On a bitterly cold winter’s day, Chu Linlang had been curled up inside her carriage for a full hour, her legs grown quite stiff.

Before leaving the house, her maid Xia He had thoughtfully tucked two hand warmers into her mistress’s pockets and draped a small blanket over her lap. Yet sitting so long had left her blood sluggish, her legs tingling with numbness.

She let out a soft sigh, reached into her breast pocket, and pulled out a worn tortoise shell, shaking it gently. The sound of copper coins tumbling inside somehow settled her nerves.

Just as she tucked the shell away, held her breath, and furrowed her brow in an attempt to slowly straighten her legs, a maid outside lowered her voice and called out: “My lady, a carriage from the Zhang household is coming!”

Hearing this, Chu Linlang paid no mind to the pins and needles still stabbing through her legs. She grabbed the two packets of tea leaves beside her, gritted her teeth, pushed herself upright — not even waiting for the maid’s help — and leapt down from the carriage. Then she called out at full voice toward the slowly approaching vehicle: “Is that Lin Niangzi from the Zhang household?”

The driver, seeing someone block the way, reined in the horses. The curtain of the carriage parted slightly, and a woman of about forty peered out, studying the dainty young woman standing beside the road.

After the fresh snowfall, a young woman in a sea-red cloak stood smiling beside a mound of white, her fair cheeks rosy — she was like a slender winter plum branch in bloom, bright enough to dazzle the eye.

Chu Linlang relaxed her brows and wore a sweet smile, as though encountering a dear friend. She held up the packets of tea and said: “What a coincidence — I had only just stepped off the carriage to buy some tea, and when I looked up, I recognized your carriage.”

Lin Niangzi glanced down at Chu Linlang, then looked at the tea shop that had just opened its door beside them, and let out a cold laugh. “A coincidence indeed? I specifically told my driver to take the long way around your Zhou household’s gate today — and yet I still manage to run into you, the Prefectural Judge’s wife! Buying tea this early in the morning? The Prefectural Judge’s wife does have quite a fondness for it!”

Chu Linlang behaved as though she had not caught the mockery in those words at all. She walked through the crunching snow toward the carriage, extended her fair arm graciously, and offered Lin Niangzi one of the packets with warm eagerness: “I remember that you are especially fond of ripe Pu’er tea. As it happens, the Yunnan Pu’er I ordered three years ago has just arrived. This packet is for Lin Niangzi to taste.”

Lin Niangzi made no move to take it. The mockery on her face grew even thicker as she raised an eyebrow and said: “I wouldn’t dare accept — my husband is merely a lowly garrison inspector in Lianzhou. How could we compare to your husband, the mighty Prefectural Judge Zhou?”

Just two days prior, Lianzhou’s Prefectural Judge Zhou Sui’an and the garrison inspector Zhang Xian — the official responsible for overseeing the border troops — had come to blows at the prefect’s mansion.

Zhou Sui’an — that is, Chu Linlang’s husband — had gotten carried away with drink and, in front of a crowd of colleagues, slapped the man who was more than twenty years his senior, Zhang Xian, twice across the face.

The blows were not held back in the slightest. Zhang Xian collapsed and could not rise.

The onlookers had sucked in a collective breath of cold air, their opinion of the new Prefectural Judge thoroughly revised — this young judge must have been born in the year of the Tiger. And a freshly newborn one at that, rash and reckless in all his dealings!

Everyone in Lianzhou knew that the end of this month was when Garrison Inspector Zhang was due to travel to the capital for an imperial audience.

The position of garrison inspector, though it involved monitoring military discipline at the border and personally reporting frontier conditions to the Emperor, did not oversee the performance evaluations of civil officials. Yet there was nothing to stop the Emperor, while asking about border affairs, from also inquiring about the performance of local officials.

Zhang Xian, as garrison inspector, was like the Kitchen God heading back to the Heavenly Court to file his report. Every single person in Lianzhou, high and low, had been treating Inspector Zhang with the utmost reverence. Even the Prefect himself had personally hosted a banquet with fine wine and delicacies in his honor.

And yet, of all people, it was the newly appointed Prefectural Judge who had arrived only months ago and was still at odds with his subordinates, nursing a belly full of pent-up frustration. He had been investigating a case involving granary clerks reselling stockpiled grain, and the trail had led him straight to Zhang Xian’s brother-in-law. The two had been at loggerheads for some time, and in the heat of drunken words, propriety collapsed, and they came to blows.

Anyone with sense could see that those two slaps had cost Zhou Sui’an every last bit of his promising career.

The corruption case in Lianzhou ran deep and wide. Even the Prefect had played it safe and kept his distance. But Zhou Sui’an, oblivious to the stench, had plunged headfirst into a cesspit deep enough to drown in. Garrison Inspector Zhang, though stationed at the frontier, had deep-rooted connections in the capital and had earned the Emperor’s trust — sent to this border town as the Emperor’s eyes and ears.

What connections did Zhou Sui’an have? Nothing more than blind luck, a poor scholar who had clawed his way up through years of hard study. This young official with no backing had barely found his footing in Lianzhou.

Now all of Lianzhou was waiting for Zhang Xian to make his way to the capital, and then to pull the rug out from under Zhou Sui’an — that reckless young fool who didn’t know his own weight.

It was clear that the Zhou family had not gone entirely senseless; they just hadn’t expected it to be Zhou Sui’an’s wife, Chu Linlang, who would rush out to take the lead in cleaning up her husband’s mess.

Lin Niangzi naturally knew all about this dispute. She looked at Chu Linlang with undisguised contempt — did her husband’s face belong to a Zhou family servant’s backside, for the Zhous to slap around at will? And now this Chu woman had the nerve to show up with a packet of tea to curry favor — truly the petty ways of someone with no breeding!

The garrison inspector’s wife now regarded the Zhou household the way one regards vermin. So when Chu Linlang greeted her with a smiling face, she dropped the curtain with disdain: “Our Zhang family can still afford our own tea. Don’t trouble yourself, Chu Niangzi. Driver — why have we stopped? Drive on!”

Yet just as the hooves stirred to move, the curtain swayed, and that Chu woman, throwing all decorum aside, hoisted her skirts and leapt up — climbing straight into the carriage.

After a brief flurry of unfamiliar women exchanging pleasantries like long-lost sisters, Chu Linlang watched Lin Niangzi’s carriage drive away, then finally let the smile drop from her face and climbed back into her own carriage.

Xia He knew better than anyone what her mistress had just done. Once the carriage had rolled on a little way, she said with lingering fright: “My lady… impersonating an imperial seal is no minor offense…”

Before Lin Niangzi could cry for someone to drag Chu Linlang out of the carriage, Chu Linlang had already seized Lin Niangzi’s wrist in a firm grip.

After some time, when Chu Linlang stepped down from the carriage, Lin Niangzi took her hand with a smile, saw her off herself with every appearance of warm sisterly affection — a picture of perfect harmony.

Lin Niangzi had not been raised on fear. If Zhou Sui’an truly had evidence against her family, he would have moved against them long ago — not swallowed his rage and picked a drunken brawl instead. This Chu woman was just using a glib tongue to come and bluff her. Wasn’t she?

She watched as Chu Niangzi sighed and said: “I cannot give this to you just yet — I borrowed it without permission, and must return it… You know how my husband is, fresh to office and burning with ambition, wanting to prove himself to his colleagues. He was determined to investigate the old case of embezzled grain supplies, and when the trail led to your brother, he naturally needed to inform Inspector Zhang. But Inspector Zhang had no knowledge of it, assumed he was making false accusations out of spite, and the two fell into conflict from there. What he didn’t know was that my husband deeply respects Inspector Zhang and, seeing that your brother had been deceived by others and dragged into the mess unwillingly, found himself in an impossible position. He wanted to ask the Inspector to overlook it, to exercise discretion — but that went against his own principles, and so his heart was troubled. His behavior at the drinking party the other day was a result of all that weight on his mind.”

Looking at Chu Niangzi’s earnest, guileless expression, Lin Niangzi couldn’t help but wonder — was it truly possible that this woman had gone behind her husband’s back and taken a confidential document to come and appease her on her own initiative?

Chu Linlang sneezed, sniffled, and said with a cold smile: “I haven’t used it to slander anyone — what offense is there? Besides, someone would have to file a complaint. Who’s going to do that? Zhang Xian himself? Or Lin Niangzi? You heard it all yourself, didn’t you? Back when the granary caught fire and several account books were lost — Lin Niangzi’s brother was frantic, investigated for an entire month, and only settled down when he confirmed that those books had truly been destroyed in the blaze. This account record of mine is a forgery, but it is exactly the kind of thing that haunts the Lin family. So do you think Zhang Xian would dare to publicly confront my husband and demand to verify whether the records are genuine?”

Chu Linlang lowered her voice, her expression grave: “You may be like an older sister to him, but even you don’t know what kind of trouble your brother Lin Yuli might blunder into. In his earlier years overseeing grain and provisions, he was too lenient by nature, and let the people under him grow bold. The amount they skimmed in private was no trifle. Now that the Emperor is determined to reform the system, if anyone looks closely — how could your brother possibly escape unscathed?”

For just a moment, Lin Niangzi had the unsettling feeling that this normally dainty, pampered woman’s eyes held something raw and fierce — like a man’s recklessness. It was strangely frightening. She instinctively reached up to cover her own face.

Petty pilfering like this, in ordinary times, would not have amounted to much. There were always ways to smooth things over — as Chu Niangzi said, pin the blame on the subordinates and be done with it. But as luck would have it, a superior inspector had arrived on an imperial audit mission, and if this came to light at such a moment, it would be nothing but a stinking disaster.

Chu Linlang said straightforwardly: “We are practically family — no need for formalities, Elder Sister. Only I do ask that you put in a good word with Inspector Zhang on our behalf. After all, they are colleagues in the same prefecture. Whatever has been lacking in our conduct, please ask the Inspector and yourself to be patient with us.”

Lin Niangzi was not entirely unaware of what her scoundrel brother had been up to. Just the sight of that official seal printed boldly on the page, together with last year’s date, made her heart clench. She was about to examine it more carefully when Chu Linlang calmly plucked the paper away and tucked it back into her sleeve.

Chu Linlang took Lin Niangzi’s hand in return, her expression sincere: “What grievance is there to speak of? Men carry the weight of family and country in their chests — we women only seek harmony in our neighborhoods. As wives and family, it falls to us to mediate, not to pour oil on the fire. You say the account is forged — very well! Then I will find a way to make it so… but please, Lin Niangzi, don’t let Inspector Zhang make a fuss about this just yet. Give me some time to think of something…”

The sheet of paper that her mistress had shown Lin Niangzi was nothing remotely like a confidential document from Prefectural Judge Zhou’s desk. The official seal on it had clearly been carved from a white radish by some craftsman from out of town, done at Chu Linlang’s instruction through Xia He.

If that were the case, it truly would not do to cross someone named Zhou. Better not to let a mad dog bite, lest both sides come away bleeding.

But Chu Niangzi made no move to strike. Instead, she took Lin Niangzi’s hand, drew deliberately close, leaned in by her ear, and said in a low voice: “Men quarrel — let them quarrel all they like. Why should that touch the sisterhood between us women at home? I have always regarded you as my own elder sister. And your brother is as good as my own — how could I let a moment of anger ruin his future…”

At that thought, Lin Niangzi gave a cold laugh and was about to call for someone to show the uninvited guest the door — when Chu Linlang, with unhurried composure, drew a sheet of paper from her pocket and held it out before Lin Niangzi: “This is an account record that someone sent anonymously to my husband’s desk. I happened to see it, and secretly brought one page for you to look over. That is your brother’s official seal on it, isn’t it? If anything goes wrong, wouldn’t Lin Yuli be held responsible?”

Chu Niangzi narrowed her eyes slightly, shook off the other woman’s grip with force, and lowered her voice in equal measure: “What exactly do you mean by this?”

Lin Niangzi jerked back in alarm. Perhaps it was because this dainty, pampered Chu woman came from humble origins — she was always the most careful about propriety among the wives of officials, and no one had ever seen her move like this before, all quick and scrambling like a monkey.

Zhang Xian’s driver and servants hadn’t seen it coming at all. They watched the dainty beauty slip into the carriage like a cat through a crack, and couldn’t collect their wits fast enough.

This woman — could she possibly be like her husband, delivering slaps to people’s faces at the first disagreement?

The Emperor’s resolve to root out corruption this time was firm indeed. The imperial inspector in the neighboring counties had been cutting through offenders like a blade gone wild — implicated officials didn’t even need to be tried, and the officials executed weren’t even required to be reported upward.

When this point crossed her mind, Lin Niangzi’s face — frozen stiff as it was in the dead of winter — suddenly thawed. She seized Chu Linlang’s hand: “Little Sister, what can your Elder Sister even say. Hmph — that husband of mine and his pig-headed temper! You and your husband have suffered for it. But about these account records… could they not be forgeries, made by someone with ill intent…”

By then Lin Niangzi’s mind had already turned eight hundred somersaults. The year before, she had heard her brother mention that some account books had gone missing — supposedly burned up in a fire. But could something have gone wrong along the way? If what Chu Linlang said was true, then Zhou Sui’an had her brother’s vulnerabilities squarely in his hands.

Lin Niangzi’s expression shifted to something like shock. She clearly had not expected this Chu Linlang to be both so easy to talk to and so bold in her decisions. She wasn’t sure if it was the woman’s reckless bravado that had moved her, but Lin Niangzi found herself momentarily at a loss for words.

Lin Niangzi reached out warmly and adjusted Chu Linlang’s cloak, then replied: “They are all brothers in the same family. Squabbling behind closed doors happens all the time — but we mustn’t let it get out and give outsiders something to laugh about.”

—