Biyue held an extraordinary place in Shen Jiangyun's heart.
Initially, Biyue had served as a young maid in Madam Wei's chambers for some time. Only after being trained by Madam Wei was she assigned to Shen Jiangyun. Everyone in Shen Jiangyun's household tacitly understood that Biyue was destined to become a concubine in the future.
Shen Jiangyun also trusted and relied on Biyue greatly. Though she was a servant, Biyue lived better in Shen Jiangyun's chambers than the young ladies of ordinary humble households. Not only were her clothes made of silk, but she frequently received rewards from her masters. When she attended to Shen Jiangyun daily, whatever Shen Jiangyun ate, she ate as well.
Biyue managed Shen Jiangyun's daily life and routines, even his social obligations and monthly allowance. The other maids and serving women in the household treated Biyue with the utmost respect—even Shen Jiangyun himself showed her a measure of deference.
Biyue's name had been personally chosen by Shen Jiangyun.
When Biyue first entered the household, she could not read a single character. But after serving Shen Jiangyun for so long, she had absorbed a touch of literary refinement. She learned the phrase "outshining the moon and shaming the flowers," which only bolstered her confidence in her own beauty. Combined with Shen Jiangyun's extraordinary looks and his refined, courteous manner in daily conversation, Biyue's young heart had long since been entirely devoted to him.
If judged purely on emotional bonds, Biyue could be considered Shen Jiangyun's childhood sweetheart, while Shen Jianglin—his half-brother born of a concubine—was a dispensable presence to him.
But this matter concerned Shen Jianglin's innocence—or to put it more gravely, it concerned his very life.
Shen Jianglin valued his innocence above his life, and he had already proven this through his actions.
Shen Jiangyun pondered for a while, then still sent for Biyue to come over. In Shen Jiangyun's view, it was better to clarify matters face to face than to guess at each other's intentions.
Biyue entered with a smile on her face.
Though she came from a servant's background, Biyue's attire and grooming were not the least bit servant-like.
Her hair was styled in double spiral buns, with a gold hairpin of filigree peony design slanting through it. She wore an autumn-brown silver squirrel jacket on top and a matching color silk-embroidered brocade skirt below, with a white jade cloud-patterned girdle pendant fastened at her waist to weigh down the skirt's hem. Her face was like an autumn moon, delicately made up, her ten fingers slender and fair—she was quite presentable.
She looked at Shen Jiangyun with a smile and said, "Eldest Young Master called for me?"
Not a trace of anything unusual could be seen on her face.
Shen Jiangyun directly and concisely relayed what Shen Jianglin had just said, then furrowed his brow and hesitated before asking, "Biyue, did you do this?"
Fortunately, Shen Jianglin had already set down his teacup by then, otherwise he would certainly have sprayed water everywhere.
His elder brother—with that magnificent, embroidered appearance—how could the words coming out of his mouth be so utterly brainless? Not only did he make no attempt to conceal anything, he directly asked the other person, "Did you do it?"
How was she supposed to answer that?
Sure enough, Biyue shook her head repeatedly, hurriedly claiming, "No, I don't know, I'm not clear about it."
Shen Jiangyun felt relieved and turned to look at Shen Jianglin, wearing an expression of wanting to help but being powerless to do so: "Lin, Biyue says she doesn't know about this either. Perhaps you should go back and carefully interrogate your own maids and servants again?"
Shen Jianglin was rolling his eyes to the heavens internally. He didn't pick up Shen Jiangyun's thread of conversation at all, and instead fixed his gaze directly on Biyue.
That gaze was sharp as a bone-scraping knife, as though the warmth in the room were all an illusion. Biyue felt a chill run through her body, as if she had been seen through by that gaze, and she couldn't help but let a flicker of panic cross her face.
But then he reconsidered: the other party was nothing more than a ten-year-old child, while he himself was already eighteen this year. To be frightened by a child's gaze was truly pathetic.
At this thought, Biyue straightened her back, and her face regained its composure.
Shen Jianglin was not used to having to look up at people at his current height, but at this moment there was no other way; in terms of presence, he absolutely refused to yield even the slightest bit.
"Biyue jiejie, since you say there is nothing and you know nothing, then I must reason this out with you."
"I have already asked Chuntao jiejie, who is by Mother's side. Chuntao jiejie said you received the New Year gifts and the jade pendant at the hour of Si, is that right or not?"
Although Biyue did not know why Shen Jianglin was bringing up the time, she had an instinct that she should not agree to it.
But this could be found out by casually asking anyone in Madam Wei's household. At that time there had been a great crowd of maids and old women, all distributing New Year gifts in Madam Wei's hall; it was impossible for no one to know.
With no way to argue, Biyue could only bite the bullet and nod.
Then she heard Shen Jianglin continue speaking fluently and at length.
"If so, then you also said you first delivered the New Year gifts to my room, and then took the jade pendant from Elder Brother's room back with you as well. Based on your walking pace, you should have entered my room at a quarter past the hour of Si, found no one there, and set the things down. Returning to Elder Brother's courtyard would have taken a while. Even if I count you as not delaying at all on the way, you still would have had to return here by three quarters past the hour of Si."
The marquis estate occupied a very large area; it was not an ordinary small household. From the main courtyard to Shen Jiangyun's "Pine Forest Thatched Cottage" was already no short distance, and moreover the servants generally took the narrow side passages, which were even more cramped and winding. In addition, the garden they passed through along the way had outside craftsmen coming in these past few days to plant flowers, and it had long since been enclosed with cloth screens, so Biyue would inevitably have had to take a detour. Given the conduct and walking speed expected of women at present, two quarter-hours was already considered fast.
As Shen Jiangyun listened, he became somewhat bewildered, not understanding why Shen Jianglin was saying all this.
Biyue could not evade it; these were all fixed times, so she could only continue nodding. But her heart had already risen to her throat. She roughly knew what Shen Jianglin wanted to say!
"That is to say, if Biyue jiejie did not lie, and this jade pendant really was taken by me, and I got it at three quarters past the hour of Si, as soon as you put it in Elder Brother's room, and then secretly avoided people and ran back, and I count that as two quarter-hours for me too, then the earliest this jade pendant could have appeared in my room would also have been a quarter past the hour of Wu."
Shen Jianglin jumped down from the seat, walked up in front of Biyue, lightly stroked the Longevity Lock at his neck with his fingers, looked up at Biyue, and still wore a smile on his face, except that the smile never reached the bottom of his eyes: "Biyue jiejie, then you tell me, why did Mother find the jade pendant in my room at the beginning of the hour of Wu? Don't you find that strange?"
The blood drained completely from Biyue's face. She retreated several steps backward and just happened to knock into the small table on which the Slender-Waist Beauty Pot was placed. With a "clang," the porcelain vase shattered into pieces in an instant, and the red plum branch coiled around it broke in two.
At the time, Biyue had hidden the jade pendant between two books on the desk and then hurried off. Halfway there, she began to feel uneasy again, thinking that if Shen Jianglin really took it and hid it or damaged it, what would she do? So she only lingered outside for a while. When she figured the timing was about right, she rushed in a panic to Madam Wei's room to report it lost, and deliberately led Madam Wei and her group to Shen Jianglin's room.
The reason Biyue dared to do this was that it was the first day of the New Year. Many of the maids and old women in the inner courtyard of the household had either gone home or were slacking off. In the eldest young master's courtyard, aside from an old woman responsible for sweeping, she was the one managing the courtyard gate. When she went out at the time, she happened to see Shen Jianglin wandering around outside with no one attending him, and so she got the idea.
So what if she pinned the blame on the second young master? Who could testify that he was not there? Who would be willing to help him and take his side?
It could be said that this was a very clumsy scheme. If anyone calmed down and thought about it a little more, they could have discovered the clues and cleared Shen Jianglin's name.
Of course, aside from the fact that people at the time calculated time by the sky and could only arrive at a vague approximation, they would not deliberately divide time with precision. More importantly, the original owner of this body was probably just a pitiful wretch whom no one cared about, someone anyone could step on.
What Biyue was calculating was not Shen Jianglin's innocence, but the hearts of the people in the household.
The original owner's jump into the water was absolutely not because of this one matter alone. This matter was only a fuse, the last straw that bent the camel's back, making this child who had just entered his rebellious phase either explode in silence or die in silence.
Shen Jianglin made a deep bow to the already dumbstruck Shen Jiangyun. "Eldest Brother, if you still do not believe me, by all means find someone to walk back and forth and calculate whether the time I spoke of is correct. Biyue is someone Mother gave to you. Because of this matter, I nearly lost my life. I imagine Mother is not very willing to see me. After you verify it, please hand Biyue over to Mother on my behalf for her to deal with."
As soon as Biyue heard that she was to be handed over to Madam Wei to deal with, her whole body shook uncontrollably. She hurriedly dropped to her knees with a thud, not even caring that shards of porcelain had stabbed into her leg. Tears poured down like rain as she cried to Shen Jiangyun, "Eldest Young Master, it was Biyue's negligence at the time. I left the jade pendant in the second young master's room. I just never expected the matter to blow up so badly. Biyue was truly too frightened, which is why I did not speak up. Please, Eldest Young Master, Second Young Master, have mercy!"
Biyue kowtowed again and again to Shen Jiangyun and Shen Jianglin. Her black hair scattered down, her eye rims turned red, and the makeup on her face was ruined. She held nothing back in those kowtows, and before long her forehead had swollen red.
Having said all this, Biyue knew she could not escape disaster now. Shen Jiangyun, who had still been doubtful a moment ago, also understood.
A look of pity appeared in Shen Jiangyun's eyes. He looked toward Shen Jianglin. His thin lips had just parted, but before the words could leave his mouth, he heard Shen Jianglin raise his head. Shen Jianglin's eyes, too, were brimming with tears that trembled on the verge of falling yet did not fall, making him look all the more pitiable.
"Eldest Brother, I truly don't know what I did wrong to make Sister Biyue take such a dislike to me. Whether she dropped that jade pendant deliberately or by accident, if she had just stepped forward to say a single word for me back when Mother and I were arguing, I wouldn't have jumped into the water that day."
"If I had been even half a breath short back then, I fear I wouldn't be standing here speaking with you today." As Shen Jianglin spoke, he broke into another violent fit of coughing, tears streaming from his eyes and his nose turning red. He spoke with all the gravity of an adult, but one glance made it clear he was barely holding himself together.
The plea Shen Jiangyun had been about to make on Biyue's behalf died in his throat.
Before leaving, Shen Jianglin delivered one final blow: "Sister Biyue, you did not kill Bo Ren, yet Bo Ren nearly died because of you. I wonder—have you been sleeping soundly these past few days?"
With those words, Biyue was thoroughly condemned.
No matter how Biyue protested before Shen Jiangyun, no matter how pitifully she wept with pear-blossom tears, Shen Jiangyun could no longer shield her.
Though Biyue was usually familiar and affectionate with Shen Jiangyun, they had never crossed that unspoken boundary. Shen Jiangyun was still young and knew nothing of romantic feelings—he treated Biyue as an elder sister and held her in considerable esteem.
But what she had done now was something Shen Jiangyun could not easily forgive.
Shen Jiangyun was at that age of hot-blooded youth. Now that the truth had come to light, he felt deep sympathy and pity for Shen Jianglin. He even put himself in his brother's shoes—if he had been wrongly accused by his mother, he wouldn't have just jumped into water; in a moment of desperation, he might well have drawn his sword and slit his own throat.
Moreover, Shen Jiangyun was simple but not foolish. He knew Biyue well—she held great reverence and fear for Mother Wei. Mother Wei would only summon Biyue to fetch something if it was important, and given Biyue's meticulous nature, how could she possibly have mixed it up with Lin-ge'er's New Year gifts?
If it had truly been an honest mistake, Biyue would have noticed the moment she returned to her own courtyard. She could have turned back to explain then, and at most received a scolding from Mother Wei. Nothing had actually been lost, and during the festive season, Mother would have shown mercy and not punished her severely.
No matter how he thought about it, he couldn't convince himself it wasn't deliberate.
Once that thought took root, Shen Jiangyun found it even harder to face Biyue's tearful entreaties. But he was soft-hearted and couldn't bring himself to personally drag her before Madam Wei, so he called for the matrons outside, gave them instructions, and had them take Biyue away.
Nanny Chen and Nanny Li, who had been guarding the door, had already heard the commotion inside—the sound of things breaking, Biyue's crying—but since their masters hadn't called for them, they hadn't dared enter, only craning their necks and holding their breath to listen from outside.
Now that they knew what had really happened, and thought of how the Second Young Master had greeted them so politely and properly when he left, and how they had been gossiping about him these past few days, they wished they could tear that wretched girl Biyue apart!
Biyue tried to throw herself at Shen Jiangyun's feet to beg for mercy, but she had always been pampered and delicate—she was no match for the strength of two rough-working matrons. Nanny Chen and Nanny Li each grabbed one of her arms and quickly dragged her out.
"Stuff her mouth shut, so the Eldest Young Master doesn't have to hear her wailing!"
Nanny Chen found this sensible, and quickly pulled a somewhat odorous sweat cloth from her waist, wadded it into a ball, and stuffed it into Biyue's mouth, reducing her sobs to muffled whimpers.
"Bah! You'd even do something to harm your mistress! You wicked, conscienceless little tramp—may Heaven strike you dead!"
Nanny Li spat a thick glob of phlegm right onto Biyue's face. She had long been unable to stand Biyue, who spent all day ordering people about as if she were some fine young lady herself. Her daughter, Sanjie'er, served as a second-class maid in the eldest young master's quarters, and she had suffered no small amount of bullying at Biyue's hands.
This time, the madam would surely not let her off!