Chapter 31: A Chill To The Heart

It was exactly the last day of summer, stepping into autumn. The leaves had already turned yellow, and in such a season there was no better time for replacing the old with the new.

Cui Hao’s men indeed dug up a box under the banyan tree in the back courtyard of Chen Chi’s residence. The box contained evidence of Lu Shangqing’s years of official embezzlement.

How Lu Shangqing received the news, no one knew, but that same day he hanged himself. No one had heard a sound, and when he was discovered his body was already cold.

By the time the news reached Fang Rui it was that Lu Shangqing had killed himself out of shame. After the matter, Fang Rui decided against lunch and had someone summon Minister of Personnel Gu Changqing to the court.

He discussed this matter for a full two hours at Great Yuan Hall with Shen Yu and Gu Changqing, and in the end announced to those outside that although Lu Shangqing had already committed suicide, official procedures must be followed: as long as the case was not closed they’d continue the investigation, determine exactly how much Lu Shangqing had embezzled and where the funds had come from, and verify everything one by one.

And the official put in charge this time was neither Cui Hao of the Court of Judicial Review nor Shen Yu who had just returned from the Court of Judicial Review, but Gu Changqing, who had only recently taken the post of minister.

Gu Changqing, hearing he was so entrusted, was flattered and secretly vowed to serve His Majesty faithfully.

When Shen Yu returned to the gate of the Grand Guardian’s residence, it was already afternoon. Her stomach empty and about to return to the house to eat, Lei Shengda from next door seemed to have just come back too. Seeing Shen Yu’s carriage he strode over with surprise on his face. “Hey, Shen Yu, half a month without seeing you, you’ve actually put on weight.”

Hearing that thunderous voice that was so distinctive, Shen Yu could tell it was Lei Shengda without turning around.

Shen Yu was not one to hold grudges. Even if she did, Lei Shengda’s small matter wouldn’t be worth remembering for half a month. If she held a grudge against anyone, it was that shameless Jia Ming.

She turned and looked at Lei Shengda with a plain expression and asked, “General Lei, where have you returned from?”

Seeing that Shen Yu did not bear a grudge, Lei Shengda scratched his head, embarrassed, and grinned a bit foolishly. “His Majesty gave me a task: he gave me a hundred-man lazy squad and asked me to train them into a unit that would satisfy him within three months.”

Lei Shengda was the least likely to hold a grudge. When he took a liking to someone, his liking was more roundabout than Fang Rui’s bluntness. Lei Shengda admired Shen Yu for not being hypocritical, unlike those at court who said one thing on the surface and did another behind the scenes.

He admired most that she avenged slights immediately. Lei Shengda loved that sort of character.

Lei Shengda himself was that kind of person: no matter how fierce the argument today, the next day they could still drink and be merry.

Hearing Lei Shengda say the emperor wanted him to train the lazy squad into elites, Shen Yu’s lips curled slightly. She felt His Majesty was giving Lei Shengda something to do to keep him from stirring up trouble everywhere.

What Shen Yu did not expect was that Lei Shengda would actually train them into the strongest hundred-man unit.

“I haven’t felt this passion in a long time. When I first trained those hundred useless men, my excitement felt like being back in my old village teaching those rascals under me who only knew eating, drinking, and playing,” he said.

Shen Yu smiled. “As long as you’re happy.”

Lei Shengda was pleased, but it was the hundred carefully selected rotten eggs in the ranks who suffered. Many were sons of noble families who had joined the camp with a mindset of loafing and waiting for rations, and ill-timed as it was, they ran into General Lei’s huge hammer. His twin drum-beating bronze hammers were wielded with such skill, each weighing over four hundred jin, together over eight hundred jin, that Lei Shengda terrified those hundred young worms into crying their eyes out.

“Ah, look at me! I just kept talking and almost forgot that I’ve only come back to fetch fresh clothes, I still have to go to the camp later. These rascals, the moment I leave they all flop like worn-out mules and won’t budge. Half of the three months is already gone, I can’t let His Majesty down. Shen Yu, I must go. Talk to you next time,” Lei Shengda said as he hurried toward his own gate.

Watching Lei Shengda’s retreating back, Shen Yu merely smiled and then suppressed it. Perhaps in this court Lei Shengda was the most genuine person.

She could roughly understand why His Majesty, after she and he had been captured, brought troops to take in Lei Shengda a year later. It was probably because the emperor considered Lei Shengda genuine: anyone who treated him well would receive a hundredfold return.

Lei Shengda had likely long since forgotten their brief meeting before Fang Rui besieged him at Spoon Mountain. Back then, Fang Rui had been captured alongside Shen Yu while rescuing her, and an old woman in Lei Shengda’s band remembered that Shen Yu and Rong Tai were the ones who had saved her grandson from the river. Lei Shengda, being a man of principle, released them because they were benefactors.

By the time Rong Tai brought his men over, the emperor had already met them at the foot of the mountain.

It had been only a fleeting glimpse then. How could Lei Shengda possibly remember?

People like Lei Shengda were rare in the court, which is why Fang Rui personally went to recruit him.

“Cuizhi.” Shen Yu returned to her room and called for her maid, then took off her official hat, and as soon as she removed it someone took it from her.

Assuming it was Cuizhi, Shen Yu instructed, “Cuizhi, have the kitchen prepare a meal and send it over.”

“What would the master like to eat?”

The voice behind her was gentle and practiced, not the bright voice of the maid Cuizhi. Shen Yu turned and, seeing the familiar face, asked, “Why are you still here?”

The woman before her bowed slightly and said, “Master, the old master sent me to serve you.”

Shen Yu frowned and said, “Didn’t I have the steward give you some silver for travel expenses to return home?”

The woman standing before Shen Yu was none other than Hengniang, the one who had appeared outside the Grand Guardian’s residence that day saying she wanted to repay Shen Yu by serving as a maid.

After Fang Rui’s warning that day, Shen Yu had already suspected Hengniang’s motives, so she said coldly, “The residence doesn’t lack a servant like you. What exactly is your purpose in being so eager to enter?”

Hengniang’s face flushed and she explained, “I only wish to repay you, my lord, not to keep receiving your kindness forever.”

Shen Yu took a deep breath and, with a solemn expression, told Hengniang, “I help people out of convenience. If everyone like you sought to become my servant, wouldn’t the residence long ago be overflowing?”

Shen Yu did not know that it was because she had casually saved Fang Rui by the river five years ago that she was now being remembered.

Hengniang lowered her head in silence, as if determined not to leave and to remain a servant in the Grand Guardian’s residence.

Shen Yu sighed with no hint of compromise, “Since you say the old master personally arranged for you, fine, I will speak to him myself.”

Shen Yu didn’t eat and went straight to see the old master.

Under the old master’s sharp gaze, Shen Yu stood straight without showing any timidity and asked, “Grandfather, what’s going on with Hengniang?”

The old master looked at the steward. The steward immediately understood and called to the servants in the room, “All of you, come with me outside.”

Watching the servants being dismissed, Shen Yu had a bad premonition. She felt the old master’s intention in keeping Hengniang was not without motive.

After the servants had all left, the old master picked up a brush, dipped it in ink, and began practicing calligraphy on rice paper, speaking in the most ordinary tone as he wrote, “In any case, the Shen family needs a legitimate heir.”

Hearing this, Shen Yu narrowed her eyes slightly. “So?”

The old master paused his brush, looked up at Shen Yu, and the light in his eyes seemed to have banished all warmth. He looked icy enough to chill the heart.

“Your status has always been too precarious and I cannot be at ease. The foundation of the Grand Guardian’s house cannot be ruined in an instant. Therefore we must cultivate someone we can trust one hundred percent to serve as a false-pregnancy person.”

At those words Shen Yu’s eyes suddenly widened. She understood the old master’s meaning: he wanted her to quickly bear an heir and use Hengniang to pretend to be the mother.

Shen Yu had mentally prepared for this possibility for some time, but she had not expected it to come so soon.

The old master glanced at Shen Yu’s shaken expression, then bent his head and continued writing. “You still have a few years to consider. That maid I placed in your courtyard will be observed for a while. If there truly are no problems, take her as a concubine. If the false-pregnancy succeeds, it would not be impossible to elevate her to become your official wife.”

She could not bear to listen any longer. What she felt was more than a chill in the heart, it was more like her heart had died. Shen Yu replied with a bitter tone, “Your granddaughter takes her leave.”

After leaving the old master’s study, Shen Yu paused outside in the courtyard, listening to footsteps and looking around at her surroundings.

Suddenly she realized that everything about the Grand Guardian’s house chilled her to the bone.

She certainly understood the old master’s intention: in a few years’ time he expected her to bear an heir with some man, then have Hengniang pretend to be pregnant so that after ten months the child would be presented as though it had been born from Hengniang’s womb.

She knew that in the old master’s eyes there was no such thing as familial affection. He cared only for the Grand Guardian’s legacy. Nothing else mattered.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again the gloom had vanished.

Didn’t she still have a few years? Years could change many things. By then her choice might not be what the old master demanded.

She had served as the Grand Guardian’s young master for twenty years. That was enough to return the family everything they had given to her.

When night fell and Fang Rui appeared in Shen Yu’s room holding the white cat from the neighboring residence that loved to stick to him, he thought he’d come to the wrong room. Upon entering he smelled a strong scent of wine.

Shen Yu was drunkenly sitting on the floor beside the bed, head buried in her arms and knees hugged close, like a little drunk cat that had been abandoned.