Steamed buns were tolerable in small amounts, but as a staple meal, Shen Zhuxi could barely swallow more than a couple of bites before they stopped going down.

The three Li brothers, by contrast, each had a bun slathered with fermented tofu. Li Diao’er had two — one in each hand, attacking them from both sides, eating heartily in great mouthfuls.

“You should eat it,” Shen Zhuxi said, handing her bun — missing one bite — to Li Wu. He didn’t take it, just gave her a look. “You’re eating so little?”

“My appetite has always been small,” Shen Zhuxi said dismissively.

After the buns, the three brothers went back to work in the back courtyard. Li Que crouched at the wall, spreading mud over the mud-and-timber structure, and asked between strokes, “Big Brother, Little Sister Shen ate so little — could it be she’s not used to steamed buns?”

Li Wu was quiet for a moment before saying, “She’s always eaten little. She’s not used to anything.”

Li Que said, “Little Sister Shen came from the palace, so it’s understandable. Big Brother should be a bit gentler with her if you want to win her over.”

“How much more gentle am I supposed to be?” Li Wu said, frowning.

Li Que flung a wad of mud against the wall and scraped it flat with a tile fragment. He sighed. “Big Brother is just like this — no idea how to understand a woman’s heart.”

“Troublesome, troublesome,” muttered Li Diao’er, sweating through his labors beside them. “Women are troublesome.”

Li Que cut him a look and said, “It’s not you taking a wife — this trouble doesn’t fall on you.”

Li Wu opened several of the burlap sacks nearby, revealing tidy stacks of roof tiles inside. Li Que saw them and startled. “Big Brother, you’re using roof tiles?”

In the countryside, the poor used thatched grass for roofing. Thatch cost nothing — there was plenty of it in the fields. Once the top layer rotted, you tossed it out and re-thatched. It wasn’t much trouble, and it saved a considerable sum in tile costs.

Even many main halls had thatched roofs. To say nothing of an outhouse. Li Wu’s decision was truly unexpected —

Just look around the town: outside the county magistrate’s estate, who in all of Yutou Town used roof tiles for a privy?

“Get it done right from the start. Otherwise she’ll see it and nag at me again.”

Li Wu knitted his brow and grumbled as though he had no choice in the matter.

Li Que pressed his lips together to hide a smile, and said nothing to expose his poor excuse.

The three of them talked as they worked, hands never stopping, and before long the rough shell of a new room had taken shape.

Li Wu looked up at the sun, which was already blazing mercilessly, and stood. “Take a break, everyone. We’ll continue once the sun drops.”

Li Que set down his tools. Li Diao’er, however, kept at it stubbornly. When Li Wu told him to rest, he broke into a simpleminded grin and said, “Little Brother’s not tired. Big Brother can rest.”

Li Wu looked at Li Que. “Keep an eye on him.”

“Leave it to me, Big Brother,” Li Que said with a smile.

Only then did Li Wu walk toward the front courtyard. He had only gone a few steps when he hesitated and stopped. After a moment’s thought, he turned and went to the small water vat beside the latrine, scooped up water, and thoroughly cleaned his filthy hands — working into even the mud-packed spaces under his fingernails — until not a trace of dirt remained. Then he shook the water from his hands and walked toward the front courtyard.

That silly girl wasn’t in the courtyard. Li Wu went into the main hall and found no sign of her either. He stood before the bamboo curtain and called through it, “Shen Zhuxi?”

Not a sound from behind the curtain. He pulled it aside and looked — the room was empty. Not a soul.

Li Wu’s temples began to throb. Had this madwoman run off again?

A nameless fury rose in him. With a dark expression, he strode out of the main hall — and startled the person who had just been stepping in.

Li Wu looked at her. “Where did you go? Why didn’t you say something before leaving?”

“I was right outside the front gate — who was I supposed to tell?” Shen Zhuxi said, puzzled.

The words right outside the front gate did a great deal to soothe Li Wu’s irritation. His brow smoothed out, and his gaze dropped to the clay dish she was holding.

“What’s that?”

“There’s not so much as a flower vase in this house — I won’t have anywhere to put flowers later. I looked around for a while, and this clay dish was the only thing that could work.” Shen Zhuxi said as she walked to the square table, setting the moisture-filled clay dish — heaped with small white flowers — at its center. “The white blossoms by the gate had fallen all over the ground. It seemed a shame to just let them rot in the mud, so I thought I’d collect the clean ones and use them as a little decoration.”

“…We didn’t have one because there was no use for it before,” Li Wu said. “If you want one, just buy it.”

Shen Zhuxi brightened. “I wonder if this town carries Ding ware porcelain. Ding ware white porcelain is the most beautiful.”

Li Wu had no idea what Ding ware was, but this did nothing to prevent him from understanding that whatever she wanted was almost certainly something Yutou County didn’t have.

“Go have a look around town and you’ll find out,” he said.

Shen Zhuxi’s eyes lit up first, then dimmed.

“But…”

Li Wu knew what she was worried about. “When I’m home, I’ll go with you. When I’m not, Li Diao’er will go with you.”

“Wonderful!”

The silly girl’s expression brightened visibly before his eyes, and she looked up at him with an unguarded smile — her almond-shaped eyes sparkling, warm and luminous.

“What are you thinking about?” Shen Zhuxi asked.

Li Wu came to his senses. She was blinking up at him with wide, innocent, bright eyes, her dark lashes long and curled, fluttering in a way that made his heart stir uneasily.

Li Wu grasped for something to say. “Are you wearing rouge?”

Shen Zhuxi blinked. “No?”

“Then why are your cheeks pink?”

“…Are they?” Shen Zhuxi reached up to touch her own face, looking completely at a loss.

Seeing that she had already forgotten what she had been asking a moment ago, Li Wu said, “The wedding date has been set. The nearest auspicious day is the fifth of next month. The house is missing whatever it’s missing — find a time to go to the market and buy what you need. I’ll have Li Diao’er go with you. He can carry things.”

Shen Zhuxi nodded.

Li Wu walked to the reed mat in the corner of the main hall, dropped himself down, and promptly sprawled out in whatever position he pleased — long arms and long legs flung as comfortably as he wished — entirely unbothered by the fact that Shen Zhuxi was still in the room.

“I’m going to sleep for a bit. Wake me when the sun’s moved lower,” he said, draping his arm over his eyes to block the harsh light coming through the doorway.

“Understood.”

The spring sun was already showing its force. Shen Zhuxi had meant to wait until the sun had shifted before waking him, but it turned out he woke on his own. Li Wu sat up on the reed mat, gazed at her in a half-dazed way for a moment, then went back to work in the back courtyard.

The three brothers were fast workers — especially Li Diao’er, with his prodigious strength. In the space of a single day, a rough room of mud and timber was standing in the back courtyard.

It was a bit rough looking, but Shen Zhuxi had no other complaints. In fact, the room was larger than she had imagined. She had half-expected Li Wu to take the easy way out and give her a box barely big enough to turn around in!

She stood before the newly built room and asked happily, “Is this the bathroom or the privy?”

“Both,” Li Wu said.

Shen Zhuxi’s smile froze on her face. “What?”

“When you’re using the chamber pot, it’s a privy. When you’re using the bathing basin, it’s a bathroom,” Li Wu said with complete self-assurance. “Is there a problem?”

There most certainly was a problem!

Shen Zhuxi said, “You promised me a bathroom and a privy!”

“Exactly — a bathroom and a privy. Both are right in front of you,” Li Wu said. “All that’s missing is the chamber pot and the bathing basin. Go buy those yourself when you’re in town. And one more thing — you empty the chamber pot yourself, into the latrine.”

Shen Zhuxi stared at him in utter disbelief.

Li Wu said, “Emptying a chamber pot — surely you’re not going to fall into the cesspit doing that?”

A scoundrel! An utter scoundrel! Shen Zhuxi refused to speak to him!

It wasn’t quite what she had envisioned, but at the very least, she would now be able to bathe and relieve herself under a proper roof.

That evening, Shen Zhuxi shared supper with the three brothers. In the palace, she had always eaten alone. Even when she invited Yu Sha to join her, Yu Sha would always gently decline. The Li brothers were nothing like that — seated before her, every one of them entirely at ease: Li Wu with his long limbs sprawled wide, occupying a whole side of the table like a lord at leisure; Li Diao’er with a large bun in his left hand and a bowl of steaming hot braised offal soup in his right, tilting his head back and slurping loudly; Li Que eating and chatting away, gossiping about this household and that.

None of this was anything like the upbringing Shen Zhuxi had received — these three men represented precisely the sort of people her education had taught her to look down upon. And yet, the longer she spent in their company, the more that contempt faded.

The people she had known in the palace were either vastly learned or models of feminine virtue. They were all accomplished, but Shen Zhuxi had never felt as at ease with any of them as she did now.

“What are you staring at? Eat up,” Li Wu said, picking up a chopstick-full of stir-fried bamboo shoots and dropping them into her bowl.

Shen Zhuxi minded that he hadn’t used the serving chopsticks, but in the end, she put the bamboo shoots in her mouth.

“So fresh!” she said in surprise.

“Of course,” Li Wu said, looking rather pleased with himself. “Who do you think went up the mountain at the crack of dawn to dig these?”

“You dug them yourself?” Shen Zhuxi said, astonished.

Li Wu coughed for some inexplicable reason, looked away, and said irritably, “If it’s good, just eat it. Why all these questions? What do you want next — the bamboo shoot’s family tree?”

Shen Zhuxi had grown accustomed to this man never having a decent word to say. Whenever he was like this, she told herself not to stoop to his level.

“Little Sister Shen, may I discuss something with you?” Li Que said suddenly.

Compared to his big brother, Li Que’s way of speaking was an absolute pleasure. They were both Li family men — how was it that one spoke nothing but nonsense while the other spoke nothing but charming words?

“Second Brother and I were originally nobody — no names to speak of. Later, because I talk a lot and fast, and because Second Brother is bigger than most people, folks took to calling me Sparrow and Second Brother Eagle. Those weren’t good names, so Big Brother had us take his surname, and started calling us Que’er and Diao’er.”

“I see,” Shen Zhuxi said, surprised.

“I know Little Sister Shen is an educated woman — could I trouble you to give us proper names?”

Shen Zhuxi felt a genuine sympathy for these two men who had been given names as carelessly as one names a stray, and asked, “What kind of names would you like?”

Before Li Que could answer, Li Diao’er spoke first.

“Brothers’ names!”

Shen Zhuxi didn’t quite follow. Li Que explained: “We want names that sound like they belong to the same family as Big Brother.”

A simple enough request. Shen Zhuxi began to think about Li Wu’s name.

The character wu — meaning “wild duck” — was not exactly an auspicious word. Wu generally referred to a common duck; phrases like flocking like wild ducks or reaching for the sky on wild duck wings carried no flattering connotations. If one were to stretch for a positive meaning, there was wu xing — to move with swift speed. Who had given Li Wu his name? The character was uncommon — why had they chosen it?

She considered for a while, then said to Li Que: “Wu is a bird, and your original name was Sparrow. Why not call you Li Que? The que of the magpie — hearing the magpie’s call brings good tidings. And que qi means to rise and flourish — signifying a bright and far-reaching future.”

“Perfect!” His eyes lit up, his face full of joy. “From now on I am Li Que! Li Que hereby thanks Little Sister Shen for the gift of a name!”

“What about me? Me, me?” Li Diao’er cried impatiently.

“The eagle is large, but it is not the largest. From this day forward, you might as well be called Li Kun. The Roc is the greatest bird in all the world — the Roc soars on Kun’s journey, born extraordinary from the very start.”

“All birds, all birds…” Li Kun didn’t quite grasp what she was saying, but clapped his hands and laughed all the same. “Yes! I like it!”

Both brothers were overjoyed, and their happiness was infectious — Shen Zhuxi found herself smiling along with them.

Li Wu raised his half-bowl of meat broth toward her.

“What is it?” Shen Zhuxi didn’t understand.

“Raise your bowl,” Li Wu said.

Shen Zhuxi did as she was told. Li Wu’s bowl met hers lightly at the rim, and a clear, crisp ring sounded from the two edges coming together.

He drained his bowl of meat broth in one go, and a look of quiet feeling swept briefly across his face.

“…Thank you.”