Yang Wan spoke as she rolled up her sleeves and sat down beside Deng Ying’s couch.
“After changing your clothes, let me apply the medicine.”
She said this expecting him to refuse, but to her surprise, he buried his head in the pillow and mumbled a muffled “All alright.”
He had decided to entrust himself completely to Yang Wan.
Body and soul, leaving himself no refuge.
“Don’t be upset when you see it.”
Yang Wan tilted her head back, choking out “I won’t be upset.”
As she spoke, she lifted the blanket from his lower body. Blood had crusted and stuck to his pants, making it impossible to peel away by hand.
Yang Wan got up to find scissors, carefully pinching Deng Ying’s pants with her fingers and cutting away the stuck parts bit by bit. With each cut, Deng Ying’s shoulders would jerk upward.
“Deng Ying.”
Yang Wan called softly to Deng Ying, but he was in too much pain to speak.
Yang Wan pressed her lips together, put down the scissors, and stroked Deng Ying’s back, slowly soothing the tremors in his body.
“Deng Ying, guess what the Great Ming Law will be like six hundred years from now.”
Deng Ying still didn’t make a sound.
Yang Wan raised her head, looking at the cold window shadows, and continued softly: “I think in a few hundred years, there won’t be punishments like caning anymore, nor castration. Each person’s crimes will end with themselves, not affecting their families. People who build buildings will be able to carve their names on the walls, letting everyone who passes by see them.”
Her voice was very gentle, and Deng Ying gradually calmed under her soothing.
“Will it be so…”
“Yes, it will.”
Yang Wan lowered her head, brushed aside the damp hair from his face, and bent down to whisper in his ear.
“Deng Ying, I don’t like the ‘feminine virtues’ that men demand women follow, so being with you makes me truly happy.”
She paused, “I just didn’t know that the freedom I gave myself would kill people here…”
She pressed her brow after speaking.
“But I still want freedom and want to give freedom to you, to Sister. Though I know you and Sister probably don’t want to trust me anymore…”
“No.”
Deng Ying coughed once, gently gripping Yang Wan’s hand, “I trust you.”
Yang Wan looked down at Deng Ying’s hand, “You said it. You must trust me completely.”
“Yes.”
Deng Ying nodded.
“Wan Wan, I’m not in so much pain now.”
“Then let me apply the medicine.”
That night, Yang Wan didn’t stay long in Deng Ying’s quarters. After he fell asleep, she returned to Chengqian Palace.
She didn’t go to see Yi Lang either, instead taking the key and going directly to Noble Consort Ning’s former chambers.
After Noble Consort Ning went to the Banana Garden, Yi Lang rarely entered the rear hall, so Yang Wan sealed all of Ning’s former clothes and valuables in the side room of the rear hall. There were dozens of boxes, large and small.
Yang Wan lit a lamp and opened these boxes one by one.
Noble Consort Ning’s lifetime accumulation was just over a thousand taels of silver, plus two boxes of gold, jade, and agate. Yang Wan crouched behind the boxes hugging her knees, muttering: “Sister, I’m going to use your things now, but I will return them to you.”
The days spent nursing Deng Ying was very peaceful.
Deng Ying was an especially cooperative patient – when medicine was brought, he would drink it; when Yang Wan wanted him to walk around, he would put on clothes and pace back and forth in his quarters. Besides Li Yu and Chen Hua, several eunuch boys from the Inner School also came to see him. They knelt beside his couch and kowtowed to him, then chattered about the books they had been reading recently.
Since becoming Superintendent of the Eastern Depot, Deng Ying hadn’t visited the Inner School much.
Perhaps because he was the only eunuch among all the instructors, the eunuch boys felt closer to him and less afraid, so even after not seeing him for many days, they remained familiar with each other.
Deng Ying reclined on his couch listening to them talk while Yang Wan brought nuts for them to eat, sitting to the side herself and listening to them ask Deng Ying questions about their books.
Though uncomfortable, Deng Ying still endured the pain and answered them in detail.
Listening to Deng Ying’s voice, Yang Wan couldn’t help thinking that over these two years, many people she knew had changed, but only Deng Ying remained as before, always willing to speak earnestly with everyone.
While talking with the eunuch boys was a moment of tranquility, the people who came to see him from the Eastern Depot all came to discuss business.
As the New Year approached, the Depot prison was nearly complete. Deng Ying requested imperial permission to transfer two Punishment Chiefs of a Thousand Households and over a hundred guards from the imperial prison. This made the regulations of the Depot prison nearly equal to the imperial prison.
When Qin Wende came to report this matter, Yang Wan was outside cooking noodles. Deng Ying was lying on his side reading on the couch. When Qin Wende went in, he asked Yang Wan, “Why was the young prince so angry? What disrespectful thing did our Superintendent say that day?”
Yang Wan shook her head, handing him the bowl of noodles, “Take this into him, make sure he eats it all, don’t leave any. I’m going to wash the clothes.”
Qin Wende saw Deng Ying’s clothes hanging on willow branches, some still faintly stained with blood.
“Ah… you know, it’s enough that the Superintendent lives simply, but Lady Yang, couldn’t you have the Chengqian Palace servants do this?”
Yang Wan tied up her sleeves with cotton string, saying, “I’m just not in the habit of ordering people around.”
She glanced inside the quarters. “By the way, help me with something.”