Yu Feng didn't dare make another sound; he could only follow in his master Shen Xiabai's footsteps as they aimlessly wandered through the rear mountain courtyard.
The mountain was thick with fog; searching like this, they might not find anyone even by nightfall.
Yu Feng watched as his master took larger and larger strides, his face growing darker and darker.
He must be worried that by the time they found the person, the two would have already pledged their lives to each other.
To be honest, if they kept searching like this, it really could happen, but Yu Feng wasn’t stupid; naturally, he wouldn’t say that out loud.
He silently accompanied Shen Xiabai, looking left and right, then said, “Master, there’s no one in the east.”
“No one in the west, either.”
“No one in the south, either.”
“I’m not blind,” Shen Xiabai said in a cold, chilling voice, laced with a hint of menace, making Yu Feng shut up instantly.
The arrangement of trees in the rear mountain courtyard seemed deliberate. Elsewhere, the fog was visibly lifting, but here, it remained a vast, white expanse.
The master and servant stood in the middle of it, like lost beasts, circling back and forth without finding anything.
Yu Feng mustered his courage and whispered, “Maybe you really did hear wrong, Master. Even if the Eldest Miss Cui wanted to come, she wouldn’t pick weather like this—she’d have to be pretty desperate.”
He had met Lord Zhou before. The man was indeed handsome, but he couldn’t compare to his master. Surely he couldn’t have driven the Eldest Miss Cui wild with infatuation.
Yu Feng felt a sharp glare flying toward him, so he quickly clamped his mouth shut and continued searching ahead. Suddenly, a foot stuck out from nowhere, tripping him and making him stumble.
Yu Feng steadied himself, rubbed his nose, and didn’t dare utter a word.
Shen Xiabai knew Cui Yunchu fairly well. Zhou Yuanmo wasn’t enough to make her lose her head, but if there was something useful—or gold and silver—it was hard to say. She might even go home with someone on the spot.
Standing where the morning fog was thickest, his face darkened as images from a few days earlier came to mind—the encounters at Prince An’s residence and outside the Shen mansion.
If that was the case, what did that make him?
A dirty rag she used and threw away? A pretty boy she kissed and ran from? Or a kept lover who couldn’t be seen in public?
Yu Feng felt that the cold wind blowing in was nothing compared to the frigid air radiating from his master.
“Master, maybe we should just block her at the Cui residence?” Even if they had to hold a knife to her neck, they needed to get an explanation. It wasn’t right to be seduced and then discarded—for nothing.
He also thought his master was truly pitiable. The Eldest Miss Cui was a fickle flirt, a proper scoundrel.
The courtyard fell silent for a moment, with only the sound of the wind howling, ruffling the man’s white brocade robe.
Yu Feng thought of the dressmakers busily working in the mansion, finishing several boxes of white brocade robes in a rush, and felt even more upset for his master.
With the deaths of the old master and the eldest master, and the crimes of the Cui and Tang families laid out before him, no matter how much his master struggled in pain, he hadn’t touched a hair on the Cus or Tangs. How could the Eldest Miss Cui treat him like this?
Yu Feng’s heart ached fiercely for Shen Xiabai.
Suddenly, the sound of light footsteps came from behind. Yu Feng’s heart leaped, but after listening closely, it sank again in disappointment.
The footsteps were too heavy—clearly a man’s—there was no way it was the Eldest Miss Cui.
Shen Xiabai didn’t even turn his head until a man’s voice sounded from behind. “Excuse me, gentlemen, is this indeed the rear mountain courtyard? The morning fog is heavy today; I had an appointment with someone but lost my way.”
The man’s voice was gentle, sounding very refined and polite—a world apart from Shen Xiabai’s threatening, squeezing tone.
Yu Feng stiffly turned his head, his gaze landing on the man who had come to ask for directions.
As the saying goes, heaven’s path you refuse to walk; hell’s door you come knocking on. Wasn’t this just asking for trouble?
Seeing Yu Feng silent, the man politely repeated his question.
Who was the gentleman supposed to meet? Shen Xiabai turned around slowly, looking at the man with eyes that were likewise calm, their depths unreadable.
Being fellow officials at court, Zhou Yuanmo naturally recognized Shen Xiabai, though as a member of the Cui faction, their relationship was merely ordinary.
“It’s Lord Shen! I’ve been rude, not recognizing you at first,” Zhou Yuanmo bowed and then said, “Lord Shen, are you here to pray?”
Shen Xiabai stared at him fixedly, his sharp, cold eyes making Zhou Yuanmo bristle with unease. Chills shot down his spine.
“No, I’m here to catch adulterers,” Shen Xiabai said.
“…” Zhou Yuanmo was stunned, as if he hadn’t quite understood.
He hadn’t heard that Lord Shen had taken a wife—perhaps a concubine?
A concubine having an adulterer? Zhou Yuanmo frowned, thinking that the concubine and her man were truly audacious to cheat on Shen Xiabai.
They had no idea how deep the waters were.
Knowing the matter was embarrassing, Zhou Yuanmo naturally didn’t pry further. “Then I won’t disturb Lord Shen any longer. I’ll take my leave.”
Shen Xiabai didn’t respond. But just as Zhou Yuanmo was about to walk away, he suddenly paused and asked, “Lord Shen, might you have encountered a young woman here in the rear mountain courtyard?”
“…”
Yu Feng, who had been about to follow, stopped in his tracks. “So you had an appointment but don’t know where she is?”
Zhou Yuanmo explained, “The acquaintance was arranged through my mentor; we didn’t specifically agree on a spot, so I overlooked the details.”
Hearing this, it was like a slow parting of clouds to reveal the sky. Yu Feng looked at Shen Xiabai and grinned.
But he found that his master’s expression had only slightly softened.
“…”
He wiped his face and immediately reined in his expression.
Indeed, Lord Zhou’s mentor was Prime Minister Cui, the Eldest Miss Cui’s father—his master’s father-in-law.
That was a matter of parental decree and matchmaker’s word. Everything between his master and the Eldest Miss Cui was at most her keeping him as a kept lover outside.
He didn’t even qualify to enter her home—unless his master forcefully demanded his status.
From a group of three, it became a group of four. The four men stood in the morning fog, staring at each other blankly.
Shen Xiabai suddenly spoke in a calm voice, “Lord Zhou, have you ever caught adulterers before?”
“…”
Zhou Yuanmo looked a little awkward. “Lord Shen, you must be joking— I hope I never have to experience something like that in my life.”
“But I think I have to go through it every day,” Shen Xiabai said. “It’s a heavy burden and a long road.”
Prince An, the Crown Prince, and now this Zhou Yuanmo.
Yu Feng also felt that even if his master successfully married her, with the Eldest Miss Cui’s personality, he’d never have peace—he’d spend the rest of his life catching adulterers and being on guard.
Zhou Yuanmo pressed his lips together, unsure of what to say.
Suddenly, he felt that Lord Shen must have some serious mental illness.
As a woman, only chastity mattered. A wife who cuckolded her husband should be divorced and cast out immediately, not shaming her ancestors.
“Lord Shen truly has a broad mind and peculiar tastes,” was all he could manage to say besides that.
The conversation had hit a dead end.
Zhou Yuanmo looked around, wanting to leave, but Shen Xiabai didn’t let him.
“Lord Zhou,” Shen Xiabai said, “what do you think I should do if I catch that man?”
“…For those committing adultery if the evidence is solid, drowning in a pond is not too severe,” Zhou Yuanmo answered.
As a man, such things were utterly intolerable.
Shen Xiabai curled the corner of his mouth in a sardonic smile and glanced sideways at Zhou Yuanmo. “Drown them in a pond, you say?”
“In the dead of this twelfth lunar month winter, wouldn’t drowning them in a pond kill them?” Shen Xiabai said. “I’m kind-hearted, not like you, Lord Zhou—so vicious.”
“…”
How had he ended up being the vicious one?
Zhou Yuanmo always felt that Shen Xiabai looked at him in a very strange way, with a hostility that even carried a hint of murderous intent—though he wasn't sure if it was just his imagination. Regardless, the criticism he received was very real. Moreover, according to the law, men and women who commit adultery and betray their husbands were indeed to be drowned in a pond. He had only been speaking the truth, yet he had been subjected to such personal attacks.
