The matters of the assassins and the Wu couple had, for the moment, come to a pause.
Tao Mo looked out at the dark night beyond the window. Remembering everything that had happened during the day, he could not help letting out a quiet laugh.
“Young Master.”
“Young Master.”
Hao Guozi and Gu Xiaojia spoke at the same time.
Tao Mo jumped and hurriedly suppressed his smile. Coughing dryly, he asked, “What is it?”
Gu She did not answer either, but looked toward them as well.
Gu Xiaojia nudged Hao Guozi’s arm.
Hao Guozi had no choice but to speak. “Where does Young Master plan to sleep tonight?”
Tao Mo froze. Clearly, the question had never occurred to him. He and Gu She might have secretly married, but in the end, it was still a secret marriage. One of them lived at the county yamen while the other’s home was the Gu residence. Naturally, they could not spend every day and night together like ordinary married couples. The thought immediately made Tao Mo feel downcast.
Seeing Tao Mo remain silent, Gu Xiaojia and Hao Guozi could only look eagerly at Gu She.
“The Gu residence, naturally,” Gu She said.
Everyone in the Gu residence already knew that the household had gained a Madam, while the county yamen was still being kept in the dark. Staying at the yamen would only make coming and going inconvenient.
Tao Mo said hesitantly, “But…”
“Were you not already staying at the Gu residence before? Now you are simply changing from staying temporarily to staying permanently.”
“That was because the roof of the county yamen was leaking.”
Old Tao had just returned after sending someone to deliver a message to Adviser Jin. Hearing this, his steps immediately turned in place and he walked straight back out again.
Before anyone else could understand what he was doing, there came a tremendous crash, followed by the scattered clatter of falling debris.
Tao Mo hurriedly stood and ran outside.
Gu She gestured to Gu Xiaojia, and Gu Xiaojia immediately chased after him.
Tao Mo could not take very wide steps when he ran, nor did he dare jolt himself too much. By the time he slowly made it back to his own room, he found a pile of broken tiles and rubble on the floor and another large hole in the roof, through which the stars could be seen glittering overhead.
“What happened?” Tao Mo looked toward Old Tao, who was holding a candlestick to light the room for him.
“As Young Master can see, the roof we repaired last time was not secure and has broken again. Fortunately, no one was injured.”
“…” Tao Mo said, “Old Tao, this excuse is really… really…”
“An excuse need not be new,” Old Tao said. “It only needs to work. Until the roof is repaired, Young Master can only continue staying at the Gu residence. I’ll have Hao Guozi send your luggage over shortly.”
Tao Mo looked at the roof, then looked back at him and instructed, “If it needs repairing, deduct the cost from my salary.”
It seemed the two accusations the Prefect of Qincheng had once leveled against him were still fresh in his memory. Old Tao said, “I know.”
Since the roof was broken, Tao Mo had no choice but to “continue staying” at the Gu residence with Gu She.
Hao Guozi packed his luggage and delivered it directly to Gu She’s room. Sang Xiaotu, who had previously been assigned to wait on Tao Mo, finally had a purpose again and was brought back into service.
Although the two of them were already husbands in every sense of the word, the thought that from now on they would truly sleep in the same bed and live beneath the same roof still made Tao Mo unbearably nervous. In his heart, Gu She had always been like a white cloud high in the heavens—lofty, distant, and impossible to touch. Now Tao Mo had not only touched that cloud, but would apparently be sleeping with it in his arms every night. Merely thinking about it made his palms sweat.
Gu She removed his outer robe, sat on the edge of the bed, and looked up at him.
Tao Mo’s fingers trembled slightly as he undressed. He wanted to turn around, yet felt that doing so would be terribly impolite, so he could only lower his head and continue fumbling with his clothes at an agonizingly slow pace.
“Come here,” Gu She said.
Tao Mo’s fingers twitched. After hesitating for a moment, he slowly shuffled toward the bed.
Gu She helped him remove his robe, stood up, and hung it on the rack. When he turned back, he found that Tao Mo had already taken the initiative to lie down. His hands were placed neatly at his sides, his eyes tightly shut, while the constant bobbing of his Adam’s apple revealed just how nervous he was.
When nothing happened for a long while, Tao Mo could not resist opening his eyes the tiniest crack, only to meet Gu She’s amused gaze directly. “I…” His face reddened.
Gu She lay down beside him and pulled the quilt over him. “Sleep.”
Gu Xiaojia, who had been waiting in the outer room, heard this and extinguished the lamp before tiptoeing out.
Tao Mo lay rigid beneath the covers, his thoughts beginning to wander wildly. One moment he imagined what Gu She looked like lying beside him, and the next he remembered how Gu She had kissed him during the day. Compared with that memory, Gu She seemed rather distant now.
“You’ve been tired all day. Rest properly,” Gu She suddenly said.
In such a quiet, cool night, his equally cool voice somehow carried a special warmth.
Tao Mo’s fingers gripped the edge of the quilt, while sweetness quietly spread through his heart. When Mother was still alive, she and Father must often have shared the same quilt like this, speaking the private words that belonged only to the two of them. Something moved beside him. Before he could react, an arm came across and wrapped around his waist.
The tension that had only just eased immediately tightened again. Tao Mo’s face turned red, his toes curled, and he did not dare move at all.
“Do you want to put your leg over me?” Gu She suddenly asked something so unexpected that it sounded almost absurd.
Only after a long while did Tao Mo shake his head. When Gu She gave no response, Tao Mo remembered that he probably could not see him in the dark and said aloud, “No.”
Gu She’s eyes remained closed. His warm breath brushed Tao Mo’s ear. “If you want to, then just do it. You don’t have to ask me.”
“Oh. All right.” Tao Mo drew a deep breath and slowly turned his head, wanting to see Gu She’s expression. But the moment his right cheek touched the pillow, his lips received a light kiss. Tao Mo’s eyes widened. He tried his hardest to make out the expression of the person beside him in the darkness, but no matter how he looked, he could see only a hazy outline.
“Good night, Madam.”
Those few simple words suddenly brought Tao Mo’s heart, which had been hanging suspended in midair, safely back down. He remained still in the darkness for a moment, then suddenly moved closer and tucked his head beneath Gu She’s chin.
…
The arm around Tao Mo gently patted his back.
Yue Ling had been away from Guangxi for more than half a month. He had remained behind solely to prepare Gu She’s wedding, and now that Gu She and Tao Mo were married, he announced that it was time for him to leave.
Gu She knew Yue Ling was eager to return home and did not try to keep him. Tao Mo privately felt that they had not hosted him properly, so he specifically had Sang Xiaotu buy some local specialties from Tanyang for Yue Ling to take back with him.
After Yue Ling left, the position of Chief Steward in the residence was vacant once again. Although Gu Xiaojia had previously managed virtually everything in the Gu household, he reasoned that now that the household had a Madam, he should no longer make every decision on his own. He therefore began consulting Tao Mo about absolutely everything, making Tao Mo miserable. Tao Mo knew nothing about managing a residence. The Tao household had once had its own steward, and later he had always had Old Tao beside him. After Gu Xiaojia asked him one question too many, Tao Mo finally pushed Old Tao forward instead.
Old Tao proved exceptionally capable at household management. He acted decisively and efficiently, leaving no detail unattended, and his methods were even firmer and stricter than Yue Ling’s.
At first Gu Xiaojia found it difficult to adjust. Later, when he saw how orderly Old Tao kept everything, he secretly began to admire him, though he never admitted it aloud.
Old Tao did not monopolize authority either. Whenever he handled something, he brought Gu Xiaojia along and let him observe. In Old Tao’s mind, although Tao Mo had moved into the Gu residence, Tao Mo’s own home was still the county yamen, so Old Tao had no intention of overstepping his place and taking over another household’s affairs permanently. He had merely noticed that Gu Xiaojia’s way of dealing with people was not yet sufficiently tactful or steady and therefore wanted to guide and temper him. Fortunately, although Gu Xiaojia had a flamboyant temperament, he was very intelligent. Before long, he understood Old Tao’s intentions and willingly began learning from him.
Earlier, following Gu She’s suggestion, Adviser Jin had spread word that the Wu couple were suspected of murdering their daughter, Wu Qian. To everyone’s surprise, it actually worked. Only two days later, Wu Qian herself appeared at the yamen.
Once Wu Qian turned herself in, the Wu couple knew the situation was hopeless and finally confessed the entire course of events.
It turned out that Shi Qianshan had indeed been telling the truth. The entire affair had been a deception from beginning to end. When Wu Qian struck the wall that day, she merely lost consciousness. After Shi Qianshan left, the Wu couple immediately revived her and hid her in the mountains. As the investigation continued and the Wu couple exposed more and more flaws in their story, they began to fear that the truth would eventually come out. They therefore decided that, of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, retreat was best: they would reunite with Wu Qian and flee together. Unfortunately for them, Cui Jiong had already laid an ambush nearby and caught the Wu couple before they could even reach her.
Elio’s Notes: “Of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, retreat is best” is a well-known saying derived from the traditional Thirty-Six Stratagems. It means that when a situation has become impossible to salvage, escaping may be the wisest option.
Wu Qian eventually ran out of food in the mountains and could no longer bear the hunger, so she came down. There she heard that the Wu couple had been captured and were supposedly near death, and she rushed to turn herself in without caring about anything else.
What none of them had expected was that the person behind the entire scheme was not the Ninth Prince, as they had assumed, but a wealthy merchant.
Adviser Jin separated the three of them and, based on each person’s account, drew a likeness of the wealthy merchant.
In the end, he produced three portraits that were largely alike.
Tao Mo and Old Tao looked at the drawings, then at each other.
Adviser Jin asked, “You recognize him?”
Old Tao said, “Huang Guangde.”
The corner of Gu She’s mouth curved upward. “It seems it is time to invite Shi Qianshan over for a visit.”
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