Lang Caining had come to visit Cui Shi under a pretext, and her true purpose was plain to everyone present. When her gaze kept drifting toward Lang Jiuchuan, even Cui Shi noticed, and gave a quiet cough.

“I’m tired. Jiuchuan, see your third elder sister out on my behalf.”

Lang Jiuchuan rose, gave a proper bow, then looked toward Lang Caining. “Come then. I’ll walk you out.”

“Ah — oh.” Lang Caining got to her feet, first gave Cui Shi a bow of parting, and then followed her out.

Cheng Nanny brought over the gifts Lang Caining had presented and reported: “There is a fifty-year mountain ginseng root among them.”

“The Duke’s household is large and prosperous, but the rules there are strict — I hear it is still Madam Wen who holds the reins of the household. For her to bring out a ginseng of that quality, she must have a particular request.” Cui Shi glanced at it with mild indifference. “Set it aside. She kept looking toward Jiuchuan — she has clearly run into something troublesome.”

“Shall this old servant go to First Madam’s side and make some inquiries?”

Cui Shi shook her head. “No need. I have resolved to eat vegetarian and recite sutras, and will not concern myself with such worldly matters. My health is poor and I am of no use. Besides, what she is seeking is Jiuchuan — and it likely concerns matters of the Daoist arts and the esoteric path, which I understand even less.”

She sighed. “I only hope that Jiuchuan’s path is smooth and safe.”

Lang Jiuchuan’s road was paved with thorns. She could offer no help — only pray for her.

Once outside Qixia Pavilion, Lang Caining spoke to Lang Jiuchuan, somewhat haltingly and hesitatingly: “Ninth younger sister, we sisters have not seen each other for more than a decade. Elder sister wonders — might I come to your room for a cup of tea?”

Lang Jiuchuan gave her a sidelong glance and nodded, leading her to her own study. She had Jian Lan brew tea.

Lang Caining looked around the study. It was simple, the furnishings unpretentious. But the landscape painting hanging on the wall looked as though it were alive, so vivid and real it was. And standing in this study, she felt the tension and exhaustion that had accumulated over these past many days ease away considerably. Her whole body relaxed. She turned again to look at Lang Jiuchuan.

Lang Jiuchuan had made no move to welcome her, but simply stood behind the writing table, taking out yellow talisman paper and grinding cinnabar ink. Then from her seemingly empty hand, a writing brush of markedly extraordinary quality appeared out of nowhere — and Lang Caining’s heart gave an involuntary jump.

She studied Lang Jiuchuan quietly. As she looked, she glanced down at herself, and suddenly felt a faint sense of inadequacy.

Lang Jiuchuan was not a devastating beauty, but her features were lovely and refined. Her pair of phoenix eyes carried a commanding power yet were vivid and clear as limpid water. Her complexion was coldly pale as snow. A young woman in her most radiant years, every gesture carrying an air of noble bearing that was high and unapproachable.

Cool and detached — this younger sister of hers was truly beautiful.

Did those who cultivated the Dao naturally carry such an aura? The Lady Saint was said to be strikingly beautiful, equally high and untouchable — she had glimpsed her from a distance once. But to speak frankly, she still felt that the ninth younger sister before her now was lovelier — the kind of beauty that drew you in the longer you looked.

Lang Jiuchuan suddenly lifted her gaze and looked her way. Lang Caining startled, feeling the awkward embarrassment of having been caught staring, and quickly squeezed out a smile: “Does younger sister still remember me? When you were small, I used to carry you. I used to feed you sweet drinks, right there in our grandmother’s quarters.”

Lang Caining was four years older than Lang Jiuchuan. When Lang Jiuchuan was born, she had been treated coldly by her own mother and was raised in the old matriarch’s household. Lang Caining had often gone to visit, looking in on this poor younger sister whose father had died early and whose mother showed no affection. After Lang Jiuchuan was sent away to the manor estate, they had never seen each other again.

In the blink of an eye, more than a decade had passed. They had both grown up. Lang Caining was now a wife and mother managing a household, her days filled with endless trivial matters, the burden of tending to the children — and on top of all that, the indignity of being wronged.

And yet ninth younger sister — she had gone and cultivated the Dao. Had some extraordinary opportunity come her way?

Lang Caining had heard vague accounts of the matter involving the Rong Family. She had also asked her mother about it, but her mother had been evasive and said only that the Rong Family was a heretical sect, and that every righteous path ought to move against them.

This was her first time seeing Lang Jiuchuan, and she could only marvel at how swiftly time had passed — the sisters who had perhaps been close as young children were now as strangers, with no real bond to speak of.

“I don’t remember.”

“I’m sorry — when grandfather passed, I was with child, and it was not permitted for me to return. I observed mourning from within my husband’s household. And afterward, my husband’s family had some troubles, and my own pregnancy was difficult as well. I was bedridden throughout, which is why I never made it back, and we were never able to meet.” Lang Caining explained.

“It is no matter.” Lang Jiuchuan folded the now-dried talisman paper methodically into a triangular shape and held it out. “Protective talismans. Two — one for each of your children. They will ward off inauspicious forces.”

Lang Caining took them with delighted surprise. “You knew I have two children — oh, did Mother tell you?”

Lang Jiuchuan gave her a somewhat speechless look. This third elder sister of hers — perhaps owing to her birth as the eldest legitimate daughter of the first branch, a genuinely pampered girl who had grown up treasured and beloved — carried a certain open, gracious air. But she was also young enough that her speech still held a kind of foolishly naive quality.

This was someone who had never been through the school of hard knocks. A pampered little darling — but that naïve quality was already beginning to be worn away by the troubles she was carrying.

Lang Jiuchuan held out another slip. “This one is for you to wear. You carry quite a lot of inauspicious energy. If it accumulates over time, you will not only face ill fortune, but fall ill as well. In severe cases, it could prove fatal.”

Lang Caining’s smile froze. “—!”

She silently accepted the talisman. Remarkably, the moment it touched her hand, she felt a deep comfort spread through her — as though the anxiety gnawing at her heart was being gently soothed.

“Ninth younger sister, you truly are a master!” Lang Caining murmured.

Lang Jiuchuan watched as the inauspicious energy around Lang Caining scattered like something that had met its nemesis. “What did you come to seek me for?” she asked.

Lang Caining came back to herself and tucked the talismans carefully into her purse and waistband. She looked at Lang Jiuchuan, eyes urgent with feeling. When she opened her mouth to speak, her eyes had already reddened.

“Ninth younger sister, please help me — do not let elder sister be separated from her own flesh and blood.” As she spoke, she moved as if to kneel.

Lang Jiuchuan frowned. A flick of her fingertip, and Lang Caining found herself unable to kneel. She looked down at her own legs in alarm. Only when Lang Jiuchuan guided her back onto the stool did her legs feel normal again, and she stared at Lang Jiuchuan with involuntary apprehension.

“Speak plainly. Do not kneel. What do you mean by being separated from your flesh and blood — are your children not with you?” Lang Jiuchuan looked at her face. A son and a daughter, a full and blessed fortune in both, and the marriage was harmonious. It was a very good set of features.

Lang Caining’s tears spilled over. “They are now, but I fear they won’t be for long. My mother-in-law wants to take my daughter and send her to my husband’s elder sister to be raised. She says — she’s just a girl child, and she’s not even the legitimate heir, so what does it matter if she’s sent over. Hmph — if she dared send the Duke’s eldest legitimate grandson to another family, my father-in-law and great-grandmother-in-law would swallow her alive.”

She wiped her eyes roughly with her handkerchief. “What does it matter that she’s a girl? Is she not the flesh and blood I carried for ten months? She is a legitimate young miss — a daughter born after I was bedridden until I very nearly gave birth right there on the bed. Her mother-in-law didn’t suffer for her, but I did. On what grounds is she to be sent to live at my husband’s elder sister’s household? How can a daughter count for nothing?”

“The key point!”

“Oh!” Lang Caining choked back a sob and continued: “My husband’s elder sister — she was married nearly six years before she finally bore a precious daughter. But the child was stuck too long in the birth canal, and came out so weak and frail. She lasted only a day before she was gone. Her mother couldn’t accept it. She holds the swaddling clothes every day, saying her child is not dead, saying to give her child back — she’s gone half-mad. My mother-in-law says to send my daughter over and let her raise her, so that she might recover from it. Is this not like carving out my own heart? Her daughter is a treasure; mine is just a weed, no different from dead?”

“And you want me to treat her madness?”

“If you could, it would be the best outcome possible.” Lang Caining sighed. “I’m not without sympathy for her. And I don’t deny the sorrow of it — that child, if she had lived, she would have been born with the destined bearing of imperial greatness.”

Lang Jiuchuan’s brow gave a sudden involuntary twitch. Her gaze sharpened in an instant.

Born with the destined bearing of imperial greatness?