Chapter 26: There’s a Pit

In the Cloud Deep Pavilion of Xie Duke’s Mansion, Xie Zhaoran sat with a stern expression as she listened to Qin Xiao’s report on the events that had unfolded at the Shi Mansion that day.

She had received word the moment Lu Wenzhou and his mother stepped foot in Yunxiang Marquis Mansion.

Since it involved an old acquaintance and seemed to pose no danger, Xie Zhaoran had set the matter aside for the time being. Once she finished handling her pressing tasks, she summoned Qin Xiao to hear the full story.

Qin Xiao recounted every detail from the Hidden Guards’ reports without omission.

This included the Lu Family’s clear intention to form a marriage alliance with the Shi Family, Madam Shi’s agreement, and her arrangement for the two principals to meet privately.

The choice of location had been shrewd. The Hidden Guards, caught off guard, hadn’t been able to overhear the specifics of their conversation.

All they knew was that the Lu mother and son had departed after dinner.

Madam Shi had personally seen them off, and from the looks of it, the two families shared an exceptionally close bond.

Xie Zhaoran propped her head on one hand while lightly skimming the floating tea leaves in her cup with the celadon lid held in the other.

She closed her eyes briefly, hiding the exhaustion beneath them. The past two days had been relentlessly busy; she hadn’t managed more than two hours of sleep per night, and that morning, dark circles had shadowed her eyes.

At the thought, Xie Zhaoran abruptly lifted her lids, a shadow flickering in her gaze.

“Go investigate this Lu fellow,” she ordered. “His family background, his character, every connection to the Shi Family—no matter how trivial, uncover it all.”

Qin Xiao turned to carry out the command, only to be called back.

“And send someone to see if this Lu is at least good-looking.”

Qin Xiao arched a brow in surprise, momentarily stunned before nodding. “Understood.”

She bowed to withdraw, but Xie Zhaoran stopped her yet again.

“Pass the Shi Family matters to Qiangdi. You handle the Crane Cry Temple situation personally. In two days, the Empress Dowager will lead the ladies of the various mansions there to pray for blessings. Ensure Her safety above all else.”

Qin Xiao’s face grew solemn as she nodded and stepped outside to find Qiangdi, who was overseeing the preparations for the carriages and horses.

Qiangdi assumed it was something urgent. When she heard the task, she clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter. “To think our lady would one day investigate a rival in love. Unbelievable.”

Still chuckling, she moved to assign the personnel, but she noticed Qin Xiao’s distant expression, as if her words brought no joy.

“Sister, what’s the matter?”

Qin Xiao snapped back to attention, her gaze toward Qiangdi complicated and hard to read.

Qiangdi and Qin Xiao had been orphans taken in by the Xie Mansion in their childhood, raised together side by side. Seeing her sister like this—lost in thought, clearly troubled—stirred her worry.

“What happened? Is something wrong with Miss Shi?”

Out of concern for Shi Yuning’s safety, Xie Zhaoran had entrusted all protective measures to Qin Xiao.

Qin Xiao was Xie Zhaoran’s most capable confidante, handling tasks with impeccable reliability. That alone spoke volumes about how deeply Xie Zhaoran cared for Miss Shi.

“Don’t you think our lady pays Miss Shi too much attention?” Qin Xiao ventured hesitantly.

Qiangdi blinked in astonishment, puzzled why Qin Xiao would raise the point. Their lady’s personal affairs weren’t for them to meddle in, and besides, a bit of fondness for Miss Shi was hardly an issue.

“Why bring that up, sister? Has something gone wrong?”

Worry shadowed Qin Xiao’s eyes. “You know our lady dreams of wandering the jianghu with Miss Shi. Don’t you find that… unsuitable?”

The two of them had grown up alongside Xie Zhaoran, sharing meals and quarters, understanding her better than anyone. They had been the first to learn of her unusual inclinations.

Xie Zhaoran had never hidden it from them. Upon realizing her attraction to women, she had maintained a careful distance.

She had even confided that she likely wouldn’t find a woman to her taste in this lifetime, devoting all her energies instead to safeguarding those around her.

Yet now, she meant to cast it all aside and roam the wilds with that coarse-mannered girl. Qin Xiao could scarcely approve.

Qiangdi couldn’t fathom Qin Xiao’s displeasure. She saw nothing amiss with it, and their lady’s choices weren’t theirs to second-guess.

“Why dwell on it, sister? Our lady’s done with being Crown Princess—no future as Empress either. She’s free at last, and so are we.”

If Xie Zhaoran took to the jianghu and brought them along, they could finally see the world. Even if she deemed them a hindrance and left them behind, they could live unbound by duty.

She and Qin Xiao were both orphans, families lost to the border wars, raised by the Xie Family at the cost of their lifelong service. But if their lady pursued new horizons, their freedom would be a happy compromise for all.

Qin Xiao tasted bitterness at Qiangdi’s eager delight. Freedom was the last thing she craved; it had never been her desire…

With a sigh, Qin Xiao mustered a strained smile. “Never mind. I was speaking nonsense. I’ll get back to work.”

Two days later, the rains ceased, and the skies cleared on the day the Late Emperor’s coffin was borne to the Imperial Mausoleum.

Tears streamed down the faces of the court officials as they proclaimed it the Late Emperor’s spirit watching from heaven, sparing his subjects the torment of storm and gale.

The censors spoke with such conviction and pathos that the Empress Dowager wept herself into a faint.

The New Emperor, frail of body and bound by the Late Emperor’s edict, remained in the palace. Prince Yu stood proxy for the escort.

By the Late Emperor’s decree, Prince Yu was to guard the mausoleum for life, never to emerge.

Before his departure, Prince Yu paid formal obeisance to the Empress Dowager.

Gazing upon the child who had matured at her knee, the Empress Dowager felt a pang of reluctance and nearly sought the Emperor’s mercy—only for Xiao Liju to restrain her.

Once Prince Yu had set forth, the Empress Dowager departed with the titled ladies of the noble houses for Crane Cry Temple, there to offer prayers and recite scriptures.

Though the day had dawned clear after endless rains, the mountain paths remained a quagmire, treacherous underfoot.

Shi Yuning peeked through the carriage curtain at the filthy road. Mud had splattered the hems of the attending palace servants’ skirts, rendering their original hues indistinguishable.

With a sigh, Shi Yuning let the curtain fall, unwilling to look longer.

Tu Chunhua wore the same sympathetic grimace, tinged with relief. “Thank goodness we have the carriage—and that you were sharp enough not to bring Xiao Liuer and the others. They’d be suffering right alongside.”

Shi Yuning nodded. She had foreseen the Empress Dowager’s presence demanding utmost decorum. If other families’ maids and matrons rode while theirs walked, it would fuel fresh rounds of spiteful chatter.

She refused to hand those busybodies more fodder.

Today, her plan was to keep a low profile—chiefly by steering clear of Xie Zhaoran.

These past two days, having come to grips with her feelings, Shi Yuning felt too ashamed to face her.

Xie Zhaoran saw her as a friend, a sister. Yet she harbored such improper thoughts. Utterly unworthy.

Best to avoid her henceforth, Shi Yuning resolved. In time, out of sight, Xie Zhaoran would forget her existence.

Her own heart was the worry—could Shi Yuning ever forget Xie Zhaoran?

“Are you fretting over the outsiders’ gossip?” Tu Chunhua guessed, noting Shi Yuning’s wilted demeanor since departure. After a moment’s thought, she consoled her. “Let their drivel roll off like so much hot air. We can’t muzzle them, so we’ll just keep our distance.”

Shi Yuning nodded. Gossip wasn’t her true torment, but the real cause was too private to share with Tu Chunhua. Better to let the misunderstanding stand.

She opened her mouth to agree when their carriage lurched to a halt.

Puzzled, Shi Yuning lifted the curtain. They were nowhere near the destination.

“Miss, the carriage is stuck in a pit,” the coachman reported tensely after inspection. “It’ll take some doing to free it.”

Shi Yuning nodded understandingly. Fortunately, the road here was broad enough. “Send word to the carriages behind us to proceed. We mustn’t delay the Empress Dowager.”

The coachman assented at once, directing the escort guards to wave the trailing vehicles onward.

News of the Shi carriage mired in mud reached Xie Zhaoran without delay.

“I’ll go see to it,” she told her carriage companions.

Lin Feiying, ramrod straight in her seat, bristled inwardly. She had overheard Qiangdi’s report and couldn’t fathom why Xie Zhaoran fretted over that Shi chit.

To hear her resolve to seek the girl out soured Lin Feiying’s mood entirely. “What business is the Shi carriage to you?” she snapped, face thunderous. “Aren’t the capital’s tongues wagging viciously enough?”

She had swallowed her share of humiliations lately. Xie Zhaoran refused her pleas to beg the New Emperor’s revocation of the decree. Now this—cozying up to Shi Yuning, whose notoriety matched the scandals.

As if the Xie name hadn’t been dragged low enough!

With mother-in-law and sister-in-law both icily silent, the carriage air turned frigid. Jiang Huan hastened to intervene. “Mother, please don’t anger yourself. Zhaoran’s just concerned it might hold up the Empress Dowager.”

She shot Xie Zhaoran a meaningful blink. “Isn’t that right, Zhaoran? Her Majesty summoned you to the palace just days ago—likely about today’s arrangements.”

Xie Zhaoran saw through Jiang Huan’s peacemaking. Lin Feiying couldn’t bar her anyway, but harmony spared needless strife. She inclined her head. “Sister-in-law has the right of it. The Empress Dowager charged me with oversight; I must investigate the delay.”

Without awaiting Lin Feiying’s consent, she swept aside the curtain and alighted.

“See that? She hasn’t a shred of regard for me, her own mother!”

“Rushing off like a lovesick fool for that Shi girl. Hmph. If I tumbled into a pit, she’d scarce muster half the haste.”

Lin Feiying’s outrage rang clear, laced—if one listened closely—with hurt.

Jiang Huan sighed to herself. Even before her marriage, she had heard of the rift: mother-in-law keeping young sister-in-law in the capital, their bond tenuous. Living here confirmed it as gross understatement.

The sister-in-law’s eyes held scant room for her mother-in-law, who was no sage herself. To heal the breach, she might have softened her elder’s pride. Instead, she perched on high, awaiting Xie Zhaoran’s capitulation for affection’s sake.

As if her daughter were still a child.

“Mother, compose yourself. While we were absent from the capital, I heard Zhaoran and Miss Shi took to each other instantly. A new friendship can only benefit her.”

Lin Feiying scoffed. “The Shi Family—what standing is that? If friends she craves, let her court the likes of Duke Zheng’s daughters, true noble flowers. Not some country bumpkin from the Shis. And that mother of hers, a rustic herself—what manner of decorous daughter can such stock produce!”

Jiang Huan saw reason would fall on deaf ears and held her peace.

Xie Zhaoran’s affinity for the Shi Family struck her as perfectly sensible. Madam Shi might hail from humble fields, but her devotion to her child was unparalleled.

Word had it that when the Late Emperor betrothed Miss Shi to Prince Yu, Madam Shi defied the edict openly in court, courting death for love of daughter. A mother’s devotion unalloyed.

The tale had moved Jiang Huan to misty eyes. Beside such a figure, her own mother-in-law paled lamentably…

Small wonder Zhaoran favored the Shis. Jiang Huan did too.

She ached to meet the Miss Shi who had so captivated Zhaoran—a remarkable soul, no doubt.

Remarkable or no, Shi Yuning knew only that her own situation looked grim indeed.