The Wei Family’s banquet had been, in theory, a perfectly good opportunity to rekindle old threads — except for the added complication of Lu Wenyin’s presence. She had brought fewer attendants than usual today, only Lu Wanyang with her, which made it plain that she too had come with her eye on Cui Jingyu and Wei Yushan.
In truth, the pine nut and red date rice cakes on the banquet table were not only a favorite of Yanyan’s — Lingbo recognized them in an instant as well. The Wei Family’s banquet was still in the style of Yangling City: though men and women did not dine at the same table, rather than being separated into entirely different inner and outer courtyards as was the custom at households holding Flower Announcement Banquets, the tables were arranged in the main hall and below the main hall, separated only by a bamboo curtain — close enough that voices could be heard.
So when the pastry dish was brought out, Lingbo smiled and deliberately asked, “Sister Fu, after so many years away from the capital, do you still remember the taste of these pine nut and red date rice cakes?”
Fu Yunrui only smiled and said, “I’ve forgotten the names of most pastries — let alone something this elaborate.”
“Well, they happen to be my elder sister’s greatest specialty. Though they truly are a great deal of work — and haven’t been made in years. The last time she made them was four years ago, I think…” Lingbo praised the pastries with genuine enthusiasm, then offered some to A’Cuo: “A’Cuo, you try one too. Even Aunt praised them back then.”
“I find these rather ordinary in terms of ingredients,” Lu Wenyin said, not quite understanding what was going on, but sneering out of pure habit: “When it comes to pastries, the quality of the ingredients is what matters. The finest dried fruits of the year are only so many — whoever can’t get them ends up with mediocre pastries for the whole year. Lucky for us this year, thanks to Marquis Wei, the northern trade routes are open, and dried fruits in the capital are still available.”
“Is it still possible to buy some at this point?” Fu Yunrui asked at once, hearing this.
“At this point, I’m afraid it’s too late. But my household over-stocked this year in preparation for the Flower Announcement Banquet, so we have a little extra. If Madam Wei would like some, I’ll send someone over with it later,” Lu Wenyin said warmly.
“I don’t need much myself — I have few guests. It’s more that I worry the Madam may not have everything she needs…” Fu Yunrui said honestly.
While the women inside were opening up conversation among themselves, out in the hall, Wei Yushan was already growing restless.
With Marquis Wei absent, he was completely without restraint. His wounds ached and irritated him further, and then the moment these pine nut and red date rice cakes were brought out, his mood darkened entirely — he simply shoved them away and said, “Take those somewhere else. They’re annoying to look at.”
He hadn’t meant to overturn them, but the capital’s great family style of stacking pastries on tall pedestal dishes — designed for perfectly mannered young gentlemen — meant the stack had been piled high. One push sent the whole thing toppling. The rice cakes scattered all over the floor, and the servants hurried to gather them up.
The guests were all military officers, and none of them stood on ceremony. Cui Jingyu said nothing. Pei Zhao, however, laughed.
He was from the Fire Battalion and maintained an arm’s-length relationship with the Mountain Battalion, yet today — for reasons unknown — he had appeared and made himself perfectly at home. Seeing the scene unfold, he laughed and said: “It seems the beating earlier was not heavy enough.”
Everyone burst out laughing. Wei Yushan grew even more flustered, but having come off the worse in dealings with Pei Zhao before, he didn’t dare to make too much of a scene — he could only say: “Stop gloating. You think I don’t know what you’ve been up to?”
“Oh? What sort of leverage do you imagine you have over me? I’m quite at a loss,” Pei Zhao only smiled.
He was well-liked — everyone assumed Wei Yushan was drunk and picking a fight, and they came over to smooth things over. When food and wine were properly served, the moment passed.
The spread at the banquet was no ordinary one. Lavish as it was, it was also well-suited to the officers’ tastes — rather than aiming for delicacy, it favored abundance and paired well with drinking. The lamb was boiled plain and cut into large hand-held pieces, not a single condiment used, only a little coarse salt, and yet it had not the slightest trace of gaminess. It came with dipping powder, and alongside it, large cuts of beef and mutton were threaded onto iron skewers, seasoned with various fragrant spices, roasted until their aroma filled the air, and carried out on great wooden platters one after another. The chicken, duck, fish, and other meats were all prepared in the capital style — braised, simmered, steamed, and fried, rich and varied in flavor, perfectly suited to accompany the drinking. When the wine had gone several rounds, a lamb broth arrived: simmered to a milky white, steaming hot, scattered with green onion and coriander. Outside, sleet was beginning to fall — the soup was exactly right for driving out the cold.
As for the pastries, the fresh and dried fruits, and the various cold dishes and pickled condiments — every one was exquisitely done. The military officers outside drank until their faces glowed rosy and their spirits ran high. When the time came to take their leave, they couldn’t even stand on ceremony — every one came in person to say goodbye to Madam Wei, declaring: “The Madam truly knows how to host a banquet — this was even more lavish than our own victory celebration feast!”
Madam Wei smiled and pulled Fu Yunrui forward. “There’s no need to thank me — this is all Arui’s doing.”
The officers immediately erupted in good-natured ribbing, pushing Yin Hongxuan to the front: “Then thank Old Yin for us!” Yin Hongxuan looked a little embarrassed. Fu Yunrui, flustered herself, said: “I only took the credit — the one who truly did the work was Elder Sister Ye…”
She too remembered the old story between Ye Qinglan and Cui Jingyu, and had deliberately intended to bring Qinglan forward so she could receive Cui Jingyu’s thanks — thinking that if the two of them could at least exchange a few words face to face, that would be something. But when she looked back behind the curtain, there was no sign of the Ye sisters anywhere. They had all retreated behind the curtain, keeping themselves out of sight of the male guests.
But in focusing on speaking up on Ye Qinglan’s behalf, she had forgotten that the majority of the female guests at the same table were wives of military officers who had returned together from Yangling City. In the days since returning to the capital, these women from Yangling City had already had a few small “skirmishes” with the ladies and young misses of the capital, and their impressions of each other were quite poor. On top of that, Lu Wenyin had been among them today, stirring up trouble. From the moment she arrived, she had distributed gifts all around, wearing the air of someone generously paying her respects to men of ability — and then she had performed warmth and frankness, her manner casual and unrestrained, making herself seem entirely unlike the ladies and young misses of the capital.
In a moment like this, she immediately laughed and said: “Oh, Sister Fu is muddled again — Elder Sister Ye is a young unmarried lady from a scholarly family. The rules of propriety are strict for her. How could she appear publicly the way we rough folk do? Don’t call her out here.”
In truth, Ye Qinglan had withdrawn because she was an unmarried young lady — and Lu Wenyin’s own unmarried younger sister, Lu Wanyang, had withdrawn for the very same reason. But with a single turn of phrase, she painted it as something else entirely, and at once the military wives around her were full of cold laughter.
Someone immediately said: “That’s right — Miss Ye comes from a family of scholars and refinement. We’re the ones with no manners.”
“Now that’s not fair — our Leshui is a proper marquis’s daughter, and she carries herself openly and naturally. If you ask me, it’s those useless capital customs that are the problem…”
“Oh, let’s not talk about it — we’re just country women. How could we compare to those sheltered young misses of distinguished families?” one of the other generals’ wives laughed.
Those words spread to the officers below the curtain, who had all been drinking, and whose emotions were easily stirred. Someone immediately shouted: “Those thousand-gold young misses — how could they lower themselves to come out and accept thanks from a rough crowd like us? They’d probably be afraid we’d ruin their reputations!”
On the other side of the curtain, Lingbo’s gaze went cold in an instant. She had been patient — she was still waiting to see if Madam Wei would intervene.
Madam Wei did not say a word.
“The customs of the capital may not be as grand as those of the Northern Garrison Army. To eat one’s fill and then insult the hostess — that is a fine custom of the military, and I have certainly witnessed it today!”
The moment Lingbo spoke, outside fell silent. Her words were pointed, provocative, and cutting to the bone — and for a moment, no one could think of a response.
“Since the young lady has something to say, why skulk behind a curtain…”
The speaker was Cui Jingyu’s vice-general Luo Yong, nicknamed Luo San — who most likely knew something of the old history and was aggrieved on Cui Jingyu’s behalf.
But before he could finish his sentence, he went flying through the air, rolling several times across the snow-covered courtyard. Cui Jingyu had just stepped down from the table, caught those words, and kicked him flat.
“Get out!” As the Commander of the Mountain Battalion, when he spoke, every general present fell silent with hands at their sides. He dressed down his subordinates the way a father disciplines sons — the tone of someone who had commanded battles: “You drink a little grain liquor and start acting out in here — all of you get out to the training ground and move stones. When you’re done, go back to camp.”
“Yes, sir.” The officers could only accept the command. The military wives were not under his authority, but seeing that a few words of gossip had gotten their own husbands punished, they too fell silent.
Military wives took military orders as the supreme law. Bickering in ordinary times was fine, but in matters of war, they had to give full support in their auxiliary roles. Most of them came from modest backgrounds — only a few, like Fu Yunrui, were women who had not made it at the Flower Announcement Banquet. The majority of the wives had no family status to speak of, and some had come from low frontier origins — making their resentment toward young ladies of distinguished families entirely predictable.
Though the confrontation had ended, the atmosphere had grown cold. When the officers had all withdrawn and the sweet dishes came out — a very delicate cherry cream pastry, with even the molds brought from the Ye household, showing the care Ye Qinglan had invested in this banquet — not a single person touched her spoon.
Fu Yunrui, seeing this, could only reproach herself for her earlier mistake. She tried her best to smile and coax the room: “Look how lovely this cream pastry is — there are very few households in the capital that can make it. Elder Sister Ye truly put her heart into it.”
The military wives presented a united front — not one of them moved. Someone even laughed coldly: “We’re not three-year-old children with a weakness for sweets.”
“Actually, this cream pastry is hardly the only household that knows how to make it — my kitchen can do it quite well too. Once I’ve finished with these busy days, I’ll invite the ladies to my home to taste mine…” Lu Wenyin immediately showed off.
“That would be wonderful,” Luo Yong’s wife said with a smile at once. “We would never want to impose on Madam Lu.”
Fu Yunrui was still trying to smooth things over when Lingbo quietly pressed her hand and stopped her.
“There’s actually a reason, Elder Sister, why our elder sister knows how to make this cream pastry,” Lingbo said, ignoring the gazes around her, addressing only Madam Wei: “Years ago, when the Madam came to visit our house, this cherry cream pastry was always her favorite. My elder sister has remembered it to this day. It matters little whether anyone else eats it — but surely the Madam should at least have a taste?”
Madam Wei sat at the head of the table, her expression unreadable — like a magistrate passing judgment.
Lingbo’s way of conducting herself — she had already said as much the first time she met A’Cuo — was to divide the world into her own people and everyone else. In the confrontation earlier, Madam Wei had said not a word — neither defending justice nor restraining her own women. Lingbo was already on guard. But she was willing to give Madam Wei one more opportunity.
But the military wives gave Madam Wei no chance to respond at all.
Luo Yong’s wife, Wei Shancoral, was a niece of Marquis Wei. She took the lead immediately, pressing her hand over the glazed covered bowl in front of Madam Wei and saying: “I’m afraid Miss Ye doesn’t know — the Madam’s health has not been well these past years, and cream pastry is cooling in nature. She simply cannot eat it. Miss Ye pays such careful attention to everything — how did she overlook this?”
“An ordinary cream pastry is cooling, but ours uses the water-soak method — it is not ice-chilled. And after lamb, a bite of cream pastry is exactly right to cool the heat,” Lingbo countered without yielding an inch. “Madam Luo doesn’t like it — very well. But why concern yourself with what the Marquis’s wife eats?”
“Four years in Yangling City — we were with the Madam through it all. Naturally we understand the Madam’s health best of anyone,” Madam Luo replied with equal firmness. “The young lady may be skilled at planning menus and managing a hot kitchen — but medicine, I imagine, is beyond her?”
Her words were laced with mockery. Lingbo was about to fire back when Fu Yunrui, seeing the two of them at each other’s throats and afraid Ye Lingbo would be put at a disadvantage, rushed forward with an apologetic smile to smooth things over: “Elder Sister Ye’s cream pastry is so exquisite — since the Madam can’t enjoy it, let me eat it instead. Let’s not let this spoil our sisterly harmony.”
Lingbo was not actually afraid of them — her tongue was sharp enough to handle even the Lu sisters without flinching. Qinglan, beside her, had been watching with a calm, measured expression all along. Today’s banquet was, in essence, an affair between the Wei and Ye families. As the hostess, Madam Wei had not said a word — and though Lingbo was unmarried, she was the de facto head of the female guests of the Ye Family, so she also found it difficult to keep speaking up. Fu Yunrui meant well, and Lingbo understood the awkward position she was caught in, so she reined in her sharpest words.
But Lu Wenyin was not ready to let it go. She continued to stir the pot, smiling as she added: “Yunrui is still close to her sister from the Flower Announcement Banquet days, I see.”
“That’s right — we’re the ones who came late,” Madam Luo immediately said sourly. “Yangling City, four years side by side, and still can’t compare to a bond formed over a Flower Announcement Banquet. How devoted, to eat the cream pastry in someone else’s place.”
Fu Yunrui, in her honest simplicity, could only protest: “It isn’t like that — sisters are all the same to me…” She was in the middle of this impossible attempt to defend herself when Ye Lingbo’s voice rang out, cold and measured: “The bonds forged at the Flower Announcement Banquet are naturally the finest — though even among those, there are bad apples: those who make their name by stepping on others. The ladies have only just returned from the frontier and have seen little of how things stand in the capital — it is understandable that you cannot yet tell the difference.”
Having delivered that one cutting remark, she did not wait for Lu Wenyin or the military wives to respond — she rose directly and addressed Madam Wei: “Today’s banquet was something I pleaded with my elder sister to help Sister Fu prepare. If there is anything not to everyone’s liking, please forgive us, Madam.”
Put so directly, Madam Wei could only smile and say: “Not at all…”
But Ye Lingbo gave her no opportunity to elaborate. She turned directly to the servants and said: “The cream pastry is excellent, but if it does not suit the guests’ taste, it serves no purpose. Since no one else will eat what’s left, give it to the dogs.”
She was not yet twenty years old and her looks were unremarkable, but years of managing the Ye household — keeping stewards and matrons in line, overseeing the accounts of the shops, and not hesitating to reprimand a fifty-year-old shopkeeper when he made an error — had given her a presence that, when she stood up, surpassed even these so-called generals’ wives. In their momentary shock, no one found a word to say.
“Lingbo.” Qinglan immediately spoke to restrain her. “Sit down this instant. Tastes vary — how could you speak like that?”
Though she held no title as a married woman, her mastery of social navigation surpassed even Lu Wenyin’s. With one gentle, painless “reprimand” of Lingbo that gave no one else the opening to step in and discipline her younger sister, she turned immediately to Madam Wei and said: “Please forgive Lingbo’s rudeness, Madam. She is still young and speaks without thinking. The Madam is kind-hearted — please treat it as the temperament of a child.”
Spoken this way, Madam Wei could only say: “Not at all — it was Shancoral who was too sharp…”
Ye Qinglan gave Madam Wei no opening to press the point of having Wei Shancoral apologize either. Without even glancing at her, she simply rose with Ye Lingbo and took her leave: “It’s grown late, and I see my younger sisters are tired. We won’t linger and impose. Chun Ming, go fetch A’Cuo’s cape. Niangzi Yang, go find Yanyan and have her say goodbye to Miss Wei.”
When the guests took their leave, Madam Wei naturally rose to see them out personally — yet by this point neither of the Ye sisters was as cordial as when they had arrived. Madam Wei personally accompanied them to the inner gate. All four sisters walked in silence. Madam Wei made small talk with a remark about the coming snow, and Ye Lingbo did not even respond — she simply turned to speak to A’Cuo about how the silver embroidery on this fox-trim cape was not done well.
Even Madam Wei noticed. She was a woman in poor health, and yet she — the now-in-demand wife of a marquis — had personally walked them to the gate; that alone showed sincerity enough. The fact that Madam Luo had come along to see them off was proof enough of that: Madam Luo was shooting daggers at Lingbo with her eyes.
But Madam Wei was not a capital lady — she had none of the skill of speaking in double meanings. She could only say, with an air of implication: “I’m afraid I’ve been neglectful today…”
“You are too kind, Madam,” Qinglan said mildly. “Young people quarrel — it’s common enough. There is no need for you to trouble yourself over it. As for the Young Marquis’s matter — I have already forgotten it, and I hope the Madam will forget it too.”
Madam Wei had been about to speak of the incident at the banquet, but Qinglan had spoken of Wei Yushan instead. Her words were layered — but Madam Wei, not hearing the reference to the old history within them, assumed she had simply misunderstood and spoke even more plainly: “It is the banquet I meant — I wronged you there, which is why Lingbo was upset.”
Lingbo was now being addressed by name, and could no longer pretend to be absorbed in the cape. She could only answer with equal mildness: “The Madam need not stand on ceremony. Human hearts are like water — they change with time. The Madam once loved cream pastry and now no longer cares for it — that happens all the time.”
Her words were said lightly, yet they carried ten times the weight of Ye Qinglan’s.
Madam Wei could not withstand them.
The things between them were clear as a mirror to everyone — yet Lingbo was accusing her of having a change of heart. Madam Wei could not endure such a pointed remark.
“Jingyu has received his marquisate now — he is a grown man. This is not something I should be the one to say.” She looked at Qinglan. “I hear that you all liken the Flower Announcement Banquet to the imperial examinations. In the spring examination, if a candidate fails to submit their paper, the examiner will not care how full of talent they might be — there will be no second sitting. That is not fair to those who did submit their papers. Is it not?”
Madam Wei’s single remark left Ye Lingbo with her fists clenched the entire carriage ride home — she was still sitting in the carriage in stony silence even after they had passed through their own gate. Qinglan felt both amused and tender toward her. For her own part, she was all right — four years had prepared her for this. How many cold remarks and veiled condescensions had she absorbed from outsiders over the years, and she had come through all of them. This was no different. Madam Wei’s words were harsh, but she had been braced for them — otherwise she would never have accepted the invitation to visit.
But Lingbo was different. Madam Wei was Cui Jingyu’s mentor’s wife — and with the engagement, she had effectively been family. Lingbo had probably long since come to think of her in her heart as an elder of the family, someone to replace the newly-departed Aunt Meng. She had assumed that as long as she showed genuine goodwill — extending costly respect, making every effort to connect — Madam Wei would respond with warmth in return. That was why she had been so supportive of Ye Qinglan helping to organize the banquet. In Lingbo’s mind, one Flower Announcement Banquet would follow another this year, and now that the Wei Family had received its marquisate, Madam Wei could not escape hosting one. She was not from a distinguished family background and had no time to learn — accepting the Ye sisters’ help would give the banquet grace and distinction, while the Ye sisters would gain a senior lady’s support at the Flower Announcement Banquet. It would have been good for everyone.
What a pity. It had all come to nothing.
Lingbo was clever — but she understood people, not politics. That was the consequence of not loving to read.
The carriage reached home. Seeing that Lingbo was simply not getting out of the carriage, only sitting in the darkness with her lips pressed tight — completely silent — Qinglan knew she was still dwelling on everything that had happened. The temperaments of sisters were so often complementary: Qinglan was serene, so Lingbo was intense. Her nature was a little too stubborn — she demanded ten out of ten from herself in everything, never let others off lightly, and naturally never let herself off lightly either.
So Qinglan turned back and teased her: “Well? Going in alone into enemy territory didn’t work out so well after all, did it?”
Lingbo was in absolutely no mood for jokes, and only said through gritted teeth: “It was my idea. I’ve brought humiliation down on Elder Sister.”
Qinglan burst out laughing. She sat down beside her, took her hands, felt them clenched tightly — still furious and digging herself deeper — and spoke to her with genuine seriousness: “Don’t be foolish. It was your idea, yes — but I also wanted to see how things stood. If you’d tried to drag me there, you couldn’t have. And besides — a few sharp words, nothing more. What is there to be humiliated about? Madam Luo and the others didn’t set out to offend us — they’ve simply been on the frontier so long that they’ve lost any sense of measure in how they speak. If you make a real enemy of them over this, you’d be playing straight into Lu Wenyin’s hands.”
Lingbo knew perfectly well that those “Yangling City military wives” had simply been used as Lu Wenyin’s tools. The harsh words had come from their own resentment toward Ye Qinglan — from seeing Madam Wei receive the Ye sisters despite the broken engagement, and from the slights they had suffered at the hands of the capital’s ladies. Old grievances and new grudges, all settled at once. If she truly made enemies of them, she would only be doing Lu Wenyin a favor.
But how could she be at peace with it.
“They may be foolish,” she said, biting the words out, “but does Miao Qiyun have to be foolish right along with them?”
“Lingbo.” Qinglan immediately stopped her — half amused, half exasperated. “Even if things ended badly, you cannot just call Madam Wei by her given name — she is still an elder.”
“An elder? Does she deserve that?” Lingbo said, something unreadable going on behind her eyes in the darkness — something that glinted, though surely not tears, for she was not a woman who cried. She had already seen through the politics of it all, and her voice turned cutting: “The Flower Announcement Banquet is coming, and she — a marquis’s wife — cannot manage a single banquet on her own. She’ll make quite a spectacle of herself before long. And that Madam Luo, laughing at us for managing a hot kitchen — not knowing that the one who truly manages the hot kitchen is someone else entirely. Four years of old friendship she refused to honor — running so close to Lu Wenyin instead — she’s truly lost her mind.”
She was wrapped in her fox-trim cape, and even so her thin shoulders were trembling with the force of her anger. Qinglan heard her fury and found herself growing calm instead.
Outside, heavy snow was falling. She was relaxed enough to listen to the sound of it settling, and said with quiet composure: “Madam Wei and Marquis Wei are one — inside and outside of the household. So many military wives look to her as their leading figure; Madam Wei is effectively the one who holds the army together. The first duty of any commander is to be clear about rewards and punishment. Her bond with Madam Luo and the others — that is a bond forged through life and death in Yangling City. I was the one who did not submit my paper. In her eyes, right and wrong are clear. Even if Madam Luo was out of line, she could only cover for her own people.”
“Cover for them, fine — but why did every one of them come after us like a fighting hen? They’re married women. We are young misses. They chased us down to peck at us — don’t they have any self-respect?”
Qinglan only looked serenely at the reflection of snow light on the carriage window and said: “There is a reason for that too. When we were leaving just now, Yunrui was extremely apologetic — she walked with me all the way to the carriage and said quite a bit. She couldn’t say it plainly, but I understood. The Northern Garrison Army is immensely powerful right now. Since returning to the capital, they have been pursued by everyone — not just Jingyu and Wei Yushan, but even Luo Yong and Zheng Zhongguo have had endless banquets, card parties, drinking engagements, dancing girls, singing women — all manner of temptations thrown at them. Some have even supposedly sent concubines. There are even rumors that the Flower Announcement Banquet is intended to set these unmarried officers up with matches and break apart those who are already married, dismissing their original wives to wed young ladies from distinguished families. Those wives are the ones who endured everything alongside their husbands — suffering through years of poverty, watching as prosperity breeds fickleness. It’s no wonder they are seeing threats everywhere. Faced with a crisis of that kind, Madam Wei has all the more reason to keep morale steady.”
Lingbo listened and the pieces clicked into place — and then she let out a scoff.
“For all their fine talk — ‘men fight at the front, women fight at the back,’ saying it so boldly, every one of them like Hua Mulan herself — and when something like this comes along, they don’t dare make a scene with their husbands. They can only treat the young misses of the Flower Announcement Banquet as imaginary enemies and take their fears out on us. How pathetic.” She was as sharp as ever in her mockery: “So in the end, Madam Wei is just putting out fires for Marquis Wei’s sake? If she truly cared about those military wives, why not force Marquis Wei to discipline his own officers? She only dares to use us as a bargaining chip to win those women’s goodwill. Whatever ‘life-and-death bond forged in Yangling City’ — it doesn’t even come up to the heel of our Flower Announcement Banquet.”
Seeing how cutting she was being, Qinglan had no choice but to temper her: “Don’t be so harsh about all of this. The Flower Announcement Banquet has a glorious name this year, but in truth it is a season full of complications. You and A’Cuo need to be careful — don’t get tangled up in all this trouble.”
“It’s fine — with Elder Sister watching over us at the Flower Announcement Banquet, what is there to worry about?” Lingbo said, immediately adopting her sweetest, most compliant expression.
“Good — as long as you understand.” Qinglan ruffled her hair, seeing her mood had settled, and rose to step down from the carriage. “It’s freezing in here — don’t sit in the carriage too long. Whatever needs doing can be handled in the warm room just as well. I’ll go in and put on tea for you — come in soon.”
“I know.” Lingbo was, for once, obedient. She explained, “Every time I come home there’s always a pile of things waiting, so I’ve gotten into the habit of sorting through my thoughts in the carriage first. Niangzi Yang is with me — I’ll be in shortly.”
Qinglan stepped down from the carriage, Chun Ming and the others following her inside. Lingbo waited patiently until they were well out of earshot, then immediately called out: “Niangzi Yang — go deliver a letter for me.”
Niangzi Yang had long since learned the nature of their Second Young Lady. She couldn’t help but let out a helpless smile.
“Second Young Lady.” She had watched both sisters grow up, and was something like a half-substitute for Madam Ye — her counsel came from the heart: “There is an old saying: ‘The law should not be taught lightly; the Way should not be sold cheaply; the teacher does not seek out students; the physician does not knock on doors.’ Even if there are true feelings involved, the other party must show some sign first. The eager one never gets the bargain. Hasn’t today taught you enough? Plotting so stubbornly on the First Young Lady’s behalf — there will be more uncomfortable moments like this to come.”
Lingbo had absolutely no interest in hearing this — she immediately waved a hand and said: “Don’t try to talk me out of it. You don’t understand.”
“You are absolutely right. I don’t understand.” Niangzi Yang had no choice but to stand at attention and await orders.
“From the beginning of time, only victors are celebrated — no one asks how they became victors. Xiang Yu the Overlord of Chu kept his dignity and still lost the world. The one who took it all was Liu Bang, the village head of Pei. As long as the goal is achieved in the end, people will come forward with all manner of noble justifications. Even in the theater everyone knows it — once a man passes the state examinations, whatever lies in his past is covered over by a fine silk quilt, and everyone lives happily ever after.” Her expression was still fiercely set. “Cui Jingyu received his marquisate at twenty-four years old — how many ladies and young misses of the capital are scrambling over each other for him, throwing their dignity to the wind. And you’re asking me about our dignity. Even if our approach is less than graceful, that is for me to bear — it won’t touch Elder Sister. Don’t interfere. Just deliver the letter.”
Her words were full of fierce ambition — and yet they held their own internal logic. Niangzi Yang was moved despite herself, and her resolve softened. “Is the letter for Miss Shen?” she asked.
“No — for the Young Madam Shen.” Lingbo stared out at the reflected light of the snow, her gaze like a sword drawn from its scabbard: “Just say that I have something important to discuss, and ask her to send a card tomorrow inviting me and A’Cuo over for tea.”
Those military wives from Yangling City — fierce they were, and astoundingly foolish too. Even if the Flower Announcement Banquet truly intended to separate original wives and match officers with distinguished young ladies, that would be a scheme by the imperial court — and a proper daughter of a distinguished family would never stoop so low as to compete with those women for a man. If they couldn’t even identify who the true threat was, then the twenty-four banquets of the capital’s Flower Announcement Banquet — a gauntlet even for young ladies trained from birth — would have plenty of interesting things in store for them. They would never be able to navigate it.
In any case, they were pigs bound for slaughter — there was no point in letting Lu Wenyin have all the benefit.
“Oh — when you go out, check on A’Cuo’s carriage as well. We left together, so why is hers so far behind?”
“Yes.”