Chapter 9

Chapter 9

After leaving Yunxi with Nanny Li, Fu Qiu hurried back to the study and pulled out the birth date she had placed at the very bottom: Ji Heng’s.

The twenty-ninth day of the fourth month in the year of Jiachen, at the zi hour.

Not a bit more, not a bit less.

Exactly four taels and nine mace.

Fu Qiu realized there was something wrong with the assumptions she had made about Yuan Sheng.

Just because he had saved her did not mean he was a good man.

Saved was not quite accurate either.

She was probably a chess piece Yuan Sheng had chosen. A blade.

After all, they had neither kinship nor ties. Why would he have reached out to help her for no reason?

But even if Yuan Sheng was a villain, could she really give up her chance to defy fate and change her life for Ji Heng’s sake?

Even if Yuan Sheng might be lying to her.

That faint sliver of hope was enough to keep her stumbling forward, alone and untethered.

Ink from the wolf-hair brush dripped onto the number “nine,” spreading into a dark blot.

Fu Qiu looked at the back of her hand. Blue veins wound through her deathly pale skin.

She sighed.

Ji Heng, who among us is not a tragic good person?

A knock sounded at the door. Mama Lu came in carrying a bowl of soup.

“Madam was afraid you might be working too hard, so she had me bring you a bowl of ginseng soup to nourish your body.”

Steam curled from the ginseng soup. Fu Qiu accepted it, first thanking Ji Heng for her concern, then pasted on a warm smile and said affectionately, “I could have gone to fetch it myself. Why trouble you to bring it in person?”

Mama Lu waved a hand. “Spare me that. Smiling with your mouth but not your eyes-it’s unnerving.”

Fu Qiu did not argue. She obediently put away her smile.

Ji Heng was weak, and Jiang Jingzhi was greedy for pleasure. This vast Jiang Manor was held together entirely by this loyal old mama.

She was the most precious legacy Ji Heng’s parents had left behind.

After delivering the ginseng soup, Mama Lu did not leave. She walked to the desk, looked over the chaotic calculations, picked up the brush, and wrote a single word over the bone weight Fu Qiu had calculated: “Obey.”

“Keep to your place, and good days will last. Lady Fu Qiu, what do you think?”

Mama Lu must have noticed something and had come specially to warn her.

“What do I think?” Fu Qiu gave a mocking smile, every word utterly sincere. “If everyone kept to their place, Ji Manor would have changed its surname to Jiang.”

Mama Lu did not get angry. Instead, she nodded. “At this point, then, what should be done?”

Fu Qiu said, “Madam is a good person, and Miss Yunxi has real promise.”

Mama Lu smiled but said nothing.

A burst of hurried footsteps came from outside. Nanny Li ran up, gasping for breath, and braced herself against the doorframe. “Mama, something’s wrong. Master is back, and he’s arguing with Madam!”