Early the next morning, everyone gathered in Jia’an Hall.
The Old Madam was holding the hand of her second household’s granddaughter-in-law, who happened to have given birth to a great-grandson.
As she was talking kindly to the young woman, Old Madam Lu suddenly lifted her eyes, turning towards the Meng girl. The maiden was shyly casting glances Lu Yan’s way.
As for Lu Yan? He was on the other side of the hall, talking to second houshold’s Lu Ye and third household’s Lu Ting. His face showed was as rigid as could be, showing no specific emotions.
The Old Madam could only pout her lips in displeasure. Her grandson refused to even acknowledge his grandmother’s efforts to bring such a little beauty to his attention. But she was not the type to give up on what she had decided to do. Clearing her throat, she called out to Meng Suxi.
“Lass, you gave me a painting of One Hundred Cranes yesterday. Did you paint it yourself?”
Meng Suxi immediately jumped to her feet, bowing.
“Indeed. This humble lass hopes the Old Madam did not laugh at her lack of skill.”
The Old Madam nodded with great satisfaction.
“That brilliant of a stroke at such a young age! It is already quite impressive. But still, your painting does lack in liveliness.”
As soon as these words reached Meng Suxi’s ears, the miss adroitly disregarded the critic and transformed it into what seemed a sincere opportunity to learn.
“Would the Old Madam make this humble lass the honor of giving a few pointers?”
Old Madam Lu saw that the lass knew how to create opportunities for herself. She was more than ready to play along.
“Where art is concerned, this old woman is of no use. You should rather ask your Cousin Yan. He is an expert in the field, you know.”
Shouting from her seat, she tried to attract Lu Yan’s attention.
“Lad Yan!”
Said gentleman did as if he hadn’t heard. However, his grandmother was a persistent old lady. Shameless, to boot. She did not stop it there. Rather, she screamed harder. To the point he could not play dead.
He turned around and walked over leisurely, smiling the slightest bit.
“Grandmother has called me.”
Old Madam Lu, who had had a maid fetch the aforementioned painting, took it and presented it to Lu Yan.
“Your cousin made this painting for me. Take a look at it.”
Knowing full well one had to cut up stiff with Lu Yan from time to time, she made sure he saw the glare she shot him. The meaning was more than obvious. If he did not take that painting from her hands, he would regret it. Lu Yan was more than happy to oblige, however.
Thus he examined said painting. Top to bottom. Left to right. In fact, he took his time to observe each and every detail of it. Seeing her painting being so thoroughly and critically studied, Meng Suxi clenched her fists, her heart beating violently. It felt as if it was not the painting but herself that was being weighed, measured and deemed … deficient.
Who would not fear such a handsome man’s censure?!
After a while of careful assessment, Lu Yan raised his head and simply stated:
“There is nothing to praise in this.”
That would have been a heavy strike to any young girl’s self-esteem. However, Meng Suxi was not only the type to create, but also to seize, opportunities. A woman’s lacking in the arts could be transformed in a great occasion to flatter the male ego. She refused to let go.
“Old Madam Lu did indeed mention Suxi’s painting to be lacking. Thus, Suxi begs Cousin Yan to give her some advice and promises to apply more in the future.”
Who could have withstood such an attack of humility?! Said Cousin Lu Yan, that is who. Piercing through her with his cold eyes, he had no pity.
“What Miss Meng lacks is talent. No amount of application will palliate to such a flaw intrinsic to herself. Believing that hard work can make up for any defects of birth is truly arrogant. If such were the case, we would be living in a world of geniuses. Show me the man who cannot work hard like a mere farm animal.”
Such was his character. Angering and shaming the misses of great families was of no consequence to him. He had no bowels of mercy.
Meng Suxi blanched. Old Madam Lu turned blue. Lu Ting of the third household buried his face into his hands. Princess Royal Jing’an’s lips trembled in rage. Only the starling in the hall burst out in joyous, triumphant song.
The temperature in the hall had plunged. Née Wen, trying to defuse the situation, had no other choice but to sacrifice what sacrificed could be.
“Oh, dear! This is too unfair. This painting is much superior to anything our Lass Heng might have produced.”
Lu Heng shot a betrayed, disgusted glance Née Wen’s way. A mother’s love was most precious indeed.
***
Lu Yan went back to Suning Hall before the banquet ended, following on Princess Royale Jing’an’s footsteps.
“What’s the matter with you?”, Princess Jing’an asked, her arms sternly folded over her chest.
Lu Yan frowned ever so slightly. He had not expected his mother to charge so aggressively.
“Does Mother wish me to marry the daughter of the Meng family?”
If his mother could charge, then he could defend.
Princess Royale Jing’an shot him a hesitant look.
“When did I ever say I wished you to marry her? But even if there is no talk about marriage, she is no less your third aunt’s niece. It is not wrong to demand that you acknowledge her as your cousin. Why did you have to go so far?”
She had given birth to Lu Yan, thus she knew him best. At times, one had to coerce him if one expected results.
Lu Yan stubbornly kept silent. Princess Royale Jing’an observed her son’s cold indifference, but could not get angry in her heart. It would have served no purpose.
“Princess Fu’an is already making her grandson jump on her knees while you are not even married. I will tell you this. I have no care for what you think from this moment on. For the time being, I shall observe the behavior of the Meng girl. And if she pleases me, know that the marriage will be fixed by next year.”
At first, Lu Yan’s face was unsightly, his jaw rigid and his lips sealed. And suddenly, he remembered that haunting dream of his. In the dream, he had had no wife or child unto his death. He looked at his mother and remembered how he had seen her collapse onto the cold floor of the Funeral Hall, how she had broken down and cried bitterly at the idea of his death.
Lu Yan had no choice but to partly give in.
“I will try”, he bit through his teeth, as cold as ever.
The princess smiled in wonder. She was his mother. She had given birth to him. She knew him best. And she had never, not one instant, expected she would ever hear such a sentence from him. Lu Yan was not easy to bend.
However, he was a man who was true to his words. And since he said he would try, he would never go back or regret his words. Since that moment, he never again gave Meng Suxi the cold treatment he reserved for nuisances. In fact, the very day he had made his mother a promise, Lu Yan had sent her a few paintings as an apology.
Meng Suxi had been most flattered. As the saying goes, one had to hit the iron while it was hot. Thus, for the next two days, as soon as Lu Yan would return to the estate, she would come to him with a list of questions and all sorts of paintings, demanding his opinion.
The hunt had begun.
***
A few days later, Lu Yan was invited to attend the wedding banquet of Marquis Xuanping’s heir, Sui Yu.
The bride was sent to the bridal chambers with gleeful cheers, while on her path, guests shouted auspicious words.
In no time, Young Master Sui Yu, heir to Marquis Xuanping, was drunk beyond salvation, having put up no resistance when his friends had filled his cup time after time. In fact, he took it upon himself to pay tribute to Lu Yan by filling his cup for him. His eyes were glazed over, full of an indistinguishable emotion.
Sui Yu clinked his dearest friend’s cup, sipping the contents of his own in one swig.
In the eyes of the world, Sui Yu was as fortunate as a man could ever be. What more to desire than to marry the teacher’s daughter. Only Lu Yan knew that the people who looked at Sui Yu with envy could not fathom his pain. There had been another woman. The type a man could never forget. And if one was to speak of her, one had to do so in detail and diligently.
Three years ago, Sui Yu, having freshly passed, and with great success, the highest level of imperial examinations, had gone to Marquis Yunyang’s Mansion and demanded the Second Miss to the Shen household, one Shen Yao. His advances had been received with complaisance and joy. To complete the betrothal, nothing but a matchmaker had had to be chosen. However, at this time, another man had set his eyes on the same all-conquering Shen miss, falling in love with her at first sight during a hunting match. None other than the Second Prince of the Uighur.
(T/N: This highest level of imperial examinations has given Sui Yu the title of “Jinshi”. Sui Yu has successfully passed the most difficult subjects of the imperial examinations, namely poetry and governance.)
Since the Emperor’s intention had always been to establish good diplomatic relationships with the Uighur Kingdom, he had seen in the Second Prince’s infatuation a perfect opportunity to strengthen the ties between the Empire and Kingdom. Thus, not waiting an instant, he had given Shen Yao the title of Princess Yonghe and had announced her marriage to the Second Prince of the Uighur on an auspicious date.
It had been an Imperial Decree. No one would have been suffered to contest it.
And thus, three years later, it was with a broken heart that Sui Yu had married his teacher’s daughter, never forgetting the one woman he had loved passionately.
The guests were drinking themselves to death, swaying by Sui Yu’s side, praising him to no end.
“If only I could have Brother Yu’s luck, I would die a happy man. Nothing to desire for. No regrets”
Hearing such words, Sui Yu shot a glance at the group, laughing with what appeared to be mirth, but was nothing but self-deprecation.
No regrets?!
He had two great regrets that would poison his life until his last very breath. One was that he had passed the imperial examinations. The second, that he had married.
***
When Lu Yan had finally stepped out of Marquis Xuanping’s Mansion, it had already been already dark.
Entering his carriage, he had closed his eyes for the split of an instant. Remembering Meng Suxi’s methods of seduction, if so they could have been called, and the fact she was still at the Estate, Lu Yan decided he was too tired to deal with her. He simply informed Yang Zong:
“I am not going back to the Estate tonight. Take me to Zhuyuan in the Western part.”
These words took Yang Zong aback.
“My Lord, we cannot go to Zhuyuan.”
Lifting an eyebrow, Lu Yan was not especially fazed by Yang Zong’s words. A disobedient servant could always be punished. There was no need for unrestrained rage.
“And why would that be?”
Yang Zong stared at their young master and decided he must have been drunk and had thus forgotten. Being a diligent servant, Yang Zong made it a point of honor to remind his master.
“Your Lordship has forgotten that in the past few days, we had had to raise eight thousand copper coins. Zhuyuan has been sold.”
A private property in Chang’an could easily amount to a few hundred copper coins. Thus, to reach the amount of eight thousand copper coins, more than one property and many an asset had had to be sold.
Hearing this, Lu Yan simply whispered:
“Indeed.”
A smile pulled, at the corner of lips. Yet, an inexplicable anger set his eyes ablaze.
“Should we go back to the Estate?”, Yang Zong tentatively suggested.
“No. Take me to Chengyuan.”
He would have forgotten he had a mistress had he not suffered these privations in her name.
***
The night was as cold as it was quiet.
By the time Lu Yan arrived to Chengyuan, Shen Zhen had already fallen asleep. None of the lights in Lanyue Pavilion were still on. Apart from Shen Zhen and two maids, there was no one living in that courtyard.
Shen Zhen slept quite peacefully, her slender silhouette not moving at all.
Lu Yan, leaning on the doorframe, raised a sardonic eyebrow, examining her back with care. Even though she had slid under the bedcover, one could see the contours of her form quite clearly. What most attracted his attention was the vertiginous dip of her waist and the voluptuous swell of her hips.
Lu Yan stepped into the room, deliberately making noise by shuffling his feet and moving a stool.
He had drunk wine before coming and yet, he felt explicably thirsty. Lifting the kettle that rested on a table, he tilted it to pour himself a cup of water.
Shen Zhen opened her eyes after a while, her hands clenching under the covers. Her body was stiff of fear and she did not dare look back. There was no one in the world who could enter Chengyuan with such ease. No one but him.
By the way the body in the bed stiffened, the man knew that Shen Zhen knew that someone had awoken.
Raising the cup to his lips, he took a sip of water before coldly speaking.
“Is this the behavior of a mistress?”
There were no better words to break the silence in the room and freeze Shen Zhen to the bone. This man truly did not know mercy. The faint anger she heard seeping through his voice made the bed feel as if covered in nails. Biting her lower lip, she jumped up from her position at once.
Quietly approaching him, she whispered a tentative greeting.
“Your Lordship.”
Lu Yan shot her a contemplative glance. She was dressed from head to do. She had not even removed her outerwear. And who was it she was trying to defend her virtue from?
Simply offering her a derisive scoff, he stood from the stool, facing her, his arms outstretched.
At first, Shen Zhen had not understood his expectations. But seeing his outstretched arms, he understood quite well what he waited for her to do. But her palms were sweaty and she did not know where she was supposed to start. After a long hesitation, she wrapped her arms around Lu Yan’s waist, penetrating his personal space, attempting to help him remove his clothes.
But Shen Zhen was a Marquis’s legitimate daughter, one who had yet to leave the boudoir. How could she know how to untie a man’s belt?
Lu Yan observed those long, slender fingers, moving back and forth along his belt, unable to untie it.
“Why are you incapable to even do something so simple?”, he wondered out loud.
Shen Zhen felt his cool breath caressing the top of her head. How could she not feel aggrieved?! No one had ever taught her such things. How could one learn without a teacher?!
“Answer.”
One had concluded so before, but it was a fact worth a remainder. Lu Yan was a man who did not know mercy.
He took it upon him to criticize others with much application. When would his turn be to face criticism? Shen Zhen’s shoulders stiffened in sternness and she secretly rolled her downcast eyes. However, when she did answer him, her tone was all gentleness.
“Your Lordship, please forgive me. It is my first time doing this.”
Lu Yan could not help but look at her soft, jet-black hair. At the meek submissiveness of her demeanor and with the knowledge those fine, jadeite-like fingers had never touched someone as intimately as him, the frown in his brows gradually loosened.
Indeed.
A month ago, she had still been the Third Miss of a Marquis household, a most respected maiden.
An instant later, Lu Yan’s hands grabbed those fine, small fingers, guiding them along his belt, teaching her how to loosen and remove it.
“Make sure to remember.”
Lu Yan released her hand.
Shen Zhen blushed, then paled, then blushed once more. She did not know whether to remove her hands or to keep them in place. But recalling how callously he could to be answered, she hurried to say:
“I will remember, Your Lordship.”
A good memory in a woman was not a bad thing, Lu Yan thought.
Once Shen Zhen had given her assent, she noticed the man in front of her still standing expectantly. She guessed he wanted her to continue.
The closest Shen Zhen had ever come to seeing how one served was her own experience with Qingxi. Thus, she would try to imitate her maidservant from memory.
How strange is it that after having been served for so many years, these actions that should have been the most familiar, were the most strange. However, as she tried to reproduce what she had seen servants do so many a time, she realized that she had no skill nor did she know where to start.
Once she had finished delivering Lu Yan from his clothes, Shen Zhen felt like she must have turned seventeen.
That is how slowly she had taken care of her task.
Shen Zhen turned the lamp on so she could fold and put his clothes on a six-legged table in the shape of a lotus leaf. Such fine clothes deserved to rest on the finest table, though she might have wished to shove them into a cabinet without ceremony.
Then she walked into a corner, her eyes lowered, her mouth shut.
Seated on the bed, Lu Yan looked at that beautiful face, distorted at times by the shadows the candles cast. Pearl-white skin, translucent and silky, eyes exhibiting the charm of youth. A most fascinating woman. But the allure was not one Lu Yan could not withstand.
At the end of the day, he could not help but wonder what it was about her that could make the idea he would not forgive her until the day of his death plausible? That dream must have been an exaggeration.
While he was lost in his contemplation, Shen Zhen took a step towards him. Then another. And another. Through the rustling of her skirt, a barely audible whisper was to be heard.
“Is Your Lordship planning to stay the night?”
Though it might have been inaudible to others, Lu Yan heard her voice quite well and answered her with that guttural sound of assent he made whenever he did not want to lose precious words on unimportant matters.
Having tacitly accepted to be his mistress, she knew it was but a matter of time before she was called to lie by his side and let his naked skin graze hers. The very thought of it reeked of crime. A crime against everything that was right and good, against morals and her parents’ teachings.
She spread a quilt for him and blew the lights out.
The room was engulfed by darkness once more. It was her shield. It was her only protection.
Immediately afterwards, a brisk footstep was heard moving to the door.
“Your Lordship should rest early.”
The door was still wide open. The man sitting on the bed scrutinized her perfect figure.
“And where do you think you are going?”, he somberly asked.
Did she expect for him to chase her?
Lu Yan snorted sarcastically.
Tonight, Shen Zhen …
If I were to decide I desired you, you would suffer the waves of my passion.
If I were to decide I did not desire you, you would not be allowed to leave for all of that.
