A gentle breeze blew across the midsummer rice seedlings, the green field ridges and ear leaves shimmering brightly.
In the afternoon, the village entrance was crowded with people. Everyone from the households that heard the commotion had come out—He Qiuxiang’s family, the Thin Pole’s family, Aunt Zhao’s family, the Zhou family…… and so on. Looking out, there was a vast crowd of men, women, and children, and even quite a few people from neighboring villages had come to gawk.
For instance, right at that moment, He Qiuxiang was holding her maternal sister-in-law’s arm, peering around expectantly. Next to them came the shocked, low whispers of the neighbors: “How could it be? How could Mingyu possibly become a Marquis’s manor’s young lady……?”
“Is that Mingyu from the Pei family? Is it her?”
“It’s her! In our village, besides this Mingyu, which other Mingyu is there?”
Someone nearby poked He Qiuxiang’s elbow. “Autumn Sister-in-law, aren’t you the closest with Mingyu? Do you know what this is all about? Just a little while ago, she was weeding the fields right alongside us, so how on earth did she suddenly become a Marquis’s young lady? Could it be…… that relative she said she wanted to find around Qingming Festival was actually from the Marquis’s manor?”
At that moment, He Qiuxiang stood dumbfounded, still unable to recover from the intense shock. On the contrary, her maternal sister-in-law and the fellow villagers had started chatting back and forth.
“That’s right… such a bizarre thing to happen……”
“Mingyu never mentioned it before either……”
“Where is He Qiuxiang? Who is He Qiuxiang?” Right at that moment, a guard from the Marquis’s manor suddenly shouted.
Aoniang snapped back to her senses abruptly, wiped her sweat, and stepped forward cautiously and prudently. “I am He Qiuxiang…… I wonder what instructions the official has?”
“Oh, so you’re the one.” That person requested her travel permit, carefully checked it against the roster, and after confirming there was no mistake, pointed to a large chest on the left. “Everything inside here was given to you by our Fourth Young Lady. Aside from silver, there is also a box of jewelry. You can take it back and have a look for yourself!”
After sending He Qiuxiang off, the guard glanced at the roster and asked again, “Who is Zhao Sanqiang?”
“Here, here!”
Another person stepped forward nervously……
He Qiuxiang hugged the chest as she walked back to the crowd. Her sister-in-law, mother-in-law, and husband Taisheng—who was holding little Hui’er—hurriedly crowded around.
The family found an open space to open it up, and there lay glistening white silver and banknotes, neatly stacked! Everyone was startled and hurriedly closed the chest lid. Her mother-in-law stammered in shock, “We’re all fellow villagers, helping out a little is only right, it wasn’t much trouble at all… Mingyu is truly a good person, giving so much……”
Mingyu…… He Qiuxiang shook her head in a daze. This silver was enough to keep their family free from worry about food and clothing for the rest of their lives; if used well, it could even be passed down to children and grandchildren. She was shocked, overjoyed, and deeply gratified. It seemed that Mingyu had truly found her biological parents and started living a good life!
He Qiuxiang picked up another jewelry box. It actually turned out to be made of Hainan huanghuali wood. The auspicious carved patterns on the lid were intricate and exquisite, emitting a faint fragrance—such a box was worth its weight in gold; even in the best jewelry shops of Pingyang or even Jinling, none could be found.
He Qiuxiang stared in a daze and opened the wooden box. Inside lay luxurious golden hairpin ornaments—cluster-bearded ones, intertwined branch designs, red jade double-headed phoenixes, as well as jeweled hairpins, emerald beaded strings, and pearls. It was a dazzling array of treasures that could not be bought outside, probably even more valuable than the box of silver, casting a shimmering glow in the sunlight.
Meanwhile, Zhou Wan and the others also happened to draw near and steal a glance. Just that single glance made her heart sour, sour enough to make her teeth itch—this world was absurd, far too absurd! How could an illiterate, vulgar peasant girl become a Marquis’s young lady?!
She even gave so many riches to the villagers upon her return, not to mention He Qiuxiang’s box of jewels, which were so exquisite they looked otherworldly; any casual piece picked at random was more expensive than all of her own jewelry. Looking at the craftsmanship of some of the hairpins, the meticulous carving would take three whole months, or even come from the hands of a master artisan, items that money could not buy outside.
After bustling about for the better part of the day, inside and outside White Cloud Village, almost everyone who had ever helped Shen Mingyu was given money. Only a handful of families received nothing, pinching their palms and stamping their feet with green-eyed jealousy.
However, there was one person who never appeared, no matter how many times the Marquis’s guards called out.
Later on, Taisheng stood up with some hesitation and helped pass along a message: “Respected officials, he said he doesn’t want it.”
The villagers discussed it animatedly, and even those from the neighboring village were dumbfounded.
“Is he stupid? Not wanting so much money?”
“I really don’t understand what goes through his mind. He was blessed enough to marry such a good wife, yet he doesn’t want the money. If that blessing were given to me……”
“Isn’t that…… isn’t that the beggar from the main gate last time?”
Two pages walked back to the middle courtyard, neither forgetting the young lady they had seen earlier in the mistress’s courtyard. Their companion nudged his arm and lowered his voice, “You said it wrong. Not a beggar, the steward said last time she was a poor relative coming to sponge off us.”
“Our Marquis’s manor constantly has people coming to sponge off us. Although the mistress sends people to entertain them, she never bestows a single glance upon them. It’s truly strange that this time the mistress actually handled it personally, doting on her like a precious treasure.”
The two of them had just finished discussing when someone suddenly kicked them from behind. Looking over, it turned out to be Steward Xue.
They forgot the pain and just wanted to offer flattery when they saw Xue Ding’s face sink gloomily: “What beggar and poor relative? That is the Fourth Young Lady! The Fourth Young Lady whom the mistress just found!”
“I was wondering why the mistress called me over for a thorough scolding—so the two of you caused this trouble! From now on, keep your dog eyes open and see clearly who people are before speaking!”
The two pages shrunk back in fright, hunching their backs and looking at each other in dismay.
Xue Ding glanced at them irritably and detoured to the warehouse in the middle courtyard.
The ledger accounts were continuously delivered into the room, and several people were sorting and calculating. After chatting idly with the accountant for a few moments, he took the account book and headed toward the main courtyard.
Because Helan Qian and Helan Guan had not yet married, the affairs of the estate had always been managed on behalf by the Marchioness. Every tenth of the month, he had to deliver the account books to the main courtyard for Lady Caihuan to inspect.
When Xue Ding arrived, the main courtyard was lively, with maidservants holding lacquer trays lined up in a long queue. The lacquer trays were filled with all kinds of damask and silk garments, and the Marchioness was personally leading her daughter to look at them piece by piece.
“Yu’er, these were all sent from the Baohua Pavilion. Take a look and see if there are any you like?”
Jiang Lan originally looked down on ready-made clothes from the outside; every month, the best tailors from clothing workshops would come to the house to custom-make garments for the older brothers and sisters, and even the household servants. However, making clothes required meticulous care and took a month or so of effort, so she could only temporarily wrong her Yu’er by having her pick ready-made clothes from the Baohua Pavilion instead.
Yet, the moment Shen Mingyu heard the name Baohua Pavilion, her eyes widened.
In the past, she had only heard about it in storytelling houses—they said the clothes in Jinling were gorgeous, and anyone who went there had to buy them. Needless to say, the silk garments of the capital possessed an embroidered beauty, yet people who went there might not necessarily buy them because they were far too expensive.
Foremost among them was the legendary Baohua Pavilion, which reportedly only took business from officials; anyone below the sixth rank could not cross the threshold of that shop. Therefore, many well-known wealthy merchants arriving with high hopes could only beat their chests in a sigh or curse bitterly outside the towering pavilion.
One of Shen Mingyu’s biggest wishes had been to go to Jinling to buy clothes. She had never imagined coming to the capital, let alone daring to think of the Baohua Pavilion.
The Marchioness assumed that such unpresentable ready-made clothes would only wrong her daughter into picking a few temporary pieces, since the tailors would come to the house anyway, and within a month fine garments would be delivered. Who would have thought that as Shen Mingyu looked at each outfit, she grew increasingly astonished—these were simply too beautiful.
Among them, the Marchioness caught sight of a dark purple lotus-embroidered makeup satin. Such vulgar coloring, coupled with a cut and fabric that were not considered superior, made her frown slightly.
The Marchioness’s brow furrowed, and just as she wanted to reprimand the people from Baohua Pavilion for being blind, she suddenly saw her daughter stroke that soft dark purple satin and say, “I really like this one too. It’s so pretty…… Mother, what do you think?”
The Marchioness was stunned.
But her expression changed instantly into gentle praise. “It’s pretty. Whatever Yu’er likes is good. Mother thinks so too, so let’s keep all of them.”
After a while, the visiting tailor arrived. Shen Mingyu obediently stood there, letting them measure her figure and waistline. She lowered her head to eye her own waist—why did it feel like she had gotten a bit fatter……
Could it be because she had been eating too well during this period?
No wonder the poet wrote: “A thousand lamps shine brilliantly until the third watch; Bianjing’s splendor and wealth have no match under heaven.”
Ever since Shen Mingyu returned to the Marquis’s manor, she had been living the good life amidst embroidered brocades.
The young lady possessed a well-behaved disposition, a clever mind, and a kind heart toward everyone, with shallow dimples on both sides of her cheeks. From the older brothers, sisters, and concubines in the estate, down to the managing matrons, maidservants, and pages, everyone held a very favorable impression of her.
She was like a little clay figurine, stepping onto auspicious clouds and leisurely drifting into a wealthy household. Yet amidst the life of lavish food and fine clothing, she would occasionally think of her former husband far away in White Cloud Village—I wonder if Pei Lang has received the letter and the money?
However, she seemed to have discovered something deeply abnormal…… Her monthly period hadn’t arrived for over three months.
Shen Mingyu had lived a hard life in childhood. In summer, she pushed the millstone under the scorching sun; in winter, she washed clothes while soaking in frozen river water, often going hungry and lacking warm clothing, to the point that her periods had always been irregular.
Sometimes they came twice a month, and sometimes they might only come once every two or three months. Later, under Pei Lang’s daily preparations of herbal medicine and conditioning, they gradually became regular.
She just hadn’t expected that upon leaving this time, her period would fail to arrive for over three months.
Along the journey from Pingyang to the capital, she initially thought it was due to no longer taking the medicine. Besides, the road was difficult and distant, so not having her period was actually a blessing; she had been used to it for so many years anyway, and thus she hadn’t taken it to heart.
Right now, however, Shen Mingyu touched her lower abdomen and looked at her waistline, which had grown thicker once more, sinking into a deep contemplation.
Could it be…… could it be……
……
Today, there were numerous official matters in the palace, and by the time the Marquis of Wu’an finished his shift and returned home, it was already late at night.
The carriage stopped before the heavy vermilion gates, and the attendant walked ahead carrying a lantern.
As soon as they reached the courtyard, the study was illuminated with light.
The Marquis of Wu’an paused slightly, lifting his robes to step up the stairs. Entering the room, he indeed found someone inside.
“It’s so late, why haven’t you slept yet?”
Jiang Lan took the crane cloak handed over by her husband, shook it out, and hung it on the wooden clothes rack. Her back was forever dignified and graceful; even when administering punishment, she maintained a swift and formidable bearing. Today, however, she looked somewhat hesitant.
As husband and wife of several decades who had already raised three children, the Marquis of Wu’an knew what was happening with a single glance. “What difficult trouble have you encountered?”
Jiang Lan turned back, first pouring him a cup of tea before sitting down in a vacant chair beside him. Her expression turned somewhat grave. “Yu’er is pregnant.”
“Pregnant?”
The Marquis of Wu’an abruptly furrowed his brows. But having spent years killing enemies on the battlefield and having witnessed plenty of turbulent storms, he calmed down extremely quickly. Sipping his tea slowly, he recalled that his daughter had mentioned she was already married, and remained silent for a moment. “That village bumpkin’s?”
Jiang Lan replied, “I’m wondering whether we should bring him here.”
The Marquis of Wu’an glanced at his wife. “Didn’t you look down on him? Why bring him here?”
“I do look down on him. How am I supposed to accept such a person? But Yu’er is carrying his child, and this child……” The more Jiang Lan thought about it, the more irritated she felt.
She had originally intended to pick a good match for Yu’er, yet now she was pregnant. Even though it was the seed of that man whom she despised immensely, it was also Yu’er’s bloodline and her own biological grandchild. For a moment, she truly did not know how to handle the situation.
The Marquis of Wu’an took another sip of tea and set down the cup. “Madam need not worry. He is merely a rustic village bumpkin; such a background is bound to be unworthy of our daughter. In my view, forget it. Let her give birth to it, and I have ways to handle it.”
“You have ways?”
The Marquis of Wu’an nodded, raising a hand to summon a domestic servant. “Go to the eastern courtyard, call the eldest young master over, I have something to say.”
Time turned in circles, and in the blink of an eye, a month passed.
By the midsummer of the sixth month, the guards sent to Pingyang County returned to the capital, bringing back letters from the villagers along with them.
Shen Mingyu unsealed and read them. There were letters from He Qiuxiang, Uncle Zhao, and the old tutor who used to teach her at the Chen Village schoolhouse.
Aoniang and the others were illiterate, so they had asked a scholar from the neighboring village to write on their behalf. The letters expressed everyone’s gratitude and regards, and Aoniang also chatted with her about some trivial village matters, mentioning that when little Hui’er grew a bit older, they would send him to school. In the past, their family was poor too, rising out of the yellow earth with no money to send children to school. Now, with the money Mingyu sent, their lives were much easier.
Besides these matters, Aoniang also separately mentioned Pei Shumin. The results of the provincial imperial examinations were out, and he had placed third on the list.
It had been several hundred years since Pingyang County produced a top provincial scholar, and the villagers were overjoyed and proud for him. However, it was said that the top two candidates on the list had some connections and weren’t particularly talented, though they had a slight connection with the chief examiner—between the lines, it was faintly revealed that Aoniang felt a sense of injustice on his behalf.
Shen Mingyu finished reading everything and flipped through again, but she did not see a reply from Pei Shumin.
Not a single one.
At that moment, the guard pointed to the wooden box that had been moved back untouched and said, “Fourth Young Lady, he didn’t want any of this silver or the property deeds either.”
“He didn’t want them? Why didn’t he want them?”
The guard shook his head, indicating that the other party hadn’t spoken a single word.
Why wouldn’t he accept the money?
If she were Pei Shumin, she would have accepted it; three thousand liang was enough for him to live in luxury and wealth for a lifetime. Pei Shumin was simply a fool. Clearly, living a good life was more important than anything else.
What’s more, the very reason he initially saved money to marry a wife was to have children. She had difficulty conceiving, and her departure could also be considered a fortunate thing for him.
Thinking of this, Shen Mingyu suddenly glanced down at her lower abdomen.
Her slightly rounded lower abdomen was already five months along in the blink of an eye. She was carrying the child belonging to her and Pei Lang here, and it had arrived quite unexpectedly.
She bit her lip, flipped through the pages again, and still found no letter from Pei Lang.
She had thought that by sending money, they would experience an amicable separation.
To think she had written so many rambling words to him in her letter, urging him to eat well, drink well, walk his path well, and find a better match in the future. Yet Pei Lang hadn’t replied with a single letter—not even a few brief words of thanks, a farewell, nothing at all.
Shen Mingyu remained silent for a long while, realizing that he was truly angry.
Clearly, he wrote an exceptional hand, yet Aoniang hadn’t asked him to ghostwrite the letter, choosing instead to go out of her way to find the scholar from the neighboring village, which showed he didn’t want to meddle in it.
He couldn’t be bothered to deal with her, finding even an extra sentence of reply too much trouble, and never wanted to see her again in this lifetime.
Shen Mingyu lowered her head, silently digesting it for a moment, before suddenly noticing that tucked behind Aoniang’s letter was an extra slip of paper.
——Mingyu, Amin is leaving. I don’t know where he intends to go; my Taisheng just happened to overhear him mention it. He said he might leave White Cloud Village and Pingyang County to seek another livelihood elsewhere. Furthermore, there is one more matter, which is that the Zhou family……
At the very end of the letter, it was written: The Zhou family intends to arrange a marriage with him, and he has not refused. The village is already spreading rumors that they are going to have happy news. Mingyu, return quickly, return quickly……