บท 24: Lessons of Modesty For the Fourth Miss

Truthfully, Fu Yushang didn't expect anything that happened to happen.

The spring in the forest was his own, private thing— something hidden away by the bamboo and leaves that he didn't expect anyone except for Si Shen to ever discover, especially not so early in the morning. That was why, after a whole night of reading scrolls written by government officials, he decided to take a shortcut trip from his miniature-palace to the spring so that he could take a cool bath and relieve his stress.

He didn't want Si Shen to drag him back to work and give him another speech about responsibility, so he didn't particularly tell Si Shen that he was going to leave. Even so, he trusted how well Si Shen understood him. He knew that his bodyguard would discover him sooner or later. So, when he heard footsteps nearing the spring, he automatically assumed it to be Si Shen and ducked down low in the water, hoping that Si Shen wouldn't be able to see him if he laid low enough.

Fu Yushang never knew that the person who grabbed his arm would end up to not be Si Shen, but rather a familiar girl with a pretty face that he knew and recognized.

…

Yujia blinks.

And then, she stares at the person in front of her, taking in every inch of his skin. Because of the water, all she really truly saw was the top half of his body, but she was certain that the bottom half was likely as bare as his chest was.

To be honest, she wasn't particularly flustered by this sight. In college, how many naked men and women did she see through doing studies of the human anatomy? How many photos of the human anatomy did she look up on the internet and books to observe during long hours of perfecting her anatomy skills? Drawing unclothed humans already desensitized her to the topic. All she could see was the shirtless top half of the person before her too. It was nothing too shocking.

The only thing that truly made the moment a bit awkward was that she knew the person before her from a certain incident yesterday involving stolen art supplies.

An eyebrow raised, Yujia notices that the individual in front of her seemed to be much more embarrassed than her, his hands instantly flying up to cross over his bareness while he backed away a few steps, sinking down into the water so that only his head was showing above the surface.

"Woman! How dare you look upon a cr— I mean, a noble person's body like that?" The boy before her accused, a scowl still plastered on his face which was turning redder by the second. "And how dare you shamelessly portray yourself like that?"

Shameless? She was shameless? He should be the one who considered himself shameless, bathing himself in a public place and being completely naked. She was fully clothed. How could he call her shameless?

Yujia wiped the water off her face and looked down at herself, about to retort to his remarks but then noticing something about herself that she didn't realize before.

All of the original robes the Fourth Miss owned were pale and light in colored, the set she wore today being simplistically light blue. When the fabric touched the water, it instantly became transparent and stuck to her skin, revealing the darker undergarments that she wore underneath.

Then again, as Yujia noticed, the undergarments she had on were nowhere as scandalous as the ones that people tended to have in the modern world. Her undergarments were similar to that of a spaghetti-strap tank top, revealing her shoulders, collarbones, and a bit of cleavage but nothing too much and rather modest, in her opinion. She had to remind herself that this world was set in the past for the accusations of the boy in front of her to make sense— people in this time period were certainly much more modest in comparison to the world she came from.

Raising her head to look back at the person in front of her, Yujia shook her head disappointedly. "Sure, sure. Call me shameless all you want. You're the one who dragged me in the water in the first place. Otherwise, why would I even look like this right now?"

The scowl on the boy's face seemed to grow more at her words, but his eyes were still cast down as if he didn't want to look at any bit of her at all. "Why is it you, out of all people?" He gives a frustrated sigh, then wades to the other side of the spring, grabbing a wine red piece of fabric which was lying on the top of a heap of clothes, then tossing it over at her.

Yujia catches it, finding it to be the fur-lined cape that she saw him wear the first time she saw him.

"Use that to cover yourself," he explains, "As a gentleman, I do not take advantage of women."

A gentleman? Him? Yujia wanted to laugh at his statement.

Still, the spring water was chilly and although it was warm outside, the water seemed to become colder by the second. Yujia carefully helped herself out of the spring, draping the cloak around her shoulders and finding it pleasantly dry and warm.

"Happy now?" Yujia raised her eyebrows at the boy, who was still looking down at the water.

He looked up, but upon seeing that the cloak still didn't cover her front, he hastily looked back down with more frustration. "Tie the strings together! I gave it to you to cover yourself, not to just casually wear."

Slightly unamused, Yujia followed what he said and reluctantly tied the strings of the cloak together, then clutched the top of the cloak to conceal herself completely. Surely, he was satisfied now?