A Figure on Jade Steps in the Wind and Snow 7

Chapter 7: Acting

That’s right. Eleven years. Shen Zhishu thought in a daze.

That year, she was eleven, and Xie Jin was twenty.

One evening in the middle of spring eleven years ago, her mothers sent her to the street to buy griddle cakes. Passing by a residence in a small alley, she saw someone sitting in front of the door crying.

The person was crying in a strange way. They were clearly heartbroken, yet they clenched their teeth to keep from making a sound, desperately wiping their face with their sleeve.

Shen Zhishu stood there, watching the setting sun squeeze through the narrow gap between the walls, shining on the person’s smooth and lustrous hem, casting pale yellow patterns.

Shen Zhishu thought, that person could afford to wear cloud silk brocade, why were they crying? She had just given a griddle cake to a little beggar on the roadside, and the little beggar had smiled more happily than someone who had passed the imperial examinations.

Shen Zhishu couldn’t figure it out, but she had always been generous. She suddenly took a step forward, offered a golden-brown, crispy griddle cake, and asked, “Do you want some?”

Her movement was too fast, and the attendants following behind her couldn’t stop her. So they watched as the person sitting on the stone steps raised their head and looked over.

Their eyes met, and for a moment, neither of them spoke.

Shen Zhishu pushed the griddle cake forward a little more. “Do you want some? It just came out of the oven a quarter of an hour ago. Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, with a fragrant, oily crust. I haven’t even had one myself yet.”

The person wiped their face, said nothing else, but reached out to take the griddle cake and said, “Thank you.”

Their voice was very hoarse, and they cleared their throat twice, straining their neck.

An attendant behind her reminded her softly, “Miss Shu, it’s time to go. If we don’t go home soon, the mistresses will be worried.”

Not wanting to worry her mothers, Shen Zhishu was quite regretful because she still didn’t know why that person was crying. She sighed like a little adult, took two steps to the side, and was about to leave with her hands behind her back when she suddenly heard the person on the stone steps speak.

“May I have a few more words with your young master?” She took out a waist token from her sleeve and showed it to the two attendants. “Why don’t you send one of you back to report first? Just say that you encountered Captain Xie Jin on the road, who invited the young master for a chat.”

One attendant took the order and left.

Shen Zhishu stared curiously at Xie Jin’s tear-streaked face, mulled over her words for a moment, and suddenly asked, “Are you not crying anymore, Captain?”

“Hmm?… Yes.”

“Then why were you crying just now, Captain?”

Xie Jin sat in the setting sun, her head bowed, looking at her cloth shoes, which were stained with a little bit of green mud. She thought for a moment and gave a self-deprecating smile. “Because I haven’t understood.”

“What is ‘haven’t understood’?”

“Birth, old age, sickness, and death are a part of life, yet I have been sad about it for more than half a year. Perhaps the deceased has already been reincarnated and has long forgotten their name in their previous life, but I still can’t let it go. I went to seek the immortal way, and the Daoist priest said that my wisdom root is insufficient, that I haven’t understood.”

Shen Zhishu kicked at the green flagstones on the road and muttered, “Me too.”

“Hmm?”

“My rabbit has been dead for three months, and I’m still sad for it every day. So… have I not understood either?”

Xie Jin moved aside a little, and Shen Zhishu patted her bottom and sat down on the stone steps.

Xie Jin turned to look at her. “No, your wisdom root is stronger than mine. Maybe you won’t be sad tomorrow.”

“My mother said the same thing,” Shen Zhishu said. “She said that maybe I’ll dream of the rabbit tonight, and the rabbit will tell me that she’s living well after being reincarnated, and then I won’t be sad anymore.”

“Mm.”

“So, Captain,” Shen Zhishu raised her head, “maybe you’ll also dream of the person who makes you sad tonight, and she’ll say a lot of things to you, and then you won’t be so sad.”

“I hope your words come true. But actually, I dream of her every day.”

“Who is she?”

“My late wife.”

…

Her thoughts returning to the present, Shen Zhishu put an arm around Xie Jin’s shoulder and said with a smile, “We met because of your wife. Since this matter involves your wife’s former personal attendant, I can’t just stand by and do nothing.”

Xie Jin rubbed her arms and said with a straight face, “That’s quite sentimental of you.”

Shen Zhishu raised an eyebrow. “…This is sentimental? If I were to say, ‘After eleven years of friendship, we are like family. We don’t ask to be born on the same day, month, and year, but we ask to die on the same day, month, and year,’ wouldn’t you faint?”

Xie Jin thought for a moment. “I suppose I would.”

Shen Zhishu’s smile faded, and she said seriously, “Speaking of which, the Pure Consort has a daughter, the Seventh Imperial Princess. And the Seventh Imperial Princess is close to the Second Imperial Princess.”

“Exactly. If we were to investigate, it would definitely be a deep entanglement,” Xie Jin sighed. “Let’s just investigate for now, and see where it leads.”

**

Xie Jin invited Shen Zhishu to go for a stroll on the street, but Shen Zhishu wasn’t in the mood and casually found an excuse to see her out.

It wasn’t that she was intentionally being a spoilsport, but… because of yesterday’s events, she really had a psychological shadow over “going for a stroll on the street.”

Shen Zhishu sat idly at home for a while, feeling bored. She wanted to get up and walk around, so she walked from the south of the manor to the north. Her mind couldn’t help but recall what the Eldest Princess had said to her under the shade of the tree an hour ago—

“Can we do it one more time?”

Shen Zhishu: ??

Do what one more time???

At that moment, she seriously suspected that this was all a trap laid for her, just to make her fall into it in a daze.

Otherwise, how could she explain the Eldest Princess Huai’an’s utterly baffling words?

So she had asked, “Why?”

The Eldest Princess had said, “It felt good.”

Shen Zhishu: ??????

At least one of them had to be crazy.

The Eldest Princess’s voice at that moment was by no means light.

Although they were far from the palace road, palace carriages passed by frequently, and people could appear at any time.

However, the drooping branches created a small, semi-private space, and this not-so-complete sense of privacy suddenly became ambiguous.

In other words… the thrill of possibly being discovered made her heart beat a little faster.

Shen Zhishu didn’t know how to respond when she suddenly saw the Eldest Princess lean a little closer and meet her eyes.

In Shen Zhishu’s surprised gaze, she parted her lips and said softly, “Help me one more time, act with me, thank you.”

Her voice was extremely low and fast, more like a whisper, a low and lingering sound by her ear, in complete contrast to the frank tone of the first two sentences.

…What does “act with me” mean?

And considering the volume she had deliberately used before… could it be that the first two sentences she had said were an act for someone to see?

Shen Zhishu narrowed her eyes, her expression unchanged, but her voice also lowered. “Someone is watching us, aren’t they?”

The Eldest Princess nodded almost imperceptibly.

Shen Zhishu asked, “Who is it?”

The Eldest Princess said in a low voice, “I can’t say.”

“Was it her who drugged you before?”

“Yes.”

“You want me to cooperate with you in an act, to pretend to be intimate with you, to put her mind at ease?”

“Yes.”

Shen Zhishu narrowed her eyes, understanding the situation.

In that case… I’ll help one more time.

She couldn’t offend the Eldest Princess to her face.

Shen Zhishu raised her arm, her rough and slender fingers emerging from her sleeve.

That hand reached forward and brushed past the Eldest Princess’s temple.

The unique scent of cedar from the northwest drifted over, floating in the air, faint and elusive.

It made Shen Zhishu dazed for a moment.

She composed herself, tilted her head slightly, and said in a louder voice, “There’s a white plum blossom petal, this subordinate will remove it for Your Highness.”

The Eldest Princess tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and said, “Thank you.”

A rustling sound came from not far behind them, like the movement of someone hiding in the shadows and peeping.

“Do we continue the act?” Shen Zhishu asked in a low voice.

“A little closer, she hasn’t left yet.” The Eldest Princess had a flash of inspiration and suddenly said, “Call me A’Yu.”

“A’Yu?”

“Yes, Jiang Yu, my name.”

“And then? What do I say?”

“You just need to call me that, and I’ll handle the rest.”

Shen Zhishu instantly got into character, raised her hand to put it on the shoulder of the person in front of her, and called out, “A’Yu.”

Jiang Yu suddenly raised her eyes, and her originally indifferent gaze was tinged with an indescribable emotion.

She asked, “Did you receive the flower tea I sent you three months ago?”

Her cheerful voice was round and full, filled with deep joy and affection.

There was no trace of acting.

…This person’s acting skills are truly remarkable, Shen Zhishu thought.

Just as Shen Zhishu was about to open her mouth to answer, she suddenly saw the Eldest Princess take a step back, returning to her usual indifferent and expressionless demeanor.

Shen Zhishu was stunned for a moment, then realized, “She’s gone?”

“Yes,” the Eldest Princess said. “She can’t bear to hear others call me A’Yu.”

“So that’s how it is.” Shen Zhishu didn’t ask further.

“Thank you again for today’s matter, General,” the Eldest Princess said. “I will settle things with that person today and ensure that I will not trouble you with this matter again.”

“It is this subordinate’s honor to be of help to Your Highness,” Shen Zhishu cupped her fists and bowed. “Your Highness need not thank me. If there are any other matters in the future that require this subordinate’s assistance, this subordinate will go through fire and water without hesitation.”

The Eldest Princess nodded gracefully, not in a hurry to leave. She looked into the distance, staring at the mottled snow in a daze.

…She seems to be in a daze often.

She was already second only to one and above ten thousand in the Kingdom of Nan’an, yet she still had so many things that didn’t go her way, making her so preoccupied?

Shen Zhishu was eager to return to the manor with Xie Jin to identify the assassin and didn’t think too much about it. So she said, “Your Highness, if there is nothing else, I will take my leave first.”

The Eldest Princess slowly raised her eyes and said, “Ah,” “Wait a little longer.”

“Hmm? Wait for what?”

The Eldest Princess said, “She probably hasn’t gone far.”

…Forget it, might as well see it through to the end.

Shen Zhishu had no choice but to retract the foot she had just taken a step with.

The small space fell into a dead silence again. And a quiet environment easily makes one start to reminisce about the past—

The past… a snowy night.

A snowy night… a spooked horse.

A spooked horse… stop!

Shen Zhishu, facing the tree trunk in self-reflection, began to frantically search for topics to break the suffocating silence. She made small talk:

“Your Highness… is truly gifted. Your acting just now was very realistic.”

“It wasn’t all acting,” the Eldest Princess replied in a faint voice.

“Hmm?”

The Eldest Princess paused, then said, “I did feel quite good yesterday.”

Shen Zhishu: ???

Is that something you can say?????

Shen Zhishu was so shocked that she choked. For the first time, she felt that someone was even more daring with their words than she was. Her brain temporarily shut down. “Your… Your Highness flatters me?”

The Eldest Princess didn’t reply to this, glanced at her, turned to leave, her voice floating out with her, “She’s gone far. I will return to my manor now, General, please feel free.”

The white figure gracefully departed, gradually merging with the snowdrifts.

…

Shen Zhishu stood up from her chair with a dark expression, ran to the northwest corner of the General’s Manor, and started digging in the snow. As she dug, she thought, What is all this??!

…It was probably retribution for not having dinner with Mother He yesterday and insisting on wandering around the streets.

She could only hope that what the Eldest Princess had said, “I will settle things with that person today,” was true, and that “I will not trouble you with this matter again” was also true.

She really didn’t want to get involved with the imperial family anymore!