The Cold Minister and the Substitute Bride novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Study

Biyan did not come to the bedchamber that night.

She sent word through the steward that the Minister had memorials to finish and would sleep in the study.

Zhiruo lay awake until the second watch, looking at the empty half of the bed.

Then she got up, put on the blue jacket, and went downstairs to the kitchen.

"Tea for the study," she told Granny Mo. "The strong kind. And something that isn't plum."

Granny Mo handed over a tray without a single question.

She had already put a small dish of walnut cakes on it.

The study was a long room lined with scrolls, and Biyan sat at the far end behind a desk piled with paper, writing with her sleeves pushed up.

She did not look up.

"I said I would not be disturbed."

"You said it to the steward." Zhiruo set the tray down. "You didn't say it to me."

Biyan's brush stopped.

"This cannot happen again," she said. "I told you."

"You did. You told it to the window."

A muscle moved in Biyan's jaw.

"It was a mistake. We were frightened, and I was tired, and you were kind to me." Her voice was very even. "I took advantage of a woman who has nowhere else to go."

"Did you?"

"I think so."

"Then I'd like to see the advantage." Zhiruo came around the desk. "Because from where I lay, I took it. You asked me what to do and I told you."

Biyan put the brush down, carefully.

"Zhiruo."

"Tell me who you are," Zhiruo said. "All of it. I've told you about the Lus. I've scrubbed your floors for two days. I'd like to know whose wife I am."

For a long moment, Biyan said nothing.

Then she leaned back, pressed her fingers to her eyes, and began to speak.

"My father Xue Zhengyu was a county magistrate. My mother died the night I was born. There was already one child in the house, my elder brother Bichen, one year old, and my father had buried two sons before him."

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