Chapter 415: A Little More Demure

Chapter 415: Chapter 415: A Little More Demure

Ji Huan gathered her hair to one side, bunched it up with both hands, and held it out for him to see.

"Look, just look. It’s so long, and there’s so much of it. Imagine how heavy it would be all tied up. My poor neck would suffer so much..."

So it wasn’t just that she didn’t know how to style it; there were many reasons, really.

Guan Shan never knew that a woman styling her hair could be so troublesome. He had always assumed it was a simple, matter-of-course affair.

But seeing Ji Huan’s distressed expression and thinking it over, her specious argument seemed to have a grain of truth to it.

Such a slender frame, and so much hair...

Without a word, Guan Shan put the comb back down. This was his way of compromising.

Ji Huan secretly quirked her lips into a smile and asked deliberately, "So, you’re not going to make me put it up?"

Guan Shan pressed his lips together, avoiding the topic of her hair. "Next time something like this happens, let me handle it."

Most of the customers who came to the shop knew she was married. There probably weren’t many with poor judgment like that young man, Qin.

Still, Ji Huan understood the principle of meeting someone halfway and quitting while you’re ahead.

"No problem. Next time I run into a weirdo like that, I’ll just call for my ’husband’ to come and sort it out. That should work, right?"

Guan Shan’s expression seemed to relax a little. "Mm."

’Mm, mm, mm. Mm my foot.’

’He thinks he can just move on after making such a fuss. Not so fast.’

Ji Huan tossed her hair back, stood up, and walked toward Guan Shan.

She reached him, but she didn’t stop.

Guan Shan took a step back, then another, until his back was against the chest of drawers. There was nowhere left to retreat.

He held his breath and lowered his gaze, staring in the dim light at her palm-sized face, partially veiled by her dark hair.

That face drew closer and closer to his.

"Let me ask you, were you angry today just because someone offended your wife? Or was there something else?"

Her tone was coaxing, but her eyes were like searchlights, refusing to miss the slightest change in his expression.

Guan Shan noticed this and lowered his lashes. "It’s getting dark."

’There he goes again with that trick.’ Ji Huan wasn’t falling for it.

"Alright, let me ask it another way. If your wife were someone else, and she ran into a situation like that, would you still be this angry?"

The moment the words left her mouth, she felt they were ridiculous.

’What am I trying to prove?’

’That Guan Shan’s anger wasn’t because someone offended his wife, but because someone offended *her*?’

’That if it had been someone else today, Guan Shan wouldn’t have been so angry?’

’How could that be? What man would remain indifferent if his wife were being hit on?’

’Possessiveness isn’t necessarily backed by love; it’s more about a man’s pride and dignity.’

’So asking him this was completely pointless.’

Ji Huan suddenly lost her enthusiasm. Besides, standing on her tiptoes was getting tiring, and she no longer had the interest to probe for an answer.

She waved her hand. "For..."

"My wife is you."

The "-get it" caught in Ji Huan’s throat, stuck halfway out.

She looked at Guan Shan, seeming to understand and yet not understand at all.

After what felt like both a long time and only a moment, Ji Huan cleared her throat.

"But your wife, it seems, knows nothing about you."

Guan Shan understood what she meant.

Ji Huan could be muddle-headed at times, and soft-hearted at others, but when it came to important matters, she was always clear-minded—excessively so, even.

If he couldn’t even be honest with her about his own origins, then the distance between them would always remain.

Certain words that seemed so easy to say were stopped by his reason at the final gate.

Ji Huan always assumed his biggest secret was the experience of being targeted for assassination.

In truth, there was nothing unspeakable about that.

The key was that pulling one thread could unravel everything. And there were some things he would rather Ji Huan never know.

He had never felt this way before.

Suddenly, someone had barged into his heart, and all he wanted was to shield her from the wind and rain, to show her only his good side.

As for the dark past...

Seeing the silent Guan Shan, Ji Huan smiled and broke the silence herself.

"We’re having pickled vegetable congee tonight. I’m tired, so I’m going back to my room to sleep."

Her tone was pleasant enough, but it would have been better if she hadn’t poked Guan Shan’s shoulder with every word she spoke.

Back in the east room, Ji Huan sat blankly before her vanity mirror for a while, then picked up the comb and began to brush her hair.

As she combed, she tried to recall how Aunt Gao had styled it for her before.

She was sure she remembered the steps correctly, yet after putting her hair up, something always felt wrong. It was loose and lopsided. After several tries, she was still not satisfied.

Her patience wearing thin, Ji Huan slapped the comb down on the table, stood up, and craned her neck to look at her back.

Her hair was truly long. It was said to be waist-length, but the ends actually brushed against her bottom.

Hair this long was a pain to wash and a pain to style.

She couldn’t count on Widow Xie or the others to cut it for her; they would almost certainly just scold her.

Ji Huan rummaged through her sewing basket, found a pair of scissors, and with a SNIP-SNAP, a layer of black hair fell to the floor.

After she was done, she shook her head. It felt much lighter, just as she’d expected.

She looked in the mirror. It was a good deal shorter than before, the ends now cut from her hips to above the small of her back.

But if you asked Ji Huan, it didn’t make much of a difference.

There was one benefit, though: it was much easier to put her hair up now. She got it right on the first try.

Although the bun still looked a little awkward, it was more or less presentable.

When Guan Shan came to call Ji Huan for dinner, he knocked on the door and was slightly taken aback to see her with her hair tied up in a high bun.

His intuition told him something was different, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

Ji Huan had already cleaned up the cut hair, so she wasn’t afraid of his scrutiny. She even spun around on the spot for him to see.

"Well? Are you satisfied with what you see?"

Guan Shan’s expression was a little complicated, but in the end, he didn’t say anything about it.

"Time to eat."

Ji Huan was exasperated.

"With a tight-lipped personality like yours, if any girl ever does fall for you, she’s in for a world of frustration. You might as well just stay a bachelor forever!"

With that, she shoved him aside forcefully and went to the kitchen.

Guan Shan glanced at the empty patch of floor next to the armchair, his eyes darkening, and closed the door.

「The next day」

They didn’t set out for Yeyang until after breakfast, so by the time they arrived, it was already late morning.

Ji Huan had just stepped down from the carriage when she desperately wished she could turn around and climb right back in.

"Miss Ji!"

That Qin fellow was here again!

Ji Huan glanced at Guan Shan, who looked calm on the surface but was somehow terrifying to behold, and her head began to ache.

’If I don’t handle this well, who knows what kind of scene he’ll make when we get back.’

So she quickly composed herself and corrected him, "Please, the proper address is Miss Ji."

The young man, Qin, stared at Ji Huan’s hair, which was all tied up, his expression a mixture of grief and indignation.

After an internal struggle, he seemed to have made some sort of decision.

He mustered his courage, pointed at Guan Shan, and asked, "Did he force you?"

Ji Huan was dumbfounded, having no idea what he was talking about.

"I knew it! How could you possibly fall for a crude fellow like him? He must have forced you! Don’t be afraid..."

"Stop, stop, stop!"

Ji Huan thought this man wasn’t just dim-witted, but also dangerously naive.

However, in the spirit of humanitarianism, she couldn’t just watch him sprint headfirst toward his own doom—or if he was going to, he shouldn’t drag her down with him.

’Can’t he see the person next to me looks like a thundercloud about to burst?’

"Who told you I was forced?" Ji Huan grabbed Guan Shan’s arm. "He’s the husband I chose for myself, and I like him just the way he is."

The young man, Qin, said, "I don’t believe you. You’re lying."

The number of pedestrians on the street was growing, and some had already started to notice them. Not wanting to waste any more time on him, Ji Huan decided to go for something drastic.

"Do you want me to kiss him in public to prove it to you?"

With that, she stood on her tiptoes and turned her face close to Guan Shan’s.

Even though he knew she was just putting on a show, Guan Shan’s throat inexplicably tightened.

"You... you two..."

The young man, Qin, had probably never encountered someone so bold. He pointed a trembling finger at them for a long moment before storming off in grief and anger.

Ji Huan let out a long sigh and asked Guan Shan out of the corner of her eye, "Did I embarrass you this time, my dear husband?"

Guan Shan pondered for a moment, then said, "Be more reserved next time."

Ji Huan: "..." ’Oh, right. I suppose it was a ghost who held me in broad daylight at West River Gully.’

The incident with the young man, Qin, was just a minor interlude. Ji Huan didn’t stay long in Yeyang this time; after getting the items Manager Hong had helped her purchase, she headed back to the village.

When Widow Xie and Ji Xuelan heard she was tinkering with something new again, they came over to see what she was up to.

Ji Huan was in the middle of washing a large basin of chicken and duck offal. Without looking up, she replied, "Marinated meat platter."