Seventh Miss furrowed her brow slightly.

She was very familiar with Qiqiao. Since entering Yuyu Pavilion in the twenty-fourth year of Zhaoming, the maid had served by her side for three or four years.

Though this girl was somewhat frivolous, always seizing opportunities to curry favor in front of her, she was definitely not a fool… She conducted herself with propriety and discretion, and in four years had never caused Seventh Miss any trouble.

To say she would lose her head and throw herself at a man upon seeing him—Seventh Miss absolutely wouldn’t believe it. If she had such intentions, she would have shown signs long ago in front of Ninth Brother.

She sighed softly.

If Qiqiao was innocent, then the one who wasn’t innocent could only be Xu Fengjia.

“Tell me everything,” she said gently. “Don’t be afraid—it won’t cost you your life.”

Qiqiao’s shoulders trembled, tears rolling down even more profusely. After a long while, she squinted through her tear-filled eyes and looked up at Seventh Miss in despair—having followed Seventh Miss for many years, how could she not hear the subtext in those words? It won’t cost her life, but Seventh Miss had plenty of methods to make someone wish for death.

“Miss,” she used Seventh Miss’s old form of address, then took a sharp breath and stopped her trembling. “Qiqiao isn’t a fool blinded by greed, but now even jumping into the Yellow River couldn’t wash me clean—”

Seventh Miss’s face immediately showed impatience. “Just speak!”

As the words left her mouth, she heard it herself—her tone had rarely revealed such sharpness.

She couldn’t help but laugh self-mockingly, then steadied her breathing to comfort Qiqiao. “You’ve been by my side for four years—don’t I know you? Don’t be afraid. As long as your heart is true, I’ll believe you!”

Only then did Qiqiao calm down. She took several more deep breaths, suppressing even that last trace of trembling. Only in her bright, watery eyes did some fear still remain.

“Last night, this servant was on night watch outside,” she began narrating softly. “Because… because when the Young Master and Young Madam are together, sometimes they need water for washing in the middle of the night. We servants must wait until the fourth watch without any sounds before we can sleep.”

Because Xu Fengjia loved quiet, the maids on night duty all slept on the small kang in the west side room. A small door stood ajar between the two rooms—ordinary sounds couldn’t pass through, but if someone called out, the maids could hear. Seventh Miss knew this arrangement.

“Young Madam also knows I’m usually fond of sleep. This morning after serving both masters at rising, I didn’t stay in the main hall but asked Sister Shangyuan for leave to nap in our own room in the south-facing reverse quarters. Taking advantage of Madam not being home all morning, I lazed about…” Qiqiao lowered her head, tears welling in her eyes again. “I didn’t expect to oversleep. When I opened my eyes, it was already noon. Sister Lixia was attending Young Madam, and only Sister Shangyuan could manage things in the room. I hurried to the main hall, thinking I should help serve the meal and tidy up, so everything wouldn’t fall on others and I’d be resented by my sisters.”

“Sister Shangyuan and I crossed paths, then she went to the east wing. Thinking Young Madam hadn’t returned yet and it was about time, I fetched a kettle of hot water to prepare in the west third room, so when Young Madam returned she could immediately wash her hands and face… All along the way, it was cold and deserted. I ran into Yufen coming from the small kitchen, still peeling an orange in her hands. Seeing me, she smiled and said, ‘Who told you to fetch water?’ I was puzzled and said, ‘I came on my own.’ “

“Yufen said, ‘Good sister, I didn’t expect you to be so bold. I rather wish I could be like you.’ Then she returned to her room. I heard something odd in her words but didn’t think deeply about it. I carried the water into the west third room, and when I pushed the door open… the Young Master had just finished bathing and was about to dry himself.”

Seventh Miss breathed a sigh of relief.

If things were as Qiqiao described, then it was completely just a misunderstanding. Xu Fengjia had his own bathing room in the west fifth room and rarely bathed in the west third room. He didn’t require attendance—Qiqiao’s enthusiasm had backfired, at most an unfortunate coincidence.

But Qiqiao bit her lip and didn’t continue, instead looking toward Lixia with her eyes. Seeing this affectation, the frustration in Seventh Miss’s heart surged up again.

Something was wrong.

Given Qiqiao’s nature, even if she was frivolous, she wouldn’t just see the male master’s body and run out blushing frantically. After all, which married man’s maid hadn’t seen the male form before? Besides, it was just a misunderstanding—why was she so panicked?

She cast an inquiring look toward Lixia.

Lixia’s face was solemn. She pressed both hands on Qiqiao’s shoulders and said in a low voice, “Speak! With Young Madam’s keen perception, she won’t wrong you!”

Qiqiao’s expression changed several times. Finally, she burst into loud wailing, knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Seventh Miss several times, raising large blood blisters on her forehead. Then clutching Seventh Miss’s knees, she sobbed out her account: “I was so frightened the kettle nearly slipped from my hands. Fortunately, the Young Master was quick-eyed and swift-handed—he grabbed the handle at once, preventing the hot water from splashing out… The Young Master had come in haste and hadn’t dressed, so he pressed his hand directly onto mine. I was too frightened to move. The Young Master asked, ‘How can you be so careless?’ While setting the kettle on the rack, he also… also pinched my cheek and said… said, ‘I didn’t expect your mistress had chosen you as a bed-warming maid. I thought Yufen and Yufang were the ones prepared for initiation—but it’s not your time yet. Go out now, it’s not time to use you yet’… I didn’t know what to say. The Young Master grew somewhat impatient and said, ‘Still not leaving?’ Qiqiao panicked and… and… Miss! Miss! Qiqiao knows her humble station and has never had thoughts of rising above herself. Please, Miss, you must investigate clearly—Qiqiao is wronged!”

Before she finished speaking, she could no longer restrain herself and wailed aloud.

The room seemed suddenly filled with an invisible weight, pressing on everyone’s chest until they couldn’t breathe.

Seventh Miss sat like a clay sculpture for a long while before coming to her senses and slowly laughing coldly several times.

“Get up,” she ordered Qiqiao in a low voice. Seeing Qiqiao crying herself into confusion, she simply patted the girl’s tender cheek lightly. “Get up.”

Qiqiao timidly stood up, looking toward Seventh Miss with a face full of terror. Behind her, Lixia also wore an expression of solemn mourning.

Seventh Miss felt as if she’d drunk a cup of ice-cold plum drink with snow foam, choking until she couldn’t even catch her breath. After a long time, she slowly spoke.

“Qiqiao, tell me honestly.” She gazed at this head maid trembling like a homeless dog. “Have you lied to me? Was what you just said true?”

Qiqiao only nodded desperately, the emotion on her face truly deserving of the words “genuine and sincere.”

Seventh Miss let out a cold breath and said slowly, “If even one word you said is false…”

She didn’t finish this sentence before abandoning it.

What motive would Qiqiao have to deceive her? She was a dowry maid—her life and death rested in Seventh Miss’s single thought. These words could easily be verified by asking any party involved. Why would she lie?

Of course she had reason to be afraid. Though this misunderstanding wasn’t major, it wasn’t minor either. If in the future Xu Fengjia proposed taking Qiqiao as a concubine, and she herself recalled today’s events… Qiqiao’s life would hang by a thread. A disobedient bed-warming maid was the shortest-lived in great households.

Though Qiqiao might not be indifferent to the position of bed-warmer, she was still a clever person. When she said she “couldn’t wash clean even in the Yellow River,” she probably feared that Seventh Miss would prefer to believe Xu Fengjia rather than her. How many women, no matter how calculating in normal times, excelled at self-deception in matters of the heart? If this were Fourth Young Madam or Fifth Miss’s temperament, with or without reason, they would first administer three hundred lashes. Qiqiao’s entire future would thus be ruined.

She suddenly closed her eyes tightly, telling herself over and over in her heart: Why should you be hurt? Wasn’t this something you should have anticipated?

The Great Qin wasn’t the modern era after all. In great households, speaking of lifelong devotion was practically a joke. Qin imperial consorts stopped attending the bedchamber after age thirty. In great households this restriction could be relaxed somewhat, but after forty, women rarely engaged in intimate relations with the male master.

Men at forty were still young—how could they not have bed attendants? Not to mention when the principal wife was pregnant, preparing one or two bed-warming maids to accompany the dowry could prevent the husband’s family’s prepared concubines from seizing favor… These matters were commonplace to Seventh Miss.

Growing up in such an environment, how could Xu Fengjia possibly understand devotion? Every young master of the Great Qin’s great households had an extremely distant relationship with the concept of fidelity. Since he mistook Qiqiao for a bed-warmer prepared for him, teasing her a few times was only natural. His restraint in not immediately taking Qiqiao showed great consideration for Seventh Miss already.

Didn’t she understand this? Wasn’t it precisely because of this principle that she’d been unwilling to surrender to Xu Fengjia? Facing his demands, wasn’t that why she kept refusing and evading?

If so, what was she grieving about now? Hadn’t she anticipated this long ago…

Seventh Miss slowly sighed.

Anticipating something and finally having to face it were, after all, two entirely different matters.

In this instant, she truly wished she were the type to be prejudiced and credulous, preferring to believe that Qiqiao had fantasized about rising above her station, failed, and fabricated these words to cover up her misconduct. Unfortunately, her logic remained clear. Reviewing Qiqiao’s confession over and over in her heart, she couldn’t find a single flaw.

“You may go now,” she instructed Qiqiao. “Don’t appear before the Young Master these days.”

Seeing the fear still hadn’t faded from the head maid’s face, Seventh Miss added wearily, “Rest assured, as long as what you said is all true, nothing will happen!”

Lixia urged her in a low voice and led Qiqiao out of the room.

Shortly after, Shangyuan brought in the evening meal. Seventh Miss pushed the rice grains around in her bowl, ate only a few bites, then set down her chopsticks again.

She began leafing through the collected volumes of “The Golden Tale of Sons and Daughters” by lamplight. Reading how Yingying smiled and said, “That Second Liu is also a virtuous person. I understand very well what the Old Madam meant by placing her in Young Master’s room. Suppressing her for three years was to test her temperament—sure enough, she served me wholeheartedly, without a single fault to pick. Now that I’m pregnant, Second Liu’s time to shine has come, yet she still hovers around me—this is what makes her clever.”

The more she read, the more irritated she became. She suddenly snapped the book shut, opened the bookcase, and threw it deep into a corner.

After several deep breaths to calm her emotions, she began calculating.

#

Xu Fengjia returned to Mingde Hall very late that night.

As soon as he entered, he was like a whirlwind, undressing as he walked, calling repeatedly for hot water to be prepared. After entering and emerging from the bathing room with a fragrant scent all over, his expression was still very gloomy.

“What’s wrong?” Seventh Miss, awakened by him, sat up rubbing her eyes drowsily. “Is it palace matters—”

Xu Fengjia snorted, sat heavily on the bedside, first rubbing his face with lowered head, then replied in a low voice, “The Emperor still won’t give up! He insists we deploy twenty thousand troops to search the Southern Seas!”

Seventh Miss’s drowsiness immediately vanished.

Going to the Southern Seas and deploying twenty thousand troops to the Southern Seas to search for one person were two entirely different concepts.

When Eunuch Sanbao of the previous dynasty went to the Southern Seas, including various sailors, laborers, merchants, and soldiers, he brought a total of only twenty thousand people. They followed a fixed route down to the Indian region, conducted trade, invited petty kings, then returned home. Even so, the cost of these Southern Sea voyages remained a staggering figure.

Deploying twenty thousand soldiers alone to search aimlessly like finding a needle in a haystack in the Southern Sea waters—just thinking about the expense made Seventh Miss dizzy.

Not to mention the slim chances of success…

“Feng Zixiu, Eunuch Lian, Grand Secretary Jiao, Brother-in-law Sun, and I spent so much effort arguing, locked in Huagai Hall for most of the day, yet the Emperor absolutely won’t relent!” Xu Fengjia looked completely vexed. “Never mind anything else—once these twenty thousand elite troops are deployed, our Guangdong border defenses will immediately become vulnerable. Robbing Peter to pay Paul isn’t so easy to patch up. The Northern Rong certainly won’t pause these dozen years… Everything is a problem, yet he won’t stop!”

He suddenly slapped the bed frame and roared in frustration, then turned over to lie down, saying irritably, “Enough, enough—no more talk. Sleep!”

Sure enough, shortly after, soft snoring sounds emerged.

Seventh Miss looked at his profile and silently sighed, having no choice but to blow out the candle and lie back down to cultivate sleepiness.

Over the following days, Xu Fengjia was very busy—either the Yang family summoned him, or the Sun family asked him to talk. Some of the Emperor’s trusted ministers also frequently invited him privately. When he finally returned home, Duke Pingguo would call him for discussions. On Seventh Miss’s side, she’d also reached a critical stage learning household management from Fifth Young Madam. Except for the brief time before sleep, the couple rarely had opportunities to talk.

By mid-February, Xu Fengjia rarely returned home early, and in the evening even visited Leshan Residence to pay respects to the Grand Madam.

Even Seventh Miss was very surprised—she’d sat in Leshan Residence all day without knowing Xu Fengjia had already returned home.

Seeing her grandson, the Grand Madam naturally expressed concern and admonished him a few words. Xu Fengjia listened with a smile, then replied to the Grand Madam, “Some close friends want to meet my new wife. Speaking of it, it really is time. Shangheng has been married nearly half a year without being taken out to meet anyone. I was thinking—why choose another day when today is as good? In three days, the Xiao family is holding ceremonies at Guangfu Temple and invited us to go relax together. I thought I’d take Shangheng out to unwind for a day.”

In capital customs, after a new wife entered the household, she should meet her husband’s close friends. However, Xu Fengjia’s associates were all either wealthy or noble—most of his good friends were imperial relatives and such, not easy to gather together, so this matter hadn’t been mentioned. Now the Grand Madam naturally wouldn’t obstruct it. She readily nodded, instructing Seventh Miss to dress properly, then released everyone to pay respects at Qingping Garden. Lady Xu naturally had no objections either.

After returning to Mingde Hall, Seventh Miss removed her outer robe while chatting idly with Xu Fengjia. “Why suddenly take me out to relax? I thought you were so busy recently!”

Xu Fengjia then ordered sternly, “Everyone leave!” frightening the maids into scattering. Only then did he tell Seventh Miss with furrowed brows, “Three days from now, after we leave Guangfu Temple, we’ll go to the Feng residence in Anfu Ward for a meal. The pretext is that Madam Feng misses her niece. Uncle Lian may also come by. His status is sensitive—it’s not convenient to contact us openly. Taking you there is just a cover—and also a chance for you to talk with your maternal aunt!”

Seventh Miss was momentarily stunned. Seeing Xu Fengjia’s resolute expression with no room for discussion, she lowered her brows in acquiescence. She knew this time the Emperor’s decision to send troops to the Southern Seas likely wouldn’t gain his ministers’ support.