Cui Jingyu was truly a natural-born warrior. Compared to Pei Zhao, whom Lingbo had described as having “a young master’s body but a servant’s fate,” Cui Jingyu had the physique of a wild beast. He had clearly been in the water for at least half an hour and had suffered so many stings, yet after Shen Biwei applied the palace’s secret medicine — feeding him some and applying the rest — even the swelling had subsided by more than half, and his fever had broken. He remained unconscious, however. According to Shen Biwei, she had gone looking for Lingbo, failed to find her, and on her way back spotted Qinglan and Cui Jingyu in the water. By then the swarm had mostly dispersed, and the Rui Prince’s guards were searching along Peach Blossom Creek. She had immediately called them over to rescue the two.

Even so, Cui Jingyu had still managed to push Qinglan out of the water and into Shen Biwei’s hands before he finally collapsed.

Shen Biwei had developed a genuine respect for Cui Jingyu because of this. “He truly has the temperament of a great general,” she said. “If war were to break out again, being ennobled as a marquis might not even be the ceiling for someone like him.”

“You call me obsessed with rank — what about you?” Lingbo immediately teased her. They were hurrying toward the Han Family’s water pavilion to check on Cui Jingyu. Outside, many people had already gathered — the Rui Prince’s guards as well as the Han household’s own servants. Han Yueqi, who had sobered up, was directing the servants to clear away the hornet carcasses around the pavilion. The palace guards had brought fumigation incense meant to kill the five venomous creatures, and an entire dense layer of hornet corpses blanketed the area around the pavilion — thick enough to make one’s skin crawl.

In the midst of all this chaos, Han Yueqi still found a moment to exchange a meaningful glance with Lingbo. The depth of meaning in that glance needed no words.

“You two!” Shen Biwei finally lost her patience. “Even now, you’re thinking about that wretched red thread? Are you even human?”

“Who said anything about that?” Lingbo immediately dismissed her. “If you can’t guess right, don’t guess at all. Who mentioned reconnecting a red thread? I was reminding Elder Sister Han that the hornets’ arrival was suspicious — someone may have been behind it — and urging her to investigate.”

“Exactly, who’s talking about red threads at a time like this? We’re not so callous as to ignore whether someone lives or dies,” Han Yueqi added.

In truth, they all knew perfectly well there was no longer any question of “reconnecting” anything. Cui Jingyu had kept Qinglan in the water for at least half an hour — and Qinglan didn’t know how to swim, so where had she breathed? How had she breathed? And why had Cui Jingyu been stung to such a state while Qinglan emerged without a single scratch?

Falling into water was already treading the edge of what was considered a loss of purity for the daughters of prominent families in the capital. And the story behind it — once you thought it through — made clear that after the physical intimacy that had surely occurred, the two had no need for anyone else to rekindle their bond.

A single-minded girl like Qinglan, raised on the classics, the very model of a noble-born lady — after going through something like this, she would never choose anyone else. And Cui Jingyu, being of a noble family himself, would certainly “take responsibility.” Though in Lingbo’s view, this was letting him off easy — giving him a graceful way out without having to untangle the events of four years ago.

This red thread, in truth, had never needed them to reconnect it at all.

But Shen Biwei had no patience for any of that. The moment she heard something that interested her, she jumped in: “Right! I also think the hornets were suspicious. No matter how large a hornet’s nest is, it holds at most a few hundred. How could a swarm this massive appear — ten nests wouldn’t be enough to account for it — and why would they go berserk out of nowhere like this? Someone must have destroyed their nests and driven them out. Never mind — the Rui Prince’s guards are already investigating. I’ll go with them to search the mountain shortly and get to the bottom of this.”

She was focused entirely on uncovering the truth. But Lingbo and Han Yueqi had already formed their own suspicions, so Han Yueqi simply moved on to other matters: “By the way, Yanyan has been found. Biwei asked Master Yuan to find her, and Yanyan was clever enough to hide in a small stone cave. Master Yuan protected her but got stung twice himself, and he’s been brought to the water pavilion as well.”

“I said Yuan Xiu could be counted on, didn’t I?” Shen Biwei said.

Lingbo followed the others into the water pavilion. Though it was called a pavilion, it was really just a small structure of three connected rooms. When Peach Blossom Creek had been redirected away from this spot, the structure had fallen into disuse and was now only used by the Han family as a resting place when they came to view the peach blossoms. Accordingly, all the furnishings inside were intact.

A’Cuo was waiting in the outer room, with Yanyan and Yuan Xiu beside her. Fu Yunrui, who was usually delicate and frail, had shown at the critical moment that she truly had the bearing of a household matriarch, keeping the younger ones well in hand. The maids had also all gathered there — Xiao Liu’er, Chun Ming, Yang Niangzi — all safe and sound. A’Cuo had been frantic with worry, but the moment she saw Lingbo, her anxiety dissolved and tears streamed down her face.

“Second Elder Sister.” She rushed over and threw her arms around Lingbo. “Where did you go? You frightened me to death.”

Lingbo smiled and checked her over. “Are you all right? And Yanyan?” She beckoned Yanyan over and gave her a thorough look, confirming that both younger girls were completely unharmed. She cupped Yanyan’s face in her hands and said, “It’s a relief you two were clever enough not to get hurt. I would have been worried sick.”

“I was in the water pavilion with Elder Sister Fu and the others. When the hornets came, Wei Yushan spotted them right away. He and General Yin closed all the doors and windows. We hid inside the pavilion. Wei Yushan wanted to go look for General Cui, but Elder Sister Fu stopped him, and we waited until the hornets dispersed before opening the door…” A’Cuo, still shaken, was doing her best to give Lingbo a clear account of what had happened.

Yanyan, meanwhile, was all smiles.

“I heard the hornets making a strange sound, so I jumped into a little stone cave by the creek bank to hide. Two hornets landed nearby and I killed them both with small stones. I was actually having fun with the dead hornets when I heard Master Yuan calling my name, so I answered him…” She was cheerfully nonchalant about the whole thing, and immediately tugged at Lingbo’s sleeve: “Second Elder Sister, Master Yuan saved me. Shall we send him two trays of pastries as a thank-you gift?”

These were the pastry boxes from Ruyi Fang — a new style Lingbo had recently devised. Instead of individual boxes, they were now sent in trays, each holding a selection of the finest and most expensive varieties, decorated with crimson satin. The boxes were both exquisite and luxurious, and it was enormously face-giving to present them as gifts. At year’s end in the capital, no prominent family’s gift-giving was complete without several such trays of pastries.

Yuan Xiu had a stubbornly contrary temperament. Even with stings on him, he couldn’t stay still. He had been sitting there with two young attendants applying medicine to his wounds when he overheard Yanyan’s words, and he immediately objected: “I told you I don’t want your wretched pastry boxes. Why are you still sending them to me?”

“You’d know why if you tasted them. They’re really very good.” Yanyan just grinned and trotted back to his side. “Earlier I gave you a sweet, and you ate it. How can you complain?”

“Don’t even bring that up! I thought it was medicine!” Yuan Xiu grew even more irritable.

Lingbo paid no attention to the squabble between those two and went straight into the inner room to check on Cui Jingyu and Qinglan.

Sure enough, Cui Jingyu had been completely laid low. In ordinary times, the man’s cold aloofness was enough to make one’s head ache, but unconscious like this, he was actually quite tolerable — especially when one considered he’d been injured saving Qinglan.

Qinglan, naturally, looked utterly lost. She sat beside the bed in a daze. Wei Yushan stood at the foot of the bed, angry, yet with no one to direct his anger at. Cui Jingyu had chosen to save her himself — could one blame Qinglan for that? Yet the thought that after all these years, Cui Jingyu had still been injured for Ye Qinglan’s sake — and this after she had broken their engagement and wronged him — was genuinely maddening.

So when he saw Lingbo enter, the first thing he said was: “Are you happy now?”

Lingbo couldn’t be bothered to respond, but A’Cuo immediately stepped up to defend her elder sister: “Wei Yushan, what do you mean by that?”

Wei Yushan wasn’t about to take his temper out on A’Cuo, but he slammed his fist into the pillar nearby. Ye Lingbo looked at him and snapped: “If you want to have a tantrum, go outside. There’s an injured person here.”

Truthfully, she didn’t see the point in Wei Yushan’s outburst. At any rate, both Wei Yushan’s mother and the women of the Northern Frontier Army had been won over last time. Seeing Cui Jingyu so badly injured for Qinglan’s sake confirmed what she and Han Yueqi had estimated — this man was simply too stubborn to admit his feelings. What good did it do to have Wei Yushan raging here?

So she left Wei Yushan to his fuming and simply sat down beside Qinglan, taking her hand. Qinglan, who was lost somewhere in her own thoughts, looked up at her blankly.

Cui Jingyu had proven himself capable. According to Shen Biwei, the spot where they had been standing was the most exposed — far from the pavilion, with nothing around them for shelter — and yet he had kept Qinglan completely unharmed, without so much as a bruise. That was genuinely impressive.

No wonder she and Han Yueqi were so certain he was Qinglan’s destined match.

For some reason, the moment the words “destined match” crossed her mind, Lingbo felt a sudden pang, and thoughts of Pei Zhao surfaced.

She had no idea how he was processing what she had said to him. It had been far too cruel — especially since he had just saved her life. It was the worst kind of ingratitude.

But it was precisely because she cared for him, precisely because they had feelings for each other, that she could hurt him without hesitation. Because it hurt her too — because she resented him for refusing to build a future with her.

Lingbo sat at the bedside and, belatedly, began to piece it together.

Cui Jingyu had shielded Qinglan, taking the injuries upon himself until he fell unconscious, and yet Qinglan had come back without a scratch — because he was still, hopelessly, in love with her.

And had Pei Zhao not done the same? Had he not ensured she came away completely unharmed?

—

Because of Cui Jingyu’s injuries, moving him was inadvisable, so Lady Wei came personally with the army physician to tend to him. Taking in the scene and the sight of Ye Qinglan standing nearby without a mark on her, she could only sigh.

Four years. Round and round, and in the end, fate could not be escaped. Though she ached for her nephew, she still remembered the kindness Qinglan had shown to the women of the Northern Frontier Army, and so she treated her with courteous civility.

Wei Shancoral was far more forthright than her mother. The first thing she said upon arriving was: “Oh, thank goodness I didn’t come today. I had been planning to come with Yunrui, but if I had, I’d have gotten stung too.”

“I wouldn’t have let you get stung,” Luo Yong immediately declared his loyalty.

“Pah, who needs you?” Wei Shancoral retorted. “I’m a heroine in my own right. Back home, my father and I used to catch snakes to sell. What kind of hornet haven’t I seen? Hornets soaked in liquor drive away the cold, and the pupae can even be fried and eaten — I bet none of you knew that. Oh, and Han Madam, I looked on my way here — these hornets should have come from the mountains. Their nest isn’t on your property; it’s probably deep in the peach blossom forest. There must be a very large nest there that someone smashed, which is why they flew this way…”

Those concerned with the investigation went off to investigate; those tending to the injured remained behind. Qinglan, naturally, refused to leave, and Han Yueqi had already begun arranging for the guests to stay the night, clearing out one of the Han family’s larger courtyards. Lingbo had no choice but to go home first to gather changes of clothes and necessities to bring back. She had just boarded the carriage and was about to have Liu Ji drive off when the carriage curtain was lifted and Shen Biwei climbed in.

“Didn’t you go to investigate the hornet nest? Why are you here?” Lingbo asked, puzzled.

“The Rui Prince’s incident alarmed the palace, and the Emperor sent the Bureau of Falconry to investigate directly. We couldn’t get involved anymore. Apparently they’ve already found the nest — it’s a connected stone cave, and the nest itself is as large as a carriage. The Bureau has detained several woodcutters from the area and is questioning them now.” Shen Biwei answered Lingbo’s question in one breath, then braced a hand against the carriage wall and said: “Never mind all that first. Tell me what happened between you and that fox spirit Pei Zhao.”

“What do you mean, what happened?” Lingbo said irritably. “There’s nothing between us anymore. It’s over. We ended things today.”

“He saved your life and you ended things with him?” Shen Biwei shot back.

Lingbo immediately raised an eyebrow and stared at her in surprise.

“Haven’t you always disliked Pei Zhao? Haven’t you always forbidden me from associating with him? What made you change your mind?”

“Don’t muddy the waters.” Shen Biwei was nothing if not direct. “The reason I disliked Pei Zhao was because I knew you had feelings for him. As your friend, of course I resented him. Did you think Han Yueqi was any less disapproving of Cui Jingyu back in the day? That was a rivalry between me and him — no outsiders involved. But what do you mean by bringing in Dai Yuquan? What’s that about?”

Lingbo hadn’t expected her to know about Dai Yuquan. Her first instinct was to glance at Xiao Liu’er, who immediately put on an expression of complete innocence. “Miss, it wasn’t me.”

“Don’t look at her; it has nothing to do with her.” Shen Biwei, commanding as a mountain chieftain, turned Lingbo’s face back toward her. “Dai Yuquan let slip the information himself. He intercepted a shipment of gemstones and said they were intended as gifts. He’s a man at the center of a great deal of attention, and many people scrutinize his preferences — once word got out, they immediately guessed he was preparing a betrothal. He’s had no dealings with other prominent families since coming to the capital, so some began at once to guess it was your family. Most assumed it was Qinglan, but I know what happened with your grain transport ships last year, and I know it’s you he wants to court. Have you been so consumed with matchmaking that your head’s gone soft? I already know all this, and you didn’t.”

This last observation was, in fairness, a bit unfair to Lingbo. Even in a lean season, the bones of the Shen family were worth more than most, and even if Shen Biwei made no effort to follow the capital’s gossip, the news would still find its way to her. The Yongguo Duke’s household alone had access to information that ordinary people couldn’t imagine — otherwise, how would only she know Huo Yingzhen’s name?

Lingbo immediately grew alert. “Isn’t Dai Yuquan part of the Pingjun Prince’s household? Why would officials be scrutinizing his preferences?”

“Who do you think he is?” Shen Biwei, daughter of the Minister of Personnel, viewed the landscape of the capital’s officialdom as clearly as a chessboard. “The Dai family has managed Jiangnan affairs for generations. Why did they send a man to the capital? Because the last time the Chen family investigated the salt trade, they struck too hard and pocketed too much themselves, and both the Emperor and the Jiangnan factions had grievances — but there was no suitable replacement at hand. So the Jiangnan noble families were willing to produce an official of their own, and the Dai family leads them. Why else would so many palace examination graduates be passed over in favor of Dai Yuquan, a mere provincial degree holder? The Pingjun Prince’s household is the Emperor’s eye. If he were to further form a marriage alliance with you — reaching our Shen family through you — then it would be the Emperor, the Pingjun Prince’s household, and our Shen family reaching a three-way understanding that pushes the Chen family out. The next time Jiangnan’s salt trade is investigated, it will be Yuan Xiu and Dai Yuquan going south. The capital’s officials may not see the full picture, but they know Dai Yuquan is no mere fish for a pond — he’s only temporarily housed in the Pingjun Prince’s household — so they’re all currying favor with him.”

Lingbo laughed bitterly at herself.

“No wonder he suddenly took notice of me.”

A man of Dai Yuquan’s caliber could have any number of beautiful daughters from noble families. Why would he single her out?

Shen Biwei was exasperated into laughing.

“Can you stop belittling yourself the moment marriage comes up? Not everyone in this world cares only about looks. Your own Pei Zhao has no shortage of fine looks, and yet he still fell for you, didn’t he?” She lectured Ye Lingbo. “If Dai Yuquan only wanted a political alliance through marriage, he’d have gone to court my family’s Shen Luwei long ago. The fact that he wants to marry you means he genuinely likes you. Any connection to my family is incidental. You’re not even a relative of mine — only a friend. And our Shen father doesn’t recognize you as such officially. There’s simply no way a marriage to you could be purely a political transaction. Don’t look down on people so much. Only the down-and-out use marriage as barter. The Dai family has built its wealth in Jiangnan across five generations and is rich enough to rival a nation. When the legitimate son takes a wife, of course he’ll choose someone he himself likes. Otherwise, spending a lifetime with someone you don’t love, raising children you feel nothing for — what would all the wealth and power be for?”

People might call Shen Biwei idle and carefree, but her vision was far from small. When it came to these arguments, Lingbo genuinely couldn’t best her.

Yet Lingbo could only smile bitterly in response.

She didn’t disbelieve her, of course. As Shen Biwei said — even Pei Zhao liked her, let alone Dai Yuquan. She knew she had her own kind of charm, and not every woman in the capital could drive an imperial merchant into steady retreat through sheer commercial cunning.

But if Dai Yuquan were merely an imperial merchant, that would be one thing. The problem was he was far higher than she had imagined — in power and wealth, beyond anything she had reckoned with. What grounds, then, were there to refuse?

Shen Biwei had grown up with her and could read her face at a glance.

“Stop right there. Don’t give me that calculating look.” She was both annoyed and amused. “I just said only the down-and-out calculate with marriage, and here you are, already calculating. You don’t even like Dai Yuquan — why would you marry him?”

“If not him, then who? Will someone better come along?” Lingbo asked.

“Of course you marry the person you love,” Shen Biwei said. “Yes, hearts change — men’s especially — and no one can be relied upon. But your life is only lived once. You should live it according to your own heart. If you want to marry someone, marry them. If you don’t want to marry at all, stay here in the capital with me and run wild — I’d be even happier with that. With your abilities, whatever you choose, you’ll make something brilliant of it. Think about where you were seven years ago. Look at where you are now. You clawed your way out of that kind of desperate situation — why on earth, after everything, would you use your own marriage as a bargaining chip?”

That one question stopped Lingbo cold.

“All right, I have to go see the Rui Prince. No more talking.” Shen Biwei earnestly instructed Lingbo: “I came over especially to tell you that Dai Yuquan is preparing to propose, so I wanted to give you a heads-up. Once I’ve dealt with things here, I’ll speak with you in more detail. Today’s hornet affair was genuinely dangerous — you know the Emperor’s temperament, and I can’t let him lay the blame at Han Yueqi’s feet. Whatever happens, don’t make any hasty decisions. Make sure you consult me first. Understood?”

“Understood.”