Because the Madam and the elder young ladies had made such a lively scene on their end, the younger girls found themselves considerably freer on theirs.

Shen Biwei was truly a kind soul. Though she couldn’t say so in front of Ye Lingbo, the moment she turned away, she quietly slipped Yanyan a small wooden horse. Yanyan treated it like a treasure, holding it up for A’Cuo to admire. “Look,” she said, “I have another little horse now. Two more and I’ll have the whole set — then I’ll show you my entire collection.”

A’Cuo had not the slightest interest in wooden-carved horses. More than that, she had a few private complaints about Yanyan herself. Though she knew Yanyan was guileless and carefree by nature, she couldn’t help feeling that the girl was a little too unbothered by the hardships of the world. Her two elder sisters were going to such lengths to shield her, and here she was, perfectly content to play.

For this reason, A’Cuo kept her distance from Yanyan and instead spent her time observing the dynamics of the flower-greeting banquet on her own, or asking Yang Hua to help her identify the various madams and young ladies from the different families.

Yanyan, easy-natured as she was, took no offence at all. With A’Cuo unwilling to play with her, she simply called over the three other girls who were her particular friends and gathered them around to admire her newly acquired little horse.

The He family’s heated parlor was three connected rooms — two open and one partitioned. The madams occupied the outermost room for their card games; the older young ladies sat in the middle room doing needlework; while Yanyan and her companions had settled in the third room, where the floor was laid with thick sheepskin carpets said to have been tributed by people from the western regions — warm and luxurious. Yanyan simply sat cross-legged on the floor, spreading out all manner of things with the three girls — snacks to eat and toys to play with.

The girls’ households were all strictly governed, so between them they had only things like jade puzzle balls and interlocking rings. Nothing compared to the little wooden horse Shen Biwei had carved — so lifelike, still bearing the marks of the blade, carrying with it the full breath of the world outside. The girls crowded around with curiosity, and Yanyan explained with great authority: “This is called a Rouge Horse — a famous breed. Isn’t that a lovely name?”

“Lovely, yes — but why is it called a Rouge Horse?” the girls puzzled. “Is it rouge-colored?”

“But this one is clearly black.”

“I heard it’s because girls like riding this breed, so they named it after them.”

“That can’t be right. It must be the color — same principle as the Sweating Blood horse…”

The girls were deep in their debate when a voice sounded from behind them.

“It’s because there is a mountain in the western lands called Rouge Mountain — Yanzhishan. The horses bred there are called Rouge Horses.”

The girls turned. The speaker was the honored guest of today’s plum blossom banquet: Wei Leshui. Finding all eyes suddenly upon her, she grew flustered and made to leave — but Yanyan was absolutely delighted, and leapt up to catch her by the hand.

“You know about horses too? How impressive!” Yanyan’s praise, when given, was always wholehearted. Wei Leshui, bashful by nature, shook her head and waved off the compliment. But Yanyan pressed further: “So why is that mountain called Rouge Mountain?”

“It must be because rouge is produced there,” one of the girls offered.

“That’s so like Tao Li’er — always with rouge and powder on the brain.” Yanyan wrinkled her nose in mock disdain. The other girls laughed, and the girl called Tao Li’er indignantly scrunched up her nose in return. Yanyan ignored her and, still holding Wei Leshui’s hand, made introductions: “Let me introduce everyone — this is Tao Li’er, this is Guo Yuenu, and the one eating over there is Ni Shuangshuang. They’re all my good friends. We’re all fourteen — how old are you?”

“Fifteen,” Wei Leshui said, embarrassed.

“Right, but you still haven’t told us — why is the mountain called Rouge Mountain?” Tao Li’er asked, refusing to let the matter drop.

“My father told me it isn’t Rouge Mountain — it’s Yanzhishan, written differently.” Wei Leshui wanted to write the characters out for them, but had no paper. Yanyan magnanimously offered her own palm. Wei Leshui wrote as she explained: “General Huo Qubing won a great victory over the Xiongnu at Mount Yanzhi. The Xiongnu lament goes: ‘Lose our Mount Yanzhi, and our women are left without their colors. Lose our Qilian Mountains, and our livestock cannot multiply.'”

“So it is the cosmetic rouge after all,” Tao Li’er insisted stubbornly. “Otherwise why would the women be left without their colors?”

Everyone laughed. Wei Leshui couldn’t help laughing too — young as she was, she was simply more at ease among girls her own age.

But Lu Wenyin was absolutely determined to draw her into her circle. Before long, she sent a maidservant to fetch her. Upon finding Wei Leshui sitting and playing merrily with Yanyan and the others, the maidservant smiled and said: “Miss Wei, so you’re here! Our Madam has been looking for you for quite some time…”

“Go back and tell your Madam we’ll be over shortly.” Yanyan, seeing the look of discomfort on Wei Leshui’s face, answered for her.

The maidservant hesitated and withdrew. Tao Li’er, sharp-witted, said: “Just you wait — Madam Chen will come herself any moment now. Quick, let’s put everything away, or she’ll go telling our mothers on us.”

Wei Leshui, feeling guilty for causing trouble, said anxiously: “I’ll go over now — then she won’t need to come.”

“But do you actually want to go?” Yanyan asked her. “If she calls you over, you’ll just end up watching her play cards — not very entertaining.”

Wei Leshui’s expression wavered. She hesitated for a moment, then shook her head.

“If you don’t want to go, then that’s settled.” Yanyan thumped her chest confidently. “Leave it to me. Stay with us and I guarantee they won’t find you.”

She and the other girls, Wei Leshui in tow, proceeded to weave their way through the He family’s inner courtyard. These girls were all practiced players. One said, “This way — don’t let the He family servants spot us, they’ll report everything to the Madam of the He family.” Another said, “Let’s go to the little study, it’s a good hiding place…” Each had a plan. They finally led Wei Leshui to a secluded corner of the He family garden, tucked behind a lush cluster of flowering trees, where they settled around a stone table to chat and produce their various snacks.

“You won’t go telling the madams about today, will you?” Tao Li’er instructed Wei Leshui. “I noticed you seemed very deferential to them earlier.”

Tao Li’er was the most spoiled of the girls, and a little inclined to give orders, always speaking her mind directly. Wei Leshui’s cheeks turned red.

She knew perfectly well that she had spent the day surrounded by madams, looking every bit like the sort of adult-chasing hanger-on that her own elder brother most despised. Though her character was earnest and plain, she still had a little pride when it came to people her own age.

“I know they’re only being nice to me for my brother’s sake,” Wei Leshui said, making her position clear. “They kept asking about my family — especially my brother.”

“Good that you know.” Tao Li’er said. “Lu Wenyin is the worst of them — she’s always making things difficult for Yanyan’s sister. Don’t believe a word they say…”

She was about to continue when Yanyan stopped her.

It was no wonder A’Cuo found Yanyan exasperating. Even Wei Leshui thought her a little too artless — the madams and young ladies at the flower-greeting banquet were like armies going to war, each one busy pouring their faction’s praises into Wei Leshui’s ears and filling her head with the other side’s faults, until she was dizzy with it all.

Only Yanyan seemed to have no agenda beyond eating and playing. She hadn’t even noticed when Tao Li’er tried to speak up on her behalf.

“Enough of this gloomy talk — let’s go out and do something.” Yanyan’s eyes lit up. “I know a great place. Do you want rice puff candy?”

“Rice puff candy again — I’m not going. My mother will scold me.” Tao Li’er was the first to back out. Of the other two girls, one had no interest in eating, and the other wanted to go back inside by the fire.

“Such killjoys.” Yanyan deflated instantly. Wei Leshui, watching her, felt a twinge of sympathy. Hesitantly she said: “Then why don’t I come with you?”

“Really?” Yanyan looked at her in surprised delight.

Wei Leshui was usually quite composed in her conduct — it was precisely this that had allowed her mother to let her attend the flower-greeting banquet alone. But beneath the gaze of Yanyan’s eyes, bright as obsidian, she found herself agreeing without quite meaning to.

“Really. I’ll go with you.”

Yanyan, cherishing this one friend willing to venture out with her in search of rice puff candy, quietly led her to the front courtyard, summoned her own maidservant, and arranged for a small sedan chair.

“We’re taking a sedan chair?” Wei Leshui was a little surprised.

“Of course — the rules of the flower-greeting banquet still apply. It’s not as if we can climb over walls. We’d be scolded when we got back.” Yanyan looked thoroughly proper about it all.

Wei Leshui felt somewhat reassured. She had long heard that the etiquette at the capital’s flower-greeting banquets was extremely strict — young ladies simply did not go out freely. Her mother had coached her at length on this before she left. She had even braced herself privately: if Yanyan suggested anything too outrageous, she would simply bow out at the last moment. But it seemed that Yanyan’s rules of propriety were actually stricter than her own.

The two girls rode in the sedan chairs. Wei Leshui had assumed they would head out to find a street vendor selling rice puff candy, as she might have done back home in Yanglin City. Instead, the chairs made their way deeper along the alley, arriving at the far end, where they entered a private residence. They disembarked at the inner gate, where a housekeeper’s wife was already waiting with an umbrella. She greeted Yanyan: “Fourth Young Miss is here? Where are First Young Miss and Third Young Miss?”

“This is the Song family’s residence — my grandmother’s maiden family,” Yanyan whispered to Wei Leshui. “Just at the end of the alley. We’ll sit here awhile and then go back to the flower-greeting banquet — no one will know.”

Then, turning to the housekeeper’s wife with perfect confidence: “This is my new friend. I’ve brought her here for some candy — she is an honored guest.”

The housekeeper’s wife was all warm smiles. She looked Wei Leshui over approvingly, then coaxed Yanyan: “Of course, of course — honored guest, naturally. Young Miss and her guest, please come inside. Peach Blossom — come serve tea!”

Yanyan led Wei Leshui into the Yang family’s reception hall with great pomp. Before long, as promised, the head servant’s wife returned with candy — it turned out to be no more than sugary rods on bamboo sticks, looking rather like candles, carrying a faint fragrance of rice. Eaten alongside hot tea, they were actually quite pleasant.

“You don’t have a maidservant with you, do you?” Yanyan asked Wei Leshui.

Wei Leshui wasn’t sure why she was bringing this up just now. “I do have one,” she explained, “but she’s still learning the household rules, so I came alone today.”

Yanyan didn’t press further. She called over her own maidservant, Fuling. Fuling, thoroughly capable and worldly for her age, produced several small silver ingots from her embroidered pouch and presented them to the Yang family’s housekeeper’s wife: “A gift from Miss Wei — please buy tea for everyone.”

The housekeeper’s wife came forward at once with profuse thanks. The Yang family maidservants also hurried to bow: “Thank you, Miss Wei.”

Only then did Wei Leshui understand — Yanyan had distributed a gratuity on her behalf. As a guest visiting for the first time, one was expected to give something to the servants. She leaned over quickly and said in a low voice: “When I get home, I’ll ask my mother for the money and repay you tomorrow.”

“What’s the fuss over such a small thing?” Yanyan said breezily. “No need to repay me — going back and forth over money between friends is too petty. Sister Shen taught me that: true friends don’t quibble over silver.”

Wei Leshui almost laughed. She thought there was something about Yanyan’s temperament rather like her own brother — the one who got thrashed by their father every few days — though she had no idea who this “Sister Shen” was. But she must be a good person.

Yanyan was truly different from all the madams and young ladies at the flower-gathering banquet. When she spoke, she simply spoke — never hiding a second layer of meaning beneath her words. She didn’t say a word against anyone else at the banquet, made no attempt to play on connections, just urged Wei Leshui to eat the candy: “Eat up, eat up — I don’t know how I offended my sister, but she’s banned me from this candy. Says it makes my mouth dirty like a beggar’s. I always have to sneak out to eat it.”

Wei Leshui knew perfectly well that this sort of rice puff candy could only be held in the hand — it easily dirtied one’s clothes and fingers. The snacks served to the young ladies at the flower-greeting banquet were all delicate and exquisite as flowers, held in handkerchiefs and eaten in the smallest bites. Nothing at all like this rice puff candy, which looked as though it had been skewered on sticks and roasted over a campfire out on the steppe, just like the yellow sheep one might hunt in the borderlands. No wonder Yanyan’s sister had forbidden her from eating it.

The two of them had eaten their fill of candy and drunk their tea, and Wei Leshui was just thinking of asking when they should head back, when she spotted another sedan chair approaching outside. She assumed it must be one of Yanyan’s sisters come to drag her back — but when the sedan chair was set down, out stepped an elderly woman, supported by a maidservant, looking very frail with age. Wei Leshui thought she must be the mistress of the Yang family and quickly rose to pay her respects.

“This is Fifth Madam He — from the He family next door,” Yanyan told her, rising to greet the old woman herself. “Good day, Fifth Madam He.”

“It’s Yanyan, isn’t it.” The old woman’s hair was entirely white. She had the look of an old grande dame, though her clothing and jewelry were not nearly as impressive as those of Old Madam He at the plum blossom banquet. Her eyes seemed to have gone blind, filmed over with a white glaze. She reached out toward Yanyan’s direction and patted the air with her hand, smiling: “Eating rice puff candy again, are you?”

Yanyan smiled a little sheepishly and went to take the old woman’s arm.

“How did you know, madam?”

“The moment I heard your family’s people sent someone out to buy candy, I knew it was you.” The old woman reached out and felt Yanyan’s face. “Yanyan is growing lovelier by the day. Tell me — is today the plum blossom banquet?”

Wei Leshui, out of respect for her elders, had already risen and offered her seat. She watched Yanyan guide the old woman to the table.

“Yes,” Yanyan replied.

“Did you see my Wenyin and Wanyang?” The old woman asked, full of hope. “Did they say anything about when the banquet will end? I sent someone to ask them — they said they had no time to come by afterward…”

Wei Leshui’s heart sank, afraid Yanyan would say something awkward. Fortunately, Yanyan answered cleverly: “They’re both very busy — it seems Old Madam He asked them to help manage things at the plum blossom banquet, so they can’t get away for a moment.”

“Ah, I see.” The old woman accepted Yanyan’s explanation without question, and immediately beckoned to her maidservant. The maidservant produced two embroidered pouches. The old woman explained to Yanyan patiently that each pouch contained a protective talisman she had sought at the beginning of the year — she had gone to Phozhao Temple herself, burning the very first incense of the day, and the talismans were said to be remarkably efficacious. She asked Yanyan to be sure to pass them along to the two sisters.

Yanyan said nothing. She simply accepted the pouches. The old woman couldn’t see — but Wei Leshui could, and she saw that Yanyan’s expression was not a happy one. Her lips were pressed tight.

Fifth Madam He went on murmuring about this and that — asking after the Lu sisters, especially Lu Wanyang: she had heard that Wanyang had fallen ill at the New Year and hadn’t come to pay her respects, and she wanted to know how she was now, whether she had fully recovered, whether she had grown thin.

“Has the Old Madam not seen the sisters in a very long time?” Wei Leshui couldn’t help asking.

The old woman’s expression flickered for just a moment, but she quickly smiled again. “And who is this young lady? I don’t recognize the voice.”

“She’s my friend,” Yanyan said suddenly. “She looks a little like Sister Lu Wanyang. Let me let you feel her face — then you’ll know what Sister Wanyang looks like now.”

The old woman hesitated. But Wei Leshui said nothing and quietly leaned her face forward.

The old woman’s fingers were thin as kindling, and cold — but her movements were extraordinarily gentle, as though she truly believed she was touching the face of her granddaughter, unseen for years. She traced the contours of Wei Leshui’s face with the utmost care, and when she was done, she smiled with a look of quiet relief and contentment.

“Thank you, good girl.” She called to her maidservant: “It’s our first meeting, and I have nothing proper to give you. This gold bracelet has been offered before the Buddha — take it as a gift from me. It’s nothing special, just something to keep for amusement.”

Wei Leshui refused again and again. Yanyan shot her a meaningful glance, and she reluctantly accepted. Watching the old woman’s face light up with genuine happiness at this, her heart ached all the more.

It was because of this that the two of them rode in silence all the way back. When they arrived at the He family residence and stepped down from their sedan chairs, Yanyan held out both protective talismans to Wei Leshui.

“You give these to them,” Yanyan said.

“Why?” Wei Leshui didn’t understand.

But in her heart, she had already half-guessed.

“Last year I brought them two. Lu Wenyin didn’t want hers,” Yanyan said. “You’re an honored guest — they’ll accept them from you.”

Wei Leshui’s fist clenched with anger.

“Why won’t they go see their own grandmother? Is there some quarrel between them?”

“Not that I’ve heard. Maybe they just don’t get along with the old woman.” Yanyan offered no harsher words about them than that.

“They treat Old Madam He with such warmth — and they can’t spare even a moment’s visit for their own grandmother?” Wei Leshui had a stubborn streak. She pressed both talismans back into Yanyan’s hands. “You go give them. I want to see for myself whether they take them or not.”

Yanyan said nothing more and walked straight inside with the talismans. Wei Leshui hung back, keeping herself out of sight, watching from a distance. She saw that the madams were gathered in the courtyard admiring the blossoms. Yanyan went up, exchanged a few words with Lu Wenyin, and passed the talismans to her, then came back down. Lu Wenyin’s expression remained cold. She stood there for a moment. Wei Leshui watched on with stubborn patience — and then she saw it: Lu Wenyin walked along the covered corridor, and without breaking her stride, dropped the talismans into a bronze brazier. Without a backward glance, she strolled back into the company of the other madams, laughing and chatting as though nothing had happened.

Wei Leshui had grown up following her parents to the frontier. Her father fought in wars; her mother was often ill. It was her grandmother who had raised her from childhood. When her grandmother died, she had wept until she nearly lost consciousness. Now, witnessing this for the first time, she trembled with rage from head to foot. She looked up to find that Yanyan had returned to her side at some point and was watching her with a look of calm understanding.

“I don’t like the flower-greeting banquet,” Wei Leshui said through gritted teeth.

“Neither do I,” Yanyan told her. “My second sister always tells me to strive and compete. But I think the flower-greeting banquet is utterly pointless — everyone wears a mask. Only I can’t say that to anyone.”

“You can say it to me,” Wei Leshui promised, to this friend she had only just made.

Yanyan smiled.

“Then I promise you this as well — from now on, at every flower-greeting banquet, you can always come find me to play. And whenever we’ve had enough, we’ll sneak away together. We’ll always be allies.”

“Agreed,” Wei Leshui said.

Yanyan held out her hand.

“Pinky swear.”

Wei Leshui considered for only a moment, and found that this violated absolutely none of the rules her mother had taught her.

“Pinky swear.”