The Wedding Night: Entering Three Beauties' Courtyards, Drugged Tea and a Bewitching Encounter

The gate to the Clear Frost Courtyard was shut.

Red lanterns swayed above the entrance, their light flickering over the bronze studs.

Gu Moran stood at the gate and raised his hand to knock twice.

No one answered.

He knocked twice more.

Still no answer.

After his third round of knocks, a maid's voice came from inside, polite and drawn out.

"Madam was weary from her journey today and has already gone to bed."

Gu Moran snorted inwardly.

He neither knocked a fourth time nor pushed the gate open.

He stepped back twice and glanced at the branches visible above the courtyard wall.

White plum blossoms.

The white plum trees he had ordered planted had taken root. Though they were out of season and their branches bore no flowers, their form was beautiful. The pruned branches reached up toward the sky, and he had personally chosen the plain earthenware pots beneath them.

"The white plum trees by the gate."

He spoke toward the tightly shut gate, just loudly enough for his words to carry through it.

"If you can't sleep, perhaps you could enjoy the flowers."

With that, he turned and left.

The gate behind him remained still.

But after he had taken ten steps, the faintest footsteps sounded from inside the courtyard, moving toward the window.

Su Yao stood before the window.

In the moonlight, the white plum trees in the courtyard spread their slender, graceful branches.

She recognized the variety.

Cold Fragrance.

Fewer than ten people in the entire capital could keep Cold Fragrance white plum trees alive. The variety was exceptionally delicate, with exacting requirements for both soil and water.

She had grown one in the chancellor's residence's back courtyard since childhood, and it had taken six years to produce its first blossoms.

She had never mentioned it to any outsider.

Her fingers clenched against the windowsill, then relaxed.

After a long while, she turned and returned to her seat at the table, her expression unchanged.

"Biyu."

The maid Biyu poked her head out from behind the screen.

"Yes, miss?"

"When were those white plum trees planted?"

"Miss, they were planted the day before yesterday, when the prince's household came to prepare the courtyard. They said his highness had specifically ordered the gardener to select them from a nursery outside the city."

Su Yao tapped the tabletop once with her finger.

"I see."

Biyu glanced at her, but did not dare say more and retreated behind the screen.

A line of text appeared on the system panel in Gu Moran's vision.

[Su Yao's affection: -65 (↑2). Source of fluctuation: the white plum variety precisely matched her personal preference, causing mild confusion.]

Two points.

Not much, but the white plum trees had been planted, and their roots were there.

Second stop: the Green Vine Courtyard.

Before Gu Moran reached the gate, he smelled medicinal herbs.

It was a blend of more than a dozen herbs. A whiff was refreshing, but a few more would give him a headache.

The gate to the Green Vine Courtyard stood wide open.

The courtyard was brightly lit, and a tea set sat on the table, steam rising from the spout.

Shen Ling'er sat at the table with her chin in both hands, smiling at the entrance.

"Husband, you're here! I've been waiting ever so long."

As Gu Moran entered the courtyard, he paused halfway over the threshold.

He was not hesitating. He was using his nose to identify the scent rising from the teapot.

A line of analysis flashed across the system panel. He glanced at it, then looked away.

Shen Ling'er had already risen to pour him a cup of tea. She offered it with both hands, smiling like a flower.

"You've worked hard all day, husband. Have a cup of calming tea."

Gu Moran took the cup and brought it to his nose for a sniff.

"It smells wonderful."

He raised the cup and took a sip.

The moment the tea touched his tongue, he felt it.

The tip of his tongue went numb.

He lowered the cup from his lips, his expression unchanged.

Shen Ling'er tilted her head and looked at him, her round eyes blinking.

"What's wrong? Doesn't it taste good?"

"It does." Gu Moran nodded and set the cup on the table.

Then he glanced at the cup of tea in front of Shen Ling'er.

It had been poured from the same teapot into the same kind of cup.

But there was a slight difference in color.

The tea in Shen Ling'er's cup was a shade lighter.

He placed his cup beside hers. With the candlelight falling across them from the side, the difference was even clearer.

"Ling'er."

"Yes?"

"You brewed this pot of tea in two batches, didn't you? The first for yourself, then you added something to the second for me."

Shen Ling'er's smile remained fixed on her face, but she blinked a little faster.

"What are you saying, husband? I'm not that wicked."

"Then take a sip from my cup."

"..."

"You don't dare?"

Shen Ling'er stared at him for three seconds.

Then she picked up his cup and actually took a sip.

She stuck out her tongue as she set it down.

"Is it numb?"

"A little."

"What drug?"

"Croton powder. It was a very small dose, enough to make you run to the privy for two hours at most." Shen Ling'er spoke with righteous confidence. "I wasn't trying to hurt you. I just wanted to see how you'd react."

"Have you seen enough?"

"I have." She propped a finger against her chin. "Your nose is keener than I thought, husband."

"It's not my nose. Your technique was too obvious when you poured the tea."

"What was obvious?"

"When you poured my cup, you tilted the spout three inches to the left. If there were only one kind of tea in the pot, it would come out the same color whichever way the spout faced. Tilting it three inches meant there was a partition inside. The tea on the left was normal, and the tea on the right had something added."

Shen Ling'er's mouth fell open.

It closed.

Then opened again.

"...How did you even know that?"

"Eldest Miss Shen, your grandfather is the head of the Imperial Medical Bureau, and you grew up among medicine cabinets. If you really wanted to drug someone, your technique wouldn't be this clumsy."

He pushed the two cups aside, leaned back in his chair, and crossed one leg over the other.

"So you weren't really trying to drug me tonight. You were testing me."

Shen Ling'er's expression shifted from innocence to something else.

It was neither anger nor embarrassment.

It was the curiosity of someone whose hidden cards had been exposed.

"Husband, are you a good-for-nothing or what?"

"Of course I'm a good-for-nothing. Who in the capital doesn't know that?"

Shen Ling'er studied his face for five seconds, then smiled.

"All right, then. I'll pretend you've fooled me tonight, husband."

She stood, walked to the gate, and gestured for him to leave.

"You still have five courtyards to visit, husband. I won't keep you."

"You're throwing me out already?"

"I need to count my medicine bottles. I can't keep count with you here, husband."

"You're counting medicine bottles on your wedding night?"

"It's better than running to the privy on my wedding night, isn't it?"

Gu Moran grinned, stood, and headed out.

When he reached the gate, Shen Ling'er called after him.

"Husband."

"Yes?"

"The dose in that sip of tea really was very small. But if your stomach hurts in one of the other courtyards tonight, remember to come find me."

Her voice was sweet enough to stretch into threads.

"I have the antidote."

Gu Moran did not look back.

"No need. My stomach's made of iron."

The system displayed the data.

[Shen Ling'er's affection: -6 (↑4). Source of fluctuation: curiosity increased after her drugging attempt was exposed. The "not easily fooled" label has been reinforced.]

Third stop: the Azure Wolf Courtyard.

He had barely stepped through the gate when he heard something slicing through the air.

A curved saber flew past his right ear and buried itself in the gateframe behind him, its hilt still humming and vibrating.

He turned his head to glance at the red cord wrapped around the hilt. It was the same saber he had seen at the wedding.

Murong Xue stood in the middle of the courtyard, fully armed.

She was no longer wearing her wedding dress. She had changed into a short leather fighting outfit from the Northern Territory, and her long silver-white hair was tied in a ponytail, dazzling in the moonlight.

She held a second saber.

"On the grasslands, before a man enters a woman's tent, he must first prove he is worthy of her."

Murong Xue held the second saber across her body, its blade pointed at him.

"You are not worthy."

Gu Moran looked at the saber in her hand, then at his own two empty hands.

"Your highness, may I say two things?"

"Speak."

"First, when you rode behind me from the north of the city to the south today, you weighed a little over ninety jin. You had three sabers, two daggers, and a waterskin hanging from your belt, weighing about twelve jin altogether-"

"What are you getting at?"

"Second, when you hold a saber in your right hand, you tend to put your weight on the ball of your front foot. Your strikes angle upward, which makes them suited to fighting opponents taller than you."

The tip of Murong Xue's saber dropped two inches.

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying that style of yours is enough against an ordinary person, but if you were facing a true warrior of your grasslands, that angle would let them block with a backhand, and your saber would be useless."

He did not stop, immediately adding another sentence.

"Your Murong Tribe's curved saber technique relies on speed. The key is transferring power through the waist, not chopping with brute arm strength. That strike you just made used your arms."

In the moonlight, Murong Xue's green eyes stared at him without moving.

Silence reigned for three seconds.

Murong Xue lowered her saber.

Not because she had been convinced, but because the detail he had pointed out was correct.

She pressed her lips together, and sheathed her saber a beat more slowly than she had drawn it.

She walked up to him and stopped two steps away, looking up at him.

"You've read our tribe's military texts?"

"I've read a lot of idle books."

"People in the Central Plains call military texts idle books?"

"I call all books idle books."

Murong Xue stared at his face, her green eyes circling twice in the moonlight.

Then she reached out, seized him by the collar, dragged him to the courtyard gate, and shoved him outside.

"We're not fighting tonight, but you owe me a match."

The courtyard gate slammed shut in his face.

He stood outside for two seconds, rubbing the ear that had nearly been sliced off by the curved blade.

The system displayed a line of text.

[Murong Xue's favorability: -45 (↑10). Source of fluctuation: Knowledge of Northern Territory military strategy sparked a deep resonance on a cultural level; the "Central Plains weakling" label began to waver.]

Ten points.

The highest return so far tonight.

Gu Moran rubbed his ear and looked at the lights in the three remaining courtyards.

The light in the Iron Plum Courtyard was the brightest.

The light in the Misty Waters Courtyard was the dimmest.

The light in the Tranquil Ink Courtyard was neither bright nor dim, neither high nor low.

He rolled his neck, and the injury Lin Zhenshan had left on his right side started screaming again. The bandages chafed against his skin, and after running through three courtyards, he had worked up a sweat, leaving the wound soaked in it, itching and stinging.

This body was severely depleted. The imperial physician had said he was deficient in both qi and blood, with a weak, cold spleen and stomach. He would probably collapse after making the rounds of all six courtyards.

Stay the night? He couldn't stay in any of the courtyards.

It wasn't that he didn't want to; he really didn't have what it took.

System, please, put some effort in and help me out.

"Sigh, three hurdles left."