Chasing Jade (Zhu Yu)

Fan Changyu had just stepped out of the bridal chamber with two thick quilts in her arms when her instincts prickled. She glanced toward the courtyard wall and immediately spotted two hulking shadows ducking back below the wall.

Fan Changyu: "..."

She'd recognize Fan Da and his wife even if they were reduced to ashes.

Had they heard about her taking in a husband and climbed her courtyard wall in the dead of night to eavesdrop, fearing she'd staged a sham marriage with some outsider to deceive them?

Outside the Fan family's wall, Fan Da and his broad-shouldered wife, Madam Liu, each clung to a wooden ladder, their heads barely peeking over as they whispered.

"See? I told you that girl just found some random man for a sham marriage to scare us off! Sleeping separately on their wedding night! What were you so worried about?" Madam Liu scolded her husband.

Fan Da could barely contain his excitement at the prospect of reclaiming the property. "Let's keep watching! Just a bit longer!"

When they cautiously raised their heads again, they saw Fan Changyu enter the neighboring room with the quilts, then emerge to fetch a basin of water from the kitchen before returning to the bridal chamber—as if she'd merely gone to store the bedding next door.

The couple exchanged baffled looks.

Had they guessed wrong?

When Fan Changyu reentered the bridal chamber without knocking, carrying the basin of hot water, she met Xie Zheng's icy glare as he sat shirtless by the table. She gestured subtly toward the courtyard and said, half-embarrassed, half-resigned, "My uncle and aunt probably think I randomly took in a husband to trick them. They're eavesdropping outside."

Xie Zheng averted his gaze and slumped back onto the round table.

Freshly medicated, excruciating pain radiated from his lacerated flesh through every nerve, drenching his forehead, shoulders, and torso in cold sweat. All his energy was spent enduring it, leaving no room to care about Fan Changyu's comings and goings.

His shoulders tensed, sweat-dampened hair clung to his forehead, and beads of perspiration even weighed down his eyelids. His jaw clenched like a feral wolf refusing to be tamed despite repeated beatings.

This was the first time Fan Changyu had seen his injuries fully exposed. Without bandages, some wounds had scabbed over while others remained raw and mangled. Faded scars also littered his body.

She couldn't help but recall her father—his body bore similar old wounds. Escort work truly was a life-risking trade.

Setting down the basin, she approached and asked with a frown, "How can I help?"

The man half-sprawled on the table didn't look up, merely extending a pale hand with a medicine bottle. "Sprinkle the remaining powder on the wounds across my back."

Ever cautious, he'd transferred the Gyrfalcon's medicine into the bottles of wound medicine bought from the old man.

Fan Changyu took the bottle and complied. Instantly, his shoulder muscles tightened further, hard as stone. Overwhelmed, he twisted to bite down on the clothes piled on the table.

She frowned. His reaction seemed more severe than during his last treatment. Perhaps the wedding exhaustion had worsened his pain—the thought stirred guilt.

Noticing the bloodied, sweat-stained bandages on the floor, she fetched a bolt of plain silk from the cabinet.

Leftover from her parents' funeral preparations, the fabric sheared into strips would serve as fresh bandages.After a moment, Xie Zheng's tense muscles finally relaxed slightly. He spat out the piece of clothing he'd been biting down on and slowly lifted his gaze to Fan Changyu.

"Feeling better?" Seeing this, Fan Changyu quickly set down the scissors in her hand.

Xie Zheng loathed others seeing him while being treated for injuries—during those moments, he resembled a weak stray dog that anyone could kill.

Yet this woman before him had already witnessed him at his most wretched.

With this long-standing habit broken, he instinctively recoiled inwardly and only offered a cold word of thanks.

Fan Changyu glanced at his wounds and generously chose not to take offense.

Perhaps he was just in a bad mood because of the pain.

Xie Zheng picked up the clothes from the table and began putting them on. The sensation of blood and sweat sticking to his back was unpleasant, but his proper upbringing prevented him from remaining half-dressed in front of a woman with any ease.

Noticing this, Fan Changyu quickly stopped him: "You're covered in sweat and bloodstains. Clean yourself up first. I'll find you some of my father's clothes later."

She had just brought in a basin of water, originally meant for him to wash up with, and now it came in handy.

While Xie Zheng could wipe his front himself, his back required Fan Changyu's assistance. She cleaned much more meticulously than his own haphazard attempts, carefully wringing out the cloth to avoid his wounds as she wiped away the blood and the brown stains left by the previous medicine.

Occasionally, her knuckles would brush against his back—not exactly soft, yet distinctly different from his own calloused hands. A faint tingling sensation seemed to spread from where her fingers grazed his skin.

This unfamiliar prickling discomfort made Xie Zheng instinctively frown.

Seeing this, Fan Changyu paused. "Did I touch a wound?"

He pressed his lips together, his expression growing even colder. "No."

By the time she finished cleaning his back, the basin of water had turned murky with blood and medicine residue. Fan Changyu took the cloth strips she had cut earlier and began wrapping them around him. This time, her fingertips inevitably made more contact with his skin. Perhaps due to the medicine and sweat, his body felt hotter than ever before.

Standing while he sat, her hair occasionally brushed against his shoulders and neck as she leaned down to adjust the bandages.

Tingling, itching, prickling.

Xie Zheng's brows nearly knitted into a deep furrow as he subtly shifted away.

"Done." Unaware of his discomfort, Fan Changyu straightened up after tying the bandage. After all that effort, a light sheen of sweat had formed on her own forehead.

She rummaged through a chest and handed him an old shirt that had belonged to her father before taking the basin outside to empty it.

The red lantern under the eaves swayed gently in the cold wind. Outside the wall, two shadowy figures—bulky as bears—ducked down below the wall as soon as they saw her emerge, convinced they were perfectly hidden.

Playing along, Fan Changyu pretended not to notice and scolded loudly, "Whose stray cat is this, coming to steal meat from my house again!"

Carrying the basin, she walked over, scooped two more ladles of cold water from the vat to dilute it, then flung the contents forcefully over the wall. "Next time I catch you, I'll teach that beast a lesson!"

Outside the wall, Fan Da and his wife were drenched from head to toe, shivering from the cold. Terrified of being discovered, they didn't dare make a sound.

Only when the footsteps in the yard faded did Fan Da finally spit out the water he'd accidentally swallowed, grimacing as he asked between shivers, "What kind of water did that wretched girl throw? What's this awful taste?"Liu wiped her face with her sleeve, sniffing the dampness. "It reeks of blood and sweat."

The couple froze for a moment before spitting even more vigorously. "Damn it, that must be their bathwater!"

The soaked padded jackets clung to their skin, and the biting wind made the cold seep into their bones, leaving their teeth chattering.

They didn't manage to eavesdrop by the wall that night. Upon returning, Fan Da and his wife fell seriously ill with cold, bedridden for days—but that's another story.

Fearful of further mishaps, Fan Changyu deliberated and decided to sleep on a makeshift bed in the new house. Xie Zheng didn't comment on her choice.

Changyu fell asleep quickly. By the time Xie Zheng was still resting with his eyes closed, her breathing had already steadied into a deep rhythm.

According to folk customs, the wedding candles had to burn all night. To maintain appearances, Changyu left them lit.

When one of the candles suddenly crackled, its wick sparking softly, Xie Zheng turned slightly to glance at the bedding on the floor.

In the warm glow, the woman was curled up under several thick quilts, her dark hair spread across the pillow. Her skin, bathed in the dim candlelight, resembled warm jade.

Xie Zheng withdrew his gaze and closed his eyes again.

When awake, she carried a crude, common air that overshadowed any beauty she might possess. But in sleep, she was somewhat pleasant to look at.

Realizing he was contemplating her appearance, Xie Zheng abruptly opened his eyes, his brow furrowing deeply.

What did it matter to him whether she was beautiful or plain? Once his injuries healed, he would leave this place. Whether their paths would cross again was uncertain.

He dismissed the thought, turned toward the wall, and shut his eyes once more.

Fan Changyu had her own routine and woke up at her usual hour.

Sitting up, she found herself on the floor, with no sign of Changning nearby. Instead, a man lay on the bed a few steps away. For a moment, she was utterly confused.

Then she remembered she had gotten married the day before and let out a relieved sigh.

Outside, dawn was just breaking. Inside, the wedding candles had burned down to stubs, their wax pooled in mottled layers at the base of the holders.

Changyu rose quietly. Having slept in her clothes, she avoided the awkwardness of dressing. After folding the bedding, she stepped out of the room.

The snowstorm hadn't ceased overnight, leaving the courtyard blanketed in thick snow by morning. The walls and the bare branches beyond were all white.

Rubbing her chilled hands, Changyu first fetched firewood to light the fire pit. She hung a pot to warm water for washing, then took a broom to sweep the snow into piles.

When she heard Changning crying next door, she hurried to carry her younger sister back.

Changning was usually well-behaved, but since their parents' passing, she would cry if she woke up and didn’t see Changyu.

After comforting her, Changyu sat her on a stool and began combing her hair.

Perhaps due to her frail health since childhood, Changning's hair wasn’t as thick and black as Changyu's. Instead, it was fine, yellowish, and full of flyaways, making even simple pigtails a challenge.

Changyu was still unpracticed, so Changning's hairstyles ended up uniquely messy every day.Fan Changyu finished combing her younger sister's hair and told her to go wash her face. Changning touched the pigtails on her left side, then the ones on her right, feeling something was off. Holding her washcloth, she went to the basin and looked at her reflection in the water, only to realize today's pigtails were unusually crooked.

She tugged at them and said, "Elder Sister, my hair is tied crooked."

Fan Changyu coughed lightly. "I still have to go to the County Government Office after breakfast. I don’t have time to redo it—can you make do for today?"

Xiao Changning was easy to appease and didn’t bring it up again.

When Fan Changyu fetched fresh water and brought it to the room, she noticed the man inside seemed to have been awake for a while, dressed and sitting upright against the headboard.

He had likely overheard her conversation with her sister, and Fan Changyu felt a little embarrassed.

She placed the basin on the round stool by the bed and handed him a clean cotton cloth, bringing up the promise she had made when allowing him the sham marriage: "I’ll go to the County Government Office later to transfer the property deed and help you register your household registration. I’ll also call a physician for you."

However, Xie Zheng replied, "No need for a physician. My injuries will heal with rest."

His wounds had already been treated with травма medicine; all he needed was time for the flesh to mend.

Fan Changyu scratched her head. "Then is there anything you need? I can buy it for you."

He shook his head again, making Fan Changyu feel somewhat awkward.

This wasn’t what she had promised earlier, making it seem like she was the one benefiting from the sham marriage.

She thought that after handling official business at the Yamen in town, she might as well buy him some tonics on the way back to help him recover.

After a quick breakfast, Fan Changyu left the house. Since there was now someone else at home besides her sister, she didn’t leave Changning at Aunt Zhao’s place. She only reminded her before leaving that if anything happened, she could go next door to Aunt Zhao for help.

Little did she know that the moment she left, the loiterers keeping watch in the alley rushed to the gambling den to report.

When the loud banging on the door erupted, Xie Zheng had just picked up a book from the corner of the room and flipped through a couple of pages with little interest. His lazy brows carried a trace of boredom and impatience—his mood was far from pleasant.