When Lin Xiao entered the water pavilion, his father the Prince was holding his younger half-brother — Pei Min, who was not yet a year old — and feeding him sesame honey cakes. Little Pei Min was quite pleased with himself, a long gleaming string of drool hanging from his lips, bouncing excitedly on his father’s knee every so often and making little babbling sounds.

Cui Shi sat nearby, speaking softly to coax and entertain the baby, urging Pei Min to call for Father.

Lin Xiao looked at the warm and happy scene before him, and somehow found himself thinking of the times he had laughed and played with his parents as a child. In that memory, his father had been vigorous and genial, his mother young and radiant — how peaceful and content their family of three had been.

Now his mother had long since turned to a handful of yellow earth. His father had quickly taken a new person into his life. In a few more years, who aside from him — her own son — would still remember that princess consort of Prince Lan who had once been the most talented woman in all of Chang’an?

Prince Lan turned and saw that Lin Xiao’s expression was bleak, but took it simply for the exhaustion of having hurried back to Chang’an over many days, and spoke. “My son is back. Come, sit down — have some wine to refresh yourself.”

Cui Shi also put away her smiling expression and looked toward Lin Xiao.

Stone-blue crinkled gauze robe with auspicious cloud patterns and a white jade waistband — a fastidiously elegant and refined bearing; a composed face as flawless as white jade.

This was a youth who had gradually shed his last traces of youthfulness, like a piece of precious jade now polished and refined, quietly beginning to radiate a dazzling brilliance that was impossible to ignore.

Cui Shi felt an inexplicable irritation. She tightened her hold on her son Pei Min’s hand, and smiled at Lin Xiao, saying, “Dalang is back. Your father the Prince has not stopped thinking of you these past days. Look — upon hearing you would return today, he turned away all the calling cards from other estates and put his heart entirely into welcoming you back.”

Lin Xiao smiled and replied, “My thanks to Father the Prince and the Princess Consort for thinking of me.” He bowed and went to sit at the lower end of the table without another word.

Prince Lan felt the distance in his son’s politeness and his expression dimmed slightly. Cui Shi, however, took no notice at all, and gestured to a young woman seated lower at the table, smiling. “Lingling, come and pay your respects to the heir apparent.”

Lin Xiao had already noticed the unfamiliar young woman in the room when he entered, and guessed she was the niece Cui Shi had brought in from her own family. He felt an inward disdain and had not looked at her closely.

Now he saw a young woman come forward to bow to him — about fourteen or fifteen years old, slender in build, with an oval face, a pair of bright and lively eyes, and features distinctly more alluring than most girls.

Lin Xiao smiled coldly to himself. He had to hand it to Cui Shi — where had she gone to find such a strikingly beautiful “niece from her own family.”

The young woman was quietly studying Lin Xiao in turn. She saw that his features, though sculpted as if by heaven itself, bore not the slightest warmth — cold and distant. She bit her lip into a smile and said, “Lingling pays her respects to the heir apparent. I heard Auntie say that the heir apparent and the Prince look as if they were made from the same mold — and upon seeing you today, the resemblance is indeed striking. But the Prince always wears a smile and is far more affable than the heir apparent.”

Was she teasing him? Lin Xiao raised an eyebrow with mild surprise and took another look at the young woman before him — a fair and pleasing appearance, an expression that mingled shrewdness with an ingenuous air. And somehow, inexplicably, she reminded him of the young woman he had encountered on the mountain.

Prince Lan saw Lin Xiao’s cool demeanor and stepped in to ease things for Lingling. “You bold girl, Lingling! I thought you would feel timid meeting the heir apparent — and yet you dare to tease even him.”

Then he looked at Lin Xiao and said, “Dalang, Lingling has always been a lively, cheerful soul, and has been used to doing as she pleases. Don’t take offense. By rights you ought to call Lingling your cousin — she is a niece of your mother consort’s family. She was living in Youzhou before, but the year before last her parents passed away, and her elder brother and sister-in-law treated her poorly, so she came to seek refuge with your mother consort. From now on the two of you should get along well.”

Mother consort. Those two words stung Lin Xiao like a needle in his heart. He had only one mother consort, and she now lay buried in a solitary grave outside Chang’an. Now that his father had taken a new person, would even the traces of his mother’s existence be erased?

What was most absurd of all was that his father did not ask a single question about how the mission had gone, whether he had encountered any setbacks — instead, the very moment he returned, he was arranging for him to acknowledge a relative, with a warmth and eagerness so intense that it almost made Lin Xiao wonder whether it was this woman of unknown origins who was his father’s own flesh and blood, and he himself who was the inconsequential stranger.

The more he thought about it, the more his heart grew cold. His disappointment had reached its furthest extreme, and as a result, a faint smile appeared on his face.

At this point Cui Shi smiled and said, “Since the Prince has put it this way, Lingling — don’t call him heir apparent any longer. Call him Cousin Elder Brother instead; it isn’t so distant and formal.”

“That’s quite right.” Prince Lan was in fine spirits. “Dalang, Lingling is your cousin now. She’s clever and well-behaved, and her circumstances are so pitiable — you must treat her well.”

Hearing this, Lingling promptly and openly paid her respects to Lin Xiao again, laughing as she said, “Lingling greets Cousin Elder Brother.”

Lin Xiao looked at the thoroughly accomplished young woman before him without any change of expression. She had only been in the estate a few days — and yet not only had his wet nurse spoken well of her, but even his father, who was typically cool and aloof with people, was treating her with warm affection as if she were his own daughter.

In this carefully prepared welcoming dinner to acknowledge a new relative, if he flatly and bleakly said “no” — where would the game go from there?

He suddenly smiled and looked at Lingling. “Lingling — Cousin.”

Clap, clap, clap — As if little Pei Min had seen something delightful, he burst out clapping his small hands and cried out in glee.

Qu Qin Yao descended Mang Mountain and found the driver who had been waiting for her at the inn at the foot of the mountain, climbed up into the carriage, and made her way back to Chang’an.

Partway along the road, the veiled Qu Qin Yao called the driver to a halt. “Hey, Master. How much longer do you intend to keep up this disguise?”

The driver started so hard that his two long white eyebrows shot upward. “You… how did you see through it? My master’s art of disguise is so superb—”

Qu Qin Yao cut him off with a half-amused expression. “The smell of wine on you is so strong, and it’s the green-ant wine I brewed myself. How could I not recognize it? Let me ask you — before we left Chang’an, why did you deceive me into thinking there was only a small demon on Mang Mountain? Don’t you know I nearly lost my life there? Why would you do something like that to your own disciple?”

The old man’s face showed not the slightest trace of guilt. With an entirely self-righteous air he said, “Would you have gone to Mang Mountain if I hadn’t said that? Besides, haven’t you come out perfectly fine? You captured the demon, you got the inner core — and now you’re turning around and reproaching your master for it.”

Qu Qin Yao raised her elegant brows and said, “We had an agreement — this inner core is mine to take home. You are not allowed to go back on your word.”

“Fine, fine, take it!” The old man said grudgingly. “It’s only a serpent demon’s inner core.”

Then, remembering something, he turned to glare at Qu Qin Yao. “Let your master ask you something — when that young lord on the mountain offered you money, why did you put on such a magnanimous act and refuse to take it? Do you have any idea how much it costs to refine a single Returning Soul Pellet? Does one simply give those away?”

Seeing Qu Qin Yao’s unimpressed expression, he nearly blew his whiskers in fury. “All right! Setting everything else aside — you at least know how expensive those medicinal ingredients for the Returning Soul Pellet are, don’t you? Take the notopterygium root alone — in the Eastern Market it’s already gone up to one string of copper cash per tael—”

You old miser! Qu Qin Yao cut off her master’s words with contempt. “A person of integrity acts in accordance with principle! That young lord was, in some sense, responsible for saving my life. How could I have the face to ask him for money?”

The old man said in furious exasperation, “No wonder you’re the sheltered daughter of a government official — not the slightest idea of the price of rice! Do you have any notion how hard it is for your master to keep Qingyun Monastery running nowadays? Not only can we not attract a single commission in ten days to half a month, but even the number of people coming for protective charms and blessings is less than in previous years — ah, how are we to go on? Your master too would like to ‘act in accordance with principle,’ but will the dozens of people in the monastery upper and lower agree to that?”

Qu Qin Yao feared nothing more than her master going on at length about the hardships of maintaining the monastery — once he got started, he could go on for three days and three nights without stopping. She quickly changed the subject. “All right! So Master, you had secretly gone up the mountain already. Then why didn’t you come out to help me when I was subduing the demon?”

The old man gave a snort. “You had the Soul-Devouring Bell — our monastery’s most prized treasure — on your person, and you’ve been under my teaching for so many years. If you still couldn’t subdue that demon creature, you’d have no right to call yourself Qing Xuzi’s disciple.”

Qu Qin Yao’s face reddened, and with a wheedling, coquettish air she said, “But that serpent demon was very powerful!” She took hold of her master’s arm and clung to it like candy on a stick, making a fuss without letting go. Inwardly she felt both ashamed and moved, knowing her master must have been unable to stop worrying about her, and had spared no trouble to follow her all the way up Mang Mountain from Chang’an.

Thinking of Lin Xiao, she asked the old man curiously, “Master, do you know anything about that young lord’s sword — what are its origins? How can it be so extraordinary? Even our Soul-Devouring Bell is no match for it.”

The old man’s eyes grew somewhat distant with longing. “That sword is a belonging of the Imperial family. Naturally it is out of the ordinary.”

Seeing Qu Qin Yao’s puzzled expression, he explained further. “Unless your master is mistaken, that sword is an ancient divine sword that the founding Emperor of our dynasty happened upon during his military campaigns — it has an exceptionally eccentric nature, and will choose its own master of its own accord. Not just anyone can wield it. It is said that when it was passed down to our dynasty, the late Emperor had all the Imperial family’s children come to view the sword. Of several dozen children who took turns trying in succession, only the heir apparent of Prince Lan drew the sword. The late Emperor had always loved the heir apparent of Prince Lan dearly, and so he passed the sword on to him.”

So the young lord on the mountain was the heir apparent of Prince Lan — no wonder he had so many attendants. Qu Qin Yao clicked her tongue in surprise and flattered her master shamelessly. “Master, how do you know everything there is to know? You’re truly remarkable.”

Flattery penetrates ten thousand layers of armor. Qing Xuzi knew perfectly well his disciple was softening him up with sweet words, yet still couldn’t help looking pleased with himself. “In the years when your master was a name of great renown throughout Chang’an, I helped no small number of noble and powerful families sort out their messes. Take the case of Viscount Fuyuan’s estate back in the day — the viscountess beat to death one of the viscount’s chamber maids, and that maid transformed into a vengeful spirit that caused terrible havoc in the estate. The estate sought out one Daoist after another, but all of them were frightened off by that vengeful spirit. In the end, who but your master stepped forward and brought that spirit under control. Heh heh — if you want to talk about it, there isn’t a single powerful family’s secret in all of Chang’an that your master doesn’t know. Never mind that they all look magnificent on the outside — the sordid goings-on inside are plentiful enough.”

Qu Qin Yao’s father was merely a Court Astronomer, a seventh-rank official of little particular standing. The families they normally associated with were civil officials of similar rank, and she had almost never come into contact with the world of decorated nobility and marquis households. Hearing her master speak of it all in such an entertaining way, she was not about to let him stop, and pressed him eagerly: “What other interesting stories are there? Master, do tell me more.”

Master and disciple chatted away about the secrets of powerful households all the way back to Chang’an. Qing Xuzi stopped the carriage in front of the main entrance of the Qu family estate and said to Qin Yao, “Go inside. This is your first time going so far from home on your own — your parents have probably been so worried they haven’t been able to sleep soundly, especially your fierce mother, who is likely cursing at your master something fierce right now. Hurry in — don’t let them go on worrying.”

Seeing Qu Qin Yao getting down from the carriage wearing her veil, he said sternly, “Now you think to put on a veil. Why didn’t you wear it going into the mountain? You were seen by all those young men for nothing — are you not embarrassed?”

Qu Qin Yao pouted and defended herself, “I thought I wouldn’t run into anyone going into a dreadful mountain like that — who would have known where that whole party from Prince Lan’s estate came from?”

And fearing her master would start lecturing her again, she scurried into the estate in a flash.