The next morning, Ziyin woke up to find herself sleeping in Lin Kangping's arms, still wearing a big red undershirt. Lin Kangping had one arm around her and the other hand on her chest, his face still smiling contentedly as he slept. When Ziyin moved slightly, he opened his eyes, first kissing her forehead and asking, "Awake? Did you sleep well?"

  Tsu-harashi stroked his face and said, "It's great to be able to see you when I wake up."

  "This seems to be what I wanted to say. Go back to sleep, our family doesn't need you to get up early to make breakfast."

  Zi Qing shook her head and said, "I couldn't sleep."

  Lin Kangping listened and flipped over, lying on top of Zi Qing's body, saying: "Just right, I don't want to sleep either, let's do something else."

  Ziying hadn't reacted yet, when Lin Kangping seized her lips, swallowing the words "haven't washed up" into his mouth. His right hand slowly caressed every inch of Ziying's body, sometimes fiercely passionate, sometimes tenderly gentle, not even sparing her lower body. Ziying felt an unbearable itch, constantly arching her waist as if wanting more. After making out thoroughly, Lin Kangping slowly sank into Ziying's body. Ziying tightly hugged Lin Kangping's waist, while he supported her buttocks with his hands, moving gently and tenderly. Ziying felt that this was vastly different from last night, although it had started off a bit painful, but soon replaced by an unprecedented comfort. She couldn't help but cry out, prompting Lin Kangping to quicken the pace. The two almost simultaneously reached the peak of ecstasy. As Ziying's exhaustion set in, she vaguely saw Lin Kangping carefully wiping her clean.

  She didn't know how long she had slept, but Zi Qing woke up naturally and her lower body didn't hurt anymore. It was a bit strange, Lin Kangping was still holding her, "Qing'er, are you full? You must be hungry, do you want to eat in the house or go out?"

  "What time is it? I really don't want to move." Zi Qing stretched lazily in her bed.

  "It must be past noon, but I don't care if you don't want to get up. You don't have to get out of bed today, I'll take full responsibility for feeding you until you're full, I've been thinking about it for a long time. On the second day of our honeymoon, I must spend the whole day in bed with you, making up for my long wait, you have no idea. Every time I smell your fragrant body, touch but can't taste, it's truly a great pain for me, today I must eat my fill."

  Lin Kangping hugged Zi Qing tightly and didn't want to let go, but dinner had to be eaten after all. After dawdling for half a day, Lin Kangping got up himself, instructed the maid to prepare the dishes, and brought them over himself.

  Ziying suddenly sat up, forgetting that she wasn't wearing anything. Her body felt a chill as she saw Lin Kangping smiling at her. She looked down and understood what was happening. Her face turned red, and she quickly hid back under the covers. Lin Kangping pulled her out and said, "My dear is still shy? I've already seen everything last night, so let me help you get dressed." Before he could finish speaking, Ziying kicked him away with one foot and threatened, "If you don't leave, I won't get up!"

  Lin Kangping saw that she was really angry and laughed as he went out to wash up.

  That day, Lin Kangping really didn't let Zi Qing get out of bed. The two moved from the bed to the kang, still with Lin Kangping carrying her over. Lin Kangping considered that Zi Qing was new to these things and knew to take it easy on her. After letting Zi Qing sleep enough, he also applied some medicine to her lower body. It felt cool and refreshing, and only then did Zi Qing realize why her lower body didn't hurt so much anymore. It seemed that ancient medicine was quite advanced too.

  Another fierce battle at night, Ziqing was thoroughly defeated and couldn't get out of bed. Even washing up was done by Lin Kangping holding her. Ziqing almost fell asleep in the bathtub. The result of physical exhaustion was that on the second day, Ziqing still didn't wake up from a long sleep, completely forgetting that today was the day to return home. It wasn't until Lin Kangping saw that it was getting late that he kissed Ziqing awake.

  When the two entered the Zeng's house, the elders in the family were waiting. Old Master Zeng and Mrs. Tian, Zeng Ruiqing and Zhou Shi, Xia Yu and Qiu Yu from both families, Zi Qing's grandmother and younger aunt-in-law were all there. The others had all returned home, fortunately, Chun Yu's family had also left. Zi Qing glanced at the Western-style clock in the hall, it was almost eleven o'clock. Mrs. Tian's face could squeeze out water, she asked: "There are no elders at home, and we're so close by, you two knew we were all waiting, yet on the third day of your wedding, you still get up so late, is this reasonable?"

  "Auntie, this is all my fault. If I hadn't married Zi Qing, last night I got too excited and drank too much, this morning I was a bit hard to wake up, Zi Qing called me for half a day before I woke up, that's why we're late now." Lin Kangping explained ahead of time.

  Tian's family listened and didn't make a sound, Shen's family saw it and hurriedly brewed tea, inviting Lin Kangping. Autumn Jade pulled Zi Qing to study Zi Qing's new clothes, Zi Qing wore a long, crimson peony-patterned velvet today with white fox fur trim on the collar and cuffs, "What kind of fabric is this? It looks so good! Different from the one before, I've never seen it before, and the fur is particularly shiny, is it also fox fur?"

  "I don't know, it was bought by Kangping." Zi Qing replied.

  "It's Shu brocade, little sister. The one from the other day was Su brocade." Lin Kangping saw Autumn Jade looking at him and answered before she could ask.

  "Goodness, didn't it cost several dozen taels of silver per piece? The one the other day still had golden threads and must have cost tens of dozens of taels of silver per piece! I heard the old lady boss in a shop say so when I went to Anzhou City to sell embroidery products before, but unfortunately, I didn't see it." Qiu Yu asked.

  "My dear, a wedding dress costs several dozen taels of silver, we can't afford it in our lifetime." said Madame Zhou.

  "What's the big deal? We have everything, phoenix coronet and red veil, can't we afford a wedding dress? A woman only gets married once in her life, besides, my brother-in-law also said that he wants to send off his daughter with great fanfare. Our family isn't short of this little bit of silver, so why not indulge our Qinger's wishes?" Madam Xiao said.

  Ziying felt that Xiao's words were very annoying, as if intentionally targeting Tian. Ziying didn't know that Xiao had long been displeased with Tian, but previously hesitated to confront her due to their close relationship with his mother. However, not confronting her didn't lead to a good relationship between the two families either. Moreover, Xiao was close to Shen, who had witnessed all the incidents involving Ziying and was fed up. If it weren't for He's intervention, Shen would have already gone to confront them.

  "After all, she couldn't escape being a country bumpkin. Spending so much money just to make a wedding dress was too extravagant. In my opinion, wearing silk or satin is not convenient for doing anything. If you ask me, cotton is still the most comfortable." Tian Shi felt very displeased seeing everyone's covetous glances.

  "Grandma, I also think cotton is comfortable. But Kangping insisted on buying brocade and satin, a whole bunch of them, with all sorts of colors and patterns that I don't even recognize. And I didn't dare wear them either. It's only because we're visiting today that she forced me to change into this. In the future, when Mother makes new clothes for Grandma, let's just make cotton ones, okay?" Zi Qing pulled at her clothes and quickly replied. Turning around, she also said to Shen Shi, "Mother, remember, Grandma doesn't like silk or satin, only cotton."

  Tian's face turned red and white with rage, she was so angry that she didn't know what to say. Zi Qing also felt a bit puzzled, today was a good day for her return, but from the moment she stepped into the door, Tian started picking on her. Did she think she was a sick cat or something?

  She didn't expect that because of the lavish dowry and betrothal gifts she had given to Tian Shi and Zhou Shi, Spring Jade and others, after they returned home, they were filled with admiration and envy for a long time. Tian Shi's heart was stirred up by Spring Jade and others, and again became unbalanced, always thinking of getting some from Zi Qing, which would be enough for them to live well for a while. This year, following Zeng Ruiqing, there was indeed not much money left in her hands, and she could barely make ends meet herself, but she didn't dare to spend lavishly, let alone support Spring Jade's family, which was really exhausting. Originally, she thought that Zeng Ruixiang would secretly give some pocket money, but every time Tian Shi mentioned this in front of Zeng Ruixiang, he would find an excuse to leave. Didn't they think that everything now is the result of what?

  "This girl, after getting married is different, even speaking will block people. Your aunt came early to wait for you, don't hurry up and give your aunt an apology." Zhou Shi smiled and added a sentence of fire.

  At this time, Mrs. Chen came over to say that the dishes were ready, and Mrs. Shen busied herself arranging for everyone to enter the dining room. There were Liu's wife and Chen's two granddaughters-in-law present, and Tian's wife didn't say anything else.

  After dinner, the guests all left, and only Zifeng and a few others surrounded Ziqing to chat and laugh. Ziyu suddenly looked pitiful and pulled at Ziqing's sleeve, asking: "Sister, it's not fun sleeping at night when you're not home, why don't you come back and keep me company?"

  "It's up to you, go ask your brother-in-law nicely and see if he'll agree?" Liu said with a hint of a smile as she gazed at Zi Qing.

  Ziyu really wanted to pull Lin Kangping's hem, and Lin Kangping hurriedly bent down to look at Ziyu and said: "Good little sister, next time brother-in-law comes back from the capital, I will definitely give you a beautiful purple gold butterfly hairpin. Isn't our Little Rain the one who loves butterflies the most?"

  Zi Yu's conflicted expression delighted everyone, and Shen Shi quickly pulled Zi Yu over, whispering a few words in his ear. On the other side, Zi Xi patted Zi Yu's head and said, "Little sister, if you want anything in the future, just find your brother-in-law, got it?" before being slapped by Zi Qing.

  At night, the Shen family wanted to keep Zi Qing and her husband overnight. Lin Kangping said: "Father-in-law, mother, since it's so close, we'd better go back. We can come over anytime we want. Our home is not yet tidy, and Zi Qing hasn't even organized her dowry. We need to go back to my hometown the day after tomorrow, as we plan to spend this Spring Festival there. We'll be back after the Clear and Bright Festival next year."

  Shen listened and thought it was reasonable. He guessed that the newlyweds didn't want to be apart either, so he bid them farewell after a few words of advice and saw them out the door.

  The garden gate of Qingyuan had two interconnected houses on both sides, which served as the gatehouse. Two 15-year-old young men lived there to keep watch. It was only then that Ziqing learned that Lin Kangping had bought two young men and two maidservants to do rough work. The two maidservants lived in the main house's rear wing. As it was already late, Ziqing couldn't get a glimpse of Qingyuan's overall appearance.

  Back in the inner courtyard, she sorted out her dowry. Shen Shi put the dowry list in a small box, and Zi Qing only then knew that Shen Shi had prepared for her four sets of headdresses and jewelry, eight pieces of fabric for each season, two nanmu screens, four camphor wood chests, two sets of wardrobes, eight sets of thick and thin bedding, including the large double bedspread that Zi Qing had requested, four large and small copper basins, a pair of children's buckets, a pair of Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain vases, totaling thirty-two loads. Except for the betrothal gift, tea, cake, and wine, Shen Shi sent everything else back to Zi Qing.