Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Si Yan stiffened instinctively. She quickly mastered her emotions and turned.
A young man in a sapphire-blue brocade robe was just coming around the rockery.
Tall and slender, with refined features, he wore a gentle smile.
He closed his folding fan and saluted her with clasped hands. “Xiao Heng, at your service.”
The son of Vice Minister Xiao of the Ministry of Works.
In her dream, he was the man she had married.
He had treated her very well. He had no concubines and took no maids to his bed, and she received every courtesy due to her position.
But later, when Jiang Youze gained power, the entire Xiao household had been dragged into the reckoning.
What had become of Xiao Heng in that dream?
She could not remember clearly.
Only that when she was taken away, he had been kneeling on the ground, his eyes full of tears and reluctance to part. Blood soaked the brocade robe beneath him.
Si Yan stepped back half a pace, lowered her lashes, and gave a courteous curtsy.
“Young Master Xiao.”
Xiao Heng’s gaze lingered briefly on the faint redness at the corners of her eyes. His grip tightened on his fan.
“I heard what happened at the gathering.” He came two steps closer, his tone gently measured.
“Miss Shen went too far. Please don’t take her words to heart, Miss Si.”
Linghe instinctively stepped half a pace in front of Si Yan, who discreetly drew her back.
“Thank you for your concern, Young Master Xiao.”
Her voice was soft. She looked up at him with a smile.
“I’m quite all right. I’m sorry you had to witness that.”
“Miss Si.” Xiao Heng took another half-step forward, holding his fan, and inclined toward her.
“Forgive my presumption, but if you wish to escape your present difficulties,”
his voice took on the sincerity of a carefully considered offer, “I could visit your family to ask for your hand.”
Si Yan’s heart lurched.
Had he already fallen for her at this point?
He was a very good man, and a very good husband. So good she could find no fault with him.
So good that every time he treated her tenderly in the dream, she had felt a trace of guilt.
Because there was always a corner of her heart that all his goodness could never fill.
Precisely because he was so good, she could not bring harm upon him.
But before she could refuse, something at the corner of the covered walkway caught her eye.
Someone stood there.
He wore the black, subtly patterned uniform of a palace eunuch, a narrow leather belt at his waist.
It was Jiang Youze, unheard from in all three years since he entered the palace!
The fresh elegance of his boyhood had vanished, replaced by a brooding gravity honed again and again by time and the palace walls.
She did not know how long he had been standing there, or how much he had heard. His face showed no expression.
Across the long corridor, there was something unsettling in his eyes.
Already, he bore a little resemblance to Lord Jiuqiansui from her dream.
The hairs on Si Yan’s back stood on end. She had seen that look too many times in her dream.
Whenever he wore that expression, she could forget about getting out of bed afterward.
He would speak the cruelest words in the gentlest voice, and with the slowest movements inflict the greatest pain.
Si Yan instinctively shifted half a pace sideways, putting distance between herself and Xiao Heng.
When she looked toward the covered walkway again, the figure was gone.
A few peach petals lay on the ground, spinning in the breeze.
Forcing herself to remain calm, Si Yan managed a smile and curtsied to Xiao Heng.
“Young Master Xiao, I shall pretend I heard nothing of what you just said. Please excuse me.”
Without waiting for his response, she lifted her skirts and ran in the direction Jiang Youze had gone.
Though Linghe had no idea what was happening, she hurried after her.
“Miss! Miss, slow down! Watch your step!”
Si Yan dared not slow down. Rounding the moon gate, she ran straight into someone’s chest.
Her nose struck cool brocade. The faintest trace of ambergris lingered at the collar.
Covering her aching nose, she looked up into a face as cool and clear as jade.
Jiang Youze leaned against the stone wall outside the side gate of the marquis’s residence, arms folded over his chest, looking down at her.
In the three years since they had last met, he had grown considerably taller. His build, too, had become as strong as in her dream.
She reached only his shoulder now. He could envelop her entirely in his shadow.
His face remained expressionless, his eyes betraying no ripple of emotion.
But this close, she could see the muscles of his jaw drawn slightly taut.
“Why did you run off?” Si Yan struck first, covering her nose and glaring up at him.
“Why did you follow?”
His voice was much deeper than before. Every word was devoid of feeling.
“I…” Si Yan faltered, then lowered her hand and straightened her back.
“I saw you. Am I not allowed to follow you?”
“Why bother coming after me?”
Jiang Youze looked at the face he had loved so desperately for more than a decade, endless greed rising in his heart.
After three years apart, Qingqing was even lovelier.
Her features had matured, losing some of their childishness and gaining a quiet charm.
Those almond-shaped eyes were unchanged. Once they reddened, she looked as though she had suffered the greatest injustice in the world.
It made him want both to gather her into his arms and soothe her, and to torment her even more.
But…
Watching his eyes darken, Si Yan felt alarm bells ringing. A chill crept over her back.
She ventured, “Brother Youze… Are you angry?”
Jiang Youze did not answer.
The way he looked at her was gradually merging with Lord Jiuqiansui’s gaze from her dream.
He could tell that man liked her.
The eyes could not conceal love for someone.
Did she have feelings for that man too? Why else would she be so gentle with him?
The way she lowered her head to listen, the faint smile at her lips, the softness of her voice when she answered.
He had seen it all. Heard it all.
Had she been about to accept his proposal, and was that why she was now afraid he would be angry?
Si Yan silently cursed Xiao Heng eight hundred times.
Why did he have to propose? Why propose?
Why choose this very moment? Why let Jiang Youze hear it?
He had not come to see her for three years. At last he appeared, only to catch another man proposing to her!
The Jiang Youze from her dream would already be looking for a knife!
“Brother Youze.” She reached out and caught his sleeve, looking at him with shimmering eyes.
“There’s nothing between him and me. Truly… Please don’t misunderstand.”
Jiang Youze’s face remained impassive. Only his throat moved.
Of course there was nothing between them now. Once they married, they would be husband and wife.
He, a eunuch, was the one who had no connection to her.
Under his gaze, Si Yan grew more and more uneasy. Her legs began to feel weak.
Had he already made a mental note of this?
Was he only waiting to become Lord Jiuqiansui before slowly settling the account?
No! No!
Panic rose within her as her mind raced through every possible way to salvage the situation.
Explain?
She had already explained. He had not answered a word, nor moved a muscle. Plainly, he did not believe her.
Explain again? That would only make things worse.
What else could she do?
In her dream, how had it always ended whenever she made him angry?