Yu Qian’er said, “Young Miss, you’re naturally beautiful. It’s not surprising that scars would gradually fade. What’s so strange about that?”
Ji Cheng couldn’t figure out the reason either. Could it be due to her recent improved health? It seemed the prescription from Physician Liu was quite effective after all. When the body warms up, many ailments tend to disappear more easily.
Perhaps due to excessive blood loss, Ji Cheng’s mind felt foggy. She slept soundly until broad daylight without waking once.
While Ji Cheng was in deep slumber, Shen Yu lay in bed, recalling the afternoon’s events with amusement. It had been quite awkward at the time. He had always thought Ji Cheng to be a very composed young lady, never imagining she would make such a mistake.
Far from being disgusted as Ji Cheng had feared, Shen Yu found this error made him feel more at ease with her.
Shen Yu rolled over, remembering the rumors about Ji Cheng’s inability to bear children. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for her, as it was all for young Master Hong’s sake.
Shen Yu sighed, lying on his back once more. But he had to admit that upon hearing this news, he felt another flutter in his heart. With Ji Cheng’s engagement called off and her inability to bear children, she no longer posed a threat to young Master Hong. If possible, he could even adopt a son for her in the future.
He wondered if Ji Cheng had any feelings for him. Shen Yu couldn’t help but think of Shen Che’s unusual behavior. His second brother was typically the most chivalrous towards women, never speaking ill of a lady no matter her faults. Instead, he would always point out her good qualities. Ji Cheng was the only exception.
Was Ji Cheng truly that terrible, or did Shen Che have other motives? Shen Yu didn’t want to create discord between himself and Shen Che over a woman, so he felt he needed to observe further. A remarried man with children was naturally more cautious than an impulsive youth.
Ji Cheng, however, was not so cautious in her sleep. When she woke in the morning and saw the dark brown stains on the bed, her expression changed several times. She had only started her first menses at nearly fourteen, and it had never been this heavy. Could it be because she had become a woman?
A sense of unease welled up in Ji Cheng’s heart. She was afraid, afraid that someone would notice this abnormality. Given the current circumstances, she needed to find a marriage prospect and wed as soon as possible.
However, Ling Ziyun was no longer an option for Ji Cheng. If it had only been once, she could have reassured herself that it was due to being framed and having no choice. But what about the subsequent time?
Among the people Ji Cheng least wanted to hurt, Ling Ziyun certainly ranked near the top. He deserved a better girl who would treat him with genuine sincerity.
Ji Cheng’s monthly cycle came quickly and departed just as swiftly, lasting only three days before she was clean again, more convenient than before.
In the third month of spring, new willows were already drooping their branches, and the banks of the Ying River were carpeted in green grass. Although the Shangsi Festival wasn’t until tomorrow, the third day of the third month, beautiful women eager to enjoy the scenery by the Ying River had already set out early. These days, the air around Luofang Island on the Ying River is always filled with the fragrance of rouge.
The Great Qin’s Shangsi Festival still maintained the customs of purification rituals, wearing orchids, feasting, and socializing. However, new activities had been added in this prosperous era.
Wearing fragrant herbs for purification gradually evolved into the custom of fragrance competitions during the Shangsi Festival. But this wasn’t about the intricate perfumes of everyday life. Instead, people gathered fragrant flowers and herbs, placed them in sachets, and competed to see whose sachet was the most fragrant. Those with keen noses who could guess the flowers and herbs in each sachet were especially praised.
Naturally, the young ladies of the Shen family couldn’t fall behind in such an elegant pursuit as the fragrance competition. Shen Yuan was too old to participate in the young ladies’ fragrance competition, but it was the perfect opportunity to make a sachet for her fiancé.
The young ladies of the Great Qin capital were quite clever. Ordinarily, when they wanted to give a gift to their beloved, they had to be secretive. If discovered, it would be seen as improper conduct and damage their reputation. So they devised a plan for the Shangsi Festival fragrance competition.
To ensure fairness in the competition, the young ladies didn’t use their sachets. Since the end of the second month, the streets had been filled with vendors selling sachets, almost all with the same embroidered orchid design. The participating ladies would fill these identical sachets with fragrant herbs for the competition, making it impossible to guess whose sachet belonged to whom and preventing cheating.
These uniform sachets, born from the fragrance competition, were perfect for giving to one’s beloved.
Ji Cheng had also bought such a sachet, filling it with fragrant herbs she had gathered from the courtyard earlier, and inserting a paper slip bearing her seal. While she didn’t aim to win the fragrance competition, she couldn’t participate, as that would be seen as unsociable.
When Nan Gui entered, she was holding a stack of letters. Now, letters from Jin Province no longer went through the Shen family’s gatehouse but directly through Shen Che’s channels, making correspondence between Ji Cheng and Ji Qing much faster and more frequent.
Ji Cheng used a small knife to open the envelope. Her father, Ji Qing, wrote that the situation with Governor Yuan was not looking good. He kept delaying, probably still reluctant to part with the Tan and Chen families, given their long-standing cooperation.
However, Ji Cheng wasn’t worried about this point. As long as the Great Tong Caravan could flourish and control all the key routes, blocking the Tan and Chen families’ paths for smuggling weapons to the Western Regions, she wasn’t afraid that the Tan and Chen families wouldn’t compromise.
Ji Cheng thought for a moment and decided to go to the Moon-Embracing Studio. She had grown accustomed to handling Western Regions affairs there, as Rui Yingtang had too many people coming and going. If someone accidentally saw something they shouldn’t, it would be troublesome.
However, Ji Cheng hadn’t expected that the Moon-Embracing Studio could no longer be called by that name. The murals inside had been completely renewed, depicting the scenery of the “Three Virtues Residence.”
Snowy mountains, meadows, streams, and wooden cabins presented a spring landscape. Just walking in, one could feel the spring breeze for miles. A single painting could immerse the viewer so deeply in the scene. Ji Cheng’s former “Snowy Night Moon-Embracing Studio” hadn’t achieved this, but Shen Che’s “Three Virtues Residence” had. Although Shen Che might surpass Ji Cheng in many aspects, Ji Cheng had always believed her paintings were at least presentable. Being so bluntly outdone in her strongest field by Shen Che left Ji Cheng in a very bad mood, an extremely bad mood.
Shen Che had even built a miniature bamboo water filtration system in the corner. A tall, slender stone vat stood in the corner, with bamboo tubes connected to a protruding water basin spout on top of the vat. The water flowed through three turns before falling into a small stone vat filled with fine sand, then through another bamboo tube into a clear water vat.
Ji Cheng used the water dipper from the tall stone vat to scoop some water into the basin, listening to the gurgling flow of water. It did sound a bit like the stream in front of the Three Virtues Residence.
Ji Cheng didn’t appreciate Shen Che’s “kindness” much. It only showed that she no longer had control over the Moon-Embracing Studio, which could now be renamed the Three Virtues Residence.
Ji Cheng slightly pursed her lips and sat down at the small table. She took out some paper to write a reply to Ji Qing, pondering the impending storm that the Jia Unit would face. Those Western Regions bigwigs and Central Plains merchants would certainly be unwilling to sit by and watch the Jia Unit control the key transport routes from the Western Prefecture to Yan City. There would inevitably be a fierce battle.
The Tan and Chen families would likely make some moves after hearing the news. If the Jia Unit couldn’t weather this crisis, all plans would fall through.
Now was the time to redraw the boundaries of power, and it all came down to who had the stronger fist. On this point, Ji Cheng had confidence in Shen Che – he was a shameless bandit.
Speaking of bandits, the bandit himself arrived.
Shen Che walked in, and the first thing he did was add water to the stone basin. The water flowed through the bamboo tubes, making a gurgling sound.
“It’s already late spring. I saw that you hadn’t gotten around to changing the snowy night painting, so I helped you replace it with the Three Virtues Residence,” Shen Che said. “Do you like it?”
Ji Cheng forced a fake smile, “As long as you like it. After all, this isn’t my territory anymore.”
Shen Che sat down across from Ji Cheng, leaning slightly towards her and looking directly into her eyes. Ji Cheng gradually leaned back, almost reclining.
“What’s wrong?” Ji Cheng asked uncomfortably, not used to Shen Che’s closeness.
“Your words sound too sour. Are you upset that my painting is more exquisite than yours?” Shen Che raised an eyebrow.
Ji Cheng widened her fake smile even more, “Cousin Che seems quite confident. But what makes you think I must be jealous of you?”
Shen Che said, “If you weren’t jealous, given your nature, you would pretend to admire it. That would show your magnanimity and elegance.”
Ji Cheng blinked her eyes, finding it hard to maintain her fake smile. She indeed should have praised it a bit. The painting was quite good, but was it not okay if she simply didn’t want to admire it?
“It’s not as easy as you might think. I’m not some genius painter. My master was a warrior, but he hated nothing more than being called illiterate. So I had many teachers. However, martial arts training couldn’t be neglected for even a moment, especially during the foundation-building period. So he found a cliff face and had me practice calligraphy and painting on that cliff wall.”
“How is that possible? What did you use to write? Such a large cliff face, were you constantly flying?” Ji Cheng didn’t believe it, but the image was already forming in her mind.
“I used my hand to write. At first, when writing small characters, I used my fingers on the cliff face. Later, when my inner power deepened, I could write larger characters,” Shen Che explained.
“But writing like that, even a whole mountain wouldn’t be enough for you to paint on, would it?” Ji Cheng asked.
“That’s why I had to write, then erase, then write again. Erasing was much harder than writing. And yes, I had to keep flying. My master specially raised an eagle for me. If I got tired and fell from the sky, the eagle would swoop down and carry me back up.”
Ji Cheng couldn’t help but laugh, “How old were you then?”
“About seven,” Shen Che said.
“Seven? How could Princess Anhe bear it?” Ji Cheng asked. “Why would the heir of a duke’s family go through such hardship to become an apprentice and learn martial arts?”
“It wasn’t voluntary. One day I was sitting on a servant’s shoulders to buy candied haws when we met my master on the road. He insisted that I had extraordinary bone structure and was a rare talent for martial arts, and he must take me as his disciple. My mother naturally refused, so he kidnapped me to the mountains and starved me until I was on the verge of death before sending me back to the Shen residence. This went on for half a year until my mother finally gave in,” Shen Che explained.
Ji Cheng was nearly slapping the table with laughter, “Then why did you learn to play the flute?”
“Playing the flute was to practice breath control,” Shen Che said. “For some time, my master made me play the flute for three consecutive hours without stopping. Back then, I swore that after I defeated my master, I would cut down all the bamboo in the world.” Shen Che shook his head and laughed, “Thinking back now, I was too young and arrogant.”