Black tiles stretched across the sky in endless rows.

A wind beast crouched at the corner of the eaves, its claws gripping a bluestone orb, its great mouth baring fangs.

In the afternoon, spring waters nourished summer branches. The ginkgo trees sprouted fresh green leaves, extending several branches beyond the wall in clusters like children’s arms, delighting in the breeze.

The maid guarding the courtyard gate sat on a wooden stool leaning against a tree, half-dreaming, half-awake. An old copper hairpin held her hair in a bun, and as her drowsy head nodded bit by bit, it gleamed faintly in the sunlight.

Apart from the chirping of sparrows, there were no human voices.

Clang—clang—the copper ring on the door shook violently.

The birds scattered in alarm. The maid’s eyes immediately flew wide open.

“Who is it, picking such a fine time to arrive? Don’t you know the young miss is taking her afternoon nap?” She complained about the disturbance, but didn’t dare speak too loudly, in case it was some master.

Clang clang—now it grew urgent.

The maid had barely moved to unlatch the door when the force from outside pushed her back several steps.

As the saying goes, what kind of master you have determines what kind of servant you have.

Once she saw who it was, the maid actually dared to speak up: “Nanny An, what’s the rush? Are you being chased by dogs?”

The old woman spat, though she wasn’t truly angry, smiling until her face was full of wrinkles. “No dog chasing me, but I’ve been pecked by magpies. Lu Ju, is the young miss in? Go announce me inside.”

Seeing that the most capable stewardess from the mistress’s side had actually tolerated her retort this time, Lu Ju knew there must be good news. However, when good news from the front courtyard reached this particular courtyard, it might not necessarily be good news after all.

“Nanny An, catch your breath.” With a turn of her body, she poured a cup of tea from the low table. “Brewed just a moment ago, still warm. The weather’s neither cool nor hot—it’ll be refreshing to drink. You know very well that the young miss has been tired lately and rests for half a shichen after noon. She’s sleeping right now. Why don’t you drink slowly while we chat, and the moment there’s movement from inside, I’ll announce you immediately?”

“Aiya, is this something that can wait? The other courtyards are all overjoyed, with maids attending to the young misses, their feet barely touching the ground. Yet you’re so leisurely here. Lu Ju, quickly go check for me—perhaps the young miss has already woken.”

Nanny An smiled as she spoke, drinking her tea without spilling a drop.

Lu Ju was a second-class maid, while Nanny An was a first-class senior servant. Yet today this old woman was being extraordinarily polite.

The maid was a clever one. Though ordinarily they looked at each other with mutual disdain, one doesn’t strike a smiling face. She smiled back: “Please have a seat, Nanny. I’ll go ask.”

“Good girl, much obliged. I’ll wait here for the young miss to summon me.” Nanny An smiled until her face went stiff.

Her hibiscus-patterned gauze skirt swaying, Lu Ju walked toward the main house.

Nanny An held her tea saucer in one hand and the lid in the other. She stopped drinking, staring toward the main house, her old face revealing disdainful contempt. “The master doesn’t act like a master, the maid doesn’t act like a maid.”

Lu Ju lifted the bamboo curtain and entered the room.

In the plum-bone leaf bamboo half-wall square-eyed copper brazier, a faint wisp of pale smoke rose straight up, burning peony and lily incense—not cold but spring-warm, not strong but fresh and sweet.

Lu Ju continued toward the eastern inner chamber, gently lifting the curtain and only poking her head in, quietly looking. Before the hundred-birds pear wood bed hung a layer of cloud-stream gauze, vaguely revealing a slender figure lying turned inward.

So she hadn’t woken yet.

The young miss’s temperament was no soft clay.

Lu Ju was in a difficult position. She couldn’t offend those in the front courtyard, but even less could she offend the one inside. She stood there holding the curtain, unable to advance or retreat.

Suddenly, someone patted her back—not hard, but startling enough. When she turned around, her movement was too large, nearly causing the bamboo curtain to bang against the door.

A hand as white and smooth as a freshly peeled bamboo shoot caught the swaying curtain and carefully secured it to the doorframe.

“Mo Zi.” Lu Ju pressed her hand to her chest. “You scared the soul right out of me.”

A pair of eyes clear as autumn-washed water caught the fine daylight from outside, rippling with scattered leaf shadows. Her voice was steady and traceless, slightly deep, like a drop of emerald green in clear water, making the listener unable to take it lightly.

“Sneaking about like that—if you wake the young miss, you’ll get your own beating. Don’t drag me into it.”

Another pale hand steadily held a peach wood tray bearing a white porcelain teapot and teacup with blue smoke patterns. On her wrist, more delicate than white porcelain, she wore not a single bracelet. She wore a narrow-sleeved cloud-colored spring pomegranate skirt with a willow-green leaf-patterned vest, a new tea-green silver sash at her waist, not even wearing a sachet or purse, her hair simply tied with ribbon.

Such a plainly dressed person—when she first began serving the young miss, following behind like a gray, hazy shadow, it took Lu Ju half a ten-day period to gradually notice her.

“Mo Zi, seeing you bring tea, is the young miss about to wake?” The first thing the young miss did upon waking was always to drink a cup of warm tea.

“In about two ke. Yesterday the young miss woke early. I worried that in case she woke early again today, if the tea came late there would be complaints, so I prepared it in advance.” Mo Zi glanced at the sunlight streaming through the window. “You’re on gate duty today—what are you doing running into the house?”

“It should be a junior maid’s job, yet in our young miss’s courtyard, why is there no one assigned? They’re clearly bullying us. But the young miss doesn’t fuss, so we have to take turns watching the gate. Under the blazing sun, my throat’s smoking dry. It’s not that I’m afraid of the sun—after all, I’ve accompanied the young miss outside and suffered hardships there. I just hate that when we return home, we still have to do the junior maids’ work, while those in the front courtyard squeeze us out both openly and secretly…”

Mo Zi listened to the complaints without interrupting, setting down the peach wood tray and taking out the plum blossom snow-silk pot basket, wrapping the teapot snugly to keep the tea from losing its heat.

By the time Lu Ju finished speaking, Mo Zi had also finished her tasks.

“Nanny An certainly can sit still.” Mo Zi either didn’t speak at all, or when she did, struck like thunder for Lu Ju.

“Look at me, talking with you and forgetting completely. That Nanny An knows perfectly well the young miss always takes a short rest when there’s nothing to do in the afternoon. She deliberately picked this time to come, insisting on seeing the young miss in person, making me come in to check. What do you think we should do?” Though Mo Zi had only been by the young miss’s side for just over half a year, she had more say than Lu Ju, who had served since childhood.

“What exactly did Nanny An say to you just now?” Mo Zi wanted more detailed information.

Lu Ju furrowed her brow and tilted her head, thinking. “She knocked on the door urgently. I asked if she was being chased by dogs, but she said something about magpies.”

Mo Zi’s dark eyes curved like moons, a trace of surprise in them. “Magpies?”

“Exactly! She also said it was something that couldn’t wait, that the other courtyards were all bustling around their young misses.” After recounting most of it, Lu Ju lowered her voice: “From what she said, it sounds like there really is happy news, but I’ve been thinking and thinking, and still can’t figure out what happy news there could be. You see, when the young miss returned home before the new year, the master took away the account books. The mistress was all pleasant on the surface, saying the young miss had worked too hard these years managing the family’s shops and traveling south and north, telling her to rest until after the Beginning of Summer. Our young miss rests on this end, and on that end the master hands the account books to Fourth Master and Fifth Master. What does that mean? It means all that hard work was for nothing!”

“Lu Ju, since the young miss has decided this, we just need to do our duty well.” Thinking of those account books piled high as small mountains, Mo Zi raised her dark brows, in quite good spirits.

Lu Ju was the most straightforward one in this courtyard, pouting: “I feel it’s unfair to our young miss. Working hard all these years, making wedding clothes for others.”

“You can say such things here with us, but if you dare gossip outside this courtyard, just wait for the young miss to punish you by making you kneel on the stone slabs.” Mo Zi admonished.

Lu Ju was about to say “of course,” when she heard a delicate, lazy voice from the sleeping chamber.

“Who’s outside?”

“Mo Zi.”

Her slightly deep voice lifted lightly.

Two voices, like two golden pearls colliding, competing in brilliance.