Yun Shuangxu was startled and instinctively shrank back.
“Don’t move.”
The two simple words were like a military order that permitted no disobedience.
Yun Shuangxu stopped moving and stiffly curled up inside the cloak, even holding her breath.
The man knelt on one knee, rested her foot on his knee, and held it in both hands. His slightly callused fingers rubbed and pressed back and forth around her ankle.
The heat coming from his palms was the only warmth in that cold, snowy night, and amid her embarrassment and panic, it stirred a trace of longing in her.
She thought that if only this man were her father, then she could throw herself into his arms and cry, tell him that she had not been doing well here at all, ask him to stand up for her and take her home.
Lost in these thoughts, she suddenly heard a soft crack. Unable to bear the pain, Yun Shuangxu let out a muffled moan from beneath the cloak.
Xie Jinglan remained unmoved. He used some strip of cloth to tightly bind her ankle, then released her foot and stepped back, saying coldly, “Get up and try it.”
The warmth vanished from her ankle, but Yun Shuangxu’s face burned fiercely.
She finally understood why Xie Jinglan had covered her.
Their identities were sensitive. If they could not see each other’s faces, they could avoid embarrassment.
Although this was very much like trying to hide one’s ears while stealing a bell.
Yun Shuangxu took a deep breath and tried to calm her racing heart. She removed the cloak, put on her shoe, and carefully stood up while bracing herself against the wall.
The injured area still felt somewhat swollen and painful, but the agony that had made it impossible for her to take a step had indeed disappeared.
“Does it still hurt?” Xie Jinglan asked.
Yun Shuangxu shook her head and said gratefully, “Thank you, Third Master. It’s much better.”
“If it’s better, leave at once. From now on, you are forbidden to come near this place again.”
Xie Jinglan left her with those words and walked back inside, unwilling to linger for even a moment.
It was as though the presumptuous contact just now had been nothing more than casually brushing away a flake of snow.
Yun Shuangxu was somewhat slow to react. Only when she saw the courtyard gate close did she hurriedly call out, “Third Master, your cloak…”
“It’s dirty. Throw it away!” came the icy reply from inside.
Yun Shuangxu stared at the tightly shut courtyard gate, her feelings complicated.
He truly looked down on her. This priceless fox-fur cloak had merely covered her for a moment, yet he discarded it as though it were trash.
He had set her ankle because he did not want her to dirty his mother’s former residence, not out of pity.
Even so, Yun Shuangxu remained grateful. Xie Jinglan could have simply driven her away; he had no obligation to treat her injury.
To have done this much could be considered the utmost of benevolence and righteousness.
“Young Madam…”
Lü Bo’s call came through the wind and snow.
Yun Shuangxu came back to herself and hurriedly bundled up Xie Jinglan’s cloak, wrapped it in Lü Bo’s cape, and held it tightly against her chest, afraid that someone might see it and become suspicious.
A younger brother’s wife spending the snowy night alone with her elder brother-in-law—regardless of whether anything had happened, people would inevitably gossip.
Lü Bo approached with several servant women carrying a shoulder sedan. Seeing Yun Shuangxu standing against the wall, she hurried forward to support her. “Young Madam, how did you manage to stand up?”
“I felt that it didn’t hurt as much, so I got up to try it,” Yun Shuangxu said. “Why did you take so long?”
Lü Bo’s movements paused. After a moment, she said, “The snow was too heavy, and the road was difficult to walk.”
The servant women carrying the shoulder sedan had been summoned from their beds in the middle of the night and were deeply resentful. Hearing Yun Shuangxu say that she was feeling better, one of them could not resist making a sarcastic remark. “Of course the Young Madam is delicate and frail. We lowly, rough people bump and bruise ourselves every day, don’t we?”
Lü Bo glared at her. “At least you know you’re a servant. If you were speaking to another master like this, you would have been beaten, sentenced to the cangue, and sold off long ago.”
The servant woman rolled her eyes at the sky and silently shut her mouth.
Yun Shuangxu was exhausted in both body and mind and only wanted to return as quickly as possible, so she said nothing. With Lü Bo’s help, she climbed onto the shoulder sedan.
As the wind and snow howled, she secretly looked back. The courtyard gate was tightly closed, as though it had not been opened for thousands of years.
If not for the cloak in her arms, she might even have suspected that what had just happened was merely a dream.
When they returned to Caiwei Courtyard, Yun Shuangxu dismissed the other servants and entered the inner room with only Lü Bo.
Only after the door was closed did she let out a long breath. She handed Lü Bo the cloak she had held all the way there. “Put this away carefully first. You absolutely must not let anyone know about it.”
Lü Bo did not understand. When she shook it open, she discovered that besides her own cape, it contained a finely made silver fox-fur cloak. She was immediately startled.
“Young Madam, where did this come from?”
“Shh. Keep your voice down.” Yun Shuangxu lowered her voice and briefly explained what had happened when she encountered Xie Jinglan.
Lü Bo listened with her heart in her throat, then wrapped the cloak up again and said softly, “The man we saw on the road earlier must have been Third Master.”
“Mm.” Yun Shuangxu nodded. “In the middle of the night, apart from Fourth Master and the Duke of Zhenguo, he is the only one who could come to the rear courtyard.”
Lü Bo leaned closer to her. “I heard that the Former Duchess filled Lingshuang Courtyard with plum trees, and that every year when the snow fell, Third Master would go there to mourn his deceased mother. It seems that the rumors are true.”
That cold, icy face appeared in Yun Shuangxu’s mind. Combined with his reputation for killing without mercy, it was difficult to imagine that such a cold-blooded person could possess ordinary human emotions as well.
As she spoke, Lü Bo removed Yun Shuangxu’s shoes. When she saw the dark-gray silk handkerchief used by a man tied around Yun Shuangxu’s ankle, her face changed in fright. She hurriedly lifted Yun Shuangxu’s foot and untied it.
She looked so tense that it was as though the item were not a handkerchief but a talisman demanding someone’s life.
Yun Shuangxu had assumed it was merely some strip of cloth. She had not expected it to be Xie Jinglan’s handkerchief.
Without even daring to look at it, she told Lü Bo to hide both the handkerchief and the cloak. When they had a chance to leave the residence, they would take them outside and throw them away together.
Since Xie Jinglan had not even wanted a cloak worth a fortune, he surely would care even less about a handkerchief.
Keeping this item with her would only create trouble. Other than throwing it away, there was no other option.
After hiding the things, Lü Bo returned with some pastries.
After all the turmoil of the night, they had not even eaten dinner.
Yun Shuangxu felt as though a mass of air were pressing up against her stomach. She was clearly hungry, yet she could not eat.
“Tomorrow, secretly find out where Lin Qingyun invited that Daoist priest from,” she instructed Lü Bo, holding half a pastry.
Lü Bo was taken aback. “Young Madam, do you truly suspect that the Daoist priest was arranged by Concubine Lin?”
“There is no one else,” Yun Shuangxu said. “Once you find out, have Yun Xian seize the Daoist priest and question him. Then we’ll know.”
Yun Xian was Yun Shuangxu’s unreliable younger brother. Although she could not count on him for serious matters, there was no one more suitable to entrust with this sort of task.
She had no intention of continuing to live with Xie Jingbai, but marital separation was not something that could be accomplished overnight. She did not want to watch Lin Qingyun jump around in front of her any longer.
Lü Bo agreed. After Yun Shuangxu finished her pastry, she gave her a bowl of ginger soup, applied ointment to her injury, and served her as she washed, changed, and went to bed.
Yun Shuangxu was utterly exhausted. The moment she touched the bed, she fell asleep.
She slept fitfully throughout the night, and in her dreams, all she heard was the howling of wind and snow.
Early the next morning, while it was still barely light, Lü Bo came in to wake her. “Young Madam, is your injury feeling better? Today is the fifteenth, so we have to pay our respects to Old Madam. Should I go tell Old Madam that you won’t be going today?”
Yun Shuangxu propped herself up and sat down. She moved her ankle a little and felt that it no longer hurt as much.
When she recalled the way Xie Jinglan’s warm, powerful hands had explored and pressed over her foot, her face suddenly grew hot.
“We should still go,” she said, suppressing the heat in her heart.
After what had happened yesterday, Old Madam could not possibly be unaware of it.
Lin Qingyun was carrying Xie Jingbai’s first child, and Old Madam cared about it more than anyone. Even if Yun Shuangxu did not go, Old Madam would send someone to ask after her.
In any case, she had already resolved to seek marital separation and would no longer endure everything meekly as she had before. Even Old Madam could forget about making her lower her head.
Caiwei Courtyard was quite a distance from Old Madam’s Rong'an Hall. Afraid that Yun Shuangxu’s foot would not be able to endure the journey, Lü Bo had people carry her there in a shoulder sedan.
When they reached Rong'an Hall, the servant woman at the entrance did not announce her arrival. She simply lifted the curtain and let her in. “Fourth Young Madam, please come in. Old Madam was just about to send someone to summon you!”
Just as expected.
Yun Shuangxu gave a slight nod, told Lü Bo to wait outside, and walked in.
The room was filled with warmth, laughter, and cheerful conversation. First Madam, Xie Jingbai, and Lin Qingyun were all there, along with several Madams and Young Madams from the second and third branches.
Old Madam Xie, whose face was kindly and whose bearing was graceful and noble, was reclining against the couch with a smile as she passed on her experience of pregnancy to Lin Qingyun.
Lin Qingyun sat beside Old Madam, her face full of bashful sweetness as she promised Old Madam that she would take good care of the child and strive to give her a big, plump great-grandson.
Old Madam was so happy that she could hardly close her mouth. She patted Lin Qingyun’s hand and repeatedly said how good that was.
Three generations of grandmother and grandson enjoyed perfect harmony, making Yun Shuangxu seem like a stranger who had suddenly barged in.
“Elder Sister…” Seeing Yun Shuangxu enter, Lin Qingyun put on an act of rising to salute her.
“Your pregnancy is unstable, so sit properly. Your mistress will not blame you,” Old Madam said with a smile, stopping her.
Since Old Madam had said so, Yun Shuangxu naturally had nothing to say. She stepped forward and offered her greetings to Old Madam, Duchess Wei, and the aunts and sisters-in-law from the second and third branches.
Because of what had happened back then, the people from the second and third branches did not think highly of Yun Shuangxu. However, since Duchess Wei had handed her authority over the household to Yun Shuangxu, they remained fairly courteous on the surface and also inclined their bodies to return her greetings.
Her right foot was still faintly painful, making Yun Shuangxu’s steps somewhat stiff.
Lin Qingyun covered her heart as she looked at her. “Did Elder Sister truly sprain her foot? Last night, Lü Bo went to call Fourth Master and said that you had sprained your foot. As it happened, my stomach was hurting at the time, so Fourth Master did not dare leave. Elder Sister, you must not be angry with Fourth Master.”