Chapter 414: The Matter of Combing Hair

Chapter 414: Chapter 414: The Matter of Combing Hair

"Hey! What are you doing?! Let me down, right now! I’m warning you..."

Guan Shan paid no heed to Ji Huan’s struggles and threats, slinging her over his shoulder like a sack of grain and carrying her into the rear courtyard.

Jifeng craned its neck for a look, then shook its large head and nonchalantly went back to eating its grass.

The four pups, however, were not so composed.

Thinking Guan Shan and Ji Huan were playing some sort of game, they scampered after the pair, jumping and tumbling over each other in their eagerness to join in.

Because of the awkward position she was in, Ji Huan’s hair hung upside down, swaying back and forth in mid-air.

Ding was incredibly excited. He bounded up and started nipping at the ends of her hair.

The silly dog wasn’t being completely brainless—he only used a little force—but it was still enough to make Ji Huan’s scalp ache.

"Ding!" she yelled in frustration.

Taking her shout as encouragement, Ding didn’t stop. In fact, he got even more excited.

The pain brought tears to Ji Huan’s eyes. Furious, she pounded hard on Guan Shan’s back.

"My hair! He’s going to make me go bald!"

When Guan Shan heard Ji Huan shout for Ding, he’d thought she was telling the dog to bite *him*. He hadn’t expected the little mutt to be acting up on his own and tormenting Ji Huan instead.

He stopped and turned, shooting Ding a single glance.

Ding instantly fell silent as a mouse. He even let out a few whimpers in Ji Huan’s direction, his pitiful expression almost too pathetic to watch.

’And he has the gall to complain? Does he want me to get justice for him?’

’Dream on! His master is in peril, and he’s just there fooling around.’

’I see it now,’ Ji Huan thought. ’These dogs are a bunch of ungrateful turncoats. Forget protecting their master; they’re experts at getting me into trouble, every single time.’

’And here I am, poor me, unable to even save myself...’

Ji Mingfang had arrived not long after they got home. Right now, he and Dabao should be in the middle of their lesson in the east room.

’If he sees this, how mortifying...’

Ji Huan had always been pragmatic. She quickly reined in her anger and softened her voice.

"Um, we can talk about this properly, you know. If you put me down, we can find a place to sit and have a real heart-to-heart. Wouldn’t that be much better than this? Right? Ji the Fourth has a favorite saying that I used to dismiss, but now I think it makes perfect sense: ’A person must maintain their dignity.’ If anyone were to see us like this, what about your gentlemanly image? And my ladylike decorum...?"

Guan Shan cut her off. "If you don’t stop, I’ll carry you straight to Dabao’s room and ask him what he wants for dinner."

Ji Huan’s rambling came to an abrupt halt.

Still fuming, she gritted her teeth and hammered his back again.

To Guan Shan, her little fists felt like little more than a tickle, entirely negligible.

Guan Shan resumed walking. He did spare her some dignity, however, by not entering the main hall, heading instead to his own quarters in the east wing.

The door to the east wing closed. Guan Shan carried Ji Huan toward the bed.

Ji Huan instantly bristled.

"You... you... you! I’m warning you again! If you don’t put me down this instant..."

Flailing, Ji Huan grabbed his collar with one hand. She then contorted her body into a strange position to get her head close to his ear.

She took a deep breath, mustering all her ferocity. "If you don’t put me down, I’m going to bite you!"

They were so close that her breath inevitably brushed against his face as she spoke.

Guan Shan froze for an instant before a flex of his arm sent her tumbling onto the bed.

The quilt was thick, and Ji Huan sank into its depths. She struggled to sit up.

’I want to hit him,’ she thought, ’but one look at this towering, mountain of a man tells me I’m no match for him.’

So she could only take her anger out on the quilt, pounding it with her fists.

"What in the world do you want?"

Guan Shan stared at her, stepping closer.

Ji Huan scrambled to the other side of the bed. Just as she was about to jump off, Guan Shan blocked her path.

She then recalled what he had said earlier—about making it so that anyone could tell at a glance she was his wife.

’I know Guan Shan probably wouldn’t do something so irrational, but...’

"I suggest you calm down. Jokes are one thing, but if you have any improper ideas in that head of yours, you’d best give them up now. Otherwise..."

"Otherwise what?" Guan Shan replied nonchalantly.

Ji Huan’s expression turned cold. "I can cure you, and I can also..." ’...destroy you.’

But for some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to say the last part out loud.

Even without her saying it, however, she was sure Guan Shan understood her meaning.

His eyes darkened, and the corners of his mouth drew down.

A silent standoff in a quiet room.

Guan Shan reached out. Ignoring Ji Huan’s flinch, he pulled her to the edge of the bed.

He then picked up a comb from the nearby chest of drawers and handed it to Ji Huan.

Ji Huan froze, completely baffled. ’What is he playing at now?’

"Comb your hair," Guan Shan said, his gaze pointedly fixed on her half-up hairstyle.

’All this commotion, this whole heart-pounding scene... was just to get me in here to comb my hair?!’

Ji Huan clutched her chest, feeling an overwhelming urge to spit up blood from sheer frustration.

She swatted his hand away. "I’m not doing it!" she snapped. "If you want it combed so badly, do it yourself."

Guan Shan frowned, done wasting words. He leaned over her, pinning her shoulder with one hand while using the other to pull the pin from her hair. With a couple of tugs, her hair tumbled down completely.

A waterfall of black silk cascaded over one side of her body, making her snow-white skin and red lips all the more striking—a sight one dared not linger on.

Ji Huan, however, was on the verge of a rampage and had no idea what was going through Guan Shan’s mind.

Head held high, eyes glaring, all she wanted was to fight Guan Shan to the death.

"What did my hair ever do to you?"

Guan Shan’s Adam’s apple bobbed. "From now on, you will wear it all up."

To be fair, after that whole fiasco involving that man named Qin, Ji Huan had considered whether it might be better to wear her hair fully up.

But people are contrary by nature. Wanting to do something herself and being forced to do it by someone else were two completely different matters.

"Why should I? I like it this way. Is that not allowed?"

"You are a married woman. It is proper for you to wear your hair up."

Ji Huan crossed her arms. "Don’t think I’m that easy to fool. Things aren’t so strict anymore. There are plenty of young wives who wear their hair like this. It’s not just me, and I haven’t seen any official decree forbidding it."

"They are them, and you are you," Guan Shan said, his patience wearing thin.

"Hey!" Ji Huan bristled. "What’s so special about me? I just don’t like wearing it up, and besides, I don’t even know how."

In truth, that was the root of the problem—she really didn’t know how.

For someone who had worn a simple ponytail day in and day out for years, even a simple braid was a challenge. The half-up style was just a matter of convenience. A full updo, with all its weaving and pinning, was far too difficult for her.

Guan Shan’s brows furrowed, as if he were trying to determine if she was telling the truth, or perhaps mulling over a very serious matter.

After a long moment, he said, "I’ll do it for you."

Ji Huan grunted. "You?"

With no intention of explaining, Guan Shan simply turned her around. After studying her hair for a long while, he began to work, his movements somewhat stiff.

Her anger having dissipated, Ji Huan let him fiddle with her hair.

She could feel the hair at the back of her head being coiled up and slipping loose again and again, and a gloating smile touched her lips.

"See? I told you it was difficult."

Guan Shan had never felt so... helpless. All his strength was useless here.

It was just hair, no different from his own, yet in his hands, it was impossibly soft and slick. He couldn’t get a proper grip on it at all.

His brow was knitted into a tight knot, but he stubbornly refused to give up. He was determined now, as if he wouldn’t rest until he succeeded.

At first, Ji Huan was willing to cooperate, but it wasn’t long before she was yawning nonstop.

Seeing the sky outside begin to dim, and having had her scalp painfully tugged twice, her patience finally ran out. She clamped a hand over her hair and spun around to glare at him, her accusatory expression unmistakable.

Guan Shan, seeming to realize he was at fault, slowly withdrew his hands.

"Have you given up now?"