Fu Yan knew clearly that the person Gu Fu was talking about wasn’t him, but he still couldn’t suppress the overwhelming sense of shame, as if he had indeed been the one leaving those bite marks on Gu Fu last night.
The embarrassment made Fu Yan stand up and leave the room.
Gu Fu, sitting in front of her vanity mirror, was laughing with joy.
Though Fu Yan from nine years ago looked exactly like her Wang Xi, when it came to matters between men and women, he was still innocent—thin-skinned, easily teased, and had no ability to fight back. Unlike her Wang Xi, who, after following her for so many years, had improved rapidly. Now, he could hold her and make flirtatious jokes without even blushing.
Unfortunately, she could only tease him with words. If she dared to take any real action… well, when Wang Xi came back, he might really ‘devour’ her.
…
With the emperor away from the capital, the workload at the Secret Pavilion was even heavier than usual. Gu Fu couldn’t handle it all by herself, so she asked Fu Yan to help. Luckily, Fu Yan was used to such tasks, and even though he wasn’t familiar with the changes of the past nine years, he managed just fine by asking Gu Fu when he was unsure. Nothing went too wrong.
In the evening, Gu Fu took Fu Yan to the side room next door. “Until the swap is reversed, you’ll sleep here.”
Fu Yan didn’t pay much attention to the room’s furnishings because his insomnia was so severe that he couldn’t sleep anywhere anyway.
Gu Fu walked to the side of the bed and opened a very discreet door, telling him, “This door leads to the main house. Remember to close it properly at night.”
Fu Yan froze, looking at Gu Fu in disbelief.
Gu Fu was planning to tease him a bit more, but she couldn’t hold back her laughter when she saw his expression.
Fu Yan was first confused, but then he realized, “You won’t treat me as your husband, nor will you do anything strange to me. You’re just trying to scare me.”
Gu Fu laughed so hard she had to lean against the wall.
Fu Yan’s thin lips tightened into a straight line, his displeasure evident. “Is this fun for you?”
“If it wasn’t fun, what would I be doing it for?” Gu Fu, still laughing, reassured him, “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t dare touch you. Otherwise, the other you would definitely get mad at me when he returns.”
Fu Yan’s hand, hanging by his side, twitched slightly. It was hard to tell if he was irritated by Gu Fu or if her words had struck some unknown chord in his heart, producing an uncomfortable, discordant note.
But fortunately, he was already accustomed to maintaining a cold, indifferent expression, not letting Gu Fu sense anything unusual.
After Gu Fu left, he stood in the room for a while before walking to the bed, taking off his outer clothes, and lying down.
There wasn’t much else to do anyway, so he might as well rest his eyes and try to get through this long, endless night.
What Fu Yan didn’t expect was that his stubborn insomnia, which had plagued him for years, would suddenly be cured in this unfamiliar future. Not long after closing his eyes, he fell into a deep sleep.
When he woke up the next morning, his worldview had been shaken once again, leaving him in a daze.
At that moment, the door opened from the outside, and he heard a childish voice calling out to him, “Daddy!”
Fu Yan’s entire body jolted, and he sat up, looking in the direction of the voice.
He saw a little boy dressed in festive red clothes, running toward him on his short little legs.
The little boy’s eyes resembled his, and his round, chubby cheeks looked especially cute. Seeing that Fu Yan had just woken up, the boy said, “Daddy, why are you sleeping here today? And why are you up so late?”
The little boy obviously didn’t notice anything strange about Fu Yan. After reaching the bed, he began to climb up with both hands and feet. Fu Yan, seeing him struggling, reached out to give him a hand.
However, since Fu Yan wasn’t the boy’s real father, who had taken care of him for many years, his actions were quite clumsy, and he ended up pulling the boy’s clothes out of place.
The little boy adjusted his sleeve, which had been tugged askew, and looked puzzled, “Daddy, what’s wrong with you today? You seem so weird.”
Fu Yan didn’t know how to respond and felt a bit helpless.
“Yuan’er?” Gu Fu’s voice came from outside the room.
“Mom! I’m with Daddy!” the little boy shouted toward the door.
In no time, Gu Fu pushed the door open and came in, “Awake? Hurry up and wash up for breakfast.”
Fu Yan, not wanting to act unlike the boy’s father in front of Gu Yuan, said nothing more. He got up, changed clothes, washed up, and was then led by Gu Yuan, holding his hand, to the main house for breakfast.
Fu Yan had never dealt with such a small child before, and as Gu Yuan pulled him toward the main house, he wasn’t even sure how much strength to use, worried that he might hurt the boy’s hand.
During breakfast, he remained silent until the boy finished eating and, unable to sit still any longer, was sent by Gu Fu to play in the courtyard. Only then did Fu Yan breathe a sigh of relief.
“So nervous?” Gu Fu asked, surprised.
Fu Yan didn’t want to answer her question, so he changed the subject, asking instead, “At this point in time, was I already able to sleep well?”
Gu Fu remembered that Fu Yan had once suffered from insomnia and asked, “Could you sleep last night?”
Fu Yan nodded and then asked her, “What medicine did you give me?”
Fu Yan thought that Gu Fu had secretly given him some kind of remedy to cure his insomnia.
But Gu Fu shook her head and said, “I didn’t give you any medicine.”
Fu Yan was surprised, “Nothing?”
Gu Fu pointed to herself and said, “If you really want to know, I’m your medicine.”
Fu Yan was stunned.
Gu Fu added, “Back then, you were so desperate for a good night’s sleep that you clung to me and even made me come to Qitan Tower every day to stay with you.
Gu Fu’s words were suggestive, but Fu Yan felt they weren’t entirely impossible.
“When I go back, I’ll come find you,” Fu Yan said.
Gu Fu thought for a moment and asked, “Had I already returned to the capital by that time?”
If Gu Fu remembered correctly, on her first night back in the capital, she had broken curfew and was chased by Fu Yan with a bow and arrow.
Fu Yan replied, “Yes, you had.”
Had she?
Sensing something amiss, Gu Fu asked, “What day was it before you came here?”
Fu Yan answered, “The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.”
The eighth day of the twelfth month was exactly the day Gu Fu had returned to the capital years ago.
Gu Fu asked, “Didn’t you run into me?”
Fu Yan shook his head, “I only heard the news that you had returned, and by evening, I had already appeared on your bed.”
Gu Fu understood then. On the evening of the eighth day of the twelfth month, Fu Yan from nine years ago had been swapped with the Fu Yan of the present. This meant that the Fu Yan of the present would soon encounter the Gu Fu who had broken curfew nine years ago.
She wondered if the present Fu Yan would still shoot arrows at her or if he would directly call the people from the Secret Cabinet to take her younger self to Qi Tian Tower.
Gu Fu felt a vague sense of displeasure.
It was ridiculous—she was actually jealous of her own past self.
But just as she hadn’t dared do anything inappropriate to the Fu Yan of nine years ago, she believed that the present Fu Yan wouldn’t do anything improper to her younger self either.
After all, it was only three days, so there shouldn’t be any major issues—at least, that’s what Gu Fu thought.
However, an unexpected turn of events occurred.
Three days later, Fu Yan and Wangxi did not switch back.
Gu Fu, furious, grabbed her sword and went to find Si Ya, demanding an explanation.
She hadn’t brought Fu Yan with her, but in truth, Fu Yan had gone as well, only he was a step behind Gu Fu and overheard her conversation with Si Ya from outside.
“It’s not a big deal if they don’t switch back,” Si Ya said, leaning back to avoid Gu Fu’s razor-sharp sword. “They look the same, and they’re still the same person, though it’ll take some effort to get reacquainted.”
Then Fu Yan heard Gu Fu’s voice, devoid of any humor, sounding exactly like the first time she had asked him, “Who are you?”
She said, “Senior Brother, I only want my Wangxi.”
Fu Yan turned and left. With his exceptional martial arts, he didn’t alert anyone.
When he returned to the main courtyard, he was immediately tackled by Gu Yuan, who shouted, “Daddy!”
At this age, children were often full of endless energy, to the point of exhausting everyone around them. But in that instant, when Gu Yuan jumped into his arms, Fu Yan felt a deep sense of contentment rising from within.
It had only been three days, but in these three short days, because of Gu Fu’s concern for his other self, because of the noisy child in his arms, he had an unsettling thought.
Just like Senior Brother had said, since they looked exactly the same and Fu Yan now understood most of what had happened in the last nine years, what if he pretended to be Gu Fu’s Wangxi? Could he stay here, remain by Gu Fu’s side, keep Gu Yuan, and have this family forever…
Lin Yuezhi chased after Gu Yuan and, seeing Fu Yan, bowed her head and said, “My lord, the young master wants to play the xun again.”
Only then did Fu Yan notice that Gu Yuan was holding a string, at the end of which hung a round xun.
“Mother just said I couldn’t play it in front of her, but she didn’t say I couldn’t play it for myself,” Gu Yuan muttered softly. Then, as if in defiance, he hugged the xun tightly and played a tune he had just learned.
Somehow, he managed to make the usually rich and deep sound of the xun resemble the tragic squawking of a bird being slaughtered.
Fu Yan: “…”
No wonder Gu Fu didn’t let him play it.
Yet Gu Yuan, after finishing, tilted his little head up and looked at Fu Yan, his face full of expectation, clearly waiting for praise—something that was impossible to deny.
Fu Yan was silent for a moment, but eventually, he went against his conscience and praised, “That sounded nice.”
Lin Yuezhi, standing by, thought: *The Grandmaster must be truly tired, having to comfort both the big one and the small one.*
…
Time slipped away like sand through fingers. The more Fu Yan tried to hold on to it, the faster it seemed to flow.
On the morning of the tenth day in the present, Fu Yan got up, washed, dressed, and when he stepped outside, he saw Gu Fu waiting at the door.
At a glance, Gu Fu recognized that this was not the person she had been waiting for, and the expectation in her eyes slowly faded away.
Fu Yan lowered his eyes and asked quietly, “Every morning, when you come and see that it’s me and not him, are you disappointed?”
His expression, as usual, was indifferent, revealing nothing of his feelings. But in Gu Fu’s eyes, his emotions were as clear as if they were written on his face.
He was unhappy. He wanted to stay.
So that’s it, Gu Fu thought.
That day, when Gu Fu went to find Si Ya to ask why Wangxi hadn’t returned, Si Ya suggested a possibility—
“I said three days, it should have been three days. He should have come back by now, unless… Little Junior Brother doesn’t want to switch back himself.”
Gu Fu frowned. “Impossible.”
Wangxi couldn’t possibly not want to come back.
Si Ya had to remind her, “There are two Little Junior Brothers, you know.”
Maybe Wangxi wanted to return, but what about the Fu Yan from nine years ago?
Indeed, it wasn’t that Fu Yan would fall in love with Gu Fu in just a few short days or genuinely give her his heart. But for the Fu Yan who had suffered so much hardship and humiliation in his youth, who, even after returning to the capital and gaining an elder brother, still remained alone because his brother was the emperor, bound by the duties of ruler and subject, the life that the Fu Yan of nine years later possessed couldn’t possibly be entirely without allure for him.
“Let him give up,” Si Ya suggested. “Make him understand that all of this belongs to him, but not yet.”
“You can’t get something so perfect without going through anything. Where in the world is there such an easy bargain?”
Gu Fu took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and said to the Fu Yan standing before her, “Yes, I’m disappointed, because I really do miss him.”
Gu Fu clearly saw Fu Yan’s eyelashes tremble, understanding that this was his way of showing inner discomfort.
Unable to bear seeing Fu Yan upset, Gu Fu turned her back to him so she wouldn’t have to look. She continued, “Didn’t you say it yourself? You and he aren’t the same person. We’re not husband and wife. *My* husband is Fu Yan, the Wangxi of this time. He’s the only one I want.”
After speaking, Gu Fu heard footsteps approaching from behind. Then, she felt a familiar warmth close in on her. Startled, she was about to push him away when a pair of arms wrapped around her waist and arms from behind.
The red earrings, threaded with gold, gently swayed in her peripheral vision. Gu Fu froze, and in that moment, warm breath brushed against her ear. Cool lips grazed her earlobe, and as if that wasn’t enough, they opened slightly, biting and licking—
“I liked that last sentence. Say it again.”
T/N:
Xun – The xun is a globular, vessel flute from China. It is one of the oldest musical instruments in China and has been in use for approximately 7,000 years. The xun was initially made of stone, baked clay, or bone, and later of clay or ceramic; sometimes the instrument is made with bamboo (Wikipedia).
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