Soon, the servants brought the person over. The maids were perceptive and closed the door, consciously stepping outside to wait.
Inside the room, only Madam Wen and the kneeling youth remained.
“Raise your head.” Madam Wen’s voice carried a trace of sternness heavier than usual. After all, as a young lady from a prominent and wealthy household, no matter how gentle Madam Wen’s temperament was, she still possessed an unangered and authoritative side.
The youth trembled, shakily raising his face.
He had not yet had the chance to change out of the clothes he wore earlier at the Rouge Tower. Looking at the red mole between his eyebrows, Madam Wen asked, “What is your name?”
“Replying to Madam’s words, I-I am called He Pan.”
Yunchan Wei spent the entire afternoon at the martial arts training ground, where the martial arts instructor taught him archery today. His physical strength still appeared insufficient; from the very beginning, pulling the bow was extremely strenuous. Let alone hitting the target, he could not even release the arrow.
Yet, he kept his composure, harboring no self-pity, and merely practiced repeatedly, repeating the dry and tedious movements until his arms ached unbearably and the hand holding the bow and arrow trembled before he finally stopped.
Still, not a single arrow struck the distant grass target.
The instructor had long known he possessed firm resolve and extraordinary perseverance, comforting him, “Perseverance can carve even metal and stone, come practice again tomorrow.”
Yunchan Wei agreed with a nod, dragging his weary body back to his courtyard. The page prepared hot water for him. After bathing and changing clothes, Yunchan Wei originally intended to read for a while longer, but he heard some movement coming from the inner chamber.
His first thought was that Jinshu Fu had returned, even though this was only the first day of Jinshu Fu’s departure. Yunchan Wei put down his book and walked inward, seeing that someone was indeed lying on the bed, curled up under the quilt with their back facing him.
“When did you get back? Why are you sleeping the moment you return, you lazy lump?” Yunchan Wei walked over, his gaze falling upon the hair scattered across the pillow, and his expression darkened as he sternly rebuked, “Who are you? Get down!”
The ends of that hair were somewhat dry and yellowed, completely unlike the dark, lustrous shine of Jinshu Fu’s hair.
The person on the bed was frightened into trembling by him, sitting up while wrapped in the quilt. When Yunchan Wei saw his appearance clearly, his expression grew even uglier, “You claimed with your mouth that you didn’t want to be ruined by others, but now you’ve stripped off your clothes and crawled onto a man’s bed. In my view, it would be better for you to return to the Rouge Tower.”
This person was precisely He Pan.
He Pan wept and sobbed, “It’s not like that, wuwu. it’s, it’s Madam who made me do this, I didn’t want to crawl onto your bed.”
Yunchan Wei asked in a cold voice, “Which madam?”
“Madam Wen, I heard others calling her that.” He Pan wiped away his tears, wiping them about haphazardly in such a manner that the “red mole” between his eyebrows was completely smudged.
Yunchan Wei stepped closer, raising a hand to touch the space between the youth’s eyebrows. He only dipped his finger against it, rubbing with his thumb, before realizing that this was no red mole at all; it was merely a fake mole intentionally dotted on using red rouge.
“Get down,” Yunchan Wei did not quite understand the meaning behind his mother’s actions, and felt all the more that his behavior today was foolish to the extreme. He stepped back a few steps, turned, and walked outward, “Burn that bed inside completely along with the bedding and quilts.”
The page hastily responded, “Yes!”
Yunchan Wei went to Madam Wen’s quarters to demand an explanation.
Seeing him arrive, Madam Wen rose to welcome him, “Why have you come to find Mother at this time.”
“Then what should I be doing at this time?” Yunchan Wei cut off her words, his tone truly unpleasant, “Coupling in the clouds and rain with that weeping male prostitute instead?”
His words were sharp and laced with barbs, sounding thoroughly harsh, yet Madam Wen did not grow angry, asking only with confusion, “Isn’t that the person you brought back? Mother thought.”
Mentioning this matter filled Yunchan Wei with intense annoyance. If he hadn’t been captivated by that fake mole, how could he have possibly spent money to buy a male prostitute, let alone brought the person back into the estate?
Thinking it over and over, he shifted half the blame for this mistake onto Jinshu Fu, it was all that little chubby lump’s fault.
“I brought him back simply because he had nowhere else to go, and let him stay in the estate to do odd jobs.” Yunchan Wei avoided explaining why he had actually bought the other person, “What was the intention behind your actions today?”
Hearing him speak thus, Madam Wen felt somewhat embarrassed, faltering vaguely with hesitation before finally confessing candidly under his blazing gaze: “Mother thought you wanted to consummate husband-and-wife relations with Jinshu… yet harbored some reservations, which is why I found someone to bring back.”
Unlike Jinshu Fu’s innocence and ignorance, although Yunchan Wei lacked experience in matters of romantic love, he understood everything. Even though his exposure to the affairs of male-male romance was minimal, he still possessed a general awareness. With Madam Wen putting it this way, he understood his mother’s thoughts.
Affected by his illness, Yunchan Wei had always maintained a state of pure desires. While ordinary young men would experience nocturnal emissions and other physical changes at a certain age, Yunchan Wei alone had never experienced the dreams of being “haunted in dreams” or “floating in fairyland” that Jinzhou Lin spoke of.
His dreams had always contained only endless darkness and cold, and sometimes even when the pain in his body was unbearable, he could not wake up, as if bound by evil spirits with no release.
Mother and son remained silent for a long time. Yunchan Wei calmed his emotions, softening his tone: “I only treat Jinshu as a younger brother, and harbor no such filthy notions. Don’t come up with ideas for me in this regard anymore.”
Hearing him speak thus, Madam Wen instead felt somewhat relieved. Although she also liked this child Jinshu and was very grateful to him for saving Yunchan Wei’s life, the balance of yin and yang was an eternal, unchanging rule, and the fondness for the dragon-yang path was not accepted or recognized by the masses after all. If the two of them treated each other as brothers, it would also improve the reputations of both Yunchan Wei and Jinshu Fu to some extent.
“Treating him as a younger brother is good. Later, when Jinshu grows up, Mother will go cancel the marriage contract between the two of you, and find a fine young lady from a good family for Jinshu. You two brothers can remain friendly and respectful; even if you each start your own families, you will still be the closest family.” Madam Wen grasped his hand, patted the back of his hand, and felt deeply gratified inside.
As soon as these words were spoken, Yunchan Wei felt somewhat displeased instead, thinking to himself that that little chubby lump was so foolish, not even knowing what a “body of purity” meant at eighteen, yet still expecting him to be able to marry a wife and have children later on? Which family’s young lady could be so blind-eyed as to take a liking to him?
Yunchan Wei demeaned Jinshu Fu as “worthless” in his heart, yet when answering Madam Wen, he portrayed the person as exceptionally important: “Didn’t the immortal who gave you guidance say that I must marry him as my wife in order to protect my life? If the marriage contract between him and me is canceled, then I might just die all over again.”
Madam Wen could not bear to hear him utter the word “die,” hurriedly going to cover his mouth loosely, “Bah bah bah, talking nonsense!” Yet upon reflection, she felt his words made sense. Now that Yunchan Wei’s health had finally grown robust, if he fell back into illness because of destroying the marriage contract, wouldn’t the losses outweigh the gains!
“What you say is true, this marriage contract cannot be canceled, then we can only wrong Jinshu, alas.” Madam Wen sighed, feeling guilty inside. But ultimately, since it concerned her son’s life, Madam Wen could only vow in the depths of her heart to treat Jinshu Fu doubly well in the future to compensate him.
Yet Yunchan Wei said unenthusiastically, “What does he have to feel wronged about, the entire Yunliang is the only one who dares to throw his weight around on my head.”
“You certainly spoil him. Listening to what the people at the money house said, you previously spent over six hundred taels of gold to buy something, it was a birthday gift bought for Jinshu, right?”
With Madam Wen bringing this up, it reminded Yunchan Wei. On the day Jinshu Fu fell into the lake, Yunchan Wei was solely focused on searching for him. Later when the person returned, his physical health had mysteriously improved by a great deal, and his attention was diverted again as he grew anxious to practice martial arts.
That jade pendant was still sitting in the box in his study, unpresented.
Madam Wen teased him, “Being generous to your own people is as it should be. As for you, you should be generous to young ladies in the future as well.”
Yunchan Wei had no heart to think of any young ladies, nodding perfunctorily. The mother and son chatted for a little while longer until it was time for the evening meal.
Although a comical blunder had occurred, Madam Wen ultimately kept He Pan behind. Upon seeing that the youth no longer possessed that red mole and understanding the full story, she roughly guessed the meaning behind Yunchan Wei’s intention in helping this boy.
However, since Yunchan Wei had stated himself that he only viewed Jinshu Fu like a younger brother, Madam Wen stopped overthinking it. Moreover, the two of them were already destined to be bound under the guise of marriage for a lifetime, and even if Yunchan Wei truly harbored some other feelings, they could only accept it. As long as Yunchan Wei lived healthily, it surpassed everything else.
After finishing the evening meal, Yunchan Wei returned to his room. The original bed had been removed by the servants, and a new bed had been brought in, spread with new bedding and outfitted with a new pillow. After washing up and lying down on the bed, Yunchan Wei tossed and turned for quite a while without falling asleep.
What annoyed him most was that he couldn’t even find a reason for it.