Chapter 7: Miss Shen

The footsteps that came were the ones Fang Rui knew best. They weren’t anyone else’s. They were Shen Yu’s.

Shen Yu had already finished bathing, except that she had left the jade pendant she always carried in the bathhouse and returned to fetch it. But when she saw that fluffy white cat coming toward her, she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

Shen Yu’s gaze was fixed motionless on the white ball, and the white ball stopped too, lying on the ground and staring at the suddenly frozen Shen Yu.

Both cat and human implemented the policy of “if the enemy doesn’t move, I don’t move.”

Shen Yu glanced left and right, found no one, and, afraid of startling the white ball of fluff, slowly squatted down and watched it with curious eyes.

“Meow?” Her voice was soft and mushy with a hint of a kitten’s call.

Fang Rui felt like his nose was about to bleed.

What an adorable voice…

That very faint meow was clearly Shen Yu imitating a cat’s cry.

“Meow~” This one was lazy and a bit soft — now that’s an authentic cat sound.

Shen Yu suddenly showed a hint of a smile, her face full of gentleness. She rolled up her wide sleeve, cautiously reached out her hand, and very quietly imitated the cat’s cry, “Meow, meow.”

Fang Rui tilted his head slightly, raised a hand and covered the area beneath his nose with it.

He felt he really needed to replenish his blood.

Just as Shen Yu’s hand was about to touch the white cat’s fur, she heard someone speak, “Cuizhu, I think I heard a cat again.”

“Could it be the cat next door has wandered over again?!”

Shen Yu suddenly withdrew her hand. She could have stayed, but inexplicably felt guilty and didn’t want others to know she was playing with a kitten. She quickly stood, took a few steps, and hid in a dead corner beside the building. This corner was originally meant for bonsai, but every time they tried to plant something it died, so the spot had been left unused.

Now it served well as a hiding place. Two or three people could hide there without issue…

Of course, Fang Rui had also hidden himself there. Hearing Shen Yu’s footsteps approach, he felt a jolt in his chest. Was he about to be discovered?!

But…

Shen Yu had slipped in with her back facing him and hadn’t noticed someone else hiding there. All her attention was outward.

Fang Rui pressed himself against the corner to avoid being bumped into by the oblivious Shen Yu. In the cramped space he could clearly smell the lingering fragrance from her bath, which was very pleasant.

They were less than a fist’s distance apart. If Shen Yu moved slightly she would touch the person behind her. Fang Rui was a head taller than Shen Yu, so her hair’s scent was even more distinct.

“Ah, it’s really that cat from next door. Why has it been coming over here so often lately? It used to only meow by the wall, how did it end up over here now?”

“Maybe the servants at the general’s house forgot to feed it again, so it’s come over looking for food. Should we give it some?”

“No, no. If it knows there’s food here, it will come whenever it’s hungry and that’d be troublesome. I’ll send it back and tell the general’s people to watch it. The old madam can’t stand these cats and dogs.”

As the voices faded away, Shen Yu puffed out her cheeks and exhaled deeply.

She walked out of the shadowy corner without knowing someone had been standing right behind her, and that person was secretly laughing in the corner.

Truly a careless Shen Yu.

Shen Yu then entered the bathhouse. The courtyard only had someone posted at the main gate, and the two maids who normally stood guard at the bathhouse door had gone to return the cat, so Fang Rui swaggered right into the bathhouse.

Shen Yu put on her jade pendant and suddenly felt something strange, as if someone were sizing her up. In an instant she turned her head back.

She turned and widened her eyes.

A figure in dark clothing meant for traveling discreetly at night stood a little more than four feet away in front of her. He was dressed in black and wearing a mask where the eye area was further covered by black gauze.

Shen Yu took two hurried steps back and was about to fall into the pool when the black-clad person reached out and…gave her a little push.

With a loud thud, water splashed up from the bath and Shen Yu fell into the water. When she surfaced, someone had wrapped an arm around her waist from behind and another hand looped around to grip her neck.

Hearing the splash, the guards rushed over and knocked on the bathhouse door. “Young master?”

Shen Yu took a deep breath to steady herself and replied, “I’m fine. The pool area was slippery and I fell in, so my clothes got wet, that’s all. I’ll change and come out, you can go back to your posts.”

Her voice was so composed that the guard outside was not suspicious at all and returned to his post.

“What do you want?” Shen Yu asked calmly, though she had been startled when she first saw the masked figure.

The person behind Shen Yu was none other than the infiltrator, Fang Rui.

He deliberately lowered his voice, making it hoarse, “Of course, to have a night tryst with a beauty.”

This voice trick was something Fang Rui had learned years before while traveling, from an old ventriloquist performer. Whether it was a child’s cry, a woman’s voice, or a man’s tone, he could mimic them all vividly. He hadn’t learned this skill for long, but with a solid foundation he could still change his voice from his natural tone.

The reason he planned to sneak in and appear before Shen Yu was that quiet surveillance without a word was his old life’s way. He used to be like a farmer sitting at a tree and hoping for a rabbit to fall into his lap. In this life, Fang Rui intended to try a different method: weave his own net and catch the rabbit with his own hands.

“How dare you! I am the young master of the Grand Guardian’s house! How dare you shame me like this!” Shen Yu’s face flashed with anger.

Fang Rui drew close to the hollow of Shen Yu’s neck and boldly took a deep sniff. “How fragrant.”

“You!” Panic surfaced in Shen Yu’s eyes. Though she had never experienced such teasing, she knew this was the kind of trick a scoundrel used to harass respectable women.

“Just as I had imagined, fragrant and with a slim waist,” Fang Rui couldn’t help the corner of his mouth lifting. He was inwardly ecstatic. He had lived two lifetimes now, and in this life, he finally had the chance to hold her in his arms. In his past life, merely peeking and not daring to act meant he couldn’t even come too close to her, never mind wrap an arm around her slim waist.

“What do you really want?” The person behind was so insolent that Shen Yu grew extremely uneasy, yet she forced herself to remain composed.

What did he want? Did that really need asking?

Of course he wanted Shen Yu!

“I’m here to tell you that I know your secret.”

Shen Yu’s eyes widened instantly, but she quickly calmed down. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

“Is it that you don’t understand, or that you’re pretending not to? You know what I’m talking about, don’t you, Miss Shen?”

At the sound of “Miss Shen,” Shen Yu froze all over. Even with the water’s warmth on her skin, she felt as if she had plunged into an icy pit.

Mist gathered in her eyes from how tense she was, but she remained resolute and calm as she said, “There is no Miss Shen in the Grand Guardian’s house. If you want money, just let me go and I promise you riches and jewels.”

Fang Rui deliberately let out a low, husky laugh. “I’m afraid I don’t have that kind of fate. Money and such are worldly things. How could they compare to the allure of a beauty? Why not just give yourself to me? How about that?”

“You scoundrel! If you speak insolently again I’ll shout for help at once! At worst I’ll burn the entire place down!” If one listened closely, there was a tremor in Shen Yu’s voice.

Fang Rui stifled his laughter and said in a threatening tone, “Are you afraid that the whole world will know that the Minister of Ceremonies, Shen Yu, is actually a woman?”

Feeling the tremble from the person in his arms, Fang Rui softened for a moment. But when one softens one part, a different part often hardens.

He slightly loosened his hold to prevent a further reaction. It wasn’t yet time for more physical escalation, so he thought it better to harden his resolve. Threaten decisively once and be done, rather than having to threaten many times.

“Of course, if you’re not afraid, you can call for help now. Bury the whole residence with me, I don’t think I’d lose out.”

The person in his arms fell silent for a long time. Fang Rui knew Shen Yu wasn’t someone who collapsed easily. It had been this very frail-looking, cross-dressing woman who once gathered martial folk, people who usually avoided entanglement with the court, to storm the palace and rescue him when he was under house arrest.

How much was packed into that small body, Fang Rui did not know. He only knew that such a Shen Yu was especially alluring to him, and that was one of the reasons he was captivated.

“What do you really want?” Shen Yu’s voice was particularly weak this time.

Shen Yu understood that if she persisted in denying being a woman and angered the man behind her, he could strip her clothes and check. She’d be speechless and powerless to resist, and her body would be the clearest proof.

She didn’t know when someone had discovered she was female. She had been very careful, but still the secret had been exposed.

Old master Shen had often warned Shen Yu since childhood that on her shoulders rested the entire Grand Guardian’s house. Hundreds of lives depended on her, so her identity must never be unmasked.

So today, if this man wanted all the assets belonging to this house, she would have to give it to him.

“Why don’t you trust me? Fine, I’ll come again tomorrow. Of course, you could set a trap and lure me in. As long as you’re confident you can ensure the secret won’t leak, you may strike me.”

Fang Rui tilted his head to glance at the row of candles in the bathhouse. He loosened the hand at Shen Yu’s throat, dipped a hand into the pool, quickly scooped a small cluster of water and sent it toward the flames. The somewhat distant row of candles all went out, and in an instant the entire bathhouse was shrouded in darkness.

“I promise you: if you don’t push me to the brink, I absolutely will not tell anyone that you are a woman.”

Fang Rui released Shen Yu’s waist and stepped out of the pool.

Even after Fang Rui leapt out the window, Shen Yu still not rise from the pool. In the neighboring courtyard, Fang Rui looked down at his soaked clothes, smiled helplessly, and murmured to himself, “Shen Yu, if I hadn’t done this, I truly don’t know when I could have gotten close to you.”

The water in the pool had completely chilled. Shen Yu finally exhaled, climbed out, and lay down on the ground closing her eyes.

“I still got discovered…”

The voice was so small that only Shen Yu herself could hear it.