Entering a woman's room in the middle of the night, not for money or lust, is something he would only do if he were in a moment of inspiration.
In the end, she was just a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl. She took the blame for her sister's crime for the Sun family, and she was so afraid that if she turned back, she would never see the way she came. That night, she dreamed that a towering city wall was under her command and she fell down.
When she woke up, she saw him lying lazily on the chair furthest from the bed, like a little dog. Moonlight shone through the window, but it couldn't compare to the brightness of his eyes, which were looking at her.
He chuckled softly: "Hey, I'm the ancestor of the Western Mountain bandits, my name is Zhao Zhen, and I don't remember ever kidnapping you, little lady."
A stunningly beautiful face, yet paired with such a dissolute soul; or perhaps, given her appearance, even her outrageousness is forgivable. Is that so? All she knows is that the world is at most unfair; a handsome young man can fall from grace one day, and her reputation is ultimately meaningless.
She suddenly laughed: What are you doing here?
His eyes shone brighter, like washed amber, glistening and luminous: "I've come to see this widow."
Sun Xiuying remained silent. He studied her closely, then suddenly chuckled: "Or perhaps she's just a fool."
two:
The only time Sun Xiuying went to Xishan to find Zhao Zhen was for an abortion pill. Sun Xiuxue was pregnant, and the child's father, Zhu Jiansu, panicked and at a loss, blurting out that he asked her to go to Zhao Zhen for help.
Sun's parents could no longer bear any more bad news about their daughter. After thinking it over, Sun Xiuying realized that the only person she could rely on right now was Zhao Zhen, whom she had never met before.
To avoid attracting attention, she set off in the dead of night and didn't reach the foot of the Western Hills until sunrise. The two men watching over the mountain recognized her and greeted her warmly, pointing out various sights and places in the mountains as they walked. It was already summer at the foot of the mountain, but inside, spring flowers were in full bloom, and houses stood in rows with red-walled tile roofs, resembling a small, well-governed city with strict internal and external regulations.
She couldn't help but smile. Deep down, who would have thought that the one who governed this city-state was such a willful and capricious person? When she asked for saffron, the carefree laughter that had been plaguing Zhao Zhen's face gradually faded, and his expression became solemn and indescribable, something she had never seen before.
Zhao Zhen spoke something to her subordinate, and when the man returned, he was holding a small red box. Turning the box over to face her, the strange, pungent scent made her instinctively turn her head away. But when she looked closely, he had already closed it.
She silently accepted it. As she left, she heard him sigh softly behind her: "Xiuying, sometimes decisions you think are for someone's good aren't what they want. Cleverness is easily broken; you understand this all too well."
She realized she didn't really understand Zhao Zhen; the soul hidden behind his usual playful facade wasn't as rough as his words suggested. He could shine, so brightly.
She carried the box of medicine home in a daze, and spent the entire afternoon brewing just a small bowl of it. Several times she accidentally extinguished the fire and spilled countless portions of the cooled medicine. When she placed the small bowl in front of Sun Xiuxue, the last trace of color finally returned to Sun Xiuxue's already pale face.
She looked up, tears streaming down her face, her lips trembling as she called out, "Sister, sister," how cruel! Lost in thought, she realized she had never felt any sympathy for this child, yet Xiuxue loved him more than life itself; how could she bear to kill him?
Exhausted, every drop of her heart and soul was poured into this bowl of medicine, which she then poured out at the base of a camphor tree. Surrounded on all sides, utterly lost and helpless, she was truly out of resources this time.
Just then, she heard someone call her name from above. She looked up and saw Zhao Zhen swaggering down from the tree. He swiftly pulled her up from the ground, his eyes sparkling: Here you go.
It was a pill, contained in a red box. He explained from the side: This medicine can delay childbirth. If Sun Xiuxue takes it the night she enters the palace to serve the emperor, even the Emperor himself won't be able to tell whose child it is.
She hesitated to take the red box from his hand, and he raised an eyebrow, looking at her with a puzzled expression. Sun Xiuying's expression turned unusually serious, and she suddenly raised her sleeve to her forehead, giving him a deep bow. Zhao Zhen looked at her and slowly smiled: "You trust me that much? Aren't you afraid I'm just trying to fool you?"
If it turns out to be just a joke, then it's simply fate's arrangement. Fortunately, fate wasn't too harsh on her.
Seven days later, the wedding carriage arrived in Qingcheng from Shangjing to welcome the second young lady of the Sun family, who came from the common people and was fortunate enough to be selected to serve the master in the palace.
After September, news came from the capital that Consort Sun had successfully given birth to a prince. At that time, there had been no good news of a newborn in the palace for nearly ten years. The whole country was overjoyed and the whole city was celebrating. At the same time, the emperor, in his ecstatic mood, announced that Sun Xiuxue was promoted to Imperial Noble Consort.
That very night, upon learning the news, Sun Xiuying brought several jugs of fine wine and some red eggs to visit the child's biological father—Zhu Jiansu, who lived in the east of the city and made a meager living as a teacher.
To be honest, she didn't really like this brother-in-law in the true sense. He possessed a delicate complexity that resembled that of a woman, but unfortunately, that wasn't what she admired. She preferred Zhao Zhen's simplicity and clarity, his strong liquor and fast horses, or his crude and unrestrained style.
She smiled inwardly, a strange sense of joy washing over her. She walked briskly under the bright moonlight, alone, yet suddenly thought of him. In that well-ordered city, was he also bathed in the same moonlight as she was? In those fleeting moments when he thought of her, did he also feel a bittersweet happiness?
three:
Zhu Jiansu was not home. The knocking startled the neighbor, an older woman who was still awake, who came out to tell her that Zhu Jiansu had left early in the morning and had not yet returned.
Sun Xiuying sat down to rest under a nearby bridge pier, leaving the wine by the door. Soon, two people came from the bridge, but what ultimately made her stop in her tracks was that she recognized another person's voice besides Zhu Jiansu's.
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