The Slender Waist-Chapter 255 - 179: Excessive Affections

Feng Yun’s illness stuck to her like she was tied to the bed.

Initially, she thought it was just a minor cold and that a few doses of medicine would do the trick. Unexpectedly, after five or six days languishing in bed, her body remained weak and the coughing relentless. She had become completely haggard.

Her mind raced with chaotic thoughts, always suspecting whether it was Pei Jue who had poisoned her, leading to such a miserable state...

However, the chief culprit these past few days had been busy dealing with the post-battle chaos and had only come back to see her twice, one of which was while she was asleep. Feng Yun simply couldn’t catch him in person, let alone hold him accountable.

But there was one thing.

Aside from Daman and Xiaoman, everyone had started calling her "madam."

Feng Yun found it awkward.

She thought Pei Jue ought to correct it and reveal the truth to the public, to clear her name... although there wasn’t much innocence left. To acquiesce to the validity of that wedding, wasn’t that pushing her into a pit of knives and flames?

Li Sangruo must be going insane, right?

Feng Yun thought of the carriage tumbling down the cliff.

Suddenly, she felt that Pei Jue’s absence could be because he knew that the person behind the scenes was Li Sangruo, and he was deliberately avoiding her, unwilling to face the truth.

Pei Gou had harmed her deeply! 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

She had nearly lost her life at the bottom of the cliff.

She couldn’t just sit and wait for death.

Feng Yun had thought a lot, but confined to the sickbed as she was, there was nothing she could do.

-

By the time Ao Qi arrived from the main camp, his heart felt as if it were weighed down by a stone. Walking silently, his feet—somehow on their own—took him to Chunmeng Hall where Feng Yun resided.

This was once Wen Xingsu’s mansion.

After returning to Xinzhou, she had insisted on living here.

When Ao Qi realized he shouldn’t have come, he was already standing at the door.

The handsome young man in brocade clothes, gazing at the jade building and thinking of charming smiles, concealed an endless grief that he couldn’t express.

Sigh!

With a light breath, Ao Qi hesitated before he lowered his head to turn and leave. Just then, a light laughter came from behind him.

"Guard Ao," Daman called out to him.

Ao Qi turned to look back, and Daman added, "You ought to be addressed as General Ao now."

Daman gave a bow, causing Ao Qi to blush furiously.

Lurking outside the lady’s room was highly inappropriate and undignified.

He awkwardly said, "Has the lady’s condition improved?"

The day before yesterday, Ao Qi had actually come to visit Feng Yun.

At that time, Feng Yun had just taken her medicine and fallen asleep. After sitting briefly, he left without waking her up.

Daman was much more perceptive than Xiaoman, and seeing Ao Qi’s expression, she smiled.

"The lady has just gotten up. Guard Ao, you will see her if you go inside now."

Ao Qi thought for a moment and said, "Then please, sister, announce me."

Back when he was a guard, he could come and go as he pleased in Feng Yun’s house—moving crossways or lengthways as he wished. It was hard to believe that in such a short time, their statuses had changed, and he had become someone who needed to be announced to see Feng Yun.

Ao Qi was very unwilling.

In the main camp, when his uncle asked him to lead the Red Armor Army, Ao Qi was initially filled with excitement...

He had followed his uncle out of the capital to the battlefield aiming to achieve great things, hadn’t he?

But at that moment, he suddenly felt a twinge of regret.

Now that the lady was another man’s wife, what was the point of his accomplishments?

Better to return to her side and be a carefree guard...

The thoughts of a young man often seem naive and absurd, as his father, mother, and uncle had always told him.

But Ao Qi knew it was not a fleeting fascination that had suddenly arisen—it was a love that had endured so long, not momentary but something he had pondered thousands of times...

If he was still his uncle’s courtesan, Ao Qi would beg for her without shame.

But he had not anticipated his uncle marrying her.

A proper marriage, that made her his aunt...

Over the past few days, he had drunk with Ye Chuang on three occasions. Ye Chuang had tried to convince him to let go, to make peace with himself, and Ao Qi had tried to persuade himself as well.

After drinking, he wept bitterly in front of Ye Chuang, like a three-year-old child, swearing and vowing never to think of her again, never to love again.

But in the dreams that followed his drunkenness, it was still her.

And in the clear-headed moments after waking, it was still her.

It wasn’t that he wanted to go against human ethics, to defy the heavens.

It was beyond his control, he just couldn’t help it...

Carrying this turmoil in mind while facing Feng Yun, Ao Qi sat uncomfortably, the girl he’d longed for day and night right in front of him, and he suddenly didn’t know what to say.

Feng Yun was feeling much better that day. Seeing Ao Qi alive, her tenderness blossomed in her smile, and her lips seemed to curl into faint dimples.

"Have you lost some weight, Guard Ao? Have you been overexerting yourself recently?"

The address was out of habit. Feng Yun realized it wasn’t correct and was about to change it, but Ao Qi became excited.

He looked up, fixing his eyes on Feng Yun: "Lady, take me back."

Feng Yun was taken aback and laughed a few times as she coughed, struggling to catch her breath.

"It’s time to change how you address me. General Ao."