The powder-blue bellyband was lifted, exposing her smooth skin to the cool air.
Incense burned in the room, its smoke curling upward.
Zheng Shifu felt the scent of precious agarwood incense mingling with cool, damp air, slowly winding around her.
The Nanny’s sharp gaze swept over, making Shi Fu shiver slightly.
She heard the Nanny say—
“Stay.”
After speaking, the prince’s residence Nanny lifted her eyes and scrutinized Shi Fu’s porcelain-white face.
Her expression was docile, her eyes lowered, long, fine lashes fluttering gently and casting a small shadow over her eyelids.
Her misty brows were lightly furrowed, her pearly teeth biting down on her bright red lips.
Her slender bones seemed as though they had been nurtured by the spring waters of Jiangnan.
She was a rare beauty.
The Nanny paused, then said calmly, “The milk ducts are clear, with no lumps. She passes the initial examination.”
Zheng Shifu let out a breath of relief, and her tense spine relaxed a little.
Barely three months after giving birth, she had left her baby in swaddling clothes behind and come to apply for a wet-nurse position at Prince Yu’s Residence—because she desperately needed money.
And Prince Yu’s Residence was especially generous to its servants.
The monthly pay for a wet nurse at Prince Yu’s Residence was high: twenty taels a month, even more than in the Imperial Palace.
But the selection process was difficult too. Of more than a hundred wet nurses, only five passed the second round.
And of those five, Prince Yu’s Residence would choose only one.
Zheng Shifu lowered her head and stood in a row with the other four wet nurses in the bright, spacious bedroom.
A white porcelain bowl had been placed in front of each of them.
“The second round is to test the quality of your milk and let the Master make the choice.”
As soon as the Nanny finished speaking, the wet nurses beside her moved in unison.
Shi Fu hurriedly followed their example and untied her bellyband.
She drew back her hand. The next moment, a Nanny picked up each white porcelain bowl and carried them behind the screen.
Zheng Shifu stared blankly at the space behind the screen, hoping the young master of the prince’s residence would like her milk as much as her Xiaobao did.
Unfortunately, the screen in the prince’s residence was extravagantly adorned, with filigree and inlaid gems, its patterns intricate. She couldn’t see anything behind it.
“Ladies, get dressed and wait for the news.”
The Nanny’s voice came from beside her ear. Shi Fu paused before coming to her senses.
A chill still lingered over her body. She moved her stiff fingers, slowly drew back her gaze, and put her top back on.
From behind the screen, Zheng Shifu’s lovely face could just barely be seen.
Her figure was slender, her waist fine.
Morning light slipped through the gaps in the window lattice and fell beside her smooth cheek, almost making her seem transparent.
“The clouds are turning green, as if rain were near; the water is calm, and mist rises.”
The man behind the screen stood with his back to the light, gazing at the scene before him, his phoenix eyes half closed.
The man’s features were cold and stern, his bone structure sharply defined. His black hair was bound high in a jade crown, revealing a broad forehead and deep-set eyes.
A black cloak rested on his shoulders, making his face look even paler.
Like the chill of early spring.
White smoke curled from the incense burner. All the female servants around him kept their heads bowed, not daring to speak.
Only when the Nanny cautiously reminded him, “Your Highness…”
Five white porcelain bowls were lined up before the man.
“Please take a look… and decide which wet nurse to keep…”
The man, looking down from on high, slowly raised his amber-colored eyes.
…………
Zheng Shifu fastened her clothes one by one and quietly left through the small gate of the prince’s residence.
The Nanny at Prince Yu’s Residence told her she had passed and instructed her to report for work there in three days.
The winter sunlight fell warmly on Shi Fu, making her head feel a little muddled.
The day her husband, Zhou Peifang, received his appointment papers to take up a post in the capital, everyone for miles around envied them.
The villagers crowded around her, saying that the Zheng family’s son-in-law had become a high-ranking official, and that she would surely receive an imperial honorific title someday.
Once she became a Madam with an Imperial Honorific Title of the First Rank, she would return home in glory and protect the region. The villagers would build her an ancestral hall, erect a commemorative plaque, and write her into the county annals.
Zhou Peifang had also said he would become a high-ranking official in Capital City and return home to honor his ancestors with the procession of a first-rank official.
He would have her ride at the very front in a four-bearer sedan chair with blue curtains and a silver roof, with gongs and drums clearing the way.
He would let everyone in the world see that she was his wife.
Zheng Shifu had never imagined that she would now have to take off all her clothes in front of a Nanny.
That she would be reduced to begging for a wet-nurse position at a prince’s residence.
Thinking of Zhou Peifang, Zheng Shifu slowly pulled her clothes tighter around herself with her stiff, cold hands.
Though she was the daughter of a rural Village Head and her mother was an embroiderer, she had been pampered since childhood and had never suffered the slightest grievance.
When she found Zhou Peifang beneath a cliff, he was on the verge of death and had no memories.
The bones in his legs were badly injured. He couldn’t carry anything on his shoulders or hands. It took him a long time to recover; after walking a few steps, he would be out of breath, and he was even afraid to slaughter pigs.
But he knew all sorts of things. He could write, tell her stories from plays, and recite love poems to her.
He had named every child born in the villages for miles around.
The villagers respected him greatly, and Shi Fu secretly loved him too.
Later, when her father died and she was at a loss, Zhou Peifang donned mourning clothes and, as her son-in-law, took charge of the entire funeral.
He held her tightly before her father’s coffin.
Zheng Shifu would never forget how he gently wiped away her tears, one by one, with his fingertip, then said softly:
“It’s all right, Fu-niang. Wherever I am, that will be your home.”
And so, with the villagers as witnesses, they married.
They bowed to the moon and mountains in the wedding ceremony, their union formally arranged and celebrated.
Later, Zhou Peifang regained his memories and said that he had lost his wife ten years ago and had a child named Zhou Runqing.
She didn’t mind becoming a stepmother. She brought the child to live with them and spent all her money on his education and living expenses.
Zheng Shifu had never actually dreamed of becoming an Official Madam.
But heaven rewards the diligent. Zhou Peifang achieved top honors in all three examinations, served as a county magistrate for two years, and later went to the capital.
On the day he left for his post in the capital, she had given birth to Xiaobao only two months earlier.
Zhou Peifang was happy and drank a great deal. As if he had seen her unease, he gently brushed her cheek with his burning fingertip.
He said softly, “Chen Shimei, do you remember the Chen Shimei I told you about?”
“Fu-niang, you gave me my life. I would never become Chen Shimei.”
Thinking of this, Zheng Shifu suddenly gave a little laugh.
Tears gathered in her almond-shaped eyes and rolled down one by one.
Zhou Peifang took her with him to the capital, and they moved into a house they had just rented.
The house was small and had no attendants, but she kept it neat and orderly all by herself.
But Zhou Peifang was busy cultivating connections and finding an Academy for Runqing, and gradually grew busier and busier.
She couldn’t see him for three days out of every five.
She knew no one in the capital and could only hold Xiaobao and wait alone in the house.
She waited until the sunlight faded and dusk settled, then poured away the cold meals time and again.
Xiaobao was almost unable to recognize her own father.
Again and again, she told Xiaobao, “Your father will come back tonight. He’ll be back to spend time with my Xiaobao.”
Until one day—
Zhou Peifang suddenly said to her,
“Fu-niang, perhaps our ancestors have blessed us. I met a noblewoman in the capital. She’s willing to help me, and later she’s willing to acknowledge Runqing in public as her child.”
“She’s a Commandery Princess, an extraordinarily powerful noblewoman!”
A Commandery Princess.
She had only ever heard of nobles like that in plays.
Shi Fu’s fingertips trembled, but she didn’t dare ask him what would happen next.
But Zhou Peifang was brimming with excitement and continued speaking on his own:
“We’ll all move into a residence under her name. Then Runqing and I will have a brilliant future.”
Zheng Shifu stared at him blankly. “Move into her residence… what about me?”
To this day, she still remembered that hand, so devoid of warmth.
Zhou Peifang’s voice was very, very soft. “You can come with us too. We’ll just say you’re a Nanny in the household…”