Xie Rutang suddenly didn’t want to stay here anymore…
She looked at Pei Zhiheng, biting her red lip.
Su Yao had no idea of the history between her and Pei Zhiheng. She set down the crimson skirt and picked out a moon-white one instead. Several pale blue orchids were embroidered around its collar, giving it a fresh, elegant look. “What about this one?”
“Though it’s a light color, it has more life to it than the one Madam Shen is wearing.”
Xie Rutang could guess why Su Yao was trying to please her: the Shen and Pei households had a special relationship.
If Su Yao won her approval, marrying into the Pei Residence would be easier for her.
Xie Rutang thought that if Miss Su knew her mother-in-law wanted her to ask Pei Zhiheng to father a child for her, she probably wouldn’t be so sweet and innocent toward her.
So Xie Rutang smiled. “Then I’ll take this one.”
After finishing her shopping for clothes, Su Yao pestered Pei Zhiheng to take her to buy rouge.
This time, Pei Zhiheng refused. “I still have official business to attend to.”
Disappointment showed in Su Yao’s eyes, and she had no choice but to say goodbye to them.
Xie Rutang was relieved.
But after Su Yao left in the Su family carriage,
Xie Rutang’s eyelid twitched. Wait!
Next, she was… apparently going to ride back to the residence in the same carriage as Pei Zhiheng.
The moment she climbed into the carriage,
the carriage swayed slightly, and she accidentally landed in his lap.
Xie Rutang saw Pei Zhiheng’s cool, composed throat move as he swallowed.
Last night, when she had come to him of her own accord, he had touched her waist. He was no dispassionate saint, after all. But in the end, reason had overcome desire.
He had no taste for other men’s wives.
But now, he couldn’t help thinking she was doing it on purpose again. Pei Zhiheng’s gaze darkened.
Xie Rutang’s cheeks flushed. “I’m sorry.”
When she got up, that soft, fragrant warmth moved away with her. Pei Zhiheng frowned instinctively, displeased.
A moment later, he said coolly, “Does Madam wish to marry again?”
Xie Rutang clutched the hem of her skirt.
So he really had heard what Lin Shuangqiu had said to her!
A faint trace of amusement seemed to show in his eyes.
Xie Rutang suddenly felt deeply uncomfortable.
She thought she could guess why Pei Zhiheng refused to give Shen Yuan an heir: he likely despised her status as a married woman, a woman Shen Yuan had touched.
People in high positions were naturally arrogant.
And Pei Zhiheng was one in a million, a favorite before the emperor. Even if a princess married down to him, he would still be considered a worthy match.
Even if he felt some affection for her, he was only playing with her; he would never take it seriously.
Besides, she had heard the servants in the residence talk about it.
Pei Zhiheng had someone in his heart, his unattainable ideal: Yin Qinrong, renowned throughout the capital, the Imperial College’s libationer’s only daughter, and the woman generally acknowledged as the capital’s foremost talent.
They had known each other since they were young and shared a deep affection. They had long since made a verbal marriage pact, and only needed to choose an auspicious day to formalize their engagement.
But a year ago, Yin Qinrong suddenly changed her mind and accepted the royal marriage decree, becoming Crown Princess in one leap.
At the time, the affair had caused quite a stir among the capital’s scholars. According to the Shen Residence servants, everyone said it had dealt Pei Zhiheng a severe blow. He stopped attending social gatherings and devoted himself entirely to court affairs and criminal cases, growing ever colder and more taciturn.
Unsure what he meant, Xie Rutang felt a little embarrassed. “This doesn’t seem to concern Second Master.”
She turned to glare at him in anger.
But her attention wandered, and her fingers tightened unconsciously.
She saw the dark jade pendant at his waist.
She had often mistaken the two men for each other because of their similar builds. Gazing at the pendant, she thought of Shen Yuan, who had died. They had once shared a bed, but now they were separated by life and death. Sadness welled up in her.
She even forgot how frivolous and insulting the man’s words had been.
Her eyes lowered, her expression dimming with loneliness.
Pei Zhiheng fixed her with a cold gaze and saw through her thoughts at once.
She was using him to remember the man she had lost.
For some reason, he, who had always been cold-hearted, felt a surge of icy, vicious anger toward her.
Because of their families’ ties, he and Shen Yuan had gone through their first-birthday ceremonies together and learned swordsmanship together. Their handwriting was similar, both taught by the same famous master, and even their courtesy names differed by only one character.
If he really agreed to give Shen Yuan an heir, who knew whether, when he and Xie Rutang shared a bed in the future, she would mistake him for her late husband, Shen Yuan…
How could he ever be someone else’s substitute?
Looking at her dignified face, Pei Zhiheng let out a cold laugh, each word humiliating her. “It seems Madam Shen has been so lonely in widowhood at the residence that she can no longer bear it. Have you mistaken another man for your late husband to ease that loneliness?”
His words drenched her like ice water. Xie Rutang went rigid, all the color draining from her face.
Her hands fell to her sides, fingers clenching the pale fabric of her clothes. Her eyes suddenly reddened.
But Xie Rutang had no idea that she was young and beautiful, and that even the slightest glimpse of her vulnerability could stir any man’s desire to possess her.
Pei Zhiheng’s gaze darkened. He took a sip of tea to soothe his throat.
Xie Rutang swallowed her anger. “Second Master, that was a cruel thing to say. It is only proper that I cherish my late husband’s memory. I have never behaved improperly toward Lord Pei; I have always observed the rules of propriety.”
Her limpid eyes held a trace of anger. “Yet you humiliate me so maliciously. Do you not care for Shen Yuan in the afterlife, or for the Shen family’s reputation?”
Her shoulders trembled faintly with anger.
Pei Zhiheng said nothing. Since entering the court and taking power into his hands, when had anyone ever dared speak back to him like this?
A chillingly mocking look appeared in his eyes. “You climbed into my bed last night. That was certainly a fine way to honor your elder brother.”
Xie Rutang’s face gradually turned deathly pale.
Slowly, she clenched her fists. “If I told you I had my reasons… would you believe me?”
Xie Rutang wanted to expose her mother-in-law’s ugly face, but she stopped herself before the words left her mouth.
Her eyes flickered.
Her mother-in-law was selfish and mean, but she cared deeply about appearances.
If Xie Rutang used the drugged wine as leverage, she might be able to extort hush money from her. Her elder brother was still trapped in prison and needed money at every turn to grease the wheels. She was short of funds herself.
So she kept quiet.
“What reasons?” Pei Zhiheng’s dark eyes reflected her face.
Xie Rutang gripped her handkerchief. “Nothing.”
It seemed she would have to take the blame for her mother-in-law’s drugging.
Whether she had her dignity or not no longer mattered beside her elder brother’s life.
Pei Zhiheng’s lashes veiled his expression. “Why would you do such a thing?”
The tea in his hand was the finest Junshan Silver Needle. Its surface rippled faintly, reflecting a corner of the figure diagonally ahead of him: the alluring, graceful outline of a woman, half-visible and half-obscured in the tea’s rising steam.
Old tea was worth savoring slowly. The longer it aged, the richer it became.
Xie Rutang hadn’t expected him to question her outright.
Since she had decided to extort hush money from her mother-in-law, she answered openly, his refined figure reflected in her spring-bright eyes. “Because I want a child.”
Her elder brother was still languishing in prison. If she could persuade Pei Zhiheng to intervene, her brother would be saved.
But Pei Zhiheng was accustomed to being merciless and impartial, earning him the name Cold Yama.
She knew that pleading with him would be like throwing an egg against a stone.
Still, she wanted to try.
So Xie Rutang spoke timidly, tears glimmering in her eyes. “Since my husband died, I’ve had no one to rely on in the residence…”
“If I could have a child, I could stay at the Shen Residence, and my mother-in-law wouldn’t make me remarry.”
She knew that vulnerability was her only advantage when it came to attracting a man.
A shadow immediately fell over Pei Zhiheng’s eyes.
She needed a man.
A man who could protect her.
A man who could spend every night in her room.
After Xie Rutang finished speaking, her heart uneasy, she saw that the man in the carriage had closed his eyes.
She bit her lip, unable to guess what he meant.
Hadn’t there been some truth in what she had just said?
She didn’t know what had made her say it, but once the words were out, she couldn’t take them back.
Life as a widow was truly hard to endure.
And she was so young. After hearing her mother-in-law’s words, how could she be content to accept her lot?
Once such thoughts took root, they would quietly creep up through the gaps in her bones, making her itch with longing.
Last night’s touch had been like rain after a long drought, leaving her aching with longing and bitterness.
When they reached the Shen Residence,
Pei Zhiheng’s voice was cool and distant.
“Get out.”
The color drained from Xie Rutang’s face as a sense of shame unlike anything she had ever felt swept over her.
The carriage rattled along the long, blue-stone street, heading toward Dali Temple without a backward glance.
Xie Rutang lowered her eyes, feeling her face burn; the tips of her ears turned red.
She was such a fool. Miss Su was the unmarried woman Pei Zhiheng favored as a future wife.
She must have been bewitched today to think she could tempt him with her own body.