Yan Du had the distinct feeling that none of his lies could escape scrutiny. He lowered his head and gave a light cough, then shifted his gaze away as though perfectly composed.
Sanqi was genuinely baffled.
Although there was a saying: A drop of kindness should be repaid with a surging spring.
But Yan Du had gone far beyond a surging spring—he had risked his life.
He had forged an imperial edict! It was only because he had military merits and His Majesty and the Empress trusted and valued him that he had gotten away with it. If anyone else had done such a thing, their entire clan would have been executed!
Why on earth had Yan Du…
More importantly, she had never shown him any kindness, had she?
Sanqi was completely perplexed, but now was not a good time to ask. Yan Du’s backside… Well, he was better off lying down for now.
Yan Du’s expression had also recovered by this point, once again becoming as cold and flawless as jade.
“It’s getting late. Commandery Princess, you should return to your room and rest.”
Seeing this, Sanqi could only agree.
After she turned around, Yan Du looked over at her again. Unable to hold back, he called out, “Comman—Sanqi.”
“Hmm? Does Young General still need something?”
Yan Du remained silent for quite some time. With both hands clasped behind his back, he unconsciously rubbed the red cord tied around his right wrist. The cord was old and faded nearly white, looking as though it might snap at any moment. Clearly, he had worn it for a very long time.
A few strands of withered yellow hair could faintly be seen woven into it.
“Nothing. Sweet dreams.”
Sanqi nodded hesitantly. She could not shake the feeling that Yan Du had something he wanted to say but could not bring himself to say.
She would have to find time to get to the bottom of this. The matter was simply too strange. Not only was Yan Du strange, but the personal guards under his command were strange as well. Nan Xun, for example, had been far too enthusiastic and far too kind to her, accepting her far too quickly.
And there was the matter of her “coming back from the dead.” Had these people really accepted it just like that?
…
The courtyard Yan Du had arranged for Sanqi was called Nianshi Studio. Sanqi thought the name was rather unusual.
The furnishings inside were quite ordinary. After washing up, she lay down on the bed. She had died and come back to life that day, which was certainly exciting enough, but Sanqi did not feel tired at all. Even the food Nan Xun had brought her earlier had tasted like nothing, and she had not felt full after eating it. The sensation of hunger, on the other hand, had never left.
Sanqi could not even say whether her current state counted as a living person who was slightly dead, or a dead person who was slightly alive.
She pondered this until she closed her eyes at some point.
She dreamed. In the dream, a vast fog filled the air. Broken roads lay beneath her feet, while collapsed palaces and shattered statues of gods surrounded her. It seemed that someone was holding her hand and following behind her.
That person seemed to be calling out to her:
—Xiaoshi.
—Younger Sister Xiaoshi.
Sanqi thought hazily: Who is Xiaoshi? My name isn’t Xiaoshi.
She turned around, wanting to see clearly who she was holding hands with, but the thick fog concealed the person’s figure. She could only see a hand, with a red cord tied around its wrist.
Suddenly, the ground vanished beneath Sanqi’s feet, and a clear sensation of weightlessness swept through her entire body.
She opened her eyes in bed. It was already broad daylight outside.
Sanqi blinked, rubbed her brow, and sat up, staring at her hands.
“When did I fall asleep?”
She vaguely remembered having a dream, but the more she tried to recall it, the blurrier everything in the dream became. Sanqi simply stopped thinking about it.
She tossed the straw doll she had made the previous night into the blankets. The doll transformed into a puppet identical to her and lay there sleeping soundly. Sanqi went straight out the door without making a sound. She passed by the guards on night watch without them noticing, as though they had been blinded by a ghost.
There were still some things left at the Yu Residence, and Sanqi needed to retrieve them.
While she was there, she could also take a look at her dearest family members.
The roosters had already crowed. How could they still be sleeping? She had to go watch them suffer—and, while she was at it, figure out why she had become a blind and spineless fool after returning from Huangquan Village to the Yu Family!
“Ahhh!” A scream tore across the sky above the Yu Residence.
“Ants! There are so many ants!”
“Why are there so many rats? Ah! A rat bit my toe!”
“Snakes! There are snakes!”
It was the dead of winter, yet snakes, insects, rats, and ants had gathered throughout the Yu Residence. The entire household was thrown into chaos.
With dark rings beneath his eyes, Yu Minwen hurried into the room, only to see the servants rushing about in confusion. His mother, Liu Shi, had fainted nearby, while his father lay on the bed, howling like a slaughtered pig. His exposed, rotting backside was covered in ants crawling all over it.
“My backside! The ants are eating my backside! Son—Minwen! Save your father! Get these ants off me! Quickly!”
Yu Minwen felt as if his skull were about to split open, but he did not dare touch them himself. He could only urge the servants on.
“What are you all standing around for? Get the ants off him! Hurry!”
The servants approached timidly. Yu Minwu also arrived just then, and upon seeing the scene, he cursed loudly. “A bunch of cowards! Let me do it!”
He walked over and slapped Yu Jing’s rotting backside.
That slap nearly took Yu Jing’s life. Yu Minwu’s hand trembled as well. “Father! Father, don’t scare me!”
Half of Yu Jing’s breath caught in his throat. He weakly raised a hand and pointed at Yu Minwu.
“Go… Y-you go…”
Get this brute out of here…
He had not been beaten to death by the caning, only to nearly lose his life at the hands of this bull!
By the time Yu Tang hurried over, the ants had already been dealt with. However, after being crawled over and gnawed on by the ants, the wound on Yu Jing’s backside had become even more swollen and infected. The barefoot doctor shook his head and sighed.
“The flesh has rotted. The decayed flesh will have to be scraped away. Otherwise, it won’t heal.”
Upon hearing this, Yu Jing could no longer hold himself together. The seven-foot-tall old man burst into tears.
As soon as he began crying, Liu Shi, who had just regained consciousness, started crying as well. Then she fainted again. Yu Tang wearily supported her mother and looked to her two brothers for help, only to see that they were too preoccupied to spare any attention for her. Yu Tang felt like crying too.
In the past, the whole family had doted on her. If she lost even a single strand of hair, everyone would fuss over her with concern.
But she had not slept peacefully the previous night either. She had been woken that morning by a rat gnawing on her foot and had nearly been scared out of her wits.
She was so aggrieved, so miserable. Why was there no one to care about her?
“It’s all Third Sister’s fault. If not for her, how could our perfectly good family have become like this…” Yu Tang sobbed through her tears. “Father is seriously injured, Mother has fallen ill, and yet she became a Commandery Princess. Heaven truly has no eyes…”
Yu Minwu slammed his fist into the ground and rose with murderous fury. “She deserves to be a Commandery Princess? Just wait! His Majesty will definitely strip her of her title today. Soon, she’ll be crawling back here to beg for forgiveness!”
Yu Minwen pressed his lips together and remained silent. He did not agree, but neither did he object.
“I’m going out right now to have someone find out what’s happening. When she comes crawling home to beg for forgiveness, I’ll break both her legs!” Yu Minwu strode toward the door.
At the entrance stood a young woman.
Unlike the Yu Family, which had been thrown into complete chaos, she was silent and eerie. None of the people around her could see her.
Dressed all in white like someone in mourning, the garments wrapped around her thin, delicate body. Her eyes were starkly black and white, their depths captivating in an uncanny way.
Yu Minwu passed by her in a fury. Ghostly qi rose from beneath Sanqi’s feet, extending into tendrils that lashed across Yu Minwu’s leg like whips.
“Ah!” Yu Minwu dropped to his knees with a thud, clutching his leg and howling. The pain instantly reminded him of the agony he had suffered when he had fallen from his horse and broken his leg.
No! This was even more painful! Yu Minwu felt as though his entire right leg were being trampled repeatedly by a maddened horse.
Sanqi looked at him mockingly. This was all it took to bring him down?
When Yu Minwu had broken his leg back then and could not endure the pain, it had been Sanqi who had intervened and transferred the pain onto herself. Now, she had merely returned a tiny fraction of it to him.
Yu Minwu pounded the ground in agony, but the pain came and went quickly.
After howling twice, he stopped. He lay on the ground, panting in confusion and uncertainty, which drew Yu Tang and Yu Minwen outside.
“Second Brother, are you all right?”
“N-no, I mean, I’m fine.” Yu Minwu awkwardly got to his feet. “I just fell by accident.”
Yu Minwen said unhappily, “You practice martial arts. How can you make such a fuss over nothing more than a fall? What if you frightened Father and Mother?”
Yu Minwu’s face burned with embarrassment. He nodded and acknowledged this, but kept staring at his leg, inexplicably shaken.
That pain had come far too strangely!
Just then, the maidservant beside Yu Tang hurried over to report, her face filled with delight.
“Miss, Heir Chu has brought a physician to visit!”
The three Yu siblings brightened at once, all of them revealing happy expressions.
“You can see who’s truly sincere in times of hardship. Heir Chu is the one with real feeling and loyalty!”
Chu Yuebai, the Heir of the Boyuan Marquis’s Residence, was also Sanqi’s betrothed in name.
Hearing that he had come to their door, a look of understanding appeared in Sanqi’s eyes. Chu Yuebai’s visit at this particular time was probably not simply an act of “helping someone in need.” He had likely come for that object as well…
She looked at Yu Tang’s lovestruck face and smiled playfully.
Well, here came the good show at last.