Volume One, Chapter Six: Exchanging Lives Through Murder

Fang Qianxue took a deep breath. "If you have come again to persuade me to relent, Second Master, then please take your leave."

Lu Changqing felt a surge of annoyance, yet he forced a gentle expression onto his face. "Qianxue, it is I who am begging you today. If you agree to my request, I shall spend half of every month in your quarters from now on."

"Is my husband speaking the truth?" Fang Qianxue asked, her eyes glinting with irony.

So, this man was actually selling himself for Xu Miaoyan?

How absurd. How utterly insane.

"I am!" Lu Changqing thought to himself, *See? I knew you couldn't resist.*

"Then, speak your mind."

"Miaoyan has been tormented by a heart ailment for many years; only the blood from your heart can save her." The man lowered his head, burying his hands in his hair, and said in a voice filled with agony, "You are my wife. If it were not a last resort, I would never make such a request of you. I know I am a scoundrel, and I have failed you!"

"And who told you that my heart's blood could save her?" Fang Qianxue asked with a bitter smile.

When they were first married, the couple once sat by the hearth. As Lu Changqing added charcoal to the brazier, sparks flew and burned Fang Qianxue's favorite pomegranate-colored skirt. He had immediately dropped the tongs in a panic, grabbed her hands, and insisted it was all his fault, promising to buy her a better dress later. At that time, his face had been flushed with excitement, and his peach-blossom eyes had sparkled.

When he was truly remorseful, he certainly did not look like this, with his hands buried in his hair.

"It was Miaoyan. She heard it from the spirit sparrow of the Medicine King Valley," Lu Changqing replied.

"A spirit sparrow? Not only has no one ever heard a spirit sparrow speak, but few have even seen one. On the strength of her word alone..."

"Fang Qianxue!" Lu Changqing suddenly raised his voice. "Do not judge a gentleman by the measure of a petty mind. Miaoyan is pure of heart. She has known for a long time that your blood could save her, yet she endured in silence. Since she is so considerate of you, can you not be magnanimous for once?"

"You call it 'magnanimity' to have my chest cut open so someone can draw my blood?" Fang Qianxue was incensed, barely restraining herself from slapping him across the face.

"It doesn't require cutting open the chest. I consulted the estate physician; he said one only needs to insert a fine needle into the heart to draw three drops of blood each day! It will be painful, but it will not be fatal." Lu Changqing gripped her hands, his eyes filled with urgency. "Qianxue, trust me. If it were truly life-threatening, would I have ever asked you?"

"You are a top scholar who studied for ten years by the light of the snow, yet you are so incredibly ignorant," Fang Qianxue sneered. "If my grandfather could see you as you are today, he would surely regret ever taking you as his student."

At the mention of the late Grand Tutor Fang Qingshi, Lu Changqing’s expression shifted instantly, clouded by an emotion that was unclear—perhaps hatred, perhaps fear.

*Knock, knock.*

"Second Master, Madam, the hot water is ready," a maid’s voice called from outside.

Shame and annoyance washed over Lu Changqing, and his mood was ruined. "We shall stop here for today. I am leaving."

"Safe travels, husband. I shall not see you out."

The man walked to the door, then turned back. "Think carefully about what I just said. If you save Miaoyan, I will certainly be grateful to you in the future. But if you remain obstinate..."

"And then what?" Fang Qianxue watched him with cold eyes, waiting for him to say "a letter of divorce."

The man pressed his thin lips together, glared at her with reddened eyes for a moment, and then stormed out.

***

In the Song Sheng Residence, the afternoon sun was warm. A tabby cat climbed over the wall and landed on the railing of the veranda. After taking a few steps, it was captured by a pair of slender, delicate hands.

"Little cat, what is your name?" Xu Miaoyan leaned against the vermilion pillar, sitting on the railing, her posture languid and graceful. "So, you are a stray with no name. I truly envy you."

Lu Changqing had said her heart ailment had not yet healed and forbade her from leaving the estate, ordering the elder Madam Chen and Lu Wanrou to keep her company. However, those two greedy, vulgar women spoke of nothing but the "Qilin Beast" and the "Saintess of the Nation."

They always insisted on touching upon the most sensitive of subjects!

That day in the imperial palace, Xu Miaoyan had discovered she could not understand what the Qilin was saying, and she had been terrified to the point of collapse. Yet, those two kept urging her to return to the palace to persuade the Qilin to eat. Every time Xu Miaoyan saw Madam Chen and Lu Wanrou, she felt nothing but agitation, so she had to claim illness to avoid the palace.

After being cooped up for two days, she was bored out of her mind, so she caught the cat and began to chat with it impatiently.

"I sometimes think that people are not even as good as you cats—free and easy. Unlike me... I am not the master of my own fate," she lamented, wallowing in self-pity.

The cat let out a soft "meow."

"You ask about my illness?" Xu Miaoyan looked around, then revealed a smile of exquisite, ethereal beauty. "Let me tell you a secret..."

***

"Kill to trade lives?!" The spoon in Fang Qianxue’s hand fell into the bowl with a *clatter*. "So, she has no heart ailment at all..."