How could he have used such a despicable thing? Was this not the same as a shady inn drugging someone senseless — hardly the conduct of an honorable man?

Su Luoyun could not quite suppress her vexation. Though she said nothing aloud, her displeasure was plain enough in her eyes and brow.

Han Linfeng, however, seemed entirely untroubled. “We must appear before the Emperor today,” he said with easy composure. “If you sleep poorly, any lapse in court decorum would be a grave offense. That incense was no sleeping draught — merely something to calm the nerves and aid rest. It will not harm you.”

Su Luoyun swallowed her irritation and kept her voice as steady as she could manage. “Shizi is too considerate. I have always slept well on my own — there is no need to assist me with incense.”

Yet Han Linfeng only raised a brow at this. As he tied the broad training sash around his waist, he asked with unhurried deliberation: “If your sleep is so reliable, then why was it that a little music drifting from my courtyard used to rob you of your rest — to the point where you nearly tumbled in front of your own shop?”

Su Luoyun’s eyes slowly went wide.

She had, in fact, been kept awake by the noise of the Shizi manor’s banquets when she first moved to Sweetwater Lane.

She had even gone so far as to ask that cat-like helper Ah Rong to deliver an anonymous letter, using the anniversary of the late Emperor’s death to give the Shizi a fright. But this — how did he know about that?

Perhaps it was the sheer roundness of Su Luoyun’s stare that made Han Linfeng find his new bride entirely too endearing. In the end he could not resist — he reached out and gave her cheek a mischievous pinch, then strode out of the room with a peal of laughter.

She had no time to react to his impertinence. What struck her with sudden, astonished clarity was this: he had recognized her far earlier than she had ever imagined.

When her wits returned to her, she recalled how Han Linfeng had stood in the Princess’s manor and invited her — with every appearance of sincerity — to come to his home and listen to music. He had been toying with her all along, and had known it even then.

Su Luoyun rubbed her cheek where the man had pinched it, feeling deeply aggrieved. For the first time, it occurred to her that this marriage of convenience — forged entirely of calculated interests — seemed to have been seized by a runaway ox and was now careening wildly in a direction no one had planned.

When she had gathered herself, she calculated the hours and found there was still time to spare. The palace banquet would not begin until well into the evening.

At last the room was her own again. She had no desire to sleep, so she called out: “Xiangcao, come in and help me open the window. I need some air.”

Before long, Xiangcao came in — but she was not alone. Two maidservants from the Shizi manor entered with her.

These two had been assigned to the Shizi’s consort by the steward Geng: one was called Ji Qiu, the other Huai Xia. Behind them came three junior maids, each carrying something — a copper basin, towels and saponin pods, and freshly cut garden flowers for the hair.

Xiangcao saw the young lady leaning against the bedframe, cheeks flushed and unable to rise with any ease, staring blankly at nothing, her brow clouded with suppressed indignation — and on the basin stand, the wedding veil was stained with blood.

Xiangcao’s nostrils stung. She let out a broken sob and began to cry.

The poor young lady — so delicate — to have been subjected to the rakish Shizi’s advances through the entire night, until now she could not even collect herself, and looked so utterly spent…

Luoyun was still lost in thought, puzzling over how the Shizi could possibly have discovered she had sent that anonymous letter. It was only when she heard Xiangcao’s muffled weeping that she understood the misunderstanding that had arisen.

Luoyun pressed her fingers wearily to her temples. Wonderful. Yet another grudge laid at the Shizi’s door — on his behalf, no less.

There was nothing she could explain — that she and the Shizi were merely playing the parts of husband and wife. So she simply rose and washed up, steadied her spirits, and sat down to have her hair dressed and her clothes put on.

Now that she was a married woman, the hanging style of an unmarried girl would no longer do. The maidservants of the Shizi manor proved deft-handed enough; together with Xiangcao, they dressed the new Shizi’s consort in the fashionable court style, sweeping Luoyun’s black hair high up and fastening it with jade pins and gold hairpieces.

Though Luoyun could not see, she could feel the weight accumulating on her head, and at last said: “You need not pin so many — I am not accustomed to it.”

The maidservant dressing her hair was Ji Qiu. She listened to the consort’s instruction, but her hands did not slow. With a gentle smile she said: “You are now the Shizi’s consort. The manor’s servants and stewards will soon come to pay their respects to you. If your hair is too sparse, it will reflect poorly on us who serve you — and the Shizi would surely reprimand me.”

Her reasoning was sound, but it was clear she had not truly heeded Su Luoyun’s words.

It was not willful disobedience, exactly — only that the maidservant instinctively assumed this woman from a modest household did not understand the customs of a noble manor, and so had taken matters into her own hands.

Luoyun almost spoke again, but thought better of it and swallowed the words.

By the time she had finished washing and dressing, Han Linfeng had returned from his training. As the new bride, Luoyun was expected to keep up appearances before the servants — she would need to attend to her husband’s washing and dressing.

But with her blindness, when she reached for the ties of his clothes, her fingers inevitably wandered somewhat.

Though her eyes were useless, her ten fingers measured well enough. Her husband, she could tell, had a truly excellent figure — a narrow waist and broad shoulders, his arms as solid as the rest of him…

Han Linfeng looked down at the top of Luoyun’s head with an expressionless face as she moved this way and that. Her forest of hairpins kept raking across his cheek like so many twigs.

He had little choice but to tilt his head back slightly and allow his sightless wife to fumble along, breathing slowly and deeply.

Perhaps deciding she was too slow, he suddenly reached out and took over, knotting his own sash himself. Then, half in jest, he said: “With all those pins in your hair, are you planning to carve a few more lines into my face?”

Back on the mountain, she had scored his face with marks on purpose — though mercifully they had not been deep, and had already healed.

Luoyun had indeed just deliberately scraped a hairpin along his jaw. Now she turned toward Ji Qiu with a smile. “Ji Qiu, do remove some of the hairpins. The Shizi does not like me wearing so many.”

Ji Qiu’s expression shifted almost imperceptibly. She had finally grasped her mistress’s meaning. She came forward with a strained smile and began removing the pins.

Han Linfeng had no idea of the subtle currents that had passed between mistress and maid. Assuming only that his offhand remark had put a stop to a woman’s enjoyment of her own adornment, he added: “Why take them off? They suit you very well.”

Luoyun, meanwhile, was reaching up to remove a gold and pearl tassel pin. “Pretty as they are, they are uncomfortable,” she said with a smile. “And all the jingling and clanking interferes with how I gauge my surroundings.”

Since her eyes were useless, she depended constantly on her nose and ears, and so many hairpins did genuinely get in the way. Han Linfeng said nothing further.

When the two of them sat down to eat, however, Han Linfeng stirred a salted duck egg yolk into Luoyun’s congee and said, as if in passing: “All the maidservants by your side were purchased when I came to the capital. If you find any of them unsatisfactory, you are free to replace them as you see fit — no need to consult me.”

Luoyun sensed there was more to these words than their surface meaning. She tilted her head. “Why does Shizi say this?”

Han Linfeng bit into a sesame cake. He looked at her carefully maintained expression of innocence and let out a low laugh. Then he leaned in close, his voice dropping near her ear: “Last night you pressed yourself against the wall as though you wished to melt into it — anything to be further from me. Yet this morning, when you helped me dress, you were practically against my side. Was that not all a ruse to make the hairpins seem inconvenient, so that you could borrow my voice to reprimand the maid?”

Luoyun knew perfectly well that her small scheme was no secret from this sharp-eyed man.

Caught out, she was not in the least embarrassed. She simply stirred her congee and said quietly: “I am new here, knowing nothing of the people in this manor, and in no position to establish my own authority. It was only natural to want to borrow your prestige — to use the tiger’s skin to keep the other creatures in line. I do not intend to throw my weight around. I only wish to live without too much trouble. Such a small calculation — I have let Shizi see through me. As for attendants, I brought Xiangcao and Nanny Tian from my family’s home. Shizi need not assign me any more. That will save us all a great deal of trouble.”

Han Linfeng listened and gave a light laugh. “I have told you before — after we married, I would not force anything on you, and I would allow you to adjust at your own pace. But there is one thing: our marriage was not false, the betrothal rites were properly observed, and every document is in order. You are, in every legitimate sense, the Shizi’s consort. Now — I must go out each day on business and will likely be very occupied. All the affairs of this manor will rest on your shoulders. If you were to wash your hands of it entirely, I fear the back courtyard would go up in flames. Am I being unreasonable in saying so?”

Su Luoyun shook her head immediately. “Not at all. Shizi going out to conduct his affairs is the proper order of things. Living under this roof, I ought to do what I can to be of use. Only…”

A woman of her background — how could she possibly move the people of the Shizi’s manor? If she were truly to attempt it, would it not be like wielding a chicken feather as an imperial token of command?

After breakfast, Han Linfeng called for Steward Geng and had him bring all the contracts of the manor’s servants — long-term and short-term alike. Han Linfeng sorted through them briefly, then handed them to Luoyun. “Since you are my wife now, the management of this household falls to you. All inner courtyard affairs are yours to oversee.”

He placed her hand on the larger stack. “These are the manor’s bondservants. You may command them as you please. If they displease you, you may dismiss them or sell their contracts — entirely at your discretion.”

Then he moved her hand to the thinner stack. “These are servants and attendants who have been with me for some time. If they do wrong, you may punish and reprimand them and teach them their manners — but it would be best to leave them some dignity.”

Finally, he set her hand on a single sheet of paper, freshly written with a few names. “In my personal courtyard, however, there are certain figures who have their connections to more powerful quarters. Leave them be unless there is cause — and if they overstep, tell me, and I will deal with it for you.”

This threefold division of the household — clear, straightforward, and sensibly graduated — made the handover quite manageable for the new mistress of the house.

When Luoyun returned to the inner chamber to change her clothes, she had Xiangcao read her the names of the manor’s well-connected figures.

The first on the list was Nanny Xi — the very one who had almost been assigned to her side. The rest were several stewards who managed the manor’s accounts and procurement.

Luoyun quietly committed each name to memory.

Still, she was faintly curious — just how high did these old worthies’ connections actually reach?

After breakfast, the wife of Steward Geng — Matron Yu — came at the Shizi’s orders to acquaint the new bride with court etiquette and walk her through the protocols for entering the palace.

Matron Yu was as mild and agreeable a person as her husband, and she taught the new bride in a gentle, unhurried manner.

She had barely begun, however, when the sound of footsteps came along the corridor outside. Before Xiangcao could say a word, Luoyun caught the scent of the person approaching and knew immediately who it was.

She turned her head slightly and smiled. “Nanny Xi, what brings you here? Please, someone offer her a seat.”

Nanny Xi, who had just entered, was taken aback. There had been no one speaking to the new bride when she came in. How had a blind woman identified her so precisely?

It seemed this woman had more to her than appeared — she had evidently already cultivated her own trusted eyes and ears within the Shizi manor.

Nanny Xi seated herself without ceremony, wearing an expression of cool reserve. Her voice carried a deliberate weight as she asked: “I hear the Shizi’s consort has lost her sight due to an accident. But the moment I lifted the door curtain, you knew it was me. Could it be that you have someone watching outside your room, even here in the manor?”

She had passed several servants on her way here; no doubt one of them, eager to curry favor with the new mistress, had rushed ahead to announce her approach.

Nanny Xi detested loose-tongued servants above all things, and had even less patience for those who jumped to play both sides at the first opportunity.

She had to wonder — did they really need to fawn so eagerly over the woman the Shizi had married? Whatever her title, what was her background?

But Luoyun merely smiled. “I have been in this manor less than a day. I cannot yet recall half the servants’ names, let alone cultivate any informants.”

Nanny Xi was not about to let it go. Her sharp eyes swept the room and fell on Ji Qiu, who was carrying a tray of tea. On her way here, she had in fact passed Ji Qiu walking ahead of her along the same corridor, cup in hand.

Nanny Xi had every intention of asserting her authority over the assembled household — and of making sure this new bride understood exactly where she stood in the depths of a noble manor.

So she turned to Ji Qiu, her expression hardening. “I am hardly some dangerous creature that the Shizi’s consort need be guarded against. Who was it who went running ahead to report my arrival? Was it you, girl? A born troublemaker if ever I saw one. Someone drag her out and have her slapped.”

Ji Qiu immediately knelt. “Nanny Xi, I never saw you on my way here — I never said a single word to the consort! My lady, please speak for me — I am truly wronged!”

Though Luoyun knew this Nanny was one of those well-connected figures Han Linfeng had warned her about, what she had just done — punishing a maidservant by her own authority, without so much as a word to the household’s mistress — made her seem more like a mother-in-law than any mother-in-law Luoyun had imagined.

The Shizi had told her not to provoke the woman. That had been Luoyun’s intention.

But even as she thought this, the sounds of the slapping began, and Ji Qiu cried out in pain, while the matrons Nanny Xi had brought with her scolded and berated her.

Then Nanny Xi said, in her most unhurried tone: “This girl is clearly nothing but trouble. As it happens, I have a good girl by my side — she can take this one’s place and attend to the Shizi’s consort.”

With that, she gestured for a young maidservant of clear, delicate features to step forward and present herself.

Luoyun’s smile gradually widened. She had not understood at first why Nanny Xi had staged such an elaborate scene — but now she saw it clearly. The Nanny, too old to gain entry to the private quarters herself, was manufacturing a pretext to install a young and comely substitute.

Shock them first, then offer the replacement. A very neat maneuver. If Luoyun swallowed it in silence, the servants of this entire manor would think even less of a blind mistress with every passing day.

Moreover, Luoyun was quite certain that this sort of meddling would displease the one Nanny Xi truly served. And so she finally spoke.

“Nanny Xi is truly deserving of her long tenure in the Beizhen manor — how efficiently she acts. Before I had even spoken, the punishment was already administered. Only… Ji Qiu genuinely did not come to warn me. Would Nanny Xi care to explain what that beating was for?”

Nanny Xi had assumed that Su Luoyun’s silence was simply the timidity of a girl from a small household, unaccustomed to the ways of a great noble manor.

She had not expected that even after the beating, even after the offer of a substitute, this new bride would look up without a hint of embarrassment and actually intercede on the girl’s behalf.

She gave a cold laugh. “Oh? If it was not her loose tongue that reported my arrival, then whose was it?”

Su Luoyun took a slow, unhurried sip of tea. “My eyes being what they are, my nose has become rather more perceptive than most. Before I came to this manor, the Shizi had a physician’s care arranged for me — nourishing broths sent to my home each day. The bird’s nest prepared from imperial stock alone contained more than a dozen herbs to invigorate the blood, and the scent was quite distinctive. Yesterday, when you were present at the wine offering, I caught that same scent on you, Nanny. So when you entered the room this morning, my nose recognized the familiar fragrance — no informant needed.”

At these words, every expression in the room shifted.

Matron Yu nearly bit through her own cheek trying not to laugh.

Bird’s nest of that quality — a tribute from overseas — was extraordinarily rare and costly. Even within the Shizi manor, there was barely a boxful, a mere ten servings at most, and the small kitchen rationed it with great care.

Even a figure of Nanny Xi’s standing had no claim on a delicacy that barely sufficed for the master’s table.

Moreover, Matron Yu, working in the manor as she did, knew very well what this Nanny Xi had been up to since her arrival. Taking advantage of her access to Han Commandery Princess’s quarters to help herself to the kitchen’s stores. The kitchen staff had grumbled to her privately about it — the Nanny had been helping herself to food ever since entering the manor, and that bird’s nest congee in particular seemed to be her special favorite. Nearly half of yesterday’s batch had been spirited away by the Nanny, leaving barely enough to fill the proper portions for the rightful recipient.

This Nanny Xi, trading on her age and seniority, had been quietly consuming the bird’s nest congee brewed especially for the new Shizi’s consort — and had been caught in the act, quite literally by the nose, by that very consort.

The old woman’s greedy behavior had come to light. And yet she had had the face to reprimand the consort’s own servants for lacking propriety?

Nanny Xi had not imagined for a moment that Su Luoyun had detected her by scent alone.

When Su Luoyun said, with perfect composure, that the bird’s nest congee had been prepared expressly for her by the Shizi — that old face went rather stiff. Nanny Xi managed to hold herself together, saying stiffly: “Oh, so it was brewed specially for the consort — the servants said nothing to me about that… It is understandable, I suppose. When the Shizi was out in the world alone, it was not as convenient as at home in the manor — whatever bird’s nest and ginseng was left, the Wang Fei would always pass the excess along to the servants… it was something of a regular thing.”

What Nanny Xi implied, in other words, was that such things were commonplace in the manor, that she had grown accustomed to receiving them, and had simply helped herself to a sip or two without thinking.

Su Luoyun gave a faint smile. She had no wish to trade verbal jabs with her. She simply turned toward the still quietly sobbing Ji Qiu and said, pleasantly: “Go quickly and apologize to Nanny Xi. It is entirely your fault for being so tongue-tied and failing to explain yourself properly — and you nearly cost us a kind soul who would have come to take your place.”

Ji Qiu hastily made her apologies to the Nanny, not daring to weep another moment. She covered her face and retreated to one side.

With that gentle, artless remark, Luoyun had sent Nanny Xi’s carefully placed substitute back where she came from.

In the deep halls of a noble household, a beautiful face could serve as armor — but without a clear mind and a quick tongue to match, even the most striking beauty was useless. More than useless: it became an invitation to disaster.

Was it not for that very reason people said beautiful women so often met with unkind fates?

This new bride, it was plain, lacked none of the three.

In a brief, quiet exchange, the sparring between them had made something shift in Nanny Xi’s estimation. What she had taken to be a soft and simple blind woman from a merchant’s home was turning out to be, quite evidently, no ordinary lamp.

But she had not come solely to plant a substitute.

When Prince Beizhen’s consort heard that the Shizi had married a woman from trade, she had sent Nanny Xi specifically to remain by the new bride’s side, so that this woman of humble origins would not bring embarrassment upon the manor.

She carried the Wang Fei’s direct orders.

Even if the Shizi found her old and objectionable, the new bride would be entering the palace to appear before the Emperor this very evening. It was naturally her duty to supervise and ensure that Luoyun’s etiquette was properly observed.

When Luoyun suggested that the Nanny need not trouble herself — that the Shizi had already had Matron Yu instruct her in the proper forms — Nanny Xi cast Matron Yu a cool, sidelong glance and smiled with composed superiority. “This Matron Yu is the wife of Steward Geng, I believe? For teaching the ordinary etiquette of a banquet, she would no doubt manage perfectly well. But tonight, Shizi’s consort is entering the palace. Tell me, Matron Yu — have you yourself ever passed through the palace gates?”

Nanny Xi had served two generations of the Wang Fei and had entered the palace herself on several occasions. In terms of knowledge and experience, how could a Matron Yu compare?

Matron Yu, clearly aware that this Nanny was one of those well-connected figures beyond her reach, offered a warm smile in deference and acknowledged that her own qualifications fell far short of Nanny Xi’s.

And so Nanny Xi, with all the calm authority of a woman entirely at ease, proceeded to recite the rules of court conduct — at considerable length — and then instructed the consort to repeat it all back.

Unfortunately, what Nanny Xi had just delivered was a discourse as long and cumbersome as a bound-foot wrap, delivered rapidly and not without traces of a Liangzhou accent that strained the ear to follow.

Luoyun had hardly been listening for most of it. When the Nanny finished and requested a recitation, she nearly laughed. This Nanny clearly had no intention of making things easy for her today.

And indeed, when Luoyun tried to repeat it back, she stalled halfway through.

Nanny Xi raised her brow in barely concealed satisfaction. This woman, though clever with words, was not after all someone raised in an atmosphere of books and learning. She would be very difficult to teach properly.

And so the Nanny’s voice dropped a few degrees colder, brow arching. “In just a few hours, you will be entering the palace beside the Shizi to appear before the Emperor. His Majesty knows your origins are not elevated and will not be too exacting — but others will find reason to mock regardless. Our Beizhen manor is no house of grand distinction, but we are descended from the late sage Emperor Xianzong. However diminished our standing may have become, we must still conduct ourselves with a measure of dignity — we cannot give people cause to laugh at us.”

Luoyun sat and listened to her sudden severity with a composed smile.

In truth, given Han Linfeng’s rather extraordinary reputation in the capital, those teeth had likely already been laughed out some time ago. But the Nanny was right that etiquette was not a point on which she ought to give anyone cause for ridicule.

And so, rather than take offense at the sharpened tone, Luoyun simply smiled and said to Nanny Xi: “I let my mind wander just now and did not quite catch it all. I would trouble you, Nanny — would you please say it once more?”

Nanny Xi repeated it once more, with the same cool voice.

In truth, anyone would have struggled — the recitation was given all at once, in exhaustive detail, at considerable speed. For someone without a strong memory, it was genuinely difficult. The rules of address and ritual for consorts of different ranks hardly overlapped, and each required careful distinction. To rattle it all off in one breath was designed, even if unconsciously, to bewilder.

Luoyun was not a daughter raised in a noble house, but she had come and gone from Princess Yuyang’s manor often enough, and from her friend’s occasional conversation had learned something of how the seasoned old masters of great households operated.

A new bride of humble birth — even wearing the title of Shizi’s consort — could not be expected to command the respect of the manor’s servants, and least of all a figure like Nanny Xi, whose authority flowed from the true mistress far away in Liangzhou.

Even the Shizi himself had said she answered to the heavens.

What the Nanny was doing, under the guise of instruction, was giving this lowborn bride a thorough display of her own inadequacy — setting the tone for every interaction that would follow, so that Luoyun would feel diminished in her presence and speak without confidence ever after.

Luoyun had never had any ambition to establish great authority in the Shizi manor, let alone any intention of spending a lifetime here.

She thought of herself as a guest. A guest does not use a whip to discipline the host’s barking dog — that would hardly be appropriate.

Even so, she had no intention of letting the dog bite her either. Softness only invited further incursion. If this Nanny were allowed to look down on her unchallenged, who knew what else she might choose to grind away at next.

Since she was, in name, the Shizi’s consort — if she did not make full use of the tiger’s skin she had been given, she might as well not be wearing it at all.

The moment Nanny Xi finished speaking, Luoyun quietly lowered the hand that had been silently counting on her fingers, and began her recitation.

What followed was a word-for-word repetition, delivered with perfect composure, of everything Nanny Xi had just said — without a single omission.

Nanny Xi had not expected it at all. The woman who had seemed inattentive and somewhat slow-witted only moments ago now spoke with unhurried calm and preternatural clarity, as though something had suddenly come alight within her — and she had not missed a single word.

The next reprimand Nanny Xi had prepared died on her lips before she could use it.

Nanny Xi blinked, then asked, probing: “Could it be that Matron Yu had already covered all of this?”

Luoyun quietly offered her silent gratitude to the Shizi for that morning’s tutorial at the bedside.

A good half of what she had just recited had, in fact, come from him.