Palace Pharmacist Ru’s medical skills were excellent. By the next day, most of the swelling in Hu Shanwei’s hands had subsided. Palace Pharmacist Ru prescribed medical orders, and Palace Supervisor Fan commanded Hu Shanwei to rest, having Chen Er’mei replace her in organizing the remaining books in the Bingzi warehouse.

Since entering the palace, Hu Shanwei had never been idle for a single day. Suddenly having leisure with two palace maids serving her – food brought to her mouth, clothes brought for her to put on, not even having to brew her own tea – while the scorching sun blazed outside and she rested in her room all day, she felt the days passed so slowly.

Fearing amputation, Hu Shanwei strictly followed medical orders and dared not use her hands. Her only small movement was turning pages of books.

Fortunately, she could still read books – otherwise, how would she pass these days?

After five days, her hands were mostly healed. Palace Pharmacist Ru came personally for a follow-up examination, stopped the internal medicine, and gave her a bottle of external ointment to apply until finished.

Hu Shanwei thanked Palace Pharmacist Ru and then went to the Library Pavilion to continue working. By now it was the eighth day of the female officials collecting materials. The ten female officials had completed day-night rotation – those who previously worked day shifts like Chen Er’mei had switched to night shifts, while those who worked night shifts like Jiang Quan had switched to day shifts.

Seeing Jiang Quan again, Hu Shanwei felt mixed emotions. Jiang Quan had been good to her, but now they had different positions and had developed a rift between them.

Jiang Quan had just celebrated her fortieth birthday two days ago. It was said that Imperial Noble Consort Hu of Yanxi Palace specially held an extravagant birthday banquet for her, sparing no expense, and even petitioned the Emperor to allow Yanxi Palace to release a group of sky lanterns that night – according to palace rules, the palace strictly forbade flying kites, sky lanterns and similar signal devices during non-official festivals, otherwise there would be suspicion of communicating with enemies.

Emperor Hongwu agreed. That night, sky lanterns rose into the air one by one, attracting swarms of fireflies to flutter around them. With red lanterns and blue fireflies, the night sky was extraordinarily beautiful.

Imperial Noble Consort Hu, who was cold and heartless toward palace servants and would abandon even head eunuchs who had served for years, was surprisingly bewitched-like in her extraordinary kindness to the newly entered Jiang Quan, causing palace servants to marvel in secret.

However, no matter how much of a favorite Jiang Quan was at Yanxi Palace, in the Library Pavilion she was just an ordinary book compiler.

Palace Supervisor Fan called Hu Shanwei and Jiang Quan together to assign them a task. “The Bingzi warehouse books have been completely organized, and the Library Pavilion has mostly finished copying books about virtuous Song Dynasty consorts. But to ensure absolute certainty, you two will go to bookshops outside the palace today to see if you can find books the palace doesn’t have, collecting as much material as possible.”

This book would eventually educate all consorts in the Eastern and Western Six Palaces, and would also be bestowed upon consorts’ families to instruct them in proper family traditions and laws. The matter was of great importance, so Palace Supervisor Fan dared not have the slightest error or omission.

Choosing Hu Shanwei and Jiang Quan to leave the palace seeking books was because Hu Shanwei’s own family operated bookshops and was familiar with all the major bookshops in the capital. Jiang Quan was older, well-read, mature and steady. Moreover, with Jiang Quan out of the palace, Imperial Noble Consort Hu wouldn’t constantly find various reasons to send tea, fruits, and cold drinks to the Library Pavilion, causing constant disruption to everyone’s book compilation work.

Both Hu Shanwei and Jiang Quan changed into civilian clothing, accompanied by plainclothes Imperial Guards – a total of ten people in a small team led by Company Commander Ji Gang.

Ji Gang was the confidant of Imperial Guard Commander Mao Qiang. He had originally wanted to drive Hu Shanwei from the palace but ended up imprisoned in the Palace Supervisory Department jail, suffering torture and beaten nearly to death.

Youth was wonderful – after four months of recuperation, Ji Gang had recovered his vigorous appearance. Even his fingernails that had been pulled out alive had regrown, showing a healthy pale pink color.

Ji Gang originally had feminine features despite being male and was handsome. This time he had lain in bed long enough to make his face pale as if powdered. Those who knew understood he had been recuperating from illness, but those who didn’t might think a fox spirit had possessed him and given him a prettier shell.

Outside the palace’s yellow walls, Ji Gang and nine other Imperial Guards rode horses, clustering around a carriage in the center. He showed a smiling face as if he had forgotten past conflicts with Hu Shanwei.

“Please board the carriage, both historians. According to palace rules, when female officials leave the palace on business, they cannot stay overnight outside without imperial decree. You both must return before sunset when the palace gates close. So the driver will go quite fast later, and the carriage will be somewhat bumpy – please forgive us.”

Today they were going to Yingling District in the northern city, near Hu Shanwei’s family area, where the Imperial Academy, Examination Halls, and other highest educational institutions of the Ming Dynasty were located – also where bookshops clustered.

Though Ji Gang spoke seriously, Hu Shanwei didn’t believe him.

Now among the Imperial Guards, except for Mu Chun, she trusted no one.

She still couldn’t understand why Imperial Guard Commander Mao Qiang insisted on finding reasons to drive her from the palace. Her fiancé was already dead in battle – why did Commander Mao insist on making things difficult for her?

The Imperial Guards sending Ji Gang to protect her and Jiang Quan couldn’t possibly be just coincidence!

But she had already left the palace with Palace Supervisor Fan’s order to seek books – there was no turning back.

Jiang Quan sensed the subtle hostility between Hu Shanwei and Ji Gang. She didn’t understand why, but completing today’s mission was important. She took Hu Shanwei’s hand. “Let’s board the carriage.”

Touching Hu Shanwei’s hand, Jiang Quan discovered her palm was full of sweat, obviously very nervous.

Once in the carriage and moving, with no outsiders present, Jiang Quan asked, “Why do you fear Company Commander Ji? Your palms are full of sweat.”

Due to Imperial Noble Consort Hu, Hu Shanwei had developed a rift with Jiang Quan and found it inconvenient to speak directly. She casually found an excuse: “It has nothing to do with Company Commander Ji. I’m nervous because my family lives in Yingling District. Suddenly returning now, I have that feeling of being timid about approaching home, afraid of meeting acquaintances, more afraid of meeting family.”

Actually, this wasn’t entirely an excuse – since entering the palace, Hu Shanwei didn’t want to return to that cold family home.

Not wanting to chat about these things with Jiang Quan, she changed the subject. “It’s stuffy in the carriage. Do you mind if I open the window, Historian Jiang?”

Jiang Quan said, “Open it. I also feel hot and stuffy. We’re not sheltered young ladies who must keep doors and windows tightly closed even in hot weather.”

On Great Thoroughfare Street in the western city of Nanjing, a jewelry shop owner welcomed a strange customer.

This customer poured out a small pile of broken jade from his pouch. From the remains, it appeared to have originally been a white jade hairpin that had been shattered.

The customer’s request was to use gold to “glue” the broken jade pieces together. Due to gold’s unique malleability, using it to repair broken jade was common, but gold was precious – generally only superior jade would warrant using gold for repairs.

The shopkeeper had sharp eyes and could see at a glance that this pile of broken jade was obviously the cheapest inferior goods. Calling it “jade” was generous – it was nothing more than a white stone.

The shopkeeper pointed to his store’s “honest dealings” sign and advised the customer: “This quality of jade hairpin has no need for repair – it’s not even worth the labor costs. If you insist on repairing it, using copper or tin would be generous – this kind of jade doesn’t deserve gold.”

The customer slapped ten taels of silver on the counter with a bang. “Less nonsense – repair it properly for me.”

The customer was Mu Chun, who had his day off and came out to find craftsmen to repair the hairpin.

Generous customers were always right. The shopkeeper accepted the silver with a smile. “Sir is a sentimental person indeed – I’ll repair it for you right away. However, this hairpin is badly broken. It will probably take seven or eight qian of gold to stick the pieces together, plus labor costs – the ten taels of silver counts as a deposit. Come back in five days to collect it, and you can pay the difference based on actual gold usage.”

After speaking, the shopkeeper weighed the broken jade “remains” in front of him and recorded it on paper for future weight calculations. The weight of the repaired gold-inlaid jade hairpin minus this weight would be the actual gold usage.

Mu Chun instructed, “Make it look nice.”

The shopkeeper was grinning widely. “Rest assured, sir – with gold as its companion, how could it not look beautiful?”

Mu Chun thought that Sister Shanwei would surely be happy to see the newly restored hairpin.

Like other government offices, the Imperial Guards generally had one day off every half month called xunjia, unless there were holidays like Mid-Autumn Festival or Spring Festival. His father Marquis Xiping Mu Ying had been training troops in the suburbs these days, reportedly testing some kind of firearm, rarely returning home. He was happy to be unrestrained.

Lady Marquis Xiping Geng Shi had actually sent people to the Imperial Guard offices early to fetch him home, but he had secretly slipped out the back door, too lazy to return and play the role of loving mother and filial son with Geng Shi – he was tired enough of playing the grandson in the palace recently.

Where should Little Chun go?

In the vast capital city, with six dynasties’ misty rain and ten li of Qinhuai River, Mu Chun thought carefully and realized there wasn’t a single place where he could comfortably spend a day.

Marquis Xiping residence? Forget it – during the day he’d have to cooperate with Geng Shi’s acting, and at night if his father returned, just based on his “glorious achievements” in the Imperial Guards, he’d definitely get a beating.

His maternal grandfather’s Duke Yingguo residence? Maternal grandfather Duke Yingguo Feng Guoyong had died in battle before the Ming Dynasty’s founding. The current heir to the Duke Yingguo title was his uncle Feng Cheng. Because his sister Feng Shi had an unhappy marriage and died after giving birth to Mu Chun, his uncle disliked brother-in-law Mu Ying. After Feng Shi’s death, his uncle had even beaten Mu Ying at her funeral.

For this reason, he wasn’t close to his nephew Mu Chun either, feeling his sister had died giving birth to Mu Chun. So the uncle-nephew relationship was ordinary – they were strangers who happened to be relatives.

His great-uncle’s Duke Songguo residence? The Feng family had two dukes in one family – unique in the Ming Dynasty. Who in the capital didn’t envy Mu Chun’s powerful maternal clan backing?

Duke Songguo Feng Sheng was still alive and remained a famous Ming general, very caring toward his great-nephew Mu Chun. Whenever Mu Chun went to Duke Songguo residence, he was certainly indulged completely – they’d give him stars but not the moon. However, Duke Songguo residence was a magical place where everyone, old and young, high and low, no matter what they chatted with Mu Chun about, would eventually return to three questions:

First, when will your father request imperial appointment for you as Marquis Xiping’s heir apparent?

Second, has Empress Ma urged this?

Third, legitimate eldest sons who can’t become heirs all have tragic fates. You must strive to become the heir and not be deceived by your kind-faced but evil-hearted stepmother Geng Shi into giving the heir position to your younger brother…

Mu Chun felt that Duke Songguo residence liked the position of Marquis Xiping’s heir, not him personally.

Of course he wanted to be the heir, but everyone in the world knew his father didn’t like him – his father liked his younger brother Mu Sheng!

Of course, Mu Chun didn’t like his father either. From childhood, Mu Ying either ignored him or beat him – this was Mu Ying’s only way of disciplining his eldest son Mu Chun. Three parts scolding, seven parts beating, absolutely no paternal warmth mixed in.

So Mu Chun wouldn’t actively try to please his father for the heir appointment – he might as well use that effort to please the Emperor and Empress. His father was also a magical person who could always find reasons to scold and beat him regardless of what he did or said. He couldn’t be pleased, and father and son looked at each other with mutual disgust.

Who would receive the title in the future was ultimately the Emperor’s decision. Of course, this was all for later.

Now Mu Chun had finally gotten one day off but had nowhere to go. In this vast world, there wasn’t one home where he could relax.

He might as well wander the streets freely. Following his usual habit, Mu Chun went to a restaurant for a bowl of hot noodle soup, then squatted on the street like a street idler, slurping noodles while observing passing pedestrians.

This was much more comfortable than eating delicacies at home without having to deal with hypocritical pleasantries.

Mu Chun squatted on the street, concentrating on slurping his bowl of noodles, when ten fine horses clustered around a carriage galloped down the street, the dust they raised falling into his bowl like a layer of white pepper powder.

Mu Chun frowned – how was he supposed to eat now! He looked up and happened to see a pair of elegant hands open the carriage window, faintly revealing the silhouette of the person inside.

Very much like Hu Shanwei.

Impossible – she lived deep in the palace. How could she appear in the marketplace?

Mu Chun stood up with his noodle bowl and looked, discovering the leading flag bearer was actually Ji Gang, just recovered from serious illness!

Could Ji Gang have “stolen” Hu Shanwei out of the palace?

Mu Chun set down his noodle bowl and ran after them. Just after running two steps, someone came out of an antique shop and shouted loudly, “Mu Chun? Chun Chun! It’s me! The person you asked me to find – there’s news!”