Chapter 2

Chapter 2

That year, riots broke out everywhere. In Jiangnan, the Qing Gang rose to prominence, and five great clans were slaughtered to the last member.

Immediately afterward, the slave uprising began erupting on a massive scale all across the country. Jiangyin had its Nose-Cutting Band, Jingzhou produced a Litong Society…

The powerful and the noble lived in terror, wailing as if the sky had fallen.

Imperial authority had been challenged. The Imperial Court was run ragged, dispatching large forces to suppress the rebellions.

Xia Zhan, Heir of Dingguo Duke Manor, commanded the twenty-six divisions of the imperial guards. After the slave uprising began, his imperial cousin assigned him to Jiangnan.

The Noble Heir had the bearing of the Old Duke. He had grown up on horseback, was already resourceful and farsighted, and every man under his command was valiant. In only seven months, he eradicated the strongest hall among the Qing Gang’s twelve halls. More than a hundred leaders, including the hall master, were hanged in neat rows in the Camphor Grove outside Yangzhou.

Then, riding that momentum, he successively killed several more of the main forces behind the slave uprising.

From then on, the Qing Gang was cowed. It was said that internal strife broke out among them, and before long, they vanished without a trace.

Jiangyin’s Nose-Cutting Band and Jingzhou’s Litong Society did not hold out much longer either. Under the Imperial Court’s suppression, they soon surrendered without resistance.

Their leaders are still imprisoned in the Ministry of Justice’s dungeons to this day.

For his merit in quelling the rebellions, Xia Zhan was personally granted the title Marquis Changxin by the emperor. The prestige he brought to Dingguo Duke Manor was unmatched.

With a status like his, and a face so exceedingly handsome, there was no shortage of noble young ladies in the capital. Which of them could see him and not feel her heart stir, not think of him day and night?

Commandery Princess Pingyang of Prince Yi’s household, for instance, threatened death and disaster if she could not marry him. Prince Yi, who had always doted on his daughter, even went into the palace to beg the emperor and the Empress Dowager to bestow the marriage.

He even offered a thousand mu of fertile land on the outskirts of the capital and all his family’s businesses as her dowry.

But when the Empress Dowager mentioned the matter, Xia Zhan merely smiled it off and paid it no mind.

Everyone knew Xia Zhan, Heir of Dingguo Duke Manor, held great power and high rank, and that he was cold by nature and proud to the bone.

But no one knew better than I did how those beautiful, indifferent eyes could turn shimmering and amorous, desire staining the corners of them.

For example, when he painted in the study, I would loosen my clothes halfway, baring my fragrant shoulder and back. The crimson begonias blooming across my skin would bloom as well on the scroll upon his desk, and in his pitch-black eyes.

Before the painting was finished, the pigments would be overturned, spilling vivid color all over the floor.

“Yuzi, you’re going to be the death of me…”

That was what he said most often when passion overtook him.

But I never believed in his tenderness and lingering affection at moments like that. Once he stepped out that door, he was upright and restrained again, every inch the noble, detached gentleman.

Xia Zhan did not love me. He would never fall in love with a bedchamber maid born from a lowly slave.

The one he loved was Zhao Mingyu, the young lady cousin of Dingguo Duke Manor. Zhao Mingyu’s childhood name was Xinxin. She was his maternal cousin and childhood sweetheart, born only a few days before him.

The first time I saw her, I knew that Xia Zhan had been willing to buy me from the pleasure quarters not merely because, three years ago outside Huizhou, he had once saved me by chance.

It was also because Zhao Mingyu looked delicate and frail, with fair skin and lovely features. Beneath her willow-leaf brows, her eyes held a faint sorrow that made anyone pity her on sight.

And I happened to have the same sort of appearance: a waist as slender as Qingliu’s, and a fragile, pitiful air.

She often wore white, so the new clothes he ordered made for me were all pure white as well, spotless and unstained.

Her courtyard was filled with begonias, so he alone was especially fond of the crimson begonia blossoms on my back.

When ice melts in distant caverns, one cherishes its clear resonance; when snow recedes from cold peaks, one thinks of Yuzi.

The Yuzi he longed for was not Yuzi. The Yuzi he thought of was not Yuzi either, but Zhao Mingyu, far away in Xiangyang recuperating from illness.

He named me Yuzi because of the character yu in Zhao Mingyu’s name.

For this past year, when his eyes looked through me, what they saw was another face beneath willow-leaf brows.

When I gazed at him timidly, biting my lip with a pitiful look, it moved him most easily, because the one he was thinking of was his pure, spotless, noble, untouchable elder cousin, Zhao Mingyu.

I still remember the first time she returned from Xiangyang. She wore a silver cloak lined with white fox fur, and when she slowly stepped down from the carriage, Xia Zhan’s expression was so very gentle.

He called her “Elder Sister” in a warm voice and reached out to support her, his movements cautious and careful.

A lovely blush rose on Zhao Mingyu’s weak, pale face as she returned the courtesy faintly. “Thank you, Ah Zhan.”

Among all the noble ladies in the capital, she was the only one who could call him Ah Zhan.

That Xia Zhan loved her was something everyone knew.

He had refused the marriage with Commandery Princess Pingyang and remained unmarried until now all for the sake of this elder cousin he kept in his heart.

Zhao Mingyu was born into a renowned, meritorious family. Her father had once been the Governor-General of Jiangxi.

Because her birth mother died early, she had been raised by the Duchess since childhood, growing up alongside Xia Zhan as his childhood sweetheart.

By rights, a young lady of an aristocratic family should not have gone so long without even discussing marriage.

But she could only blame her poor fortune. Three years ago, the Slave Uprising ignited turmoil across the land. Zhao Guangyu, the Governor-General of Jiangxi, had kept a thousand slave soldiers, and those wretched slaves had his entire family dismembered by five horses.

When news of that massacre reached the capital, Zhao Mingyu was so frightened that she lost her senses. Terrified and overwhelmed, she coughed up blood. Her body, already frail, became even more delicate, as if a gust of wind could knock her over.

Thus, when the Old Duke went back to the ancestral home in Xiangyang to recuperate, the Duchess brought her along as well.

After such a calamity befell her family, Zhao Mingyu observed three years of mourning for her father, and naturally, her marriage was delayed.

Because she was delayed, Xia Zhan waited with her for three years. His intentions could not have been clearer.

Only, during this year while she recuperated in Xiangyang, Xia Zhan could not endure the longing and loneliness after all, and took me as his bedchamber maid. Men have always known how to keep such matters separate.

Even now that Zhao Mingyu had returned, he would still spend nights here with me.

Those tricks from the pleasure quarters were beneath the contempt of a gentleman, yet he was addicted to them.

His noble elder cousin was pure as ice and clean as jade, a proper lady of a great family, lofty and unreachable just like him.

Even if they married in the future, Xia Zhan would certainly never behave so wantonly before her.

I was different. I was a Yangzhou Slender Horse, a courtesan from the pleasure quarters.

With a status like mine, I was not even worthy of bearing a child. Every time I shared his bed, a maid would bring contraceptive decoction the next morning.

In truth, he was overthinking it. Great noble houses valued bloodline and heirs above all. Back when I was selected to be trained and sold as a Yangzhou Slender Horse, I had already been fed sterilizing drugs.

But he did not know that.

I was mute, and I could not tell him.

Bowl after bowl of contraceptive decoction-I had always drunk them obediently, compliantly, down to the last drop.

Xia Zhan knew I only wanted to live well, to have my days be a little easier.

With my lowly status, only by clinging tightly to him would I ever have the chance at a better life.

Outside Huizhou, the way he looked at those refugees with pity, the way he wrapped me beneath his cloak when I was freezing to death under a willow tree, made me certain he was different at his core from those other sons of noble families.

And I had not been wrong.

He called me “Yuzi” again and again. After we were done, for the first time ever, he said something to me.

“Don’t worry. I won’t abandon you.”

His eyes were far too sharp. With one glance, he saw through all my unease, my fear and pitiful panic after Zhao Mingyu returned.

I lifted my head to look at him, my eyes brimming with tears.

His hand stroked my face. As I had always done, I pressed against it obediently and lowered my lashes.

It had been a year. I had been so docile, trying to please him in every way. Even if I were only a little cat or dog he had raised, surely he would not have the heart to throw me away.

When Xia Zhan spent the night in my room, he had never once risen and left in the middle of the night.

After Zhao Mingyu returned, there was only one reason he would leave in such a hurry.

The young lady cousin was having nightmares again.

After the massacre that wiped out the family of the Governor-General of Jiangxi, Zhao Mingyu had been left with an affliction of nightmares.

Back in Xiangyang, whenever she had nightmares, her aunt, Madam Xia, had stayed with her.

Now that she was back in the capital, that burden naturally fell to Xia Zhan.

There was no need to avoid suspicion, either. Her three years of mourning had already passed, and her marriage could not be delayed any longer.

The man was willing, the woman was willing, and Madam Xia had always doted on her. She had already planned that once spring came and the Old Duke’s health improved a little, she would return to the capital and preside over their wedding arrangements.

This was what the maid Ah Cai told me. She also said, “Sister Yuzi, the young lady cousin is gentle and quiet, and she has the kindest heart. Don’t worry. Once she and the young master are married, she will definitely tolerate you.”

Ah Cai was only sixteen, her face full of foolish innocence.

There was not a woman in this world who could tolerate another woman beside the man she loved.

After Zhao Mingyu returned to the manor, I only saw her twice.

The first time, Xia Zhan helped her down from the carriage. She smiled gently and looked right through me.

The second time was in the study of Dingguo Duke Manor. She saw the painting of the red-flowered crabapple Xia Zhan had done and was greatly interested, so she had him summon me over.

Later, once the door was closed, Xia Zhan told me to take off my clothes so she could admire the crabapple flowers on my back.

I still remembered her little laugh. The young lady cousin whom Ah Cai claimed had the kindest heart spoke in a soft, delicate voice, each word cutting straight to the bone. “I have long heard that the refined gentlemen of Jiangnan are terribly romantic, and that the Yangzhou Slender Horse are unmatched under heaven. As expected, there are all sorts of tricks. You people certainly know how to play.”

With my back to them, I said nothing and silently pulled my clothes back on.

Behind me came Xia Zhan’s helpless voice. “You’ve seen it now. Let her go.”

I turned and curtsied properly. With my head lowered and my manner deferential, I was just about to leave when Zhao Mingyu spoke again and stopped me. “Wait. What was your name again?”

I looked up at Xia Zhan. He was looking at Zhao Mingyu, the corner of his mouth curved in a faint smile as he said gently, “Her name is Yuzi. She’s mute. She can’t speak.”

Zhao Mingyu gave an “oh,” her fair face calm and indifferent. “That name is no good. Who gave it to her? A Jiangnan slave-how is she worthy of the word ‘yu’?”

Xia Zhan paused, then did not answer her. He did not even glance at me, merely saying casually, “If you don’t like it, Sister, then give her another name.”

“What was her original name?”

“Liu’er.”

“Then call her that. A person should never forget their roots.”

Zhao Mingyu’s voice was soft, but the look she gave me was full of disgust.

I looked at her only once before lowering my head.

After that, she chatted idly with Xia Zhan for a few more moments, then rose to leave, smiling as she said, “A fake is a fake. There is nothing original about it. Ah Zhan, I want to paint the real crabapple trees in my courtyard. Come with me.”

I saw Xia Zhan raise an eyebrow.

He did not look at me. Tall and elegant as jade, he walked to her side. “All right.”

That night, I went to bed very early.

Deep into the night, Xia Zhan came over.

I undressed him. The lamplight in the room was a warm yellow haze, and his gaze fell on me for a very, very long time.

Even after I placed his outer robe on the stand and turned back, he was still looking at me.

I looked at him in fearful unease.

Xia Zhan pulled me over and held me in his arms.

He was very tall, his posture straight and proud. My head was buried against his chest, and I heard that familiar, strong heartbeat.

The sharp scent of cedar snow was familiar too, as was his cool, even voice. “Yuzi, don’t blame her. Her family was wiped out because of a slave uprising, so she hates slaves and servants from the bottom of her heart. That is why she said those things.

“Sister is gentle by nature. Deep down, she is a kind person. Give her some time, and she will accept you.”

I had been at Dingguo Duke Manor for a year. Even after I later became Xia Zhan’s bedchamber maid and shared his bed, he rarely spoke so much to me.

I was mute, so he rarely spoke in ordinary times either.

But today, he was explaining.

For the girl he loved, he was willing to explain himself to a bedchamber maid born a lowly slave.

I shook my head again and again, looking at him with desolate eyes.

Perhaps my expression was too pitiful, for a trace of softness flashed through his eyes. He stroked my head, lowered his face, and kissed me.

Even that night, he still called me Yuzi, again and again.

Deep into the night, while I was sleeping soundly, I heard the hurried voice of an attendant boy outside the door.

“Young Master.”

By then, it was already the third watch, the moon high in the treetops.

When he rose to leave, he pinched the back of my neck and said, “Be good. I will come back later.”

I had Ah Cai trim the candlewick, because I knew the attendant boy had not come to summon him this time because Zhao Mingyu was having nightmares.

He would not come back. The room was dim, and I was alone.

When dawn was just beginning to break, I fell asleep.

In my dream, there was slaughter everywhere, and flames filled the sky, burning the heavens red over the land of Jiangnan.

Only when Xia Zhan returned covered in cold dew, undressed, climbed into bed, and reached out to wrap an arm around my waist did I jolt awake.