The lights in the main hall went out one by one.
The vast Lu family estate sank into a dead silence and darkness.
Su Wanqing walked alone on the path back to the Jing Si Courtyard; the night wind brushed against her face like tiny shards of ice.
No servants followed behind her.
She was like a transparent shadow abandoned by this family, at any moment ready to be swallowed by the thick darkness.
But her back was straight and firm.
The look Lu Zhanting gave her before he was taken away was a burning fire in her heart.
There was apology and worry in it, but more than that was an unspoken promise.
He had said he would be there.
She responded with her eyes: she was fine.
They were husband and wife, and more than that, comrades who could watch each other’s backs.
He was being held at the front line; she had to guard the home front.
The door of Jing Si Courtyard was ajar, creaking mournfully in the wind.
Su Wanqing pushed the door open and then latched it behind her, completely cutting off the outside world.
The room was as cold as an ice cellar.
There wasn’t a single cup of hot tea on the table, and no embers in the stove.
The floor, which she had cleaned earlier in the day, was now covered with an ugly layer of dust — obviously, someone had “visited” and left their mark after she left.
This was how the Lu family treated their guests — a silent but relentless torment.
Yet inside Su Wanqing’s heart, there was no anger, only a terrifying calm.
She walked to the table and, by the faint moonlight filtering through the window, examined the room.
They wanted to use these sneaky, vicious tactics to break her, to make her cry and beg to leave the Lu family.
But they miscalculated.
Back in Zhao Family Village, Li Juan’s mother had thrown far worse tantrums, and she had endured them all.
Such petty tricks were nothing.
With a slight motion of her mind, a thermos filled with hot water appeared in her hand out of thin air.
She poured herself a cup of lukewarm spring water and sipped it gently.
The warm liquid slid down her throat, driving away the cold in her body and clearing her mind.
She didn’t expect the Lu family’s servants to bring her bedding, so she pulled out a brand new thick duck down quilt directly from her spatial storage.
It was the one she had prepared for winter in the northern frontier, unexpectedly useful here.
The quilt smelled dry and fresh from sun-drying, warm and soft.
Su Wanqing spread the quilt on the bed, then took out a hot water bottle, filled it with boiling water, and tucked it deep inside the covers.
After finishing all this, she took off her coat and slipped under the covers.
The warmth inside contrasted sharply with the freezing world outside — like two completely different realms.
She lay awake, calmly replaying tonight’s chess game in her mind.
Grandfather Lu Zhenguo, the absolute dictator of this family — his wrath weighed heaviest on Lu Zhanting.
Stepmother Liu Yuzhen, seemingly gentle but truly cunning and ruthless, was the mastermind behind this Hongmen Banquet.
Younger brother Lu Zhanwen, a spoiled idiot, was the sharpest knife in Liu Yuzhen’s hand.
And then there was Song Tingyu.
She hadn’t done anything; just sitting there was itself a declaration — a battlefield.
These were all the enemies Su Wanqing would face from now on.
And her husband was locked in the cold ancestral hall, bearing the family’s fiercest fury for her.
Su Wanqing’s hand unconsciously rested on her flat belly.
There was a secret hidden there, one that even Lu Zhanting did not know.
This secret was her softest weakness — and her strongest armor.
For Lu Zhanting, and for this tiny life yet to take shape, she could neither retreat nor lose.
This battle had only just begun.
The next morning, at dawn, Su Wanqing woke early.
She got up briskly, took back the quilt and hot water bottle to her spatial storage, then spread out the thin quilt from the Lu family that smelled strongly of camphor balls, erasing all traces.
She knew countless eyes were watching from the shadows.
She sat quietly by the table and waited.
She wanted to see what new tricks the Lu family’s warning would try next.
Time passed, second by second.
The sky brightened fully, the sun was high.
The courtyard remained deathly silent; no breakfast arrived, not even someone bringing wash water.
They intended to starve her to death.
A cold smile flickered at the corner of Su Wanqing’s lips.
She took two steaming meat buns and a pot of soy milk from her spatial storage and leisurely began to eat.
After breakfast, she even took out an unfinished sweater and sat by the window, knitting stitch by stitch in the sunshine.
Her calmness was such that it seemed she was not a discarded wife imprisoned in a cold courtyard, but a noblewoman enjoying a leisurely afternoon.
This composure obviously stung the eyes of some.
Near noon, the courtyard gate was finally pushed open from outside.
A maid about sixteen or seventeen years old, dressed in a blue cloth jacket, came in carrying a lunch box.
She had a sharp face, narrow slanted eyes, thin lips, and scanned the courtyard with poisonous eyes as if she were a viper.
When she saw Su Wanqing calmly knitting by the window, her eyes flashed with surprise.
“Oh, our young madam sure has plenty of leisure time.”
The maid slammed the lunch box heavily onto the stone table with a loud bang.
She smiled without warmth and spoke in a tone that sounded like charity to a beggar on the street: “Here’s your lunch — better eat it while it’s hot.”
Su Wanqing’s knitting needles didn’t stop, as if the maid was a ridiculous clown.
The maid, completely ignored, flushed deep red.
She stepped forward a few paces and raised her voice: “Hey! I’m talking to you — deaf or what? Our madam is kind-hearted and afraid you’ll starve to death here, so she specially told the kitchen to save this meal for you!”
Only then did Su Wanqing slowly put down her knitting and look up.
Her gaze was calm and unruffled as it landed on the maid.
“What’s your name?”
The maid was taken aback by the question, instinctively puffing out her chest: “I’m called Xiao Cui! Why do you want to know?”
“Xiao Cui.” Su Wanqing nodded, her tone flat and without emotion. “Put the lunch box down, you may leave.”
Her voice was calm but carried an irresistible pressure.
Xiao Cui’s face flushed completely; she hadn’t expected this country girl not only to be unafraid but to dare speak to her in such a commanding tone.
“You—”
She was about to retort but suddenly met Su Wanqing’s eyes.
Those eyes were so still, like a bottomless well, cutting off the dirty words stuck in her throat.
“Anything else?” Su Wanqing asked coldly.
“…No!” Xiao Cui squeezed out the words through clenched teeth, resentfully glared once more, and turned to leave quickly.
Once she was gone, Su Wanqing went over and lifted the lid of the lunch box.
A bowl of cold congealed rice and a plate of greasy leftover vegetables.
The vegetable leaves were yellow and rotten, with a dead fly lying on top.
Su Wanqing expressionlessly closed the lunch box.
She turned back to the room, took out her own small pot and rice, then pulled fresh vegetables and cured meat from her spatial storage and cooked herself a fragrant cured meat rice pot.
The rich aroma of meat soon unabashedly wafted out from the Jing Si Courtyard.
Several servants hiding nearby, watching, exchanged glances.
“She… she’s cooking for herself?”
“Where did she get a pot and rice? We didn’t send her those things.”
“So strange, really strange.”
In the afternoon, Xiao Cui came again.
This time, she came under Liu Yuzhen’s orders to “probe the truth.”
Upon entering the courtyard, smelling the lingering meat aroma, her face darkened further.
“Well, well! How dare you start a fire in the courtyard without permission! Don’t you know the Lu family’s rules? If you cause a fire, can you take responsibility?” Xiao Cui immediately accused her.
Su Wanqing was sitting in the courtyard basking in the sun, holding a book about herbal planting.
She leisurely flipped a page before looking up at Xiao Cui and said casually, “I didn’t make a fire. The food cooked itself.”
“You’re lying! Food can cook itself?” Xiao Cui, furious, put her hands on her hips and fired words like a machine gun. “Don’t think that because the young master protects you, you can do whatever you want here! I’ll tell you, the young master is barely holding on for himself, starving in the ancestral hall! You, a wild country girl, really think you’re something special?”
Su Wanqing’s eyes finally grew cold.
“Finished talking?”
“Not yet! Today, I’m going to teach you what the Lu family’s rules are!” Xiao Cui said as she reached out to grab the book from Su Wanqing’s hands. “Look at these useless things! Hurry up and sweep the courtyard! You really think you’re the lady here and others should serve you?”
Just as her filthy hand was about to touch the pages—
Su Wanqing twisted her wrist, moving so fast she left only a blur.
She dodged Xiao Cui’s grab, keeping the book safe.
But her elbow, as if by accident, slammed hard against a hot water bottle on the stone table!
The bottle’s lid was loosely closed.
Boiling water spilled out instantly, splashing exactly onto Xiao Cui’s outstretched, too-late-to-withdraw hand!
“Ahhh—!”
A piercing, distorted scream shattered the silence of the entire Lu family’s backyard.
Xiao Cui pulled her hand back as if electrocuted, watching her skin turn bright red before her eyes. Horrific blisters swelled up like poisonous pearls!
The searing pain made tears burst from her eyes instantly.
“My hand! My hand!” She crouched down, wildly shaking her hand in agony, crying and shouting without stop.
Su Wanqing slowly stood and blocked the sunlight, casting a shadow over Xiao Cui.
Her gaze showed not an ounce of pity, only ice-cold indifference.
“Who else can you blame but yourself for being careless?”
Her voice was soft but stabbed like an ice-coated needle deep into Xiao Cui’s ears.
Xiao Cui was both hurt and terrified. Seeing Su Wanqing’s extreme coldness, a huge fear welled up inside her.
This was no accident!
This country woman did it on purpose!
“You… you hurt me! I’m going to tell madam! You deliberately burned me!” Xiao Cui yelled, fierce but trembling inside.
“Go ahead.” Su Wanqing’s tone didn’t waver. “You can tell madam that you barged into Jing Si Courtyard, yelled at me—the ‘young madam’—and tried to lay hands on me, only to be stupid enough to knock over the hot water bottle yourself. Let’s see if madam will stand up for you, or just call you a useless fool.”
Xiao Cui’s crying abruptly stopped.
She knew every word Su Wanqing said was true.
To madam, she was just a dog.
A useless dog who would be kicked away without mercy.
Thinking this, her arrogance instantly vanished, leaving only helpless pleading.
“It hurts so much… my hand will be useless… please, young madam, save me… find me some burn ointment…”
Su Wanqing looked at her coldly for a long moment until Xiao Cui was sobbing uncontrollably, then spoke slowly:
“I do have medicine. But why should I give it to you?”
“I was wrong! Young madam, I really was wrong! I won’t dare again!” Xiao Cui suddenly knelt down with a “thud,” crying and kowtowing. “I was blind not to recognize a great person, I abused my power! Please be magnanimous and spare me this once!”
“Spare you?” Su Wanqing laughed lightly, full of sarcasm. “Weren’t you just calling me a wild country girl?”
“That was me being foul-mouthed! I deserve a slap!” Xiao Cui said, actually raising her other healthy hand to slap herself twice hard.
Su Wanqing watched this scene, her gaze still icy cold.
What she wanted wasn’t an apology, but submission.
“Enough.” She finally said. “Put out your hand.”
Like being granted a pardon, Xiao Cui hurriedly extended her swollen, pig’s trotter-like hand tremblingly.
Su Wanqing turned back into the room, took a small white porcelain bottle from a suitcase compartment.
She came back, opened the bottle, and a fresh medicinal fragrance immediately filled the air.
She picked a bit of the green ointment with her finger and gently applied it to the back of Xiao Cui’s hand.
In the next moment, a miraculous and terrifying sight happened.
The moment the ointment touched her skin, Xiao Cui felt a chilling coolness that instantly suppressed the burning pain.
Even more shocking, she watched the terrifying blisters shrink visibly before her eyes!
The redness of her skin miraculously returned to normal color!
In just a minute or two, apart from a faint red mark, there was no sign her hand had been burned at all!
Xiao Cui was stunned speechless, forgetting even to cry.
She looked at her hand over and over, as if witnessing a miracle.
“Is this… some kind of divine medicine?” she stammered, her eyes shifting from fear to complete awe as she looked at Su Wanqing.
“Just worthless herbs from the countryside,” Su Wanqing said coldly as she put away the bottle. “You won’t die. But if you delay treatment, the hand will be scarred badly, and it’ll be hard to marry into a good family.”
Xiao Cui shuddered, trembling from fright.
She knew Su Wanqing was telling the truth.
A servant with a disfigured face was doomed.
She knelt again with a “thud,” this time fully and sincerely.
“Thank you, young madam, for saving my life! Thank you for your kindness!”
“Get up.” Su Wanqing sat back down and picked up her book again. “I don’t cause trouble, but I don’t fear it either. You better remember what you should and shouldn’t do from now on.”
“Yes! Yes! I understand! I’m yours from now on!” Xiao Cui quickly stood respectfully by her side, no longer daring to be impertinent.
“Now tell me, what exactly did Liu Yuzhen send you here for today?” Su Wanqing asked without looking up.
Xiao Cui shuddered and told everything without hiding a thing, spilling it out like beans from a bamboo tube: “Re… reporting to the young madam, the old madam… she wants you to come over and said she has something to ask you.”
“Old madam?” Su Wanqing paused her page-turning.
“Yes… she is the second young master’s grandmother and also madam’s mother-in-law,” Xiao Cui cautiously explained, “She usually focuses on Buddhism and never meddles in family affairs. But today, for some reason, she specifically requested to see you.”
Su Wanqing’s eyes narrowed slightly.
An old madam who devoted herself to Buddhism and never got involved.
Never seen before, never now, but at the moment when Lu Zhanting is imprisoned and she is completely isolated, she wants to see her.
This probably means another new Hongmen Banquet is about to happen.
“I understand.” Su Wanqing closed her book and stood up. “Lead the way.”
“Yes.” Xiao Cui hurriedly replied, bowing and leading the way, her attitude completely changed compared to before.
Su Wanqing followed behind, feeling clear and focused.
In this deep and large mansion, she was treated like a pawn.
But she would never be manipulated.
What she wanted was to stir up the storm, to become the one holding the chess pieces.
Lu Zhanting, wait for me.
I won’t let you fight alone.