My Sister Insisted on Swapping Marriages, and I Became a Marchioness Instead

Chapter 151: Chapter 151: Blue Sleeves Add Incense

Two slender, jade-white, delicate fingers reached out and gently pinched the white folded paper from the table. Qin Yuan smiled and said, ”Since Marquis is rounding off my words, how about I write this myself?”

Gu Jinghui looked at Qin Yuan’s delicate fingers and whispered, ”Call me husband.”

Qin Yuan readily obliged, ”Husband.”

”Hmm,” Gu Jinghui smiled, his long and sharp eyes slightly curved. His face, slightly emaciated from fatigue, appeared even sharper. The words rolled slowly from his lips, ”Yuan’er, you and I are one body as husband and wife.”

”Hmm,” Qin Yuan inexplicably felt a bit shy to look at him, lowered her gaze, and pretended to respond nonchalantly, ”Yes, one body as husband and wife.”

The state of such a thing, seen, inevitably made the heart race faster. Gu Jinghui inexplicably felt a bit thirsty, picked up a tea cup and drank a few sips before saying, ”Yuan’er...”

Qin Yuan turned around, planning to call someone.

Gu Jinghui hurriedly held her hand and asked, ”Doing what?”

”I, I, I want to let Cui Ming come in and grind the ink for me.”

His hand was scorching hot, heating her whole body.

”No need,” Gu Jinghui’s eyes were brimming with an emotional overflow, ”I’ll grind it for you.”

Qin Yuan: ”...”

Before she could think of a suitable excuse, Gu Jinghui had already gotten up, walked to the desk, opened the inkstone box, rolled up his wide sleeves, and earnestly began to grind ink. He even turned his head to smile at her and said, ”Well, come here quickly; your husband is personally preparing the pen and ink for you.”

A truly charming scene of blue sleeves adding fragrance.

Qin Yuan had no choice but to stroll to the desk, spread out the paper, lifted the pen, and gently dipped it in ink. Before it touched the paper, Gu Jinghui eagerly pressed the paperweight on the corner of the paper.

Qin Yuan: ”...”

But she had no choice but to brace herself and continue writing.

For some reason, with Gu Jinghui by her side, she couldn’t concentrate at all.

Qin Yuan consoled herself, thinking that mastery comes from diligence and declines from delight; perhaps it was reasonable to be slower since she hadn’t written a memorandum for a long time.

Cui Ming and Hong Ye stood outside for nearly an hour before they heard the call from inside.

Hong Ye just approached the desk and saw the ink in the inkstone was full to the point of overflowing.

”This is...”

Hong Ye exclaimed, ”How many words does the little... madam plan to write?”

Gu Jinghui covered his lips with a fist on his right hand and quietly coughed to mask his embarrassment. His large sleeve hung down, covering half of the inkstone.

Cui Ming glanced at the ink block next to the inkstone; a good piece of floral ink had been ground down to only half, filling the room with a fragrance of ink and flowers.

It really pained her heart.

Qin Yuan furrowed her brows slightly and eventually said, ”This ink... make sure to store it properly, covering the ink nozzle; setting the ink retains it for a long time without drying, and it can be used later.”

While she was distracted for a moment, Gu Jinghui occasionally found the ink too thick, other times too thin, sometimes added water, and other times re-ground it, almost ruining her favorite ink block.

The courteousness of Marquis Gu was too costly; she... she truly shouldn’t be deceived by beauty.

In the past, Lin Ziqi wouldn’t do this, merely instructing someone to send a message for her to write in the study, occasionally offering a few praises.

She understood in her heart that Lin Ziqi actually feared her.

Qin Yuan tossed the pen into the pen holder, instructed Cui Ming to clean up, and the corner of her eye caught sight of Gu Jinghui sheepishly clutching his wide robe sleeve, its corner stained with a large blotch of ink, ruining his good attire.

Qin Yuan’s eye began to twitch uncontrollably.

Marquis Gu was indeed too costly.

”Yuan’er, what you wrote is really excellent...” Gu Jinghui, oblivious, leaned in, admiring while praising.

Hong Ye promptly chimed in, ”Of course, the madam doesn’t love empty fama or show off to others. Recently, the young master from the Xu family even visited the mansion to ask Miss for guidance, learning to write poetry.”

Marquis Gu looked at Qin Yuan in surprise, momentarily forgot to blame Hong Ye for calling Qin Yuan miss again.

Qin Yuan glared at Hong Ye, ”You speak so quickly, taking the cousin’s jest seriously. I’ve told you to call me madam, so why are you calling me miss again.”

Hong Ye pouted without saying a word.

Marquis Gu gazed at Hong Ye for a long time before saying, ”The characters on this memorandum are different from mine; I still need to copy another one.”

Qin Yuan nodded, ”Alright, the husband’s seals should be in the study, so I won’t keep you.”

Gu Jinghui gave Qin Yuan a glance, reluctantly put the memorandum into his sleevebag. Qin Yuan added, ”Husband, you must rest early in the outer court, don’t study too late. Nowadays, life above all else is valuable.”

Gu Jinghui nodded.

Qin Yuan continued, ”Your clothes are dirty, I’ll get you a clean set, and you can change after bathing.”

Gu Jinghui nodded a bit more.

Qin Yuan continued, ”The mansion is currently offering to the Measles Goddess, temporarily inconvenience you and sixth brother outside.”

Gu Jinghui immediately replied, ”It’s not inconvenient, Yuan’er. I know like me, you wish to be together always, and I understand the household affairs are complicated now. Once this passes, I will certainly accompany you well.”

Hong Ye couldn’t help but smile silently.

Qin Yuan lowered her head, twisted her fingers helplessly, said, ”I understand your feelings, husband.”

Then she took Hong Ye to open the clothes chest to get outfits for Gu Jinghui.

She did things carefully, placing the jade pendant, pocket, incense bag properly, arranging them neatly on the tray along with the outer garment.

Gu Jinghui gazed quietly, his eyes seeming glued to her.

Qin Yuan’s face grew redder, asking, ”Husband, do you find the Xu family strange?”

Gu Jinghui lowered his eyelashes and responded, ”What’s strange about them?”

Qin Yuan said, ”To speak of strange things, there’re many.”

”Oh?” Gu Jinghui raised his eyebrows, showing a willingness to listen.

Qin Yuan explained, ”Sixth brother-in-law said that the sixth sister-in-law moved silver taels to support the Xu family, which is essentially admitting in public that she’s taking from her in-laws to support her maiden family. Who wouldn’t hear this and argue about it? Yet, Xu family although infuriated, wanting to fight with sixth brother-in-law, they didn’t rebut much.”

Gu Jinghui nodded.

Qin Yuan further elaborated, ”They came by only to demand ten thousand taels from the Marquis Mansion, yet seemed indifferent to Zhenzhen’s whereabouts. They seem extremely afraid of measles, but still cling to us, making a ruckus. If truly scared as such, shouldn’t they wait till it settles to cause trouble?”

Gu Jinghui frowned, ”What you said makes sense; when pondering it further, it seems... Xu family... I haven’t had much interaction. Back then, it was sixth brother’s birth mother Aunt Wen who favored the Xu family. His ancestors fought side by side with our forefathers, but their nobility declined. Thus, they’ve fallen. Sixth brother often spoke of Xu family as vagabonds; I just assumed he resented them because of sixth sister-in-law and didn’t take it to heart.”

After saying, he thought for a while and added, ”Those who came today, although dressed neatly, mostly resembled street rogues, seemingly without decent livelihood.”

An otherwise silent Hong Ye couldn’t hold back and interjected, ”I overheard a bit vaguely, saying many young men in the Xu family lure people into betting on crickets, cockfighting, dog fighting for commissions and moreover... some Xu family members muddling in gambling houses, living by lending money at high interest.”