Chapter 19

Su Jiao had kept vigil at the mourning hall all the way until the day of the burial.

She had accompanied Mother Su into the mausoleum. Having not slept for nearly two or three days, the moment she watched the coffin being carried inside, her vision went dark and she fell backward.

Su Wei moved swiftly to catch her, but was not as fast as another figure who had been at her side all along. A flash of movement, and his outstretched hand closed on empty air — Su Jiao had already been caught by Xie Yan, who swept her up in his arms.

“We’ll go on ahead.”

Without so much as a glance at Su Wei, Xie Yan turned and carried her away.

The Su family’s relatives, having accompanied them this far, took their leave one after another. Father Su did not linger either. Only Su Wei remained standing before the mausoleum.

“The spring chill is biting. Now that the Eldest Young Master has seen Madam off, you ought to head back soon and take care of your health.”

“It’s all right. Mother passed so suddenly — as her son, I should stay and see her off on this last leg of the journey.”

The young man stood tall and straight, his expression cool and distant. Yet from those serene, detached words, the many assembled relatives could hear his solitude and grief.

They sighed among themselves. This Su family Eldest Young Master — reliable, accomplished, and young — though he was an adopted heir, his bond with his mother had been unusually deep. Truly rare.

The relatives bid Su Wei farewell and departed from the mausoleum.

Su Wei’s face betrayed neither joy nor sorrow. He stood there until dusk had settled on all sides.

“Open the coffin.”

Several figures moved from the front of the mausoleum into a hidden chamber.

“You’re sending me someone who’s been sleeping in a coffin for three days — your nerve grows bolder by the day.”

In the dim, lightless chamber, Su Wei stood facing another person.

He was unmoved.

“It’s simply a transaction. I do things for Your Highness, so Your Highness naturally ought to help me in return.”

“How long? I don’t keep dead people here.”

“Feed her the antidote — she’ll wake in three days. Your Highness needs to look after her for half a month. At most half a month, and Jiao Jiao and I will come and take her away.”

****

When Su Jiao woke again, the room was lit by a single candle flame. A maidservant was walking in carrying a bowl of calming medicine.

“My Lady has woken?”

She looked at the familiar furnishings around the room and fell into a momentary daze.

“You fainted. The prince brought you back and summoned a physician. The physician said you must rest and recuperate properly.”

This was Su Jiao’s own courtyard. She hadn’t expected that she had slept all the way through to evening.

“I — cough, cough — where is His Highness?”

“His Highness had matters to attend to and went out. He permitted this servant to come and care for you.”

Su Jiao took the bowl of calming medicine in a daze and looked around at the familiar decor — all of it chosen personally by Mother Su for her — and again felt a sting behind her nose, nearly on the verge of tears.

Mother Su’s burial had taken away the last thing she had been holding on for. The emotion that had been so abruptly stripped away left her heart hollow and empty. Su Jiao sniffled and drained the medicine in her hand in one go.

She got out of bed and stepped outside. The Su household, inside and out, had already returned to its former bustle. The death of the mistress of the house seemed to have brought little lasting grief to the estate — apart from the white mourning banners on the eaves, almost no trace remained.

Su Jiao lifted her skirts and descended the steps.

Ever since they had returned from Huguo Temple the day before, she had barely exchanged a proper word with Xie Yan.

Counting the days, they had stayed at the Su estate for nearly three days now.

“Go and find the Third Prince.”

She instructed a maidservant. A quarter of an hour later, the maidservant returned with her report.

“This servant was unable to find the Third Prince.”

Had he been summoned back to the palace by Emperor Jia?

Su Jiao gave a small nod and rose to head toward another courtyard.

Stepping into Su Wei’s courtyard, it too was shrouded in darkness. Upon asking the servants and learning that the Eldest Young Master had not yet returned, she decided to head back first.

She had just turned away from the corridor when a handsome, expressionless face appeared directly before her. Su Jiao startled and stumbled back two steps before she could make out who it was.

“Xie Yan?”

“Why are you in my brother’s courtyard?”

Xie Yan’s eyes and brow were touched with frost, as though he had been standing there for quite some time.

“Waiting for you.”

His gaze fell upon Su Jiao, and those three words left her taken aback.

“Waiting for me for what?”

How had he known she would come to her brother’s courtyard?

Xie Yan said nothing more. He seized her by the wrist and made to leave.

They had barely taken two steps when a figure came through the door — Su Wei walked in, rubbing his brow.

“Jiao Jiao. You’re here.”

All three faces met. Su Jiao was about to go over to him when she noticed that her wrist was gripped very tightly by Xie Yan.

“Xie Yan?”

Xie Yan still did not move. His handsome face remained expressionless as he held Su Wei’s gaze.

Both men’s eyes carried a frost that no one else could decipher. A silent, smoky tension began to spread between them from that moment. Su Jiao felt that something was off about the atmosphere and called out again.

“Xie Yan.”

The more she struggled, the tighter her wrist was gripped. Xie Yan felt the warmth in his hand slowly slipping away. He shut his eyes abruptly and released her.

“Go.”

Su Jiao stepped past him and walked toward Su Wei. The two siblings entered the room together.

After asking a few concerned questions about her condition that day, Su Wei lowered his voice.

“How has Jiao Jiao been thinking it over?”

Su Jiao immediately understood he was referring to the matter from the previous day.

She raised her head and looked at Su Wei’s face — a face utterly without grief.

“These past two days, what has Brother been busy with?”

“Naturally, preparing for your departure.”

He had laid out this plan over so many days; he would of course ensure that everything was foolproof…

“Mother has passed. Is Brother not grieving?”

Su Jiao’s question left Su Wei momentarily stunned.

The instant he saw the doubt in her eyes, Su Wei spoke at once.

“Of course I grieve… but Jiao Jiao, the very last thing Mother could not let go of before she died was the matter of you. She is gone now — in this world, you and I are the closest to each other. Naturally, I… want you, my only family, to live on well by my side.”

He bowed his head and gripped Su Jiao’s shoulders forcefully.

“Jiao Jiao, don’t you want to come out anymore?”

Su Jiao looked at him quietly.

“Brother, what exactly happened on the day Mother died?”

Su Wei answered quickly.

“She had come to the courtyard to see me. I was attending the Emperor in his Buddhist devotions at the time, so she went alone to take in the scenery on the rear mountain. Then she suffered a sudden attack of angina. With no maidservants attending her, she fell. When I returned and had people search for her, she was found at the foot of the mountain.”

“And her maidservants and nursemaids?”

“They were negligent in their duties. I had them all beaten to death.”

“I too grieve over Mother’s death — but it is precisely because she is gone and only you and I remain that — Jiao Jiao, seventeen years of kinship. I watched you be born, watched you grow up. In this world, only you and I are family to each other. For me, the most important thing is your happiness.”

Su Wei spoke to her. Even in his usual cool and detached gaze, grief showed through — yet it was precisely because of seventeen years of understanding and time spent together that Su Jiao could sense, more clearly than anyone, from the look on his face —

He wasn’t actually grieving.

Or rather, whatever grief he had was different from hers.

Mother had died so suddenly. Over these three days, Brother had barely kept vigil. She could see no grief in him. Over decades of affection and kinship — was this normal?

He waited a long time for an answer that didn’t come. The urgency in his eyes grew, and the hands pressing on her shoulders tightened.

“Jiao Jiao —”

“By imperial command — His Majesty summons the Third Prince and the Prince’s Consort to return to the palace tonight —”

The eunuch’s shrill voice cut off Su Wei’s words. Xie Yan pushed the door open and stepped in. The instant he took in the scene inside the room, the hand within his sleeve suddenly clenched.

“Come.”

The voice, unreadable in emotion, brought Su Jiao back to her senses. She instinctively walked toward him.

“Jiao Jiao.”

Su Wei reached out to pull her back.

Su Jiao stepped forward toward Xie Yan.

“What Brother has said — I will think it over.”

She walked up to him, and Xie Yan gripped her hand tightly — very tightly.

“Father Emperor has given his command. The Prince’s Consort and I will take our leave first.”

…..

Inside the carriage on the way back, Su Jiao’s mind remained in turmoil. She had no heart for conversation, and Xie Yan sat in silence, his face expressionless throughout. The two of them rode with their thoughts a world apart. It was not until they reached Yongning Hall that Su Jiao stepped off the carriage first.

Xie Yan watched her retreating figure for a long while.

“Go to the side hall and fetch my bow and arrows.”

****

In the pitch-black of night, Su Wei rode at a gallop.

Whoosh —

A cold arrow shot out from the side. He moved with swift reflexes, leaping from the saddle to dodge.

Before he could land back on the horse, a second arrow flew in immediately after, grazing his hairpiece and pinning it to a tree.

Clatter —

The hairpiece fell to the ground. His hair spilled loose in a sorry mess. Fury flashed through Su Wei’s eyes. The instant he identified the attacker’s position, he flung the dagger in his hand like a meteor.

Simultaneously, a third arrow came from the attacker, aimed straight at his shoulder.

The sound of the arrow piercing flesh was unmistakably clear. Su Wei tumbled from his horse and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

The attacker rode away openly, not bothering to conceal themselves as they passed before him.

Even from just a back view, Su Wei recognized who it was.

In his condition, he was certainly in no state to go and retrieve the medicine. Supported by his hidden guard, Su Wei fixed a hard stare in the direction of the retreating figure.

“Go and get the medicine — get one dose of the fake death drug, and another dose of… the kind that makes a person truly die.”

****

Both doses of medicine were smuggled into Yongning Hall by Su Wei’s means within a single night.

The lights of Yongning Hall had burned all through the night. Now, with dawn barely breaking, Su Jiao and Xie Yan sat separately in two corners of the inner chamber.

The pallor on Xie Yan’s handsome face was even more pronounced than usual. He turned the pages of the book in his hand with a blank expression. Before Su Jiao lay an open letter written only halfway through.

And beside it — two porcelain vials that had been sent over.

She hadn’t expected Su Wei to move so quickly.

This urgency made her feel all the more that, in her brother’s eyes, the matter of her leaving the palace seemed to matter more than their mother’s death.

The scales within her heart were weighed down on both sides, impossible to tip. Her mind kept circling back to the blood stain inside Huguo Temple, and to those words:

“Jiao Jiao, do not leave the palace.”

Much as she did not want to think about it, she could not help but acknowledge it.

Mother’s death — so entirely unlike what had happened in her previous life. Brother’s unflinching certainty about the angina. His urgent desire to use this opportunity to get her out of the palace. And the grief that was almost nowhere to be seen in his expression. All of it was telling her —

This matter could not be separated from her brother.

On one side: her mother’s dying wish — the words she had left behind in her final moments, warning her not to leave the palace. On the other: the suspicion that had already taken root in her heart.

Should she… go out or not?

The two porcelain vials sat in silence on the edge of the table. Su Wei’s letter had already explained: one was for her to swallow and feign death; the other was to render Xie Yan unconscious.

He had said that today, with Mother Su freshly buried, was the best opportunity.

The instant Su Jiao’s gaze fell on Xie Yan, his hand, which had been turning pages, had already stilled.

A silent hesitation spread through the chamber. And finally —

Su Jiao rose and headed toward the door.

At the same moment, the book in Xie Yan’s hand was placed face-down on the desk with a quiet thud. He reached out and picked up one of the porcelain vials from the table.

“What is this?”

He opened the vial. A small pill rolled out.

Su Jiao’s heart lurched.

Under her gaze, Xie Yan slowly raised the pill toward his mouth.

The moment a faint fragrance drifted through the air, Su Jiao’s eyes went wide.

No — no, that’s wrong!

This wasn’t the one to render someone unconscious — this was clearly — poison!

“Don’t swallow it!”

Realizing this, Su Jiao lunged forward toward him. The instant her hand grabbed for his wrist, Xie Yan swallowed the pill.

He tilted his head, watching as alarm swept over Su Jiao’s face — she was nearly in tears — and a faint smile touched his features, tinged with puzzlement.

“What’s wrong? Can’t I take it?”

“Poison… it’s poison…”

“Poison, is it…”

Xie Yan let out a quiet laugh, yet his eyes showed no panic. His sleeve stirred in a breath of wind — no visible movement — and the doors of the hall swung shut with a heavy clang.

The last sliver of light in the room was the lamp beside the table. He looked at her. His slender fingers lifted her chin.

In the wavering light of the flame, his face took on the pallor of illness.

Su Jiao heard his voice — light, unhurried — settle beside her ear.

“So then, Jiao Jiao — will you walk out that door… or will you stay and save me?”