When the sky began to lighten, the rain finally stopped.
Song Jie woke to the sound of a dog’s panting, the bitter taste of medicine in his mouth, and the sight of a large, furry dog head in front of him.
The black dog was squatting by his bed.
As soon as it saw he was awake, it wagged its tail and nudged its snout under his hand, whining softly, asking to be petted.
His groggy mind was dazed for a moment.
Then, struggling to sit up through the dizziness, he called out,
“Jia Ning?”
But the empty room contained only Panpan, the dog.
No one else was there, much less Jia Ning.
Was everything from last night just a dream?
Jia Ning…didn’t come back?
How could that be?
He could clearly remember the warmth of Jia Ning’s cheek…
Song Jie’s head throbbed with sharp pain.
Panpan nudged his hand again, and something slipped from his palm.
What was that?
He looked down and saw a sky-blue handkerchief, stained with blood, fall to the bedside.
A woman’s handkerchief?
Could it be Jia Ning’s?
Did Jia Ning really come back last night?
Panpan picked up the handkerchief from the floor and handed it to him.
He grabbed it, his heart pounding wildly.
“Prime Minister?”
Cang Shu hurriedly lifted the curtain and entered, carrying hot water, his face lighting up in relief.
“You’re finally awake! You were ice-cold and unconscious for so long last night…”
“Did Jia Ning come back last night?”
Song Jie cut him off, clutching the handkerchief, his heart about to leap out of his chest.
“Was it her who fed me the medicine? Is this handkerchief Jia Ning’s? I wasn’t dreaming, she really came, didn’t she, Cang Shu?”
Cang Shu looked at the handkerchief, then at Song Jie’s anxious expression, and immediately knelt in apology.
“Please punish me, Prime Minister. I took it upon myself to invite Madam Xie to take care of you…This handkerchief belongs to Madam Xie—Xie Yushu…”
Not daring to look at Song Jie, he lowered his head and said,
“It was she who came last night, she who fed you the medicine. I am guilty and deserve death.”
“Madam Xie? Xie Yushu?”
Song Jie’s heart went cold, his mind a mess.
It took him a while to connect Madam Xie and Xie Yushu.
Xie Yushu, the illegitimate daughter who looked so much like Jia Ning, who threw away her dignity just to be recognized by the Houfu, imitating Jia Ning in everything to please the Old Princess…
It was actually her.
“Last night…it was her? It was her all along?”
Song Jie couldn’t believe it.
That hand, warm as a heater, was Xie Yushu’s?
That soft, jade-like cheek was Xie Yushu’s?
The one who fed him medicine, who lied that it wasn’t bitter, who promised never to leave him…was all Xie Yushu?
Cang Shu dared not look up.
“Yes, it was always Xie Yushu.”
He thought the Prime Minister would fly into a rage, but Song Jie only muttered in disbelief,
“Impossible. How could Xie Yushu know about my past with Jia Ning? I clearly heard Jia Ning call me ‘Little Daoist’…No one but Jia Ning has ever called me that.”
Cang Shu felt as if a thousand catties were weighing down his head, pressing him almost to the cold ground.
“Prime Minister, it truly was her…I don’t know how she knew about your past with Miss Jia Ning. Maybe Miss Jia Ning mentioned it to her before.”
“Impossible! The person Jia Ning hated most was her and her concubine mother.”
Song Jie suddenly started coughing violently, clutching his chest as if his heart had been hollowed out again.
This was too absurd.
It wasn’t Jia Ning—it was the person Jia Ning hated most, the one he looked down on the most—
Xie Yushu! Last night, he had actually mistaken Xie Yushu for Jia Ning so vividly…
He coughed up a mouthful of black blood into his palm, his face as if he’d been slapped.
“Prime Minister!”
Cang Shu hurriedly got up, wiping his hands while handing him a bowl of warm medicinal soup from a tea cup.
“Please, don’t be angry. Drink the medicine first. This is all my fault. If you must punish someone, punish me.”
He knelt again, not daring to say that inviting Xie Yushu to act as Miss Jia Ning had been the Old Princess’s idea.
The Prime Minister had been poisoned and unconscious for three days, not a drop of water nor a sip of medicine able to pass his lips.
Several times, his breath had almost stopped. With no other options, Cang Shu had gone to Guo Temple to ask the Old Princess for help.
After arriving, the Old Princess heard him call “Jia Ning” in his coma.
Desperate, she decided to have Xie Yushu pretend to be Miss Jia Ning and coax him into drinking the medicine.
Unexpectedly, the Prime Minister actually drank it.
“So, the idea to have Xie Yushu impersonate Jia Ning was yours?”
Song Jie finally spoke coldly after drinking the medicine and recovering a little.
“It was.”
Cang Shu bowed his head.
“You kept calling Miss Jia Ning’s name while unconscious, Prime Minister. I thought…if it was Miss Jia Ning feeding you the medicine, perhaps you would take it, so I resorted to this desperate measure. Please punish me, Prime Minister.”
“Raise your head.”
Song Jie’s tone was icy.
Cang Shu looked up, and Song Jie slapped him hard across the face, nearly knocking him over.
Blood filled Cang Shu’s mouth, but he knelt again and asked for punishment.
“Please punish me, Prime Minister.”
Song Jie, face cold and gloomy, raised his hand to strike again, but seeing the blood at Cang Shu’s lips, he finally held back.
“Go kneel outside.”
Cang Shu answered, knowing this was mercy and that he shouldn’t say another word. But…
“Prime Minister, may I be punished a little later?”
Cang Shu’s voice grew weak.
“I need to go to the Pei Mansion to repay a debt first.”
“What?”
Song Jie frowned at him.
Cang Shu dared not hide it, producing a Debt Note and handing it to Song Jie.
“Madam Xie…that is, Miss Xie Yushu, who took care of you last night, required payment. Two thousand taels of silver for one time.”
Song Jie took the Debt Note and saw the Red Handprint stamped on it—one from Cang Shu, one from Xie Yushu.
It was so ridiculous that he laughed out of anger.
That greedy-for-wealth Xie Yushu, she even wanted to profit from him now.
“Two thousand taels just to feed me medicine? She might as well go rob someone.”
Cang Shu lowered his voice even more.
“Xie Miss said this is called: Performance Fee.”
“What kind of performance fee?”
Song Jie hadn’t caught it and looked at him.
Cang Shu said,
“Xie Miss said it’s the payment for acting as Miss Jia Ning…”
He heard Song Jie give a cold laugh and dared not say more.
“Shameless. Does she have no dignity at all?”
Song Jie grew even more disgusted.
“So poor she has to live by pretending to be someone else.”
Cang Shu said nothing.
He didn’t know why, but he couldn’t bring himself to hate Xie Miss.
Her appearance was natural, not something she could help, and if she and Miss Jia Ning had shared the same mother, no one would say she was imitating on purpose.
In the end, it was only because her mother was a concubine…
“Did she really look that much like her last night?”
Song Jie searched his muddled mind for a memory of the night before.
In his fevered haze, it really seemed as if he’d seen Jia Ning.
Was it his illness, or was she truly that similar?
He remembered the day of the spring outing, when he mistook her from afar, but once he got close and grabbed her, he could immediately tell she wasn’t Jia Ning.
Jia Ning had eyes bright as stars and would never show such a submissive expression.
Cang Shu answered seriously,
“When she acted as Miss Jia Ning, I almost thought it was really Miss Jia Ning.”
That similar?
Song Jie stared at the Debt Note, lost in thought.
Cang Shu glanced at the handkerchief by Song Jie’s hand and hesitated for a long time before asking,
“Should I throw away that handkerchief for you, Prime Minister?”
Song Jie swept it to the floor in disgust.
“Take it out and burn it.”
Cang Shu picked it up.
Rarely, he didn’t reply.
He actually wanted to wash it clean and return it to Xie Miss.
The rain had stopped for a while.
Why hadn’t Xie Yushu come out yet?
In the carriage at the mouth of the alley, Pei Shilin lifted the curtain and looked once more at the tightly guarded back gate of the Prime Minister’s Mansion.
The door was shut tight, not the slightest sign of anyone coming out.
The sky glowed with a dull blue-gray.
On a nearby street, early market vendors were already shouting, but there was still no sign of Xie Yushu.
Did feeding medicine take an entire night?
Song Jie’s attendant, Cang Shu, had repeatedly assured him it would only take Xie Yushu an hour at most.
But now, it was already dawn!
Pei Shilin’s anger burned hotter and hotter.
No matter how little he liked Xie Yushu, she was still his wife, and no man could stand his wife spending the entire night in another man’s room!
“Back to the mansion!”
Pei Shilin dropped the curtain, grinding his teeth as he ordered the driver.
She had better never set foot in the Pei Mansion again!
The driver dared not ask, turning the carriage around to head home.
Who could have guessed, as soon as Pei Shilin stepped into the mansion, the gatekeeper hurried to report,
“Madam returned two hours ago.”
Two hours ago?
But he hadn’t seen anyone leave through the back gate of the Prime Minister’s Mansion!
Pei Shilin pushed the servant aside and strode quickly toward the inner courtyard.
As soon as he entered, he heard Xizhi Mammy instructing the maids in a low voice,
“Move quietly, keep your voices down, don’t wake the Madam.”
She really had come back!
Pei Shilin, fuming, marched to the bedroom door, only to be blocked by two little maids.
Weren’t these the yellow-haired girls Xie Yushu brought with her?
They actually dared to stop him!
They bowed and said,
“Young Master, Madam ordered that no one is to disturb her.”
Pei Shilin sneered,
“This is the Pei Mansion, not your Yong’an Marquis Manor. Out of my way!”
The two maids trembled in fright but refused to move.
The one named Jin Ye even stood directly in front of him, stammering,
“We are Madam’s servants. We do as Madam says. Young Master, you cannot go in.”
How bold!
Now even Xie Yushu’s maids dared speak to him like this!
Pei Shilin’s face darkened, about to order them dragged out and beaten, but Xizhi Mammy intervened first.
“Who gave you the nerve to speak to the Young Master like that? Madam did say not to be disturbed, but the Young Master must have important matters to see her. Step aside at once.”
Xizhi Mammy limped over and bowed respectfully.
“The two maids don’t know the rules. Please don’t blame them, Young Master. If you have urgent business, I will go in and inform Madam.”
Such a mix of hard and soft tactics.
Pei Shilin actually laughed in anger.
“I never knew I needed a servant to announce me before seeing my newlywed wife. This illegitimate daughter from the Houfu really thinks she’s a princess now!”
He brushed past Mammy and, ignoring all obstacles, pushed the door open, only to hear a dissatisfied “tsk.”
Inside the bed curtains, Xie Yushu slowly sat up and said,
“So noisy. If you won’t sleep, can’t you let others sleep?”
Her words made Pei Shilin even angrier.
He strode over in three steps and yanked open the bed curtains.
Xie Yushu, wearing a blue inner robe and loose hair, sat on the couch, raising an unpainted face to look at him, deliberately asking,
“What do you want?”
Strangely enough, this was the first time Pei Shilin had seen her face clearly—no makeup to mimic Xie Jianing, no lowered brows or averted eyes, no half-hidden face afraid to meet his gaze.
It was a face that belonged entirely to Xie Yushu, looking at him with righteous confidence, even a hint of anger.
Originally, Xie Yushu had a small mole on her nose, and her eyes, on closer inspection, weren’t that much like Xie Jianing’s.
Only her face shape, nose, and outline were similar.
Her eyes were even more narrow and long.
“I waited for you at the back gate of the Prime Minister’s Mansion all night,”
Pei Shilin said, trying to control his anger.
She replied indifferently,
“I left through the front gate. How was I supposed to know you were waiting at the back?”
Of course she knew.
In the original script, Pei Shilin waited at the back gate, and Xie Yushu, leaving the Prime Minister’s Mansion in disgrace, was humiliated in his carriage, interrogated about what she had done, why her skirt was torn, whether Song Jie had agreed to save his younger brother…
It was so annoying, she didn’t want to waste her breath on him, so she simply left through the front gate and went home to sleep, letting him wait at the back.
“The front gate? Song Jie let you leave through the front? Wasn’t he afraid of being seen?”
Pei Shilin was both angry and surprised. Song Jie clearly despised Xie Yushu.
After mistaking her for someone else at the spring outing, Song Jie had looked as if he’d swallowed a fly, leaving behind only,
“If you still have any sense of shame or dignity, stop imitating Jia Ning.”
So he knew well that Song Jie only used this fake because he missed Xie Jianing too much when his old illness flared up.
Just as he couldn’t stand Xie Yushu, but would still sometimes stare at her in a daze, because she really did look too much like Xie Jianing.
In recent years, she had learned to imitate Xie Jianing’s bearing and tone…almost indistinguishable from the real one.
He didn’t believe Song Jie would allow her to leave through the front gate.
Song Jie surely wouldn’t want anyone seeing him involved with a married woman like Xie Yushu.
“Whether he’s afraid of being seen, I don’t know, but I bet you’re more afraid.”
Xie Yushu sneered,
“The legitimate eldest grandson of Bo Yibo, the newly crowned Tan Hua Lang, Pei Shilin, selling his wife for glory, sending her into the Prime Minister’s Mansion on a rainy night—if word gets out, how will the entire Pei Mansion survive in Bianjing?”
Pei Shilin’s face turned red with embarrassment and anger.
“Xie Yushu, you—”
“Keep your voice down,”
Xie Yushu interrupted, getting up and saying,
“Would it be glorious for others to hear?”
Pei Shilin’s face turned the color of pig liver in his rage.
Xie Yushu, satisfied, walked around him to comb her hair, starting with thoroughly shaming Pei Shilin and his whole family.
Let’s see who can’t survive first.
“I really underestimated you,”
Pei Shilin said, chest heaving with anger.
Not wanting to waste more words, he turned and asked,
“When will Song Jie release my brother?”
“How should I know?”
Xie Yushu replied directly,
“He wasn’t even awake when I left. Wait until he wakes up and ask him yourself.”
Pei Shilin grew anxious, snatching the comb from her hand and angrily demanding,
“You spent the whole night in another man’s room, feeding him medicine and bringing him water, but you didn’t even mention my brother? Then what were you doing there?”
He snorted like an angry pig, but Xie Yushu wasn’t the least bit bothered.
She lifted her head and innocently asked,
“Well then, should I go to the Prime Minister’s Mansion again tonight?”
“Xie Yushu!”
Pei Shilin exploded, snapping the comb in half.
In her mind, Xie Yushu heard the crisp system prompt—
“Congratulations, Host, you’ve gained 1 point of Green Hat Value.”
She hadn’t even had time to feel pleased when a servant outside came to report,
“Young Master, someone from the Song Prime Minister’s Mansion is here.”
Pei Shilin frowned, thinking Song Jie had come to fulfill his promise to save his brother.
He dropped the broken comb and ignored Xie Yushu, going to the door to ask,
“Who is it?”
“It’s a servant named Cang Shu,” the servant stammered.
“He’s waiting at the back gate, and said…he will only see Madam.”
Pei Shilin’s brows knitted into a deep frown.
He heard Xie Yushu laugh softly from inside the room.
He turned to see Xie Yushu resting her chin on her hand, smugly raising her eyebrows at him, pretending to complain,
“Really, coming so early.”
What did she mean?
Did she know that servant was coming?
What was he here for?
“Jin Ye, Yin Ya, come help me comb my hair.”
She opened her makeup box and began to draw her brows and apply powder.
Pei Shilin fumed,
“You even dress up for a servant?”
Xie Yushu didn’t even look at him.
“How do you know it’s just a servant coming?”
Pei Shilin paused, confused.
Did she think Song Jie himself would come to see her?
Overestimating herself!
Song Jie only ever saw her as a stand-in for Xie Jianing.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.