Four Seasons Brocade – CH 169

Chapter 169 ☆、

Ah Wu lowered her head and murmured, “Yes.”

“Since you forgot to make the tassels, then make me a set of inner garments,” Chu Mao added.

“This is His Highness Prince Qi’s leniency,” Ah Wu readily agreed, eager to begin work immediately to show her sincere repentance.

Ah Wu did not know what was wrong with her. When she first married into the family, she was not afraid of Chu Mao at all, but the longer she stayed, the more afraid she became. When he was kind to her, when he gave her gifts, she felt both happy and afraid, ultimately more afraid than happy. She always had the feeling that His Highness Prince Qi was raising a pig to be slaughtered.

Where in this world was there kindness without a reason? Even parents were kind to their children because of blood ties. For example, her relationship with the Imperial Princess—now that blood ties were gone, that kindness was over.

As for Chu Mao, although Ah Wu knew about love between men and women, in the stories she had heard and the books she had read, things like “until the seas dry up and the rocks crumble” and “a single-minded devotion” only existed in poetry and songs. As for Master Rong and Lady Cui, if it were not for the incident with Concubine Wang, Ah Wu might have still held onto the idea of ​​exceptions.

Life was unpredictable. After learning her lesson, Ah Wu became much more obedient. She attributed Chu Mao’s special treatment of her to unrequited love and temporary novelty.

Chu Mao got up and walked towards the inner room. Although Ah Wu was completely confused, she still followed him obsequiously. Then she saw Chu Mao begin to undo his belt behind her back.

Knowing that Chu Mao had not been staying at Yulan Hall lately, he did not change clothes there. Seeing him like this, Ah Wu asked, “Is Your Highness going out?”

Chu Mao ignored Ah Wu and continued to undress. Ah Wu quickly stepped forward, took his belt, and helped him remove his outer robe. Then she remembered that she had not prepared any clothes for him to change into before going out. She turned around to open the wardrobe, only to see Chu Mao still undressing. A moment later, he was only wearing a pair of black silk trousers.

This was the first time Ah Wu had clearly seen a man’s bare back. In the past, when she floated around, she always maintained a refined elegance, never looking when Emperor Zhengyuan was bathing.

Chu Mao had broad shoulders and a slender waist, unlike the frail figure Ah Wu had imagined. Instead, he was remarkably strong, with a beautifully curved spine. This beauty differed from feminine grace; it possessed a masculine, robust beauty that Ah Wu had never seen before, making her fully realize the difference between men and women. As he moved his hands, the muscles in his back and arms moved, allowing Ah Wu to unconsciously perceive a power within them—the immense power of a man.

Ah Wu had never imagined that a man’s body could be associated with beauty. After a long while, Ah Wu realized she had been staring at Chu Mao’s bare back.

Ah Wu quickly lowered her eyelids, but when her gaze swept over Chu Mao’s lean waist, her heart skipped a beat for no reason.

“What are you standing there for?” Chu Mao turned to Ah Wu and asked.

“Huh?” Ah Wu did not react.

“Where’s the ruler?” Chu Mao frowned impatiently.

“The ruler?” Ah Wu repeated like a parrot.

Chu Mao sighed, looking utterly helpless. “Did you not say you were going to make me an undergarment? Do you not need to take my measurements?”

“Ah—oh—” Ah Wu was startled at first, then suddenly realized.

“Your Highness need not do that. I can just make it based on the measurements of the undergarment Your Highness is wearing now,” Ah Wu quickly said, inwardly thinking, “Even if I were to take measurements, I would not need you to take off your clothes.”

Chu Mao walked to the footstool in front of the bed, turned around, and looked down at Ah Wu condescendingly. “None of them fit.” Then he turned and sat down.

None fit? Ah Wu thought to herself, “How could that be? With His Highness Prince Qi’s uniquely stylish dressing, who would dare dress him in ill-fitting clothes?”

“I will not allow anyone to take my measurements like this,” Chu Mao said, as if reading Ah Wu’s doubts.

This only made Ah Wu feel embarrassed. She had been too narrow-minded. Undergarments, being close-fitting clothing, naturally needed to be taken off completely to be measured.

“Go get a ruler—” Chu Mao said, rubbing his furrowed brows. His voice was filled with helplessness, as if sighing that Ah Wu was like an abacus bead, only moving when told to.

Ah Wu blushed with embarrassment at her clumsiness and quickly went to find a soft measuring tape in the sewing basket.

After Ah Wu entered with the measuring tape, she hesitated for a moment. Chu Mao said impatiently, “What are you standing there for? Are you expecting me to just stand here in the cold?”

The weather had been cold these past few days. Although Yulan Hall had underfloor heating, it was not hot enough to require going shirtless.

Ah Wu stopped hesitating and quickly went up to him. She dared not look directly at Chu Mao, but even with her eyelids lowered, her gaze seemed to have a mind of its own, glancing at Chu Mao’s chest. There were two red nipples on his chest, a darker color than her own. Ah Wu thought, “So this is what a man’s chest looks like. Not exactly flat, huh?”

Then she saw Chu Mao’s abdomen. There were six hard lumps, completely different from a woman’s soft belly. Ah Wu was truly amazed. Then she thought of the large belly and excess fat around the waist in the silhouette under the lamplight, comparing it to the person before her—it was quite different.

Ah Wu put the measuring tape around Chu Mao’s neck to measure his collar. Ah Wu had never made undergarments before, so she did not know which measurements to take. She figured she could only take the whole set to avoid having to ask Prince Qi for measurements later, which would infuriate him, Ah Wu thought.

Ah Wu, blushing, went behind Chu Mao and measured his shoulder width and arm length. She even took a moment when Chu Mao was not looking and silently exhaled a large breath. Next came the chest circumference, then the waist circumference, hem length, and so on.

These were easy enough, but when Chu Mao stood up for Ah Wu to measure his undergarment, Ah Wu’s hands trembled.

“Hurry up,” Chu Mao urged impatiently.

Ah Wu steeled herself, gritted her teeth, and squatted down to measure Chu Mao’s trousers’ length, which was not too difficult.

But the rest was incredibly difficult. Ah Wu almost fainted from holding her breath before finally measuring Chu Mao’s hip circumference.

“Your Highness, that’s enough.” Ah Wu blushed, not daring to look up.

Chu Mao said, “Not measuring the length of the pants and crotch? Not measuring the thighs? You think visual estimation is enough?”

Ah Wu almost fainted. What visual estimation? How could she dare to visually estimate? She did not even dare to look in that direction. Why was she measuring his crotch? Ah Wu really wanted to throw away the measuring tape in her hand, but unfortunately, she did not dare. She had promised to make the knotted cord, which was already a mistake, and besides, she had forgotten.

Chu Mao spread his legs slightly more, and Ah Wu had no choice but to squat down to measure the thickness of his thighs, thinking to herself, “Why is making pants so complicated?”

When she got to his crotch, Ah Wu closed her eyes and placed one end of the measuring tape on Chu Mao’s waist. The tape hung down naturally, and she deceived herself by only daring to open one eye to look.

This sight startled Ah Wu. Something moved inside the crotch area. Ah Wu reflexively lowered her head to try to see the measurement, but Chu Mao pulled her up, forcing her to look up at him.

“That’s enough; get out,” Chu Mao said gruffly.

Ah Wu assumed Chu Mao was angry. She admitted she was a little slow, but this was not her forte; she’d never done anything like this before. Ah Wu turned around the screen and went outside, hurrying to find pen and ink to write down the measurements she remembered.

Only when it came to the crotch length was she unsure. She could not quite make out the measurement. Ah Wu compared it to the ruler with her hand, still uncertain. If the crotch was too short, it would be very uncomfortable to wear; if it was too long, it would hang too long and look terrible.

Ah Wu thought for a moment, noting down an average measurement. If it did not work, she could always adjust it; she simply was not going to take Chu Mao’s measurements again. So close, she could almost smell the scent of the bath soap he used, and her heart pounded like a ton of bricks, as if she were ill.

Ah Wu carefully noted down the measurements and told Zi-Shan to put them away properly. This could not be lost; she might need it many more times in the future.

“Tong-Wen, go open the chest and bring me that bolt of top-quality Songjiang three-loom cloth,” Ah Wu instructed. Three-loom cloth was smooth and fine, perfect for making inner garments that were soft and close-fitting. Top-quality three-loom cloth could sell for over a hundred taels of silver a bolt, more expensive than silk.

Ah Wu pulled Tong-Wen aside, asking her to guide her in cutting the cloth. Tong-Wen managed Ah Wu’s own clothes; she was skilled in embroidery and tailoring.

After the fabric was cut, Chu Mao emerged from the inner room, his face flushed and his hair slightly damp, as if he had bathed. But Ah Wu immediately thought, “Wait a minute, His Highness Prince Qi would not bathe without someone attending to him.”

“Rest early. It’s not something urgent; no need to stay up all night. Zi-Shan, help your master settle in,” Chu Mao instructed.

Ah Wu inwardly complained, “If it’s not urgent, why did he rush for me to take his measurements? It made me think he did not have an undergarment.”

A few days later, His Highness Prince Qi’s undergarment was finished. Ah Wu picked it up and looked at it with satisfaction. The stitches were fine and neat, quite good; her needlework was also quite excellent. However…

Ah Wu then asked Tong-Wen to find colored thread to match the colors. After matching the thread and setting up the embroidery frame, she lowered her head and began embroidering her best skill—ducks—on the hem.

As Ah Wu threaded the needle through the cotton cloth, she thought, “Serves you right. I will show you! I will embroider a duck, and see if you will still wear it then.” Old grudges welled up in her heart, and Ah Wu thought of the purses, fan covers, socks, handkerchiefs, and other things she had painstakingly made, which Chu Mao had locked away at the bottom of a trunk, never to see the light of day.

Chu Mao’s inner garment was not finished until March. During this time, Ah Wu’s elder brother, Rong Jie, was personally selected by the Emperor as the third-ranked scholar. Although it was not a story of two top scholars from the same family, it was still a rare and joyous occasion. Everyone said that based on Rong Jie’s writing and talent, the top scholar should have been rightfully his; it was just a pity that his fate was bad. Of the top three this year, one was fat and bloated, and the other was old and decrepit—neither seemed to fit the description of a “third-ranked scholar.”

This was quite similar to the plight of Tang Yu, Tang Xiujin, back then, which inexplicably brought the two, who were not very familiar with each other, together.