The Second Master, a pillar of the court, was staying at Suxue Residence in the southeastern part of the manor.
Suxue Residence was adorned with carved beams and painted rafters, pavilions and towers. A few rare banana plants grew beneath the covered walkway, and the maids moved soundlessly along the corridors—every detail spoke of the deep-rooted wealth of a great house.
When the door opened, Pei Zhiheng had already bathed. He wore only a snow-white inner robe, his ink-black hair still damp and loose over his shoulders, making his profile look all the more refined and jade-like.
Not long after stepping into the study, Xie Rutang suddenly clenched her sleeve.
The bird’s nest Old Madam Shen had sent her just moments ago had been tampered with.
Xie Rutang could only carry the soup to the desk. Her figure was full beneath her spring clothes. “Second Master, I had no choice…”
Her soft, glossy black hair was pinned up with nothing but a jade hairpin. The skin at her neck gleamed; in the next instant, the man had removed the hairpin, and her fragrant tresses spilled down like a waterfall, brushing his face.
Pei Zhiheng lowered his gaze. In the moonlight, the tips of her snow-white ears gradually reddened.
Xie Rutang’s body stiffened with nerves. She forced herself to endure the discomfort; she had been driven to a dead end.
That very morning, before dawn,
Sister-in-law Lin Shuangqiu had come to her door with her two children and knelt, begging her.
Lin Shuangqiu seized her sleeve, her voice hoarse. “Rutang, your brother can’t die in prison. The children are still so young; they can’t grow up without a father. I’m begging you—your brother loved you most when you were little. You can’t just stand by and let him die…”
Xie Rutang crouched down and gathered her nephew and niece into her arms, her heart aching for them. “Sister-in-law, please get up first. I’ll find a way.”
But her throat felt constricted.
What could she do?
She was only a widowed daughter-in-law in the Shen household, her husband dead young, with no one to rely on.
After her birth mother died, her father remarried and paid no heed to her or her brother.
Her stepmother had spent years sowing discord, driving a wedge between her father and Elder Brother until they were at daggers drawn. This time, her father was so enraged with Elder Brother that he had declared that even if he died in prison, it would be none of his concern.
Imprisonment was no trivial matter; every day’s delay meant another day of suffering. Yet even after she had secretly pawned the few respectable pieces of jewelry she owned, the money she scraped together was still nowhere near enough.
If she did as her mother-in-law had told her and seduced Pei Zhiheng, she could get two hundred taels of silver—enough to meet her maiden family’s urgent needs.
With nowhere else to turn, she had no choice but to enter Pei Zhiheng’s room.
But no matter how carefully she had planned, she had never imagined her mother-in-law would drug her!
The despicable underhandedness made Xie Rutang tremble with anger. If Shen Yuan were still alive, how could he have let her suffer such humiliation?
As she thought this, a single, bitter, sparkling tear slipped from the corner of her eye.
In the next instant, the man’s thin lips covered hers.
Only after a long while did Pei Zhiheng release her. “Did Madam give you this drug?”
He had assumed that, after loving his elder brother for so many years, she would surely remain chaste for Shen Yuan.
In the month since her husband had died in battle, Xie Rutang had always behaved herself. She had never done anything improper or betrayed his elder brother.
Xie Rutang dug her nails into the cold silk. The man’s deep, fathomless gaze sent a shiver through her.
She absolutely could not expose her mother-in-law.
Otherwise, she would suffer terribly.
Besides, to him, Old Madam Shen was like a mother.
The Old Madam had been a devout Buddhist for many years and was known outside the household for her kindness. Pei Zhiheng would never suspect her.
That was what made it so vicious!
The moonlight gradually dimmed. Xie Rutang’s spring-bright eyes were wet. “It was my idea.”
His long, slender fingers brushed over her waist and circled it. “When did you last sleep with your husband?”
“How many times did you sleep with him?”
Xie Rutang gripped her sleeve tightly, her face burning red.
She had never expected him to ask that!
Her red lips parted and closed. She feared he would laugh at her.
Since their marriage, she had never told anyone.
Shen Yuan… might have had a problem in that regard.
She had wanted to find someone to examine him, but a month later he died on the battlefield, leaving her a widow.
Xie Rutang closed her eyes, overcome with humiliation, and lied. “…I’ve forgotten.”
Now that Shen Yuan was dead, she had no way to prove otherwise.
At her answer, Pei Zhiheng’s brows slowly relaxed.
If that was so, then if he agreed to the Old Madam’s request, he need not feel guilty.
Pei Zhiheng’s brow furrowed. In years past, Old Madam Shen had sent servant girls to his chambers, but he had never had any such inclination.
Before long, Pei Zhiheng’s eyes darkened. As if possessed, he unconsciously leaned closer and caught the intoxicating fragrance on her.
The female physician his attendant Yuejian had secretly summoned had already arrived unnoticed.
A maid helped Xie Rutang onto the bed. A quarter of an hour later, the drug’s effects had been dispelled.
Pei Zhiheng stood with his hands behind his back in the study, his face hidden in shadow, his expression grave and solemn. “There’s still a memorial tablet for Brother Shen in your room. I wonder whether you feel you’ve wronged him.”
Humiliated by his words, Xie Rutang felt the last shred of shame she had left crushed to powder.
“Go back. I have no intention of carrying on both families’ ancestral lines.”
The Old Madam had mentioned this to him some time ago, and he had refused.
He had never expected Madam Xie to be so unable to endure loneliness, so lacking in virtue that she had come to him tonight almost naked.
Pei Zhiheng’s voice was cold. He had no interest in women.
And he disliked touching what someone else had already had.
…
After the physician had treated her for the aphrodisiac,
Xie Rutang walked along the stone path, supported by the maid Jinyue. A gust of night wind blew, and the chill crept up her spine, making her shudder.
The shame and anger in her heart had yet to fade.
Fortunately, Pei Zhiheng had handled things thoroughly. Apart from the people in his courtyard, no one else in the manor knew about the female physician he had secretly summoned.
The fact that she had barged into his study that night had been covered up completely. No one had noticed.
The drug’s effects had not fully worn off, and Xie Rutang was weak. As soon as she returned to Wutong Residence, the Old Madam summoned her and, in front of a roomful of servants, launched into a scathing reprimand.
“You’re a married woman, for heaven’s sake! Zhiheng is in his early twenties, already of age, and yet he doesn’t even have a single concubine in his chambers. I thought you were capable, but I never imagined you couldn’t even manage a man who’s still a virgin!”
Xie Rutang clutched her silk handkerchief, head bowed beneath the scolding.
Yet she felt wronged.
She and Shen Yuan had never consummated their marriage in the year they were wed.
Her son was impotent, and she couldn’t exactly say so!
Poor her—her husband had died so young, and there was no one in the household who felt any pity for her.
Xie Rutang fought down the anguish surging in her chest. Her eyes reddened, and her voice trembled slightly. “Why did Mother drug me? Weren’t you afraid my husband would be watching from heaven?”
Her secret exposed, the Old Madam was both angry and embarrassed. “You’re using Yuan’er to pressure me. Do you truly mean to spend your life guarding only your title as his wife? I think you’re just clinging to the Shen family’s wealth and glory. I was only trying to find you a way out, and you put on this wounded expression for whom? You truly don’t know what’s good for you!”
“If I hadn’t been thinking of my poor son, why would I do something that would invite gossip?”
The continuation of the main branch’s family line was a grave matter. She absolutely could not let it die out!
The servants forced Xie Rutang to her knees in the cold courtyard.
The Old Madam said coldly, “You failed to do as you were told and defied your elders. Kneel here for two full hours. Nanny Lin, keep watch over her.”