“Zhou Huai’an, what are you to me? What gives you the right to pay for me, and what gives you the right to speak to him like that?”
Zhou Shuangmian came running breathlessly to the horse ranch, clutching up her skirt, just in time to hear Wen Yunwan’s biting words.
How is she fine?
Zhou Huai’an looked at Wen Yunwan in shock. “Yunwan, I’m protecting you!”
“He’s only a servant at the horse ranch. You don’t know what he’s after. Even if he saved you, he must have had an ulterior motive. Poor people are all like that!”
“You can’t let yourself be deceived just because he’s good-looking.”
Zhou Shuangmian was completely lost, but her gaze was instantly drawn to the fair-skinned young man.
If he had a face like that…
He really was handsome.
At the same time, the young man finished gathering up the cloth pouch and raised his head, meeting Zhou Shuangmian’s gaze.
Zhou Shuangmian lowered her head almost at once.
Her heart was beating wildly.
Wen Yunwan looked coolly at Zhou Huai’an. “Didn’t your sister say you passed the provincial examination and had boundless prospects?”
Zhou Huai’an was utterly baffled by the question, yet he could not suppress his pride. Even though he deliberately pretended not to care, his smugness still spilled out. “She was talking nonsense. Passing the provincial examination is nothing. I still have a long road ahead of me.”
Wen Yunwan did not answer him at once. She walked over to Song Yanzhou, folded her arms across her chest, and lifted her chin.
“You’re a scholar from Yangzhou, so you may not know. Let me introduce him. This is Song Yanzhou, Suzhou’s jieyuan this year.”
“Now, tell me: whose prospects are better, a mere juren’s or a jieyuan’s?”
“Then tell me what his motive was for saving me.”
Zhou Huai’an’s mouth opened and closed several times, while his face rapidly flushed the color of pig’s liver.
An ordinary scholar would naturally be trying to win the favor of the prefect’s daughter.
But a jieyuan was different.
In this dynasty, no one who passed the provincial examination as a jieyuan had ever failed the metropolitan examination. That meant his future in officialdom was all but assured.
Seeing Zhou Huai’an at a loss left Wen Yunwan feeling thoroughly satisfied.
She had not even mentioned that Song Yanzhou would later become the dynasty’s first new zhuangyuan to achieve a threefold examination distinction.
Zhou Huai’an did not possess Song Yanzhou’s courage or daring. A moment ago, he had not even dared approach Xiaobai, and Wen Yunwan had seen it all. Since she had found an opportunity, of course she would make the most of it and torment him to death.
“Wen Yunwan! How dare you humiliate my brother?”
Zhou Shuangmian could no longer restrain herself. She rushed up to Wen Yunwan and started cursing. “Have you even looked at yourself? You’re utterly ignorant and not the least bit like a proper young lady from a respectable family. If your father weren’t the prefect, who would ever want you?”
Those words were truly vicious.
Even Zhou Huai’an, whose pride had been wounded by Wen Yunwan’s taunts, hurried over and covered Zhou Shuangmian’s mouth, apologizing to Wen Yunwan.
“Yunwan, Shuangmian didn’t mean it. She simply can’t stand hearing anyone speak ill of me. I’ll discipline her properly. Don’t be angry.”
Wen Yunwan raised a brow. If this had happened before, she really would have been angry.
Being called ignorant had always been a sore spot for her.
But after spending so much time around Song Yanzhou as the wife of Chancellor Song, Wen Yunwan had absorbed quite a bit of learning herself.
So now, she was not angry in the slightest. Instead, she found it utterly hilarious.
Zhou Huai’an had always valued his pride more than anything. At a time like this, with the woman he kept outside probably already pregnant and him likely in a hurry, he was actually willing to set his pride aside and apologize.
Suddenly, Song Yanzhou—who had picked up the silver and then stood quietly, as though he did not exist—raised a hand and pointed at the maid behind Zhou Shuangmian.
“She has poison hemlock on her.”
The moment he said this, the Zhou siblings’ expressions changed.
Only Wen Yunwan looked at him in confusion. “What poison hemlock?”
Song Yanzhou lowered his eyes to her and, unusually, explained with patience. “A horse will go mad after eating poison hemlock.”
In an instant, the expressions of the Wen Residence servants gathered around them changed as well.
“What nonsense are you spouting?!”
Zhou Shuangmian also pulled herself out of her shock at the young man’s handsome face. “Are you saying that I deliberately framed Sister Yunwan?”
Song Yanzhou looked at her calmly. “You said it yourself.”
“I…”
Panic spread through Zhou Shuangmian’s heart. Zhou Huai’an understood as well. He stepped forward twice and shielded his sister behind him, staring directly at the young man, who was half a head taller than he was.
“Jieyuan Song, you and I are both men of learning. You should know that one must not make baseless accusations. You claim that Cuiyu has poison hemlock on her. What proof do you have?”
Song Yanzhou remained calm.
“I smelled it.”
“My nose is very keen.”
He had not spoken earlier because he had been observing.
The maid had remained behind Zhou Shuangmian the entire time. She was probably the Cuiyu Zhou Shuangmian had mentioned.
Zhou Huai’an was so enraged that he nearly laughed.
“This is utter nonsense! Jieyuan Song, you saved Sister Yunwan today, so I’ll let your wild accusations pass. But if you continue to harass us, don’t blame the Zhou family for taking this further.”
Though he called him Jieyuan Song, Zhou Huai’an showed him not the slightest respect.
A poor scholar could not rise very far in court. Their aristocratic family, however, possessed an intricate web of connections. The civil examinations were merely the beginning for them.
He simply did not dare argue with Wen Yunwan.
Song Yanzhou said nothing more.
He had saved her.
He had also warned her.
If she could not understand, then so be it.
“You’re so long-winded.”
A languid voice sounded beside him. Song Yanzhou lowered his eyes and saw the young woman lift her chin toward the maid beside her.
“Dongzhi, go search her and see whether she has any poison hemlock on her.”
“Wen Yunwan! What do you mean?”
Zhou Shuangmian stamped her foot anxiously. “You’d rather believe this impoverished scholar than me and my brother? We’ve known each other since childhood!”
“And besides, if I wanted to harm you, what would I gain from it?!”
Wen Yunwan rubbed her ear. “Why are you shouting so loudly? My ears are practically deaf.”
“Don’t just search her. I want the entire horse ranch searched. Let’s see whether someone is trying to harm my horse—or trying to harm me.”
As she spoke, Dongzhi had already brought two maidservants over to Cuiyu.
“Miss Cuiyu, this way, please.”
The two maidservants took Cuiyu away, one on either side of her. Her face had gone ashen.
“Yunwan, you believe him instead of me and Shuangmian?”
Zhou Huai’an looked at her in pain.
Blocking them directly would make him look too guilty.
He had to soften Wen Yunwan first.
Wen Yunwan looked at the wrinkles covering his face and nodded matter-of-factly.
“Of course I believe him. His nose really is very keen.”
Song Yanzhou’s heart gave an involuntary tremor at the thought of Liaoyi.
An absurd reason.
An absurd belief.
Absurd words.
Everything seemed so absurd—including himself.