The Cold Minister and the Substitute Bride novel · Chapter 11 of 24
Chapter 11: Free
That night Biyan pressed a cold wet cloth to Zhiruo's cheek and would not let her take it away.
"It is nothing," Zhiruo said.
"It is a mark." Biyan's voice was tight. "I should have come down the stairs sooner."
"You came down at the right time."
"I came down when you were already finished."
They sat on the edge of the bed in the lamplight, and the cloth was cool against the bruise.
Zhiruo caught Biyan's wrist and drew the hand away.
"Listen," she said. "I was sold to the Lu house when I was eight. I was given a bowl and a bed in the kitchen and a name. I have been told where to stand every day of my life."
"I know."
"No one has ever asked me where I wanted to stand." She took a breath. "Today you tore up a paper and said I could leave. And I stood there with my heart going like a drum, and I thought: I have a choice. For the first time. And I am choosing this."
Biyan's eyes were enormous in the lamplight.
"Not the house," Zhiruo said. "Not the silk, not the safety. You. I'm staying because of you."
"Why?"
It was an honest question, asked as a child asks it.
"Because you laughed in a tent," Zhiruo said. "Because you tied a bandage on my thumb like it mattered. Because when you thought nobody was looking you bowed to a cook." She smiled. "And because you've no idea how much you are worth."
Biyan said nothing.
She put the cloth down, slowly.
She reached up with both hands and took the pins out of Zhiruo's braid, one by one, and set them on the table.
She unplaited it.
The black hair fell down Zhiruo's back in long waves, kinked from the weave.
Biyan combed through it with her fingers, with a gravity that made Zhiruo's throat ache.
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