Su Niao had never expected Xie Chenyan to agree. She was only picking a fight.
After all, although he had lost his memory, many things didn’t change just because the memories were gone. For example, his sanctimonious savior complex. He had stopped her from whipping a thief, and today he had self-righteously insisted that Ye Linlang had gotten the bracelet first, so it was wrong to fight over it. As though he were some man of unwavering principles.
And in her previous life, Xie Chenyan really had been a man of principles. Even when she had humiliated and tortured him mercilessly, he had never once yielded. Even when she drugged him and tormented him until he was half-dead, his blood boiling and his eyes red with rage, he had still refused to bow his head to her.
But Su Niao still thought he was a hypocrite. A sanctimonious hypocrite.
How could someone so full of self-righteousness willingly help another person remove their shoes and wash their feet?
Yet in the next instant, the man opposite her suddenly looked up. “Men and women should not touch intimately. What Miss asks of me is not difficult. If we’re being truthful, the one at a disadvantage would be you.”
Su Niao let out a cold laugh. “Heh.”
Just as she’d expected. Hypocritical and full of lofty-sounding excuses.
Sensing the mockery in her expression, Chen Yan paused briefly before speaking in an even tone.
“If Miss truly doesn’t mind someone of my background seeing and touching your feet, then I will not refuse any longer.”
Su Niao sneered. “What sort of person are you? You’re nothing but a servant. A servant like you doesn’t even count as a person in my eyes.”
The words were exceptionally cruel and cutting.
Yet Su Niao found that Xie Chenyan’s expression didn’t change in the slightest, as though no humiliation could truly wound his pride. Sitting on the small wooden stool, he silently took one of her feet into his hands. He removed the embroidered shoe, pink satin decorated with delicate peach blossoms. Then he removed the soft white sock.
After a brief pause, Chen Yan extended his hand.
Su Niao instantly snatched her foot back. Through gritted teeth, she spat out: “Get out.”
Chen Yan glanced at her once. Without a word, he rose and walked out of the room. Early the next morning, the wolf-hunting party set out.
Originally, Chen Yan had been leading it, but since he needed to escort Chen Xu to Yunzhou Prefecture that day, he didn’t go into the mountains.
After breakfast, Su Niao took Lichun and headed into town to shop.
In truth, few things in the entire county could truly catch her eye. But wandering the streets and buying things from time to time was one of her pleasures. She enjoyed the process itself; what she actually bought was secondary. However, as her carriage passed the alley entrance, she saw the Chen brothers fiddling with a rented carriage.
Chen Xu was about to leave for Yunzhou Prefecture. The journey was long, and he wanted to preserve his energy for the examinations, so he had reluctantly spent money to rent a carriage. Unexpectedly, the carriage broke down almost as soon as it left. Moreover, many scholars were traveling for the examinations these days, and nearly all the county’s rental carriages had already been leased out.
Just as they were about to lose valuable time, Chen Yan spotted the eldest Miss Su approaching from behind.
Su Niao saw the two brothers as well. But she paid them no attention whatsoever. Her carriage showed no sign of stopping, nor any intention of asking whether they needed help.
Chen Yan knew he had angered the young lady. After only a moment’s hesitation, however, he stepped forward and stopped the carriage. He then asked to borrow it.
Su Niao laughed in disbelief. “Borrow my carriage? You’ve certainly got some nerve.”
Chen Yan nodded. “It is indeed an imposition. But I have no choice except to endure your displeasure and ask anyway.”
“I know Miss is still angry. As long as you’re willing to help and lend us the carriage to take Ah-Xu to Yunzhou Prefecture, I’ll accept whatever punishment you see fit.”
This again? How can this man’s skin be so thick?
Su Niao leaned forward slightly. “Then I want you to beg me.”
Chen Xu hurriedly stepped forward and cupped his hands in salute. “My brother is only doing this for my sake. If Miss Su is displeased, then I…”
Before Chen Xu could finish speaking, Su Niao cut him off.
“You, get out of the way.”
Chen Xu: …
Chen Yan stepped forward and looked up at the young lady seated high in her carriage. His expression remained gentle. “I beg you.”
That only made Su Niao even angrier. In her previous life, no matter how much she had tortured him, he had never uttered the word ‘ please ‘. Yet now his backbone seemed awfully soft!
With a cold laugh, she said, “You really have no pride.”
Chen Yan nodded agreeably. “That’s true.”
As long as he could placate her, she could say whatever she liked.
But his calm acceptance gave Su Niao none of the satisfaction she wanted from humiliating an enemy. Grinding her teeth, she sneered, “If you want me to lend you the carriage, that’s fine. But you’ll have to kneel down and beg.”
Chen Xu’s expression immediately changed. “Brother!”
Su Niao lifted her chin.
The next moment, Chen Yan looked at her and slowly replied, “I can do that. However, it must be somewhere only Miss and I are present. I’ll kneel to Miss alone.”
Su Niao had intended to humiliate him, but he agreed so readily that she suddenly felt both suspicious and dissatisfied. Even so, Xie Chenyan’s expression remained calm and serious.
After a brief pause, she nodded. “Fine. Deal.”
Chen Yan inclined his head. “Thank you, Miss.”
He continued, “I need to escort Ah-Xu to Yunzhou City for the examinations. Once I return from Yunzhou, I’ll come find Miss and fulfill our agreement.”
The truth was that Su Niao was already having second thoughts. But the words had already left her mouth, and backing out at the last moment was not in her nature.
Watching the two men climb into her carriage, one of whom was her sworn enemy, she pointedly warned them:
“Don’t dirty my carriage.”
“And don’t touch anything inside without permission!”
“Don’t touch any of my things, understand?”
Chen Yan looked at her and answered each instruction obediently. “I understand.”
In the end, all Su Niao could do was curl her lips and grumble under her breath as she headed back to the Su estate.
The luxurious carriage slowly rolled out of Jining County and onto the official road leading to Yunzhou Prefecture.
Su Niao was unwilling to hand over her carriage entirely to someone else, so she even lent them the coachman along with the vehicle. As a result, Chen Yan did not need to drive and instead sat inside the carriage with Chen Xu.
The wealthy young lady’s carriage was far more spacious and luxurious than any carriage they had ever seen. There was enough room inside for two people to lie down comfortably.
Chen Yan glanced at the thin quilt lying nearby, patterned in soft pink, white, and pale yellow. He reached over, neatly folded it, and tucked it into the innermost corner before saying to Chen Xu: “Lie down and get some rest while you can.”
Once the examinations began, there would be several consecutive days with little opportunity to rest. Chen Xu had heard stories of promising candidates being drugged and missing the examinations. Because of that, he didn’t dare travel to Yunzhou early and stay ahead of time, choosing instead to arrive closer to the exam date. The downside, of course, was the exhausting journey.
Seeing Chen Yan put away the quilt, Chen Xu sighed in relief and stopped refusing. Carefully, he lay down against the carriage wall. The moment he settled in, something pressed against his back. Reaching over, he picked it up and found a small wooden carving. It was a peacock, carved so vividly that it seemed almost alive.
On the back were four boldly carved characters: “Su Little Peacock.”
Knowing he shouldn’t meddle with someone else’s belongings, Chen Xu quickly returned it to a corner where it wouldn’t get damaged. Yet he could not help smiling.
“So Miss Su is called ‘Little Peacock.’”
Chen Yan glanced at him.
Chen Xu hastily suppressed his smile. “I just think it suits her quite well.”
That beautiful, noble, proud, and free-spirited young lady really did resemble a gorgeous and proud little peacock.
After the autumn examinations began, they would last for nearly ten days. Once Chen Yan had settled Chen Xu into lodging in Yunzhou Prefecture, he turned the carriage around and headed back. By the time he returned to Ping’an Alley, night had already fallen. He went straight to the Su estate to return the carriage and fulfill the bargain he had made with Su Niao. But as soon as he reached the entrance, he noticed another carriage parked there, along with several guards.
A richly dressed young gentleman stood nearby, lifting the cover off a bamboo basket and gazing at Su Niao at the gate with eyes full of admiration and infatuation.
The next moment, a swarm of fireflies flew out of the basket. Countless points of light drifted into the air, creating a dreamlike, magical scene.
After Su Niao appeared outside the county yamen a few days earlier, Liu Xu, the magistrate’s son, was instantly captivated. After exhausting every means to learn her identity, he began courting her attentively.
Lichun threw away the flowers and pastries he sent. He had not even managed to step through the gates of the Su estate.
Realizing that a heavenly beauty like her could not be won over with ordinary tricks, Liu Xu personally led people to spend an entire night catching fireflies. And tonight, as soon as darkness fell, he hurried over.
The effort and ingenuity behind the gesture did genuinely surprise Su Niao. After all, when a cloud of fireflies suddenly burst forth and scattered into the night, the sight truly was beautiful. She stared quietly at them, feeling that the tiny insects were especially lovely as they desperately beat their wings toward freedom, their bodies glowing all the while.
The young lady was already blessed with breathtaking beauty. Now, bathed in the flickering light of countless fireflies, every curve of her brows and eyes seemed so exquisite that it could steal a person’s soul.
Liu Xu stood frozen in place. His eyes were fixed upon the girl before him, so entranced that he seemed to have forgotten how to breathe.
Not far away, Chen Yan watched the noble, stunning young lady tilt her head up to look at the fireflies, her slender figure outlined by the shimmering lights. After a brief pause, he slowly lowered his gaze.
At that moment, Su Niao noticed that not long after the fireflies struggled free from the bamboo basket, they began falling from the sky in clusters.
Specks of glowing light drifted downward and landed on the ground. Their soft radiance quickly dimmed and went out.
Packed so densely inside the basket, no one knew how much struggling and suffering the fireflies had endured. The moment they saw freedom, they desperately flew toward it, exhausting the last remnants of their lives in the process.
Before long, the ground was littered with the bodies of dead fireflies.
Su Niao pressed her lips together, and her expression turned cold.
The instant Liu Xu saw the beauty’s face darken, he struggled out of the daze her appearance had put him in. Realizing she was unhappy, he hurriedly tried to smooth things over.
“Well, Miss Su, all beautiful things are fleeting. It’s precisely because they’re brief and brilliant that they’re so precious. To have won your admiration was already their good fortune. Now that they’ve perished, one could say they’ve died a worthy death…”
For a moment, a loud buzzing filled Su Niao’s ears. The sight of those fireflies struggling free only to fall glowing from the sky had already filled her with discomfort.
Then Liu Xu’s words instantly reminded her of things she had heard in her previous life when she was imprisoned.
“Being born with such beauty was her good fortune. Receiving the master’s favor was an even greater blessing for which she should be endlessly grateful. Yet she overestimated herself. Now that she’s dead, she’s died exactly as she ought to.”
A worthy death?
Looking at the affectedly refined smile on Liu Xu’s face, Su Niao’s expression became utterly cold. “You’re the one who deserves a worthy death!”
“Get lost!”
With that, she turned around, stepped through the gate, and slammed it shut behind her.
Liu Xu had no idea how he had suddenly offended the beauty again. He barely avoided getting hit in the face by the closing gate, yet he paid it no mind. Instead, he anxiously knocked on the door, trying to apologize.
A moment later, guards emerged from inside the estate and drove him down the steps expressionlessly.
Chen Yan watched the young nobleman in his fine robes pacing in circles, scratching his head in anxiety.
In the end, Liu Xu could only plead humbly through the crack in the gate, begging the young lady not to be angry and promising to come back another day to make amends.
But Chen Yan knew Su Niao certainly wasn’t sulking behind the gate because of him.
In her eyes, the man outside wasn’t even worth getting angry over. When she was pleased, she might amuse herself with someone for a while. The moment she became annoyed, she would tell them to get lost without a second thought. That was simply how Miss Su behaved.
Chen Yan could almost imagine it. In the past, the pampered young lady had probably been just as capricious and unpredictable as she was today, yet everyone around her still treated her like the center of the universe, carefully indulging and coaxing her into a good mood. Only after a long while did peace finally return to the front of the Su estate.
Chen Yan handed the carriage back to the guards and turned to head home. He had not forgotten his agreement to kneel before the young lady. But he had no intention of seeking her out right now.
At daybreak the next morning, Chen Yan packed his things and headed into the mountains to rejoin the wolf-hunting party.