The Prisoner of Beauty - Chapter 59

Chapter 59

Zhu Quan was originally a servant of the Wei family. He had been attending to Wei Yan's daily life and personal needs since Wei Yan was a child. When Wei Yan married at the age of seventeen and moved out of the Wei manor, Zhu Quan followed him out as well. A year later, Wei Yan's wife passed away, and he never remarried after that.

In terms of managing the army and handling border affairs, Wei Yan undoubtedly ran his forces with proper methods and kept the borders clear and orderly; there was absolutely nothing that could be criticized. But once he was alone, he began to lead a dissolute private life. He was quite uninhibited in matters of men and women, and the women around him changed like a spinning lantern. He did not stay in Yuyang for many days out of the year, living like a rootless piece of floating duckweed. Madame Xu was concerned and would occasionally summon Zhu Quan to inquire about various matters regarding Wei Yan. Upon his return, Zhu Quan would also occasionally advise Wei Yan to remarry, as only then could he settle down.

Wei Yan usually did not get annoyed either; he simply laughed it off and thought no more of it.

This time, Wei Yan set off for Dai County again rather hastily, and on the day of his departure, he had even dismissed his concubines. Recalling Wei Yan's recent period, Zhu Quan felt that compared to before, his master seemed somewhat depressed upon returning home, which left his own mind uneasy. Just now, he had been called away by an old acquaintance to drink wine. Unable to decline, he followed him to a tavern several streets away. He had sat down and only consumed a few cups when he noticed that on the road outside the tavern doors, people were constantly running in one direction, shouting "Fire!" from their mouths. Going out to investigate, he caught sight of the distant direction from which he had come; sure enough, firelight was faintly rushing into the sky. Unable to let it go, he hurried back in a rush. Just as he ran to the street corner, he saw from afar that it was unexpectedly his own residence that had caught fire. The fire's momentum was not small, blazing furiously into the sky.

Zhu Quan turned pale with fright and hurriedly called people to fight the fire. However, the summer days in the north were inherently dry and scorching; although it was now gradually entering autumn, the weather remained hot, and added to the fact that it had not rained for many days, the fire had already burned up. How could it possibly be suppressed now? He could only watch helplessly as the great fire gradually consumed the entire house. Fortunately, Wei Yan possessed a solitary disposition; when selecting the house initially, he did not like to be adjacent to others. There were no civilian residences to the left or right of the house, so it did not spread outward. By the time the fire finally grew smaller and was ultimately extinguished, the house had long since changed beyond recognition, the roof collapsed, leaving only an empty shell. All the vessels and furniture inside had been completely burned to ashes.

Zhu Quan remembered that before he stepped out the door, no embers had been left inside the house. He did not know how this fire had started either. The only possibility was either that the residual sparks in the kitchen stove hearth had not been covered, which then spread out and ignited the great fire.

Zhu Quan was filled with ceaseless remorse, blaming himself that he should not have gone out to drink wine and neglect his duty. While he cleared the fire ground himself, he also dispatched someone to report to Madame Xu, which needs no further mention.

...

When Wei Shao stepped out the door early in the morning, he and Xiao Qiao were deeply attached and reluctant to part, agreeing that he would rush back in the evening to eat dinner.

By the evening, Xiao Qiao had newly emerged from her bath. She changed into a newly tailored primrose-colored light silk robe that had been scented with faint incense, and facing the mirror, she slightly touched up her face with delicate, fragrant rouge.

The person in the mirror possessed a pair of brows as if carved, autumn waves resting horizontally in her eyes, a face like a lotus, and a complexion envied by clouds and mist. Even she herself felt pleased upon seeing it.

Xiao Qiao began to wait for Wei Shao to return. She waited all the way until nightfall, and the agreed-upon dinner hour had already passed, yet she saw no sign of Wei Shao returning.

Xiao Qiao gradually grew a bit uneasy. Thinking that the government office was not far either, just as she was about to dispatch a person to go over and take a look, one of Wei Shao's personal soldiers arrived and conveyed a message, saying that the Marquis had matters to attend to and would not return to eat dinner, telling the Madam that there was no need to wait further.

Wei Shao's ordinary affairs were busy and numerous, and having temporary matters arise was also a frequent occurrence. Xiao Qiao suspected nothing else and went ahead to eat dinner by herself.

Wei Shao was sensitive to cats. Although that kitten had not been sent away yet, Xiao Qiao had already taken a bath and did not dare go to play with it again in the evening, deeply fearing that she might accidentally touch cat hair or cat saliva and trigger Wei Shao's discomfort. After returning to her room, she had no heart to do anything else; once her mind settled, she sat down and continued copying scriptures.

The room was entirely peaceful, with the occasional faint crackling sound produced by the oil-lamp wick bursting on the desk.

Xiao Qiao quieted her mind and condensed her breath, her right hand holding the brush. Following the hooking, lifting, sweeping, and pressing of the brush tip, row upon row of beautiful and elegant characters were gradually filled upon the delicate and pure white silk surface. When she wrote to the part stating, "For instance, if a person uses a single bushel to measure the great ocean, after passing through kalpas, they can still exhaust its bottom. If a person seeks the Way with a supreme heart and advances without ceasing, they will surely attain the fruit; what wish can they not obtain?" her two eyes fixed upon this row of characters. She slowly halted her brush, finally placed it onto the rack, and propped her chin with her hand toward the candle flame on the desk, gradually falling into a trance.

Wei Shao undoubtedly liked her. Recently, he had even gradually made her feel a level that amounted to obsession. As for whether he liked or was obsessed with her face and flesh or her as a person—frankly speaking, Xiao Qiao did not know. Because when the two of them were together, even during the day, what Wei Shao did most to her was simply manipulate her and engage in that little bit of matter between men and women.

Aside from this, Xiao Qiao could not think of any conversation between the two of them regarding any other content.

Sometimes when affection was thick, she actually wished to ask a bit, yet she lacked the backing to ask. She possessed even less backing to test him: whether there would come a day when he would let the Qiao family off.

Xiao Qiao knew this kind of thinking was both naive and ridiculous. To hope a man would lay down the hatred in the depths of his heart because of a woman—how grand must this woman be to dissolve the hatred in a man's heart that was originally viewed as irreconcilable?

Probably only the Buddha possessed such great power to universally deliver all living beings.

"The mind constantly and truly abides in the way of delivering the world. Boundless amidst all things, free and at ease according to one's will."

She remembered that when she was copying a few days ago, there was also such a sentence in the scriptures.

She was merely a common mortal, not knowing what it meant for the mind to truly abide in the way of delivering the world, but she reminded herself at all times to keep her mind constantly abiding in the way of delivering oneself. Once she could deliver herself, if it were possible, it might not be too late to think about the matter regarding a lifetime with this man.

...

Wei Shao delayed his return for a long time.

Deep in the night, Xiao Qiao left a lamp burning in the room and went to bed first herself.

Her mind was somewhat hanging on Wei Shao; sleeping and waking, waking and sleeping, she remained like this until past midnight, which ought to be already the hour of the rat. In a blur, she dreamed of Da Qiao and Bi Zhi.

The dream was fragmented and scattered. She woke up, snapped her eyes open, and caught entirely off guard, she unexpectedly met a pair of eyes flashing with a faint, ghostly light.

Wei Shao had returned to the room at some unknown point. He made no movement, nor did he climb onto the bed; he unexpectedly just stood before the bed, appearing to have been staring at her like this just now.

Xiao Qiao was startled. She gently patted her chest, exhaled a breath of air, and scrambled up from the pillow to sit, looking at him as she complained with a trace of a coquettish voice, "Are you trying to scare me to death? Why was there no sound when you returned?"

Wei Shao withdrew his gaze that was fixed upon her, turned his body around, and began to remove his clothes himself, saying, "Seeing that you were asleep, I did not wake you. Go ahead and sleep yourself."

He removed his garments and went to the bathhouse. A moment later, he emerged. Xiao Qiao asked him if his belly was hungry, and he said it was not. Subsequently, he blew out the lamp, climbed onto the bed, and lay down.

Just now when he turned his body around, Xiao Qiao had actually perceived that his expression was somewhat unusual. Compared to before he stepped out the door this morning, he was like a completely different person.

Now that he was in this state, Xiao Qiao felt all the more that he was a bit strange. Having lain side by side with him for a moment without seeing him extend his arms to hold or embrace her—he merely lay there facing upward as if he had drifted off to sleep—it was truly dead abnormal. Finally unable to resist, she asked, "Did something happen at the government office today? You could not even return to eat dinner."

"A minor matter. It was merely tedious, so it consumed some mental effort," Wei Shao responded.

Xiao Qiao heard that his voice seemed to carry a bit of fatigue, looking as though he had things on his mind. Hesitating for a moment, she nudged a bit closer toward him and asked softly, "What is wrong with you? I feel as though you are not quite happy. It was not like this when you went out this morning."

"Nothing," Wei Shao said. "It is merely that there were many matters today, and I am somewhat weary at this moment. It is not early anymore; you should sleep earlier as well."

Xiao Qiao could hear it; at this moment, he seemed rather unwilling to say anything more to her either, so she fell silent.

That night, Xiao Qiao added a few shares of concern to her thoughts, sleeping very lightly. Wei Shao, however, remained motionless from beginning to end, even less inclined to extend his hand over to touch or hold her in his sleep as he had done before. It was unknown whether he was sleeping too deeply or what. Thus a night passed without words, and early the next morning, the two of them rose. Xiao Qiao felt somewhat lacking in energy, and looking at Wei Shao, his complexion did not appear quite good either. Once the two of them tidied themselves up, they stepped out the door to head to Madame Xu's place. As they walked down the steps, that kitten temporarily raised in Nanny Chun's room came running all the way from the corridor with bounding joy. Running to the side of Xiao Qiao's foot, it burrowed beneath her skirt, winding left and right as it rubbed against her, letting out soft meowing sounds to act coquettishly.

Wei Shao halted his steps.

Seeing his two eyes fixed intently on the kitten, Xiao Qiao felt that he seemed to recall something, a trace of rigidity revealing itself in his expression. She suspected that he had been allergic last time and felt aversion toward the cat.

It was merely that this aversion, just like his silence after returning to the room last night, came somewhat out of the blue, leaving her unable to make heads or tails of it.

She had not seen him like this during the past two days either.

Xiao Qiao hastily scooped the kitten up in one motion and handed it to a maid who pursued them, instructing her to look after it well.

Wei Shao had already lifted his foot to head forward. Xiao Qiao caught up with him. The two arrived at the northern chambers together.

Today was the fifteenth. Lady Zhu had arrived as well, reaching slightly earlier than Wei Shao and Xiao Qiao. Originally, having finished inquiring after Madame Xu's health, she was already about to leave, but seeing her son arrive, she stopped once more.

After entering the northern chambers, Wei Shao finally changed his silence that had begun since his return last night, appearing normal. When responding to Madame Xu, a smile also revealed itself on his face. He and Xiao Qiao kowtowed to inquire after Madame Xu's health, and after exchanging two or three sentences of casual conversation, Madame Xu said, "You two do not know yet, do you? Last night, your cousin's house unexpectedly caught fire for some unknown reason. Zhu Quan said it was burned to absolute emptiness. Fortunately, it did not harm human lives, nor did it involve the neighboring quarters. When he returns within these two days, tell him to live at home. In the past, I was displeased with him moving out; now that this matter has occurred, it is just right to call him back."

Xiao Qiao felt a bit surprised. She glanced at Wei Shao by her side. There was no expression on his face. He merely narrowed his two eyes slightly, and it was unknown what he was thinking.

On the contrary, it was Lady Zhu who, upon hearing that Wei Yan was to return and live here, revealed a look of aversion on her face. Although she was already exerting her utmost effort to conceal it, the tips of her brows and the depths of her eyes still could not hide it.

Madame Xu swept a cold glance at her. She then grew somewhat embarrassed and lowered her head.

This scene fell into Xiao Qiao's eyes. Xiao Qiao felt a bit of emotion in her heart as well.

Having associated with this mother-in-law, Lady Zhu, for so long and having had dealings with her multiple times, she had actually more or less figured out Lady Zhu's disposition.

A person's horizon and mindset possess a great deal of correlation with their background and the education they could receive during childhood because of that background. However, this was by no means absolute. If one harbored an open mind, the narrowness of vision caused by deficiencies in background and education would also slowly open up along with subsequent experiences. When it accumulated to a certain point, the person would inevitably shed their old skin and exchange their bones.

Regrettably, Lady Zhu was not like this. Even up until now, she seemed never to have accurately found her identity and positioning as the Madam of the Marquis's manor.

Xiao Qiao was naturally unqualified to pity her. Toward this mother-in-law, she had not reached the point of deep and utter detestation either.

She simply disliked her, that was all.

"In two days it will be the Luli Grand Assembly. I hear your younger brother is also to participate in the riding and archery?"

Madame Xu turned to ask Xiao Qiao, appearing full of bustling interest.

Xiao Qiao smiled and gave a murmur of assent: "I did not think of him cutting a striking figure at the time either. It is rare to encounter such a grand assembly, so it is inevitable for a youth's heart to yearn toward it. Therefore, I did not stop him either."

Madame Xu smiled and said, "Why should you stop him? A youth ought to possess a heart that desires victory to begin with. Only by desiring victory can one seize victory. In past years, I would personally attend the assembly. This year you have newly arrived at my house, so you should show your face as well. Go together with me at that time."

Beneath Lady Zhu's gaze, Xiao Qiao bowed her body to express her gratitude.

"Right, does your brother-in-law possess a satisfactory mount?" Before taking her leave, Madame Xu remembered and asked Wei Shao another sentence, "If not, you select a good one for him, and step up the training while there are still two days left."

"Reporting to Grandmother, Cousin has already gifted a black-and-white horse to him previously."

Wei Shao responded. His tone was flat.

Madame Xu felt reassured. She nodded and smiled: "I knew he was meticulous in his conduct. Those first two days when your brother-in-law just arrived, you were not present, and it was entirely he who received him on your behalf. Once everyone passes through this busy period, you must properly thank your eldest brother."

Wei Shao gave a slight smile.