Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Linghe returned just then, her face and forehead covered in sweat from running.
“Miss, I’ve exchanged everything. Please count it.”
She took an indigo purse from inside her clothes and presented it with both hands.
“I’ve also asked someone to make inquiries. We should hear back in a couple of days.”
When Si Yan took the stack of banknotes, she felt as though her heart were bleeding.
All her beautiful, precious jewelry was gone, reduced to a few weightless sheets of paper in her hand.
And in a few days, those sheets would be in someone else’s pocket too.
Si Yan pressed the notes to her chest and tipped her head back against the soft cushion on the daybed.
She drew a deep breath and slowly let it out, as though trying to keep herself alive.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. No jewelry sacrificed, no Lord Jiuqiansui won over.
The next day, Linghe hurried into the room with the information she had gathered.
The moment she came through the door, she gulped down half a cup of cold tea, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and caught her breath before speaking.
“Miss, the supervising eunuch’s surname is Sun. He’s in charge of the castration quarters, and he controls where the new eunuchs are assigned.”
Si Yan reclined on the daybed, idly waving the round fan in her hand.
“What does he like?”
Linghe wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. Her expression grew peculiar.
“He likes… silver.”
Si Yan’s fan paused.
“And he has quite an appetite.” Linghe held up five fingers and waved them in the air.
“To get a decent posting from him, you’d need at least this much.”
Si Yan nearly sprang off the daybed. Her fan fell to the floor with a slap.
“Five hundred taels? Why doesn’t he just rob people?”
She picked up the red sandalwood box beside her pillow and looked down at the stack of notes inside.
Eight hundred taels in all.
And she had only managed that by pawning every valuable piece of jewelry she owned.
Five hundred taels just to buy off one supervising eunuch.
What could she do with the remaining three hundred?
Buy Jiang Youze two changes of clothes? A few feet of fine cotton to make some socks? Then some wound salve and slices of ginseng to replenish his strength and blood?
And that would be it?
Everything she had saved over so many years wouldn’t even make a splash!
“Five hundred taels…”
Si Yan bit her lower lip, silently cursing Eunuch Sun eight hundred times.
Greedy wretch. Leech. Bloodsucking old eunuch!
But she had no choice.
She remembered perfectly how much Jiang Youze had suffered after entering the palace in her dream.
Plenty of new eunuchs walked into the castration quarters on their own feet and were carried out dead.
Without someone paid to look after them, they slept in the worst communal bunks, did the filthiest work, and took the harshest beatings.
If they fell ill, no one cared. If they died, they were wrapped in a straw mat and dragged out to feed the stray dogs.
And Jiang Youze had endured his way out of a place like that.
Endured until he became a god of slaughter.
“Linghe, have the carriage readied.”
Si Yan sat up on the daybed, fastened the jade pendant at her waist, and got up to search her wardrobe.
She pulled on a plain long outer jacket, then found a thick gray squirrel-fur cloak.
“Are you going out, Miss?”
“To the imperial prison.” Si Yan returned to the dressing table and hastily smoothed her hair in the bronze mirror.
A pale, thin face looked back at her, plainly that of someone only just recovered from a serious illness.
She studied herself for a moment, then suddenly rubbed her eyes several times.
Her almond-shaped eyes turned red, and a little moisture clung to her lashes.
She looked pitiful from every angle.
Good. The more wretched she looked, the better.
Jiang Youze had been mad in her dream, but nothing worked on him like this pitiable look of hers.
Whenever her eyes reddened and her lashes grew wet, he could force himself to rein in some of his ruthlessness.
He still put her through a terrible time in the end, but at least she survived.
“Miss! How can you go to a place like the imperial prison?”
Linghe’s voice shot up. In two strides, she rushed over to block her way.
“It’s filthy and foul in there, full of criminals. You…”
Si Yan stuffed all the banknotes into her purse and tucked it close against her body. Lifting her skirts, she headed out.
“I’m going to visit a prisoner, not become one.”
Linghe nearly tripped over the threshold. She flailed for the doorframe, then scrambled after her.
“Slow down, Miss! You haven’t fully recovered yet! Miss!”
An hour later, an unremarkable carriage with blue curtains rolled out of the back gate of the minister’s residence.
Before going to the imperial prison, Si Yan took Linghe to buy a good many things.
When the carriage stopped outside the prison, the guard at the gate was dozing against the wall.
After Linghe woke him, his first response was to wave them away impatiently.
Then Si Yan lifted a corner of the veil hanging from her hat, revealing her pale, still-sickly face.
“Si Yan, from the minister’s residence. I’ve come to visit Jiang Youze.”
Most of the guard’s drowsiness vanished at once. Instinctively, he straightened the spear cradled in his arms.
Who in the capital hadn’t heard that the entire Jiang household had been imprisoned?
And who hadn’t heard about the marriage that had almost joined the Si family’s young lady to the Jiang family’s second son?
Surely she ought to be keeping as far away as possible at a time like this. Why was she coming to the imperial prison of her own accord?
Had she grown tired of living, or lost her mind?
“Miss Si, it isn’t that I don’t want to let you in.”
The guard rubbed his hands together and put on a troubled look, lowering his voice.
“It’s just that we have orders from above. The prisoner Jiang…”
Si Yan took a banknote from her purse and slipped it into his hand without a change of expression.
He glanced down at the denomination. His face went through several changes.
Fifty taels.
“I’ll only look in on him, leave a few things, and come straight out.”
Si Yan’s eyes reddened slightly. Her voice softened, taking on a faint nasal tremor.
“He is my fiancé, after all. I can’t just watch him… watch him…”
Her voice broke as she spoke, moisture gathering on her lashes.
Anyone who saw her struggling to speak, on the verge of tears, would have felt an ache in their heart.