As late spring approached, a light, silky rain drifted down. A returning swallow, busy with its nest, carried a wet blade of grass from the rain-dappled black tiles and alighted gracefully on the pointed eaves to rest.
“Get out of the way!”
A sharp rebuke shattered the tranquil spring afternoon, startling the swallow on the roof. The black bird beat its moist wings and leaped into the misty air. A single drop of water it shook off landed on an oiled-paper umbrella that had just emerged from the courtyard.
The person beneath the umbrella wore a lotus-purple brocade robe with a clanging jade belt. A silver-thread embroidered sachet hung from his waist, and he wore a pair of intricately patterned crescent-soled boots. Splash—he stepped into a small puddle, wetting his shoe, yet he seemed not to pay it no mind. He simply raised the umbrella, turned, and revealed a pale collar and eyes glistening with moisture.
The young man was around twenty years old, with fair skin and red lips, like a newly bloomed flower in the spring rain, at the peak of its beauty.
At this moment, he held his chin up slightly, showing a hint of imperious arrogance. His gaze swept over the attendants blocking his way into the courtyard. With a touch of anger, he declared, “The next person who dares to stop me will be taken out and flogged.”
The attendants exchanged glances, none daring to step forward.
The person before them was Ji Zhen, the youngest son of the current Chief Grand Secretariat. His father held immense power in the imperial court, and his elder brother, though not yet thirty, was already a vice minister in the Ministry of Personnel. With such a distinguished family background, even the emperor’s own princes had to treat him with respect, let alone them, mere servants.
If there was anyone who could control this precious, pampered young master, it was probably the master of this study, Shen Yanqing.
But their Lord Shen had gone to court early in the morning in the rain and had not yet returned. Before he left, he had instructed that no one, not even his wife Ji Zhen, was allowed to enter the study without his permission.
The marriage between Shen Yanqing and Ji Zhen was still a popular laughingstock in the capital, but that story is for another time.
Ji Zhen didn’t care about the attendants’ predicament. There was never anything that could stop him from doing what he wanted. Seeing the attendants remain silent, he tossed the oiled-paper umbrella aside and stepped toward the study, leaving them with one command: “Don’t tell Shen Yanqing I’m in here.”
“Young Madam, you mustn’t…”
Ji Zhen ignored them completely, opening and closing the door in one smooth motion. Outside, the attendants paced anxiously, but they dared not actually “escort” Ji Zhen out. They could only stand in the courtyard with the umbrella, sighing.
Before long, only the sound of the light rain remained.
With no sunlight, the room lay in shadow. Ji Zhen did not light a candle; he merely brushed the raindrops from his clothes and began to survey the study.
Shen Yanqing disliked his presence in the study, yet Ji Zhen had still found excuses to slip in a few times, only to be driven out by Shen Yanqing within a quarter of an hour each time. Now he finally had a chance to examine the place in detail and figure out what was so special about it that Shen Yanqing visited it every day.
Ji Zhen stood in front of the desk, randomly flipping through heavy books. He let out a disgruntled huff through his nose and sulked as he sat down on Shen Yanqing’s bamboo chair.
For the past few days, Shen Yanqing had been in the study from the moment he returned from court, often not stumbling back to their room until late into the night. By then, Ji Zhen had already gone through one sleep cycle and was too tired to stay awake. He only vaguely remembered burrowing into Shen Yanqing’s arms when the other party got into bed.
By the time he woke up the next morning, his side was already empty again. Shen Yanqing came and went so quietly, as if he couldn’t even bear to say one more word to him.
Yet, just the day before yesterday, Ji Zhen had clearly seen Shen Yanqing’s friend, Yi Zhi, stay in the study all day. He had no clue what the two discussed, only that they even dined together in the study.
Shen Yanqing’s attendants were all tight-lipped; no matter how he cajoled or threatened them, they refused to obey him. All he could do was let his imagination run rampant, desperate to slip into the study and witness it himself.
He had always known that Shen Yanqing and Yi Zhi had a close relationship. They had known each other for years and served together in the court; it was fair to call them confidants. With such a close bond, two men sharing a room—how could he not grow suspicious?
Perhaps Shen Yanqing preferred to converse with the others late into the night, gladly keeping himself from returning to the room.
Ji Zhen was so aggrieved that his teeth ached. Maybe because of the damp air today, his eyes felt watery too. He took a few deep breaths to suppress the sour feeling rising in his nose.
As the saying goes, to catch a thief, you must catch them in the act; to catch an affair, you must catch both parties. Today, he resolved to hide in the study and eavesdrop, listening intently to their conversation until the moon hung high.
Ji Zhen walked around the study, stopping and starting, until his gaze finally settled on a bookcase as tall as a man.
He opened the bookcase, which was filled with Shen Yanqing’s cherished collections. Some of the ancient books were centuries old, their pages patched, yet they felt sturdy in his hands, a testament to Shen Yanqing’s genuine love for books.
He moved the books on one side to a corner, then blocked them with a box. He squeezed himself into the bookcase, curling up with his arms wrapped around his knees. He then struggled to pull the cabinet door shut, leaving himself breathless.
Only a small crack was left in the cabinet door, through which a faint light streamed in at first. Ji Zhen waited and waited, from daylight until dark, yet there was still no sound in the room.
He yawned endlessly, thinking that Shen Yanqing must have been delayed on his way back. It wouldn’t hurt to take a short nap. With that thought, Ji Zhen rested his head against the cabinet wall and closed his eyes, instantly falling asleep.
He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but suddenly, a faint sound stirred in the room. Ji Zhen was in a deep sleep and, thinking he was in his own bed, was extremely displeased. He was about to grumble and scold the servant who had disturbed his sweet dream, but as he opened his eyes, he suddenly remembered he was hiding in the bookcase. Terrified, he clapped a hand over his mouth.
He perked his ears to listen. Oddly, the person didn’t light a candle and seemed to find a place to sit.
Ji Zhen waited for a long time but heard no further sound. He felt strange, and then the thought occurred to him: could it be that Shen Yanqing was having a secret affair with Yi Zhi and was hiding in this dim study to avoid being discovered?
Immediately, he felt both angry and wronged. He wanted to go out and catch them, but he was also afraid of seeing a truly heartbreaking scene. As he hesitated, the sound of light footsteps slowly approached from the direction of the desk. Ji Zhen held his breath. Just as he feared he was about to be caught, the main door swung open, and a candle flickered to life.
Through the crack, he saw only a pale hand and a patch of black robes.
Before he could figure out what was happening, the bookcase door suddenly opened. He looked up into the candlelight and saw Shen Yanqing’s beautiful, almost cold, features.
Ji Zhen’s breath first hitched, then he subconsciously searched for the figure in the black robes. But only Shen Yanqing, in his dark blue court attire, remained in the room. There was no one else, as if what he had just seen was a hallucination.
Shen Yanqing’s face was as still as water in the flickering candlelight, and his voice held a hint of coldness. “Get out.”
Ji Zhen didn’t care about the other party’s coldness either. He scrambled out of the bookcase and looked around, truly finding no one else. He asked, puzzled, “Where is Yi Zhi?”
Shen Yanqing’s brows furrowed slightly. He didn’t bother to say more, and he took Ji Zhen’s wrist to lead him toward the door directly.
Ji Zhen refused to leave and became annoyed. “I clearly saw Yi Zhi just now! Where did you hide him?”
Shen Yanqing slowly let go of him, his tone calm. “Besides you and me, where is there anyone else in this room?”
With that question in return, Ji Zhen became confused. Could he really have imagined it?
But he still insisted stubbornly, “I saw him, I just did.”
Shen Yanqing had a pair of peach blossom eyes, but they were not flirtatious. Their outer corners were slightly long, and his black lashes were long and straight. When he looked down at others, it gave them a sense of being disregarded. At that moment, he regarded Ji Zhen silently, as if observing a child in the midst of a tantrum. This cool gaze was like a heavy snowfall, effortlessly extinguishing Ji Zhen’s spirit.
There’s no telling how many times Shen Yanqing had looked at him like that, but no matter how many times it happened, it was enough to make Ji Zhen feel as if he had drunk strong liquor, the burning sensation searing from his throat all the way to his heart and lungs.
His throat constricted slightly, and he said angrily, “Why is Yi Zhi allowed here, but I’m not?”
He was clearly the person closest to Shen Yanqing.
But Shen Yanqing’s patience seemed to have run out. He didn’t bother to answer his question and instead spoke to his personal attendant waiting outside. “Yu He, see the Young Madam back.”
Yu He acknowledged the order and stepped forward, making a respectful gesture toward Ji Zhen. “Young Madam, this subordinate will escort you.”
Ji Zhen felt as though his dignity had been scraped off and thrown on the ground to be trampled. Since Shen Yanqing treated him with such disdain, he refused to become the laughingstock of the other servants in the courtyard. He simply gave Shen Yanqing a final, red-eyed look, then turned and ran into the light rain, disappearing into the mist in no time.
Shen Yanqing gestured for Yu He to follow him and then carefully closed the study door.
A light chuckle sounded inside the room. A tall, black-robed young man walked out from behind a screen. “If he were a member of my household, he would have been hung up and disciplined for such insolence already. You’re soft-hearted.”
Shen Yanqing didn’t respond to the young man’s words. He bowed to him. “Your Highness.”
The young man had a pair of narrow, foxy eyes. He was refined and graceful and had a playful smile. He strode to the desk and sat down, continuing, “When the grand plan is finished, send him to my household for proper training to refine his character.”
Shen Yanqing remained composed, not showing the slightest reaction to the young man’s mocking tone at all. He looked up, then said, “This humble minister dare not trouble Your Highness with this humble minister’s family affairs.”
The young man continued to smile, and a sense of bloody cruelty slowly began to surface in his eyes.
In the end, he said, “If he gets in the way of the great plan, just kill him.”
His tone was as casual as if he were discussing an ant he could crush with his finger.
Outside, the night rain paused only to resume, falling in a dense, continuous drizzle. A cold, unfamiliar wind swept through, scattering a carpet of yellow flower petals onto the ground.
thanks for the update