Xu Lingyi stood by the window, gazing out at Biyi Lake, gently stroking the back of the soft, delicate hand encircling his waist. In a low voice he said, “Things are different now from when I had just resigned my post. The Emperor has been on the throne for many years, and with the Empress Dowager gone, the court officials have gone through several rounds of promotions and demotions. There is no one left who can challenge the Emperor’s decisions. The Emperor has many things he wants to accomplish, and has no time to occupy himself with us. Moreover, during these years I have been at home in retirement, many young heroes have risen through the ranks of the military, and Jiang Yunfei made his name in a single battle. What I am thinking about is Wang Jiubao.” His tone carried a hint of sadness. “If not for the ten-thousand-word memorial he submitted to win the Emperor’s favor, the Emperor could never have lifted the ban on maritime trade so smoothly… The court, the great families of Jiangnan, the merchant guilds of the north and south — all of them have benefited deeply. Yet at the moment of crisis, not one person extended a hand to help… And now that the Wang Family has been eliminated, the Ou clan stands alone in dominance. With no military commander versed in naval warfare, there are bound to be further troubles in Fujian… In the end, it will be the common people who suffer… The Emperor has grown more and more willful with each passing year. It was Elder Councilor Chen who originally championed the amnesty for Wang Jiubao and the others. Now that this has happened to Wang Jiubao, knowing that Wang Jiubao bore the weight of imperial trust yet disregarded the welfare of the state and the people, I fear he will come to regret it in time!”

His body was a little rigid.

This topic was too complex, and Luo Shiyiniang did not know what to say. She could only hold Xu Lingyi tightly, as if by doing so she might offer him some small measure of comfort.

The two of them stood there for a long while without speaking.

One moment the sun was shining brightly; the next the sky darkened, then swiftly filled with black clouds, and rain came crashing down in torrents.

The heat inside the room had nowhere to escape, and the cool air outside had no way in. The air grew somewhat stifling.

Xu Lingyi took Luo Shiyiniang’s hand. “Come, let’s go out and have a look.”

The two of them went to stand beneath the eaves.

A manservant brought out bamboo chairs for them.

The rain had come violently and suddenly — it had barely wet the ground before it stopped abruptly.

A beautiful rainbow appeared across the sky.

Xu Lingyi rose to his feet.

“That child cannot be allowed to waste away.” He gazed up at the sky, washed to a perfect clarity after the rain. “When he is a little older, bring him in as a personal attendant for Jin Ge’er. He can study and practice writing alongside Jin Ge’er, learn to ride horses and shoot arrows… He must not bring dishonor upon his grandfather’s name.”

“Yes!” Luo Shiyiniang gazed at Xu Lingyi’s sharp-featured profile. “This concubine will take good care of that child.”

Her voice was soft but her words rang with quiet resolve, and the atmosphere between them became somewhat solemn.

Xu Lingyi turned his head involuntarily, and saw his wife standing behind him, her face shadowed with a quiet sorrow.

He let out a rueful laugh.

Here he was burdening Luo Shiyiniang with the weight of his own affairs.

“Let’s take a walk!” Xu Lingyi took Luo Shiyiniang by the hand.

Luo Shiyiniang looked at the wet, glistening bluestone path, then glanced down at her own embroidered slippers — deep red with golden-yellow cloud patterns against the base. If they walked that way, these shoes would surely be ruined.

A hint of hesitation flashed across her brow.

Xu Lingyi burst out laughing.

She truly was amusing!

No matter what the moment, she never forgot these small details. He imagined she had probably never looked anything less than perfectly composed her entire life…

The thought flickered and was gone.

A quiet pride welled up in Xu Lingyi’s heart.

She had never lost her poise even in her parents’ home — was he now going to let her suffer hardship after she had followed him?

The thought settled it. He stepped up onto the stone step and patted his shoulder. “Come, I’ll carry you on my back!”

Luo Shiyiniang was taken aback, then refused immediately. “How could I ask the Marquis to carry me…”

Their household was filled with servants everywhere. Even if there appeared to be no one around at that very moment, one could never be certain that behind some great tree or beside a floor-to-ceiling pillar, a maidservant or manservant was not standing watch, ready at any moment to step forward and serve.

She certainly did not want to put on a display of intimacy in front of others!

“Where does the Marquis wish to go?” she said with a smile as she stepped down from the stone step.

A manservant came dashing over with two pairs of wooden clogs.

Luo Shiyiniang quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

But Xu Lingyi was already in the mood and waved the manservant away, telling Luo Shiyiniang, “Lean onto my back! The air is fresher after rain — let’s walk to Chunyan Pavilion.” He blocked her on the step.

Was Luo Shiyiniang afraid of earning a reputation for being overly familiar?

Xu Lingyi turned this over in his mind, then smiled and assured her, “Don’t worry — not a word of what happens in the Half-Moon Pond will ever be let out. I am very certain of that.”

Luo Shiyiniang believed him. She watched the distant figure of the manservant and could not help saying with a pout, “That still doesn’t mean others have to see it!”

“So what if those servants catch a glimpse?” Xu Lingyi was unconcerned and could not be bothered to say more. He simply swept her up into his arms. “You are so much trouble!” His tone carried three parts complaint and seven parts indulgence, as he strode off toward the gate in long, unhurried steps.

Luo Shiyiniang frantically threw her arms around his neck and felt all the more flustered, and she quickly said, “Marquis, please put me down! I actually rather want to walk!”

Warm fragrance nestled in his arms and soft murmurs at his ear — Xu Lingyi had no intention of letting go. He said in a low voice, “We’re almost there!”

From the Half-Moon Pond, one had to pass through a narrow winding path, then climb several dozen stone steps, before reaching Chunyan Pavilion.

That was quite plainly a barefaced lie told with eyes wide open!

Luo Shiyiniang muttered in her heart. She looked ahead and at least did not see a single soul. She also noticed how his shoulders were pulled taut from the effort of carrying her. Although he was strong, carrying her this great a distance was no easy thing.

As she was hesitating, Xu Lingyi had already started up the narrow path, and the blue-grey stone steps leading to Chunyan Pavilion came into view ahead. She drew her gaze back and, from the corner of her eye, caught sight of a bead of sweat at Xu Lingyi’s temple.

“Marquis,” she said, biting her lip. “You — you’d better carry me on your back instead!”

Xu Lingyi suppressed his amusement with great difficulty.

This was different from the formal courtliness of their early days of marriage. Over the past several years, Luo Shiyiniang had grown more and more at ease with him. First she had taken to managing his clothing and meals, then inquiring about his domestic arrangements and outings, and now it had progressed to the point where she had a say in whether his study’s incense stand was set with a citron, a hand citron, or a pineapple.

In his childhood he had wet nurses; growing up he had personal maidservants; in the military he had personal manservants. During that time, the Grand Madam and Yuan Niang had also once made shoes and socks for him — but the former belonged to his infancy, too long ago to remember; the latter had become increasingly occupied with household affairs and had quickly handed such things off to a personal maidservant before eventually passing them entirely to the needlework room.

When Luo Shiyiniang had first entered the household, she was busy adjusting to her new life and naturally had no leisure to sew things for him. Later, as the two of them gradually found their harmony together, she had made summer socks for him with her own hands. The joy woven into those — he could understand it. Only he had not expected her to keep it up so steadfastly. And not only that, she had begun making his inner garments as well. It was not the kind of impulsive whim that fades, nor the sort where one puts in a few stitches when idle and hands it off to someone else when busy. Instead, there were times when she could not manage it in the daytime and stayed up through the night by lamplight to finish. The household seamstresses, her personal maidservants — none of them had any part in it… He was moved.

Especially when Zhou Shiqing had gone around boasting that he had an exceptionally skilled embroidery woman who made his summer socks, and Xu Lingyi had had no way to explain himself, a strange stirring would come over him. And then he would think about the inner garments Luo Shiyiniang had made for him, how she always dismissed her maidservants and matrons when sewing them, keeping it as secret as possible from others’ eyes. Gradually, he had come to feel a kind of intimacy with her — as if the two of them shared a private secret that belonged to no one else.

He could not help but study Luo Shiyiniang at every opportunity.

The more he looked, the more he felt she was both delicate and fussy, and the more he liked her for it. The more he liked her, the more he wanted to tease her, to see her flushed with indignant embarrassment, to catch her being contrary when she meant the opposite, to relish her awkward, hesitating moments of wanting to speak and yet holding back…

Just like right now. A thousand reluctances in her heart, yet when she saw him walk so far carrying her, disquiet rose in her as well.

When all was said and done, it was because she cared for him.

The thought of it made something warm bloom instantly in his heart, and the suppressed amusement melted into a wave of tender unwillingness to let go.

He carefully lowered her onto a flat slab of blue stone jutting out to one side of the path, and touched her hair gently. “Are you very warm?”

Her constitution was delicate — she felt the cold and the heat alike.

Luo Shiyiniang shook her head. “There is a breeze on this side. It’s quite cool.” Her smile was very sweet.

Xu Lingyi felt his heart soften a few degrees more.

He carried Luo Shiyiniang on his back and made his way along the blue stone steps toward Chunyan Pavilion.

To the right, the mountain forest was lush and dense; to the left, forsythia branches grew wild yet full of life. After the rain, the mountain forest rang now and then with the melodious trill of birds. Past the forsythia branches one could see the peacocks Jin Ge’er raised, strolling at leisure around Lijing Pavilion.

Luo Shiyiniang lay against Xu Lingyi’s back, her whole body soft and relaxed.

A broad, steady back. An unhurried stride. Two hands firmly supporting her knees…

She closed her eyes contentedly and rested her head on Xu Lingyi’s shoulder.

The wind at Chunyan Pavilion was rather strong.

Xu Lingyi held Luo Shiyiniang as they sat together against the curved railing.

When the breeze came, their clothing billowed and snapped.

Xu Lingyi chose that moment to speak with her.

“How is your matchmaking going?”

Luo Shiyiniang had to turn her head and lean close to his mouth to hear him clearly.

Xu Lingyi then took the opportunity to bury his face in the curve of her neck and breathe in deeply, as though inhaling her scent, and her heart gave a startled flutter. She could not help springing up from his knee.

“Quite well, actually!” She stood about five paces away, biting back a smile as she looked at him. “I’ve asked Grand Madam Gan, and Madam Zhou, and Fourth Madam Tang, and First Madam Lin… I’ve entrusted all of them to pay attention on our behalf. The matter of Master Xiang’s eldest son having a curse on his wives has also been explained to people… “

Xu Lingyi suddenly reached out his hand. Luo Shiyiniang quickly stepped back… but she was no match for the lightning swiftness of Xu Lingyi, and he caught her squarely and pulled her back into his arms.

“Have none of them given you a reply yet?”

Xu Lingyi blew softly into her ear.

That scoundrel — he was most fond of making an elaborate show of threatening what he had no intention of following through on.

Even if she could not bring herself to accept such intimacy in a situation like this, she was quite certain he himself would not actually go through with it.

Luo Shiyiniang took a breath, and pushed aside his actions, letting herself settle back into composure as quickly as possible.

“Only now do I understand why Madam Xiang found it so difficult!” she said softly. “Families with little experience of the world naturally keep their distance once they hear of it. Those that put no stock in such things worry that marrying their daughter into this family will have people saying they are grasping after influence and prestige, damaging the daughter’s reputation…” At this point her thoughts turned involuntarily to Xu Siyu’s marriage. “Marquis, I think we ought to give some thought to Siyu’s situation and start making plans ahead of time!”

Her voice took on a more serious note, and the atmosphere shed its playfulness and became more earnest.

Xu Lingyi sat up straighter and drew his arms close so Luo Shiyiniang could nestle against him.

“What do you mean?”

Luo Shiyiniang considered carefully. “If he passes the licentiate examination, naturally this is the right time to seek a match. But we ought to have a plan in our hearts and think it through for him in advance!”

Xu Lingyi laughed heartily. “By then, I’m afraid you’ll have more candidates than you can choose from!”

Luo Shiyiniang stared at him in astonishment.

—