The air seemed to freeze solid.

Xie Changgeng’s expression darkened somewhat, but within a mere moment, he had composed himself back to his usual state.

He stood and adjusted his clothing.

This time, he did not sit back onto the couch. Yet the tone in which he spoke carried not the slightest trace of anger. At her impudent and dismissive behavior just now, he appeared entirely unperturbed.

“It is only right that you are angry,” he said.

“Throughout these past half-year in my Xie household, you attended upon my mother day after day — it was truly exhausting for you. My mother’s original intentions were, admittedly, to repay an old debt of gratitude, but acting on her own authority, intending to take a concubine for me, was indeed improper. To speak of virtue and good sense…”

“Xie Changgeng, you flatter yourself!”

Mu Fulan cut off his words. She climbed down from the reclining couch, her bare feet slipping into a pair of exquisitely embroidered shoes with orchid patterns set on the floor at the couch’s edge. Beneath his gaze, she walked to the bronze mirror and sat down on the floor cushion seat.

She held a tortoiseshell comb, facing the mirror, composing herself as she combed out the length of hair he had just disheveled, and said as she did so, “I am neither virtuous nor reasonable. The reason I attended upon your mother before was simply to follow the teachings my father left me — thinking that since I had already married into the household, no matter how unwilling I was, I still needed to fulfill my duty. That is all.”

Xie Changgeng watched her back for a moment, then walked over and stopped behind her, his gaze fixed on the lovely face in the mirror.

“Mu clan, what exactly would it take for you to come back with me?”

He spoke the words almost one by one, and his tone had lost all of the gentleness he had shown before.

Mu Fulan’s hand holding the comb stopped.

She also raised her eyes and looked in the mirror at the man standing behind her, his gaze fixed intently upon herself.

He was beginning to lose his patience. She felt it.

A smile curved her lips.

“Dear husband, it is clear to me that you are deeply displeased with me at heart — then why go through the motions of false tenderness just now? Would it not be better to speak plainly, as you are doing now?”

Xie Changgeng looked at her without expression.

She set down the comb, rose from before the mirror, and turned to face him.

“Since you have asked directly, I will also speak without pretense. I will not return to your Xie household. It was entirely because of my father’s wishes that I was forced to marry you in the first place. Now I have changed my mind.”

“Life is short — one ought to enjoy oneself while one can. Why should I make myself suffer so unnecessarily?”

A flicker of surprise passed across Xie Changgeng’s face, barely perceptible.

He stared at her, and gradually his expression grew severe.

“Mu clan, allow me to remind you — this marriage was agreed to by your father. Over these past years, I believe I have kept my word faithfully and have not broken any part of our agreement. Even if my mother gave you offense, nothing actually came of it, and what’s more I have already apologized and made promises to you. Yet you and your brother have gone back on your word without cause and seek to break the agreement — childish and frivolous conduct, as if it were a game! Do you think you can manipulate me, Xie Changgeng, as you please?”

He seemed to realize he had lost his composure, swept his gaze over her, and when he next spoke, his tone had grown measured once more.

“Mu clan, you have just turned sixteen, yes? Being young and not yet fully understanding the world is entirely understandable. But between your father and your elder brother — who is the more trustworthy, who commands the greater affection of Changsha’s people — you should know the answer in your heart. When the marriage was arranged at that time, your elder brother had already harbored a bias against me. Presumably he is now urging you to dissolve the marriage. But think about it — however good an elder brother may be, you are a woman; can you rely on him for the rest of your life?”

“You would still be better off following your father’s arrangement and returning home with me. Going forward, I will not treat you poorly.”

Mu Fulan looked at the man before her, patiently trying to coax her, and for a moment she felt an infinite surge of profound feeling.

If she had not been his wife before, if she did not know so deeply what manner of man he was — faced with such a man as this, what woman could remain steadfast and unmoved?

She shook her head. The small, refined coral-red earrings she wore on her pale, delicate earlobes swayed with the motion, flashing in and out of sight among the strands of hair draped over her shoulders.

“You need not invoke my father to pressure me. Let me ask you: what was your purpose in coming to propose marriage? And has that purpose now been fulfilled? Since you have already achieved your goal, this marriage with Changsha holds no more of its original value for you. Then why cling to it so stubbornly?”

Xie Changgeng said nothing.

“I am very willing to believe that you wish to honor the agreement you made with my father in those days. But as for what it is truly about — you know better than I do.”

“Because of this marriage, my father achieved what he wished and secured the welfare of Changsha’s people. You gained even more from it — enormously. Had it not been for my father’s recognition and support, with your identity as a great bandit, how could you have smoothly entered officialdom and gone on to seize your opportunity for meteoric rise?”

“You and my father — through this marriage, you each obtained what you desired. But what about me? Did either of you ever spare me so much as a fraction of a thought?”

She gazed steadily at the man before her.

“Xie Changgeng, let me be honest with you. At the time when you came to propose marriage, there was, in truth, already someone in my heart who mattered to me. He was the kindest person in the world, and the most beautiful to behold when he smiled. But you came to propose. My father, for Changsha’s sake, betrothed me to you.”

Xie Changgeng seemed slightly taken aback, his brow furrowing in response.

Mu Fulan gave a self-mocking little laugh.

“I am a princess. I have my duties. I could not refuse. I had to accept.”

“But now I have changed my mind. I have already done what I was meant to do for Changsha, and from now on, I ought to also think of myself. I do not presume to claim any merit, but at the time, I did genuinely serve your interests — that much you cannot deny. I hope that today, you can likewise do me one favor in return. If you can do so, I will be grateful beyond measure.”

Xie Changgeng’s expression became somewhat rigid. He stared at her and did not speak.

Mu Fulan also fell silent.

The room quieted, its atmosphere pressing and oppressive.

“We can discuss this matter further in time. For now, come back with me first!”

After a long silence, he finally spoke, coldly.

“And when exactly is ‘in time’?” Mu Fulan asked.

He did not answer.

“When you have achieved your great ambitions and reached the very pinnacle?”

A subtle change passed over Xie Changgeng’s face. He abruptly raised his hand and pressed it down on one of her shoulders.

It was as though a thousand-pound burden had suddenly been placed upon her. Mu Fulan’s body lurched to the side, and she fell and sat down upon the felt floor mat in front of the mirror box.

He followed, slowly crouching down, squatting in front of her.

“Mu clan, what were you just saying?”

“Where did you hear that?”

His tone was extremely gentle, as if coaxing a child. Yet that hand of his had not left her, traveling from her shoulder and slowly drifting to the side of her neck.

Like a caress, the fingertip pads with their slight calluses softly rubbed against the tender and smooth skin of her neck.

“Tell me.”

He narrowed his eyes slightly, fixing his gaze on Mu Fulan’s eyes. That hand abruptly increased its pressure, wrapping around her slender neck.

Like a swan on the verge of having its neck snapped by a hunter, Mu Fulan was passively tilted back, yet made no struggle whatsoever. She simply looked at those two darkly brooding eyes directed upon her from so close at hand, and smiled.

“Xie Changgeng — can it be you truly mean to kill me?”

Xie Changgeng slowly loosened the five fingers clamped around her neck.

Mu Fulan frowned, brushed his hand away, and smoothed the side of her own neck. She adjusted the cape that had slipped from her shoulders back into place, then said, “Taking me as a wife served your purpose. And this marriage has additionally lost its original significance to you — at most, it is a bone left with no meat, good for nothing but discarding. Yet you endure humiliation, bear insult with docility, suffer my royal brother’s abuse so thoroughly, and insist on bringing me back. If not because you have other designs, then what?”

“By now you have become one of the foremost figures in the entire court. Given your position today, if you still have something left to scheme for, what remains but that one particular seat? It’s such a simple thing to figure out — what is there that is difficult to guess?”

Xie Changgeng stared at her for a moment, then rose from the floor and said coldly, “Mu clan, I have seen a great many people who thought themselves clever. Those people, more often than not, came to no good end. I do not wish for you to end up the same way.”

“In matters of marriage, you cannot simply do as you please. You are already my Xie household’s wife; now that I have come, you will return with me. As for your suppositions…”

He paused.

“In time, depending on how things unfold, I will make my own decisions.”

Mu Fulan followed him and rose from the felt mat to her feet.

“Things have already come to this point — why are you still so stubbornly insisting? If this matter is indeed inconvenient for outsiders to know about, why don’t we each retreat half a step? I can keep things concealed for the time being — including my brother and sister-in-law, I will not breathe a word of it to anyone. Going forward, you walk your open road, I remain here in Changsha. We say publicly that I am recuperating from illness.”

“Rest assured — whatever you are scheming for, it has no bearing on me whatsoever. What I said just now was, as you yourself pointed out, no more than my own careless guessing. I may want to sever ties with you, but I am not foolish enough to make Changsha an enemy in the process.”

A faint flicker passed through Xie Changgeng’s gaze. He did not reply.

“There is one thing you do not yet know, but I no longer wish to keep it from you.”

Mu Fulan drew in a long, deep breath.

“I have been with another man. I am not intact.”

She spoke in a calm, even tone, as though speaking of the most ordinary matter imaginable.

The corner of Xie Changgeng’s eye gave an almost imperceptible twitch, and a dark shadow surged suddenly from the depths of his gaze.

Yet she seemed not to notice at all. Instead, she smiled — a smile of extraordinary beauty, entirely unconcerned.

“I have heard that a man who has great ambitions can endure crawling under another’s crotch. Husband, I have now told you of this hidden secret of mine — one not even my parents or family know — without the slightest concealment. If even this you can forgive and overlook, and still allow me to be your Xie household’s wife and attend upon your mother, then I will have nothing more to say, and will go back with you.”

When she finished speaking, she walked past him, returned to the reclining couch, climbed up onto it, drew her knees up and together, and settled there in the same posture as when he had first entered — half-leaning, half-sitting. She raised her chin slightly and looked at him.

The room was utterly still — so still it felt as though even a needle dropping to the ground could be heard.

Xie Changgeng stood in place for a moment, then abruptly stepped forward — one step, then another — walking toward her.

He came to stand before the reclining couch, his eyes cold as he stared down at Mu Fulan. He bent at the waist, reached out a hand, and extended it toward the hem of her pomegranate-red skirt.

Mu Fulan remained seated, without moving, and slowly closed her eyes.