Hongxiu’s startled cry made every person in the room bend halfway at the knees. Qin Yiniang was so frightened she tumbled off the little stool and fell to her knees on the floor.

“The Marquis…” her face had gone white as chalk, her lips quivering, yet her voice seemed lodged in her throat — not a single word could come out.

Xu Lingyi entered with a dark expression on his face, striding in with purpose.

“Marquis!” Eleventh Young Lady went to welcome him to the large kang by the window, her peripheral vision sliding over to catch a glance at Yan Rong, who was standing behind Hupo with careful, soundless steps.

“Sending Siyu to Le’an is my decision.”

Xu Lingyi’s voice — slightly cool and measured — filled the room.

“Raising and educating the children, however, is the Madam’s responsibility.” His face was iron-dark. “You have been in this household a long time. Do you truly not understand even this basic rule? Or do you consider yourself privileged above others, such that you feel entitled to disregard these rules entirely?”

Xu Lingyi’s voice rose with each sentence, and each word that followed was sharper than the last.

A person needs dignity just as a tree needs bark. Qin Yiniang was, after all, Xu Siyu’s birth mother. Though she was half a servant in Xu Lingyi’s eyes, she was, in the eyes of Nanny Song and the others, half a mistress.

Eleventh Young Lady quickly exchanged a glance with Hupo, rose quietly to her feet, and withdrew from the room, bringing the maidservants and nannies with her.

Lifting the curtain, she found Qiao Lianfang and Wen Yiniang standing in the outer hall.

Qiao Lianfang’s face was filled with astonishment.

Wen Yiniang wore a smile, yet her eyes were darting about.

“Madam!” Seeing Eleventh Young Lady emerge, she immediately bent her knee in greeting, then moved forward with gentle grace to take Eleventh Young Lady’s arm. It was as if Eleventh Young Lady were a respected elder deserving of her wholehearted reverence — her deference carried a warmth of admiring intimacy.

Without making a show of it, Eleventh Young Lady stepped forward and moved aside, avoiding the offered support.

Wen Yiniang was briefly startled, but quickly recovered her composure.

“If you are bored from having nothing to do, stay in your room and do some needlework. Stop wandering around meddling in everything all day long…”

It was already the first day of the fourth month, and the Xu household had taken down the padded curtains and replaced them with blue silk ones.

Though there was a curtain between them, Xu Lingyi’s voice came through clearly.

“The Madam manages the household, works tirelessly inside and out, and still finds time to make a small garment for the matriarch. And what about you? Have you ever offered the Madam so much as a single shoe or stocking, a single thread or strand? In the past…” He paused, and whatever he had been about to say was swallowed back down. “…Now that the Madam is here as an example before you, are you truly incapable of following that example?”

This had turned into a full-on dressing-down!

Eleventh Young Lady turned with a smile to the two Yiniangs. “The weather is a bit warm today. Shall we go sit at the waterside pavilion out front?”

Qiao Lianfang’s expression was a shifting tumult, and she said nothing. But Wen Yiniang was quick to agree with enthusiasm, “Of course, yes! I noticed these past two days that the lotus plants in the Biyi Lake seem to have buds. When the lotuses are in full bloom, Madam ought to hold a lotus-viewing banquet! We can all enjoy it along with you — eat and drink our fill…” As she spoke, she reached out to take Eleventh Young Lady’s arm, then appeared to think better of it and, in one smooth motion, raised her hand to brush at her hair — which was already perfectly in place at her temples.

They lifted the curtain and stepped out.

And there, standing frozen beneath the window lattice, was Xu Siyu.

It seems everyone has gathered today…

Eleventh Young Lady was still turning this over in her mind when Xu Siyu, hearing the movement, slowly raised his head and looked over toward them.

Those eyes of his — usually as dark and bright as lacquer — were at this moment as dim and extinguished as cold ashes.

Into the silence of the courtyard — a silence so complete a dropped needle would have been heard — came a single, brief, sharp laugh.

Abrupt as it was, it was unmistakably clear.

Eleventh Young Lady’s brow furrowed as she looked around. What she saw was a sea of faces — some gloating, some placid as still water, some with sympathy and pity — and it was already impossible to tell whose throat that laugh had come from.

She looked toward Xu Siyu again.

He stood there, face burning red, expression wretched with shame, his eyes brimming with panic and unease — revealing all the helplessness and fragility of a twelve-year-old boy.

Eleventh Young Lady beckoned him over.

“The Marquis is reprimanding Qin Yiniang!” Her voice was pitched a little higher than usual, and in the still courtyard it rang out with particular clarity. “You should know — the Marquis is the current Crown Prince’s Junior Preceptor. An official of the third rank with territories to govern would have to present his calling card at the reception office and wait for a reply before he could even obtain an audience. If the Marquis had truly lost his temper with someone, the raise of an eyebrow is all it would take to send that person packing — so why would he be going to all this trouble, fuming and fretting like this?” As she spoke, she swept a measured gaze over every person standing in the courtyard.

Xu Siyu’s eyes brightened in an instant. He called out “Mother” — his slightly agitated voice carrying the faint ghost of a catch in his throat.

“Second Young Master will come with me to the waterside pavilion as well,” Eleventh Young Lady said with a light smile. “Even I have removed myself from the room… so that when the Marquis’s temper has passed and he comes out, he won’t see a full courtyard of people and have his mood flare up all over again!”

The maidservants and nannies all lowered their heads.

Xu Siyu cast Eleventh Young Lady a glance of deep gratitude, gave a soft “mn,” and followed her to the waterside pavilion.

Eleventh Young Lady walked with him along the banks of the Biyi Lake.

“The Marquis is sending you to Le’an — what are your own thoughts on the matter?”

This manner of speaking with an elder was entirely new to Xu Siyu. He appeared somewhat ill at ease.

“I will follow Father’s arrangements!”

No empty pleasantries, no forced compliance… And yet if that were truly so, why had he been standing beneath the window, listening?

Eleventh Young Lady stopped walking and regarded Xu Siyu, her brow lifting slightly.

Xu Siyu pressed his lips together, hesitated for a moment, and then said, “Second Aunt said the same thing!”

Second Aunt?

Eleventh Young Lady was quite surprised.

Xu Siyu lowered his head. “Second Aunt spoke the same words as Mother. She said — a great man should build his achievements and make his name, and if need be, die on the battlefield wrapped in horsehide. Those private tutors who sit at their desks are mostly men who failed the imperial examinations. Eight-legged essays and the methods of the examination halls — if a teacher has not fully mastered these himself, how can he bring out good students? The headmaster of the Jinxi Academy is different — he passed as the top-ranked scholar himself, and then left official service to enter education. His learning, character, and insight are beyond what an ordinary person can match. Father sending me there has taken a great deal of thought, and his expectations for me are high.” As he spoke, he lifted his head, the corners of his mouth rising in a smile, and across his brows and eyes spread the soaring brightness of a young man envisioning his future. “She also cited the saying that of the three forms of unfilial conduct — blindly obeying and thereby leading one’s parents into wrongdoing is something that can be avoided by keeping an upright character. Failing to take a wife and leaving no heir can be remedied by adoption. But suffering poverty while one’s parents grow old and failing to seek an official post — that is the hardest of all to remedy. She told me to study well, pass the examinations, and in the future bring glory and honor to the Xu family.”

Pass the examinations… how daunting a prospect that is. Were it otherwise, there would never have been poor Fan Jin, driven to madness when he finally passed at a late age.

Yet at this moment, there was no better encouragement than the way the Second Madam had framed it!

Eleventh Young Lady nodded and, with a smile, offered her own encouragement: “Then Siyu must apply himself diligently.”

Xu Siyu smiled and nodded.

And yet the figure of Wen Yiniang, leaning against the railing of the waterside pavilion and gazing off into the distance at Biyi Lake, wore a smile on her face — but behind her eyes there was not a flicker of joy.

The words with which Xu Lingyi had dressed down Qin Yiniang refused to leave her mind.

So that is what the Marquis truly wants!

She thought of her own girlhood.

She had come first in arithmetic, and the old master had lifted her high over his head with delight, then with a sigh of regret said, “What a pity she is a girl.” She had disguised herself in a boy’s clothes and gone with her elder brother to collect cotton cloth; with a single touch she could tell what kind of loom had woven it. Her brother had rewarded her with a piece of mutton-fat jade, then had pulled the steward aside with a relieved air and murmured, “Fortunately she is a girl.”… Later, when her family arranged to send her to the Xu household, she had not said a word. At the time, she had only thought — Father and Elder Brothers would never again have cause to resent that she was born a girl!

But who could have foreseen that if the Wen family was a fishbowl, the Xu household was a riverbank. And she — like a fish flung from a bowl onto dry land — not only could not breathe, but was clumsy and disgraceful… still scorned by others, all the same.

In a daze she raised her head and caught a glimpse of Qiao Lianfang’s slightly impatient face.

“Wen Sister,” said Qiao Lianfang, wrapping the edges of her short outer jacket more tightly around herself against the lingering chill of the breeze off the water, “are we to stand here waiting indefinitely?”

Wen Yiniang thought of how Qiao Lianfang’s smiles, even when present, had always carried a tinge of condescending disdain, and could not help saying, “Why don’t you go and check on things? The Marquis has been going on this long — his throat is probably quite dry by now!”

As she said it, she watched Qiao Lianfang’s eyes brighten.

Wen Yiniang couldn’t help but smile to herself.

Qiao Lianfang, however, broke into a smile as well. “Since Madam and Sister are both waiting out here… I will wait out here with Sister!”

Wen Yiniang gave a nod, a trace of disappointment flickering at the back of her eyes.

A little maidservant came running over, and not finding Eleventh Young Lady, looked around in puzzlement. “Both Yiniangs, where is Madam?”

Qiao Lianfang pointed toward the lakeside.

But Wen Yiniang had already drawn a few coins from her sleeve and held them out to the little maidservant. “What business does the Marquis have with Madam?”

The little maidservant refused to take the coins.

“Never mind, never mind,” Wen Yiniang said with a smile. “For you to buy sweets. If it is not something you can say, then simply don’t say it.” Then she added, “Madam is with the Second Young Master right now.”

The little maidservant hesitated for a moment, then said, “You’ll know soon enough anyway — the Marquis sent for Madam to say that from this day forward, Qin Yiniang is to attend upon Madam and learn proper conduct before anything else!”

…

“Why did you not tell her that this was my idea?” Xu Lingyi leaned against the headboard, watching Eleventh Young Lady move the lamp closer.

The crystalline lamplight fell upon her face, lending her a quality of simple, clean beauty.

“The Marquis and I are husband and wife,” Eleventh Young Lady set down the lamp and settled herself on the edge of the bed. “Not to mention that when the Marquis first told me of this matter, I was in full agreement. Even if I had not been, and someone challenged the Marquis’s decision in such a way, I still could not have shifted the blame onto you.”

Xu Lingyi listened, momentarily stunned.

Eleventh Young Lady had already taken off her shoes and settled onto the bed, speaking with him while leaning against the headboard.

“Only, from now on, the Marquis should no longer lose his temper in such a grand fashion!” She then recounted everything in full — how someone had laughed in her face in the open courtyard, how she had gone with Xu Siyu to walk by the lake, and how he had spoken with her in return — relaying it all to Xu Lingyi. “…Siyu is no longer a young child. In a few years he will be of age to take a wife. If you dress him down like this with no regard for anything, it is not only that Siyu cannot hold his head up before the servants — even the wife he will someday have will likely suffer the shame alongside him!”

Xu Lingyi said nothing.

“Marquis, let us also get to sleep early,” Eleventh Young Lady said with a smile, and lowered the bed curtains. “I hear that the beams are being raised at the courtyard tomorrow — when can we move back?”

Xu Lingyi smiled and gathered her into his arms. “We should be able to move back in the sixth month!”

Eleventh Young Lady shifted about in his embrace for a good while before finding a tolerably comfortable position.

“Marquis, perhaps we could order a smaller lamp? One that could be placed in the corner of the room. It would provide some light while keeping the glow from being too harsh — I take half the night to fall asleep with the brightness in my eyes.”

“Of course,” Xu Lingyi said. “I’ll mention it to the Office of Internal Affairs tomorrow.”

Eleventh Young Lady brought up the matter of Qin Yiniang. “…I think, you need only say what has been said. There is no need for her to attend upon me and learn conduct.”

—