My Old-Fashioned Husband Thinks I'm in Love with Him

[Flirtatious, pampered darling x stern old-school teacher, age gap, adult content]

*

Xie Ji came from a family of distinguished officials. Handsome and noble, with a strikingly upright bearing, he placed third in the imperial examinations at the age of twenty, then kept his promise to his ancestors and married.

His bride was Cui Baozhu, born into a family of great prestige. Every Cui daughter was gentle and virtuous, but the youngest, Cui Baozhu, was the exception.

Xie Ji had met her a few times and didn’t think much of her. He found her lazy and spoiled, and she didn’t seem to be in very good health either.

Cui Baozhu really was a sickly beauty, unable to bear wind or rain, and even in bed she preferred to keep things brief.

Fortunately, Xie Ji was a restrained and aloof man with few desires. He had never been enthusiastic about the marriage in the first place, and he was never demanding about a husband and wife’s duties. They treated each other with courtesy, and their days passed in quiet simplicity.

Then one quiet night under the moon, everything changed.

Xie Ji returned late at night to find candles still burning in their bedroom. His young wife had broken her usual habit of going to bed early. Holding a lantern by the door, she asked softly, “Would you like something to eat, husband?”

Xie Ji was surprised, but refused coolly. “No. I already ate at the office.”

“Would you like to bathe?”

“No. I already washed before coming home.”

“Then... would you, would you like to have me?”

“No, I already... Hmm?”

Beneath the tender, ambiguous moonlight, his young wife had a youthful, radiant face and dark hair like clouds. Wrapped in the wavering candlelight, she rose onto her tiptoes and, blushing, took the initiative to kiss his earlobe.

“I made a special nightgown. Would you like to see it tonight, husband?”

Xie Ji: ...Had she been secretly in love with him all this time, and finally come around?

*

Cui Baozhu was both annoyed and afraid of Xie Ji, just as she used to be afraid of the meticulous old teacher who always tried to discipline her.

But she had been born frail, and one day a traveling physician told her that her birth charts complemented Xie Ji’s. If she stayed close to him, she could live a long life.

Cui Baozhu wasn’t sure whether to believe him, but decided to give it a try. She dug out a romance novel, studied it, memorized a couple of sweet nothings, loosely pinned up her soft, cloudlike hair, and steeled herself to pounce on her rule-abiding, straitlaced husband...

*

Later, Xie’s mother tried several times to arrange a concubine for Xie Ji because they had no children.

Xie Ji had intended to refuse along with Cui Baozhu, but outside the latticed window, he overheard his wife, who had whispered her love for him in bed just the previous night, saying earnestly to her elder sister:

“My health is much better now. It wouldn’t be impossible for me to divorce Xie Ji.”

In that instant, Master Xie, who had thought his wife’s secret love had finally blossomed into true love, suddenly understood. After a long moment, his eyes slowly darkened.

Hmph. Love him? Love his body, you mean?

And you still want a divorce? Tonight, I’ll make sure you get your fill of loving me.

Theme: To be decided.