Outside the vermilion gates of Marquis Jinliang’s residence, Gu Jiangzhi stood in a worn blue-gray robe. Under the dim glow of the lanterns, his face appeared increasingly anxious. He had waited nearly half an hour and seen no sign of Nian Chujiu.
The waiting was torture. Even he could not tell whether he hoped she would come or dreaded it.
At last, an unremarkable carriage with blue curtains emerged from the shadows at the far end of the street and rolled steadily toward the residence. Its wheels rumbled over the stone-paved road, the sound unusually clear in the silent night.
Closer. Closer still.
Gu Jiangzhi’s entire body tensed. His eyes locked onto the approaching carriage.
She’s here! She really came! Instinctively, he stepped forward half a pace. Yet the carriage did not slow down. Nor did it stop in front of him. It simply passed by.
Through a briefly lifted window curtain, Gu Jiangzhi caught a vague glimpse of several young men seated inside. The night was too dark and the carriage interior too dim for him to make out their faces. He froze where he stood. Without realizing it, the back of his inner robe had become soaked with sweat. Only after the carriage turned into a secluded side alley did it gradually slow to a stop.
Inside the carriage, Fourth Brother, Nian Jinlou, lowered his voice and asked, “Did you get a good look? It was blue-gray, right?”
Fifth Brother and Sixth Brother answered at the same time, “Right. Blue-gray. We saw it clearly.”
Fifth Brother couldn’t help chuckling. “Amazing. Jiaojiao predicted Gu Er-gou perfectly. He really showed up here.”
Sixth Brother nodded vigorously, his eyes shining in the darkness. “Of course! Jiaojiao is so clever. How could Gu Er-gou possibly be a match for her?”
Yet Gu Er-gou had dared to force Jiaojiao into becoming a concubine. Did he think the men of the Nian family were all dead? Apparently all three brothers thought of the same thing at once. A sour ache welled in their chests, and their eyes reddened at once. They hated Gu Er-gou even more.
“I really want to beat that bastard to death,” Fifth Brother growled, clenching his fist. “Beat him into a puddle of mud.”
Sixth Brother, being the youngest and hottest-blooded, immediately chimed in, “Count me in!”
“Enough. Stop talking big and do something useful.” Being the eldest among them, Fourth Brother was usually the most level-headed. “A newly enfeoffed country bumpkin dares to look down on the Nian family. That only proves we haven’t worked hard enough. If someone from the Nian family held real power in the new dynasty, would the Gu family dare humiliate Jiaojiao like this? So work harder, gentlemen. Stop drifting through life eating and waiting to die.” As he spoke, he rummaged through the pile of clothes they had brought with them, pulled out the blue-gray robe, and handed it to Fifth Brother. “Fifth Brother, put this on.”
Fifth Brother changed into the blue-gray robe. While tightening his sash, he muttered, “Fourth Brother is right. In the end, money alone isn’t enough. You need power too. But our family motto has always been, ‘Guard the trades of the marketplace and stay far from the dangers of officialdom.’ That’s not so easy to overcome.”
Sixth Brother was more optimistic. “One step at a time. After we deal with Gu Er-gou, we can discuss the rest later.” He picked up a waterskin and jumped from the carriage with Fifth Brother.
The two of them dumped the entire contents of the waterskin, foul-smelling wastewater, all over the blue-gray robe. Then, pinching their noses, they quickly climbed back into the carriage. “Ugh… blech!”
The foul stench hit him head-on, so overpowering that Fifth Brother could barely keep his eyes open. “Damn it, this is a case of injuring the enemy by a thousand while hurting yourself by eight hundred. What rotten luck!”
Sixth Brother stuck his head out the carriage window, still pinching his nose shut. “For Jiaojiao’s sake, what’s a little bad smell?”
“You’ve got a point.” Hearing that, Fifth Brother suddenly felt that the stench wasn’t entirely unbearable after all.
From the carriage window, Fourth Brother tossed out a black cloth sack. “Fifth Brother, remember to put this over your head.”
“Got it.” Fifth Brother caught the sack one-handed and watched as the carriage disappeared into the distance.
Meanwhile, seeing that only a quarter of an hour remained before the curfew drums would sound, Gu Jiangzhi finally relaxed somewhat. He intended to find Gu Liuer at the side gate and return home together. To make it back in time, he would have to hurry. He needed to jog the entire way if he wanted to cross his own threshold before the final drumbeats died away. Otherwise, if a patrol mistook him for a vagrant, he would not only be detained but also subjected to flogging.
The capital’s laws were strictly enforced these days. Gu Jiangzhi had no illusion that merely announcing himself as belonging to Marquis Zhongyong’s household would let him swagger freely through the streets.
Just as he turned toward the side gate of Marquis Jinliang’s residence, another carriage approached. The clear rattle of wheels and the crisp rhythm of hooves striking stone came from the far end of the alley.
Clip-clop. Clip-clop. Clip-clop. Each sound struck directly against his heart. His pulse instantly quickened.
She’s here! Miss Nian really came!
As though fulfilling his hopes, the carriage rolled to a stop directly in front of Marquis Jinliang’s residence. The curtain lifted. A maid dressed in apricot-colored clothing jumped down neatly from the carriage, holding a crimson invitation card decorated with gold flecks. It was none other than Mingyue, Nian Chujiu’s personal maid.
Gu Jiangzhi felt the blood rush to his head. His entire body was trembling. Stepping forward, he blocked Mingyue’s path, but he addressed Nian Chujiu inside the carriage. “Miss Nian, must you really take things this far?”
Seated properly in the carriage, where blocks of ice cooled the air, Nian Chujiu let her fingertips glide across the smooth, chilled bronze water clock beside her. Her voice was so calm that no emotion could be detected in it. “If the Gu family chose to weave a scheme of deception on all sides, then you should have expected that paper can never wrap up a fire forever. Or perhaps, in Young Master Gu’s eyes, only the Gu family is allowed to scheme against others, while anyone who exposes the truth is accused of ‘taking things too far’?”
The words lodged in Gu Jiangzhi’s throat. His chest rose and fell violently, but he could not find a single argument in response.
After a long silence, his voice softened deliberately. “Miss Nian, none of this was my intention. It was my mother’s doing… the result of decisions my family’s elders made. But my feelings for you have never changed. Ever since the first time I saw you in the peach grove when we were children, wearing that goose-yellow dress…”
“Heh.” A faint laugh abruptly cut off the heartfelt memory he had been trying to recount.
The laughter drifted from behind the lowered carriage curtain, carrying unmistakable mockery.
“The first time you saw me, weren’t you thinking, ‘The Nian family’s little girl really looks like a golden doll’?”
Gu Jiangzhi: “…”
A wave of humiliation washed over him, as though his clothes had been stripped away in public. Because his mother had indeed said those exact words years ago: “That little girl from the Nian family is all golden and glittering, like a walking ingot. Son, if you can marry that golden doll, you’ll never have to worry about food or clothing for the rest of your life.”
Nian Chujiu traced the bronze surface of the water clock with one finger and continued lightly: “Come to think of it, our engagement was never entirely innocent to begin with. Both families had their own calculations. Your Gu family wanted the Nian family’s wealth. My Nian family wanted a poor but presentable young man from the Gu family to marry into ours.”
The difference was that the Nian family had always been upfront about their intentions.
Nothing had been hidden. Nothing had been disguised. The Nian family would have purchased the house for the marriage. The Nian family would have paid for it. The Gu family was only expected to provide the groom. And since the Nian family already had male heirs to continue the family business, any children born to Nian Chujiu could still bear the Gu surname. Frankly, where else under heaven could one find such an advantageous arrangement for a live-in son-in-law? Everything went her way, and she was still dissatisfied.
Gu Jiangzhi said hoarsely in anger, “Say whatever you want. My sincerity toward you, Nian Chujiu, can be witnessed by the sun and the moon!”
“Your little bit of ‘sincerity’ isn’t worth much.” Nian Chujiu let out a cold laugh. “From now on, stop saying things like that to disgust me.”