Chapter 14: The Secret Recipe

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“Don’t be afraid. I don’t harm the innocent.” The stranger’s voice was cold, yet it held no murderous intent. There was even a hint of youthful naivety in it.

Su Yunqing hurriedly nodded.

The stranger continued, “But you must find a way to get me out of here.”

Su Yunqing froze. She herself had just been badly frightened by that servant boy, and her legs were still trembling faintly. She was wondering how she could possibly escape: she had no strength to climb over the wall, yet she could not leave through the main gate.

Su Yunqing looked up at the hole in the roof and pointed at it. “Didn’t you come in through there? What, you never thought about how you were going to get out?”

With that, she took out a fire striker and went to the table to light a candle. Only then could she see the state of the room clearly.

The young man was dressed entirely in black. A silver mask covered his face, revealing only a pair of deep, shadowy eyes. A bamboo hat was strapped to his back, and he held a long sword in his arms as he stood there rigidly upright.

On the floor, Gou-shi was dressed in mourning clothes, her trousers pooled around her ankles. Beside her, Wu Renpin lay stark naked, sprawled on his back like a skinned frog. Beneath his abdomen, a dark, limp object had flopped crookedly across his thigh...

“Blegh... blegh...”

This was the first time in her life that Su Yunqing had ever seen anything like it. Her stomach turned violently, and she quickly turned her face away, bracing herself against the table as she vomited uncontrollably.

“What? Never seen a dead person before?”

“Blegh...”

She had barely eaten these past few days, so the contents of her stomach were soon completely emptied. All that remained were dry heaves, which forced tears and mucus from her eyes.

As she continued retching, something gradually felt wrong. Her legs grew weaker and weaker, and the arm supporting her against the table was rapidly losing its strength. Across from her, the young man also seemed to be swaying on his feet. He was no longer standing as straight as before.

Su Yunqing suddenly understood. “Quick, open the window.”

The young man frowned at her in confusion.

“Go! There’s incense in the room that makes people drowsy. The hole in the roof is too high to be of any use; the fumes can’t escape through it.”

The young man immediately went to the window, opened it, and took several deep breaths of the fresh air outside.

Su Yunqing took advantage of the stool beside the table and sat down. She no longer had the strength to make it to the window.

So that was it. How could she possibly be this timid? She had killed people before—how could a mere servant boy have made her legs go weak? It turned out the soporific incense was taking effect. In her panic, she had forgotten all about it. The damp cloth she had prepared had not even had time to be used.

The young man, too, finally breathed a sigh of relief. After killing the two people just now, he had leaped toward the roof, but the moment he prepared to exert himself, he discovered that he had no strength left. Otherwise, how could he have ended up killing two people and then relying on someone else to help him escape?

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Seeing Su Yunqing lying motionless over the table with her back turned to the two corpses, the young man asked softly from beside the window, “Are you all right?”

Su Yunqing shook her head. “The effects of the drug should last about six hours. We should recover more or less by dawn tomorrow.”

“You lit the incense?”

Su Yunqing’s entire body was weak, and her stomach was still cramping. She did not feel like speaking again, so she merely lay across the table in silence.

“A maid trying to harm her own masters? Did they mistreat you in the past?”

Su Yunqing gave a bitter laugh, too lazy to answer.

“It’s all right now. They’re dead. Once morning comes, you can leave and return to your family.”

Return to her family?

At his words, grief welled up inside Su Yunqing, followed by a surge of anger. “If you still have the strength, do something about the corpses. If you say another word, I’ll call for help and have you caught red-handed.”

Remembering how violently she had vomited upon seeing the bodies, the young man said nothing. He walked to the bed, pulled off a quilt, and tossed it into the air. It landed perfectly over the two bodies, covering them from head to toe.

Only the blood remained, winding in crooked trails across the floor.

“Why don’t you lie down on the bed? Staying bent over the table for six hours will be too much for a young woman like you...”

“Shut up!”

The young man opened every window in the room just a narrow crack—not so wide as to attract notice from outside, yet enough to replace the stale air as quickly as possible.

Once he had finished, he went to the table and snuffed out the candle. The room instantly fell into darkness. Only starlight poured through the hole in the roof, illuminating the dishes on the red-lacquered wooden table and the sleeping face of the young woman.

There were still a few side dishes left on the plates.

“Meow...”

A cat crawled out from beneath the bamboo hat on the young man’s back. It perched on his shoulder, curling its tail as it stared at the plate of fried river minnows.

“Hungry?” The young man picked up a little fish and held it to the cat’s mouth. The cat snatched it in one bite and began eating with relish.

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Before long, the cat had polished off half a plate of little fish.

The young man picked up a cloth from the side and wiped his hands. “That’s all there is. Endure it for a few hours. Once I’ve recovered my strength, I’ll take you away from here. Are you full?”

“Shut... up...”

In her sleep, the young woman rolled her head to the other side, revealing the flushed cheek that bore the imprint of the tabletop. She smacked her lips a few times, then fell asleep again.

The young man rose, opened the wardrobe, grabbed a garment at random, and tossed it over her. Then he took the cat and rolled beneath the bed.

The world fell silent. Even the large, fat dog by the door had drifted into slumber. Only the old steward, his face lined with worry, tossed and turned restlessly in bed.

Holding several prescriptions that were nearly worn to pieces, he muttered to himself, “The master has more than a dozen concubines, and every one of them is utterly devoted to him. Whenever Imperial Physician Ma prescribes the master some restorative medicine, I have the same prescription filled and take it too. So why can’t I ever satisfy my wife?”

There was a reason Gou-shi, though already a mature woman, could still maintain her place among Wu Renpin’s many young and beautiful concubines.

She had been born into a pleasure house. In her youth, she had learned there all manner of skills for pleasing men. Once she had caught the roving Wu Renpin’s attention, she had used every means at her disposal to ensnare him, eventually coaxing him into buying her freedom and taking her as a respectable wife.

Wu Renpin already had both a wife and concubines. After Gou-shi entered the household, she had stopped at nothing in her struggle for favor, even using the techniques she had learned in her former life to whet Wu Renpin’s appetite.

Wu Renpin was a lecherous libertine by nature and was naturally unwilling to remain every day in one woman’s room. Thus, he began using on his other concubines the tricks he had learned from Gou-shi.

It was only after one of his more virtuous concubines, unwilling to endure the humiliation, took her own life in grief and anger that he became somewhat more restrained with the others. Reluctantly, he stopped forcing them.

Gou-shi alone remained entirely obedient no matter how outrageous he became. She never resisted or refused him. Whatever strange notions Wu Renpin came up with, he would try them on her first. That was how she had managed to remain favored in the household for so many years.

Many years ago, one night, the steward had heard unusual noises coming from their room. In the middle of the night, he had thrown on his clothes, gathered a group of men with clubs, and pushed open the door. The scene he witnessed was something he had never been able to forget.

The other masters of the household, along with the maids, matrons, and servants, had long since grown accustomed to the strange sounds coming from their room.

“Master, kill me!”

“Master, let me die!”

And so on.

That was why no one would respond, even if someone screamed for help until their throat broke.

As luck would have it, a new servant boy had joined the household that very day. Unfamiliar with the rules, he had nearly caused a scandal. The steward was grateful that he had arrived in time to prevent the embarrassing scene he himself had once endured.

He was already pondering how to hint at the matter to the master the next day. If the master was pleased, perhaps he could take the opportunity to ask him for some secret formula or other...

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