Chapter 59

Chapter 59

After Zhou Wei was angered by her like that, his face had gone completely pale.

He leaned weakly against the window frame, his hands and feet growing colder by the moment. He did not even have the strength to climb in through the window anymore.

Sheng Zhaoning dragged him inside.

Disgusted by the blood all over him and afraid he would dirty the bedding, she hauled him down onto the floor, stripped off his clothes, and swept her gaze over the wounds covering him from head to toe.

The situation was more or less what she had expected.

Zhou Wei had a deep horizontal blade wound across his abdomen. It was the most serious of his injuries. It had been hastily treated and bandaged, but the bleeding had never fully stopped. During all these days of evading the authorities, the wound had torn open countless times, clotted over, then torn open again.

By now, the edges had rotted and were oozing pus.

The rest of his wounds had also been treated in a rush. Some had already healed, while others had worsened.

Sheng Zhaoning had plenty of experience dealing with all kinds of injuries.

She stuffed a dark red pill into Zhou Wei’s mouth, then casually grabbed a strip of cloth and jammed it between his teeth. Taking a dagger from a chest, she heated it until it glowed red, let it cool, and under Zhou Wei’s uneasy, terrified stare, slid the tip of the blade into his original wound without the slightest difficulty.

“Mm! Mm!” Zhou Wei strained his neck and let out a muffled roar.

Sheng Zhaoning acted as if she had not heard. She cut open his festering wounds one by one and pressed hard, only stopping once the filthy blood and pus had drained clean. Then she tossed the knife aside, took out a bottle of wound medicine, poured it over his injuries, and bandaged them again.

The medicine of the Shadow Pavilion had no equal under heaven.

Back when she had hunted down Chen Shao, she had taken such a heavy blow that half her arm had nearly been shattered, yet the medicine had still stopped the bleeding and supported her long enough to return to the prince’s manor.

Compared to the injuries she had suffered then, Zhou Wei’s were hardly worth mentioning.

Once the wounds were dealt with, Zhou Wei no longer had the strength to shout. He lay flat on the floor, his face bloodless, staring blankly at the ceiling, as lifeless and helpless as a dead fish on a chopping block.

Sheng Zhaoning pulled the cloth from his mouth and used it to wipe the knife while she was at it. Lowering her eyes, she glanced at him and asked, “Dead yet?”

Zhou Wei coughed up a thread of blood and said in a breath as faint as silk, “Not yet.”

Sheng Zhaoning tossed the dagger onto the table. “Then get up and wash yourself.”

He was covered in mud and blood. He stank to high heaven.

Zhou Wei: “…”

He glared at Sheng Zhaoning, then resigned himself to his fate and crawled up. Inch by inch, he slowly shuffled over to the bath barrel and used the bucket of water in the room to wipe himself down.

He did not know what medicine Sheng Zhaoning had fed him, but as its effects gradually took hold, strength began to return to his entire body, and the pain slowly faded away.

He had not expected her to actually have something good on her.

After wandering outside for so many days, Zhou Wei could finally sleep clean and at ease.

He wore Sheng Zhaoning’s clothes, but because they were too small, he could only leave the front open and drape them loosely over himself. There was not much difference between wearing them and not wearing them at all.

Zhou Wei was very self-aware. He dealt with the bloody water in the barrel, wiped the bloodstains from the floor, then took a set of bedding from the cabinet and spread it over the luohan couch in the side hall.

Sheng Zhaoning was quite satisfied with that.

At the very least, he knew how to read the room.

Only the sound of their breathing remained clearly audible inside.

The night was silent. One inside, one outside, the two of them slept beneath the same bright moon, each at peace and without dreams.

And so, Zhou Wei stayed with the Sheng Family under the name of a “guard.”

There were not many maids and servants at Guanlan Waterside Pavilion, and the only one who served Sheng Zhaoning closely was Biyun.

For safety’s sake, Zhou Wei rarely appeared in front of outsiders.

Although Biyun found it strange that a guard had suddenly appeared beside the young master, she did not say much. Ever since the day Sheng Zhaoning had asked after her feelings, she had been avoiding Sheng Zhaoning, whether consciously or not. Even when they had to spend time together, she kept her head lowered in shame and did not dare look at her.

All of this gave Zhou Wei plenty of material to mock Sheng Zhaoning for being “utterly unromantic” for quite some time.

Sheng Zhaoning had no time to pay him any mind.

With the New Year drawing near, Sheng Zhaoning had already begun preparing for her departure.

Old Madam Sheng prepared a generous amount of travel money for her, enough to cover her expenses on the road and an entire year’s worth of food, clothing, housing, and daily needs after she reached the Capital City.

Lady Lu had arranged her luggage early on. It filled an entire carriage, mostly clothing, dry rations, and items she used day to day. She had also secretly tucked in a stack of silver notes from Sheng Zhaoning’s dowry chest.

Sheng Zhaoning pinched the thick bundle of silver notes in her purse and felt only the weight of it in her hand.

As expected of her maternal family, wealthy merchants of Huaijiang for generations. Their resources were indeed substantial.

Sheng Yuanzhong had not prepared anything for her. He merely watched everything in silence, yet even the calmest gaze could not hide the desolation and weariness around him.

Biyun cried and begged to go with her, but Sheng Zhaoning insisted on taking not a single servant from the Sheng Family.

On this journey to the Capital City, she had far too much to do. She absolutely could not keep anyone by her side.

Except Zhou Wei.

—

In the blink of an eye, New Year’s Eve arrived.

The wounds on Zhou Wei’s body had mostly healed, leaving only specks of pale pink where the scabs had fallen away.

The nights in Xuzhou were always bright with lanterns. On New Year’s Eve, firecrackers and fireworks erupted together, scattering brilliant sparks across the night sky and lighting up an entire stretch of the heavens.

The members of the Sheng Family gathered in the front hall, and the banquet was lively.

This might be Sheng Zhaoning’s final meal with everyone in the Sheng Family.

Amid the bustle and clamor, she quietly looked around at everything. A smile tugged unconsciously at her lips, and her gaze was gentle and lingering.

So this was what family was.

No matter what estrangement or resentment there had once been, on this night before the New Year, they could all sit at the same table, cups in hand, and celebrate the present together.

For the first time in Sheng Zhaoning’s life, she did not have to curl up alone through the cold, lonely night at the Shadow Pavilion, watching the fireworks that belonged to other people’s reunions blossom joyfully beneath the frigid moon.

Celebrating the New Year, keeping vigil together.

After midnight, Old Madam Sheng rose and lifted her wine cup.

Everyone stood with her, raising their cups as they said, “Happy New Year.”

Sheng Zhaoning stood as well, her soft gaze sweeping over every member of the Sheng Family.

She stared at the clear, transparent wine in her cup and slowly smiled.

“Happy New Year.”

……

On the second day of the New Year, a carriage drove north from Sheng Mansion.

The long street was still filled with the lingering scent of smoke and celebration.

After the clamor came absolute solitude.

Zhou Wei sat at the front of the carriage and drove the horse, the sound of hooves echoing down the empty street.

In front of Sheng Mansion, the figures of everyone behind them grew farther and farther away.

He looked back. Behind him, the carriage curtain hung straight down. Only the roar of the wind filled his ears; there was not the slightest sound from inside the carriage.

“Not going to look back?” Zhou Wei turned forward again. Before him stretched a long bluestone road with no end in sight.

Inside the carriage, Sheng Zhaoning’s dark lashes lowered, her eyes closed.

Every sound around her reached her ears with perfect clarity.

In her mind was Lady Lu holding her hand before she left, unwilling to let go; Sheng Yuanzhong gazing at her as if he had words he could not say; Old Madam Sheng’s reddened eyes; and the hems of everyone’s clothes trembling in the cold wind.

She did not want to look back.

She did not want to face that reluctance, that parting.

The road ahead was long, and fortune or disaster could not be foretold.

What awaited her was no glorious future, but a blood-soaked path that could never see the light.

Sheng Zhaoning had died in Liangzhou. She had died in Xuzhou.

All that had come before had vanished like smoke. The woman living in the Capital City would be a treacherous official and a rebel, someone who would overturn imperial power and bear infamy from head to toe-Sheng Zhaoning.

And all the hopes and wishes the Sheng Family had placed upon her would never come to pass.

One month later, the carriage arrived in the Capital City.