The small building at the southernmost edge of Mianxia Courtyard was built facing the water. The first-floor windows were open—leaning out, one could even touch the lake water outside. A weeping willow grew outside the window, its drooping branches hanging right in front of the window, blocking the view from outside. Inside the room, one felt as if aboard a small boat, isolated from the bustling environment outside into a world of one’s own.
When Lan Hui entered from outside, she immediately saw the man sitting by the first-floor window. He wore a loose robe with his hair hanging loose, one leg propped up as he leaned against the window—like some failed examination candidate drowning his sorrows in this gentle refuge. His gentle, harmless appearance was quite deceptive, making the heart of the woman at the door flutter along with the candlelight on the table.
“The Marquis has awakened?” She steadied herself and stepped forward to pay her respects.
The person by the window heard the sound and turned his head. Seeing it was her, he returned his gaze to the window outside. “How long did I sleep?”
“About half a shichen.”
He nodded and asked casually, “What incense is being used in the room?”
“White sandalwood.” Lan Hui walked to the opposite side of the small table and picked up a tea scoop to brew tea. “Gao Yang said the Marquis has been sleeping little recently—you can take some with you when you leave.”
Xia Xiuyan raised his hand to rub his temples, neither accepting nor rejecting this suggestion.
Outside was utterly quiet—at dusk one could hear insect chirping. The tea in the stove inside the room boiled and bubbled with gurgling sounds.
Suddenly footsteps came from the nearby waterside pavilion. Through the willow branches, two figures could vaguely be seen walking into the pavilion over the lake and sitting down. That pavilion wasn’t far from here, and with the quiet surroundings, the conversation inside clearly passed through the window and fell into the room.
Lan Hui’s hearing wasn’t as sharp as Xia Xiuyan’s. At first she only heard vague complaints from a man outside. Soon after the two sat down in the pavilion, she heard another voice say helplessly, “…there are fourth-rank officials in court as numerous as oxen and horses—who would know it’s you?”
This voice was somewhat unusual—not as deep as a man’s voice, but rather with a woman’s clear crispness, making Lan Hui unable to help being startled: Fangchi Garden rarely had female guests.
Xia Xiuyan preferred quiet. She instinctively rose to close the window, but unexpectedly he raised his hand to stop her. A flash of surprise crossed Lan Hui’s face, but she still obediently sat back down.
Then they heard the male voice in the pavilion argue, “You don’t know how fast news spreads in this place—tomorrow the Censorate will probably impeach me for frequenting courtesans!”
“It won’t come to that,” the woman’s voice carried some amusement. “After all, you haven’t actually frequented any yet, have you?”
“Qiu Xinran!” the young man shouted in exasperation. The woman laughed and begged for mercy. “Fine, fine, fine—if it truly comes to that, I’ll go to the Censorate and ask Xianyi to plead on your behalf.”
“…”
A burst of low laughter came from outside the window. Lan Hui instinctively glanced at the person by the window. The person opposite had one hand propped on the window sill, the other hand casually tapping his knee, his expression hidden in the night so she couldn’t see clearly.
The two in the pavilion hadn’t discovered there were others nearby. Lan Hui heard the man say, “You’ve already seen Marquis Zhou?”
“We met at the Empress Dowager’s birthday banquet. He’s also come to see me several times since then.”
Mentioning the Empress Dowager’s birthday banquet, Yuan Zhou gave a hum and deliberately drew out his voice. “I wasn’t in Chang’an before, but I heard about that matter as soon as I returned.”
Qiu Xinran immediately sighed like an eggplant struck by frost. “Since ancient times, good news doesn’t leave the gate while bad news travels a thousand li.”
Seeing her like this, Yuan Zhou couldn’t help laughing. Feigning annoyance, he said, “By this reckoning, you haven’t encountered any good fortune in all your years in Chang’an.” He suddenly had a flash of inspiration and looked up to scrutinize her. “This morning, you couldn’t have thought the person I mentioned was the Marquis of Dingbei, could you?”
The person beside him choked, not expecting him to suddenly bring this up, and actually didn’t immediately deny it.
Seeing her expression, Yuan Zhou instantly understood. He said with amusement, “Others aside, I know best about that little grudge between you and the Marquis of Dingbei—how could I think you came down from the mountain specially for him?”
Qiu Xinran said resentfully, “If you go to Chang’an’s streets now and randomly ask people who recently returned to the capital, nine out of ten will say it’s him, and the one who stays silent is most likely mute.”
Though Yuan Zhou inwardly agreed with this somewhat, he still didn’t forget to earnestly advise, “Since you also know his prestige is at its peak now, why not avoid him if you can’t—why go rushing to provoke him?”
Qiu Xinran felt deeply wronged and couldn’t help exclaiming, “How would I have such audacity? I wish I could stay far away from him!”
In the waterside pavilion, the woman’s hand shook upon hearing these words, nearly spilling tea outside the cup. She carefully raised her head to glance at the expression of the person opposite. Seeing a cold smile appear at the corners of his lips as he pondered something, she didn’t dare look further and returned her gaze to the teapot in her hands.
Just then, a knock came from outside—it was a servant delivering dinner. Lan Hui quickly rose. “The Marquis didn’t have much this afternoon. I specially instructed the servants to prepare some dinner—will you take some here?”
Xia Xiuyan nodded in agreement, and the servants came in to help set out the dishes.
The Marquis of Dingbei was a distinguished guest at Fangchi Garden. The garden’s steward didn’t dare be negligent—even for something like delivering food, he personally led people over. Xia Xiuyan sat at the table watching them bustle about, then suddenly asked, “Who are the people sitting in the pavilion outside?”
Though the steward didn’t know why he suddenly asked this, he still answered truthfully, “They’re guests here to see Lady Mei Que. Although they had no introduction, they said their companion was also a nobleman from court, so the garden planned to send someone to first ask Lady Mei Que’s opinion.”
Xia Xiuyan glanced outside and said casually, “They said they’re from the court?”
The steward caught the underlying meaning in these words and hesitated. “Does the Marquis mean…?”
Xia Xiuyan said indifferently, “Perhaps my memory is poor, but I don’t recall such a person at court.”
The steward was startled and his face darkened. “I didn’t expect someone would dare impersonate a court official just to see Lady Mei Que! Thank you for the Marquis’s reminder, or we would have fallen for this fraud’s trick!” After saying this, he clasped his hands to Xia Xiuyan, then beckoned a nearby servant over and whispered a few words in his ear. The servant acknowledged the order and quickly hurried out of the room.
Lan Hui took all of this in from the side. With mixed feelings, she watched the person opposite pick up the freshly brewed tea from the table, lower his head, and take a sip, but ultimately didn’t dare speak up.
When Qiu Xinran and Yuan Zhou were politely escorted out of Fangchi Garden, they were still rather baffled. The servant who returned suddenly changed his tune, saying Lady Mei Que had a distinguished guest who’d reserved the venue for the day and would receive no others. But Qiu Xinran noticed his tone carried slight contempt, completely different from when they first arrived—no matter how she thought about it, something odd must have happened midway. Yuan Zhou, hearing the news, was actually quite pleased, with an air of having preserved his chastity.
Originally it wasn’t absolutely necessary to see Mei Que today, but by the second day, Qiu Xinran realized a problem—no one could accompany her to Fangchi Garden again.
Yuan Zhou refused to go with her again. After thinking it over, Qiu Xinran sadly discovered that in her three years residing in the capital, she’d not only gained a reputation as a heretical Daoist spreading bewitching words, but hadn’t profited from it at all—now she didn’t even have someone who could take her into a music hall to listen to songs.
Zhou Xianyi somehow heard about this matter and specially came to find her, showing great interest in it.
Qiu Xinran took the opportunity to lobby him, to no avail.
Zhou Xianyi had married earlier in the year. His wife was the eldest daughter of the Langya Wang family, a suitable match for him. It was said this Lady Wang managed the household well and was a woman with strong opinions. Their temperaments complemented each other. After marriage their affection was harmonious—they were still newlyweds in the honeymoon period, so naturally he wouldn’t accompany her to music halls and wine shops.
The two sat in the private room on the second floor of the He Family Eatery. Zhou Xianyi heaved a long sigh. “Sometimes I envy you unmarried people—you don’t have so many concerns.”
Qiu Xinran sneered at this behavior that subtly contained boasting. Then she heard him say, “I heard the Marquis of Dingbei has also been a frequent visitor to Fangchi Garden recently, spending lavishly to reserve Lady Lan Hui’s venue, staying overnight at Mianxia Courtyard every night. This has led quite a few people at court to also follow to Fangchi Garden, probably wanting to take the opportunity to curry favor with him.”
Qiu Xinran didn’t know this news and couldn’t help asking strangely, “Really? How have I never run into him?”
Zhou Xianyi gave a light snort. “If you could encounter him so easily, wouldn’t everyone who spent big money to go to Fangchi Garden be able to drink and chat merrily with the Marquis of Dingbei?”
“…” Qiu Xinran was indignant and asked again, “He spends all day lingering in music halls—does the court really ignore it and let him be?”
“The Marquis of Dingbei just returned to the capital and doesn’t have a place to stay yet. Lodging outside is understandable.”
“What do you mean he doesn’t have a place to stay?” Speaking of this, Qiu Xinran recalled something and couldn’t help wondering, “Last time when His Majesty summoned me to the palace, I thought it strange—why would the Marquis of Dingbei returning to the capital need to find another residence? Wouldn’t it be perfect to directly convert the former Princess’s residence into the Marquis of Dingbei’s residence?”
As soon as she finished speaking, she saw Zhou Xianyi looking at her with surprise. “You don’t know?”
“Know what?”
Zhou Xianyi sighed. “The Princess’s residence is long gone.”
“What do you mean… gone?”
“Seven years ago, a fire broke out at the Princess’s residence in the middle of the night. The entire estate burned down.”
Qiu Xinran frowned. “How could a fire break out for no reason?” The Princess’s residence was such a large estate—when Xia Xiuyan was there, more than half the rooms were already vacant. After Xia Xiuyan left, most of the servants were dismissed, leaving only a few old servants like Aunt Zhang and Uncle Liu. They were most meticulous in their work—how could they let a fire burn the entire Princess’s residence to the ground?
“It should have been deliberate arson. It started from the storage room in the back of the residence. I heard the fire wasn’t large at first, but there weren’t enough people in the residence. The servants could only go find nearby common people to help in the middle of the night, but at that time the Xia family’s reputation in the capital was like a rat crossing the street…” Zhou Xianyi recalled the events of that time, his heart unavoidably feeling some sympathy. He sighed before continuing, “In any case, when dawn was breaking, the authorities finally sent people to help extinguish the fire, but by then the entire Princess’s residence was basically burned clean.”
Qiu Xinran pinched her fingers. The room fell silent for a moment. Seeing this, Zhou Xianyi tried to change to a more relaxed tone to console her. “But fortunately no one in the residence was seriously hurt, and soon after came the great victory at Luzhou. Look now at how many people came outside the city to welcome the Marquis of Dingbei when he returned to the capital.”
“That’s right,” the purple-robed female Daoist sitting by the window smiled with effort, her expression carrying some sighs. After a long while, she said softly, “He deserves all of this.”