By the time the two of them returned to the residence, it was already nearing the fourth watch—the darkest hour just before dawn—and the early winter night wind was cold and harsh, cutting into the face like a blade.
Qin Yao had never felt the path from the gates of Prince Lan’s residence to Siru Studio so long. Having finally entered the courtyard, feeling utterly exhausted and chilled to the bone, she yawned repeatedly as she had Wengu prepare hot water, washed up together with Lin Xiao, and hurried into bed, falling asleep from sheer exhaustion.
It seemed she had only just closed her eyes when she heard someone knocking outside. Though the sound was soft, it carried an urgency that could rouse the unease buried deep in one’s heart. Qin Yao gave a start and opened her eyes to find Lin Xiao already throwing on his robe and getting out of bed.
Seeing Qin Yao also awake, Lin Xiao comforted her. “You go on sleeping. I’ll go take a look.”
Qin Yao hugged the blanket and nodded, though her heart remained uneasy. At such a late hour, the servants would never dare disturb Lin Xiao’s sleep unless it was something truly urgent.
Watching Lin Xiao go out, before the door even closed she heard Wengu say in a low voice, “Chang Rong and the others have urgent news to report.”
Lin Xiao gave a low acknowledgment, casually closed the door behind him, and a moment later there came the sound of footsteps moving away. Outside the door, silence returned once more.
As if struck by some premonition, Qin Yao kept her eyes closed but found she couldn’t fall back asleep no matter what. She opened her eyes now and then to look out the window, fussed idly with the bedding, tossed and turned in bed, and stayed alert to any sound outside. A full incense-stick’s worth of time passed before Lin Xiao finally returned.
“Did something happen?” Qin Yao quickly sat up, hugging the blanket, and looked at him. His brow was furrowed, his expression as cold and severe as the sky outside the window, both carrying a chill bite.
Lin Xiao tucked the blanket around Qin Yao, sat down by the bed, and said flatly, “Qin Yuan is dead.”
Qin Yao’s mind went blank for a moment. Once it registered, she said in shock, “Dead? How did she die?”
“She hanged herself.” Lin Xiao stood and began removing his outer robe, draping it over the screen by the bed, taking off his boots, and lying back down.
Qin Yao’s gaze followed his movements without thinking, her mind in a jumble, unable to settle no matter what. “Hanged herself? How could she have hanged herself?”
Going by her past few encounters with Qin Yuan, even believing she’d been poisoned with a “deadly toxin” and had only half a year left to live, Qin Yuan was not the type to give up easily—her will was that resolute. How could she possibly choose to end her own life before the Emperor’s decree had even come down?
Lin Xiao pulled Qin Yao into his arms and, after a moment’s thought, said, “Tonight the ones guarding her were all the Crown Prince’s own personal guards, the watch tight—no outsider could have gotten in. The Crown Prince also intended to spare her life, so although her death is sudden, the chance of foul play is extremely slim. I’m told that at first nothing seemed amiss—it happened at dawn, and by the time the guards noticed something was wrong and went in to check, it was already too late.”
Having said this, he offered his own opinion to Qin Yao. “Though I too find it hard to believe she would choose to hang herself, people like her are often too clever for their own good—they would rather break than bend. Rather than let others dictate her fate, choosing to end it herself isn’t impossible to imagine.”
Was that really it? Qin Yao felt a vague unease in her heart. How many people had hanged themselves in the past month alone? First the Female Official Lu of Yunyin Academy, now Qin Yuan—both at this same deep hour of night, dying without a sound, and on the surface neither death showed anything obviously amiss. Yet the timing of these deaths was just too convenient…
She fell into a daze for a moment, then suddenly recalled something and looked up at Lin Xiao. “It’s fortunate you didn’t take part in guarding Qin Yuan tonight, letting the Crown Prince arrange his own guards instead. Otherwise, with her hanging herself in the residence tonight, even if we weren’t present, the Crown Prince might still have suspected us.” After all, Lin Xiao had both motive and opportunity—had he not withdrawn in time, how could he have cleared himself of suspicion? It was no wonder he was always so careful in his words and deeds, always thinking three steps ahead—the people and affairs inside and outside the palace were simply too complicated, and the slightest misstep could bring suspicion down on him.
Thinking of this, an indescribable ache rose in her heart. She buried her head against his chest and held him tightly. “Weijin, I keep thinking—tonight’s events are probably only one of many such matters you’ve faced over the years. Who knows how many difficult things you’ve gone through before I even knew you. You’ve had it so hard all these years.”
Lin Xiao never expected Qin Yao to be so suddenly moved by this. He stiffened for a moment, then his gaze softened, and he lowered his head to kiss the top of her hair, smiling. “Before I met you, things were indeed difficult. But now that I have you, and you’re so good to me, every day just thinking of you makes my heart so happy that nothing, however great, ever feels too hard to bear.”
Having said this, as if feeling the words weren’t weighty enough, he reached out to hold her shoulders, lowered his head to look at her, and said gently, “A’Yao, the most gratifying thing I’ve felt in all these years is being able to marry you. Don’t worry—whatever happens, I will always shield you from the wind and rain, and keep you safe.”
“Not just me—the two of us, together, must both stay well,” Qin Yao added earnestly.
“Naturally,” Lin Xiao said with a smile, his gaze steady and full of confidence.
Qin Yao naturally understood what this man’s promise meant, and the restlessness in her heart settled once more into calm.
After such a commotion in the middle of the night, Qin Yao felt rather listless the next morning. Besides feeling dizzy and light-headed, she also had no appetite—even the lightest rice porridge wouldn’t go down. She forced herself to swallow a mouthful, only to throw it right back up.
Lin Xiao assumed she had simply caught a chill from their intimacy in the carriage and couldn’t regret it enough. He immediately sent someone to fetch Yu Ruoshui, and also sent word into the palace asking Xu Shenming to take over his duties for the time being, while he himself stayed at the residence, refusing to leave Qin Yao’s side even for a moment.
Seeing Qin Yao’s poor appetite, Wengu thought of something else entirely. She pulled Caiping aside to ask in detail about Qin Yao’s monthly courses while still at home, and inquired when she had last had her period—after all, the young mistress had married into the household nearly two months ago, and given how doted upon she was by the young lord, it wasn’t impossible she might be carrying a child.
Hearing Wengu’s detailed questions, Caiping suddenly realized that the young mistress hadn’t had her courses in quite a while this month. But the young mistress’s cycle had always been irregular back home—sometimes early, sometimes late—so it would be hard to say for certain based on this alone whether she was truly pregnant.
Even so, recalling the instructions Madam had given to the young mistress at her wedding, Caiping couldn’t help feeling a flicker of excitement and quickly had someone rush word to Qu Chen Shi.
Yu Ruoshui arrived very quickly—not long after Lin Xiao sent for him, he was already at Prince Lan’s residence.
Lin Xiao lowered the bed curtains, covering Qin Yao completely, before letting Yu Ruoshui enter the room.
Yu Ruoshui took her pulse through the curtain and asked in detail about her symptoms, then went to the outer room to write a prescription.
Qin Yao lay listlessly in bed, listening to Lin Xiao speaking with Yu Ruoshui in the outer room, when she suddenly recalled the time she’d been injured by bandits at Dayin Temple—that same Yu Ruoshui had also shown up uninvited, claiming he came at Princess Derong’s command to examine her.
At the time she hadn’t known Princess Derong’s character well, but thinking on it now, given the princess’s temperament, it seemed quite unlikely she would have specially sent for the Head of the Imperial Physicians on Qin Yao’s behalf. Could it be that Princess Derong had merely been a cover all along, and it was actually Lin Xiao who had summoned Yu Ruoshui?
The more she thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. After all, in the recent matter concerning Qin Yuan, it was also Yu Ruoshui who had diagnosed Qin Yuan with consumption before the Emperor, successfully drawing her out of the palace and laying the groundwork for exposing her true nature later.
It seemed, then, that the friendship between Yu Ruoshui and Lin Xiao was likely far from as thin as it appeared on the surface.
But Yu Ruoshui, as the Head of the Imperial Physicians, had served in the palace for over forty years and was now nearly seventy. By this point he had likely long since let go of any concern for fame or fortune—with Lin Xiao’s standing, how could he so easily command someone like Yu Ruoshui to act on his behalf? Perhaps there was something more complicated behind it all.
Just as she was thinking this, Wengu came in to say that Prince Lan, having heard Qin Yao was ill, had specially sent his personal steward, Steward Yu, to inquire after her.
Hearing this, Qin Yao paused for a moment, then a rather absurd thought suddenly occurred to her. Of course—how could she have forgotten her father-in-law! If even Lin Xiao couldn’t command certain people, perhaps someone of her father-in-law’s standing and seniority could.
After all, to a veteran official like Yu Ruoshui, Lin Xiao was still a young tiger just coming into his own, while Prince Lan was the only one of all the princes who had once vied for the throne to come out unscathed. Could it be that her father-in-law wasn’t quite as detached and aloof from worldly affairs as he appeared…
Just then Caiping rushed in joyfully, forgetting even to change how she addressed Qin Yao in her excitement. “Young mistress, Madam and the eldest young master have come to see you!”
Before she even finished speaking, Qu Chen Shi swept in through the curtain, her face beaming with delight as she looked at A’Yao, not knowing what to do with herself for joy. “Good child, what wonderful fortune! You’ve only just married, and already you’re with child!”
It turned out that when Caiping had sent word to the Qu family, the original message had been, “the young mistress might be with child.”
But by the time it reached Qu Chen Shi’s ears, it had become, “the young mistress is already with child.”
Lin Xiao had just returned from seeing Yu Ruoshui off, and the moment he stepped in and heard these words, he froze on the spot.