Chapter 2

Volume 1 Chapter 003: Rumors

The rain gradually intensified, and the wind blew even more fiercely. Cui Jin had long since led Gu Han away toward the temporary palace. Seeing that everyone on this side had finished withdrawing, Wen Ruoqing had just breathed a sigh of relief when Wen Jun came to report: “Sixth Master, a woman has ridden over from over there. She says she wants to ask whether there is a Gu Han among the people who fell off the cliff.”

“What?” Wen Ruoqing could hardly believe his ears. “This is simply absurd! In this damned weather, she’s still coming to cause trouble. Where is she?”

Wen Jun pointed downward. “There, that’s her. Sixth Master, who is Gu Han? Was he among those who fell from their horses?”

Wen Ruoqing ignored him and turned to look at the mountaintop again. He saw that the loose rocks on the summit had begun to shift, and debris and mud were gradually gathering, slowly flowing down along the crevices in the cliff wall. He cursed under his breath and urged his horse into a mad gallop downward.

Wen Jun followed behind, shouting loudly, “Sixth Master, where are you going? What about that woman?”

Wen Ruoqing did not even turn his head. He cursed, “Mind your own business! The mudslide is coming, hurry up and run!”

Wen Jun came to his senses and yelled, “Sixth Master, there’s a cave over there! The Ninth Prince and the others were just sheltering from the rain there…” Before the words left his mouth, there was a tremendous roar. The mountain torrent and mudslide, like a tiger released from its cage, came charging down with a roar. In an instant, mud surged and churned, sand and stones raged, sweeping up a sky-high fury that made one’s heart tremble with fear.

Wen Jun hurriedly spurred his horse to avoid this wave of rushing force and anxiously peered downward.

Fortunately, the woman had sensed something was wrong and also turned her horse to gallop laterally, avoiding the first wave of debris flow. A moment later, Wen Ruoqing had caught up to her side. Amid the tumbling sea of stones, he seized her around the waist and pulled her off her horse. In an instant, the two of them disappeared into the rolling mudslide. The mud howled and roared, surging down continuously, swallowing the horses in the blink of an eye and pouring onward for a thousand li.

Wen Jun saw that the direction in which the two had disappeared was exactly where the cave was located. His heart slightly eased, and he quickly turned back to report.

The midday banquet had long since ended, and the Gu household members had no appetite for food, sitting and standing in agitation. Gu Rui was accompanying her mother in a state of helpless anxiety when a young palace attendant by Empress Cui’s side walked over and bowed to Madame Tang.

“Madame Gu, please be at ease. Young Master Gu is safe and sound. He is currently bathing and changing clothes in the hot springs within the temporary palace. Her Majesty the Empress has specially sent me to escort you there.”

Madame Tang quickly rose, saying repeatedly, “Thank you, Empress. Thank you, honored attendant.”

She and Gu Rui followed the attendant to the temporary palace and entered the side hall where Empress Cui was resting.

Empress Cui was a beautiful middle-aged woman of about forty. Thanks to good maintenance, she looked much younger than her actual age. She smiled as she received the bows of Madame Tang and her daughter, and her gaze traveled back and forth over Gu Rui. Seeing that Gu Rui was bright and beautiful, with a graceful figure, a rare beauty, she praised her inwardly. But then she thought of how her father was only a fourth-rank civil official with little real power in court, and her heart cooled again.

She exchanged a few indifferent pleasantries with Madame Tang, then ordered someone to take the mother and daughter to the inner chamber of the side hall where Gu Han was.

Gu Han had suffered minor injuries and had already finished bathing and changing clothes. Cui Jin was sitting beside him, personally applying medicine and bandaging his wounds. Seeing Madame Tang and her daughter, he quickly rose and bowed. “Greetings, Madame Gu, Eldest Miss Gu.”

Madame Tang quickly returned the bow. After thanking Cui Jin, she stepped forward to examine Gu Han’s injuries. Cui Jin respectfully stepped aside, shot Gu Rui a meaningful glance, and raised his eyebrows toward the door.

Gu Rui looked troubled and gently shook her head.

Just then, Madame Tang looked up, and the two of them quickly turned their faces away, each looking in a different direction.

Gu Han said innocently, “Sister, why did you shake your head?”

Gu Rui quickly said, “I didn’t. You must have seen wrong.”

Cui Jin laughed inwardly. Taking advantage of Madame Tang and Gu Han not paying attention, he winked at her.

Seeing that Gu Han was safe and sound, Madame Tang’s heart eased somewhat, and then she began to worry about her niece again.

“Why do you think your cousin has been gone so long without a trace? I should never have let her go.”

Gu Rui was also somewhat worried. She secretly blamed Madame Tang for being rash in handling the matter, but could not say so directly, and could only say softly, “Cousin is used to wind and rain. I imagine nothing will happen to her.”

“Ah, I wonder if she has gone back by now.”

“Since little brother is fine, let’s head over there. Perhaps cousin has already returned.”

Madame Tang nodded in agreement. Cui Jin escorted the three of them out. He secretly tugged at Gu Rui’s sleeve, and Gu Rui slowed her pace. The two walked slowly and deliberately, and before long had fallen quite far behind.

“I’ve already told my aunt about our matter. She saw you just now, didn’t she?”

Gu Rui gave a soft “mm.”

“If she has no objections, in a few days I will come to your home to propose.”

Gu Rui’s voice was as faint as a mosquito’s buzz. She whispered, “What if the Empress doesn’t like me?”

“How could that be? If I like you, how could she not? Don’t worry. Even if she doesn’t agree, I will definitely marry you.”

Gu Rui gazed at the misty, smoke-like rain outside the corridor and gave another soft “mm.”

Cui Jin turned his head, about to admire Gu Rui’s blush, when he saw his attendant running toward them, drenched in sweat. He quickly shot him frantic looks, signaling him not to disturb him.

But the attendant paid no heed, crying out urgently, “Young Marquis, something terrible has happened! A mudslide broke out behind the mountain over there. Sixth Master Wen and a woman who rode over to look for someone are both trapped inside!”

“What!” Cui Jin was greatly alarmed.

“A woman who rode over to look for someone? Could it be my cousin?” Gu Rui was also frightened.

Cui Jin was stunned. “Your cousin? Miss Yin? How could she have gone there?!”

The bitter wind and rain raged for a full two days and two nights. When the clouds finally parted and the mist cleared, many anecdotes and rumors about the imperial spring hunt in the storm gradually began to circulate. Among them, what interested people most was not that Prince Qin and the Ninth Prince had fallen off the cliff one after the other, nor that the much-anticipated spring hunt had ended without a result. Even the mudslide that had broken out during the spring hunt was treated as mere background. The focus of everyone’s attention was that the Sixth Young Master of the current Duke of Dingguo’s household, Wen Ruoqing, and an unidentified woman had been trapped together by a mudslide in a cave, and were not found until the mudslide receded the next morning. It was said that when the two were found, both were disheveled, and some even claimed to have seen it with their own eyes, swearing that the two had been tightly embracing each other for warmth.

A day later, the woman’s identity was finally discovered. She was a relative of the household of the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, Gu Niansong—the niece of Madame Tang, wife of the Gu household—named Yin Chenbi. Her background was not high; her father had been only a minor sixth-rank lieutenant colonel, and had died young. Yin Chenbi herself was plain in appearance, had a poor reputation, and was already eighteen years old, old enough to be considered a spinster. It was said that her family ran a small farm estate. According to grain merchants and fruit merchants who had dealt with her, this woman haggled over every copper and valued money above all else.

As for why she had appeared there, those with good information said it was to search for her cousin who had fallen off the cliff. But it was said that the Gu household’s youngest son, Gu Han, had been brought back to the imperial temporary palace by the heir of the Duke of Pingguo, Cui Jin, not long after falling from his horse. This made Yin Chenbi’s excuse somewhat laughable. As a woman, she had gone alone in such dangerous weather to a place crowded with men. Her motives were inevitably suspect, making people wonder if she had ulterior designs. Thus, many people felt great sympathy for the Sixth Young Master Wen. All signs indicated that Sixth Young Master Wen must have fallen into that young woman’s trap.

And speaking of the Sixth Young Master Wen Ruoqing, gossips now discovered that they actually knew very little about this young noble. Even digging three feet deep, they only unearthed that this young master was the third son of the Duke of Dingguo, ranked sixth within the Wen family. At age eleven, he had gone to the border to fight the enemy and defend the frontier alongside his father and elder brothers. Over seven years, he had earned considerable military merit. A year ago, the current Emperor had conferred on him the title of General of An Yuan, and he alone led troops to guard Conglin Pass.

As for what he looked like—because he was away from the capital year-round, few had seen him. Some said he was handsome, others said he was ordinary. Most people who had attended the spring hunt said he had a face full of stubble and one could not tell what he looked like, but he was probably not very handsome. Even so, after all, his background was noble and his status prominent. This Yin Chenbi was not only audacious beyond belief, but even heaven favored her. Not only had she not lost her life, she had actually gotten what she wanted and snagged a golden son-in-law.

For a time, the normally low-profile Gu and Wen households were both pushed into the eye of the storm.

Within the Duke of Dingguo’s mansion, the rumored indistinct-faced Sixth Young Master Wen Ruoqing was kneeling in his parents’ courtyard, boredly counting the fallen leaves on the ground.

The Duke of Dingguo, Wen Cunshan, glared at his son through the window with a face full of anger. Madame Wen, née Jiang, stood to the side with tears in her eyes. “Are we really going to make Qing’er marry that girl?”

“It’s what he brought on himself. What can I do? Even the Emperor is inquiring about this matter now.”

Madame Jiang clutched the handkerchief in her hand tightly. “Never mind that. My son cannot be ruined by that girl.”

Wen Cunshan had just returned to the capital yesterday to report on his duties when this sudden disaster struck him dizzy. He said irritably, “This is all his own fault! Instead of staying properly at Conglin Pass, he came back to attend some spring hunt! What was he doing joining in on an occasion meant for young nobles to show off? If he hadn’t come back, none of this would have happened!”

“What’s the use of saying that now? I say, why not let Qing’er go hide with his brother in the northwest, wait for the storm to pass, and then return to Conglin Pass. I don’t believe that girl can actually come knocking on our door.”

Wen Cunshan stamped his foot. “What kind of rotten idea is that! How can a real man behave like a shrinking turtle? If he doesn’t want face, I still do. He held a girl for warmth and then turned his back on her, and now he wants to hide far away—how will he face people in the future?”

Wen Ruoqing, kneeling outside, was on the verge of tears. Heaven above, apart from the waist-grab when he rescued that girl, he had not touched a single finger of hers! The moment he entered the cave, he had tossed that girl aside like a hot potato. The cave was pitch black—he did not even know if she was round or flat. What holding for warmth? He had been clearly far away from her, all right. He had not even exchanged two words with her.

No wonder not long after he emerged from that cursed cave, he noticed that the people around him were looking at him strangely. So they had all taken him for someone so desperate he would take anything. Truly, gossip is a fearsome thing!

Not only had he fallen on bad luck, but when his father returned, he did not even comfort him. Instead, he made him kneel here to reflect on his mistakes. Fine, kneeling was kneeling, but the people inside were talking so loudly—did they think he was deaf?

He heard his mother, Madame Jiang, say loudly, “Then what do you mean? Wen Cunshan, if you really make your son marry that Yin woman, you’ll be ruining your son’s entire life! Who made your Wen family have this ancestral rule—that a wife must be over forty and have failed to bear a son before one may take a concubine? What kind of broken rule is that? What is my son supposed to do?”

“What do you mean ‘your Wen family’? Are you not part of my Wen family? Is your son not surnamed Wen? ‘Your family’ and ‘my family’—honestly! Weren’t you originally drawn to this very point when you agreed to marry me? And now you call it a broken rule…”

Madame Jiang was silent for a moment before continuing, “That was then, this is now… I heard that girl is ugly. My son is as beautiful as a flower. If he marries her, wouldn’t that be a fresh flower stuck in cow dung!”

“Is that any way to talk about your son? He’s not a girl.”

“So what if I say it? Qing’er has always been good-looking. When he was little, everyone praised him for being prettier than a girl.”

Wen Cunshan glanced at the young man outside, saw his face covered in stubble and his unkempt appearance, and could not see how he had anything to do with the words “as beautiful as a flower.” He was about to mock him when something else occurred to him.

“What did you say that girl’s surname was?”

“Yin. Why?”

“I heard her father was a sixth-rank lieutenant colonel before he died?”

Madame Jiang sensed a hint of danger and immediately became alert.

“So what if he was?”

“Do you know what her father’s name was?”

“How would I know that? Who cares what her father was named? That girl has always had a bad reputation outside. The fact that she could scheme so calculatedly shows her parents never taught her any propriety! I just don’t understand—Censor Gu has always been an upright official, and his daughters are all well-bred. How does he have such a presentable relative? My poor son, he kindly went to save her, and she latched onto him like this. What terrible luck!”

“Say a little less.” Wen Cunshan, his thoughts in a mess from Madame Jiang’s words, lifted his foot and left the room.