Chapter 2

In the end, Li Mang never made it to the guest room. Madam Ren kept the two of us alone in the hall.

She said gravely, “There are two choices. First, while the pregnancy is still early, end it. After that, the two of you will have nothing to do with each other.”

Li Mang immediately grew anxious. “The contract says clearly that Suixi and I are to be husband and wife for seven hundred days. It hasn’t even been two hundred. How can you simply call it off?”

Madam Ren glared at him, displeased, then turned to me. “Second, sever all ties with your former husband. From now on, you and Li Mang will need no leasing contract. You will settle down and live with him properly.”

I shook my head hard. “I can’t cast off my husband.”

Madam Ren cried, “Is the Chancellor’s Residence supposed to have a daughter whose womb has been leased out?”

I faltered, then answered softly, “If I shame you, Li Mang and I can leave now.”

Her eyes reddened. “Ren Suixi, that is not one of your choices.”

My heart twisted with unease.

From the moment I entered the residence until then, the identity of a noble daughter had felt hollow and unreal. Yet when Madam Ren snapped at me, I suddenly had the strangest illusion.

It was as if I had always grown up at her knee, and she was scolding me as she had a hundred times before.

That illusion silenced me at once.

Before leaving, Madam Ren said, “Your father has been at court these past few days. There is unrest in the north, and the Jinshui tribe keeps probing our defenses. It has been a terrible headache.” She rambled for a while before returning to the point. “You must choose before he comes home.”

That night, Li Mang and I stayed awake for a long time.

He said, “Tell Madam Ren not to worry. The instant the child is born, I’ll take it away. Neither of us will ever appear before the Chancellor’s Residence again. It will be as though nothing ever happened between us. I swear I won’t stain your family’s reputation.”

“Take the baby away at birth?” I asked. “How will you nurse it?”

“I…” Li Mang’s eyes darted about. “My mother died early and my father never looked after me. The widower next door raised me on rice water, didn’t he? Come to think of it, I was the one who buried him in the end.”

“Rice water? Don’t be ridiculous.”

We argued through the night without reaching any conclusion.

I was considering excuses to delay the choice when I saw someone at the residence who could not possibly have been there.

Zhao Zisong.

He lay on a handcart, a thick quilt covering his lower body.

That was how they had brought him.

I rushed forward to see whether he was alive.

He was.

Ren Jinying pulled me aside, then lifted the quilt. A wave of putrid stench struck us.

Zhao Zisong slowly turned his face away and closed his eyes.

Ren Jinying did not cover his nose. He merely frowned. “Judging from the wound, some wild beast tore into him.”

“Can it be treated?” I asked urgently.

“Accidents like this happen often on campaign. I know several physicians experienced in treating such wounds. We can try.”

Then he sighed. “But this has been left far too long.”

A shudder ran through me. I turned to Madam Ren. “If you can heal him, I’ll agree to anything.”

Relief softened her face. She told Ren Jinying, “Do everything you can.”

He nodded. “No matter how difficult the physician is to engage, I will knock on his door myself.”