Lu Chang’s demeanor had begun to change several days ago.
His emotions were like a fully drawn bowstring, ready to snap at the slightest disturbance. Take the recent dangerous incident—in the past, while he would have been concerned and angry, he would never have resorted to violence so indiscriminately as he has today.
Though he tried to conceal it, Ming Shu could see that she was the source of his tension.
Something serious must have happened.
“Brother!” Ming Shu followed Lu Chang into his room, watching as he hurriedly walked to the table and downed a cup of cold water.
As if that could calm his emotions.
Lu Chang had already realized he was becoming paranoid and suspicious of everything. If Tang Li’s words were meant to make him lose his composure and fall into such a state, she had succeeded. The enemy’s whereabouts were unknown, and his inability to stay calm would not only play into Tang Li’s hands but also leave him particularly vulnerable.
The scene he had witnessed when entering the mansion earlier had indeed stripped him of his rationality and normal judgment. He couldn’t bear to imagine what he would do if anything happened to Ming Shu.
When had Ming Shu become someone who meant more to him than anything else?
He knew he had fallen in love with her, but he had never realized how deep those feelings ran, how completely they could change him.
“I’m fine,” he replied gruffly to Ming Shu’s concerned inquiry.
Fine? Who was he trying to fool?
Ming Shu walked to the brocade couch by the window and beckoned to him. “Brother, come here.”
Lu Chang collected himself, looking at Ming Shu’s cheerful expression, seemingly unaffected by his mood.
“I’m sorry, perhaps I haven’t been resting well due to my busy official duties lately…” He walked to the couch, his tone softening.
Ming Shu pulled up a low stool beside the couch and patted the cushioned surface. “Lie down.”
Lu Chang looked puzzled, but Ming Shu just smiled and said, “Haven’t you looked in the mirror this morning? The dark circles under your eyes reach down to here…” She gestured dramatically at her chin, then asked, “How long has it been since you’ve had a proper sleep?”
How long? He didn’t know, but his insomnia had been particularly bad lately. Still, Ming Shu’s playfulness made him smile.
“What are you planning?” Lu Chang asked as he lay down as instructed, his heart slightly more at ease.
“You’ll see.” Ming Shu glanced at him, then got up to fetch a soft pillow to place under his neck before returning to her stool.
“You’re not planning to interrogate me, are you?” Lu Chang looked up at Ming Shu, who was sitting beside his head.
Ming Shu rubbed her hands together and placed her warm palms on his forehead, looking down at him. “Just rest for a while. You’re thinking too much.”
Her warm hands gently massaged his forehead, her fingertips pressing firmly against his brow—a dull ache spread from where she applied pressure, and waves of weariness washed over him. Lu Chang suddenly felt an indescribable sense of fatigue and relaxation.
“Brother, do you remember the dangerous situations I encountered on our journey to the capital? The assassins, the blizzard, the mountain bandits… I somehow survived those life-and-death situations. Looking back now, it all feels like a thrilling yet terrifying dream.”
She had completely accepted his mother in one night, and they had supported each other to reach where they were today. Even now, knowing he wasn’t her blood brother, she still chose to trust him completely.
“It does feel like a dream.” For Lu Chang, everything since Jiangning County had been like a dream.
A dream that had transformed both of them.
“Without Brother, there would be no Ming Shu,” she said softly.
“You think too highly of me. I’m just an ordinary person,” he replied with closed eyes.
“I’m not overestimating you.” Ming Shu said. It was precisely because she knew he was just an ordinary person that his dedication was all the more precious. Barely past twenty years old, with no power, influence, or background, just slightly more intelligent than others and with some additional life experience, he had risked his life to bring her to the capital. He had protected her throughout their journey, never treating her harshly, always considerate and attentive. His actions often made people forget he was barely of age.
“Hmm?” Lu Chang’s voice carried a slight nasal tone as if he were about to fall asleep.
Ming Shu fell silent, continuing to gently massage his forehead until he drifted off to sleep.
After leaving Lu Chang’s room, Ming Shu instructed Lai An to stand guard outside before heading to the front courtyard to find Wei Zhuo.
Wei Zhuo was discussing matters with General Cao Hai in the hall. Upon hearing the servant’s announcement, they quickly invited her in.
Ming Shu had come to apologize on Lu Chang’s behalf: “General Cao, my brother has been overwhelmed with official duties lately, causing him to be emotionally unstable. He impulsively injured your deputy, and I sincerely apologize. I’m here to ask for your forgiveness on his behalf. How is the deputy’s condition? Has a physician examined him?”
Cao Hai waved dismissively. “It was my deputy who was reckless and nearly harmed Lady Lu. Master Lu was protective of his sister—it’s understandable. Please don’t worry about it, Lady Lu.”
“Don’t worry, Ming Shu. I’ve already had a physician examine Deputy Chen. They’re just superficial wounds, nothing serious. You needn’t concern yourself,” Wei Zhuo added reassuringly.
Ming Shu nodded. “Thank you, Uncle Wei, and thank you, General Cao, for your magnanimity.”
Having apologized, she noticed the two men were discussing official matters and excused herself.
“It’s truly pitiful. If she remembers her past and learns about the Jian family’s tragedy, who knows how heartbroken she’ll be,” Cao Hai remarked after she left.
Being from Jiangning Prefecture, Cao Hai had met Jian Jinhai and handled Gao Shicai’s case. Moreover, since Lu Chang had no siblings in Jiangning, Ming Shu’s true identity couldn’t be hidden from him.
“Heartbreak is inevitable. We can only hope she moves past it soon,” Wei Zhuo sighed.
“Ah…” Cao Hai also sighed. “Who knows what she might have heard that night? If she could recover her memories, it might help with this case.”
Wei Zhuo could only shake his head.
No one except Ming Shu herself knew what she had heard that night.
When Lu Chang awoke, the sky had completely darkened, and no one had called him for dinner.
Though the nap wasn’t long, it had been deep and dreamless, leaving him refreshed. The fog that had clouded his mind for days seemed to have lifted, and his usual clarity had returned. He lit a lamp and sat quietly at his desk, neither picking up his brush nor reaching for paper, staring at the desktop as if in meditation until someone knocked on the door.
“Brother, are you awake?” Seeing the light in his room, Ming Shu knew he was up and brought him the dinner that had been saved for him.
“Ming Shu, come here.” Lu Chang remained seated and beckoned to her.
Ming Shu set down what she was carrying and looked at him questioningly—he appeared much more energetic, having regained his usual clear-eyed demeanor.
“I need your help with something,” he said.
Ming Shu’s eyes lit up at his words, and she quickly walked around the desk to his side, lowering herself.
Though there was no one else in the room, Lu Chang’s mysterious manner made Ming Shu lean in close to listen.
Lu Chang smiled, his breath accompanying his words as they brushed past her ear.
Ming Shu’s ears tingled, and her face grew warm.
After listening for a while, Ming Shu straightened up and patted her chest. “Don’t worry, Brother. When it comes to acting, I excel.”
The next day, Cao Hai’s troops finally arrived in the capital with Gao Shicai’s body, along with all personnel involved in the case. Lu Chang had no more time to rest, personally overseeing the coroner’s examination of the body and interrogating all suspects, hoping for a breakthrough.
Meanwhile, Ming Shu hadn’t been idle. Though Madam Peng and her son hadn’t been found, the records from Qing’an Hall had arrived.
According to official records, Liu Wan’er had indeed been admitted to Qing’an Hall in March of the previous year, suspected of having an epidemic disease, and kept in isolation. All her food and medicine were left outside her room by the hall’s medicine boy. There was also a record of Liu Wan’er’s condition at Qing’an Hall, documenting changes in her illness, medication, and daily diet, recorded weekly by the physician in charge of her care. The records showed her condition had severely deteriorated at one point but suddenly improved in July of the previous year. By April of this year, she had fully recovered and returned to Bianjing City at the end of that month.
Ming Shu carefully read through the records three times. Apart from the sudden recovery, nothing in the documentation seemed suspicious, however…
She brought the book close to her nose, sniffed gently, then turned to the back and sniffed again before passing it to Ying Xun.
“Master, please smell this.”
“What is it?” Ying Xun asked while smelling.
“The ink’s fragrance is different between the earlier and later parts. Haven’t you noticed?” Ming Shu said.
People of that time often added borneol and musk to their ink, giving the written characters a subtle fragrance. The fragrance of the ink characters differed slightly between the earlier and later parts of this book.
As a man, Ying Xun wasn’t as sensitive to these things, but Ming Shu was different. A woman’s natural appreciation for beauty and fragrance made her more sensitive to scents than Ying Xun.
“Smell carefully again. From March to July of last year, the characters only have a very faint musk scent, but from July… starting from the page where Liu Wan’er’s condition improved, the ink fragrance changed. They must have used ink containing borneol, which gives off a hint of coolness when smelled.”
“There is a difference, but that doesn’t prove anything. Perhaps the person making the records simply changed their ink?” Ying Xun suggested.
Ming Shu shook her head. “Besides the change in fragrance type, the intensity is different. While adding fragrance to ink can make the characters fragrant, this scent fades with time. The fragrance from the first four months has already become very faint, but from July until April this year, the ink’s fragrance shows no change in intensity and remains quite strong, more like it was recently written.”
“Are you suggesting someone has altered this record book?” Following her observation, Ying Xun began examining the book more closely, closing it to inspect the binding threads from the side.
Indeed, there was a subtle difference in the binding.
Someone must have torn out the pages from before the improvement in July of last year. Though they had removed the pages thoroughly, leaving no fragments, the threads that had bound those pages remained, revealing a slight difference in thickness.
“Perhaps we could question the physician who was in charge of Liu Wan’er’s care?”
“The physician was elderly and passed away shortly after Liu Wan’er left Qing’an Hall,” Ying Xun replied. He had already considered questioning the physician, but unfortunately, the person was no longer alive.
Ming Shu tapped the table lightly in thought, then said, “Master, if someone tampered with this record book, it means something significant must have happened in July of last year, something that could directly expose Liu Wan’er’s identity. What could it have been?”
In a place like Qing’an Hall, which isolated patients with epidemic diseases, what major event could have occurred, except…
“Death?” Ying Xun responded quickly.
Ming Shu was startled by his words.
If the real Liu Wan’er had died at Qing’an Hall, and with her parents already deceased and neighbors unable to recognize her, what better way to conceal one’s identity than to assume Liu Wan’er’s identity?
But why did this “Liu Wan’er” go to such lengths to enter the household of Lu, the Minister of Works?
If it was simply for the title of a minister’s daughter, she would just be someone seeking wealth and status. How could such an ordinary person navigate through so many connections?
This wasn’t something an ordinary person could accomplish.
“If the real Liu Wan’er died… the records must have been altered around April this year, but the person died last July. The handling of the body couldn’t have been altered, right?”
“I’ll investigate,” Ying Xun said.
Such an investigation would take time.
June passed, and Bianjing entered July.
The new Third Miss Lu of the Minister of Works’ household had become the darling of the family in just over ten days. Even the Minister, who typically paid little attention to his daughters, treated her differently.
The Double Seventh Festival approached, with the Ghost Festival… following closely behind.