18 – The Actor
After Xiao Hang left, Ye Chen’s gaze towards Shen Qiu grew increasingly fervent. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, and his body began trembling uncontrollably.
Shen Qiu reached out to wipe the blood from his head, saying, “Husband, don’t hold back. I’m here with you. Let’s just treat it as someone adding to our excitement. Don’t feel burdened!”
Ye Chen looked at Shen Qiu and said, “I mistook that woman for you earlier. Only after kissing her did I realize it wasn’t you. I was afraid I’d mistaken someone for you again!” Then he shook his head violently.
Shen Qiu embraced Ye Chen and said, “Come, feel the calluses on my hand. Your Qiu’er has calluses on her tiger’s mouth. You touch them every day, so you should recognize them. Feel them!”
Ye Chen grabbed Shen Qiu’s right hand and immediately touched the callus the size of a pinky fingertip—left by his Qiu’er’s daily sword practice. There was no mistake. This was indeed his Qiu’er.
Then he pulled Shen Qiu into a kiss, completely losing control of himself afterward.
Ming Yue and Xing Er stood guard outside. Soon, they heard moans coming from inside. Both being inexperienced maidens, they glanced at each other and simultaneously leaped onto the rooftop across from them.
After landing steadily, Ming Yue even pricked up her ears to listen carefully before finally exhaling deeply and saying, “Finally, I can’t hear it anymore!”
Ming Yue asked Xing Er, “Has Mu Qing been found? Where has that guy disappeared to?”
Xing Er shook her head and said, “I don’t know. The Old Duke sent people to search for him, but he hasn’t been found yet.”
Ming Yue clenched her fists, waving them angrily as she said, “That cousin is truly despicable! How could she do such a thing? Thankfully, I recklessly took the peony away at the time, or else the Duke would have had to marry the second young lady.”
Xing Er patted Ming Yue and said with a smile, “You did the right thing this time!”
Only when the faint sound of roosters crowing was heard did the bedroom in Cherishing Autumn Pavilion finally quiet down. Shen Qiu lay in Ye Chen’s arms, fast asleep. Ye Chen gazed at Shen Qiu sleeping in his embrace, kissed her forehead, and closed his eyes to sleep as well.
Since the instigator had already been locked up, he would let his Qiu’er sleep soundly. How to handle this matter would be up to her, as it concerned a daughter of the Shen family after all.
Shen Rouyun and the peony were locked in the storage room. No one brought them water or food. They called out repeatedly, “Is anyone there?” But no one answered them.
It was only by late afternoon that Shen Qiu woke up, her body weak and devoid of strength. In contrast, Ye Chen, having slept, looked thoroughly satisfied and full of energy.
Seeing Shen Qiu awake, Ye Chen hurriedly asked, “You’re awake? How are you? Still tired?”
Images from the previous night instantly flashed through Shen Qiu’s mind. Last night’s Ye Chen had been terrifying. The thought of someone drugging her husband made her grit her teeth so hard she nearly drew blood.
Shen Qiu said to Ye Chen, “I’m feeling a bit better, but I still don’t want to move.”
As she spoke, she struggled to sit up. Ye Chen quickly said, “If you don’t want to move, then lie down. I’ve had someone prepare porridge. Have some.”
Shen Qiu said, “I’ll have some porridge, but we need to deal with yesterday’s matter. We can’t delay any longer. Although I asked my grandmother to go back and tell my second aunt that Shen Rouyun would be staying at the Duke Manor for a while, we still need to resolve this as soon as possible.”
“My second aunt is an unreasonable person—otherwise, she wouldn’t have raised a daughter like Shen Rouyun.”Ye Chen said, “It’s alright. Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it. If you can’t bring yourself to do it, I will. Since she dared to do this, she should be prepared to go to hell.” A flash of killing intent briefly appeared in Ye Chen’s eyes.
Ye Chen originally wanted to chop her into pieces and feed her to the dogs, but she was Shen Qiu’s sister. He couldn’t deal with her directly—even if she were to be killed, he had to respect Shen Qiu’s wishes.
In his previous life, Ye Chen’s hands were stained with blood. In this life, for the sake of his Qiu’er, he didn’t want that anymore.
His Qiu’er was so good—she was certainly destined for reincarnation. He feared he might not be able to enter the cycle of rebirth. Without reincarnation, there would be no next life, and without a next life, how could he find his Qiu’er? He would rather suffer eternally in hell than watch his Qiu’er marry someone else.
After Shen Qiu finished her porridge, Ye Chen helped her dress, and the two went to the study together. Shortly after, Ming Yue brought Shen Rouyun and Shao Yao over.
When Shen Rouyun was brought in, she was wearing Shao Yao’s maid outfit. Indeed, when they saw her yesterday, she had been left with only her undergarment.
As soon as Shen Rouyun was set down, she crawled toward Shen Qiu, pleading, “Sister, your husband violated me! You must stand up for me!”
Shen Qiu sprang to her feet and slapped Shen Rouyun across the face. “My husband violated you? If he had, why hasn’t the poison in his body been cured?”
“You harmed my husband. The only reason I haven’t handed you directly over to the Emperor is out of consideration that we’re both daughters of the Shen family. If I were to hand you over to the Emperor, your only fate would be death.”
Although Shen Rouyun had ambition, she lacked courage. But Shen Qiu wasn’t just trying to scare her—if the Emperor found out that Ye Chen had been poisoned, the consequences for the Shen family would likely be even greater than those from Shen Baisong’s incident, and the Shen family couldn’t afford that.
Ye Chen sat to the side, gazing tenderly at Shen Qiu. In her panic, Shen Rouyun threw herself at Ye Chen’s feet, clutching the hem of his trousers and begging, “Brother-in-law, you’ve ruined my reputation! You can’t just abandon me. I only ask to be your concubine—I won’t threaten Sister’s position.”
Ye Chen kicked Shen Rouyun away, his voice devoid of any warmth. “My initial thought was to chop you up and feed you to the dogs. Be my concubine? Your imagination is far more beautiful than your appearance.”
Shen Qiu hadn’t expected Shen Rouyun to be so shameless as to beg her own husband to take her as a concubine right in front of her.
Shen Qiu sighed and sat back down. “Second Sister, don’t even think about becoming my husband’s concubine. Even if he had touched you yesterday—which he didn’t—you still wouldn’t be allowed through the Ye family’s doors.”
“Now speak up: who gave you the drug? Don’t tell me you brought it yourself.”
Shen Rouyun’s eyes darted around nervously as she said without conviction, “I brought it myself.”
Shen Qiu snorted. “It seems you don’t want to talk. Actually, even if you did speak, there’s little I can do—after all, I’m also a daughter of the Shen family. Handling Shen family matters like this makes me hesitant. Ming Yue, take the Duke’s token and go to the palace. Let the Emperor’s Black Cloud Guard handle this! That way, I can extricate myself in time.”
Upon hearing that Shen Qiu intended to hand her over to the Emperor’s Black Cloud Guard, Shen Rouyun began to tremble. They were a group of demons—if she fell into their hands, forget about becoming Ye Chen’s concubine, being chopped up and fed to the dogs would be a merciful end.
“I’ll talk, I’ll talk! Please don’t send me to the Black Cloud Guard, I beg you, Sister!” Shen Rouyun hurriedly kowtowed.
Shen Qiu said, “Speak.”Shen Rouyun took a deep breath, calming her panic, and said, “It was a woman from the troupe you hired yesterday who told me she had a way to get me into the Duke Manor to become the Duke’s woman. She was the one who sprinkled the medicine—I never touched it.”
Shen Qiu and Ye Chen exchanged a glance. Shen Qiu asked, “What kind of woman was she? What did she look like?”
Shen Rouyun shook her head and replied, “She was wearing stage makeup, so her real appearance wasn’t clear, but she had a thumb-sized scar on the right side of her neck that looked like a burn!”