Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The madam glared at me for a long while.

In the end, she flung the curtain down with a vicious snap.

“You’d better pray to the Bodhisattva that he survives.”

I didn’t talk back.

Of course praying to the Bodhisattva was useless.

But I could rely on myself.

At worst, I would just save him a few more times. Surely I couldn’t be this unlucky every single time.

The man ran a fever for two whole days.

The madam and Master Liang argued in hushed voices for two whole days too.

Master Liang cursed the madam for being blind in the heart, saying she dared to drag just anyone into the house.

The madam simply made up an identity for him on the spot, calling him some distant cousin of mine, and insisted that I had threatened to kill myself if she didn’t let him stay.

While I poured rice broth into the man’s mouth, I pricked up my ears and enjoyed the gossip.

That packet of rat poison had turned out to be useful after all.

Master Liang didn’t remember that part, and the madam didn’t dare mention that part. The two of them used me as a proxy to fight their little war from afar, while Luo Niang’s corpse was rolled up in a straw mat and thrown out on the afternoon of the third day.

That worked too.

Her greatest wish had been to squeeze me out of this single room and move in herself.

Now I was using her little partition on the communal sleeping platform, so I supposed I had fulfilled half of her lifelong dream for her.

The man woke up right as the madam’s patience was reaching the final line of its ultimatum.

At the time, I was dressing him.

After pulling his pants on, I looked up and met the man’s panic-stricken eyes.

“If you’re awake, get up.”

I dusted off my hands and stepped aside to leave him room to get down from the heated bed.

“Don’t tell me you were going to the capital for the imperial exams and got tricked out of all your money, and don’t tell me you were robbed by bandits and fled here with nothing. And definitely don’t tell me your fiancée from some rich family looked down on you after your family fell on hard times, broke off the engagement, and then tried to silence you.”

“If you’re going to make something up, make it believable. Everyone’s waiting to see whether you’re of any use.”

The man stared at me.

Then he bent over and coughed as if his lungs were being torn apart.

Me: …

Oh. I forgot. He had just recovered from a serious illness. He couldn’t talk.

The madam and Master Liang came very quickly.

That one cough cost me the last little bit of time I had to get our stories straight.

Of course, I wasn’t allowed to take part in the interrogation.

Bored out of my mind, I sat on the bed that had originally belonged to Luo Niang and pondered what kind of easier death I ought to look for this time.

Unexpectedly, however, the man was not thrown out as I had imagined.

I had no idea what excuse he gave, but somehow, he actually made the madam take charge and let him stay.

My single room was divided into two spaces by a straw curtain. During the day, the curtain came down and I started work. At night, the curtain went up, and two people slept on the same heated bed.

I was astonished.

No one understood the madam’s character better than I did.

She never lifted a finger without seeing the benefit first. She would never do anything that offered no immediate gain.

But the man’s explanation to me was very simple.

“The identity of a poor scholar means I have no power. The excuse of having been robbed means I have no money. Being rejected in marriage by a wealthy family means I have no clan behind me. Someone with no power, no money, and no background is someone no one wants.”

The earthen walls did not block sound, but if two people were close enough, his voice could carry the heat of his body with it and slip through the tattered straw mat between us.

“You made the hint so obvious, miss. If I still couldn’t manage to stay, wouldn’t that make me seem far too useless?”

The man’s voice was very low, so low that if I did not listen carefully, it seemed as if it would dissolve into the cold winter night.

“If you want to gain someone’s trust, first, you have to be useful enough. Second, you have to know the other party’s weakness. This madam and her man don’t seem as united as they look. Think it over a little, and it’s clear. She wants to keep me as leverage.”

The thin straw mat was pressed down until one corner curled up.

His eyes were very bright, bright enough to set the whole room alight with that faint sliver of moonlight.

“What do you want me to do, miss?”