Just moments earlier, Situ Sheng had been sitting alone in his darkened room, kneading clay by moonlight to release the frustration weighing on his heart.

But as his thoughts pressed deeper into the source of his distress, his hand tightened with sudden force — and it was only when pain arrived that he realized he was still gripping a carving knife. The blade had already sliced open his palm, and blood was seeping out steadily.

He had gotten up, intending to rinse the wound casually with well water, when he unexpectedly came upon Chu Linlang standing at his study door, holding a plate of food.

Not wanting Chu Linlang to see this loss of control, he had opened his mouth to send her away the way he usually drove off Guanqi — but the words reached the tip of his tongue, and he paused for just a moment.

In that brief hesitation, Chu Linlang had already grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back into the study.

Chu Linlang frowned and asked: “How did this happen?”

By the light of the lamp she had lit, she saw that the knife wound across his palm was nearly deep enough to reach bone. She immediately cast a glance at the desktop and found a freshly molded clay figure — now severed violently in two by the carving knife, head separated from body — and the blade of that knife was smeared with blood.

Anyone else might have accidentally cut themselves with a carving knife, but this was someone Chu Linlang had known since childhood.

She still remembered some of his less presentable habits — every time his mother had a breakdown and was humiliated by others, and after he had stormed out to vent his rage at whoever had caused it, he would return to the courtyard and silently knead clay figures without a word, then smash them to pieces one strike at a time.

On a few occasions, he’d struck so hard he’d injured his own hands.

When she was small, Linlang would peek over the wall and watch, doing nothing but pressing her hands tightly over her mouth.

Back then she didn’t understand — she only thought the boy was frightening. But as the years passed and she gained more experience of life, she came to understand something of that child’s heart. It was the helplessness and self-loathing of someone who could not protect what he cared about, and had nowhere to release it.

Only now Situ Sheng had long since grown into a man, with no one depending on him — and holding power in his hands, the authority over life and death. So why would he still be doing this to himself in the dead of night?

Recalling Guanqi’s sighing and moaning at dinner, combined with the fact that he still hadn’t eaten anything — Chu Linlang concluded that something bad must have happened, something significant enough to destabilize his state of mind.

Thinking this, Linlang didn’t press for answers. She turned to fetch the strong liquor, clotting powder, and bandages, and began treating Situ Sheng’s wound.

But her movements were not particularly gentle, and she pulled hard enough to make Situ Sheng wince with pain. He reflexively reached out to take the medicine bottle from her hand — only to receive a sharp slap from Chu Linlang, who smacked it away without the slightest courtesy.

Watching him glare at her, Chu Linlang didn’t ease up one bit, muttering quietly as she worked: “Well, well! Gone a whole day without eating and still have the energy to glare at people. Does it hurt? Then next time you grab a knife blade, try doing it with your brain engaged! What, are you planning not to write or process documents for the next few days? Of all the hands to injure, why did it have to be the right one?”

Situ Sheng had not anticipated that she would dare lecture her own employer so blatantly. It was frankly quite outrageous.

His mood was genuinely poor at the moment, and he had no desire to keep up the pretense of a gentleman. He endured it as long as he could, then said coldly: “Get out!”

Unfortunately, this woman seemed incapable of understanding plain speech. Done applying the medicine, she yanked his injured hand toward her and, with the no-nonsense efficiency of someone trussing up a piglet, wound the bandage around his hand without allowing for any refusal.

Eyes cast downward, she said directly: “Next time you’re in a bad mood, find a way to vent that doesn’t put others to trouble. You’re not some helpless infant. As I see it, only a worthless, spineless waste of space who can’t get his anger out anywhere else would resort to abusing his own body.”

Those words would have been hard for any man to stomach. Situ Sheng narrowed his eyes slightly, his voice dropping low, seemingly grinding the words through his teeth as he said once more: “Get — out.”

Chu Linlang acted as though she hadn’t heard. Once the wound was bandaged, she even tied a neat little bow at the end, then set the still-warm fried rice in front of the employer: “Eat. Once you’ve eaten, I’ll leave.”

This shameless, slippery woman — and he was the one who had voluntarily kept her in his household?

Situ Sheng seethed in silence, not knowing whether he was angrier at her or at himself.

Seeing that he still hadn’t moved, Chu Linlang let out a quiet sigh.

By now the night was deep, and it was clearly improper for an unmarried man and woman to be alone in a room together — yet she felt she couldn’t leave him to his solitude just yet.

If she left, he would extinguish the lamp again. A room full of darkness could, at times, seep into a person’s heart as well.

Linlang didn’t know what demons haunted Situ Sheng’s heart, but she could speak of her own.

She turned up the lamp, arranged the bowl and chopsticks for him, and spoke as if talking to herself: “When I was small, every time my father beat and berated my mother, I would get caught up in it too. At first I would always cry. When I’d cried myself out, I would fantasize that a deity would descend from the heavens with a magical gourd and spirit both me and my mother away, far from that family.”

Situ Sheng knew all of this, of course. Every time she got beaten, he would lie on the other side of the wall, falling asleep to the sounds of a little girl crying and quietly cursing her fate.

As Chu Linlang spoke, she gave a self-deprecating smile: “So back then, when my father forced me to marry an old man and Zhou Sui’an appeared — he seemed to me like a deity descended from the sky. He took me away and let me finally escape that suffocating home.”

Situ Sheng let out a derisive snort or two at that.

Chu Linlang knew what his snort meant. She looked up at him: “You’re saying I misjudged my companion — mistook a faithless man for a divine savior? I’ve actually been thinking the same thing. If I could reverse time and choose again, what would I do? But no matter how I think it through, my options were so constrained back then that I would probably still have left with him.”

Hearing this, Situ Sheng’s gaze turned colder still, and he couldn’t even be bothered to snort.

Chu Linlang continued: “Only I would have come to understand sooner that no one can be anyone else’s saving deity. Rather than placing your hopes in divine intervention, it’s better to rely entirely on yourself and fight with everything you have for your own sake. Isn’t that just the way of the world? People do their best within whatever limited options they have. Even when things aren’t ideal, getting through the rough patch and then striving to give yourself more choices going forward — that’s not such a bad thing either…”

Situ Sheng was silent for a moment, then finally spoke: “You’ve said all this to me — what exactly are you trying to say?”

Chu Linlang blinked and said: “I’m saying that even someone like your lordship, who can seem to command the wind and rain, a pillar of the nation who appears capable of anything — in truth you grew up from a little child one small step at a time, and there will always be moments of powerlessness. When you can’t do your best, don’t be too hard on yourself, don’t pick fights with your own heart. Even someone as small as a beetle like me understands what it means to say better days are still ahead and to make plans gradually. If your lordship keeps tying yourself in knots like this, your road will be cut short, and you won’t live long enough to see the good times… Oh dear, oh dear, I’ve misspoken again — with a nose bridge that strong and prominent, one look tells you you’ll live a hundred years! I’ll stop rambling. Your lordship rest well tonight!”

Having said her piece, without waiting for Situ Sheng to say another word to send her away, she gathered up her skirts and slipped out the door in a flash.

Stubborn people never listened to advice — even that fool Zhou Sui’an sometimes refused to hear what she said. She certainly had no expectation of being able to persuade a man as deep-thinking as Situ Sheng.

In the end it was her own meddlesome nature, unable to hold back a few murmured words. She only hoped that knife wasn’t rusted — what would happen if the wound became infected?

She had walked some distance and was at the door of her own room when she turned to look back — and found that the lamp in the study not far away had not gone out.

Through the latticed window, a candlelit silhouette sat motionless — then slowly reached out a hand, picked up the bowl, gave the contents a brief sniff, and began eating the rice she had fried, one mouthful at a time.

Chu Linlang let out a soft laugh, thinking that these men — every last one of them — were like stubborn mules. Lead them and they won’t walk; prod them and they’ll dig in backwards!

She exhaled a small breath of relief and turned to go back to her own room.

The next day, when she went to the kitchen, she found that even the cold leftover food from the previous night had been completely finished off by someone.

What a shame that this person, just like his own attendant, had tossed the dirty bowls all over the bucket!

As for Guanqi, seeing that the master’s bearing was entirely as usual — that was a genuinely pleasant surprise.

On other occasions when Situ Sheng’s mood fell low, going several days and nights without eating or drinking and keeping to himself was entirely normal.

Guanqi had originally been prepared to take leave from the Court of Judicial Review the following day, yet against all expectation his master had adjusted his mood so quickly. Setting out in the early morning as though nothing had happened, leading Guanqi along without a care in the world — it was enough to make one breathe a real sigh of relief.

Only just before heading out, Guanqi couldn’t quite suppress his concern. Standing in the courtyard, he stole a glance at the master’s neatly bandaged right hand and asked carefully: “My lord, if you’re not feeling well, perhaps take a few days of leave to rest?”

Situ Sheng said indifferently: “Rest for what?”

Guanqi stumbled at the question and murmured: “Your mood… is it better now?”

Situ Sheng cast a glance at the woman in the courtyard who was putting on an elaborate show of beating the hanging bedding with a stick, and said with cool detachment: “I’m not some helpless infant or spineless waste. What is there to have moods about?”

That woman was right — he was no longer the powerless child who could only vent his feelings by smashing clay figures. Rather than wallowing in self-pity, it was better to calm his mind and plan carefully…

What kind of grown man couldn’t hold himself together better than a feeble woman who had nearly been sold off by her own father?

Thinking this, he strode forward and out the door.

Chu Linlang hid her face behind the hanging bedding, but couldn’t help rolling her eyes skyward: the Deputy Chief Justice truly was petty and thin-skinned — just couldn’t stand to be talked about! The moment he found an opportunity, he had to strike back!

Thinking this, she couldn’t help raising the stick in her hand and miming a striking motion at the man’s retreating back.

What manners! Next time he pulled his little performance of not eating at proper hours and made her get up in the middle of the night to prepare extra food, she would triple his bill!

—

Now, as for Household Manager Chu — aside from the occasional late-night duty of talking sense into a brooding employer, life in Gathering Essence Lane was actually quite leisurely.

Situ Sheng had no habit of eating breakfast at home. He would typically rise at the fourth watch, wash and dress, and then slip out quietly to attend morning court without disturbing the household manager or maids.

He was accustomed to eating breakfast with Guanqi at the government office, and for everyday domestic matters, Guanqi alone was sufficient — in most circumstances there was simply no need to trouble the household manager and maids.

And so the household manager, thick-faced and unashamed, could sleep in grandly until broad daylight almost every single day.

Chu Linlang no longer needed to wait on a mother-in-law, manage food and household expenses for an entire family, or constantly walk on eggshells over her husband’s every misstep in his official career.

Working as a servant in someone else’s household — apart from occasionally cooking when Situ Sheng came home — was somehow even more free and comfortable than her former life as a so-called official’s wife. It was truly unexpected.

However, now that she was the household manager of the Deputy Chief Justice’s residence, she couldn’t be entirely idle — she had to find some things to do.

Chu Linlang recalled that Situ Sheng’s name was listed on twenty plots of official farmland on the outskirts of the capital.

Given Situ Sheng’s utter indifference to money and his habit of letting the courtyard fall into neglect, those official fields had probably never been visited by him even once.

So, after requesting Situ Sheng’s permission, Chu Linlang one day set out with the two maids to inspect the official farmland on the capital’s outskirts.

Since the Deputy Chief Justice’s household had neither a driver nor horses — he always used the government office’s vehicles when he needed transportation — Chu Linlang hired a carriage, and the two maids bumped along all the way to the outskirts.

When they arrived and made inquiries, it turned out that, as expected, neither the farm steward nor the tenant farmers had ever laid eyes on the Deputy Chief Justice.

Chu Linlang produced the deed for the official farmland and carefully cross-checked it, discovering that what had originally been twenty plots had in fact been substantially encroached upon by neighboring official estates. The grain rent reported to the household had consistently been short in weight and measure.

The farm steward had initially taken one look at Niangzi’s young age and attempted to brush her off with a few technical-sounding remarks about field customs and regulations.

Little did he know that the person standing before him had built her original fortune through buying and managing land, and had personally overseen the fields back in her hometown.

Although it was currently the winter rest period, she had long since made thorough inquiries with the household managers of neighboring official residences about how many grain harvests the capital region produced in a year and whether last year’s rainfall had been adequate.

These people thought they could get one over on her because she was a young woman — not a chance in the world!

After a sharp verbal exchange, the field hands admitted defeat and bowed in apology, saying that the accountants below had made errors in the figures, and they would make up the shortfall afterward.

As for the land boundaries, they would re-measure and re-establish the markers — they would not dare to cheat the Deputy Chief Justice’s household out of even a single fraction of what was owed.

After all, while a fifth-rank official might not seem particularly grand, the Court of Judicial Review itself was a tribunal capable of interrogating officials of all ranks — a true court of judgment. How many high officials had broken under the Court’s instruments of interrogation? And now here was a female household manager with eyes sharp as razors — there was simply no possibility of deceiving her! Continued denial at this point would be nothing short of courting disaster — practically asking to be hauled before the Court of Judicial Review to have one’s skin stripped.

Having settled the matter of the official farmland, Chu Linlang also went to the nearby village and bought some mountain goods, fresh eggs, a fat duck, and a large piece of freshly cut wild boar meat.

Someone’s hand was injured — he ought to eat something nourishing to help it mend.

Situ Sheng had been very busy lately. From what Guanqi had said, he tended to miss mealtimes at the office as well, often eating nothing but cold rice.

She thought she’d go back and prepare a pot of duck fat broth for him. Now that the weather had turned cold, the duck fat would solidify in a clay pot, making it easy to carry without spilling.

When the employer wanted something warm to eat, he could have Guanqi heat it up on the warming stove and use it to soak cold rice for a hot, comforting mouthful.

Today’s inspection of the accounts had gone satisfyingly well, and by her estimate of the time, she could head back early today.

So Chu Linlang sat in the carriage thinking through the evening’s menu: first a pork lard braised mushroom dish, then a red braised pork belly simmered in yellow rice wine, and if time allowed, she’d also make some fragrant spring onion oil flatbreads.

The last time she had made them, Master Situ had seemed to enjoy them very much — only Guanqi had no sense when it came to food and didn’t know to set some aside for his own master. It seemed she would need to make more this time…

She was still thinking this through when the sound of festive music and commotion came from up ahead, and the carriage was brought to a halt by the crowd of people blocking the road.

Dongxue climbed down from the carriage and squeezed her way to the front to see what was happening, then came running back shortly after. She whispered something first to Xia He, and the two exchanged a look, seeming uncertain whether they should say anything to Niangzi.

Chu Linlang, seeing the two of them exchange those odd expressions, asked: “From the sound of it, is there a wedding procession up ahead?”

Dongxue nodded, and ignoring Xia He’s tugging at her sleeve, said bluntly: “It’s that scoundrel’s wedding procession, welcoming a fox spirit into the house!”

Chu Linlang blinked at her words for a moment, then realized that what Dongxue meant was that Zhou Sui’an was in the midst of welcoming his new bride — the second daughter of the Xie family.

Counting the days, it was about time. Any longer and that belly would no longer be concealable.

When Chu Linlang had first proposed the separation from Zhou Sui’an, she had already anticipated that he would one day take a new wife. Given that, she naturally had no intention of making a scene of distress on his wedding day.

Still, the strains of that bright and cheerful music reaching her ears were somewhat grating.

Seeing that the carriage was stuck and couldn’t get through, Chu Linlang simply settled up with the driver, got down from the carriage, and prepared to cut through the alley behind the street and walk the rest of the way home.

But having stepped down, she couldn’t help glancing twice at the wedding procession. Though the Xie family seemed to have deliberately kept things low-key — forgoing the spectacle of a ten-mile bridal procession — there was still the full complement of bridal sedan, carriages, and entourage.

There on horseback sat the groom in crimson finery, dashingly handsome, smiling with the delight of a man whose every ambition had been fulfilled, bowing continuously to the people on all sides…

Chu Linlang lowered her eyes and her gaze grew quiet for a moment, thinking: in the end, it was she who had let Zhou Sui’an down.

She thought back to when she and Zhou Sui’an had wed. They’d been so impoverished there hadn’t even been a proper sedan chair, let alone a grand house. Only in a simple thatched-roof shelter — a pair of red candles, a piece of red cloth — two young people, so inexperienced back then, kneeling to bow to each other in a cold and humble room, when they accidentally knocked their heads together and then held hands and laughed like fools…

And now, having risen through the ranks and gained honor, he had a crimson bridal sedan and a fine horse, a wedding night and all the splendor that went with it. This grand moment of life’s triumph had at last compensated for the earlier shortcoming of having taken a merchant’s lowborn daughter as a wife with only a shabby little ceremony.

She didn’t want to look any further. She turned to leave — but her wrist was suddenly seized by someone, and at the same moment a voice exclaimed in delighted surprise: “Madam Zhou! Of all places, I’ve run into you here!”

Chu Linlang looked up in surprise — why, it was an old acquaintance from Lianzhou! Madam He, the Governor’s wife!

At the time, the Lianzhou officials had all been implicated together in the same disaster — not a single one was spared, and even the Governor, who had always kept carefully to the middle path, had been demoted to county magistrate.

Chu Linlang had felt genuinely sorry for Madam He, who had been unable to return to the capital to care for her elderly mother. Back in Sizhou, disregarding Zhou Sui’an’s warnings, she had quietly exchanged a few letters with Madam He.

She could never have expected to be reunited with this old friend of different generations right here in the capital’s streets!

As it turned out, Governor Li had connections through the Crown Prince’s faction, and his demotion at the time had been entirely undeserved — an unfortunate case of being caught in the crossfire. However, after years as a seasoned governor, his private resources were still quite substantial. After one year as a county magistrate in that rural backwater, and after considerable financial outlay to smooth the path and arrange the right introductions, the old governor had finally managed to turn his fortunes around and was reassigned to serve as county magistrate of a county just outside the capital.

From what Madam He said, while the transfer was technically a lateral move and still in the outer reaches of the capital — it meant that come next year, things could be nudged just a little further upward, and any way one looked at it, this was far better than grinding away in a distant rural post.

Once Governor Li was reassigned to the capital’s outskirts, it was only natural for him to move about in the capital and renew connections with old acquaintances — which led naturally enough to getting back in touch with their former colleague Zhou Sui’an.

Zhou Sui’an’s current rank was now considerably higher than that of his old superior, yet thankfully Governor Li had never made things difficult for him the way someone like Zhang Xian had. When they met again, both sides were able to exchange bows without awkwardness.

Getting to hold one’s head high in front of an old superior was one of life’s genuine satisfactions, and so Zhou Sui’an had received his former superior warmly and extended a cordial invitation for him to attend this wedding.

Apparently, the Xie family — for some reason no one quite understood — had raised the banner of the Emperor’s calls for frugality and deliberately scaled back the wedding, so there were not many guests from the Xie side.

But Zhou Sui’an’s mother, Madam Zhao, felt that her son was now marrying a daughter of a prestigious and powerful family — how could they afford to look small and shabby? She had pulled out every last reserve of her savings to manage the ceremony in grand fashion, and had her son send out invitations far and wide, seizing the chance to collect a tidy sum of gift money in return.

In this way, not only the Zhou family’s own relatives and friends, but also many officials with connections to the Xie family, received wedding invitations from Zhou Sui’an.

However, with so many family members and friends from both the Zhou and Xie households, there simply weren’t enough seats in the wedding carriages accompanying the procession.

Governor Li ranked nowhere among the capital’s crowd of officials. The old gentleman knew better than to press for a seat — he didn’t take one of the wedding carriages at all, instead tagging along on foot with the procession’s attendants and servants, waddling along with his large belly, huffing and puffing the whole way.

But Madam He felt that her husband conducting himself in such a manner was simply mortifying. A man of his age — why on earth should he fawn over the rising star of a former subordinate?

On top of that, she had heard that Zhou Sui’an had climbed up to higher branches — had actually separated from Niangzi and then married the Sixth Prince’s sister-in-law — which was enough to make anyone feel as if they’d swallowed a fly.

Then, watching her husband waddle along in the procession, sweating buckets, she felt she couldn’t bear the embarrassment of walking with him. She simply slowed her pace and stepped to the side of the road — only to happen upon Chu Linlang standing right there.

At that, there was no more need to attend the banquet. She sent her maid to let her husband know, then took hold of Chu Linlang’s hand and pulled her to a nearby teahouse to take tea first.

Madam He had always been one to stay on top of every piece of news. Now that such a dramatic upheaval had occurred in the Zhou household, she was even more curious about the details and hoped to get something fresh out of Chu Linlang’s mouth.

However, Chu Linlang had no desire to discuss the scandals of the Zhou and Xie families — she had after all accepted compensation from the Xie family, and there was no need to vent her tongue at their expense.

But Madam He simply smiled and said with meaning: “You’re just too kindhearted, you know that? That Xie family’s precious daughter walked through the door already carrying a child, didn’t she?”

Chu Linlang was startled and immediately asked where she had heard this.

Madam He smiled and lowered her voice: “Things travel faster inside the capital’s mansion walls than even in a country village! Who doesn’t know that Zhou Sui’an nearly got summoned for questioning at the Court of Judicial Review? Out of nowhere like that — who on earth would repudiate a devoted wife who’d stood by him through hardship? There are plenty of curious people watching. And besides, what sort of relatives does the Xie family have? One of their own people was leaking the story to the outside!”

So it turned out that the scandal both families had worked so hard to suppress had been leaked by none other than that troublemaker aunt from the Xie family.

Aunt An’s husband, An Guangquan, held a minor official post on the outskirts of the capital — and as luck would have it, he was also acquainted with Madam He’s husband.

The An household had many wives and concubines, and its compound had ears everywhere. When that couple had come back from the Xie family and quarreled furiously enough to shake the rafters, the whole thing had been overheard by two concubines eavesdropping with their ears pressed to the courtyard wall.

Once private gossip like that starts spreading — well, how fast does it travel? Aunt An, inexplicably, seemed to be fully aware that the compound walls had cracks, yet made absolutely no effort to control the mouths of her household servants.

Before long, the scandal of the Xie family’s precious daughter had spread from the mouths of the An household’s maids and matrons to the outside world, and someone as well-connected as Madam He had of course heard every last detail of it.

Although Chu Linlang said nothing in response, Madam He, having floated her test, watched the expression on Chu Linlang’s face and felt certain — this scandal was real.

Outraged on her behalf, she gave Linlang a firm slap on the back: “You! You took the reputation of a difficult woman for nothing — with that kind of evidence in your hands, why didn’t you make a scene to shake heaven and earth? You actually surrendered the position of first wife to her — how could you be so foolish?”

Chu Linlang herself hadn’t expected the Xie family’s circle to be so porous — such a closely guarded family disgrace, and even someone like Madam He who had just returned from out of town had already heard about it.

She could only wonder how many pairs of eyes at today’s wedding ceremony were covertly watching Second Miss Xie’s belly and waiting for something to laugh about…

Now hearing Madam He call her a pushover, she only smiled slightly: “I’m not someone like you, Madam — I have no powerful family backing. If I made enemies of people like them, what good would it do me? I took the money and the shops and came out of it to live my own life peacefully. Isn’t that more comfortable and carefree?”

But Madam He was not persuaded. She had spent her whole life boldly fighting off a compound full of concubines and had never once admitted defeat.

All the more so for someone like Chu Linlang — who had painstakingly built her husband up from nothing into a capital official. How could she simply let go and walk away like this?