Apprehensive, Qiao Wan studied Luo Fengxin’s expression. As always, Luo Fengxin’s face was cold and impassive. Seeing Qiao Wan look over, she offered only a slight, unreadable nod.
Qiao Wan understood the unspoken message: Don’t mind me; proceed.
Now that she had been caught red-handed, there was no turning back time, and she still had a mountain of tasks awaiting her attention. Lamenting her bad luck in her heart, Qiao Wan pulled Pei Shuang aside and spoke to her in hushed tones, concluding with a firm warning:
“What comes next is the most critical part. Tonight, you must follow every step I taught you to the letter. Otherwise, not only will your vengeance remain unfulfilled, but you will lose your own life in the process.”
By now, the drug in Chen Huiru’s system was beginning to take hold. Though standing some distance away, Pei Shuang and Qiao Wan could already hear her muffled groans. Her emotions churning, Pei Shuang dropped to her knees to kowtow in gratitude upon hearing Qiao Wan’s plan and the fate awaiting her two mortal enemies.
Qiao Wan caught her arms at once to pull her up. “Lady Pei, you are too courteous. In helping you, I have my own ends to serve. Moreover, the matter is not yet concluded; if thanks are to be given, let them wait until after we succeed.”
Supported by Qiao Wan, Pei Shuang rose to her feet, wiped away her tears, and promised, “Rest assured, Censor Qiao. I will carry out your instructions to the letter.”
Once Luan Yu escorted Pei Shuang away, Qiao Wan sat down on a stone stool in the courtyard, watching Chen Huiru writhe and moan on the paving stones. When her gaze swept across Ling Xiang and A-Quan, the pair flinched in sheer terror, squirming backward with all their might for fear of being dragged into the line of fire.
“I asked around,” Qiao Wan said casually. “The drug is called Immortal’s Intoxication—sounds almost like fine wine, doesn’t it? The dealer said that a pinch no larger than a fingernail is enough to send someone into a drunken frenzy, acting wild and wanton through the night. The higher the dosage, the more one’s wits dissolve. The amount we just gave you is more than enough to plunge you into madness and strip you of every shred of sanity.”
Qiao Wan fiddled with her fingertips, continuing without looking up: “From ingestion to full onset, it takes roughly the time to burn a stick of incense. Only half an incense stick has burned so far, so I know you can still hear me. As I said, I detest using such vile means against others. Do you see the well I drew water from? If you have half the spine Qiu Chan had, throw yourself down it right now. I promise no one will stop you. At least it would grant you a dignified death.”
“Hey, hey! That wasn’t part of the plan!” Xiao Bai piped up.
Indeed, Qiao Wan hadn’t originally intended to give her that choice; it was Luo Fengxin’s sudden appearance that had made her self-conscious.
“It makes no difference, she won’t dare jump,” Qiao Wan answered Xiao Bai absently, keeping a close eye on Luo Fengxin from the corner of her vision.
From start to finish, Luo Fengxin stood there in complete silence. By all accounts, she ought to have had almost no presence, yet Qiao Wan felt as if thorns were pricking her back, thoroughly unsettled.
“What if she actually jumps?” Xiao Bai pressed.
“If she jumps, she jumps. We’ll fish her out and tidy her up. So long as she looks alive when Zheng Wei arrives, that’s all that matters. Could you put a mosaic filter over Luo Fengxin? Having her stare at me is really messing with my concentration!” Qiao Wan pleaded, unable to bear the gaze any longer.
“Ah, this cursed thing called love!” Xiao Bai sighed dramatically. With that, it slapped a massive, cartoonish dog-head icon over Luo Fengxin’s figure.
Originally, Qiao Wan had to strain her peripheral vision to catch a glimpse of Luo Fengxin; now, without even turning her head, an enormous blob of bright yellow dominated her sightline. Luo Fengxin’s presence was ten times louder than before—she would have been far better off without the filter!
Exasperated, Qiao Wan snapped at Xiao Bai: “And what does this have to do with love?”
Xiao Bai: “Don’t you humans have a saying? ‘Before the one you love, you only wish to show your finest side.’”
Qiao Wan was skeptical. “How come I’ve never heard that saying before?”
Xiao Bai: “I made it up just now.”
Qiao Wan: “Ha ha.”
While the two bickered in her mind, Chen Huiru wriggled forward on her belly toward the well. Hanging over the stone coping, she stared down into the dark water, but in the end, she couldn’t bring herself to leap.
No matter what horrors awaited her in life, there was always room for delusion before they struck. To jump into the well meant irrevocable death.
Her face pressed against the stone rim of the well, she panted heavily for a long time. Eventually, she slumped backward onto the ground, her consciousness slipping into a daze as she writhed in purely instinctual spasms.
Seeing that enough time had elapsed, Qiao Wan stood up to inspect Chen Huiru’s condition. Her cheeks were flushed a deep crimson, and her body twisted restlessly, her collar loosened from rubbing against the ground. Had her hands not been tied, she likely would have torn her own garments to shreds by now.
“Told you she wouldn’t jump,” Qiao Wan muttered.
Having finished her inspection, she summoned Luo Fengxin’s men to help carry Chen Huiru and A-Quan inside the room, and instructed them to take Ling Xiang away to be locked up elsewhere.
Xiao Bai ignored Qiao Wan’s remark and persistently insisted that even if the line had just been made up on the spot, it was a pearl of wisdom distilled from reading countless human books.
“How many times must I tell you? Stop reading those brainless romance novels while I’m asleep. Can’t you spend that time reading something useful instead?” Qiao Wan brushed Xiao Bai off in her head without pausing her hands. Soaking a damp cloth in knockout powder, she covered A-Quan’s nose and mouth; before long, he slipped into an unconscious slumber.
“But I find them quite fun! They’re light, cheery, and don’t strain the brain. After finishing them, I feel positively adorable,” Xiao Bai countered, utterly disagreeing with her.
Qiao Wan was astonished. “You’re a system! A machine! Why do you harbor so many bizarre emotions?”
Xiao Bai puffed up with pride: “Because I am an emotionally rich system!”
Qiao Wan kept a deadpan face: “Oh. Then I suppose I’m an emotionally dead human.”
While Qiao Wan had been waiting for the drug to take effect on Chen Huiru, the Yun siblings had already finished setting the stage in the room. The air was now thick with the scent of wine mingled with a cloying, sweet incense, alongside a few suggestive erotic paintings hung about—it truly stoked the imagination.
Yun Guangyi untied A-Quan, stripped him bare, and tossed him onto the bed. Meanwhile, Yun Xiangrong helped Qiao Wan change Chen Huiru into a noticeably wanton, revealing garment.
Turning his back to the pair, Yun Guangyi grumbled, “Going to all this trouble just to stage a charade. If you ask me, you’d be better off pouring a bowl of Immortal’s Intoxication down that lad’s throat as well. When Zheng Wei storms in tonight, he’d be treated to a live performance—far more convincing than relying on a few suggestive paintings.”
Ignoring her brother, Yun Xiangrong joined forces with Qiao Wan to hoist the semiconscious Chen Huiru and heave her onto the bed alongside A-Quan.
Qiao Wan wiped the sweat from her brow after the exertion. “I told you, I detest forcing people into that sort of deed the most.”
“Hardly counts as forcing them, does it? The two of them have been carrying on behind closed doors anyway; you’d just be dragging the truth into the open.” Hearing the rustling behind him cease, Yun Guangyi turned around, lightly fanning himself with an intrigued expression. “Besides, you already intend to take their lives. Why quibble over such trivial details?”
Yun Guangyi’s question couldn’t help but remind Qiao Wan of the scene when she saw Jin Yanzhou off the previous evening.
At their parting, Jin Yanzhou had told her: “Your master is no pedantic old fossil. Though I have no wish to wade into factional strife, I know well that extraordinary times require extraordinary measures. This calligraphy piece was penned on the very day I first entered officialdom, meant as a reminder to myself. Now that I no longer have use for it, I entrust it to you. I only hope you will remember your original intent, and not lose yourself in this battle for power.”
When Qiao Wan unrolled the scroll, she found the paper yellowed and stiff with age. Upon it, three large characters—“Boundless Righteous Spirit”—stood out, vigorous, bold, and driven straight through the parchment.
“Some lines must never be crossed.” Qiao Wan cast her eyes down, declining to debate the point with Yun Guangyi.
She conducted one final sweep of the room. Satisfied that everything was in order, she turned to Yun Guangyi. “Keep watch here. You can strip off your upper robe now, or wait until you hear Zheng Wei entering the courtyard. The point is to give him an abrupt shock when he shoves the door open, then make your escape. Just don’t let him catch you.”
“What? You want me to play the paramour?” Yun Guangyi pointed at his own nose in utter disbelief.
“Who else? Would you prefer Lady Rong or me to play the paramour?” Qiao Wan spread her hands innocently.
Yun Guangyi pointed toward the bed. “Isn’t there one right there?”
Qiao Wan: “That one is drugged senseless. He can’t speak or move; he can only lie there playing the drunkard.”
Yun Guangyi: “Then what about Luan Yu?”
“Luan Yu has another assignment.”
“What assignment? I’ll go trade with him!” Yun Guangyi made to slip away, only to find the doorway blocked by his own sister.
“Ah-Rong, what is the meaning of this? This woman wants your own brother to sell his charms!” Yun Guangyi squawked in protest.
Qiao Wan grabbed Yun Guangyi by the arm, retrieved the string of waist tokens tucked inside his sleeve, and handed them back to Yun Xiangrong. Turning back to Yun Guangyi, she teased, “She’s cross because you went and filched her things again. I specifically picked this role for you because of your handsome face. When Zheng Wei sees that Chen Huiru’s illicit lover is far better looking than he is, and that you managed to slip right through his fingers, the impact will be ten times more humiliating than walking in on a live spectacle.”
Yun Guangyi, who fancied himself a dashing rogue and brimmed with vanity, was thoroughly placated upon hearing his good looks praised. Grudgingly, he accepted the arrangement.
With everything settled, Qiao Wan could dodge the inevitable no longer. Reluctantly, she shuffled step by dragging step toward Luo Fengxin. Channeling the very same shameless swagger she used when bantering with Xiao Bai, she plastered a bright grin across her face and asked playfully, “What brings you here?”
Luo Fengxin gave her a bewildered look. “The palace affairs were concluded, so I came by to look in on things. Stop grinning. It looks utterly bizarre on you.”
Under normal circumstances, being told she looked bizarre would have prompted Qiao Wan to retort with, ‘Who says I can’t smile? I’ll smile all I want, hehehehe!’ But right now, guilt weighed heavily on her conscience. Clasping her hands behind her back, she rocked on her heels. It was only then that she noticed a food container in Luo Fengxin’s hand—she had been too flustered earlier to pay it any mind.
Testing the waters, Qiao Wan asked, “What’s inside?”
Luo Fengxin’s gaze flickered between Qiao Wan and the box. In the end, she tucked the container behind her back and said, “Nothing.”
Qiao Wan: “?”
Could your lie be any more brazen? Do you take me for blind?
Seeming to realize her lie was far too perfunctory, Luo Fengxin quickly tacked on a question to change the subject: “Are you heading back now?”
“I still have matters to—” Before Qiao Wan could finish, Luo Fengxin cut in:
“Then I shall accompany you.”
It was not until they were seated in a second-floor room of an inn in Jinshan Ward that Qiao Wan still couldn’t fathom what had gotten into Luo Fengxin today, making her insist on tagging along. Glancing from the food box to Luo Fengxin, Qiao Wan wondered: Could she really have made a special trip just to bring me something to eat?
Calculating her fortunes, she decided today was far too unlucky to court disaster by pushing her luck, so she let the matter of the food box slide. After spending roughly a month in her company, Qiao Wan had finally pieced together a few patterns behind Luo Fengxin’s conduct.
On the surface, Luo Fengxin appeared cool and detached, but down deep, she treated people well. Her only flaw was being terribly thin-skinned; call her out on something, and she was bound to turn prickly.
Thinking of that, she really did want to see Luo Fengxin flushed with embarrassed vexation.
Memories of that incident in the carriage and the evening she first entered the Princess’s manor clawed at Qiao Wan’s heart like an itchy cat’s paw. To keep herself from acting on the impulse and courting her own doom, Qiao Wan poured a cup of water for Luo Fengxin and took the initiative to break the silence: “How are preparations on your end?”
“Everything has been arranged. Both the Left and Right Militant Guards, alongside two battalions of the Plumed Forest Guard, are at our disposal. We only await success on your side,” Luo Fengxin replied casually. Her eyes kept darting toward the food container, clearly plagued by hesitation.
Suppressing her urge to tease, Qiao Wan said, “Zheng Wei should be arriving at Lady Pei’s courtyard soon. The Marquis of Jingnan’s household ought to stir up some commotion shortly as well. Let us wait here for now; whether we succeed or fail will be determined tonight.”
Luo Fengxin hummed an acknowledgment. In the end, she lifted the food box onto the table and nudged it slightly toward Qiao Wan.
“When I entered the palace today, the Emperor took pity on the ministers and imperial concubines enduring the sweltering summer heat. He specially commanded the imperial kitchens to brew sour plum soup as a reward for the various palaces and court officials. I happened to come across it, and was bestowed a flask as well. I don’t care for it, so I brought it for you.”
A single glance at Luo Fengxin’s expression told Qiao Wan that every word was an outright fabrication. When slandering someone, this woman could lie through her teeth with absolute poise, pulling off all manner of shameless antics without batting an eye. Yet when telling a lie to disguise her own good intentions, she didn’t even dare look Qiao Wan in the face, keeping her head turned away and her eyes lowered the entire time—awkwardly endearing to a fault.
Sigh. If Luo Fengxin could be this adorable every day, this marriage wouldn’t be so unbearable after all.
Qiao Wan pulled the food box closer and unlatched it. The contents within were cocooned beneath several thick layers of cotton padding; peeling them back, a wave of cool, crisp air washed over her face. Tucked inside the padding was a bed of crushed ice, nestled around a gourd flask. Plucking the gourd from the ice, the freezing touch against her skin felt indescribably blissful!
Ah! So cold and refreshing! She pressed the gourd directly against her cheek. The past two days had been stiflingly hot. Previously, she could laze about in the water pavilion at Luo Fengxin’s manor to escape the heat, but lately she had been running around outside non-stop—it was enough to roast a person alive.
Using the chilled flask to cool herself down, Qiao Wan popped the stopper and turned over an empty teacup, pouring herself a measure of sour plum soup.
The iced soup was bracingly chilled, sweet, and tart. Down in a single draught, it instantly banished every scrap of her earlier itch to tease Luo Fengxin into an embarrassed frenzy.
“Have a cup too.” She grabbed another teacup, rinsed it out, filled it with sour plum soup, and held it out to Luo Fengxin.
Luo Fengxin was already stunningly fair to look upon, and now she had gone out of her way to bring chilled soup to stave off the heat. At this moment, in Qiao Wan’s eyes, she virtually radiated a celestial halo. Bitter rivalries and grudges could all be shelved for the time being; if Luo Fengxin asked for it, Qiao Wan would gladly sing her praises until the cows came home.
Watching Qiao Wan beam with delight over a mere cup of plum soup, Luo Fengxin felt a complex tangle of emotions stir inside her chest.
What she had said earlier wasn’t entirely false. The soup was indeed brought from the palace—though certainly not as a reward from Luo Jinhe. Rather, upon leaving her audience with the Emperor, she had run into Consort Shu Cao on her way to deliver sour plum soup to him.
The moment she laid eyes on the bowl in Consort Cao’s hands, Luo Fengxin thought of Qiao Wan running ragged under the blazing sun these past two days. She had already been on the verge of departing, yet her feet turned around of their own volition, carrying her straight to the imperial kitchens to demand an entire gourd flask of it.
The truth was far too humiliating to speak aloud, so it was better left unsaid. Luo Fengxin kept a stiff, impassive face and refused the offering, but Qiao Wan wouldn’t let it go so easily, wheedling playfully, “I can’t finish an entire flask by myself anyway. It’d be such a waste if it warms up! Besides, we have nothing better to do while we wait. Go on, drink some—it’s wonderfully sweet.”
Luo Fengxin had seen plenty of people urge wine on others, but this was the first time she had witnessed someone badgering another to drink sour plum soup. Looking into Qiao Wan’s curved, smiling eyes, the words of refusal caught in her throat. She had no choice but to accept the cup and take a modest sip.
Mm, it really is a bit sweet.
“About earlier, you needn’t take it to heart,” Luo Fengxin spoke up as she set the cup down. “Circumstances change people. It is true for you, and no less true for me.”
Qiao Wan blinked, taking a beat before realizing Luo Fengxin was referring to catching her so adeptly force-feeding the drug earlier.
“The battlefield is cruel, and court politics are no different,” Luo Fengxin murmured slowly. “Though I may not know everything you have done over the years, I can surmise a fair share of it. What happened just now did not truly surprise me. The times are perilous, and the blame does not rest with you. I only wish for a tranquil land and fruitful years; perhaps only then can you and I finally extricate ourselves from this quagmire.”
“A tranquil land and fruitful years.” Qiao Wan echoed under her breath. If the world had been at peace, would so many twists and turns have ever torn between her and Luo Fengxin in the first place?
“I.” Qiao Wan parted her lips, hesitating over how to put the thoughts in her heart into words, when a burst of clamor abruptly broke out outside the window. Her expression shifted instantly. Gliding swiftly to the window, she leaned against the frame to peer outside, whispering to Luo Fengxin:
“They’re here!”