Seeing his mother’s tears fall, the corners of Xu Sijin’s eyes grew slightly damp as well.

But he was no longer a child, and giving vent to his feelings through tears no longer seemed quite right.

He feigned displeasure and adopted an exaggerated pout, hopping from foot to foot: “Who else would it be but me? All this time in the army I thought of you day and night, and here I finally come home, only for you not to recognize me.” He was trying to make his mother laugh and lift her spirits.

Looking at her son’s lively, animated expression, Shiyiniang finally felt a small measure of reality settle over her.

“Jin Ge’er!” Her heart brimmed with boundless joy, and she laughed through her tears. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry—” She gave her son a tight, hearty embrace. “I heard you would not arrive in the capital until the twenty-ninth, and thought that if you could slip away even once on the thirtieth, that would already be more than I hoped for. I never imagined you would come home several days early.” She added, “And it was because your disguise was so convincing — Mother simply did not think in that direction.”

Seeing his mother smile again, Xu Sijin felt the weight lift from his heart. He said with a small, self-satisfied grin: “I slipped away in secret!”

Shiyiniang’s heart gave a lurch: “Did something happen? Why did you have to slip away in secret?” Her expression grew anxious.

“Don’t worry!” Xu Sijin quickly reassured his mother. “My coming back — Lord Gong knows about it. Not only does he know, he was the one who sent me back!”

Shiyiniang was puzzled.

“Here is how it happened,” Xu Sijin explained. “Ordinarily, the Emperor would wait until the presentation of captives at the Meridian Gate before conferring rewards on the generals. But as it is, His Majesty has already conferred the title of Marquis of Xining on Lord Gong and the title of Earl of Wujin on me ahead of time, which means at the actual ceremony, His Majesty can only bestow additional positions and ranks. Given Lord Gong’s merits, at the very least he will be made a Commandant of the Right Military Commission, and there is every chance he could rise to Vice Minister of War — there is certainly no possibility he will be returning to Guizhou. And do you not remember — we have that private mine in Guizhou? The local magistrate is no match for the man directly in charge. If Lord Gong is to be promoted away, whoever is appointed as the new Guizhou Regional Commander would need to be someone we can trust — otherwise, would we not have done all of that work only for someone else to reap the benefit? Lord Gong’s thinking is that I should come to the capital and discuss the matter with Father and Prince Yong, to see how best to secure the position of Guizhou Regional Commander.”

Mid-conversation, Hupo came in bearing tea, and called out in a voice trembling with emotion, “Sixth Young Master!”

It was only then that Shiyiniang realized with a start that she and her son had been standing somewhat inappropriately in the corridor talking. She quickly drew Xu Sijin over to sit on the large kang by the window: “When did you arrive? Have you eaten yet?” As she asked, she could not help looking him over from head to toe.

Xu Sijin was taller than when he had left home. His complexion was still fair, but he had grown very thin, his features sharp and angular. Had it not been for the bright keenness of his eyes giving him an air of vitality, Shiyiniang would almost have feared he had not had enough to eat all this time.

“What was the situation with the Duoyan?” she could not help asking, her heart aching with concern. “Were you injured?” Looking at how travel-worn he was, it was plain he had not disguised himself as a manservant merely to amuse her. “Did you enter the capital in disguise? What about Chang’an and Master Pang — did they come back with you?” Then she recalled that he had just said it was Gong Dongning who had sent him back to the capital to discuss matters with Xu Lingyi and Prince Yong — clearly Xu Sijin did not want others to know he was back. “How did you get into the household? Do you need me to send word to your father?”

“No!” Xu Sijin quickly stopped Hupo, who had moved at the sound of his voice, and said to Shiyiniang: “Chang’an came back with me — had it not been for him finding Steward Wan to help, I would not even have been able to get in. Also—” he added, “Father is in the study with Elder Dou. Better not to disturb them. I will simply wait here with you until Father comes back!”

Shiyiniang naturally wanted to help her son in every way she could.

Learning that Xu Sijin had slipped back quietly, she lowered her voice: “Very well — then you shall wash up here, have a proper meal, rest, and wait for your father to return.” Then she asked: “What about Chang’an? Does he have somewhere to stay?”

“He went home with Steward Wan!” Xu Sijin said. “We have agreed to meet in three days in the alley behind the rear gate.” He smiled and said to Hupo: “Ask the kitchen to make me a pot of red-braised lion’s head meatballs. Those army cooks only know how to stew pork belly with cabbage. After all the trouble of capturing the Duoyan chief, Lord Gong treated me to a celebratory dinner at Chunjiang Tower and ordered that dish — and they made it looking just like those common Four-Joy meatballs.”

“Yes, yes, of course.” Hupo’s heart softened with every word, and her voice caught slightly. “I will go tell the kitchen right now.” She then called Leng Xiang in and told her and Hanxiao to bring water and attend to Xu Sijin as he changed, and hurried off to the kitchen.

Shiyiniang went to the inner chamber, and in a short while came back carrying a stack of clothes.

“Just as well these clothes had not been sent over to you yet.” She smiled as she went into the bathing room. “Otherwise, I might have alarmed A’jin and Suifeng!”

Xu Sijin let out a startled cry, hunched over and sank down into the water, leaving only his head above the surface.

“Mother — how can you walk in without giving any warning?” he said, disgruntled. “I am grown now — old enough to be taking a wife!”

Leng Xiang had been caught off guard by his sudden movement and did not quite know what to do. Hearing his words, she pressed her lips together to suppress a smile.

Shiyiniang teased her son: “Oh my — I did not know our Jin Ge’er was already thinking about a wife!” She set the clothes down on the small stool beside her. “What is this? You have not even found a girl yet, and already you find your mother a nuisance!”

“I never said you were a nuisance!” Xu Sijin grumbled. “It is just that I am not used to it!”

Shiyiniang looked around the bathing room with no attendant in sight, and smiled with pointed implication: “After a few years away from home, your habits really have changed quite a bit — with no one to help you wash your hair, are you certain you do it properly?”

“I do not have lice, I assure you!” Xu Sijin said airily.

Shiyiniang laughed and stepped out of the bathing room.

Hupo came to ask: “Has Sixth Young Master finished washing up?”

Once he had finished, they could bring the meal in.

“Not yet!” Shiyiniang said with a smile, casting Hupo a meaningful glance.

Hupo understood at once and drew close with quiet, careful steps.

Shiyiniang said softly: “I am going to have Jin Ge’er stay the next few nights with me in the inner chamber. Find a way to have someone check his body… I suspect he has injuries.”

Given the ferocity of the fighting in the pursuit of the Duoyan — and besides, two years ago he had still been changing his shirt bare-shouldered in front of her, yet now, after just those two years, he would not even let her see his shoulder. How could that simply be a change in habits?

Hupo was startled, then quickly understood, nodding again and again: “Madam, do not worry — I know what to do.”

“Send someone to keep watch in the outer courtyard and find a suitable moment to let the Marquis know Jin Ge’er has returned,” Shiyiniang said thoughtfully. “The main army will be arriving in the capital in just four or five days. Jin Ge’er’s affairs must be attended to without delay.”

Hupo assented.

Xu Sijin walked out with his hair dripping wet.

“The weather may be warm, but it is no reason for this,” Shiyiniang said quickly, stepping down from the kang. Leng Xiang, quick-witted as ever, handed over a cloth, and Shiyiniang pressed Xu Sijin onto the brocade footstool and began to dry his hair. Leng Xiang and Hanxiao went to bring in the meal table.

Xu Sijin ate three full bowls before setting down his chopsticks.

“Ah, how wonderful!” He rubbed his stomach and settled back lazily against the large bolster pillow in its cover of ginger-yellow grass-cloth, as satisfied as a cat that had finished its fish. “Mother, what do you think about me going to Sichuan?”

Shiyiniang sat down, her gaze resting on her son, never quite able to look her fill.

“Why Sichuan?”

“Ding Zhi has returned to the capital, has he not? The Sichuan Regional Commander will certainly need to be replaced.” He analyzed the situation. “This time in pacifying the northwest, the soldiers of the Guizhou Regional Command contributed greatly — the new Sichuan commander will almost certainly be chosen from among them. I know all the men in the Guizhou Regional Command personally, so handling things there would naturally be twice as effective for half the effort. What do you think?”

“What matters do you have to handle?” Shiyiniang asked indulgently, ruffling her son’s hair. “Twice the effect for half the effort, indeed?”

“Ah, you wouldn’t know about this!” Xu Sijin leaned close and murmured in his mother’s ear: “Sichuan has salt fields. Chengdu, Xuzhou, Shunqing, Baoning, Kuizhou, Tongzhou, Jiading, and Guang’an all use Sichuan salt — the annual salt tax levied for the Shaanxi inspectorate comes to over seventy thousand taels of silver!”

“Who told you all of this?” Shiyiniang said, both amused and exasperated. “Are you going there to defend the frontier, or to go into business?”

“Without money, who will follow you!” Xu Sijin said with easy unconcern. “These outside affairs — even if I explained them, you would not understand, so you need not concern yourself. I only worry that if I go to Sichuan, you will miss me terribly!”

“So you do know that your mother misses you!” Shiyiniang steered the conversation toward what truly concerned her. “When you rode off alone to pursue the Duoyan, did you spare a single thought for your mother? How could you be so reckless — even Lord Ouyang had given up, and yet you, heedless of the danger, borrowed troops from the Yulin Guard and went after the Duoyan anyway. You had only three thousand men while the Duoyan had over ten thousand. And that Commandant of the Yulin Guard — how could he just listen to you like that…”

Xu Sijin quickly cut his mother off: “Mother — I came back perfectly safe, did I not? And with great merit to boot.” He put on a most ingratiating expression and draped his arm over Shiyiniang’s shoulder. “Mother, a young hero like your son is quite rare in all of the Great Zhou, is he not?”

Shiyiniang could not keep from smiling, but remembering that she was meant to be scolding him, she immediately straightened her expression and said in a grave voice: “Mother is talking to you seriously — stop trying to deflect. Sit down and think carefully about whether this time you captured the Duoyan chief, luck did not account for a very large part of—”

Before she could finish, Xu Sijin was already smiling sheepishly: “Mother, I understand. Your son is, at any rate, an Earl of Wujin now — even if you wish to elevate Father’s standing, you ought to give a little face to this Earl as well!”

Shiyiniang had been about to say that without the Emperor and Gong Dongning, even if he had found the Duoyan chief, he would never have been able to capture him — but she had not expected him to bring up Xu Lingyi.

“What does this have to do with your father?”

Is there anything Father does not defer to Mother’s judgment on?

Xu Sijin’s eyes went wide: “You — you did not know?”

She had not spared Xu Lingyi a proper glance in quite a few days now.

For a moment, Shiyiniang felt her thoughts thrown into turmoil.

“Your father did not tell me,” she said evasively.

Father had once said that some things are a man’s responsibility, and there is no need to let a woman know and worry alongside him. But since Father had not told Mother, he must have felt it unnecessary for Mother to know.

Xu Sijin’s expression turned slightly hesitant.

“Tell me quickly — what exactly happened?” Shiyiniang had been away from home before and understood full well the tendency of children to report only good news to their parents. She urged Xu Sijin on, half in earnest and half in pretense: “At the time you were unaccounted for — life or death unknown.”

Xu Sijin was immediately reassured, and smiled: “Father said that by the time Lord Gong had his troops fully assembled, it would have been too late — so Father sent word to the Wang family in Liaoyuan. It was the Wang family’s horse caravan that brought us provisions, and it was also through them that I was able to locate the Duoyan chief.”

Shiyiniang could not conceal her astonishment.

“The Wang family? Chang Shun’s family?”

—