4 Affairs

He Zhiyu looked at the person seated in the chair. She wore a moon-white plain silk long jacket, adorned with a single Hetian jade hairpin carved in the shape of a plum blossom. A white jade bangle, a gift from his mother, encircled her slender, fair wrist. She appeared as pure and elegant as a magnolia, her eyes filled with joy and tenderness as she looked at him.

His gaze softened slightly, the cold, mountain-like indifference of his expression seemingly touched by the faint glow of morning clouds.

Seeing this, Zhuan quietly retreated.

He Zhiyu answered calmly, "I stayed in the ancestral hall a bit too long."

Meng Yunshao rose to ladle a bowl of milk that had been warming slowly over the stove, placing it before him. "I thought you wouldn't be coming to the study today, Heir. I was just about to go check on things, fearing you might have gone to Fuyao Pavilion by mistake and taken a needless detour. With the banquet held today, the servants were busy running about, so I extinguished the lights and came over here, letting them get some rest earlier."

He Zhiyu replied, "No, I was thinking of attending to some official business."

Meng Yunshao smiled submissively. Glancing at the files on the desk, she said, "In these past few months, quite a backlog has accumulated. Since I couldn't help with much else, I cross-referenced the duty charts you kept in the study and selected the submissions from key officials, organizing them by the thickness of the dossiers, hoping to make it easier for you to process them."

He Zhiyu flipped casually through the one placed most prominently and asked, "Why arrange them this way?" He thought to himself that most people would sort by chronological order, but Meng Yunshao had devised her own method, which felt rather novel.

Meng Yunshao had already ground the ink and handed him a brush, saying softly, "I thought that while commanding the Imperial Guard must be a difficult task, it surely shares similarities with managing a household. Since the Emperor holds you in such high regard, you must have the positions of your subordinates clearly arranged. Those in vital posts must handle vital matters, and those requiring several pages to explain must surely be major, complex issues. As for the rest of the voluminous, trivial paperwork, while some may appear urgent, they are not necessarily important."

He Zhiyu said nothing more, focusing intently on the file and beginning to make detailed annotations, continuing without pause for nearly an hour.

Although he had intended to rest today, he was never perfunctory when it came to his duties; he was not simply going through the motions. Meng Yunshao lit several bright candles, casting light upon He Zhiyu’s focused, sharp-featured profile. His long, dark lashes cast shadows, softening the aloofness that usually kept others at a distance.

Meng Yunshao accompanied him in silence, diligently reading a book of her own. The room was so quiet that the falling of a needle could be heard.

Finally, He Zhiyu stopped, closing the dossier with a snap and setting down his wolf-hair brush. The brows he had kept slightly furrowed smoothed out. "That will be all for today."

Meng Yunshao said softly, "Yes, you have truly been traveling extensively today. It will be the same if you look at the rest tomorrow."

He Zhiyu’s expression eased, appearing satisfied. "This volume concerns the restructuring of the entire city's defense layout. Having read this one, it is as if I have already reviewed fifty percent of the whole."

The two returned to Fuyao Pavilion together. All was silent, save for a cold moon hanging alone in the sky, bright and distant.

He Zhiyu looked at Meng Yunshao and said, "You let them all rest, so now there is no one to serve us."

Though they were husband and wife, they had maintained a respectful, moderate distance along the way. Now, inside their own courtyard and away from prying eyes, Meng Yunshao relaxed slightly and smiled. "What would you like, Heir? I shall serve you."

He Zhiyu did not speak; instead, he suddenly took her hand and walked quickly into the room. Meng Yunshao had to take two quick steps to keep up with his pace.

Once inside the inner chamber, Meng Yunshao served him, removing his elaborate dark green, gold-embroidered brocade robe and unfastening his long belt inlaid with warm white jade, revealing his snow-white undergarments.

The clothing carried a pleasant, cool scent—a blend of orchid and pine she had personally taken pains to concoct for him, reminiscent of a valley after the rain. Feeling the gaze fixed upon her from above grow somewhat intense, she raised her gentle, moist eyes to meet his for a moment.

He Zhiyu suddenly grabbed her slender wrist and pulled her onto the couch.

Meng Yunshao knew she could not escape this night. Resigned, she chose to do as she had at the beginning of most of their encounters: she kissed his lips in a gesture of supplication.

They were somewhat soft, yet warm—not as cold as he appeared. He paused for a moment, as if watching with cold eyes as she played her final hand, before he began to respond in a dense, lingering manner, almost possessing a hint of deep affection.

Yet, his subsequent actions remained heartless, devoid of any tenderness.

He Zhiyu was blessed with the appearance of a jade-like, refined gentleman, but years of military training had given him a lean, powerful physique. Combined with his naturally tall and upright stature, he was a sight to behold by day, but at night, he was truly exhausting, often dragging things out until the small hours.

He also disliked it when she made a sound. Whenever she could truly bear it no more and would weep a low, soft "Heir," he would coldly tell her, "Do not call me Heir," and then seal her lips with his own, leaving her unable to make another sound. No one would ever know of the boundless passion hidden behind the bed curtains.

Yet, even though it was hard to bear, Meng Yunshao was willing.

She often went to great lengths, just as she had today, to ensure such moments happened.

He Zhiyu was indeed filled with official business, but he did not necessarily have to rush to the study to process it the very day he returned from a long journey.

She had merely staged a scene of "hard to get" under the guise of being a gentle and virtuous wife, letting him face a slight cold shoulder at Fuyao Pavilion so that she might leave a faint, lingering impression in his heart.

Because of this, she was the legitimate young mistress of the Marquis's manor. Only then could she possess fine silver charcoal that burned without black smoke in winter, have maids who dared not dream of climbing into the Heir's bed, have sisters-in-law who would not mock her while watching plays, and have the authority to dispose of the fallen flowers in her own garden as she pleased—things that were more real to her.

Just like tonight, if she had missed a single step and he had truly gone to the study and not returned, then by tomorrow morning, the news that the Heir had not entered the main chamber on the day he returned from a three-month absence would be known throughout the manor. No matter how strict the rules were, she would not be able to stop the contemptuous looks of the servants.

And those things—for three years, she had seen enough of them.

She did not want much.

She had long since stopped hoping for supreme favor; it was impossible to seek that from him. She only hoped that he would come to her two or three times a month, which was enough to "legitimize" her position.

She dared not repeat what had happened once before, when he had visited a few more times over the course of three or four months. The servants whispered that she had won the Heir's heart, and her mother-in-law had rebuked him for being overly indulgent. He had then disappeared for three full months, sleeping either in his study or his office.

It had taken Meng Yunshao every ounce of effort to lure him back during the Mid-Autumn reunion banquet.

However, come to think of it, a relationship that hadn't even begun with the sharing of nuptial wine was destined to be difficult.

Meng Yunshao remembered their wedding night. She had sat on the bed, covered by a bridal veil, her back straight and her hands folded properly, enduring the hunger in her empty stomach.

She had never been in a Marquis's manor, but she knew the high-born families had many rules. She hoped to leave a favorable impression of being well-mannered on her husband that night.

She had thought about what she would say to him when the veil was lifted and they drank the nuptial wine. She wanted to say: "Although I am not as high-born as my elder sister, since fate has brought me into your carriage, I truly wish to live a good life with you. Regardless of what the Emperor decrees tomorrow—whether it be demotion or exile—we shall face the hardships together as husband and wife."

Who could have known that she would hear the clamor of weapons clashing outside, as if some great crisis were unfolding?

It was not until the third watch that someone pushed the door open.

She was nervous, unsure if the person who entered was her husband, but she dared not lift the veil herself and asked, "Who is it?"

The person was silent for a moment, then let out a cold laugh. "In my He family, you dare ask who I am?"

She fell silent, knowing it was the Heir, and realized the situation must have changed.

He Zhiyu’s voice was as cold as the wind and frost on a desolate mountain in midwinter, and with an air of indisputable authority, he spoke the longest sentence he would say to Meng Yunshao for the next year: "I do not wish to touch you. Lift the veil yourself; let me see who you really are."

Hearing this, Meng Yunshao silently lifted her veil, feeling like a thief caught red-handed in the street, with nowhere to hide.

He Zhiyu looked down at her with eyes like icicles, coldly saying, "A concubine's daughter? A maid?"

Meng Yunshao bit her lower lip, then lifted her head with a touch of stubbornness. Neither humble nor arrogant, she looked back at He Zhiyu and said, "To the Heir, I am Meng Yunshao, the adopted daughter of the Meng family."

He Zhiyu said nothing more, a look of undisguised sarcasm and contempt appearing on his face—the most vivid expression Meng Yunshao would see on him for the next year.

However, although their wedding night was so humiliating, as time flowed, more than a year later, He Zhiyu finally consummated the marriage with her.

Originally, he had been determined to divorce her, but having just married, they had encountered a major upheaval in the imperial court. He was at the center of the storm, and a divorce at that time would have been disadvantageous for both. He thought it better to let things cool for a year or a year and a half, until the people of Bianjing lost interest and found new topics for gossip, before discussing it again.

He knew this was a tragedy for her, but it was the Meng family who had caused it. He did not possess enough kindness to forge an eternal, inescapable bond with the Meng family for the sake of a stranger.

Thus, from the day they were married, he never returned to Fuyao Pavilion.

Meng Yunshao did not know how to proceed with the relationship, so she simply went to pay her respects to her mother-in-law every day as usual.

Her mother-in-law felt some pity for her, naturally understanding that Meng Yunshao was quite innocent in this matter. Over time, she assigned a few people to serve her, partly out of concern for the reputation and face of the Marquis's manor. Yet, the Marchioness also knew of the Heir's desire for a divorce, and, truthfully, she did not wish for her own precious son to be tied to this inexplicable marriage, inviting ridicule for a lifetime.

Meng Yunshao thought that if she could just go on living this cold, bleak existence, it would be fine.

As long as she had coarse food to eat and could protect her two dowry maids, Suye and Qingruo, she felt she could endure it.

The world was harsh, and life was always difficult for women.

For a low-born woman like her, beautiful and outstanding but without support, she feared that if she left the Marquis's manor, even maintaining her purity would be difficult.

But later, she discovered that in this vast Marquis's manor, without the support of a husband, she simply could not survive.