Huo Liuxing returned to the bedchamber at the second watch of the night. Upon entering, he saw Shen Lingzhen wearing her inner garments, slumped sideways on the couch with a book scroll clasped in her arms. Her head bobbed up and down like a pecking chicken, until suddenly it struck hard against the spine of the book, jolting her awake.
She let out an “Ai!” and rubbed her sore chin vigorously. After rubbing in a daze for a while, she finally noticed someone else in the room, watching her silently from beside the five-panel screen.
Shen Lingzhen jumped in fright and scrambled toward the corner of the bed. Only after fixing her gaze carefully toward the screen did she come to her senses and breathe a sigh of relief: “Is that you, husband?”
More than half of Huo Liuxing’s body was concealed behind the screen. From her vantage point, she could only see half his head and one eye. Combined with his white inner garments and his exceptionally solemn expression, just the sight of him gazing at her with such heavy eyes sent chills through the air—no wonder it had frightened her.
Huo Liuxing wheeled himself in, saying in a completely flat tone: “If you’re tired, why not sleep?”
“Didn’t you just say earlier you’d be back shortly? I was waiting for you, husband.”
He glanced at her with an indifferent expression: “I said it casually. Do you take everything seriously?”
Shen Lingzhen keenly detected his coldness and asked cautiously: “Are you in a bad mood, husband? Is it because of the Fourth Prince bribing the household servants?” After asking, she shook her head as if contradicting herself.
No, that wasn’t it. He hadn’t been like this in the study earlier. Thinking carefully, though she as an observer had taken quite a while to recover today, he who had actually killed someone hadn’t taken such a small matter to heart at all.
It must be some important person, some important matter, that weighed so heavily on his mind.
Huo Liuxing didn’t answer. After getting onto the bed, he said only “Sleep” and nothing more.
Had she received such cold treatment at Huo Shuyi’s place, Shen Lingzhen would never have invited further rebuff. But Huo Liuxing had never treated her with such distance before. She sensed intuitively that something troubled him, and believed that as his wife, she ought to try to comfort him. So she quietly edged closer to him and said softly: “Husband, let me tell you something amusing.”
Huo Liuxing kept his eyes closed and said nothing.
Shen Lingzhen proceeded on her own: “I once read in historical records about a Minister Lu from the Great Zhou Dynasty who especially couldn’t stand things that weren’t symmetrical or properly aligned. Once during morning court, an official stepped slightly out from the perfectly straight line of officials, and he felt uncomfortable all over. He insisted that everyone pass the word down one by one to tell that person to stand properly. The Emperor was in the middle of speaking when he noticed the whispering below and grew displeased, demanding to know what everyone was doing. Minister Lu stepped forward with an unchanged expression and earnestly told everyone about how that official had been standing improperly. As a result, not only did the Emperor not punish Minister Lu, he actually scolded that poor official!”
After finishing the story, Shen Lingzhen laughed first herself, but saw that Huo Liuxing remained motionless with his eyes closed, not even twitching the corner of his mouth.
She furrowed her brow in distress, thought for a moment, then continued: “Oh, what’s even more interesting is that this Minister Lu who initially so detested that official later willingly married his sister! People say this is called… even heroes cannot pass the beauty barrier—the more you resist, the more you end up slapping your own face.”
The moment she finished speaking, Huo Liuxing suddenly opened his eyes, his face iron-blue as he looked at her: “Can you be quiet for a moment?”
Shen Lingzhen, cowed by his fierceness, withdrew her smile entirely. She said “Oh” and shrank back to the corner of the bed. Just as she was clutching the edge of the blanket pitifully, she suddenly heard a low, cold laugh from beside her: “A hero who can’t even pass the beauty barrier—what kind of hero is that? A true man of valor would never follow such a path.”
Shen Lingzhen turned her head to look at him strangely, wondering what he was angry about. She had merely been stating facts; she hadn’t told anyone to follow that path.
Feeling dejected, Shen Lingzhen turned away and went to sleep. But because she’d been frightened during the day, her dreams grew troubled.
Huo Liuxing watched as she fell asleep and then, just like before, began flailing her hands in the air as if struggling desperately against something.
He had half a mind to ignore it, but hearing her breathing grow more and more labored, her dark hair soaked with sweat, he could only sigh, lean over on his side, prop one hand on the bed, capture her hands with the other, and reluctantly pat her.
Shen Lingzhen woke with a start.
He frowned down at her: “What’s wrong?”
But Shen Lingzhen let out an “Ah!” of alarm and hastily grabbed the blanket, fleeing toward the foot of the bed. Her foot hadn’t completely healed yet, and this struggle caused her to stumble again, making her hiss in pain.
Huo Liuxing threw back the blanket, his brow creasing into the character for “river,” and caught up to seize her foot for examination.
Shen Lingzhen panted woodenly for quite a while before recovering. She exhaled a long breath: “So it was a dream…”
After confirming her foot was fine, Huo Liuxing released his grip and raised his eyes: “What? Another nightmare?”
She nodded, but her gaze was somewhat evasive, not daring to look directly into his eyes. Her hands fumbled up to her own neck, as if checking whether it was damaged.
Huo Liuxing glanced at her: “Don’t tell me you dreamed I was strangling you?”
Shen Lingzhen was greatly shocked: “How did you know, husband! Don’t tell me it was real just now…”
“As if I have nothing better to do with my strength? More like you have a guilty conscience. If you stayed peacefully by my side, why would I make things difficult for you? You must have done something in your dream to wrong me.”
Shen Lingzhen swallowed guiltily: “I… I dreamed I told someone else your secrets, making you angry. In your anger, you locked me in a dark room, tied me up completely, and pressed me down on the bed…”
Huo Liuxing’s eyelid twitched, his expression slightly unnatural: “Pressed you on the bed and then what?”
“Like a mountain crushing down, saying you’d grind me into meat paste!”
“…”
Huo Liuxing said “Oh” in a detached manner, indicating that the plot’s cause and effect logic was tight and perfectly reasonable.
Shen Lingzhen muttered: “How could you treat me that way, husband…”
Huo Liuxing was both annoyed and amused: “You’re blaming me for something in your dream? If we’re going to be so particular, how should we settle the account of you informing on me to others?”
Shen Lingzhen touched her nose: “I heard people say dreams are reversed. That means I’ll never betray you, husband.”
He raised his eyebrows and patted the bed: “All right, go back to sleep.”
Shen Lingzhen crawled back from the foot of the bed and lay down silently. However, this time she had lost her sleepiness. After a long while, she continued staring nervously at the canopy overhead.
Huo Liuxing could tell from her breathing alone whether she was asleep. After listening for a while, he opened his eyes and exhaled deeply: “Get up, I’ll massage the pressure points on your foot.”
But Shen Lingzhen shrank back, her face showing difficulty: “No need to trouble yourself, husband. If you truly want what’s best for me, why not…”
“?”
“Well, I was thinking, could you sleep elsewhere tonight? With you beside me, I don’t dare close my eyes…”
“…”
At this moment, anyone with a backbone would have strode right out.
But Huo Liuxing couldn’t. He could only sit in his wheelchair and wheel all the way to the study.
Seeing he wouldn’t sleep, Kongqing and Jingmo couldn’t sleep either. They drowsily accompanied him back to the study to read by lamplight.
Late in the night, when Huo Liuxing set down his book, he finally noticed the food box that had been sitting there from day to night. He frowned and instructed Kongqing: “Pour it out.”
“Master, this is lychee syrup water that the young mistress personally made for you.”
“So what?”
“If you don’t mind disappointing the young mistress’s heartfelt intention, that’s fine, but lychees are so precious, and our manor isn’t well-off. It would be such a waste to throw it away…”
Jingmo explained: “Master, don’t listen to his nonsense. This lychee syrup water isn’t actually made with lychees, but boiled from dark plums, amomum fruit, cassia bark, ginger, and cloves. It only has the flavor of lychees.”
Huo Liuxing immediately turned his gaze: “You mean she used this fake substitute because she can’t afford real lychees?”
“The young mistress probably ate lychees before in Bianjing, but now circumstances are difficult…”
Before Jingmo could finish, Huo Liuxing had already sneered coldly: “Has the Huo manor fallen so low? Right now is precisely when lychees ripen in the south. Send someone to get some genuine ones.”
Kongqing was greatly alarmed: “Master, you mustn’t put on that ‘a single rider through red dust makes the imperial consort smile’ kind of show…” —acting above your means.
A flying eye-dagger from Huo Liuxing made him immediately fall silent. He changed tack: “Yes, Master. This servant will have someone handle it first thing tomorrow morning. As for this fake one…”
Huo Liuxing didn’t respond. Kongqing looked at Jingmo: What does that mean—pour it out or not?
Jingmo shrugged: We don’t know either, and we don’t dare ask.
——
Shen Lingzhen was left with a shadow from that night’s nightmare. Coincidentally, Huo Liuxing also seemed unwilling to pay much attention to her for some reason, so they hit it off and slept in separate rooms for several consecutive days.
However, the Huo manor had few people to begin with. As a result, Shen Lingzhen found herself somewhat bored.
Fortunately, there was another young lady in the manor who was equally bored.
On the night Huo Shuyi was punished, Shen Lingzhen had sent over a box of precious medicinal ointments brought from the Duke’s manor. Because of this, Huo Miaoling felt even more fondly toward her sister-in-law. These past few days, with her eldest sister bedridden recovering from her injuries and no one to talk to, she often came to Shen Lingzhen’s courtyard for company.
The two shared considerable common interests in calligraphy and painting. Huo Miaoling brought the writing supplies Shen Lingzhen had given her the day after entering the manor, asking her to teach painting and calligraphy, finding endless pleasure in it from morning to night.
Early this particular morning, Huo Miaoling again excitedly brought the characters she’d practiced by lamplight the previous night to show Shen Lingzhen.
The characters were copied from a calligraphy model Shen Lingzhen had given her. She was writing plum blossom small regular script commonly used by young ladies. After practicing for several days, she’d already shown considerable progress. Having received praise, she mysteriously produced another practice sheet: “Sister-in-law, last night in elder sister’s room I discovered a piece of calligraphy she’d collected—a poem inscribed by second brother. I got the itch and copied it too. Look, did I write it well?”
Shen Lingzhen took it and saw it was running regular script indeed, but vastly different from the handwriting of Huo Liuxing’s she remembered.
She was not one for empty flattery, nor would she lie: “You copied my characters passably, but you’re still young. To study your second brother’s writing—both the spirit and the form—you still lack quite a bit of skill.”
Huo Miaoling nodded glumly, then somewhat unconvinced: “But sister-in-law, though I haven’t learned the ‘spirit,’ the ‘form’ is there. I think I copied it quite similarly to the original! Look, this is second brother’s original.” She pulled out another piece of calligraphy from the pile of rice paper.
Shen Lingzhen smiled and shook her head, but when she looked where directed, she froze in great surprise.
This handwriting of Huo Liuxing’s was completely different from what had been on the silk handkerchief before!