Zhang Zhixu spread his hands: “You were the one who said it back then — told me not to be too extravagant, that you couldn’t afford to keep me. I assumed you’d always had the intention of keeping me.”

“I — I only said that off the top of my head.”

“Having second thoughts?” He cast a sidelong glance at her.

Chen Baoxiang swallowed her irritation back down: “No, it’s only right. It’s not like you’ve spent that much.”

Come to think of it, this man only slept at her place — none of his other expenses had gone through her accounts. If he didn’t have his own business dealings, how could he even be giving out lamb legs?

She’d simply been too busy to notice those details.

“But out of nowhere, what were you doing going back to Xun Yuan?” She raised an eyebrow. “Tired of me? Bored of me? Fallen out of like with me?”

Zhang Zhixu: “……”

Pinching her cheek with mild exasperation, he said helplessly: “The Zhang Family wants to formally take me back in. They’ll be coming to the door frequently in the coming days. I simply didn’t want to disturb you.”

The Zhang Family?

Chen Baoxiang remembered now — although both Zhang Zhixu and Zhang Ting’an had rendered service to Li Bingsheng, a portion of the Zhang Family had remained loyal to Li Shu to the death, and had caused Li Bingsheng no small amount of trouble in recent months. If there were to be a reckoning, they would certainly be among those caught up in it.

Of course they would think of the retreat they had preserved back then.

But still…

Chen Baoxiang furrowed her brow in displeasure: “Wouldn’t it be enough to find Zhang Ting’an? Why do they have to come and bother you.”

“They will certainly go to my elder brother as well, but they have no intention of letting me off either. After all, I’ve made something of a name for myself now — taking me back into the Zhang Family would be a matter of prestige for them.”

A literary contest lasting three full months — Zhang Zhixu had done far more than make a name for himself; he had practically been carried to the heavens by scholars and men of letters, with all manner of praise and embellishment heaped upon him, until people were proclaiming him the reincarnation of the Star of Literature itself.

There was no shortage of people bringing rare and precious gifts, all for the chance to share a single meal with him.

Chen Baoxiang figured that even if he were truly penniless right now, his reputation alone could carry him fed and sheltered across the entire realm of Dasheng.

“Do you want to be taken back?” She wrinkled her nose slightly.

Zhang Zhixu lowered his eyelids: “What does it matter whether I want it or not — blood is thicker than water.”

“If you don’t want it, then don’t go back!” She clapped him on the back with one hand. “Don’t keep making yourself miserable. When they petitioned the Emperor to have you executed back then, they didn’t spare a single thought for family feeling — what gives them the right to demand you come running back now?”

“You are entirely too bound by rules and propriety — that’s why you’re never happy. All that talk of rites, righteousness, benevolence, filial piety, parental commands — you have to look after yourself first. You can be suffering so badly you’re half-dead, and still you rack your brain trying to make everyone else happy. Are you a candle reincarnated or something?”

Zhang Zhixu stood there, jolted by her outburst, blinking in a daze.

“Come on, come on, let’s go home.” She grabbed his arm and gave it a tug, saying breezily: “With me standing guard, let’s see who dares come and bother you.”

He stumbled along after her, disoriented for a good while before a quiet laugh escaped him.

Commissioner Chen was truly rough and unreasonable.

But she protected him more fiercely than anyone else — like a cat with its fur standing on end. Whoever dared reach out toward him, she would go right at them, claws out.

It was very hard not to be moved.

Every single day, he seemed to be moved a little more.

“We agreed to go drink at Zhaixing Tower earlier.” He watched the red ribbon flying from her hair bun and said: “When your commendation comes through, I’ll treat you.”

“All right.” Chen Baoxiang smacked her lips. “I want the most expensive new dishes. Put it all on your tab.”

This time, with the Second Young Master Zhang composing the cipher key himself, he would surely let her eat to her heart’s content.

·

As if timed to coincide with the new menu at Zhaixing Tower, the imperial commendations arrived from the palace before the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Chen Baoxiang’s merits were outstanding: she was bestowed the rank of Second-Grade Military Marquis, concurrently appointed as General Who Guards the Capital, and placed in command of the military forces within Shangjing.

Zhang Zhixu was reinstated to his former position, then transferred laterally from his role as Third-Grade Director of the Bureau of Construction to the Ministry of Justice, as a Third-Grade Minister.

The rest of the meritorious subjects all received generous rewards. Chen Baoxiang went even further, petitioning on behalf of every soldier who had died defending the city: she requested condolence provisions for them all, had a monument to their service erected, with each person’s life story and military achievements recorded in detail, and called for special care to be given to their families.

The expenditure for all this was enormous, and would take considerable time. The Ministry of Revenue pushed and shoved, vaguely suggesting it would be better to keep things simple.

Chen Baoxiang refused to have it. If the Ministry of Revenue wouldn’t provide the funds, she would pay out of her own pocket — she emptied every last bit of the rewards she had just received into it, just barely enough to get the matter properly settled.

The result was that she found herself pinching pennies again, unable to afford more than two dishes for a meal.

Zhang Zhixu said nothing at all; he simply stuffed a bundle of banknotes into her accounts, then dragged her to Zhaixing Tower for a proper feast.

Fragrant glutinous braised pork knuckle, tender and fresh perilla-leaf fish.

Zhang Zhixu quite naturally raised a piece of pork knuckle to his mouth and chewed it down, no longer feeling any sense that pork was lowly.

Chen Baoxiang elegantly raised her chopsticks, picked up a small morsel of cheek-meat from the fish, placed it in her mouth, and put on airs with great ceremony.

The two exchanged a glance, and neither could hold back — they burst out laughing together.

After the wine was drunk and the food was eaten, Chen Baoxiang belatedly realized: “How come your elder brother received no commendation?”

When Li Bingsheng had led his forces into the palace, Zhang Ting’an had taken half the Forbidden Guard with him and distinguished himself in protecting the Emperor — by rights, he should have been rewarded. But thinking back through the whole list of commendations, the name Zhang Ting’an truly was not on it.

“Elder Brother has been ill lately. He won’t even see me. I don’t know what has happened.” Zhang Zhixu said.

The rest of the Zhang Family he could set aside, but Elder Brother was different — he was a little worried about him.

Chen Baoxiang glanced at him, and said, with an air of casualness: “I haven’t seen Yinyue in quite some time. I hear she’s been doing well at the Bureau of Medicine Preparation — we’re heading back anyway, it’s right on the way. Shall we go look in?”

“All right.” The furrow in his brow eased.

They sent no calling card ahead and alerted no one else in the Zhang Family — they simply waited outside the side gate for a short while before being quietly ushered inside by a maidservant from Yinyue’s side.

Chen Baoxiang crept along on careful feet; Zhang Zhixu found himself involuntarily hunching along with her. The two of them inched toward the front hall like a pair of burglars.

“Oh.” Li Bingsheng waved at them without the least surprise. “You’re here?”

Chen Baoxiang: “……”

Zhang Zhixu: “……”

Good heavens — why was His Majesty here?

The two of them took a synchronized step back, and looked up to check the placard hanging over the hall.

“You haven’t gone to the wrong place.” Li Bingsheng waved a hand. “Both of you, come in and sit down.”

Chen Baoxiang felt a touch awkward. She stepped inside and made a straightforward account: “This subject has old ties with the Fourth Young Miss of the Zhang Family — we are close friends — so I came to see how she was doing.”

“What a coincidence.” Li Bingsheng rested her chin in her hand and smiled. “I also have old ties with someone, so I came to see how they were doing.”

Chen Baoxiang turned her head, and saw Zhang Ting’an kneeling below, his face ashen.

This was old ties?

Old grudges seemed more like it.

“Your Majesty, will you permit your humble subject to take Elder Sister Chen for a walk outside?” Zhang Yinyue spoke up, her voice small and tentative.

Li Bingsheng was quite magnanimous, waving a hand: “Go on then. Fengqing, stay.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The two of them darted out of the main hall. Before Chen Baoxiang could even ask anything, Yinyue was already rattling away: “It’s too frightening, too frightening — my elder brother, all these years without taking a wife — it turns out it really was because of her.”

“What?” Chen Baoxiang was thunderstruck.

The social customs of Dasheng were relatively open, and in great houses, the children tended to marry on the later side to begin with — most people only started families after the age of twenty.

But Zhang Ting’an was already thirty-two, and had preferred to take in an adopted son over ever getting married.

Chen Baoxiang had initially assumed he was the sort to devote himself entirely to serving the state with no desire for a family — yet somehow, it turned out to be because of His Majesty?

The two young women huddled in a corner and crouched down to gossip: “Baoxiang-jiejie, did you know — my elder brother was His Majesty’s study companion in childhood.”

“Ah? He’s actually educated?”

“Don’t let the full beard fool you — that’s deliberate on his part. He was quite handsome once, actually. He just didn’t want to go to the Eastern Palace and continue attending on His Majesty, so he grew out his beard and ran off to the frontier.”

“Your elder brother doesn’t like His Majesty?”

“How should I put it.” Yinyue scrunched up her face. “I don’t think it’s that he doesn’t like her — only that, someone like His Majesty… he can’t accept it.”

Chen Baoxiang’s mind flashed to the image of His Majesty draped over various male favorites, and she fell silent.

“My elder brother is fixed in his thinking — he believes that love can only exist between two people, with no room for a third or fourth or fifth or sixth or seventh or eighth. But His Majesty feels that she was lucky enough to be born with power over all under heaven, so what is the point of only ever tasting one flavor — and so they fell out.”

Well, that was… you couldn’t really blame either of them.

Chen Baoxiang rubbed her chin: “So has he come around and yielded to His Majesty now?”

“No.” Yinyue shook her head. “Elder Brother is more stubborn than a donkey — you could break all his bones and he still wouldn’t surrender his principles. It’s His Majesty who came in disguise today, hoping to use the grace of not holding the Zhang Family accountable for their offenses as an inducement to get Elder Brother to reconcile with her.”

“Wow.” Chen Baoxiang marveled.

Yinyue marveled too: “Quite the extraordinary sincerity, isn’t it? But Elder Brother is not pleased — His Majesty just now made a joke about having him enter the rear palace, and he nearly slit his own throat with a blade.”