Yun Ye reached out and embraced her. Beneath the thin silk shirt was somewhat cool skin. Xinyue hummed twice and stopped speaking. The two embraced each other and strolled under the pomegranate tree. This was Xinyue’s favorite way of walking—of course, when no one was around.

Her approach wasn’t wrong. For a household to be stable and united, a strong female head of household was indispensable. Xinyue positioned herself as the female head of household, and of course she was the rightful mistress.

The mistress first needed to control the household’s important servants, such as Manager Bai. The peony flowers were just a pretext. What Xinyue needed was for Manager Bai to unconditionally stand on her side. It seemed Old Bai had understood well. Even if he couldn’t get the peonies and only brought back a leaf, Xinyue would happily praise him for being capable. It had nothing to do with success or failure of the task—only the stance mattered.

Footsteps came from outside the courtyard, one light and one heavy. Without saying, it was Niu Jianhu and Cheng Chumo returning. After two days and nights of non-stop mahjong, who knew how much spirit and energy they had left to squander.

Xinyue slipped out from under Yun Ye’s ribs in a flash and disappeared into her own room. Xiao Qiu curiously poked her head out to look at Yun Ye, as if Yun Ye had bullied Xinyue. He smiled evilly at her and licked his lips. Xiao Qiu shivered and withdrew her head.

Two pandas appeared before him, breathing alcohol fumes from their mouths. Without even speaking, they just waved their hands in greeting. Madam Niu and Jiu Yi came out to greet them, each supporting one of the men as they went to their bedrooms.

“Ye’er, let’s leave tomorrow. I really don’t want to play mahjong anymore. The Hou family took turns—even if brother was made of iron, I couldn’t withstand it. Let’s leave tomorrow.” Cheng Chumo said groggily as he walked.

Wang Cai had learned to be very clever now, holding some green grass in his mouth for show. Yun Ye knew it hadn’t eaten any—it was just pretending for Dan Ying to see. These past few days, Dan Ying had been driven to distraction by those widows and orphans and no longer had the heart to watch Wang Cai. This gave it an opportunity. The brocade pouch around its neck had been confiscated by Dan Ying, and the household servants wouldn’t let Wang Cai go out either. Without food, Wang Cai could only come find Yun Ye to mooch.

When Yun Ye ate, it would stand outside the window watching. It made no sound, just watched. Every time, it watched until Yun Ye couldn’t eat his meal. Dan Ying’s instructions were long thrown to the back of his mind. Only after feeding it an entire plate of spring cakes and giving it some cool tea to drink could Yun Ye eat his own meal. Every time, Xinyue would complain, saying Wang Cai was spoiled by Yun Ye. If it grew as fat as Xiao Ya’s pig, what would they do? The household’s nagging was annoying. He decided to take Wang Cai out for a stroll, stretch their legs, and incidentally look at Luoyang’s street scenes.

Qian Yuan was Manager Qian’s eldest son. Seeing the Marquis wanted to go out, he summoned six guards. Including himself and Yun San, they accompanied Yun Ye out the door with guards front and back.

Luoyang clearly lacked Chang’an’s grandeur. The streets curved and twisted, unlike Chang’an where you could see from one end to the other. They were only a narrow three zhang wide. The arched Tianjin Bridge spanned both sides of the Golden Water River. This river was an artificial waterway. Although not wide, it was a full two zhang deep. The water flowed slowly. Boats traveling upon it moved as if pacing. In some places, they even moved very slowly—you almost couldn’t feel the boat moving.

There were no trees along the riverbank, not even a few blades of grass visible. On both sides of the riverbank were two small paths paved with hemp stone, already worn smooth and slippery by foot traffic. Every few dozen zhang along the ground were holes with thick stone posts inserted, all marked with impressions worn by mooring ropes.

On these two hemp stone paths, thousands of half-naked women once pulled tall dragon boats stumbling along this river. Their hairpins and rings jingled, all dressed in splendid attire. Their steps also needed to be uniform—the so-called “filling the water without raising ripples.” This ancient saying referred to these women pulling the dragon boats. They couldn’t let the water-filled cups on the dragon boats ripple even slightly, “otherwise the flag bearer would be beheaded.” If ripples occurred, the woman carrying the flag at the very front would be executed. Good God, what kind of perverted person could do such a thing?

The so-called “one wronged soul per step” referred to this place. On a plain so level it had almost no elevation change, to create a naturally flowing river required what kind of exquisite and accurate measurements? The entire length was twelve li, with a drop of only five chi. These twelve li were completely unnecessary to build. A wide land route in Luoyang ran right beside it, perfectly capable of satisfying Luoyang’s cargo throughput. These twelve li existed only to satisfy one madman’s arrogant dream. Yun Ye suddenly detested this section of waterway. Pulling Wang Cai away from the riverbank, he feared that staying longer he would hear the weeping of those departed souls.

They said Ma Shumou was good at eating children’s hearts and most loved women’s breasts, saying no worldly delicacy surpassed these. Hearing this sentence was painful. Coming to the scene of the crime made one’s heart turn cold. This was a filthy city that gathered the most heartless madmen and most terrifying demons in the mortal world.

Hearing a merchant remotely calling out that fresh sheep milk cakes were just out of the oven, Yun Ye covered his mouth, wanting to vomit. Yun San untied the water flask from his waist and handed it to Yun Ye. Only after drinking three large gulps did Yun Ye feel somewhat better.

He must leave this city quickly, otherwise those images in his mind would torture him into madness. Yun Ye muttered to himself.

Wang Cai drooled looking at the green fruit in the vendor’s bamboo basket, white drool stretching long. Yun Ye took out a handkerchief to wipe its mouth clean and gestured for Qian Yuan to buy some back for Wang Cai to eat.

Very cheap—Qian Yuan bought a large pile for three large coins. He bundled them in his robe and went to a nearby tavern to have the staff wash them clean. Yun Ye didn’t enter the tavern—he really couldn’t stand the sour, rancid smell of those over-fermented green ant wines.

The proprietor personally brought the green fruit over on a plate, bowing and waiting for Yun Ye’s instructions. At this time, the staff had already started calling out their menu in melodious tones at the top of their lungs.

Yun Ye smiled and listened. The atmosphere of marketplace life was so thick—perhaps only the breath of life could slightly cover the rotten stench left by the former Sui.

After listening three times in succession, finally satisfied, Yun Ye took out a golden melon seed and tossed it to the flattered staff member. The proprietor retreated with a smile and bow. He could see that Yun Ye had no intention of drinking or eating—he just wanted to rest his feet.

Yun Ye actually hated shopping. As soon as there were many people, he felt as if he were in a dream. All the people and events suddenly seemed like props in a movie, and he was the only outsider in this film—dreamlike and illusory.

The crunching sound of Wang Cai munching fruit pulled Yun Ye out of this strange state. Seeing Wang Cai eat so deliciously, he also picked up a fruit to taste. Not bad—the flavor was very good. It was a kind of green-skinned fruit Yun Ye had never seen before, delicious and juicy.

“That person and a horse are eating from the same plate of fruit.”

“Rich people’s eccentricities—don’t talk too much.”

“What a pity about those green fruits—all fed to livestock. They cost one wen per jin!”

Yun Ye wasn’t deaf to these discussions. He just found them interesting. Aside from the comment about feeding green fruit to livestock, which made him break out in black lines, he was actually somewhat secretly pleased by the other discussions. He didn’t know which part of his brain was broken, but in any case, he just liked listening.

The guards only drew their swords slightly, and those surrounding spectators scattered in all directions. One small child was even frightened to tears, which made Yun Ye’s mood extremely comfortable. Coming to Luoyang without doing some bad things—how could that work?

“Marquis, curfew is about to begin. You should return to the residence.” Qian Yuan said quietly beside Yun Ye. He could see that this shopping trip made the Marquis very unhappy. Although the Marquis tried hard to cheer himself up, the effect was clearly poor.

“I haven’t heard the street-clearing drums.” Yun Ye was certain his ears were fine—he just hadn’t heard any drums. One hundred and eight beats—how could he not hear them?

“Marquis, only Chang’an beats drums. Other places don’t. Luoyang is the same. Look—the night patrol soldiers have already started their rounds.” Qian Yuan patiently explained to Yun Ye the differences between Luoyang and Chang’an.

“I see. Then let’s go home.” Yun Ye stuffed the last fruit into Wang Cai’s mouth, clapped his hands, and took Wang Cai home. All along the way, not a single patrol soldier dared approach to question them. Just on this point, Luoyang couldn’t compare with Chang’an. In Chang’an, once curfew passed, no matter who you were, the patrol soldiers had the authority to question you.

Xinyue stood in the courtyard waiting for Yun Ye to come home. Seeing Yun Ye return, she happily went to greet him but discovered her husband seemed very dejected. He forced a smile for her—very stiff.

“Husband, today is your concubine’s fault. I shouldn’t have played those little tricks, and I shouldn’t have said nonsense to anger you. I’ll have those picked peonies sent back to them right away. Your concubine will apologize. Just please don’t be angry.”

“What nonsense. I’m unhappy because shopping today was disturbing. Eating from the same plate of fruit as Wang Cai, I was laughed at by all of Luoyang. Some even said the fruit was all fed to livestock—when clearly I ate some too.” Seeing Xinyue’s face full of panic, Yun Ye randomly found an excuse to cover up his melancholy from reminiscing by the river in the afternoon.

“These scoundrels! Qian Yuan, Yun San, and the guards—what are they good for? They can’t even protect the master properly. What use are they? Your concubine will go deal with these useless ones right now. Husband suffered grievances—rest first. Your concubine will go and return.”

“Forget it. You’re going crazy again. With that effort, you might as well pick a few beautiful peonies to wear in your hair to improve my mood.” He tucked Xinyue under his arm and returned to the room.

The room was filled with peonies. Probably all the blooming flowers from the flower garden of the Song family who loved growing flowers were here. Yao Yellow and Wei Purple, displaying extraordinary colors. Each flower was as large as a bowl, extremely gorgeous. They just had no fragrance—peonies never had fragrance, only a grassy smell.

Xinyue selected a purple peony and had Yun Ye insert it in her high chignon. Indeed, the flower was more gorgeous than the person, and the person was more charming than the flower.

Xinyue also picked a bright red one to insert behind Yun Ye’s ear, saying men were most suited to large red flowers. She even brought her face close to Yun Ye’s, pressing together like mandarin ducks.

Feeling Xinyue’s delicate powdered face and smelling the rich sweet fragrance on her body, Yun Ye couldn’t help thinking: The entire Song family, old and young, must be crying themselves to death right now.