After autumn arrived, the weather turned cool. The imperial garden was filled with the desolate scene of withered flowers, evoking a sense of bleakness in one’s heart.

Qiu Xinran emerged from Ciyi Palace. Aunt Pingchun, who served at the Empress’s side, escorted her all the way to the palace gate and sighed, “Sichen is so thoughtful.” In her hands she still held the sutra for rebirth that Qiu Xinran had delivered that morning, densely written and clearly showing the care of the transcriber.

“Aunt is too kind. This is all I can do for the Princess.”

Pingchun rambled on: “The Princess was close to you when she was alive. During the time Sichen wasn’t in the palace, we often heard her mention you. She even said that when you returned, she wanted to paint flower ornaments together…” As she spoke, her eyes reddened again and she couldn’t continue.

Qiu Xinran lowered her eyes. Usually skilled at pleasing people, at this moment she couldn’t find any words of comfort no matter what. Fortunately, the other woman sniffled, composed herself again, and rallied her spirits to tell her, “Tomorrow is the Ninth Princess’s forty-nine day memorial service. Just now in the room, Her Majesty said that Sichen should personally burn this sutra for the Princess.”

“Thank Her Majesty for this grace.” Qiu Xinran nodded. “And thank Aunt in advance for preserving the scripture.”

Tomorrow, Princess Qinghe’s forty-nine day memorial service would be held at Qinglong Temple. All the monks in the temple would together perform rites for the Princess’s salvation and blessings. Emperor Xuande and the Empress would both attend in person, and the ranked imperial consorts of the harem as well as the other princes in the palace would also go. Qiu Xinran originally had no qualification to participate in such an occasion, but today the Empress was quite moved by the hand-copied sutras she had sent and granted her permission to accompany them to send Princess Qinghe off on her final journey.

The memorial service would continue for a full day until dawn. Qiu Xinran hadn’t rested properly for several days in a row, so today she didn’t plan to go to the Bureau of Astronomy. She took a secluded path heading west toward the White Tiger Gate, intending to go directly back to the official residence to sleep.

It was still early. Along the way she only occasionally passed a few palace servants responsible for sweeping. The western area was where the Cold Palace was located—the further in she walked, the more secluded it became. When she neared the palace wall near the White Tiger Gate, she suddenly heard the sound of whispering voices nearby.

Qiu Xinran stopped in her tracks and saw two shadowy figures standing behind a clump of bamboo to her left. She didn’t know which palace they were from—a young eunuch and a young palace maid hiding beneath the palace wall with their heads close together, saying something.

She had heard before about palace maids and eunuchs in the palace forming eating partnerships. Just as she was about to avoid them, she suddenly saw the young palace maid take out a package from her robe. After carefully looking around in all directions, she quickly handed it to the other person. That young eunuch took the cloth bundle, nodded to her, and furtively headed out through the White Tiger Gate.

The young palace maid watched his figure disappear outside the palace gate. She stood in place wringing her handkerchief for a while longer before turning to walk toward the palace path.

Apart from the bamboo groves on both sides, this palace path was perfectly straight from east to west. Qiu Xinran had nowhere to hide. As the young palace maid emerged from beside the palace wall, she came face to face with her and was startled, her face turning pale with fright.

Qiu Xinran wore the official robes of the Bureau of Astronomy. Though her rank was low, she was still an official. Seeing that the palace maid was frightened into standing frozen in place, her eyes darted, and she took the initiative: “Which palace are you from? What were you doing with that young eunuch by the wall just now?”

The young palace maid had originally harbored a glimmer of hope, but now hearing her directly expose what had just happened, her guilty conscience caused her legs to give way and she fell to her knees with a “thud”: “Great—Great lord, spare my life… This servant knows she was wrong.”

Qiu Xinran was startled back half a step by her reaction, but fortunately she quickly steadied herself and maintained a stern expression: “If you tell the truth, I’ll consider whether to go easy on you.”

The palace maid was still young, probably only sixteen or seventeen, and wasn’t one to withstand intimidation. Hearing her say this, without needing any further threats, she immediately spilled everything like beans pouring from a bamboo tube.

“This—this servant is called Xiao Song and is the personal maid of Consort Xu at Luomei Palace. Not long ago my mother sent word that my younger brother at home is gravely ill. Just now… just now this servant was at the palace wall because I wanted to ask Eunuch Xiao Gui in the palace to take some silver out to treat my brother’s illness.”

“So you say, you have filial piety.” Qiu Xinran looked at her with approval, but before she could breathe a sigh of relief, her tone turned cold: “However, if you only wanted to send some silver to your family, you could have openly registered with the supervising matron. Why be so sneaky in this remote place? I suspect what was wrapped in that cloth bundle wasn’t as simple as just silver, was it?”

Hearing her finish, the blood quickly drained from Xiao Song’s face, showing that she had guessed correctly. Seeing her panicked expression mixed with some hesitation, Qiu Xinran continued: “If you won’t tell me, I’ll have someone bring that Eunuch Xiao Gui here together with you, and we’ll find out with one investigation.”

“No—no, don’t—” Xiao Song crawled on her knees to her feet, reaching out to grab the hem of her robe, sobbing: “My lord, show mercy, I’ll tell the truth. This servant didn’t have much silver on me, so I took a few inconspicuous pieces of jewelry from Her Ladyship’s cosmetic box and asked someone to secretly take them out of the palace, thinking they could be exchanged for some silver to treat my brother’s illness.”

Stealing a consort’s jewelry and possessions to exchange for money outside the palace was a serious crime. Qiu Xinran was greatly shocked, not expecting her to have such audacity. For a moment she was speechless. Not hearing her voice, Xiao Song grew even more panicked and begged while kneeling at her feet: “Please, my lord, show mercy. If not for my family being at their wit’s end, this servant would absolutely never dare do such a thing…” The girl began to sob, looking utterly pitiful.

Qiu Xinran’s expression was complex: “How many times have you done this?”

“The first time, this servant guarantees this is the first time!” She lifted her tear-streaked face, swearing to her earnestly.

Qiu Xinran sighed: “Get up.”

The young palace maid looked up at her with sniffles and tears, like a criminal waiting to be sentenced. Qiu Xinran pressed her lips together before telling her: “I have some silver on me that I can lend you first, but you must promise me that you’ll go retrieve that package and put it back where it belongs. This time I can refrain from reporting your matter.”

“Really?” Xiao Song’s face still bore tear stains as she showed an expression of disbelief. “You’ll let me off this once and are even willing to lend me silver?”

Qiu Xinran nodded, then pondered: “However, I don’t have that much silver on me right now…”

Xiao Song looked at her anxiously, afraid she might suddenly change her mind. Fortunately, after a moment she suddenly asked again: “You just said you’re from Consort Xu’s palace?”

Xiao Song quickly nodded. Qiu Xinran then said: “Tomorrow is the Ninth Princess’s forty-nine day memorial service. Consort Xu should also be going. As long as you can put the items back, I’ll lend you the silver.”

“Good—good—” Xiao Song agreed repeatedly, then kowtowed to her several times heavily. “Thank you, my lord!”

Qiu Xinran bent down to help her up: “Go now, if you wait any longer you won’t be able to catch up.”

After the palace maid tearfully rose and ran off without a trace, Qiu Xinran pursed her lips and squeezed the pouch at her waist, silently chanting to herself: “One good deed a day, one good deed a day.”

The next day at the Qinglong Temple memorial service, Qiu Xinran left with one hundred taels of silver. The temple declined ordinary pilgrims today. Over a hundred monks chanted sutras in the square before the main hall to dispel evil spirits. Inside the hall stood the memorial tablet of “Princess Qinghe, Li Hanyuan.” After today, the Princess would be reincarnated.

According to custom, there was no need to keep so many people at the temple into the evening. Emperor Xuande had stayed at the temple all day. Overcome with grief, he returned to the palace at night, leaving only the Empress to spend the night at the temple. The other consorts, not being the Princess’s birth mother, had fulfilled their duty by attending the memorial service and seeing the Princess off on her final journey. In the end, five or six consorts and princes remained to stay at the temple overnight, while everyone else returned to the palace.

Qiu Xinran had recited sutras for rebirth outside the hall all day. The memorial service only paused for half an hour after sunset to give everyone time to eat. The ladies and princes from various palaces mostly returned to their own guest rooms to dine. Qiu Xinran, as an accompanying minor official, could only go to the dining hall to eat with the monks.

She had indeed spotted Consort Xu in the crowd today. Xiao Song was indeed following nearby. The two had made eye contact, but throughout the day they hadn’t found an opportunity to speak. Just as she was wondering how to find a chance to give her the silver, she heard a series of footsteps outside the dining hall. It turned out to be servants from various palaces coming to the kitchen to fetch the dinners prepared for their mistresses. Looking more carefully, Xiao Song was among them.

She had first entered with the other palace maids at her side, initially looking around in the dining hall, and quickly spotted Qiu Xinran sitting by the corridor. Her eyes lit up, but she didn’t immediately approach. Only after going to the meal distribution master to get her food box did she deliberately lag a few steps behind the others on her return, passing by Qiu Xinran and seemingly accidentally dropping a handkerchief.

Qiu Xinran found the young girl’s anxious yet feigned composure quite endearing, though her nervousness made her expression quite unnatural. However, apart from the extremely guilty party herself, probably no one would notice this.

So Qiu Xinran very tactfully bent down to pick up the handkerchief and called out to her: “Miss, you dropped your handkerchief.”

Xiao Song turned with a grateful expression. As she stepped forward to receive the handkerchief, she said quietly: “At the second watch, meet at Guanyin Hall. Is it convenient for Sichen?”

After returning, she had apparently inquired about Qiu Xinran’s identity and carefully selected the meeting place. Guanyin Hall was by the well water on the back mountain. Today, with everyone at the front hall square for the Ninth Princess’s memorial service, it was indeed a secluded meeting spot.

Qiu Xinran had no lodging for the night and had planned to spend the night sitting in the hall. Slipping away during the second watch wouldn’t be difficult. Thinking of this, she nodded. Seeing her agreement, Xiao Song’s expression relaxed. She smiled at her, and having no time to say more, hurriedly carried her food box and left the dining hall.

“You know that palace servants aren’t allowed to exchange things privately, right?” Someone suddenly spoke beside her.

Qiu Xinran was startled. Turning her head, she discovered it was actually Xia Xiuyan, whom she hadn’t seen in quite some time. Today he wore black robes, which made him appear somewhat stern.

“What is the Young Master doing eating here?” Qiu Xinran was greatly surprised. He spoke in a casual tone: “The lodging the temple arranged for me is quite far.”

Qiu Xinran noticed that the vegetarian meal placed before him wasn’t much different from the one before her. The expression with which he held his chopsticks and ate was exactly the same as when he ate the meals Aunt Zhang prepared at the Princess’s manor. He wasn’t the fastidious person she had imagined. He could eat radishes as if they tasted like pork—his family’s cook probably found it rather meaningless to work for him.

Xia Xiuyan seemed to hear her silent criticism and suddenly asked coldly: “What are you cursing me for in your heart?”

Qiu Xinran jumped in fright and quickly assumed a serious expression: “I was just reflecting in my heart that though the Young Master was born into a family of wealth and privilege, he can still eat such simple fare. It’s admirable.”

Xia Xiuyan stared at her for a while before casually turning his head: “Sichen Qiu can be content with simple food and plain drink, finding joy in poverty and adhering to the Way—that too is admirable.”

Qiu Xinran was stunned. After a moment she realized this should be a polite response to her earlier compliment. She turned her head and covered her forehead, unable to suppress a smile. Someone who could deliver compliments that sounded exactly like mockery—in all the world she had only ever encountered one Xia Xiuyan.