Youthful Glory

When she first fell into the water, Ming Tan felt no different from Liang Zixuan—only the icy, bone-piercing cold of the river, unbearable. She choked on two mouthfuls, coughing and struggling for a while before realizing what had actually happened.

—She had been pushed into the water!

In the deep courtyards of noble households, "accidents" orchestrated for forced marriages were countless. The most common were either being trapped in a room together while changing soiled clothes or being rescued from drowning, leading to physical contact.

Madam Pei had taught her since childhood how to guard against such underhanded schemes and even hired a female instructor to teach her swimming during their summer retreat at the villa.

Since it was rarely useful in daily life, and she was the pampered type who would rather ride in a sedan chair than walk, no one on the shore knew she could actually swim.

Unfortunately, the timing was off. Before Ming Tan could inform them, Liang Zixuan had already stripped off his outer robe and jumped in.

In her panic, she could only sink deeper into the river, planning to avoid Liang Zixuan and climb ashore from the other side of the dock.

This quick thinking was already quite clever, but the river was too cold, and she wasn’t particularly athletic. After swimming for just a short while, a sudden, sharp ache shot through her lower body.

The throbbing pain, combined with the icy sting of the water, felt like needles pricking her skin, leaving her vision filled with white light and completely unable to swim further.

In that moment, countless thoughts flashed through Ming Tan’s mind.

One moment, she thought, "Better to die here than be rescued by Liang Zixuan—at least my reputation would remain intact." The next, she reconsidered, "Never mind, I should call for help. Dying here and bloating into an unrecognizable corpse would be a waste of my beauty, which hasn’t even had the chance to dazzle the capital yet."

Just as she resolved to surface and call for help, a black sash unexpectedly plunged into the water, swiftly wrapping around her waist before tightening and pulling her toward the shore, tossing her onto a secluded patch of reeds some distance from the dock.

The force from the other end of the sash was swift and decisive, with no regard for her delicate state. Dizzy from the rough handling, Ming Tan only vaguely glimpsed the trailing half of the black sash as it withdrew from her waist.

Based on her years of pampered experience, she could tell the sash was made of no ordinary material. Its intricate, finely woven patterns seemed embroidered with dark gold thread, the strands so fine they still shimmered faintly in the deep night.

Before she could follow the sash to see who stood there, an outer robe descended, covering her body and obscuring her vision.

……

"And then?" Bai Minmin pressed eagerly.

"Then, someone carried me back," Ming Tan recalled, leaning against the bedside as she pushed away the pungent ginger soup meant to ward off the cold and accepted a hand warmer from her maid. "Along the way, I asked several times who they were and where they were taking me, but the person never spoke. They left me at the back gate of the marquis’s residence and disappeared along with the robe."

"Them? There was more than one?"

"The one who rescued me and the one who brought me back couldn’t have been the same person. The fabrics were completely different, and the one who returned me seemed to be following orders—like... a subordinate or guard."

Bai Minmin took a moment to process this but still had many questions. "Wait, so from start to finish, you never said you were from Marquis Jing'an’s household, yet they accurately delivered you back to the marquis’s residence?""That's exactly what I find strange," Ming Tan said, sitting up slightly against the pillow. "If their intentions were impure, I checked carefully after returning to the mansion—none of my personal belongings were missing."

Those with ulterior motives would surely take something as proof. But nothing was taken. "That is indeed very odd," Bai Minmin murmured, frowning in thought.

"Let's not dwell on this for now," Ming Tan said, recalling a more pressing matter. "What about Liang Zixuan? How is he now?"

"What could happen to him? You sent Suxin over—did you think I wouldn’t know how to play along? Of course, I made sure it was said that he fell into the water, and I happened to pass by and had my attendants rescue him. Don’t worry, I’ve already arranged for someone to escort him back to the Duke Ling's residence."

Hearing this, Ming Tan finally felt the weight lift from her heart. The official story was that Liang Zixuan had fallen into the water, and no matter what happened afterward, it could only be that Liang Zixuan had fallen into the water.

After all, on the surface, the marital ties between the two families remained strong. If something happened to her, the future wife of the heir, it wouldn’t reflect well on the Duke Ling's household. Unless they wanted to openly break ties with the Marquis Jing'an's family and gain nothing from it, they had no choice but to accept this version of events.

Still, something about today’s incident felt off to her. The commotion about catching a thief had led to people rushing toward her from both sides, but rather than being accidentally bumped, she felt as though she had been deliberately pushed into the water.

Thinking this, she said, "Minmin, when you return, have someone investigate the two people who bumped into me today."

"You suspect the fall wasn’t an accident?"

"Exactly because I don’t know that I want to look into it properly."

Bai Minmin nodded and readily agreed. Noticing Ming Tan’s pale face, she tucked the blankets around her and took a bowl of ginger soup from a maid. "Don’t worry about these things for now. Here, drink this."

The smell was too strong, and Ming Tan didn’t want to drink it.

But Bai Minmin was stubborn, pressing the bowl to her lips while chiding, "Drink it, drink it! If not for yourself, think of me. If you don’t drink this and end up bedridden with a cold, it’ll all be my fault. You know how unreasonable my father is—do you really want to see me punished by kneeling in the ancestral hall? If I kneel so long that my legs give out and I can’t marry, I might have to—"

Ming Tan’s head throbbed from the nagging. Resigned, she took the porcelain bowl, closed her eyes, and gulped it down in one go.

Bai Minmin looked satisfied. Seeing that most of the incense marking the time had burned away, she stood and clapped her hands. "Well then, rest well. It’s getting late—I should head back. Suxin, Lü’e, take good care of your young lady."

Suxin and Lü’e bowed in unison and respectfully escorted Bai Minmin out of Zhaoshui Courtyard.

After all this commotion, Ming Tan’s body couldn’t take much more, and she truly needed rest. She skipped her usual elaborate pre-sleep skincare routine, only applying some honey dew to her face and soaking her hands in fresh goat’s milk for a while.

Late at night, a light rain fell, thick clouds obscuring the full moon. Ming Tan, wrapped in brocade quilts, had already sunk into deep slumber, and the entire Marquis Jing'an's residence lay quiet under the dim lanterns and slanting rain.

In the prison of the Dali Temple, the underground cells stretched dark and desolate down the stone steps. Oil lamps flickered every ten paces, yet they couldn’t dispel the eerie chill.

The magistrate led the way, bowing as he guided them. "Your Highness, Second Young Master Shu, this way, please."Shu Jingran, ever the epitome of refined nobility, found the oppressive and decaying atmosphere of the prison utterly unbearable on his first visit. He glanced at Jiang Xu, thinking that the blood-soaked battlefields must have been a hundred times worse—yet the man walked ahead with detached indifference, hands clasped behind his back. Sighing, Shu hurriedly covered his nose and followed.

In the interrogation chamber, the cold glint of torture instruments hung ominously on the walls. The prisoner had already been bound to the rack by the jailers. Though disheveled, he appeared unharmed—likely untouched by torture thus far.

The magistrate pulled out an armchair for Jiang Xu, deferentially inviting him to sit.

Without ceremony, Jiang Xu swept aside the hem of his robe and took his seat, fingertips tapping lightly on the armrest as he gazed impassively at the shadowed figure on the rack.

"Y-Your Highness..." The prisoner's voice trembled with fear as he recognized the visitor. "Why—why have you brought me here? I'm innocent!"

"Innocent." Jiang Xu tilted his head, fixing him with a cold stare. "By all means, wait a little longer. Wait until Marquis Cheng'en is also thrown into prison—then you can plead your innocence to him together."

Marquis Cheng'en!

The prisoner's blood ran cold.

Truthfully, ever since his inexplicable arrest on his way home—with no explanation given—he had harbored a vague premonition. But he had refused, and feared, to entertain the thought. After all, if this truly involved the Marquis, it would spell utter ruin for him.

"I—I may have had dealings with the Marquis, but—but—"

"Zhang Ji," Jiang Xu interrupted, his voice low. "I spared you the usual methods because I took you for an intelligent man. Are you certain you wish to waste my time?"

He rose and stepped closer, studying Zhang Ji with a sidelong glance.

Perhaps it was the dungeon's influence, but the faint aura of battlefield brutality around Jiang Xu seemed to intensify, pressing down with suffocating dominance. His voice was quiet, yet it carried an inexplicable chill.

Zhang Ji opened his mouth, but the weight of that presence stole his voice.

He knew this was the beginning of the reckoning. He knew why Jiang Xu was here. A deathly silence settled over the cell, thick with the stench of decay.

After a long pause, Zhang Ji hesitantly wet his lips, still clinging to a desperate hope. "I... I do possess something of value to Your Highness. If you would grant me one condition, I could—Ah—!" His plea was cut short by a sudden cry of pain.

Shu Jingran startled, only now noticing the hooked blade that had, without warning, pierced Zhang Ji's abdomen—meticulously avoiding vital organs. Blood gushed forth, rapidly staining his white robes crimson before dripping thickly onto the grimy floor.

"What makes you think you're in any position to bargain with me?" Jiang Xu leaned in, whispering idly into Zhang Ji's ear.

His grip on the hilt remained firm, the barbed edge twisting deeper into flesh, inch by agonizing inch.

Zhang Ji's face drained of color, sweat beading on his forehead. Unaccustomed to such torment, he lasted less than half a moment before his eyes rolled back, and he fainted.

Jiang Xu straightened, allowing the jailers to douse Zhang Ji with cold water until he regained consciousness.

By then, the brazier beside the torture wall had been lit, the branding iron glowing red-hot. No sooner had Zhang Ji's senses returned than the jailer pressed the searing metal against his fresh wound.

Another scream tore through the chamber.

The dungeon offered countless instruments of torment, yet Zhang Ji had barely endured two before soiling himself, the stench of urine mingling with the dungeon's rot. Regret for his earlier defiance set in, and he rasped hoarsely, "Your Highness! I'll talk! Marquis Cheng'en seized farmlands and operated illegal salt mines! The evidence—it's buried beneath the apricot tree in the backyard of my private residence at Jiuli Slope!"At the hour of Zi, the dungeon door opened.

Emerging from the prison of the Dali Temple, Shu Jingran finally exhaled a turbid breath. Perhaps due to a light rain earlier, the air of the capital tonight felt exceptionally fresh.

Yet, recalling the scene in the dungeon where Jiang Xu had driven a barbed torture blade into Zhang Ji’s abdomen without so much as a blink, twisting it inch by inch, he couldn’t shake the feeling that nightmares would plague him tonight.

Then again, Prince Dingbei had always been notorious for his ruthless cruelty. Back when the Vice Minister of Revenue embezzled military funds and delayed critical operations, he had returned from the battlefield drenched in blood. Without answering the imperial summons or entering the palace, his first act had been to claim the corrupt official’s head.

The man’s wife, knowing she had no hope of survival, had begged for her twin daughters—renowned for their peerless beauty—to be spared, offering them as servants in exchange for their lives.

With such breathtaking beauty, any man would have been tempted, and sparing two women would have been as easy as lifting a finger for him. Yet he remained unmoved, enforcing the law to its fullest extent: confiscating their property, executing the entire family, leaving none alive.

So, "Earlier by the river, why did you intervene to save the young lady of the Ming family, even sending your shadow guards to escort her back to the Marquis’s estate? Showing mercy to beauty… doesn’t seem like something you, Qizhi, would do."

For a moment, Shu Jingran had wondered if Jiang Xu had softened upon returning to the capital, developing a shred of compassion. But after tonight’s visit to the dungeon, he realized he had been mistaken.

Recalling the gossip he had inadvertently overheard at the Listening Rain Pavilion, he chuckled again. "Could it be… you’ve fallen for that young lady of the Ming family at first sight?"

Jiang Xu lowered his gaze, lips quirking slightly as he leisurely wiped the blood from his hands. His voice was unhurried. "Truly worthy of the reputation of Second Young Master Shu, renowned throughout the capital for his tenderness and sentimentality."