Chapter 3
Once that dirty cucumber was gone, the weight on my chest lifted a little.
Even the air in our residence seemed fresher.
For the sake of my future happiness, Mother began investigating Chu Lanzhi in secret.
If his public reputation was false, we would have to look inside his household.
But the dark secrets of an inner residence were exceedingly difficult to uncover.
Mother thought for a while, slapped her thigh, and turned her gaze on my younger brother, Gu Ziqi, who was gnawing on a chicken leg.
“Qi’er, it’s time you did your part for your sister’s happiness.”
Gu Ziqi looked blank.
“Huh? Mother, what can I do?”
Mother gave a mysterious smile.
“You’re fifteen now. Dressed up, you’d look very much like a girl. If you entered the young lord’s residence disguised as a maid, you ought to be able to discover something.”
“Just say you admire his talents and have volunteered to serve him. Find a chance to…”
I clapped a hand over Mother’s mouth.
What a terrible scheme.
If anything went wrong, my little brother might…
That prospect… I couldn’t bear to imagine it.
But my brother couldn’t resist Mother’s inducement. At the promise of an extra ten taels of silver in his monthly allowance, his eyes lit up, and he actually agreed.
He thumped his chest in assurance.
“Don’t worry, Sister. I’ll bring you the evidence!”
In that case, I had to contribute, too.
I patted his shoulder.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let you do it for nothing. When you return, I’ll give you those books you’ve always wanted.”
His eyes shone, and he nodded at once.
Then my foolish, delicate-skinned little brother
was personally dressed by Mother as a pretty little maid. She even painted willow-leaf eyebrows and a cherry-red mouth on him, put him in a rose-red jacket and skirt, and sent him into the Marquis of Wuling’s residence under the name Sese.
“Half a month, Sister.”
Off he went to the heir’s residence, full of promises.
But after barely five or six days, he sent Mother a plea for help.
“Sister! Mother! Save me!”
“If you don’t rescue me, the Gu family line is in danger!”
Mother acted at once, sending people to bring him out under cover of a dark, windy night.
Even safely back at home, my brother was still shaken.
“Mother! Sister! I don’t want an allowance anymore! Waaaah…”
His clothing was disheveled, and tears clung to the corners of his eyes.
Two distinct slap marks remained on his face.
He picked up the milk on the table and drained it.
“Sister, Chu Lanzhi is scum!”
“The inner household there… ugh…”
“Do you know what it’s like, Sister? Filth everywhere! The maids attending Chu Lanzhi wear nothing but thin gauze. He’s a beast. If the urge takes him in broad daylight, he simply pulls a maid over and has his way with her in front of everyone.”
“The princess consort is ruthless, too. She keeps everyone too frightened to speak.”
“And that’s not all. There’s something wrong with him. If he goes a day without doing that, he can hardly bear it. He’s even having an affair with his father’s concubine!”
“Heavens!”
“Sister, it’s no place for a human being.”
“All that talk about his chastity is utter nonsense.”
From Ziqi’s tearful account, Chu Lanzhi was no gentle, cultivated gentleman, but a complete pervert.
He pursued both men and women and had all manner of degrading proclivities.
On Ziqi’s second day there, he had already been summoned to “attend” him.
“He… he even likes making people bark like dogs…”
My brother retched again after saying it.
Mother’s expression had gone well beyond grim.
“Your innocence…?”
My brother’s eyes widened.
“I fought with everything I had to protect it!”
…
I looked at the sweat on his forehead, then at Mother.
“Do you believe me now, Mother?”
She looked as though she had narrowly escaped a catastrophe, her body still trembling.
She pulled me into her arms.
“Thank goodness. Thank goodness. I nearly sent you into that den of wolves.”
Mother and I held each other, leaving my brother to protest beside us.
“What about me? What about me?!”
Mother tapped his forehead. “You did the most. You saved your sister. I’ll double the allowance I promised you, and you may go traveling south of the Yangtze with your master.”
I handed over the books I had promised, too.
I breathed a real sigh of relief.
So close. Far too close.
A familiar face tells you nothing about the heart beneath it.