By the time Shen Zhuxi arrived at the town gate, Li Que was already on his third bowl of chilled tea at the roadside stall. Shen Zhuxi also sat down and drank a bowl, rested a while, and then the two of them made their way back together toward the riverside bamboo hut.

Shen Zhuxi used to tire after just a few steps. After several months, she could now walk the distance from the Li home to the town — about one incense stick’s worth of time — without any effort at all. She mentioned this happily to Li Que, and he smiled and said:

“A person’s abilities are drawn out by necessity. Before, no one pushed you, so you had no idea where your limits were.”

Shen Zhuxi felt this deeply. In the months since leaving the palace, she felt that she had grown considerably.

Back at the riverbank, Shen Zhuxi found Li Wu fishing in the shade of a tree by the water’s edge. She was eager to ask him about Li Qingman.

“…Li Qingman?”

Li Wu was leaning against the tree trunk, his face covered by a straw hat. His voice, with its slightly raised pitch, came from beneath the brim.

The next moment, he moved the hat from his face. His sharp gaze went straight to Shen Zhuxi.

“Why are you asking about her?”

His attitude toward Li Qingman was entirely unlike his manner with Jiu Niang and the others. Surprised by the wariness and vigilance in his eyes, Shen Zhuxi said, “I ran into Li Qingman today while I was on my way back from delivering the stationery…”

“…Stay away from her.” Li Wu’s expression showed his displeasure — and it was directed not at Shen Zhuxi in front of him, but at Li Qingman, who was not present. He asked, “Have you ever seen a beehive?”

Shen Zhuxi was thrown off by the seemingly unrelated question. She said blankly, “I have…”

“Li Qingman has more schemes than a beehive has cells.” Li Wu said. “If you get mixed up with her, she’ll sell you off and you’ll end up counting the money for her.”

Shen Zhuxi pushed back with mild indignation: “I’m not that naive…”

“She’s not the type to show goodwill without a reason.” Li Wu looked at her with an all-seeing clarity, as though he had been there himself. “What did she ask you to do?”

Shen Zhuxi had no way to hide it, and could only give him a brief account of what had happened that morning. She naturally left out the specific reason for Sui Rui’s tears, saying only that Wen Youzhi had made some offensive remarks to her.

“Sounds like she was after your body-scenting formula all along.” Li Wu said. “In that case, it’s no great matter — a formula is nothing. If you want to watch this show, I’ll come to town with you tomorrow.”

Shen Zhuxi was thrilled. “Really?”

With Li Wu along, it was naturally far more reassuring than having Li Que or Li Kun beside her. Shen Zhuxi had a strange, inexplicable sense of trust in him — she always felt that even if the sky came crashing down, this remarkable country man of hers would find a way.

“Really.” Li Wu ruffled her hair, and Shen Zhuxi had already forgotten to dodge.

“Sit down — I’ll teach you how to fish.” Li Wu shifted to one side of the stool and made space, gesturing for her to sit.

Shen Zhuxi eyed the narrow space remaining on the stool and hesitated.

“Li Que already taught me fishing.” she said.

“Li Que!” Li Wu called out with a fierce air — even Shen Zhuxi, who knew nothing about fishing, worried he was about to frighten every fish in the river. He, however, seemed entirely unconcerned, and fixed his glare on Li Que, who had just emerged from the bamboo hut. “Sister-in-law says you taught her how to fish?”

Li Que immediately let out a cry of protest.

“Sister-in-law! What I did was not teach you fishing — I’m barely past the beginner stage myself. I hardly have enough to spare for teaching anyone! When it comes to fishing, no one knows more than our Elder Brother!”

“Hmm—” Li Wu nodded with satisfaction. “Did you hear that? Sit down.”

Shen Zhuxi was thoroughly confused — she hadn’t said she wanted to learn how to fish.

Li Wu was being so insistent that she didn’t feel she could refuse, so she said, “Then let me go inside and bring out another stool…”

“Shh!” Li Wu shot her a look, his expression solemn. “Stop your chattering — you’re going to scare all my fish away. I told you to sit down, so sit.”

Shen Zhuxi: “?”

Weren’t they already long since scared off?

With no small amount of reluctance, she sat down on Li Wu’s stool.

The stool was not large to begin with. With each of them perched on half of it, neither was sitting comfortably — and for the life of her, she couldn’t understand why Li Wu had been in such a rush about this, making both of them uncomfortable in the bargain.

And besides —

Shen Zhuxi raised her head and looked at the brilliant sunlight outside the shade of the trees.

There was a source of heat above her head, and another source of heat beside her. Wasn’t he hot?

Li Wu was apparently not hot at all. Shen Zhuxi turned to look at him from the side — this man was wearing a smile, and a rather contented expression at that. Shen Zhuxi admired his devotion to fishing, which apparently allowed him to ignore his surroundings entirely and fish in blissful happiness regardless of conditions.

Li Wu said not a word for quite some time. Shen Zhuxi glanced over at him from time to time, and all she could see was the corners of his mouth curling higher and higher.

…Wasn’t he supposed to be teaching her to fish?

Not a single word — was she meant to have a sudden epiphany on her own?

Shen Zhuxi was puzzled, but afraid that if she spoke she might scare away his fish. So she kept her mouth shut as well. They sat there for a good long while, and Li Wu did not catch a single fish. Although Shen Zhuxi said nothing, she thought to herself: when it came to fishing, wasn’t Li Wu supposed to be the one who knew best? How was it that he’d caught even fewer than Li Que?

With nothing to occupy herself, she gradually began to feel drowsy. Just as she was swaying and on the verge of toppling off the little stool, a sharp shout from Li Wu jolted her awake.

“Who gave you the right to fish in my territory?”

Li Wu stood up abruptly. The half of the stool Shen Zhuxi had been sitting on immediately tilted upward. She was about to fall — and Li Wu caught her in one swift motion.

The moment Shen Zhuxi found her footing, Li Wu shoved the fishing rod into her hand and strode off in long steps toward the lower part of the river.

Two powerfully built men grabbed their buckets and turned to run — but even so, they were no match for Li Wu’s long legs and large strides, and he caught them both squarely. Shen Zhuxi had worried that Li Wu was at a disadvantage facing two men alone — but to her surprise, the two of them immediately offered their apologies without thinking, speaking to him in low, placating tones and explaining something. It was Li Wu who remained completely inflexible.

In the blink of an eye, the buckets the two men had been carrying were in Li Wu’s hands. He turned and walked back at a brisk pace, and poured the fish from the buckets one after another into his own empty wooden bucket.

The two men stood and watched, their faces full of aggrieved frustration.

After clearing their buckets completely, Li Wu handed the empty ones back. “Since you’ve already come all this way, why not stay and fish a little longer before you leave?”

“No, no, no… we’ll be going now…” The two men shook their heads repeatedly, took the empty buckets, and practically fled the scene.

After Li Wu sat back down, he patted the now-vacant half of the stool. Shen Zhuxi’s thoughts had been led so far off track by him that she sat down without thinking too much about it.

“Why did you drive them away?” Shen Zhuxi asked.

“Fishing in my stretch of river costs money. No money, then give fish.” Li Wu said.

“Do you hold the title deed to this land?” Shen Zhuxi was taken aback.

“No.”

Shen Zhuxi blurted out: “Then isn’t that just highway robbery on the river?”

“Mind how you speak.” Li Wu furrowed his brow in displeasure. “This is what I call river management — do you understand?”

She did know a thing or two about river management, but the name Li Wu gave to this kind of “river management” — the more ordinary term for it would be banditry.

Shen Zhuxi could not be bothered to argue with him over two buckets of fish, and went back to staring idly at the motionless fishing line.

Fishing, as it turned out… Li Wu actually did know quite a lot about it.

Without a single earthworm used as bait, his bucket was full.

After a while, Shen Zhuxi suddenly caught sight, with sharp eyes, of a small boy of eight or nine appearing timidly on the opposite bank. He was wearing faded cloth clothes washed to a pale color, covered all over in patches of mismatched fabric. Both his sleeves and trouser legs fell short of his limbs by quite a bit. He had tucked under his arm a simple, makeshift fishing rod assembled from a few branches, and in his hand he carried a small wooden bucket with a notch missing from the rim. His dark, bright eyes met Shen Zhuxi’s gaze and immediately darted away with a guilty flash.

Shen Zhuxi found herself holding her breath on his behalf, dreading the moment Li Wu might notice the child and bring out his so-called “river management” again.

Yet Li Wu did not stir. He simply went on fishing, as untroubled as ever.

“I’ll sleep for a while.” Li Wu said suddenly. He set the straw hat back over his face, still holding the fishing rod in hand, and said with casual indifference, “Wake me if something bites.”

Shen Zhuxi agreed quickly, relieved that his drowsiness had come at such a timely moment.

Seeing Li Wu’s hat go back over his face, the child grew bolder and edged closer to where Li Wu was sitting, bucket in hand. Noticing that Shen Zhuxi showed no sign of driving him away, he cautiously set the bucket down. Shen Zhuxi watched as the boy worked with difficulty to thread a small black grub onto the hook made from a sliver of bamboo, then flung the line with effort into the water.

Those thin, bony arms tugged at Shen Zhuxi’s heart. She even took it upon herself to keep watch for him, glancing over from time to time to check whether the sleeping Li Wu had opened his eyes.

Thankfully, the boy pulled up four fish one after another, and Li Wu remained completely still throughout.

Before leaving with his bucket, the boy hesitated, then looked over at Shen Zhuxi on the opposite bank and bent at the waist in a bow. Then he turned and sprinted barefoot into the trees, vanishing in an instant.

Shen Zhuxi could not help but smile.

“What are you smiling about like that?” Li Wu pulled down the straw hat, sat up straight again.

“I’m smiling because… the weather is so nice today.”

Li Wu said quietly, “Little fool.”

“And there you go calling people names again!”

“What do you want for dinner? Fish soup? Fish porridge? Steamed fish? Fried fish? Braised fish?”

Li Wu rattled off a long list of preparations, drawing Shen Zhuxi’s attention entirely away. She deliberated for quite some time, and at last made up her mind:

“Fried fish!”

“Fried fish it is.”

Li Wu reeled in the fishing rod and pulled Shen Zhuxi to her feet. Holding the fishing rod — earthworm still attached — in one hand and hefting the full-to-the-brim water bucket in the other, he hummed a little tune and made his way home, richly rewarded.

……

The following day, Li Wu made good on his word and brought Shen Zhuxi into town.

The two of them settled at a chilled-tea stall in the market. Li Wu ordered a pot of tea and two small plates of snacks and sat with a relaxed expression. Shen Zhuxi, meanwhile, kept looking this way and that, unable to sit still for a moment.

She said with a worried look, “Shouldn’t we look around? What if we miss it?”

Li Wu picked up a piece of fried wonton from the plate, tossed it upward, and caught it neatly in his mouth, chewing with a satisfying crunch. He said without concern, “Since she invited you to watch, she won’t let you miss the stage.”

Before long, Sui Rui — whom Shen Zhuxi had invited on the pretext of sharing breakfast — arrived as well. She pulled out the stool across from Shen Zhuxi and sat down, then looked at Li Wu with an unhappy expression. “Why are you here too?”

“Can the one paying not be here?” Li Wu said.

“I’ll pay — you can leave.” Sui Rui said.

“There’s a saying that husband and wife are one — do you really want her to leave with me?”

Sui Rui was stumped. After a moment, she said sourly, “Li Wu, you should be thanking heaven for giving you such a good wife.”

Li Wu replied without a moment’s hesitation, “I’m grateful every single day.”

Sui Rui fell silent and began eating the fried wontons one by one. Watching as the friction between the two of them dissolved, Shen Zhuxi let out a quiet breath of relief. She had been half-afraid they were going to part on bad terms again.

“I—”

Shen Zhuxi was just about to speak to lighten the mood when a sudden commotion in the busy street cut her off mid-sentence.

A richly dressed young man in brocade robes and a gold-crowned headpiece, trailing five or six attendants behind him, was furiously chasing after and beating a long-robed young scholar who was scrambling away in a wretched state.

That battered and bruised figure — was that not Wen Youzhi himself, the very man who said one thing to a person’s face and another behind their back, who had been so free with his cruel words about Sui Rui?

“What on earth—” Sui Rui stared wide-eyed, and on instinct rose from her seat.

“Sui the Elder — if you want to step in for someone, you’d do well to find out why he’s being beaten first.” Li Wu said, picking up his teacup in perfect timing.

“Is this your doing?” Sui Rui looked at him with irritation.

“Take a look at who’s doing the beating. Do I have the kind of pull to order around a few street thugs — let alone the magistrate’s son?” Li Wu said.

Sui Rui looked more closely at the young man in brocade and fell into a chastened silence.

“Hey, you — come here.” Li Wu casually reached out and stopped a passer-by who was watching the scene with undisguised relish. “Do you know why Wen Youzhi is being beaten?”

“Of course I do — it’s all over town—” the passer-by said with gleeful schadenfreude. “That Wen Youzhi wanted to court Miss Qingman, and a letter he wrote fell into the hands of the magistrate’s son before it was ever delivered. And who is Miss Qingman? She’s from an official family — just one that fell on hard times. A toad trying to eat a swan’s flesh — and the swan that the magistrate’s son has his eye on, at that. What did he expect would happen?”

Sui Rui bit down on her lip and slowly sat back down.

“Eat up — why have you stopped?” Li Wu popped another wonton into his mouth with a carefree air. “Sui the Elder, chances to take advantage of me don’t come around often — are you sure you’re done?”

The dark clouds gradually cleared from Sui Rui’s expression, and she returned to her usual manner: bold and unconstrained, utterly at ease.

She smacked her palm down on the table with a bang and called out loud: “Boss — ten more plates of fried wontons!”