It was early summer in April, with half a month remaining until the Dragon Boat Festival. The Marquis Xuanyuan estate had returned to its usual bustling scene, with servants busy collecting mugwort leaves, twisting colored threads, and preparing various materials for wrapping zongzi. This day, a fresh rain had fallen in the morning, leaving the sky washed clean with azure clouds. Delicate peach petals were knocked down by the rainwater, rustling as they fell into the lake. Those quietly vanishing lives, like these fallen flowers, were swiftly swept away and swiftly forgotten, not even leaving a ripple in people’s hearts.

But Yuanxi remembered—she remembered that beautiful young corpse, the ugliness she had witnessed with her own eyes, and the unfathomable human hearts behind that ugliness. She also clearly remembered that Xiao Du hadn’t come to her room even once since their wedding night. While this relieved her greatly on one hand, it also made her somewhat sad on the other. Perhaps this was her fate—from her father to her newly wedded husband, she was destined never to receive favor.

She stared blankly at those flower petals swirling helplessly in the wind, feeling that she was no different. From birth to marriage, nothing had been her own choice. In this lifetime, was there anything she could truly control?

Feeling somewhat melancholy, she couldn’t help but sigh softly. Suddenly she remembered that day in the abandoned courtyard when the mad Yunniang had pointed at her and cried, “This is a curse! A curse!” Her heart suddenly lurched. Since the day she married into the Marquis estate, too many strange things had happened, and even her husband had never truly been transparent to her.

She always felt that none of this was over—it was perhaps only the beginning. This thought made her feel uneasy and breathless. She quickly looked away from outside, gently closed the paper window, turned around, and asked Nanny Li, “What time is it now?”

Nanny Li glanced at the water clock and replied, “Madam has slept for nearly an hour. It’s now a quarter past the hour of Wei.”

It was time to memorize the account books again. Yuanxi supported her forehead, helplessly pursing her lips, deciding not to let herself sink into these strange thoughts anymore. She asked, “Where are An’he and Rongqiao?” Rongqiao was a new personal maid that Concubine Wang had assigned to her. Concubine Wang said that as the Marquis’s wife, she had too few personal attendants, and An’he was too young, so she needed to add some more capable hands. Thus, she had transferred one of her own maids over first.

While combing her hair, Nanny Li smiled and said, “Seeing that you had just fallen asleep, I let them rest in the outer room. I’ll call them in now.”

After Nanny Li finished arranging her hair, she called out. Along with the two maids came Concubine Wang as well. Yuanxi didn’t know why she had come to her room at this hour, so she hurriedly and flustered invited her to sit down, instructing An’he to bring some tea and refreshments for hospitality.

Concubine Wang sat down with a smile and said, “I came today to discuss something with Young Madam. The Dragon Boat Festival sacrifice is approaching, and the Old Master feels the ancestral hall is too worn down. He wants to repair it before the festival, so I thought we should also renovate the Buddhist hall at the same time. This would make for quite a large project with very tight timing, so I came quickly to discuss and plan this properly with Madam.”

Yuanxi’s eyes widened, feeling somewhat ashamed, “But I don’t understand any of this. I haven’t even memorized the accounts that Aunt gave me last time.”

Concubine Wang still smiled, “That doesn’t matter. How about this—I’ll arrange everything. All personnel assignments and financial transactions will be reported to Madam first for review. Only after you’ve approved them will they count.”

Yuanxi actually wanted to say that even if she looked at them, she wouldn’t understand and might just delay things, but since Concubine Wang was being so attentive, she couldn’t bring herself to refuse. She could only agree and said, “Then I’ll trouble Concubine Wang to take care of this.”

Concubine Wang seemed to set down a worry, holding her hand again, “Since His Lordship has asked Young Madam to manage the household, I as a concubine should naturally cooperate well. So Young Madam will be in charge of this ancestral hall and Buddhist hall renovation, and I’ll handle everything else as your assistant.” Yuanxi felt there was something strange about these words but couldn’t figure it out at the moment, so she could only smile reluctantly in agreement.

Concubine Wang sat for a while longer, carefully asking if there was anything she couldn’t get used to living or eating. Only after tea had been served twice did she say she needed to report back to the Old Master, leaving hurriedly like a gust of wind.

Yuanxi finally breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing that it was getting late, she had An’he and Rongqiao carry the account books and writing materials to the neighboring Qingzhi Courtyard. After crossing a water pavilion corridor bridge, she saw several lushly growing gardenia trees with stone benches and a stone table arranged beneath them.

In the Prime Minister’s residence, gardenia trees had been planted beside Yuanxi’s boudoir. She had loved reading accompanied by their fragrance since childhood. A few days ago, she had accidentally discovered this quiet spot surrounded by gardenias and immediately felt both delighted and nostalgic. Since she found her room too stuffy, she came here every afternoon specifically to read the account books.

After reading for a while, she looked up to see that An’he and Rongqiao, who were attending her nearby, had already prepared the ink and were now somewhat bored and drowsy. Feeling sorry for them, she said gently, “I still need to read for a while. You can go outside and play first.”

An’he’s eyes lit up upon hearing this. Rongqiao was still somewhat hesitant, but seeing that An’he had already excitedly thanked the Madam and was pulling her outside, she could only bow to Yuanxi and say, “We’ll play by the outside corridor bridge. If Madam needs anything, just call us loudly.”

Yuanxi smiled and nodded, then lowered her head to look at the account books again. She didn’t know that behind the largest gardenia tree, through an open window lattice, Xiao Du was also frowning as he listened to Zhou Jingyuan systematically reciting the arrangements and estate decorations for before and after the Dragon Boat Festival.

Xiao Du reclined against the beauty couch by the window, listening boredly for a while. Seeing that Zhou Jingyuan showed no signs of stopping, he said, “Uncle Zhou, you can just arrange these things. How would I have any opinions?”

But Zhou Jingyuan insisted firmly, “That won’t do. The Old Master has instructed that this Dragon Boat Festival sacrifice is a major estate matter. His Lordship is now the head of the family, so everything must be reported clearly.”

Xiao Du responded with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, suppressing the urge to yawn and resentfully shifting his gaze toward the window. Suddenly he sat up straight, discovering with great interest that his new bride was sitting under the gardenia shade, seriously staring at the account book in her hands.

He saw Yuanxi looking listless but sitting bolt upright, frowning as she tried hard to memorize the numbers in the book. Xiao Du remembered that servants had reported to him that Concubine Wang was making her memorize all the estate’s accounts from recent years. Finding this quite amusing, he didn’t mind the constantly chattering voice beside his ear and focused his attention on watching her.

In the afternoon after rain, bright beams of light penetrated through thin cloud layers and filtered through gaps in the flowers and leaves, dappling her pale yellow silhouette with mottled patterns. Her expression was serious and bright, her fair face bathed in fine halos of light. After a while, seeming unable to continue reading, she helplessly rubbed her eyes and simply took out paper and brush, beginning to copy from the account book stroke by stroke.

Xiao Du couldn’t help but curl his lips into a smile. It was admirable that she had thought of this method to force herself to memorize those tedious numbers. He leaned against the window lattice, watching with fascination until someone beside his ear kept calling, “My Lord! My Lord!”

Coming back to his senses, he met Zhou Jingyuan’s angry gaze, clearly very dissatisfied with his distraction. Xiao Du guiltily covered his mouth and coughed lightly twice, then put on a sincere smile, “I’m listening. Uncle Zhou, please continue.”

Zhou Jingyuan looked at him suspiciously twice, then took out another piece of paper and began reciting the items needed for this sacrifice. Xiao Du quickly let his gaze drift outside again, discovering that Yuanxi seemed to have encountered some difficulty and was frowning as she bit her brush tip, her feathery lashes fluttering up and down in the light.

Xiao Du was amused by her childish behavior and wanted to laugh, but didn’t dare disturb the seriously reciting Zhou Jingyuan. Suddenly a mischievous idea arose in his heart. He got down from the couch, grabbed a handful of pine nuts from the porcelain plate of snacks on the desk, hid them behind his back, walked to the window, and while Zhou Jingyuan wasn’t paying attention, suddenly threw them at the tree leaves above Yuanxi’s head.

After half a day of heavy rain washing, the leaves had accumulated much rainwater. Having practiced good aim in the military, he casually hit many leaf surfaces with one throw. The water on the leaves splashed down like fine raindrops, landing right on Yuanxi’s head and body.

Thinking it was raining again, Yuanxi hurriedly stood up, about to call An’he and the others over, but discovered that the sun was shining brightly overhead without any trace of rain. She looked around in puzzlement, then stared blankly at the ink marks that had already smudged on her paper, frowning for a long time, unable to figure out what had just happened.

Seeing her look in his direction, Xiao Du quickly lowered the window and hid himself in the shadows. Thinking of Yuanxi’s foolishly dazed expression just now, he couldn’t suppress the upward curve of his lips, suddenly feeling much better. Zhou Jingyuan here had already noticed something was wrong but couldn’t very well lose his temper, so he could only suppress his anger and call out again, “Young Master!”

Only then did Xiao Du realize he had indeed gotten a bit carried away with his play. He was about to turn around and appease Zhou Jingyuan with a few words when a servant suddenly ran in from outside, saying something very tensely in Xiao Du’s ear. Xiao Du’s expression changed, his good mood immediately swept away completely as he said with a dark face, “I’ll go right away.”