Soft and seductive to the soul.
It was the eighth month of late summer, and the sky was overcast.
In the dense, verdant forest, not a single breeze stirred. The already sweltering season felt even more stifling and oppressive.
“Looks like a storm’s coming,” someone muttered, glancing back at the tightly covered carriage before craning their neck forward to call out:
“Young Master, it’s about to pour. Should we find a place to take shelter first?”
The speaker was a man in his thirties, stout and bearded, riding on horseback. His thick body hair made him feel the heat more intensely than the others.
The one he addressed as “Young Master” was riding at the front of the group, leading the way. Hearing the call, he turned his head to look back.
Among their party of several dozen, everyone was drenched in sweat, fanning themselves with their open collars. If not for the person in the carriage behind them, they would have long stripped off their shirts to travel bare-chested.
Only the one called “Young Master” by the bearded man remained pristine in a green robe, his collar neatly fastened without revealing a hint of skin. Not a single drop of sweat could be seen on his face.
In stark contrast to their disheveled appearances, he sat upright on his horse, back straight, his calm demeanor as if he were in a different season altogether.
No wonder he was the Young Master, his poise and endurance were simply on another level.
The Young Master was named Qin Yu, just seventeen years old. At an age when most would be frolicking with classmates, listening to operas, or fighting crickets in the academy, he had taken over the family business as the eldest son due to his father’s worsening illness. Now, he was out inspecting the merchant accounts with them.
Even after traveling and living together for a month, the bearded man couldn’t help but marvel inwardly whenever he looked at Qin Yu:
Damn, he’s so delicate and pretty like a girl.
The young man astride the tall horse reined in with slender, elegant fingers, the dark rope of the reins accentuating the paleness of his hands.
Hearing the call, he turned his head, his cool gaze sweeping over them.
Tall and slender, with narrow shoulders and a slim waist, his jet-black hair was tied up with a white jade hairpin, revealing a youthful face.
The young man was strikingly beautiful, with delicate features and sharp phoenix eyes that carried an imposing air. When he frowned in silence, the authority of a master was unmistakable.
His face had the soft contours of a woman’s oval shape, but his sharp jawline, honed by leanness, tempered any feminine gentleness with a youth’s bold intensity.
Even his voice was ambiguously pitched, neither distinctly male nor female.
Because of this, many in the group whispered behind his back that Qin Yu was “effeminate.”
“There’s a temple ahead. We’ll rest there,” Qin Yu said before turning back to lead the way.
The thoughts and glances of those behind him had initially been restrained, addressing him respectfully as “Young Master.” But after reviewing the accounts, perhaps seeing him as young, weak, and easy to bully, their attitudes had grown increasingly casual and dismissive. Now, they openly mocked him for resembling a girl.
Qin Yu wasn’t just like a girl, she was one. But from the moment she could remember, she had lived as the family’s eldest son.
She was her mother’s only child, and whether for her mother’s sake or for the sake of the Qin family’s legacy, she had to be a “son.” Only as a son could the Qin family’s fortune avoid falling into the hands of outsiders.
Qin Yu’s mother was named Qin Zhu, the cherished pearl of the Qin couple. The Qin family was in business, but unlike ordinary merchants, theirs was the business of imperial merchants.
It could be said that the Qin family’s enterprises spanned the entire realm, touching every aspect of people’s lives food, clothing, shelter, and travel. Every necessity bore the Qin family’s mark.
If the wealth of the Great Shang were divided into five parts, the Qin family alone accounted for more than three and that was a conservative estimate.
Thus, no matter how dynasties rose and fell, the Qin family remained unshaken. Though merchants by status, they held more prestige in court than fourth-rank officials, earning them the title of “Imperial Merchants.”
Despite the vast fortune accumulated over generations, the Qin family was cursed with a lineage of hopeless romantics.
The Qin matriarch was the lawful wife of the Qin patriarch, and though she bore only one daughter, the patriarch never took another wife. Their child was Qin Yu’s mother, Qin Zhu.
With only one daughter in the family, the patriarch could never marry her off, he had no choice but to seek a son-in-law to carry on the family name.
Qin Zhu took an immediate liking to Li Xuanliu, a scholar who had just passed the imperial examinations now Qin Yu’s father and wished to bring him into the family.
It was no wonder Qin Zhu fell for him. According to her grandmother, the twenty-year-old Li Xuanliu was strikingly handsome, with a charming demeanor, skilled in poetry and music, and well-versed in the arts of romance traits that easily won women’s hearts.
Qin Zhu knew nothing of business, only poetry, and was utterly bewitched by Li Xuanliu, insisting on him and no one else.
Since their daughter was adamant, the elderly Qin couple did not oppose the match. After all, the Qin family’s wealth was a coveted prize, and taking in Li Xuanliu as a son-in-law was preferable to marrying Qin Zhu into the imperial family.
After their marriage, Qin Zhu and Li Xuanliu were deeply in love, their days filled with sweetness. Li Xuanliu even gave up further attempts at the imperial examinations to marry into the Qin family.
The merchant class was considered the lowest, barred from participating in the exams. By entering the Qin household, even as an imperial merchant family, Li Xuanliu could no longer advance his scholarly pursuits. This weighed heavily on Qin Zhu’s conscience, filling her with guilt toward him.
Thus, when five years passed without Qin Zhu conceiving, and Li Xuanliu proposed taking a concubine, she tearfully agreed.
The elderly Qin couple were nearly driven to fury by their daughter’s meekness. How could Li Xuanliu, a man married into their family, take a concubine?
Years of stalemate followed, with Qin Zhu’s womb remaining barren, until Li Xuanliu finally brought in a woman surnamed Bai. The Qin couple chose to turn a blind eye, swallowing their anger.
As long as the child was born in the Qin household and bore the Qin surname, they could endure it and Li Xuanliu had agreed to this condition.
Moreover, Li Xuanliu was measured in his actions. Though he took in another woman, he rarely shared her bed, keeping his affections fixed on Qin Zhu.
It was only after the Qin patriarch passed away, leaving Li Xuanliu as the sole man of the household, that his true greedy and callous nature emerged.
He brought all his relatives from his hometown to the capital, settling them openly in the Qin residence. Even the son born to Madam Bai, originally promised the Qin surname, was renamed with the Li surname.
In less than two years, the Qin family’s fortune seemed to have suddenly become the Li family’s, with Li Xuanliu freely dipping into its coffers.
At first, Qin Zhu could not believe that this Li Xuanliu was the same man who had shared her pillow night after night, whispering sweet words to her daily. She felt she had invited a wolf into her home, drowning in remorse and weeping endlessly.
Later, although she became pregnant, her frail constitution and the fact that she was over thirty when she gave birth meant that Qin Zhu passed away in tears shortly after delivering Qin Yu.
It was Old Master Qin who held the newborn Qin Yu in his arms and, gritting his teeth, resolutely declared to the outside world that Qin Zhu had given birth to a son. From then on, Qin Yu began seventeen years of living disguised as a man.
If they hadn’t done this, once the old lady passed away, the Qin family’s fortune would inevitably have fallen into the hands of the Li family. After all, Qin Yu was a daughter, destined to be married off sooner or later.
By then, the labor of the Qin ancestors and the wealth accumulated by countless generations would have been swallowed by Li Xuanliu, divided among his Li family.
These were the things the old lady carefully explained to Qin Yu once she was old enough to understand.
With tender eyes, the old lady gently stroked Qin Yu’s face and whispered, “This is your grandmother’s selfishness, and it has wronged you. Now that you’ve grown up, you have your own choices. If you wish to live as a woman again, Grandmother won’t oppose it.”
She said this with a smile, not wanting Qin Yu to feel burdened or pressured. But the five-year-old Qin Yu saw sorrow in her grandmother’s eyes. “Grandmother, I’m willing to be a man and uphold the family’s legacy.”
Tears immediately streamed down the old lady’s face as she pulled Qin Yu into her embrace, murmuring repeatedly, “You’ve suffered, my good child, you’ve suffered.”
Qin Yu didn’t feel wronged. She only knew one thing not a single piece of her family’s wealth would be allowed to slip into anyone else’s hands.
In the early years, the merchants under the Qin family only acknowledged those with the Qin surname. At the time, since Qin Zhu had no children, they had no choice but to obey Li Xuanliu. But now that they knew there was a young master in the household, they paid little heed to Li Xuanliu, waiting instead for Qin Yu to grow up.
So, over the years, though Li Xuanliu seethed with frustration, there was nothing he could do. Now that he was bedridden with illness, the business had to be handed over to Qin Yu.
However, while the merchants remained loyal, Qin Yu was still young, and some inevitably grew greedy. The account books they submitted each year became increasingly perfunctory, which was why Qin Yu had taken her people out this year to inspect the accounts.
She had only recently taken over the business and lacked trusted aides. Even the group behind her now was cobbled together some were followers of her grandfather, others were Li Xuanliu’s men, and still more were spies planted by other factions in the household.
Qin Yu didn’t much care what they thought or how they whispered behind her back about whether she seemed womanly or not.
What she needed was an opportunity, one that would allow her to establish her authority.
Qin Yu glanced back at the carriage trailing behind their party, then lowered her thick lashes, concealing the thoughts in her eyes.
The beautiful woman inside that carriage, whom she had unexpectedly rescued soft, alluring, and utterly captivating, would make the perfect bait for her fishing.