Mr. Ming clenched a handful of cold sweat in his palm. Marquis Xiao had already formed a killing intent; they absolutely could not let Wei Er Niang board Prefect Lu’s carriage.
Whether through coaxing or tempting, racking his brains for schemes, he had to trick her onto Marquis Xiao’s carriage!
“Wei Er Niang, there’s no need to worry. Boarding the carriage is absolutely safe. Marquis Xiao has promised that wherever Wei Er Niang wishes to go, you can do so once you’re on the carriage—!”
He had only just begun and hadn’t even finished laying out the bait when Nan Yang directly clambered onto the carriage.
What was wrong with Marquis Xiao’s carriage?
Ever since meeting Lu Che, even Marquis Xiao’s carriage seemed pleasant and agreeable.
On, on, on!
Nan Yang boarded the carriage and immediately fell asleep.
It was much better inside the carriage than standing stiffly by the roadside. After all, she wasn’t a horse that could sleep standing up.
The double-horse carriage, having picked up its passenger, sped off.
This time, the driving speed could truly be called swift as the wind and lightning-fast. The Lu Family’s carriage was instantly left behind in the rolling dust of the night.
Mr. Ming breathed a sigh of relief, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.
Wei Erniangzi refused to board Prefect Lu’s carriage but straightforwardly got onto Marquis Xiao’s carriage. With one person, she saved fifty-six lives and prevented a shocking upheaval…
What a sensible and reasonable young lady indeed!
Nan Yang dozed off in her clothes until she was jolted awake by the carriage’s bumps. Half-asleep, she sat up. Daylight streamed into the carriage, and only then did she remember to ask.
“Mr. Ming, where is the carriage heading? What did Marquis Xiao promise me last night? Mr. Ming?”
But where was Mr. Ming at the front of the carriage?
Only a driving soldier remained, cracking his whip loudly, driving the carriage as if it were flying, his mouth sealed tight as a clam, not uttering a single word in response.
Nan Yang lifted the carriage curtain and leaned out to look.
The sky was bright, and the trees on both sides sped past like blurred shadows.
Dozens of light cavalry galloped swiftly, like a black flood surrounding the carriage front and back. The carriage swayed like a floating log in the floodwaters.
“Mr. Ming?” Nan Yang leaned half her shoulder out, searching back and forth, but where was Mr. Ming’s figure?
She muttered in confusion, “Tricked me onto the carriage…?”
Her heart skipped a beat, and she grew tense.
Nan Yang called out louder and louder, “Where is the carriage going? Is Magistrate Yang still alive? What about Grandma? Mr. Ming? Marquis Xiao?”
The strong wind whipped the carriage curtain, making it flap loudly.
While Nan Yang was still looking around, a man’s hand with distinct tendons suddenly appeared in her vision. It grabbed the swaying cloth curtain and tossed it into the carriage, then pressed her shoulder, pushing her back inside.
“Sit properly. The carriage is heading to the capital.” Xiao Chengyan’s voice, carried by the wind, betrayed no emotion.
“Today, I’m sending you back to the Wei Family. Remember to keep your mouth shut. Don’t utter a single word you shouldn’t.”
Nan Yang sat upright in the carriage.
She had become quite familiar with Huaiyang Marquis’s voice these past few days. As parting approached, she instinctively tried to recall his appearance but couldn’t conjure a clear face.
This young Marquis Xiao seemed extremely vigilant, rarely revealing his face to others.
She had only seen his full appearance twice: once by the Mulberry Grove in March and once by the riverside in June, both times while he was unconscious.
The carriage curtain quietly lifted a corner.
A pair of dark, round eyes peeked out from behind it.
Only the black horse’s mane flashed across her vision. Before she could get a clear look, Huaiyang Marquis Xiao Chengyan, along with his horse, vanished into the dust ahead.
The towering capital appeared before her eyes.
Nan Yang’s journey back to the capital this time was fraught with mishaps. She arrived home precisely on the fourteenth day of the seventh month, the day before the Ghost Festival.
The Wei Family mansion was bustling with preparations for the festival, ancestral worship, and floating river lanterns.
Nan Yang’s sudden return home was like a small ripple stirred in the river, quickly swallowed up by the current.
As expected, she paid her respects to her Legal Mother and incidentally met the two sisters by her side.
Several trusted maidservants around the Legal Mother stepped forward with ambiguous smiles, their eyes repeatedly sweeping over Nan Yang’s dusty, mud-stained dress.
Eldest sister Yingxue smiled without a word.
Youngest sister Chuanying covered her mouth and giggled, “Second Sister, is the countryside that much fun? Where did you roll around to get covered in mud?”
Nan Yang calmly patted her skirt, shaking off the dirt from the suburban ditches of the capital right onto the floor of her Legal Mother’s room.
On the day of the Zhongyuan ancestral worship, she caught a distant glimpse of her Father.
Grandma was sent back to her Dingxiang Yuan, still unwell. Manager Ding brought medicine with a sullen expression.
“Xin Ao goes to the countryside and comes back acting like a proper mistress. Lu Dalangjun personally escorted her through the gates, even disturbing the Mistress of the House to receive her, and now he sends me, Old Ding, running around fetching medicine!”
Manager Ding muttered sarcastically, set down the medicine packet, and left.
No one wanted to bring bad luck to Dingxiang Yuan.
Xin Ao was escorted back to the Wei Family by Lu Dalangjun, but Second Miss didn’t even bring a single bundle, appearing silently and abruptly outside the Wei Family’s main gate like a ghost!
These past two days, the Wei Family appeared calm on the surface, but rumors had already spread in secret.
Some said Wei Erniangzi got separated from Xin Ao outside the city and walked all the way into the capital on her own two feet.
Others said, how could a sixteen-year-old young lady walk dozens of miles? Surely someone must have given her a ride.
As for who gave her the ride—a horse carriage, an ox cart, or perhaps a humble donkey cart or handcart from a lesser household?
An unmarried young lady, whether anything unspeakable happened on the road—well, that’s hard to say.
“Have you heard?” Several old women guarding the Er Men whispered among themselves:
“Word from the gatekeepers is that on the night Second Miss returned, someone heard the sound of hoofbeats. So, Second Miss was dropped off at the alley entrance, and that person came on horseback.”
Another old woman sighed with pity, “Riding through the streets late at night—surely it couldn’t have been a woman? Second Miss shared a horse with a man.”
“Maybe it started outside the city—a lone man and woman sharing a single horse, pressed close together front and back, traveling dozens of miles like that.”
“Oh dear, if this gets out, her reputation won’t be good…”
Old Woman Wang, a trusted servant from the Mistress of the House’s room, came out carrying a basin to dump water and spat in their direction.
“Since when is it your place to gossip about your masters? Second Miss’s return wasn’t honorable. If word spreads, it will damage the Wei Family’s reputation. If you old women still want to work in the Nei Yuan, each of you better keep your mouths shut!”
The old women hunched their shoulders and bowed their heads in agreement.
Once Old Woman Wang returned inside with the empty basin, the guards huddled together, clicking their tongues. “Did you all hear that? Second Miss really did return dishonorably.”
“Shh, keep it down. Have you forgotten what illness Second Miss went to the countryside to recover from? Who knows if she suddenly had an episode and ran back. She’ll be seventeen by New Year’s, and not a single marriage prospect has been settled. I heard from Qian Ao in the Mistress of the House’s room that they’re afraid she’ll bring misfortune to other families’ sons…”
Nan Yang, holding a medicine bowl, passed beneath the courtyard wall, paused to listen for a moment, then spoke up: “Did Qian Ao by the Mistress of the House’s side really say that?”
The old women guards all jumped, their faces turning various shades, and vehemently denied it. “No one said anything like that. This old woman must have misheard.”
“Oh.” Nan Yang responded indifferently, then corrected:
“It wasn’t a single horse that brought me back, but an entire caravan. I entered the capital by carriage. In the future, stop gossiping blindly—not a word of it was true.”
Silence fell behind her for a moment, but as she walked further away, the murmuring began again like the buzzing of flies, saying things like Nan Yang couldn’t control them, as long as she didn’t hear it.
Carrying the freshly brewed, scalding medicine bowl from the stove, she walked along the inner courtyard wall all the way to the westernmost Dingxiang Yuan. Opening the lid, the bitter aroma of medicine filled the air.
“Grandma, time for your medicine.”
On the day of the Zhongyuan Festival in mid-July, the entire Wei Family gathered to worship their ancestors. Nan Yang caught a distant glimpse of Father in the crowd, thinking their next meeting would likely be at the New Year’s Eve family banquet before the Spring Festival.
She never expected their next encounter to come so soon.
Over ten days after returning home, as July drew to a close and the weather turned to mid-autumn, cooling in the mornings and evenings, Nan Yang was summoned to the flower hall in the eastern side courtyard for questioning.
She used to play in the flower hall of the eastern side courtyard often as a child.
Back then, Mother hadn’t gone mad yet and held authority over managing the Wei Family’s inner household. There was nowhere in the inner or outer courtyards, side halls or flower halls, that she couldn’t go.
But now, the flower hall had become a place she rarely set foot in. It was where Father often stayed, sometimes even entertaining close external guests of the Wei Family.
Nan Yang cautiously stepped into the familiar yet unfamiliar flower hall, immediately seeing the familiar yet unfamiliar Father seated in the center, smiling warmly as he chatted animatedly with the guest seated opposite him.
Taking two steps closer, she was startled to realize that today’s guest was also a familiar yet unfamiliar figure.
It was none other than the Lu Family’s Elder Cousin, Lu Che, who had chased after her outside the city only to be left behind.
Nan Yang paused in her steps.
Shouldn’t a prefect from another commandery avoid entering the capital’s territory without permission? It’s been half a month, and he still hasn’t left?
Father noticed her, his smile fading as he gestured for her to approach.
Father and daughter, who saw each other less than twice a year, suddenly meeting alone felt awkward and unfamiliar, leaving them momentarily at a loss for words.
Nan Yang couldn’t think of anything to say, while Father opposite her looked her up and down, likely also struggling to find an opening.
Have you looked enough?
Nan Yang silently wondered, do you recognize me as your daughter?
Finally, Lu Che cleared his throat lightly, and Father Wei snapped back to attention, putting on a stern face and saying solemnly, “My daughter Nan Yang has grown up.”
Then he scolded, “Now that you’re of age, you should act according to propriety. Why didn’t you return to the capital with the Lu Family’s carriage the other day, instead borrowing a stranger’s vehicle? There’s a distinction between kin and outsiders—abandoning your own family for outsiders, what kind of behavior is that!”
Nan Yang: …?
So she was called here to be scolded.
She was experienced at being scolded, immediately lowering her head, her small chin pointing toward the ground, only the dark crown of her hair visible to Father.
After hearing the beginning, her mind began to wander.
There were actually two guests in the flower hall.
Lu Che sat in front, right under the sunlight, his figure tall and straight, his demeanor as cool and clear as jade. When she entered, she had only seen Lu Che.
But behind Lu Che sat a youth. Not yet capped, dressed in scholar’s attire somewhat similar to Lu Che’s, though much younger—likely only seventeen or eighteen—sitting upright with a somewhat distracted expression.
Nan Yang’s gaze also drifted aimlessly.
Unintentionally, their eyes met, and the youth suddenly perked up, his gaze fixed intently on her. Nan Yang looked back, puzzled.
Lu Che cleared his throat lightly again.
The youth behind him seemed intimidated by him, immediately lowering his head obediently, though his eyes secretly drifted toward her again.
Nan Yang couldn’t help but purse her lips in amusement. He seemed like a kindred spirit.
Wei Father spoke up, telling Nan Yang to return.
She had been there for less than half an hour before being dismissed, not even having touched a seat. It was as if she had been summoned just to make an appearance. Baffled, she bowed and withdrew from the flower hall. Behind her, Lu Che’s voice echoed:
“Since the main matter has been settled. Cousin-uncle, I shall take my leave with Third Brother.”
Nan Yang turned back in surprise.
That young man—was he the Lu Family’s Third Young Master?
No wonder he was seated behind Lu Che, dressed in similar attire. Upon closer thought, his features bore some resemblance as well.
Behind her, Father’s laughter rang out. “From now on, our families will be even closer. Che’er, you’ll have to change how you address me as cousin-uncle.”
As she walked out of the flower hall, Nan Yang pondered, dredging up the faint outline of a little bean sprout from distant, hazy memories.
During festivals and holidays in her childhood, the Lu Family’s several clan brothers in the capital would visit together. The eldest brother stood out like a crane among chickens—who could remember the flock of little chicks trailing behind?
The Lu Family’s Third Young Master seemed to be around her age. Was he sixteen this year? Or seventeen?
…What was his name again?
It had been many years since they last met. So he was still in the capital.
Just as she thought this, her train of thought was interrupted by footsteps behind her.
Lu Che had hurried out of the flower hall. Of course, he brought along the little tail that was Lu Sanlang.
“Second Young Lady, please stop.” Lu Che spoke with a detached, businesslike demeanor. “It has been many days since we last met. I have a few questions to ask you privately.”
Puzzled, Nan Yang followed him to the roadside.
“Recently, there have been some rumors circulating,” Lu Che said, his expression indifferent.
“Many have speculated maliciously about how you returned home. Why didn’t you tell your family that Marquis Huaiyang sent you to the capital by carriage? Even your father is unaware.”
Because Marquis Xiao forbade me from mentioning it.
Nan Yang recalled the two warnings carried on the wind the day she entered the capital:
【Remember to keep your mouth shut】
【Don’t utter a single word you shouldn’t】
As she remained silent, Lu Che, for reasons unknown, softened his expression slightly.
“You were unaware of Marquis Xiao’s cruel nature and mistakenly boarded his carriage. That man is no good person. Being associated with him damages the Wei Family’s reputation. Fortunately, although you chose his carriage by mistake, you still understood the gravity of the situation and did not publicize it.”
“Looking back afterward, I also bear some responsibility for failing to escort you back to the capital that day, which allowed rumors to spread and tarnish your reputation.”
Nan Yang thought silently, I chose the carriage myself. What does it have to do with you…
Marquis Xiao was certainly no good person, but she felt that this Elder Cousin wasn’t much better either.
Lu Che was observing her, his expression subtly complex.
Before Nan Yang could decipher the meaning behind that complicated gaze, Lu Che shifted his attention and beckoned the little tail, Lu Sanlang, closer.
“Second Young Lady, if anyone asks about this in the future, there’s no need to mention Marquis Huaiyang. Just say that on the night of the fourteenth day of the seventh month, it was Third Brother who brought you into the capital.”
Nan Yang looked blankly at Lu Sanlang.
What did this have to do with him?
But Lu Sanlang, for reasons unknown, shyly lowered his head, avoiding her puzzled gaze—
He actually blushed.
Nan Yang: ??
The name of Lu Sanlang, which she had pondered for a long time without recalling, was uttered lightly the next day by her Legal Mother, her tone carrying just the right hint of amusement.
“The Lu Family’s Third Young Master, Lu Qingze, is eighteen this year and will turn nineteen after the New Year. He is still studying at the Imperial Academy.”
“Among the younger generation of the Lu Family, the eldest brother set a fine example, and the younger brothers have all grown into capable individuals. The Lu and Wei families are close. Seeing that the Lu Family’s Third Young Master has also matured, we elders are immensely pleased.”
“Second Miss, yesterday your father announced that the Lu and Wei families intend to strengthen their ties with another marriage, adding another joyous occasion.”
“Lu Family’s Third Young Master, Qingze, is a worthy match for our Nan Yang.”
The Legal Mother smiled with dignified poise, as if genuinely pleased from the heart, taking Nan Yang’s hand and giving it a gentle pat.
Her trusted attendants, Qian Ao and Old Woman Wang, both forced out insincere smiles and stepped forward to offer their congratulations.
“Congratulations, Second Miss.”
“A joyous occasion for Second Miss.”
Nan Yang: …
A pie falling from the sky, landing right on her head??
For a moment, she stood in the room, unable to gather her thoughts.