“I said, just taking a casual stroll.”
“Chun Feng Lou counts as a casual stroll?”
Lin Shu’s heart skipped a beat.
How did he know?
Had he sent someone to follow her?
A surge of offended anger welled up inside her. Lin Shu abruptly lifted her head, staring fixedly at him through her veil.
“Young Master Xiao, though I am your nominal fiancée, that doesn’t mean you can have me watched. This is basic respect, do you understand?”
“A woman like you, dressed in men’s clothing, going alone to such a disreputable place—if I hadn’t sent someone to follow you, you could have been sold off without even knowing it.” Xiao Che’s tone remained calm, yet Lin Shu detected a hint of concern?
An illusion, it must be an illusion.
“None of your concern.” Lin Shu turned her head away, unwilling to engage further.
Inside the carriage, suffocating silence descended once more.
Lin Shu closed her eyes, leaning against the carriage wall as if dozing.
The side effects of the Incantation hadn’t fully subsided; her head felt heavy and muddled, and she was genuinely tired.
After an indeterminate amount of time, the carriage came to a halt.
“We’re here.”
Lin Shu opened her eyes and followed him out of the carriage into the Hou Mansion.
Inside Songhe Hall, the atmosphere was indeed much improved compared to days prior.
The heavy scent of medicine had dissipated, replaced by the faint fragrance of An Shen Xiang.
The servants attending, though still cautious, showed noticeably less worry in their expressions.
In the Nuan Pavilion, Old Madam Xiao was reclining on the daybed, with the Marquis lady seated beside her, keeping her company.
The moment Lin Shu stepped into the Nuan Pavilion, she felt two pairs of eyes simultaneously fix on her.
The Marquis lady’s gaze was far more complex—tinged with relief, concern, and a trace of unconcealed weariness.
What made her heart clench most was the look in Old Madam Xiao’s eyes from the daybed.
Those eyes, having just struggled back from the brink of death, though clouded, held a piercing sharpness that seemed to see right through her, along with undisguised aloofness.
It wasn’t the gaze one reserves for a junior, but rather that directed at a nuisance, an enemy.
Lin Shu’s heart sank.
The original host’s disgraceful deeds clearly couldn’t be erased by a single bowl of rice porridge.
She could almost predict that in the next moment, the old madam would coldly order her to get out.
She couldn’t wait for her to speak.
Before anyone could react, Lin Shu lifted her skirt and dropped her knees heavily onto the cold, hard floor tiles, producing a dull thud.
The air in the entire Nuan Pavilion instantly froze.
“What are you doing?” The Marquis lady was the first to recover, rising in shock, her tone full of astonishment.
Xiao Che also frowned, his gaze resting on her straight back, his eyes growing increasingly profound.
Lin Shu didn’t lift her head. Instead, she kowtowed deeply toward the daybed, her forehead pressed against the cold floor. “Grandmother Xiao, Shu’er knows that in the past, I was despicable, foolish, blinded by greed, and did many things that hurt and angered you.”
“Shu’er kneels here today not to beg for your forgiveness. I only ask that you not let a wretched person like me harm your health further. If anything were to happen to you, even my mother’s spirit in heaven would not rest peacefully. I… I would be eternally remorseful, unable to atone even with ten thousand deaths.”
After speaking, she kowtowed once more.
Deathly silence filled the Nuan Pavilion, broken only by the old madam’s slightly labored breathing from the daybed.
The Marquis lady looked at Lin Shu’s frail figure kneeling on the ground, then at her mother-in-law’s shifting expression on the daybed, momentarily at a loss for words.
After a long silence, Old Madam Xiao finally spoke, her voice weak yet carrying a bone-chilling coldness.
“Look up.”
Lin Shu complied, lifting her head to endure the scrutinizing gaze that felt like being sliced apart from head to toe.
“A few days apart, and you seem like a different person.” Old Madam Xiao’s lips curled into a mocking smile. “What act is this now? A sympathy play? Or have you learned some new tricks to deceive this old woman?”
The sharp questions pierced like needles.
Lin Shu lowered her lashes and said softly, “Shu’er wouldn’t dare. It’s just… after staying in the woodshed and walking through death’s door, I’ve come to understand some things.”
She raised her eyes to meet the old madam’s gaze, her expression completely transparent. “Before, I thought everyone in the world should revolve around me, that I must get whatever I wanted. But when those rods were about to fall, I realized I had nothing.”
“I have no mother to protect me, no backing to rely on. In that moment, I remembered what my mother said most often while holding my hand on her deathbed.”
The Marquis lady’s eyes instantly reddened, and she unconsciously grasped the old madam’s hand.
“What did she say?” The sharp coldness in Old Madam Xiao’s voice seemed to have thawed slightly.
“She said, ‘Shu’er, there aren’t many people in this world who truly care for you. Your grandmother and aunt at Jing An Marquis Estate are among the most sincere. You must never let them down.'” Lin Shu’s voice was faint, tinged with sobs. “I didn’t understand before, even found her nagging. Now… now I know how terribly wrong I was.”
“Grandmother Xiao, I don’t ask for your trust, much less your forgiveness. I only beg you to give me a chance to make amends. At least, before we catch the true culprit who poisoned you, let me… let me do something for you.”
The Marquis lady had already turned away, pressing a handkerchief to the corner of her eye.
Old Madam Xiao’s chest heaved violently, complex emotions swirling in her clouded eyes—touched, suspicious, but mostly an indescribable weariness.
She remained silent for a long time, so long that Lin Shu’s knees began to go numb.
Xiao Che, who had been silent all this while, finally stepped forward and said quietly to his grandmother on the daybed, “Grandmother, let her rise. The floor is cold.”
Old Madam Xiao glanced at him before turning her gaze back to Lin Shu.
“Rise.”
Lin Shu didn’t get up immediately. Instead, she kowtowed once more before slowly standing with the help of a young maid.
Her legs completely numb, she swayed slightly and was steadied by Xiao Che’s discreet support.
The warmth transmitted through her arm felt scalding. Lin Shu instinctively withdrew her hand and took half a step back to create distance.
Xiao Che’s fingers curled in midair before he retracted them as if nothing had happened, though his expression grew several degrees colder.
Dinner was served in the small flower hall outside the Nuan Pavilion.
Old Madam Xiao, lacking energy, only drank half a bowl of rice porridge before being helped back to rest by the Marquis lady.
Only Lin Shu and Xiao Che remained at the dining table.
The atmosphere felt peculiar.
Lin Shu’s knees still ached, making her sitting posture somewhat stiff as she focused on sipping her soup in small mouthfuls.
She was starving. Being rejected at Chun Feng Lou and then caught by Xiao Che had drained all her mental energy.
“Eat more.”
A cool voice sounded above her head. A pair of serving chopsticks placed a piece of tender, boneless meat into her bowl.
Lin Shu paused her movements and looked up at him.
Xiao Che had already withdrawn his hand, continuing his meal with an unchanged expression as if nothing had just happened.
“You…” Lin Shu was about to say something when a maid’s announcement came from outside the flower hall.
“Prince, Second Miss Lin has arrived.”
Lin Shu’s recently eased heart instantly tightened again.
What was she doing here?
Xiao Che’s brows furrowed almost imperceptibly as he set down his chopsticks, his tone betraying no emotion. “Let her in.”