Hot flashes

Chang An accepted the order and left. Xiao Jue then sat down behind his desk and looked at Zhou Heng: "What did you do in the manor today?"

"I... just strolled around, read for a while, met a Mr. Shen, and even went to the kitchen to smell the meat." Zhou Heng honestly confessed, leaning closer with bright eyes, "Is there stewed deer tendon for dinner?"

Seeing his greedy look, Xiao Jue's eyes lit up with amusement: "Hmm. Hungry?"

"A little." Zhou Heng rubbed his stomach.

"Wait a moment." Xiao Jue said, taking out a small oil paper package from his pocket and handing it to Zhou Heng.

Zhou Heng opened it out of curiosity. Inside were several crystal-clear candies shaped like small animals, emitting a faint sweet fragrance of osmanthus.

"I was passing by the market and saw something interesting, so I bought it for you to try." Xiao Jue said casually, as if it were just something he did on a whim.

Zhou Heng was stunned. He picked up a rabbit-shaped candy, put it in his mouth, and found it to be sweet but not cloying, with a rich osmanthus flavor.

"Is it good?" Xiao Jue asked.

"Yes!" Zhou Heng nodded vigorously, then held the oil paper package to Xiao Jue's lips. "Would you like to try some?"

Xiao Jue looked at his bright eyes and the candy offered to his lips, paused, lowered his head, and took the little fox-shaped candy from his hand and put it in his mouth.

Her tongue brushed against Zhou Heng's fingertips unintentionally.

Zhou Heng's finger trembled, and he quickly withdrew it.

Xiao Jue chewed on the candy, but his gaze remained fixed on the man's reddened earlobes, his eyes growing darker.

Dinner indeed included tender and flavorful braised deer tendons, along with several other delicate side dishes. Zhou Heng ate with great satisfaction, while Xiao Jue remained largely silent, though he occasionally served him food.

After the meal, Xiao Jue still had official business to attend to. Zhou Heng finished washing up, climbed onto the bed, and continued reading the "Tales of the Northern Frontier." When he came across an interesting part, he couldn't help but giggle.

Xiao Jue looked up from the pile of documents and glanced at him: "What are you laughing at?"

"It says here that there is a kind of 'Snow Demon' in the North, which only appears on snowy nights. It is extremely beautiful and seduces travelers, but in reality, it sucks away people's yang energy..." Zhou Heng read aloud and laughed, "Isn't that just the trick of mountain spirits and monsters?"

Xiao Jue put down his pen, walked to the edge of the couch and sat down. He took the book from Xiao Jue's hand and looked at it: "Many folk tales have their own real-world counterparts."

The so-called "snow ghosts" might be hallucinations caused by small groups of bandits who take advantage of bad weather to plunder, or by lost travelers who have frozen to death.

"Tsk, you have absolutely no romantic fantasies." Zhou Heng pouted. "You've ruined a perfectly good supernatural tale."

"Romantic fantasies?" Xiao Jue raised an eyebrow, suddenly reaching out to pinch his chin, forcing him to look up. "Why don't you think about what kind of 'allure' will seduce you tonight?"

Zhou Heng was startled by the sudden glint of dark flame in his eyes and shrank back: "Have you finished your official business?"

"That's about enough." Xiao Jue leaned closer, his aura enveloping him. "Now, it's time to deal with you."

"What can I do... ugh!"

The protest was swallowed up in a passionate kiss. Books slipped off the bed, unnoticed.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Zhou Heng discovered that Xiao Jue seemed to have a tolerant yet helpless attitude towards his enthusiasm for "invention and creation".

One day, Zhou Heng was staring at the bathhouse in the Marquis's mansion, where someone had to boil water and carry buckets of it to the washroom. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him, and he remembered the principle of a simple hot water circulation system.

He approached Chang An and, through gestures and words, tried to install a device in the small bathroom behind Dingbei Residence that would eliminate the need to fetch water back and forth.

Chang An was confused, but seeing Zhou Heng's enthusiasm, he still found a blacksmith and a bricklayer as instructed.

As Xiao Jue returned home from court, before he even entered Dingbei Residence, he heard a clattering sound behind him, mixed with Zhou Heng's excited commands: "Here! The pipe here needs to be tilted a little!" "That valve! Yes, that iron lump, it needs to be able to be turned!"

He walked over and saw Zhou Heng, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, his face smeared with soot, squatting among a pile of iron pipes and pottery jars, his eyes shining with an astonishing light. Several craftsmen surrounded him, their expressions a mixture of confusion and awe.

"What are you doing?" Xiao Jue asked.

Zhou Heng turned around and saw him, then immediately pulled him over as if showing off a treasure: "Look! I want to make something that can run hot water through these pipes to the bathtub, and then flow back to the kitchen to be heated, so the bath water will always be hot and we won't have to keep adding water! And this valve, you can control the water flow with just a turn..."

He spoke with great enthusiasm, but Xiao Jue, looking at the ash on his nose and his sparkling eyes, swallowed back the word "nonsense" that was on the tip of his tongue.

"If you need anything, let Chang'an take care of it." Xiao Jue only said this much in the end, and even reached out and wiped the ash off the tip of his nose with the pad of his thumb. "Be careful, don't burn yourself."

With tacit approval, Zhou Heng became even more motivated. However, his ideals were far from reality.

During the first test run, the connection wasn't sealed properly, and with a "plop," water sprayed all over Zhou Heng's head and face, and also splashed all over Xiao Jue who had just walked in.

Zhou Heng was soaked to the bone and stood there dumbfounded. The craftsmen were so frightened that they all knelt on the ground.

Xiao Jue wiped the water off his face and looked at Zhou Heng's disheveled and bewildered appearance. Instead of being angry, a faint smile flashed in his eyes.

He stepped forward, took off his outer robe, and wrapped it around the stunned Zhou Heng. He then said to the craftsmen, "It's alright. Check the joints again. Use whatever materials you need."

Turning to Zhou Heng, she said, "Go change your clothes first."

Zhou Heng, wrapped in his outer robe, went to change his clothes, looking dejected.

Xiao Jue stayed where he was, rolled up his sleeves, and personally inspected the pipes and connections, occasionally asking the craftsmen a few questions, his expression as focused as if he were studying a military formation diagram.

Later, with Xiao Jue's personal attention and the craftsmen's repeated experiments, this "automatic hot water device" was actually successfully completed!

Although rudimentary, it did fulfill its basic function. As the warm water flowed smoothly into the bathtub through the bamboo pipe, Zhou Heng was so proud his tail practically floated in the air, circling around Xiao Jue: "See! It worked! I told you it could!"

Looking at his smug expression, Xiao Jue reached out and ruffled his half-dry hair: "Hmm, not bad." His tone was flat, but the approval in his eyes was unmistakable.