Fifth Master’s room was not only filled with the scent of medicine but also had a gloomy and eerie atmosphere. No one in the entire residence liked to come here. Nanny Song glanced at Ji Wujing, who was lying on the bed, and quickly looked away in fear. She sized up Gu Jianli again, feeling a bit of pity. If things hadn’t changed, this girl in front of her would have been conferred the title of County Princess upon reaching womanhood. With such a family background, appearance, and reputation, it was truly a pity that she would soon be lost here.
But such matters were not for a servant like her to comment on. Smiling, she said, “Fifth Lady, please wait a moment. Nanny Lin from Fifth Master’s courtyard will come to serve you soon. I need to report back to the Old Madam.”
Gu Jianli then realized that Nanny Song was not from Fifth Master’s courtyard. She nodded slightly, “Thank you, Nanny.”
The room fell silent, and Gu Jianli could only hear her own breathing. She looked at her fingers under the red silk, where blood oozed from a broken nail. She sat motionless for nearly an hour, waiting for someone to come and serve her, but no one did. She gently sucked the blood from her broken thumb under the red silk, then lifted the red silk herself.
What she saw first was a pair of wedding candles.
The room was very dark, with thick curtains blocking the wind and light from the windows.
A crisp crackling sound drew Gu Jianli’s attention to a brazier not far from the bed. Her gaze lingered, and after a moment of mental preparation, she cautiously looked at Ji Wujing lying on the bed.
A hint of surprise flashed in Gu Jianli’s eyes.
She was somewhat afraid and didn’t dare to look directly at first, giving only a quick glance before lowering her head. In that brief glance, her first impression of Ji Wujing was his paleness.
He wasn’t the nine-headed, six-armed figure from her dreams, nor the brawny man she had imagined. On the contrary, he was somewhat thin, though tall.
With her eyes downcast, Gu Jianli recalled Ji Wujing’s facial features from that quick glance. She didn’t see clearly, only remembering his skin as white as snow.
It made sense, as Fifth Master Ji had been bedridden for four years, naturally becoming thin and pale.
Gu Jianli lightly pressed her lips together, then looked up again, her eyelashes trembling slightly as she timidly gazed at Ji Wujing.
Ji Wujing’s eyes were closed, his narrow eye contours framing a teardrop mole below the corner of his left eye. His tightly pressed thin lips hinted at a faint, elusive smile.
Gu Jianli was stunned; clearly, Fifth Master Ji’s appearance was vastly different from what she had imagined. Leaning forward, she carefully scrutinized Fifth Master Ji’s eyebrows and eyes.
After a while, Gu Jianli slowly shook her head.
Such looks on a man were indeed too beautiful.
A man’s appearance should be as imposing as her father’s.
Suddenly, a lock of her black hair, which had been tied up, loosened and fell, brushing lightly across Ji Wujing’s nose and resting on his eye socket.
Gu Jianli was startled, her lips parted slightly, and she exclaimed in surprise. Realizing how close she was to Ji Wujing’s face, she felt it was indeed a bit inappropriate, and her cheeks were lightly tinged with red. She hurriedly sat upright and tucked the offending lock of black hair back into her bun. Glancing at Ji Wujing, she noticed he was still quietly asleep, unaware of anything. Gu Jianli placed her hand on her chest and let out a gentle sigh of relief.
The sound of hurried footsteps approached. Gu Jianli hesitated for a moment but did not cover her face with the red silk again, sitting there openly waiting.
A woman with a face full of smiles entered, first offering Gu Jianli some congratulatory words before introducing herself as the wet nurse for Sixth Brother and Fourth Sister, explaining that she had just come from putting Fourth Sister to sleep, hence her tardiness.
Gu Jianli narrowed her eyes slightly, feeling a bit puzzled.
Nanny Lin quickly explained, “I forgot to mention, Madam, that Sixth Brother and Fourth Sister are the Fifth Master’s adopted children.”
Gu Jianli suddenly remembered that the Fifth Master did have a pair of adopted twins. Speaking of it, Ji Wujing had once been engaged. That engagement was arranged in childhood by his parents, and the girl’s surname was Ye. Later, Ji Wujing took up the business of killing, and his reputation in the capital worsened. Miss Ye was determined to break off the engagement. Four years ago, Ji Wujing was poisoned during a mission, and afterwards, he brought back a pair of twins. Miss Ye insisted that someone as cold-blooded and ruthless as Ji Wujing wouldn’t adopt orphans out of goodwill and claimed the twins were undoubtedly his illegitimate children. She made such a fuss that the engagement was annulled. Since Ji Wujing’s health deteriorated day by day, becoming bedridden for four years, there had been no further talk of marriage.
Gu Jianli knew of this incident because Miss Ye’s uproar back then had been quite loud. She had overheard it while sitting beside her sister, listening to the maids’ gossip.
“The Fifth Master likes peace and quiet, so there aren’t many people serving in the courtyard. Usually, it’s Changsheng who attends to the Fifth Master. But now that you’re married and living here, it’s inconvenient for him to enter the inner quarters. He will come to pay respects to you tomorrow.”
Nanny Lin had a round, smiling face, which looked very cheerful. In the past three months, Gu Jianli hadn’t smiled much nor seen many smiling faces. Seeing Nanny Lin’s pleasing face, her mood inexplicably improved. Her eyes and lips took on a slight smile as she softly spoke, “I will be relying on you in the future, Nanny Lin.”
Nanny Lin responded with a few polite words, adding, “There aren’t many people in our courtyard, so I hope you can bear with us, Madam.”
Gu Jianli glanced at Ji Wujing on the bed, worried that their conversation might disturb him.
Noticing this, Nanny Lin led Gu Jianli to sit on a Luohan bed under a twelve-panel folding screen and briefly introduced the courtyard. Nanny Lin said the number of people in the Fifth Master’s courtyard was really few, which surprised Gu Jianli. Three masters and only three servants: apart from the wet nurse Nanny Lin, the servant boy Changsheng who served Ji Wujing, and a maid named Lizi, who was allowed to stay because she was Changsheng’s sister despite being a bit slow-witted.
“Madam, would you like to have a meal?”
It was already past the meal time, and Gu Jianli, no longer feeling the tension she had upon entering the room, realized she was a bit hungry when Nanny Lin mentioned it. Nanny Lin hurriedly went outside to give orders, and when the food was brought in, she led Gu Jianli past the twelve-panel screen to the outer room.
The meal was simple, but it was something Gu Jianli hadn’t tasted since the trouble at her home.
She took small bites.
As she savored the fragrant and soft crystal taro dumplings, Gu Jianli suddenly thought of her family’s situation. Her nose tingled, and she lowered her head to hide the sadness in her eyes. When she looked up again, her expression was calm and gentle.
After the meal, Nanny Lin helped Gu Jianli wash up and bathe, then hurried off to take care of Sixth Brother and Fourth Sister. Once again, Gu Jianli was left alone in the room with Ji Wujing—the person she had never met before, feared a bit, and had not willingly married.
Fresh from her bath, Gu Jianli had a soft, dewy glow about her. The hem of her red dress trailed along the ground as she gracefully walked to the bed, frowning at Ji Wujing.
After a moment’s hesitation, Gu Jianli bent down to pick up a pair of mandarin duck wedding quilts. In doing so, she accidentally pulled back the quilt covering Ji Wujing. Her face turned pale with fright, and she quickly placed the mandarin duck quilt on the Luohan bed before rushing back to the bedside.
Her hair, having been let down after washing, now framed her face. She tucked a strand behind her ear and, swallowing her reluctance, carefully tucked Ji Wujing’s quilt back in.
Inadvertently, her hand brushed against Ji Wujing’s. Startled, Gu Jianli withdrew her hand. Since she was seven, her father had not touched her, and now being in close proximity to an unfamiliar man made her feel uncomfortable.
She looked down at Ji Wujing’s hand. His hands weren’t broad but were long, with pronounced joints. After a quick glance, she averted her eyes and quietly moved to the Luohan bed.
Sleeping in the same bed with Ji Wujing was out of the question. Fortunately, there was a Luohan bed positioned across from the main bed. Though not as comfortable, it was far better than the wooden boards she had been sleeping on for the past three months.
In a normal marriage, she would not have been so willful as to insist on sleeping separately on her wedding night. But the reason she did not want to sleep with Ji Wujing was hard to admit—she was afraid he might die in the middle of the night, and she would wake up next to a corpse!
It was the coldest time of the year. Even with a brazier in the room, the Luohan bed was far from it. Gu Jianli slowly curled up, staring at the pair of wedding candles on the table, lost in thought.
Today was her coming-of-age ceremony. She still remembered her father laughing and promising to throw a grand banquet for her, during which she would be conferred the title of County Princess.
Today was also her wedding day. There were no blessings from elders, no joyful banter with her sisters, no three bows, and no shared cup of wine… nothing.
Why think about such things?
It was better to think about how to heal her father’s wounds, clear his name, and cope with her current situation in the Marquis of Guangping’s residence.
She shifted under the quilt, tucking her chin in for warmth. Before falling asleep, she glanced at Ji Wujing on the bed, feeling uneasy about sharing a room with a man who was barely alive.
She buried her face in the quilt.
Gu Jianli did not sleep well. She didn’t have nightmares about ghosts but felt as if a pair of fox-like eyes were staring at her. She didn’t dare open her eyes and curled up tightly under the quilt.
Late into the night, the lights in the second house were still on.
The Second Madam frowned, troubled and anxious. She was Ji Xuanke’s mother. If the Gu family hadn’t encountered trouble, Gu Jianli would have entered their family next summer as her daughter-in-law. Now, instead of becoming her daughter-in-law, she had become her sister-in-law.
“Madam…” Her trusted maid, Hongxing, brought over a bowl of stomach-soothing porridge, “It’s been so cold these days, please have some to warm your stomach.”
“How did she end up actually marrying into the household?” The Second Madam grew angrier the more she thought about it. “Wasn’t this supposed to force her to resist the marriage decree? How did she actually end up in the household?”
The Second Madam wasn’t worried about the awkwardness of the daughter-in-law becoming a sister-in-law but was more concerned about how to explain this to Ji Xuanke. At the time, Ji Xuanke had knelt and begged the family to support Prince Wuxian. The family had tricked him into going to Nan’an City to fetch a relative, promising to help Prince Wuxian once he returned.
To send Ji Xuanke away, force Gu Jianli to resist the marriage decree, and remove Gu Jingyuan as per the palace’s wishes, all while making Gu Jianli voluntarily break off the engagement—once Ji Xuanke returned, everything would have been settled.
However, they never anticipated that Gu Jianli would rather face death than defy the decree. Now, with the current situation, when Ji Xuanke returns home to find his fiancée has become his aunt, what if he causes a commotion? As his mother, the Second Madam knew her son’s stubbornness and his deep affection for Gu Jianli.
Thinking of Gu Jianli’s excessively alluring face, the Second Madam angrily swept the hot porridge off the small table: “Born to seduce, that vixen!”
“Madam, please don’t be upset. The Fifth Master has been in a coma for almost half a year this time, longer than usual. I also heard that the Fifth Master coughed up blood again the day before yesterday. It will take at least ten days for the Third Young Master to return home…”
The Second Madam’s eyes flickered. Ten days—there was much that could be done in that time.