1. The bomb in the kitchen
Everything in Zhu Gong's mansion is huge.
Even the kitchen is big.
How could such a small place possibly supply over a thousand diners, ten rows of beauties, countless servants, and one proud master?
The city of Nanchang was abuzz with discussion. Almost everyone knew that something had happened at the Zhu family mansion. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been so strict with the vegetable farmers, wouldn't have insisted on witnessing the entire process of each live pig being slaughtered, and wouldn't have even assigned a second-rank guard to guard the "Qingshuiyuan" well.
But no one dared to say it.
People said after the lights were turned off, whispering, fearfully, excitedly: But the kitchen still exploded.
—And it was fried in a pot of almond porridge that Zhu Gonghou was supposed to drink at dawn.
The explosion wasn't loud, but it wasn't quiet either; the entire mansion could hear it. Then, alarms sounded everywhere around the Zhu family mansion. In the darkest hour before dawn, the once imposing and imposing mansion seemed to be caught in a storm, with countless enemies approaching.
No one believed that the ground of Zhu Gong Mansion would shake.
Even if Mount Tai collapsed, people would believe it—but no one would believe that the ground of a duke's mansion would shake.
It wouldn't, because Zhu Gonghou was hundreds of feet wide and commanded the nine provinces, connecting with the emperor above and subjugating the common people below; it wouldn't.
This attack was repelled.
But on this day, when the Zhu family members walked on the smooth inner courtyard of the duke's mansion, on the gold bricks, on the white marble bridge, and under the large plaque with the four characters "as solid as a fortress," they felt that the ground was like waves.
They were like small boats in the waves; the waves were too big and the boats too small.
2. Mutual support
Su Jiangchun was very scared.
Three days later, when the Zhu family mansion was attacked for the second time, the Pear Blossom Courtyard was deserted and desolate.
There was no sound—the inner courtyard was too deep—but Su Jiangchun still sensed it immediately.
Because of silence, her whole body stopped moving.
At that moment, the sound of a clapper rang out.
Others might not know, but she couldn't possibly be unaware of the special meaning behind that cloud-shaped clapper sound. Her hand loosened, and with a "clang," a jade bowl fell from her hand and shattered in front of the corridor.
Then, she trembled all over.
She recalled the sword she faced at Old Ge's Tea House. These days, she kept having nightmares, recurring nightmares, dreaming that the entire Zhu Mansion was shaking; dreaming that she had a pair of terrifying eyes that could see the past and future of the Zhu Mansion, could see the inner chambers and secret rooms, the ground and the underground, and all the sins and horrors locked within those secret rooms—the inner halls and secret passages were all filthy; and underground, the white bones were scattered one by one, decaying and trembling, but supporting each other, actually shaking the Zhu Mansion, which was as heavy as a thousand fishing rods.
There is a kind of anger, a kind of resentment that is about to burst forth.
She would often scream and wake up from her dream, her clothes trembling—this overwhelming wealth was about to collapse, and what about her? She would just be a beautiful corpse to be buried with it, regarded by later generations as Daji and Baosi, perhaps even less than them, perhaps not even leaving a name behind—at that time, she would always tremble involuntarily.
She is not afraid of death.
What she feared was emptiness—the fear that she had lived twenty-five years only to live a life of emptiness!
...The bowl made a crisp sound, splashing into several pieces on the ground, but a pair of arms reached out from behind her, firmly, resolutely, and without allowing her to avoid it, embracing her with great comfort. For some reason, those arms gave her a sense of security and trust.
Su Jiangchun's body trembled violently. When the trembling subsided, she slowly turned her head to see who was so bold as to comfort her—it was Xiao Zai.
His face glowed in the shadows—he wasn't just plain-looking, nor just a delicate little brother; he also possessed resilience, like the outstretched arm he offered. Su Jiang's lips pursed as if she were meeting this boy for the first time. In this great chaos, with the world in turmoil and the seas drying up, she felt that they were two fish sharing a life of mutual support in the sand.
3. Encirclement
The second siege took place like this.
In an instant, everything changed. Zhu Gongfu, the chief official, who was buying vegetables at the market, had his throat slit with a knife. The person who killed him was a butcher.
Meanwhile, Zhang Yun, the fast runner from Zhu Gongfu's mansion, who had followed Manager Jin Fu for two days and found the man quite suspicious, finally confirmed his suspicions: the man was a 'man from the mountains'.
A gold ring was forever etched into his mind, but he could no longer speak of it.
The family temple of the Duke's family, Ganye Temple, outside the city, caught fire. The temple housed the wooden tablets of several generations of Zhu Gonghou's ancestors. Someone actually dared to burn the ancestral tablets of eight generations of Zhu Gonghou's family. This is truly outrageous!
The most brutal battle took place in front of the Zhu family mansion. At that moment, several porters resting on the street opposite the gate and the rice noodle seller who was doing business with them suddenly drew their knives.
They killed six guards at the gate with a single stroke of their swords.
The guards resisted, and they also left behind two corpses.
Then they retreated!
—Everything happened at the same time, in different places, and then everyone evacuated, in a planned manner. Even the Zhu family's people couldn't react in time.
But one person was still caught up.
The man raised his knife, stretched out his neck, and committed suicide.
The people of the Zhu family were horrified!
4. When the body isn't shaking, the heart is.
Su Jiangchun didn't want to hear these things, but these messages kept getting into her ears from time to time.
Because no one felt they had to hide anything from her.
She was the woman most favored by dukes and marquises.
Although nobles and marquises are required to abstain from sexual activity for three months.
But three months later, she was still the favorite woman of the dukes and marquises.
People try to please her, and within a large system, the way to please someone is to give them information.
—Because she already had a life of luxury at her fingertips, what she needed most at that time was news.
These news terrified Su Jiangchun. The only person she trusted now was her little brother.
But Xiao Zai is no longer the same Xiao Zai she used to be.
His resilience, his clarity, his composure all became even stronger as he listened to her pour out her heart. That day, Su Jiangchun finally told someone for the first time about the bones she had dug up in the flowerbed—it was Xiao Zai. After telling the story, Su Jiangchun felt much better. This secret had been brewing in her heart for many years, growing ever more frightening, but after speaking it out, she felt much better.
This was the first time she had ever spoken so much to someone. She had so much to say. For so many years, she had seen and heard, but had to pretend she hadn't, even afraid that talking in her sleep would reveal what she had seen and heard—those bloody, dirty, and hard things she could never digest. Finally, she had someone to confide in.
The nobleman liked her, but she knew even better that he only liked her as a beautiful woman whose eyes were only for fine silks, songs, dances, wine, and silver zithers.
Rather than a woman who can see and hear.
She understands these things, which is why she has been able to enjoy his favor for so long.
As she recounted those events, Xiao Zai held her hand firmly throughout. For the first time in so many years, she finally felt that a life was truly with her, listening intently, accompanying her, sighing, and listening so attentively to her breath.
When a person is alone, they cannot be sure whether they are alive.
Unless she can be sure that there is someone else listening to her breathing with such concern.
And he is.
Each narration grew longer and longer, sometimes lasting two or three hours, sometimes until dawn. Each time, Su Jiang's lips trembled slightly, and Xiao Zai would lift her up with his strong, slender arms.
But one day, Su Jiangchun realized that her body had stopped trembling.
Her heart began to tremble.
5. Assassinating a Duke
That day, early in the morning, in early winter.
A flagpole suddenly appeared on the top of the Bell and Drum Tower in Nanchang.
A piece of white cloth hangs on the pole.
The white cloth bore only three large characters: "Assassinate the Dukes and Marquises!"
Every resident who saw this early in the morning felt as if they had been punched hard in the chest.
—Assassinating a nobleman!
The assassination attempt has reached its climax. Eight attempts have been made in three months.
Every time is different.
Thirty assassins disposed of thirteen bodies. But no one knew what their next attack would be like, or where it would come from.
All the hustle and bustle of Nanchang City had ceased, all the prosperity had sunk into slumber, and everyone was waiting for a result. The city had turned pale white.
—The pale white world is filled only with pale gray businesses, and pale gray people walk on pale black streets.
On the dark street, a white cloth was hung, and on the white cloth was the only intense color—the tattoo of the Duke!
6. Pain, I'd rather you just give me a gentle prick.
Su Jiangchun, of course, also knew about the white cloth.
Upon learning this, she went back to the hospital.
Winter had just begun in the courtyard; everything was pale white, the trees were bare, and their branches were thin and gaunt.
She walked along the cobblestone path into the house, which was clean and tidy, with cool pillows and mats.
The maids didn't live in this courtyard. Su Jiangchun loved peace and quiet, so she lit an incense burner to separate herself from the world. It was as if the chaotic world was all an illusion, and only in the wisps of smoke could she be separated from it.
Su Jiangchun went into the inner room and closed the door. She no longer knew what was real. She lay on the bed for a while and heard someone knocking on the door.
She was slightly startled, and then she felt as if the sounds were knocking on her heart, "bang, bang," and she could even imagine the fingers that were knocking on the door.
She stood up and walked to the door: "Who is it?"
No one spoke. A figure was projected onto the paper on the carved door. The figure on the paper was small, delicate, slender, and dreamlike.
She leaned against the door; she couldn't open it, nor dared to.
She whispered, "Go away!"
But the sound was also powerless—a finger gently pierced through the paper door, penetrating in with unmistakable realism.
Su Jiang stared at the finger, and the floodgates in her heart opened like a tidal wave—it was real, this finger was real, even though everything in this chaotic world had become meaningless to her, this finger, the long, warm, lonely finger, was real.
The door opened because a finger had already entered. Love is sometimes just a gentle prick. Su Jiangchun lay on the bed, her clothes undone. It was a pale winter, everything was so cold, so cold, a faint cold, so cold that it felt like an illusion.
But he is hot.
He was hot, and he concentrated his heat into a single point, wanting to awaken or melt her away. That heat pierced her pale emptiness, like a drop of blood falling on a lily petal, instantly spreading red—she trembled, and the heat dissipated, flowing into her limbs and bones. Although she had experienced it before, this heat was different from all before. It was no longer a lifeless, fleshy body, but had spirit, vitality. It was a surge of hot blood splashing out from this lifeless bed, from this undue wealth and luxury…
Su opened her lips and felt her heart warm.
—She came back to life.
She hugged Xiao Zai; she loved this turmoil! She loved it because it gave her this moment of joy.
—If we can become a pair of mandarin ducks, why should we fear death?
I envy not the immortals, but only the mandarin ducks!