My Gentle and Pure Sect Leader Husband - Chapter 5

As if afraid Yu Luocha would change his mind, Yan Hongyin must have sent a message by carrier pigeon to Jiangnan. By the time their carriage arrived at the main gate of Yan Hong Hall by West Lake, large red lanterns had already been hung, and the double happiness character “囍” on the door glowed brilliantly.

Yu Luocha: “……”

He opened his mouth, then closed it, looking at the mansion that occupied such a large space in the prime real estate area of Jiangnan’s West Lake, gaining an even deeper understanding of Yan Hongyin’s level of wealth.

A little maid watching at the door brightened when she saw the carriage, tugged hard on the sleeve of another maid beside her, and quickly ran back into the courtyard.

“Lianqiao? Why are you standing here?” Having the carriage blocked, Yan Hongyin lifted the curtain and saw the little maid standing with her arms spread wide.

Lianqiao had large round eyes and smiled before speaking, which was quite endearing. She immediately said, “Miss, Grandmother said I must stop you at the front door.”

Yan Hongyin sighed helplessly. “Stop me for what?”

Yan Hong Hall was very large, and since Yan Hongyin was rarely here, the mansion naturally couldn’t be empty.

Lianqiao blinked, pulled out a bright red and plump pouch from her sleeve, and handed it to the driver, saying sweetly, “You must be tired from driving all this way. Today is the wedding day of our Miss and her husband, please do stay for a celebratory drink before leaving.”

Most drivers who travel far and wide are quite shrewd. After receiving the pouch and feeling the silver pieces and copper coins inside, the driver jumped down from the carriage without a word and disappeared into the crowd of people coming and going, finding his own entertainment.

The little maid held the horse’s reins and patted the horse’s head to soothe it, but her feet didn’t move an inch, showing no intention of letting the carriage proceed further.

In the short moment that passed, the other maid who had run away earlier came back carrying two large brocade boxes as tall as her knees, placing them steadily on the carriage. The weight made the carriage tremble slightly.

Yan Hongyin’s eyelids twitched violently. “Zisu, what are you……”

“Miss, Grandmother said if you and your husband truly want to get married, there’s no better day than today, so let’s do it now!” The little maid Zisu smiled shyly, but her hands pushed the two brocade boxes further into the carriage.

Lianqiao sighed and said, “Miss, the time before last when you came back, you said you had a suitor in mind, but Grandmother saw through it with just a few words. Last time you said you had already arranged a marriage, but then you went to the capital for half a year without a trace… Today you’ve finally brought someone back! Don’t worry, the seamstresses are waiting in the courtyard. If there’s anything that doesn’t fit your husband’s wedding clothes, they can fix it right away!”

The implication was clear – even if it was fake, today they would make sure the wedding happened!

Yan Hongyin: “……”

Lowering the carriage curtain to block out the eager gazes of the two little maids outside, Yan Hongyin sat back in the carriage, silently speechless.

The two brocade boxes that had been pushed into the carriage were now squeezed up against Yu Luocha’s legs.

Yu Luocha finally understood that whenever he thought he was fully prepared, Yan Hongyin would always give him new “surprises.”

This person was like this, and now it seemed that the people around this person were probably all similarly unpredictable.

Yan Hongyin kept rubbing her nose bridge under Yu Luocha’s deep gaze and said softly. “Um…my family’s elders are very anxious about my marriage, and in recent years, more people in Jiangnan have been eyeing Yan Hong Hall, so…”

Yu Luocha naturally understood the meaning behind Yan Hongyin’s words.

What Yan Hongyin had said before about needing a husband wasn’t just talk. Whether considering household peace or external troubles, Yan Hongyin’s marriage could indeed solve many problems.

This was a good thing for Yu Luocha.

Yu Luocha narrowed his eyes – where there are needs, there are vulnerabilities, and weaknesses make for better control.

Thinking of this, the beautiful person with Western Region features smiled gently and took the initiative to ease Yan Hongyin’s embarrassment. “It seems the household is already prepared. Shall we change into wedding clothes?”

Yan Hongyin gratefully glanced at Yu Luocha, quickly opened the brocade boxes and took a peek, then dragged one of them and jumped down from the carriage. “I’ll go change somewhere else. Ah Yu, please wait a moment, I’ll have someone come guide you to another place to change!”

****

Shedding her wide white outer robe, Yan Hongyin quickly undid the needle case on the inside of her arm and threw it aside. The wedding clothes hung messily on the clothes rack beside her.

An elderly woman with frost-white hair slowly walked out from behind the screen, reaching out to skillfully remove the sleeve arrows hidden in Yan Hongyin’s hair and placing them on the table with a clinking sound.

The deeper the wrinkles on her face grew, the more she couldn’t help but mutter, “Look at you, such a beautiful and charming family’s young lady, not properly combing your hair, hiding all sorts of messy things in your clothes – what will your future husband think if he sees this?”

“If I wasn’t worried about frightening Ah Yu, how could I possibly have so few things on me?” Yan Hongyin pouted, changing into new undergarments and lowering her head to tie the sashes.

The elderly woman’s trembling hands stopped as she was pulling the wedding clothes, turned back to look at Yan Hongyin, with a smile in her eyes. “This time you’ve come back, you’re quite different from before.”

Yan Hongyin was stunned for a moment.

“The message you sent back the other day has had news.” While helping the young lady before her, who had grown up to be graceful and elegant, put on the undergarments and carefully arranging the embroidered collar with its dark patterns, the old woman spoke softly, “Jiangnan has found the Western Region’s Demon Sect’s base – it’s that pastry shop in the north of the city, business has always been quite good.”

The old woman was also a Jinyiwei dark envoy, having lived in Jiangnan for many years. In her earlier years, she had been a famous beauty in the jianghu, but unfortunately met with disaster in her twilight years. Her husband and entire family were tragically killed by enemies. After joining the Jinyiwei and using the imperial court’s power to take revenge, she had worked for the Jinyiwei ever since.

The one who had helped her personally settle her old grudge was Yan Hongyin when she first took charge of the Jinyiwei, though the old woman only thought of Yan Hongyin as a high-ranking officer among the dark envoys.

The two had known each other for many years. Yan Hongyin was straightforward in nature, and the old woman had watched Yan Hongyin grow up, treating her almost no differently than her own family.

Yan Hongyin raised an eyebrow. “The pastry shop in the north of the city? Could it be Hefang Shop?”

“That’s right.”

Hefang Shop was considered an old established business in Jiangnan. Every winter when Yan Hongyin came to Jiangnan, she would buy some of their plum blossom pastries. She never expected there was such a layer hidden underneath.

“Regarding that Western Demon Sect leader, is there any other definite news?” Yan Hongyin smoothed out the creases in her sleeves, following the old woman’s movements as she bent down to put on the heavy wedding outer robe.

“That Western Demon Sect, when it was first established in the Western Regions, called itself the Luocha Sect. But because its leader acted mysteriously like an asura, used ruthless methods, and had no prohibitions against those who came to submit, over time it simply came to be called the Demon Sect. No one knows the name or appearance of the person who founded the Luocha Sect. After becoming famous, this person concealed their form with white mist, and their martial arts were extremely strange.”

“In earlier years, there were people in the Western Regions who had heard their title.”

Yan Hongyin frowned as she listened and asked, “Releasing internal energy…..what was their title?”

“Yu Luocha.”

Yan Hongyin, who had been having conversations with an unusually high frequency of the word “Yu” these past two days, felt something… indescribable, but when she tried to think about it carefully, she couldn’t figure out what it was.

“What’s wrong?” The old woman led Yan Hongyin to sit at the dressing table, picking up the ivory jade comb on the table to gently comb her hair.

“…Nothing.” Yan Hongyin looked at herself dressed all in red in the mirror, feeling a sense of absurdity.

Was she really getting married just like this?

“By the way, I haven’t asked you, what’s the name of the husband you found?”

“……”

The old woman stopped combing Yan Hongyin’s hair. “You don’t mean you don’t even know his name? I knew you were just finding someone to appease this old woman—”

“No, no, no, I know! How could I not know!” Yan Hongyin quickly said, “His name is Ah Yu!”

“Yu?” The old woman’s expression became somewhat unfathomable.

After just having talked about Yu Luocha… this “Yu” character had become somewhat sensitive.

“It’s just a coincidence.” Yan Hongyin picked up a gold hairpin from the box and twirled it, making the gold jade beads on it jingle.

“As long as you know what you’re doing.” The old woman continued her movements while softly laughing, “The little girl from back then is finally getting married, how wonderful.”

The glossy black hair spread over the fire-red wedding clothes as the white jade ivory comb smoothly ran through it.

“Hongyin, all these years that this old woman has been urging you to marry, it’s not because I definitely want you to marry and follow a husband or be bound by any other worldly constraints on women, or rumors and gossip.”

“We Jinyiwei are like kites with broken strings, and you always rush headlong into whatever mission is most dangerous. I’m always afraid that one day, the message I receive by pigeon will say that you…”

The old woman’s skillful hands tied up Yan Hongyin’s long hair.

“I just hope that this kite might have someone who cares whether you’re cold or warm holding its string. So that one day, even if you find yourself in desperate straits, instead of thinking about perishing together with your enemy, you’ll try hard to stay alive, to come home alive to see the person who cares about you.”

“You seem easy to get along with, and never refuse what others say or do, but actually… Hongyin, there’s no light in your eyes. But living one life, making this journey in the mortal world is not easy to begin with. Only after experiencing both warmth and cold can it be considered worthwhile.”

Yan Hongyin pressed her lips together, ultimately unable to respond to the old woman’s words.

Could she really like, or fall in love with someone?

She didn’t know.

****

Firecrackers popped and crackled. When Yan Hongyin slowly came down the corridor holding a gold silk fan, she looked up to see a handsome young man approaching.

The ornaments jingled in the wind, flowers bloomed behind the fan.

The wedding clothes and crown were inlaid with gold and jade, symbolizing a match made in heaven, a union of gold and jade.

On the other side, Yu Luocha, dressed in red wedding clothes and wearing a gold and jade crown, looked over at the sound and stared unblinkingly at Yan Hongyin.

He knew Yan Hongyin was beautiful, but he didn’t know that after careful preparation, set against the red clothes, she would be so overwhelmingly, dazzlingly beautiful.

He was actually getting married.

Yu Luocha felt both absurd and amused in his heart, yet mixed with an indescribable strange feeling.

He had thought before that when he broke through to the next level, he would need an heir to continue the Luocha Sect he had founded and the martial arts he had spent his life creating, but he had never thought about marrying a woman.

Three bows completed the ceremony, then they were sent to the bridal chamber.

Wait—-

Sent to the bridal chamber?!

Yu Luocha’s pupils trembled for a moment.

After hesitating for quite a while, Yu Luocha, having finally prepared himself mentally, silently followed Yan Hongyin into the inner chamber of the courtyard.

Yan Hongyin let out a long sigh of relief. She carelessly tossed the priceless gold silk fan onto a nearby table, making the pearls and jade scatter with tinkling sounds.

Lifting the pearl curtain of the phoenix crown, Yan Hongyin was about to pour herself a cup of tea when she turned to see the beautiful person who had walked in and quietly closed the door behind him.

Wait—

Yan Hongyin’s expression froze.

What were they supposed to do next?

The… the bridal chamber?!