Incense smoke curled through the air, the man’s lean, solid frame pressing down upon the woman’s slender form.
The rouge from her lips was crushed between teeth and swallowed whole.
The heavy scent of agarwood enveloped the heat within the canopy. A slender, jade-white hand braced against the carved bedpost, clutching the curtains tightly.
"Gently..."
The woman, possessing a face of exquisite beauty, whispered a plea for mercy.
An instant later, the man’s ruthless voice cut through: "Zhaozhao, you are mine."
Xie Mingyue’s mind was still clouded, and she instinctively murmured a refusal: "No."
As the words fell, the movement at her lips ceased. The heavy weight of his restraint withdrew, leaving behind a sudden chill.
Xie Mingyue shuddered, snapping instantly into wakefulness.
"Qi Jinshan?"
The moment she saw the man’s face, her shock dissolved into rage.
It was him who had been pinning her down and kissing her so deeply.
"Let me go!"
How could he dare...
Observing the revulsion in Xie Mingyue’s eyes, a thin veil of anger surfaced beneath Qi Jinshan’s calm brow.
"Zhaozhao," he said, the intimate endearment chewed to a cold sharpness on his lips, "you must remember your place."
"What place?" Xie Mingyue was still reeling from her shock and anger, completely bewildered.
The coldness in Qi Jinshan’s eyes did not fade. "At any time, you are the wife of Qi Jinshan."
What madness was he spouting? Was she not the fiancée of his younger brother, Qi Xiuyu?
Xie Mingyue clutched the quilt in astonishment, only then noticing that she was wearing a silk undergarment of imperial-grade floating light brocade, lying within a carved, step-bed she had never seen before. Every furnishing in the room was entirely unfamiliar.
She was an unmarried young lady, yet she lay so exposed before the elder brother of her fiancé, and her mouth still tasted of the deep, cold, woody scent that clung to Qi Jinshan...
Xie Mingyue blushed a pale pink from head to toe. Seeing Qi Jinshan staring at her with darkened eyes, she felt a mix of shock and fury. Not daring to scream, she could only rebuke him in a low voice: "Qi Jinshan, what are you doing... ah!"
At the sight of her rejection, an overwhelming rage surged in Qi Jinshan’s chest. A wild heat rolled in his eyes as he grabbed the rose-pink ankle dangling off the edge of the bed and pressed her back into the depths of the curtains.
The scorching breath on her delicate skin made Xie Mingyue tremble, and she could not help but sob softly.
Tasting her tears, the fury in Qi Jinshan’s eyes instantly extinguished.
"Wife."
He called to her in a low voice. Extremely ashamed and angry, Xie Mingyue struck him once. "Who is your wife! You are forbidden from calling me that!"
This blow seemed to extinguish all of Qi Jinshan’s heat. His gaze darkened; he fastened the collar of her undergarment and pulled the quilt over her.
"Rest well."
With that, he closed his eyes to suppress the emotions flooding him, returned to his indifferent mask, and turned to disappear behind the colorful folding screen.
"Madam!"
As soon as he left, the maid Wutong hurried around the screen.
When she saw Xie Mingyue, who looked flushed and enchantingly soft, Wutong’s eyes filled with joy.
Is her mistress finally willing to be close to the Eldest Young Master?
Wait, but when the Eldest Young Master left just now, why was he still looking so displeased?
"Are you... Wutong? Why have you changed so much?" Xie Mingyue was startled to see her personal maid, who had suddenly matured quite a bit.
She ran barefoot to the vanity and looked at the tired, beautiful face of the woman in the mirror; her heart missed a beat.
She had turned sixteen only yesterday—when had she grown to look this mature?
"Wutong, what time is it now?"
"The thirtieth year of Yuanqing, April fourteenth..." Wutong said blankly, feeling that her mistress was a bit strange.
She pursed her lips and served a bowl of medicine.
"Madam, please take your medicine. The imperial physician has already confirmed that your vomiting blood a few days ago was due to the Throat-Breaking Powder. Although it was poison, once the blood is purged, you will be fine."
Xie Mingyue had no appetite for medicine.
She had slept through a decade, waking from the age of sixteen in the year she was now twenty-six.
Xie Mingyue forcefully suppressed the panic in her heart and tried her best to ask calmly: "Did I marry Qi Xiuyu?"
As the words fell, Wutong waved her hands in alarm: "Madam, do not mention the heir apparent. If the Eldest Young Master hears you, there will undoubtedly be another argument."
Thinking of her master’s stern face, Wutong shivered silently.
Wutong lowered her voice: "You are now the wife of the Eldest Young Master. How can you keep mentioning the heir apparent after ten years of marriage? Besides, the heir apparent once had an engagement with you..."
Xie Mingyue’s almond eyes widened. What Qi Jinshan said was actually true!
She sat up abruptly, her shoulders sagging in defeat: "How could I have married him..."
Back then, she was clearly Qi Xiuyu’s fiancée, and Qi Jinshan was just his brother...
No wonder he had toyed with her with such familiarity just now. But ten years ago, the man she hated most in the world was Qi Jinshan.
Looking at her twenty-six-year-old self in the mirror, she sat back on the edge of the bed: "Dress me. I want to return to the Xie Family."
In this absurd situation, Xie Mingyue’s only thought was to return home to see her mother and get to the bottom of this.
However, Wutong spoke with difficulty: "Has Madam forgotten? When you were sixteen, a wicked servant confessed that when the Madam gave birth, she had a girl and a stillborn child. The servant secretly swapped her own daughter with the stillborn one. That swapped daughter is you. You have already been struck from the Xie Family register."
"What? That is absolutely impossible!"
Xie Mingyue touched the top of her head. Her mother had a flower-petal birthmark at her crown, and so did she. Her mother had once said their birthmarks were identical; how could she not be her mother’s child?
"I must go to the Xie Family and ask them clearly!"
She wanted to return to the Xie Family immediately, but Wutong gripped her hand tightly.
"All these years, you have visited many times, but the Xie Family has never once seen you. Every time you go, you end up deathly ill upon your return."
Held back by the maid, Xie Mingyue gradually calmed down.
"So, besides being Qi Jinshan’s wife, I am nothing at all?"
Wutong stole a cautious glance at her: "Madam, being the Eldest Young Master’s wife is actually not bad. The Eldest Young Master is now a third-rank official; his future is bright."
Third-rank? Xie Mingyue was secretly shocked.
Even her father, past his forties and after years of service, had only just reached the third rank. Qi Jinshan was merely in his prime...
She set aside her grief for the moment, wanting to clarify the situation as quickly as possible.
"You said just now that I vomited blood?"
Xie Mingyue looked down at her hands—pale and thin. Even the face in the mirror, while beautiful, carried an air of weariness.
She had once been the most renowned lady in the capital, all silks and elegance. Now, as the spouse of a third-rank official, how had she withered into this state?
"Yes. You vomited blood after drinking the blessing tea during the Qi Family’s ancestral rites. The Eldest Young Master summoned an imperial physician to treat you, and the Marchioness is currently investigating the matter in the front hall."
She had not expected her life to change so drastically in ten years.
So, how had she been branded a fake daughter by the Xie Family? How had she gone from being Qi Xiuyu’s fiancée to Qi Jinshan’s wife? And how had she lived her life to such a state?
Three questions weighed on Xie Mingyue’s heart. She pondered for a moment; the most urgent task was to understand the state of the Qi Family. At the very least, she could not let her facade crumble in front of Qi Jinshan.
"My relationship with... Qi Jinshan... how is it?"
A moment later, Xie Mingyue regained her composure.
"You and the Eldest Young Master..."
Just as Wutong was about to speak, the fearful voices of maids drifted in from outside.
A man wearing a black-gold robe stepped slowly around the folding screen. With broad shoulders and long legs, his collar still bore the faint creases from where she had gripped him.
Qi Jinshan had actually returned.
Xie Mingyue stared at him blankly.
She hadn't seen clearly before, but the ten-years-older Qi Jinshan was reserved and refined, a far cry from the cold, sinister man who used to watch her from the shadows.
"Xie Mingyue," he stood at a distance, his eyes indifferent, as if the intertwining of their lips a moment ago had been but a hollow dream, "your maid Fener has confessed. It was you who poisoned yourself."