The mansions of the n.o.bility stood in great numbers in the capital, but only the ones which had been awarded to the founders of the state when those men had been knighted were able to occupy the whole street, like Marquis Xiangyang"s mansion which were two lanes away on the south or Duke Ying"s mansion which were three streets away on the north. After that, the scale of all the other mansions which had been awarded to the men with military merits or the members of the imperial house weren"t able to compare to the former ones. For example, Marquis Dongchang"s mansion and Marquis Fuchang"s mansion which had been confiscated seemed quite luxurious, but actually only covered more area than the normal family.

Minglan understood that a lot. When the country had just been founded, it had had a vast territory with a spa.r.s.e population. Thus it had been reasonable for the emperor to be generous. Later on the capital had gradually become thriving and prosperous, an inch of land might even valued an inch of gold. There were no other places to spare since the founders of the states had already occupied most of the land.

Of course, there were also miserable families like Hualan"s husband"s family. As the residence of a founder of the state, Marquis Zhongqin"s mansion also occupied more than half of the street with its pavilions, terraces and towers. However, after Marquis Zhongqin had been involved in the mutiny case, the family"s t.i.tle of n.o.bility had been deprived and the mansion had been closed down. Even though the family had been rehabilitated afterwards, they still couldn"t get their previous mansion back.

As for the Gu family, several generations of Marquis Ningyuan had garrisoned the frontiers, therefore their mansion had only occupied the whole Ningyuan street which was not too long or broad.

However, all in all, there were always exceptions in this world. Like Guojiu Shen (T/N: Guojiu was the t.i.tle of the brother of the empress), not only was he a relative of the empress, but he had also done lots of deeds of military merits. So his mansion, Marquis Weibei"s mansion, was actually situated in the mountains and the forest with rivers surrounded, which was the most excellent place in the capital.

Minglan also understood that. There were lots of n.o.bility being accused these years. After a few rounds of investigations, the properties which had been confiscated from those guilty families were countless. With plenty of money to spend, the new emperor would definitely grant a huge reward to his brother-in-law, eh, well as well as his followers, like Gu Tingye.

So when Minglan saw the grand and splendid Fuyuan Commander Gu"s mansion, she was not so amazed. The only thing that surprised her a lot was that there was only half of a mountain forest and a manor of a convicted official which had just been confiscated between Commander Gu"s mansion and Marquis Ningyuan"s mansion.

“What do you think? Do you like it?” Seeing Minglan"s shocking face, Gu Tingye smiled and asked that.

As Minglan watched the colorful and flourishing garden which had wooded mountains with flowers and trees all over inside, she almost opened her mouth. Only after a short while did she say, “Was it really necessary to argue for that long since our mansion is so close to theirs?” Minglan only felt it had been a waste of time to debate with Gu Tingye"s families.

However, with his eyebrows raised, Gu Tingye said, “ Whatever the distance between their mansion and ours, we are still an independent family now. No other people could get involved in our business.”

With joyful look showed on Minglan"s face, she thought inwardly, "Does it… mean that, I don"t need to get up early in the morning?"

The first day after their wedding she had already been busy the whole day, not to mention the aches all over her body still existed. Right now, Minglan was extremely exhausted. When they arrived at Commander Gu"s mansion, it was getting dark already and she wasn"t even able to see clearly what her new house looked like. After Danju had supported Minglan into the room, Minglan changed into the informal dress after she had washed herself, then she fell into sleep on the dragon phoenix pattern brocade red quilt at once.

Minglan had planned to have a rest and then eat dinner. However, she fell into a deep sleep the moment she closed her eyes and no one waked her up ever since. It was only until midnight that Minglan had waken up. While she was in a daze, she thought she was still in Sheng"s mansion. Then she reached out the upper part of her body to touch the table by the bed, however, she only felt a rough bare chest.

With her eyes squinted, Minglan who was muddleheaded still didn"t know who was lying beside her. Then she gave another few touches to the chest.

A large hand grabbed her hand. The man lifted the Rosa Rubus flower pattern brocade and satin bed curtain while getting up with his arms hooked around the copper hanger by the window. By the dim light which was from the ram"s horn shape palace lamp on the flower carving red sandalwood round table next to the bed, Minglan finally distinguished who the person in front of her was.

Half of Gu Tingye"s black and thick hair were hanging down loosely on his shoulder. His snow-white satin pajama was completely untied while his brown and strong chest totally showed out. Minglan squinted her eyes in the dark and saw that there seemed to be some wounds on his chest. The incense was still burning in the room, giving out an enticing scent. Nonetheless, the smell was not able to cover the strong scent from the man beside her.

“What happened?” Gu Tingye who also seemed to be in a trance due to the sleep held Minglan in his arms right away with his eyes half squinted.

“I want to drink water.” Minglan tilted her head, showing her snow-white skin while opening her pink and tender lips to speak confusedly, “I want Danju.”

Gu Tingye was a viligant person after all. Though he had also been tired these days, he was still completely awake right now. Seeing Minglan still being in a daze, he stretched out his long arms to pick a teapot from the warm cage. After that, he poured the warm tea into a fine porcelain cup and pa.s.sed it to Minglan. After she drank all the tea with her two chubby hands holding the cup, she said blankly, “Can I have more?”

Having glanced at her, Gu Tingye poured another cup for her. This time she only finished half of the tea and returned the cup to her husband. Then she lay down spontaneously and turned around to sleep in her quilt again.

With the cup still in his hand, Gu Tingye looked at Minglan who had already slept soundly, without uttering anything for a long while. Then he, having drank the rest of the tea in the cup, put the cup back on the table. After that, he slipped into Minglan"s quilt. The soft and sweet-scented body of the girl was plump but possessed a small frame. The man, being fond of holding this body in his arms, hugged her even tighter. Then he began to touch the part on her chest along her bras, feeling the place he was touching quite smooth and soft.

At first he just wanted to touch her, however, that movements actually intrigued him. Then he approached even closer to find her tender lips which still had the drops of the tea she had just drunk. As he kissed on those lips, he felt his body turning hotter and hotter while his hands kept touching her body hurriedly.

Only until then did Minglan feel something was wrong about her body. Then she wriggled her body and woke up. With her eyes opened confusedly and her mouth opened slightly, she started to struggle gently but was pressed under his body firmly.

She felt her body being on fire. In the meantime, there was something inserting into the place between her legs. At first, Minglan still tried very hard to endure that. But after all she hadn"t had too many experiences of s.e.x. Later on, she felt even more aching and hotter with her legs hanging on his arms weakly while groaning. She really wanted this to end fast.

Little did she know that this man had had enough sleep and was rather energetic now. He put forth all his strength while rubbing her body hard. His pa.s.sionate kiss almost melted her into a pile of water. Minglan who couldn"t bear this anymore began to weep and beg. However, he was even more s.e.xually aroused by her soft sound for mercy. Then he bit her fair and delicate shoulder while roaring in a low voice.

Hearing the heavy breath from his throat, Minglan felt her body burning now. That terribly hot feeling finally swallowed her and made her go faint.

…

Early in the morning of the next day, the moment Mama Cui entered into the couple"s room, she smelled the after-s.e.x-scent all over the place. Those blushed maids had already helped Minglan take a shower. Mama Cui saw the couple sitting on the bed together. Minglan"s eyes were still heavy with sleep while Gu Tingye was full of energy. At the present, he was putting Minglan"s jade-like feet on his knees to slowly help her put on the socks.

Then Mama Cui stepped forward, trying her best not to goggle at Gu Tingye, and took over the socks quickly. She gave her obeisance to him, saying, “Master, please go wash yourself. I can serve my lady now.”

Gu Tingye was not irritated at all. Having stood up and threw on a long-sleeve broad informal coat, he headed straightly to the inner room on the side. After he had left, Mama Cui squatted down to put on the shoes and socks for Minglan. While she helped Minglan putting on the coat, she casually lifted up Minglan"s clothes. Then she saw the blue and red marks spreading from Minglan"s shoulders to her chest.

Mama Cui flew into a rage right away. But she chose to restrain herself and planned to tell Gu Tingye off when Minglan came back to the Sheng family.

Meanwhile, Minglan felt herself even more tired after the sleep and couldn"t even straighten up her waist. Also, she was super starving. So when she saw the steaming hot breakfast on the table, there was even green light shooting from her eyes at once. She broke her personal record by drinking three bowls of the porridge without a break, which almost got her stuffed to death. Gu Tingye also had a good appet.i.te. Not only did he eat a lot, when he saw Minglan gobbling the food, he also served the dishes to her smilingly.

Minglan only found him look like a darkminded keeper of the pig farm who was trying his best to fatten the pigs in order to eat their meat. Then she glared at him fiercely but only saw him staring at her with a meaningful expression in his curving eyes. That made Minglan"s face turn deadly red again.

Now she didn"t even want to say a word. Considering that there were no other elders in this mansion, she finished eating the breakfast quickly and go to her bed again to take an unprotected sleep. Being lack of sleep and muddleheaded, she was not capable of fighting him. The most important thing for her right now was recovering her fighting capacity.

Gu Tingye had intended to let Minglan recognize the stewards in the mansion and hand over the family affairs to her. However, when he saw her almost falling asleep when she was standing, he decided to put everything behind first and went to the study himself to deal with some urgent affairs.

Maybe he had been benefited from the harmony between Yin and Yang, today Gu Tingye felt the sun shining extraordinarily brightly. (T/N: In Chinese culture, Yin meant for female while Yang meant for male) When he heard the birds twittering and smelled the fragrance of the flowers in the mansion, he only found everything in this world so harmonious. He even forgot about those unpleasant things which had happened yesterday and wore a smile on the corner of his mouth the whole day. The only thing on his mind was coming back to his room. Even if he couldn"t do exactly the thing he wanted, he would like to tease her as long as he could.

After Minglan had had a rest in the daytime, she had finally gained some strengths back. At night, she planned to talk about the romantic things, the dreams and the family matters with her husband. Unluckily, Gu Tingye had a completely different plans for their night together. Before Minglan could open a topic, he dragged her to the bed and had crazy s.e.x with her until the midnight.

On the morning of the third day after their wedding, Gu Tingye looked at Minglan worriedly. Seeing her being out of spirits, he get very concerned and regretted that he shouldn"t have wanted her that much yesterday since they had to go back to Sheng"s mansion today.

Minglan who was lying on the table with an aching body held her porridge bowl tremblingly while crying inwardly—— As a worker who used to work in the law department, she agreed that it was the duty for the couple to have s.e.x and admitted the importance of s.e.x in marriage life. She was even willing to cooperate. But, but… Purr, the spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak!

During the three days after their wedding, Mr. Gu seemed to have no other requests to Minglan. He never asked her to deal with the family affairs or take charge of the household duties. The only and the greatest demand of him was her good behaviors in bed.

Minglan held her lotus pattern porcelain plate with a bitter face, thinking sadly, "All those madams of the influential families have to focus on the brainwork while fighting battles of wits and courage everyday. But I have to devote myself in the physical work, what"s more, the heavy physical work! What, what, what is this! Collecting Yin to recover the Yang?"

The more she thought, the more depressed she got. Then she became totally furious. After all, she was a little girl but he was a st.u.r.dy man! Eh… The size didn"t fit at all, not to mention the difference between their physiques and patience. He had no honour winning this! Huh! Why didn"t he wait until she reached thirty or forty when she became a desirable woman! She would like to see if the old man Gu would be that strong!

Minglan drank the porridge while thinking of that. As she felt quite excited about her imagination, she accidentally affected her body, which triggered the pain on her waist and legs. Then she could only hiss while gasping—— d.a.m.n you, let"s wait and see!