As soon as the Eldest Young Master departed, Baizhou City was engulfed in several consecutive days of ceaseless rain.

After traveling through the wind and dust for days, Second Uncle brought back Zhou Min’s corpse. It was early spring, so keeping the body for a few days wouldn’t cause it to rot or stink.

When an exhausted, grief-stricken Second Uncle had the body carried through the gates, the bright red Double Happiness characters adorning the entire Zhou Mansion had not even been taken down yet. Whenever the wind blew past, it felt horrifyingly like a bizarre blend of a wedding and a funeral.

Zhou Yulin nearly smashed the ancestral spirit tablets to pieces. He wanted the ancestors to open their eyes and witness how a cuckoo had seized the magpie’s nest—how the Zhou family had fallen under the rule of an outsider with a different surname.

Zhou Min’s coffin lay parked inside the gloomy, cavernous manor.

Outside the bronze doors of the main hall stood the Ruan family’s bodyguards, completely encircling the Zhou residence.

Beneath the red lanterns stood the ancestral tablets. The ancestral shrine held only two soft prayer mats for offering incense. When Zhou Yulin carried his son’s corpse into the shrine, Yuqing was seated in an adjacent sandalwood chair, sipping his medicine.

“It was you.” Zhou Yulin smashed the teacup from Yuqing’s hand to the floor. Pointing straight at the tip of Yuqing’s nose, he narrowed his eyes. “It was you…”

“What is Second Uncle saying?” Yuqing casually brushed the water droplets off his robe, a faint smile playing at the corners of his lips. “What was me? How did Young Master Min suffer such a calamity just from stepping out for a trip? Truly a pity… at such a tender young age…”

The Ruan family had brought a large contingent of men. Zhou Min was the second miss of the Ruan family’s only son; naturally, they would not let this matter rest.

Outside, the unending drizzle continued to fall. Water trickled down the eaves, dripping onto the bluestone flagstones and gradually hollowing out a small indentation in the crevices.

With each splash, the rippling water cast wave after wave of disturbed reflections over everything inside the ancestral hall.

Yuqing’s hands were exceptionally pale—pale as a ghost.

Yet there were no ghosts in the courtyard, only a fresh corpse.

Zhou Min was very young, six years younger than Zhou Xiao, having only just reached adulthood. Just a few days ago, he was full of vigor, cursing and shouting in the courtyard that Yuqing was nothing more than a ruined whore used by the Master. In the blink of an eye, he was now lying dead inside a coffin.

He had likely suffered greatly before his death. Even though the body had been wiped clean, it remained bloated beyond recognition. The gunshot wound on his neck was a black, charred void, resembling a bottomless abyss.

Leaning against the coffin, Yuqing slowly reached inside. His slender fingers felt even colder than the corpse lying within.

“What exactly did my elder brother write in his will? Where on earth is the will hidden?!”

“Zhou Xiao is a bastard—he doesn’t deserve to inherit a thing! Where did he hide the will?!”

Zhou Yulin grabbed Yuqing by his long robe, yet Yuqing offered no struggle.

Housekeeper Deng rushed over upon hearing the commotion, holding the family discipline whip in hand. “Second Master, Yuqing has already crossed our threshold. Treating the Young Mistress like this violates our rules.”

“Rules? He murdered my son! Don’t tell me my brother didn’t know about this! Ever since he brought this filthy dog back from the streets, his mind has been completely poisoned! If I don’t get justice for my son today, don’t expect him to walk out of here alive!”

Outside, the Ruan family guards moved closer, attempting to drag Ruan Yuqing away.

The election for the Chamber of Commerce President was fast approaching. Without the financial backing of the entire Zhou family estate, how could he secure the seat?

Housekeeper Deng stood firmly beneath the ancestral tablets, holding the discipline whip.

In an aristocratic mansion, the rules mattered above all else.

“Even if the Young Mistress has committed an offense, he must be dealt with according to family law. Second Master, do not act on impulse. If you break the ancestral rules passed down by our forebears, you will no longer be considered a member of the Zhou family and will be struck from the genealogy records.”

The implication was crystal clear: if Zhou Yulin dealt with Ruan Yuqing privately, his name would be struck from the will.

There was a mountain just outside Baizhou City. If a railway was to be constructed, that mountain would have to be blasted open.

The sole landowner of that mountain was Zhou Yuzhang.

Whomever Zhou Yuzhang chose to bequeath the mountain to would gain the title of Chamber of Commerce President. That mountain was one of the prime assets listed in the will.

Zhou Yulin clenched his fists and fell silent, sneering coldly. “Young Mistress… What a fine ‘Young Mistress of the Zhou Family.'”

“A man serving as a Young Mistress.” Zhou Yulin ground his heel against the shattered porcelain shards, veins bulging in sheer fury. “What an absolute, farcical joke!”

Yuqing knelt upright before the ancestral tablets and spoke softly, “Housekeeper Deng, strike me.”

Housekeeper Deng replied, “Young Mistress, the Master said he feared your frail body could not endure a beating. You are to reflect upon your actions facing the wall for one night. Young Master Min was still of Zhou blood, after all; your methods were truly far too ruthless.”

Yuqing softly acknowledged the order.

Kneeling before the ancestral shrine, he watched the incense ashes slowly drop away.

Housekeeper Deng mentioned that the Old Master’s illness had worsened; he had coughed up blood this morning, and it seemed he would not last past this month.

Father was dying.

Yuqing had never had a father in his entire life.

He was born into the Ruan family, an illustrious, wealthy clan. His mother was named Liu Xiang.

She was an opera singer who sold her voice and her body—naturally deemed of low and vulgar birth. Even after being carried into the Ruan residence heavily pregnant, she was still treated with contempt. The Ruan family had eleven concubines alone.

Though of humble origins, Liu Xiang was literate. She named her prematurely born son Yuqing.

Pure and flawless, like white jade.

Yuqing inherited his mother’s striking looks. The small mole beneath his pupil was like a seductive chess piece that ensnared souls. When he was only three years old, he watched as several concubines slapped Liu Xiang across the face, forcing her to kneel as she served them tea.

Yuqing did not understand back then. He only knew that they all called him “a son of a whore.”

Yuqing was bright; his education began at the age of four. But the Main Wife forbade him from studying. Clutching a broom, Yuqing would hide in the corner to eavesdrop on lessons. In the bitter winter, his ankles froze and swelled, yet he still yearned to listen; he loved the literature and stories, and he loved to learn.

When he grew older, his older half-brothers and half-sisters ordered him to copy out their school assignments for them.

As for his mother? She was the Twelfth Concubine. After giving birth to Yuqing, her youth faded rapidly. She lived in the smallest, most dilapidated room of the Ruan Mansion, waiting day in and day out for Master Ruan to remember her.

Until Yuqing grew older, and one day, a visiting section chief remarked that Yuqing looked quite delicate and handsome, demanding that he pour the tea.

Who served tea in the dead of night? His mother refused to let him go. Instead, she retrieved the liuqin lute she had not touched in years and walked slowly into the guest’s chamber.

His mother forbade him from ever stepping into the front hall again. Because she had serviced the visiting guests, she gradually regained Master Ruan’s favor; he claimed that after giving birth and being neglected for years, she possessed a new, distinct flavor.

Only a few days after the Twelfth Concubine regained favor, the Main Wife accused her of contracting a filthy, shameful disease. Refusing her all medical care, the Main Wife fabricated a charge of adultery, had her beaten to death, and cast her out along with her “bastard.”

Yuqing’s body was far too frail to carry his mother’s corpse.

In his desperate bid to shield his mother from the beating, his own body had been left covered in wounds. But his mother was already aged and withered; before she could even shed a tear, she had breathed her last.

In the heavy snow, he carried his mother’s cooling body across great distances, lacking even a single copper to buy a crude wooden coffin.

In the end, he stole a straw mat from a temple, wrapped his mother’s body inside, and quietly waited for death.

Rickshaws passed by one after another. Yuqing wanted to beg for a little money to bury his mother, but his ankles were too severely swollen and frostbitten; driven away by shopkeepers, he could barely walk.

The bun vendor would rather toss scraps to a stray dog than spare him a single bite.

Newsboys darted through the alleyways, waving newspapers and shouting: “Section Chief Du has been promoted to Bureau Chief! Partnering with the Ruan family to trade opium—the port is officially open for shipments—!”

Yuqing remembered that every single one of those men had frequented his mother’s bed. Even the old master never looked him in the eye, for he looked nothing like the Ruan family; who knew how many men Liu Xiang had serviced over the years?

Clutching the straw mat wrapping his mother, Yuqing only wished to find a plot of land, dig a pit, and bury himself alongside her.

Then, a rickshaw turned back around.

A few silver dollars fell to the ground. A man’s steady, gentle voice asked him, “Go buy a coffin for your mother.”

Clutching the silver dollars, Yuqing limped after the rickshaw. “Sir, please buy me into your home. I am willing to do anything. If you help me lay my mother to rest, I will follow you and give my life for you, through thick and thin.”

“Giving your life sounds far too frightening.” The man chuckled softly. “Buy a coffin for your mother, then come find me at the Zhou residence.”

Yuqing had seen grand estates before.

The Zhou family possessed wealth comparable to the Ruans, but none of them held government posts, leaving them devoid of political authority.

When he arrived wearing rags, the Zhou Main Wife was still alive. Assuming he was another pretty boy the Master had picked up from the streets, she hurled piercing, shrill insults at him.

Housekeeper Deng led him to a side chamber, where he waited from daybreak until nightfall.

He assumed Master Zhou had taken a liking to his looks. Since the man had saved his mother, he was entirely willing to repay the debt with his body.

Master Zhou came late at night. Turning around and seeing Yuqing preparing to undress, he simply ordered him sternly to put his clothes back on, saying, “My son should be about your age.”

Yuqing only appeared young because of the chronic frailties lingering from his childhood illnesses.

In truth, he was three years older than the Young Master.

He followed the servants in addressing Zhou Yuzhang as the Master.

Yuqing did not know what kind of person the Eldest Young Master truly was. He only knew that the Master doted on his son and loved him dearly. When the Master fell ill, Yuqing knelt beside his bed to care for him.

Master Zhou grasped his hand, murmuring softly, “Yuqing… for me… look after my son…”

Yuqing replied, “My writing was taught by the Master, and my tutors were hired by the Master. In return for the Master laying my mother to rest, I will serve the Young Master properly. Please rest assured.”

During Yuqing’s eight years in the Zhou family, the Eldest Young Master never once returned to the country.

The Master poured all the longing he held for his son onto Yuqing. Yuqing knew he was merely a substitute for the Eldest Young Master; since the Master had nurtured him, he naturally had to repay that grace.

Outsiders gossiped that his relationship with the Master was improper, and the Main Wife frequently made life difficult for him, but Yuqing did not care. He simply wanted to be a filial son to repay the Master.

Yuqing often thought to himself:

The Eldest Young Master had stayed away from home for so long, while he was the one serving and tending to the Master all these years.

I am father’s real son. What is Zhou Xiao compared to me?

Yuqing’s health had always been poor; the chronic ailment left from that bitter winter made him prone to coughing whenever the damp, rainy weather arrived.

He had secretly orchestrated the assassination of Zhou Min. According to family rules, he should have received a brutal flogging, but the Old Master had only sentenced him to kneel in the ancestral shrine.

“Young Mistress?” Zhao Fu, who was kneeling outside to keep him company, heard a dull thud from within. Pushing the door open, he found Yuqing collapsed on the floor.

He was burning with fever. In his rush to conceive a child, he hadn’t cleaned himself out thoroughly after the act.

Zhou Xiao was young and inexperienced, while Yuqing was accustomed to enduring pain. Suffering a fever for several days, he had simply assumed it was a relapse of his old chronic ailment.

A physician was urgently summoned.

Suppressing his coughs, Yuqing leaned languidly against a soft cushion. The physician placed his fingers upon Yuqing’s slender wrist. “This is caused by a severe deficiency of vital energy and blood.”

“Is there a pregnancy pulse or not?” Yuqing’s face grew cold. “There is no need for these useless pleasantries.”

The physician looked troubled. “In reply to the Young Mistress…”

“Speak.” Yuqing’s eyes flickered with danger. “Or are you saying your medicine was utterly useless?”

“Young Mistress, this medicine… this medicine doesn’t always take effect on the very first try. Your constitution is inherently frail, and your pulse… your pulse truly shows… nothing yet!”

“The Old Master is on the verge of passing away, and you’re telling me I can’t conceive right now?” Yuqing narrowed his eyes, using his smoking pipe to tip up the physician’s chin. “Hmm? Doctor, do you know what happens to those who deceive me?”

A cold sweat broke out across the physician’s body. Yuqing’s voice was exceedingly soft, yet chilling like a specter.

He hurriedly fell to his knees and kowtowed. “As long as… as long as I prescribe another dose to regulate your body, it will certainly take effect! It will just take a heavy toll on your health… It is likely because the Young Mistress’s constitution is too weak that it didn’t succeed on the first attempt…”

“Zhao Fu.”

Zhao Fu hastily loaded fresh mint leaves into the pipe bowl. “Young Mistress.”

“Find out where the Eldest Young Master is staying.”

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Author’s Note:

Yuqing: I’m so done with this giant useless piece of trash. [melts]

Zhou Xiao: Hehehe, my wife loves me to death! It hasn’t even been half a month since we parted and he’s already looking for me. So clingy… [rose]