Among current forms of address for one's wife, "wife" was usually something used by common folk. Families with status would call their wives "madam" or "lady."
But Shen Changyin just had a feeling that Xie Yu would react more strongly to the word "wife."
She was right.
Xie Yu's hand tightened, crumpling the pages in her grip. Her ears burned red, hot as fire.
Angry and stammering, she said, "Y-you—you… how can you call me that?"
Shen Changyin subtly curved her lips. "Your Highness, today is our wedding."
"Even so, you still can't call me that…"
Xie Yu's amber eyes widened, yet she couldn't think of anything else to argue back.
She and Shen Changyin were married today. From now on, they were proper wives. Shen Changyin calling her "wife" wasn't excessive.
By feeling, they had already done everything they should have done. She couldn't honestly claim she had no feelings for Shen Changyin.
If she truly had none, she wouldn't have taken the initiative to kiss her.
Only heaven knew how flustered she had been that day, when she'd instinctively licked the medicine from Shen Changyin's lips. Her heart had been in utter chaos, yet she'd still forced herself to look confident and declare, "I said you couldn't kiss me. I never said I couldn't kiss you."
But if she really agreed to this form of address, it still felt wrong.
Different stages of a relationship should have different names, shouldn't they?
She remembered that when her high school classmates dated, they either called each other by name, used nicknames, or even addressed each other as "senior" or "junior."
Her desk mate in high school had been part of a couple. Xie Yu watched them cling together after class every day.
Even when they fought, the one on the left would only take a pack of cookies out of her backpack, tear it open, gently push it onto the other's desk, and say, "Desk mate, I'm bribing you. Let's make up."
"Desk mate"—that kind of address was interesting. Xie Yu liked that sort of thing better.
Shen Changyin tilted her head slightly, still looking at her. "Then, Your Highness, what would you like me to call you?"
Xie Yu puffed her cheeks. "Roommate?"
She rejected it herself almost immediately. "Doesn't roll off the tongue."
In the end, she said reluctantly, "You can call me Little Xie or Little Fish. If you really insist on calling me 'younger sister,' I'll respond occasionally—but don't expect it every time."
Shen Changyin immediately smiled. "Alright, younger sister."
Xie Yu covered her cheeks with her hands, lifted her chin, and reluctantly agreed. "Mm."
Shen Changyin said softly, "Then, younger sister, it's already late. Should we—"
Xie Yu instantly reacted. "No."
She stared at a chestnut that had rolled off the bed and stopped near the wall. "Shen Changyin, let's talk."
"A late-night talk," she said, turning to look at her seriously. Her amber eyes were filled with sincerity. "It feels like we've never really talked properly before."
She had never known Shen Changyin's past, and she had rarely shared her own.
Back in high school, her left-front desk mate had fallen for the right-front desk mate and secretly confided in Xie Yu, saying she was going to start pursuing her.
Xie Yu hadn't understood what she was supposed to do. The next day, she saw the left-front desk mate awkwardly making conversation during the break, saying, "When I was in middle school, I entered a citywide character idiom competition and got second place."
Sitting behind them, Xie Yu was dumbfounded. Who would like someone peacocking like that?
But the right-front desk mate turned around and replied, "So did you have to memorize the dictionary too?"
Just like that, they started talking—and two weeks later, they were dating.
Xie Yu never understood the logic until now.
If I like you, I want to know your past—and I want you to know mine.
So she spoke with difficulty. "I ran fifty meters in six-point-three seconds."
Afraid Shen Changyin wouldn't understand, she immediately added, "Fifty meters is about fifteen paces, and one second is a third of a breath."
"So I can run fifteen paces in just over two breaths."
Her voice grew quieter, her head lowered more and more. She felt increasingly like a show-off idiot. "That's… national first-tier athlete level…"
"That's amazing," Shen Changyin said sincerely. "If it were me, it might take four breaths. Were you born that fast?"
Xie Yu slowly raised her head, her eyes lighting up. "You have to train. Not just running, but also—"
She rambled on at length. Even she felt she'd told the story poorly, but Shen Changyin listened patiently, nodding. "So you were stuck at six-point-eight seconds for a long time, then?"
Xie Yu pressed her lips together and let out a strangely pitched "mm," hands clasped behind her waist as she swayed shyly.
Then she carefully lifted her eyes. "Then why are you so good at studying?"
Shen Changyin thought for a moment. "I have a photographic memory, but back then I didn't have money to buy books. So I could only memorize things quickly in class, then review them in my mind at home."
"Reviewing in your head is much faster than writing…"
On the night when everyone thought they should be consummating their marriage, the two of them actually did nothing at all. They simply ate chestnuts and, slowly and carefully, chose which pieces of their past to share—and committed each other's stories to memory.
Of course, Xie Yu didn't share everything. For example, the story of wetting the bed during kindergarten nap time at age five—that kind of story wasn't good for her image.
Because she cared about the image she held in Shen Changyin's heart, she only shared stories that were "perfect," stories that wouldn't cause any negative impact.
She believed Shen Changyin was doing the same.
They were like two snails, slowly extending their tentative feelers.
Until the two of them sat directly on the floor, leaning against the edge of the bed, heads resting together as they fell asleep.
Until the red wedding candles wept tears all night long.
—
When they woke up the next morning, neither of them was surprised to find that they had both slept wrong and strained their necks.
Xie Yu pressed on her neck, just about to instruct the household steward to help them pack their luggage so they could head to the seaside.
Instead, she received news from the palace.
The palace attendant said, "Your Highness, please slow down. Yesterday, a letter arrived from the south. The Jiangnan navy will soon head north to pay respects to the Son of Heaven. Her Majesty hopes that Your Highness will not leave the capital during the wedding period, and will receive the Jiangnan navy's Minister Shen together with her at that time."
Hearing this news, Xie Yu was of course furious. But making a huge scene with the empress over this wasn't worth it, so she could only wave her hand angrily and send the attendant away.
She immediately turned back into the room and complained to Shen Changyin, who was packing her luggage, "Stop packing. The empress says the Jiangnan navy is coming to the capital and won't let us go traveling. We have to stay and wait to meet them."
"They had to come now—of all times. No sense at all," she grumbled, blaming the culprit for ruining her vacation.
Then she added, "But there's also a Minister Shen in the Jiangnan navy."
Shen Changyin's hands had already paused when Xie Yu mentioned the Jiangnan navy. Now she straightened up. "Yes. That Minister Shen is the head of the Jiangnan Shen family."
The Jiangnan Shen family? That sounded awfully familiar.
Xie Yu scratched her head, then slowly widened her eyes. "The one I was previously engaged to…?"
Shen Changyin nodded.
Although the engagement to the Shen family had been made by the original Third Princess rather than the twenty-first-century Xie Yu, she still felt an indescribable sense of awkwardness.
When meeting the Jiangnan navy, Shen Changyin would certainly go with her. At that time, what kind of suffocating scene would it be for newlyweds to face the head of the Shen family whose engagement they themselves had broken?
Shen Changyin lowered her eyes. "Strictly speaking, Your engagement to the Shen family's eldest daughter has not been officially annulled."
Now Xie Yu was truly horrified. She stared at Shen Changyin as if she'd seen a ghost.
"The agreement with the empress back then only required you and me to marry. It did not explicitly require the cancellation of your engagement with the Shen family's eldest daughter."
Shen Changyin's expression was completely neutral.
Xie Yu spun in circles anxiously. "Doesn't this kind of thing cancel itself out? I got engaged to you—of course my previous engagement should be void!"
"Logically, yes. But if it wasn't canceled, then it wasn't canceled."
Shen Changyin's lashes cast a small fan-shaped shadow beneath her eyes, making her look inexplicably gloomy.
Xie Yu hurriedly waved her hands. "Not worried, not worried."
"She's a prestigious figure in Jiangnan. There's no way she'd cling to me. You and I have been engaged for so long, and they never came to question it. That means they've quietly accepted it."
"This meeting might be a bit awkward, but overall I don't think it'll be a big problem. The Shen family head can command the entire Jiangnan navy—she must be a broad-minded person."
She chattered on, comforting herself and comforting Shen Changyin.
In the end, she still couldn't help asking, "But you're Shen Changyin. Aren't you supposed to plan everything perfectly? How did you forget about this back then?"
Shen Changyin looked up at her, but didn't answer.
In her heart, she thought: who knew things would end up like this?
Back then, she wasn't even sure whether she'd let Xie Yu live to see this day. She couldn't be bothered to argue with the Shen family at all.
But looking at the current situation, she truly regretted it. She should have forced the empress to cancel that engagement.
Thinking of this, she suddenly lifted her gaze. "Where is the white jade pendant from your engagement to the Shen family's eldest daughter?"
Her tone was gentle, her speed moderate, her questioning perfectly measured.
Yet cold sweat inexplicably broke out on Xie Yu's back. She raised three fingers toward the sky. "I threw it in the palace. I didn't bring it out at all. It might already be lost."
She fought for survival and quickly steered the topic away. "Oh right, since we can't leave the capital, I found another activity for myself."
Shen Changyin said, "Hmm?"
Xie Yu pulled her into the courtyard and swept her arm grandly. "I'm going to renovate this courtyard!"
She enthusiastically divided up the space. "See, over there—we'll rip up the marble tiles, replace them with soil, lay down turf, and put a swing on top."
"Don't think swings are tacky and say you don't want one. This won't be the elegant swing you're imagining. It'll be the kind that swings really, really high—the kind that's actually scary."
Shen Changyin said, "Little Fish, I think that kind of swing might actually be worse than a tacky one."
"How could that be?" Xie Yu patted her chest confidently. "When the time comes, you sit on it and I'll push you. I guarantee you'll fly super high."
"Then Little Flower can play on the grass too, and we can put a rocking chair on the lawn."
She planned everything out beautifully, but Shen Changyin suddenly asked, "Little Fish, is this the first time you've decorated this home?"
Xie Yu froze. "Is it?"
Yes, Shen Changyin thought.
Do you have even a little desire to stay here, and spend a much longer time with me?
She said, "Little Fish, don't you feel that I've already done it—that I'm about to win?"
Xie Yu abruptly stepped back. "What do you mean you're winning? Nonsense, every day with this… When did I ever say I liked you? When did I ever confess?"
"I didn't say I liked you. What did you win?"
Shen Changyin laughed softly. "Ah, right. I didn't win."
Xie Yu's ears turned red as she stormed off angrily.
—
Since they couldn't leave the capital to travel, staying in the residence was still staying in the residence. After lunch, they summoned their subordinates to give instructions—after all, they were already a princess and the crown princess. They couldn't truly drop everything.
Xie Yu discussed the southern suburb militia training plan and the special battalion layout with Jiang Fang, then asked her to pass messages to the Eastern Palace officials before finally bringing up the Jiangnan navy's arrival.
That inevitably led to mentioning the engagement she'd had with the so-called Shen family's eldest daughter.
She said with relief, "Luckily, it's her mother coming this time, not her. Otherwise this scene would be twice as unbearable."
Jiang Fang said, "How do you know she didn't come to the capital together with her mother?"
Xie Yu waved her hand. "I checked. She doesn't hold any position in the Jiangnan navy. Since she has no post, and it would be awkward to see me anyway, why would she come along?"
Jiang Fang raised her index finger and shook it. "How do you know she isn't coming to steal you away?"
Xie Yu leaned back and snorted, expressing disdain for such wild imagination.
"She's a well-bred young lady from a great family. How could she steal a fiancée she's never even met?"
She glanced around and lowered her voice. "Besides, even if she did come to steal me away, she definitely couldn't beat Shen Changyin."
She stiffened her face solemnly. "Shen Changyin could make her lose both reputation and wealth, destroy her completely, and make sure she never recovers."
"Tsk, too cruel. Better not hurt her that badly."
Jiang Fang glanced at her. "If Shen Changyin were really that awful, why are you smiling so smugly?"
Xie Yu touched her face. "Am I smiling? I'm not, right?"
Jiang Fang couldn't stand it anymore. "Your facial muscles must be sore from smiling."
"You're enjoying it quite a bit inside, aren't you?"
Xie Yu rubbed her face. "Not really~"
Since they were already talking about Shen Changyin, she continued casually, "She actually said today that she'd won? Hah!"
Jiang Fang grabbed some leftover sunflower seeds from their wedding table and ate them. "She said she could do it back then—meaning she could make you like her. And now she really has won."
Xie Yu snorted. "That was just one battle, not the whole war. In the end, I'll definitely be the one who wins."
Jiang Fang complained, "Honestly, I have no idea what your standard for winning and losing even is."
Xie Yu peeled a leftover chestnut from last night and clicked her tongue. "That's why you single people don't understand our world."
Jiang Fang shot her a look of contempt.
—
During the daytime on the second day, craftsmen arrived to pry up the marble tiles in the courtyard, replace the soil, and lay turf. They worked efficiently, finished quickly, and left.
Then another group arrived delivering lumber along with many carpentry tools—but no carpenter.
Shen Changyin asked in confusion, "Younger sister, didn't you hire a carpenter?"
Xie Yu shuddered slightly. She suddenly felt that the nickname "younger sister" wasn't quite appropriate anymore, but she still answered:
"That's right. I'm doing it myself."
For someone as lacking in grand ambitions as her, DIY was one of life's great pleasures.
She personally drew up blueprints, familiarized herself with the tools, and began working enthusiastically in the courtyard.
It was early May. Although it wasn't especially hot, someone working as hard as she was still ended up sweating.
Before long, she took off her outer robe, rolled her sleeves up to her shoulders, put on gloves, and clanged and banged away.
Shen Changyin's gaze flickered when she saw the muscle lines in Xie Yu's upper arms.
Xie Yu was the type who needed to order two cups of milk tea before she could even begin reviewing theory classes, so for today's DIY project, she had also arranged food and drinks for herself.
She drank fruit tea, using a formula she had previously researched herself—a peach jasmine blend with water chestnut pearls. Cleaned reed stalks were used as straws. Ice clinked against the white porcelain cup with crisp sounds.
The small kitchen brought out one cup of fruit tea and one cup of milk tea and placed them on the table.
Xie Yu picked up the fruit tea and took a big gulp herself, refreshed to the core, before saying to Shen Changyin, "The milk tea is yours. It's warm—I know you can't drink cold things."
She threw Shen Changyin a smug look, the meaning obvious: See how considerate I am? You like me even more now, right? I'm about to win, right?
Shen Changyin smiled softly. "Thank you, Little Fish."
She lowered her head and drank the rich milk tea, her fingertips lightly tapping the cup wall without making a sound.
She watched Xie Yu sawing wood, occasionally wiping the sweat from her forehead with her arm.
The kitchen soon brought out two bowls of fermented milk dessert and placed them on the table.
Only then did Xie Yu put down the saw. She didn't rush to eat the dessert—instead, still thirsty, she took another big gulp of fruit tea.
She set the cup down. Shen Changyin then picked it up, pressed her lips to the exact spot Xie Yu had just drunk from, and took a sip of the fruit tea.
Xie Yu froze instantly, her hand reaching for the dessert suspended mid-air.
She stammered, "I—I… that's my cup. I just drank from it…"
"I just wanted to taste the fruit tea," Shen Changyin said leisurely. "Younger sister, you don't mind, do you? After all, we've already kissed."
Xie Yu clenched her teeth. "I don't mind. Why would I mind? Drink it. Go ahead."
She reached for the fermented milk dessert.
This dessert was actually another of Xie Yu's modified recipes—milk wrapped in a layer of glutinous rice skin, shaped into a neat square so it was easy to hold and eat.
She finished her portion in just a few bites. Seeing that Shen Changyin was still eating her dessert slowly, bite by bite, Xie Yu let her guard down.
She stretched lazily and yawned. The next second, a gentle, soft sensation landed on her lips.
The scent of glutinous rice and milk filled her nose. Instinctively, she bit onto the half piece of dessert Shen Changyin had delivered to her mouth.
Then she widened her eyes.
Shen Changyin calmly placed the food into her mouth, calmly withdrew to her original position, and sipped her milk tea leisurely. "I couldn't finish it. Thank you, younger sister."
Seeing that Xie Yu didn't move for a long time, she even asked with concern, "What's wrong?"
Xie Yu slowly swallowed the dessert, refusing to show even the slightest hint of shock, fiercely defending her image of being unshakable and unfazed—this is nothing.
"Nothing," she forced a smile, quietly grinding her teeth.
Shen Changyin, your methods are impressive!
—
T/N: If you're enjoying this translation, feel free to check out my Patreon. If you're unable to support financially, you can still subscribe for free and receive chapters two hours earlier, along with updates and announcements. Paid tiers offer early access and daily chapters.
Thank you so much for reading!
patreon.com/Baenz