The Cold Minister and the Substitute Bride novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: Thirteen Years
Gao stood for a long moment, looking at the line of servants.
Then he laughed, very softly.
"Thirteen years," he said. "Such devotion. I wonder what he pays you."
"Enough, my lord," said Qin.
"Take the cloths," Gao told the officer. "And the soup herbs. And the cook's ladle, if she likes it so much."
Granny Mo took half a step forward, and the sweeping woman caught her sleeve.
The guards took the cloths and the sack of dried ginger and left the ladle where it was.
At the door, Gao turned.
"I will not search the Minister's body today," he said. "A man who needs twenty-three witnesses to prove his health has already told me what I need. The Emperor will hear it from me in writing."
The doors closed behind him.
Nobody in the hall moved until the last boot had faded from the court.
Then Biyan stepped out from behind the screen.
She had not combed her hair.
Her feet were bare on the cold floor, and she was still wearing the plain robe she had thrown on at dawn.
She walked into the middle of the room and stopped.
The household turned, all at once, and bowed.
They bowed lower than the rank needed, as they always did.
Zhiruo, standing in the shadow of the screen, saw it for the first time.
"Qin," Biyan said.
"Minister."
"You have known."
"Yes, Minister."
"For how long?"
The steward lifted his head.
"Since you were a child of four, Minister, and your father brought you to the house in a boy's coat and told me your name was Biyan, and that I was to keep you from the physicians." His voice was dry and even. "I thought it a strange order. I thought it a wise one by the time you were nine."
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