Bai Lan remained silent for a moment, feeling that the words sounded as though he had just returned from taking an examination.
“Why are you kneeling like this?” he asked.
Ning Muyan said nothing, only reached under the desk to fetch a meditation cushion and handed it to Bai Lan.
Bai Lan’s brows twitched. He thought, “It’s one thing to have a cushion for meals, but this… surely it’s not necessary for others to share.”
However, seeing Ning Muyan’s pale complexion after kneeling all night and knowing he had returned from a long journey without rest only to be punished in this way, Bai Lan felt a twinge of sympathy. He knelt beside him.
As soon as his knee touched the cushion, Ning Muyan laughed.
“What are you doing? It’s cold in the ancestral hall. I wanted you to sit. How foolish!”
Bai Lan blushed and picked up the cushion, tossing it onto Ning Muyan. “Why are you so annoying!”
Ning Muyan, who had been kneeling perfectly straight, finally leaned to the side and smiled. After some playful teasing, he picked up the cushion that had rolled aside and pulled Bai Lan to sit next to him.
“I know you want to ask why I didn’t attend the palace examination,” Ning Muyan said slowly. “After the provincial exam results were announced, I requested an audience with His Majesty and declined the palace examination.”
Bai Lan furrowed his brows. “Why? Grandmother and the Ning family all had high hopes for you, wishing for you to restore the Ning household to the way it was under your father.”
Ning Muyan said, “The Bian family has always been covetous, playing different sides. Had I excelled in the palace exam, they would have inevitably chosen the Ning family. Bai Lan, you may think that marriage is a matter of mutual consent, but in the court, it is not so simple.”
“Back then, the Bian family was merely minor officials in the county—insignificant positions that they had even purchased. While serving in the county, they endured ridicule and oppression. Only when the Bian daughter was selected to enter the palace did their fortunes improve.”
“Perhaps the Bian family did not anticipate that their daughter would rise so high, gain the emperor’s favor, and even bear a prince, solidifying their position in the palace. The young prince, clever as he grew, gained the emperor’s favor, finally bringing the Bian family into the notice of powerful officials.”
Ning Muyan continued, “It was no easy feat to rise from an oppressed minor official to their current position. The Bian family would never consider returning to those miserable days. Their daughter’s advantageous marriage became a means to secure their family’s influence. It was impossible for Bian Daiyun to serve alongside her sister. Now, with the emperor aging, it was better to find a family in court that could be beneficial.”
“When I topped the imperial exams, the Ning family had its own foundations. The Bian family chose us, without prior notice or consultation. Imperial Consort Ling facilitated this marriage before the emperor, and the Ning family had no chance to refuse.”
Bai Lan opened his mouth, realizing that in his previous life he had only seen the honor of an emperor-bestowed marriage and the splendor of ten-mile red brides, unaware of the political maneuvers behind it.
Ning Muyan said, “This is where the seeds of the Ning family’s downfall were sown.”
“At the time, the family only saw the Bian family at its peak, two families marrying under imperial favor, rising together. They did not realize the Bian family already harbored hidden schemes.”
Bai Lan began to understand. “You mean the Bian family wanted to support the young prince’s claim to the throne?”
Ning Muyan nodded. “The emperor favored Consort Ling and the young prince in his old age, giving the Bian family hope. They formed a faction, plotting for the future. The Ning family, being relatives, could not take sides in the imperial succession, though my stepmother, Madame Bian, was closely connected with Xiji Garden. Even Ning Zhengyu was influenced. By the emperor’s final illness, during the palace upheaval, the Ning family was pushed to ruin.”
Bai Lan remembered that the palace upheaval had occurred at night. Though unaware of the details, he knew the outcome.
At that time, the young prince was only eight or nine years old. Though clever, he was too young to rule. Those who had once supported him were few when the decisive moment arrived.
On the day of the palace upheaval, the Fifth Prince led troops into the palace, captured Consort Ling, and used the opportunity to ascend the throne. The Bian family, lacking deep resources, failed to maneuver effectively in the power struggle and ultimately became a casualty.
After the Fifth Prince ascended, he accused the young prince of rebellion, exterminating the Bian family’s nine clans and punishing officials closely connected to them—including the Ning family.
Tan Yun and Ning Zhengyu were executed. Ning Muyan, favored by the late emperor and with no evidence apart from being Bian Daiyun’s husband, was protected by his teacher and the Qi family, and thus imprisoned but not executed.
The Fifth Prince was suspicious and cruel, and in the end, he had the remaining members of the Ning family exiled to Lingnan.
Bai Lan knew all of this, yet there had always been one thing he could not understand—and now he could finally ask: “As a member of the Bian family, Bian Daiyun should have been executed from the start. Why was he able to remain safe and uninvolved while the Ning family fell into chaos?”
Ning Muyan sighed. “If you’re asking why the Bian family is detestable, it isn’t only because they are greedy as subjects, even when granted imperial favor they still bear disloyalty in their hearts. Bian Daiyun had someone he cared for before marriage, yet the family forcefully arranged his marriage into the Ning household.”
“After the wedding, he was cold and distant, unwilling to be close to me. I had no interest in him either. Moreover, the Bian family coerced this marriage under the emperor’s favor, which I loathed. In the end, it allowed both of them some freedom. It was only later, by chance, that I saw him meeting someone and learned of his past.”
Back when the Bian family served as minor officials in the county, a neighboring household—also a minor official family—often assisted and advised them. Over time, the families grew closer, and the children of similar age naturally became close.
Had the Bian family remained a minor county household, perhaps Bian Daiyun and Yi Lingxiao—who lived just a wall away—would have eventually become a couple. Yet fate played a hand: Bian Daiyun’s elder sister gained favor in the palace.
The Bian family rose from low-ranking county officials to state officials and then to positions in Yongchang Prefecture, eventually reaching the capital. Their eyes no longer looked upon the Yi family, which had once helped them. The young couple’s prospective union was abandoned.
The Yi family, seeing the Bians’ ascent and their own inability to compete, stepped back. The older generation understood, but the young ones refused to let go, unwilling to accept the broken bond.
Ning Muyan’s face darkened. He did not want to speak of matters that disgusted him, yet Bai Lan was the person closest to him, so he explained: “Bian Daiyun and Yi Lingxiao once eloped, but the Bian family caught him and brought him back. Bian Daiyun already belonged to Yi Lingxiao, yet the Bian family still forced him to marry into the Ning household.”
Bai Lan covered his mouth in shock. He had suspected as much when seeing Bian Daiyun during consultations, but he hadn’t expected him to be so daring—or that Ning Muyan truly knew everything.
In his previous life, Ning Muyan had been a trusted official under the late emperor, even serving as Minister of Revenue. Enduring this, it was no different from swallowing a dead fly.
Bai Lan had always thought he was the most unfortunate, yet now he realized that the three of them had all suffered in their own ways.
He timidly asked, “How did you know about this?”
Ning Muyan replied, “From the beginning of our marriage, we mutually avoided intimacy, and over time, it became understood. Years later, as both families grew concerned with our lack of children, they intervened. Bian Daiyun confessed everything to make me give up.”
“I had already suspected as much, so I was not surprised. I only warned him that if he continued to maintain appearances, he should no longer trouble you. And so they continued their act as a married couple.”
Bai Lan’s eyes brightened. No wonder, from a certain point, Bian Daiyun suddenly stopped troubling him. Everyone said it was because he had matured over the years of marriage, but Bai Lan had assumed it was reconciliation with Ning Muyan.
“But… the crucial part you haven’t said—how did he escape unscathed?”
“The Fifth Prince’s confidant was Yi Lingxiao. After the failed elopement, the Bian family secretly sabotaged the Yi household, causing Yi Lingxiao’s father to lose his position and Yi Lingxiao to fail several imperial exams. Frustrated, he enlisted in the military. Through desperate fighting, he ultimately joined the Fifth Prince’s camp and became his most trusted protector.”
“During the palace upheaval, Yi Lingxiao’s contributions were invaluable. The Fifth Prince considered him indispensable. When he requested Bian Daiyun’s safety, the Fifth Prince could hardly refuse.”
Bai Lan clenched his fingers. He had met Yi Lingxiao once—a refined scholar—but never imagined he would become a battlefield commander. “So… they ended up together?”
“More or less,” Ning Muyan replied.
Bai Lan could only sigh in disbelief.
Ning Muyan continued, “After the Fifth Prince ascended, his cruelty, suspicion, and indiscriminate executions chilled the court. The ministers invited the Seventh Prince, previously stationed on the frontier and overlooked by the late emperor, to take the throne. The Yi family consequently fell from favor.”
When the new emperor ascended, within two years Ning Muyan was recalled to the capital.
“There are many events yet to unfold. I had long grown weary of court politics. Would I really involve myself for the sake of grandmother or the clan? Today they scold me; tomorrow, they will understand.”
He added sharply, “Fail to understand now, and you risk imprisonment or exile. But now… these are the best days.”
Bai Lan pressed his lips together. Indeed, this was the wisest choice for everyone.
Having learned so much at once, Bai Lan’s mind was in turmoil—but the most astonishing revelation was that Ning Muyan and Bian Daiyun had pretended to be a married couple for several years.
Seeing Bai Lan lost in thought, Ning Muyan suddenly reached for his hand.
“What are you doing?” Bai Lan snapped, eyes wide, glancing around. “We’re in the ancestral hall!”
“I’ve knelt all night and into the day. My hands are cold.”
Bai Lan felt it—their hands were ice-cold in his grasp—but he did not pull away.
Ning Muyan said, “Just like in the prison before, warm my hands for me.”
Bai Lan frowned. This man was shamelessly bold.
Still, he exhaled and rubbed the cold hands. He reasoned: if they froze, he wouldn’t be able to write and earn a living, and besides, he no longer held any official position.
A faint smile appeared in Ning Muyan’s eyes. Just as he leaned closer, a knock sounded at the door:
“Bai Lan, Grandmother has awakened!”
Bai Lan withdrew his hand and quickly stood up. “Oh! I’ll come right away.”
Ning Muyan, however, held onto him. “Don’t leave today. Stay at Tianmendong for the night, alright?”
“You’re the one kneeling all this time, and you’re telling me where to stay?”
Ning Muyan’s brow lifted slightly. “If I’m kneeling here, wouldn’t you feel more at ease?”