Chapter 16 Just a kept woman...

Yu Tan lay on the canopy bed, her long, black hair cascading down her back. Her face was deathly pale, her eyes wide open, but her dark eyes were devoid of any light. Blood vessels covered the whites of her eyes, and the corners of her eyes were red. Her chin was buried in the brocade quilt, making her look like a delicate and fragile piece of porcelain.

Hearing Qiaoxin's exclamation, Lanxin hurried into the inner room and gently shook Yutan's arm.

"Wife, what's wrong? Don't scare me."

With a skillful touch, she felt Yu Tan's forehead; her body was warm, thankfully she didn't have a fever.

But Yu Tan's appearance was more frightening than having a fever.

Perhaps hearing the call, Yu Tan's dark eyes rolled around blankly.

"My lady, I'll go fetch a doctor to take a look." Qiaoxin hurriedly went out of the mansion to fetch a doctor, but she tripped and fell in front of the mansion gate in her haste, making a loud noise.

At the gate of the mansion, she happened to meet Yu He'an, who was leaving the mansion to attend a lecture. He was standing in front of the carriage in a white robe. When he saw her, he took a few steps forward, his thin lips slightly parted but he had not yet said a word.

Qiaoxin quickly got up and stepped aside, afraid of being disrespectful in front of Yu He'an. Yu He'an was aloof and serious, and the maids in the mansion were somewhat afraid of him.

Fortunately, Yu He'an only glanced at her before getting into the carriage.

Qiaoxin rushed to the clinic and asked a doctor to come to her home for a consultation.

The doctor said, "Madam, it's a nightmare causing palpitations. You're troubled by too many worries; it's a heart ailment..."

The doctor shook his head, stroked his beard helplessly, left a dose of calming herbal medicine, and left with his medicine box.

After Qiaoxin finished decocting the medicine, she went into the inner room. Yutan had her eyes closed and her back to them, as if she had fallen asleep.

She had no choice but to keep the medicine warm, so that Yu Tan could drink it whenever she woke up.

When Qiaoxin touched Yutan's forehead again in the middle of the night, it was burning hot.

Qiaoxin quickly wrapped her robe tighter and went to fetch a doctor. After all that fuss, it suddenly got bright daylight, and she served Yutan a fever-reducing medicine.

After Yu Tan's incident, Lan Xin wanted to report it to Old Madam Song, but before she left, Yu Tan, who had suddenly regained consciousness, grabbed her hand.

"You're not allowed to go." Yu Tan's voice was dry and hoarse.

Lanxin thought for a moment: "My lady, should we ask our husband to come and take a look?"

Yu Tan refused: "No one can tell. I'm fine."

Lanxin looked at Yutan with concern: "But..."

Yu Tan lay under the brocade quilt, her voice both slow and firm: "I was just thinking about something."

Lanxin swallowed all her hesitation as Yu Tan's eyes reddened and her tone hardened.

It took three days for the fever to completely subside.

Suffering from recurring nightmares and a high fever, her head throbbed with pain, feeling like someone was chopping at it with an axe. She stayed listlessly in the room, not wanting to go anywhere else.

Ji Yushang sent a visiting card every day, each one thicker than the last. Chu Minglang also sent a visiting card once, which Ji Yushang ordered to be thrown into the flower bed.

Zhao Qin also sent a letter to discuss the caravan, but she refused.

Yu Tan lay in the canopy bed, staring blankly at the sky-blue canopy, in a daze.

She couldn't quite tell whether she was peacefully staying in Lanfang Courtyard or in the courtyard that imprisoned her in her dream.

For four consecutive days, she did not go to Hexiang Courtyard to have breakfast with Old Madam Song. Old Madam Song was worried and sent Granny Chang over to inquire about her.

The medicinal smell inside had long since dissipated through the open windows, and some new night-blooming cereus fragrance had been added; unless you sniffed carefully, it was difficult to detect the medicinal scent.

Granny Chang stood outside the tent, her back straight, and said worriedly, "Madam, the old lady hasn't seen you for several days. She sent me to ask if you've fallen ill again."

Yu Tan braced herself on the bed with her arms, leaning against the headboard as the brocade quilt slid down, revealing her thin body.

She pursed her lips: "I'm not sick. It's just the bitter cold of winter, I was just being lazy."

"It's good that you're not sick, it's good that you're not sick." Granny Chang chuckled a few times. "The old lady often talks about you. If you have time, please come to Hexiang Courtyard. With you here, the old lady always eats more and laughs more happily."

Yu Tan nodded. She felt weak after the high fever, and what bothered her even more were the nightmares and lack of sleep. After thinking for a while, she remembered that she had promised her grandmother a while ago that she would make osmanthus pudding for her, but she had never made it.

She looked outside. The sun was shining in the courtyard after the snowfall. It was past noon, and Old Madam Song was about to take her afternoon nap.

"I'll trouble Granny Chang to make the trip. I'll come to Hexiang Courtyard first thing tomorrow morning."

"Alright!" Granny Chang happily agreed and returned to Hexiang Courtyard to report.

*

Kong Ren was a great Confucian scholar of our time. He benefited greatly from listening to the lectures. Yu He was tidying up his desk and would habitually look up at the low couch when he raised his head.

A thin quilt, bright pale yellow, was piled on the low couch. The soft brocade was stuffed with snow-white cotton and embroidered with several blooming white epiphyllum flowers.

On the small table were several travelogues, but Yu Tan only flipped through the first few pages before losing patience and not reading any further.

Like a jade chrysanthemum, she taps on her travelogue, wrapped in a thin blanket, curled up on a low couch and dozes off, like a sleepy, lazy cat guarding a warm stove in winter.

Yu He'an could no longer put down his pen; his mind was restless, and he couldn't concentrate on reading. He got up, left the house, and stood on the veranda.

The sunlight after the snow was dazzling but not warm. On the wind chimes under the eaves, the glass and seashells shimmered with iridescent colors in the sunlight.

When there is no wind, the wind chimes will not ring.

He raised his hand and fiddled with it, and the wind chimes jingled.

At first, Yu Tan clung to him, wanting him to take her out to play.

He was young and lacked a firm will, unable to concentrate. His writing was often obscure and difficult to understand, and he was always led astray by Yu Tan. A book that could be finished in an hour would take almost two hours if she were there.

He complained that Yu Tan was nagging in his ear. Yu Tan pursed her lips and glared at him. The next day, she set about hanging a string of wind chimes under the eaves.

When he was tormented by books again, he looked up at Yu Tan.

Yu Tan raised her eyebrows slightly, widened her almond eyes a little, and raised her chin triumphantly, "Brother, the wind chimes are ringing. I didn't mean to disturb you, so you can't blame me."

Yu He'an followed Changming's gaze and saw only the withered branches in the corner of the courtyard swaying gently in the breeze. "Changming, did I... go too far?"

Changming swallowed hard and nodded.

“That day, my wife clearly explained to my husband that he was too concerned with etiquette and felt that my wife was not proper.”

The roads are slippery on snowy days, and Chu Langjun only helped his wife because he was worried about her. If she had fallen on the snow, breaking her leg would have been a much bigger problem.

"That can't be."

“Last year, my lord, we slipped and fell in the snow on Canglan Mountain, and my leg was broken. It took me three months to recover before I could walk again. Have you forgotten?”

After Changming finished speaking, Yu He'an had already disappeared from sight. Only a white robe that was about to disappear could be seen in the corner of the courtyard, and he couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Yu He'an is always self-disciplined and courteous in his dealings with others, but only with Yu Tan...

Five years ago, after an argument, Yu Tan went to Yuyang. After waiting for two years, she finally returned, but she never came to Fengxu Academy again. Later, Yu He'an went out to study.

The once close siblings became distant and cold. After a brief reconciliation, Changming shook his head, staring at Yuhe'an's retreating figure. His husband's bad temper had flared up again.

Hoping this misunderstanding between the siblings wouldn't last too long, Changming shook his head and caught up with Yuhe'an.

*

Yu He'an stood outside Lanfang Courtyard, and upon careful consideration, realized that he had never been here before.

When Yu Tan was young, she was raised in Madam Song's courtyard. If Yu Tan stayed late at Fengxu Courtyard, he would send her to Hexiang Courtyard.

Every blade of grass and every tree here was unfamiliar to him, like the five years he spent in Yutan where he had never set foot.

Upon closer inspection, he saw a maidservant in a pink short jacket squatting in the corner, her back to him, kneeling with utmost devotion, muttering incantations:

"Blessed by the Heavenly Official, all ghosts will vanish and all diseases will be eradicated."

I beg all the gods to grant their blessings and protect my wife.

After the maid finished speaking, she blew on a tinderbox and lit a pile of talismans.

He recognized this maid; she had grown up with Yu Tan and was a servant born into the Marquis's household.

Yu He'an strode closer and said coldly, "Lan Xin, what are you doing?"

"My lord." Lanxin was so frightened that she took a half step back and knelt down with a thud. "This servant had no intention of harming anyone. Please forgive me, my lord."

"Where is Yaoyao?" Yu Tan treated the maid with kindness, so he naturally couldn't punish her. Yu He'an sighed deeply, not forgetting his true purpose for coming here.

Remembering Yu Tan's instructions, Lan Xin quickly stood up and blocked Yu He'an's way, "My lord, my wife has already taken a nap."

Yu He'an glanced at Lan Xin. Her brows were furrowed, her eyes were darting around, and she looked too flustered. He also sensed something was wrong with the words she had just recited.

With a long stride, he entered the reception hall of Lanfang Courtyard. The air was filled with the fragrance of epiphyllum mixed with a slightly bitter medicinal smell.

Yu He'an coldly said, "Yaoyao is sick, why didn't you say so?"

Lanxin whispered, "My wife's fever has gone down, so... so we must stop her from reporting it."

Yu He'an didn't understand where his anger came from. It felt like there was a fire in his chest, burning his entire lungs and causing him pain. He could no longer care about the difference between brother and sister and went into the inner room.

"Lanxin." Yu Tan thought Lanxin had returned and called out softly, her voice weak and listless. "Pour me a cup of tea, I'm terribly thirsty."

There was no movement outside the gauze curtain. Yu Tan frowned, wondering if she had misheard.

Four days later, she finally emerged from that nightmare.

She placed her hand on the soft quilt, lifted the quilt, and was about to get out of bed when she heard a teacup being gently tapped on the round table, the sound of tea being poured. She stopped what she was doing and waited for Lanxin to hand her the tea.

The room was dark inside, with layers of sky-blue gauze curtains. A tall figure approached, and Yu Tan frowned, feeling that Lan Xin was unusually tall today. A large, well-defined hand lifted the gauze curtain.

Yu He'an, dressed in a white robe, appeared before her, his brows furrowed, his lips pursed, and his face showing a hint of anger, exactly the same expression he had when he glanced at her in her dream and turned away in disgust.

For a moment, she couldn't tell whether she was in reality or in a dream.

Yu Tan nervously swallowed, pulling the blanket to hide in the canopy bed, but the bed was too small, and she kept shrinking back, her back pressed tightly against the wall.

She was terrified of hearing Yu He'an's insults, yet her mind was filled with the vile words from her dream:

"Just a mistress kept by someone."

"How is she any different from a courtesan in a brothel? It's a shame she grew up in a noble family."

"They have completely forgotten propriety, righteousness, integrity, and a sense of shame."

Yu Tan covered her ears with both hands and screamed in shock, "Get away, get away..."

A note from the author:

Thank you for the nutrient solution from the roadside vendor who was just sitting around doing nothing [lop-eared rabbit head]

No update tomorrow, I need to keep the word count low for better rankings. [droopy-eared rabbit head]