Extra 4. Pei Xueqing × Shen Yuance - Zhuang Zhou Dreaming of a Butterfly (1)

In the eighth year of Xingwu, during the early days of spring, the shimmering sunlight danced across the rippling surface of the lake, casting golden ripples through the window lattice onto the pavilion in the middle of the water. The light fractured into scattered patches on the open book before her, the black characters on white paper blurring into a dreamlike haze.

Pei Xueqing sat on the carved balustrade of the pavilion, engrossed in reading a medical text. Between turning pages, she heard her maid, Zhuyue, speak up: “Miss, it’s been half an hour already. I don’t think Young Master Shen is coming today.”

Pei Xueqing replied softly, “He’s injured. Perhaps he’s having trouble moving around. No rush—let’s wait a little longer.”

“Miss, I’ve seen Young Master Shen gallivanting around town on horseback as usual these past few days. Clearly, he’s not taking that injury seriously at all. He’s been skipping classes at Tianchong Academy again—there’s no sign of him being inconvenienced!”

“Whether or not he takes it seriously is his business. But since he was injured because of me, I can’t afford to ignore it.”

“I’m just worried about your reputation, Miss. If you’re seen associating too much with Young Master Shen, and he goes off boasting to his unsavory friends, it could harm your standing.”

“He’s not that kind of person—” Pei Xueqing lifted her head from the book, intending to defend the notorious young master of the Shen family. But then she thought better of it, realizing such a defense might only make things worse. She stopped herself mid-sentence.

Zhuyue seemed to be waiting for her to continue, but Pei Xueqing’s thoughts had already drifted far away.

Shen Yuance, the son of the military governor of Hexi, was infamous throughout Chang’an as a reckless troublemaker. Even at Tianchong Academy, a haven for spoiled aristocrats, he stood out as one of the most unruly individuals. He frequently scaled walls to skip class, gambled, frequented brothels, and spent more time sleeping through lectures than studying. During lessons, he practiced dice games instead of focusing, and often argued with teachers until they were left speechless.

“The Shen family has only this one heir, and their lineage will surely decline. What a tragedy for a military household!” This was how the entire capital judged this young man.

Before, Pei Xueqing had only known of Shen Yuance through rumors. She had assumed he was a hopeless delinquent, someone to avoid at all costs when passing by in the streets.

That belief persisted—until last month, on the first day of spring, when she went to gather medicinal herbs outside the city and unexpectedly encountered a lone wolf.

Wolves are nocturnal pack animals, and that day, with clear weather and her location deep in a rarely visited part of the forest, she hadn’t anticipated any danger. One moment she was bent over collecting herbs, and the next, she heard an eerie growl behind her. Turning around, she saw a bloodied wolf emerging from the bushes. At first, she didn’t even recognize what it was.

It wasn’t until her maid screamed that she snapped out of her daze. Instinctively, she turned to flee but remembered reading that running away from a wolf could provoke its predatory instincts. Forcing herself to stay calm, she locked eyes with the beast and slowly backed away, holding her maid’s hand.

But the wolf, likely startled earlier and now in a frenzied state, lunged forward the moment they moved.

The stench of the beast hit her like a wall. Panicked, she stumbled backward into the grass, watching in horror as the wolf charged straight for her. Her mind went blank.

Just as the wolf was about to pounce, a sharp arrow suddenly pierced the air, striking the wolf squarely in the abdomen. The creature let out a pained howl before collapsing heavily to the ground.

Her heart pounding, she looked up to see a tall, elegantly dressed youth sitting atop a horse, holding a bow. His gaze was fixed on the wounded wolf, and the bowstring in his hand still quivered faintly.

The wolf, though mortally wounded, wasn’t dead yet. Suddenly, it sprang back to life, snarling and lunging toward the youth.

The young man was knocked off his horse but swiftly rolled aside to avoid the wolf’s claws, engaging it in a fierce struggle.

She scrambled to her feet, wanting to help. She told her maid to run and fetch help while she picked up a sharp stone, ready to intervene if needed.

Thinking back, if it had truly come to the point where she had to step in, both she and the youth would have surely perished. Fortunately, the youth gradually gained the upper hand. With a powerful twist, he pinned the wolf down, one arm blocking its snapping jaws while the other drew a dagger. With a swift, decisive motion, he plunged the blade into the wolf’s throat.

The dying wolf twitched violently before finally going limp. As the youth pulled out the dagger, blood spurted forth, filling the air with its metallic tang.

Kicking the lifeless body aside, the youth collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath.

She hurriedly dropped the stone and rushed to his side. “Are you alright? Are you hurt?”

The young man, noticing her refined attire that clearly marked her as someone of high birth, frowned slightly. His eyes, half-closed, flickered with complex emotions.

At the time, she paid no heed to his reaction, focusing instead on inspecting his injuries. Seeing blood staining his sleeve, likely from the wolf’s claws, she turned to find some cloth to bandage his wound.

Unexpectedly, the youth suddenly sprang to his feet, yanked the arrow from the wolf’s abdomen, and quickly mounted his horse. By the time she returned with the cloth, he was already galloping away.

Soon after, the sound of approaching voices and thundering hooves filled the air. A group of finely dressed young men on horseback appeared, students from Tianchong Academy, classmates of her brother.

They were surprised to see her and the dead wolf, rushing over to investigate.

She learned that the group had been hunting nearby. These young nobles, lacking real skill, had arranged for game to be driven into an enclosure so they could compete in archery from the outside.

The prey were usually docile animals, but one arrogant student, Zhong Boyong, insisted on hunting a wolf. Not only did he fail, but the wolf escaped the enclosure.

The students split up to chase it, and this group arrived at her location, mistakenly assuming that she—a seemingly delicate young woman—had single-handedly subdued the ferocious beast. They were astonished.

She quickly clarified that she hadn’t killed the wolf, recalling how the youth had hastily removed the arrow before leaving. Guessing that he might not want to be identified, she revealed her identity as the daughter of the prime minister, claiming that the wolf had been killed by a retainer of the Pei family who had temporarily stepped away.

The group accepted her explanation without question, warned her to be careful while gathering herbs, and happily carried off the dead wolf, likely planning to claim the kill as their own.

After they left, she picked up the dagger the youth had dropped, worrying about his injuries. Unable to rest easy, she visited Tianchong Academy the next day under the pretext of delivering lunch to her brother.

She suspected the youth was also a student there and wanted to return the dagger, thanking him in person for saving her life. But after spending half the day searching the academy grounds, she failed to find him.

Disappointed, she left the academy and boarded her carriage near the rear gate. Just then, she heard an old teacher shouting at the top of his lungs: “Shen Yuance—stop right there!”

By then, she had met almost everyone at the academy except one person: Shen Yuance, who was notorious for never staying in class long enough to warm his seat.

Though she hadn’t seriously considered him as a possibility, she assumed she had been mistaken. Perhaps the youth was merely passing through the forest and not a student at all. Finding him now would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

But at the sound of that name, she glanced out the window to see what the commotion was about. There, leaping down from the wall, was a familiar figure bathed in the bright spring sunlight. His handsome face, with its red lips, sharp eyebrows, and piercing eyes, turned toward her.

She stared at him in disbelief, more shocked than when she had encountered the wolf the day before.

Shen Yuance? It was him?

The youth who had fired that arrow, fought the wolf with bare hands, and delivered the killing blow—it was Shen Yuance? The same Shen Yuance rumored to be utterly inept, failing every archery test, excelling only at scaling walls and avoiding work?

As the carriage rolled forward, she was too stunned to call for the driver to stop. Behind her, Shen Yuance caught sight of her face and the insignia of the Pei family on her carriage. Without a word, he turned and fled, clearly eager to escape.

She recalled how Shen Yuance had frowned upon seeing her refined clothing the previous day and suddenly understood.

In that moment of crisis, firing the arrow had been unavoidable. But he had likely assumed she was just a simple herbalist gathering medicine in the mountains—and certainly hadn’t expected to save the daughter of a powerful noble.

Saving a noblewoman—that was trouble indeed.

Because everyone in the capital knew that Shen Yuance’s mediocre skills made it impossible for him to single-handedly take down a ferocious wolf.

Lost in thought about the implications, it wasn’t until the carriage had traveled far that she remembered to ask the driver to turn back—but by then, the youth was long gone.

That evening, after returning home, she spent hours pondering the matter.

Seeing was believing. Compared to the Shen Yuance described by others, she trusted more the Shen Yuance she had witnessed with her own eyes. She subtly probed her father and brother about the Shen family and began to form a hypothesis.

Hexi held significant military power, and the Xuan Ce Army was renowned for its valor. If the Shen family had another capable son, it would surely invite jealousy and suspicion.

Only if the Shen family’s heir appeared useless and unworthy could others breathe easy, thinking that no matter how skilled General Shen was in warfare, without a successor, his influence wouldn’t last.

The infamous young man, who seemed to have gone astray at such a young age, wasn’t truly as reckless as he appeared. He couldn’t afford to be good—it wasn’t an option.

The world misunderstood Young Master Shen.

And this misunderstanding was exactly what Shen Yuance wanted.

Realizing this, she understood that openly thanking him might only cause trouble. Her well-intentioned gratitude could very well backfire.

The next day, under the pretext of fetching medicine for her mother, she went into town. She paid a gambler to deliver a note to Shen Yuance at the gambling den, inviting him to meet her at the Tinglan Pavilion. She promised to wait there all day, assuring him he could come whenever it was convenient.

Shen Yuance, aware that he had left something behind with her, soon arrived at the pavilion alone.

She immediately rose to greet him and express her thanks.

“It had nothing to do with me,” Shen Yuance said dismissively. “It was just your luck, Miss Pei, running into me—a blind cat catching a dead rat once in a millennium.” He held out his hand, clearly wanting his dagger back.

She handed over the cleaned dagger, opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated, unsure what to say.

“Anything else?” he asked impatiently, urging her on. “Say it quickly—I’m on a winning streak. If I don’t get back soon, my luck will run out.”

She wasn’t accustomed to interacting with men, let alone in such a private setting. After a moment of nervousness, she finally managed, “…I just wanted to ask about your arm. I know a bit of medicine and brought my medical kit. I can dress your wound for you.”

“It’s been three days already. If I hadn’t treated it by now, wouldn’t I have bled to death?”

She stuttered, explaining, “I just assumed that since you didn’t want anyone to know about this, you probably wouldn’t seek medical help. Treating it yourself must have been inconvenient…”

“What’s it to you?”

She looked at the prickly figure before her and spoke gently: “Young Master Shen, I mean no harm, and I won’t tell anyone about this. Otherwise, I would have sought you out openly. But unless I see your wound with my own eyes, I won’t be able to rest easy. If this injury infects the bone and you lose the ability to draw a bow in the future, even a blind cat won’t catch a dead rat again. What then? My hands are quick—I could have finished bandaging you in the time it took to say all this.”

Something in her lengthy reasoning seemed to sway him. Finally, he sat down carelessly on the balustrade, rolled up his sleeve without a word, and turned his head away.

She hurried forward, unraveling the messy bandage he had applied. After carefully examining the gruesome wound, she reapplied medicine and rewrapped it. In her haste, she accidentally knocked over a bottle of medicine, spilling it all over herself.

He glanced at the stains on her dress and, for the first time, softened slightly: “…You don’t have to rush so much.”

She wiped at her dress with a handkerchief and continued dressing the wound. “I’m afraid of delaying your gambling luck,” she replied.

They exchanged no further words until she finished bandaging him. As he stood to leave, she called out again: “Young Master Shen, you’ll need to change the dressing regularly and allow time for healing. Would it be more convenient for me to visit you at the academy, or for you to come here?”

Shen Yuance turned back, frowning. “Are you ever going to stop?”

She wasn’t one to make threats, but seeing him bristle like the untamed wolf from that day, she felt compelled to say, “If you don’t treat this wound properly, I’ll announce to the world that you were the one who killed that wolf.”

“Do you really think anyone will believe you?”

“Empty words won’t convince anyone, but the claw marks on your arm are evidence. Treat it quickly, and you can destroy the ‘evidence’ sooner. Then I’ll have nothing to threaten you with.”

“The daughter of the prime minister—clever indeed.” He appraised her with a nod of approval.

“So,” she repeated, “should I come to the academy, or will you come here?”

“How about you visit me at the gambling den instead?” he smirked, his tone teasing.

“That works, as long as it’s convenient for you.”

Her earnest seriousness seemed to surprise him for a moment. “Do you really think your prime minister father would let you go to such a disreputable place?”

“As long as he doesn’t find out.”

“Including today’s secret rendezvous with a man in this secluded spot—are you saying that as long as he doesn’t know, it’s fine?”

Her face flushed red, and she couldn’t respond immediately.

Then Shen Yuance picked up the note she had used to summon him. “Miss Pei, before threatening someone, consider whether you’ve left any vulnerabilities in their hands. My secrets and your reputation are tied together. Think carefully about whether exposing me is worth the cost.”

Before she could reply, Shen Yuance burst into laughter and strode out, leaving behind one final remark: “This place works well enough. Let’s stick with it.”

Though he didn’t accept her threat, he still acquiesced to her proposal of regular wound care.

Perhaps because he knew her threat wasn’t malicious. Just as she knew that someone who, in the heat of saving a life, didn’t even have time to protect their own deadly secret wouldn’t dare to tarnish a young woman’s reputation.

Zhuyue worried that Shen Yuance might spread rumors, but she trusted that he wasn’t that kind of person.

For years, the world had failed to see his true face. Yet she, fortunate as she was, had glimpsed it on the very first day they met.