Chapter 2

Chapter 2

By the time Pei Yanzhi brought me back to the bridal chamber, the wedding matrons were so anxious their faces had gone pale.

The moment they saw him enter, they dropped to their knees all over the room, chanting auspicious phrases while their eyes kept sneaking glances at my face.

They were probably trying to see whether I was missing any arms or legs.

After all, the rumors about Pei Yanzhi in the capital were less than pleasant.

Some said he brought death to his wives.

Others said he had no interest in women at all, and the ones kept in his residence were not maidservants, but secret guards.

There were also those who said his late fiancée had not died of illness or disaster. She had simply stumbled upon something she should not have, and been silenced for it.

As for Pei Yanzhi mourning her for the past three years, it was not devotion, but guilt.

I had once treated it all as gossip.

Well, great.

It seemed I was the dead wife from the gossip.

When a wedding matron brought over the nuptial wine, Pei Yanzhi did not take it.

He asked, “Where is the dowry maid?”

The room went silent at once.

My wet nurse, Nanny Lin, braced herself and said, “Bitao said her stomach hurt just now and went out to use the privy.”

“How long has she been gone?”

“About… the time it takes one stick of incense to burn.”

Pei Yanzhi lifted his eyes.

Someone outside the door immediately answered, “This subordinate will go look for her.”

For some reason, I almost wanted to laugh.

When the Shen Family sent me off for marriage, they had stuffed twelve trunks, eight maids, and two nannies into my dowry.

Before I climbed into the bridal sedan, my legitimate mother held my hand and wept with such heartfelt sincerity, saying, Zhaoning, once you marry into the Pei Mansion, you must be sensible. You must learn your husband’s likes and dislikes, and you must remember to send word home about anything happening in the mansion.

Only then did I understand. It was not that the Shen Family could not bear to part with me.

They had sent me in as their eyes.

They simply had not expected Pei Yanzhi to be too lazy to even put on an act.

In front of every person who had accompanied me here as part of my dowry, he asked where the maid had gone. He might as well have written the words “there is a spy among you” on his face.

A moment later, the secret guard returned, holding a drenched embroidered shoe.

“My lord, this was found by the well in the rear courtyard.”

Nanny Lin’s legs went weak, and she nearly collapsed to her knees.

That was Bitao’s shoe.

I recognized the crabapple blossoms embroidered on the upper. She had stitched them herself the night before we left for the wedding.

Pei Yanzhi looked at me.

“Are you afraid?”

I did not answer. First, I swept my gaze over everyone in the room.

Fear was written on every face, but what they feared was not the same.

Some were afraid of the dead.

Some were afraid of taking blame.

And some were afraid I would not die.

I walked over to the embroidered shoe and crouched down.

There was mud on the sole, and mixed into the mud was a bit of red powder.

I touched a little with my fingertip and brought it to my nose.

Nanny Lin panicked. “Miss!”

“Cinnabar.”

I looked up at Pei Yanzhi.

“This isn’t mud from the well. It’s cinnabar, the kind commonly used in the ancestral hall to ward off evil.”

Pei Yanzhi’s eyes shifted almost imperceptibly.

“The Shen Family Ancestral Hall?”

“Yes.”

I rose and dusted off my hands.

“Bitao probably didn’t die tonight. Someone threw the shoe there on purpose. They wanted everyone to think that as soon as I entered the Pei Mansion, I caused the death of my dowry maid.”

A wedding matron sucked in a sharp breath.

But Pei Yanzhi only looked at me and suddenly asked, “You remember the smell of cinnabar?”

I froze for a moment.

“I spent enough time kneeling in the ancestral hall. Is it strange that I can recognize the smell?”

He did not respond.

That look in his eyes made me uncomfortable.

It was as if he were inside a coffin and had suddenly heard the breathing of a living person.

Very faint, but enough to drive a man mad.