Chapter 74
Chapter 74
Ruan Zhu stood up from the stone bench. Her legs were a little numb, and she conveniently snuggled against Yun Shi Wei’s chest; his two large hands fastening around her.
She sized him up. This man with such a tall and sturdy figure–presently, one could not tell at all, but with time, he would become a man whose limit was the sky; a man with the courage to accept the consequences of his actions. At that time, he may not necessarily be too far off from Yun Shi Yi and Xuanyuan Zong Zhi; she would just wait and see.
A gentle smile formed on Ruan Zhu’s mouth. Standing on tiptoe, she raised her head and pressed a kiss against his lips.
Yun Shi Wei’s eyes were full of love and he returned her kiss for a while: “Spouse, it’s gotten colder. I’ll send you back to your room.”
With a hoist of his two arms, he horizontally carried his wife and stepped towards the path leading outside the garden. At this time, distant sounds transmitted over. Carefully listening, it turned out Nuan Chun and Nuan Qing were in some sort of dispute over by the withered flowering bushes.
Yun Shi Wei thought it was strange. Softening his footsteps, he walked a little closer and saw Nuan Qing kneeling on the ground with disheveled clothes, crying so hard his tears and mucus overlapped. While he cried, he seemed to be begging Nuan Chun for something.
Nuan Zhun stood opposite him and had turned his head away with disgust on his face.
Underneath a cotton rose hibiscus tree a few steps away from them was a faint outline of a naked woman who was currently throwing clothes on top of herself in a hurry.
Nuan Chun pointed at the kneeling Nuan Qing, castigating: “You shameless person actually dared to do this sort of disgusting thing. And you are still Eldest Miss’s bedwarmer; truly too brazen!”
“Big Brother Nuan Chun, begging you to let me go this once. If this matter is spread and Eldest Miss finds out, I will be too ashamed to live.”
“Fancy that you still have the face to bring up Eldest Miss. At that time when your entire family had fled from a famine to Yu Zhou, if it wasn’t for Master being kind and offering you shelter, you would have long starved to death by the roadside. The year you turned ten, you were so ill you almost died. Even your mother and father were not willing to spend money to save you; it was Eldest Miss that spent silver to invite a physician to bring you back to life. From childhood to now, the things we ate, wore, used–which one of those were not the best? The monthly rewards have only ever increased and have never lessened before. When you could not use all of it, you also sent some home and even your parents and brothers have followed you in having hope. But you, hmm? You have the heart of a wolf and the lungs of a dog.”
Nuan Chun and Nuan Qing’s relatives had been taken by Ruan Zi Xu to Lan Zhou to open shops. Ruan Zi Xu had gone north to Mongolia to purchase horses, thus the shops and workers had been placed under Yun Shi Yi to manage. If Nuan Qing’s parents knew that his son, as the Eldest Miss’s bedwarmer, had done such a lascivious matter to bring disgrace to their family, they would surely go mad with anger.
“I know, I am not a person and I do not have a conscience, but if this matter really were to be spread outside, the ending for me and the wet nurse is to be drowned in a pool of water. Big Brother Nuan Chun, Big Nuan Chun, I am begging you……” Nuan Qing loudly wailed. He crawled a few steps forward and hugged Nuan Chun’s legs: “Us brothers have grown up together; you also do not want to see Little Brother die such a horrid death, right!”
Nuan Chun’s voice unconsciously became softer: “Even if Eldest Miss does not have you drowned based on the many years of service, but then I am baffled. After having done such a shameless thing, how could you have the face to continue living?”
“I truly like her, Nuan Chun, you do not know the feeling of when a man and a woman are together. You have never tasted that sort of flavor before……”
“Get lost!” Nuan Chun’s entire face was red. Kicking aside the pair of arms wrapped around his legs, he shouted: “Do not tell me about those dirty mistakes of yours; you really make me sick.”
Yun Shi Wei carried his wife over with an entirely gloomy face.
Nuan Chun and Nuan Qing sensed there was something different and turned their heads to see that it was their Young Master from the paternal family and their own family’s Master. They were both so startled they could not speak and Nuan Qing’s face became extremely pale.
Ruan Zhu’s gaze rested on the figure behind the cotton rose hibiscus tree and asked in a voice devoid of emotion: “How do you still have the face to hide over there? Do you need me to have someone drag you out?”
After a short moment, the wet nurse cowered as she stepped out from the withered shrubs behind the cotton rose hibiscus tree, both hands tying her belt. Shame across her entire face, she lowered her head, not daring to make a sound.
Yun Shi Wei saw that there was nevertheless a trace of sadness in his wife’s eyes. Thinking about how her belly was currently with child, he inevitably became anxious: “Spouse, do not squabble with these slaves; the baby is important. Nuan Chun, call over Xiao San Zi to bring over some servants to beat these two slaves with a cane before sending them to the woodshed. Tomorrow morning, have some servants drag them to be submerged in the pond.”
Nuan Qing was so scared his face was a deathly gray. His mouth spread wide open and he even forgot how to speak.
The wet nurse wailed anguishedly: “It has nothing to do with me, Nuan Qing seduced me; he is just a lowly slave, I am innocent!”
Yun Shi Wei turned his head away in revulsion as he strode with large steps towards the garden’s exit while carrying his wife.
Returning to Yi Xin Residence, Ruan Zhu stared blankly out the window as she sat on the lounge chair. In the ancient era, being loose with morals was a dreadful criminal charge, but in reality, everyone had these lewd thoughts in their hearts and only audacious people changed those desires into actuality.
Nuan Qing was her bedwarmer and had tossed aside his Master’s face. Per the laws of Tian Chu, it was not wrong to have him beaten to death; on the contrary, there would be some who would applaud this action. But to her modern eyes, this problem would inevitably lead to a guilty conscience.
A bedwarmer with a false name had the right to pursue love. If this was based on the customs of the feudal world, her way of thinking would appear childish and ridiculous, but didn’t the Western Chu’s Hegemon-King also have times where he was softhearted?[a]
“Qu Gao, go inform Xiao San Zi to bring over Nuan Qing and the wet nurse. I want to personally question them.”
“Understood! Niangniang, this slave will go immediately.” Qu Gao, who was standing by in attendance outside the door, bowed in her direction and hurriedly left.
Ever since Xuanyuan Zong Zhi had Steward Chen beaten to death before the servants, it had acted as a deterrent, and the servants of the Prince of Qi’s residence were even more deferential when seeing their Princess than when they saw their own Prince. They all understood that His Highness loved his wife like his life. If they provoked His Highness, at most it would be a few rounds with a cane; if they provoked niangniang, their Prince may possibly ask for their heads to be separated from their bodies.
A phrase secretly circulated among these servants–Better to offend His Highness than to offend niangniang.
“Spouse, your heart has softened?” Yun Shi Wei was a locally born and raised commoner of Tian Chu and did not think there was anything wrong with killing two servants that had committed wrong. After entering the army, the most important thing was to practice courage. He had already personally brandished a blade and killed eleven prisoners from the Red Eyebrow army at the military grounds. When he killed the first one, his hand still trembled; he had hardened his heart and killed the second; the third……by the time he had killed the last one, there were no feelings left.
Presently, he only placed importance on the ones he cared about. There was no need for him to be concerned about those that were irrelevant to him.
Ruan Zhu propped her chin on her hand, not even glancing away: “Their crime has not affected me. We can just kick them out and forget about it.”
Yun Shi Wei did not comprehend at all: “What is this ‘their crime has not affected me’? What about the matter of them ruining your reputation?”
Ruan Zhu knew it was impossible to explain her reasoning to him. In addition to him, Xuanyuan Zong Zhi and Yun Shi Yi would also not understand.
Nuan Qing and the wet nurse were dragged to the doorway by a palace eunuch and thrown onto the stones so that the two people laid sprawled. Drenched with blood, their buttocks and thighs were badly mutilated and they had already fainted by the time they reached the ground.
Qu Gao instructed a small palace eunuch to carry over two pails of water to pour over the two bodies. The well water in late autumn was especially ice-cold and stimulated the two people awake.
The wet nurse opened her dazed eyes and crawled up, kowtowing before a door that was covered with a muslin curtain: “Niangniang, spare this slave’s dog life, okay? It is not this slave’s fault; it is that Nuan Qing’s foxy charms and tricks are too exceptional and causes one to be unable to withstand its enticement. Blame it all on this slave’s will being too weak to be tempted by him,”
Yun Shi Wei snorted, his entire face full of disgust: “Neither of them are good. They all deserve death.”
Ruan Zhu walked to the doorway and a palace eunuch respectfully placed a chair behind her, but she was not in the mood to sit. Standing before the entrance and looking at the blood-covered Nuan Qing, she thought of the past and her heart was filled with complex feelings. She flatly stated: “Nuan Qing, have you seen it? The woman that you have wholeheartedly liked has in the end, disregarded your safety for the possibility of her survival. Is this the relationship that you wanted?”
Nuan Chun repeatedly kowtowed. He was sobbing so hard he could barely make a sound and only cried out: “Begging Eldest Miss for mercy.”
Ruan Zhu fixed her gaze on him for a short moment: “Out of the two of you, I will only allow one to live; the other will be dragged to the pond tomorrow morning. You can choose yourselves!”
The wet nurse’s eyes became a bloody red and her eyes filled with hysteria while she shrieked: “Of course it should be I that lives and he the one to be drowned. Men who are flirtatious and have violated the laws naturally deserve death; I am a woman, and have no sin, the laws of Tian Chu also will not demand my life.”
Full of dislike, Ruan Zhu commanded a palace eunuch: “Stuff her mouth.”
The palace eunuch was also merciless and peeled off the wet nurses’s socks before stuffing them in her mouth. The wet nurse reached towards her face but her hands were quickly tied behind her back by the palace eunuch.
Ruan Zhu asked Nuan Qing: “I want to hear what you have to say.”
Despair filled Nuan Qing’s eyes. He remained silent for a long time before saying: “What she said was not wrong. I seduced her; I deserve death.”
Nuan Chun had been listening by the side since the beginning and could not resist shouting at this moment: “Nuan Qing, things have already gotten to this point yet you obstinately persist in going about things the wrong way. The other has already betrayed you but you still are willing to trade your life for that absolutely disgraceful wet nurse. You’re muddled, ah, you!?”
Nuan Qing’s face was stiff and he mumbled: “I seduced her, I am a fox charmer, I deserve death.”
“Nuan Qing, you have actually made things difficult for me. I do not understand–you acting like this, is this to protect the wet nurse? Or is it because you have been emotionally hurt and only wish for death?” Ruan Zhu shook her head. Moving aside the muslin curtain a little, she then hung it on the silver hooks on the door frame: “However, how could I truly let you die?”
“Eldest Miss?” Nuan Qing lifted up his eyes, practically shaking as he asked.
“But I also do not wish for you to remain by my side. Let’s do this then–I have heard there is a Wu Shan Buddhist temple outside of the city. How about becoming a monk then!”
“I……I am willing……” Tears suddenly streamed down Nuan Qing’s cheeks.
“Xiao San Zi, take some people and lift Nuan Qing back to his room. Nuan Chun, go invite a physician from a medicine hall to look at Nuan Qing. Early tomorrow morning, use a carriage to take him to Wu Shan temple and before you leave, tell Nuan Qing that there is no need to come over to say farewell.”
Xiao San Zi waited for Nuan Qing to knock his head against the ground three times before finding several men to lift the other back to the servants’ quarters. Nuan Chun followed them in leaving to invite a physician.
The wet nurse was still sprawled before the entrance and wu wu sounds continued to spill from her plugged mouth.
Ruan Zhu held unspeakable loathing towards this person. She had done wrong yet did not dare to admit it and to preserve her life, did not spare anyone even when she had reached such a shameful plight. “Qu Gao, I heard Da Jue Mountain is lacking people; is this correct?”
Qu Gao quickly bowed in response: “Replying to niangniang, many captives have been sent to Da Jue Mountain and they are not lacking in miners; on the contrary, they have had a shortage of women since the beginning. The soldiers supervising the captives have to practice an ascetic lifestyle the entire year and dearly desire to have females accompanying them. This wet nurse’s appearance will surely suit their thoughts.”
Because of the arduous conditions in Da Jue Mountain, the living environment was vile. Shame nor virtue existed in the hearts of the local men; surviving was the only firm principle. Several dozens or several hundreds of men sharing a wife was very common and
playing with them until they died and then changing to another one was also a frequent occurrence. The supervisors even often bestowed women that were on the verge of death as rewards to convicts. On Da Jue Mountain, females were not considered humans; they were sacrificial tools used to satiate a man’s lust.
“Send the wet nurse to Da Jue Mountain then!”
The palace eunuchs responded in agreement and stepped forward to pull at the wet nurse.
Yun Shi Wei also thought this plan was very good and moved to support his wife inside the inner room.
But right at this time, an imposing voice sounded from the courtyard entrance: “Sending her like this to Da Jue Mountain is letting her off too easily. Even if she is sent over, her two arms should be chopped off and her tongue ripped out.”
Ruan Zhu and Yun Shi Wei turned their heads and saw Xuanyuan Zong Zhi, covered head to toe in silver armor, with a silvery gray cloak over his shoulders. Behind him was an entire squadron of imperial bodyguards who entered the courtyard with awe-inspiring might.
“Big Brother Lu!” Ruan Zhu’s eyes shined. Walking away from the room, she quickly stepped towards him, her eyes flowing with happiness.
“Wife, be careful. My son cannot be tormented like this by you.” Xuanyuan Zong Zhi welcomed her with large strides and opened both his arms to encircle his wife.
He had stayed in the military barracks for quite a few days with the previously trained Fei Sheng army that had extraordinary bravery. Several months ago, a battalion had been sent to the battlefield and experienced several skirmishes that had net them several accomplishments. The army obtained the recognition of their superiors and had very quickly been promoted.
From this, the Emperor could see the Fifth Prince’s ability and had people select five thousand soldiers with outstanding talents in all fields from the new recruits and sent them over.
Xuanyuan Zong Zhi devoted enormous enthusiasm and hard work into the recruits. Treating the men like machines, he had them undergo devil-like training and the situation of him staying in the barracks rather than returning home became a frequent matter.
“Wife, this husband will show you something.”
Xuanyuan Zong Zhi indicated to Nangong Xun and the latter opened up a parcel. It was a pile of letters.
The wet nurse saw those letters and her body abruptly started shaking. She was actually terrified to the extreme and could only beg for death at this moment.
Ruan Zhu opened up the letters one by one. The more she read, the more furious and the more frightened she became.
The letters recorded every word and action of hers and Xuanyuan Zong Zhi’s, including some of her inconceivable thoughts and a few strange topics. Even the scene of her embroidering a black cloak with a northern goshawk on it was inside. In addition, there was also the detail of cartoon characters being sewed on top of her child’s onesies.
From the contents of the letter, it was very obvious the final destination of the letter was the master of the Eastern Palace. Everyone knew there was only one master of the Eastern Palace–it was precisely the Crown Prince.
If Zhao Hai were to know of the contents of the letters–even if he were to only see a tiny, tiny bit–he would still be able to discover the signs and her secret would be considered exposed. Then, if Zhao Hai wanted to ruin her, all he would need to do is to spread a few rumors.
Ruan Zhu pulled Xuanyuan Zong Zhi into the room and urgently pressed him: “Big Brother Lu, you’ve long discovered the wet nurse was fishy and intercepted all of her letters, right? You haven’t missed a single one?”
“Wife, I know you are worried about me. Don’t be……” Xuanyuan Zong Zhi saw that his wife was very tense and was under the impression that she was anxious for him. Warmth spread through his heart and he pulled her against his chest: “Previously, I had not discovered that anything was wrong with the wet nurse; it was just that I was especially careful with the people by our sides. While we were in Yu Zhou, I still had not known that the wet nurse was a spy sent over by the Crown Prince, but I had arranged spies surrounding the Ruan residence and took note of all who may pose a threat to us. The wet nurse has not sent out one letter before; all of her letters are here with me.”
But Ruan Zhu was still faintly trembling and felt a lingering fear as she thought about how her secret had nearly been discovered by Zhao Hai. She was not afraid of him finding out about the existence of another transmigrator in Tian Chu, as in the vast and obscure sea of people, he may not be able to find her on that alone. However, she was terrified of Zhao Hai knowing that the person was precisely her.
Nuan Qing, you can no longer go to Wu Shan temple to become a Buddhist monk. Since it is not possible for you to die, you are also not allowed to leave the Ruan residence, unless both Zhao Hai and the Crown Prince are dead will I then let you go. The wet nurse could also not be sent to Da Jue Mountain. It was imperative that she died and the death must be clean and efficient.
“Big Brother Lu, may these letters be burned?”
“Wife, you are too careful. Although the Crown Prince has great power, he still cannot do anything to your Lord Husband.”
Xuanyuan Zong Zhi smiled as he threw the pile of letters into the brazier that had been set on the ground for one to warm oneself with. All of a sudden, the fire became very strong and rose a little over one meter tall.
Ruan Zhu watched as the several tens of letters turned to ashes in a blink of an eyes, relief present on her face.
Xuanyuan Zong Zhi sighed: “A pity that the wet nurse was exposed this early. I had wanted to use her as a countermeasure to distort truth with falsehood, but now that seems impossible.”