Jiang Yue, who had almost reached the door of her quarters, stopped and looked back.
She saw Fu Rong standing beneath the window, speaking in a voice loud enough for the entire courtyard to hear: "Your manners grow more atrocious by the day, daring to run away even after I caught you! Get in here this instant!"
Jiang Yue stood frozen in place, looking left and right. There was a distance of twenty or thirty paces between her quarters and Fu Rong's window; nothing she had done could remotely be construed as lacking manners or eavesdropping.
"This maid did no such thing..."
"You still dare to argue when I caught you with my own eyes?" Fu Rong interrupted before she could finish.
Seeing the other servants in the courtyard poking their heads out with condemning looks, Jiang Yue had no way to clear her name. Gritting her teeth, she had no choice but to step inside the room.
The first thing she saw was Xiao Yunsheng sitting alone on the couch, his expression clearly displeased. Seeing her enter, he stood up, walked over to the table, and sat down.
Fu Rong's eyes rolled as she pulled Jiang Yue to the table. Concealing her hand beneath her sleeve, she gave Jiang Yue a heavy pinch, wearing a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "I usually let your bad manners slide, but this isn't the Marquis Manor. Everything must be done according to the Xiao family's rules. You've made mistake after mistake today, and it is only thanks to your master's forbearance that you escape punishment. Pour tea at once to apologize."
"Yes."
Like a marionette, Jiang Yue obediently picked up the teacup.
Just as she turned to face Xiao Yunsheng, a sudden push from behind caused the cup to slip from her hands, spilling directly onto his lap. The water stain rapidly spread across the dark, patterned brocade of his robe, making it glaringly obvious.
"This maid deserves death. This maid deserves death."
Jiang Yue dropped abruptly to her knees, her voice trembling uncontrollably.
She held her breath, awaiting the punishment to come.
To make mistake after mistake in front of Xiao Yunsheng—according to the rules, even in an ordinary, modest household, a servant like her would at least receive a severe whipping.
And that was doubly true in front of the Capital's notoriously strict and cold-faced Yama General.
A moment later, those cloud-patterned soft boots stopped directly before her, and a pair of eyes gazed down at her with a bone-chilling coldness.
"Husband... this girl surely didn't do it on purpose."
Though Fu Rong offered a verbal protest, she had long since stepped aside, waiting to see how Jiang Yue would be dealt with.
Little did she know that these words fell upon Xiao Yunsheng's ears like adding oil to fire.
His gaze grew cold as he let out a dry laugh. "Hah, not on purpose?"
Raised by his grandmother since childhood, he had spent most of his time in the military among rough soldiers. He knew little of inner courtyards or the affairs between husbands and wives, but he had heard married attendants mention that many of the personal maids a wife brought from her maiden family were prepared beforehand as concubines.
He had never harbored thoughts of taking concubines and was quite satisfied with Fu Rong as his wife.
The two of them had just married and were in the midst of adjusting to one another, yet this maid had been constantly stirring up commotions in his presence since yesterday.
If she claimed the first two incidents weren't intentional, he might have believed her.
But when she clearly saw her newlywed master closing the door to his room and still loitered outside to eavesdrop, claiming it wasn't malicious intent was something not even ghosts would believe.
The Xiao family had seen maids like this in the past. Most of them relied on their looks to find ways to seduce their masters—either 'accidentally' spilling tea on them or 'accidentally' tumbling into their arms. Before long, amorous glances would be exchanged, bodies would be embraced, and overnight they would become mistresses.
Once successful, they would grow arrogant and pampered, employing every conceivable trick to disrupt the household until it knew no peace. It was precisely because of this that the Xiao family had declined over two generations.
He would never repeat the mistakes of the previous generation.
"Was it not intentional when you failed to hold the teacup steady time and again? Was it not intentional when you skulked outside to eavesdrop?"
Bitter grief welled up in Jiang Yue's heart.
Whether it was eavesdropping or spilling the water, these were entirely accusations splashed over her head by Fu Rong.
Yet who would believe a servant if she claimed her master had framed her over such matters?
Besides...
She still had a favor to ask of Fu Rong. If she offended her as well, she would truly be doomed beyond redemption.
Catching the blade-like glare Fu Rong cast from behind him, Jiang Yue swallowed back the words trembling on her lips, leaving only a pale, helpless plea: "I beg the General to spare my life."
Watching her cower on her knees, putting on such a pitiful display before even receiving punishment, Xiao Yunsheng became all the more convinced it was a deliberately crafted, fox-like act of seduction.
Yet when his gaze accidentally locked onto one detail, his mind drifted despite himself.
The crouching woman's waist was pressed flat to the ground, displaying utter softness. From her collar peeked a section of lotus-root-white skin—the very image of that jade-like neck he had fondled last night. His towering anger abruptly dissipated, leaving only shock behind.
He had actually connected the intimate, alluring scene with his wife to this servant girl.
His hard-won state of inner peace, maintained over so many years, had been thrown into turmoil by a mere maid.
"Husband, have you decided how to punish her?"
Xiao Yunsheng snapped out of it. His previous displeasure vanished like smoke, leaving only a sense of absurdity.
"She is your maid. Teach her the rules properly."
With that abrupt dismissal, he retrieved something from his tunic, tossed it onto the table, and swept out of the room in a fit of rage.
Having escaped punishment, Jiang Yue let out a long breath of relief and wiped the sweat from her brow. She tried to straighten up, but her legs had turned to jelly from fright.
Seeing her cowardly, timid demeanor, Fu Rong let out a disdainful cold snort. Instead, she picked up the bottle Xiao Yunsheng had left behind and sniffed it, recognizing it as a precious blood-stasis-remedy found only in the imperial palace—worth a thousand pieces of gold, and incomparably superior to the one she had tossed to Jiang Yue yesterday.
When Xiao Yunsheng had returned from the dining hall earlier and pulled her onto the couch, it had been precisely to apply this medicine for her.
Glancing sideways at Jiang Yue, Fu Rong couldn't help but wonder how the two of them had intertwined in bed last night, and what kind of deep affection could have made Xiao Yunsheng willing to hand over such medicine.
Even knowing that the medicine was meant for 'her', Fu Rong couldn't bring herself to feel happy; instead, she felt the irritation of lifting a rock only to drop it on her own feet.
Slowly leaning down, she pressed the porcelain bottle against Jiang Yue's cheek, rolling it up and down with deliberate slowness. "What did he tell you to call him in bed yesterday?"
The bottle was ice-cold, and matched with Fu Rong's mocking smile, it felt like a suspended blade hanging over Jiang Yue's heart.
Jiang Yue searched her memory for a moment, recalling those hazy fragments of the night before.
Swallowing hard, she stammered, "Sheng-lang..."
"Sheng-lang? Hah..."
Fearing Fu Rong's ill intentions, Jiang Yue hurriedly stammered an explanation: "I only said it once. This maid simply assumed the General acted on a sudden whim; I had no intention of keeping it a secret."
Fu Rong nodded, though it was impossible to tell whether she believed it or not.
Extending her wrist, she revealed the newly acquired bracelet. "Pretty?"
Precious jade paired with a beautiful woman—they naturally complemented one another and were indeed lovely.
Unsure of what Fu Rong was getting at, Jiang Yue blankly nodded.
She wasn't just flattering Fu Rong. Setting aside family background, purely in terms of appearance, the Marquis Manor's legitimate daughter possessed a renowned talent and beauty that had long stirred the Capital.
Though the Xiao family was a newly rising and powerful household, and its master was handsome, he possessed a cold and solitary temperament without any deep-rooted family fortune.
Perhaps precisely because of this, Fu Rong had sought her out to handle marital bed duties.
Otherwise, she truly couldn't fathom why any woman would willingly hand her husband over to another.
While Jiang Yue was still dazed, Fu Rong unclasped the new bracelet and forced it onto Jiang Yue's wrist.
Although this bracelet could not rival the truly precious heirlooms from Fu Rong's maiden family, the auspicious meaning woven into it was extraordinarily high-grade—not something a person of her status should touch.
Even after struggling a few times, the bracelet was still forcefully slid onto her arm. Though it didn't look as plump and graceful on her as it did on Fu Rong, it possessed a unique charm of its own.
Fu Rong nodded in satisfaction, tapping her fingers lightly against the edge of the bed as she fell into thought. "Pretty. Yet I always feel something is missing."
"That is naturally because this maid is unworthy and lacks your esteemed grace, Milady."
Jiang Yue hurriedly reached to take it off, but a sharp reprimand froze her in place, making her dare not move rashly.
"Don't move."
Tilting her head, Fu Rong looked her up and down before scurrying over to the dressing table to rummage through who knows what.
Back at the Marquis Manor, she had only ever heard the maids serving by her ladyship's side whisper that her temperament was eccentric—that occasionally torturing and killing one or two maids by accident and having them carried out for burial was a frequent occurrence.
Jiang Yue could only dread what kind of cruel torture Fu Rong might concoct this time.
Trembling, she held her wrist aloft, not daring to lower it casually.
Her younger sister's illness remained uncured; no matter what happened, she had to endure. Yet Jiang Yue was also terrified—terrified that before she could wait for Xingxing, she would be tortured to death.
By the time Mother Su returned holding a steaming bowl of broth, what she walked in on was Fu Rong gripping a hair clasp, aiming it directly at Jiang Yue's hand as if about to pierce her skin.