The sky was just beginning to lighten. It was probably around five or six in the morning. Cheng Qing (A’Luo — from now on the name will be used instead) got out of bed and looked down at her thin, straight-collared robe. Not exactly suited for exercise.

Xiao Yu had also woken and asked A’Luo: “Young lady, why are you up so early? It’s only the Hour of the Rabbit now — you never normally wake before the Hour of the Dragon.”

A’Luo silently recited the twelve Earthly Branches to herself, thinking she’d need to get used to the time-keeping system used here. She smiled and said: “I got so excited after finishing the monthly exam yesterday that I couldn’t sleep. Xiao Yu, can you help me make a set of clothes?”

Xiao Yu brought water for her to wash her face, and asked while combing her hair: “What kind of clothes would the young lady like? Xiao Yu can make anything.”

A’Luo smiled. “I’ll draw you a pattern later. Oh, and Xiao Yu — in the mornings, do I need to go pay respects to anyone?” A’Luo still couldn’t quite bring herself to say “Mother.”

Xiao Yu answered with a small smile: “Madam prefers quiet — she likes to spend her time doing embroidery on her own. She goes to pay respects to the First Madam at the Hour of the Dragon, and comes back to stay in her room by herself afterward. You don’t need to go, young lady.”

A’Luo asked, puzzled: “Then who do I go to for lessons?”

Xiao Yu looked quite surprised. “Eldest Miss and Second Miss both have private tutors. Third Madam and Fourth Madam are also both accomplished in the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting. As for you, young lady, you’ve driven off several tutors already — Madam said she’d wait until you wanted to learn again before hiring another one. But truly, young lady, our Madam is a genuinely talented woman — she knows everything.”

A’Luo smiled — how wonderful, a ready-made teacher! She said to Xiao Yu: “I’ve been lying around too long and it’s making me stiff — I want to move around a bit. Take me to look around! By the time my beautiful mother gets back, I’ll have her teach me!” Adding “beautiful” made it feel much easier for A’Luo to say “mother.”

Xiao Yu agreed with a smile. Once her hair was done, A’Luo eagerly pulled Xiao Yu out the courtyard gate. Caught up in A’Luo’s excitement, Xiao Yu laughed as she said: “The young lady never used to leave the courtyard — always moping around alone. Why the sudden change of heart?”

A’Luo looked up at Xiao Yu. “I can’t bear to see my beautiful mother cry. I won’t let her stay locked up in this little courtyard forever. Xiao Yu, you’ll have to help me — we won’t let anyone push us around.”

Xiao Yu’s eyes reddened at that, and she led A’Luo around, patiently explaining the layout of the household. A’Luo suddenly realized she didn’t even know her own full name, and tilted her head to ask Xiao Yu: “That Third Madam’s daughter, A’Lei, and Fourth Madam’s daughter, A’Fei — they’re both so arrogant.”

Xiao Yu glanced around to make sure no one was listening, then said to A’Luo: “Young lady, Third Madam and Fourth Madam both come from important backgrounds. Don’t address Eldest Miss and Second Miss so casually. If someone heard, they’d say Seventh Madam had failed to teach her daughter properly.”

A’Luo took the opportunity to ask about Third Madam and Fourth Madam. She learned that one was the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy merchant named Zhang from Wind City, while the other was a cousin of a Vice Minister of Works at court. The other wives, too, came from respectable families — only Seventh Madam had come from a brothel, purchased at great expense on the night of her debut and given to Old Man Li as a concubine. No wonder the others looked down on her.

A’Lei’s full name was Li Qinglei; A’Fei’s, Li Qingfei; and A’Luo, naturally, was Li Qingluo. A’Luo sighed again — not only was she born of a concubine, but her own mother had come from a brothel. Her standing was so low that a dog belonging to the First Madam might well rank higher than Seventh Madam.

They spent most of the day wandering, covering the entire inner residence. By the time A’Luo led Xiao Yu back to their rooms, she had a fairly good grasp of the general situation. She sent Xiao Yu off to check whether Seventh Madam had returned yet.

She carefully sketched out a map of the Chancellor’s estate. The Crab-Apple Garden really was tucked away in an out-of-the-way corner, right next to a vegetable patch, with a large stretch of bamboo grove behind the building, and beyond that, the estate’s outer wall. A’Luo was quite satisfied — a spot like this would make it easy to climb over the wall unnoticed someday, if it ever came to that.

When Seventh Madam heard that A’Luo had woken early wanting to learn skills, she hurried over, deeply moved. “Third Miss, what do you want to learn? Why the sudden change of heart? Tell Mother!”

A’Luo looked at the excitement and warmth in Seventh Madam’s eyes, walked over, and took hold of the hem of her robe. “Mother, I don’t need to become some great master at anything — just enough to hold my own, so no one can look down on us!”

Seventh Madam’s eyes reddened. “I knew it — how could my daughter be an empty-headed fool! Look at the poem you composed about the crab-apple blossoms in the sky-well — Third Miss, you have a natural gift.”

A’Luo smiled wryly to herself — no natural gift, but I’ll fake having one now.

From that day on, Seventh Madam taught A’Luo the zither and painting every day. A’Luo discovered that a child’s brain absorbed things remarkably quickly, and she found she could remember almost everything after seeing it once. Combined with the mind of a twenty-two-year-old, once Seventh Madam taught her something, she grasped it almost immediately. After she’d learned to play the zither, A’Luo realized playing had another benefit — with a different voice now, she could pass the time quickly by playing songs she’d liked back in the modern world. So she poured more and more effort into her zither practice.

Then, one day, after hearing A’Luo play “Prelude to Water Melody,” Seventh Madam burst into tears, soaking her silk handkerchief through, and said through her sobs: “Third Miss, this song is so beautiful — your playing carries real feeling in it, far better than your elder sister’s.”

A’Luo, not quite believing it, asked Seventh Madam: “Isn’t it just that the song itself is good? Not that my playing is skilled?” She then played “Three Variations on Plum Blossoms” again, thinking, this way you’ll have something to compare it to.

To her surprise, Seventh Madam said proudly: “Your mother has been playing the zither since she was four years old — no one in Wind City can surpass me. Do you doubt my ear? Even with this same ‘Three Variations on Plum Blossoms,’ your playing brings out the plum blossom’s pride and defiance even more. My daughter has every reason to be proud.”

A’Luo marveled — if she could earn praise from the finest zither player in Wind City, then it must be true after all. She whispered to Seventh Madam: “Mother, please don’t let anyone else know about this. Let A’Luo play only for you, alright?”

A smile of amusement showed in Seventh Madam’s eyes. “Afraid of outshining your elder sister and never having a moment’s peace again?”

A’Luo said, feigning seriousness: “The zither should only be played for someone who understands it. If I play better than her, every time we have important guests they’ll drag me out to perform — how could I bear that?”

Seventh Madam pinched her cheek affectionately and pulled her into an embrace. “Third Miss, you really are clever! Mother could never love you enough!”

A’Luo, too, grew fonder and fonder of this beautiful mother — kind, gentle, and above all, wholeheartedly devoted to her. She thought, once I find a way, I’ll take good care of this little mother of mine.

Every morning A’Luo would rise early and put on the loose jacket and trousers Xiao Yu had made for her, and go out to jog and warm up. Running to the bamboo grove behind the house, she’d have Xiao Yu keep watch outside while she practiced her karate forms, over and over, the way she’d learned back in the modern world. Every night, after half an hour of yoga, she’d go to sleep. At first Xiao Yu found this strange to watch. A’Luo fixed her with a stare: “If you really want to repay Mother’s kindness, don’t tell anyone about this. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand what I’m doing — just remember it’s for our good, in the long run.”

Xiao Yu nodded in agreement, and as she watched A’Luo’s complexion grow rosier and her steps grow lighter and more energetic, she came to believe that whatever method the young lady used to condition her body, it truly worked, and said nothing more about it.

In the blink of an eye, another three-month exam arrived. A’Luo watched with detached amusement as her elder sisters showed off their skills at zither and calligraphy, then bowed her head and sang a tune with a decent melody but wildly off-key. Old Man Li, having already assumed her earlier poem was something her mother had specifically taught her to impress him, hadn’t asked her to compose poetry again. Now, seeing her attempt to learn singing, he was quite pleased, and offered his usual words of encouragement.

The other wives reasoned the same way, growing all the more resentful of Seventh Madam, thinking her shameless for using her daughter to seduce the master right there in the hall. Fortunately for them, Chancellor Li was kept occupied by the First Madam all day and pestered by his other concubines, so he only visited the Crab-Apple Garden once or twice. Finding the garden cold and unwelcoming, and feeling that Seventh Madam wasn’t warm enough toward him, he gradually lost interest. The other wives, relieved, mocked Seventh Madam for having used every trick from her brothel days without managing to hold onto the master’s favor.

From then on, at every monthly exam, A’Luo would try one thing after another — chess one time, embroidery the next, the zither another time — never mastering anything fully. Seeing that her studies were scattered and shallow, with nothing she could truly show off, Chancellor Li scolded her repeatedly, but no matter how he reprimanded her, she would show up at the next exam having taken up yet another new skill, saying pitifully: “A’Luo has followed Father’s teachings and studied diligently these three months, learning such-and-such — please give your judgment, Father.” And of course, it was always mediocre. Chancellor Li urged her to focus on mastering just one skill, but she never came close to matching Qinglei or Qingfei, and could only shake his head silently. Meanwhile, the other wives’ expressions toward her grew gentler each time.

Seventh Madam asked Qingluo once: “Third Miss, how long do you intend to keep hiding your true abilities?”

A’Luo smiled. “Mother, as the art of war says: when your wings haven’t yet grown strong, don’t clash head-on. Haven’t you noticed that, apart from the First Madam, the other wives without children of their own seem to like me more than they like Eldest Sister and Second Sister?”

Seventh Madam thought happily to herself, the rest of my life will depend on this clever little daughter of mine.

A’Luo thought — it had already been six years since she’d arrived here. She had long since given up any hope of returning to the modern world one day; the only thing that mattered now was how to establish herself here and protect herself. She would need money. After much thought, A’Luo decided that someday she would open a restaurant. Once she had earned enough, she’d take her beautiful mother, along with Nanny Zhang and Xiao Yu, to travel to the other four kingdoms and see the sights — the kind of travel route she could never have managed back in the modern world. Perhaps one day she’d meet someone and simply marry, for better or worse; and if she never met the right person, becoming a wealthy proprietress and living out her life in comfort would suit her just fine too.

With these thoughts in mind, A’Luo threw herself into the vast sea of knowledge of this strange new world. Combining modern and ancient knowledge, she thought that if she ever somehow found her way back to the modern world, she would open an antiques shop and make a fortune.

And so A’Luo grew to the age of twelve. Li Qinglei was sixteen by then, and Li Qingfei fourteen.

The reputation of the Li household’s two talented daughters had gradually spread throughout Wind City. As early as two years before, matchmakers seeking to arrange marriages for Li Qinglei and Li Qingfei had nearly worn down the threshold of the Chancellor’s residence. Third Miss Qingluo, however, remained largely unknown. Chancellor Li would only shake his head and say his youngest daughter was still too young, that he couldn’t bear to marry her off so soon.

Then, that spring, the Peach Blossom Banquet of Wind City arrived, and an invitation reached the Li Chancellor’s residence — from Princess Huguo.