Chapter 17 Dai Yun's Room

Dai Yun's room was just downstairs from Tan Weixin's, offering the same stunning views. Tan Weixin had considered every angle for this trap that was ultimately abandoned, naturally not overlooking the important matter of room arrangements. To protect Ye Tao, Tan Weixin, Tan Weishi, and Dai Yun, special care was taken to avoid disturbing their daily lives. There were no guards inside the small building occupied by their family, only their personal servants and attendants. Tan Weishi's room was next to Tan Weixin's, and Dai Yun's room was below hers. There was a small door between Tan Weixin's and Tan Weishi's rooms, and a small internal staircase between Tan Weixin's and Dai Yun's rooms. If Tan Weixin's original plan had come to fruition, it would naturally have taken place between these three rooms. But since Tan Weixin eventually abandoned the plan, everything that never happened faded away in those three rooms.

In terms of room location, Dai Yun's room should have been the best today. Outside the room was a huge, spacious viewing balcony built into the mountainside with massive stones. However, it seemed the balcony wasn't very useful this season.

The room was divided into two halves by a nanmu (Phoebe zhennan) frame screen with obsidian bas-reliefs plated in gold. Coming down the internal staircase, the first thing one saw was the entire screen and the doors on either side: one door leading to the hallway, the other to the balcony. Next to the screen were gifts from close family, friends, and elders, arranged in a festive manner. On either side of the screen was a rack, draped with Dai Yun's full set of armor. Her stabbing spear, cavalry sword, cavalry shield, and longbow and quiver were all placed around the armor. On the other side of the screen was a small square table, on which rested Tan Xiaopei's congratulatory gift and an imperial decree. Ye Tao never understood the contents of the decree, but it roughly conferred honorary titles upon Ye Tao and bestowed princess regalia upon Dai Yun.

Although it was a wedding chamber, the room wasn't decorated in a riot of red like weddings in the Central Plains. Aside from the gilded screen and the replaced tablecloth, it wasn't much different from usual.

Going around the screen to the other half of the room, Ye Tao wasn't surprised to see that Dai Yun was still awake.

"Why did you come down?" Dai Yun asked, looking askance at Ye Tao, though there wasn't any surprise on her face. It was as if she had expected it.

"...This is Weixin's fault. I think she owes you an apology," Ye Tao said sincerely as he sat on the edge of the bed, looking at Dai Yun leaning against the headboard with a soft pillow in her arms.

The smile on Dai Yun's face looked a bit odd. She said nonchalantly, "Actually, I think Weixin's idea was pretty good. It just seems like I could find a time to get you drunk. There was no need to wait for this specific day. Today should be mine no matter what. But if you knew what Weixin promised me, you'd know I'm not losing out. Anyway, where can I or you run off to? It's just a matter of time."

Dai Yun's magnanimity took Ye Tao aback. He rolled his eyes and asked, "What did you two say? How could she get you to cooperate with her… her conspiracy at a time like this?"

"Husband, let's not talk about that. Anyway, it's not a big deal for you," Dai Yun said, a rare adorable expression on her face, looking at Ye Tao, wanting to gloss over it. When she called Ye Tao "husband" for the first time ever, her face flushed uncontrollably.

Ye Tao, who hadn't been awake long from his hangover and had just had a mind-numbing conversation with Tan Weixin, was already in a questionable state of rationality. And Dai Yun's address of "husband" undoubtedly added to the dizziness in Ye Tao's head. He kicked off his shoes and moved his entire body onto the bed. "If you don't want to say, then don't say it..." Ye Tao muttered.

"Going to sleep?" Dai Yun asked, a little nervous, her voice trembling slightly.

"...Yeah." Overwhelmed by dizziness, Ye Tao lowered the thick curtains of the ornate bronze four-poster bed, put his arm around Dai Yun, and slipped into the covers with her. But at this moment, Ye Tao only wanted to sleep. He almost subconsciously caressed Dai Yun, whose body was tense, while he himself almost immediately fell into a deep sleep.

...This was really too inconsiderate. No matter what agreement Dai Yun and Tan Weixin had reached, whether or not she was the kind of woman who considered marriage her only value, and no matter how "cool" her usual words and actions were, she at least felt in her heart that after this magnificent wedding, at least today, she and Ye Tao should belong only to each other. No matter why, whether Tan Weixin ultimately let reason overcome emotion, letting frankness and emotion become a means of securing happiness for her younger sister, or whether it was just a moment of conscience, it didn't matter. After all, in the end, Ye Tao had still appeared, appeared in her room, appeared on her wedding bed. She almost didn't dare to recall the blankness in her mind when she had struggled to suppress the trembling of her body and slipped into the covers with Ye Tao... And Ye Tao had actually fallen asleep. When Dai Yun had worked hard to suppress her nervousness and prepared everything, Ye Tao had actually fallen asleep... Dai Yun became a little gnashing. And that little bit of anger was like a small flame, finally igniting, eroding, and destroying her rare shyness and fear. The next morning, when Ye Tao woke up in the faint fragrance, feeling that the alcohol in his body had been metabolized to the point that it could no longer affect his body and brain, feeling that his body was filled with the power of this new day, he opened his eyes. What he saw at that moment was Dai Yun's complex and profound gaze...

"Are you awake? Husband?" Dai Yun asked softly.

"Yeah..." Ye Tao felt that Dai Yun's tone was really strange.

"You drank a lot yesterday. Do you have a headache now? Do you have any strength?" Dai Yun continued to ask.

"It's all... better now. I feel pretty good now," Ye Tao replied with a smile.

"Really? You have energy and strength?" Dai Yun's tone seemed even more suspicious.

"Yeah," Ye Tao nodded.

Facing Ye Tao, Dai Yun stretched out her arms and hugged Ye Tao tightly. Ye Tao stroked Dai Yun's soft hair. Compared to Tan Weixin and Dai Qiuyan, Dai Yun's hair, which was often exposed to the wind, sun, and rain and had to be coiled in a helmet, wasn't of the best quality. But Dai Yun herself was too special, so special that she had once made Ye Tao and Tan Weixin both feel that she might also be a time traveler. Holding such an extraordinary woman in his arms, recalling the bits and pieces that had happened between them from the first time they met until now, there was a different kind of... pain.

A sharp pain came from Ye Tao's shoulder. It turned out that Dai Yun had bitten him hard through his clothes.

"Ah--" Ye Tao shouted, "Dai Yun, what are you doing?"

"Since you're all better, let's consummate our marriage," Dai Yun said matter-of-factly as she turned over and straddled Ye Tao...

What happened that morning would inevitably become important gossip in the Jinglue Manor, circulating among the attendants, guards, and servants, and then spreading to the ears of those friends and subordinates, and then expanding to become gossip circulating among all the soldiers of the fifty camps in Yunzhou. Perhaps it was more than that. At least some of the guards who bore special missions would inevitably write what happened that morning in documents, becoming the most laughable memorial on Tan Xiaopei's desk.

Tan Xiaopei didn't have much time to laugh at Ye Tao. Not many days later, home letters personally written by Tan Weixin and Tan Weishi, along with Tan Weixin's account of all the deployments and preparations made for that conspiracy, a thick stack of documents, were personally escorted from Ningyuan to Danyang by the wife of Tan Weixin's guard captain, Liu Yong, the famous female martial artist "Golden Silk Sword" Cao Mo, with a small team of guards.

Communications between Danyang and Yunzhou were always dense. Since they often discussed various affairs between Yunzhou and Dongping in their letters, the importance and confidentiality of the letters were self-evident. A team of messengers would depart every few days, tasked with delivering the letters and protecting them. Although Cao Mo was personally responsible this time, Tan Xiaopei didn't think anything of it at first. However, when he leisurely had Li Sishu brew a pot of coffee, opened the wax seal on the letter, and unfolded the letter, his mouth opened wide, quite ungraciously, before he had even read more than ten lines...

How could this be? How could this be?... At this moment, his head was indeed filled with question marks. No wonder he had been worried and investigated, but he had never thought that his youngest daughter would fall in love with Ye Tao. It turned out that this innocent and well-behaved little daughter whom he doted on had hidden her heart so deeply, and Tan Weixin had been covering for her sister all along, even wanting to create a fait accompli to force him to agree to it.

Tan Xiaopei's eyes were wide open, his brows twisted into an undulating mountain range. Whether anger or surprise prevailed, he himself didn't know. It was all too incredible. Although so many years had passed, Tan Xiaopei still remembered when Ye Tao had just arrived in Danyang not long ago, he had patted Tan Weishi's head and told her to be good, as if he was treating Tan Weishi as a very small child. And Tan Weishi was so angry at the time that, in her capacity as a princess, she had even bitten Ye Tao when he patted her head. Several years had passed, and the child had finally grown up, but why had things turned out this way?

Sternly order the recall of Embroidery Princess Tan Weishi... Secret letter reprimanding Tan Weixin, Ye Tao, and Dai Yun...

And that sternly worded secret letter was probably one of the few letters that Tan Xiaopei, as the ruler of the country, had written entirely himself in recent years. It was best not to let anyone else know about this kind of thing. But how would this matter ultimately be resolved? As a father, he couldn't ignore Tan Weishi's request. And at this time, it seemed that only one person could help him solve this problem, the mother of these children whom he loved and was proud of: Queen Zhuo Xiu.

After spending an entire morning writing that letter, Tan Xiaopei personally sealed the envelope, poured wax on it, and stamped it with his private seal. Then, he handed the letter to Li Sishu and said, "Alas, you send someone to send the letter out. I'm going to Kunning Palace now."

Li Sishu didn't seem to want to know what had happened at all. He said as usual, "The Queen went to General Zhuo's mansion today. Is Your Majesty preparing..."

"I'll change my clothes and go to Zhuo Mang's house to find her," Tan Xiaopei sighed. Leaning back in the soft and comfortable armchair, he felt that being a father was the most difficult job in the world... much more difficult than being the ruler of a powerful country like Dongping.

------------------------------

Congratulations to Ye Tao, who was finally... eaten by Dai Yun...