When Lin Xiao returned home, Qin Yao was sitting beneath the eaves in front of the courtyard, looking over a map of Chang’an.

Lin Xiao stopped in his tracks. She was wearing a crimson half-cape patterned with interwoven lotus branches over a moon-white robe, her hair done up in a tumbling-horse bun, her features delicate and lovely, her expression focused as she sat there in the morning light—beautiful enough to look like a painting come to life.

Lin Xiao found himself unable to look away from the sight before him, standing frozen in place.

Just then, Auntie Wen came out with Tingfeng to bring Qin Yao tea, and upon seeing the young lord in such a state, couldn’t help but laugh. “The young lord is back.”

Hearing this, Qin Yao looked up, saw Lin Xiao, and quickly set down the map, coming happily down the steps to meet him. “I thought you’d be a while longer before coming back. Have you eaten breakfast yet?”

This was a moment Lin Xiao had been longing for; he felt warmth spread through his whole body, and even his exhaustion melted away entirely. He smiled. “Not yet—I was waiting to come home and eat with you.”

Qin Yao pressed her lips together, suppressing a smile. Hadn’t she been looking forward to having breakfast with Lin Xiao for ages? Knowing he’d be home today, she had specially asked the kitchen to prepare the savory pastries he liked. She’d felt a bit anxious when she woke up that morning, but it seemed Lin Xiao had been thinking the same thing. She smiled and took his hand. “Come on, breakfast is ready.”

Lin Xiao, however, carefully took her hand and examined it closely, asking, “Is it better now?”

Qin Yao said, “Yesterday Yu Ruoshui changed my prescription. It doesn’t hurt anymore today.”

Lin Xiao looked it over carefully and indeed saw that the swelling had gone down, the bruising much lighter.

Worried he’d grow troubled if he kept looking, Qin Yao quickly took his hand and said with a smile, “Let’s go in—I’m hungry too.”

The two went inside, where Auntie Wen led Cai Ping and the others in setting out porridge and pastries on the table.

Qin Yao sat down and put a piece of taro cake on Lin Xiao’s plate. Knowing he didn’t like to talk while eating, she didn’t dare strike up conversation casually, but because of the joy and sweetness in her heart, she couldn’t help glancing at him from time to time, admiring his straight nose bridge, his handsome profile, and his composed, refined manner of eating—the more she looked, the more she found herself genuinely fond of him.

After they finished eating and washed their hands, the moment they stepped into the inner room, Lin Xiao pulled Qin Yao into his arms and said with a lowered brow and a smile, “Tell me—what were you sneaking glances at just now?”

Qin Yao blushed, knowing full well he’d noticed her little gestures all along. Unable to argue her way out of it, she pouted and said, “I look at whoever I find annoying.”

Lin Xiao raised an eyebrow. “Is that so? Well, I look at whoever I find good-looking. Have you noticed who I look at most often?”

Was this his roundabout way of complimenting her? Qin Yao felt a sweetness in her heart, but said aloud, “I don’t know. Probably some fairy-like young lady somewhere.”

Lin Xiao looked startled, then laughed. “Is there anyone who compliments herself like that?”

Qin Yao didn’t mind complimenting herself a bit more. She rose on her toes and nipped lightly at his chin, threatening him, “Are you saying I don’t look like a fairy?”

Lin Xiao tapped her nose, suppressing a laugh. “You don’t.”

Seeing her pout, he relented and said in a low, coaxing voice, “You’re prettier than a fairy.”

His voice was deep, carrying an indescribable feeling, and it sounded especially sweet to her ears. Qin Yao’s heart fluttered, her ears burning hot.

Lin Xiao loved this charming, bashful side of her most, and couldn’t help feeling a bit restless, very much wanting to repeat what they’d done the day before. But now wasn’t like those first few days after their wedding—if the servants found out, they wouldn’t think him improper, only that Qin Yao lacked proper decorum, which wouldn’t reflect well on her. So he forced himself to hold back, cleared his throat, and said, “What map were you looking at just now?”

Qin Yao waited a moment in bashful anticipation, but instead of the tenderness she expected from Lin Xiao, she got this question instead, and was momentarily stunned.

Seeing the confusion on her face, Lin Xiao suppressed a laugh and murmured into her ear, “I’ll have you tonight.”

Qin Yao was caught between laughter and tears. She could guess what Lin Xiao was being cautious about, but this man was simply too wicked—it was him who’d said yesterday that he’d want her the moment he got home, yet now it sounded as if she were the one overthinking things.

She pretended to be angry and pinched his waist lightly, saying under her breath, “Tonight I won’t let you either.”

Seeing Lin Xiao deliberately put on a look of helplessness, she ended up laughing first herself. She pulled him over to sit on the couch by the window, spreading the map out before him, sitting across from him. “I was looking at the map of Chang’an, but I’ve stared at it for ages and still can’t figure out what’s going on.”

Lin Xiao looked it over and saw that Qin Yao had marked several locations on the map with red ink—Mount Wuwei, Mount Wuniu, Mount Shouhuai, and even the small abandoned temple not far from Duke Jing’an’s estate where they had once found Luo Cha—and had drawn lines connecting these points in various directions.

He studied it for a while, then looked up at Qin Yao thoughtfully. “You think these places are connected?”

Qin Yao nodded. “Mm. I keep feeling like demonic incidents have been happening too frequently lately. I thought maybe the map might reveal something, so I marked it and have been looking at it over and over, but no matter how many times I look, I can’t make sense of it.”

Lin Xiao’s gaze moved slowly across the map along the marked points, seeing the mountains scattered sparsely outside Chang’an, spread across every direction—north, south, east, and west—and quite far apart from one another. Just looking at the map, there really was no obvious pattern.

He didn’t understand Daoist or Buddhist formations, and Qin Yao’s theory sounded rather far-fetched at first, but on further thought, it wasn’t impossible either—after all, the recent string of demonic appearances was already deeply unusual, let alone everything else.

He suggested, “Rather than racking our brains at home, why not go ask the Daoist Master? It happens that I’m off duty today—I’ll come with you, and we can take a walk while we’re at it.”

Qin Yao’s eyes lit up, then she sighed, resting her chin on her hand in dismay. “That day, because of the matter with Yuan Jue, Master scolded me and chased me out. If we go see him today, we might end up arguing again—and he might even hide from me when he sees me coming.”

Lin Xiao pulled her up. “We won’t know until we go. Even if the Daoist Master isn’t at the temple, I can still go with you to visit your family. Didn’t you say yesterday you missed your mother?”

Qin Yao had initially worried that Lin Xiao might have other plans on his day off and hadn’t wanted to bring it up, but seeing him offer to accompany her to visit her family, she was naturally pleased. “Then let’s go to Qingyun Temple first, and then to my family’s house.”

Both of them were efficient people, and they were soon ready to set out. When they arrived at Qingyun Temple, sure enough, just as Qin Yao had predicted, Qing Xuzi and A’Han were nowhere to be found. They asked Fuyuan, but even he couldn’t give a clear answer.

Lin Xiao frowned slightly, and seeing Qin Yao gazing worriedly at the temple gate, said to her, “Perhaps the Daoist Master went somewhere to dispel evil spirits today. Why don’t we come back tomorrow, and head to your family’s place for now—if we go now, we’ll arrive just in time for lunch.”

Qin Yao’s mood did improve somewhat. “Mm, let’s head over early so Mother can prepare more of the dishes you like.”

They returned to the Qu residence, where Madam Qu and her husband were both home, though Qu Ziyu was at the Hanlin Academy, busy compiling historical records.

After lunch, Qu Enze pulled his son-in-law aside to talk, while Qu Chen Shi worried aloud to Qin Yao: “Your brother isn’t getting any younger, and now that his career is on the right track and the officials at the Hanlin Academy think highly of him, your father and I have been trying to arrange a marriage for him. But we’ve proposed several matches, and he won’t agree to any of them. When we ask him, he doesn’t say he dislikes the young ladies—just that they’re ‘not suitable.’ But how could every single one be unsuitable? He just smiles and won’t explain, which drives your father and me up the wall! A’Yao, do you think your brother might have his eye on some young lady already?”

Qin Yao thought it over—could that be true? Her brother usually only associated with old classmates from his school days, like Young Master Wang from the Wang Minister’s household, or Brother Feng, or colleagues he’d met at the Hanlin Academy. He hardly had much chance to meet young ladies in Chang’an, and besides, he had always kept to himself, never the type to indulge in idle pleasures the way some dissolute scholars did.

As far as she understood him, even if her brother were to marry someday, it would surely be by their parents’ arrangement through a proper matchmaker, following all the customary steps without overstepping any bounds—it seemed unlikely he’d have set his sights on some young lady on his own.

“And besides, he’s been leaving early and coming home late lately. A’Yao, do you think there’s a chance your brother isn’t actually busy with official duties, but secretly meeting some young lady outside?”

Qin Yao knew that in this prosperous era, social customs were quite open, and it wasn’t uncommon for young men and women to privately commit to each other before marriage, so her mother’s worry wasn’t entirely baseless.

But she knew her brother wouldn’t do that—at the very least, he wouldn’t use official business as a pretext to deceive their parents.

“Mother, you’re overthinking this,” she said reassuringly. “Brother is far too sharp to leave such an obvious clue lying around if he really meant to hide something from you. I think he’s probably just been focused on his official duties, and perhaps he genuinely hasn’t taken a liking to any of those young ladies. Brother has always been considerate—even if he found something he didn’t like about a young lady, he wouldn’t say so outright.”

“Is that really so?” Qu Chen Shi looked at Qin Yao doubtfully.

Qin Yao had no idea what was really going on in her brother’s mind, but under her mother’s scrutiny, she could only press on. “Anyway, I think Brother has always been steady and sensible. He’d never act recklessly.”

That night, back at Prince Lan’s manor, the two of them retired for the evening, and Lin Xiao naturally kept his promise from earlier in the day, claiming Qin Yao several times without the slightest restraint.

Qin Yao had never known a man could be so insatiable in bed, and most embarrassingly, Lin Xiao seemed to have picked up all sorts of techniques from somewhere—compared to those first few times right after their wedding, there was less urgency and clumsiness now, and more patience and boldness. Though she still felt some discomfort at first each time, by the end, she could always reach a trembling pleasure.

She gradually forgot her shame, forgot all the restraints that had once bound her.

By the last time, she clung to Lin Xiao’s sweat-soaked shoulders, thinking drowsily that her mother had been exactly right—when a man and woman truly desire each other, there is no need for restraint or submission, only a perfect, seamless union, and the pleasure belongs to both of them equally. When Lin Xiao felt utterly satisfied, how could she not feel the same?

When she went to the bathing chamber afterward, the night had grown deep, and Qin Yao was so exhausted that even lifting a finger felt like too much effort. She simply leaned lazily back against Lin Xiao.

Lin Xiao rested his chin atop her head, carefully washing her body. Seeing her drifting toward sleep, he didn’t want to disturb her further. After bathing, he helped her into her undergarments and carried her out of the bathing chamber. The bedding had already been changed for fresh sheets; Qin Yao caught a hazy glimpse of this but was too tired to wonder who had done it, and fell asleep the moment she lay down.

About ten days later, as the eleventh month began, the weather suddenly turned cold, and Kangping’s wedding arrived.

Since the Crown Prince and Prince Wu had not yet married, Qin Yao was currently Kangping’s only sister-in-law, and naturally felt obligated to help. She arrived at the consort’s residence before dawn to lend a hand.

On the way there, Lin Xiao said to her, “Once Kangping’s wedding is finished, we’ll need to arrange Cui Shi’s ‘funeral.’ At that point, you’ll need to manage the household affairs—it’ll mean some hard days ahead for you.”

Qin Yao knew that although Cui Shi was still being held at the Court of Judicial Review, Prince Lan’s manor had already announced to the outside world that she’d been bedridden for months. Now that several happy occasions had more or less concluded, it was likely time to announce her “death.”

“What about Min-lang, then?” Qin Yao couldn’t help asking.

Lin Xiao paused. “Father, because of the matter with Zeng Nanqin, has always suspected that Min-lang is a bastard child Cui Shi conceived outside the household. He’s currently keeping the boy at a separate residence, with only some maids and a nurse to look after him. The boy’s food, clothing, and daily needs are all first-rate, but Father only goes to see him occasionally.”

Qin Yao sighed softly. On this matter, her position was too awkward—no matter what she said or did, it would be too easy for her father-in-law to misread it. The wisest course was to keep her stance aligned with Lin Xiao’s; since he had chosen to stay out of it, naturally she shouldn’t pry further either.

When they arrived at the consort’s residence, Kangping had not yet been escorted out of the palace by her husband, and the place wasn’t as lively as one might expect—everywhere, well-trained servants moved about in orderly fashion, but not a single guest was yet in sight.

Once inside the inner courtyard, Qin Yao discovered several fellow students from her academy had also come to help, all gathered in the bridal chamber.

She spotted Wang Yingning and Pei Min right away and smiled, calling out to greet them, but as she got closer, she noticed both of them had a faint dark, bluish tint between their brows.

Alarmed, she pulled the two of them aside. “Have you two been somewhere you shouldn’t have lately?”

Pei Min shook her head blankly, while Wang Yingning also looked surprised. “Why do you ask that all of a sudden? Aside from home and the academy, we haven’t gone anywhere else.”

Qin Yao circled the two of them once, growing increasingly uneasy, and asked again, “Has anything strange happened to you lately? Any discomfort in your bodies?”

Pei Min said, “Other than feeling tired sometimes, I haven’t noticed anything wrong. But A’Yu—she fell ill the day before yesterday, and today she couldn’t even get out of bed.”

Qin Yao froze, glancing around—indeed, there was no sign of Liu Bingyu. She turned, her gaze still fixed on the malevolent aura around the brows of Pei Min and Wang Yingning. “All right. I’ll go with you to see her.”

Just then, a voice called out from behind them. “Weijin’s wife, who were you saying just fell ill? Goodness, so many young ladies have been falling sick lately. A’Yuan has come down with a cough recently too, coughing nonstop all day. I wonder if it’s the change of season, with the young ones’ vital energy still unstable.”

Qin Yao turned in surprise to find Consort Yi in full formal dress, clearly here to inspect Kangping’s new residence in person. The “A’Yuan” she mentioned—could that be Qin Yuan?

Could she be ill too?

But Consort Yi didn’t elaborate further. She took Qin Yao’s arm and toured the new bridal chamber and the bridal tent with her, when suddenly a palace attendant reported, “Your Highness, Consort Feng has already come out to receive the bride—we need to head back to send her off.”