Anle was quiet for a moment, then suddenly asked, “Does your… does your hand still hurt?”

Li Shu felt like rolling her eyes. “What do you think?”

Obviously it did. Her temples were throbbing with the pain.

Anle bit her lip. She was trying to show concern! With Li Shu’s cold manner, it was no wonder she was on her own. Serves her right.

She sat down beside Li Shu and rested her arms on the balustrade, leaning forward. A gentle breeze passed through — the moment was very quiet and warm.

To think that one day she would actually be able to sit quietly beside Li Shu like this.

“Imperial Father will certainly catch the bad people for you,” Anle added.

At that, Li Shu let out another derisive laugh.

Anle frowned. “What are you laughing at? Did I say something wrong?”

“They cannot be caught,” Li Shu said.

“How do you know that?” Anle asked.

“I simply know,” Li Shu said.

“Then why don’t I know?” Anle asked.

“Because you are not clever enough,” Li Shu replied.

Anle stared at her in stunned silence.

“Li Shu! You…!”

Unbelievable. She had actually been feeling sorry for Li Shu just now. She must have lost her mind.

Anle huffed and turned herself away, getting angry all over again.

She was exactly like a pufferfish — poke her and she would inflate.

Li Shu spread her hands. Anle was simply not clever — surely she was not forbidden from speaking the truth.

After a brief silence, Anle’s restless nature got the better of her and she asked again, “Why did you tell me about Cui Jinzhi’s mistress?”

With that information in her hands, she could spread it all over the city the very next morning and let everyone mock Li Shu for being unable to keep her husband in check.

Li Shu heard this, and a sudden look of realization crossed her face, immediately followed by profound regret. “Oh no — how could I have told you about Cui Jinzhi’s mistress!”

“I should have heaped praise on Cui Jinzhi instead, so you would leave Yang Fang and go marry Cui Jinzhi. What a slip of the tongue. Otherwise Yang Fang would soon have been unattached, and since I am also unattached, who knows, the two of us might have —”

“— What do you mean, the two of you!”

Anle shot to her feet, looking down at Li Shu from above. “You are not to set your sights on him!”

Li Shu spread her hands. “Why on earth not? What is he to you? You are the one who has always been contemptuous of him. What — things you do not want, other people are not allowed to have either?”

Anle started and stopped several times. “I… you…”

She was so indignant she had lost the power of speech, a breath lodged right in her throat — and yet she could not get a single coherent word out.

Just — no! That was all!

Anle still could not see into her own heart clearly, but Li Shu did not mind giving her a push or two. In this world, people who were truly meant for each other were rare enough — to play the matchmaker just this once was as good as a kind deed.

Li Shu’s lip corners curved into a small smile.

Besides, a young girl like Anle was really rather entertaining to tease. Dig a great pit right under her nose and she would step into it with her eyes wide open. Her wits were not much to speak of, but at least she had no malice in her — and so even her foolishness was not the aggravating kind.

Li Shu shook her hand and found that the wound did not seem to hurt quite as badly as before.

The court was never short of people with deep scheming and heavy layers of artifice. After years of dealing with them, Li Shu had long since been assimilated into their ranks. A thick mask had settled over her face, until even her own feelings of joy and sorrow had been stripped away.

Someone as guileless and impulsive as Anle was the rarest of things.

Li Shu understood now why Yang Fang cared so much for Anle.

Given the choice, she too would have wished to become someone like Anle.

Li Shu stood as well, and stepped out of the pavilion to stroll along the lakeside path. Anle followed close behind, still puffed up with indignation over Li Shu’s alleged poaching.

They had not walked far when Li Shu suddenly stopped. “Anle, let the past be past. Stop clinging to it. The person standing before you is the one truly worth cherishing.”

Anle followed Li Shu’s gaze and looked ahead. Not far off, beneath a trailing willow, Yang Fang was walking along the lakeshore. Beside him was another official dressed in a vermilion robe, and the two of them were deep in conversation.

Better to cherish the one who stands before you.

*

Shen Xiao was talking with Yang Fang when, quite suddenly, the sound of footsteps came from the green bamboo path ahead. A moment later a girl of about ten, dressed in palace robes, came dashing out.

Shen Xiao had not expected her and nearly collided with her. He sidestepped in time, but another figure came rushing out right on her heels. “Yongtai, slow down — do not go running off like this!”

The second girl had come charging too fast, and Shen Xiao could not get clear in time. The two of them ran straight into each other.

Jincheng lifted her eyes from where she had bumped against Shen Xiao’s chest and found herself looking, without any warning, directly into a pair of deep, ink-black eyes — so profound that one felt one’s very soul might be drawn into them. His brow was faintly furrowed, his thin lips pressed together, with a stern and grave cast to his features.

Jincheng’s face went crimson in an instant. She retreated three or four steps at once, lowering her head, heart pounding wildly, ears ringing.

“I beg your pardon.” Her voice was no louder than a mosquito’s hum.

She had spent her life within the deep palace, and apart from the various imperial princes and princess consorts, she had never been in the presence of an unfamiliar man before. To suddenly collide with Shen Xiao like this, she felt as though she was surrounded entirely by the scent of an unknown man — her hands went into a flustered panic, and she hurriedly pulled Yongtai over to her, scolding her in a hushed voice, “What were you running about for? What if you had fallen into the lake?”

Princess Yongtai was ten years old this year — at the age of curiosity and mischief. In the palace, living under the Empress’s roof, she had always had to keep herself reined in. But today she had followed Jincheng out of the palace, and felt like a caged bird finally set free. She had, admittedly, gotten a little carried away.

Shen Xiao frowned slightly and, taking in the two girls’ palace robes and their maidservant escort, guessed they must be princesses. Sure enough, Yang Fang stepped forward to smooth things over. “My respects to Princess Jincheng and Princess Yongtai.”

Shen Xiao accordingly clasped his hands in a bow as well. “This subordinate pays his respects to the two princesses. It was I who was careless just now. I humbly beg your forgiveness.”

His speech carried a faint trace of a southern accent, the final syllables curling slightly upward, which lent a quality entirely different from his sober and dignified manner.

Jincheng lowered her head further — for reasons she could not name, even her ears had gone red at the sound of his voice.

Yang Fang then asked, “Have the two princesses seen Anle?”

Jincheng steadied herself enough to reply, “Princess Anle and Princess Pingyang are together — they said the rooms were too stuffy and came out for a walk.”

Yang Fang very nearly knocked his head against the wall.

Good heavens, those two had not gotten into some quarrel somewhere in a corner, had they?

He asked urgently, “Do you know which way they went?”

He had to go head them off before they came to blows!

Jincheng shook her head — but then she raised her eyes, and just happened to see Li Shu and Anle coming this way along the lakeshore path. She pointed. “Speak of the devil and she shall appear.”

The official in the vermilion robe beside her also looked in that direction. There was no particular reason for it, but Jincheng found herself thinking, inexplicably, that the severity had gone from his expression, and there seemed to be even the faintest trace of a smile on his face — barely perceptible.

*

Anle and Li Shu were walking in the direction of Yang Fang when Li Shu suddenly came to a stop. Anle turned her head and followed Li Shu’s gaze into the distance.

Princess Jincheng, dark hair piled up in clouds, stood with her head softly bowed. Against the overcast sky, the fine white line of her neck was exposed — every inch of a young girl’s shy, tender beauty. Even without a single precious ornament, a girl just come of age carried with her a natural allure and an innocent, unstudied charm.

Anle had been turning the phrase “cherish the one before you” over and over in her mind, and she suddenly asked, “Pingyang — do you have someone before you?”

Li Shu’s gaze drifted slightly from Jincheng and settled on Shen Xiao standing beside her. Cold and austere in bearing, standing at the delicate threshold of youth — two people standing there side by side looked extraordinarily well-matched.

She drew her gaze away and let it fall on the empty expanse of the lake. “No.”

The two of them continued walking toward Yang Fang.

Anle asked again, “What are your plans for the future, then?”

Looking at Li Shu’s solitary, slight figure, she could not help but feel a pang of sympathy.

Anle could be willful and spoiled, but her heart was not unkind. She wished Li Shu well. “You could ask Imperial Father to arrange another match for you. This time you must make sure to choose a good man.”

Li Shu gave a contemptuous laugh and shook her head.

She had long since given up on matters of the heart. What was the use of marriage? She was perfectly fine on her own.

Anle assumed Li Shu’s heart still carried Cui Jinzhi, and offered counsel. “Did you not just say that the past is past? You are a clever person — surely you know better than to hang yourself on a single tree. He is not worth ruining yourself over.”

Li Shu had detested Anle for so many years, and yet here she was being comforted by her. It was the last thing she had ever expected. The whole thing made her skin crawl — she would have far rather had Anle glare at her than have Anle speaking kindly to her like this.

She had been independent and self-reliant for many years and was not accustomed to such sudden warmth. She liked it even less when others pitied her. Wanting to deflect with a joke and change the subject, she said, “Who said I was going to hang myself on a single tree? Grand Princess Kangning has no prince consort, and she gets along just perfectly.”

They had walked close to where Yang Fang was standing now. Li Shu’s languid voice drifted forward: “Besides, one can always keep a few companions, can one not?”

The remark, delivered in that same cold, unhurried voice with its sharp content, floated straight into Shen Xiao’s ears.

Princess Jincheng was standing right beside Shen Xiao, not more than a few steps away — and yet she could quite plainly sense that his body had gone rigid all at once. His manner turned immediately cool and hard, like a blade that had just been unsheathed, radiating a chill.

Yang Fang saw them coming and quickly stepped forward with a bow. “My respects to Princess Pingyang.”

He carefully looked the two of them over — their expressions appeared normal, not like people who had been quarreling. His heart eased somewhat, which left him with the spare attention to process Li Shu’s remark about “companions.”

Please do not be teaching Anle bad habits!

Li Shu smiled at Yang Fang. “Sir Yang.” Then she gave a slight nod in Shen Xiao’s direction, her tone mild and distant. “Sir Shen.”

She paused, then added with a smile, “Sir Yang heard what I said just now, did he not? If he should ever have a suitable candidate in mind, do remember to introduce him to me.”

Yang Fang’s smile very nearly froze on his face. He could not tell whether Li Shu was joking or in earnest. He had no friends willing to serve as companions!

He forced out an awkward laugh and let the remark pass without comment.

Beside him, Shen Xiao’s gaze deepened, fixed on Li Shu for a moment.

The little group gathered together and stood by the lakeshore exchanging a few casual words. A breeze off the water caught the edges of Li Shu’s cape, and her plain white skirt fell in long, easy folds to the ground. She gave a quiet cough.

Shen Xiao stirred at the sound. He shifted a few steps to the right, until he was standing precisely in front of Li Shu and between her and the direction of the wind.

Li Shu raised her eyes and looked at him.

At that moment a young manservant came running over. “Your Highness, the Fifth Prince, the Seventh Prince, and the Eleventh Prince have arrived.”

A whole string of princes, rattled off like items on a menu.

The three princes’ mansions were close by, so they had presumably arranged to come together. Li Shu glanced at Shen Xiao. Their eyes met briefly, and then each looked away.

“Show them to the main reception hall at once,” Li Shu said.