The opera below the stage sang on in its wavering, nasal tones, and the attention of the young ladies had long since been stolen away by the performers.
They did not care about a scholar from a poor family. Once they had looked at him, they would not remember him.
But Wen Yunwan remembered him. Not only did she remember him, she was deeply concerned about him.
She glanced toward the horizon. Golden evening clouds had already begun to gather.
Song Yanzhou should have left her home by now, hadn’t he?
At that thought, Wen Yunwan rose and hurriedly prepared to return to the residence.
But just as she climbed into the carriage, she remembered something.
In her previous life, after seeing Song Yanzhou, she had immediately returned home. She had deliberately waited until he was leaving, then claimed that she was going to see her mother and offered to escort him home along the way.
Wen Yunwan had always been especially fond of handsome faces. Her elder brother often said that, as a proper young woman, she was surprisingly lecherous.
What was wrong with liking handsome men?
At least in her previous life, it was precisely because she was so taken with Song Yanzhou that she shamelessly lingered at his home for a while longer. That was how she happened to run into his eldest and second uncles and their families. They claimed they had come to collect a debt, but as they talked, they started throwing punches. Wen Yunwan immediately ordered her people to report them to the authorities and have them arrested. Only after the case was heard in court did she learn that the two families were actually afraid Song Yanzhou would become an official one day and take revenge on the relatives who had bullied him. They had come up with a way to ruin his future.
His second cousin was planning to cripple his right hand that very day, ensuring that he could no longer take the metropolitan examination the following February.
They would take away the reward money he had earned as the jieyuan under the pretext of collecting a debt, then cripple his right hand. By then, he would have no money for medical treatment. He would not only be unable to sit the examination—he would not even be able to enter Shengjing.
It was only after those people were arrested that the future Chancellor Song came into being.
Wen Yunwan’s heart wavered violently.
After all, in her previous life, Song Yanzhou had taken such excellent care of her. He had even known exactly what temperature she liked her water, never allowing her to suffer the slightest hardship.
In the end, her unwillingness to stand by and watch overcame reason. Resigned to her fate, Wen Yunwan tilted her head back and stared lifelessly at the carriage roof.
“Dongzhi, tell them to take us to Chang’an Alley.”
I really am a good person!
Chang’an Alley was where the poor of Suzhou lived. In the past, it had been an extremely dangerous place. Refugees had been willing to kill for a single steamed bun.
It was only after Wen Zhiyuan was transferred there to serve as prefect that conditions in Chang’an Alley gradually improved. Although it still housed only the poor, the area was orderly now, and the danger was gone.
Song Yanzhou lived there.
Dongzhi jogged after Wen Yunwan, whose legs were moving so quickly that she was nearly running. Her mind was already crammed full of question marks.
But she did not dare ask.
The servants following behind them did not dare ask either.
In a place like Chang’an Alley, a tall, slender young woman with skin so delicate it seemed gilded by the setting sun, dressed in an expensive crimson gauze dress, was completely out of place.
Their first priority was to ensure Wen Yunwan’s safety.
Wen Yunwan was afraid she had arrived too late and was practically running by the time she followed the route in her memory and accurately found Song Yanzhou’s current residence. Without a second thought, she kicked open the courtyard gate.
The courtyard was very small, with only one room. Outside stood a stove, where something seemed to be cooking, bubbling and sending up clouds of steam.
Startled by the noise, Song Yanzhou looked up.
A tall, slender young woman stood in the doorway, breathing slightly hard. Her oval face held a pair of lively almond-shaped eyes, and her finely arched nose gleamed delicately in the sunlight. Her thin, moist lips were parted as she caught her breath. The setting sun fell across her crimson gauze dress, casting a faint golden glow over her entire person.
He rose, straightening his back. “Miss, have you taken a wrong turn?”
Wen Yunwan drew a breath, her gaze wandering uncontrollably over him before finally settling on his right hand.
The young man must have been blessed with a good constitution. Though slender, his frame had already filled out, and his fingers were as fair and long as they had been in her previous life. But the Song Yanzhou of her previous life, the future Chancellor Song, had always worn wide-sleeved robes. The fabric was not necessarily very expensive, yet he always seemed composed and dignified.
The young Song Yanzhou, however, was merely a boy whose parents had died, leaving him burdened with debt.
His patched clothes were clean and neat. He must have been growing quickly, because the narrow sleeves were visibly too short at the cuffs. His exposed wrist bones looked even more striking because of his thinness.
He should originally have been copying books. A brush and an inkstone sat on the unsteady little table.
“Miss?”
Song Yanzhou’s voice still held little emotion, but when Wen Yunwan turned her eyes toward him, she clearly saw a trace of displeasure in them.
That made sense. Anyone would be uncomfortable being inexplicably stared at by a stranger.
Perhaps people pretended to be busy when they felt awkward. Wen Yunwan cleared her throat twice, then walked in with a swaying, nonchalant gait, her hands clasped awkwardly behind her back as she pinched her own palms.
“Um… you’re this year’s jieyuan, right? Song Yanzhou?”
Her voice was crisp, yet carried an innate languor that sounded unusually familiar.
Song Yanzhou answered that he was.
So it was her.
She was the person who had silenced the voices mocking him from behind that expensive window.
“I’m the daughter of Prefect Wen, Wen Yunwan.”
The young woman stopped in front of him, but seemed to be waiting for something. Her eyes drifted toward the door as she surreptitiously watched what was happening outside.
“It’s like this. My father said your scholarship is excellent, so in addition to the original thirty taels of reward money, he’s giving you another ten.”
“Don’t get the wrong idea. My father needs achievements as an official too. If you really become the zhuangyuan someday, my father will have rendered a great service.”
Song Yanzhou merely looked at the young woman before him. Without changing expression, he inclined his head and replied in a cool, flat voice, “Thank you.”
He did not refuse.
But he accepted it just as calmly.
The moment he agreed, he saw the young woman secretly sigh with relief. As if afraid he would notice, she immediately straightened her back.
“You mustn’t forget my father in the future.”
It would be best if you forgot me instead.
The young man obediently answered, “All right.”
With those words spoken and the money delivered, Wen Yunwan seemed to have no reason to remain.
While gritting her teeth and cursing inwardly about how Song Yanzhou’s eldest and second uncles could still not have arrived, she rubbed her leg as though it were sore.
“I’ve been walking all day. My legs are sore and weak. Oh, right—do you have anything to eat here? I’m hungry after making the rounds.”
Her tone was outrageously spoiled.
Dongzhi: …
Had you even been walking all day?
Song Yanzhou lowered his eyes.
Walking all day?
But he could not have heard wrong.
Two hours earlier, she had still been watching an opera at the theater.
Wen Yunwan walked straight over and sat down on the little stool where he had been sitting. The stool immediately gave a crisp creak.
Before anyone could react, it fell apart in an instant. Her clear cry of surprise rang out, followed by the sound of her hitting the ground.
Wen Yunwan: ???
No—was she really that heavy?!