Perhaps the more one wanted to know something, the more things went against one’s wishes.
Throughout the entire night, the scenes in Pei Yanchen’s dreams remained disjointed and intermittent.
Some were things he had seen in his dreams before.
Others were things he had never seen.
Yet more than anything else, there was the sight of two people entwined in passionate intimacy upon the bed beneath the brocade canopy.
At a quarter past the mao hour, before dawn had broken, Pei Yanchen awoke.
As his eyes opened, the face of the woman in his dream once again swiftly became hazy and indistinct.
He frowned irritably, forcing down the agitation in his chest, then rose and went to the bathing chamber.
Two quarters of an hour later.
The man arrived in the study, his expression somber.
Forcing down those restless emotions, he took out the documents and spread them open, attempting to calm his thoughts through official business.
At a quarter past the chen hour, Ji Hong returned from outside the residence.
He was holding a letter.
He went to knock on the door of the bedchamber, intending to hand the letter to Pei Yanchen.
He had not expected that Pei Yanchen would already be in the study.
Seeing that his master was in a bad mood, Ji Hong did not linger. He set down the letter and withdrew outside.
Pei Yanchen remained alone in the study. By the time he had finished reading all the confidential letters and documents, it was nearly noon.
Ever since he had awoken that morning, several nerves in his head had been throbbing painfully.
Several hours had passed, yet the pain remained.
There was not the slightest sign of relief.
He finished replying to the last letter and set it aside.
Then he leaned back in the sandalwood chair and closed his eyes to rest.
He had only meant to empty his mind and ease some of his restlessness, but he had not expected that the moment he closed his eyes, those nightmare-like scenes that haunted him would surge forth once more.
The difference was that, previously, the dreams had mostly shown him scenes he had never seen before.
This time, however, everything he saw was a scene he had witnessed before.
In today’s dream, he felt more like a passerby.
As though watching flowers from horseback, he “watched” the entire sequence of those dreams from beginning to end.
The only difference was that, in every one of those scenes, the woman’s face remained impossible to make out.
Until the scene stopped at the moment when “she” tore up the marriage contract and took advantage of his being ordered away to escape the detached residence and elope with someone else.
In the pitch-black depths of night, illuminated by flames that soared into the sky, “she” and “her” beloved fled hand in hand.
It was only when she looked back in panic that Pei Yanchen finally saw her face clearly.
It was a face more familiar than any other.
It was also the face that, every night, became entwined with him in passionate intimacy within his dreams.
Pei Yanchen forced himself to wake up.
At this moment, when the image was most deeply imprinted in his memory, he wanted to tear himself free from the dream and clearly remember that face in reality.
Outside Green Bamboo Court.
Jiang Yingwan handed the copied inventory list to Ji Hong and asked him to pass it on to Pei Yanchen.
Ji Hong glanced at it, looking somewhat troubled.
He did not take it. Instead, he said apologetically to Jiang Yingwan,
“Forgive me, Miss Jiang. Please hand the inventory list to Lord Pei yourself.”
“Lord Pei happens to be in the residence right now.”
As he spoke, he led her to the study.
The study door was not closed. Half of a screen blocked the view of the desk. Ji Hong stopped outside the door and indicated that Jiang Yingwan could enter directly.
“Miss Jiang, please.”
Jiang Yingwan pressed her lips together slightly, nodded, and stepped through the door.
She crossed past the screen and looked toward the desk.
Pei Yanchen had his eyes closed and was half leaning against the back of his chair, as though resting.
Not wanting to wake him, she lightened her movements, set down the copied inventory list, and prepared to leave first.
Although Pei Yanchen’s desk appeared large, it was covered with case files and documents, along with quite a few letters that had not yet been put away.
Jiang Yingwan gave it a rough glance.
The only empty space was a small area on the inner side of the desk, near him.
Pinching the inventory list between her fingers, she placed her feet as lightly as possible, walked around the corner of the broad desk, and leaned forward to set the list down.
Just as she was about to straighten up and leave, the man, whose eyes had been tightly closed, suddenly opened them.
Before she could withdraw her arm, his icy hand swiftly clamped around her wrist.
He used so much force that, caught completely off guard, Jiang Yingwan was pulled halfway onto the desk.
She suppressed the cry of surprise in her throat and looked at him in astonishment.
“Lord Pei…”
But the moment she saw the expression in his eyes, her voice abruptly stopped.
His expression was unusually cold. As he looked at her, his gaze held an aggression and oppression that he did not conceal in the slightest.
All of Jiang Yingwan’s movements froze.
The moment their eyes met, an unprecedented, urgent desire to escape suddenly rose in her heart.
The feeling came from nowhere.
Yet under the stare of those dark, cold, heavy eyes, a layer of chill swiftly spread across her back.
Jiang Yingwan instinctively struggled against his hold.
She wanted to break free from his grasp.
“Lord Pei?”
Pei Yanchen stared straight at the face so close to him.
The expression in his eyes shifted several times.
The fear on her face at that moment suddenly overlapped perfectly with the scene in his dream of her fleeing in panic amid the firelight.
The face that had been deeply imprinted in his mind just before he awoke was exactly the same as the one before him now.
For an instant, Pei Yanchen could not distinguish between the dream and reality.
The moment he opened his eyes and saw her turn to leave, he had almost acted on instinct, gripping her wrist tightly and holding her beside him, refusing to let her run away again.
It was only when she called to him in a trembling voice that he regained a measure of clarity.
Pei Yanchen forcibly suppressed the images churning in his mind and the dark emotions clamoring deep within his chest.
His gaze lowered to the slender wrist he had clenched in his palm.
He relaxed his grip and slowly released her, inch by inch.
As though frightened, she instinctively pulled her hand back before he had completely let go.
Looking at his empty palm, Pei Yanchen’s fingers stiffened for a moment.
His lashes lowered.
His fingers and palm silently tightened, as though he wanted to seize something and hold it firmly in his hand.
When he raised his eyes again, every trace of emotion had already been concealed.
He had returned to his usual calm and composure.
His voice was low and unhurried as his dark eyes watched her.
He apologized at once.
“I’m sorry. I was not fully conscious just now. Did I hurt you?”
His gaze a moment earlier still left Jiang Yingwan shaken.
She concealed her wrist beneath her long sleeve, pressed her red lips together, and, her dark lashes lowered, gently shook her head.
“…No.”
Eager to leave, Jiang Yingwan said nothing more. She pointed to the inventory list on the desk and explained why she had come to his study.
“The inventory list has been copied. I had intended to hand it to Ji Hong, but it seems he had something else to do.”
Pei Yanchen gave a low “Mm.”
Rubbing his temple, he rose from his chair.
“I understand,” he said softly. “Someone will be going to Yecheng tomorrow. Once the matter concerning the Jiang family’s collateral branch has been dealt with, I’ll have someone go to Jadewater Pavilion and inform you.”
Jiang Yingwan thanked him. “Thank you, Lord Pei.”
Because of what had just happened, the two of them were standing rather close.
Now that he had risen, the indescribable sense of oppression became even more pronounced.
She did not remain there any longer and soon took her leave.
“Then… Lord Pei, please rest. I’ll return first.”
Pei Yanchen did not stop her.
After Jiang Yingwan turned around, she unobtrusively rubbed the wrist he had gripped until it hurt, then quickly left Green Bamboo Court.
Pei Yanchen remained where he was.
His cold eyes narrowed slightly as he watched her retreating back.
She appeared to remain composed, but the hurried pace with which she left revealed her urgent desire to escape.
This was the first time this scene had occurred in reality.
But in that dream, no one knew how many times it had happened, from beginning to end.
Only after her figure disappeared beneath the corridor did Pei Yanchen lower his eyes, allowing the mist to fade as those clear scenes, surging like a rising tide, poured into his mind.
The scenes in the dream were so vivid that they gave him the illusion that they had not been dreams at all, but events that had truly happened.