We Have Other Things to Do

Pale yellow wine spilled down her jade-white neck and was sucked up by the fisherman. He buried his head in the crook of her neck and inhaled her delicate scent, his breathing labored.

Xue Dongting was panting weakly. "Sweet osmanthus wine…"

"Mm," Song Yuming said, looking at the warm, soft, fragrant jade in his arms. "Osmanthus wine is somewhat sweet, no harm for a lady to drink."

Xue Dongting pursed her lips, the corners drawn up slightly. Enveloped in his arms she said nothing.

Song Yuming lifted her chin so he could look at her. She looked into his pitch-black eyes. They seemed to be on fire. She turned away, not daring to look him in the eye. "Tomorrow I want to go into town."

"Alright, tomorrow we'll go in and sell that incense." His voice was low and husky.

"I also need to buy some medicinal herbs."

Song Yuming's eyes flashed. "Are you unwell?" He sounded anxious.

Xue Dongting shook her head. "It's for Guang'er. I remembered some herbs that would be good for his condition. I want to make him some medicine packets for him to use."

Song Yuming nodded slightly. He spotted the brand new pair of cotton-padded shoes on the shelf and laughed. "My wife's hands are quite skilled."

She remembered the new shoes and wanted to go get them, but Song Yuming had her bound up in his arms and wouldn't let her go. The more she struggled the tighter he held her.

He smiled devilishly and asked a question he already knew the answer to. "Where do you think you're going?"

She glared at him. "Let go of me, stop holding onto me!"

Her husband laughed. "There's no hurry to look at the shoes. We have other things to do."

Xue Dongting pounded him with her fist, blushing. "No we don't…"

Song Yuming gazed at the struggling wife in his arms and said wickedly, "What do you mean no we don't? If I say we do, we do."

"I don't want to today…" Xue Dongting's voice was thin and barely audible. She was on her period, so naturally she couldn't do "other things" with him.

But she had it all wrong. Song Yuming reached over to the table and picked up two wine cups and poured osmanthus wine into each. He smiled. "We still haven't exchanged nuptial cups."

Xue Dongting's face turned crimson and she laughed awkwardly and took the cup he offered. Her heart was pounding like a drum, inwardly rejoicing that he had not guessed what she had been thinking.

But once they had drank from their cups, Song Yuming leaned into her ear and whispered, "Don't think too much…"

She was embarrassed and rendered speechless. The fisherman let go of his little wife, smiling, and got up and got the new shoes off the shelf and looked them over carefully. Xue Dongting was wringing her hand on her skirt. Seeing him looking at them, not smiling, made her think he was teasing her. "Give me those shoes!" she said grumpily. "Those aren't for you!"

"Not for me? Then are they for yourself? Are your feet that big? Let me see." The fisherman made as if to go take a look at her feet.

She hmphed and tucked her feet up under her skirt and turned away and gave him the cold shoulder. She picked up her chopsticks and started eating the pork by herself.

Song Yuming went over to her. "Is it good?"

"No… It's disgusting."

He laughed. "Then don't eat it. If it's disgusting, I'll eat it."

They horseplayed all through their meal, long into the night. Of course the pork was delicious, but they kept cracking jokes at each other the whole time and didn't pay much attention to the flavor of the meat.

Late at night, the fisherman held Xue Dongting and went to bed, his big coarse hands roaming all over her, but because he was concerned for her body, in the end they didn't do any "other things".