Hupo smiled and said, “Later, the First Young Mistress sent Qiuluo to ‘Banyue Pan’ to serve the Marquis — it was her way of conceding. The two of them gradually reconciled after that.” As she said this, a trace of hesitation flickered across her brow.

“I sent you to ask questions, not to tell half and keep the other half back!” Eleventh Young Mistress said, watching her with a furrowed brow.

Hupo quickly explained, “I only heard this from Old Woman Xiang. I don’t know whether it’s true or false, and I found the whole matter rather peculiar — so I wasn’t sure whether I should say it or not.” Her voice dropped lower. “Old Woman Xiang said that Qiuluo bore five or six parts resemblance to the late Tong Yiniang. She also said that at the time, everyone in the mansion was whispering that the First Young Mistress had caused Tong Yiniang’s death, and that by sending over a Qiuluo who looked so similar to Tong Yiniang, the Marquis had finally let his anger go.”

Xu Lingyi would get angry at his legitimate wife over a concubine?

Eleventh Young Mistress thought of his cold and indifferent expression, and could not help but laugh. “Do you believe that?”

Hupo stammered hesitantly, “Naturally I don’t.”

If she didn’t believe it, why was she hesitating like that?

Even someone as perceptive as Hupo felt that the Marquis had held Tong Shi in the highest regard — let alone anyone else.

Eleventh Young Mistress smiled faintly and changed the subject. “After Tong Yiniang died, did the Grand Madam say anything?”

“The Grand Madam said nothing at all,” Hupo replied. “But the Second Madam had Qin Yiniang come to attend upon the Grand Madam. According to Old Woman Xiang, before the Second Young Master was born, Qin Yiniang ate and slept with the Second Madam, going everywhere together. The First Young Mistress even went to the Second Madam over this matter — though no one knows what the Second Madam said — and after that, Qin Yiniang moved into the Grand Madam’s rooms to rest through her pregnancy.”

No wonder the household had whispered that Tong Shi was killed by Yuan Niang…

Eleventh Young Mistress murmured thoughtfully, “Do you know how Qiuluo died?”

“She suffered a hemorrhage while giving birth!”

“And the child — how did the child die?”

Hupo’s voice grew softer. “They say the child was born wrong from the start. The First Young Mistress summoned all three of the Imperial Physicians most skilled in treating young children to live in the house and attend to him — but even so, he could not be saved.”

“Wouldn’t the Grand Madam and the Marquis have been devastated?”

Under the Da Zhou dynasty, there was a practice of stripping titles from those without heirs — and if adoption was needed, it required a special imperial decree — so the matter of heirs for a ducal household was far more than a simple question of descendants…

“They say the Marquis didn’t sleep a single wink that night,” Hupo said. “And not only the Marquis was grief-stricken — the First Young Mistress was too. She had originally planned to raise Qiuluo’s child under her own name. Because of all this, the two of them moved back in together.”

Eleventh Young Mistress listened, her thoughts drifting slightly.

Perhaps it is hardship that most easily makes people grow more forgiving.

Seeing Eleventh Young Mistress’s spirits somewhat dampened, Hupo smiled and said, “Madam, I found out something else — you’ll be happy when you hear it!”

“Oh!” Eleventh Young Mistress set aside those gloomy old memories and smiled. “What good news did you find?”

Hupo laughed. “Old Woman Xiang said that when the family divided the estate back then, each branch had already taken their rightful share. The Fifth Master was young at the time, so the Grand Madam held his portion in trust. Later, when the household needed funds, both the Second Madam and the Fifth Master contributed their own portions. So when the Fifth Master married, the Marquis not only returned everything he was originally owed, but also settled some seventy or eighty thousand taels’ worth of farmland, acreage, and shops upon him. A few years ago, when the First Young Mistress and the Marquis quarreled over the properties under the Second Madam’s name, the Second Madam had her own household retainers take over management of those properties from the Marquis. The Marquis continues to manage the household’s daily expenses, just as the late Marquis did in his time. So in effect, the money in the public account is really our Marquis’s money — and the Estate Affairs Office handles our gift obligations. We need only write a note to Steward Zhao at the Estate Affairs Office, and he will arrange the appropriate gift money according to established custom. All we need to decide is whether to attend in person, based on the closeness of the relationship. Madam — wouldn’t you say that counts as good news?”

That aligned perfectly with what Nanny Tao had said.

Eleventh Young Mistress murmured, “But the last time Father returned to Yuhang, each branch’s gift — including the Marquis’s gift — was handed to me individually to bring along. I had assumed each branch managed its own gift-giving… I was even thinking at the time that household matters seemed so disorganized, with no clear system at all. I didn’t realize I had misunderstood!”

Hupo covered her mouth and laughed. “It’s all thanks to Old Woman Xiang coming to help us tidy up the rooms!”

Eleventh Young Mistress laughed too.

“So for the fifty taels for the Fifth Young Mistress, we can just write a note to the Estate Affairs Office…”

“Those fifty taels were something I gave the Fifth Young Mistress privately — it has nothing to do with the public account. We cannot submit a note to the Estate Affairs Office for that.” Eleventh Young Mistress shook her head. “Besides, all these social obligations follow established precedents. Some must be honored; others need not be. You’ll have to go and inquire further. If the Xu household can send a gift to congratulate Fifth Sister on opening her shop, even officials from the Five City Military Command or the Shuntian Prefecture would look upon her more favorably.”

“I’ll go find out right away,” Hupo said. Then she added, “Even though we’ll still need to pay for Fifth Young Mistress ourselves, the Seventh Young Miss should have a gift sent in the household’s name, shouldn’t she?”

“We only gift to Third Uncle — Seventh Sister’s trousseau gifts still have to come from us personally!” Eleventh Young Mistress smiled. “We’ll just pick out a few fine pieces of jewelry for that.”

The two were still talking when a little maidservant came running in. “Madam, the Marquis has returned!”

Eleventh Young Mistress rose to go and greet him.

Xu Lingyi had already lifted the curtain and stepped inside.

Xia Yi helped him change his clothes, while Eleventh Young Mistress personally went to brew tea.

Xu Lingyi sat on the heated platform bed and took a sip, then said, “Zichun wants to open a dried fruit shop on West Main Street — did you know about this?”

“The last time I went back to visit my family, Fifth Sister mentioned it once.” Seeing that his tone was quite mild, Eleventh Young Mistress smiled. “At the time, she invited me to invest, and I had my elder sister-in-law decline on my behalf with a courteous excuse. After that, nothing more came of it. I didn’t expect Fifth Sister and her husband to move so quickly — they’ve already started looking into shop premises.” She then asked him, “How did you come to know, Marquis?”

Xu Lingyi said instead, “Why did you decline with a courteous excuse?”

Eleventh Young Mistress smiled. “Going into business together inevitably leads to disagreements. We’re family — why create rifts over something like this? So I declined politely.”

Xu Lingyi gave a slight nod. “Zichun wants to lease a shop from Prince Shun. Prince Shun specifically mentioned it to me today — that’s how I found out.”

That made sense.

Qian Ming, though calculating in his dealings, had his own sense of dignity — he wouldn’t go running to Xu Lingyi over just anything. Or rather, a matter like this didn’t require going to Xu Lingyi directly at all. As long as he remained his brother-in-law for a single day, others would naturally show him a measure of courtesy. As for Prince Shun giving Qian Ming any attention — that was entirely on account of Xu Lingyi’s face, and of course Prince Shun would let Xu Lingyi know.

“Since Prince Shun mentioned it to you, he must have agreed to lease the shop to Fifth Brother-in-law,” Eleventh Young Mistress smiled. “We should send someone to find out — when is Fifth Brother-in-law’s dried fruit shop opening? We’ll need to offer our congratulations at the proper time!”

“You’re quite sharp,” Xu Lingyi said, smiling. “You worked out that Prince Shun agreed to lease the shop to Qian Ming.”

Eleventh Young Mistress smiled. “You let slip such a large hint, Marquis — how could I not catch it?”

“Oh?” Xu Lingyi raised an eyebrow. “What hint did I let slip? I wasn’t aware of it myself.”

“If Prince Shun had refused, you would surely have said he ‘specifically came to explain the matter to me.’ But since you said he ‘specifically came to tell me about it,’ he must have agreed.”

Xu Lingyi looked at the faint smile on her face and broke into laughter.

Why was his mood so good today?

Eleventh Young Mistress watched him and mused inwardly.

Could something worth celebrating have happened at court?

Xu Lingyi was indeed in very good spirits.

The matter of Fan Weigang had ultimately been confirmed as the Emperor’s way of showing disappointment in someone he had high hopes for…

“For opening a shop, by established custom, gifts are not given,” he said, his expression carrying a trace of cheerfulness that made his features look warm and bright. “But since she is your sister, going empty-handed wouldn’t do either. I think this — we’ll give forty taels as an official gift, and then you quietly give them another hundred taels on our behalf, as our personal congratulations.”

There was no need for Hupo to inquire further — Xu Lingyi had made it perfectly clear: there was no established custom for gifting at shop openings.

But if she were to bring a hundred taels herself, wouldn’t that put her elder sister-in-law in an awkward position?

Eleventh Young Mistress smiled. “A few days ago, my elder sister-in-law came to discuss this with me. She suggested that if Fifth Sister opens a dried fruit shop, we each contribute fifty taels — as a gesture of sisterly affection.”

“Since you already know how these things work, that’s fine!” Xu Lingyi smiled. “Fifty taels it is, then!” And then, together with Eleventh Young Mistress, he went to pay his respects to the Grand Madam — without a word about where those other ninety taels would come from.

Eleventh Young Mistress thought of the hundred taels still in her keeping and decided to get through this immediate difficulty first and worry about the rest later.

Hupo whispered a suggestion to Eleventh Young Mistress: “Should we say something to the First Young Madam… and borrow against next month?”

“No need,” Eleventh Young Mistress said. “She personally helped arrange Fifth Sister’s wedding, and she helped arrange Tenth Sister’s wedding too. If she had wanted to offer, she would have asked long ago.”

Hupo’s eyes dimmed slightly at that.

“Has that Jiang Ting sent word back yet?” The education Eleventh Young Mistress had received told her that for a woman to be spiritually independent, she must first be financially independent. Even though the pressing matter of the gift money had been resolved, she still wanted to find some means of income.

“He has,” Hupo said. “He says it can be grown — but it would require a greenhouse of a certain size.”

That brought the question of costs into play.

“Pass word to Jiang Bingzheng: have him go out and look into the going prices for floral waters on the market.”

Hupo acknowledged and went off. Shortly after, Chief Steward Bai came requesting an audience and brought silver to her: “…The Marquis said he needed it privately, and had me draw a separate thousand taels from the accounts office to deliver into your hands.”

Eleventh Young Mistress wasn’t certain what Xu Lingyi intended, but she couldn’t very well say so in front of Chief Steward Bai. She smiled and accepted it, then when Xu Lingyi returned, she held out the thousand-tael banknote to him. “They said you needed it privately and had it sent to me to hold for you.”

Xu Lingyi didn’t so much as glance at the banknotes and said mildly, “From now on, when something like Zichun’s situation comes up again, just put it through this account.”

When Chief Steward Bai had brought the banknotes, Eleventh Young Mistress had already had a premonition — and now it had come true. Her feelings were complicated.

Xu Lingyi was a man of few words, yet he was tall and handsome, meticulous in his thinking, and gentle and considerate… He was exactly the kind of man she admired. It was a pity that they had been raised in entirely different ways of thinking — they were each bound to their own convictions, and could never truly be lovers.

That faint sense of regret within her made itself faithfully known in her body — when he entered her, cold sweat broke out all over her, and the discomfort was even greater than the first time.

Xu Lingyi murmured softly in her ear, caressing her with a gentle touch.

Yet she felt only that the process was taking too long, and wished for it to end sooner…

—