In the eastern courtyard of the Shen mansion, Shen Yuance carried the “silkworm cocoon” over his shoulder through the gate, walking straight in. Along the way, Qing Song ran ahead of him, panting and clearing the path, muttering “don’t look at what you shouldn’t” repeatedly, driving all the night servants back to the rear chambers.
Jiang Zhiyi lay on Shen Yuance’s shoulder, feeling so uncomfortable she wanted to vomit. She could no longer kick—given his solid build, she felt her feet would hurt more than his—so only her mouth continued to resist stubbornly between gasps: “…My, my husband, how could he be such a fickle and frivolous man… I absolutely cannot endure those days of ‘sister this’ and ‘sister that’! If I cannot have one life, one world, and one person, I would rather have one life, one world, and be alone…”
At this point, she seemed to feel that being alone for a lifetime was too bleak, and the head under the cloak shook once as she changed her words: “It’s not like I must have you or no one else. Without you, must I grow old alone? How many young men in Chang’an admire me—those whose families are as wealthy as nations, those whose looks surpass Pan An, those accomplished in zither, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, and prose—I could choose any of them…”
Even the thick cloak couldn’t muffle this endless chatter.
Shen Yuance rubbed his ear, which was almost developing calluses, and strode swiftly through the corridor. He pushed open the door to the wing room, entered, and set down the silkworm cocoon from his shoulder, removing the outer cocoon.
As light suddenly returned to her eyes, Jiang Zhiyi grabbed the nearest thing—a bedpost—to steady herself, dizzy and disoriented. After her vision cleared, she had just opened her mouth toward Shen Yuance—
When her head was suddenly turned by him, redirected to look inward.
A middle-aged man with a face as white as paper and a blackened forehead, looking like a corpse, suddenly came into view on the bed.
Jiang Zhiyi lowered her head in utter terror, quickly letting go of the bedpost and jumping behind Shen Yuance.
Shen Yuance turned around to look at the person with her hand on her heart, trying to recover from the shock: “Do you see clearly? My ‘lover’.”
Jiang Zhiyi blinked lightly a couple of times, catching her breath and steadying her breathing for a moment. With some suspicion, she peeked out from behind him toward the bed again. Looking at that wrinkled hand, as dry as kindling, she couldn’t help but hold her breath.
Though he appeared to be only in his thirties or forties, it was the hand of a dying man. It was difficult to imagine what kind of withered, skeletal body lay beneath the quilt…
Jiang Zhiyi’s back chilled, and she shivered as she quickly withdrew her gaze. After composing herself, she looked up and asked: “What happened to him…?”
“Half a year ago, he was ambushed by the Northern Jie people. To—” Shen Yuance paused.
“Hmm?”
Shen Yuance turned his head, staring at the ashen face on the bed, slightly pulling at the corner of his mouth: “To protect me, he was severely injured and became like a living dead person, barely clinging to life with medicine and soup.”
Jiang Zhiyi only now belatedly noticed the strong medicinal smell in the wing room, mixed with an indescribable stench.
The more she tried to identify it, the more uncomfortable her stomach felt. Jiang Zhiyi couldn’t help covering her nose, then realizing this gesture was inappropriate, she glanced at Shen Yuance, her hand half-covering her nose.
Shen Yuance seemed not to mind, crossing his arms as he turned back, standing between her and the bed: “The Xuan Ce Army entered the capital in two groups. The latter group escorted him here, arriving just yesterday. All the entry records are documented. If you still suspect I have a lover, you can go check.”
So, what he said earlier about the male deputy commander was true…?
Before Jiang Zhiyi could decide whether to believe him or not, she looked up and saw his condescending gaze, which made her frown first: “What do you mean by that? You make it sound as if I’m being unreasonable… It was you who said it was a lover, and now you’re changing your story. How am I supposed to know which one to believe?”
“When did I ever say it was a lover?” Shen Yuance raised an eyebrow.
“…Stop playing with words!” Jiang Zhiyi’s face flushed with anger. “Even if you didn’t personally admit it was a lover, you certainly smashed the jade pendant with your own hands. How do you explain that?”
The wing room fell into silence. Qing Song, waiting outside the door, couldn’t help but feel anxious for his master.
That’s right! How could this be explained? Even the Daoist immortals couldn’t explain this!
Hearing his master rendered speechless by the question, Qing Song was feeling uneasy when he looked up and saw Shen Yuance making a tactical retreat, coldly stepping out of the wing room and walking toward the study.
Looking further in, he saw the high and mighty Princess pointing her slender jade finger at his master’s back, with smoke practically coming out of her seven orifices in disbelief: “…He just walked away like that?”
Qing Song hurried forward to smooth things over: “Princess, my master feels that this room is not clean and fears it would offend your eyes. He invites you to the study to talk. Please, please come this way…”
Jiang Zhiyi tossed the edge of her cloak with a stern face and walked out.
Hoping to buy time, thinking perhaps his master would come up with an idea if they delayed a bit longer, Qing Song bowed and smiled all the way, saying nice things. However, as soon as the Princess entered the study, her expression darkened even further.
Jiang Zhiyi tightly pressed her lips together, standing at the threshold, her gaze slowly sweeping over the familiar furnishings inside—
The display shelf is missing a porcelain vase.
The screen that had nearly broken her head.
The characters “Jing Fou” (Stillness or Not) on the wall.
Each one was iron-clad evidence of his cold treatment toward her.
Looking at the person now standing by the window with his back to the door and hands behind his back, not making a sound, Jiang Zhiyi shook her head in utter disappointment: “Forget it, you don’t need to explain anymore… The fact is, you did smash the token of our affection, and you have been cold to me these past weeks since returning to the capital. Even if there isn’t another lover, you have changed!”
Shen Yuance’s hands behind his back rubbed together slightly, as if he had made a decision. He turned to look at Jiang Zhiyi, snorting with a laugh: “I’ve changed? I suspect it’s you who has changed. If I hadn’t treated you coldly for a while, how could I test whether, passing through a sea of green, you remained untouched by a single leaf?”
“Test me for what?” Jiang Zhiyi was confused. “When did I ever pass through a sea of green…”
Shen Yuance’s judgmental gaze fell upon her as he extended his hand toward Qing Song: “Bring the Princess’s birthday gift list.”
Qing Song was also taken aback, but quickly responded with two “oh”s, turning to retrieve a thick folded document from the cabinet drawer and handing it to Shen Yuance.
—This gift list was intelligence that General Mu had gathered over the past few days while researching what gift to send the Princess.
Shen Yuance held the bottom of the document with one hand and raised his chin: “Report from the beginning.”
Qing Song glanced at the confused Princess, hesitantly unfolding the document to find the “beginning.”
One fold, two folds, three, four, five, six, seven, eight folds, nine folds, ten folds… Qing Song unfolded as he walked from one end of the study to the other, hitting a wall with nowhere to go, then turning around and coming back…
Just as Jiang Zhiyi was dumbfounded, the long document was finally completely unfolded.
Qing Song cleared his throat, stood properly, and raised his neck to announce loudly: “The eldest young master of the Wang family, a pair of mutton-fat jade ruyi scepters—! The fourth young master of the Li family, a white-glazed pearl-ground flower-patterned peony ruyi-shaped pillow, and ten bolts of rain-washed sky-blue soft smoke silk!”
Jiang Zhiyi: “…”
“The second young master of the Zhao family, an ivory-threaded bird and flower hanging screen—!”
“The third young master of the Zhang family, a green-glazed floral-patterned ewer with emerald glass teacups, one set!”
“The seventh young master of the Zhou family, two Su embroidery butterfly-loves-flower palace fans, and one purple sandalwood chess board with black and white jade Go pieces—!”
…
As the gifts were being announced one after another, Shen Yuance’s gaze toward her became increasingly oppressive, until Jiang Zhiyi could no longer bear it and averted her eyes.
After this evasion, feeling there was nothing to be guilty about, Jiang Zhiyi turned her eyes back with furrowed brows, raising her chin: “Stop turning the tables on me. What’s wrong with receiving some congratulatory gifts on my birthday?”
The soft smoke silk was only good for covering windows, the ruyi-shaped pillow only for resting feet, and most things were placed in the storeroom, never to see the light of day again!
Shen Yuance glanced at her lightly: “While I was out fighting in battles, with no time to care whether a hunted rabbit was male or female, let alone women, you were in the capital being the center of attention, exchanging gifts with these young masters from noble families without any sense of propriety. You ask what’s wrong?”
Jiang Zhiyi opened her mouth, then paused, choking on the spot.
It seemed that she had impulsively accepted these gifts from the young masters without considering propriety. Her heart was truly devoted to him, so why had she overlooked this point…
Moreover, when it was her birthday, the Xuan Ce Army was already on their way back to the capital, so why hadn’t Jing Zhe reminded her of this?
Shen Yuance waved his hand, instructing Qing Song to put away the gift list, and stared at the person before him, who had nothing to say.
Having spoken to this point, he wanted to ask her on his brother’s behalf—
Shen Yuance laughed lightly: “I wonder, among these young masters, which one has a family as wealthy as a nation, which one has looks surpassing Pan An, and which one is accomplished in zither, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, and prose?”
“……”
Jiang Zhiyi remained speechless for a while, then stamped her foot in frustration: “Anyway, my conscience is clear. If I wanted to be fickle, I could have gone to live that life of being the center of attention. Why would I still stubbornly chase after you for so long?”
“So—” Shen Yuance raised his eyelids slightly, “how would I know without testing?”
Jiang Zhiyi looked at him in bewilderment, processing his words in her mind several times before vaguely understanding.
Just because he had heard before entering the capital that she had accepted those congratulatory gifts from the young masters of noble families, he deliberately gave her the cold shoulder after returning to test her feelings?!
Absurd!
It was simply… too absurd!
Jiang Zhiyi was both shocked and confused, not knowing whether to be angry or to laugh, her face alternating between flushing and paling: “You, you doubted me to such an extent…”
Qing Song quickly gave Shen Yuance a subtle eye signal—
This will be hard to smooth over now, please say something more agreeable!
Shen Yuance turned his head to look out the window, as if formulating some difficult words. After a long while, facing the crescent moon in the sky, he took a deep breath: “Who told someone to be—”
“So beautiful she puts the moon to shame and makes flowers shy,”
“So lovely she can make fish sink and wild geese fall from the sky,”
“Of such heavenly beauty and national grace,”
“Of such peerless elegance and splendor—”
Jiang Zhiyi was caught off guard, her heart skipping beats four times in succession.
“Attracting attention and thoughts wherever she goes—hmm?” Shen Yuance slowly turned his head back. From ten feet away, the young woman with apricot cheeks and peach complexion blushed, touching her burning earlobes.
Their eyes met, and the candlelight in the room suddenly flickered, sending a ripple through the still air.
After that moment, both looked away, one toward the sky and one at the ground.
Shen Yuance coughed lightly: “In short—”
Jiang Zhiyi quietly perked up her ears.
“After this period of observation, I now believe your heart remains unchanged—” Shen Yuance put his hands behind his back, raising his eyebrows slightly, “Jiang Zhiyi, congratulations, you’ve passed my test.”