The Lin Family members were also struck utterly speechless.

Today the family had reunited, laughed and wept together, and when evening came and they had eaten dinner and gathered in the main hall, it was only natural that they asked Lin Fei about all those years — how things had been in the Zhaoxia Palace, how they had been in Mobei. And naturally, this led to talk of the newly minted Princess Yongning.

Lin Fei’s Third Uncle had just spoken a few words of praise for Xie Yuzhang when the gatekeeper came to announce: “Princess Yongning has arrived.”

Well, that was truly… uncanny timing.

The family was no small amount astonished and hurriedly opened the main gate to receive her.

The night sky had turned dark and lanterns had been hung throughout the residence. That Princess Yongning stood in the firelight — radiant as the blossoms of spring, luminous as the autumn moon, her extraordinary bearing at once lushly beautiful and crystallinely clear. Even a brush in hand could not hope to capture her in any rendering. The Ninth Young Master and Tenth Young Master were immediately struck dumb by the sight.

Lin Zi walked past the two of them with a perfectly composed air and trod directly on the tops of their feet. Only the pain across their insteps brought them back to their senses, and they were at once overcome with shame, their faces flushing crimson.

Lin Fei’s Third Uncle stepped forward and was about to perform a formal court salute, but Xie Yuzhang gently waved off the gesture: “Lord Lin need not stand on ceremony. Simply regard me as a junior member of the family.”

This was to indicate her intention to associate with the Lin Family in the capacity of Lin Fei’s close friend.

Lin Zi stepped forward, clasped his hands in salute, and said: “May I ask what brings Your Highness on this unannounced visit?”

Xie Yuzhang said: “Fei left in such a hurry and took only what she had immediately on her person. I was afraid she would be inconvenienced and hastened to have people pack up her belongings and send them over.”

Lin Fei had clearly said she had already brought all her things back — so where had these other items come from?

The Lin family members were just puzzling over this when Princess Yongning Xie Yuzhang gave a wave of her hand, and the princess’s residence guards began unloading chest after chest from several large carts.

Then they heard Lin Fei ask: “What is all this?” Her tone when speaking to this princess was thoroughly relaxed and unguarded.

The princess replied: “Mostly silks and cloth, and various small items — brushes, ink, paper and inkstone, rouge and powder, fragrant herbs and medicines, all included. If there is anything else I didn’t think of, you can come back and take it another day.”

The Lin family members understood. They could only shake their heads inwardly with a smile and a sigh, yet they were also moved by how deeply this princess cherished her friendship with Lin Fei and kept her so close in her thoughts.

Lin Fei and Xie Yuzhang had been of one heart with no distance between them, and she would not demur over such material things. What Xie Yuzhang gave, she accepted.

But there was one particular chest — two sturdy guards seemed to strain considerably under its weight as they lifted it. In the lamplight, Lin Fei looked at it a moment longer, and then her expression suddenly changed.

“Wait.” She walked quickly over and examined the chest closely.

Back in those days, she had personally prepared all those chests. The patterns and markings on them, and the ingenious hidden lock mechanism — how could she fail to recognize something of such importance?

“This one was brought by mistake,” she said. “This one is not mine. Take it back.”

The guards looked to Xie Yuzhang.

Xie Yuzhang walked over and pressed down on Lin Fei’s hand: “It is yours. You are misremembering.” And then she ordered the guards: “Bring it inside!”

The guards naturally obeyed.

Lin Zi watched as Lin Fei, though she said no more, pressed her lips together at an angle that clearly conveyed disagreement.

It was not hard to guess that the contents of that particular chest would be extraordinarily valuable — valuable enough to make even someone like Fei Niang, who cared nothing for worldly possessions, change color. But Princess Yongning was determined to give it to her. Could she stop her?

Indeed, Lin Fei could not stop her.

Xie Yuzhang was invited into the main hall and formally met with all members of the Lin Family.

Lin Fei’s Third Uncle formally expressed his gratitude for her act of rescue and protection of Lin Fei.

Xie Yuzhang said: “That was all so long ago. Lord Lin need not bring it up again.”

Though she had asked Lin Fei’s Third Uncle to regard her as a junior, this was, after all, the woman who had spent eight years on the steppe and had driven wedges through the Khanate and fractured it from within. Because Lin Zi served in the Secretariat, he had access to confidential matters; and though Lin Fei’s Third Uncle served in the Rites Ministry, he knew more than most. How could he truly treat her as a junior?

Lin Fei’s Third Uncle could not help but ask about affairs on the border. Xie Yuzhang answered with great patience and spoke at length. The customs and scenery of the steppe, the foreign peoples and their ways — the Ninth Young Master and Tenth Young Master alike listened with rapt attention.

Lin Zi watched with a cool and observant eye. Princess Yongning’s pair of phoenix eyes were uncommonly vivid and bright. As she spoke, describing the steppe in vivid and colorful detail that drew in everyone’s attention, she was at the same time quietly and imperceptibly taking stock of everyone present.

Lin Zi thought: whatever else might be said, this feeling she carries for Fei alone is worth more than anything.

When Xie Yuzhang had observed enough, she brought the conversation to a close and made an apology to Lin Fei’s Third Uncle: “I would like to have a private chat with Fei — woman to woman, you understand.”

After this exchange, Lin Fei’s Third Uncle had warmed to her considerably and smiled: “Your Highness, please make yourself at home.”

Xie Yuzhang then took Lin Fei by the hand and went with her to her private chambers.

The moment they were back in her own room, Lin Fei said: “What are you making a fuss about?”

Xie Yuzhang clutched her stomach and made an aggrieved face: “I rushed all this way to bring you things, and you don’t even ask if I have eaten, or whether I am hungry — you just scold me the moment you see me.”

Lin Fei sighed in exasperation and scolded: “How can you be running about without eating?” She went out and called for a maidservant, instructing the kitchen to quickly prepare a few dishes.

Coming back into the room, she opened a cabinet and took out some pastries: “Have these first to tide you over. Don’t ruin your stomach.”

Xie Yuzhang saw that Lin Fei had not even been home a full day, yet her room already had pastries available at the ready in any cabinet — a sign of how attentive and considerate her family had been in caring for her. Only then did Xie Yuzhang’s heart finally settle.

When she took a bite, she let out an exclamation: “Chen’s shop!”

“That’s right.” Lin Fei said. “The Ninth Young Master and Tenth Young Master made a special trip to buy them themselves. Aren’t you lucky.”

Xie Yuzhang spluttered at her: “You have eaten so much of my food over the years, and now you can’t spare me even one pastry?”

Lin Fei poured her some water, set down the cup, and said: “That one chest — it won’t do.”

Xie Yuzhang said: “What won’t do about it?”

Lin Fei said: “It is too much.”

Xie Yuzhang had already finished a pastry and was taking out her handkerchief to wipe her hands. She said: “And so what?”

“For me, it would be nothing but a chest shut away in the storehouse, never seeing the light of day.” She said. “Here with you it will actually be put to use.”

“Third Elder Brother has brilliant prospects ahead, yet there will still be no shortage of places where money is needed. Though the Lin Family’s wider clan will naturally offer its support, is it not better to have wealth in your own hands? With no need to rely on others, with no constraints or checks, you can far more freely do the things you wish to do. And then there is the matter of avenging the wrong done by the Zhang Family — if Third Elder Brother cannot rise to stand above others, how will he ever take that revenge?”

“How is it that you have been separated from me for less than a single day and already you have grown distant? Truly, a grown daughter cannot be kept — how infuriating, how absolutely infuriating!”

Lin Fei thought it over for a long while and said: “What you said is right.”

After sharing the evening meal in Lin Fei’s room, Xie Yuzhang was content and prepared to take her leave.

“It is late — I will not go and disturb Lord Lin again. Please make my apologies on my behalf,” she said.

Unexpectedly, when they reached the inner decorative gate, Lin Zi was waiting there: “Allow me to see Your Highness out.”

In the moonlight, this young gentleman stood tall and slender, refined and graceful — truly a pleasure to behold. The Lin family members were, every one of them, exceptionally well-favored. The Ninth Young Master and Tenth Young Master had not yet attained Lin Zi’s bearing, but the scholarly air of a prestigious family was already abundantly present in them. Even Lin Fei’s Third Uncle had a fine, long-flowing beard and was a handsome elder.

Having grown accustomed on the steppe to the coarse-haired, dark-complexioned foreign men, to now see these clean and refined young gentlemen — as flawless as jade and jade tablets — was like returning to the realm of humanity.

Xie Yuzhang gladly thanked him and said: “It is already so late — I will not trouble Lord Lin and Lady Lin any further. Thank you for the trouble, Third Elder Brother.”

Once they reached the main gate, she said to Lin Fei: “See? It is just this short a stretch of road — I can come over whenever I like, and you can go back and forth whenever you please. It is so close.”

Lin Fei gave a cool smile in response: “Don’t just be thinking about that. Tomorrow, don’t forget to go and pay your respects in gratitude.”

Lin Zi then watched as Princess Yongning’s flower-like smile froze on her face and she looked pained on the spot.

“Ah.” Her head drooped as well, and she said with distress: “Fine, I know.”

The day before in the great hall she had clearly been poised and measured, and had said all the right things beautifully. Tomorrow was nothing but a simple visit to pay respects — what was there for her to dread?

Lin Fei’s voice softened. She clasped her hand and said quietly: “Don’t be willful. You still need to go and appease him first. Once he has been properly appeased and everything is settled, then you can be as willful as you like.”

Princess Yongning sighed: “I don’t even know if there will ever be a day in this lifetime when I can be freely willful.”

Lin Fei said: “There will be, certainly. In this world, there is nothing one cannot do — only things one has not yet thought of.”

Princess Yongning said: “That is true. Look at everything we have already done.”

Their voices had both dropped low, but the night was quiet and still, and Lin Zi was standing right beside them — he heard every word with perfect clarity.

These two young women stood in the night, their four hands clasped together for a long while, unwilling to part. Then, meeting each other’s eyes, they both suddenly smiled and finally let go.

Princess Yongning boarded her carriage and departed.

When the several carriages and guards had disappeared into the darkness of the night, Lin Zi smiled and sighed: “So even we — her own family — could not be fully trusted. She had to come and see for herself with her own eyes before she could be at peace.”

Lin Fei said: “It is not that she does not trust you all. It is only that these past years, she has grown accustomed to trusting in herself.”

In a single sentence, she had voiced the hardships endured by a young woman on the steppe. And a woman of such unearthly beauty at that.

Lin Zi’s gaze pierced through the darkness of the night as he turned over each word of Lin Fei’s, feeling each syllable weigh upon his heart.

On the way back, he asked: “Is Princess Yongning someone who is very willful?”

“No — she is only willful in front of me.” Lin Fei replied. “She is exceedingly self-disciplined, bears hardship well, thinks things through carefully, and adapts quickly. All these years, she has done only what was right and what needed to be done. She has not been willful even once.”

In the moonlight, her expression was quietly melancholy.

“And yet, if fate had not been so unkind, she ought by rights to be the most pampered, most willful young woman in all of Yunjing.”

“How I wish that someday, she could be freely willful in front of others.”

Lin Zi said nothing more. In silence, he walked her to the entrance of her courtyard.

“You said she has been consumed with worry over you day and night — tonight I finally understand, and it is not the least bit exaggerated.” He sighed.

“I never misled you.” Lin Fei’s lips curved upward. She raised her face and said: “So, from now on — I must live well. I must live brilliantly, so that she can see it. Only then can she set down the weight she carries.”

Lin Zi recalled the sight of these two beautiful young women in the moonlight, their four hands clasped together for a long while, unwilling to release each other. He smiled, reached out and gently smoothed back the hair at his sister’s temples, and said: “That is exactly right. Father and Mother, looking down from heaven — they would surely offer their blessings to Princess Yongning as well.”

Lin Fei nodded firmly.

Yet just as he turned to leave, Lin Fei called out to stop him: “Elder Brother, come with me. There is something I need to give you.”

She said it in such a way that Lin Zi had already guessed it must have something to do with that particular chest. He was also genuinely curious, and followed Lin Fei into her room.

Indeed, all the other chests had been moved into the side room, and that one particular chest stood alone in Lin Fei’s own room.

“This one — you take it,” Lin Fei said.

Lin Zi said: “You two have been talking around each other in riddles all this time. What on earth is actually inside this thing?”

Lin Fei crouched down and showed him how to open the hidden lock mechanism. Lin Zi’s mind was no less sharp than Lin Fei’s — no matter how complex the method, one demonstration was enough for him to grasp it. He unlocked it himself.

Lin Fei stood and said: “Open it.”

Lin Zi did as she said and lifted the lid of the chest.

In the candlelight, his face was cast in a warm golden glow.

Lin Zi gazed at it for a long moment, then looked up at his sister.

His sister’s expression was calm and composed. “You may take all of it,” she said.

“The Lin Family — from now on, it all rests on you. Grandfather, Father and Mother, Second Uncle, Fourth Uncle… The wrong done to the Lin Family — it all rests on you.”

“Take all of it. It is all right.”

“I have only one request: in the days ahead, should she ever have need of you — no matter the time, no matter the matter — please, Elder Brother, support her unconditionally. Please, Elder Brother, help her with every ounce of strength you possess.”

“You know who I mean when I say ‘she.'”

Princess Yongning — Xie Yuzhang.

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