Chapter 15

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She was furious inside, yet she knew perfectly well that she had no right to be angry.

When all was said and done, this had nothing to do with her.

Nor could she barge in now. That would damage Ling’er’s dignity, so all she could do was wait here until the people inside had finished and came out.

She had hoped Ling’er had come to make everything clear with Tang Ming’an, but that was obviously not the case.

The two people inside first poured out their feelings to each other, then embraced, as though they had an endless amount of affection to express.

Qin Xiangyi had been around the block herself, so she managed to remain fairly composed.

That was, until someone appeared on the stone block beside her.

Qin Xiangyi was startled. Though she herself had done nothing shameful, she still had to keep Qin Yuling and the others concealed.

He Yanzhou sat down with his back to her, turning slightly aside.

When she turned her head, she happened to see the profile of his face as he turned his head too.

Their left hands were resting on the stone block at the same time, lying very close together. An ant crawled over her fingertips, then continued on to his.

Qin Xiangyi drew several deep breaths. She opened her mouth, but in the end said nothing.

She wanted to ask, “He Yanzhou, why are you following me?”

She had never imagined that Ling’er’s affair would ultimately be exposed because of her.

But she did not ask. Once spoken aloud, the question would sound like an angry attempt to save face—as though the fault clearly lay with them, yet she insisted on shifting the blame onto He Yanzhou.

And yet, why exactly had He Yanzhou followed her? Qin Xiangyi’s mind was full of questions. She truly was on the verge of losing her temper.

But she did not lose it. She had not even blushed while listening to those sounds from inside earlier, yet now her face had turned red.

She felt ashamed.

He Yanzhou shifted his legs, tilting his body slightly toward her. When Qin Xiangyi turned her head again, she saw his face straight on.

The people inside had begun kissing. The sticky, tangled sounds of saliva stretching between them, as though their mouths were weaving strands of silk, carried clearly into both their ears.

Qin Xiangyi could still maintain a dignified expression, but He Yanzhou was different. He had never heard or witnessed anything like this before.

The tips of his ears quietly flushed red. He lowered his head, not daring to look at her. Listening to such sounds together with her left him utterly at a loss and horribly flustered.

A sense of shame crept up along the cold, hard stone block, filling him with a strange and subtle discomfort.

Afraid the people inside might hear them speaking, He Yanzhou leaned close to Qin Xiangyi’s ear and whispered almost directly into it, “Aunt, I never knew you liked listening to this.”

Qin Xiangyi froze for a moment and turned to look at him. He Yanzhou met her eyes only briefly before lowering his head and looking away.

Qin Xiangyi turned sideways as well. With He Yanzhou sitting there stiffly upright, all she could see was his profile.

She leaned toward his ear and whispered, “You don’t know who’s in there?”

She noticed that the skin behind his ear, where it joined his neck, was very pale. Blue veins could be seen rising along his neck, and behind his earlobe was a red mole.

He Yanzhou shook his head. “I only know that Tang Ming’an is in there. I don’t know who the other person is.”

Kissing could hardly be a one-person affair.

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Qin Xiangyi breathed a sigh of relief. Now she only had to get He Yanzhou away as quickly as possible. She had truly worn herself out worrying over this.

But something seemed to have changed inside. Kissing no longer appeared to satisfy the two people, for the rustling sounds grew increasingly sticky and intimate.

The increasingly heavy sounds of their breathing followed, and even Qin Xiangyi could not help growing red-faced.

“He Yanzhou, perhaps we should leave first.”

He Yanzhou’s face was so red it seemed ready to bleed, yet he remained seated there, upright and immovable. His hands and feet had already become somewhat clumsy, but even so, he reached into his robes and took out a small notebook.

“No, I can’t. I finally caught Tang Ming’an by the tail again. I have to write this down.”

Qin Xiangyi regarded him with a complicated expression. She could not help imagining the Censor He raiding a brothel and arresting all those officials in one swoop. He must have looked much as he did now—blushing furiously and trembling from head to toe while solemnly recording each of their crimes for the law.

As she imagined it, Qin Xiangyi suddenly began to giggle. Concerned that she might make too much noise, she could only lean close to He Yanzhou’s ear, staring at his little notebook as she laughed with restrained yet irrepressible delight.

She saw that he had written:

“Record: On the twenty-seventh day of the eighth month, Tang Ming’an molested a common girl at the residence of Old General Qin. Shameless, brazen, and utterly vile…”

He Yanzhou raised his head slightly to look at her. “But who is the other person?”

Qin Xiangyi fell silent and pulled him up from the stone block. “Don’t worry about that. Let’s leave first.”

He Yanzhou did not resist Qin Xiangyi’s physical contact, but he always reacted too strongly to it. For instance, now, the arm she had grasped tingled in waves.

Yet she had only tugged him once. It could hardly be called improper. He was the one who had lost his composure; he was the one who had overstepped.

At the thought, He Yanzhou had no choice but to become even more respectful.

“I’ll listen to you, Aunt.”

Heat rose to Qin Xiangyi’s face. Being called Aunt made her feel even more undeserving of the title. It was truly mortifying.

As if to make matters worse, the two people inside began speaking.

“Ling’er, are you really going to marry He Yanzhou? What am I supposed to do if I miss you then?”

Qin Xiangyi turned back and saw that He Yanzhou had sat down on the stone block again. She clenched her teeth in fury.

That damned Tang Ming’an.

“If you miss me, then just keep missing me. Who told you to move so slowly and fail to come ask for my hand before the He family did?”

He Yanzhou sat on the stone block for a while. Then Qin Xiangyi came over and sat beside him.

She sighed as she sat down, a trace of desolate acceptance in her manner. Let it be, then. Whatever.

There was no unnecessary emotion on He Yanzhou’s face, as though the matter had aroused neither anger nor sorrow in him.

“Ling’er, once you go to the He family, you mustn’t forget me. If I come looking for you, will you come and see me?”

Qin Xiangyi turned to study He Yanzhou’s expression. Tang Ming’an was outrageously bold—and utterly shameless—to dare ask such a question.

She hoped He Yanzhou would not become too angry. In matters like this, preserving one’s dignity was the most important thing.

If He Yanzhou lost his composure over something like this, Qin Xiangyi’s heart would ache with worry.

She reached out and tugged lightly at his sleeve. “He Yanzhou, don’t be angry.”

There was a hint of caution in her tone. When her voice softened, it truly became gentle enough to soothe the heart.

He Yanzhou turned to look at her, but the emotion in his eyes clearly said: Aunt, you knew all along.

Inside, Qin Yuling was saying, “Brother Ming’an, once He Yanzhou and I are married, I’ll be able to consummate the marriage with you.”

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As she said this, Qin Yuling lowered her head, her cheeks flushed pink.

He Yanzhou rose and strode away. Qin Xiangyi feared that he might do something rash at her mother’s birthday banquet, so she hurried after him.

Even her normally steady, composed steps—the same steps with which she had gone to catch them in the act—had grown disordered. She quickened her pace to catch up with He Yanzhou, the jade pendant at her waist chiming with every step.

“He Yanzhou, wait.”

Hearing her footsteps, He Yanzhou slowed down and waited for her to catch up, then walked beside her.

“Aunt, since you knew all along, did you never think of me?”

Qin Xiangyi lowered her head. “He Yanzhou, you needn’t call me Aunt anymore. I have no right to be your aunt.”

Her heart was aching terribly—partly because of Ling’er’s marriage, partly because she would soon be left without support in the palace, and partly because of a more obscure emotion, one that was for him.

He Yanzhou should never have had to face something like this. He was such a pure and untainted person. She should have covered his ears.

His eyes filled with wounded disbelief as he looked at her. “Aunt, you…”

Was he not allowed to call her that anymore?

Facing those eyes, Qin Xiangyi sighed. She suddenly understood his feelings. From the very first day they had met, there had been a feeling of mutual sympathy between them. They were confidants, and He Yanzhou had always believed that Qin Xiangyi understood him.

Qin Xiangyi felt that she had to be utterly sincere with him. She did not want to tell him a single lie.

Her voice was soft and unhurried. Looking directly into his eyes, she said with great solemnity, “He Yanzhou, I don’t want you to call me Aunt anymore because of Ling’er. But you are a good person—truly, extraordinarily good.

“I hid this from you because Ling’er is my niece, and I could not fail to consider her. It was never because I didn’t care about you.

“Now that you know, I hope you can deal with it properly. I…I also don’t want this matter to affect our relationship, He Yanzhou.”

She called his name several times in succession, making her meaning perfectly clear. He was a truly wonderful person, deserving of every word of praise and every beautiful description.

There was genuine affection between them. Setting aside the marriage alliance between the Qin and He families, they shared a real bond.

And now Qin Xiangyi had acknowledged that bond.

Her words held a certain significance for He Yanzhou.

He watched Qin Xiangyi lower her head. Her brows were long and distant as mountain ranges, while her cheeks were as white as plum blossoms frozen in spring snow.

She said, “I’m the one who has accepted your kindness all these days while borrowing the title of your aunt. I’m deeply grateful that you escorted me in and out of the palace during this time. You truly helped me enormously.”

But he said, “Aunt, you think far too little of me. This matter cannot affect me in the slightest. I have long grown accustomed to the darkest and filthiest things in this world—things you cannot even imagine. I can bear a great many burdens.”

What he had cared about from beginning to end was her repeated attempts to keep concealing the truth from him. Why had she gone to such lengths?

He said, “You needn’t concern yourself with this anymore, and I don’t want you to. I’ll handle everything properly, all right?”

Under his unwavering gaze, Qin Xiangyi finally surrendered.

“All right. I won’t interfere.”

At the same time, Madam Qi announced, beneath Old Madam Jiang’s eager and proud gaze, that the He family was formally negotiating a marriage with the Qin family. Once again, everyone began looking at the Qin family differently.

Had Qin Xiangyi heard this before, she would certainly have felt that she could never again hold her head up before He Yanzhou. The entire Qin family, placed before him, would have seemed like one enormous joke.

But now, separated by a hall full of guests enjoying the banquet, they merely exchanged a glance.

She calmed herself. She understood He Yanzhou’s meaning completely. By telling her not to interfere in any of the Qin family’s affairs, he had already set her apart from the family.

He had honored her as his aunt, and it had never had anything to do with Qin Yuling.