The Daily Life Of Mei Furen Doting On Her Husband - Chapter 88

Wu Zhen didn’t show up that day, and she didn’t come back at night. Mei Zhuyu waited for her to eat until the closing drum sounded. It was completely dark, but no one came, so he had to eat a simple meal. In fact, Wu Zhen had said before that she would not come back, but he still waited until that time.

The lights burned quietly, making a slight beeping sound. A breeze blew into the house. The windows were wide open, and the mosquito repellent sachets hanging on the window sills swayed slightly.

There was only one person missing, but the room seemed extremely empty and quiet.

When Wu Zhen was around, even if they were not intimate, they would go to bed late. Because Wu Zhen was a night owl, Mei Zhuyu’s rest time was also delayed.

It was still early compared to usual, but Wu Zhen was not there. Mei Zhuyu sat alone, enjoying the breeze for a while, reading a book, then washed up and went to bed.

Mei Zhuyu suddenly woke up in the middle of the night. He keenly heard the noise coming from the window and sat up silently. The next moment, a figure jumped in from the window. That was certainly not a thief, but Wu Zhen, who climbed through the window.

She jumped into the room with a small jar in her hand, landing lightly without making any sound. Seeing Mei Zhuyu sitting up from the bed, she chuckled, no longer trying to keep her voice down, touched her nose, and said, “I woke you up.”

Mei Zhuyu stood up and lit the candle. His voice was calm but with a hint of concern. “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t be back tonight? Why are you back suddenly?”

Wu Zhen said, “Oh,” and answered casually, “I didn’t plan to come back at first. I played with Cui Jiu and the others for a whole day and planned to sleep at Hu Zhu’s place at night, but I couldn’t sleep. I also caught some interesting things and wanted to bring them back to show you, so I came back.”

Mei Zhuyu watched her bend down to untie the rope on the jar, and his eyes unconsciously became gentle and joyful.

Wu Zhen put the untied rope in her mouth and bit it, then went on to lift the red paper covering the jar. When she looked up, she met Mei Zhuyu’s quiet and gentle eyes. She was stunned and suddenly spat out the rope in her mouth. She held the jar, took two steps to Mei Zhuyu, pulled him down by his collar, and kissed him on the face.

She didn’t know why, but she was moved and promised, “If there is nothing else, I will definitely go home and sleep at night.”

Mei Zhuyu had never thought that she would say such a thing. Seeing her eyes bright in the light, with a bright light dancing in them, he couldn’t help but reach out and hug her. After a long time, he opened his mouth and uttered, “Are you tired? Take a rest.”

“Wait, let me show you something first,” Wu Zhen said as she pulled him to a study room separated by a screen.

The study room had a white wall. When the doors and windows were open, the shadows of the trees in the courtyard outside would be reflected on the white wall. On sunny days, the water waves in the small pond outside would also ripple on the white wall. At that moment, Wu Zhen pulled Mei Zhuyu to the other side of the white wall, lifted her foot to push the bamboo mat on the couch to the ground, and then pressed Mei Zhuyu to sit on the bamboo mat.

Mei Zhuyu followed her instructions and sat on the bamboo mat to look at her. Wu Zhen mysteriously uncovered the paper covering the jar in her hand, and then pinched out a slippery, translucent dough from the jar.

“Look.” She threw the trembling ‘dough’ in her hand onto the white wall. The ‘dough’ stuck to the wall with a snap, and finally slowly melted into the wall. After a while, there was no trace of it on the wall. At the same time, a small shadow suddenly appeared on the wall. It was the shadow of a butterfly, flying around on the white wall, with beautiful and graceful movements. It looked like there was a butterfly outside the window, and the shadow was cast by the moonlight and reflected on the wall.

Wu Zhen took out another piece of dough from the jar and threw it onto the wall again. This time, a bird’s shadow appeared on the wall. The bird was lively and vivid. Although it was just a shadow, it seemed as if one could hear its chirping.

Mei Zhuyu had already guessed what it was. Wu Zhen continued to take out the pieces from the jar while explaining to Mei Zhuyu, “This is a harmless monster called a shadow insect. They have various forms and can turn into different shadows, such as human shadows, animal shadows, and shadows of flowers, plants, and trees. This thing hides tightly and is difficult to catch.”

Because they only appeared at night, turned into various shadows, blended into the surrounding environment, and had no unusual aura, it was difficult to find them.

Wu Zhen was very proud of finding that jar, and she threw out two pieces. One piece turned into a clump of bamboo, forming a bamboo shadow in the corner of the white wall, and the other piece turned into a peony flower shadow, falling on the other side. So the bird landed on the bamboo shadow, and the butterfly landed on the flower.

Mei Zhuyu saw that Wu Zhen was still enthusiastically taking things out of the jar and throwing them on the wall. The various shadows were gradually appearing on the white wall, which seemed to be getting more lively. He suddenly felt that the lady was very similar to a little girl catching fireflies outside in the middle of the night.

At that moment, Wu Zhen, who had accomplished her task, clapped her hands, turned the empty jar in her hand and said proudly, “Look, how was it, isn’t it fun?” She actually spoke in a tone of coaxing a child, not knowing that her own behavior was more like that of a child.

From that night on, many shadow insects moved into the white wall of the study. They were invisible and traceless during the day, but at night, they would transform into various shadows—flowers, birds, insects, fish, plants, trees, and animals—making the scene lively.

If ordinary people saw the sudden appearance of these shadows in the middle of the night, they would probably be scared to death. However, Wu Zhen and Mei Zhuyu treated the shadows of these shadow insects as a play. Occasionally, Wu Zhen would get very interested in creating stories based on these shadows. She would make up and narrate the stories, while Mei Zhuyu’s only role was to praise them for being wonderful.

After some time, Wu Zhen suddenly became busy. Mei Zhuyu noticed that she was rarely seen each day and didn’t even come to the Ministry of Justice. One day, before leaving, he couldn’t help but ask, “Is the Monster Market very busy recently?”

Wu Zhen shook her head with a smile and replied, “It’s not the Monster Market, it’s about Cui Jiu, the smiling man who always plays with me. He’s getting married in a few days, and he’s too busy lately, so he asked me for help.”

Mei Zhuyu knew that Cui Jiu was the kindest and most tactful among the group of boys and girls who followed Wu Zhen. After receiving the answer, he nodded and went out to work.

Three days later, on Cui Jiu’s wedding day, Mei Zhuyu happened to be on leave. Wu Zhen dragged him to the Cui family’s house early in the morning. Because of the wedding, the house was bustling with activity, and the servants were happily setting up the halls and screens. Wu Zhen, treating herself as no outsider, took Mei Zhuyu to see the wedding pavilion set up at Cui’s house.

“Look, it’s smaller than the tent we had when we got married, right? That time, I watched the servants build it and asked them to make it bigger,” Wu Zhen said with a smile, twirling the horse whip she usually played with.