Chu Linlang had never anticipated that Situ Sheng’s reaction to being startled awake would be so violent.

The moment Situ Sheng seized her wrist, she felt a heart-piercing pain and instinctively stumbled backward — and in doing so, stepped directly onto the burning charcoal basin. The embers scattered across the floor, and Linlang’s other foot landed on them too…

In the next instant, a horrifying scream erupted from the study.

Dongxue and Guanqi, who had been washing bowls and bickering by the well, were so startled they nearly dropped everything, while Xia He, who had been shaking out bedding in the courtyard, gave a violent shudder.

In the next instant, a flash of white swept past — the ordinarily composed Master Situ emerged from the study carrying Madam Chu in his arms horizontally, moving like a gust of wind.

When they reached the well, he sharply ordered Guanqi out of the way, then set the groaning, pain-wracked Madam Chu down on a stool. Crouching down, he swiftly removed her embroidered shoes and then her stockings, revealing feet that had gone crimson with burns.

Linlang had a low tolerance for pain and was crying so hard that her tears fell in rapid drops with each sob.

Situ Sheng gripped her slender ankle in one hand, using a water ladle to scoop water from the bucket by the well and pour it rapidly over her foot…

The water was ice cold, jolting Linlang into a shudder. The pain was unbearable, and forgetting entirely about the difference in their stations, she raised her fists and pounded them against Situ Sheng’s shoulder, crying out in aggrieved protest: “You’re possessed by some demon! Who on earth sleeps like that! You did this on purpose, didn’t you!”

Perhaps feeling guilty, Situ Sheng pressed his lips together tightly and did not dodge, allowing the soft fists to pound away — treating it as a way to divert her attention.

But Chu Linlang had not noticed that her words invited all manner of imaginative interpretation.

After all, the two of them — employer and employee — had just been alone together in the study. And now Madam Chu was crying that Master Situ’s manner of sleeping was improper… while the tops and soles of Madam Chu’s feet were flushed a deep, vivid red.

What sort of sleeping could have produced these results? Was this really the kind of thing the three servants watching from the courtyard should be hearing?

This scenario utterly exceeded the comprehension of the three young servants — they could only stand there wide-eyed, exchanging baffled looks, not knowing what to say.

Chu Linlang had always had a low threshold for pain since childhood, capable of crying the whole night through after each beating from Chu Huaisheng.

Just now, her feet had been burned by the embers — comparable to a form of punishment — and for the moment she was beyond caring about propriety between men and women, tearfully urging Situ Sheng to keep pouring cold water.

Situ Sheng kept his lips pressed together, pouring water with one hand while his other hand held her slender ankle, carefully examining the burns up and down on that pair of delicate feet.

In the end, Dongxue was the quickest to collect herself and rushed over to ask Situ Sheng what had happened to their young mistress.

When she learned that their mistress had accidentally stepped on the charcoal basin, both maids let out a half-relieved breath.

Dongxue pushed Situ Sheng aside, refusing to let him touch their young mistress’s foot any further. Meanwhile, Xia He rushed off to fetch fermented soybean paste, intending to apply this folk remedy to the burn.

But Situ Sheng stopped her: “That won’t do — it will infect the wound. Guanqi! Go to the nearby pharmacy and buy badger oil at once!”

The woman’s delicate feet were slender, and her skin was remarkably tender. The large expanse of redness would likely blister overnight — it was alarming to look at.

Once the badger oil had been applied, Chu Linlang finally calmed down, though her eyes were swollen and red from crying, and her lips and nose had gone a soft shade of pink, leaving her looking haggard and wan.

She raised her eyes to look at Situ Sheng, who stood silently to one side, his expression unreadable.

Thinking back on how she had pounded at him — fists thumping away — Chu Linlang felt a twinge of remorse.

After all, she had been the one to startle him out of deep sleep first, and she had stumbled backward into the charcoal basin on her own — he had not pushed her into it.

She had accepted Minister Situ’s care and shelter because of her divorce and her desperate lack of shelter, yet here she had acted without any regard for the difference in their ranks, hitting and berating him in front of the servants — that was truly inexcusable…

With that thought, she quickly cleared her throat: “My lord — the pain was intense just now, and if I gave any offense, please forgive me…”

Her apology was perfectly sincere, yet Situ Sheng gave no response. His expression remained rigid and taut, and he seemed still to be holding onto his displeasure…

Her feet could not touch the ground, and Xia He and Dongxue attempted together to carry her back to her room.

But the two young women lacked the strength, and as Chu Linlang was jostled about, her injured foot grazed the ground, sending tears streaming down her face again from the pain.

Situ Sheng finally spoke: “I will do it.”

And with that, he did just as he had done before — steadily lifting Chu Linlang from the two maids’ hands in one smooth motion and carrying her to her room to rest.

When he had rushed out of the study earlier, the situation had been urgent and Chu Linlang had been crying too hard with pain to feel awkward.

But now, being carried by him, she suddenly noticed — this position was… remarkably intimate.

Half of her body was pressed against Situ Sheng’s chest. This was entirely improper!

Yet the one doing this was Situ Sheng — looking at that upright and handsome face, one could hardly accuse him of taking advantage of a woman.

Chu Linlang could only force herself to remain composed, reminding herself she was a mature woman who had been married before, and need not fuss over such trivial details the way a young girl would.

After all, it was not as though she could fly from the well in the outer courtyard all the way back to the inner courtyard on her own!

Seeing that Situ Sheng’s expression remained grave and unsmiling — still apparently holding a grievance against her — she decided not to add fuel to the fire and make things more difficult for him.

Once he had set her down on the bed, she mustered a smile and asked again: “That… the pain was so intense I acted on instinct just now — did I hurt you at all?”

Situ Sheng did not answer. The furrow between his brows had not relaxed since some time ago, and his gaze fell on that pitiful pair of delicate feet and did not move.

He was indeed angry — but angry at himself.

He had always slept lightly — even at night, he sometimes lay awake a long time before sleep would come.

Yet just now, the study had been filled with the faint fragrant scent from Madam Chu, and watching her earnest face as she practiced calligraphy — so tranquil it put one’s heart at ease — something had come over him, and he had slowly closed his eyes and drifted off.

But being a light sleeper after all, the moment she drew near, he had jolted suddenly awake, and had frightened her in the process!

He fell into thought, his gaze unmoving. Chu Linlang noticed him staring fixedly at her bare, unsocked feet and suddenly felt a pang of self-consciousness, quickly yanking the blanket over to cover them.

This yanking motion happened to catch against the burned area, and the pain made her cry out again.

Situ Sheng came back to himself then, realizing he had just been staring at a woman’s feet — far too improper of him.

He pressed his thin lips together and said simply: “Rest well…” Then he turned and walked out.

Shortly afterward, sounds of knocking and hammering drifted in from the courtyard — it was impossible to tell what woodworking project he was now occupying himself with to pass the time.

Because the soles of both her feet had been burned, Chu Linlang could not stand on the ground at all, and even her evening meal was brought to the bed by the maids to eat.

By evening, Xia He offered to stay in Linlang’s room to tend to her, but Linlang was not accustomed to having a maid sleep in the same room and sent her back to her own quarters to rest.

That night Xia He had cooked, and the dishes had come out somewhat over-salted. Linlang drank several cups of the prepared cardamom warm water to quench her thirst.

The pain in her feet kept sleep at bay. She lit the lamp on the small bedside table and read her picture book for a while.

Then in the middle of the night, having finally managed to put out the lamp and fall asleep for a bit, she woke with a pressing need to relieve herself, and the urgency made it impossible to sleep.

Linlang then realized — getting up in the night had become a major problem!

At present she was not sharing a room with Xia He and Dongxue.

After all, she now held the title of head steward — it would have looked wrong to still put on the airs of an official’s wife and have maids waiting on her in her own room.

She was not in the habit of ordering maids about in the night, and she also had an aversion to the smell of chamber pots — so there was none in her room.

The two maids generally slept soundly through the night.

Unable to get out of bed as she was, yet desperately needing to relieve herself, she called out softly twice — but no one came.

The urgency would not abate. Linlang had no choice but to grit her teeth and attempt to get up.

Just then, someone knocked lightly on the window from outside, and a low male voice sounded: “I have not yet gone to sleep. Were you just calling for someone?”

Ah? Chu Linlang was quite taken aback. She had been calling for the two maids — how was it that Situ Sheng had appeared?

Though, to be sure, this room had originally been the master’s room and was indeed situated closer to his study.

Chu Linlang could only brace herself and answer with a murmur, then said: “Could I trouble my lord to call Dongxue and the others for me?”

A brief silence from outside, then: “Get your clothes on first.”

Chu Linlang’s outer robe was folded on the edge of the bed, and once she had put it on, she heard the door creak open, and a tall dark shadow accompanied by a gust of cold air walked in.

Chu Linlang stood there with lips half-parted, staring in astonishment as Situ Sheng walked in, and she could not help but press a hand to her chest and raise her voice slightly: “What… what are you doing?”

Situ Sheng turned around and half-crouched down with his broad back facing her, then stated as a matter of course: “Why disturb those two maids? It’s the dead of night — they couldn’t carry you anyway. Come on, get on. I’ll carry you to the privy on my back.”

What? Chu Linlang could not believe what she was hearing. This was not a banquet to attend — how could she let a grown man accompany her for something like this?

Even if she was not a young unmarried girl, she did not have such a thick skin as to let a man accompany her while she… conducted her business!

“You… you… what are you saying? How would you take me?”

But before she could send him away, Situ Sheng had run out of patience.

He rose to his feet and, just as he had in the daytime, took her up in his arms horizontally and strode in the direction of the privy behind the house.

The night was deep, and even if Chu Linlang was ever so irritated she could not cry out — if she woke anyone else and they found her with Situ Sheng in the middle of the night, there would be no explaining it no matter how many mouths she had.

Her mind was anxious: she could barely stand on her own feet, and the Situ household’s privy was simple and unadorned — not like those of other official households, which had a proper enclosed lavatory with a seat. It was merely a wooden plank elevated above a large bucket, for squatting over.

In a moment, would she need Situ Sheng to hold her up while she attended to her needs?

But when she reached the privy, Chu Linlang found that she had been worrying needlessly.

She discovered that at some unknown point, a chair had appeared in the privy — a chair with a latticed-cutout seat placed directly over the bucket, allowing a person to sit comfortably with both feet suspended in the air.

It dawned on her then — all that knocking and hammering Situ Sheng had been doing all afternoon was for this…

Situ Sheng helped her hold the chair steady, then discreetly moved himself further away.

Chu Linlang was quite urgently in need, so she went about her business.

Only when she was finished did she discover that the armrests of the chair had been thoughtfully wrapped with a band of cotton cloth — comfortable to press against without any hardness digging into the hands…

Even though she had been cross with Situ Sheng, Linlang could not suppress a small burst of laughter — to think he had actually thought to make this ridiculous contraption!

Ordinarily looking so cold and remote — all the while quietly thinking up things like this!

Since he had already carried her out, Chu Linlang could not be bothered with the proprieties that darkness concealed, and once her clothing was in order she softly called for him to come and take her back to her room.

This time, rather than having him carry her, she let him carry her on his back instead.

Chu Linlang had thought that without facing each other directly, a great deal of awkwardness would be relieved.

But she had never anticipated that when she lay against the man’s broad back, she would deeply regret it — pressed so fully against him like this, how could she shake the sensation that he had taken every advantage of her?

Yet Situ Sheng merely carried her steadily on his back, making not a single indecent move and offering not a single teasing remark.

Chu Linlang said to herself with some self-mockery — if anyone had taken advantage of the other, it was she, a middle-aged woman no longer in her prime, who had taken the greater advantage of Situ Sheng, this young man in the first flush of his youth.

Situ Sheng was a man of personal restraint and was surely still inexperienced — a young man so fresh and vigorous, if he had ever wanted romantic adventures, could have attracted admirers from every corner. There would be no reason to set his sights on the divorced and cast-off woman in his own household.

He was not thinking any improper thoughts — she could not be the one to let her imagination run to places it should not go.

As this was the dead of night and deeply cold, most of the biting wind was blocked by Situ Sheng’s body. Chu Linlang lay obediently against his back and said in a soft, teasing tone: “Surely you haven’t been up all night, waiting for me to need the privy?”

She had expected Situ Sheng to respond as he usually did — with the silence of a gentleman. But instead, he actually let out a quiet “mm” of acknowledgment.

Chu Linlang clicked her tongue twice, then asked softly: “What is it? You hurt my foot and now you feel guilty? It wasn’t you who pushed me — I stumbled into that fire basin through my own recklessness, and it has nothing to do with you!”

Situ Sheng went quiet again. Once he had carried her back to her room, he set her down on the bed, placed her shoes neatly to one side, fetched a basin and cloth for her to wash her hands, and then — carefully choosing his words — said: “I acted impulsively today and touched your foot… as it concerns a woman’s honor…”

Chu Linlang felt she ought to be reasonable about this and quickly cut him off, offering gracious reassurance: “Enough, enough — these are not the feet of some young unmarried girl, so precious that a single touch incurs responsibility. I have not yet even thanked my lord for tending to the burns. As for anything that has happened within this courtyard — everyone here has the sense not to speak of it outside. My lord’s reputation will not be blemished!”

Chu Linlang’s thoughtful and gracious words — and yet Situ Sheng, hearing them, showed not the slightest sign of relief. If anything, his brow furrowed slightly, and he raised his head to fix her with a cool, penetrating stare, his tone carrying a chill: “When it concerns a woman’s honor, how can you treat it so lightly?”

Chu Linlang rolled her eyes at him and said casually: “Come to think of it, I once sucked poison from your blood wound — a lone man and a lone woman confined together in a carriage, with all the proprieties between men and women — and yet at that time you never went to find Zhou Sui’an to declare that you owed responsibility to his wife’s reputation?”

Situ Sheng was left speechless by her retort, fixing his handsome eyes on the small woman behind the bed curtains with a prolonged stare.

In that moment, the ordinarily cool and supremely clever man was so flustered that his lips trembled slightly, his eyes growing wider and wider.

Chu Linlang was not to be outdone, glaring right back at him, then issued an unabashed order: “Help me close the door tightly on your way out — can’t have drafts blowing in and scattering what remains of my reputation!”

Having said this, she paid no further attention to the man now glowering at her with dark, heavy eyes — she simply lay flat on the bed, pulled the blanket over herself, and turned to face the wall.

Once she heard the sound of the man’s footsteps departing, followed by the firm closing of the door, Chu Linlang pulled her head out from under the blankets — hair in a state of complete disarray — and exhaled one long, drawn-out breath.

Yet breathing in the scent that filled the bed curtains — Situ Sheng’s scent mixed with the fragrance of soap beans — she found herself unable to quiet her thoughts.

The scent of soap beans on his person was different from anyone else’s — when warmed by his body heat, it seemed to transform into something distinctly his own. Once it entered her nose, it was distracting in the most unsettling way…

Chu Linlang suddenly felt her mouth go dry. She was truly done for! Could it be that an old house had caught fire after a long drought? Or had it simply been too long since she had known a man’s company?

Having been carried all that way in his arms, and then borne all the way back on his back — she found that this scoundrel had managed to plant something restless in her heart!

She closed her eyes, wanting to fall asleep quickly.

Yet the scent lingering in the air would not dissipate, and she even found herself following that scent back to the memory of him — bare-chested, training through his martial forms in the courtyard…

What could she say — those strong, narrow hips and waist, that solid, firm chest — they were genuinely something to feast one’s eyes on!

After all, there was no harm in privately entertaining such thoughts while tucked under the covers — it broke no law and was merely a harmless idle fancy.

Chu Linlang rolled over contentedly, letting her thoughts spread like wild grass running rampant — ordinarily so cold and distant, yet when it came to looking after someone, how tender was his care!

If such a person had been a dissolute, rakish young man who made sport of pursuing women — such gentle and attentive methods would have been a genuine scourge upon every inner household in the capital!

For a time her thoughts drifted, gradually turning toward things that could not be put into words.

After this pleasant reverie, she rolled over contentedly once more and drifted off to sleep.

The last scattered impression as she surrendered to sleep was: she had once thought that whoever married a man like Situ Sheng had truly drawn the most unfortunate lot in life.

But come to think of it now, Situ Sheng did have his redeeming qualities. She just did not know how serious his hidden ailment was — if it turned out he was all show with no substance, that would indeed be quite a pity…

The very next morning, Chu Linlang sent Xia He out to buy a chamber pot.

Xia He, belatedly flustered, blamed herself for being careless and asked Madam Chu whether she had gotten up in the night. Chu Linlang gave only a vague answer and let the matter slide.

But when Dongxue got up in the night to use the privy, she spotted Master Situ’s new creation and could not help but offer words of praise for how useful it was.

Xia He, ever quick to read between the lines, cast a suspicious glance around her, then turned to deliver Chu Linlang’s food, asking in a low voice: “Miss, did my lord help you last night?”

Chu Linlang stuffed the steamed bun from the tray into Xia He’s mouth: “So many words! How did he help me at all?”

Xia He shrank her neck back, feeling she had said the wrong thing. Though, if it had not been my lord who helped, and neither she nor Dongxue had gotten up — could it really have been Guanqi?

Linlang no longer felt inclined to say much — the events of the night were too inconvenient to speak of aloud, and the unspeakable little secrets between her and Master Situ seemed only to multiply.

At the same time she was thinking — wasn’t that man a little foolish? Having all that free time to fashion that ridiculous chair contraption, how had it not occurred to him to simply buy her a chamber pot and spare everyone the trouble?

With her feet injured, Chu Linlang could officially take things easy, leaving all the courtyard matters to the three younger servants to handle.

Each day she only needed to keep both feet raised high, apply the medicine, and lie back in the reclining chair sunning herself in the courtyard — or else sit on the back courtyard railing, pretending to read her picture book while sneaking glances at her employer, lightly dressed, training vigorously through his martial forms in vivid, arresting fashion.

If one were to mention something not well-suited to recovering from injury, it was her daily visits to the study to practice calligraphy.

She had originally intended to plead the pain in her feet as an excuse to be let off this duty.

Yet Situ Sheng said that calligraphy practice was like practicing martial forms — one could not simply watch without doing.

Chu Linlang suspected this was a veiled jab at her for having been caught watching him practice his martial forms, and slanted her eyes at him.

Situ Sheng’s expression remained impassive: “For showing disrespect to one’s teacher — an additional copybook of characters as punishment.”

Chu Linlang could only smile awkwardly, saying she was merely worried about wasting her employer’s time.

In the end, she settled into the generously cushioned armchair Xia He had specially prepared for her, at the great table in the study, sitting at an angle diagonally across from Situ Sheng — each occupying their own corner of the table.

Situ Sheng buried himself in reviewing official documents, Chu Linlang traced her calligraphy copybook, the charcoal basin had been moved to a far corner, and the study fell into a deep, settled quiet.

These past few nights, Chu Linlang had not been sleeping well — the pain in her feet was enough to keep her awake.

Yet the practice copybook before her was positively sleep-inducing — after writing only a few pages, she had begun to stifle a yawn, sneaking glances at the man diagonally across from her, who still sat with ruler-straight posture, writing briskly with his brush.

She quietly turned her face toward the window, intending to lie down and rest for just a short while.

Linlang had only been lying there a brief while when drowsiness overtook her completely, and after a few futile attempts to force her eyes open, she gave up the struggle and fell fast asleep.

Not knowing how many hours had passed, she only gradually opened her eyes when voices outside the window — Dongxue among them — drifted in.

Coming back to her surroundings, she remembered she was still in the study practicing calligraphy, and quickly sat up.

But as she raised her head, she felt a sharp pain tug at her scalp.

She quickly covered her hair and turned her head slightly to the side — only to discover that Situ Sheng had, just like before, fallen asleep again.

What was worse, this time he too had been dozing with his head against the desk, and as the two people sitting diagonally across from each other both slept, their heads had ended up leaning together — and the spiral hairpin atop Chu Linlang’s head had unfortunately caught itself in his hair bun.

When she raised her head, she inadvertently tugged Situ Sheng awake.

He moved, which in turn yanked at Linlang’s hair, causing her to cry out softly in pain. She had every intention of reaching up to remove the hairpin, but the spiral-patterned pin had also caught in her own hair — this tangle of a mess would have to be worked apart slowly.

She could not move easily, so Situ Sheng had to rise and lean somewhat closer, allowing Chu Linlang to slowly work free the tangled strands caught around the hairpin.

After much effort, the hairpin was finally removed and the hair pulled free — but by then, both Chu Linlang’s and Situ Sheng’s hair coils had come tumbling completely undone.

If the two of them walked out with their hair in complete disarray, and those three young servants spotted them — well, what reputation there was would be ground to dust under a stone roller, and there would be nothing worth salvaging!

But the study had no water basin or copper mirror — not even a comb to tidy hair with.

And so Chu Linlang first had Situ Sheng crouch down, then moistened her fingers with a little tea, and with quick, practiced hands smoothed and gathered his hair back into proper order — done in no time at all.

When it was Chu Linlang’s turn, it proved slightly more difficult. A woman’s hair being so long, and without a mirror or a handy comb, was not easy to manage.

Situ Sheng was willing to reciprocate, and so he moved around behind Chu Linlang, following her directions — first gathering her hair into a bundle, then clumsily attempting to help her pin it up.

But sadly, the artistically gifted Master Situ was genuinely hopeless at styling hair.

Chu Linlang even found herself thinking back to an old memory.

No wonder his eccentric mother’s clothes were always neat and tidy, yet her hair perpetually in disarray. It turned out that the otherwise masterful Situ Sheng had one singular weakness — he could not style a woman’s hair!

After her hair had been yanked painfully several times, Chu Linlang simply reclaimed her hair into her own hands, loosely twisted it into a low bun herself, then said quietly to Situ Sheng: “Why don’t you step outside first and send the others off to the outer courtyard — and then I’ll make my way back to my room?”

Situ Sheng looked at her, then — quite agreeably — rose to his feet and sent Dongxue and the others to the outer courtyard kitchen to make Madam Chu a bowl of fruit soup.

Then, seizing the moment when no one was in the outer courtyard, he carried Chu Linlang on his back once more.

These past few days, the blisters on Linlang’s feet had been gradually receding, but Situ Sheng still would not allow her feet to touch the ground.

He had also purchased her a pair of thickly padded cotton socks — once she put them on, she would not need shoes, which would spare her injured feet any constriction.

Linlang had never imagined that a man could look after someone with such meticulous care.

In the past, even during the best days of her relationship with Zhou Sui’an, her former husband had never managed to be as attentive as Situ Sheng was being now.

Chu Linlang felt the situation had become somewhat untenable and, pressed against his broad and sturdy back, could not help but say softly: “You can put me down. I should be able to walk on my own now — the blisters can’t stay unbroken forever. A bit of friction and they’ll sort themselves out.”

Situ Sheng paid no attention to her and simply bounced the female steward on his back to readjust her weight, then continued walking without a word.

Chu Linlang very much disliked that dead-eyed way of his when he refused to engage. Seeing that he would not put her down, she deliberately leaned close to his ear and breathed out softly: “You really should not be so good to your servants — if you take a wife someday, she will be jealous, seeing you attend to other women with such care.”

She had heard Guanqi recount, as a piece of amusing gossip, the story of Situ Sheng jumping overboard in Jizhou. She also knew that Situ Sheng disliked women who deliberately leaned into him or threw themselves at him.

And so Linlang deliberately drew herself a little closer, letting Master Situ understand: if he continued being this considerate, he was going to wind up attracting a great, sprawling bloom of affection from an older, past-her-prime woman — and he ought to take care.

Upon hearing this, Situ Sheng did indeed pause in his steps.