Part Two:

Sitting in front of her dresser, Su Rulan removed the exquisite jewellery from her ears, neck and wrists at a swift and precise pace. Xiaowei extracted the accessories from her mistress's hair carefully with the same swiftness and precision. With all hindrance gone, Su Rulan stood up and rushed out of the room. As she had expected, there were no attendants from the Ji family in the area. With Xiaowei going before her, acting as scout and rewarding their informants with silver nuggets, they soon found their way to a Ji family's horse carriage.

"Please take me to the side residence, urgently." Su Rulan gave the coachman a silver nugget. With a wordless smile, the coachman accepted the bribe and told her to hop on.

"My lady, what about me?" asked Xiaowei, who had not managed to get on when the carriage had already started moving.

"Return to the bridal chamber. When someone asks where we've gone, tell them that a man named 'Han Dong' disrupted us and had said that the side residence required urgent attention. After that both of us went to the side residence. Got it?"

Nodding, Xiaowei clutched her hands to her chests and watched nervously as the carriage left through the gates.

"Shifu." Su Rulan raised the cloth covering the door of the carriage and observed the streets that they are travelling through. "I've grown up in this city my whole life and have known about the Ji household since I was a child; but why haven't I heard of this side residence before? Are there people staying there?"

"Replying to the young madam: this old man has ferried multiple people to and fro the main and side residences before, but have never set foot in the side residence. I've only heard that the side residence is much larger than the main one and there is a very beautiful garden inside. Such a large place—I guess that there should be people living there."

"Thank you," she said, before dropping the curtain and leaning back against the vibrating carriage walls. Su Rulan glanced down at her heavy wedding robes and sighed—what was she doing right now?

No, she should not doubt herself. What she was going to do what to inspect the truth with her own eyes. Ji Chiyan had written in one of his letters that one should satisfy oneself of the fact of the matter and not simply reach a conclusion just by suspicion or hearsay. And if anyone should question her later about lacking trust in her own husband, certainly she would retort that their wedding rites had been left incomplete—so, what husband? Or simply, she could show them her cinnabar mole.

But in this society, what did trust and faithfulness mean? When her married friends visited her a couple of years after their marriage, some of them confided in her the troubles that they faced with their spouses' concubines or mistresses or the courtesans from the city's famous Yanzilou. One of her best friends who had the good (ill) fortune of marrying a noble in the capital city even wrote back to her to lament that she discovered that her husband already had two illegitimate children who lived with their mother, who was a lowly courtesan, in a side residence. Since then, Su Rulan had become apprehensive of the words "side residence".

From Ji Chiyan's earlier behaviour, one could surmise that Su Rulan had found herself in the same position as her best friend. Perhaps, hearing that Young Master Ji was getting married today, his mistress (if any) decided to disturb the bridal chamber by sending word to the main residence that she or one of her children was deathly ill.

But even if she had no reason to trust Ji Chiyan right now, surely she could trust the Ji family as an institution. Ever since her engagement, she had heard nothing but praises of the Ji family men's faithfulness to their sole wives from the lips of family and friends. All the sons had been taught such principles since they were young. Surely Ji Chiyan was also groomed in the same fashion. But he had also been to the capital city before. Su Rulan had heard that the capital city was a place for chaotic and complicated relationships. Who knew if Ji Chiyan had been caught in such a web when he was studying and working there.

"Young Madam, we have arrived."

Su Rulan disembarked from the carriage cautiously. From the outside, the side residence did not appear as opulent as the houses in the part of the city which they lived in. A simple wooden gate was all that faced the streets, blending in with the adjacent houses. As she stood out on the quiet street, she suddenly felt at a loss and doubted her sanity for chasing after Ji Chiyan. What was she supposed to do now? Knock on the gates and ask to be let in?

Placing a nervous hand on the gate, she drew in a deep breath. Or perhaps, she should just return home.

"Are you alright, Young Madam?" The coachman asked, startling her.

Jolting out of her trance, her arm jerked and pushed against the gate. The small movement caused the unlocked gate to swing open with a creaking noise. She withdrew her hand in surprise, wondering if perhaps heaven was on her side.

Pushing the gates open, a small courtyard came into view. Su Rulan was about to enter when the coachman suddenly muttered something about him having to return to the main residence before curfew. Before she could react, he had already driven off and left her behind. With no mode of transportation back to the main residence, Su Rulan could only continue moving forward.

She walked towards the house which strangely had its doors left wide opened. Crossing over the threshold, she had expected to see a main hall with the typical furniture but instead, she was greeted with a small room that extended into a quiet hallway lit up with lanterns to its right. Su Rulan walked down the hallway, following the lanterns above her head, turning around corners to the left and to the right, and to the left again, up some small steps, across a bridge with a window overlooking a pond, down more small steps, past a few dark rooms with closed doors and down another hallway again.

After walking for a long time, Su Rulan realised that all this while, the only thing that she had heard was the sound of the night wind and her own frantic footsteps. It was as if there was no one living in this place. She stopped and scrutinised her surroundings—hadn't she passed by this hallway earlier?

She fought a rising panic and forced herself to focus on her surroundings again. The hallways seemed to be built to revolve around what seemed to be a garden. The coachman had said that the side residence had a garden, and the garden was very beautiful. For a garden to be beautiful, it must have water, rockeries, trees, plants and flowers. Speaking of flowers, they must be in full bloom now, for the night breeze carried a pleasing saccharine fragrance.

A sweet scent which tasted like honey, but peppered with sharp notes of... peppermint?

Su Rulan blinked hard in confusion. One time, two times and three times. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself staring at the top of a canopy bed.

"You're awake," said a middle-aged woman who was peering over her in concern.

Hearing rustling sounds and footsteps, Su Rulan turned her head on the pillow to the left. She was in a quaint and simple but elegantly furnished room. The middle-aged woman was by a table, pouring water from a teapot into a cup, and behind her were two children—the boy looked to be around thirteen or twelve and the girl looked to be around ten. They gawked curiously at her, mostly staring at her red wedding clothes.

Su Rulan pulled herself up into a sitting position, feeling a rush of wooziness to a head. Holding her head, she continued to stare back at the two children, wondering if her fears were becoming founded. However, the ages didn't seem to match up.

"Am I still in the side residence?"

"Yes, Young Madam," replied the middle-aged woman with a low chuckle, handing the cup of water to her. "The kids found you passed out in the middle of the main hall and ran to me screaming in fright."

Su Rulan looked down at her clothes and smiled politely. "Earlier, there was a man named Han Dong who told the young master that the side residence required urgent attention. The young master then hurried over here and concerned, I came along too, thinking that maybe I could offer some assistance. Unfortunately, it seemed like I had lost my way as I was walking round and round the estate. In the end, I've become more of a hindrance."

"It is because of the psychedelic incense which you have inhaled. We light the incense at night in case of intruders and trespassers," explained the boy eagerly, before adding belatedly. "Disciple Lu He greets shiniang."

Beside him, the girl immediately followed suit in introducing herself. "Disciple Nianwan greets shiniang."

The smile on Su Rulan's face froze. Disciple? Shiniang?

Sensing her perplexity, the middle-aged woman from earlier chimed in to explain. "They are the disciples of the young master. The young master gone to retrieve his eldest disciple, Zuosheng, from the Tower, but they should be back soon."

However, her explanation left Su Rulan in further confusion. It seemed like the side residence was not what she had expected it to be and the Ji family was definitely keeping a huge secret—one that she wasn't sure if she was privy to.

"My apologies, as I came here in a hurry, I did not manage to prepare any gifts for the both of you. I'll bring along something the next time I come here." Su Rulan looked at the two children with a smile to mask her uncertainties as to their identities. Hearing her words, their faces broke out with delighted grins as they expressed their thanks in a fluster.

Turning to the middle-aged woman, she asked, "and how do I address you?"

"I'm the steward of this residence and garden. You can call me Wu-guanjia, or Aunty Wu—as the young master does."

Su Rulan smiled and nodded. "It must be late now, so please do not worry about me and go ahead to retire for the night. I'm not tired right now, so I'll just walk around the garden outside and wait for the young master to return."

"Yes, He'er and Wan'er—you've heard your shiniang. Hurry off to bed now," said Aunty Wu to the children sternly. Lu He tried to protest that they wanted to wait for their shifu to return, but was cut off by an abrupt sound of reprove from the steward. Su Rulan tried to hold in a giggle—she seemed more like their nanny than the steward of the house.

After the children hurried out of the room, Aunty Wu picked up a handheld lantern and gestured towards the door. "Young Madam, please let me accompany you in the garden. As it's your first time here, I can show you around."

***