Spotted? Spot them back!

Forced to trace the well-defined contours of the man's abdominal muscles one by one, Fang Rulai's imagination instantly conjured up steamy, sensual scenes of rolling between the sheets that very night, causing a sudden wave of heat to flush through her palms.

Guan Shiyin raised a brow, his smile turning even more seductive, "Lower, further down..."

Fang Rulai's mouth twitched. She curled her index and middle fingers together, pressed them flat, and gave a fierce, merciless twist, prompting an immediate gasp of surprise from Guan Shiyin.

"Oh—wife!"

The startled cry that slipped from his lips was identical in every way to the roaring shouts he had uttered the previous night, slick with sweat.

Fang Rulai's face flushed a deeper red than the rich sauce of braised pork belly. She sprang up and clamped a hand firmly over Guan Shiyin's mouth. "Indecency in broad daylight! Have you no shame left at all?"

Seizing the opportunity, Guan Shiyin wrapped his arms around his wife's waist, pivoted, took a few steps forward, and pinned Fang Rulai directly against the courtyard wall.

The searing heat radiating from his body was impossible to block, even through layers of clothing. Knowing full well what he had in mind, Fang Rulai hastily pushed against his chest with both hands. "We're in someone else's yard, you better—"

The small mountain courtyard lacked the towering gates and lofty perimeter walls of a wealthy city estate; a mud-brick wall, barely half a man's height and just over a foot wide, was all it had. Pinned against the wall with her lower body braced against it, Fang Rulai found her upper body with nothing to lean upon. As Guan Shiyin made a move to kiss her again, unwilling to play along with a high-definition outdoor performance sans censorship, she had no choice but to lean backward. Lacking any support as she tilted further and further, she tipped right back onto the crown of the mud-brick wall.

The top of the wall was smothered in nameless wild flowers. Fang Rulai half-reclined among them in her monk's robes, her face stained a bloody crimson, her chest rising high and full. It was a vivid testament to the truth that true sexiness always precedes complete nudity!

By this point, Guan Shiyin was entirely deaf to whatever protests she was making. Pulling her hand away from his mouth, he lowered his head and bit down through her robes right against the most sensitive crook of her neck.

Consequently, the word "behave" died on Fang Rulai's lips, trailing off into a long, drawn-out note that shot straight up into the clouds.

To Guan Shiyin, his wife's euphoric cries had never been anything less than a profound encouragement to him as her husband, their cheering effect every bit as potent as the thundering war drums on a battlefield.

tinged with the lingering frustration of being stood up on his wedding day, spiced with a faint self-contempt for never being able to truly stay angry with her, and driven purely by the lifelong guiding motto that *only a complete fool refuses free benefits*, Guan Shiyin exhaled a hot, ragged breath and conquered the entirety of Fang Rulai's neck. He nipped at her softly first, staking his absolute dominion over this territory; then, with growing relish, he proceeded to "inspect" his domain inch by inch.

Like an emperor, he radiated an arrogance that looked down upon all living beings, his very breath carrying the smug self-satisfaction of a ruler surveying his realm.

He made no effort to hide it, and she willingly surrendered to the undertow.

The scent of flowers lay to her left, the fierce heat pressed against her right. Glancing up at a vast, cloudless sky, Fang Rulai reached up and clutched at Guan Shiyin's hair. Reason told her she ought to shove him away at once, but her hands seemed to possess a mind of their own, pulling Guan Shiyin's head even closer.

Still a novice to the pleasures of romance, her body was like a child tasting its first piece of candy, utterly defenseless against the sweetness thrust upon her. The sensation—so sweet it sank into her bones and left every meridian in her body humming with bliss—was simply too overwhelming. She had to free one hand and shove it directly into her own mouth to stifle the sounds that would otherwise mortify her beyond redemption and drive the madman before her to even greater extremes of abandon.

Out of the corner of his eye, Guan Shiyin caught the movement, and with a mischievous streak, he applied slightly more pressure with his teeth.

Almost simultaneously, Fang Rulai shoved her hand deeper into her mouth, yet she still failed to completely block the ragged whimpers escaping the corners of her lips. Something surged upward from the soles of her feet, piercing straight through the crown of her head before bursting into a dazzling array of brilliant blossoms.

Cold sweat broke out.

It dampened the monk's robes she wore, but set the man before her completely ablaze.

Her thighs tightened, wrapping around him to help anchor the embrace. Meanwhile, one of his large hands slid down beneath the robes, reaching the hem, where it flipped the fabric up and slipped right inside, slithering upward like a clever little mouse.

As the icy coolness met the searing heat, Fang Rulai gasped repeatedly.

What had just crawled inside? It was cool and chilly, yet ticklish too—that couldn't possibly be his hand, right?

Guan Shiyin tilted his head, plucked a wild flower with his teeth, and brought it directly into Fang Rulai's field of vision, implying silently: *This.*

It was a very common type of wild chrysanthemum, its petals small but numerous. Each petal had just been basking in the affectionate caresses of Brother Sun when sudden disaster struck. First, it had been squashed flat from above, and then its stem had been nipped right off. Before it could even bid a sorrowful farewell to Brother Sun, it found itself shoved into a pitch-black abyss. Where was this? It had to get out! It scrambled left and right, darting up and down! Not only was the sky blocked out by something overhead, but the ground beneath it was too scorching hot to stand on—what on earth was this horrifying place? Mountain heights and deep valleys were definitely not suited for her, thank you very much! Return her soft, flat wall top at once!

Unfortunately, for the wild chrysanthemum whose stem had been snipped, the master controlling its fate was no longer itself!

Guan Shiyin treated it like the neck of a two-stringed fiddle or the strings of a zither, plucking the melody of a tender spring night or strumming the impassionate rhythm of galloping war-horses. Even as his body ached with tension, he endured it; his ultimate goal was to make this flushed woman before him open her mouth and plead for mercy!

She had taken his body yet refused to grant him his proper title—what was that? Pre-wedding jitters? Since she hadn't been taking any medicine or visiting physicians for it these past few days, it clearly fell under the category of "having a diseased brain," which she had mentioned herself. What was she afraid of? Afraid he wouldn't satisfy her? Or afraid that the humiliating fate of that lovesick fool Mu Zhijin would repeat itself with him? It seemed he simply wasn't "working" hard enough, otherwise where on earth did she find the time and energy to let her mind wander into such idle nonsense?

She truly needed a thorough discipline!

The wild chrysanthemum pinched between Guan Shiyin's fingers was buried deep within the monk's robes, continuing its mischievous havoc, while the blossom he held between his teeth was extended toward Fang Rulai's lips as he stretched his neck forward.

Right there, Fang Rulai's hand was still stuffed into her mouth.

Guan Shiyin grazed Fang Rulai's wrist, her fingers, and her palm with the petals in his teeth.

A tickling sensation bloomed across her palm, and she instinctively shrank back and dodged. The space over her mouth was left vacant, and with lightning speed and practiced agility, Guan Shiyin leaned forward and sealed her lips entirely.

This time, the seal was absolute—no lingering lips and teeth, no sharing of breath.

The only thing rushing into Fang Rulai's mouth was that brilliantly blooming wild chrysanthemum.

Her gasp was trapped inside her mouth, and the tip of her tongue was forced to tangle with the wild flower.

Though fragrant in scent, its taste was bitter.

She refused to eat it! Wrinkling her nose, Fang Rulai pushed outward with the tip of her tongue.

Yet the moment her tongue stretched forward, that flower slipped away. It didn't run far, darting instead to the corner of her lips against her teeth. Like a playful child teasing her, hiding here and dodging there, it actually started playing hide-and-seek with her.

Driven mad by the tickling sensation, Fang Rulai reached out to grab it. Suddenly, the flower stem hidden beneath her robes gave a sharp poke, and drawing a sharp breath, Fang Rulai whipped her hand back to grab his hair once more.

She twisted her head to bite down on it, yet always missed by a fraction of an inch.

Distracted to the point of delirium by the other flower's mischief, how could she possibly outmaneuver Guan Shiyin, who was single-mindedly determined to make her open her mouth and beg for mercy?

Caught in this push-and-pull where neither the fires of desire nor the flames of anger could find release, Fang Rulai finally broke under the pressure. "Are you even any good at this or not?!"

Theory and practice both proved that men generally could not endure any potential questioning of their masculine prowess.

Under normal circumstances, the standard reply to such a remark was inevitably: *"Fine, then I'll let you see right now whether I'm any good or not!"*

True to form, no sooner had the words left Fang Rulai's mouth than she received a similar response: "Good? Of course I am!"

Yet upon hearing the reply, Fang Rulai felt none of the anticipated relief that her inner fires might finally be quenched—solely because the voice that answered was not Guan Shiyin's.

Not to mention that the voice sounded entirely wrong, Guan Shiyin still had a wild chrysanthemum clenched between his teeth, so how could he possibly have a free mouth to speak?!

Her expression changed drastically. She whipped her head around in a panic and found Mu Zhijin sitting right at the table where she had been eating braised pork belly just moments before.

Sensing her gaze fixed upon him, Mu Zhijin did not look back. Instead, he reached out, grabbed the small wine pot beside him, poured himself a cup, and drank it down as he remarked, "Don't be nervous. That idiot's backside is big enough that, from my angle, I couldn't possibly see a single trace of your breathless entanglement. So, the two of you may feel entirely free to continue."

She would have to be thoroughly ruined to continue any further! The scorching heat inside her plummeted below freezing point instantly. Releasing her grip on Guan Shiyin's hair, Fang Rulai instead grabbed him by the throat, shaking him back and forth as she hissed in a low voice, "You didn't hear someone coming? Why didn't you warn me? Why didn't you stop beforehand?!"

Playing out in the wild with only two people was called romantic flair; refusing to stop when an uninvited spectator wandered halfway into the scene turned it into performance art under the guise of exhibitionism.

Guan Shiyin was shaken until his eyes rolled back and he coughed violently, yet he still couldn't bring himself to pry Fang Rulai's wrists away with any force—he was too afraid of hurting her.

Seizing the chance, Mu Zhijin twisted the knife in deeper: "That idiot was obviously retaliating against me for the wedding gift of the little hand-warmer I sent him this morning!"

Drawing her own logical conclusions, Fang Rulai extrapolated the whole picture instantly: "You felt you lost face in front of your sworn brother, so you planned to win it back right here in front of him?"

No wonder her monk's robes were crumpled like mud while he remained entirely unblemished; no wonder she kept expecting him to cross the line at any second while he behaved for the very first time like an upright gentleman without acting seductively—so that was the trick!

Fang Rulai grabbed Guan Shiyin by the collar, dragging him close. "What were you plotting? Waiting for me to beg you? Just to soothe the grievance of being stood up this morning? To reassert the dignity of the head of the household through a man's sheer prowess in front of a woman?"

Guan Shiyin's throat was still constricted, but hearing Fang Rulai lay it out like that, he suddenly felt that he had indeed acted rather childishly.

Just then, a squeak echoed as the inner courtyard door swung open, and Zhu Xishi emerged carrying a large tray piled high with savory delicacies. "Abbot Rulai, has your man been settled yet? That must have taken a fair amount of 'energy.' Do you need to replenish your stamina?"

The aroma of fine cuisine was the single thing capable of defeating Guan Shiyin's masculine charms, firmly holding the top spot on Fang Rulai's list of irresistible forces.

Straightening her back, Fang Rulai scrambled immediately to her feet. "That smell... pig ears, pig tongue, pig snout—all my absolute favorites! Widow sister, I love you to death!"

With that, she made to shove Guan Shiyin aside and dash toward the table.

Guan Shiyin moved faster, blocking her path. "Didn't you and I have an argument to finish?" Wasn't she just on the verge of holding a full tribunal against him? How could she toss it all to the wind the second food appeared? Besides, "You are only allowed to love *me* to death!"

Pouring another cup of wine, Mu Zhijin chimed in, "On this point, I couldn't agree more with the idiot. The second half of that sentence bears no further discussion; you only need to explain the first half. Didn't you two haven't finished quarreling yet?"

He had been keeping his concentration at peak levels the whole time! Why should things end just like that—with the idiot getting to be accompanied by the woman he loved, while the woman *he* loved tried to shove him into another woman's bed? Since they were sworn brothers, if there was going to be an argument, they both had to fight! The idiot wanted to make up? Absolutely not!

Snatching up his wine cup, Mu Zhijin tossed it back in a single gulp, tilted his chin up with the arrogance of a lord, reached out, and shoved the empty cup right in front of Zhu Xishi, who was currently arranging the bowls and chopsticks. "Another cup!"

Fang Rulai delivered a swift kick to Guan Shiyin's shin. "Get lost! Is such a childish notion even worth wasting my brain cells on? Do you think I have too much time on my hands or am I just too stupid?"

Zhu Xishi scooped up a ladle of chili-oil pig ears, flipped her wrist, and dumped the whole lot straight into Mu Zhijin's empty wine cup as she replied, "Please—"

Guan Shiyin hopped on one foot, clutching his shin. "Wife, how could you bear to treat me like this?"

Glancing down at the spicy red oil blanketing her wrist, Mu Zhijin looked up, smiled, and told Zhu Xishi, "This isn't wine!"

Having finished setting out the bowls and chopsticks, Zhu Xishi took a seat right beside Mu Zhijin, scooped another ladleful of chili-oil pig ears, and popped them into her own mouth. "And I'm not a tavern waitress, either!"

Hearing this, Fang Rulai and Guan Shiyin—who had been locked in a silent clash of sheer aura—burst out laughing in unison. Turns out there were people even more childish than themselves! Well, their moods improved instantly. Good food, here we come.

The two of them walked over together. Instead of taking the empty benches on either side, they squeezed tightly onto the very same bench, draped all over each other.

One picked up a slice of pig tongue and fed it straight to the other's lips. "Wife, come on, taste this vegetarian-braised pig tongue first."

The other batted her eyelashes, uttered a coquettish "Ah," swallowed the offering, and then smoothly and affectionately draped herself across the man's chest.

They were laying on the public displays of affection with a vengeance.

Sitting directly across from them and currently chewing on a pig's ear, Zhu Xishi suddenly felt as though chewing on a pig's ear was no different from chewing on a live fly.

"You guys eat, I'm going back inside to whip up a bowl of soup." Unwilling to watch her own misfortune highlighted by comparison, Zhu Xishi's hurried departure looked far more like a panicked retreat from a battlefield.

The moment her figure vanished behind the inner door, Fang Rulai straightened up out of Guan Shiyin's embrace, glared straight at Mu Zhijin, and snapped, "Still drinking? Why aren't you chasing after her?"

The wine cup suspended mid-air stopped. Mu Zhijin paused for a beat, then slammed it down in a single dry swallow, vaulted to his feet—and bolted through the door after Zhu Xishi's retreating form.

Fang Rulai and Guan Shiyin exchanged a knowing grin, speaking in absolute unison: "Care to take bets on whether he gets kicked back out?"

*(Author's Note: This is a revised chapter, so please don't mind the word count. Today's schedule was a complete headache, and revising was a nightmare that nearly drove me to a breakdown. The slightly spicier original version has been left in the comment section for anyone interested. Also: I just wanted a heartwarming, festive ending, why on earth is it so hard?!)*