Shen Zhuxi had once thought that the fall of her kingdom and the ruin of her family were the greatest tribulation heaven could visit upon her — that nearly dying with her bladder about to burst was the greatest trial fate could put her through. But after being rescued from the bookcase, she had thought the tribulations and trials were finally over. Never in her wildest imaginings had she thought this was only the beginning.

At first, Shen Zhuxi was filled with gratitude toward the man who had brought her back to his own home because she refused to relieve herself outdoors — but that gratitude came fast and left fast. The moment she arrived at the so-called privy, half of that gratitude dissolved instantly.

“This… is this the place for relieving oneself?” Shen Zhuxi could not bring herself to accept what stood before her and asked in a trembling voice.

A thatched outhouse open to the elements on all four sides, a rotting wooden door on the verge of collapse, a foul odor reaching her before she even got close — this was everything her senses received. She had not even opened the door, and Shen Zhuxi had already stopped walking.

“Do you think this looks like a place to eat?” The man had not a shred of sympathy, seemingly unaware that behind that door was a terrifying place. Without waiting for Shen Zhuxi to refuse, he pulled open the creaking wooden door.

The pit inside the thatched outhouse assaulted Shen Zhuxi’s vision without warning. One single glance was enough to send her fleeing in soul-struck horror.

That was a place more hellish than hell itself!

The overpowering stench, the flies swarming around the pit, the small worms writhing in the corners, the two blackened wooden planks across the pit, the water stains of unknown origin at the pit’s edge, and the things visible for a split second at the pit’s bottom — all of it together made her legs go weak and her spirit leave her body.

“The dried cleaning stick is hanging on the wall,” the man said.

“…The dried… cleaning stick?”

This was a name that sounded inauspicious just to hear. Shen Zhuxi felt she would faint in the next moment.

“For wiping,” the man said.

Shen Zhuxi could not remember how she had walked into the thatched outhouse, nor how she had untied her skirt ties and crouched down. She only remembered that when she walked out of the thatched outhouse, a part of her soul had been left behind inside forever. What she brought away was only unspeakable physical pain and eyes full of tears.

The man was standing about thirty or forty feet from the thatched outhouse, leaning his back against the crude plaster wall of the little dwelling, and seeming to have grown bored of waiting — he was kicking at the stones under his feet.

She had been focused entirely on relieving herself before, and now with the pressure in her lower abdomen gone, she finally had the presence of mind to take a clear look at what he looked like. And at this look, she was greatly startled.

The side of his lowered face somehow seemed to have been seen somewhere before.

Hearing Shen Zhuxi’s footsteps, the man looked up. A pair of fierce, straight brows, jet-black and dense; beneath dark, heavy lashes, a pair of eyes brighter than the ordinary person’s, direct and piercing, never blinking at whoever he fixed his gaze on — whoever he looked at felt like they had been singled out by some wild beast.

Shen Zhuxi was startled by that wild, feral gaze, and the dim flicker of familiarity she had felt vanished with it — if she had ever seen eyes like these, like a wild beast’s, she could never have forgotten them. Moreover, she had never once left the palace. It was impossible she had ever encountered anyone who used a dried cleaning stick.

It seemed her soul had indeed been left behind in the thatched outhouse.

Shen Zhuxi walked toward him and, although she already knew the answer, still could not help holding onto a thread of hope:

“Do you have bath powder for cleaning one’s hands?”

To her surprise, the man actually said: “Yes. Wait here.”

Her heart wholly on bath powder, Shen Zhuxi held up her two hands — which seemed to have absorbed the stench of the thatched outhouse — and watched as the man strode down the little path and quickly disappeared around the front of the dwelling.

In the small courtyard enclosed by a wicker fence, the young man with the large patch of red depression across his left cheek was crouching beneath a stout osmanthus tree, carefully examining the bookcase they had fished up.

The tall, imposing hulking man crouched beside him with his limbs tucked in, staring fixedly at the bookcase as the young man prodded it.

“Third Brother… how much can it sell for?” the hulking man asked.

The young man did not look up: “Third Brother cannot be sold.”

“You’re lying. Big Brother said he can be sold. For a lot of money,” the hulking man said with a glare.

“The cabinet can be sold, but Third Brother cannot. You didn’t ask clearly — you can’t blame me for lying.”

“You knew perfectly well what I meant!” The hulking man was both angry and wronged.

“I’m not the worm in your belly. You have to say what you mean clearly.” The young man stood up and gently nudged the base of the bookcase with his toe. “This cabinet — at the very least, five hundred taels.”

He had never seen such an extravagant cabinet before. From inside to out it was made of golden-grain nanmu wood, and on either side of the bookcase were lifelike dragon heads, clearly for imperial palace use only. For a bookcase like this, five hundred taels was already a conservative estimate.

It was a pity Big Brother had broken the lock. Otherwise the price would have been even higher.

“Pork is six coins a catty, beef four coins a catty — with five hundred taels of silver, I could eat, eat, eat…” The hulking man’s face lit up with delight, and he counted and recounted all ten fingers, until his delight gradually turned into a troubled look. “How long could I eat with five hundred taels?”

The young man paid him no mind and walked toward the small path behind the house.

“Big Brother!”

Li Wu emerged from behind the dwelling and walked straight inside to rummage through the cupboards.

“Big Brother, what are you looking for?” The young man stepped over the threshold.

“Have you seen my bath powder?” Li Wu said without looking up.

“Bath powder? Hasn’t Big Brother always said he doesn’t need such things?”

“Not for me.”

The young man understood and looked puzzled: “Why would Big Brother go to all that trouble? Wouldn’t brushing her off with a few words do just as well?”

Li Wu said: “It’s just sitting there unused.”

“Big Brother has taken a liking to this woman?”

Li Wu found the bath powder pressed to the bottom of the chest. It was something he had collected as scraps from account-settling some years back, and he did not know whether it was still usable after all this time.

He held the paper-wrapped bath powder up to his nose and smelled it. No off smell.

“Big Brother, did you hear what I said?” the young man asked.

“I heard you,” Li Wu said. He rose and walked past him toward the door: “There’s nothing to it. Don’t let your imagination run away with you.”

Li Wu strode back around to behind the little dwelling. That woman was still standing in the same spot waiting for him, carefully holding up both hands as though they were coated in something dirty — yet those hands were white and soft, practically gleaming in the sunlight. There was not a speck of dirt on them.

Li Wu took out the bath powder. The pleased light in her eyes stiffened the moment it touched what was in the paper wrapping.

“What is this?” she asked.

“Bath powder.”

She said nothing more, but her disappointed gaze said plainly: This is what you call bath powder?

While she pinched a bit of it and rubbed her hands together with a little water from the wooden bucket, Li Wu stood and observed her manner. He had actually already observed more than enough — her frantic helplessness when she first came out of the bookcase; her whole body expressing resistance when she saw the privy; the way she wandered out of the outhouse like a lost soul, her color white as though she would collapse in the next moment, yet still composing herself enough to ask him for bath powder; and now, this pained expression, as though someone were forcing her to plunge her hands into mud and scrub them.

She was so easy to read.

Li Wu was curious how she had managed to survive in the cut-throat world of the imperial palace until now.

“My name is Li Wu,” he said. “What’s yours?”

Shen Zhuxi was still wrestling with the powder ground from who-knew-what, and answered by reflex: “Shen Zhuxi.”

Fortunately, her given name was known to very few people. There were plenty of families with the surname Shen besides the imperial household. The man before her showed no sign of suspicion.

“You came out of the imperial palace?”

Shen Zhuxi nodded vaguely.

“How did you end up locked inside a cabinet?”

“I… I have an older sister…” With the lie started, the rest flowed as naturally as water. “We were both in service at the palace. After the rebel troops stormed the palace, my sister locked me inside a cabinet to help me escape and pushed me into a hidden river that led out of the city.”

Shen Zhuxi had washed the slippery feeling from her hands. She did not have the face to ask him for a clean towel, so she straightened up and let her gaze drift past his face, avoiding direct eye contact with a man.

“Li Wu… do you know what has become of the palace?”

Li Wu did not answer but asked instead: “Do you want some water?”

She had better not have asked — because the moment he did, Shen Zhuxi felt as though flames were about to shoot up from her throat.

“Many thanks to Li Wu. Your kindness in saving my life will be forever etched in my memory. Should I —”

Shen Zhuxi’s words were cut off by Li Wu before she could finish.

“Don’t call me ‘Master.'” He furrowed his brows and rubbed his arm with his hand. “It’s giving me goosebumps.”

Shen Zhuxi nearly choked on the breath lodged in her throat, nearly sending herself away.

What a thoroughly uncouth person there was in this world!

Not only was this the first time she had heard anyone refer to themselves as “this old one” in such a rough manner — it was happening to her face, no less. Every person Shen Zhuxi had previously encountered had always treated her with the utmost deference. Even setting aside her status as a princess, they would have shown respect to her as a woman, as an unmarried young woman — who would address a young girl like that?

Only the street ruffians and scoundrels in story-books spoke this way!

In that brief moment, Li Wu’s image in Shen Zhuxi’s mind plummeted to rock bottom.

Shen Zhuxi forced a smile: “Then how should I address you?”

“Names are made to be called,” he said. “Just use the name directly.”

The corners of Shen Zhuxi’s mouth were cramping.

“Very well, Li Wu.”

Shen Zhuxi was anxious to know what was happening in the palace, but her body had truly been pushed to its limits. She followed Li Wu back to the main hall at the front, and found that the other two men who had come back with her were already nowhere to be seen. She went inside with Li Wu, who told her to sit down and wait.

The moment Li Wu turned away, she immediately swiped a finger across the dim-colored long bench. To call it a bench was already flattering it — what this was in truth was nothing more than a crude frame of three wooden planks.

Still, the dim color was just the color of the wood. There was no real dirt on it. Shen Zhuxi remained unconvinced. When she sat down, she left most of her body hanging off the edge of the bench, keeping only a little of herself actually on it — just enough to have something supporting her.

Li Wu had not been gone long when he returned carrying a basin.

A real basin, a plain ceramic basin — and at first glance, it was wider across than Shen Zhuxi’s face.

Shen Zhuxi stared blankly at the clear water sloshing inside the basin and kept her mouth firmly shut, maintaining an appearance of composure. She did not believe there was a person in this world who would use a basin to bring water for a guest. This basin must have some other purpose — she did not know what, but it certainly could not be for her to drink from.

This was absolutely no moment to panic. She must remain composed — otherwise she would end up like Wang Dun in the saying about “treating rice as finger-bowls,” and become a laughingstock.

Shen Zhuxi’s composure shattered the moment Li Wu pushed the basin toward her.

Li Wu said: “Go on, drink.”

Shen Zhuxi went rigid all over. At that moment she forgot all the rules about not meeting a man’s eyes directly. She rolled her dry, parched eyes and stared at the man before her in near-stupefaction.

“I… drink from that?”

“Of course.” Li Wu said it as though it were entirely natural: “Aren’t you thirsty?”

Thirsty, yes — she was most certainly thirsty. But not in this manner.

Shen Zhuxi faced off against the ceramic basin before her for a long while, then finally reached out a timid hand, gingerly steadied the basin on both sides, and steeled herself to bring her lips close to the rim.

Li Wu had not the slightest notion of propriety. While she laboriously tilted the ceramic basin just enough to drink, he stood there to one side with his eyes wide open, watching her.

His vigorous, alert gaze fell on Shen Zhuxi’s head and face like a bright, lively flame — burning so that even though she could not see him, the temperature of her face rose rapidly.

A basin full of water — Shen Zhuxi drank a third of it before she could take no more. She set the basin down, feeling as though the half of her soul left in the thatched outhouse had returned to her body.

She knew perfectly well that the face towel here was probably not as clean as the foot towel she had used in the palace. She had been especially careful while drinking, so all she needed now was to press her lips together and that would be that. But as she pressed her lips together, Li Wu was still staring at her — and Shen Zhuxi felt both annoyed and indignant inside, more convinced than ever that he was a man of no manners.

But beggars could not be choosers. Shen Zhuxi suppressed her displeasure and asked in as amiable a tone as she could manage: “Li Wu — do you know what the situation in the palace is now?”

“In a remote place like this, news is all over the place. All sorts of things are being said,” Li Wu said.

Shen Zhuxi was startled: “A remote place?”

“This is Yutou County in Jinzhou.” Li Wu glanced at her sideways and uttered a piece of news that was, for Shen Zhuxi, enormously significant: “It’s a hundred li from the capital. Did you not know?”