Shiyiniang handed the long-necked vase to Hupo, then introduced Yang Shi to Zhen Jie’er. “This is Yang Yiniang.”

Zhen Jie’er smiled and greeted her, then warmly took Shiyiniang by the arm.

Xu Sizhun tugged Xu Sijie toward the door. “…Master Zhao told us to come early — he says today he will teach us to make kites!”

“Then go quickly!” Shiyiniang walked them to the doorway. “Afterward we will go to the rear garden to fly kites together.”

Xu Sizhun and Xu Sijie smiled and nodded, and went off hand in hand.

Zhen Jie’er went to the east side-chamber. Shiyiniang and the others returned to the main hall and sat. She asked Yang Shi a few questions — whether she was settling in comfortably, whether she was lacking anything.

The moment Shiyiniang began speaking, Yang Shi rose respectfully to her feet. When Shiyiniang finished, she answered immediately. “The courtyard Madam arranged for me is just like the one I had at home — the moment I saw it I felt at ease, as though I had come back to my own family. The furnishings are even more complete than at home — even the clothing racks have been provided in large, medium, and small sizes, one of each. At home I only had the one.” She made particular mention of Wen Yiniang. “…She is warm-hearted and straightforward as an elder sister. I was new and did not know things — it was thanks to her guidance that I found my way.”

Wen Yiniang brushed this aside with a laugh. “I dare not accept such praise. Guidance is too strong a word — only that I came into the house earlier and know a little more, so when you asked I could answer. That is all.”

“Wen Elder Sister is truly modest.” Yang Shi’s praise carried genuine sincerity.

Thinking of Wen Yiniang’s unusual behavior that morning, Shiyiniang smiled. “Since that is the case, if you have anything in future, go directly to Wen Yiniang. I am in mourning and do not go about much. You have just arrived, and having someone who knows the household well nearby will put my mind at ease.” She turned to Wen Yiniang with a gentle, smiling nod.

Wen Yiniang, seeing Shiyiniang’s expression warm but her eyes flickering with a glint of mischief, was momentarily taken aback.

Yang Shi had already answered with a respectful assent.

Shiyiniang then lifted her tea bowl.

The yiniangsfiled out one after another.

Yang Shi at once linked her arm through Wen Yiniang’s. “Wen Elder Sister, is it usual for us to attend the Mistress for her grooming and morning meal?”

Wen Yiniang felt the arm that Yang Shi held become as heavy as lead. She smiled with effort. “The Mistress is very easy with people and does not require us to stand in attendance before her.”

Yang Shi let out a long breath of relief. She smiled and said, “Before coming I was worried the whole time. But then I found Elder Sister as warm-hearted as she is — and the Mistress as kind and generous as she is. Truly, it is my great good fortune.”

Wen Yiniang gave a sheepish smile, declined Yang Shi’s invitation to come and sit in her room, and returned to her own quarters.

“Qiu Hong,” she said, falling onto the large heated platform by the window without even removing her shoes, “we must think of something and fast. If things go on this way, sooner or later we will be drawn in.”

Qiu Hong gave a dismissive smile. “What is there for you to fear, Yiniang? Did you not say yourself that the Marquis and the Mistress are of one heart now? Before, you worried that by cultivating the favor of the first Mistress you would offend the Marquis, or that by pleasing the Marquis you would offend the first Mistress. Now you need only follow the Mistress wholeheartedly — that is far simpler than before.” She spoke while helping Wen Yiniang off with her shoes. “Surely things cannot be harder now than they were before?”

“You do not understand,” said Wen Yiniang, settling onto the platform. “I can see that Yang Shi is not only beautiful but also steady and composed — very capable of restraining herself. I only fear that in time…” She spoke up to this point and then let her voice trail off.

“Fear that things will turn out how?” Qiu Hong was very curious. She draped a thin quilt over Wen Yiniang and could not resist saying, “Are you afraid the Mistress will not be able to hold her own against Yang Shi? Even if she cannot, the Mistress is still the principal wife. The Marquis will at least give her some face. By the look of it, the Mistress treats those around her well enough — Dongqing and Binju have served her since childhood and she has kept them close all along. If we help her, she will not abandon us either. The worst that could happen is what it was like when the first Mistress was alive — being out of the Marquis’s favor. Besides, even if we do not help…” She caught herself and swallowed the words “the Marquis will not favor us regardless” — then her mind turned, and she said instead, “does the Mistress dare not have us help her?” Then, thinking of Wen Yiniang’s deeper concern, added, “Besides, the Young Miss will need to depend on the Mistress in many ways still to come.”

Wen Yiniang listened, brows furrowing tightly. “Let me think this through carefully…”

Qiu Hong did not dare disturb her. She went out on light, quiet steps.

Having seen off the yiniangss, Shiyiniang first looked in on Zhen Jie’er, who was embroidering in the east side-chamber, and then went to the inner chamber.

Xu Lingyi was lying against the back cushion, dozing.

Shiyiniang eased the cushion out from behind him.

Xu Lingyi looked at her blearily for a moment, then turned over and went back to sleep.

Shiyiniang pulled the covers over him and tiptoed out. She instructed Zhuxiang to prepare dumplings for Xu Sizhun, then ate her morning meal in the west side-chamber. Seeing that Xu Lingyi had still not woken, she went first to the Dowager Lady’s quarters.

Hearing that Xu Lingyi had drunk too much, the Dowager Lady scolded with mild exasperation, “In future you must urge him more — he cannot just be allowed to do as he pleases.”

“It is only now and then,” Shiyiniang said, quietly relieved she had not mentioned Xu Lingyi’s plan to have an imperial physician come see him. “The Marquis is a man of his own judgment.”

When a daughter-in-law did nothing, the mother-in-law grew worried; but when a daughter-in-law truly reined her son in, she grew more worried still.

The Dowager Lady said nothing further. She urged Shiyiniang back. “…The Fourth needs someone to look after him.”

Shiyiniang took her leave and returned.

The imperial physician arrived.

He took Xu Lingyi’s pulse, wrote out several prescriptions, and recommended, “…It would be best made up into pellets — after a heavy bout of drinking, just take two.”

Xu Lingyi thought this a splendid idea and had Linbo take the prescription to acquire the medicinal ingredients for the pellets.

Well then — now there was nothing to hold him back.

Shiyiniang came out from behind the screen, and as she inwardly fumed, she poured a cup of tea for Xu Lingyi, who was reclining in bed.

A young manservant ran in. “Prince Shun has come!”

Shiyiniang moved to withdraw.

But Xu Lingyi said, “He is no stranger — you can meet him.” His tone was at first a little hesitant, then grew more certain. “We grew up together.”

Meeting a friend one had grown up with together.

In her understanding, this signified recognition and acceptance. In his — what did it signify?

Shiyiniang held Xu Lingyi’s gaze, her eyes carrying a quietly uncertain depth.

Through the bright glass of the window, the pale yellow buds on the branches outside could be seen clearly.

A smile came over Yang Shi’s face — the composed face from a moment ago suddenly brightened into radiance.

“Young Miss!” Nanny Yang came in carrying a black-lacquered honeysuckle-and-mother-of-pearl-inlay tea tray. “These are the finest Biluochun leaves.” Her eyes could not conceal a quiet gleam of satisfaction.

“Change how you address me,” said Yang Shi, looking at her wet nurse with a collected expression. “From now on, say ‘Yiniang.’ There is no longer any such name as ‘Young Miss.'”

“Yes.” Nanny Yang answered with deference, lowered her gaze, and placed the tea bowl on the low table beside the platform. A shadow of grief showed in her face.

“What is there to grieve over.” Yang Shi picked up the tea with a smile. “This path was my own choosing. Though it were a mountain of blades or a sea of fire, though my body were destroyed and my bones ground to dust — there is no one else to blame. And see where I am now — I live in a fine and spacious house, wear silks and satins, and have people to tend to everything. What is there to complain of?” Her words carried an undercurrent of self-mockery.

“Young Miss!” Nanny Yang thought of the slight the Xu household had shown Yang Shi, and her eyes grew wet. “It is all the Madam’s fault…”

“You are never to speak like that again.” Yang Shi drew out her handkerchief and handed it to Nanny Yang, then said quietly what was in her heart. “She only loved her son more. I know too that Young Luo Shi — a daughter of a concubine-born side branch of the family, raised to be a secondary wife — could not have won the genuine respect of the several young masters and young misses without being in the least a soft or indulgent woman. But things have already come to this point. One can only take it one step at a time. Surely it cannot be more treacherous than entering the imperial palace…”

Prince Shun was a round, fair-skinned, portly man. When he walked in, one first noticed his belly, tightly wrapped in purple-red Hu silk, before one noticed his face — as round and full as a harvest moon.

Shiyiniang was mildly astonished; she stifled an urge to laugh.

She had caught a glimpse of Princess Shun’s Consort at court ceremonies several times from afar. If Prince Shun was a stuffed bun, then his wife was a bamboo pole…

Prince Shun, for his part, was rather taken aback to find a lovely young woman in the room.

“This is my wife, of the Luo family,” Xu Lingyi said simply.

“Ah!” Prince Shun understood. “So this is the Marchioness!”

Shiyiniang smiled and curtseyed, then had the small maids bring a grand chair and place it beside the bed. She ordered tea and refreshments.

Prince Shun turned his portly frame and sat with some awkwardness on the grand chair. He narrowed his small eyes and exchanged pleasantries with Shiyiniang. “…That hundred-treasure box I had made for you before — has it been of use?”

Shiyiniang felt a wave of embarrassment.

Ever since that peculiar, mutated version of the puzzle box had been hauled back from the Imperial Household Department, she had buried it in the farthest reaches of the storeroom. Even to think of it made her flush with shame.

Xu Lingyi, noticing her discomfort and guessing that she had never taken it out to use — and that it must have been some rare curiosity she had read of in an old text, which she had then had made on a whim, only to find it quite unusable — smiled and teased Prince Shun. “It was only a hundred-treasure box you helped make for her. You call that a credit?”

“No, no, not at all!” Prince Shun laughed with a rumbling chuckle. “Absolutely not what I meant.” Then he smiled warmly at Shiyiniang again. “Marchioness, I hear you have opened an embroidery establishment. In just over two months it will be the Dragon Boat Festival, and the palace will need to add some five-poison rank badge insignia. The number required is small and the price the Imperial Household Department offers is not high — so far no suitable embroidery house has been found. I was thinking of whether to raise the price and look for one. If the Marchioness is interested, you could send your shopkeeper to the Imperial Household Department to find me.”

Shiyiniang was somewhat surprised.

She thought for a moment and said, “Thank you for your consideration, Your Highness. But my little embroidery shop has only four or five embroiderers. These rank badge insignia are very exacting work. If I were to accept rashly and then the embroiderers could not do it to standard — failing to deliver and creating trouble is one thing, but it would also bring embarrassment on Your Highness. Would it be better to let me speak first with the shop’s needlework mistress tomorrow, and then send the shopkeeper to find you? Would that suit?” Her manner was entirely earnest.

Prince Shun blinked in mild surprise, then burst into hearty laughter and shot a glance at Xu Lingyi.

Xu Lingyi had long since lowered his eyelids and was quietly sipping his tea.

“The Marchioness speaks very soundly,” said Prince Shun, his expression full of easy pleasure, smiling like a Maitreya Buddha. “Then I shall await your word.” He shot another glance at Xu Lingyi.