Shi Youtian was swarthy and dark-skinned — one look at him told you he was a man of the fields.

He stacked the firewood in neat rows, and when the job was done, he wiped the sweat from his brow and went to collect his payment.

The kitchen matrons and the rough maids inside were busy looking over the braided cords he had brought, picking and choosing until they had bought every last one. A fistful of copper coins went straight into Shi Youtian’s pouch.

As he was about to leave, one of the maids said to him: “The braided cords from your household are well made — only the silk thread you use is too coarse. If you switched to better thread, I’d speak to the girls in the rooms about it, and everyone would buy.”

This maid was dressed far more nicely than the kitchen staff — she was not one of the kitchen maids but had only come to collect something, happened to be there, and had picked out a couple of cords to buy. But being a refined maid, she found the thread quality lacking.

Shi Youtian did not know much about such things. Scratching his head, he said: “I’ll go home and talk it over with the wife — see what thread to switch to.”

The maid praised him: “Your wife has nimble fingers.”

Shi Youtian grinned wide and said: “She can also embroider handkerchiefs — she’s very skilled at it. If the young ladies have any embroidery work they need done, they can come to me.”

The maid said: “Then I’ll need to see a sample first. Bring something she’s already embroidered, and I’ll have a look.”

“All right, all right,” Shi Youtian said. “Only I’m not sure how to find you, Miss, when the time comes.”

He was clearly much older than this maid, yet he stood hunched and nodding and called her “Miss” — after all, this was the Princess’s residence, and he was no more than a woodcutter selling firewood.

The maid said: “Next time you come, ask them to go inside and call for me — I’m called Ping’er.”

After Shi Youtian left, the snacks Ping’er had come for were just finishing baking. The kitchen staff were arranging them neatly in food boxes one by one.

Ping’er watched them work and said idly: “That rough fellow — yet his wife is nimble-fingered and makes such pretty braided cords.”

Someone said: “His wife is quite plain-looking.”

But another said: “Not plain at all — she’s a beauty.”

Ping’er said: “Look at you — can’t even agree on beautiful or plain? Which is it?”

Someone from the kitchen said with a sigh of pity: “Half her face is beautiful.”

Ping’er looked puzzled. “How can only half a face be beautiful?”

The kitchen person said: “The other half was burned. Quite frightening to look at.”

Ping’er clicked her tongue. “Ah, I see.”

The snacks were ready, and Ping’er carried the food box back to her courtyard.

The courtyard was in a bustle, and someone scolded her: “What took you so long just to fetch snacks? You must have been slacking!”

Ping’er felt wronged. “The snacks came out of the oven late.”

Ping’er was merely a rough maid in the courtyard, with no access to the rooms. She handed the food box to the senior maids who could enter, and in the moment the door opened and closed she caught a glimpse of the busy activity inside. She turned back and asked her companions: “What’s going on in there?”

Her companion said: “Her Highness is taking the Nineteenth Young Lady out on the streets — they’re getting ready.”

As they spoke, Her Highness the Princess came out holding the Nineteenth Young Lady by the hand.

Both sisters were beautiful, but Her Highness the Princess was exceptionally so. Ping’er thought of the kitchen staff’s mention of the woodcutter’s wife, and thought to herself: in our Princess’s residence, how dare anyone use the word “beauty.”

The month was now nearly at its end, and today the kitchen steward had also settled the month’s firewood payment for Shi Youtian. His pouch was now full of copper coins, and he felt a warm, solid satisfaction.

On that day when the princess of the former dynasty had made her return to the capital, he had watched the spectacle, and then gone looking for a place to sell his firewood. He saw many people being brought into a certain residence, and on inquiry found that the former princess had been enfeoffed by the new dynasty as a princess as well, and that this residence had been granted to her as a princess’s manor.

Shi Youtian’s mind had sparked with an idea, and he went at once to the back gate to ask whether firewood was needed. His instinct had been right — the household had suddenly taken in a great many people, and the demand for firewood had shot up all at once. The kitchen steward had immediately arranged a monthly agreement with him, firewood delivered daily.

The braided cords his wife made had originally been sold at a street stall; with this new opportunity, he brought them to the Princess’s residence instead, where they sold far faster than on the street.

After leaving the back gate of the Princess’s residence, Shi Youtian shouldered his empty carrying pole and hummed a rustic folk tune. He had barely walked out of Chongren Ward onto the main road when a procession rolled past before him with a rumble and a clatter. He came to the Princess’s residence often enough to recognize the Princess’s insignia on the carriage. The horsewomen and guards riding behind it were quite a grand sight.

He marveled for a moment at all that wealth and splendor, quickened his pace, and headed home.

Shi Youtian’s home was outside the city, in the village of Da Liushu — the Great Willow Tree Village. Because it lay close to the city, it had been hit hard in the years of warfare, and more than half its dwellings had been left empty. The villagers now were mostly outsiders who had settled there afterwards.

Once the capital had settled into peace, the local authorities had registered the population. After the registration was complete, Shi Youtian was properly established as a resident of Da Liushu Village, outside Yunjing.

He arrived home and called out: “Yin’er, I’m back.”

His wife came out from inside: “Home so early — have you had your midday meal?”

“Not yet.” Shi Youtian took out the flatbread from his chest that he had been saving for lunch. “Warm it up and we can eat.”

Yin’er moved to take it from him, but Shi Youtian would not let her. “I’ll do it. Don’t you touch it.”

When his wife had first come to him, she could not start a fire, could not boil water — which told him that though she had fallen on hard times, she had clearly once known fine living, possibly a maid in some wealthy household.

So he had been unwilling to make her do such rough work as tending the stove and cooking. With her time free, his wife would take up silk thread and braid cords. He saw they were very pretty, and suggested they could be sold for money.

Yet things like selling goods for money were also completely unfamiliar to his wife.

Shi Youtian then realized he had underestimated her. Maids earned monthly wages working in wealthy households — they would have no understanding of earning money by selling things themselves. This wife of his could well be some great household’s daughter, not a maid at all.

Later, when he discovered she could even read, he became even more certain of it.

Shi Youtian went into the kitchen to tend the fire and start the meal. Yin’er sat beside the stove in the firelight, braiding her cords, and asked him: “How did the selling go?”

Shi Youtian said cheerfully: “Sold everything. Oh, and there’s a refined maid there who says she wants better quality silk thread — she’ll buy if we use better thread. Next time take you into the city and you can go look at what thread to buy. I don’t know anything about this.”

Yin’er said: “All right.”

Shi Youtian said: “Today I saw the Princess’s carriage again. The Princess wasn’t riding horseback today. I still think the Princess looks best on horseback.”

Yin’er lifted her head. Those dark, dark pupils of hers reflected the firelight glowing in the stove. On that day the Princess had made her return to the capital, she too had gone to watch. The image of that princess riding in on a tall, magnificent horse to enter the city — everyone who had witnessed it could never forget it.

A look of fond remembrance crossed Yin’er’s face, and she smiled softly: “You’re right. Her on horseback — that is the most beautiful.”

Shi Youtian turned to look at her.

One side of her cheek bore large, grotesque burn scars. The other side was fair and smooth as snow, her brows and eyes exquisite.

Shi Youtian gazed at her and smiled: “You’re beautiful too.”

Xie Yuzhang was taking Jia You out, so she did not ride horseback, but went by carriage.

In the palace, the imperial sons and daughters only began learning the arts of driving a carriage at the age of ten — Jia You certainly had not learned to ride. Xie Yuzhang sat in the carriage and told her: “Let’s take the carriage first for now. Later, your sister will teach you to ride. When the weather is fine, we’ll take Yaya and go sightseeing, go hunting.”

Xie Yuzhang had already noticed that Jia You would have small emotional reactions to certain people or words — for example, “Fuchun” and “sister,” and now Yaya had been added to that list.

As expected, a subtle stir moved through Jia You’s eyes.

Xie Yuzhang smiled faintly, then lifted the curtain of the carriage window. “Have a look outside — this is Chongren Ward, where we live. The neighbor to the east is the Minister of Honglu Temple. The residence to the west is empty — it fell on hard times and no one lives there…”

She narrated as they went.

Jia You’s eyes looked out, and a different kind of light gradually came into them.

When they entered the Eastern Market, Jia You saw for the first time so many people walking freely about in the open like this. Her eyes widened as she looked carefully.

Xie Yuzhang explained: “That is a food stall — a place to eat. That is a tavern — a place to drink. That is a medicine hall; there is a physician inside who sees patients and prescribes medicine…”

The shops stood row upon row without gap, and Jia You’s eyes were not enough to take them all in.

The carriage stopped in front of a shop. Xie Yuzhang helped Jia You down, looked up at the shop’s plaque, and sighed: “The Eastern Market has become so desolate.”

Jia You’s eyes were wide.

She had never seen this many people, this many shops pressed one against the next, and Xie Yuzhang was calling it desolate.

The shop proprietor had spotted the fine jade-green-canopied carriage stopped at his door, and was already lifting the hem of his robe to come out and greet them. He heard this remark as he stepped over the threshold and bowed: “Your Highness is right — compared to before… there is no comparison. But set against the past two years, it is already much improved.”

Xie Yuzhang smiled and said: “You recognize me?”

The proprietor smiled as well and said: “Who in all of Yunjing doesn’t know you, Your Highness?” He added: “Though I am a different case — I am not one of those newly arrived outsiders. I am an old Yunjing native, and I saw Your Highness before, in the old days.”

“Ah yes,” Xie Yuzhang said. “I used to come browsing here often. I saw your shop’s plaque just now and thought it looked familiar.”

“Indeed, indeed,” the proprietor said. “Your Highness was still quite young then — I was only a shop assistant, too ignorant to know my place, and I rashly offered Your Highness tea; Your Highness’s maid wouldn’t let you drink it.”

Xie Yuzhang then knew this was someone who had truly seen her before.

All the former splendor and refinement felt like a dream now. She smiled: “If you offered me tea now, I would certainly drink it.”

So saying, she took Jia You by the hand and walked inside, explaining: “This is a cloth shop — the fabric for our clothing is sold here.”

The treasury storerooms of Princess Yongning’s residence were still stacked with bolts of fabric gifted by the Emperor and the Noble Consort — there was no need at all to buy more from outside. Xie Yuzhang was simply using something that young women would find interesting as a way to lead Jia You into knowing this world.

This was all something that should have happened at the age of nine or ten.

But at least, in this lifetime, Jia You was still here. And as long as a person is still here, there is no moment too late to show her this world, to let her discover Yunjing.

The Princess returned from the steppe was a figure of legend. The fact that she had spoken with him today filled the proprietor with joy, and he had all the best bolts of fabric in the shop brought out. “These are just arrived from the south. Southern goods are not easy to come by these days.”

Xie Yuzhang then browsed with Jia You in tow, and whatever Jia You lingered over for even a moment longer, she took. The tea the proprietor brought out, she drank.

She told the proprietor: “Send it to my residence.”

Wealthy ladies of rank did not settle their bills on the street — the shop delivered everything to the residence, and the household steward would come to pay.

The proprietor had done a fine piece of business and was beaming with joy. He was in the middle of heaping praise on Xie Yuzhang when another carriage pulled up at the door, and a bold, striking young noblewoman stepped down with a maid’s hand for support and walked in.

Xie Yuzhang looked up, and suddenly smiled —

Zhang Fen. Well, well. What a pleasant surprise.