After the banquet concluded and the guests had wandered and taken their leisure, the sun had nearly reached the horizon by the time they were all sent off one by one.

Li Shu escorted the Fifth Prince, the Seventh Prince, and the Eleventh Prince to the great gates. The Seventh Prince, Li Qin, said, “Thank you for Elder Sister’s gracious hospitality today.”

Li Shu smiled. “We are family.”

We are all in the same boat now.

Then Li Shu saw Princess Jincheng and Princess Yongtai out of the mansion to return to the palace. Jincheng stood at the great gate looking rather unsettled, her eyes searching this way and that as though she were looking for someone — but whoever it was, she did not find them.

Young girls could not hide what was in their hearts. Li Shu had been through her own share of heartache and read the situation like a mirror. She pressed her fingertip against her palm and felt an inexplicable unease rise within her. She ushered them on their way. “It is getting late. Back to the palace with you.”

Jincheng then turned away reluctantly and walked toward the carriage.

The Assistant Secretary of the Department of Affairs, Shen Xiao — she had at last learned his name today. He was the recent top graduate of the imperial examinations, the one who had once commandeered Princess Pingyang Elder Sister’s grain shipment with armed men, which had caused Elder Sister to be reprimanded by the Emperor.

Then Princess Pingyang Elder Sister and Sir Shen must have a very serious grievance between them, and must surely be at odds.

With that thought in mind, Jincheng felt somewhat more settled.

The other officials and guests also made their way out of the mansion, one by one. The Princess Pingyang mansion, which had been riotous with noise and activity all day long, at last fell quiet. And so the sound of Anle and Yang Fang talking became conspicuously clear.

Yang Fang had something of a scholar’s single-minded streak to him. Upon meeting Shen Xiao and finding his learning deep and wide, he had taken an immediate liking to him, and had been talking with him ever since — to this hour, still not done.

Anle had urged him several times, but he kept finding excuses to delay. Anle was running out of patience, and she stormed over, grabbed him by the sleeve, and started pulling him toward the gate.

Even as she walked, she delivered her warning: “This is the last time you ever set foot in Princess Pingyang’s mansion. I forbid you from coming again.”

Yang Fang was thoroughly bewildered. What had he done wrong now?

“Princess Pingyang’s mansion has no male master. In matters of propriety, I ought to help receive male guests whenever needed,” Yang Fang said.

Anle wanted to stomp her feet and pull his ear. “I said no and that means no!”

She could barely contain herself. “Pingyang, she… she has feelings for you!”

Yang Fang, you oblivious man — if someone did not spell it out plainly, he would not know his own importance!

What — what — what? Yang Fang’s mind went entirely blank.

The two of them had walked away, leaving behind the forgotten Shen Xiao, who was leisurely drinking his tea. He heard the words, startled — and then his fingers tightened on the teacup.

A long pause.

She was still quite the sentimental one, wasn’t she.

*

Shen Xiao had deliberately stayed to the last. He stood in the covered walkway outside the main hall and waited as Li Shu came walking back from the front gate. Hong Luo swept all the servants away, clearing out a quiet corner where they could speak freely.

Li Shu had been receiving guests the entire day and was weary by now. She dropped languidly against the balustrade and, covering her mouth, let out a yawn.

She leaned sideways against the pillar behind her, the picture of exhausted ease.

Yet Shen Xiao had encountered her on many previous occasions, and she had always been impeccably dressed, in fine, wide-sleeved robes with meticulous composure.

The difference between her public face and her private self was extraordinary. Whatever form she had managed to maintain before others — how had she kept all that lazy, boneless ease tucked away?

Shen Xiao thought this to himself.

A faint smile surfaced on his face.

Shen Xiao stood to one side. Li Shu noted that his back was still straight, shoulders squared and rigid, as upright as ever. He had a fine bearing, truly — whatever the hour, his spine was braced like a steel plate, taut and unbending. He seemed constitutionally incapable of knowing fatigue.

Li Shu did not like craning her neck to look up at people. She pointed to the space beside her and gestured for Shen Xiao to sit. They fell into idle conversation, and she said, “You actually had money to buy winter caterpillar fungus?”

Shen Xiao had brought a box of winter caterpillar fungus as his visiting gift. The head steward had said it was unusually fine quality, and it had been put directly into the medicine stores, since they had been going through a great deal of remedies lately.

Shen Xiao had to suppress a choke at her words.

What was that supposed to mean? What was this “actually”?

He had plenty of money!

Not that Shen Xiao could entirely blame her. He simply had a face that looked like it belonged to a man who had burned through years at a cold window, unbowed and unyielding in poverty. On top of which, Li Shu’s impression of him from three years ago — when he had applied to serve as a companion — had been of a man in a half-worn grey robe, and she simply assumed he was the type who ate plain gruel at home and whose under-robes were held together entirely by patches.

Shen Xiao defended himself. “I am… in reasonably comfortable circumstances.”

A fifth-rank official’s salary was by no means modest. And he was a single man who fed only himself, with no great expenses, so he had indeed managed to save a reasonable sum.

Li Shu’s tone was mild and detached. “Oh.”

Claiming to be in comfortable circumstances when speaking before her. No self-awareness whatsoever. Princess Pingyang was not merely wealthy. Li Shu herself, as a complete entity, was the equivalent of a large-denomination gold coin, written out in full.

Shen Xiao thought this.

Fine. In comparison, he was indeed rather impoverished.

Shen Xiao ventured, “In truth, making money is not difficult. Joining a few business ventures would allow one to accumulate wealth gradually.” For him it truly was not difficult — it would simply require diverting a little attention elsewhere.

But even that was better than having her look down on his poverty.

Li Shu frowned at this, looking genuinely mystified. “Why would you want to concern yourself with business? Take that energy and apply it properly to court affairs.”

She had assumed Shen Xiao was short of funds, and said in all good will: “You need not worry about money. If you are ever short, just ask me. I will give you however much you need.”

“Do you need a house? I will buy you one. A country estate as well, and as many as you like. Maids, manservants, carriage, sedan chair — I can arrange all of it for you. There is no need for you to trouble yourself over any of these things.”

Shen Xiao stared at her for a long moment.

He felt as though a mouthful of blood was about to come up.

Li Shu looked at him, puzzled by his expression, and frowned. “Have I arranged things poorly?”

She had thought she was being quite considerate.

“Not at all…”

He said, “I thank the princess for her kindness. I… do not require it at present.”

He did not need her to give him money.

Li Shu waved her hand with casual extravagance. “If you ever need it in the future, just say the word. No need to stand on ceremony with me.”

We are all in the same boat, after all.

“…Understood,” Shen Xiao said.

That tone of unmistakable patronage.

A silence settled between them.

Li Shu’s cape had slipped loosely around her shoulders. The evening breeze was picking up, stirring the wisps of hair at her temples. In her plain white house robe, the whole of her had a soft, yielding quality.

Did she let others see this languid, yielding side of herself as well?

Shen Xiao lowered his eyes, closed his hand into a fist, and said something out of nowhere: “We have just now made our connection with the Seventh Prince. He is still weak, without much of a network, and will require a great deal of effort to support.”

Li Shu nodded. “Of course.”

Shen Xiao fixed his eyes on her. “So the princess ought not to scatter too much attention on personal amusements.”

Keeping companions, for instance — that wastes a great deal of energy.

Li Shu frowned and looked at Shen Xiao opposite her, all rigid correctness and grave seriousness, utterly proper and restrained.

Something felt a little strange, but what he said was reasonable and right. A perfectly sound admonition, entirely worthy of a monitoring censor.

Li Shu yielded to reason and said, “Very well.”

Opposite her, Shen Xiao allowed himself a small, satisfied smile — and then immediately covered it over with his habitual look of dignified sobriety.

Li Shu frowned. Something was off. Somehow.

She had meant to find herself a political ally. How had she ended up instead with someone who seemed to think himself her household manager? First he had forbidden her wine. Now he was forbidding her personal amusements!

While Li Shu was still muddled over this, Shen Xiao pressed on. “Does the princess think highly of Yang Fang, Sir Yang?”

Li Shu nodded at that.

She had been considering the prospect of drawing Yang Fang over to her side as well.

She replied, “Yang Fang is an excellent candidate. His family background is of middling rank — not too prominent, yet he has the network of his marriage connections and moves in wide circles. He has genuine talent, but a gentle and temperate disposition, with no sharp edges on display.”

If she could bring him under the Seventh Prince’s banner, it would be a fine thing.

But Shen Xiao’s mind had not gone anywhere near politics.

He could only think: every virtue Li Shu named in Yang Fang was a shortcoming in himself.

Family background of middling rank — he had none.

Wide circle of connections — he had none.

Gentle and temperate — he was not.

No sharp edges on display — absolutely not!

So this was… the type she preferred?

Over on that side, Li Shu continued, “…The only difficulty is that bringing him over will not be easy.”

Yang Fang had spent years at the Ministry of Rites, technically under the Seventh Prince’s purview, yet their relations had never amounted to more than a nod of recognition. That alone said everything about his position.

He had not even gone to the trouble of cultivating ties with the Crown Prince — still less was he likely to be drawn toward the Seventh Prince.

Not easy to win over.

Shen Xiao heard this and quickly nodded along. “Indeed — not easy to bring over. After all… he is Anle’s prince consort.”

He is your brother-in-law!

Li Shu gave a thoughtful nod, agreeing with Shen Xiao’s words.

Although the Yang family had always sought to remain neutral, Anle marrying down into the family had tied them, whether they liked it or not, to the Crown Prince’s camp. No matter how much distance the Yang family had kept in the intervening years, the marriage connection to the Crown Prince could not be entirely severed.

Li Shu sighed. “Yes — how did he end up as Anle’s prince consort?”

If only things had been different — he would have been so much easier to recruit.

That sigh, in Shen Xiao’s ears, transformed into the melancholy of a woman who longed for someone she could not have.

He felt a weight press down on his chest. He held it in for some time and at last could not stop himself.

“He is… after all, your brother-in-law. The sages say a gentleman does not covet what belongs to another.”

Set your heart at rest on that account.

“What?” said Li Shu.

Where had that come from? Who was she coveting?

Li Shu stared at Shen Xiao, bewildered, then said, “Yang Fang is not easy to recruit, but today I noticed he seemed to take quite a liking to you. You could make more of an effort to get close to him. It would be ideal if we could bring him to the Seventh Prince’s side. If not, there is no harm done — a man of his disposition, even if he is not a friend, will never be an enemy.”

Shen Xiao blinked.

“Are you listening to me?” Li Shu asked.

Only then did Shen Xiao understand that the two of them had been talking about entirely different things from the very beginning. Li Shu had been thinking in purely political terms. He was the one whose mind had been wandering in disarray.

He nodded hastily. “I understand, I understand.”

His expression, though, had taken on a distinct note of relief.

Li Shu frowned. She had absolutely no idea where his mind had gone just now.

“Shen Xiao, are you…”

Li Shu tapped her temple. “Not quite right up here?”