Chapter 46
Chapter 46
“Come. Let me see how determined you are.”
As Zhang Mingan spoke, he straightened his bent leg.
His eyes signaled for Xing Shuwei to come sit beside him.
When she did not move, Zhang Mingan arched a brow. “It seems you aren’t all that eager for your brother to distinguish himself.”
Xing Shuwei’s expression chilled. Lowering her eyes, she listened intently for a moment.
She had been overthinking it. This was not the Duke’s estate, and Qiutong was keeping watch outside. Naturally, no one else would suddenly barge in.
Xing Shuwei sat down beside him.
Zhang Mingan abruptly leaned toward her, bringing his face close. He closed his eyes and breathed in. “You smell wonderful.”
Xing Shuwei felt uncomfortable and leaned away.
Zhang Mingan did not press any further. Tapping the table with the fan in his hand, he ordered, “Feed me tea.”
Xing Shuwei glared at him. “Don’t go too far.”
“You can’t even bear this much?” Zhang Mingan grinned, his rakish air tinged with tenderness.
Xing Shuwei lifted the teacup with one hand and thrust it toward him without so much as a glance.
Zhang Mingan did not dodge. The instant the cup touched his lips, tea spilled out.
It soaked both the front of his robe and her sleeve.
She glared at him furiously. He had plainly done it on purpose.
“Oh dear, my memory is so poor. What was Weiwei saying just now?” Zhang Mingan stared at her without blinking.
“I knew it. In the eyes of people like you, I’m nothing more than a diversion to relieve your boredom.
“At least this trip wasn’t wasted. Now I understand that you never sincerely meant to help me. You only wanted to toy with me.”
Xing Shuwei rose to leave.
Zhang Mingan panicked. He had only wanted to indulge in a moment of verbal teasing.
Reaching out, he caught her sleeve and pulled her back. “Who says I’m toying with you? Come back.”
He took a token of pure gold from his robes and held it out to her. “You don’t want this either?”
Xing Shuwei glanced at it. The words “Noble Consort” were engraved upon it.
It was Noble Consort Zhang’s token.
Xing Shuwei had not expected him to truly keep his word.
A trace of distaste entered Zhang Mingan’s eyes. “Just how poorly has Pei Xianjing treated you to make you so sensitive and fragile?”
His distaste was not directed at Xing Shuwei, but at Pei Xianjing.
Zhang Mingan sat up properly, and Xing Shuwei took the seat across from him.
He told her to put the token safely away. “With this, you can slip out for a private rendezvous with me whenever you like.
“Forget merely leaving the Pei estate. Even if you wished to leave the city, no one could stop you.”
Xing Shuwei remained doubtful.
Was Noble Consort Zhang truly so powerful?
If so, many things would be far more convenient for her in the future.
Xing Shuwei carefully put the token away and explained why she had come today.
After hearing her out, Zhang Mingan said with his usual shamelessness, “That’s easy. On the day I make the marriage proposal, I’ll throw such a tantrum that they hand back every last bit of your property.”
But if it then went into the common coffers of the Marquis of Qingyuan’s estate, it would still never reach her hands. Once bitten, twice shy, Xing Shuwei could not help being wary.
“I don’t want to make too great a spectacle. Otherwise, I won’t be able to hold my head up afterward, and people will curse me as an ingrate.
“Besides, if you openly offend the Duke’s estate for my sake, neither of us will have an easy life in the Marquis’s estate in the future.”
“Oh, right.” As though the thought had only just occurred to her, Xing Shuwei asked, “You mean to take me as a concubine, don’t you?”
She remembered Dowager Lady Pei saying that Xing Shuwei would be sent in a sedan chair to become a concubine in the Marquis of Qingyuan’s estate, once the Marquis’s household selected a date.
However much of a scoundrel Zhang Mingan might be, he was still the one who would inherit the noble title. Naturally, he would never make a woman like her his wife.
It was only ever meant as a delaying tactic. She could find a way to escape when the time came. Staying alive was what mattered now.
“After making such a grand display and going to such great lengths, of course I intend to take a wife.
“The Zhang clan is a nest of vipers. I need to marry a resourceful woman capable of protecting me.
“And look-hasn’t Weiwei already cleared the first obstacle for me today?”
Xing Shuwei’s heart clenched as a terrible premonition rose within her.
“Ah!”
Before she could ask, Qiutong screamed outside the private room.
Xing Shuwei hurriedly rose and pulled open the door. The sight before her was of Eldest Young Master Zhang, his eyes wide and blood pouring from his mouth, collapsed against Qiutong’s shoulder.
Qiutong clutched a knife in her hand, blood still dripping from its blade.
“Miss, it wasn’t me. It wasn’t me.” Qiutong sobbed until her face was drenched in tears, shaking her head as she tried to explain.
Without a word, Zhang Mingan raised a foot and kicked Eldest Young Master Zhang to the floor.
He looked calmly at Xing Shuwei and murmured, “Don’t worry. I’ll accompany you to the imperial prison.
“Weiwei, do you think Pei Xianjing will bend the law to favor the two of us?”
No sooner had Zhang Mingan finished than Shen Yanqi charged upstairs with several members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
“Miss Xing? Why are you…” Shen Yanqi was stunned.
Zhang Mingan told him, “We’ll return to the Northern Pacification Office with you.”
Xing Shuwei’s delicate face turned deathly pale. The surrounding chatter reached her ears and became a ceaseless hum.
She had no idea how she left the Spring Breeze Restaurant or how she arrived at the imperial prison.
Shen Yanqi locked her and Zhang Mingan together. She did not know where Qiutong had been taken.
From beyond the cell door, Shen Yanqi told her, “Miss Xing, I know you had nothing to do with this.
“But this is a grave matter. The only way to protect you is to have your maid take the blame.”
“How could I possibly do that?” Xing Shuwei answered without hesitation. “She may be a maid, but I treat her like a sister.”
Her throat felt obstructed.
She had greatly overestimated herself and underestimated Zhang Mingan.
“The Marquis’s estate has lost its eldest legitimate son. There must be an accounting,” Shen Yanqi said, unable to voice the whole truth.
Zhang Mingan must have arranged all of this, but Shen Yanqi could not truly let him pay with his life.
Neither the Marquis of Qingyuan’s estate nor Noble Consort Zhang would agree to that.
But Eldest Young Master Zhang was dead. Without some accounting, Shen Yanqi could not answer for it.
Even if everyone knew the person was merely a scapegoat, someone still had to be pushed forward to bring the matter to a close.
“Yanqi, rather than wasting time saying useless things here, you should hurry and inform Pei Xianjing. Tell him to come save us.
“If you’re too late, you won’t be able to save any of the three of us,” Zhang Mingan said with complete confidence.
“The Emperor only just appointed him Imperial Tutor to the Eleventh Prince today.
“Even if he were willing, the Duke of Qi would never let him intervene at such a critical moment.” Shen Yanqi’s voice carried anger.
On the journey back to the imperial prison with his prisoners, he had considered every solution he could think of, yet found no way out.
Shen Yanqi knew Zhang Mingan was right. But why would Pei Xianjing risk being charged with bending the law for the sake of a distant cousin with whom he had almost no connection?
The censors would bury him in impeachments.
Xing Shuwei said, “There’s no need to find him. It would be useless.
“Interrogate us however you must, Deputy Commissioner Shen. I trust you will give my maid and me justice.”
Seated on the wooden plank bed covered with a straw mat, Zhang Mingan said, “Once Princess Jin’an learns of such a perfect opportunity, she will certainly make you wish you were dead in the imperial prison.
“Yanqi isn’t the only person with authority here.”
His words struck directly at the heart of the matter, leaving Shen Yanqi unable to refute them.
“Pei Xianjing won’t concern himself with me. I’m only a distant cousin lodging in the Duke’s estate.
“To the Duke’s household, I matter less than a maid. Don’t waste your efforts, Deputy Commissioner Shen.”
Seeing Shen Yanqi turn away, Xing Shuwei hurriedly spoke.