Fan Changyu hadn't gone far from the bridal chamber, carrying two thick quilts, when her intuition told her something was wrong. She lifted her head and glanced over the courtyard wall, and two large, dark figures immediately ducked back down below it.
Fan Changyu: "..."
Fan Da and his wife. She'd recognize them even if they were turned to ash.
Had the two of them heard about her recruiting a husband and, fearing she had just found some random outsider to put on a show and deceive them, decided to stay up in the middle of the night to climb her wall and eavesdrop?
Outside the Fan Family's courtyard wall, Fan Da and his wife, the stout and sturdy Mrs. Liu, were each perched on a wooden ladder, their heads ducked below the wall as they conversed in low voices.
"See? I told you that girl just found someone for a sham marriage to fool us! They're sleeping in separate rooms on their wedding night! What were you so panicked about!" Mrs. Liu snapped at her husband.
The thought that there was hope of getting the house and land again made Fan Da unable to hide his excitement. "Let's keep watching! Keep watching!" he said.
When the two of them furtively poked their heads over the wall again, they saw Fan Changyu enter the adjacent room with the thick quilts, then come back out. She went to the kitchen, brought a basin of water back to the bridal chamber, and made it seem as if she had only gone to the next room to drop off some bedding.
Fan Da and his wife couldn't help but look at each other in bewilderment.
Could it be that they had guessed wrong?
After Fan Changyu entered the bridal chamber again with a basin of hot water without knocking, she met the icy gaze of the man sitting bare-chested at the table. She gestured with her eyes toward the courtyard, her tone half-embarrassed and half-resigned. "My uncle and aunt probably think I just randomly recruited someone for a sham marriage to deceive them. They're outside eavesdropping."
Xie Zheng retracted his gaze and slumped back over the round table.
He had just applied medicine, and a bone-deep, excruciating pain spread from the broken flesh through his nerves to his entire body. It drenched his forehead, back, and waist in a cold sweat. Right now, almost all his energy was focused on enduring the pain; he had no mind to care whether Fan Changyu stayed or left.
His shoulders and back were taut, and sweat-soaked strands of hair were plastered messily to his forehead. Beads of sweat even clung to his eyelids. He gritted his teeth, resembling a wild wolf that had been beaten repeatedly but refused to be tamed.
This was the first time Fan Changyu had seen the full extent of his injuries. Without the gauze to cover them, some of the once-gaping wounds had already formed scabs, while others had torn open again, a mangled mess of flesh and blood. In addition, many old scars were faintly visible on his body.
Fan Changyu couldn't help but think of her own father, who also had many such old scars. It seemed being a transport guard was truly a life-risking profession.
She set down the basin of water, walked over, and asked with a frown, "Is there anything I can do to help?"
The man, half-slumped over the table, did not look up. He picked up a medicine bottle with his pale fingertips and passed it back. "Sprinkle all the remaining powder on the wounds on my back."
He had always been cautious. The medicine brought by the gyrfalcon had long been transferred by him into the wound medicine bottle his father-in-law had bought.
Fan Changyu took the medicine bottle and did as he asked. But almost at that instant, the muscles in his back clenched even tighter, hard as rock. It was probably too much to bear, as he turned his head and bit down directly on the clothes piled on the table.
She frowned, thinking to herself that his reaction didn't seem this severe the last time he applied medicine. The thought that he might be exhausted from the wedding today made her feel a little guilty.
She glanced at the gauze on the floor, stained with blood and sweat, and went to the cabinet to take out a roll of plain silk.
This was leftover fabric the family had bought for the funeral after her parents passed away. She used scissors to cut it into long strips, convenient for bandaging him in a moment.
After a while, the taut muscles throughout Xie Zheng's body finally relaxed a little. He released the clothes from his mouth and slowly raised his eyes to look at Fan Changyu.
"Feeling better?" Seeing this, Fan Changyu quickly put down the scissors in her hand.
Xie Zheng was extremely averse to others seeing him tend to his injuries. At such times, he was like a feeble stray dog whose life could be taken by anyone.
But this woman before him had already seen him at his most wretched.
With this long-held habit broken, he felt a subconscious rejection and only offered a cold word of thanks.
Fan Changyu glanced at the wounds on his body and magnanimously decided not to hold it against him.
Perhaps he was in a bad mood because he was in so much pain.
Xie Zheng picked up the clothes on the table to put them on. The feeling of blood and sweat sticking to his back was not pleasant, but his good upbringing made it impossible for him to be at ease while not fully clothed in front of a woman.
Seeing this, Fan Changyu quickly stopped him. "You're sweaty, and there's still a lot of blood. Wipe yourself down first. I'll find you some of my father's clothes later."
It just so happened that she had brought in a basin of water, originally intending for him to wash up with. Now it came in handy.
Xie Zheng could wipe his front himself, but he still needed Fan Changyu's help with his back. She wiped much more meticulously than the two random swipes he had given himself. The wrung-out cloth carefully avoided the wounds, bit by bit wiping away the bloodstains and the brown medicinal residue from before.
Her knuckles would occasionally brush against his back. They weren't soft, but they were distinctly different from his own calloused hands. It felt as if a tiny electric current was spreading from where her knuckles had grazed.
The novel tingling sensation made Xie Zheng frown subconsciously.
Seeing this, Fan Changyu stopped what she was doing. "Did I touch your wound?"
He pressed his lips together, his expression growing even colder. "No."
After she finished wiping his back, the basin of water was murky with blood and medicinal residue. Fan Changyu took the cloth strips she had cut and began to wrap them around him. This time, her fingertips inevitably came into more contact with his skin. Perhaps because he had just applied medicine and sweated, his body temperature was hotter than any time before.
Fan Changyu stood while he sat. Occasionally, when she bent down to wrap the strips, her long hair would fall and lightly brush against his shoulder and neck.
Tingling, itching, numbing.
Xie Zheng's brow was almost furrowed into a "川" character. He subtly shifted to the side to avoid her.
"Done." Fan Changyu didn't notice his abnormality. After tying the knot, she straightened up. After all that work, a thin layer of sweat had appeared on her own forehead.
She went to the chest, found an old garment her father used to wear for him, and then carried the basin of water outside to empty it.
The red lanterns under the eaves swayed gently in the cold wind. When the two bear-like dark figures outside the wall saw her come out, they both shrank back down below the wall, thinking they were extremely well-hidden.
Fan Changyu played along, pretending not to notice. "Whose wildcat is it, coming to steal meat from my house again!" she scolded.
She walked over with the basin, ladled two large scoops of cold water from the water vat into it, and then forcefully flung it over the courtyard wall. "Next time I catch you, see if I don't teach you a lesson, you beast!"
Outside the courtyard wall, Fan Da and his wife were drenched to the bone, shivering from the cold. Afraid of being discovered, they didn't dare make a sound.
Only after the footsteps in the courtyard had faded away did Fan Da, still shivering, spit out the water he had accidentally swallowed. He grimaced and asked, "What kind of water did that damn girl throw? What is this smell?"
Mrs. Liu wiped the water from her face with her sleeve and sniffed. "It smells of blood, and sweat."
The couple froze, then began spitting even more forcefully. "Damn it all, isn't that their bathwater!"
Their soaked padded jackets, when hit by the cold wind, became bone-chillingly cold, making their teeth chatter.
They didn't manage to eavesdrop that night. Instead, after returning home, Fan Da and his wife came down with a severe case of wind-chill and were too sick to get out of bed for several days, but that is a story for another time.
Fearing further complications, Fan Changyu thought it over and decided to make a pallet on the floor of the bridal chamber to sleep. Xie Zheng said nothing about it.
Fan Changyu fell asleep quickly. While Xie Zheng was still resting with his eyes closed, her breathing had already become long and steady.
According to folk custom, the wedding candles on the wedding night had to burn all night long. To keep up appearances for outsiders, Fan Changyu didn't extinguish them.
The steadily burning wedding candle suddenly sputtered, its wick popping with a soft sound. Only then did Xie Zheng slightly turn his head to look at the pallet on the floor.
Three feet of warm light spread across the floor. The woman was curled up amidst several thick quilts, her black hair splayed across the pillow. In the dim candlelight, her skin had the warm luster of jade.
Xie Zheng retracted his gaze and gently closed his eyes.
When she was awake, she carried an air of common vulgarity that could make one overlook even the finest features.
Asleep, she was rather pleasant to look at.
Realizing he was thinking about whether she was good-looking or not, Xie Zheng's eyes suddenly flew open, and his brows furrowed deeply.
What did it matter to him whether she was beautiful or ugly?
Once his injuries healed a little, he could leave this place. It was hard to say if he would ever have any contact with this woman again in the future.
He cut off his thoughts, turned over to face the inside of the bed, and closed his eyes again.
Fan Changyu had her own routine and woke up on schedule.
She sat up, finding herself sleeping on the floor. Changning was not beside her, and a man was lying on the bed a few steps away. She was dazed for a good while.
Then she remembered she had gotten married yesterday and suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.
Outside, the sky was just beginning to lighten. A small stub of the wedding candle in the room was still burning, a mottled collection of wax tears piled up beneath the candlestick.
Fan Changyu got up quietly. She had slept in her clothes last night, which saved her the awkwardness and trouble of getting dressed. After putting away the bedding for her pallet, she left the room.
The wind and snow had not stopped last night. After a whole night, the courtyard was now covered in a thick layer of snow. The top of the wall and the withered branches outside were all white.
Fan Changyu rubbed her hands together against the cold. She first went under the eaves to get firewood to light the fire pit, hung a pot over it to warm water for washing up, and then took a broom to sweep the snow in the courtyard into a pile.
When she heard Changning crying from the next room, she hurried over to bring her younger sister back.
Changning was usually very well-behaved, but since their parents' passing, she would cry for a while if she woke up and didn't see Fan Changyu.
Fan Changyu soothed her younger sister and had her sit on a stool while she combed her hair.
Perhaps because she had been in poor health since childhood, Changning's hair was not thick and black like hers. Instead, it was fine, soft, and yellowish. Coupled with many flyaways, even tying it into two small buns was quite a chore.
Fan Changyu was still a bit clumsy, so the buns on Changning's head were ugly in a new way every day.
After combing her sister's hair and telling her to go wash her face, Changning touched the bun on her left, then the bun on her right. She felt something wasn't quite right. Taking her washcloth to the basin, she looked at her reflection in the water and discovered that today's buns were exceptionally crooked.
She fiddled with a bun and said, "Big Sis, my hair is crooked."
Fan Changyu gave a dry cough. "I have to go to the County Government Office after breakfast, so I don't have time to re-do it for you. Can you just make do for today?"
Xiao Changning was easy to placate and immediately stopped making demands.
When Fan Changyu brought a fresh basin of water into the room, she found that the person inside seemed to have been awake for a while. He was fully dressed and sitting up against the headboard.
He had probably overheard the conversation between her and her sister, which made Fan Changyu feel a bit embarrassed.
She placed the basin on the round stool by the bed, handed him a clean cotton cloth, and spoke of the promise she had made when she allowed him the sham marriage. "I'll go to the County Government Office later to transfer the property deed, get your household registration sorted out, and hire a doctor to come see you."
Hearing this, Xie Zheng said, "No need to hire a doctor. My injuries will heal on their own with rest."
He had already applied trauma medicine to his wounds; he just needed to rest quietly and wait for the flesh to grow back.
Fan Changyu scratched her head and asked, "Is there anything you need? I can buy it for you."
The other party still shook his head, which made Fan Changyu feel awkward.
This was different from what she had promised before, making it seem as if she was the one who had benefited from the sham marriage.
She thought about going to the county seat later. After finishing her official business at the Yamen, she would buy him some supplements on her way back so he could properly recuperate.
After a hasty breakfast, Fan Changyu left. Because her younger sister was no longer the only one at home, she didn't leave her at Aunt Zhao's house. She only instructed Changning before she left that if anything happened, she could go next door to ask Aunt Zhao for help.
Unexpectedly, the moment she left, the local ruffians who had been staking out the alley ran to the gambling den to report.
Just as the sound of loud, banging on the door rang out, Xie Zheng, who had casually found a book in the corner of the room, had only listlessly flipped through two pages. His languid expression hid a hint of extreme, bored impatience. His mood was truly not good.
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