The red silk bed curtains threaded with gold wire shook and trembled in terror. How long it had been, nobody knew, before the wind stopped and the rain cleared inside the curtains.
Her voice, hoarse from crying and pleading, had gone quiet once, and after he fed her tea and she finished drinking, it went hoarse all over again.
By this point, Shen Lizhuang had completely lost the ability to produce a sound. She quietly let her delicate arms—covered all over in messy red marks—drop against the bedding, wordlessly allowing Ji Mu to embrace her like an easily shattered jade doll. Her eyes flickered with lingering, unsteady tears, her red lips were damp, and her strands of hair clung stickily against her snow-white cheeks as she breathed in deeply.
Ji Mu cupped the delicate face of the person in his arms and lowered his head to kiss her once more.
A clamoring thought surged through his heart. She belonged to him; even every single strand of her hair should belong to him, Ji Heqing! Even if it had been Shen Meizhuang sitting within those curtains from the very beginning, he wouldn’t exchange her!
“Jiaojiao.”
His hoarse tone called out her name.
In an instant, Shen Lizhuang’s body gave a slight jolt. This jolt caused her to bite her lower lip because of that indescribable sense of fullness.
Beyond the embarrassment, there was an overwhelming sense of panic. She panicked that the Prince of Jing had already discovered the truth, knowing that she was Shen Lizhuang and not Shen Meizhuang, and she panicked even more at his frantic actions just now—which felt as though he meant to exhaust her to death right there on the bed, perhaps driven by his true, unmasked intent.
Ji Mu’s long, warm fingers swept across Shen Lizhuang’s soft, hibiscus-like face with full tenderness. Without needing any force, his fingertips sank deep into her dimples.
“Make some sounds; you don’t have to hold it in.”
Shen Lizhuang didn’t even want to groan a single breath.
“You’ve been intimate with this Prince many times now, and you’re still shy?”
She nearly rolled her eyes. They had been intimate many times, and she wasn’t all that shy anymore, but couldn’t he hold back a little, leaving her some strength instead of relentlessly interrogating her, only to finish tiring her out until her limbs were completely weak and then remarking on how someone wasn’t speaking up?
Seeming to realize that she was unlikely to entertain him at the moment, he didn’t push her too hard. “Your childhood name is Jiaojiao. Why didn’t you tell me these past few days, and instead let this Prince find out from Consort Dowager Yun?”
Shen Lizhuang didn’t even hum a sound, leaving him to mutter to himself over there.
Ji Mu couldn’t see, but she knew he could feel—he could feel her cheeks swelling up like a chipmunk hiding nuts because of his words. If her status hadn’t restrained her, she might have bared her sharp, squirrel-like teeth and bitten off his index finger.
The corners of his mouth curved upward in an imperceptible arc.
“Are you tired? If you’re tired, then go to sleep.”
Shen Lizhuang genuinely rolled her eyes this time, thinking to herself, How is anyone supposed to sleep with you right inside?
Ji Mu cradled her sideways into his embrace, lightly kissed her soft, fragrant forehead, and patted her back. “Go to sleep; this Prince will leave shortly.”
Shameless. Shen Lizhuang cursed inwardly, her face hot and trembling with fury.
She lacked the strength to speak and couldn’t even ask about the Tribute Hall exam fraud case—whether he had sought justice for Li Zhao and dragged that corrupt official who took bribes out into the open to be publicly disgraced.
She was utterly exhausted. Between reading books all day and being tormented until the middle of the night, she simply couldn’t fight off the drowsiness any longer. Uncomfortable as she was, she drifted off into a heavy sleep anyway.
She didn’t even know when he had withdrawn.
She slept straight until noon the following day before finally waking up.
When she woke, her body felt dry and clean, and her undergarments had been changed into a fresh, skin-friendly cotton dress. Only her limbs—especially her inner thighs—remained so sore and weak that she could barely manage to get off the bed.
Shivering as she clutched the brocade quilt around herself and sat up, she discovered that the mattress and quilt covers beneath her had also been replaced with new ones. Judging by how the set from last night must have been soiled beyond recognition, Shen Lizhuang’s pale, delicate face—just waking from sleep—couldn’t help but flush red at the thought.
“Princess.”
Yingluo’s calm, rational voice sounded abruptly beside her ear. Shen Lizhuang turned her gaze sideways to see that the door was open. Yingluo walked in alongside Zhuji, carrying breakfast. After entering, Zhuji closed the door behind them.
In the red lacquer tray presented before her eyes were rice porridge and some flavored side dishes, such as minced white cabbage, which looked quite appetizing.
Shen Lizhuang was about to reach for the chopsticks without getting out of bed when Yingluo offered a reminder, after all.
“There is contraception medicine in the porridge.”
Shen Lizhuang’s fingers trembled violently. She raised her eyes to look at Yingluo, who was bowing and holding the medicine tray outside the bed curtains, her gaze filled with questioning.
Yingluo lowered her waist with a calm demeanor and said, “This is the intention of Master and Madam. In her heart, the Second Young Miss is certainly unwilling to bear the eldest brother-in-law’s offspring. This servant does not wish for you to drink this medicine in ignorance; I am merely reminding the Second Young Miss, but you must drink this medicine regardless.”
Shen Lizhuang didn’t ask how Yingluo had managed to get such medicine. To avoid alarming the Prince of Jing’s Manor, it must have been secretly slipped to Yingluo by Lin Ruoxi during their home visit.
She finally understood why she had felt over the past two days that Yingluo was acting as if holding a feather arrow as a command token—it turned out she genuinely was.
Shen Lizhuang did not touch the medicinal porridge, instead asking in return, “What if I don’t drink it?”
A trace of surprise surfaced in Yingluo’s eyes. “Why?”
In her view, if the Second Young Miss was truly as she presented herself—unwillingly thrust into taking another’s place as an illegitimate Princess consort—she ought to willingly drink the contraceptive medicine and leave no future troubles for herself.
The interactions inside the room last night had been so intense, and it was already quite late in the day. If she didn’t drink it now, the possibility of conception was extremely high.
Unless Shen Lizhuang was not as innocent and pure as she made herself seem, and genuinely wanted to usurp the magpie’s nest and secure the position of Princess consort for herself.
Shen Lizhuang shifted her gaze toward Zhuji. The young girl with twin buns on either side of her head had darted eyes and a hesitant expression, stopping herself from speaking.
She smiled slightly. “Zhuji, was the contraceptive medicine given by Madam Lin? Does Lord Shen know about this?”
Zhuji froze. Before Yingluo could signal her with her eyes, she nodded slightly, then slowly shook her head.
Yingluo reprimanded in a low voice, “Zhuji!” Her tone was as severe as if she were disciplining a younger sister for stirring up trouble.
Shen Lizhuang understood and did not accept the medicinal porridge.
Yingluo urged, “Second Young Miss, time is running out! The Second Young Miss is someone with grand ambitions; would carrying the Prince’s flesh and blood possibly do you any good when it comes to taking the women’s academy exams?”
Shen Lizhuang smiled and said, “Didn’t your helping the Eldest Young Miss elope stem precisely from your hope that I would stay behind to play this fake Princess? Consummating the marriage with the Prince of Jing and bearing children are the duties of a Princess consort, aren’t they? Why are you so opposed to it?”
Yingluo pressed her lips together and remained silent, the hand holding the red-lacquered tray trembling slightly and uncontrollably.
Shen Lizhuang could tell that everyone had their own selfish motives. Yingluo had her own agenda that she wanted to keep hidden, which Shen Lizhuang couldn’t see through for the moment, but… “I will not drink it. This medicine harms the body.”
Yingluo was stunned. “Does the Princess really want to bear the Prince of Jing’s offspring?”
Shen Lizhuang’s tone was half-true, half-false. “Why would you assume I don’t want to? His Highness is so incomparably handsome, and his status is so noble—I wouldn’t be losing out either. More importantly, I am currently deceiving and coaxing him. When he discovers the truth and wants to skin me alive, do you think the Shen family can protect me? If I have a child by my side to move him to compassion, wouldn’t that be just right?”
Yingluo stared blankly, genuinely speechless for once.
Seeing that persuasion had failed, her expression toward Shen Lizhuang darkened slightly. When Shen Lizhuang inadvertently glanced into Yingluo’s pupils, she caught a dark, chilling look—as if the other person wanted to grab her chin and force the medicinal porridge straight down her throat.
A chilling breeze inexplicably crawled up her spine. Acting first, Shen Lizhuang gave a shove, knocking away the tray in Yingluo’s hands.
With a jumbled clatter of chaotic sounds, the vermilion-lacquered red wooden tray—along with the porcelain cups, spoons, clay bowls, and the soup and porridge inside—all crashed down onto the floor, spilling everywhere.
Her push had been so swift that Yingluo was completely caught off guard. Fortunately, no one was scalded; the hot soup splashed across the floor, filling the room with a rich fragrance, though the utter mess made it completely unappealing.
Seeing this, Shen Lizhuang let out a long breath of turbid air. “I will go to Wangjiang Courtyard for breakfast later; you don’t need to prepare a second batch.”
Yingluo had by no means given up. The medicine Madam Lin had given her was more than just that single portion; the Second Young Miss being obsessed and uncomprehending at the moment didn’t mean she wouldn’t regret it later. She pulled out a medicine pill—housed in a brocade box and kept dry, unmixed with the porridge—and extended it into Shen Lizhuang’s hands.
“This medicine does not harm the body. Madam Lin sympathized with the Second Young Miss and had it specially formulated. If the Second Young Miss regrets it later, taking it then will still not be too late.”
Having said that, she pulled Zhuji along to clean up the mess on the floor.
Shen Lizhuang pinched the brocade box in her hand, a cold, mocking thought washing over her. If she could still take it later and claim it wasn’t too late, it undoubtedly possessed abortifacient properties as well—how could anyone claim it didn’t harm the body? Take a few more pills like that, and she’d probably lose her reproductive capacity entirely for the rest of her life!
To brazenly bring over medicinal pills that impaired bodily functions while claiming they didn’t harm the body—fortunately, Yingluo still knew that if she didn’t cooperate, such medicine couldn’t be hidden from the Prince of Jing’s discerning eyes, which was why she had come to give a warning. Otherwise, she genuinely might have fallen victim to someone else’s scheme without ever realizing it.
Not long after the leftovers on the floor were cleaned up, before Shen Lizhuang had even gotten up to wash and dress, the Prince of Jing returned.
The sound of his blind cane tapping against the floor echoed outside the door. Shen Lizhuang—who was just about to stretch out her foot and struggle to get out of bed—instantly pulled back her red-marked toes. Along with that, the center of her lower body began to ache anew, and her brows twitched with a sour, painful ache as she started breathing heavily in rapid gasps.
The sound of the blind cane paused for a moment, as if that person had sensed something.
Then, the footfalls of him discarding his blind cane rang out inside the room, drawing gradually closer. Panicking even more, Shen Lizhuang hastily shoved the brocade box she hadn’t had time to tidy away straight beneath her pillow.
Following the mental coordinates in his mind, Ji Mu walked a dozen steps to reach the bedside. “Still not up yet?”
Thinking he must be mocking her for being lazy, Shen Lizhuang boldly retorted, “My body is unwell.”
Ji Mu raised a dark eyebrow. “Related to me?”
Shen Lizhuang lowered her head and mumbled in response, “As if anyone else came to torment me, right?”
Ji Mu heard it. Taking a deep breath, he sat straight down onto the couch. His palm accurately located the hollow of her waist—just as though he had regained his sight—and wrapped around her to pull her head against his shoulder. “Is that so? Let this Prince have a look.”
Shen Lizhuang was startled. “Your Highness, you can see?”
Ji Mu said in a deep voice, “Is sight only possible with eyes?”
Shen Lizhuang understood now. This matter was just like blind men feeling an elephant. He was blind, so what else could he use to look? Naturally, he used his hands.
How could a place already red and bruised endure human hands again? Terrified by his words, Shen Lizhuang twisted her body away and hastily refused, blurting out, “Your Highness! I suddenly… suddenly feel like it’s not all that uncomfortable or unwell anymore, no need to look! Truly, there’s no need!”
Ji Mu stopped his hand, not mocking her jumpy, startled reaction.
Just as he was about to say another word to her, his palm—which had been groping beneath the pillow for that old handkerchief—suddenly brushed against a hard object. Gripping it in his palm to trace its contours, it felt like a brocade box specially used to hold miraculous elixirs.
“What is inside this?”
Just as Shen Lizhuang was rejoicing over her narrow escape, she was unexpectedly confronted with that familiar box in his hand. In an instant, her eye sockets dilated in terrified trembling.