In the evening, Wu Weiwei was doing yoga in her room when Lingfu came in to report that Liuyun had arrived.
"Miss Wu, the Heir requests your presence."
"Understood. You go on ahead, I will be right there."
She had a maid bring a basin of water, quickly wiped her body, threw on a casual garment, and headed toward Qingsong Courtyard.
When Wu Weiwei arrived at the Study, she saw the Heir intently reviewing official documents.
"Brew a pot of tea."
Hearing the sound of her footsteps entering, the Heir gave the order without raising his head.
"Yes."
A short while later, she brought a cup of richly fragrant Pu-erh tea to the Heir's side.
Only then did Lu Hanting stop writing and take the cup, which emitted a faint, refreshing fragrance.
"Do you know why I called you here?"
Wu Weiwei raised the outer corners of her eyes slightly and replied cautiously, "This concubine does not know."
At the moment, Wu Weiwei was only draped in a cloak, beneath which a pure white silk nightgown clung somewhat loosely to her body, vaguely revealing alluring curves.
Seeing this, the words the Heir was about to blurt out instantly died in his throat, and his youthful, vigorous body immediately reacted.
"Who told you to dress like this when coming here?"
Looking at the sudden tent-like bulge in the Heir's lower region, Wu Weiwei froze.
He truly was in the prime of his hot-blooded youth; she hadn't even done anything, yet this man had already reacted.
Wu Weiwei carefully recalled the plot from the novel: aside from the cousin, he apparently had never had any other women in his chambers.
And the female protagonist loved playing the game of playing hard to get. Whenever they were alone together and the Heir grew passionate and wanted to do something to her, she would always push him away and refuse, hinting that they had to wait until the wedding rites were completed before he could touch her.
So?
Could it be that this bastard of a man was still... on that night with her?
It must be said that Wu Weiwei had hit the nail on the head.
Good grief, no wonder she had been taken by him so fiercely that night—seven times in one night, with each round lasting a mere couple of minutes, and the bastard had zero technique to speak of. It turned out she was his enlightenment teacher in that regard!
Seeing Wu Weiwei's dazed expression, Lu Hanting also thought of that night.
He remembered drifting half-asleep and hearing the woman beside him muttering with a hint of disdain, calling him a one-minute man, complaining about his lack of technique hurting her, and so on...
He suddenly seized her chin, his gaze turning slightly cold. "Mistress Wu, this Heir vaguely remembers that you seemed to have said quite a few unpleasing things that night... Care to repeat what you said?"
Wu Weiwei felt a sharp pain where her chin was being gripped. Seeing the Heir's aura gradually turn cold and gloomy, she instantly remembered the disparaging remarks she had made about him that night.
Yet, wasn't he asleep back then?
So it turned out...
Realizing that she might have been overheard venting her complaints, Wu Weiwei's face stiffened instantly.
"The, the Heir jests. This concubine was thoroughly exhausted that night and passed out cold long before. This concubine believes you must have been dreaming, or perhaps misheard."
Whether the Heir believed her explanation or not, she had to defend herself.
Men feared nothing more than being told they were inadequate, especially when the person before her was an influential official highly regarded by the Emperor of the Great Zhou, the Heir of the Dingguo Marquis Estate, and the living authority holding the power over her life and death.
While the most lethal burns came from the official truth, and the facts were indeed as she said, absolute inadequacy could never be admitted from the mouth of a concubine.
The grip on her chin gradually relaxed, and the chilling glint in the Heir's eyes finally dissipated.
Wu Weiwei felt as though her heart had been hanging in her throat, and she resolved that next time she would never be foolish enough to speak her inner thoughts aloud.
With this interruption, Lu Hanting entirely forgot the original purpose of summoning her.
"Can you grind ink?"
"No."
Wu Weiwei gave this reply with remarkable swiftness.
She had her pride, you know!
Having just survived an ordeal that nearly cost her her life, she only wanted to return and get some proper rest to recover from the shock. Therefore, even if she knew how, she had no intention of doing hard labor for this bastard of a man.
Seeing her defiant reply, Lu Hanting's brows and eyes relaxed somewhat, a rare occurrence.
He had thought she was solely intent on climbing high branches to reach him, but it turned out she had some spirit after all. In his heart, she suddenly seemed rather endearing.
"I will teach you."
Lu Hanting walked over, stood behind her, and guided her hand. First, he used a small water scoop to add a small amount of clean water to the old Songming inkstone on the desk, then picked up an ink stick and placed it onto the stone.
"When grinding ink, keep your hand perpendicular to the inkstone, then raise your wrist and begin grinding in circular motions clockwise. The speed should neither be too fast nor too slow..."
Being virtually embraced, Wu Weiwei felt a trace of subtle ebony and agarwood fragrance permeate her nostrils, while the hot breath exhaled by the man beside her surged into her ear. For a moment, her mind grew hazy, and she didn't retain a single bit of the ink-grinding technique he was teaching.
"Have you learned it?"
The man's low, pleasant, and melodious voice sounded right beside her ear.
"I, I've learned it..."
Wu Weiwei hadn't expected that this one-minute man might be useless in bed, but his ability to flirt with and charm women was genuinely formidable.
If she hadn't had a few ex-boyfriends, strong willpower, and high resistance to seduction, she feared she would have already sunk beneath his alluring exterior.
"Since you've learned it, demonstrate it for me."
Seeing her glazed-over eyes, Lu Hanting let out a few cold laughs inwardly.
This woman actually dared to mock his lack of prowess in bed; let's see how he deals with her in a moment.
If Wu Weiwei knew what the Heir was thinking at that moment, she would undoubtedly have stated with certainty: It's just a matter of a few minutes, any man can last that long.
Lu Hanting stepped aside slightly, wanting to see whether she had truly learned.
Wu Weiwei pretended not to notice the trace of contempt deep in the Heir's eyes.
The original owner's father had been a scholar by birth, having studied diligently by the window for over a decade, though for unknown reasons he had settled down to become a village tutor in the countryside.
She had read extensively under her father's guidance since childhood; let alone grinding ink, if she were asked to write calligraphy, she could easily produce a fine piece of elegant small regular script for him.
Seeing her holding the ink stick with one hand while holding her sleeve back with the other, beginning to grind the ink with smooth and rhythmic circular motions, Lu Hanting realized that her previous claim of not knowing how to grind ink was clearly a deception.
He intended to question her immediately, but looking up, he caught sight of the slender, tender, and jade-white fingers emerging from beneath her sleeve. That brought to mind how those delicate hands had hooked around his neck that night, crying out with breathless passion, and the anger within him vanished without a trace.
"Ahem, ahem..."
He gave a deliberate cough to signal that she could stop.
Wu Weiwei raised her eyes and saw a faint blush spread across his stern, handsome face.
For a moment, she couldn't figure out what she had done to provoke him into getting aroused again.
"Very well, I still have official business to attend to. Go find a book from the bookshelf to read!"
Wu Weiwei felt utterly bewildered inside. He had summoned her in the middle of the night just to have her sit aside and read a book to keep him company?
Good heavens, have mercy on her!
At that moment, she genuinely just wanted to get an early beauty sleep.
Seeing her hesitation, Lu Hanting pointed behind her. "Since you don't wish to read, then organize the case files for me instead!"
When Wu Weiwei first arrived, she had already noticed the piles of disorganized documents on the floor.
It seemed he intended to fight a bloody battle tonight and finish all of these before letting her return. Thus, feeling extremely reluctant, she squatted down and began sorting and categorizing them for him.
Watching her enslaved state of being filled with silent rage, the corners of Lu Hanting's mouth curved upward slightly.
Time ticked away bit by bit.
The pile of case files and registers of household names and household registrations made Wu Weiwei's head spin.
Yet since the Heir had not called a halt, she did not dare stop either, and could only flip through them page by page to organize them.
In the study, Lu Hanting was diligently reviewing official documents under the lamplight. When Wu Weiwei glanced up casually, she caught sight of his peerless good looks.
Not to mention, his profile truly was stunning.
Yet, remembering his title as a one-minute man and matters concerning her future happiness, Wu Weiwei instantly lost any desire to admire the handsome man.
Just as she was squinting, half-asleep with fatigue, an eye-catching name on one of the registers jolted her completely awake.
"Bei Yu'er!"
She hadn't read it wrong; this was precisely the name the female protagonist adopted after faking her death and fleeing to Tongzhou in the novel.