All around, the doors and windows were shut tight, airtight, as if afraid of letting even the slightest sound escape.
After the meal, Madam Gantang and Nanyi sat alone in the room, both appearing restless. Madam Gantang had tried to speak several times but didn’t know where to begin. She pretended to drink tea several times, until the entire cup was empty, but hadn’t spoken a single sentence.
Nanyi’s hands, twisted in her sleeves, were nearly rubbing sparks, her head lowered like a child waiting to be scolded.
“Do you… have some difficulties?”
Nanyi hadn’t expected this to be Madam Gantang’s opening words. She looked up at her in surprise, her face immediately burning red.
Utterly mortified, truly mortified.
If it had been before, there might have been some difficulties, but last night had been nothing but mutual desire, dry wood meeting fierce fire.
Madam Gantang added another sentence, as if helping Nanyi cover up some embarrassment: “Was it because… you needed to gather some information?”
She was shameless. She even hoped Madam Gantang would scold her severely, punish her with boards, rather than still considering her feelings now.
Nanyi, confused and seizing the opportunity, nodded. This lie was truly a helpless measure, but how could she explain? Perhaps only this kind of answer could barely preserve everyone’s dignity.
Madam Gantang was obviously relieved.
“When Big Brother remarried and brought you into the family, it was a last resort. This was already the Xie family wronging you. If you want to remarry, I absolutely won’t let anyone gossip about it. You’re free to come and go in the Xie family.”
“Right now… I don’t have such thoughts,” Nanyi’s voice was like a mosquito’s buzz. “Let’s wait until the situation in the city stabilizes.”
Madam Gantang nodded thoughtfully and said with concern: “If you have any difficulties in the future, feel free to come tell me—”
She paused, her tone seeming to grow somewhat distant inadvertently.
“The Xie family has upright family traditions. Even if Xie Queshan returns, we cannot let him corrupt everyone’s moral integrity.”
Nanyi understood.
Madam Gantang blamed Xie Queshan, but was also telling her that she could freely choose anyone, but it couldn’t be Xie Queshan.
Even if she was only a nominal young mistress of the Xie family, she couldn’t violate the great principles of human relationships. This was Madam Gantang’s bottom line.
Those untamed, undercurrent emotions, once brought to the surface for discussion, could only meet the fate of being reduced to ashes.
Nanyi felt she had moved another step closer to propriety, but also seemed to have become somewhat emptier.
She left Madam Gantang’s courtyard with slow, heavy steps. Just as she reached the covered walkway, someone suddenly pulled her aside.
“What did Second Sister say to you? She didn’t blame you, did she?”
Xie Queshan was very close. Nanyi instinctively stepped back.
“Why are you still at home?”
“I saw Second Sister call you over and couldn’t put my mind at ease.”
Xie Queshan now avoided no suspicion at all, his tone familiar as if they were an old married couple chatting behind closed doors.
Nanyi straightened up, looked up at him, and said seriously: “About last night—let’s pretend it never happened. We shouldn’t mention it again, and we shouldn’t do that anymore.”
Xie Queshan frowned, detecting some distance in Nanyi’s tone.
“Wangxue Wu’s rules can’t restrain me.”
“But Madam Gantang is very good to me. I can’t do things that embarrass her under her nose.”
Xie Queshan grew anxious and began speaking without choosing his words: “Am I not good to you?”
“Then what do you want?” Nanyi asked in return.
This question awakened Xie Queshan, leaving him speechless for a moment.
He was just instinctively resisting the feeling of Nanyi distancing herself from him, but what exactly did he want to do?
He couldn’t voice those sordid thoughts.
Nanyi continued to add: “Didn’t you say before? Men’s love for women is cheap, and women’s love for men isn’t much nobler—it’s just momentary interest, being blinded by lust, without any deeper meaning.”
Xie Queshan’s eyes immediately turned cold. His face looked normal, but he was actually so angry smoke was coming out of his seven apertures.
This woman had such a cruel heart—last night her eyes were clearly full of pity and love when she looked at him!
His tone became fierce: “There’s only one rule between us. Nothing else counts.”
But Nanyi seemed completely unaffected, instead saying with certainty: “But I know you’re a gentleman.”
Xie Queshan: ?
Putting a high hat on me?
But he was immediately put on a pedestal, caught in a dilemma.
Nanyi magnanimously patted Xie Queshan’s shoulder, pretending to be mature: “You’ve been impulsive a few times too. Let’s call it even.”
She walked away with her head high.
When she reached the end of the walkway, Nanyi felt empty inside. Looking back, Xie Queshan was no longer there.
—
Huachao Pavilion. The sun was already high.
Zhang Yuehui, living a life of drunken dreams, lay on the bed. Moving his muscles in his sleep, he rolled off along with the thin blanket.