A line of fast horses galloped away from beneath the Fragrant Pavilion, shattering the soft rain that covered the ground.
Listening to the fading sound of hoofbeats, Su Tan remained lost in thought for a long time.
She draped a robe over herself and got out of bed, sitting before the mirror.
The girl’s snow-white skin was covered in red marks, her eyes brimming with the warmth of spring.
“Su Tan, oh Su Tan, what a mess you’ve made.”
Just moments ago, everything but the final step had been done.
If not for an urgent summons from the emperor, the two of them would have already been lost in passion, seeking love and pleasure.
She raised her hand, a string of flawless crimson coral beads hanging loosely around her wrist.
Just before Shen Xiuwang dressed and left, his desire still lingering yet unable to defy the emperor’s command, he said in a hoarse voice, “Wait for me to return.”
Su Tan didn’t know where she found the courage, but she tugged at his sleeve and refused to let go, kneeling on the bed and looking up at him. “My lord, please don’t deceive me.”
She was referring to redeeming herself and obtaining commoner status.
Then, Shen Xiuwang pressed the string of coral beads he had often been playing with lately into her hand.
His eyes were proud and arrogant, carrying a sense of noble pride. “This Military Governor has said that a promise is worth a thousand pieces of gold. Take this as proof.”
Su Tan looked into the mirror again, and the beauty sighed softly.
Over the past seven days, she had overlooked the most important point: Shen Xiuwang’s promise to take her out of the pavilion and restore her commoner status was one thing, but letting her go was another.
Just by knowing about the existence of the Buddha Ball and finding it, Shen Xiuwang had never truly intended to set her free from the start.
Everyone fears secrets being exposed, especially someone like Grand Commandant Shen, who holds the highest position among officials.
In his eyes, there are only two kinds of people who can keep secrets.
One, those whose hearts and bodies are completely loyal to him.
The other, the dead.
From other rooms in the pavilion came the sounds of whipping and cries, men’s rough voices, and girls begging for mercy.
Su Tan frowned, her fingertips cold and trembling slightly.
In any case, she had to leave this place first. As long as she could leave, anywhere would be better.
At midnight, thunder rumbled, and the spring rain fell softly, nourishing all things.
Yet, along with the drifting rain that crept in with the night, there was also endless danger.
Tongzhou had been attacked, and bandits had successively captured two cities, burning, looting, and committing every evil imaginable.
Urgent pleas for aid were sent to the capital overnight, and the emperor flew into a rage, ordering Shen Xiuwang to lead troops to recapture the cities at once.
Tongzhou was originally under the jurisdiction of General Liu Yi, a remote and mountainous region that was not particularly prosperous. In previous years, it had never experienced such attacks.
Setting off in the rain, riding at full speed, Shen Xiuwang’s black armor melted into the dark night.
How could mere bandits have the ability to capture two cities in a row? What treasure in Tongzhou was so compelling that they had to seize it?
“Yah!”
Grand Commandant Shen, sharp as an eagle, shouted loudly to his deputy beside him, “Order the troops to march at double speed! Abandon non-essential supplies!”
“Yes, sir!”
The rain fell all night, and in the capital, a noble person tossed and turned, unable to sleep, restless as if sitting on pins and needles.
As the sky began to lighten with the first hints of dawn, the magnificent and bustling city of the capital gradually awakened amid the white smoke rising from the early morning stalls along the streets.
The markets opened one after another, carriages and horses passed through, and pedestrians bustled about.
The Eastern Palace of Great Wei.
Outside the eaves, the locust trees sprouted fresh green leaves, and raindrops that had yet to fall gathered at the tips of the branches.
A thrush fluttered over and perched on a branch, shaking the raindrops into a steady patter as they fell.
Its yellow beak opened, emitting clear and bright chirps.
Through the vermilion lattice window, a woman stood before a desk, her elegant posture captured as she practiced calligraphy with a brush.
Hearing the thrush’s chirping, Xu Yunshu paused slightly in her brushstroke and turned her head to look at the bird on the branch outside the window, a faint smile playing on her lips.
Then, she spoke to the eunuch waiting outside the corridor, giving an order: “Go and pull out its tongue.”
A gentle and mild remark, still maintaining a smile, as if commenting on the bright morning light today.
Before long, the sound of a bird being struck came from outside.
“Chirp…” The thrush let out one last mournful cry, fluttering its wings, its beak stained with blood.
The maid in a purple dress serving by the desk, grinding ink, gradually turned pale, her hand holding the ink stick frozen in place.
Xu Yunshu remained calm and composed, lifting her brush to dip it in ink.
“Ziyu, tell me, for dealing with a gossipy creature, was my punishment light or severe?”
The maid’s legs immediately went weak, and she fell to her knees with a thud, knocking her head against the floor. “This servant is terrified!”
Xu Yunshu waved her sleeve, and a sharp-cheeked matron behind her stepped forward.
She took the ink stick from the desk and slammed it heavily onto the ground.
With a stern, expressionless face, she declared, “Ziyu dared to damage an item bestowed by the Crown Prince. According to palace law, she shall receive fifty strokes of the rod!”
“Guards, drag her away!”
A two-inch thick, five-foot-long rod.
Fifty strokes were unnecessary; thirty would be enough to break bones, sever tendons, and end a life.
Ziyu trembled like a sieve, weeping and pleading, “This servant knows her wrongs! Crown Princess, spare me! Crown Princess, spare me…”
“It was Eunuch Wang—”
On the night of the Flower Festival, while boating to admire the lanterns, he ordered her to monitor the Crown Princess’s every move—clearly a secret command from His Highness the Crown Prince.
The two eunuchs tasked with the order covered Ziyu’s mouth, grabbed her arms, and dragged her straight outside.
At the desk, a character for “purity,” written with bold and flowing strokes, leaped onto the paper.
Xu Yunshu, calm and at ease, set down her brush to admire it.
Matron Yao’s impassive face broke into a smile as she handed her a clean handkerchief to wipe her hands.
“The young lady’s calligraphy has improved again.”
Xu Yunshu took the handkerchief and smiled faintly. “Brother Xingshi often says that one’s handwriting reflects their character. It’s still not good enough.”
Matron Yao hesitated, weighing her words before offering advice. “I heard that Military Governor Shen, before being summoned to the palace yesterday, had just risen from the bed of a courtesan at the Fragrant Pavilion.”
“Now that you are the Crown Princess of the Eastern Palace, you should let go.”
“This morning, after His Lordship discussed matters with His Highness, he sent a message. You must conceive the imperial eldest grandson as soon as possible.”
Upon hearing this, a flicker of disgust passed through Xu Yunshu’s eyes.
From Matron Yao’s words, she extracted the most piercing sentence.
Shen Xiuwang lingering in that courtesan’s bed…
She couldn’t help but recall the scene she witnessed that day on the Painted Pleasure Boat—him kissing her, holding her, and afterward, they must have shared intimate pleasures…
The handkerchief she used to wipe her hands twisted tighter and tighter, her gentle and beautiful face gradually clouded with malice.
On her shoulders rested the glory of the entire Xu family, but in her heart dwelled that proud and peerlessly handsome young man.
A boy on a bamboo horse came, circling the bed, playing with the green plums.
Her Brother Xingshi—no one was worthy of him!
That lowly, filthy courtesan—how dare she spend a spring night with him!
Her heart felt so stifled she was nearly driven mad. Xu Yunshu picked up the inkstone filled with ink and slammed it upside down onto the rice paper with a bang.
Dark ink flooded over, and the character for “purity” instantly dissolved into a pool of black.
She looked up at Matron Yao, her malice fully revealed.
“Send someone immediately to spread some rumors.”
Matron Yao sighed, understanding perfectly. “This old servant will arrange it at once.”
The continuous spring rain fell, stopped, and fell again.
Great Wei, Eastern Market, Yongqing District, Shen Residence.
Vermilion gates and high walls, upturned eaves and flying ridges, pavilions and towers, deep courtyards shaded by paulownia trees.
In the garden, winter jasmine bent its waist, and willow branches lifted like curtains.
A young servant in blue, having just withdrawn a large sum of silver from the accounts office and tucked away the tally his master had given him, strode outward.
He encountered a stewardess with an oblong face, dressed in a deep blue brocade jacket, a heavy gilded bracelet on her wrist.
“Zhan Ming, where are you rushing off to in such a hurry?”
Zhan Ming smiled, “Oh, Nanny Sun, greetings to you. I’m just running an errand for the young master.”
“Wait.” Nanny Sun raised her voice to stop him, her expression darkening. “Did the young master send you to fetch silver and deliver it to the Fragrant Pavilion?”
Zhan Ming halted in his tracks.
Nanny Sun clasped her hands before her stomach, eyes lowered. “Don’t bother going. The Old Madam and Madam sent me to relay a message: from now on, not a single coin from this mansion is to be thrown away in those brothels.”
What kind of flower or courtesan—such lowly trash daring to cling to the young marquis!
Tarnishing the Marquis’s Mansion’s reputation for no reason, making the old lady furious.
Zhan Ming stiffened his neck but, mindful of Nanny Sun’s status, dared not raise his voice in protest.
“Nanny, this puts me in a difficult spot. Couldn’t you just say you didn’t run into me?”
The young master had specifically ordered him to handle this matter before leaving. If the silver wasn’t delivered, he would surely face severe punishment upon his return.
He had to obey the Old Madam and Madam’s orders, but the young master was his true master.
Unfortunately, both Chang Feng and Yuan Jing had followed the young master to Tongzhou, so forcing his way through wasn’t an option now.
Zhan Ming made up his mind and prepared to slip away.
But Nanny Sun wouldn’t have it. She gestured to the two burly servants behind her, who seized him.
Zhan Ming shouted anxiously, “Nanny Sun, I am the young master’s personal attendant! Delaying my task is delaying his affairs. When he returns, he will not spare you!”
Hearing the words “will not spare you,” Nanny Sun trembled, recalling the young marquis’s swift and decisive manner.
But she quickly steadied herself. “Don’t you dare act arrogantly under the young master’s name, boy. I am acting on the orders of the Old Madam and Madam.”
“Keep a close eye on him!”