Wrong Carriage, Right Groom 2

Song Yaobai usually goes out to collect herbs, but when I strolled into the courtyard in the evening, I could see the herbs displayed all over the ground, so it didn't seem like he was lying.

Every evening he would return on time, his clothes stained with mud and grass, carrying a bundle of freshly picked medicinal herbs. He looked perfectly normal, and even when he saw me sitting on the porch "resting," he would show his signature gentle smile, tinged with a touch of shyness.

"My lady, are you feeling any better today? A few nights ago, I noticed you were always carefully feeling the walls when you went out, which must be because your night vision is poor. I learned a new prescription that just happens to work." His voice was as gentle as ever, without a trace of anything amiss.

I nodded slightly, covered my lips with my handkerchief, and whispered, "Thank you for your concern, sir." My gaze swept seemingly unintentionally over his forearm, where a fresh scratch had appeared, as if it had been scraped by thorns.

The messy new wounds, haphazardly covering the old ones, seemed more like an attempt to conceal the truth than anything else.

“My husband has gotten another new injury on his hand,” I frowned, my tone carrying just the right amount of worry. “He’s always so careless. How can I, his wife, possibly feel at ease?” At the end of my sentence, I deliberately choked up a little, playing the role of a weak wife who was heartbroken for her husband but also struggling to take care of herself.

Song Yao paused almost imperceptibly. He put down the herbs, walked to me, and squatted down. From this angle, I could clearly see his long, thick eyelashes, and the reflection in his eyes, which were always full of gentle smiles—at this moment, there was only a pale, melancholy "woman" in them.

He reached out, seemingly wanting to touch my cheek, but then changed direction and gently took my hand, which was resting on my knee. His palm was warm and dry, carrying the bitter scent of medicinal herbs.

"It's just a minor injury, nothing serious," he said softly, his thumb rubbing against the back of my hand with extreme restraint, so quickly it was almost an illusion. "As long as my wife is well, I don't care what happens to me."

His eyes were terrifyingly sincere.

In order to play the role of a sickly wife, and because I couldn't figure out when Song Yao was away, I couldn't go out and follow her myself. So I had to let Shu'er secretly follow behind and tell me what she saw when she came back at night.

For several days, the mice did not notice anything unusual.

Just in case, I observed the mice for a few more days, but still found no abnormalities.

...

"It seems we can stop this for now."

However, fate played a cruel trick. Just the day before I decided to temporarily stop observing Song Yao's trip, Shu'er came back and told me that Song Yao had met a disciple of Qingxi during the day.

"Qingxi?" A country doctor, yet he has connections with prestigious sects... Thinking of this, I couldn't help but clench my hands hanging at my sides.

Although the trick developed by his senior brother could fool most doctors, Qingxi was an exception. In pathology, even though the tricks of the Nine Schools could deceive everyone, it was simply wishful thinking to fool Qingxi.

Fake is fake.

Around the same time, I found letters in Song Yao's room that had not been delivered to me for a long time.

...Although my senior and I always kept our correspondence brief and unsigned, the content was still easily understood by anyone with eyes to see.

So Song Yao already knew I was acting...

I suddenly felt powerless... It all seemed to fulfill my earlier sentiments. What gentle and devoted husband, what sickly and virtuous wife, they were all playing the role of a loving couple every day, but in reality, they were all hypocritical!

What a grand joke, what a silent, makeshift troupe!

The mouse inside the sleeve stirred restlessly, its sharp claws tearing at the lining fabric, causing a slight stinging pain. But this was nothing compared to the turmoil raging within her heart.

Song Yao knew. He had known for a long time.

Those furrowed brows when checking his pulse, his focused attention when feeding him medicine, and even the occasional complex look that flashed across his eyes that I couldn't quite decipher... it turned out that they weren't expressions of concern for his "sick wife," but rather an examination and amusement at a mediocre actor!

A surge of anger, as if I'd been played, suddenly welled up inside me, burning my ears. All my cautiousness these past few days, my feigned meekness and shyness, and even that absurd wavering that arose from his gentleness... all now seemed like a cruel irony.

“Good… very good…” I practically spat out those words through clenched teeth, my fingertips turning slightly white from the force. The still-beautiful face belonging to “Xiaoyue” in the bronze mirror now revealed an incongruous sharpness due to anger and coldness.

The rats' restlessness reminded me of the danger. Song Yao had seen Qingxi's disciples before; my disguise was probably already full of holes in his eyes. Why didn't he expose me? Was it a cat-and-mouse game, or was there another scheme? This house, those scars, the missing bride, the murder cases with inconsistent timelines... countless clues spun wildly in my mind, yet they were all a jumbled mess, with no starting point.

But I must remain calm. My mission is to investigate the "skinners," not to experience married life or get entangled in emotional conflicts.

I took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed my surging emotions. The most urgent task was to ascertain Song Yao's attitude and purpose. His silence might mean that I still had room to maneuver, and I might even be able to use it to turn the tables on him.

I quickly hid the mouse in a more concealed spot and straightened my slightly disheveled clothes and expression. The "woman" in the mirror had softened her gaze again, but a thin layer of ice remained deep within her eyes.

However, Song Yao did not return today.

The courtyard was extremely quiet.

The prepared words and scenes suddenly became stuck in my chest. I ran out of the house in a sullen mood, only to bump into my senior brother who was also walking in a hurry.

"Senior brother, I have something to say!"

"Wait, change your clothes first, then come with me to the restaurant in Chengen Town."

Why?

"The envoy from the Jiangnan Kingdom has arrived."

...

As the day drew closer to winter, white mist could even be seen from people's breath as evening approached.

The darker it got, the darker his senior brother's face became.

From the moment I finished changing clothes until we arrived at the restaurant, his fiery temper flared up, and he only managed to utter one sentence: "Dawn ran away, we've all been played!"

Wait, there's another line: "If I catch him, I'll skin him alive! He even dares to deceive a disciple of a lowly sect!"

We were led by a servant to a private room on the second floor and sat down. A scantily clad dancer was swaying her body, captivating the envoy from Jiangnan. She tilted her wine cup, spilling the finest wine onto the floor.

Throughout the journey, the senior brother remained silent with a livid face. The first thing he did after sitting down was to down two glasses of wine.

I guessed he wanted to tell me more than just the news that "Dawn ran away." "Senior brother, is there anything else you want to say?"

"..." The senior brother lowered his eyes, raised his chin and pointed in a direction.

I looked over and saw two young men in blue coats with fur collars and their hair in buns chatting happily on the other side of the Jiangnan envoy's seat through the dancer's almost transparent sleeves.

"What are the disciples of Tianquan doing here? Are they here for the envoy from Jiangnan, or do they have some other purpose?"

"Ha!" The senior brother was so angry he was incoherent. "They deserve some credit for Dawn running away too!"

At that moment, the thin veil around the dancer's shoulders and neck slowly parted before my eyes, revealing that one of the two Tianquan disciples who were chatting happily had a face exactly like mine, the man who had been with me day and night for nearly two months...