On the carriage ride over, as Tao Wenkan spoke of who they were about to meet, Shao Zhen's heart unconsciously pounded like a drum.
She had indeed heard Tao Wenkan mention that Yun Cheng was his close friend, but she had never imagined she would one day have the chance to meet such a legendary figure.
The name Yun Cheng—who in Great Yan did not know it?
He was of noble birth, the eldest legitimate son of the Yun family, foremost among the great clans—a man of jade-like refinement, cool and aloof in bearing. The Secretariat, where imperial edicts were drafted, had long enjoyed the reputation of being the "Phoenix Pool," a place countless people would break their heads trying to enter, and Yun Cheng, at just twenty, had been personally appointed as a fourth-rank Secretariat Drafter.
Today, because she was going to the Tao residence, she had dressed very plainly, and having cried at home earlier, even with powder and rouge to conceal it, she still did not look presentable. Noticing her unease, Tao Wenkan reassured her, "Don't be afraid. Brother Yun may seem somewhat cold and unapproachable, but he is truly a good person at heart."
Shao Zhen nodded slightly, but her heart still raced, afraid she might lose her composure before Yun Cheng and bring shame upon her husband.
Compared to the Tao residence, where everything was displayed ostentatiously on the surface, the Yun residence was tranquil and elegant. Only upon closer inspection could one discern its profound refinement—every plant and stone was placed with deliberate care, a luxury beyond the reach of ordinary households.
The two followed the young servant quietly through the festooned gate. The locust blossoms climbing the walls were in full bloom, cascading down in soft clusters, their faint fragrance carried on the gentle breeze.
After winding through several turns, they were seated in the side hall to wait. Before long, a patch of snow-white robe appeared at the edge of Shao Zhen's vision.
Before she could react, Tao Wenkan, without any hesitation, took her hand and rose to his feet: "Brother Yun."
They had already met that morning at court.
Shao Zhen lifted her eyes curiously and unexpectedly met a pair of deep, dark eyes—calm, clear, as if they could see through to the thoughts within a person's heart.
Even though she had known he must be handsome, truly beholding his features still made her pause.
The man had high brows and deep-set eyes, his features refined and exquisite yet utterly devoid of any femininity. The lines of his face were clean and sharp, like the most accomplished brushwork of a master painter.
He wore a plain white robe, his ink-black hair secured with nothing more than a warm, lustrous white jade hairpin. He bore no elaborate accessories at his waist, which made him appear all the more ethereal, as if he belonged beyond the dust of the mortal world.
"Please, both of you, sit."
The moment his clear, cool voice sounded, Shao Zhen realized she had been staring at an unrelated man for far too long. She quickly lowered her head, pretending nothing had happened.
Yun Cheng's tone was casual, sounding as though he were not particularly familiar with Tao Wenkan. Shao Zhen stole a glance at her husband from the corner of her eye and saw that his expression was perfectly normal, as if nothing were amiss. She surmised that their friendship was likely the kind that ran deep beneath still waters.
The young gentleman sat down directly, holding a celadon teacup with ice-crackle glaze, using the lid to skim off the floating foam. The rising steam blurred his features.
When he heard no sound of them taking their seats after a moment, he realized the couple were acting in perfect concert—both standing motionless in place.
"What is it, Brother Tao? Speak plainly if you have something to say."
Tao Wenkan had been waiting for exactly those words. He clasped his fists in salute and came straight to the point: "I am heading to Lucheng to quell the unrest. If I should truly meet with misfortune, I ask that Brother Yun look after Zhen-niang on my behalf."
At the word "misfortune," Shao Zhen's heart immediately clenched.
In recent days, Tao Wenkan had never spoken such alarming words in her presence. She had subconsciously been avoiding the worst possibility, not daring to think about what she would do if he never returned.
Now that he had laid it out plainly, had it not been for the inappropriate timing and setting, her eyes would have welled up and tears would have spilled once more.
At his words, Yun Cheng's gaze fell upon Shao Zhen.
The young woman had not uttered a single word since he entered the room, hiding behind her husband, head bowed, with delicate shoulders and a slender waist, like a flower bud timidly curling in on itself. The snow-white pearl earrings made the thin blush at the root of her ear especially striking, reflecting directly into the depths of his pupils.
When Tao Wenkan spoke, she would watch her husband beside her with extraordinary focus, her eyes holding no one but him. That bone-deep dependence and joy could not be concealed no matter how hard one tried.
Of course, he knew of her.
Back then, when Tao Wenkan had insisted on marrying her into the Tao family, not even nine oxen could have dragged him back. He had nearly broken with his clan over it, so enraging the old Madam Tao that she spat blood in public and had to lie in bed for days before recovering.
The great clans were usually connected through marriage, and when anything happened in one household, word would spread within a day. The Tao family thus became the laughingstock of the aristocratic circles.
In terms of appearance, many noble ladies in Yingdu surpassed her. Even in fine garments, she could not hide her timid air.
In terms of birth, the Shao family was unknown south of the river, a household mired in chaos, filled with greedy, mercenary sorts.
In terms of character, she had not hesitated to leverage a favor into obligation, climbing the branch of a higher tree.
By every measure, she fell far short of the standards for a matron of a great clan—one could say she was utterly without merit.
At the time, when he had heard of the matter, he had thought to himself: to be willing to break with his family over such a woman—Tao Wenkan was truly acting on impulse, not knowing his own weight.
The elders of the Tao family had even come to seek him out, hoping he would intervene and offer counsel.
Yun Cheng had agreed on the surface, but he had no desire to meddle in another's private affairs.
Instead, it was Tao Wenkan who sought him out, drinking himself into a stupor, murmuring over and over how wonderful Zhen-niang was, why the Tao family couldn't set aside their prejudice and accept her, and how he had let the one he cherished suffer injustice.
Yun Cheng let this muddle-headed drunk ramble on for over an hour, thinking expressionlessly whether it would be a breach of etiquette if he simply threw the man out.
For all these reasons, she was not a stranger to him.
A friend's request, and not a particularly difficult one at that. He deliberated for a moment, his gaze dropping to their tightly clasped hands, then opened his lips to accept.
Receiving his solemn promise, Tao Wenkan's face lit up with joy, and he and Shao Zhen thanked him in unison.
"Thank you, Brother Yun." "Thank you, Young Master Yun."
"You're both too kind."
Having achieved his goal, Tao Wenkan did not linger, leaving the Yun residence with Shao Zhen.
The outcome of this old matter was quite clear—because Tao Wenkan had set his heart like iron, the Tao family, fearing the loss of this rare son with military talent, eventually yielded.
In the end, Tao Wenkan had to hit the wall himself before everything returned to normal; perhaps that was what the Tao family thought as well.
Yet a year had passed, and the two remained as devoted as ever.
Yun Cheng watched from afar as their shoulders brushed together in an intimate silhouette, then realized he had been lost in thought over them. He furrowed his brow and coldly averted his gaze.
What did their marriage have to do with him?
＊
On the way back to the residence, Shao Zhen could not muster any joy, sinking into memories.
Her acquaintance with Tao Wenkan had begun with an accident. At the time, she had been driven by her stepmother, Madam Cui, to work on the estate, when she happened to rescue Tao Wenkan, who had been wounded by assassins. Seeing the arrow lodged in his shoulder and blood pouring out, she set aside all concerns of propriety between men and women, hauled the unconscious man into her home, and quietly bought medicine and brewed it to tend to his wounds.
Noticing the quality of his clothing and the green jade pendant at his waist, and hearing his cultured speech and gentle manners after he woke, she knew Tao Wenkan came from an eminent family.
Once he revealed his identity, she knew well that they were as different as clouds and mud. So she concealed her own name and background, restrained her feelings, and cared for him diligently, hoping his wounds would heal quickly so he could leave.
After all, they were merely ships passing in the night.
Every day she applied medicine and wiped him clean, naturally seeing his body, and one day Tao Wenkan proposed to repay her kindness by taking responsibility—he could not let her lose her purity like this and jeopardize her future marriage.
Shao Zhen felt not a trace of joy and refused him outright. She knew he had spoken out of guilt and a sense of duty.
But she did not want to be looked down upon by him, nor had she ever thought of becoming a concubine in a noble household.
The young man, who had been fawned over since childhood, had likely never expected to be rejected by an ordinary farm girl like her; his expression froze for a moment. After that day, their relationship grew distant, until Tao Wenkan's wounds had mostly healed. Before parting, he took off his jade pendant as a token, and solemnly stated again that he would be waiting for her to come find him at any time.
Beyond that, he said something that threw her heart into turmoil—he said he wanted to marry her, to carry her over the threshold in a grand sedan chair as his lawful wife, that he truly cherished her, and that he thought she was a fine young woman.
One must understand that at the time, all she ever received in the Shao family was abuse and humiliation.
It had been eight or nine years since she had last heard praise from anyone.
After he left, Shao Zhen clutched the jade pendant that seemed to still hold his warmth, and suddenly felt an indescribable melancholy, as if she had let go of an eagle that was never hers to keep.
But she did not grieve for long, quickly accepting that they had fate but no fortune.
At that time, Shao Zhen never imagined the outcome would take such a turn, that she would shamelessly carry the jade pendant to the Tao residence and ask Tao Wenkan whether he was still willing to fulfill his promise.
Because no sooner had Tao Wenkan left than she was suddenly brought back to the Shao family. Her usually harsh and vicious stepmother had inexplicably changed her attitude toward her, cutting new clothes for her, buying new jewelry, and holding her hand with a gentle, generous smile.
Even her stepbrother, who had always beaten and scolded her, had put on a different face.
Not only that, she was confined to the residence, forbidden from going anywhere.
Before she could figure out what was wrong with this family, Xiaowen, who had been eavesdropping by the wall, secretly told her: they intended to offer her as a concubine to the local prefect, so that her incompetent father, Shaoye, could curry favor with his superior, and pave the way for her stepbrother Shaolin.
The prefect was fifty-seven this year, missing a tooth, greedy and lecherous. His household already held countless young and beautiful concubines, many of whom had been seized and violated in the streets, some even married women.
The prefect's wife was no simple matter either—cruel in her methods, she oppressed the concubines in every way. The couple's hands were far from clean.
In short, this marriage was a bottomless pit.
In her panic and helplessness, Shao Zhen remembered the jade pendant Tao Wenkan had left her. She felt ashamed of her inconsistency, but with the wedding approaching, she absolutely could not marry the old prefect and be trapped in that dark inner chamber.
Weighing the options, she had no choice but to have Xiaowen slip away while the Shao family wasn't paying attention, and go to the Tao residence to beg Tao Wenkan for help.
Fortunately, Tao Wenkan did not mind in the slightest. Upon learning of the news, he immediately sent people with over forty loads of betrothal gifts to her doorstep, earnestly pleading with Shaoye and Madam Cui to allow him to marry her, and personally stepped forward to smooth things over with the prefect, putting the whole incident to rest.
By all accounts, her relationship with Tao Wenkan could be considered a private arrangement between the two of them, but seeing that Tao Wenkan came from a distinguished aristocratic family, the two of them were grinning from ear to ear—why would anyone bother to quibble over that?
Initially, Shao Zhen had indeed harbored the intention of using this marriage to escape the Shao family and make a life for herself. Tao Wenkan came from a privileged background, was upright in character, and had no vile habits—he was undoubtedly the best husband she could ever hope to attain.
She was willing to treat him with mutual respect, to manage his household and bear his children.
But as time went on, she gradually found her defenses breached by his gentle and considerate nature, and genuine feelings began to take root.
He thought of everything for her, and before she knew it, she had grown increasingly dependent on him. When trouble arose, he was the first person she thought of—whereas back in the Shao family, she had always faced difficulties alone without ever feeling particularly wronged.
Even as he was about to head off to the battlefield, he still remembered to make arrangements for her.
"Zhen-niang."
Hearing him call her name, Shao Zhen didn't want Tao Wenkan to worry any more than necessary, so she forced herself to muster some energy and shifted the topic. "I was just thinking—how did you and Young Master Yun come to know each other?"
Tao Wenkan said, "I once studied alongside Yun Cheng at the academy run by the Yun family, though most of the time, he was personally tutored by the old patriarch of the Yun family at his side. I admired his extraordinary talent, so I took the initiative to strike up a conversation with him. After repeated exchanges, we became friends."
Recalling how he had eagerly pressed his warm face against Yun Cheng's cold indifference back then, and only after much effort had finally moved him to look at him properly, Tao Wenkan smiled.
"The great families are all intricately interconnected, so we often crossed paths in our daily lives. Later on, we served as officials in the same court, working together for the imperial government, and we have remained good friends ever since."
"I see." Shao Zhen nodded thoughtfully.
Somehow, the image of Yun Cheng's ink-black, lacquer-like eyes surfaced before her.
Even though he had agreed to Tao Wenkan's request to look after her, someone like him—aloof as frost on a high mountain—only made her feel all the more ashamed of her own inadequacy, too intimidated to draw near.
Unless absolutely necessary, Shao Zhen had no desire to become entangled with him in any way.