On the day of the birthday banquet, before dawn had even broken, Madam Wen sent a maid to Wei Yunchan’s room to wake Fu Jinshu up and help him dress and groom.
Wei Yunchan simply decided not to sleep either. He sat by the table, eating breakfast while watching Fu Jinshu get dressed up in all his finery by the maids.
On ordinary days, Fu Jinshu wore simple, elegant attire, mostly dominated by white and aqua blue. Today, however, he had changed into a crimson brocade robe, with golden cloud patterns embroidered on the wide sleeves, alongside intricate and complex hidden brocade motifs. Although he had not yet reached the age of twenty, the customs in Yunliang had long since changed; young men from privileged backgrounds could all gather their hair and wear hair crowns.
The hair crown Madam Wen had purchased for Fu Jinshu was crafted from pure gold, featuring hollow-carved patterns in the center and adorned with jade and agate, looking dazzlingly luxurious.
Since childhood, Wei Yunchan had disliked such flashy and gaudy things, but now, with Fu Jinshu around, it fulfilled Madam Wen’s desire to dress up a child.
“If the young lady wife were a woman, she would surely be the number one beauty in this realm,” a maid praised as she tidied Fu Jinshu’s hair crown.
The moment the words left her mouth, she was glared at by another maid nearby, who shot her a warning look. Only then did the first maid realize what a sacrilegious thing she had blurted out. Terrified, she hastily dropped to her knees in the direction of Wei Yunchan and kowtowed. “Young Master, this servant’s mouth is clumsy. This servant’s mouth is clumsy, please punish me, Young Master.”
Wei Yunchan stood up and walked toward her. The maid knelt prostrate on the ground, not daring to raise her head, her body trembling violently. She could only sense the sound of footsteps growing closer and closer until a brocade boot stepped down right beside her hand—just barely brushing against it.
“If your mouth is clumsy, we might as well just cut out your tongue, and naturally you won’t speak wrongly in the future.”
His tone was flat, yet it frightened the maid into a cold sweat, tears on the verge of welling up, when she suddenly heard Fu Jinshu tap twice against the dressing table.
Wei Yunchan continued walking, closing the distance to Fu Jinshu as the two of them locked gazes in the mirror.
“Insufferably vulgar,” Wei Yunchan critiqued his overall outfit and styling for the day.
Fu Jinshu had always harbored doubts regarding his aesthetic sense, so he simply chose to ignore him—letting it enter one ear and exit the other. He parted his lips slightly, sweeping his gaze toward the pastry in Wei Yunchan’s hand, his meaning crystal clear: Feed me.
From the moment he was yanked out of bed to dress and groom until now, he hadn’t eaten a single bite, whereas Wei Yunchan had been sitting back leisurely enjoying fragrant pastries and dim sum.
Wei Yunchan broke off a piece of peach blossom shortbread and held it to Fu Jinshu’s lips. To enhance his complexion, the maids had also applied lip tint to Fu Jinshu, making his lips a shade more vividly crimson than usual—resembling a peony flower in full, radiant bloom.
Fu Jinshu’s face was completely distinct from the delicate, dainty looks of ordinary girls. Therefore, when the jade-carver had asked him what he wanted the jade carved into, Wei Yunchan had chosen a “peony”—a flower that was vibrant without being vulgar, possessing magnificent national splendor, which suited Fu Jinshu quite fittingly.
“Consider it your birthday today; I won’t argue with you.” Wei Yunchan fed him pieces of shortbread while another maid, possessing far more situational awareness, hurried over to pour a cup of warm milk and handed it to Fu Jinshu to drink.
Fu Jinshu knew he was just putting up a tough front. If he hadn’t decided from the very beginning to feed him, Wei Yunchan wouldn’t have been holding a piece of pastry in his hand to begin with.
Once breakfast was finished, the kneeling maid on the floor was seemingly forgotten by everyone. Fu Jinshu gave her a subtle look, and the maid hastily kowtowed, stood up, and retreated with unsteady steps.
Wei Yunchan hadn’t genuinely intended to cut out the maid’s tongue. Without saying a word, he accepted the silk handkerchief handed over by another maid, wiped his hands clean, and simply brushed the matter aside.
However, viewed through the eyes of the maids, this incident took on an entirely different meaning: the Young Master truly adored this little male wife. Word spread from one to ten, and from ten to a hundred, so that without Wei Yunchan’s knowledge, the rumors of him detesting and humiliating his wife transformed into doting on and protecting his wife.
As the Si hour arrived, the banquet was about to begin.
Madam Wen held Fu Jinshu’s hand, looking him up and down with boundless satisfaction as she praised, “Once our Jinshu grows just a bit taller, he will surely be the most handsome young man across these six cities.”
Wei Yunchan, standing off to the side with an amused expression, remarked, “It’s just that he’s too short. Which young lord isn’t heroic and imposing, with an awe-inspiring stature?”
Over the past few months, Fu Jinshu genuinely hadn’t grown an inch taller, remaining barely up to Wei Yunchan’s chest. Clearly, he wasn’t putting on any weight either—he had no idea where all that food he ate kept disappearing to.
Madam Wen gave her own son a reproachful look. “Good things take time to ripen; our Jinshu will definitely grow tall. Stop bullying him all the time.”
Before they could exchange many words, firecrackers erupted. Madam Wen led Fu Jinshu toward the front courtyard by the hand, with Wei Yunchan following closely behind them.
“Jinshu, later you’ll step up onto that platform, strike the bronze gong, and then take the gold ingot off the gong and toss it into the pond that completes the ritual. Don’t be nervous, Mother is watching you right from behind.”
Fu Jinshu nodded in acknowledgment. With a multitude of guests gathered, everyone craned their necks, eager to catch a glimpse of what the male wife of Yunliang City’s city lord’s eldest legitimate son actually looked like.
It was truly miraculous that he could actually perform a blessing in disguise and save Wei Yunchan’s life.
Approaching the platform, Fu Jinshu stepped onto the stool handed over by an attendant, took the mallet, and climbed up to strike the bronze gong.
Wei Yunchan frowned slightly, his gaze fixed upon the slightly wobbly stool beneath Fu Jinshu’s feet as he voiced his dissatisfaction, “He’s short, so why did they have to tie the gong up so high?”
Noticing the unconcealed worry in his tone, Madam Wen covered her mouth and smiled. “It looks like your affection for Jinshu is growing deeper by the day now—rest assured, Liang Rong is right beside him. He’s agile and light on his feet; he’ll protect Jinshu.”
In truth, Madam Wen harbored no other thoughts. To her, Fu Jinshu was still young and just a boy; getting along well with Wei Yunchan was merely a bond between brothers, certainly nothing akin to romantic love.
As time passed, Madam Wen had come to treat Fu Jinshu completely as her own younger son, completely forgetting the layer of “husband and wife” entanglement between him and Wei Yunchan.
Wei Yunchan let out a soft “Mhm.” Liang Rong was a martial general by his father’s side and genuinely possessed formidable martial arts skills, which allowed him to set his mind at ease.
Having struck the bronze gong, the next step was to retrieve the gold ingot and toss it into the lake.
The gold ingot wouldn’t actually remain at the bottom of the lake; once the ceremony concluded, someone would fish it out to serve as tonight’s prize. Usually, it involved a pitch-pot competition where men, women, old, and young alike could play, and whoever won could take the gold ingot away.
Approaching the lakeside, Fu Jinshu lowered his gaze to glance at the serene, limpid surface of the water, his eyebrows arching imperceptibly without changing his expression.
—Only to see a ghostly visage slowly emerge from within the water: its flesh and skin peeled apart, bones starkly exposed, grinning hideously with ferocious fangs as it violently surged upward from the depth, seized Fu Jinshu by the throat, and dragged him straight down into the water!
Yet in the eyes of the onlookers, Fu Jinshu appeared to have suddenly tumbled into the lake of his own accord. Despite Liang Rong’s extraordinary agility, he didn’t even have time to react; after a violent splash, the surface of the lake acted like a monster devouring a human, and Fu Jinshu’s figure vanished in an instant!
The guests gasped in shock. Wei Yunchan reacted a step faster than Madam Wen, sprinting to the lakeside, his face darkening as he barked a single command: “Search!”
Liang Rong and the others immediately plunged into the lake. Their swimming skills were exceptional, yet even after diving straight to the bottom, they failed to find a single trace of Fu Jinshu.
Eerily bizarre.
Liang Rong dropped to one knee. “Young Master, he’s not there.”
Wei Yunchan’s expression turned grim. The person had fallen into the lake right in broad daylight before everyone’s eyes how could they possibly vanish into thin air?!
“Today, even if you have to drain this lake dry, you will find him!” Wei Yunchan raised his head, his icy gaze sweeping across the observing crowd. “Keep everyone under strict surveillance. Until the young lady wife is found, no one is permitted to leave.”
“Understood!”
Someone roared in fury, “Wei Yunchan, your wife is missing what does that have to do with us? What right do you have to stop us from leaving!”
The speaker was none other than Liu Ying, the second young master of Duheng City.
The crowd stirred in unrest, everyone expressing dissatisfaction with Wei Yunchan’s decision. Especially the lords and relatives of the other five cities; to them, this was undoubtedly house arrest, making them all the more suspicious that this was a staged drama directed and produced by Yunliang merely to find an excuse to lock them up.
Now that the six cities had signed a treaty pledging no conflict for ten years, they had gladly journeyed to Yunliang to attend Fu Jinshu’s birthday banquet, never expecting to face a situation where there was “no return.”
Fortunately, Chief Magistrate Wei stepped forward to pacify the crowd: “Everyone, please calm down. My son is simply acting out of frantic concern. You all witnessed with your own eyes my daughter-in-law falling into the lake it is truly too bizarre. Once we locate him, we will naturally let everyone leave safely and offer our sincere apologies.”
Wei Yunchan turned a deaf ear to the grievances of others, turning around to walk back to the lakeside. The water’s surface remained tranquil and calm, with ornamental koi fish leisurely swimming past.
Yet there was not the slightest trace of Fu Jinshu.
A heavy sinking feeling gripped Wei Yunchan’s chest. This was the first time he had ever experienced such an emotion; he couldn’t quite put a name to it. He only knew that he, who always remained calm and unflappable in the face of crises, was currently nervous enough that his hands were trembling slightly.
Little meat bun.
He murmured silently in his heart: I haven’t even given you your birthday gift yet. Aren’t you the blessed star designated by immortals… You’ll be fine.
…Right?