Chapter 2
Zhou Zhi refused me.
He would not take me into his residence. Smiling, he pinched my cheek. “Yueniang, the house already has a mistress. If I take you back, the two of you will turn it upside down. I’d like a few more years of peace.”
I had guessed his answer from the start.
Still, such a decisive refusal hurt a little.
Not because of Zhou Zhi, but because such a fine opportunity had presented itself, and I could not use it to enter his household and take revenge.
“Then do you still remember your promise to me, my lord?”
It was all right if he would not take me back. But if his new marriage made him forget what he had promised, Pei Xiang might devour me without leaving a scrap.
His smile faded. His hand moved slowly down from my cheek, finally coming to rest on my slightly exposed collarbone, where there was a bite mark.
When Zhou Zhi was being hunted, he had been gravely wounded. To escape his pursuers, he climbed through my window. I hid him, and that was how he survived.
As for the bite on my collarbone, he had sunk his teeth into me while I bandaged him, unable to bear the pain. It had bled badly, and the scar would not fade.
So he owed me his life.
He had given me a promise that let me live in peace at the brothel.
Zhou Zhi nodded, lightly stroking the bite mark with his thumb. “I told you, I will never let anyone hurt you. No one.”
He emphasized the last words, perhaps to reassure me. After all, his new wife wanted nothing more than to take my life.
“Then I can rest easy.”
The next morning,
Zhou Zhi woke in the room next door, left me a purse of silver, and hurried out of the brothel.
Xiaotao, the maid helping me wash and dress, looked troubled.
“His Lordship won’t let you move into his house. What are we going to do?”
I had rescued Xiaotao at the brothel.
She lost her mother as a child, then her father just as she reached fifteen. Her heartless aunt sold her into the brothel for three taels of silver.
She was plain, and would have been sent to a cheap whorehouse.
I happened to see her kneeling on the floor, sobbing as though her heart were breaking, despair in her eyes. She reminded me of who I had once been.
So I bought her for ten taels.
With no family left, she had nowhere better to go. She said she wanted to stay beside me as my maid.
That was how she came to know what had happened to me.
When she learned Zhou Zhi would not take me home with him, the girl fretted all night without sleeping.
“Why panic?”
I studied myself in the mirror. The innocence and naivety of those days were long gone. Only cold calculation remained.
“If he won’t agree, we’ll have someone give him a push.”
At least his promise still held.
If the brothel was no longer safe, then to protect me he would have to take me to his residence and keep me beside him. Only then could he keep me alive.
Pei Xiang did not disappoint me.
For years, I had gathered news of her. I knew the eldest Miss Pei was proud and would not tolerate the slightest affront.
And now I had, in a sense, stolen the man she loved.
No doubt she lay awake all night, thinking of ways to kill me.
“So we must give her the chance.”
I was already a free woman at the brothel.
With the young marquis protecting me, I could come and go as I pleased. I took Xiaotao out to buy rouge. We had barely reached a quieter stretch of the riverbank when two men with their faces covered rushed toward us.
I could have got out of their way.
But I did not move. I stood there and let them shove me into the river.
Xiaotao watched it happen. Once the two men had hurried away, she began screaming for help.
“Help!”
“My mistress has fallen in the river…”
Xiaotao screamed at the top of her lungs. Though we had expected something like this, she was still terrified and cried out desperately. The two men had already vanished, while others who heard her shouts came running.
I rose and sank in the water, choking down several mouthfuls.
I had been right to choose this quiet stretch of riverbank. I had guessed how Pei Xiang would think. If she simply killed me, anyone with eyes would suspect her. Murder out of jealousy—though her father wielded enormous power, if she were exposed, she might well earn Zhou Zhi’s disgust.
A woman lost in love will stake her life on holding on to a love that was never hers.
But—
if I slipped into the river and drowned, it would have nothing to do with her, the mistress of the Zhou household.
Zhou Zhi was the one who pulled me out.
I knew his habits well. After leaving me, he would probably not want to go home. A restaurant by the river was his favorite; barring anything unexpected, he would eat lunch there before returning.
At this hour, he should just have finished lunch and come outside, in time to see what was happening.
“Cough… cough…”
I lay in his arms, choking on the water and coughing desperately.
Zhou Zhi was soaked through as well, but held me tightly and soothed me in a low voice. “Don’t be afraid. I’ve sent for a physician.”
I looked at him. My eyes reddened suddenly, and a few tears fell.
“I didn’t slip. Someone deliberately pushed me in.”
No sooner had I spoken than Xiaotao dropped to her knees before him, still clutching the box of rouge.
“My mistress said she wanted to buy some rouge today. We’d only just got here when two men suddenly appeared and pushed her into the river. This was attempted murder! You must protect her, my lord!”
Tears streamed down Xiaotao’s face as she spoke. She kept knocking her forehead against the ground. The scattered sharp stones left several bloody cuts across her brow.
Women treasured their looks. She was hurting herself like this to make Zhou Zhi believe her.
Foolish girl.
I hid the ache in my heart and gripped Zhou Zhi’s sleeve. I said nothing more, only looked at him, and kept looking.
His expression was grim. He was a clever man. After what had happened yesterday, he could easily guess who was responsible.
The brothel was not safe enough.
He lifted me into his arms, his voice serious. “Yueniang, I’m taking you to my residence.”
I nodded.
I had just opened my mouth to speak
when, from the corner of my eye, I suddenly saw a familiar face in the crowd.