The person beside him grew completely still; the sound of her breathing at his ear became quiet and even.

Li Xuandu slowly opened his eyes and turned his face to look at her.

She lay on her side on the pillow, looking as though she slept very deeply — as if even thunder overhead wouldn’t wake her.

Li Xuandu gazed at her, and gradually his thoughts drifted.

After that night at the falconry platform, she had shown no sign or indication of wanting to draw close to him.

Li Xuandu had naturally welcomed that. But at the same time, he had grown increasingly certain of one thing.

This granddaughter of the Pu family — she truly was calculating and self-serving, her pair of beautiful eyes utterly mercenary. The moment she determined he could not satisfy her ambitions and desires, she seemed to forget her other identity: she was also his Princess Consort.

Like tonight — he had gone in person, stooped to carry her, let her have her way before everyone’s eyes, and upon returning had applied medicine to her himself with his own hands.

Before tonight, Li Xuandu could never have imagined he would do such things — yet he had done them.

And she had given him only one thank you.

Of course, when he had done these things, it had never crossed his mind that she owed him anything in return.

But her reaction was what it was — she had dropped off to sleep so quickly, leaving him alone, while he could not sleep at all. A vague, restless dissatisfaction stirred within him.

Li Xuandu was no longer a dazed young man; he knew what this feeling meant.

He reflected on it and thought that perhaps he had practiced ascetic detachment for too long — so that tonight he had actually found her body not entirely unpleasing, and that patch of bare, scraped back had been beautiful in a way that held a certain pull.

This gave rise in Li Xuandu’s heart to a peculiar undercurrent of dissatisfaction and loss — especially watching her abandon him again so easily and sink blissfully into sleep.

He reflected on himself again, concluding that he had been far too indulgent with her.

She truly was not worthy of his treatment of her.

He looked away from her sleeping face, turned back, and closed his eyes again.

Outside the curtain, the last remnant of candle on the candelabra also burned out, and the space within the curtain fell into darkness.

He breathed slowly in the darkness for a time, driving away the distracting thoughts crowding his mind. His inner world gradually cleared. He began to think back over what had happened to her that night.

Honestly, he felt somewhat shaken.

Tonight she had been in real danger. If not for her own quick thinking and a measure of good fortune, she would either have been discovered by Shen Yang on the spot and met the same end as that old governess — or she would already have burned to death inside.

Even if she was mercenary, which he found contemptible, and even if he had only accepted this marriage he had never wanted under the force of circumstance — none of that meant he wished harm on her.

After all, she was only a young woman. Coveting glory and wealth was human nature — hardly a crime worth dying for.

What had Shen Yang been plotting? What secret was important enough to kill even Princess Ningshou’s old wet nurse without hesitation, just to keep it?

And at that final moment, he had happened to encounter her near the fire scene.

With that man’s alertness and cunning — would he suspect that she had also been nearby at the time? Would he move against her in the future?

Li Xuandu lay still with his eyes closed for a long time, and then suddenly thought of something: she seemed to dislike the cold, and she was never still in sleep either, rolling back and forth and always ending up kicking her blankets off.

The Double Ninth Festival had passed; the heavy dampness of early autumn was fading, and the second half of the night would be cold.

In the darkness, he groped out his hand, found the edge of the quilt that had slipped somewhat off her body, and pulled it up, settling it properly over her.

……

Xiao Shi’s birthday banquet had been planned to last through the night, but this accidental fire brought it to an abrupt and graceless end. The noble ladies departed one after another. Once begun, the fire could not be easily extinguished; starting from the central Accumulation of Jade Courtyard, it burned through the night and took out several of the connected nearby buildings before finally dying down in the second half of the night.

At daybreak, when the capital’s magistrate learned that the garden had caught fire the night before, he came in person to offer condolences and inquire about the situation.

Shen Yang appeared to have been awake the entire night directing firefighting efforts — his eyes were red from exhaustion. He received the magistrate in person, accompanied him in conversation, and explained that the dancing pigeons released at the night’s banquet had lanterns tied to their feet; in all probability the pigeon handlers had been careless, allowing one to escape, whose lantern had fallen onto the Accumulation of Jade Courtyard, causing the accidental fire.

The magistrate knew Shen Yang wielded great power and had come early in the morning only to seize the chance to curry favor with him. He was in the middle of expressing his sympathy when a cry of alarm suddenly came from the direction of the fire site. Then a steward from the garden came running over, his face drained of color, to report that upon entering the Accumulation of Jade Courtyard just now to begin clearing the fire scene, they had found a charred body on the walkway. After closer examination, it appeared to be the governess from Princess Ningshou’s retinue.

This governess had left the banquet hall the night before and had never returned. Princess Ningshou had been raised by her from childhood and was deeply attached to her. When the woman could not be found, the princess had become frantic with worry. Xiao Shi had ordered people to search the surrounding area through the night, yet they had found nothing — and now, this morning, to receive such news!

Shen Yang’s expression grew grave at once. He went immediately with the magistrate into the fire site, and sure enough, they found a charred body there.

A palace maid who had stayed behind after the princess’s departure identified the badly deformed gold hairpiece on the corpse’s head as belonging to the governess — evidently she had wandered into this courtyard the night before and met with this tragic end.

Everyone was stunned.

In a fire scene where someone had died, unless a complaint was filed with the authorities, the authorities would not actively dispatch anyone to investigate — and in this case the magistrate himself was present on the scene.

Xiao Shi, hearing the news, came over and, fighting down her revulsion, ordered the charred body wrapped and carried out for proper burial. She and Shen Yang aligned their accounts, then hurried into the palace to present her apologies to the princess.

After all the bustle had settled, Shen Yang saw the magistrate off, then returned to the Accumulation of Jade Courtyard.

Overnight, the buildings had been reduced to level ground. Throughout the courtyard lay the scorched beams and broken tiles and crumbled walls that had collapsed in the fire. Seeing the master of the house return, the steward hurried forward to report that, as instructed, he had ordered people to stay away from the area where the person had died.

Shen Yang nodded, sent the steward to lead the others away to clear the debris elsewhere, and walked alone into this scorched, blackened stretch of ruin.

The sudden arrival of Li Xuandu the night before had forced him to abandon his original plan. Fearing something might go wrong, the first thing he had done was double back to inspect the fire scene — and unexpectedly found Li Xuandu’s wife in the vicinity of the Accumulation of Jade Courtyard.

Her appearance had been thoroughly disheveled, strikingly out of the ordinary — she had the look of someone who had just escaped from somewhere in a great hurry.

He had strangled the princess’s governess while she struggled desperately, apparently trying to say something, both hands pointing frantically toward some direction behind him. At the time, he hadn’t paid attention, and after strangling her hadn’t thought further about it. Now, encountering this woman in such a state, Shen Yang’s naturally suspicious mind suddenly — in that very instant — recalled this detail. He quietly kept it in mind. This morning, once the charred body had been found and things had temporarily settled, he had ordered no one to enter, then dismissed his attendants and stepped alone into the fire scene to conduct a careful search.

He followed the direction the governess’s hands had pointed and slowly examined each spot, finding nothing at first. Then he came to a corner of the wall, and his gaze fell on the mud of the ground and stopped.

This corner received no sunlight year-round, and the earth was loose and damp with rot. The fire the night before had not burned deeply here, and being on the upwind side, not much ash had accumulated. He saw, on a patch of earth in this corner, a pair of footprints — small and fine, the kind left by a woman’s embroidered shoes.

Shen Yang crouched down and studied the shoe prints, then extended his hand and used the span between thumb and forefinger to measure the narrow length of the print. Finally, he smoothed away the footprints, stood up, looked in the direction of the walkway where Xiao Shi had blocked him and they had quarreled the night before, stood in thought for a moment, and continued searching through the ruins.

At last he stopped at the southwest corner of the courtyard wall, his gaze fixed on the drainage channel opening in that corner, his expression faintly puzzled.

Near the channel opening, there was rotted grass and dead leaves that had been scraped aside — marks that were clearly recent.

He lay down and examined the other side of the channel opening, quickly determining that this exit was located near the roadside where he had encountered her the night before.

He rose from the ground, turned his head, and fixed his gaze on the corner of the courtyard where those two small footprints had been left. A scene from the night before slowly surfaced in his mind.

She had been hiding in this corner, witnessed his quarrel with Xiao Shi, witnessed the entire process of his strangling the princess’s governess. After he left, finding all the exits blocked, she had located this opening in the burning courtyard, crawled out, and happened to be encountered by him when he returned.

This explained why her appearance had been so disheveled at the time, and why when she suddenly saw him, her expression had been one of terror and shock.

Shen Yang was not particularly worried that she had witnessed him strangling the princess’s governess. He could say with confidence that she would at most tell Li Xuandu about it — she would not reveal this to anyone else. There would be no benefit to her in doing so.

Still, this unexpected development was clearly a disadvantage to him.

Going forward, he would need to be considerably more careful in everything he did.

He also estimated the distance between her hiding place the night before and his own position at the time. At last there remained one question — and the most important question of all.

Li Xuandu’s wife — Pu Zhu, the granddaughter of Pu Youzhi. Had she, the night before, overheard what he and his attendant had said?

……

Several days later, late one afternoon, Li Xuandu came out of Gaoyang Hall and encountered Princess Imperial Li Lihua near the palace gate — she was entering the palace to visit the Empress Dowager Chen.

Xiao Shi had not had her wish fulfilled; that night had come to nothing. Li Lihua had no idea she had narrowly escaped a humiliating public scandal. The thing she knew was that Xiao Shi’s birthday flower banquet had been cut short by a fire, and what was more, a governess from Princess Ningshou’s household had been burned to death — and she had heard the princess was very grieved. Beyond that, the newly installed Crown Princess Yao Hanzhen was not in favor with the empress, so she had naturally thrown her lot in secretly with Li Lihua’s side. Li Lihua was feeling more pleased with herself than ever. Encountering Li Xuandu here, she said with a teasing smile: “Is fourth brother in such a hurry to go home? No wonder — there’s a sister-in-law waiting for you at home. I hear fourth brother dotes on sister-in-law tremendously — everyone at the gathering that night saw it with their own eyes. Yesterday I went to visit the Grand Empress Dowager, and I was going to tell her and cheer her up — but it turned out she already knew before me. I was the ignorant one!”

The event of Madam Tengguo Xiao Shi’s birthday flower banquet followed by the fire at the garden, and the burning death of the princess’s governess, had already spread widely. In its wake, the news that Prince Qin had gone in person that night to bring the Princess Consort home, and had even carried the frightened Princess Consort away before everyone’s eyes — this had been spread by the curious-minded until it was known to all.

Li Xuandu’s heart was already full of regret over his own behavior that night.

Going to fetch her was fine — it was nothing significant. But carrying her out in full view of everyone had been far too conspicuous; it was no wonder people were talking.

Not wishing to continue this topic, he gave a vague non-answer and moved to leave, but Princess Imperial smiled again: “The autumn hunt is only a few days away. The new garden I bought earlier is finished being renovated, and all the plants and trees have been transplanted. Taking advantage of having nothing to do, I’ve invited a few close friends for a little gathering — an opening celebration for the garden. I’ve already sent someone to invite sister-in-law. I’ll be counting on you to come fetch her again then.” And she laughed again: “A person like sister-in-law — never mind you, fourth brother, even I can’t help but adore her. You’re a man; you have your own affairs and can’t be with her every day. In the future, tell sister-in-law there’s no need to stand on ceremony — let her come visit me more often.”

His elder sister Li Lihua — not only did she live extravagantly, she was also thoroughly dissolute. Besides her lover Shen Yang, she was said to keep young, handsome kept men as well.

Li Xuandu immediately declined on Pu Zhu’s behalf: “I beg elder sister’s forgiveness — she had a frightful experience when she was small, and grew up in He Xi, so she has little experience of the wider world and is easily frightened. She was truly badly shaken by what happened at that event a few days ago. Since coming home she’s had nightmares several nights running, and during the day her mind wanders. I’m afraid she won’t be able to attend elder sister’s garden opening. I’ll send my congratulations in advance and have a gift delivered on the day to help elder sister celebrate.”

Li Lihua’s face filled with sympathetic concern. After a moment’s thought she said: “In that case, it’s best for sister-in-law to rest and recover properly. She needn’t come here. You bring sister-in-law along for the autumn hunt; I’ll spend time with sister-in-law there — that will be just the same.”

Li Xuandu watched Li Lihua’s figure disappear into the palace, then returned to the Prince’s mansion. He didn’t see Pu Zhu anywhere inside; he then learned she had been escorted to Penglai Palace today for a visit and hadn’t come back yet.

In Penglai Palace, Pu Zhu had shared a meal with Huaiwei, Li Hui’er, and Empress Dowager Jiang, and they were sitting talking together when a palace attendant announced that Prince Qin had arrived. Pu Zhu looked up and sure enough saw Li Xuandu walk in. He went before Empress Dowager Jiang, gave his greetings and bowed. The Empress Dowager asked if he’d eaten. Li Xuandu said he’d had his meal before coming, and explained that in recent days he’d been occupied with preparations for the autumn hunt and hadn’t been able to come here to visit, so he’d come today when he got back early, to call on his grandmother.

The Empress Dowager nodded with a smile and asked him several questions about the preparations for the autumn hunt. Huaiwei couldn’t hold back any longer and ran over to him, saying: “Fourth brother, just now Ningfu and I were talking about this with sister-in-law! Grandmother has already agreed to let Ningfu go! You bring sister-in-law along too, and we’ll all go together!”

Pu Zhu watched Li Xuandu. But she saw him smile and say: “Your sister-in-law isn’t going. She’ll stay in the capital, and when I come back I’ll take her to visit my maternal grandmother.”

Pu Zhu was caught off guard.

The autumn hunt was fast approaching, and for the past few days she had been trying to think of how to get him to take her along. Because nothing had been decided yet, when Huaiwei had been enthusiastically discussing the plans for the journey just now, she’d only listened — she hadn’t said anything.

And yet Li Xuandu had opened his mouth and made the decision for her without even asking.

She herself hadn’t said a word yet. Li Hui’er’s face immediately showed a look of disappointment, and Huaiwei was startled, then leaped three feet high and grabbed Li Xuandu’s sleeve: “No! She has to come too! We’re all going — why should she be left behind alone!”

Li Xuandu smiled and said nothing.

Huaiwei released his sleeve and turned her head to ask Pu Zhu: “Sister-in-law, you’re going too, aren’t you? If he won’t take you, come with me! You can ride in my carriage!”

Pu Zhu looked at Li Xuandu again.

He appeared completely unconcerned, as if he hadn’t heard a thing, picked up the tea a palace maid had poured for him, and took a measured sip.

Being in public, how could she openly argue with him?

Pu Zhu thought for a moment, then smiled at Huaiwei: “Actually, sister-in-law was just about to say this — she doesn’t have much interest in the autumn hunt, and has been tired lately, so it would be better to rest at home. After you all come back, if anything interesting happened, you and Hui’er can tell me. Just hearing you describe it will be just as good.”

Huaiwei was unsatisfied and ran immediately to the Empress Dowager’s side to wheedle: “Grandmother, tell sister-in-law to come too! Both Ningfu and I want to go with sister-in-law!”

The Empress Dowager hesitated briefly, then said to Li Xuandu: “Since both Huaiwei and Hui’er are hoping she’ll come along, I think it would be best for you and your wife to discuss it again. If she’s truly too tired, she can stay at the lodging palace when they get there — that’s fine too.”

Li Xuandu smiled and said: “She has a timid nature — she was truly badly frightened at the garden that day. She barely dares go anywhere now, let alone the autumn hunt grounds. I feel it’s better to let her stay home and rest.”

Having said this, he turned his head to look at Pu Zhu.

Pu Zhu silently cursed him for being underhanded and shameless, but under his gaze, the only thing she could say was: “What His Highness says is exactly my own thought. It’s entirely my own failing — I am sorry to disappoint Huaiwei and Hui’er. Please forgive me, Grandmother.”

The Empress Dowager’s gaze lingered on her face, then glanced at Li Xuandu, feeling that something was slightly amiss with this young couple — but she couldn’t quite make out what the matter was. She shook her head and said “so be it,” drawing the disgruntled Huaiwei into her arms to comfort her.

—