Chapter 3

When the old marquis heard about Wei Jue’s performance at the gate,

he made a token gesture of punishment: one night kneeling in the ancestral hall.

I tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

The more I thought about it, the more it bothered me.

No.

I had to clear things up with that woman. Otherwise, I would never get any sleep.

She didn’t yet know that Wei Jue wouldn’t be coming that night. She opened the door without asking who it was.

The moment she saw me, the smile vanished from her face.

“Have you come to lecture me, Sister? Where is Wei Jue?”

She folded her arms, wary.

I closed the door, sat at the table, and poured two cups of hot tea. “Qin Shuang’er, isn’t it? Sit down.”

She watched me suspiciously and kept her distance.

“You’re from Yanghe County. You found Wei Jue badly wounded and unconscious by the river, didn’t you?”

She hesitated. “He told you all that?”

As if I had time to wait for him to tell me.

Naturally, I had begun investigating as soon as his letter arrived.

The Qiao family’s shops and employees were spread across many places. Finding out about someone whose name we knew was hardly difficult.

Qin Shuang’er was an ordinary farmer’s daughter.

When she found Wei Jue, she had watched from the sidelines at first.

Only after she heard another wounded soldier call him “Young Marquis” did she decisively take him home, find a doctor, buy medicine, and nurse him with care.

Wei Jue was the third son of the Marquis of Yong’an. No one had decided who would inherit the title yet. It was nothing unusual for soldiers to flatter him by calling him Young Marquis.

But I needed to make that clear to Qin Shuang’er, though I assumed she wouldn’t mind.

“This is indeed a marquis’s residence, but the marquis is my widowed father-in-law. Wei Jue is only his third son, born to a concubine. The title probably won’t come his way. He does hold a military post, though. He’s currently a seventh-rank commandant—”

Qin Shuang’er’s eyes had been growing dimmer and dimmer. Suddenly, they lit up. “Widowed?!”

I nodded. “Precisely. That brings me to my second point. My mother-in-law has just died. My husband must observe a year of mourning before he can take a concubine, and you mustn’t share a bed during that year either. If someone reports you, His Majesty takes filial duty very seriously. He’ll punish you severely.”

Qin Shuang’er’s voice shot up. “A year? Men are forever chasing someone new. In a year, will he even remember I exist?”

I raised an eyebrow and studied her properly.

This woman was rather interesting.

Realizing she had let too much slip, she immediately composed herself.

“The old marquis…” she asked timidly. “How old is he?”

“Forty-five.”

As soon as I married into the house, my mother-in-law had told me to organize his birthday banquet, supposedly to learn my duties. I remembered it clearly.

Qin Shuang’er’s hands slowly tightened on the table, as though she had made up her mind about something.

“Wei Jue is being punished in the ancestral hall tonight. You needn’t wait up for him.”

I walked to the door, then added one more warning, just to be safe.

“And don’t go looking for him on your own. The ancestral hall is right behind the old marquis’s bedchamber. If His Lordship finds you, I won’t be able to protect you.”

I wasn’t trying to frighten her.

Every pleasure house had blacklisted the old marquis. Bills had also arrived for the tables and chairs smashed by the people my mother-in-law had sent.

He was seething, with nowhere to vent it.

Qin Shuang’er gave me a sweet, obedient smile.

“Don’t worry, Sister. I won’t go to the ancestral hall.”