without being detected…