The moment Lu Jinghan stepped out of the flower hall, Wang set down the invitation card in her hand. Her expression darkened at once. “All of you, prepare properly. Seven days from now, you will accompany me to the banquet. And do not lose your dignity again like today!”
Old Madam Wang’s words were both instruction and warning. What she valued most was reputation.
With that, her wrinkled hand rose to her temple, her voice lazy and weary. “I am tired. Help me back.”
The sisters Su Ruoxi and Su Ruolan answered in unison and rose to respectfully see Grandmother off, eyes lowered and obedient, each nursing her own thoughts.
After Wang left, only the two sisters remained in the flower hall. Su Ruolan raised her eyes to Su Ruoxi, a flicker in her gaze, as if nursing a grudge. “Why did Sister have to be so aggressive today? I was only thinking of Sister’s good…”
Su Ruoxi stepped closer to Su Ruolan and reached out to gently brush her temple. Her tone was soft. “Thank you for your painstaking care, Sister. But did you not rest well last night? Your complexion really is a bit wan. There are dark marks under your eyes. It makes one’s heart ache to see.”
As she spoke, Su Ruoxi’s fingertip slid from Su Ruolan’s temple down to the collar of her dress. It paused suddenly. Her gaze fixed on the red mark half-hidden within the collar. She lowered her eyes and sighed softly. “Seven days from now is the Lu household’s birthday banquet. Sister should go back and prepare early.”
Su Ruolan was slightly startled. A flicker of panic passed through her eyes. She lowered her gaze at once to hide her emotions. She reached up and casually gathered her collar, covering the red mark. Her voice was slightly hoarse. “Sister is right. I will go back first. Sister should also take good care of herself. Do not forget to take that tonic every day on time.”
Then she turned to her maid. “Qiao’er, go see if Dongju has finished brewing my beauty tonic.”
Su Ruolan led her maid toward the second branch’s courtyard. Just then, Qingdai quietly returned to Su Ruoxi’s side. She bent close and whispered, “Young Miss, it is done.”
Su Ruoxi gave a slight nod. A smile so faint it was almost imperceptible appeared at the corner of her lips.
Su Ruoxi and her maids Minghui and Qingdai were walking toward Qingwu Courtyard when, at the corner of the corridor, they encountered Lu Jinghan. He seemed to be waiting for her.
Su Ruoxi paused slightly, but did not stop. She lowered her eyes and lashes and said quietly, “Why is the Marquis’s heir here? This is the inner courtyard of Duke An’s household. It is improper.”
Lu Jinghan stood in the corridor’s shadow, tapping a folding fan lightly against his palm, his gaze deep as a pool. “Ruoxi, what is wrong? Are you not fully recovered? Why are you so distant with me?”
He stepped slowly closer and reached out to touch Su Ruoxi’s cheek. Su Ruoxi turned aside to avoid it, her fingers tightening on her handkerchief. Her voice was cold as frost. “I am perfectly well. Please, Marquis’s heir, conduct yourself with propriety.”
“When we met in the plum garden that day, you were not so cold. Snow was falling on your shoulders. You gave me a sachet with your own hands. I thought… I thought there was already an understanding between us.” With that, Lu Jinghan took a pale pink sachet from his chest and lightly rubbed the twin lotus pattern on it.
Su Ruoxi looked at the sachet. Every stitch had indeed been her own work. To avoid future trouble, she quickly snatched it back from Lu Jinghan’s hand and placed it in Qingdai’s. She gave a low order. “Take it and burn it.”
Then she raised her eyes to Lu Jinghan, her expression calm again. “The Marquis’s heir should not bring up old matters. The wind and snow in the plum garden that day were heavy. I merely saw that your clothes were thin, and I happened to have a sachet made with mugwort, cinnamon, clove, and other cold-dispelling herbs. I gave it to you casually to ward off the cold. What other meaning was there? Now the rules between households are strict. Please respect your station and do not make things difficult for me.”
With that, she turned and left with Qingdai and Minghui, her back cold as frost.
Lu Jinghan watched her receding figure. His eyes darkened. The folding fan in his hand snapped shut. His knuckles went white.
“So be it. The birthday banquet is in seven days. She cannot avoid me forever.” He murmured to himself, his voice swallowed by the corridor wind.
In the second branch’s Zhiyun Courtyard, incense curled from the brazier. Su Ruolan sat before the mirror, her fingertip brushing the faint red mark at her neck, her gaze dim.
Qiao’er brought forward a small celadon bowl and said quietly, “Young Miss, Dongju said this beauty tonic has been prepared as you instructed, with snow frog jelly and pearl powder added, boiled three times over. Not a thing is off.”
Su Ruolan took it, blew lightly on it, and drank it down.
The tonic was slightly hot as it went down her throat, but her expression did not change. She handed the empty bowl back to Qiao’er, then suddenly frowned, savoring the taste in her mouth. She asked, puzzled, “Qiao’er, why does today’s tonic have an extra bitterness? The taste is different from usual…”
Qiao’er’s heart tightened. She lowered her head. “This tonic was brewed by Dongju herself and delivered by this servant’s own hands. No one else touched it in between. Perhaps the heat was a little off. This servant will go remind Dongju to be more careful tomorrow.”
Su Ruolan nodded, then placed a preserved fruit in her mouth. She picked up a teacup and said quietly, “Never mind. Go bring the flowing light brocade Grandmother rewarded me a few days ago.”
“In seven more days is the Lu household’s birthday banquet. I must prepare well and win the Lu Old Madam’s favor. The position of Han-gege’s heir’s wife can only be mine. Su Ruoxi is nothing but my stepping stone.”
Qiao’er lowered her eyes and answered, then withdrew.
Just then, another maid, Jin’er, hurried in from outside and whispered a few words in Su Ruolan’s ear.
Hearing that Lu Jinghan and Su Ruoxi had met in the corridor, Su Ruolan’s eyes flashed with cold light. She smashed the teacup in her hand to pieces and ground out, “That wretch. She rejects Han-gege to his face but seduces him behind his back.”
Though Lu Jinghan and Su Ruoxi had done nothing improper, she could not tolerate such a threat. From childhood, the legitimate daughter of Duke An’s household had been Su Ruoxi. Everyone’s eyes had always been on her. She could not help but fear that her Han-gege would one day be lured away by Su Ruoxi.
Ever since she learned her true identity, that she and her brother were not born of the second branch but were the true blood of the first branch, Duke An himself, she had secretly resolved to seize everything that belonged to Su Ruoxi. Su Ruoxi deserved only to be her stepping stone.
Back then, her mother and her real father, Duke An, had already pledged themselves to each other. If not for Duke An’s household Old Madam Wang setting her eyes on the lavish dowry the Xie family had prepared for Xie Wenjun, and urgently needing Xie Wenjun to marry into Duke An’s household to fill its deficits, her mother would never have been forced to lower herself to become the second branch’s second wife.
Fortunately, the second branch’s master, her nominal father Su Yuanqing, was a drunkard and a lecher. He had ruined his health early, and children came hard to him. Only then did her mother have the chance to raise her and her brother as second branch blood.
One day, when the time was right, she would take everything from that mother and her children, and step over them to return to the main seat of Duke An’s household.
After a pause, a cold smile suddenly curved Su Ruolan’s lips. “No matter. In seven days, at the birthday banquet, Su Ruoxi will have her moment of humiliation.”
Her heart full of scheming and jealousy, she completely forgot the change in the tonic’s taste. She did not notice the abnormality quietly growing in her body. She thought only of her plans for the birthday banquet.