The next day, the academy held classes as usual.
After the midday meal, the group walked back to the dormitory together. They had barely sat down when Liu Bingyu latched onto Qin Yao with a string of questions.
Qin Yao knew she could no longer conceal the truth, and so she gave a thorough account of her background as a Daoist, leaving nothing out.
“No wonder you were so capable in a fight that time we were attacked at Dayin Temple.” Wang Yingning sighed with admiration — the incident at Dayin Temple remained vivid in her memory to this day.
Liu Bingyu, however, kept pressing Qin Yao relentlessly: “Does your Qingyun Monastery take in many disciples? Was that young Daoist boy from yesterday your senior brother?”
“Our master has only ever taken two disciples in total.” Qin Yao thought back to Liu Bingyu’s behavior the day before and gave her another strange look. “One is me, and the other is my senior brother.”
Upon hearing this, Liu Bingyu tilted her head and snapped out of her daze. She looked up to find Qin Yao watching her with that odd expression, and her face flushed red. Afraid that Qin Yao might notice something, she did not dare say another word.
That afternoon was music and performing arts class. By the time the lesson was due to begin, all the students had taken their seats — all except Kang Ping.
Master Xiuyun had always been especially accommodating of Kang Ping’s pace; she would never begin the lesson without her. The young women did not dare complain, and so they sat patiently and waited.
After nearly half an incense stick’s worth of time, Princess Kang Ping finally sauntered in, and beside her was a girl of about fourteen or fifteen with her hair tied in two buns.
This girl was remarkably pretty, with a pair of eyes that were extraordinarily bright and lively. Upon entering the room, she swept her gaze around at everyone in a quick, darting circle. When her eyes landed on Qin Yao, a faint smile immediately curved her lips, and she gave her a conspiratorial wink.
Qin Yao’s mind went blank with a jolt. It truly was Feng Chuyue.
Having exchanged a covert greeting with Qin Yao, Feng Chuyue turned her head to find that Kang Ping had already walked ahead on her own. She quickly followed and stood at her side, lowering her head and arranging herself into the picture of gentle, well-behaved propriety.
The sudden appearance of a new girl beside the princess caught the other students off guard. They exchanged glances at first, and then several of the sharper ones caught on — this young woman was most likely the Miss Feng who had been the talk of the academy for the past few days.
While they were still quietly speculating, several female officials escorted the wife of the Duke of Lu into the room.
The young women hurried to rise and pay their respects, and Master Xiuyun quickly came out from behind her desk to receive her.
The wife of the Duke of Lu gestured for everyone to be at ease and said in a composed tone, “Our academy has a new classmate joining us today. Her family name is Feng, her given name is Chuyue, and she is the younger sister of Magistrate Feng of the Court of Judicial Review. From now on, she will be studying here alongside all of you. I trust you will take this opportunity today to become acquainted with one another, so that you may get along well in the future.”
An undercurrent of agitation rippled through the students. They had assumed this Miss Feng must be someone of extraordinary background — but she turned out to be nothing more than the sister of a minor judicial magistrate. They could not help but look Feng Chuyue over with undisguised curiosity and scrutiny. Had it not been for the considerable authority the Duchess of Lu commanded, they would have broken into open and lively discussion on the spot.
Through it all, Feng Chuyue bore the weight of their complicated gazes with a steady, amiable smile on her face.
The Duchess of Lu had said her piece and her duty was done. Without a single superfluous word, she was escorted back out by the female officials.
Qin Yao looked up and noticed something she had not caught before: the female official Lu, who had previously held the second position in the procession, had now been moved to the very last place. She was separated from the Duchess of Lu by several of the other officials and could not possibly get close enough to exchange a word with her. Moreover, she kept her eyes cast downward the entire time, her expression restrained and subdued — utterly unlike the disdainful, above-it-all demeanor she had previously displayed. She was like an entirely different person.
When class began, Feng Chuyue’s seat was arranged next to Princess Kang Ping’s. She had barely sat down when someone who had evidently been instructed beforehand set a brand-new guqin in front of her.
Feng Chuyue appeared to know nothing of music theory, and she clearly felt a degree of helpless uncertainty when faced with that lacquered, gleaming instrument.
But unlike Kang Ping’s completely casual and careless attitude, Feng Chuyue listened to the lesson with intense concentration, not permitting herself to relax for a single moment. Her posture was upright and alert, and her eyes followed Master Xiuyun’s every movement, as though she were committing each and every word she said to memory.
When class let out, Qin Yao and Wang Yingning and the others were about to head back to the dormitory when Feng Chuyue came running after her and called out, “A’Yao.”
Qin Yao stopped and greeted her in return. “Chuyue.”
Feng Chuyue’s cheeks were rosy and her eyes were bright as stars. She took Qin Yao by the hand and said with a smile, “A’Yao, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you! These past weeks I went to your family’s residence looking for you several times, but you were either here at the academy studying or off at Qingyun Monastery. I thought that since you were almost never home, we would end up seeing each other less and less — but it turns out I’ve been admitted to the academy too, so now we’ll be able to meet all the time.”
Though she tried her best to conceal it, the brightness in her eyes betrayed a barely suppressed excitement, and she forgot to keep her voice down. The moment she opened her mouth, several passing classmates turned their heads to look.
Qin Yao had always held a great deal of admiration for Feng Chuyue. She knew the girl was prone to acting in unexpected ways and had a talent for seizing opportunities — whenever she set her sights on something, there was very little she would not go out of her way to pursue. Yet despite all this, Qin Yao remained genuinely baffled as to how Feng Chuyue had managed to get in through Princess Kang Ping’s connections, and thereby gain entry to the academy. She could not shake the feeling that Kang Ping was not the sort of person who could be easily won over — if she were, then given the emperor’s indulgence of her, the line of people trying to ingratiate themselves with her over the years would probably have stretched all the way from Chang’an to Youzhou.
There had to be some mechanism at work that Qin Yao had not yet worked out.
She thought about it for a moment, then, seeing that Feng Chuyue was still looking at her, she smiled back warmly. “It really has been a long time. Now that we’re classmates, we’ll naturally have plenty of chances to see each other. Elder Brother Feng must be pleased to know you’ve entered the academy.”
The smile on Feng Chuyue’s face stiffened slightly. After a long pause, she smiled back with a touch of effort. “Big brother, he… is naturally pleased.”
Qin Yao found that reaction strange. She suddenly recalled that the Feng siblings were entirely different in temperament, and not everything Feng Chuyue did necessarily had Feng Boyu’s approval beforehand — like the time Chuyue had slipped out at night to go to Qin Cheng, which had nearly caused Elder Brother Feng to spit blood from fury. Could it be that this time too, Feng Chuyue had acted first and sought approval later?
She was still mulling this over when Kang Ping came over, flanked by Chen Yuqi and Xia Yuan. Catching sight of Feng Chuyue talking to Qin Yao and the others, she smiled pleasantly and beckoned to her. “Chuyue, let’s go to the garden to play.”
The way she said “Chuyue” was warmly familiar — notably without the full name and surname — and without the slightest trace of affectation, she made her fondness for Feng Chuyue perfectly clear to all present.
A moment of silence fell over the group. Nearby, several classmates who had previously been regarding Feng Chuyue with a degree of scrutiny and disdain all visibly shrank back upon seeing this.
Feng Chuyue cheerfully called out her agreement, abandoned Qin Yao without a second glance, and walked off with Princess Kang Ping.
Pei Min watched the figures of the departing group and suddenly said, “I have a suspicion —”
Liu Bingyu glanced at her and likewise lowered her voice. “I’m probably thinking the same thing as you. I keep feeling that Princess Kang Ping is treating this Feng Chuyue a bit too favorably. If Feng Chuyue weren’t a girl, I’d suspect that Princess Kang Ping had taken a fancy to her. Do you think Princess Kang Ping might have a preference for women?”
“Don’t say such things.” Wang Yingning, seeing Liu Bingyu’s words growing increasingly outrageous, quickly cut her off. “There are eyes and ears everywhere — be careful this reaches the princess.”
“All right, all right.” Liu Bingyu immediately fell quiet. “I’ll stop, I’ll stop. Let’s not stand here any longer. Let’s go back to the room and play chess.”
The group walked on a few steps. Pei Min looked back to see Qin Yao still standing there, lost in thought, and turned back to take her by the arm and pull her forward. “What are you daydreaming about? Let’s go back first and talk there.”
After that, Feng Chuyue settled into the academy.
For the first two days, even with Princess Kang Ping’s vigorous efforts to look after her, there was no shortage of students whispering about her behind her back. The complaints were twofold: one, resentment that someone of such modest origins had managed to leap over the dragon gate; and two, distaste for the way she fawned over Princess Kang Ping.
But no matter what sort of looks people gave her, Feng Chuyue always wore the expression of someone utterly unbothered. Even on the occasional moments when someone deliberately said something cutting in front of her while the princess was away, she would either pretend not to have heard, or simply smile back at that person without the slightest hint of anger or resentment — utterly impervious, as though armored against all slights.
Seeing how even-tempered she was, the others could not quite make out whether she genuinely did not care, or whether she was simply very shrewd, and they began to feel a measure of wariness that kept them from casually provoking her any further.
Several days passed, and the Mid-Autumn Festival arrived. The academy let out early that morning.
The carriages from each household coming to collect the young women created a complete bottleneck at the academy gates.
Qin Yao stood on her tiptoes and searched for some time before finally locating the Qu family’s carriage. She spotted Qu Ziyu and Qu Chen Shi standing before it, her face lit up with delight, and she grabbed Cai Ping and headed toward them.
As she was passing a particularly grand carriage with a dark blue lacquered canopy and russet-trimmed curtains, a voice suddenly called out to her: “Miss Qu.”
Qin Yao turned, and found herself looking directly into a pair of very deep, dark eyes. She looked more carefully and saw that the person before her was dressed in a deep ink-green brocade robe with a round collar, a bright white inner collar showing at the neck — tall, handsome, and striking. It was Xia Di.
He was surrounded by quite a few people: Kang Ping and Xia Yuan were there, and even Feng Chuyue.
Feng Chuyue had been standing beside Kang Ping, but her luminous eyes were fixed entirely on Xia Di, and she was talking to him incessantly. Xia Di — whether out of deference to Kang Ping or simply because he happened to be in a good mood — was, unusually, not showing any sign of annoyance, and would occasionally respond to her with a few words.
Seeing that Qin Yao had given only a faint acknowledgment before showing no intention of stopping, Xia Di’s brow furrowed. His feet unconsciously moved to follow her by two paces — but then, abruptly remembering that there were far too many eyes around him, he stopped in place, irritated, though his gaze had already forgotten to withdraw and continued to trail after Qin Yao.
Xia Yuan noticed this and suddenly called out, “Miss Qu, please wait.”
Qin Yao acted as though she had heard nothing at all. She vanished in a flash to the Qu family’s carriage, threw herself into Qu Chen Shi’s arms, and laughed: “Mother, I’ve missed you so much!”