The Cold Minister and the Substitute Bride novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: The Night Before
When Zhiruo reached the bedchamber, the brazier was already glowing.
Biyan knelt in front of it with a lacquer box open on the floor.
She took out the grey binding cloths one by one and fed them to the coals.
They curled and blackened without a flame.
"Biyan."
"There is a letter from my father. There is the old register page." Her voice was steady, and her hands were not. "I kept them thirteen years, because I could not make myself burn them. Tonight I can."
She dropped in a folded sheet of yellow paper.
The edge caught.
"Stop," Zhiruo said.
"They will find them."
"They will find ash."
"Ash is a better answer than paper." Biyan sat back on her heels, and the light from the brazier turned her cheekbones to blades. "There is a boat at the east canal. Qin's nephew has the key. Before dawn I will be a day's ride from the city, and by the time they open the first chest I will be a minister who vanished."
"And me?"
Biyan did not answer.
"You thought of me," Zhiruo said. "I can see it. You have a purse packed. There is a second travelling coat in that box, and it is the right size for me."
"It is the right size for you." Biyan flinched. "I wanted you to choose."
"Then I choose." Zhiruo crossed the room and knelt in front of her. "You do not leave alone. You do not leave at all. If you run, Gao says you were guilty, and every servant in this house pays for it."
"I would send word. I would pay them."
"With what? A woman who runs has no silver."
Biyan looked down at the coals.
"I do not know how to stay," she said. "I only know how to hide."
Her voice broke on the last word, and Zhiruo took her face in both hands.
The skin was damp and cold.
"Then hide with me tonight," she said. "Not from them. Just from the hour."
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