At the wedding banquet, Qin Yao encountered Wang Yingning and, thinking of her elder brother’s situation, invited her to visit the residence the following day for a gathering.
Liu Bingyu happened to draw near just then, caught the remark, and hurried to say, “I’ll come too!”
Qin Yao feigned distaste and said, “You’re welcome to come, but please bring your own pastries and fruit. Our household is simple and modest, and we haven’t much food to spare — I’m afraid you’ll eat us into poverty.”
Liu Bingyu was not the least bit offended. She leaned right up to Qin Yao’s face, grinning mischievously. “I’ll come anyway! Tomorrow morning I’ll arrive on an empty stomach first thing, and I absolutely must have a good taste of your household cook’s skills — I won’t leave until I’ve eaten my fill.”
Qin Yao nodded, smiling. “Just you try. Good or bad, I’ll have the servants fill a few buckets and have them waiting tomorrow. That ought to be more than enough for you.”
Liu Bingyu was so vexed she reached up to pinch Qin Yao’s cheek. “Is there anyone who mocks people like this? You’re the one who’d eat things by the bucketful!”
Qin Yao wasn’t about to let herself be caught. She twisted her body nimbly and stepped back a few paces, still smiling. “What’s wrong? Am I not right?”
Liu Bingyu stamped her foot repeatedly, refusing to let it go, and moved forward again to seize Qin Yao — but Wang Yingning grabbed her arm and laughingly advised, “Calm yourself. There are people coming and going everywhere here. Be careful word gets back to your mother, and you’ll get an earful when you go home.”
Liu Bingyu glanced back and sure enough saw quite a few ladies casting sidelong looks in their direction. She stuck out her tongue and dared not roughhouse with Qin Yao any further.
Qin Yao scanned the female guests but found no sign of Pei Min, which left her somewhat deflated. She said to Liu Bingyu and Wang Yingning, “I haven’t seen A’Min in days. I’ll send a card to her first thing tomorrow morning, and the few of us can have a proper get-together.”
Wang Yingning smiled and said, “Ever since Commander Xu petitioned the Emperor for a decree of marriage, A’Min has been at home making preparations and hasn’t been much inclined to go out.”
Liu Bingyu burst out laughing. “In my view, the preparations are just an excuse — she’s simply too shy. If she doesn’t come after A’Yao sends the card tomorrow, I’ll go to her residence and drag her here myself. It’s rare that we can all gather together for a chat; how could she be so shameless as not to come?”
The following day, Lin Xiao returned to the palace for his duty shift. Qin Yao rose early, saw Lin Xiao out the door, and then instructed Nanny Wen to prepare an assortment of light refreshments.
Nanny Wen organized the servants and put out a considerable spread of pastries — fried quail, Rui Snow Cake, flavored red butter pastries, and Spirit Sand soup, both savoury and sweet, with everything one could wish for.
Just past the hour of Si, a servant reported that Miss Wang and the others had arrived. Qin Yao quickly had them invited to Siru Study.
All of them came, and punctually at that: besides Wang Yingning and Liu Bingyu, Pei Min had also come. On account of the cold weather, all of them were wrapped in thick brocade wool or fox-fur cloaks.
Qin Yao smiled and went to welcome them all the way to the veranda, and once they were inside the room, the group retained their habits from their days studying at the academy — after Nanny Wen and the others had served tea and withdrawn, they gathered around the table and chatted and laughed without any formality.
Liu Bingyu had no mind to admire the room’s décor. Seeing the table laden with all manner of small refreshments, she tasted her way merrily through them, pausing now and then to nod with satisfaction. When she had finished, she offered her critique to Qin Yao: “Your household cook is better at savoury pastries than sweet ones.”
Qin Yao smiled but said nothing. Lin Xiao had never cared much for sweets since childhood, and the servants, naturally seeking to cater to the master’s palate, would inevitably have developed their skills in that direction accordingly. Qin Yao drew Pei Min aside and asked in detail about her upcoming wedding to Xu Shenming. Pei Min smiled with a faint blush. “The date chosen by the Bureau of Astronomy is set for the third month of next year.”
Qin Yao rejoiced on her behalf. “That’s wonderful — there’s still ample time, so you can prepare at a leisurely pace.”
Nothing like what had happened when she herself had been assigned to Lin Xiao — the wedding date had been set in such haste that the whole family had scrambled about in a frantic rush, and by the time the wedding day finally arrived, her parents and her brother had all grown noticeably thinner from the exertion.
Liu Bingyu, seeing Qin Yao and Pei Min whispering together, suddenly thought of something. She put on an earnest expression and said to Pei Min, “I’ll tell you, once you marry Commander Xu, it’ll probably be quite rare for you and A’Yao to see each other.”
Pei Min looked puzzled. “Whatever do you mean?”
Liu Bingyu gave a mischievous smile. “Don’t forget — although the Imperial Guard is under the Young Lord’s command, Young Master Xu serves as his deputy. On most ordinary days when they’re standing guard in the palace, the two of them alternate shifts, so when one goes home after leaving the palace, the other must be on duty inside the palace walls. And when your husband is at home, you’d hardly feel right going out and about.”
Qin Yao thought about it and realized it was indeed the case. Whenever Lin Xiao returned home, he always instructed Xu Shenming to remain at the palace on duty. Except in exceptional circumstances, the two of them had never left the palace at the same time.
Pei Min’s face turned red, and she gave Liu Bingyu a reproving look. “What is it that goes through your head all day long, that you can fit so many strange and peculiar ideas in there?”
But Qin Yao had no mind to trade barbs with Liu Bingyu just then. She quietly kept her eye on Wang Yingning, turning over in her mind the matter of her brother, and hesitating over how to ask whether Wang Yingning had any feelings for him. The inner turmoil was considerable.
Her fear was that Wang Yingning felt nothing for her brother, and that her brother was simply pining in unrequited longing. If that were the case, raising her brother’s feelings in front of Wang Yingning unprompted would not only put Wang Yingning in an awkward position, but would also place her brother in an embarrassing predicament.
And even if Wang Yingning and her brother did harbour mutual feelings, if Minister Wang had no wish to let his daughter marry her brother, then no amount of matchmaking on her own part would amount to anything — it would all be wasted effort, and would only cause needless harm to both Wang Yingning and her brother.
The earlier plan of simply asking Wang Yingning outright about her feelings was therefore probably unworkable. The most complete approach for now was probably to probe indirectly.
Thinking this, she called A’Ping in and gave her quiet instructions.
Before long, A’Ping came back in carrying a compiled dictionary and presented it to Qin Yao.
Qin Yao opened the dictionary and, smiling, said to Pei Min, “This dictionary was co-compiled by my elder brother for Scholar Mo. You’ve always been the most learned among us — come and see if it meets with your standards.”
Though she was ostensibly speaking to Pei Min, her eyes were covertly watching Wang Yingning’s expression.
The moment those words were barely out, Wang Yingning’s face flushed crimson in an instant. Seemingly afraid that others might notice, she promptly composed herself, lowering her sleeve and calmly taking a sip of tea.
Qin Yao took careful note of this and reflected inwardly: her brother must have made no small effort, using his friendship with Wang Yikun as a pretext, to cultivate a favourable impression of himself in Wang Yingning’s eyes.
It seemed Wang Yingning not only knew who her brother was, but clearly had developed feelings for him.
With that settled in her mind, she felt reassured — at the very least, once she confirmed Minister Wang’s attitude, when her brother went to the Wang residence to propose, Wang Yingning would not be displeased.
After Wang Yingning and the others took their leave, Qin Yao sent Chang Rong to the palace to pass a message to Lin Xiao.
When Chang Rong returned, he brought back Lin Xiao’s reply.
Just a few brief words: “Understood. Don’t worry.”
Two days passed, and the moment Lin Xiao returned home, Qin Yao asked how his inquiries had been going. Lin Xiao sat down, took a sip of tea, and said, “The Imperial Uncle has seen that the Crown Prince has been quite despondent over Qin Yuan’s death. Over the past few days, he has already begun making fresh arrangements to select a Crown Princess.”
“And what is Minister Wang’s stance?” Qin Yao pressed.
Lin Xiao said, “Qin Yuan’s death was so sudden that Minister Wang was caught completely unprepared. Hearing that the Emperor intends to select a consort for the Crown Prince from among the daughters of court officials, he is now in a state of anxious urgency, eager to secure a match for his fourth daughter before that happens. Moreover, he has always admired your elder brother, and he need only wait for your elder brother to present himself and make a proposal — he will assent on the spot. As for Elder Brother, he truly does read situations with great clarity. Without even waiting for me to ask my uncle to act as matchmaker, he somehow moved Mo Cheng to go to the Wang residence to propose this very morning, and by all accounts Minister Wang has already given his consent.”
Qin Yao was taken aback. Mo Cheng currently served as the Vice Director of the Chancellery and concurrently held the position of Grand Scholar of the Hanlin Academy. Whether in terms of official rank or reputation, he counted among the foremost figures of the court. Having him act as matchmaker for her brother’s marriage was no less distinguished than having the Duke of Lu act in that role.
She did not know how much effort her brother had expended to persuade Mo Cheng — and yet he had timed it so precisely, deliberately choosing the very moment when the Wang family was once again being thrust into the spotlight of public scrutiny to make his proposal. How could such a thing fail to go smoothly?
Knowing that the Wang family had given their assent, how could Qin Yao remain seated? She did not even pause for the midday meal, but hurried off together with Lin Xiao to the Qu residence.
Qu Chen Shi naturally had no idea how much effort her son and son-in-law had each put in behind the scenes for this match. She only felt as though happiness had descended from the heavens, and would have embraced her daughter and wept tears of joy if she could. After marvelling at it all, she threw herself into the flurry of preparations. Within a matter of days, the two families formally exchanged birth date documents, followed by the rites of presenting gifts and enquiring of the given name. When both parties’ birth dates were matched and examined, the wedding date was fixed for the fourth month of the following year.
During this period, Qin Yao came to the Qu residence every morning to help, and only once all the betrothal matters had settled into place did she finally feel at ease — no longer running back and forth between the two households.
With her brother’s affairs seen to, Qin Yao at last found the time to visit her master at Qingyun Temple. But of the three visits she paid, only on one occasion were her master and senior martial brother present in the temple.
When she asked her master what he had been busy with of late, he replied with his usual ill temper: “The year’s end is nearly upon us, and there are too many expenses for the temple. If I don’t rush out to take on a few more commissions, we won’t even have the offerings money to spare.”
Qin Yao knew her master’s habitually prickly temperament all too well. If she were to offer him money outright, he wouldn’t accept it — and would likely give her a thorough scolding into the bargain. So instead she quietly paid out of her own pocket and found ways to arrange for extra grain and provisions to be stocked at the temple.
That day, when she returned from Qingyun Temple, dusk had already fallen.
On the carriage, Qin Yao rested her chin in her hand and gazed out the window, a veil of quiet worry in her eyes, and said to Lin Xiao: “I always feel that Master has been concealing something from me recently. Now that I think about it, it seems as though ever since we came down from Shouhuai Mountain, Master has been behaving somewhat strangely.”
As she spoke, something came to mind and she asked Lin Xiao: “Have the people we sent to investigate Yuan Jue’s background returned yet?”
“Just these next couple of days,” Lin Xiao said, drawing Qin Yao close in his arms. “Certain things aren’t convenient to put in correspondence — we’ll get a thorough account once they return to Chang’an. They’ve been gone over a month now and have passed through many places. They stayed only two days in Qingzhou, but lingered in Suizhou for quite some time. I suspect Yuan Jue’s hometown may not be Qingzhou as we originally assumed, but Suizhou.”
“Suizhou?” Qin Yao said in surprise. “Suizhou is in the south of the river, surely more than a thousand li from Qingzhou. If Yuan Jue is from Suizhou, how could he have no trace of a southern accent?”
Lin Xiao said evenly, “If a person is determined to conceal their origins and identity, there are naturally ways to do it.”