The guards stepped forward and dragged Qiu Shu out. He woke up just as they crossed the door threshold. 

Just regaining consciousness, the expression in his eyes was one of blank confusion, unsure what was happening to him. The butler said “You are one lucky kid. Your offense was supposed to earn you a death sentence, but Miss Shao Yao pleaded on your behalf so you only need to get thirty boards! Aren’t you going to go thank them?” 

He raised his eyes and looked at the two people in the room. Basking in the light of the fire basin and the candle, a man and woman sat cross-legged facing each other. Neither of them spared a glance in his direction but is focused on the chessboard between them. Her long hair cascaded down, hiding half of her face and her expression. Suddenly, Jin Siyu busted out laughing when she plopped down a bad move. Too busy laughing, Jin Siyu waved impatiently upon hearing the butler’s words about the study boy thanking them. 

Not saying a word, his eyes flickered over her sleeve before standing up by himself to follow the guards into the courtyard. 

Two servants holding boards waited in the courtyard by the execution bench. Flashing a smile at the two men, he laid down on the bench and said, “Two older brothers, the clothes I am wearing now is a loan from a guard brother, I am going to need to return it to him so it would be bad if the clothes got damaged. I have heard that you all are very skilled in martial art and can hurt people’s flesh but not their clothes. Please do this favor for me.” 

“That’s easy.” One of the servants laughed, “You kid sure know how these things work. I bet you are afraid of stripping down right? Well, you are from a scholar family after all so that’s understandable. But that kind of hitting will cause you more harm, have you thought it through?” 

“That’s alright.” He looked over at the direction of the study. The warm yellow light came flooding out like water, mixed vaguely with her soft chuckle and Jin Siyu’s hearty laugh.

“You can start now.”

“One.”

“Eat!” (A move in Chinese chess)

Accompanying the sound of the first board slamming down is her smiling sweetly and placing her chess piece. 

The sound of the heavy board coming in contact with flash is quite faint by the time it makes into the study. As expected, seemingly not hearing of the commotion outside, she is all smiles as she looked across at Jin Siyu. 

His body jerked when the first board made contact. 

Yet, a smile appeared at the corner of his lips. This trip to Da Yue is truly a fantastical journey. Of all the things I have experienced in this life, this is certainly one I have never had. 

As one who has always been on top, is now a lowly servant, as one who has always controlled the life and death of others, has become one whose life is being controlled by others. 

She is all smiles, sitting on a warm couch playing chess with another, listening to him being punished by the boards in the cold. This is sure an exceptional experience that he never had never will ever have again in the future. 

Perhaps the heavens couldn’t tolerate his selfish thoughts before and have arranged this suffering for him?

Or did this girl purposefully set him up?

She is probably enjoying this very much?

Although the thought of Karma of what goes around comes around is quite unpleasant but if this will really make her happy…that’s alright then. 

“Fifteen!”

“No more, no more! I don’t want to play anymore!” The sound of her pouting complaints floated out to the courtyard, along with the sound of clattering chess pieces drowning out the rest of her words. 

Blood dripped from the punishment bench, penetrating from the inner clothing, slowly seeping through. 

He rested his chin on the bench, his expression calm, eyes closed, listening.

Not listening to the sound of the wooden boards striking down but listening to her low laughter in the room not far from him. Her laugh was clear yet soft, a bit difficult to describe how both of those feelings could appear together in a person’s laughter. However, it is what it is, that sound, exquisite as a pearl, with a tilt at the end, adding an intoxication to that laugh, so frank and forward, yet seductive. 

He finally realized how long this laughter has been missing from his life. Even if they can leave here, it will not be easy for him to hear her laugh, so he might as well take this opportunity to hear more of it. 

Another thought came to him, why is this woman so attentive to a game of chess…why is it that in his memory, she dislikes anything that requires her to use her brain unless it is to harm others? 

His thoughts wandered here and there, not paying attention to the wooden boards, even as blood continued to seep out, getting bigger and bigger. His clothes remained undamaged but is half soaked with blood. His leg seems to be burning with fire, the flames jumping around, seemingly heading straight for his heart. 

 Ah, so a board punishment is such a difficult thing to endure. It would’ve been better to just be stabbed with a knife… his head getting dizzy, and in his daze he thought, when he returns back to his manor, he will get rid of this board punishment and replace it with knife stabs! 

“Thirty!” Came the long announcement. 

“I ate your dragon!” She plopped down a chess piece and laughed. 

“Qiu Shu, thank…” The butler who supervised the punishment announced his gratitude according to the rules but Jin Siyu waved his hand and said “Take him away, get a physician so he doesn’t end up getting sick.” 

Listening to that long drawn-up announcement, she glanced at the blood-stained board in the guard’s hand but her eyes didn’t move past it. Instead, with a smile, she gently placed her hand into Jin Siyu’s and said softly, “Your Highness, you are so kind.” 

————————————-

The weather is beginning to get colder, the flower that had been carefully planted around the manor have all withered, making the place look rather bleak. 

The manor has gradually become more peaceful lately. With His Highness’ good mood, so has everyone’s mood gotten lighter and relaxed. The result of the relaxed mood is that guardsman Liu Sanhu’s whip skill has gotten more skilled and exciting, Physician Ruan and his apprentice are no longer so closely guarded, study boy Qiu Shu has finished convalescing and is back to his original post. Thanks to Qiu Shu and Liu Sanhu’s lucky fate of entering into the manor on the same day, and Physician Ruan delivering medicine to Qiu Shu a few times per Miss Shao Yao’s instruction, their interactions, within reason can now be done openly without anyone paying attention to them. 

Guardsman Liu Sanhu asked the deputy captain of the guards to find him a wife. The deputy captain had just offered in passing but who knew Liu Sanhu took him seriously and chased after him all day long pleading for a wife. Fed up with being chased around all day, the deputy captain finally just randomly chose a maid from the inner manor– not one of Miss Shao Yao’s maids. This maid is quite pretty if you look at her closely but she is a bit odd. It is said that she has a habit of talking strangely in her dreams and often scare her roommates. Gradually, no one is willing to interact with her, nor dare to place her in jobs where she will interact with important people. This girl eventually ended up in the sewing room and got older and older without anyone remembering it was time to let her leave the manor. (In some households, the maids are allowed to leave once they have reached a certain age.) One time when the deputy captain went into the inner manor to report something, he accidentally saw her and suddenly thought of Liu Sanhu. That burley kid for sure sleeps like the dead in the night, a sleep-talking girl won’t bug him at all so he might as well introduce this maid to him. 

The deputy captain secretly admonished Liu Sanhu that he must keep the matchmaking a secret from Captian Liu. Liu Sanhu nodded solemnly– naturally, he can’t tell or else his little masochist will get jealous. 

After finding the opportunity to secretly meet with the maid a few times, Liu Sanhu gritted his teeth– who told him that the girl is fairly pretty? How did they reach that conclusion? Who the heck can peer into that face and say “pretty”? What kind of eyesight would you have to have? Alright, he will admit the girl could be considered very pretty just going by facial features, but those features are hidden behind a pile of super thick hair that hasn’t been washed for a long time, accompanied by a long scar on the chin and a buildup of years worth of dirt.

Guardsman Liu is sad. The pitiful sad Guardsman Liu thought to himself, how can he a clean loving king who cleans his feet often ended up having to deal with this dirt-loving woman?  How distressed his aunt (he means Zhi Wei) would be on his behalf if she knew…

On the other hand, he is also struck by the strangeness of how someone like this would be allowed to stay in such a place. Aren’t the rich nobles particularly picky about their maidservants? Not to mention a prince is also staying in the manor at this time. Why didn’t they throw her out? After inquiring about it, he found out that this woman is actually not from here but is from a mountainous region that borders of Da Yue and Tian Sheng. Apparently, the butler of this manor was rescued by this woman years ago when he went into the mountain and almost died. Seeing the harsh living condition the woman was in, the butler decided to bring the woman back with him as a sort of repayment but of course, the woman is usually kept of sight from the nobles. 

Listening to the woman’s past, something stirred in Liu Sanhu’s memory but he couldn’t grab onto the vague thought. Because of that vague thought, Liu Sanhu didn’t reject the woman and continued to meet with her a few times. The woman was very fond of him, every time they meet, her eyes are full of ardor…kinda like the way Liu Rabbit look at him.

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