【Ding! A check-in spot for overflowing good luck, smooth sailing in all things, blessings from the Celestial Official, wealth pouring in day after day, and everything getting better and better—】
“Heir.”
“The one in Listening Rain Pavilion has died.”
Meng Huaiyan’s hand paused over the paper. It took him two seconds to remember.
The woman who lived in Listening Rain Pavilion was his wife.
A trace of disgust flickered in his eyes, but in an instant his expression returned to calm.
He kept writing, finishing the official business in front of him before he spoke.
“Find a suitable place and bury her.”
His voice was cold and indifferent, as though the dead woman had been a complete stranger.
His subordinate acknowledged the order and withdrew respectfully.
It was a fine spring day in the third lunar month, and the apricot blossoms outside the window were in full bloom.
A gentle breeze stirred, carrying a few petals into the room. One landed on Meng Huaiyan’s shoulder.
He brushed it away as if it were a speck of dust.
*
“That should be enough.”
Shen Tang looked at the peach blossoms in her arms and called for Ayun to climb down from the tree.
The peach blossoms were at their peak, each bloom full and round, dewdrops clinging to their stamens.
Shen Tang could not resist lowering her head to smell them. Wisps of fragrance drifted into her nose, filling her with delight. They would surely make delicious peach-blossom cakes.
She had deliberately chosen a quiet, secluded spot where few people went. She hadn’t expected to run into Meng Huaiyan as soon as she rounded the corner.
He was dressed in a crimson official robe, his expression stern.
A faint smell of blood hung in the air.
He had probably spent all of last night interrogating prisoners again.
Shen Tang slowed, hoping to avoid him.
But there was only one path, and she had no way around him.
Turning back now would make it too obvious.
By the time she had thought this through, Meng Huaiyan was only a few steps away.
With no other choice, Shen Tang bent her knees in a formal greeting. “Heir Meng.”
Meng Huaiyan’s brow furrowed slightly, impatience flashing in his eyes.
He had spent the entire night interrogating prisoners and was already tired and irritable.
And now Shen Tang, lacking the sense to leave him alone, was blocking his way.
Looking at the woman before him, he recalled how, ever since she had arrived at the Duke’s Residence two years ago, she had pursued him relentlessly. To be honest, he found it rather tiresome.
Many women were enamored of him, and he had seen all sorts of tactics.
Some were blunt, some subtle, and others downright shameless. At first, their tactics had infuriated him.
But as he grew older, he learned to keep his emotions in check, becoming a man who never let his feelings show.
His cold, distant manner had discouraged many of his pursuers, leaving him with much more peace and quiet.
Only Shen Tang had persevered for the past two years, as if she couldn’t read his expression.
She kept trying to get close to him. He hated people who didn’t know where to draw the line.
Though annoyed, he reminded himself that she was his Second Aunt’s niece. For his Second Uncle’s sake, he had to show her some courtesy.
He suppressed his irritation. “I heard Miss Shen was ill a few days ago. Are you feeling better?”
If the Shen Tang from her previous life had heard those words of concern, she would have been overjoyed.
But now, as she looked at him, her heart was calm.
The man’s words sounded caring, but his eyes were indifferent, utterly unconcerned.
It was nothing more than a polite question, the courtesy expected of a young man from a noble family.
Shen Tang lowered her eyes. “I’ve recovered. Thank you for your concern, Heir.”
Meng Huaiyan gave a quiet “Mm.”
Shen Tang had no desire to prolong their encounter. She dipped in another formal greeting and took her leave.
Watching Shen Tang walk away, Tingsong’s mouth fell open in astonishment.
Whenever Miss Shen saw their Heir, she always acted coy and affected. Every so often, she would even pretend to lose her balance and fall against him, which was endlessly irritating.
He had been ready to stop her from throwing herself at the Heir again.
And this time, she had simply walked away?
Something so out of the ordinary had to mean something. Tingsong couldn’t help asking, “Young Master, don’t you think Miss Shen is acting strangely today?”
She was indeed acting strangely, but Meng Huaiyan didn’t care.
When the Heir ignored him, Tingsong nudged Qingyang with his elbow. “Qingyang, don’t you think it’s odd?”
Qingyang ignored the question and rolled his eyes at him. “You talk too much.”
Tingsong: “…”
Shen Tang and Ayun returned to their little courtyard. They plucked the petals from the peach blossoms one by one, preparing to wash and dry them.
As Ayun picked the petals, she kept glancing at Shen Tang, looking as if she wanted to say something but couldn’t bring herself to.
“If you want to ask me something, just ask.”
Ayun’s hand paused, and she looked torn.
Ever since her young mistress had awakened after falling ill a few days earlier, she had been acting strangely.
Usually, she couldn’t go three sentences without mentioning Heir Meng. She often asked Ayun to find out where he was and help arrange chance encounters.
Knowing he admired women of exceptional learning, she had diligently practiced her calligraphy and painting every day.
She had even asked Second Madam to engage a senior matron to instruct her in the etiquette of a great noble household, and she had studied it painstakingly.
But in the past few days, her young mistress had stopped practicing her calligraphy and painting and no longer mentioned Heir Meng.
Today, when she had finally crossed paths with him, her young mistress had been so cool toward him. Ayun couldn’t help wondering why.
“Miss, you and the Heir… You’re all right, aren’t you?”
Of course she was. She had only been reborn.
Shen Tang thought of how, in her previous life, she had pursued Meng Huaiyan relentlessly, doing everything she could to get his attention: arranging chance encounters, pretending to fall, fussing over him, and trying every trick in the book.
Meng Huaiyan had always ignored her advances, offering her only superficial courtesy and politeness.
Even in their conversations, Shen Tang had sensed that her persistent pursuit irritated him.
But back then, she had been so bewitched that she saw only him, both in her heart and in her eyes. She hadn’t cared about his coldness or what other people thought of her.
When she heard that Meng Huaiyan was about to become engaged, she had even drugged him so that they would become physically intimate.
Rumors spread like wildfire, and the Duke’s Residence could no longer keep the matter quiet.
Under pressure from the gossip, Meng Huaiyan had no choice in the end but to marry her.
But he had never liked her to begin with, and her drugging him made him despise her even more. On their wedding night, he didn’t even set foot in their bridal chamber. He went straight to the study instead.
Shen Tang had become the laughingstock of Shengjing.
On the second day of the marriage, her mother-in-law, Madam Li, accepted the tea Shen Tang served in the customary post-wedding tea ceremony, then told her she could dispense with the morning and evening greetings and need not come to pay her respects unless there was a particular reason.
On the surface, it was consideration for her daughter-in-law. Shen Tang knew it was only an excuse—Madam Li didn’t want to see her.
Less than a year after the wedding, Meng Huaiyan had confined her to Listening Rain Pavilion on the pretext that she was ill and needed quiet recuperation.
The servants in the residence were quick to read the situation. Once they saw she had been completely cast aside, they, too, began to neglect and slight her.
She spent two years in Listening Rain Pavilion, every day feeling like a year, until she finally died of illness.
She never expected that when she opened her eyes again, she would be back three years earlier, before she had married him, before she had drugged and trapped Meng Huaiyan.
At the thought of the miserable death she had suffered in her previous life, a chill ran through her.
Shen Tang suppressed her trembling and said, “Don’t mention him again.”
Ayun’s mouth fell open in surprise. “Huh? Why?”
“I just don’t like him anymore.”
Shen Tang said it as calmly as if it were nothing, but her words were like a stone dropped into a still lake.
They shook Ayun to the core.
For the past two years, Ayun had seen her young mistress’s feelings for the Heir with her own eyes. Her mistress had acted as if she would marry no one but him.
Her feelings had even seemed a little obsessive.
So how could she suddenly stop liking him?
Seeing Ayun staring at her blankly, Shen Tang couldn’t help laughing.
She reached out and gently stroked Ayun’s head. “All right, hurry up. We’ll run out of time otherwise.”
“Ah… oh.” Ayun came back to herself and absently picked the petals in her hand.
But her eyes kept drifting toward her mistress. Seeing that Shen Tang looked as calm as ever, Ayun finally relaxed.
Whoever her mistress liked or did not like, Ayun would follow her for the rest of her life.