After more than a decade together, husband and wife had long since come to know each other thoroughly.

The moment Xu Lingning’s anger faltered, Third Mistress sensed it at once.

Whatever small measure of guilt and fear she had felt a moment ago vanished instantly.

She threw herself forward. “You struck me — you struck me! I bore you children, I toiled and managed this household for you, and you dare strike me!” Even so, her hands did not dare fall on Xu Lingning’s face for fear of leaving visible marks, and so she seized him by the shoulders instead.

A scorching pain shot through him, which jolted Xu Lingning back to his senses.

He grabbed Third Mistress by the wrist and dropped his voice low: “Enough. Do you want everyone to know?”

“Doesn’t everyone know already?” Third Mistress’s eyes grew wet and tears fell. “What is there left to be afraid of!”

“You know full well what you did is a disgrace!” Xu Lingning, staring at his dishevelled wife, grabbed her arm and made to pull her toward the door. “Go and tidy yourself up. We are going before Mother to confess.”

Qiuling, standing watch beneath the window, was so startled by what she heard that she quickly gestured to the maidservants and matrons standing far off in the covered walkway.

At the sight of her signal, the maidservants and matrons immediately withdrew on silent feet.

Qiuling thought for a moment, then went and closed the decorative gate before turning to face the maidservants and matrons still standing in the courtyard. “Everyone go back to your rooms and close your doors tight. If I find anyone peeping, I will report it to the mistress at once and have it dealt with.” Her voice was unusually stern.

The maidservants and matrons exchanged glances, answered in unison, and each returned to their rooms and shut the doors.

Qiuling shook her head quietly and took up her watch at the entrance to the main room.

Inside, Third Mistress’s heart went cold at Xu Lingning’s words.

“A disgrace? What disgrace have I done? Everyone in this household has their own calculations. I have neither stolen nor seized anything by force — what disgrace is that? And what about Second Branch and Fifth Branch? Openly running shops on West Street and East Street — that is apparently perfectly proper, while what I do is a disgrace? You Xu family members simply look down on my origins — the moment something goes wrong, you use me as a stepping stone!” She grew more agitated as she spoke. “Go before Mother to confront it, shall we? Let us see which part of what I did was disgraceful! Those displaced people just needed something to eat — what difference is there between six-month-old grain and mouldy rice to them? And we were not the only household doing it. You think Marquis Weibeii’s household is so clean? I did all this to save money for the Xu family — what disgrace is there in that?”

“Stop making excuses!” Xu Lingning’s face turned iron grey with fury. “Can our family be compared to those others? We are relatives of the imperial family — if this were discovered, it could not be smoothed over. We could even be stripped of titles and rank…”

“Imperial family connections! Imperial family connections! You never think of anything beyond ‘imperial family connections.'” The resentment that had long been buried deep within Third Mistress could no longer be suppressed. “When things go well, it has nothing to do with us — when things go wrong, we bear it together. Why should that be so? I want to divide the household. You are a son born of a concubine — by rights we ought to have separated long ago. Why must we play the dutiful supporting role and add to other people’s glory?” She wiped the corners of her eyes and began to weep quietly. “Have these years been easy for me? Father is a son born of a concubine — Grandfather wanted to keep face and refused to divide the household, yet he only gave twenty taels of silver a year in allowance. With the household’s high standards, the coming and going of social obligations, the monthly sum was never enough. When I married, my mother emptied the family’s coffers to make a good show for me. The day I returned home for my first married visit, the jewellery my mother wore was all borrowed from Fifth Aunt… Coming into this family, I could not and dared not compete with Second Sister-in-law, I could not compete with First Mistress, I had no standing to compete over Danyang — must I not even be permitted to speak my mind freely before a mere Eleventh Young Mistress? How am I worse than any of them? In what way do I fall short? What Second Sister-in-law could do, what First Mistress could do — have I not done it just as well?”

Third Mistress’s words cut straight to Xu Lingning’s own wound.

He was a son born of a concubine. Though the Grand Matriarch had treated him well enough, on hot days when a bowl of iced plum water was brought out, those matrons would always serve Xu Lingyi and Xu Lingkuan first. He had always wanted to establish a separate household. He had never let his concubines bear children — precisely because he did not want his children to endure the same humiliation. When the Xu family had fallen on hard times, he had deliberately held back the silver that had been divided to him, hoping the Grand Matriarch would send him away. Yet seeing that always sharp and capable woman lying weakly in bed, and hearing Xu Lingyi call him “Third Brother,” he had changed his mind. His wife — although brash and bold, even reckless and overbearing — had always been gentle and devoted toward him, and unfailingly attentive and caring toward the children. She had only come to this because her father was a son of a concubine who lacked the means to establish his own household, and she had spent her whole life in the Gan family watching others with unequal eyes, longing to have her own establishment and live a few days without having to tread carefully around anyone.

When all was said and done, it was he who had failed her.

Xu Lingning thought of all this, and grew ever more dejected. “I know I have failed you. But you should not have done something like this to shame the Xu family!”  His voice was laced with helplessness and despair.

Third Mistress saw her husband’s spineless, defeated look, and the fury that had been flaring so high burned even hotter.

“And everything I have done — was it for myself? The year my younger brother married, I gave no more than twenty taels from my own savings on top of the Xu family’s ceremonial gift. Treated with indifference by both my own family and my husband’s family as I am — what was all of it for? Was it not for you, Third Master Xu Lingning? For Qin Ge’er and Jian Ge’er!” Her voice climbed louder and louder. “Do you know how much a house in Baoda Ward costs? Do you know how much a house in Huanghua Ward costs? Do you know how much a house in Xianyi Ward costs? You had best not forget — you have two sons! Would you really have them living at the foot of Fallen Leaf Mountain? You are always crying out that children will make their own fortune — that they should study well, pass the imperial examinations, earn their own titles, not only asking nothing of the family but turning around to be of use to it, letting everyone know what fine sons you have raised. But do you think passing the examinations is so easy? Look at my father — he sat for the examinations for more than twenty years and is still only a Recommended Man. And then look at yourself — why did you stop sitting for them? Was it not because Father said our kind of family had no need? It suits them well enough. But it is not what we have! As for passing the examinations by our own efforts — the costs of studying, of hiring a good teacher, the cost of sitting the examinations — who bears all that?” She thought of these things and her grievance seeped up from the very depths of her heart, and she began to speak with bitter sarcasm. “Though I suppose I have only myself to blame. Whose fault is it that my father was an impoverished Recommended Man who failed the examinations? Whose fault is it that I had none of Danyang’s dowry? Whose fault is it that I have no private income to quietly spend on keeping your favourite entertainers?”

Before her words had even finished, Xu Lingning leapt to his feet. “Say what you like about yourself, but leave other people out of it!” His voice was sharp and cold.

For a moment, Third Mistress thought it was Xu Lingyi speaking.

She startled, made a cold sound of acknowledgment, and ultimately did not pursue the remark.

“What do we do now?” Xu Lingning slumped back wearily into the armchair. “Fourth Brother has given me until noon tomorrow to make everything clear and give him an account.”

Third Mistress thought of how her husband had not returned the previous night — she had assumed he had been dragged off by the overseers arriving to submit their year-end accounts for a night out at some entertainment house. It had not occurred to her that he had actually been going over the accounts. Now she felt the gravity of the situation, and she said in agitation, “Doesn’t he care most about keeping up appearances? How could he…”

So that is why you were so reckless.

A weary look crept across Xu Lingning’s brow.

Third Mistress stood there, her complexion shifting between pallor and flush.

After a long pause, she steeled herself. “Let us go before the Grand Matriarch. What I have done, I will bear myself — I will drag no one else into it.” She added, “The money I saved is still in the accounts.” And again: “Was I not only trying to save some money?” There was one more thing she left unsaid.

She was, after all, the mother of Qin Ge’er and Jian Ge’er. The Grand Matriarch, if not for the monk’s sake then for the temple’s, would still give some face to those two brothers.

At worst, she would simply give up the position of running the household.

To say it aloud: a month ago, she might truly have been reluctant. Being greeted and seen off wherever she went, having people watch her every expression when she spoke — she would have been loath to give up such a position. But now it was different. Who could have known that the rice trade held so many intricacies, such great profit? No wonder her aunts-by-marriage had all thought of ways to run businesses. She herself now had to rely on the Marquis Yongping’s name, which made things quite inconvenient. If only…

Her mind began to turn swiftly.

Xu Lingning gave a long, hollow sigh. “There is nothing else to be done now.”

Then came a knock on the window frame: “Third Master, Third Mistress — the Marquis is here!”

It was Qiuling’s frantic voice.

The sudden news left both husband and wife looking at each other in panic.

Xu Lingning, being a man and having managed the Xu household’s affairs for several years and seen much of the world, regained his composure quickly. He said in a firm voice, “Please ask him in at once,” then turned to instruct Third Mistress, “Go and tidy yourself up quickly.”

Third Mistress gave a flustered sound of assent and hurried into the inner chamber — only to find it empty, and then she remembered that the maidservants and matrons had all withdrawn when they sensed the tension between husband and wife, and so she ran back out to call for Qiuling.

Qiuling had already opened the doors of the main hall and was directing maidservants to go and receive Xu Lingyi and to brew tea. Hearing Third Mistress call for her, she understood that Third Mistress needed to repin her hair and redo her makeup. She answered quickly, and personally brought along the attending maidservants with washing water into the inner chamber.

From a distance, Xu Lingyi saw that the doors of Third Branch’s compound were tightly shut. Thinking of his instruction to Xu Lingning to have the matter explained by noon the following day, he guessed the couple had surely quarrelled. He knocked at the gate and deliberately slowed his pace, giving Third Mistress time to withdraw.

What was there left to be said now, after all this.

Xu Lingning, seeing Xu Lingyi, gave a bitter smile despite himself.

“Fourth Brother, do sit down.”

But Xu Lingyi smiled. “Never mind sitting. Fan Weigang has returned and is hosting a theatre party. There doesn’t seem to be anything pressing with Third Brother. Why not come along?”

Xu Lingning was momentarily stunned.

“It has been a long time since just the two of us sat and talked together.” Xu Lingyi put it plainly. “Fan Weigang happens to be hosting — let us go and have a drink.”

Xu Lingning understood — Xu Lingyi had something to say to him privately.

But coming so urgently, and with such a flawless pretext… what exactly was he planning?

The thought flickered past, and he felt a wave of desolation.

Even if he were planning something, what could one do? The fault lay with oneself to begin with.

He rose and instructed the maidservant at his side: “I am going out with the Marquis for drinks. Tell the mistress.”

The maidservant acknowledged and went into the inner chamber. Xu Lingning took up the cloak nearby and said, “Let’s go.”

Xu Lingyi looked at his brother before him, whose hair was a little dishevelled, and thought of their childhood — of him leading Xu Lingyi through the back garden to catch crickets; thought of the bitter cold and heavy snow after their father died, the two of them standing together at the entrance of the Luo Family Lane, waiting for Elder Master Luo to come home from the office.

He called out softly, “Third Brother.” “Your hair is a little untidy — let the maidservants fix it for you.”

Xu Lingning touched his temple. For a long moment he said nothing, yet his eyes glistened with a faint brightness.

He thought of the year their father died — the two of them standing together at the entrance of Luo Family Lane, waiting for Elder Master Luo to return from the office. This younger brother, who had not yet come into the Marquis Yongping title, stood there in silence as Xu Lingning hopped from foot to foot in the cold, and said to him: “Third Brother, don’t worry. I will make you hold your head high. Make people look at you and know only to smile — only dare to smile…”

What had he been thinking then? What had he said?

He had not believed it.

Yet he hadn’t wanted to brush the words aside and dampen his brother’s resolve. So he had nodded with a genuine expression: “All right. I’ll be counting on my Fourth Brother to give me that glory. The day that comes, we brothers will walk straight and tall through Yanjing.”

Those days — when had they vanished?

—