Li Yu had originally come out to relieve himself, and now feeling uncomfortable and impatient, he stamped his feet in the cold wind and casually pushed the door open. “Let me check for you.”

“Eh… wait…”

The snowy wind gusted in, making the grey curtains on the canopy bed flutter noisily. Li Yu saw Deng Ying sitting on the couch and said awkwardly, “How about… I bring you another pot of hot water while I’m at it?”

Yang Wan pushed Li Yu out the door. “Go on with your business, I know what to do.”

After speaking, she directly inserted the door bolt. As she turned to walk in, her knee suddenly gave way, and her kneecap struck the cold ground, the pain bringing tears to her eyes.

Deng Ying hurriedly tried to stand, but Yang Wan pressed down on his knee and stood up by herself. “Stay seated, I just lost my balance, it’s nothing.”

As she spoke, she moved the low table from the foot of the bed, rolled up her sleeves, and sat down, taking out a package of nuts wrapped in oiled paper from her bosom and offering it to him. “Before I came, I was helping the young prince shell these. He’s quite skilled – at least half of these were shelled by him.”

Deng Ying looked at the oiled paper package in Yang Wan’s hand but didn’t take it.

“Aren’t you afraid the prince will kill me one day?”

Yang Wan started. “How could that happen?”

Deng Ying lowered his head. “If the prince learns in the future that he once served a servant, what will he think?”

“It won’t happen.”

Yang Wan placed the package on her knee. “Not while I’m here.”

Deng Ying smiled and shook his head.

Yang Wan said, “But if you won’t take these, I’ll take them back. When I’m better, I’ll shell them for you again, absolutely by myself, and won’t let anyone help…”

Halfway through speaking, she suddenly realized she had let something slip, and quickly looked down at Deng Ying’s ankle. “Is the water still hot?”

“Still hot.”

“Hmm… should I find Li Yu to bring another pot of hot water?”

“Yang Wan.”

Deng Ying reached out and caught her arm. “Let me look at your leg.”

Yang Wan sat back down somewhat helplessly, rubbing her hands. “I just fell.”

Deng Ying didn’t respond to her words but bent down and gently lifted her skirt hem.

She wore moon-white silk drawers with subtle embroidered patterns along the edges.

The silk was smooth, and with a gentle lift, it reached her knee.

Deng Ying carefully held her trouser leg and moved the candle closer. “Were you punished by kneeling?”

Yang Wan pressed her lips together, and after a while, nodded. “You can tell?”

Deng Ying put down the candle and looked at her seriously. “Of course. If it were Li Yu, he might even be able to tell how long you knelt.”

Yang Wan looked down at her knee.

Though the swelling had subsided somewhat by now, the bruising beneath the skin from damaged capillaries still looked frightening.

Yang Wan tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “The way you say that, were you also punished by He Yixian and the others?”

Deng Ying slowly lowered Yang Wan’s trouser leg and straightened up. “Not yet, though last year during the court trials, I did kneel for an hour or two.”

After speaking, he moved his leg from the basin and put his shoes and socks back on.

Yang Wan looked at his bent back and said softly, “Today was the first time I truly understood what punishment means.”

Deng Ying stood up, took out the medicine Yang Wan had given him earlier from the cabinet, and turned to her. “Sit on my bed, it’ll be easier to apply the medicine.”

Yang Wan made a sound of agreement and sat on Deng Ying’s bed, continuing, “This time I angered Senior Lady Jiang. She’s punished me occasionally before, but always with tasks, never hurting my dignity. This time, she made me kneel outside the Senior Ladies’ Office to reflect…”

As she spoke, her voice began to choke up.

Deng Ying remembered how she had pulled at his sleeve and tried desperately to hide behind him when Zheng Yuejia had bowed to her that time, and couldn’t help asking, “Does this matter greatly to you?”

Yang Wan didn’t answer.

When she was first brought home by Yang Lun, she had also been forced to kneel in the ancestral hall for several days, but her rebellious spirit prevented her from taking it as punishment. She had lounged about carelessly in front of the maids watching her, putting on a show of repentance before “ancestors” she didn’t even know. Back then, she hadn’t felt humiliated or sad at all, because she could still look down upon these “feudal dregs” from her superior position, finding them ignorant and even somewhat amusing.

But after witnessing Deng Ying’s forbearance and his strict self-discipline in daily life, she gradually understood. His humble acceptance of these imposed disciplines, and his willingness to be bound by Yang Lun, Bai Huan, and Yi Lang, was because the “scholarly heart” he had sworn to protect was itself part of those disciplines.

Therefore, these feudal ethics that later generations scorned, these rules that violated personal freedom, restricted human emotions, and distinguished between classes, were also the foundation of Deng Ying’s self-cultivation.

Yang Wan didn’t like this backward civilization that suppressed human nature, but she gradually came to understand that by Deng Ying’s side, she couldn’t look down upon these rules from a position of superiority – to do so would be to “disrespect” Deng Ying.

This time, the punishment that had once fallen on Deng Ying had fallen on her as well.

Unlike Yang Lun’s “punishment” in the ancestral hall, Yang Wan now understood Deng Ying’s state of mind.

At that moment, she had a thought so absurd it left her speechless – she wanted to hug Deng Ying or have him hug her.

But such confused, illogical thoughts were not something she dared express to Deng Ying.

“No, I don’t mind, I just… ouch…”

Hearing her cry of pain, Deng Ying quickly lifted his hand. “Was I too rough?”

Yang Wan smiled. “You might as well say I’m too delicate.”

She looked at Deng Ying crouching before her. “I think what we have now is good.”

Deng Ying switched hands to hold her trouser leg. “You’ll have better days ahead.”

Yang Wan shook her head. “No, right now is the best.”

Deng Ying gently massaged Yang Wan’s injury. “Don’t say such things, it makes me imagine too much.”

Yang Wan lowered her head. “Would you believe I’ve been imagining days like this for ten years?”

Deng Ying didn’t respond.

Ten years seemed to be a very important timespan for Yang Wan, but for some reason, whenever she mentioned this number, Deng Ying felt a sense of “unreality,” as if standing before a bottomless abyss, about to send someone sinking down – or perhaps sending them back. He would feel an inexplicable reluctance.

So instead of responding to Yang Wan’s words, he asked, “By the way, I haven’t asked you what you said before His Majesty today?”

Hearing this, Yang Wan finally smiled.

“I didn’t say a single bad word about Noble Lady Jiang before His Majesty and the Empress.”

Deng Ying looked up. “Then what did you say?”

Yang Wan said, “I just said that my sister, after hearing what those servants said, went back and cried alone, hiding from us.”

Deng Ying was startled.

He was amazed at her grasp of human nature and her control over propriety. This outsider’s calmness and decisiveness were something neither he nor Zheng Yuejia could match.

“How did you think of that?”

Yang Wan said evenly, “His Majesty has no real feelings for his harem. Don’t be fooled by Noble Lady Jiang’s favor – it’s only because she’s pretty and has a pleasant personality before His Majesty. Even if she bears a prince, His Majesty may not necessarily make him Crown Prince. His elevation of the Noble Lady’s family is probably to give my brother something to fear. My sister is prettier than the Noble Lady, His Majesty likes her…”

She left the latter half of the sentence unspoken.

The “male gaze” that was condemned in modern society was simply a fact in the Great Ming Dynasty.

Yang Wan coughed and tried to keep her voice level as she changed the subject. “His Majesty also likes her, but she’s too gentle, too silent… when wronged, she won’t speak of it before His Majesty, just swallows it herself. That’s why I deliberately spoke that way before His Majesty. Having said that, they can’t accuse me of stirring up trouble. With the Empress sitting beside him, she had to express concern for the palace consorts, and everything fell into place naturally. However, Senior Lady Jiang felt that our Senior Ladies’ Office, being in charge of major palace ceremonies, shouldn’t get involved in such disputes, so…”

She wiggled her knee. “This is the result.”

Deng Ying gently steadied her leg.

“Don’t move around, I haven’t finished applying the medicine.”

He then took off his robe that was getting in the way, folded it and placed it beside Yang Wan, switched to her other leg, and crouched down again. “This medicine you gave me happens to be good for bruises. Fortunately, there was some left from last time. Hmm… if it’s not too much trouble, you should still get some different medicine from the Imperial Dispensary.”

Yang Wan shook her head. “It’s not that much trouble. I was planning to sneak in while you were out and steal some, just take it back and apply it myself. But you caught me red-handed – how embarrassing.”

Deng Ying turned and moved the brazier closer to Yang Wan’s legs. The charcoal fire produced a fine, warm breeze that stirred Deng Ying’s casual shirt. By candlelight, he carefully avoided the bruised swelling, his fingers moving in circles as he gently applied and massaged the medicine for Yang Wan.

Yang Wan watched his hands and suddenly called out to him.

“Deng Ying.”

“Mm.”

He made a soft sound through his nose, still focused.

“When you treat me like this now… does it remind you of what you said to my brother…”

“Yes.”

He answered, “So just consider me serving you.”

“Then I should leave.”

“Don’t go.”

The words suddenly burst from his mouth.

After speaking, he was stunned himself, and looked up to find her leaning forward with her hands propped on her legs, chin in her palms.

“Deng Ying, do you know? You’re completely incapable of lying.”

Deng Ying lowered his head and smiled to himself. “Will you come again tomorrow?”

“I will.”

Yang Wan nodded. “Anyway, I don’t dare apply it in the Hall of Diligent Government or the Five Offices. My sister would be heartbroken if she saw, and Senior Lady Jiang and Song Yunqing would scold me to death. Only you and Li Yu are nice, neither of you say anything to me.”

After speaking, she sighed softly and rubbed her face, flushed from the charcoal fire. “Ah… but I’m thinking, this can’t go on forever. At year’s end, when the court is at odds with His Majesty, His Majesty will always be at odds with the harem, and even with his son.”

Deng Ying looked up. “Don’t worry, things will be better after the spring court session next year.”

“Because the Grand Secretariat wants to implement new policies in the South?”

“Yes. Before the new policies, there needs to be land registration in the Jiangnan area. This matter will have huge implications. There will be a tug-of-war between the Ministry of Revenue and the southern noble families and royal relatives. So before spring, the Grand Secretariat will certainly put aside the matter of deciding on the Crown Prince. You, the Noble Consort, and the young prince will have better days.”

“What about you all?”

Yang Wan continued, “The land registration in Jiangnan will face great resistance. The fate of the imperial commissioners sent there might be even worse than those inspecting salt and mines. Being hanged on boats would be getting off lightly.”

Deng Ying put down the medicine bottle. “Don’t worry, the people you want to protect are also the people I want to protect.”