As she spoke, afraid that he would not believe her, she grabbed his hand and pressed it against her shoulder. “Did you feel it? Here… ah!”
Xue Ling cried out, her eyes reddening as she released him. She lowered her gaze to find him inexplicably biting her shoulder.
It hurt.
It hurt so much.
In her pain, Xue Ling slapped his handsome face hard.
He still refused to let go, his breathing heavy, like a wild beast that could pounce back at any moment—untamable and savage.
Xue Ling grabbed his hair and yanked his head away, then slapped him several more times as she cursed, “Mad dog.”
Gu Xingzhi fell back against the headboard. Both sides of his face were flushed from the slaps, yet he smiled at her gently and warmly.
“This is what I gave you.”
Xue Ling’s lie had been riddled with holes from the very beginning, and he had simply refused to believe a word of it. Since she said the wound on her shoulder had been caused by him, then it had been caused by him.
After her lie was exposed, Xue Ling became angry from embarrassment. She had wanted to bite him too, but when she lowered her gaze and saw the young man beneath her—his appearance breathtaking, his black hair in disarray over the white cloth covering his eyes, his lips crimson and glistening—she hesitated.
Beneath the gentle candlelight, his smile inexplicably gave him a strangely beautiful, almost pathologically seductive air.
Xue Ling was no longer angry. She cupped his face and began to feel sorry for him. “I’m sorry, Xiaobai. I shouldn’t have hit you.”
She ought to have been more patient and shown him more affection. Only then would he see her goodwill and truly acknowledge her as his master.
Xue Ling felt guilty about hitting him that day.
In the middle of the night, she brought over an old makeup box that had yellowed with age. She rummaged through it, took out the bell inside, and hung it from the thin cord dangling beside the bed. In a gentle voice, she instructed him, “Xiaobai, this is a bell. I’ll be outside during the day. If you miss me, or if you want to call me, just ring the bell. I’ll come in as soon as I hear it.”
After she finished speaking, she abruptly changed direction, her soft voice taking on a hint of sternness. “But don’t ring it randomly. It must be because something is wrong, understand?”
Gu Xingzhi lay quietly on his back on the bed. Deep bite marks showed on his cold, slender neck. With his eyes covered, his expression could not be made out. He paid no attention to Xue Ling sitting beside him and shaking the bell.
Xue Ling patiently shook it several times. When he continued to ignore her, she gave up.
After being busy from daytime until now, Xue Ling was tired.
She took a new quilt from the chest, lay down beside him, and wrapped her frail body in it. Listening to the steady drip of the water clock nearby, she soon fell into a deep sleep.
Because of the unpleasantness the previous night, Xue Ling did not approach him of her own accord for the next several days. Every day, she sat outside the room weaving straw sandals and baskets. She did not even give him the pair of shoes she had made for him earlier.
Gu Xingzhi was quiet as well. He never rang the bell even once.
Yet during the day, she vaguely heard him get up to relieve himself and accidentally knock against the bell. At the time, she had set down the half-woven straw sandal and sleepily come inside, only to see him clutching the waistband of his trousers, an unusual embarrassment showing on his snow-white face.
He had been kept in the room and could only eat, drink, relieve himself, and sleep there, like a wild dog kept in captivity.
Xue Ling pretended not to see his embarrassment. She yawned and waited for him to get dressed.
But he remained motionless, like a statue carved from white jade.
Growing impatient, Xue Ling wrapped her outer garment around herself and went in. She lifted his waistband and tied it for him, muttering softly, “You can’t put them on just because I’m watching? I wipe your body every day too. I’ve already seen everything you have.”
Although her words were crude and entirely without the usual modesty between men and women, she was not wrong.
Likewise, Gu Xingzhi knew that she had never regarded him as a person, but as a dog.
He sat down again beside the bed, his long black hair hanging behind him like silk as he listened to her movements.
When he finally heard her carry something out of the room, his thin, alluring lips trembled. An inexplicable murderous intent lodged in his throat.
He wanted to kill her.
The rain continued for several days.
On the third day, the sky finally cleared. Xue Ling had made so many straw sandals over the past few days that they could fill an entire carrying basket.
Today, she planned to go into town and sell them to the merchants.
Before leaving, she changed Gu Xingzhi’s medicine. His illness had improved considerably, and his wounds were beginning to scab over.
Xue Ling said to him, “I’ll gather some more herbs for you on my way back today. In less than half a month, you should be able to get out of bed and walk.”
Gu Xingzhi leaned listlessly against the bedframe. His skin, deprived of sunlight for so many days, was unnaturally pale, and he was thinner than before.
That was because he had started being unable to eat the meals she prepared again. He vomited every time.
Xue Ling felt a little sorry for him. She held his deathly pale face in her hands and said, “I’ll bring you something to eat when I come back. You need to stay home obediently, understand? Don’t run outside. There are dog dealers out there who eat dogs.”
Gu Xingzhi’s thin lips parted and closed as if he wanted to say something, but Xue Ling had no time to listen. With the carrying basket on her back, she turned and left.
She had tied many little bells into her braid. They rang with every step, giving her movements a liveliness that did not belong to her.
Gu Xingzhi tilted his head and listened indifferently.
The sound of the bells gradually faded into the distance, leaving the surroundings frighteningly silent.
Gu Xingzhi did not know what he was supposed to do. He raised his pale hand, and his fingertips accidentally touched the bell beside the bed. He immediately withdrew his hand. Lowering his head, he faced the place where the bell had rung, as though he were staring fixedly through the white cloth covering his eyes.
No one came back from outside. Xue Ling had already left.
Gu Xingzhi sat up and touched the collar around his neck, frowning as he tugged at it.
It would not come off.
With a carrying basket full of straw sandals and exquisite little flower baskets on her back, Xue Ling sold them cheaply to a merchant at the end of the marketplace who specialized in buying such things. She received a string of cash in payment.
After putting away the money, she was about to hoist the basket onto her back and leave. Her head was still lowered when a voice suddenly sounded above her.
“Miss.”
Xue Ling instinctively looked up. The moment she saw the person before her, she froze.
He was one of Gu Xingzhi’s guards. She remembered that his name seemed to be… Mushan.
Once she recalled his name, Xue Ling came back to herself. Her eyes, hidden behind her thick hair, secretly surveyed the people who had been dispersed from the area at some point. Her heart gave a hard thump. She assumed that Gu Xingzhi’s presence at her home had been discovered.
She had just been about to kneel and beg for mercy when Mushan spoke first, reassuring her. “Miss, don’t be afraid. I came to ask you about something.”
Xue Ling had only just dropped to her knees, and the words she had not yet managed to say fell back into her throat. Clutching the carrying basket nervously, she hurriedly changed her trembling voice. “W-what is it? Do you want to buy little flower baskets or straw sandals? I’ve already sold everything today. If you still want some, you’ll have to wait a few days.”
Mushan shook his head. “You misunderstand. I’m not here to buy straw sandals. I happened to see you here just now, and I wanted to ask you about my master.”
Gu Xingzhi’s disappearance had not spread through Bencheng. After his high-profile arrival, he had disappeared that very night, and the next day, it was announced publicly that he had fallen ill.
His Majesty in the capital had even sent people with many rare medicines, instructing him to recuperate properly and enter the capital after recovering.
Everyone else believed that Gu Xingzhi was truly ill. Xue Ling, however, knew the truth. She was even the person involved, keeping him hidden in her room while deceiving him. Guilt rose within her once more.
The moment Mushan mentioned the matter, the nondescript woman before him suddenly lowered her head and trembled weakly, her whole demeanor one of fear.
Could she still be frightened because of what had happened last time?
Mushan frowned. He could not help feeling that coming to find her had been a waste of time.
This woman was merely an ordinary peasant girl who had never seen the world. Last time, she had disturbed his master’s carriage and had nearly been executed as an assassin. Several days had already passed, yet she was still so timid and afraid of death. How could she possibly have information about his master and not report it?
Mushan despised those who clung to life and feared death. But since he had already come, he still patiently asked, “I wanted to ask whether you saw my master that night. If you did, I will definitely reward you handsomely.”
When she heard the words “reward you handsomely,” Xue Ling’s heart stirred. She nearly told him that Gu Xingzhi was in her room, but fortunately, she stammered in time and managed to suppress the impulse.
“N-no, I didn’t. That night, I went with you to see the prefect. Afterward, I went back to bury my dog and then returned home. I-I didn’t see him.”
After finishing, Xue Ling quickly added in a low voice, “And I didn’t tell anyone else.”
Mushan did not know whether her words were true or whether she was merely afraid of getting involved in trouble. He first took out a pouch of silver and placed it before Xue Ling.
Xue Ling had never seen such a bulging money pouch before. Her eyes went wide, and she could not move them away.
Mushan said, “If you have any information about my master, no matter how minor it is, as long as it is useful, you may take this pouch of silver.”
Xue Ling’s heart was moved. She was just about to make up some false information when Mushan continued in an even, calm voice, “I only listen to the truth. If you tell lies to cheat me out of money, you should understand that I am not a good man.”
“N-no, I don’t know anything…” Xue Ling did not dare to make up a lie to deceive him. She was afraid she might be alive long enough to obtain the money, but not to spend it.
“Are you certain you saw nothing?”
“N-no, I didn’t see him.”
Mushan lifted the money pouch with the tip of his sword. He secretly wondered: If his master had killed the assassin, how could he have vanished into thin air?
Was there another assassin? Or had his master been injured and gone into hiding somewhere to recuperate, fearing that those people would discover him?
“Thank you, Miss. What I said just now will remain valid until my master is found. You may come look for me at any time.” Mushan clasped his fist over his sword and bowed to her.
Xue Ling did not dare raise her head, lest her greedy gaze fall on the money pouch hanging at his waist. She timidly nodded.
Mushan led his people away.
Xue Ling remained sitting there for a long while, regret gradually spreading through her limbs.
If Gu Xingzhi had broken into her courtyard a little later, or if Mushan had brought the money a little sooner, that pouch of silver might already have been hers.
What a pity. Between silver and her life, she felt that her life was important too.
As though mourning a lost fortune, Xue Ling sighed in self-pity for several breaths. Then she shouldered the carrying basket and left the deep alley.
Since it was still early, she went to the academy to work as well.
After several days of torrential rain, the surface of the lotus pond—which had only recently been dredged—was clear. A few tender lotus buds proudly poked their heads above the water. The bright sounds of students reading aloud mingled with the chirping of cicadas in spring, creating a dreamy atmosphere that made people drowsy.
The books she had dried last time had become damp again, so Xue Ling was drying them in the bamboo grove behind the academy.
Her sharp ears listened to the students reading outside. She also pretended to be busy, holding a book and stumbling through a quiet recitation along with them.
When Liu Changnong came to exchange the books, he happened to see her sitting on a wooden stool, holding a book and rocking her head back and forth as she read.
She did not know how to read, of course. She did not even realize that she was holding the book upside down, merely imitating the scholars like a parrot learning to speak.
Liu Changnong could not help laughing.
Hearing the faint sound of a snort, Xue Ling instinctively turned her head. She saw the young man not far away, covering his mouth with a fist, his brows and eyes filled with amusement. Her scalp prickled, and her cheeks burned. She wished she could find a hole and crawl into it on the spot.
She had been discovered.
Would he laugh at her?
Xue Ling stood frozen where she was, watching the young Teacher walk toward her. The willow brows and unpleasant-looking eyes she usually hid beneath her thick hair had been left uncovered. Standing beneath the brilliant spring sunlight, she looked like an inconspicuous patch of mold growing in a dark corner.
Liu Changnong stopped in front of her. Instead of scolding her for being inattentive to her work, he studied her brows and eyes for a moment before saying, “Miss Xue, your features are very distinctive.”
Xue Ling mistakenly thought she had frightened him. Inferiority immediately seized her heart, and she hurriedly lowered her head, afraid to meet his gaze.
Yet Liu Changnong’s next words made her breath catch.
She heard him say, “Miss Xue, with your long brows and slender eyes, you seem to comprehend the myriad things of the world. Hollow yet not insubstantial, world-weary yet luminous. You are very unique.”
Xue Ling did not understand the refined, scholarly things he was saying, but she could tell that he seemed to be praising her.
People had always said that she had a difficult fate and that she had been born with a sharp, mean-looking face. They said there was no vitality in her, that even when she smiled, she looked gloomy and eerie, as still and dead as a female ghost.
It was the first time anyone had praised her. Xue Ling was at a loss, clutching the hem of her clothes like a bewildered child.
But Liu Changnong had already turned his attention to the book clutched in her hands. After tilting his head and examining it, he smiled and said, “Miss Xue, you’re holding the book upside down.”
Upside… upside down…
Xue Ling hurriedly turned the book around. She wanted to use something to cover the thunderous pounding of her heart, but her attempt only made things worse, and the book fell to the ground.
Her heartbeat abruptly stilled, and her breathing slowed.