The news of the Wang family of Duke Maoguo’s household and Master Qian’s coming to seek a match spread like it had grown wings, sweeping quickly through the entire residence.

Shiyiniang saw Ziwei and Ziyuan going in and out — chatting with Shanhu one moment, bringing food to Nanny Hang the next — all very animated. Shiniang’s room, on the other hand, had its door firmly shut, with her two maids Jin Lian and Yin Ping nowhere to be seen.

She shook her head slightly and asked Hupo: “Did Master Luo really say that?”

Hupo nodded: “He truly did. He said Master Qian is too quick and clever — he’s probably all show with nothing to back it up. It won’t go smoothly for him in his official career.”

“And what did Madam say?” The usually quiet Dongqing could not help but ask.

Hupo’s expression turned a little awkward.

There was no need to ask — Master Luo must have just earned himself a sharp scolding.

“Do you know who has been promised to whom?” Shiyiniang pondered.

Hupo shook her head: “Madam said they must check the horoscopes first. More to be said after they match.”

Shiyiniang gazed toward the west wing room and fell into silent thought.

So Madam was just going to let Shiniang go like that…

After lunch, Shanhu came over to ask Shiyiniang to help her knot two square-diamond tassels for her.

“As though our young miss needs to be troubled with this.” Having grown friendly with Shanhu, Binju was quick to speak up: “I’ll knot them for you.” She was already reaching out to take the silk thread from Shanhu’s hands.

Shanhu stepped back to avoid her, and laughed: “Anyone can knot a square-diamond tassel — but to do it really well, you absolutely need Eleventh Young Miss to do it.”

“Whom are you making it for? You need to come and ask our young miss for it.” Binju was only teasing her, and even as she said it, she was pulling up a stool for Shanhu to sit on.

Shanhu settled herself beside Shiyiniang’s kang and said with a smile: “I’m making it for Madam’s needlework piece.”

“Isn’t that just using our young miss to earn favor for yourself!”

The group laughed and jested for a while, and Shiyiniang settled cross-legged on the kang to knot the tassels for Shanhu.

Shanhu kept Shiyiniang company with conversation.

“I heard that First and Second Yiniang have also disappeared!” She suddenly said in a low voice.

Hupo and the others immediately realized what Shanhu had come for. Dongqing said at once: “I’ll take these few potted crabapple blossoms outside for some sun. Kept indoors every day, they’re bound to start wilting.” Binju went along to help.

“How did this news come out?” Shiyiniang’s hands never slowed, as she asked Shanhu quietly.

“Wu Xiaoquan came.” Shanhu said: “He’s in the outer quarters reporting to the Young Master. He should be on his way to the main hall to pay his respects to Madam shortly.”

Shiyiniang’s hands paused for just a moment: “Wu Xiaoquan came?”

“Yes!” Shanhu said softly: “That’s what Xingling from First Young Mistress’s side said. She says First and Second Yiniang had wanted to go to the temple fair, and Fourth Master agreed. Wu Xiaoquan said there was nothing he could do to stop them, so he had a carriage prepared and let them go. But then in the afternoon, Fourth Yiniang hanged herself. Fourth Master sent someone to fetch Tenth Miss to see Fourth Yiniang one last time, and it was only then that they realized Tenth Miss was also nowhere to be found. Everyone panicked and searched everywhere. Fourth Master even wanted to go to the magistrate’s office to report the matter. If Wu Xiaoquan hadn’t stepped in to hold him back, this would have become an even bigger incident. By the time the lamps were lit, the two Yiniang still hadn’t returned, so Fourth Master sent people to search for them… and Wu Xiaoquan rode through the night to get here.”

“Fourth Yiniang hanged herself!” Even Hupo, standing to one side, was stunned.

Shanhu gave a quiet sigh.

For a moment, everyone was overcome with the same heavy feeling.

In the silence, Shiyiniang said softly: “Tenth Sister… I wonder if she knows or not?”

The answer to that could only come from Shiniang herself.

Yet under these circumstances, who was in any position to ask such things!

After a long pause, Shiyiniang said: “Do you know what the Young Master has said?”

Shanhu shook her head: “I heard someone has been sent to find Master Luo.”

Her words had barely ended when Dongqing hurried in, lifting the door curtain: “Young Miss, Madam has sent someone to summon Tenth Miss.”

Shiyiniang and Shanhu exchanged a glance, both seeing the same worry reflected in the other’s eyes.

“Wait outside. When Tenth Miss returns, see how she looks.”

Shiyiniang told Dongqing.

Dongqing nodded and went — and came back quickly: “Nanny Xu has taken people to Tenth Miss’s quarters.”

“Everyone come inside quickly.” Shiyiniang’s color shifted.

Dongqing hurried to call Binju and Qiuju in.

Shanhu was growing uneasy as well: “I wonder what has happened? Tenth Miss has only just gone — why has Nanny Xu already taken people to her quarters?”

Shiyiniang thought of how Shiniang had helped her on account of Hupo’s connection, and had by any measure shown herself to be a person of feeling and loyalty. She said, with more directness than was her habit: “…Tenth Miss came to Yanjing — she had hired escorts from a courier agency. That kind of assignment — what’s known in the trade as a ‘living consignment’ — is the most expensive there is. Tenth Miss must have spent a great deal of money.”

Shanhu was sharp, and understood at once: “You mean the household is also missing money, so Nanny Xu has taken people to search Tenth Miss’s room? But Tenth Miss arrived with nothing…”

Shiyiniang said nothing.

In her mind she was thinking: gold and silver exchanged for banknotes, then rolled up and sewn into the lining of a garment, or hidden inside hollow hairpins and bracelets — how thoroughly that could conceal them.

The thought flashed past, and she recalled the solid gold pomegranate bracelet that Shiniang had been wearing on her wrist constantly these past few days…

She could only hope that Madam had not thought to look in that direction.

Then she began to worry about the two Yiniang.

Household registration was strictly managed throughout the dynasty. Even traveling mountain roads required a travel permit. Villages had clan halls — a stranger arriving suddenly would quickly be noticed, and if luck was against them, they might run into local ruffians and idlers who might quietly seize them and sell them to a trafficker. Fortunately, both Yiniang were older women — they were unlikely to be sold to a brothel. Cities had ward headmen responsible for assisting the magistrate’s office in managing order within the ward. Two women with no clear origin turning up suddenly — one could easily imagine what might befall them…

Unless… the two Yiniang, like Shiniang, had entrusted themselves to a courier agency as a “living consignment”!

She was startled by her own thought.

But upon reflection — it seemed entirely possible.

Yet if Shiniang had come to Yanjing, whom had the two Yiniang gone to seek?

Holding her breath in suspension, sounds came from the direction of Shiniang’s quarters.

Everyone hurried to hide behind the window lattice and peer out.

Nanny Xu’s face was a mask of dark iron. She and Nanny An and the others walked out of Shiniang’s quarters empty-handed, then made their way in haste to the main hall.

Everyone let out a breath of relief.

After another half stick of incense had burned, Shiniang returned.

Shiyiniang saw in one glance that the bracelet was still on her wrist.

—

While Shiyiniang was worrying over Shiniang, Fifth Miss was also sitting on the wide kang bed by the window — though her curtains were drawn tightly.

“…Are you quite certain of it?” Ziyuan studied Fifth Miss’s expression and asked Ziwei on her behalf: “Don’t lose the watermelon while scrambling for the sesame seeds!”

Ziwei gave repeated assurances: “Don’t worry — it can’t be wrong. Nanny Hang told me herself.”

Fifth Miss could not help but fall into a reflective expression.

Ziwei and Ziyuan exchanged a look.

“The Duke Maoguo’s household — is it really as Nanny Hang says, so run-down that they depend on the Jiang Family to get by?” Fifth Miss said softly after a long moment. This also touched on her own future.

“That’s what Nanny Hang said.” Ziwei quickly replied: “And because of that, Master Wang’s marriage has been put off all this time. His family wanted to find a match of equal standing, but families of equal standing looked down on the Wang household as nothing more than an empty shell. It was only at the beginning of this year that the family finally relaxed their conditions, saying they would look for a girl from an honest, respectable family. Though even then — from what I’ve heard — they’ve looked at quite a few families, and there are hints going around that they find the prospective brides too modest in background, and too light in dowry.”

Fifth Miss’s eyes lit up.

Ziyuan picked up the thread: “So if this match were made — the dowry would have to be substantial?”

Ziwei smiled: “That would seem to be the case! Otherwise, why has Madam been pulling Nanny Xu aside to go over the accounts every day these past several days?”

A dowry is the bride’s property. The husband has no right to touch it — and if the husband wishes to draw on it, he must have the wife’s agreement.

Fifth Miss thought of Madam.

Master Luo had so little backbone before her — when it came down to it, it was nothing more than a matter of money.

She could not help but murmur: “If they really are that short of money… that makes things easy!”

Ziwei and Ziyuan nodded vigorously.

“But that Master Qian…” Fifth Miss said, hesitantly and indirectly.

“Nanny Hang says Master Qian is exceptionally clever — he passed the prefectural examination for Cultivated Talent at fifteen. Sadly, his family circumstances were poor; he could never even scrape together the travel funds to sit the provincial examination at the prefectural seat, and only passed as a Recommended Man at twenty-two. With the financial support of a teacher from Jiangxi, he was able to come and study at the Imperial Academy. Three years ago he failed the special imperial examination, and he is preparing for this year’s metropolitan examination.”

Fifth Miss said nothing.

Ziwei hesitated and said: “Young Miss… with the Yongping Marquis’s household — should we not at least…”

Fifth Miss heard this and gave her a cold, sidelong look.

“Elder sister is mistaken.” Ziyuan quickly said: “Three years ago they were already saying the First Young Mistress was barely breathing — yet look at her now, she lives on perfectly well. Tenth Miss and Eleventh Young Miss can afford to wait — but our young miss cannot. Besides, who in their right mind would give up being a first wife to become a second wife? And look at the Xu household’s manner and standing — even if every last thing in our Luo household were staked as the young miss’s dowry, they wouldn’t even glance at it. Given all that, it is far better to marry into the Duke Maoguo household. It is equally a family of meritorious lineage!”

Ziwei, seeing that Fifth Miss had bowed her head to drink her tea and knew that Ziyuan had struck on what she was thinking, quickly nodded: “Elder sister is right. I was being muddleheaded.”

“Look at what elder sister is saying.” Ziyuan certainly wouldn’t drive Ziwei into a corner like that — sometimes she still needed Ziwei’s help: “If it weren’t for the fact that we can’t afford to wait, of course it would be wonderful to marry into the Yongping Marquis’s household. Not to mention anything else — at the very least, we’d get to drink the tea that Miss Qiao poured with her own hands at the elder-and-younger-sisters tea ceremony!” Then she laughed behind her hand: “Oh my — we can no longer call her Miss Qiao now. We should be calling her Concubine Qiao.”

A smile curved the corner of Fifth Miss’s lips — but it faded quickly.

“Elder Sister’s methods are truly formidable.” Her expression became somewhat grave: “This scheme will give people something to laugh about for sixty years. Concubine Qiao can forget about ever holding her head up again for the rest of her life.”

“Perhaps people will say it was the Marquis’s fault?” Ziyuan, watching Fifth Miss grow pleased, deliberately played the innocent to flatter her, as though she didn’t know the full story.

“What do you two know!” Fifth Miss promptly corrected them: “You weren’t there to hear what the Tang family’s daughter said at the banquet. If it weren’t for all those young ladies from ducal and marquis households present, this affair could have been hushed up. The trouble is that people had long been waiting to watch the spectacle. Without cutting the knot swiftly, once it spread, the Qiao Family would have had no face left at all.”

“But what on earth actually happened that day?” Ziyuan was genuinely puzzled.

Fifth Miss gave a cold smile: “Whatever happened — for a perfectly respectable young lady of good family to end up becoming someone’s concubine, it must be something that cannot bear the light of day!”