Xiao Qiao awoke from a long, deep slumber.

Outside, night had fallen, and lamps were lit in the room. The bed curtains hung low and still, with not a sound to be heard.

She was alone in the bed.

She hadn’t expected to get so drunk that she’d sleep until now.

Xiao Qiao slowly sat up, wrapping the blanket around herself.

Her head was still a bit dizzy. Her mouth felt parched.

Moreover, her body felt uncomfortable.

She felt sticky all over. Even…

Between her legs felt damp…

Xiao Qiao couldn’t help but look down.

She was still wearing the same undergarments from earlier, only her outer clothes were missing.

Chun Niang must have helped her remove the outer garments. The neckline of her undergarments, though slightly disheveled, was still mostly neat.

It was normal to feel this way after such a long sleep.

Xiao Qiao pressed her forehead, then pushed aside the bed curtains and climbed down. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she realized her limbs were weak to the bone. Her knees buckled, and she stumbled forward, grabbing the bedpost to avoid collapsing on the spot.

She steadied herself and called out “Chun Niang.” Hearing her voice hoarse and strange, she called several times before footsteps approached from outside the room.

“My lady, you’re finally awake?”

Before she was Chun Niang’s familiar, comforting smile.

Xiao Qiao, still holding the bedpost with one hand, slowly sat back on the edge of the bed, lost in thought.

She had never been drunk before.

She hadn’t expected that after being intoxicated, not only would her headache, but her limbs and most private areas would feel this way, reminiscent of…

Xiao Qiao bit her lip, feeling a slight sense of shame.

“Chun Niang, I want to bathe,” she said, looking up.

…

In the steamy bathhouse, Xiao Qiao immersed herself in the bathtub, gradually beginning to feel comfortable. She let out a long sigh.

After soaking for a while, her delicate skin slowly turned a faint pink. Her cheeks were like two peach blossoms. Her black hair fell over her shoulders, floating gently on the water’s surface like seaweed. On her jet-black eyebrows and eyelashes clung a few tiny, glistening water droplets.

Chun Niang stood behind her, washing her long hair.

Xiao Qiao closed her eyes and suddenly remembered the morning’s events. Resting her lotus-like arms on the edge of the tub, she asked, “Did I get drunk on the way back today? Was it you who carried me in, Chun Niang?”

Chun Niang recalled the scene from earlier.

The Lord had carried the intoxicated lady in and placed her on the bed then dismissed her and Lin Ao.

Then, she didn’t know what happened, but when he emerged from the room again, the sun was already setting in the west.

He told Chun Niang, who had been waiting outside the room, that the lady was still in a drunken sleep and not to disturb her.

Then he seemed to hesitate for a moment before instructing her not to let the lady know that he had returned during the day.

The lord’s face was expressionless as he spoke, then left.

Chun Niang was puzzled at the time. After the lord left, worried, she quietly entered the room to check.

There was nothing notably unusual.

The lady was indeed still in a drunken sleep, as the lord had said. Her clothes were neat, with a peach-red brocade blanket neatly covering her shoulders. The only visible abnormality was her flushed cheeks, a layer of fragrant sweat on her forehead and neck, and uneven breathing. Her breath was as fragrant as orchids, and in her drunken sleep, her alluring posture was beyond compare, even to a spring-sleeping crabapple blossom.

…

Chun Niang served Xiao Qiao closely. Whether the lord and lady were intimate or distant, even if she couldn’t see inside the room, she could always tell.

Since the day after the New Year, Chun Niang had barely emerged from her joy at seeing the lady finally able to enter the family temple openly when she sensed that the couple seemed to have grown distant again.

Although the lord still slept in the room, and the lady still saw him off in the morning and welcomed him in the evening as usual, Chun Niang noticed a difference in the way they looked at each other.

Not to mention, when the two were on good terms, the lady would often help straighten his collar or smooth the silk tassels hanging from his waist ornament before he left.

And the lord would take the opportunity to squeeze her small hand, not minding Chun Niang’s presence at all.

For the past half month, since the lord returned from his city inspection after the Lantern Festival until now, Chun Niang had not seen such scenes anymore.

…

Chun Niang hesitated, not answering.

Xiao Qiao, however, didn’t notice her expression and assumed her silence was confirmation. She hugged Chun Niang with her jade-like arms and said, “Chun Niang, you’re so good to me. I’m fortunate to have you by my side. Otherwise, I don’t know what embarrassment I might have caused. How mortifying. I remember not drinking much, yet I got so drunk. I’ll never dare to do that again…”

Chun Niang could hardly resist the lady’s affectionate behavior and girlish demeanor. Her chest filled with tenderness, and she was about to speak when she suddenly remembered the lord’s expressionless reminder before he left earlier. In the end, she swallowed her words.

Having finished washing her hair, she asked the lady to turn and lean on the edge of the tub. Taking a jade palm with round, smooth protrusions, she began to massage the lady’s back to relieve fatigue.

Chun Niang’s technique was skilled, and she knew how to control the pressure. Xiao Qiao closed her eyes, feeling comfortable all over, when she suddenly heard Chun Niang say from behind, “The lord will likely leave Yuyang in the next few days. My lady, are you staying behind alone, not accompanying the lord?”

Xiao Qiao opened her eyes briefly, then closed them again, remaining silent.

Unlike before, when she would share all her worries or her relationship with Wei Shao openly with Chun Niang, now she didn’t want to speak. She didn’t know how to begin.

Chun Niang continued massaging her beautifully contoured, snow-white back with the jade palm, and sighed, “On New Year’s Day, I saw that you and the lord were still on good terms. You even went to the family temple to pay respects. I was happy. But I don’t understand how things were fine, and now you and the lord have grown distant again. It seems my lady is unwilling to share some things with me now. But in my opinion, if you can go together, it’s better to go together. If you’re left alone at home for half a year like this…”

“Chun Niang, I’m done,” Xiao Qiao turned her head and smiled at Chun Niang.

…

It was very late, and Wei Shao had not yet returned.

Xiao Qiao had nothing to do. Seeing that he was still not back, she went to bed herself.

After her drunken sleep during the day and the bath, she felt much better physically. But now she had no desire to sleep. She lay with her eyes closed, lost in thought. It was nearly the end of the hai hour (around 10 PM) when she finally heard Wei Shao’s footsteps returning.

“I’m leaving tomorrow morning,” Wei Shao said suddenly after lying down.

Xiao Qiao opened her eyes and turned her face towards him, meeting Wei Shao’s gaze.

In the depths of his eyes, there was a hint of darkness. His gaze was tightly interwoven with hers.

“I thought my husband would be leaving in the next few days. Have a safe journey. I’ll see you off in the morning,” Xiao Qiao said softly.

…

Wei Shao had Gong Sun Yang accompany the main army, advancing at normal speed towards Bing Province. He traveled light on horseback.

His pace was very quick.

Having left Yuyang just yesterday morning, he had already reached Zhuojun by tonight.

He would stop here for the night and continue westward in the morning.

At this pace, he could reach Jinyang in less than ten days.

The current Prefect of Zhuojun had learned from his advisors about the reason for his unfortunate predecessor’s dismissal.

It was said that once when the Marquis came to Zhuojun on official business and stayed overnight, his predecessor, in an attempt to please the Marquis, sent a beautiful woman to his room. This was normally quite common. However, the Marquis became furious, and the woman ran out of the room in fear. The next day, that Prefect was dismissed.

After this incident, people in Zhuojun secretly spread rumors that the Marquis disliked women and had a preference for men.

With this precedent in mind, the current Prefect naturally wouldn’t make the same foolish mistake.

He welcomed the Marquis, prepared a banquet, and escorted him to the guesthouse. He specifically borrowed a reliable maidservant from his wife to attend to the Marquis’s needs.

By neither sending beautiful women nor male companions, he felt he couldn’t go wrong.

…

Wei Shao went to bed that night but tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

When he closed his eyes, the scene from two days ago kept appearing before him.

Even now, thinking about it made his ears hot, his heart race, and his palms sweat. His entire being seemed to be gripped by a deep sense of shame mixed with intense excitement.

…

Wei Shao admitted to himself that he liked this woman. Sometimes he even felt he loved her to the bone, to the point of being almost delirious.

He was willing to make some concessions for her if they could please her.

For instance, promises like allowing her to hit him.

But the Marquis also had his bottom line.

He couldn’t tolerate how, on New Year’s Eve, she took advantage of his kindness and so brazenly challenged his limits.

At that time, he felt both embarrassed and angry, with a touch of heartache.

So from that night on, he truly resolved to give her the cold shoulder.

He hadn’t touched her for a month, and he had managed just fine, even quite well.

But at that moment, she lying on the bed and looked so different from her usual awake self.

She was unconscious from the alcohol, her eyes tightly shut, her eyelashes curled, and her face flushed.

He leaned closer and smelled a sweet, intoxicating fragrance in her breath.

Wei Shao originally had no interest in touching her again. But he must have become intoxicated by her scent. He couldn’t control his hands. He undid her clothes. The jade-like body he hadn’t seen for a month lay before his eyes.

Extremely beautiful. He couldn’t bear it anymore.

This jade body was available for him to enjoy, and she wouldn’t know. What could be a greater temptation?

Moreover, he was her husband, so what was there that he couldn’t do?

So the Marquis hesitated no more. Not only did he embrace her, but he also knelt before her, parted her jade-like legs, and did something intimate that he had thought about more than once before but had always been too ashamed to do…

…

Wei Shao suddenly woke from his dream, feeling his heart racing, his mouth parched, his throat almost burning.

Without lighting a lamp, he got up and fumbled his way to the table, picked up the entire teapot, and gulped down half a pot of water in one go.

The tea had gone completely cold. The ice-cold water flowed down his throat, finally quenching his thirst.

He let out a long sigh, put the teapot back on the table, and was about to turn back to bed when he suddenly glimpsed what seemed to be firelight outside the window. He pushed it open and saw flames rising from the roof of a civilian house not far from the guesthouse.

A fire had broken out.

Wei Shao immediately left the room, calling for the inn manager to send people to put out the fire.

The inn manager was shocked that a fire had broken out in the middle of the night near where the Marquis was staying. While calling for people to extinguish the fire, he also sent someone to notify the Prefect.

Upon receiving the news, the Prefect, not even having time to dress properly, immediately dispatched a large group of men to rush to the scene.

Fortunately, the fire was discovered early, and it had rained a few days ago. After half a quarter of an hour, the fire was extinguished, but it still affected several neighboring households.

The alleyways were filled with commotion late into the night, interspersed with faint sounds of wailing.

The Prefect, fearing he had offended the Marquis, was ashen-faced. After the fire was put out, he immediately came to apologize.

Wei Shao, now wide awake, inquired about the fire.

The early spring night was still bitingly cold.

The Prefect, however, was drenched in sweat. Wiping his brow with his sleeve, he said, “A woman died in the center of the fire. Neighbors say her husband had been away on business for years, and she was living alone. She had taken a lover. In the evening, neighbors saw her inviting her lover to stay the night. Somehow, a big fire broke out. In the fire scene just now, we only found the woman’s burned body. The lover must have escaped…”

As he spoke, seeing Wei Shao’s gloomy expression, the Prefect trembled even more and hurriedly added, “This woman, taking advantage of her husband’s absence, inviting a lover to stay the night and causing a fire, not only burned down her own house but also affected the neighbors. She could be said to have deserved her fate. As for that lover, I have already sent people to capture him. Once caught, he will be severely punished to uphold moral standards…”

Wei Shao stood up and walked to the window, facing the pitch-black night outside, his back motionless.