She adored him so much that even the night wasn't enough, so she…
"What? Qingniang refused!"
A rare flicker of anger crossed Shen Qingyin's usually calm, unruffled face.
Just a few days ago, when she had met with her mother, she had repeatedly urged her to keep a close eye on Qingniang's marriage prospects. Any family that came to propose must be reported to her immediately so she could vet and weigh the matter.
Yet now, with a match as outstanding as the Second Son of the Zhou Family, not only had her mother failed to react, but Qingniang had actually gone behind her back, her own elder sister, and refused on her own authority!
Could it be that mother and daughter were once again scheming something behind her back, just as they had in the past?!
Shen Qingyin was both furious and anxious, her blood rushing to her head. She shot to her feet, and everything suddenly went black before her eyes.
When she opened her eyes again, she was already lying on the bed in Yuebai Courtyard.
A faint fragrance of orchids lingered at the tip of her nose, and beneath her was the familiar brocade quilt. Shen Qingyin sat up, holding her head, and quickly realized—
Madam Zhang must have sent someone to carry her back after she fainted.
How undignified of her.
But right now, she needed to thoroughly investigate the irregularities in the accounts of Qingfeng Tower, and she also needed to get to the bottom of Qingniang's affair. Two thorny matters weighed on her shoulders at once, each one urgent.
Shen Qingyin dared not delay any longer. Bracing herself, she hurriedly threw off the quilt and got off the bed. But the moment her toes touched the floor, Nanny Qing, who had been keeping watch outside the bed curtains, hurried forward to support her.
"Madam, I've already sent Zhuling to fetch the household physician. She hasn't returned yet. Please lie down and rest a while…"
"No need."
Shen Qingyin gently pushed aside her outstretched hand, suppressed her emotions, and said to Nanny Qing, "Prepare the carriage. We're going to Yongxu Study."
In the Pei household, she had no one she could rely on, and back at her natal home, a whole mess awaited her.
Right now, the only person who could help her was the one at Yongxu Study.
By the time Shen Qingyin had changed into a pale moon-colored half-sleeved ruqun and walked out onto the corridor, she saw a small figure come dashing toward her.
"Mama! Mama!"
Tang-jie'er's skirt fluttering, she barreled straight into Shen Qingyin's arms.
Shen Qingyin crouched down with effort and held her daughter securely, stroking her soft little cheek with her knuckles as she asked gently:
"What is it? My Tang-jie'er, running to Mama in such a hurry—is something the matter?"
Tang-jie'er tilted her round little face up and said in her babyish voice, "Mama! Pei Xutang drew Mama!"
With that, she unhurriedly unfolded the xuan paper clutched in her little hands. Shen Qingyin looked over and saw nothing but a single crooked, winding line on the paper, with a pair of upturned eyes dotted at one end.
Shen Qingyin couldn't help but laugh. She tapped the paper lightly with her fingertip and said with a smile, "What you've drawn is clearly a little long snake. How is that Mama?"
"It IS Mama!" Tang-jie'er furrowed her little brows, arguing with utter seriousness.
"Mama was born in the Year of the Snake! So what I drew is Mama!"
Shen Qingyin helplessly stroked her daughter's fuzzy little head and said dotingly, "Yes, it's Mama."
She was indeed born in the Year of the Snake, so strictly speaking, what Tang-jie'er had drawn really was her.
Shen Qingyin said, "My Tang-jie'er draws so well. So impressive."
Zhuling, watching from the side, smiled until her eyes curved. She was just about to praise Tang-jie'er for being so filial and clever, knowing to draw her mama, but before she could open her mouth, Nanny Qing stopped her with a look.
Zhuling immediately fell silent.
Right—she had almost forgotten. Her mistress disliked nothing more than hearing others praise Tang-jie'er for being filial and sensible. After all, as the eldest daughter of the Shen family, the mistress had once staked her entire life on living up to those very words. It had been bitterly hard.
Having received her praise, Tang-jie'er did not forget to plant a kiss on her mother's cheek. Then the little one grabbed hold of the jade rabbit pendant hanging at Shen Qingyin's waist and, eyes full of puzzlement, looked up and asked:
"But Mama, you were born in the year of the snake—why do you wear this little rabbit pendant every day?"
……
Stepping out past the inner gate and walking as far as the outer one, Shen Qingyin waited inside the gate with her two attendants while the coachman brought the carriage around—when she suddenly ran into Nan Feng.
Upon seeing her, Nan Feng immediately bowed and stepped forward. "Mistress, may I ask where you are headed? The master's carriage up ahead is due to enter the palace later, and most of it is empty at the moment. Why not let it take you part of the way? It would spare you the wait for a smaller carriage to be brought around, which would only waste time."
Pei Yu's carriage?
At the word "master's," Shen Qingyin stepped out at once, and without daring to think twice, she lifted her skirts and hurried forward, afraid that any delay would earn her another scolding—or worse, another round of torment—from the man. In no time she had climbed aboard the larger, grander carriage ahead.
Only after the curtain fell did she suddenly realize something was wrong……
Right—no matter how rushed she was, the wait for a carriage was hardly worth this. It would have been far more comfortable to ride in the small carriage with Zhuling and Nanny Qing.
Yet out of fear that Pei Yu would scold her, she had hurriedly climbed into the man's personal carriage to ride all the way with him……
Shen Qingyin's fingers unconsciously tightened on her skirts.
Pei Yu was already seated inside the carriage. Having just left court, the man wore his Court attire, neat and solemn, his brows and eyes cold and restrained. At the moment, he sat with his eyes closed, resting.
He seemed to be deliberately ignoring the woman's movements.
Shen Qingyin carefully studied his expression, then groped her way onto the cushion at his right, doing her best to make herself invisible.
Heaven preserve her—please let Pei Yu not look at her. Best if he kept his eyes closed the whole way.
Shen Qingyin prayed silently in her heart.
But all that hurrying had left her flushed and warm, and the inside of the carriage was a little stuffy. Unthinking, she raised a hand and loosened her crossed collar slightly, parting the fabric just enough to let in a breath of air.
Yet this most ordinary of gestures, seen through the eyes of the man who had at some point opened his own, took on an entirely different meaning.
Pei Yu stared at the sliver of fair neck the woman had exposed, his narrow eyes dark and heavy with heat.
"Shen-shi. This is an official carriage on a public road, not a bed in the bedchamber. You will not make such gestures here."
Hm?
Pei Yu……
Since when had Pei Yu opened his eyes?
Shen Qingyin froze on the spot, and it took her a long moment to recover.
Could Pei Yu have misunderstood—had he taken that small, innocent gesture of hers for—
Deliberate seduction?!
But that was clearly not what she had meant!
Flustered and mortified, Shen Qingyin was just about to open her mouth to explain when the carriage, at the worst possible moment, ran over loose gravel and jolted violently.
In that single instant, a sudden sense of weightlessness struck her. With a low cry, Shen Qingyin pitched forward—straight into Pei Yu.
The woman's soft lips brushed the man's sharply chiseled jaw, and her hands, limp and unresisting, landed heavily between his legs.
A sharp pain shot through her chest. Shen Qingyin instinctively clenched her palms—only to realize that in her panic, her hand had landed squarely, precisely, on the one place of Pei Yu's she should never have touched.
Oh no……
Flustered, she tried to push herself up, but after the way Pei Yu had thoroughly tormented her all last night, her waist had gone utterly weak. The slightest effort made it give way, and she fell right back down, still clutching that thing.
Things got even worse…
This time, her entire cheek pressed firmly against Pei Yu's warm, solid chest, and she could clearly hear his heartbeat suddenly quicken and pound violently in his chest—chaotic and disordered like a war drum, completely unlike the calm on the man's face.
Before Shen Qingyin could react, she unconsciously squeezed it, and that thing very obligingly responded to her.
Her soft palm met searing heat. In that single instant, mortified panic exploded through her whole body.
"Shen-shi!"
Pei Yu's whole body went taut, his spine rigid. At last he couldn't hold back, and gritted out those two words.
The man's voice was pressed extremely low, wrapped in a vexation restrained to the very limit.
Shen Qingyin's eyes burned with shame. She hurriedly grabbed his arm and, borrowing the man's strength, scrambled ungracefully to her feet.
Pei Yu's body was so hot too…
She could feel it even through his court attire.
But…
But she truly hadn't done it on purpose!
Yet clearly, the man didn't believe her.
Shen Qingyin lifted her eyes to look, only to see Pei Yu's face livid, the air around him oppressively frightening—clearly, despite all her caution, she had angered him again.
She fumbled for words, trying to make amends: "My lord, I truly didn't do it on purpose. The carriage just jolted, and I—"
"Silence."
Pei Yu cut her off coldly, not wanting to hear this woman's excuses any longer.
"Shen-shi, as the mistress of the Pei family's main branch, you ought to conduct yourself with dignity. Even if you're eager to win your husband's favor, you shouldn't imitate the manners of those brothel women."
Frivolous and wanton, leaving him unable to keep his composure even sitting in a carriage.
He had kindly given her a ride, and this was how she repaid him?
Pei Yu lowered his gaze, glanced at that place below his abdomen that had been stirred, then heavily closed his eyes again.
Three years ago, it was this Shen-shi who had drugged him at the Qionglin Banquet and seduced him deliberately, just like today, leading him into that grave mistake.
Only, Pei Yu couldn't understand—Shen-shi had already gotten everything she wanted: the position and honor of being the Pei family's mistress…
And him as well.
Why would she do this again, like today?
Could it be that his diligent labors night after night still left her unsatisfied?
Or was it…
That she adored him so much that their nightly entanglements weren't enough, and even in broad daylight she wanted to hook him into doing that sort of thing?
At this thought, Pei Yu lifted the carriage curtain directly and ordered the driver to stop in a deep voice.
The large carriage immediately came to a steady halt at the edge of a bustling street, crowded with passersby and gathered merchants.
Pei Yu didn't spare her another glance, his tone cold and hard: "Get out."
His mother was right—this Shen-shi, just like those eyes of hers, was a fox spirit who would only drain a husband's essence.
Shen Qingyin's hands and feet went cold. She knew all too well that she hadn't done anything wrong, yet she had no way to defend herself. She could only rise and, in a wretched state, be driven out of the carriage.
The bustling street was full of people coming and going, and quite a few recognized the Pei residence's carriage, gawking at Shen Qingyin with relish.
"Isn't that… the wife of the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review? Why did Lord Pei kick her out?"
"Do you even need to ask? Who in the capital doesn't know that Lord Pei despises this woman?"
"If it were me—had my bright future sabotaged by someone, and the daughter of a traitorous general no less—I'd despise her too."
Someone even pointed at Shen Qingyin while instructing their own daughter: "Look at that. That's what comes of climbing above your station. Take it as a warning!"
These years had been turbulent, and the malice among the common people grew ever heavier. Yet they dared not curse the imperial family and nobility, so they could only pick on her—a friendless orphan girl who had somehow risen high above her station.
The passersby hurled ugly insults, pointing and staring at her. Shen Qingyin hadn't worn a veiled hat today, and under so many watching eyes she felt utterly humiliated, turning her back to them and standing stiffly at the roadside as if serving a punishment.
Fortunately, the small carriage trailing behind soon caught up. Nanny Qing and Zhuling, alarmed at the sight, hurriedly descended and flanked Shen Qingyin on either side, shielding her from the gazes of the crowd, and helped her into their small carriage.
The carriage rumbled onward once more.
Looking at her mistress's flushed, burning, faintly mortified face, Nanny Qing needed no questions to guess what had happened just now.
Never mind those strangers on the street—consider only the eldest young master.
In the three years her mistress had been married to the eldest young master, Nanny Qing had never once seen him wear a kind expression toward her.
But these past few days—hadn't his scoldings of her mistress been rather too frequent…
Nanny Qing sighed softly in her heart, full of sympathy yet not daring to say a word. She could only quietly straighten Shen Qingyin's disheveled collar.
……
Yongxu Academy sat atop Mount Qingyun on the outskirts of the capital. The mountain path wound and twisted, rough and difficult to traverse; even horses and carriages struggled along it, let alone those climbing on foot.
Yet the scenery at the summit was superb. The academy had been built against the mountain, beside the water, its blue tiles and white walls arranged in pleasing order, surrounded by lush ancient trees and babbling springs. When the wind passed through the forest, all one heard was the serene sound of rustling leaves.
The Pei household's carriage came to a steady stop before the mountain gate, and the moment the wheels settled, a striking figure came darting out to greet them.
Luo Yu took Shen Qingyin's arm familiarly, exclaiming in surprise and delight, "Yinniang! It's been so long since you visited me. When I heard you were coming today, I was truly startled!"
Shen Qingyin turned to look into her dear friend's eyes and asked in return, "That startled you? Don't tell me that now that my dear Yu has opened this academy for women, famous throughout the capital, your standing is too high to welcome an old friend like me?"
"Heaven and earth bear witness—Yinniang, you wrong me far too much!"
Luo Yu immediately raised her hands in protest. "No matter when, come whenever you wish. There will always be a place for you at my Yongxu Academy!"
If not for the fact that Shen Qingyin was already married, Luo Yu would have loved to invite her to teach the art of carving as an instructor.
Luo Yu took Shen Qingyin's arm and strode into the academy.
Yongxu Academy differed from other women's academies. Most of its students were unmarried girls from common families. Here they were not taught the Female Precepts or the Instructions for Women; instead, they were taught arithmetic, natural science, handicrafts, agriculture and irrigation—skills for making a living.
The plaque at the academy's entrance bore eight large characters: "Be self-reliant and strong; hold fast to your own heart."
Inside, the grounds were bright and open, spacious to the eye, sunlight pouring down freely, everything clear and crisp. Climbing the high terrace, one could look down upon endless rolling mountains wreathed in mist and clouds—truly earning the phrase "all mountains small beneath one's gaze."
Shen Qingyin looked around and saw everyone dressed neatly, their sleeves bound with work armbands.
Stepping into this world, Shen Qingyin felt the last traces of her resentment from Pei Yu's scolding completely dissolve. When she looked up, she no longer saw the square, boxed-in sky of the Pei household.
This was exactly why she had insisted that her mother, Mrs. Chen, send Qingniang here to study.
If she could have chosen, she would never have married either. She too would have liked to learn a craft here, living out her life free and unfettered even if entirely alone.
But today—
Shen Qingyin's gaze slowly swept across the courtyard. She looked around carefully, but Shen Qingqing was nowhere to be seen, so she asked Luo Yu:
"Where is Qingniang? Did she not come to the academy for class today?"