You Are Mine

Qiao Shuyi turned, walked to the table, and picked up the burner holding the incense that had not yet burned out.

"Sister, since you lit this incense, you must be very fond of it."

"Your mother was the same, using such a despicable thing against mine. You two truly came from the same mold. The dye from the indigo plant is bluer than the plant itself."

She handed the incense burner to Fuzhi, who stood behind her:

"Go, take away the ever-burning lamp before Concubine Song's memorial and replace it with this."

"Let sister kneel before the memorial and savor what she lit herself."

She looked down at Qiao Shuqin:

"Oh, and judging by your outfit today, sister, you must be very fond of these flimsy garments. Then kneel before Concubine Song's memorial just as you are, and let your mother look down from heaven and see for herself how thoroughly her daughter learned every one of her despicable little tricks."

Qiao Shuqin's pupils contracted sharply.

Kneel before her mother's memorial?

Her mother had only been gone a few days. The ever-burning lamp before her memorial was still lit, and the incense had not yet stopped burning.

To make her kneel there dressed like this, breathing in that filthy incense.

That was not a punishment to her body, but a knife to her heart.

"Qiao Shuyi! You-you have no right!"

"Because I am in charge of this manor's household affairs. My every word and deed is the rule here."

"Because you have no shame. You brought filth and disorder into the manor and tarnished its reputation. The evidence of your guilt is conclusive, so it is only right and proper that I punish you."

"Because with a single word from me, no one in this manor, high or low, would dare say so much as half a word against it."

Qiao Shuqin could not stop trembling, but she still craned her neck and screamed hoarsely:

"Qiao Shuyi! You forcibly snatched a man and brought him into the manor. Do you know shame?! Did you care about the manor's reputation?!"

Rather than getting angry, Qiao Shuyi laughed.

"I snatched him openly and aboveboard. I, Qiao Shuyi, have never acted in secret."

"But you? Drugging him, setting a trap, taking advantage of his plight-do such sneaky tricks deserve to be compared with me?"

She straightened, swept her sleeve aside, and did not spare her another glance:

"When I snatch someone, my wickedness is out in the open. When you harm someone, your venom is sneaky and underhanded. If the reputation of the Prince of Jin'an's Manor were ruined by my hand, that would be arrogance and tyranny. At most, people would call me spoiled and willful. But ruined by your hand-"

She lowered her eyes, every word falling like a knife blade:

"It would be a filthy disgrace, a stench that would linger for ten thousand years."

"Drag her away."

"Qiao Shuyi-I won't!"

She shrieked, her voice full of terror:

"Kill me! If you have the nerve, kill me!"

Two matrons seized her arms, one on either side, and dragged her outside.

One matron raised a hand to cover her mouth, stifling her screams one after another.

Qiao Shuyi glanced at Zongzheng Heng on the bed, her gaze cold.

Zongzheng Heng met her gaze.

The heat in his chest had not yet faded, but a chill had already spread across his back.

She neither raged nor cursed, said nothing at all, and seemed all the more frightening for it.

Qiao Shuyi looked away, as though even another glance would be too much.

"Fuzhi, have someone carry him back to Jinglan Garden."

Jinglan Garden.

By the time Zongzheng Heng was carried into the bedchamber, he was barely conscious.

But lying on the familiar bed, breathing in the familiar fragrance on the pillow, he felt an inexplicable sense of peace.

The fire in his body, however, refused to let him go.

Heat coursed through his limbs and bones, leaving his mouth dry and his mind muddled.

Through the haze, he felt someone take hold of his wrists and then his ankles.

They were using ropes to secure his limbs to the four corners of the bed.

He wanted to struggle, to ask what they were doing, but the drug was too potent. He lacked even the strength to lift a finger and could only let them do as they pleased.

His eyelids were as heavy as lead. He kept his eyes closed, his breathing rapid and uneven.

After an unknown amount of time, the door was pushed open.

The footsteps were unhurried. They were hers.

He could tell.

A cool, clean fragrance entered the air. It was not hers, but something else.

Then came the soft sound of porcelain being set on the table, the light clinks of bottles and jars being arranged, and the dull thud of a basin being placed on the floor.

One thing after another, in an orderly fashion.

He forced his eyes open. His vision was blurred, and all he could see was a figure in white sitting down beside the bed.

Zongzheng Heng did not want to endure it anymore.

The drug rampaged through his body, burning away his reason bit by bit.

He wanted her.

He wanted her so badly he was going mad.

He wanted her so badly his body was about to burst.

"Shushu... Shushu..."

His hands strained against the ropes but could not break free. His fingers curled and spread spasmodically, as though searching for the hem of her clothes, her hand, any inch of her skin.

Qiao Shuyi bent down, her lips almost touching his ear:

"Zhigui, you made me very angry today."

She paused, her fingertips brushing lightly across his cheek:

"Tell me, how should I punish you?"

Zongzheng Heng turned his head. The drug had left his eyes red, but he still forced himself to look at her:

"Shushu... don't listen to Qiao Shuqin's side of the story alone. There is absolutely nothing between her and me. All that talk of mutual affection and kindred spirits was made up by her. Everything you saw today was because she drugged me."

Qiao Shuyi gave a soft "Oh," her fingertip tracing slow circles on his cheek.

"But-" She tilted her head, a hint of innocent puzzlement in her eyes. "Zhigui, why were you near the dispensary?"

"Didn't you say you were going to change?"

The question pierced Zongzheng Heng's muddled mind, bringing him to his senses for a moment.

Tell her the truth?

Tell her he had gone to the back gate to wait for a shadow guard to deliver the antidote?

Tell her he was going to investigate evidence of Qiao Nanyu's rebellion?

-He could not say.

"Can't say it? Then shall I say it for you? You arranged to meet Qiao Shuqin at the dispensary today because you wanted her help to leave me, to leave the manor."

"But you didn't expect her to drug you and try to consummate a union with you to get back at me. Because she knows I care about you, and I care about your first time."

Zongzheng Heng shook his head. "Shushu... that's not how it was."

"It wasn't? Then tell me, why were you at the dispensary?"

Zongzheng Heng's Adam's apple bobbed, his mind in complete turmoil.

The drug burned through him, leaving him dazed. Every thought seemed to have been roasted over a fire, twisted out of shape.

He instinctively wanted to make up an excuse, but what little reason he had left told him that if Qiao Shuyi checked and found it false, given her temperament, she would only be angrier.

Tell her the truth?

That was even less possible.

Qiao Shuyi waited a while, and when he gave no answer, she suddenly laughed softly.

"Heh-"

The softness in her eyes faded bit by bit, revealing the cold, mad depths beneath.

"Zhigui, these past ten-odd days, I truly thought you had begun to accept our relationship, little by little. I thought you had begun to-like me."

"So it turns out I was flattering myself."

She suddenly cupped his face in both hands, forcing him to meet her eyes.

"But Zhigui, do you know?"

"There is nothing in this world that I want and cannot have."

Her fingertips tightened, digging into the flesh of his cheeks and causing a slight pain:

"You are mine."

"Since you can't recognize that fact-"

She let go, straightened, and picked up the fine needle coated in vermilion from the small table beside the bed.

In the candlelight, the red on the needle's tip was so vivid it looked ready to drip, like blood, like the madness churning in her eyes at that moment.

She looked down at him and curved her lips into a smile, sickly and gentle, enough to make one's skin crawl:

"Then I'll carve my mark into your body."

"So you remember every day that you are mine."