Rejected Beauty Practices the Villain Play

Chapter 779 - 758: Sharing a Bed

Xie Jue was in the military tent studying Sannan’s terrain, especially the maps of the Royal City and its surrounding ten-mile radius, as well as the population density. All of these materials had been transmitted by Ying Yi. Ying Yi had long compiled the information and brought it back. Xie Jue had reviewed them countless times, but some information required him to commit to memory, reading it repeatedly to deepen his impression.

Only a single oil lamp illuminated the tent. The wild camp was typically noisy, but the area around his tent was utterly silent. Only the faint laughter from soldiers entertaining themselves with games in the distance could be heard. Deep in focus, Xie Jue suddenly heard footsteps. Fang Chuning lifted the curtain to enter, catching Xie Jue off guard. "Why are you here?" he asked.

"I’ll sleep with you tonight!"

"No way!" Xie Jue refused reflexively, his response blunt. "Are you mad?"

The Commander was in the camp. How could he dare to come?

"Father is far away from us, and he’s far too occupied to pay me any mind. Back in Ningzhou, we shared a tent and everyone was accustomed to it. So why can’t we now?"

"Things are different now. Don’t you have any sense of propriety?" Xie Jue was so frustrated that he couldn’t focus on the documents anymore. "Don’t push me to call someone!"

"Go ahead and call someone!" Fang Chuning removed his robe and sat down on the makeshift bed. Xie Jue’s face darkened slightly as Fang Chuning simply lay down, wearing an utterly defiant expression, as if resigned to accepting whatever consequences might come.

Xie Jue took a deep breath. Calling someone was only a threat; he couldn’t really cause a commotion. The soldiers of the Ningzhou Iron Cavalry wouldn’t care—they were long used to them sleeping together. But the Jiangnan army? Though the envoy delegation and the Commander’s troops were camped separately, gossip spread easily among so many mouths. Fang Chuning didn’t seem to care even a little.

Xie Jue was at his wit’s end. He couldn’t possibly do anything to tarnish Fang Chuning’s reputation, so he could only endure his frustration. "On campaign, a makeshift bed is this small. How can it fit two people? Didn’t your personal guards set up a tent for you?"

"When we were in Ningzhou, our bed wasn’t much bigger than this either. Didn’t we make it work then?"

"This isn’t the same!" Xie Jue had reached the limit of his patience. Back in Ningzhou, there had been some hesitation between them. Nominally, they shared a tent, but actually sharing a bed had been rare. Either Fang Chuning would patrol overnight, or Xie Jue would stay up reading late into the night, as if a figurative Chu River Han Border divided them. But now Fang Chuning obviously didn’t care, and Xie Jue couldn’t afford to follow his lead.

"How is it not the same?" Fang Chuning’s thick-skinned demeanor left no room for Xie Jue’s argument, as though he couldn’t understand what was being said. "Ting Feng, I haven’t had good sleep in three days."

Xie Jue recognized Fang Chuning’s attempt to feign misery. "You haven’t slept well—how is that my fault?"

"It is!"

Xie Jue: "..."

Fine, he gives up!

Xie Jue decided to ignore him further. Outside, the Shadow Guards had been standing at attention, waiting patiently for Xie Jue to call them in to eject Fang Chuning. After a while, hearing no summons, they roughly guessed Xie Jue’s intentions. They remained outside on guard, silently praying their master would exercise restraint. They were camped outdoors—it wouldn’t do to let any scandalous rumors leak out.

The Commander’s tent might be far away, but they were traveling together.

As night deepened, mosquito-repelling incense filled the tent, making people drowsy. After a day of traveling, Xie Jue was starting to feel fatigued. But looking at Fang Chuning sleeping sweetly wrapped in blankets, Xie Jue felt nothing but a headache.

"Ying Er, come in!"

Ying Er entered silently. "Master!"

"Set up another makeshift bed."

Ying Er paused, clearly troubled. Out on the road, supplies were allocated strictly one-to-one, with no extras. Beyond personal items like toiletries, they had to carry dry provisions and other essentials. Accommodating Xie Jue’s demand meant the Shadow Guards would have to squeeze together.

The Shadow Guards worked in shifts, and their resources were already stretched thin. But if Xie Jue asked, they couldn’t say no.

"Understood!"

Ying Er responded swiftly, soon hauling in another makeshift bed. However, the tent space was so limited that fitting two beds side by side made things quite cramped—they had to be placed adjoining one another.

The bedding came from the Shadow Guards’ own supplies, with nothing new available. Ying Er ignored the usual hierarchy of status and quietly said to Fang Chuning, "Mr. Fang, could you swap your blanket?"

"No!"

Ying Er: "..."

Fine, since you refuse, I won’t interfere.

"Master, I’ll take my leave now." Ying Er quickly ducked out, worried that staying would only invite more demands. Once that door was shut, anything that happened next was none of his business.

Xie Jue was furious watching Ying Er’s adept maneuvering as if handling such scenarios was routine.

Just past the third period of night, Fang Chuning suddenly bolted upright like a carp leaping, extinguishing the oil lamp. Xie Jue was about to explode when he felt the hem of his garments grabbed. Fang Chuning pulled him into an embrace, pinning him to the bed.

"Fang Chuning!" Xie Jue hissed, his face burning red with suppressed anger—thankfully, the darkness concealed it. Fang Chuning ignored Xie Jue’s protests and firmly pressed him into the warm bed.

It was Xie Jue’s own bedding. Camping in the wild at night was bitterly cold—the blankets themselves damp and heavy with chill. The warmed bedding carried his familiar and comforting scent, driving out the chill clinging to Xie Jue’s body. He tried to rise, but Fang Chuning held him down resolutely. "Lie down. Sleep."

"You..." Xie Jue’s words were caught and silenced as Fang Chuning stole his breath away. "If you say another word, I’ll take it as permission to kiss you."

Xie Jue: "..."

In the dark tent, the sound of wind rustling through trees outside could faintly be heard. Xie Jue felt his chest burning as his heartbeat intensified. Fang Chuning leaned down to listen to his heartbeat. "Ting Feng, your heartbeat is so fast!"

Xie Jue slapped him on the head expertly. "If your heart stops beating, you’d be dead. Now get off!"

"Alright!" Fang Chuning obediently rolled off him and lay down to one side. The makeshift bed could barely withstand being abused, forcing them to settle down without causing extra commotion.

Closing his eyes to rest, Xie Jue tried to summon sleepiness. It had been a long time since he lay this close to Fang Chuning, a closeness that felt almost like a distant world. Ever since they returned to the capital, the two had deliberately kept their distance. But this familiar rhythm of breathing, this reminiscent proximity, was like a portal back to simpler times in Ningzhou—or even earlier, to their time in Beiman.

"I miss Beiman’s winters," Fang Chuning said quietly beside him, stretching out a finger beneath the blanket to hook Xie Jue’s finger. "Honestly, I hate winter so much. When we first arrived in Ningzhou, it was winter. Our first time on the battlefield, it was also winter. I had to look at comrades’ corpses piled in the snow, freezing stiff within moments, and some even froze to death on the battlefield. We all feared and loathed winter, praying for spring to come every year, for warmth and blossoming flowers—that’s true hope. But I love Beiman’s winters, especially the first winter after we married. That was the happiest, most relaxed period of my life."