Translator – Xiao He Lian
This is a translation hosted on KnoxT, copies found elsewhere are either stolen or plagiarized. Please support the translator by reading it at KnoxT.
Chapter 46
The rain outside had obviously stopped, but Shen Zhen felt that there were dark clouds above her head, lightning flashed and thunder roared again.
At this moment, there was only one thought in her head – Shen Zhen, you are dead.
Suddenly, Mo Yue’s anxious voice came from outside again, “Madam, you can’t go in.”
“Step aside.”
“Madam!”
This is her eldest sister’s voice!
Shen Zhen looked panicked and almost fell to the ground.
Driven by the desire for survival, Shen Zhen looked around the room extremely quickly.
He was tall, so he couldn’t get into the closet and there was no space under the bed. The only place he could hide was behind the chinese rosewood bamboo-carved landscape screen in the southeast corner.
Shen Zhen quickly put the clothes in his hands, grabbed his arm and pulled him behind the screen.
She gasped and said, “My Lord, promise me, no matter what happens, you won’t come out.”
Lu Yan frowned and said in a deep voice, “Do you know what you are doing?”
Shen Zhen’s eyes were red and she tugged on the corner of his clothes and said, “It’s all my fault, My Lord, please.”
The man’s face turned completely dark.
To be honest, he has lived for 24 years and this is the first time he has experienced something like this. He admitted that he was a little panicked, but it was different from Shen Zhen’s guilty conscience.
In his opinion, he had nothing to feel sorry for the Shen family. Even if her eldest sister is here, so what?
As for letting him hide?
Just looking at Shen Zhen’s pleading eyes, he couldn’t say anything to embarrass her.
“Can you handle it yourself?” Lu Yan asked.
Shen Zhen nodded, “Yes, My Lord, don’t worry.”
When Shen Shu opened the door, Shen Zhen had already sat back on the couch. She didn’t know if she was too guilty, but she kept coughing before looking up at her…
The appearance of the daughter of the Shen family was truly unique. She shines with light wherever she goes, making people unable to take their eyes away as if they are looking at the winter plums blooming in the winter.
If Shen Zhen in her prime is attractive, then Shen Shu in her twenties has a alluring charm: with her womanly bun, hibiscus face, willow waist and stunning figure.
Although sisters from the same mother have similar facial features, they give people completely different impressions.
Seven points were similar, three points were completely different, and two third was probably different in charm. One is like the bright sun, the other is like a clear spring.
Shen Shu walked to her side step by step, clenched her fists and said, “Shen Zhen, please explain to me why you are here.”
Shen Zhen didn’t dare to raise her head. She was not good at lying and she didn’t dare to lie in front of her eldest sister.
“Sister, I can’t say it.” She whispered.
Shen Zhen’s hands on her knees gradually tightened and one could see just how nervous she was.
When Shen Shu looked at her like this, her heart seemed to be gnawed by thousands of insects and she couldn’t breathe.
The seventh day of the third month was the anniversary of her mother’s death. She went to Da Ci’en Temple early in the morning to offer incense and pray for blessings.
There were very few people that day, so she knelt on the futon for a long time, chanted sutras, and bowed to the statue of Manjushri Bodhisattva.
She prayed to Buddha to bless her to see Zhen’er and Hong’er as soon as possible.
Maybe the Buddha really heard her prayer.
After coming out of the main hall, she heard the sound of wind chimes and subconsciously looked towards Long Ye Pagoda – in that direction, stood a slim girl.
Although she was wearing a curtain hat, her back view and the way she lifted her skirt when she went up the steps seemed to tell herself that Shen Zhen was the one who would appear here on the seventh day of the third month.
Just as she was about to call her, she found the woman entering a guest room.
The guest room over there is not a place that ordinary people can enter, or it is not a place that the Shen family’s daughter can enter in their current situation.
She looked suspiciously at the door of the guest room, but was stopped outside by a monk. In desperation, she had to pretend to be unreasonable and snatch the merit book from monk’s hand.
The last entry, sixty copper coins, has no name.
Although it didn’t mention a name, how could she not identify her sister’s handwriting?
So, she followed her all the way to Chengyuan.
The Li family is not peaceful, and she dare not use any means to investigate this residence. She can only wander here under the pretext of buying goods on the street.
For several days, the place was quiet and silent and it didn’t look like anyone lived in here at all. Until yesterday, a carriage slowly drove to the gate of Chengyuan and stopped.
Immediately afterwards, she saw a man stooping down from the carriage, holding an oil-paper umbrella, and walked in.
It was raining heavily outside.
This is a translation hosted on KnoxT, copies found elsewhere are either stolen or plagiarized. Please support the translator by reading it at KnoxT.
Until the sound of the curfew drums sounded, the man did not come out.
It meant a lot for a man to enter a residence hiding a woman and stay there throughout the night. Shen Shu could no longer pretend to be ignorant.
Only then did she suddenly understand why no one in Chang’an could find her.
The third sister who had grown up in her arms like a jade pearl actually became someone else’s outside mistress…
Thinking of this, Shen Shu said in a trembling voice: “Shen Zhen, who does this residence belong to?”
After her words fell, Shen Zhen raised her head suddenly, “Sister, can you please stop asking? Give me some time, andI will definitely tell you the truth in the future.”
However, the moment Shen Zhen looked up, Shen Shu saw a red mark on her neck.
This trace of love between a man and a woman was like a thousand arrows piercing her heart.
“He stayed here last night?”
Shen Zhen was speechless.
“Did he help you pay back the money from Jin Family’s money shop?” Looking at Shen Zhen’s acquiescing expression, the last string holding Shen Shu’s heart together broke with a “ding”.
Shen Zhen was silent for a long time and then slowly spoke, “Sister, he is not only very good to me, he also sent Shen Hong to Yangzhou and made him a disciple under Master Chu Xun, also An momo and Qingxi are all there.”
The man’s adam’s apple moved slightly behind the screen.
So, this was how good he was in her eyes?
Shen Shu looked down at Shen Zhen, tears welling up uncontrollably from the corners of her eyes.
Every word she said stuck in her heart.
She looked at Shen Zhen’s pale little face and suddenly said hoarsely: “What do you mean good?! What’s good about this! Is it okay to raise you as a mistress? Shen Zhen! Who allowed you …… who allowed you to ruin yourself so badly for Shen Hong! You’re only seventeen! You’re not married yet! What will you do in the future …… how do you expect me to face our mother ……”
“What do you want me to do…” As she said this, Shen Shu was already crying.
After hearing these words, the man behind the screen looked as dark as a deep pool.
Mistress, Marry, Ruin
He admitted that he couldn’t listen to a single word of what Shen Shu said.
Shen Zhen also shed tears and choked up: “Sister, don’t be angry with me, okay?”
Hearing this sorrowful tone, it was clear that even though Lu Yan wanted to respect her wishes, he couldn’t stand still.
Lu Yan looked at the Chinese rosewood with a bamboo landscape screen in front of him, laughed to himself, put on his cloak and walked out.
“Eldest Lady Shen,” Lu Yan said in a deep voice.
Shen Zhen was stunned and whispered: “My Lord, what are you doing out here?”
Shen Shu looked at the man in front of her with red eyes and took a breath.
The eldest son of the Zhenguo Duke, the only son of Princess Jing’an, there is no one in the capital who doesn’t know him.
No matter how much she thought about it, Shen Shu could never imagine that it was him…
Lu Yan’s reputation in the court was quite impressive. He is the proud son of heaven, cold and aloof. He was already in the fourth rank at the age of twenty-one. A girl like Shen Zhen, who is like a clear spring when fallen into the hands of such a wealthy person, can be manipulated at will.
How can one have half the strength to fight back?
Lu Yan walked over, and these few steps were really the heaviest steps he took in his entire life. He looked at Shen Shu, who looked exactly like Shen Zhen and Shen Zhen, whose eyes were full of tears and suddenly felt a tingling sensation on his scalp.
He walked to the bed, squatted down, stretched out his hand to wipe away Shen Zhen’s tears, “Okay, don’t cry.”
But every time his thumb moved, a tear fell from her eyes.
It hit his heart silently.
Lu Yan rubbed his heart, sighed, turned back to Shen Shu and said, “If Elest Lady Shen has anything to say, just say it to me.”
Shen Shu looked at him and said word by word: “The fact that Heir Apparent raised my third sister here, does Princess Jing’an know?”
“She doesn’t know yet.” Lu Yan looked directly at Shen Shu.
Shen Shu gritted her teeth and said, “My sister did something inappropriate and unintentionally offended the Heir Apparent. I will apologize to you on her behalf…”
“She didn’t offend me.” Lu Yan knew what she was going to say, so he interrupted her directly, , “It’s that she didn’t have a choice.”
