A little girl—could it be that she recognized him? He had a gift for remembering faces, yet the one before him was completely unfamiliar. Her clear black-and-white eyes looked like a startled deer that had strayed into a wolf’s den. She was the one who had barged into his room, yet she looked aggrieved?
His grip on her arm was so tight that Shen Qingluo couldn’t help but cry out in pain: “Y-you… let go of me.” It wasn’t anger, nor was it defiance—her natural fragility carried a tearful charm, pitiful to behold.
Ye Huaijin released her hand. Before he could question her, she bolted from the room as if fleeing for her life, stumbling over the threshold and falling hard.
Ye Huaijin instinctively reached out: “…” Unable to suppress a low chuckle, he said, “You entered the wrong room and disturbed my sleep. I won’t hold it against you—just mind your steps.”
Whether she heard him or not, her figure vanished quickly from sight.
Hearing the commotion, Tian Zhi appeared at the door and asked, “Fourth Master, is something the matter?”
Ye Huaijin shook his head. “Just a little girl who mistook the door.”
After a night of wind and rain, the morning sky cleared. Voices of conversation rose and fell across the ship. Lu Yan knocked on Shen Qingluo’s door: “Ah Luo, shall I accompany you for a walk on deck?”
From inside came a drowsy, half-awake reply: “Not today. Go on your own.”
Lu Yan returned to his room, sulking.
For the next few days, Shen Qingluo never left her quarters. Her fear of Ye Huaijin was not only because of his lofty rank and aloof nature— but also his iron-blooded ruthlessness. Once, at a Ye family banquet, she had drunk too much. While wandering outside to sober up, she accidentally entered Lanyue Pavilion and witnessed Ye Huaijin kill a man. It was a servant who had served him for years, but had grown disloyal. With a single bow and arrow, Ye Huaijin ended his life. He hadn’t even changed out of his official robes. His face was stern and cold, his eyes unblinking.
That was the first time Shen Qingluo had ever seen someone killed. She suffered nightmares all night afterward, and from then on developed the weakness of trembling knees whenever she saw Ye Huaijin.
But why was Ye Huaijin here, in Jiangling City, hundreds of miles away?
Looking up, she saw Xiao Ya swinging her legs while nibbling pastries. Shen Qingluo asked: “You said there’s a famous doctor in Jiangling. What is he skilled at treating?”
Xiao Ya gave a casual “Oh,” and replied: “Delivering babies.”
Shen Qingluo: “…”
Thinking she hadn’t heard correctly, Xiao Ya repeated without a trace of shyness—despite being only fourteen: “My father says Doctor Bai is a master of gynecology. The palace once sent for him, but he refused. He couldn’t bear to leave behind his family’s fortune.”
“Fortune? Isn’t the palace salary far greater?”
“‘Fortune (Facai)’ is the name of Doctor Bai’s pet turtle.”
Shen Qingluo: “…”
Could it be that Ye Huaijin really came here to see a doctor? She had always thought the rumor—that Ye Huaijin was injured and unable to have heirs—was mere gossip. Yet when she recalled that in her previous life, by the time she died, Ye Huaijin was already past forty and had no children. So was he truly incapable? No wonder he always carried prayer beads, living with a monk-like restraint, unlike ordinary men. It turned out he simply had no choice.
Shen Qingluo sighed. The mighty head of the Ye family, without a son—surely he would have to adopt from a collateral branch. Who would be lucky enough to seize such fortune?
In her past life, she had been on friendly terms with the second branch’s young lady. She remembered that the second branch had a little boy whom Ye Huaijin seemed to favor.
“What are you thinking about, Miss?” Xiao Ya was puzzled by her mistress’s sighs and troubled look.
Shen Qingluo shook her head, chiding herself for overthinking: “Forget it. None of this concerns me.”
The journey went smoothly until they reached Wang County. The door of the neighboring room never opened again, silent as though no one had ever stayed there.
Shen Qingluo guessed that the illness was not something to be seen by outsiders and must be kept hidden. She said nothing to anyone.
Once they set foot on solid ground, the weary faces of the party finally brightened. They found an inn, ate a hearty meal, and stayed the night before setting out again. They hadn’t noticed that, just as they disembarked, two figures had fallen in behind them—not deliberately following, but by chance.
Ye Huaijin truly had come to Jiangling City to seek treatment. The emperor had granted him special permission, mindful of his years of service and battlefield victories.
The Privy Council and the Secretariat shared control of military and civil authority, together called the “Two Offices.” The Secretariat was known as the Eastern Office, the Privy Council as the Western Office.
Among the people, Ye Huaijin was most often addressed as Lord of the Western Office.
The Southern Court had originally established the Privy Council to “govern the military through civil officials.” But civil officials had never set foot on the battlefield; their strategies were little more than paper talk, and many defeats had been suffered.
The current emperor, however, harbored ambitions of expansion. He began to favor military men. Ye Huaijin, who had spent ten years on the northern frontier, was the one most familiar with the northern tribes. Yet his appointment as Privy Envoy owed much to the arrow wound he had taken to the abdomen in battle. That arrow ended his chances of ever returning to the front lines, and left him with the ailment that the world believed made him incapable of fathering children.
This curbed part of the emperor’s ambitions, but allowed Ye Huaijin to secure his position in the Privy Council. Naturally, he had to play the part of a man desperately seeking a cure.
Bai Tong was an old friend of his. No one could pry open Bai Tong’s lips, so Ye Huaijin could come and go freely.
As the party ahead stepped down from their carriage, Ye Huaijin’s gaze immediately fell upon the little girl who had mistakenly entered his room that night.
That night he had only caught a glimpse—just a pair of clear, black-and-white eyes. Now he finally saw the whole picture. She wore a dress the color of sky after rain, and as she helped someone down from the carriage, a slender white wrist revealed a jade bracelet. Once her feet touched the ground, she smoothed her skirts and said something to the person beside her. Her fair face lit with dimples, bright eyes and gleaming teeth, lively and mischievous. Completely different from what he had seen that night.
Ye Huaijin chuckled softly: “So, the little girl has two faces.”
Tian Zhi, not knowing whom his master referred to, was about to ask when he noticed a refined figure stepping down from another carriage. Startled, he said: “Isn’t that the son of Grand Tutor Lu’s household?”
Ye Huaijin’s expression grew thoughtful: “Go find out.” He had thought she was just a random little girl with no connection. Now it seemed otherwise.
Tian Zhi soon returned with news: “I’ve learned the details. That young lady is the eldest daughter of Marquis Zhongyong’s household. She was raised by her grandmother in Shanyang County since childhood. This time she’s returning to the capital to fulfill her betrothal to Young Master Lu.”
Ye Huaijin rarely concerned himself with inner-court affairs, but Tian Zhi had a gossiping heart. He went on, recounting Shen Qingluo’s life from birth to being sent away to Shanyang.
At last, Tian Zhi sighed with sympathy: “Matters of fate are known only to heaven. Yet a few coincidences, and people branded her as cursed—one who harms father and mother. Isn’t that deliberately cutting off her path to live? It’s one thing for outsiders to talk nonsense, but her own parents believed it. Poor Miss Shen, driven from home at such a young age—who knows how much she suffered.”
He rambled on, not noticing his master’s silence: “Though Young Master Lu is talented and handsome, his family has declined. If the Marquis’s household were truly fair, why not let the second young lady marry him instead?”
As they walked past the inn’s entrance, a window on the second floor suddenly opened. Ye Huaijin looked up—and met a pair of casually wandering eyes. The moment those eyes saw him, they froze.
Then the window slammed shut.
Ye Huaijin: “…”