Chapter 3

Cheng Wanrou's composure broke. She hurriedly took off the hairpin.

I withdrew my hand and turned to the steward.

"Uncle Chen, invite the clan elders. Today, we'll lay out all the accounts and settle every item."

At last, Mother panicked.

"Cheng Heng! Family disgrace mustn't be aired outside!"

"When you took my things to please your adopted daughter, why didn't you think of family disgrace?"

Once the elders arrived, the Cheng family's main hall erupted into commotion.

I read out every item Grandmother had left me. Jewelry, land deeds, silk—more than half had been transferred to Cheng Wanrou's courtyard.

Father's face darkened. He said they'd only been borrowed.

I slapped the borrowing document onto the table.

"Then where's the IOU?"

He had no answer.

In the end, the family had to return two estates and a thousand taels in banknotes.

Cheng Wanrou cried until she could barely stand. My brother hurried to support her, not bothering to look at me again.

I carried the box of my possessions out of the Cheng residence. Gong Yan followed quietly.

Once we were in the carriage, he suddenly put a packet of hot chestnuts in my lap.

"You didn't eat lunch."

I peeled one and held it to his lips.

"Open your mouth."

He paused, then obediently bent his head and took it.

Warm breath brushed my fingertips.

The chestnuts were hot against my palm, making me draw back slightly. I lowered my head to peel another instead of sparring with him.

6.

On the seventh day after our homecoming visit, a fire suddenly broke out at Gong Yan’s side residence.

It started in the study. The servants scattered in panic, while Madam Wei stood at a distance, covering her mouth as she cried, “Save Eldest Nephew! He’s still inside!”

I had just returned from the kitchen when the medicine bowl in my hand fell to the ground.

Gong Yan was in the study!

I lifted my skirts and rushed straight inside. Thick smoke stung my eyes until I could barely keep them open. Half the bookshelves had collapsed, and flames were rolling up the curtains.

“Gong Yan!”

A hand suddenly reached through the smoke and pulled me into a firm embrace.

Gong Yan covered my nose and mouth with a wet cloth, one arm shielding the back of my head. He led me over the burning beams, and together we climbed out through a rear window.

When we landed, his arm had been scorched red by the flames.

Before I had even found my footing, I slapped him.

His face turned to the side from the blow, but he wasn’t angry. He only stared at me blankly.

“Why were you hiding in there?” I grabbed his collar, my fingers trembling. “They’re just a few account books. Were they worth trapping yourself inside?”

“The books couldn’t be allowed to burn,” he answered quietly.

“Are account books more precious than your life?”

“No.”

He answered at once.

“But they contain enough evidence to convict Gong Chenglu. I meant to retrieve them and leave immediately. I didn’t expect you to rush in even faster than I did.”

I raised my hand to hit him again, but when I saw the wound on his arm, my hand came down gently. For a long moment, I couldn’t bring myself to use any force.

Gong Yan laughed. There was ash on the tip of his nose, and he looked thoroughly disheveled.

Madam Wei led people over. When she saw he was safe, a flicker of disappointment passed through her eyes.

She raised her voice. “Eldest Nephew must be frightened. Take him to the estate to rest. Cheng, you should go with him. You’ll only cause more trouble if you stay here.”

“Second Aunt.”

I turned to face her.

“Why did the study catch fire?”

“The weather is dry. What’s strange about a fire?”

I pointed to the wall beside us.

“That’s pine oil. The side residence hasn’t received any pine oil lately, yet so much has been spilled on the ground. Second Aunt, what do you make of that?”

Madam Wei’s expression changed dramatically.

I waved toward the gate.

While the fire was being put out, I had sent Nanny Feng to fetch constables from the Jingzhao Prefecture. Two constables entered and searched beneath the pine-oil barrel. At last, they found a copper pawn ticket.

It belonged to the maid who had come with Madam Wei’s dowry.

Madam Wei’s legs gave way, and she hurriedly cried that she was innocent.

Gong Chenglu, the Gong family’s second uncle, rushed over with a dark expression. He slapped Madam Wei across the face, cursed her for being stupid, then immediately ordered her locked in the woodshed.

It was quite a convincing performance.

Gong Yan leaned against my shoulder, still pretending to be too dazed to understand what had happened. He leaned close to my ear and whispered, “Second Uncle is getting nervous.”

I took his hand. His palm was ice-cold, damp with sweat.

Gong Chenglu’s haste to close the matter proved that the fire hadn’t been pointless.

7.

After the study burned down, Gong Chenglu used the repairs as an excuse to seal off the side residence.

Gong Yan and I were moved to a dilapidated little courtyard where the wind blew through every crack.

That night, rain pattered outside. Water dripped from the eaves into four copper basins on the bed, the plinks coming one after another at an uneven pace.

Gong Yan sat at the table, seriously counting the raindrops that splashed into the basins.

I sat on the bed wrapped in a quilt, so angry I laughed.

“Eldest Master Gong, we’re about to live in the middle of a rainstorm, and you’re still in the mood to play the fool?”

He looked up. “Does my wife dislike it?”

“I’d love to see you standing in the rain.”

He immediately took off his outer robe and draped it over my legs, then brought the only oil-paper umbrella over to the bed.

It was too small to keep much rain off us.

I pulled him onto the bed and wrapped the quilt around us both.

He stiffened like a plank.

“I’ll make you sick,” he said softly.

“You aren’t ill.”

“The poison from three years ago hasn’t been fully removed.”

He lowered his eyes.

“When the weather is damp, my chest hurts.”

Only then did I notice how pale he was, and the cold sweat beading on his forehead.

I was about to ask Nanny Feng to prepare medicine, but he shook his head.

“The physicians in the residence belong to my second uncle.”

I stood up, opened my jewelry box, and put a pair of earrings into Nanny Feng’s hand.

“Go to the southern part of the city and fetch Physician Chu. He was an old friend of my maternal grandfather. Don’t use the main gate.”

Physician Chu was brought back quickly. He took Gong Yan’s pulse for a long time, his expression growing heavier by the moment.

He said the poison in Gong Yan’s body was called Cold-Sink Powder. The dose was small, but prolonged exposure would cause frequent dizziness and weakness in the limbs.

Someone had been secretly adding more poison to Gong Yan’s medicine all along. That was why he had been able to convincingly pretend to be simple-minded.

“Can you cure him?” I asked.

“Yes. But the prescription must be adjusted gradually. We can’t rush it.”

When it was time to take the medicine, Gong Yan grimaced like a child who didn’t want to drink it.

I took the bowl.

“Open your mouth.”

He obediently did so.

A little medicine dribbled over the rim, and I wiped it away with a cloth. He suddenly caught my wrist, his palm burning hot.

“Cheng Heng.”

He rarely called me by my full name.

I lowered my head to look at him.

“If I can’t hold on, the banknotes and land deeds in the cabinet in the western room will be enough for you to move somewhere else and live.”

I set the medicine bowl down hard.

“If you dare die, I’ll use your money to keep ten male companions and cause a scene in front of your grave every day!”

He froze, then burst out laughing, coughing as he did.

At last, he rested his forehead against my shoulder and said in a choked voice, “Then I suppose I’ll have to keep living.”

The rain outside the window still hadn’t stopped. I raised my hand and gently patted his back.

That night, his fever grew very high. He clutched the corner of my robe and refused to let go.

I stayed up all night watching over him. When dawn came, I found a bloodstained jade pendant beside his pillow.

A tiny character, “Ning,” was engraved on its reverse.

8.

Physician Chu said the pendant was an old token of the Prince of Ning’s household.

I took it to ask Gong Yan about it. He was sitting beneath the eaves, carving a piece of wood. The moment he heard the words “Prince of Ning,” the carving knife in his hand stopped.

“Who are you, really?”

Gong Yan handed me the wooden hairpin he had just carved. It had no elaborate decorations—only a small sprig of hengwu carved at the end.

“My mother’s surname was Ning,” he said. “The late emperor once granted her a princely residence. After she fell ill and died, the estate was left empty. Gong Chenglu was afraid I might use the connections of the Prince of Ning’s household to rise again. That’s why he was so eager to kill me.”

“That’s all?”

He was silent for a moment before answering.

“My mother was the Grand Princess of the late emperor’s reign.”

The wooden hairpin nearly slipped from my hand.

Years ago, everyone in the capital had known that the Grand Princess had married into the Gong family. But after her death, the Gong family claimed she had left no descendants. No one could have guessed that Gong Yan was…

The Grand Princess’s only son, who still held the imperial patent of nobility the late emperor had left him.

No wonder Gong Chenglu had been so eager to eliminate him all these years.

“You’ve kept this well hidden,” I said, staring at him.

“I wasn’t trying to deceive you,” he hurried to explain. “On our wedding night, I told you about the account books.”

“But you didn’t tell me you were a prince.”

“You’d only just entered the Gong household then.”

His voice lowered.

“I was afraid that if you knew too much, you’d even have to think twice before looking at me.”

I gave him a sidelong glance.

“You certainly know when to say something sweet.”

He was at a loss for words. After a while, he tugged lightly at my sleeve.

“Wife, I was wrong.”

When he pretended to be a fool, he often tugged at people’s sleeves like that. Now his eyes were clear, yet there was still a hint of pleading in them. It made it hard to stay angry.

I pulled my sleeve away.

“Your punishment is to do your own laundry today.”

He nodded immediately. “All of it.”

That afternoon, I sat beneath the eaves and watched him wash clothes.

The lofty Prince of Ning’an was now squatting by a wooden tub, scrubbing my skirts until both his hands were covered in soap suds.

The old woman Gong Chenglu had sent to watch us from a distance saw the scene. She would surely return more convinced than ever that he was still the same foolish man as before.

As he hung up the clothes, Gong Yan suddenly leaned close to me.

“Wife, do I have to wash this little garment too?”

I snatched it away, my ears burning.

“Get lost!”