When Shen Zhen woke up, she was welcomed by the strong rays of a winter sun, filtering through the curtains, coloring the beams of the ceiling in a golden hue.
There was no one lying by her side. Shen Zhen raised her hand to rub at her painful temples. At once she remembered what that man had told her the previous night. Immediately turning over, her feet ended up on the ground. She did not even throw a robe over her flimsy night gown as she ran out.
Tangyue seeing a barely-clad Shen Zhen running about in panic threw the broom she had been hold aside and grabbed onto her mistress.
“Miss! You are not well! You cannot walk around dressed like this. If you were to suffer from another fever, your illness might worsen.”
Shen Zhen’s eyes were confused and red.
“Where is Lord Lu?”, she hoarsely asked.
Tangyue looked at her mistress’s nervous appearance as a proof of her passionate love for the Young Master. She must have been reluctant to leave him even for an instant. In that optic, the maid smiled goodnaturedly and addressed Shen Zhen the way one would a worried child.
“His Lordship left early this morning. Instead of worrying herself sick, how about the Miss let this humble slave help her tidy up?”
Shen Zhen would have nothing of it.
“Did His Lordship say anything before leaving?”
Tangyue was left stunned.
“Did the Miss hear? Seeing as you were asleep, the Young Master asked the slaves to be careful not to make any noise.”
In Tangyue’s eyes, this must have been the most considerate thing the Young Master had ever done. For anyone.
“He has not said anything else?”, Shen Zhen asked, her voice trembling in fear and hands clenching.
Picking up that convulsing little hand, Tangyue patted it.
“The Young Master also left paper in the study, saying that once you were finished writing a letter, he would come back to retrieve it.”
A soon as she heard those words, Shen Zhen felt her pressure dropping. She did not know whether she was sighing in relief or to stabilize herself. He had remembered. He had remembered …
Once she had led her mistress back into the residence, Tangyue busied herself around her. Opening a fine jewelry box, she retrieved an elegant comb of scented rosewood and started passing it through Shen Zhen’s luxurious hair. As she focused on the combing motions, she recalled yesterday’s events.
“The Young Master is truly attached to the Miss”, she could not help saying.
Shen Zhen met Tangyue’s smiling eyes in the bronze mirror. She was taken aback by such a reflection.
“Why would you say something like that all of a sudden?”
The maid, smiling like a knowing cat, leaned in to whisper into her mistress’s ear.
“The Miss was so ill it is no wonder she does not remember. Last night, the Young Master personally wiped the Miss’s body for her.”
After speaking, Tangyue straightened up, continuing:
“The Young Master is so attached to the Miss that he will most probably welcome her into the Estate as soon as he gets married.”
The poor maid thought she was saying something agreeable to her mistress. She could not be further from the truth. After hearing such ridiculous words, Shen Zhen could not believe her ears at first. And then she smiled ever so slightly.
She might not have known much about Lu Yan. She was nonetheless more than aware that he was Princess Royale Jing’an’s son and the Grand Duke Zhen’s heir. Few, if any, women would be chosen to be his concubines. And those who would be chosen would not be just about anyone. One thing was sure, they would not be daughters of criminals.
Lu Yan’s keeping a mistress was nothing but a whim. Once he got married, he was bound to get tired of Shen Zhen. The novelty of the experience would soon fade. And it would be necessary to get rid of all traces it ever existed in the first place.
Shen Zhen counted the days. There was still more than a year left before her father was released from prison. She wished this relationship, for the obvious advantages it brought her, to last until then. And when the time came, she very strongly hoped Lu Yan would let her go without any undue problems.
As for those eight thousand copper coins … She would naturally pay back as much of it as she could in this lifetime.
***
The building of the Supreme Court had been going through repairs for the past two days. Thus, the officials were invaded by soldiers who came in and out of rooms. Some officials hurried to take care of their records, while others walked around writing their submissions. All tried not to stumble here and there and make fools out of themselves.
When Sun Xu arrived, he found Lu Yan, seated at his desk as if nothing was happening around him, reading through his case files in complete serenity. Knocking on the top of Lu Yan’s table with an insistent finger, Sun Xu had no respect for the solemnity of the moment.
“Does Lord Lu know which case is trialed in the Hall today?”, he confidently whispered to his coworker.
Lu Yan looked up in mild indifference.
“Which one?”
Sun Xu triumphantly smiled. For once he knew more than Lu Yan!
“Just as I expected!”
After taking a leisurely seat, the theatrical Sun Xu spoke unhurriedly, deciding to make his enjoyment last.
“Lord Zheng is not interrogating the little people today. Rather, he is taking care of a prickly affair. The Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Wen Yuan, is implicated!”
Upon hearing this, Lu Yan closed the file he had been reading in a crisp snap. Since the Deputy Minister was also a Fourth Grade official, Lu Yan had often had the chance to rub elbows with Wen Yuan at court. They might not have been close. They had however spoken with one another on several occasions.
Lu Yan leaned back, picked up a covered tea-cup decorated in an blue and white sea dragon pattern. Taking a sip, he was also playing at Sun Xu’s game, refusing to satisfy his coworker’s vanity too quickly.
“And what would he be here for?”
“Deputy Minister Wen and his wife wish to go their separate ways!”
Lu Yan raised his eyebrows, truly surprised.
“This is no matter for the Supreme Court. They should have gone to their County Government Office or to the Ministry of Household Affairs.”
At once, others meddled into the conversation, having discreetly been listening until then. The Jin Dynasty had been decently open when it came to separations, divorces and remarriages. In fact, there were more and more of those year after year. Thus, the act itself came as no surprise. But who would be crazy enough to bring such a private case to the Supreme Court, of all places?!
Sun Xu, seeing he had achieved the wished-for effect, purposefully lowered his voice, forcing everyone who wished to keep silent and lean in.
“In the beginning, it was nothing but a simple divorce. And now … Now it has blown up into a murder case! One would not think it of him, seeing as our good Deputy Minister Wen is such a serious and elegant man, but can you imagine he had been keeping a mistress?!”
As soon as the words reached Lu Yan’s ears, he swallowed his hot tea too quickly, choking on it and coughing like an idiot for a good while.
Truly, Lu Yan was spoiling Sun Xu. The good official had not expected his colleague to react so violently. Busying himself around him, secretly very satisfied, he slapped Lu Yan’s back as strongly as would have been socially permitted, and maybe a bit harder than needed.
“Lord Lu! Are you well?”
Lu Yan cleared his throat and unhappy waved his hand.
“It does not matter. Continue.”
However, thinking the rest of the story through, Sun Xu seemed to regret having started it at all. Sighing he continued with less liveliness.
“The mistress had been pregnant. Deputy Minister Wen loved her with such a passion and was so eager to welcome their child into the world that he made the mistake to stay out of his residence for a few too many days. Née Zou, his main wife, got suspicious and sent people to spy on him. That is how she found the mistress out. Deputy Minister Wen maintains Née Zou murdered his mistress.”
Officer Gong Cao, one of the soldiers who had come to help repairing the Supreme Court, meddled in.
“I have met that Madam Wen once. She is from Bianzhou …”
Sun Xu nodded.
“Yes. Née Zou’s family is the wealthiest merchant household of Bianzhou. Deputy Minister Wen rose so high in rank because of the Zou family’s efforts.”
Wen Yuan had started off as a simple Bianzhou official. He had been no more than a ninth-ranked Provincial Secretary. And then, he had married the Zou girl. One year later, he had become Taichang Temple’s Music Master, a fifth-ranking official position. And seven years later, he had climbed to the rank of Deputy Minister.
There were opportunities for promotion and transfer for all officials from year to year. But there was a difference between going from local to capital official, and this in the snap of fingers. Deputy Minister Wen would have never reached such a position without the support, the financial support, of the Zou family.
Seeing as Lu Yan’s cup was empty, Sun Xu poured him more tea, winking at him gaily. Lu Yan squeezed the lid between his fingers, skillfully deflecting the subject he knew Sun Xu wanted to touch.
“What happened then?”
“Née Zou was naturally irate. So, she personally went to the mistress’s door, humiliated her for the whole street to see and started beating her bloody. The baby was lost that evening. The young woman was found hanged the next morning.”
Sun Xu sighed.
“I heard the mistress had been with Deputy Minister Wen for more than three years. After her death, his hair went white. He said he preferred to be put to death than to live with Née Zou any longer.”
Officer Si Hu, hearing this, scratched his eyebrows in confusion.
“Your Lordship, there is something I do not understand.”
“Speak”, Sun Xu encouraged.
“Since Deputy Minister Wen loved his mistress so very much, why did he not make her his concubine?”
This was a good point. As previously mentioned, the Jin Dynasty was open-minded enough, but laws still existed. As long as a woman was officially welcomed into the household as a concubine, the main wife had no choice but to hold a tea ceremony for her, accept the woman’s offerings and smile at her with ease. Jealousy was one of the seven crimes that gave a husband a legal motive to divorce his wife.
Sun Xu curled his lips in a helpless smile.
“I heard the Deputy Minister’s mistress was an official’s daughter. Her family had fallen from grace and that was the only reason Deputy Minister Wen could even dream of making a mistress out of her. She had no legal status and protection from the law on one side. But on the other, Deputy Minister Wen might have wished to give his mistress a certain amount of freedom. As a mistress, she was protected from Née Zou’s mood swings, her biases, her anger and hatred.”
Officer Gong Cao shook his head in regret.
“Deputy Minister Wen and Née Zou have lived in harmony for so many years. How could some small, insignificant mistress be worth gambling one’s career away for?! If this gets out of hand, Deputy Minister Wen can kiss his position goodbye.”
Hearing this, Sun Xu felt truly, genuinely moved for the first time since the beginning of his narration. He made a pained expression, shaking his head in deep mourning.
“Yes, indeed. It truly was not worth it.”
Officer Si Hu joined in.
“Exactly! How many lowly people die every day?! One more, one less, what is the difference?! Deputy Minister Wen should have just dumped the corpse and stifled any rumors. After all, that scene Née Zou made was nothing but the expression of her love for him.”
After a long while, Sun Xu spoke once more.
“Maybe the Deputy Minister Wen never imagined it could come to this. After all, these types of love affairs are the most difficult to end.”
As the saying went, people were not plants. Who could ever remain perfectly emotionless?! Sleeping in a bed, sharing passionate moments of intimacy … Longing, affection, love. All of those feelings were bound to be eventually born.
Suddenly, Sun Xu turned his attention to Lu Yan.
“What is Lord Lu’s opinion on the subject?”
Even if Lu Yan would have wished to say something, he would not have been able to. Because there was a lump in his throat. It neither went up nor down.
***
Once the working day came to an end, Lu Yan returned to Chengyuan as promised.
