The gilded bronze bell hanging from the eaves of the prime minister's study trembled softly in the draft, the clatter of the bell tongue unable to penetrate the surging aroma of agarwood from the gilded bronze enamel incense burner. Smoke, like a spirit snake, escaped from the crevices of the lotus-patterned lid, weaving a translucent golden veil in the slanting afternoon sunlight. Strands of smoke clung to the stacked Siku Quanshu on the rosewood bookshelves, blurring the gilded inscriptions on the spines: "Classics, History, Philosophy, and Miscellaneous Works." Su Hongye stared at the stack of mulberry paper account books on his desk. His three long beard was nearly tangled from his stroking, his knuckles bluish from the excessive force, casting a trembling shadow beside the jade paperweight, like the fury surging in his chest.
On the yellowed pages of the account book, Wang Erlang's signature was distorted, its strokes tinged with the gambler's impatience, like a drunk's stumbling footprints, the ink smeared in varying shades across the grain of the paper. The amount of the gambling debt was heavily underlined in cinnabar, the figure "three thousand taels of silver" glaring on the rice paper like a freshly scab—enough to buy ten three-story courtyard houses with flowing water gardens on Zhuque Street, the most prosperous street in the capital; enough for ordinary people to eat from the stoves of the Kangxi era to the tables of the Qianlong era; enough to encrust the gilded spittoon in Liu's room with pearls from the East China Sea. Su Hongye's eyes swept over the vermilion signature of the Jufulou owner below the number, his Adam's apple rolling as he let out a low, trapped groan.
"Master, this is the red sandalwood box found in the Liu family's courtyard." Steward Liu Cheng stumbled in, hunched over, carefully carrying a gilded lacquer box. The lacquer painting of a hundred children on the box's surface had darkened with sweat from his palms. The silver glint that peeked through the cracks in the lid was dazzling. The topmost bracelet, a red gold bracelet inlaid with kingfisher feathers, sat between the silver ingots. The bracelet's entwined lotus pattern was deeply carved, and three millet-sized pearls nestled in the edges of the lotus petals shone in the light, reminiscent of the slits in Liu's eyes when she faked a smile. Su Jinli's fingers, dangling at her side, suddenly tightened, her nails digging deep into her palm. The fishy sweetness of coughing up blood and dying in a past life suddenly rose in her throat—at that time, Liu had worn this bracelet, sitting at her bedside, wiping away nonexistent tears with a silk handkerchief. The pearl on her wrist brushed against the back of her withered hand, cold as a piece of jade pulled from an ice cellar.
"Very good! Very good!" Su Hongye suddenly slammed his palm down on the rosewood desk. The loud clang shook the wolf-hair brush holders on the pen stand, and the purple-hair brush at the top was knocked to the ground, the tip of the brush splattering tiny specks of ink on the blue brick. The celadon teacup on the desk jumped three inches high, splattering scalding-hot Biluochun tea, leaving dark brown streaks on the cinnabar figures in the account book, like a blood-soaked deed, smearing the words "Jufulou Three Thousand Taels" even more sinisterly. "My, Su Hongye's, legitimate daughter, was used as collateral to pay off a gambling debt! How audacious Liu is!" He abruptly stood up, the hem of his dark official robe sweeping across the desk, knocking a stack of business cards to the ground. The jade cards made a crisp, flurry sound against the blue brick, and several rolled into the cracks of the stone slab where Liu was kneeling.
Outside the study, on the bluestone slabs, Liu's knees ached from kneeling. Her satin skirt, damp with morning dew, clung to her calves, chilling her to the bone. Through the diamond-shaped window panes, she could hear her husband's furious roar. The silver hairpin from her hair bun fell sideways, tinkling against the slabs with a subtle ding, startling the swallows nesting under the eaves. Madam Zhou, kneeling beside her, was about to say, "Master, please calm down," but Liu's glare pierced her back. This morning, when she had gone to the storehouse to collect her monthly allowance, the housekeeper, holding up the account book, smiled meaningfully. She explained that the master had personally decreed that the Liu family's monthly allowance be halved, and even the small change for the maids would have to be paid out of her own pocket. Liu recalled how she had thrown the jade headpiece from her dressing box to the floor in anger that morning. The broken jade pieces gleamed coldly in the sunlight, a perfect reflection of her own frayed nerves.
"Jinli," Su Hongye suddenly turned to look at her, his gaze sweeping over the pale blue lotus pattern on his daughter's plain white skirt—a favorite pattern of his late wife, who had personally embroidered a matching swaddling cloth for their daughter. His eyes lost the awe-inspiring indifference he once held in the court. Instead, it was as if he was truly seeing his daughter for the first time, through the mist of ten years. Her drooping lashes cast fan-shaped shadows under her eyes, and her pale cheeks were pale, yet her straight back resembled her mother, still copying books under the lamp before giving birth. "How... do you know all this dirty work of the Wang family?"
Su Jinli had already rolled the words over on her tongue a hundred times. She lowered her eyelids just in time, her long lashes casting a trembling shadow beneath them, perfectly obscuring the cold light that flashed across her eyes. "Half a month ago, behind the rockery in the garden, I overheard the kitchen maid, Liu Ma, telling the servants that Wang Erlang had used his ancestral jade ring to pay off his gambling debts at Jufulou, and the pawn tickets had all been used by the gambling den's servants to buy alcohol." She deliberately let her voice take on the timidity of a frightened deer, her fingertips twisting the ribbons of her skirt, fraying the lotus-embroidered ribbons. "Then I saw my stepmother frequently accepting invitations from the Wang family, and the other day she gave the gilded hand warmer from my room to the housekeeper... So, I started to keep an eye on it." When she mentioned the "gilded hand warmer," her voice was almost inaudible. It was the only warming device her biological mother had left her.
Su Hongye looked at his daughter's slightly trembling shoulders, and suddenly remembered his late wife clutching his hand before her death, her nails digging into his flesh as she repeatedly said, "Aye, take good care of Jinli. Don't let her become like me..." For years, buried in his papers, he'd assumed Liu's care of the harem would allow him to rest easy. Little did he know, his daughter had been schemed to the point of paying off a gambler's debts. Guilt washed over him like a tide, nearly drowning him. He abruptly rose, the hem of his robe brushing against the inkstone, splattering ink onto the ivory paperweight, creating a messy, dark stain. "Liu Cheng! Prepare your horses! Get my invitation from the Prime Minister's residence! Go to Earl Wang's residence and send a note saying—this marriage can't be consummated!" His voice trembled, unnoticed, like the panic he'd felt upon learning of the defeat at the front.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
