Fengle Tower’s façade was grand and wide, the entrance decked with colored banners and festive arches, and within, the inner corridors were shrouded and shadowed, a heady aroma of wine lingering in the air.
Shen Yunshu sat within a small private chamber. On the table was already placed a bowl of opening soup and several plates of fruits for wine, along with a pot of yellow wine she’d ordered. While Lu Yi had not yet arrived, she took out a packet of powder from her waist and shook it into the wine pot.
It was her first time doing something like this. Her heart pounded like a drum, and her hands trembled. She had to take several deep breaths before she could calm herself.
Just before noon, Lu Yi arrived as promised.
His clothes were not the same as in the morning—he’d changed deliberately, wearing that rain-washed sky blue color she liked. His tall figure carried a certain oppression, making the small chamber feel even more cramped.
He sat down, a trace of gentleness hidden in his long, sharp eyes. “Ah Shu, you asked me here on your own. I’m very happy…”
Shen Yunshu had no mood for idle chatter. She said directly, “I know you don’t truly wish to marry Youran, and Youran herself does not wish to marry you. I hope, brother, that you’ll let her go and not trouble her anymore.”
Her tone was cold, causing the gentleness in Lu Yi’s eyes to fade away. No longer bothering to hide his possessiveness, he fixed her with a forceful gaze. “I can let her be, but only if you do something for me in exchange…”
“What is it?”
“Break off your engagement with the Pei family.”
“Impossible!”
She rejected him instantly, but Lu Yi wasn’t angry. “You know my heart toward you. Since I can’t have you, and I can’t bear to destroy you either, I’ll just have to find a substitute. Your third sister’s features really do resemble yours. When I marry her in the future, I’ll train her properly…”
“Shut up!” Shen Yunshu’s third sister was as pure as jade. She would not allow him such vile thoughts. “Give up. Youran will never marry you.”
“Oh?” Lu Yi tugged at the corner of his lips, a soft, low laugh rumbling from his chest. “Ah Shu, I like you, so I don’t wish to use underhanded means against you. But your third sister is different—I don’t have that kind of patience for her. She misses her mother, and often visits the estate. With a little effort, I can make her submit to me. By then, she’ll have no say in whether she marries me or not…”
The more Shen Yunshu cared about her third sister, the more confident Lu Yi felt in controlling her.
In his mind, Shen Yunshu now had only two choices: break off her own engagement, or sacrifice her sister.
Clearly, she couldn’t bear to give up her third sister.
Lu Yi waited quietly for her answer.
If she hadn’t known his despicable nature already, Shen Yunshu might have truly been at her wit’s end from anger.
But since she dared face him alone today, she would not be thrown off by his words.
She picked up the wine pot on the table and poured a cup of yellow wine for him.
Amber wine rippled in the glass cup. She poured herself a cup as well, put on a different expression, and raised her cup to him in a beseeching gesture. “I beg you, brother, have mercy and spare my third sister.”
Seeing her drop her earlier bravado, Lu Yi thought victory was in his grasp. He glanced down at the wine, speaking leisurely, “If I spare her, how will you compensate me, Ah Shu?”
Shen Yunshu’s hand trembled slightly as she held the wine cup. “I will break off the engagement.”
“Good,” Lu Yi finally picked up his cup. “It’s a deal.”
Shen Yunshu drank her wine, keeping her eyes on him until he drained his cup, then finally looked away.
Lu Yi set his cup down, staring intently at the visibly nervous Shen Yunshu. “This wine tastes unusual. Did you put something in it, Ah Shu?”
“You’re only asking after you’ve drunk it. Isn’t it a little late?”
“As long as you poured it, even if it were poisoned, I would drink it gladly…”
Shen Yunshu sneered. “Brother, you’ve only had a single cup and already you’re spouting drunken nonsense.”
She stood, intending to leave the chamber, but her wrist was suddenly caught. “Where are you going?”
“To urge the dishes along.”
“Sit here. I’ll go urge them.”
“Very well.”
Shen Yunshu sat back down, watching Lu Yi step out of the small chamber. A few moments later, she quickly took out a pill from the pouch at her waist and swallowed it, then stood and left as well.
Lu Yi had barely been gone a moment when he returned to the chamber. Lifting the beaded curtain and peering inside, he saw that Shen Yunshu was already gone.
What needed to be said had been said, promises had been made. She could avoid him for a while, but she couldn’t hide forever.
Feeling in high spirits, Lu Yi was about to leave when a sudden heat surged through him, an indescribable restlessness rising up.
At that moment, he caught sight of Shen Yunshu’s figure at the end of the corridor—not far away.
She was still here.
Lu Yi strode after her. Sensing something, she reached the end of the corridor, lifted her skirt, and went upstairs.
Whether it was an illusion or not, Shen Yunshu’s figure seemed more alluring today, a touch of charm that burrowed straight into his heart. He found himself quickening his steps, finally catching up with her on the second floor.
He seized her wrist with too much force, pulling her right into his arms.
The restlessness within him crashed against his reason, and driven by desire, he held her tight, his voice hoarse, “Ah Shu, since you’ve agreed, why do you still hide from me?”
In the next instant, a sharp, piercing scream burst from his embrace. “Help! Someone is trying to take advantage of me—”
It wasn’t Shen Yunshu’s voice.
Startled, Lu Yi pushed the person away and found a woman dressed identically to Shen Yunshu. At this moment, she was pointing at him in terror, shouting loudly.
It was the busiest time of day at the restaurant, and soon several stern-faced men rushed over to seize him.
The woman cowered behind a gentleman, insisting on reporting to the authorities.
Not long after, the patrol officers from the street arrived. With so many witnesses, after hearing the account, they bound him and took him to the magistrate’s office.
Lu Yi could not defend himself at all.
Only then did he finally realize why Shen Yunshu had invited him to the restaurant today.
Shen Yunshu had never intended to go this far. After all, Lu Yi was like half a brother to her. For him to end up in prison wasn’t good for the Lu family, nor for her.
But he was truly hateful, openly threatening to harm her third sister if she married into the Pei family.
Since that was the case, he could not blame her for striking first.
She had put a drug in the wine, one that would cloud a man’s reason with desire. To lure him to drink, she had taken a sip herself. Though she soon took the antidote, perhaps because it was made into a pill, it didn’t take effect immediately, and now she too felt dizzy, her body flushed and hot.
But her mind was clear, confident she wouldn’t be affected by the drug. After Lu Yi left the chamber, she returned and poured the remaining yellow wine into a prepared bamboo tube, planning to dispose of it on her way back.
Just as she exited the chamber, a woman’s scream rang out from the second floor, plunging the upper level into chaos.
That woman was an actress Shen Yunshu had hired from a brothel three days prior. As long as she refused to settle, Lu Yi would inevitably spend ten days to half a month in prison.
Hiding behind a corridor pillar, Shen Yunshu forced herself to endure the discomfort and watched Lu Yi’s mortifying downfall for a while, then slipped away before the patrol officers arrived.
However, sending Lu Yi to prison was only a stopgap measure. In the end, it solved nothing. Once he was released, he would surely seek revenge twice as hard. If she truly wished to sever his interest in her third sister, she would need to secure her a marriage as soon as possible.
If Pei Huaian hadn’t intervened at the temple fair, her third sister might already be engaged to the sixth son of the Liang family and wouldn’t have been entangled in all this.
Shen Yunshu hid the bamboo tube within her wide sleeve and made her way to the restaurant’s back courtyard.
Her body’s heat gradually faded, but her head grew even more dizzy, and suddenly a wave of sleepiness overwhelmed her.
She recalled the words of the medicine seller: after taking the antidote, just sleep it off.
She hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but now realized that the seller meant the antidote would induce drowsiness.
Shen Yunshu couldn’t help but regret: if she’d known about this side effect, she wouldn’t have stayed behind the pillar to watch the spectacle.
Dark clouds swam before her eyes. Forcing herself to stay awake, she headed for the stables behind the restaurant.
Her carriage was there, and Tinglan was waiting for her.
Shen Yunshu’s steps were unsteady. She was accidentally bumped by a passing guest, and her already unstable body collapsed to the ground.
The man who bumped into her seemed drunk himself, reeking of wine, and mumbled an apology before leaving.
Shen Yunshu tried to stand, but with no strength, she slumped back down awkwardly.
Footsteps approached. A pair of strong hands helped her up.
A clear, youthful voice spoke, “Sister-in-law, how did you fall? Did you drink too much?”
It was Pei Huaian.
Encountering a familiar face in such weakness, Shen Yunshu instinctively clutched his hand. “I’m not well. Please, could you help me to my carriage?”
“Oh, all right.” Pei Huaian waved to a few friends nearby, indicating they should go into the restaurant first, then turned and asked her, “Where is your carriage? I’ll take you there…”
Shen Yunshu lifted her face, trying to spot her carriage.
But dark clouds blurred her vision. She couldn’t distinguish anything. She hadn’t dared use her own carriage today; instead, Tinglan had hired one temporarily. How could she find it now?
“Go find… Tinglan…” Shen Yunshu struggled to say the name before losing consciousness.
“Find who?” Pei Huaian hadn’t heard clearly. “What Lan?”
He’d only ever seen her maid Qiongzhi at the estate and didn’t know she had another maid called something-Lan.
But Shen Yunshu had already fainted in his arms, no longer able to answer, no matter how he asked.
Men and women should keep their distance; holding her was awkward, but letting go wasn’t an option either. And as she was to be his future sister-in-law, he couldn’t simply abandon her. Gritting his teeth, he carried her to his own carriage, then went to look for this “little Lan.”
But after searching for a while, he couldn’t find anyone named “little Lan,” so he returned to the carriage.
He didn’t dare enter the carriage itself, so he sat outside, flicking open a folding fan to fan Shen Yunshu inside the carriage, muttering, “How did she get so drunk? There’s no smell of wine at all, and her face isn’t even red…”
Most drunk people have flushed cheeks, but the woman in the carriage not only lacked redness, her skin was radiant, almost translucent.
She slept with her eyes closed, leaning quietly against the carriage wall. Her hundred-layered skirt of honey-pink lotus color spread like blooming flowers. The simple colors made her serene face all the more ethereal. Though he’d seen her many times before, it was the first time he saw her sleeping so beautifully, and the youthful boy, unversed in matters of the heart, was briefly stunned.
Realizing he was overstepping, Pei Huaian hurriedly turned his gaze away—looking at flowers, trees, the horse—anything but the carriage.
The autumn sky was pure and deep, several osmanthus trees in the courtyard wafting their fragrance on the breeze.
When Shen Yunshu awoke, she opened her eyes to see the youth’s refined profile in the sunlight, just outside the half-lifted curtain.
He had a blade of grass in his mouth, head tilted back, gazing idly at the sky.
She glanced at the high, distant sky herself, noting that the sun had moved far west—she must have slept for about an hour.
As soon as she stirred, he heard it and turned to her. His clear phoenix eyes shone. “Sister-in-law, you’re finally awake. If you’d slept any longer, I’d have starved to death…”
He’d originally come here with friends to sample the restaurant’s new dishes, but ended up stuck here by her side. His friends had come several times to hurry him in, but he’d blocked the carriage entrance, telling them to eat first.
A quarter of an hour ago, his friends, well-fed and satisfied, had all left. Not one had thought to bring him even a bit of food—not even a bun.
“I told you to take me to find Tinglan, didn’t I?” Shen Yunshu rubbed her stiff neck and climbed out of the carriage.
“I didn’t catch her name—so it’s Tinglan, huh.” Pei Huaian leaped lightly down from the carriage, tugged his sleeve, and let her hold onto his arm through the cloth as she stepped down. He couldn’t help but lecture, “Sister-in-law, you really can’t drink so much again, especially when you’re out alone. Luckily you ran into me this time. If it had been some lecher, who knows what might’ve happened…”
“I wasn’t drunk,” Shen Yunshu didn’t want her future brother-in-law thinking she was a woman fond of wine. After a moment’s thought, she said, “I must have eaten something bad—hmm, I was lightly poisoned…”
“Poisoned?” he exclaimed, “Should I take you to the physician?”
“No need, I feel fine now. It’s nothing.” Though he was dressed in fine clothes, his nature was honest and sincere. Shen Yunshu couldn’t help but feel a bit more favorably toward him.
She fixed her gaze on him, and suddenly thought of an idea.
“Pei Huaian, would you be willing to marry my third sister?”
The hungry youth, his stomach touching his back, was startled. He stared at her in disbelief. “Sister-in-law, I know I helped you today, but there’s no need for your sister to repay me with her hand in marriage, is there?”