Blind Beauty - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“Yao Yao, yesterday you just happened to pass by that peach grove. All you need to do is tell Lord Lu the truth. He won’t make things difficult for you.”

Father offered me a few gentle words of comfort, which only terrified me more.

Censor Pei had been one of the Second Prince’s most capable men. Now that he was dead, everyone suspected the Third Prince had had him assassinated. The Third Prince would certainly suspect it was a self-inflicted scheme by the Second Prince. Once the two of them started fighting, the one who would benefit in the end would still be the Crown Prince.

With schemes that deep, could I really fool him?

After the meal, I sat in the pavilion at the center of the lake, feeding the fish. When the maids up ahead broke into a flurry of commotion, I knew Lu Yunjing had arrived.

Lu Yunjing was famously handsome, elegant as an orchid and a jade tree, a gentleman carved from fine jade. Back when he had placed first in the imperial examinations, half the young ladies of the capital had crowded onto Chang’an Street to throw handkerchiefs at him.

I had gone and thrown one too. Annoyed that a handkerchief was too light to travel far, I wrapped a stone inside it and struck him squarely in the back. I bragged about it to my second sister for ages afterward.

“Miss Shen, the koi in your residence are being raised quite well.”

A cool, crisp voice sounded behind me. My heart tightened. I dropped the crumbs of steamed bun in my hand and sighed.

“Before I went blind, I loved watching them fight over food. Now that I can’t see, listening to the water is better than nothing.”

Lu Yunjing wore a set of scarlet official robes, his bearing even more striking than before. I turned toward the sound of his voice and, taking advantage of my supposed blindness, stared straight at his face without moving.

Lu Yunjing grew uncomfortable under my stare. He coughed lightly and waved a hand in front of my eyes.

“How many days has Miss Shen suffered from this eye ailment?”

“Almost two months.”

“This official knows a little medicine. Would Miss Shen allow me to take a look at your hands?”

Ridiculous. What kind of miraculous medical skill was that? Could he tell I was pretending to be blind just by looking at my hands? I didn’t believe it for a second. Indifferently, I opened both palms and held them out in front of Lu Yunjing.

“Go ahead.”

Lu Yunjing lowered his head and studied them for a while. Then he looked up, his gaze sharp as lightning, and stared straight into my eyes.

“Those who are blind are usually accustomed to reaching out to touch the things around them. Inevitably, their palms accumulate small cuts and scrapes. After two months, a thin layer of calluses would also form on the fingertips. Miss Shen’s hands, however, have been rather well maintained.”

Damn it. That made so much sense. He scared me half to death. As expected of the youngest Vice Minister of the Grand Court.

I had one particular flaw: when I was frightened, I instead froze like a wooden chicken and only reacted after a long while. By the time I came back to myself, the earlier terror had already passed, so my face remained completely expressionless.

Ever since I was young, Father had praised me for being able to keep my expression unchanged even if Mount Tai collapsed before my eyes, saying I had the bearing of a great general.

Without changing my expression, I nodded.

“That makes sense. However, for the past two months, I’ve been lying in bed all day, with maids attending to everything. I rarely touch anything else. I seem to have disappointed you, my lord.”

Perhaps my attitude was too calm and composed, because Lu Yunjing stopped dwelling on that point. Changing tack, he suddenly brought up what had happened in the peach grove that day.

“That day, Miss Shen returned in the same carriage as my mother. Before getting into the carriage, you first went into your own carriage to change your clothes?”

“You were only out of the carriage for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. Why did you need to change so deliberately? Had your clothes been stained with something they should not have been stained with? For example-blood?”

Lu Yunjing suddenly leaned in close, lowering his voice as he examined every inch of my expression.

I panicked even more. Ah, right. Why had I changed clothes?

My mind spun furiously for a moment. Then, cheeks flushed scarlet, I lowered my head.

“Lord Lu, I went to relieve myself. I couldn’t see and peed on my skirt.”

Lu Yunjing: “…”

Clearly, he had not expected me to answer so bluntly. He froze for a noticeable instant, then uneasily looked away.

“Carriages are all equipped with chamber pots. Since Miss Shen has difficulty moving about, why did you deliberately get out to… to relieve yourself?”

Never in my life had I imagined that one day I would discuss my urination face-to-face with the famous top scholar. But after throwing away my sense of shame, I instead felt the sudden liberation of a dead pig that no longer feared boiling water.

“Oh, I like relieving myself outdoors. Facing the wind, smelling the flowers-it gives me a sense of freedom.”

What was I even saying? Haha. Whatever. Let the world burn.

Lu Yunjing’s fair, handsome face flushed crimson at once. Struggling to maintain a professional attitude, he continued the interrogation.

“Then, while you were relieving yourself in the peach grove, did you hear anything? Anyone shouting for help? Anyone talking?”

I shook my head.

“No. The sound of me peeing was too loud. It drowned out everything else.”

Lu Yunjing was rendered speechless. He pressed his lips together, steadied himself for a moment, forced out a few polite closing remarks, then left in a hurry.

“If Miss Shen remembers anything in the future, you must inform this official.”