"The Tianhai people have finally left."
Heyin. Xu Xie's private residence, inner courtyard.
Xu Xie's wife stepped into the room. The stifling heat and the smell of herbal medicine mingling in the air made her frown. She waved away the servants and maids attending them, waiting until only Xu Xie's trusted aides remained. Then she walked around the screen and saw her husband lying on the bed.
She sat down beside him.
Xu Xie, breathing faintly, raised his eyelids a little. She rolled her eyes and muttered, "If you didn't want to go to Tianhai, you didn't have to gamble with your life. A broken leg and a cracked head—and you didn't even give me a heads-up. Weren't you afraid you'd scare me half to death?"
Xu Xie opened his eyes and pulled off the bandage around his forehead.
He smiled. "I was afraid you wouldn't be able to fool everyone else."
Only he and a handful of trusted aides knew about the plan. He hadn't told his wife because he was afraid she wouldn't be able to act convincingly and would give the game away. Xu Xie propped himself up on one elbow. His wife promptly tucked a pillow behind his waist so he could lean back without straining. Then she scolded him, "How could you know I wouldn't fool them if you didn't even let me try? Forget it, forget it. I'm not arguing with you about this. I'm only an ordinary person, after all. How would I know how hard the heads of you Literary Scholars are? You can split one open and lose that much blood, and still live?"
As she spoke, she slipped her hand, its nails painted red, beneath the bedding piled over Xu Xie's waist and pinched a tender spot on his thigh.