But Aenwyn immediately pushed him away. It was just too smelly. She felt like she smelled bad herself. How could he even keep hugging her?
"Bath. I need a bath." She made a gesture of washing her face and body. After some awkward gestures back and forth, she finally got what she needed, a big wooden tub.
Zhong kept pouring water into the tub over and over. "Do you want flower petals?" he looked at the quiet girl standing by the tub and asked Indigo with a smile. In the capital, noblewomen always used flower petals when they bathed.
Indigo glanced at Aenwyn's fair cheeks, his face turning slightly red. "Yes."
"Alright, I'll go pick some from the garden." Zhong moved quickly and had everything ready in no time.
Aenwyn moved her fingers through the water in the tub. She had taken bubble baths and milk baths before, but this was her first time bathing in flower petals.
She looked up at Indigo. Why wasn't he leaving yet? "I'm going to bathe now." She made a pushing motion to tell him to get out.
Indigo understood and blushed again. "Mm, I'll guard outside." He gently patted her head and stepped out.
She bathed for over half an hour. Indigo was starting to worry she might have drowned in the tub and was about to rush in when Aenwyn finally came out.
Her wet hair hung down loosely, and her long sleeves were rolled up. Aenwyn looked a bit embarrassed. She hadn't brought a change of clothes, so she wasn't wearing anything underneath. Luckily, the male outfit had several layers, so nothing showed.
It must have belonged to some handsome young man. The way he looked at her was way too intense.
"Indigo?" Aenwyn playfully shook his hand.
"Ahem, your robe is too long," Indigo snapped out of it and coughed awkwardly. He crouched down and tore off a section of her robe hem.
"This will make it easier to walk." He said this as he naturally took her hand. "Let's go eat first."
Aenwyn raised an eyebrow at the hand he was holding. This boy was smooth. He acted like she was his girlfriend.
But they had only known each other for one day.
He held her hand and led her through a courtyard to an outdoor pavilion, where two low tables and two floor cushions were set.
Looks like there weren't any benches. They had to kneel to eat. Aenwyn sat down carefully. She wasn't wearing any undergarments, but luckily the robe was long enough even after being torn. Still, she needed to make some underwear soon. Not something she could tell Indigo.
But why were there no women in the house? She hadn't seen any on the street either. Aenwyn was puzzled until the food was brought over by the same older man. Then she stopped thinking about it.
Five small dishes were already on the table. The porcelain plates were a bit rough. She didn't recognize most of the food. Was that dark stuff beans? That one must be meat? This yellowish round thing, was it the staple food? Hmm, this one's soup, and that one must be a sauce.
She observed everything carefully. This beautiful young man seemed to come from a good family. Why was the meal so simple? There were no chopsticks, only a small knife and a narrow bamboo board.
Combining everything, clothing, food, shelter, and travel, Aenwyn racked her brain, trying to recall her poor history knowledge to guess what era she was in.
Kneeling to eat was common before the Tang Dynasty in Huaguo. Her robe's collar was diagonal, similar to deep robes from the Warring States period. No stir-fried dishes, those didn't exist before the Song Dynasty.
But the clothes were too refined. She looked at Indigo across from her. He had changed into another outfit. The embroidery was intricate, the fabric fine, and the pale blue color was elegant. This level of weaving and dyeing didn't match any time before the Tang or Song.
Aenwyn was completely confused. Her history knowledge was too weak to figure out the era.
Forget it. She'd just eat first.
Start with the meat. Aenwyn followed Indigo's way and first sliced off a piece of meat, dipping it into the sauce. She tried it. It was grilled and decent, but she didn't like the sauce.
She picked up a scoop of beans with a bamboo spatula. They were soft and sticky, a little sour, not tasty. She tried the soup too. The flavor was very mild, with a hint of fish.
"Not good?" Indigo frowned and asked.
Aenwyn smiled slightly, picked up that yellow cake. It was a little hard, but fragrant. In the end, she dipped it into the soup and finished the cake. She also ate some of the meat.
Actually, she didn't love grilled meat. Yesterday's meal was because she had been too hungry. Aenwyn thought, she couldn't be eating like this every day from now on.
After that, Indigo brought in another dish. It seemed to be a pear. But there was only one, and it looked a bit wilted.
Indigo took the meat knife from the table and carefully peeled it, then sliced off a piece.
"Eat this." He walked over and pushed the plate to her. He then picked up the half-eaten piece of meat from Aenwyn's table and finished it in a few bites.
Aenwyn looked up at him and got her head patted again. A slice was stuffed into her mouth. It was indeed a pear, sour and sweet. But she only managed to eat half before she couldn't eat anymore.
She had always eaten imported fruit. From luxury to simplicity is easy, but going from luxury back to simplicity is hard. In the modern world, she was a rich second-generation daughter, used to abundant resources and extravagant living, which had spoiled her taste.
Looking at Indigo's deepening frown, like an old man, Aenwyn curled her lips into a smile and shoved a piece of pear into his mouth.
Indigo froze with the pear in his mouth, then ate it with a smile in his eyes. He completely looked like a boy in love.
Aenwyn looked at him and silently apologized in her heart. She could appreciate a pretty boy, but she wasn't into younger guys. Younger ones were too clingy. When breaking up, they wouldn't let go, crying like it was the end of the world.
But now she couldn't speak the language and didn't understand this era at all. She had no choice but to settle here for now.
"Indigo, I'll give you a painting," Aenwyn said. She didn't have any belongings, only her skills.
She knew he couldn't understand, so she pulled him back to her room and took out her sketchpad from her backpack.
She had to save her watercolors, so Aenwyn decided to do a pencil sketch.
With just a few strokes, she outlined a small cat, silly and cute. She tested her pencil and amazed the ancient-era boy.
Then she pulled out another clean sheet of paper.
"Hmm, Indigo, stand over there. I'll draw you." Aenwyn pointed to him, then to the board, making a sketching gesture.
The body language worked well. Indigo stood beside the bamboo grove in the courtyard.
He stood tall and handsome. It was hard to say if the bamboo was straighter or he more refined. His eyes were long and narrow, lips slightly curved. His face, perhaps still young, had a bit of baby fat.
What a beautiful boy, Aenwyn sighed in her heart. The cold aura from when they first met was gone, replaced by warmth in his smiling eyes. When he looked at you so deeply and devotedly, it felt like nothing else in the world existed, only you.
Maybe any other woman would have fallen hard for this kind of passionate, quiet boy and started a wild romance. But she wasn't just any woman. She had a heart of stone, loved painting, and loved freedom like life itself.
She enjoyed love, but only as a temporary experience. After enjoying it, she would leave without hesitation.
Her art needed intense passion and novelty. She could never be tied down. Maybe after wandering enough and getting tired, she would find someone mature and wise who could understand and protect her, then marry but that would be far in the future.
Aenwyn's hand moved quickly. The white paper had already outlined the main figure. She traced his eyes long and deep. She drew his nose tall and firm. And his beautifully shaped lips.
Indigo's face turned redder. His fingers twitched unconsciously.
As Aenwyn continued sketching, she knew human figure drawing was hardest in two areas the eyes and the details of limbs, like hands. But this was easy for her. She was good at drawing hands. One of her ex-boyfriends had especially beautiful hands.
She noticed Indigo's hands were also very nice, with defined joints and long, straight fingers. His nails were healthy and neat. His hands were powerful, even better looking than those of several ex-boyfriends. And as he aged, they would become even more attractive.
Aenwyn sighed. If only Indigo were ten years older. But there are no ifs in life. If there were, she wished she hadn't come here in the first place.
Alright, it was almost done. Now for the eyes. Aenwyn looked up and was nearly startled by the deep affection in his gaze.
She really needed to learn the language and get out of here soon.
"Done, Indigo, take a look." Aenwyn took the sketch off the board and handed it to him.
Indigo stared at the drawing for a long time in silence. In the end, he gently placed it to the side, pulled her into a tight hug.
The force was so strong she could barely breathe.
Hey, hey, hugging again? She wasn't wearing a bra. And she wasn't flat-chested either she had curves.
Maybe he felt the unusually soft sensation on her chest. Indigo froze for a second, then suddenly pushed her away and grabbed the sketch before striding out.
After a few steps, he stopped. "Rest for now," Indigo said in a low voice, still facing away, as if holding something back.
Aenwyn rubbed her forehead. This green youth couldn't handle a tease. One tease and he caught fire. It wasn't her fault she wasn't wearing a bra.
Whatever, time to rest. Her arms and ankles still hurt. She had applied medicine last night, but after bathing today, she hadn't reapplied it yet.
While thinking this, someone knocked on the door. She opened it and saw a familiar old man.
He smiled with squinting eyes and his goat beard twitching as he handed her a familiar medicine bottle.
"Thank you, uncle." Aenwyn accepted it politely. She had even learned a new word while eating thank you.
"No need for thanks, Miss Aenwyn. Just call me Uncle Zhong," the old man pointed to himself "Zhong."
"Thank you, Uncle Zhong." That clever girl quickly learned another new word.
At this rate, she would pick up the language quickly. If she studied with books, it would be even faster. But she didn't know what the local writing looked like. Hopefully, she wouldn't end up illiterate.
"Then Miss Aenwyn, get some good rest. I'll take my leave," Uncle Zhong kindly closed the door for her.
Indigo didn't stop until he was far away. He went to the training yard, picked up a long halberd, and started practicing. He was hot, burning hot.
The wind blew, lifting fallen leaves from the ground. His halberd moved like a white snake flicking its tongue, hissing like the wind, or like a dragon twisting through the air. The nimble young man had just experienced the stirrings of love. His heart was like fire, burning. He flailed wildly to try and calm himself.
When exhausted, he dropped the halberd and lay on the ground, gasping for air.
That touch so soft he knew what it was. He had bought plenty of picture books from Hua Studio. He understood men and women. On the continent of Qianchu, no man reached adulthood without knowing.
He desperately wanted to have her. But no, he couldn't. She was too beautiful, too delicate.
No, not yet. He had to wait. She needed to love him more.
Aenwyn rolled back and forth on the bed. It was too hard, and she couldn't sleep. This wouldn't do. She had to adjust fast and move out of here.