Chapter 253
Chapter 253
The four senior maids were named Qiushui, Qiuxiang, Qiuyue, and Qiuyun-names easy enough to remember.
Ji Hanyi had learned something about managing servants at the Xie Residence. She offered a few gracious words balancing kindness with authority, then had the prepared rewards distributed to everyone.
As for the rules, everything would remain as it had been. She had no intention of making sweeping changes simply because she was the new mistress. That would only create more work for her and more trouble for the servants.
Ji Hanyi spoke warmly, with a smile, possessing none of Shen Si’s chill-a chill so intimidating that even a glance from him could frighten people. Several maids soon found the courage to look up at her face.
They saw a young woman as lovely as a hibiscus blossom who appeared genuinely gentle and approachable. It seemed salvation had arrived in their courtyard. They would no longer have to live in constant fear as they had before. Their affection for Ji Hanyi grew naturally.
Ji Hanyi herself knew none of this until Nanny Fang told her privately afterward.
She smiled, wondering just how terrifying Shen Si had once been.
Then she thought of how the courtyard servants behaved these days. Unless summoned, they kept far away from their masters. The daily cleaning was completed each morning while she paid her respects. At other times, apart from the maids serving inside the rooms, the junior maids almost never appeared before them.
Those were Shen Si’s longstanding rules. He preferred peace and disliked having people inside his rooms. Ji Hanyi saw no reason to change them.
That afternoon, she went to the western storeroom to inventory her dowry. The room was packed. In truth, Shen Si had prepared all of it for her, intending it to provide security in the Shen Residence and funds for gifts and social obligations.
Ji Hanyi counted everything meticulously. Each item had to be categorized, entered into the register, and stored accordingly. She was still at work when evening came.
Rongchun was the only maid beside her who could be trusted with the task. The other maids could not read, and the inventory allowed no carelessness, so Ji Hanyi handled it herself.
When Shen Si returned that night and did not find her in their rooms, Nanny Fang came forward and explained that Ji Hanyi was in the study in the western side room.
Shen Si maintained a separate study elsewhere in the courtyard, where most of his books and collections were kept. But when particularly busy, he occasionally used the study inside Songhe Courtyard as well. It held writing implements and many valuable objects, but more importantly, it contained his official documents and correspondence. No one was ordinarily permitted to enter. Even when it was cleaned, one of Shen Si’s personal attendants had to supervise.
Ji Hanyi knew none of that. To her, a study was meant to be used.
As Nanny Fang spoke, she watched Shen Si’s face. She had not dared stop Ji Hanyi from using the room, but now she wanted to gauge his reaction.
Shen Si merely nodded, showing no displeasure that Ji Hanyi had entered his study. Then he headed there himself.
Nanny Fang understood. Or perhaps her observations these past few days had already told her: the Marquis truly cared for Madam. Even when Madam entered somewhere as sensitive as his study, he felt no irritation at all.
When Shen Si stepped around the screen, Ji Hanyi was still bent over the desk, writing.
The hazy but brilliant light of gauze lanterns fell across her pink dress, making the hundred butterflies embroidered upon it seem to shimmer and dance.
She had clearly already washed and prepared for bed. A single plain jade pin adorned her hair. Her long locks, dark as a waterfall, were loosely gathered with half of them falling free, making her small, unadorned face appear all the more delicately beautiful.
She worked with her head bowed, utterly absorbed. Sandalwood smoke curled from the incense burner beside her, drifting around her figure. Shen Si stood watching in silence for a long time.
Official documents had piled like mountains on his desk over the past two years. A single case might take one or two years to resolve, leaving files stacked until almost no empty space remained.
Now Ji Hanyi sat there, bringing a touch of softness to the austere, lonely study.
Rongchun noticed Shen Si first.
She was grinding ink for Ji Hanyi. The room was so quiet that she had grown drowsy. Mid-yawn, she spotted Shen Si standing beside the screen and hurriedly greeted the Marquis.
Ji Hanyi had always been intensely focused when she worked. At the sound, she looked up and quickly set down her brush when she saw Shen Si.
As her gaze met his, Shen Si entered with his hands clasped behind his back. Rongchun tactfully lowered her head and withdrew beyond the curtain.
Silence filled the room, broken only by the faint rustle of Shen Si’s official robes. Flickering candlelight played over his angular face, lending him an air of authority and pride.
Purple official robes made any man appear solemn, but on Shen Si the effect was particularly severe. Ji Hanyi felt that anyone he looked at might believe himself under interrogation. She rose instinctively. “Marquis.”
The moment the title left her lips, she faltered. When she first saw him just now, it had seemed for an instant that she was looking at the Shen Si of the past. Awe had risen within her, and she instinctively regarded him with the reverence due an older, senior figure.
Only after speaking did Ji Hanyi remember that Shen Si was now her husband. Their relationship was no longer limited by their earlier agreement. They had even shared the most intimate physical closeness.
His expression had admittedly been rather frightening that one time, and Ji Hanyi still dared not recall the experience.
But it had happened.
They now slept in the same bed, and when she woke in the mornings, she sometimes found herself in Shen Si’s arms.
Looking again at his austere, imposing face, Ji Hanyi felt something strange stir within her.
In her mind, Shen Si ought always to be cold and unapproachable, a man no woman would ever stand beside. Yet between them now lay so many intimate, ambiguous moments.
Shen Si watched her stare at him in a daze, soft light playing over her face. He approached and looked down at her graceful figure, raising a brow at the way she had addressed him.
His long fingers reached for the register on the desk. He flipped through it and saw that Ji Hanyi had carefully recategorized and recorded her dowry. Her elegant handwriting was a pleasure to read. His gaze returned to her face. “You are still writing at this hour?”
Ji Hanyi answered, “I thought that if I finished early, I could put one more task behind me.”
Shen Si gave a quiet murmur, closed the register, and looked at her with dark eyes. His deep voice allowed no refusal. “Finish the rest tomorrow.”
Ji Hanyi glanced at the register he had closed and casually tossed onto the desk, then at his expression. She obediently agreed.
He moved another step closer. The rich scent of agarwood mingled with his distinctly masculine warmth. Only belatedly did Ji Hanyi lift her head and find him staring at her intently. “Have you bathed?”
She froze, then nodded blankly.
His refined face revealed nothing. “What fragrance is that?”
After a pause, his eyes remained on her. “It smells very pleasant.”
Under Shen Si’s gaze, Ji Hanyi knew she ought to relax and behave naturally, yet she could never withstand such scrutiny. An inexplicable tension rose within her.
Perhaps it was because his words were intimate while his expression remained so distant and impassive.
Her fingers tightened around her sleeve. In a very soft voice, she answered, “I added rosewater to the bath and applied clove balm afterward.”
Shen Si’s gaze dipped toward the fair skin inside her collar. He murmured an acknowledgment, then asked, “Did you apply medicine to your injuries?”
Ji Hanyi nodded quickly. “Rongchun already applied it.”
As she spoke, she remembered Shen Si applying salve to her before, his fingertips brushing her skin. Heat spread inch by inch across her cheeks. She desperately wanted to escape the room.
Shen Si noticed the pink at the tips of her ears. At last, the faintest smile tugged at his lips. He nodded. “It is late. Let us sleep.”
Ji Hanyi felt as though she had been granted a reprieve. She agreed at once, saying she would go remove her jewelry first.
Without waiting for his response, she hurried out.
Shen Si turned to watch her retreat, her quick little steps resembling a rabbit in flight.
When he emerged after bathing, Nanny Fang was coaxing Ji Hanyi to drink a tonic soup. Though her fall from the horse had caused no serious harm, the doctor had said injuries to the muscles and bones required a hundred days to heal. She could not miss a single day’s restorative broth.
Ji Hanyi felt perfectly well by now, yet the medicine had never stopped. It was not that she refused to take it; she had simply grown tired of it.
But she was easy to persuade. At Nanny Fang’s urging, she obediently drank the soup.
Shen Si sat to one side and watched in silence. Ji Hanyi clearly did not want it, yet could not resist the nanny’s coaxing. She finished it in one breath, then drank honey water to clear the taste from her mouth.
Her face was rosy and her body soft, without the slightest appearance of illness. Yet the Imperial Physician had said that day that she remained somewhat depleted. Shen Si also remembered the unconscious fear that had seized her in her sleep the previous night, and his heart ached.
Ji Hanyi never mentioned the ordeal, but how could she not be afraid?
After Ji Hanyi finished, Nanny Fang quietly withdrew. Shen Si picked up a small box, removed a pill, and held it to Ji Hanyi’s lips. “This is a Ginseng Vitality Pill. It replenishes your energy and calms the spirit.”
His well-defined hand hovered before her lips. Before the pill even reached her, its medicinal smell drifted toward her. Ji Hanyi asked quietly, “Do I have to take it?”
Shen Si frowned slightly at the look in her almond-shaped eyes. He pressed his lips together, then shook his head. “Hanyi, it is for your own good. You must take it.”