Chapter 25

After the meal, Gu Changjin struggled to get out of bed.

He had lost a lot of blood and was still running a high fever. The sudden act of getting up made his vision blur.

Pausing for a moment, he waited until the darkness before his eyes dissipated before putting on his clothes and stepping out, one foot at a time.

The door creaked open.

Under the wutong tree, the young girl had just taken a bite of a golden roasted chestnut, her cheeks puffed out as she chewed.

As expected, just like in the dream, she resembled a squirrel storing nuts.

Gu Changjin lowered his gaze, stepped over the threshold, and said to Rong Shu, "Thank you for your care today. Tonight, I'll be writing a report in the study, so there's no need for you to leave a light on for me."

Upon saying this, he couldn't help but feel a sense of suspicion arise within him.

Since their wedding, apart from the first night in the bridal chamber, he had spent every night in the study. Rong Shu had never left a lamp burning for him.

He was well aware of this fact; why then did he tell her not to leave a light?

It was as if...

She had once waited for him like this.

Chapter 12

The young master under the veranda looked as usual. If not for his pale face, drenched in beads of sweat, one wouldn't have guessed he was running a high fever with over ten knife and arrow wounds on his body.

Rong Shu swallowed the chestnut in her mouth and nodded, "Go ahead, young master."

Gu Changjin lifted his gaze to meet hers, then looked away, leaving Songsi Courtyard with slow and steady steps.

Yingyue didn't speak until their figures disappeared through the Moon Cave Gate, "Didn't the doctor say that Master was severely injured? How come he looks no different from usual, apart from his poor complexion?"

"Indeed," Ying Que chimed in, "If he were seriously hurt, how could he still go to the study to work? He's not made of steel, you know. If we knew this would happen, there was no need to rush back today."

Staring at the half-chewed chestnut in her bowl, Rong Shu recalled her past life. Gu Changjin had acted similarly back then – after waking up and finishing his medicine, he got out of bed to head straight to the study.

Back then, she also thought his injuries weren't severe. It wasn't until the next day when he was carried back from the palace by several strong generals that she learned he had been enduring high fever and bleeding while pleading for Xu Li'er and her daughter's innocence.

Gu Changjin, in truth, was an upright official.

A righteous official who walked on the edge of a blade, obstructing others' paths to wealth and power. Hence, the assassination attempt on Changan Avenue and the subsequent layers of peril that followed.

It was his character, pure as autumn frost and refined like a piece of Kunyu jade, that initially captured her heart.

Indeed, during their encounter at the Stargazing Pavilion, Rong Shu did indeed develop feelings for this nobleman from humble origins.

But it was merely a stirring of the heart, nothing more.

Life is indeed a lengthy journey, and there may be more than one person who touches one's heart.

Rong Shu took the Star-Plucking Lantern as a keepsake of her first stirrings of affection for a man.

It was when she discovered that Gu Changjin was the very scholar who had courageously presented a petition in the Throne Room that her genuine admiration for him began to blossom.

In the seventeenth year of Jiaoyu, Great Yin was inundated with torrential rains from the early spring right through to late summer.

The Imperial Astronomical Bureau had forewarned at the beginning of the year that the Yellow River would experience severe flooding. The government allocated six million taels to reinforce the levees and dams. Yet, when the floods hit, nearly all the provincial capitals downstream were submerged, with Jinan and Kaifeng suffering the worst damages.

The Emperor was furious and ordered a rigorous investigation. However, those in power shielded one another, ultimately sacrificing only three county magistrates as scapegoats.

Coincidentally, the following year's top three scholars in the imperial examination were from Jinan and Kaifeng. When they were summoned to the Golden Hall to announce their rankings before the Emperor, both of them, without prior agreement, exposed the corruption of their respective city officials.

They explicitly declared that it was due to the embezzlement and misconduct of several dozen officials in Kaifeng and Jinan that the funds designated for reinforcing the riverbanks were stolen. This resulted in the disastrous flooding of the Yellow River in the seventeenth year of Jiayou, turning the cities of Jinan and Kaifeng into lakes, destroying countless homes and claiming the lives of over twelve thousand people.

Their revelations sparked a tidal wave of consequences.

Two months later, numerous officials from Jinan and Kaifeng were either dismissed or imprisoned.

The interwoven connections among local officials were notoriously intricate. Even before entering officialdom, Rong Shu had already gained notoriety alongside Gu Changjin in Great Yin's political arena, but they also incurred the enmity of many courtiers, particularly the powerful eunuchs in the Supervisor of Ceremonies.

During the three years she was married to Gu Changjin, Rong Shu accompanied him through countless sleepless nights.

With his pen as a weapon, he rectified many injustices and sent numerous individuals to prison.

In fact, when it came to the case of the Shen family collaborating with the enemy against the Cheng'an Marquis Estate, Rong Shu believed Gu Changjin's claim that there was ample evidence and testimony.

Yet, even with overwhelming proof, there remained the possibility of wrongful convictions.

During her two months in the Sishi Garden, Rong Shu had meticulously examined this case, but she could not fathom who in the Cheng'an Marquis Estate could commit such a heinous crime.

Starting with the third branch, neither the shallow-minded Elder Madam Rong nor her father, who had no interest in officialdom and was lazy, were capable of such treachery.

They lacked both the courage and the means.

Furthermore, the daily expenses of Ho'an Hall and Qiuyun Hall were all covered by Mother.

Mother knew precisely where every coin was spent and how much savings and income each branch had.

If anyone from the third branch had indeed colluded with the enemy for profit, Mother would have noticed some hint of it.

As for the first and second branches, after Uncle passed away, Aunt hardly ventured out, devoting herself entirely to her eldest brother's upbringing. He spent his days studying in school and later at the Imperial Academy, never leaving the capital.

Aunt from the second branch was no different; her focus was entirely on her three children.

Even when she had free time, she would visit Ho'an Hall and Qiuyun Hall, and her movements rarely left the Cheng'an Marquis Estate, seldom returning to her natal family.

And as for Uncle from the second branch...

In Rong Shu's mind, an image of a resolute and heroic face emerged.

For the past decade, her second uncle had been stationed in Liao Dong.

Liao Dong bordered Mongolia and the Jurchen tribes. At present, her second uncle held the position of Zhizhou in the Jinzhou Wei under the Liao Dong Military Commission.

Though not as courageous and strategic as her eldest uncle, her second uncle was still a formidable general. Over the years, he had made significant contributions defending Liao Dong. Rong Shu recalled that next year, her second uncle would be promoted to the rank of a Fourth Class Commander.