As Song Yuming made his way off the mountain with his load of firewood on his back, he happened to run into Yuansheng. The girl had gotten lost in the village and was standing at the fork in the road looking around, holding a bamboo basket. She saw Song Yuming in the distance and jumped up and down and waved at him.
Song Yuming came up to her and said, “Third Sister? What are you doing here?”
Grinning, Yuansheng said, “Brother-in-law, I came to see Second Sis. Your house is too hard to find. I asked several villagers, but they all told me something different.”
Song Yuming smiled. “Instead of admitting you"re lost you complain about the directions you were given. Follow me.”
Yuansheng grinned. She noticed the firewood on his back and asked, “Brother-in-law, aren"t you tired carrying all that on your back?”
He shook his head and turned around. “You came here by yourself?”
“Shh,” she said. “Don"t tell Second Sis or else she"ll scold me.”
Song Yuming nodded wearily. “How is Mama Qiao? Your Second Sis has been worried about her.”
“Mama Qiao is fine. The whole street can hear her loud hollering.”
“Oh? Must be you not listening that made Mama Qiao have to reprimand you.”
Yuansheng scratched her head awkwardly. “Brother-in-law, how can you be so blunt? Give me a bit of face.”
Song Yuming had something on his mind, and now that Yuansheng was hear, he asked her offhand, “What kind of books does your Second Sis usually like to read?”
Yuansheng c.o.c.ked her head to the side, thinking. “So many, this and that. Poetry, plays, history, travelogues, supernatural stories and historical romances… She reads everything.”
Song Yuming nodded. “So then she must have read a lot of medical books?”
“A few,” she said casually.
He breathed a sigh of relief at that, but then Yuansheng continued, “But Second Sis doesn"t like medical books. She can"t stand the smell of medicine!”
Song Yuming was inwardly startled, but his face remained neutral. “How can that be, your Second Sis is an expert in medicine. She can identify all kinds of medicinal herbs.”
Yuansheng snickered. “Brother-in-law, you got it all wrong. Second Sis doesn"t know the first thing about identifying herbs. She knows even less about that than I do.”
Doubts once again flooded into Song Yuming"s mind. He looked at Yuansheng. “You"re not kidding me are you?”
Yuansheng frowned. “Why would I kid you? Second Sis has never known anything about herbal medicine. I was with her all the time when we were growing up, I know better than anyone.”
He could see that she was serious, which just made him feel all the more strange. Yuansheng was innocent and naive and not p.r.o.ne to lying. The night he ferried Wanqing across the river he had spoken to her, and Wanqing had said as well that Dongting didn"t know anything about medicine. But if Wanqing and Yuansheng were telling the truth, then how did Dongting learn her medical skills? It hadn"t just come from nowhere.
Song Yuming suddenly felt a chill in his heart, and a frightening thought flashed through his mind. He didn"t believe in supernatural powers. In the past Dongting didn"t know a thing about medicine, but now she knew it quite well, which left only one explanation: The current Dongting and the previous Dongting were not the same person! Perhaps when they got married, someone had secretly subst.i.tuted one for another, and the one he was married to now was not Xue Dongting from Cloudgem Lodge but some other woman, a woman dispatched from the imperial court to keep an eye on him.
Because of his secret ident.i.ty, this conjecture made sense to him. He felt a chill run down his spine and he stopped in his tracks. “Yuansheng,” he said softly, “in a bit when we see Second Sis, take a good look at her and see if you can tell if there is anything different about her than she was before.”
Yuansheng laughed. “Don"t tell me Second Sis has gotten fat since she came here?”
Song Yuming looked at her, his expression grave. “Just take a good, careful look.”
Song Yuming was big and tall anyway, and now this sudden serious change of tone made Yuansheng a bit scared. She nodded, her chest pounding, thinking her brother-in-law had a bad temper. He"d better not be bullying my Second Sis, or I"ll go back and tell Mama Qiao!
It was starting to get dark and Xue Dongting was simmering congee and cooking vegetables, putting tasty dishes on the table. But she was unsettled, as if something big was about to happen.
The brazier in the room had not been lit and she pushed the window open to look out at the expansive sea, thinking about the dream she had had and feeling distressed. If the blue-clad scholar in her dream was right, then the will of Heaven was already set and there was no changing it. Then was Xue Dongting"s fate to be buried under Third Prince"s sword?
She suddenly heard a knock at the door and she jumped. She knew it wasn"t Song Yuming, so she hurried out to open the gates and see. It was that widow from the west end. Xue Dongting didn"t like this woman, but she also didn"t want an altercation, so she smiled and asked, “Sister, is something the matter?”
The woman smiled. “Actually it"s nothing, I just wanted to ask Little Sister about the sachet you made for He Xu some days ago. I wonder if you could show me how to make it?”
Xue Dongting wasn"t quite clear. She frowned. “What sachet? When did I give He Xu a sachet. Sister, you must be remembering wrong?”
The woman pulled a small pouch from her sleeve. “Didn"t Little Sister make this?”
Xue Dongting looked at the pouch. It was the medicine bag she had prepared some days ago for Guang"er. She couldn"t help but get angry. “That medicine bag is for treating the little boy"s chronic asthma, why do you have it?”
The woman flung the pouch directly at Xue Dongting and said coldly, “Little Sister is aware that I was widowed at a young age. A few days ago a matchmaker came by to propose a marriage, one with Guang"er"s father, He Xu. I didn"t come for anything else except to give Little Sister a warning. Little Sister was once a singsong girl at Cloudgem Lodge, and your behavior there is of no consequence to me. But now that you are married, I would ask Little Sister not to interfere in the affairs of others, lest it lead to gossiping and harm Little Sister"s reputation.”
Xue Dongting was stunned at this tirade, yet she didn"t get angry but put on a smile instead. She bent down and picked up the pouch and said, “So Sister has come to instruct me on feminine virtue. Since Sister has broached the topic, I have a few words to say on that matter myself.
“First of all, this kind of talk should not be coming from your mouth. If I have acted improperly as a wife, then my husband will naturally reprimand me. Secondly, my husband helped me prepare the herbal medicine in this sachet, and it was he who personally delivered it to He Xu. I never handed it to He Xu as a token of affection, so Sister should watch her mouth. Thirdly, Sister has not yet married He Xu, so isn"t it a bit much to run over here all in a huff and preach to me? Fourthly, I remember Sister made my husband a pair of shoes. My second day here you came here and brought them over. If Sister was with keeping to her feminine virtue, then you should not have done that. If people knew, then what sort of virtuous lady would you be taken for? Then I"m afraid even He Xu would not want to marry you.”
The woman"s face was red and she was speechless at first. “You… You brothel prost.i.tute, trying to threaten me!”
Xue Dongting sneered, but was silent. Then she heard a voice say, “She"s my, Song Yuming"s, wife, not some prost.i.tute. Madame, please go home.”