The gate of Zilan Courtyard remained closed as always. Yun Pan pushed against it, but it would not budge, so she had no choice but to knock and call out to her A’Jie, “It’s Si Si — I’m back.”

There was no response from within. Yun Pan and Qin Dan exchanged glances and waited for quite a while before they finally heard the faint sound of footsteps approaching.

The courtyard gate creaked open. The one who came to open it was Babao herself, her expression a mixture of surprise and delight. “Yun Niang, you’ve finally come back!” she exclaimed, then suddenly remembered that the young lady was no longer who she used to be, and hastily changed her form of address. “Oh my, this servant was so happy she got confused — I should be calling you Duchess now.”

What she was called hardly mattered. What was notable was that Babao looked at her as though she were a lifesaver — which was rather unusual.

Yun Pan glanced toward the main room. In the past, even when Mei Fen refused to go out, she would always wait on the veranda for her. Today, however, only a cascade of bamboo curtains hung unevenly in place, and the veranda stood completely empty. She asked Babao, “Is A’Jie feeling unwell?”

Babao hesitated, “It is not her body that is unwell… it is her heart.”

Yun Pan was somewhat puzzled. “What happened?” she asked, already quickening her steps toward the room.

Passing through the front hall and turning around a three-paneled landscape screen of silk gauze, she entered to find Mei Fen sitting listlessly on the daybed. She had apparently heard the footsteps, and only slowly raised her eyes. When she saw it was Yun Pan who had come in, a flash of surprised joy crossed her face, and she stretched out her hand from across the room. “Si Si, you’re back?”

Yun Pan took her hand and sat down on the edge of the daybed, smiling as she asked, “A’Jie, I’ve been away for several days — did you miss me?”

Mei Fen said with some wretchedness, “What use is missing you? You’ve left home now, you have a husband’s family — it’s no longer like before, when I could go to Yipeng Xue to find you whenever I felt lonely.”

This was the quiet desolation that comes after losing a companion — a sorrow too deep to fully conceal.

Yun Pan said, “Although I’ve married and left, my heart remains the same as before. A’Jie, whatever is on your mind, you can tell me.” Seeing that Mei Fen seemed to want to speak but kept stopping herself, Yun Pan grew even more puzzled. “I heard from Aunt that A’Jie hasn’t stepped outside the courtyard gate for several days, and that you refused to see even Nianci when she came. What on earth has happened? Did something go wrong?”

Mei Fen kept her head bowed and would not speak, finding the words impossible to say.

Babao was nearly frantic with anxiety on the side. “Young Mistress, Yun Niang has gone to such trouble to come back — please, whatever it is, just tell her. If you hide it even from Yun Niang, who in the world will there be left to confide in?”

Yun Pan, hearing Babao speak this way, was reminded of the day she had come to Zilan Courtyard to bid Mei Fen farewell before her wedding. Babao had seemed full of things she wanted to pour out then too, but Mei Fen had kept speaking vaguely and eventually brushed the matter aside. At the time she had truly not noticed anything amiss, but thinking back on it now, it did seem rather strange. She pressed on, “A’Jie, what is going on? You won’t tell me, and it’s going to worry me to death!”

Mei Fen continued to stammer, truly not knowing how to begin. Just the thought of He Xiao filled her with dread — let alone speaking his name aloud.

Babao’s face was red with urgency. She had waited and waited, but her young mistress showed no sign of letting the matter out. Once Yun Niang finished the midday reunion meal and left to return to Weiguo Duke’s estate, who knew when they would see each other again? If this matter was kept buried, it would fester like an abscess and eventually rot to the bone. She thought it over and over — there was nothing else for it but to speak up herself.

“Young Mistress, let me tell Yun Niang instead!”

So Babao carefully described to Yun Pan every detail of that day’s encounter with He Xiao. “He spoke offensively to our young mistress. Of course this servant had to protect her, but then he grabbed me by the throat — just like this—” Babao put her hand around her own neck to demonstrate, her voice seething with indignation. “He used tremendous force — this servant nearly died at his hands! Our young mistress asked him why he insisted on making her life miserable. That He Sanlang said he had feelings for her, and that after Yun Niang’s wedding he intended to come to the household to propose. If the young mistress refused, he said he would take her as a concubine instead.”

Yun Pan felt a cold dread rise in her chest. “Did he truly say that?”

At first Mei Fen had sat there numbly, but at this point she buried her face in her hands and broke into sobs.

Babao nodded repeatedly. “It is true — this servant would not dare speak a single false word.”

It was absolutely unthinkable. Yun Pan said with fury, “To think such a beast in human clothing exists in this world! Is he not the celebrated scholar of Luoyang? The one whose fame reaches all under heaven? In public he wears the face of a virtuous gentleman, and behind closed doors he reveals a countenance this vile and shameless!” She turned to comfort Mei Fen and said in a gentle voice, “A’Jie, don’t panic. Now that we know what he is after, we can deal with him more easily. Don’t worry — I will find a way to speak to Aunt about it later. Once Aunt hears all this, she will certainly keep a close watch on He Xiao. As long as she is on her guard against him, it will be difficult for him to cause trouble.”

Mei Fen slowly lifted her tear-streaked face from her palms. Her eyes were red from weeping, and her nose was red too. She stared at Yun Pan intently and asked, “Is that true? A’Niang will believe what we say, won’t she?”

Yun Pan said she would. “If Aunt does not believe it, I will go and speak to Uncle instead. Although He Xiao is his nephew, A’Jie is his own daughter by blood. As for which matters more — Uncle has his own scale to weigh that.”

Hope was rekindled in Mei Fen’s eyes. She nodded and said it would be well. “I am clumsy with words — I never know how to express the frustration in my heart. I leave everything in my little sister’s hands.” As she spoke she continued to sob. “I am just a girl living quietly in her chamber, and now I’ve been haunted by such a malicious wretch. If word got out it would be deeply humiliating — the more I think about it, the more I feel I cannot go on.”

Especially at moments of complete isolation, when there is not a single person who can help you — that is when despair feels most absolute.

Yun Pan squeezed Mei Fen’s hand. “Perhaps He Xiao never truly intended to come and propose. He was merely tormenting you on purpose, wanting to see you squirm like a person sitting on pins and needles. A’Jie must on no account let him have his way. You already declined a match with Weiguo Duke’s household — would you then stoop to marrying beneath yourself for the sake of a hollow reputation like his?”

Babao finally felt her heart settle, and she wiped her tear-rimmed eyes. “Young Mistress, please just listen to Yun Niang. There is no need to torment yourself and gratify that vile creature.”

Mei Fen gradually calmed down and looked at Yun Pan with a certain sadness. “When all is said and done, it is entirely my own fault for being so feeble. If I were like you, he would never dare come near me.” Only then did she remember to ask about Yun Pan’s life as a new bride. “How are you and the Duke of Wei getting along? Can you find common ground between you?”

She seemed to carry worry with her always — fear that He Xiao would come to trouble her, fear that the woman who had married into Weiguo Duke’s household in her place might not be happy there. And so as she asked this, her face was full of anxious dread, as though terrified that Yun Pan had suffered even the slightest grievance, and that she had ruined this younger sister’s entire life.

Yun Pan naturally understood what she was thinking, and told her with a smile, “Don’t worry. We get along well enough. When a woman marries, she cannot expect her husband to dote on her to any great degree — as long as there is mutual respect, that is sufficient.”

Mei Fen nodded. With that worry set aside, she fell back into fretting over how to free herself from the curse that was He Xiao.

Seeing her listless mood and knowing she would not recover until this tangle was undone, Yun Pan decided not to linger. She rose and said, “A’Jie, the reunion gathering is ahead, and I must go. Keep your spirits up. I will look for an opportunity to discuss this privately with Aunt later, and once everything is settled, I’ll send someone to let you know.”

Mei Fen rose to see her off as she made to leave, walking her all the way to the courtyard gate and saying over and over, “Si Si, forgive me for not being able to accompany you.”

Yun Pan offered a small smile and said warmly that it was quite all right. “Only — do not keep the courtyard gate shut anymore. Hiding away in your own home just gives He Xiao something to laugh about. If you are afraid, tell the nannies and maids below. If that man dares barge into Zilan Courtyard, have him soundly beaten out, and then you will have something to say for yourself before Uncle and Aunt.”

Mei Fen agreed. Thinking it over, she realized that although she herself was helpless, the nannies in her service were hardly to be trifled with. If it truly came to a scene, a beating was a beating.

Yun Pan took her leave of Zilan Courtyard and turned toward the front courtyard. Along the way, Qin Dan also sighed on Mei Fen’s behalf. “Mei Niang is the daughter of a Duke’s household in the prime of her life, yet she is being ruined for life by a single cousin. That He Sanlang truly deserves death.”

Yun Pan said, “They say you cannot judge a person by their appearance, and indeed — who would have thought that the celebrated talent of Luoyang would be hiding such a despicable face beneath it all.”

Mistress and maid made their way along the covered walkway to the front. Entering the main reception hall, they found that Xiang Xu had also returned and was standing with Li Chenjian in conversation. Two men of outstanding bearing, both possessed of a noble and refined air, laughing and talking pleasantly — as if all men in the world should carry themselves with such dignified self-restraint, and that the likes of He Xiao were simply unfit to be counted among them.

“Si Si.” Nearby, someone called her name.

Yun Pan turned her head and saw her father standing before a screen painted with birds and flowers. His expression was somewhat complex, yet his eyes looked at her with unmistakable sincerity.

“Do you have a moment just now? Father has a few words he would like to say to you.”

As for Jiang Heng’s character, Yun Pan knew him better than anyone. He had an extraordinarily soft ear — he listened to whoever he was close to, and even if that person pointed at the sun and called it the moon, he would never breathe a word of dissent. In these past days since her marriage, he had been spending a good deal of time with Duke Shuguo, and his mind seemed to have gradually cleared somewhat. He no longer seemed quite as lost and muddled as before. Yun Pan knew in her heart that if he were allowed to go on keeping company with Liu Shi, both the Kaiguo Marquis’s household and the man himself would sooner or later be utterly ruined by her.

So what needed to be done now was, in fact, to draw him closer — not out of any sentiment about a father-daughter bond, but for her own sake and for Weiguo Duke’s. For Weiguo Duke, having a father-in-law who brought nothing but embarrassment was no small matter. If her father were one day incited by Liu Shi into doing something irreversible and foolish, the damage would spill over onto Weiguo Duke as well and ruin his reputation.

And so she arranged a smile on her face and said, “It has been a long time since daughter and Father had a chance to speak alone. Please, Father, sit down — let daughter pour you a cup of tea.”

Jiang Heng felt an unexpected sting in his nose, but a man could not lose composure in company, and so he moved to the cool seat on the back veranda and sat down. He watched as Yun Pan took a Jian ware tea bowl from a maid and carried it to him with both hands, bowing slightly at the waist — respectful, as one is to a father.

“Father, please have some tea.” Her brow and eyes held a quality of serene calm.

Jiang Heng took the tea bowl, brought it to his lips and sipped, then said, “Sit down as well.”

Father and daughter rarely had occasion to sit quietly together in the garden like this, idly watching the scenery. The bamboo in the garden rustled softly, and the swing swayed gently. Jiang Heng murmured, “You have grown to this age, and Father has never once pushed you on the swing.”

Yun Pan followed his gaze. This swing looked very much like the one in A’Niang’s courtyard. In her childhood years, her father had been absent — busy accompanying Xue Pan in throwing balls, busy teaching Jiang Mi to read. She, the eldest daughter, had had nothing but the name of legitimate daughter to her name, and had received none of the love that should rightfully have been hers.

So many years had passed — what was the point of dwelling on all that now? Yun Pan gave a faint, brief smile and said, “Father was busy with official duties and had no time to attend to matters inside the household.”

Jiang Heng felt ashamed to hear her say this. He had always known this daughter of his — she left three parts of her feelings unspoken, but understood everything perfectly.

He lowered his head. “A great deal has changed of late, and it is Father who has let you down. If I had been in Youzhou on the day of the earthquake, none of this would have happened.”

You might say he was muddle-headed, but in truth he was not truly muddle-headed at all. He was shrewd — he understood how to weigh one thing against another, to sacrifice a lesser piece to protect a greater one.

Yun Pan lowered her eyes and smoothed the pleats on her knee. “A’Niang’s nannies who were left to watch over me were no longer in the household. The closest maid to my person was crushed to death by falling rubble, while the other was taken in by Liu Shi. Even the gatemen had been replaced by faces I had never seen before — so many coincidences stacked one upon another. Father, did you never wonder why? I will not lay blame on Father now. After all, we are flesh and blood — if resentment took root between us, it would only bring joy to our enemies and grief to those who love us, and I refuse to fall into anyone’s trap. But I have two things I have long wished to say to Father plainly: in the years when A’Niang was alive, Father’s name was never touched by the slightest shadow. After A’Niang left, Father suffered one setback after another in official circles, repeatedly mocked and made a fool of by others. For all these troubles, Father really ought to search carefully for the cause. Though I have married and made my own home now, there are still Xue Pan, Yu Pan, and little Mi behind me — if things continue as they are, our younger siblings’ futures are in danger of being ruined as well.”

Jiang Heng could not help but hang his head as he listened. Was that not exactly right? There was no longer a mistress to run the household, and with Liu Shi’s position, she had no standing to make proper plans on their behalf. He was just about to open his mouth and discuss the matter with her when she was one step ahead and cut him off—

“The three younger ones are not of the same mother as I am. The Duke’s household cannot extend its shade over them in the future. As for Liu Yiniang — the document recording her slave-register status is in my hands. I have said it before and I say it again: a person of base origin can never be elevated to be the mistress of a Marquis’s household. Father need not scheme on her behalf any further — better to think about how to manage things going forward. Father is forty years old this year and has decades of dignity still to preserve. If you go on muddling through like this, even the greatest honors will not survive being squandered this way.”

As for the remaining words, it would be unwise to say any more. To have a return visit end in discord over Liu Shi was simply not worth it.

Yun Pan stood up, smoothed her sleeves, and smiled again. “Father, it is very gratifying to me that you are here today. You witnessed my wedding, and now you witness my return visit. For this great occasion of my life, there is no other regret — except that A’Niang is no longer with us.”

Jiang Heng looked at her, his lips moving as though he wanted to say something, but in the end nothing came out.

If he searched his conscience honestly, he had truly wronged this eldest legitimate daughter. His heart had been partial to an extreme. Yet fortunately she harbored no grudge, and between father and daughter things had not been brought to a state of open hostility.

Precisely because the conversation had been calm and measured, he found himself beginning to consider things he had always been too lazy to think about before — such as his children’s futures, and his own prospects.

A meal was set out in the reception hall, and Madam Ming stood before the table calling everyone over. “We can continue talking later — let us sit down to eat first!”

So the conversation came to a pause, and everyone moved over to take their seats. They first raised their cups to toast Li Chenjian and Yun Pan in congratulations. Li Chenjian then stood together with Yun Pan and proposed a toast in return, speaking from the heart. He first thanked his father-in-law for raising such a fine daughter, then expressed his deep gratitude to his Uncle-in-law and Aunt-in-law for their tireless effort in arranging the wedding.

Xiang Xu sat there with a composed smile on his face throughout. The faint trace of anxiety he had been carrying quietly dissolved away now that he could see with his own eyes that Yun Pan was well.

When Mei Fen and Weiguo Duke had first been engaged, he had technically been a proper elder brother-in-law, yet they had had few opportunities to interact — barely more than nodding acquaintances. Now that the Duke had married Si Si, it had at last given him a chance to exchange a few words. In just those few exchanges back and forth, he could already see that Weiguo Duke was a man of cultivation and discernment.

Speak to him of military training and it was his area of strength. Speak to him of scholarship and the hundred schools of philosophy came naturally to his tongue. By any comparison, he himself clearly fell short — and so it was no slight against Si Si that she had followed this man.

In any case, the reunion meal passed with everyone in high spirits. After the meal, Yun Pan followed Aunt to go over the return gifts being prepared for the Grand Dowager Consort Hu and Princess Liang’s consort. Inquiring about the matter of Xiang Xu and Nianci, Madam Ming said, “On the day of your wedding I had them meet for a moment. I could see that Nianci seemed somewhat taken. It is just your elder brother — he treats the young lady entirely by the rules of propriety, just like a book-obsessed scholar.”

Yun Pan laughed to hear this. “Elder Brother is a proper gentleman. The more he treats Nianci Jie by the rules of propriety, the more highly she will think of him.”

Madam Ming nodded. “I have no worries about Xu’er. It is your cousin that I worry about.” She paused. “You went to see her just now — how was she?”

Yun Pan suddenly fell silent and lowered her head.

Madam Ming had been busy going through the return gifts one by one. Noticing that Yun Pan had gone quiet, she glanced sideways at her. “What is it? Did she say something to you?”

Yun Pan turned the question back on her, “If someone believed that because A’Jie is ill, they could slight her and demand that she become their concubine — what would Aunt think of that?”

That lit the fuse in Madam Ming. She slammed down the object in her hands. “What absolute rubbish! The legitimate daughter of a Duke’s household — a woman who wouldn’t even agree to be a principal wife — and now she should become someone’s secondary one? Which blind, worthless wretch dared say such a thing?! Let me find out who it is — I’ll have his mouth beaten to a pulp!”

It was a monstrous humiliation. Anyone who heard it would be consumed with rage.

Yun Pan made no move to calm her, but used the heat of her anger to press on. “Aunt, you and Uncle are so clearly enlightened and open-minded — so why have you never been willing to believe what Cousin says? When she was small, what He Sanlang did in pushing her into the water was the absolute truth. The reason she is now so afraid of people and cannot take a single step outside the house — all of it is He Sanlang’s doing. That He Xiao is a consummate hypocrite. On the very day before my wedding, he slipped into the back courtyard and blocked A’Jie’s path. First he humiliated her with his words, then said he intended to come to the household to propose. When A’Jie refused, he said he would wait three to five years until no one wanted her anymore, then take her as a concubine — and that by then Uncle and Aunt would be grateful to him for it and welcome him as an honored guest.” Yun Pan’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Aunt — I heard all this from Babao and nearly fainted with anger. Surely my perfectly good A’Jie cannot be destroyed by him!”

Madam Ming was struck speechless. “He Xiao said this?”

Yun Pan’s eyes were glistening with tears. “Aunt, He Xiao has never shown his true face in front of you. A’Jie has been so frightened these past days that she hasn’t dared set foot outside Zilan Courtyard — she is terrified of running into He Xiao again. That man comes and goes freely because he is Uncle’s nephew, and if this goes on, something terrible will happen. Even thinking about it carefully fills me with dread.”

After the initial shock, Madam Ming finally steadied herself. Grinding her teeth together, she said, “Oh, very good. So his scheme has come around to us now — and all this time we treated him with such regard. He wants my Mei Fen to enter the He household? On what grounds does he dare! His own father is nothing more than a Founding Viscount — not worthy of so much as carrying our Duke’s household’s shoes. And here his son, who can compose a few crooked verses, dreams his great delusion in broad daylight. My daughter is kept in the depths of the inner household, and he already finds ways to come and degrade her — if she were truly married into his family, would she even keep her life?!”

Hearing Madam Ming say this, Yun Pan finally let out a long breath.

When she had been an unmarried girl in her family’s household, she had not been able to speak too freely. Aunt had only thought she was repeating Mei Fen’s wild claims and would not take her words seriously. Now that she had married and left home, she was a woman who could stand on her own — and so her words here carried real weight and were naturally deserving of careful consideration.

Madam Ming, seeing that she had been crying, rolled her handkerchief and dabbed at Yun Pan’s tears. She kept saying, “Good child, you are so wholehearted in your care for your cousin. On such a joyous occasion, there is no cause for tears. Do not worry — from this day forward I will certainly be on guard against He Xiao. If he truly dares come to the household to propose, I will immediately have people break his wretched legs.” As she spoke, she herself began to cry. “To think that we were the ones who harmed Mei Fen. If we had believed her sooner, it would never have come to this.”

But fortunately, it was not too late.

Babao had been waiting for news down at the covered walkway. Yun Pan sent Qin Dan over to convey the message to her. When everything had been relayed, Qin Dan added careful instructions of her own: “Our Madam says that if Mei Niang has anything urgent, she is welcome to come directly to Weiguo Duke’s household to find her. The man at the outer gate is Nanny Yao’s husband — the staff on duty are all our own people. Do not feel that because it is someone else’s household you cannot speak up boldly.”

Babao acknowledged it gratefully, expressing her thanks many times over before departing.

They had been at Shuguo Duke’s household for most of the day. The sun was already slanting westward, the return visit formalities were complete, and it was time to bid farewell.

Li Chenjian escorted Yun Pan out the door and turned back to bow his hands to the elders. “The day after tomorrow at the family banquet at Ban Lou — I respectfully await Father and Uncle and Aunt’s gracious presence.”

Everyone said it would be well, watching that perfectly matched pair settle side by side into the carriage — a man of remarkable talent and a woman of rare beauty, suited to each other in every way. The world’s beauty seemed gathered together in them and held in their hands.

Duke Shuguo nudged Jiang Heng with his elbow, as if to say: with a daughter and son-in-law this fine, if you go on making a fool of yourself, you deserve to stumble and fall flat on level ground.

The servant drove the carriage, which gradually began to move. Out of Dongyu Lin Lane, it headed in the direction of the Barbarian King’s Garden.

The return visit today had seen father, uncle, and aunt — yet there was still one most important person who had not been present. Yun Pan kept that thought close to her heart: she needed to bring her husband to offer incense to A’Niang.