“Shen Qingqing?” He repeated the name, puzzlement in his voice. “Why don’t I know you?”
Shen Qingqing was just about to answer when the door curtain was lifted, and Physician Wu hurried in.
He had heard that Lu Chengyu had awakened and had practically run all the way there. At that moment, he covered the distance to the bedside in three quick strides, seized Lu Chengyu’s wrist, and took his pulse. Closing his eyes and concentrating, he did not open them again until a long while later, when he finally let out a lengthy breath.
“It’s good that you’re awake. It’s good that you’re awake!” His voice was filled with barely restrained excitement. “Your pulse is still weak, but it’s stable now, and your fever has completely gone down. Young Master, you truly took a walk past the gates of death this time.”
Lu Chengyu looked at Physician Wu, then at Shen Qingqing. Finally, his gaze fell on the unfamiliar furnishings in the room. His voice was weak, yet carried a hint of stubbornness. “Where is this? Why am I here? Where is my mother?”
“This is the Lu Family Ancestral Residence in Qingshui Town,” Physician Wu explained patiently. “Madam is resting in the front courtyard. She guarded you day and night these past few days and wore herself out, so I persuaded her to go rest. I’ll have someone inform her that Young Master has awakened.”
As he spoke, he gave the little maid by the door a meaningful glance. The maid understood and scampered away.
Lu Chengyu was silent for a moment, as though digesting the information. He lowered his head and looked at the thin undergarment he was wearing, then at the bowl of pitch-black medicine by the bed. His brows drew together even more tightly.
“I’m not taking medicine!” His voice held a trace of distaste. “It’s bitter.”
Shen Qingqing froze for a moment. She had not expected the first complete sentence he would say after awakening to be a complaint about bitter medicine.
After thinking for a moment, she said seriously, “Young Master Yu, the medicine is bitter, but you can only recover if you drink it. If you drink it all in one go, it won’t seem as bitter.”
Lu Chengyu lifted his eyes to look at her. He seemed not to have expected a little girl who looked even younger than him to speak to him in the coaxing tone one used with a child.
He was just about to speak when the door curtain was lifted again. This time, Madam Lu stumbled in.
“Yuer! Yuer!” She rushed to the bedside and pulled Lu Chengyu into her arms, tears streaming from her eyes. “You’re finally awake! Do you know how frightened you made your mother? You’ve been unconscious for more than ten days. Your mother thought… Your mother thought you were going to…”
She could not continue. She merely held her son and cried, her entire body trembling.
Held by his mother, Lu Chengyu showed a trace of discomfort on his face, but he did not push her away. He only said softly, “Mother, I’m fine. Don’t cry.”
Madam Lu cried for quite some time before gradually calming down. She released her son, wiped her tears with a handkerchief, and turned to look at Shen Qingqing, gratitude in her eyes.
“Qingqing,” she said. “Come here.”
Shen Qingqing stepped forward. Madam Lu gently stroked her head. “Good child, thank you. If not for you, Lu Chengyu would not have recovered so quickly.”
Lu Chengyu watched this scene, his eyes filled with confusion. He did not understand why his mother was thanking a little girl who looked like a maid.
Noticing her son’s gaze, Madam Lu hesitated, but still opened her mouth. “Yuer, there is something you don’t know. You were seriously ill this time, and all the physicians in town were helpless. Later, a Daoist priest came. He said… he said that we needed to find a girl with the Four Pillars of Pure Yin to marry you to bring good fortune, or you would not survive.”
She paused and looked at Shen Qingqing. “This child is Qingqing. She has already completed the wedding rites with you. She is now… now your wife.”
The room fell silent.
Lu Chengyu’s eyes widened. He looked at his mother, then at Shen Qingqing. His expression changed several times before settling into one of indescribable complexity.
“Wife?” He repeated the word, disbelief in his voice. “Her?”
His gaze fell on Shen Qingqing, surveying her from head to toe. She had a small, thin body and dry, yellowish hair. Although she was wearing new clothes, they could not conceal the air of poverty about her.
Shen Qingqing felt uncomfortable under his scrutiny. She lowered her head, clutching the hem of her clothes until her fingertips turned white.
“I don’t want one.” Lu Chengyu turned his face away. His voice was weak, but his tone was exceptionally firm. “I don’t want any wife.”
Madam Lu’s face stiffened. “Yuer—”
“I said I don’t want one!” Lu Chengyu’s voice rose. The effort triggered a fit of coughing, and he coughed for a while, yet he stubbornly kept his head turned away and refused to look at Shen Qingqing.
The atmosphere in the room instantly became awkward.
Physician Wu stood to one side, not knowing what to say. Nanny Zhou lowered her head, keeping her eyes and nose aligned, her nose and heart aligned.
Shen Qingqing stood where she was, her little hands clutching the hem of her clothes, her head bowed in silence.
She did not cry or feel aggrieved. She merely stood there quietly, like a little blade of grass bent by the wind. It bowed at the waist, but did not fall.
Seeing her like this, Madam Lu felt even more guilty. She turned toward Lu Chengyu, sternness entering her voice. “Yuer, don’t be foolish! Qingqing saved your life. If not for her—”
“I never asked her to save me!” Lu Chengyu blurted out. As soon as he said it, he seemed to regret it somewhat. He pressed his lips together and said nothing more, but still refused to turn his head.
Madam Lu was left speechless. She opened and closed her mouth several times, unable to say anything for a long while.
The silence continued for a very long time.
In the end, Shen Qingqing was the first to speak.
She raised her head and looked at Lu Chengyu’s profile. Her voice was soft, yet very calm. “It’s all right if Young Master Yu doesn’t like me.”
Everyone turned to look at her.
She continued, her voice unhurried, as though she were speaking of something utterly ordinary. “Madam said that as long as Young Master Yu’s illness gets better, that is all that matters. Now that Young Master is awake and his illness is almost cured, everything is fine. Young Master can just treat me as a maid.”
As she said this, her eyes were bright. There was no grievance or resentment in them, only a quiet earnestness. During the days she had spent here, she had come to understand a little about the Lu residence. Although she did not know what the Lu Family did, they were certainly a wealthy household. Even Young Master’s courtyard alone had one nanny, four senior maids, one personal manservant, and several other maids and older female attendants whose names she did not even know.
So she had never felt that she could truly become Young Master’s wife. She thought that being a senior maid would be quite good enough. Although Madam had said she was Young Master’s wife, she understood that it was only because Young Master had been ill.
Tears welled up in Madam Lu’s eyes once more. She pulled Shen Qingqing into her arms and held her tightly. “Good child, you really are such a sensible, good child…”
Lu Chengyu finally turned his head and glanced at Shen Qingqing.
Held in his mother’s arms, she revealed a small face. She was quiet, neither crying nor smiling, merely watching him calmly with eyes that were clear black and white.
He suddenly felt a strange discomfort in his heart that he could not explain. It was as though a thorn had lodged there. It did not hurt, but it made him uncomfortable.
He turned his face away again and did not look at her anymore.
After that day, Shen Qingqing continued to come to the main room every day to look after Lu Chengyu.
She gave him his medicine, wiped his face, changed his compresses, and watched the kitchen prepare light meals. She missed nothing and never once complained.
Lu Chengyu did not speak to her, and she did not get angry. She merely went about her own tasks in silence. Sometimes, when he began coughing, she would silently hand him a cup of warm water. Sometimes, when he found the medicine too bitter and refused to drink it, she would stand by the bed holding the bowl, quietly waiting until he could no longer avoid it and had no choice but to take the bowl and drain it in one gulp.
She never urged him and never complained to anyone. She simply used that quiet, patient manner to let him know what he ought to do.
At first, Lu Chengyu resisted her intensely, believing that his mother had sent her to keep watch over him, and deliberately opposed her at every turn. When she brought him medicine, he pretended to be asleep. When she handed him water, he acted as though he had not seen it. When she helped tuck in the corners of his quilt, he deliberately rolled over and kicked the covers loose.
But Shen Qingqing never grew angry.
When he pretended to sleep, she would sit quietly beside the bed and wait. She could wait for a quarter of an hour or half an hour without urging him, occasionally reaching out to feel his forehead and check his temperature.
When he kicked off the quilt, she would tuck it back in. Her movements were gentle, as though she were afraid of waking him.
When he deliberately knocked over the bowl of medicine, spilling the pitch-black liquid all over the bed, she did not get angry either. She merely cleaned it up in silence, then went to the small kitchen and brewed another bowl.
The second bowl she brought was neither too hot nor too cold. It was just right.
Looking at the bowl of medicine, Lu Chengyu suddenly felt somewhat guilty. He took the bowl, frowned, and drank it all in one go. The bitterness made him grimace, but he did not say anything more.
As the days passed, he gradually grew accustomed to her presence.
He grew accustomed to opening his eyes every day and seeing her sitting beside the bed, either wringing out a cloth or watching the heat of the medicine stove; accustomed to drinking the medicine she gave him and eating the meals she arranged; accustomed to having her quietly working beside him, like a faint shadow—never noisy or troublesome, yet everywhere.