Chapter 99: Chapter 099 Lan Xi
“Fine, I won’t talk about it, won’t talk about it.”
Sang Yan got up to make the bed and instructed him, “Go take a shower, and don’t go back tonight. Leave tomorrow morning.”
He Ying had no objections, only looking at the bed with both nervousness and anticipation, “Are we going to sleep in the same bed?”
He was a bit afraid that he couldn’t restrain his animal instincts.
After all, he had almost lost control just moments before.
Sang Yan was aware of his concerns and smiled mischievously, “If you want to sleep on the floor, I can make that up for you too.”
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“No, no. Let’s still sleep on the bed. I’m not accustomed to sleeping on the floor.”
He ran out to take a shower.
And came back quickly.
He lay on the bed, rolling and bundling up the quilt, hugging her.
He only dared to hug her over the quilt, for fear that he might be filled with immoral thoughts otherwise.
Sang Yan let him hug her, and she didn’t speak either.
With the warm, scented softness of Sang Yan in his arms, and sharing the bed with her for the first time, He Ying was so excited that he couldn’t fall asleep at all, and asked, “Ah Yan, what do you think about the matter with Pei Muyang?”
Sang Yan didn’t know what to do.
She wasn’t Pei Muyang, and couldn’t crack open his head to see what he was thinking.
Although she had told Pei Muyang that she would speak to He Ying on his behalf, she dared not make He Ying risk his life on someone’s loyalty.
She couldn’t bear it either.
She had truly fallen in love with him and didn’t want him to face the slightest danger.
Seeing her silence, He Ying urged, “Why aren’t you speaking?”
Sang Yan replied with her eyes closed, “I don’t know what to say.”
“Just say what you think simply. What kind of person do you think Pei Muyang is?”
He was a clever person who was good at reading people and eloquently speaking.
But people who are too clever, slippery like Wan Zhang, are hard to read.
The less you understand them, the more dangerous they are.
“The sins of the father shall not be visited upon the son; time will reveal a person’s heart.”
Sang Yan spoke slowly, “He has been by your side for a while now; if he wanted to kill you, he had some chances. He hasn’t made a move, either because the right moment hasn’t come or because he harbors no killing intent. But nobody dares to gamble. And I don’t want you to gamble.”
He Ying understood her meaning and didn’t say anything more, patted her shoulder, and closed his eyes to sleep.
He slept till dawn.
When Sang Yan woke up, He Ying had already left.
Beside her hand was a letter he had left: [There is a morning court session. I have left. Thinking of you. Remember to think of me too.]
She looked at the letter, smiled sweetly, her heart warming and melting in his deep affection.
Qiuzhi came in, carrying a basin of water, “Miss, it’s time to get up and wash.”
Sang Yan nodded, got out of bed to wash up, and went to do her morning rituals.
During the morning rituals
Aside from her, they were all monks.
She didn’t see Pei Muyang and upon inquiring, found out he had gone with the Emperor.
So was He Ying going to use him or not?
With this puzzlement, two more days passed.
During these two days, it had been raining continuously in the Capital City.
Master Yixuan was quite thoughtful, actually putting on a straw raincoat and leading the monks out to contemplate Buddhist teachings.
Sang Yan didn’t go.
Her menstrual period had come, and she couldn’t get wet in the rain or catch a chill, so she went back to bed and lay down.
She lay there all day.
On the third day at noon, there was a rare sunny day.
Yu Huai De came with people to deliver things, food, clothing, and supplies; they changed everything for her.
Sang Yan wasn’t very interested in these material things and kept asking Yu Huai De, “Mr. Yu, do you know the situation in the Imperial Palace?”
Yu Huai De had fallen out of favor again.
He had revealed Pei Muyang’s origins, thinking that the Emperor wouldn’t kill him but also wouldn’t keep him by his side. Unexpectedly, Pei Muyang was so capable that he remained.
The Emperor was bold indeed to retain such a dangerous person.
Unwilling to accept this, he took the opportunity of delivering things to Sang Yan to gossip, “Lord Sang, things have been restless in the palace lately.”
Sang Yan’s heart tightened, and she quickly asked, “What happened?”
Yu Huai De said, “Qu Zhi, who was in prison, has disappeared, and no one knows who rescued him. That was the Ministry of Justice’s prison, heavily guarded. Apart from the remnants of the Pei Family, who else has the capability? Yet the Emperor has kept Pei Muyang by his side. Lord Sang, I feel uneasy about this.”
Sang Yan also felt anxious upon hearing this, but she did not question He Ying’s decision.
He Ying was smarter than she was, and she didn’t need to say much.
Actually, when he asked her that night what she thought of Pei Muyang, she had a premonition that he wanted to retain Pei Muyang.
“Don’t worry, the Emperor has his reasons for doing so.”
She changed the subject, “Oh, by the way, has there been a verdict on the case of the woman with the Palace Guarding Moles?”
These past few days, she was curious about whether Pei Muyang stayed in the Imperial Palace and wanted to know about the case of the woman with the Palace Guarding Moles.
Seeing her not talking about Pei Muyang, Yu Huai De knew she also admired him, so he didn’t annoy her with more talk and smiled as he replied, “There has been a verdict. It’s like this: the woman’s name is Lan Xi, the legitimate daughter of the Lan Family. The Lan Family, a family of merchants, caught Mr. Sang’s attention by providing five thousand chickens and eight thousand ducks for locust extermination in Wuzhou. Recently, Young Master Sang’s wife ran away, and Mr. Sang thought of taking a concubine for him, choosing the Lan Family. Unexpectedly, the concubine of the Lan Family, Lan Yue, grew jealous and wanted to monopolize this marriage arrangement. She bribed a maid to use a liquid called ‘Zhu Yan’ to wash away Lan Xi’s Palace Guarding Mole during her bath, and then framed her for impurity.”
Just as she thought.
The woman had been wronged.
Sang Yan, having heard the details of the case, felt relieved and then thought of the many young women who might suffer from this custom. She instructed him, “After you return, pass on a message for me; ask the Emperor to find a way to change the bad practice of marking girls with Palace Guarding Moles in the folk.”
Yu Huai De nodded, “Yes.”
He left quickly with his people.
After he left, Qiuzhi asked Sang Yan, “Miss, how did you know that Palace Guarding Moles can’t verify a woman’s purity?”
Sang Yan laughed and said, “Not only can Palace Guarding Moles not verify a woman’s purity, but even the presence or absence of blood the first time can’t verify a woman’s purity.”
In fact, the presence of blood the first time is mainly due to girls marrying early in ancient times when their physiological mechanisms were not mature. Engaging in relations at this time, causing injury and bleeding, led to the notion of ‘losing purity.’
Qiuzhi, unaware of the specifics, was both embarrassed and shocked, “How, how could that be?”
Sang Yan didn’t want to give her a lesson in physiology and just said, “Anyway, normally there’s no blood the first time, and if there is, it’s a problem with the man, not the woman.”
A man being too rough or quick could lead to no blood being present.
Judging a woman’s purity by her losing purity is absurd and laughable.
It’s all about the constraints, exploitation, and expropriation against women.
Qiuzhi didn’t understand, but felt it made sense.
Whatever the miss said made sense.
On the eighth day of Sang Yan paying respects to the Buddha, she unexpectedly met Lan Xi.
Lan Xi had recovered from her injuries and had come to express her gratitude, and upon seeing her, she kneeled down immediately, “Had Miss not intervened, I would have died wrongfully. I thank Miss Sang for saving my life.”
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Sang Yan hurriedly helped her up, waved her hand with a smile, and said, “No need. Stand up. There’s no need for such a grand gesture. Meeting is predestined. Since we are both women, we naturally should help each other.”
While speaking, she evaluated Lan Xi, who was dressed in a white robe and indeed very beautiful, not inferior to the original Young Master Sang’s wife, Suxi.
If Sang Jue saw her, would he like her?
Did both their names contain the character ‘Xi,’ was Sang Jue predestined to be with women whose names contained ‘Xi’?