At the resting area beside the polo field, everyone removed their game jerseys, preparing to rest before heading back.

Prince Zhao had come prepared, having already ordered his items to be set up. Before them on the table sat a bowl of ice shavings, its cold vapor rising like smoke and mist.

Several crystal glasses were placed on the table, ready for wine. Unfortunately, the guard eunuchs carrying the wine barrel were unsteady, splashing it several times.

“Let me,” Zhang Xingying said, taking the barrel with one hand. With his towering frame and immense arm strength, he held the hundred-jin barrel in his arms, pouring and stopping with perfect control and ease.

Prince Zhao happily set the crystal glasses on ice to chill, while asking Zhang Xingying: “What was your name again, Zhang Xingying? Nice skills! How about this – if the Capital Defense Bureau doesn’t want you, I’ll take you! You can stay by my side, even if just to pour my wine every day!”

Zhang Xingying, being shy by nature and not good with words, could only smile awkwardly.

Prince E first handed Li Shubai a chilled glass of grape wine: “Fourth Brother, this is a wine from Tuhuoluo in the Western Regions that Ninth Brother procured. They say it’s triple-distilled and sun-dried thrice. The color is excellent, please try it.”

“Quite exceptional,” Li Shubai offered just four simple words, but it was enough to make Prince Zhao proud. He smiled at Prince E: “Seventh Brother, you only like tea, how could you understand the pleasures of wine? Especially after a game of polo, having a few glasses of chilled fine wine – life couldn’t be better, except for maybe having a Gulou Zi, preferably one still steaming hot from the oven.”

Gulou Zi was a popular lamb meat pie greatly favored by the capital’s residents. Zhou Ziqin, who had been examining a horseshoe nearby, immediately looked up and said: “I love those too. Why don’t we go to my place and have the cook make some?”

Prince Zhao shook his head: “If we order now, who knows how long we’ll have to wait?”

Zhang Xingying stood beside them, seeming to want to speak but hesitating. Huang Zixia asked: “Second Brother Zhang, it’s almost noon, shouldn’t you head back first?”

Zhang Xingying quickly said: “This morning when I left, my… my sister said today was special and she’d make me a Gulou Zi to eat when I got home. If you’d like… I could go home now and bring it over.”

“Oh?” Prince Zhao immediately perked up, “Is your sister a good cook?”

“I think it’s quite good, but lamb is expensive, so she hasn’t made it for me before…”

“Then don’t bother going home to get it. Gulou Zi is best eaten piping hot straight from the oven!” Prince Zhao gestured at the grape wine and table, “Come on, let’s pack up and go eat directly!”

Huang Zixia couldn’t help but smile helplessly as she followed the three princes out of the polo field.

Huang Zixia remembered something and asked: “Second Brother Zhang, don’t you only have one brother? Where did this sister come from?”

Zhang Xingying’s face instantly turned red, his head nearly buried in his chest: “Distant… distant relative.”

Li Shubai glanced at these unruly people, naturally not interested in joining such frivolity. At the gate he merely said “have matters to attend to” before parting ways with them, heading toward the Department of State Affairs.

The remaining group rode their horses boisterously toward Puning Ward.

Zhou Ziqin quietly told Huang Zixia and Zhang Xingying: “Do you know? Once, Prince Zhao woke up in the middle of the night suddenly wanting to hear Miss Yuzhi from the Imperial Music Bureau play the flute. But it was after curfew, and the prince thought it wouldn’t look good to openly break the law, so…”

At this point, he giggled but didn’t continue.

Prince Zhao, riding ahead, had sharp ears and had already heard. He turned back laughing: “Zhou Ziqin, you bastard, telling this stupid story over and over, you’re making me lose all face! So what if I dressed up as a night watchman to sneak out, then got caught by the Capital Defense Bureau and had to spend a night in jail until Wang Yun came to get me out the next day?”

Even Prince E Li Run couldn’t help but laugh, the cinnabar mole between his relaxed brows particularly enchanting: “Ninth Brother, you’re truly outrageous. Of course, the Capital Defense Bureau wouldn’t believe you were Prince Zhao.”

“That’s why crushing their arrogance today was so satisfying!” Prince Zhao waved his horsewhip and laughed heartily, “Yang Chonggu, next time there’s something this fun, call me again!”

Huang Zixia looked at this unruly prince and could only pretend she hadn’t heard, turning away with a wry smile.

Under the big locust tree in Puning Ward, a group of idlers still sat gathered, enthusiastically spreading gossip: “Hey hey, you know about old Zhang’s second son? He was sent back from Duanrui Hall yesterday!”

“So what if he was sent back? He lucked into getting a pretty wife – worth more than working at Duanrui Hall his whole life!”

“But you know what, I think something’s off about that young lady. Last night, I heard faint sounds of a young woman crying from their courtyard! Creepy… Did Zhang Xingying beat her?”

“No way? He doesn’t seem like that kind of person…”

Hearing others’ gossip, Zhang Xingying looked at them somewhat helplessly and awkwardly, stammering an explanation: “Ac… they’re talking about Adi. She’s not my distant relative. I saw her lying unconscious by the road, parentless and pitiful, so I brought her home. We’re… we’re doing well, planning to… to… in a few months…”

Seeing his bright red face, everyone immediately understood. Zhou Ziqin, having played a game of polo with him and now considering him a brother, immediately started teasing: “Great! When’s the wedding? We’ll come drink to your happiness!”

“Haven’t set a date yet… mainly because we don’t have much money right now. Oh, please, this way.” He was so embarrassed he seemed ready to dig a hole and climb in, quickly leading them toward his home.

Though the Zhang household wasn’t large, the courtyard was spacious and kept remarkably clean and tidy.

Outside the yard was a row of rose of sharon hedge, with a pomegranate tree on the left and a grape trellis on the right, stone table and chairs beneath it. By the house they had diverted water from the outside canal to create a small pond, home to three or four red carp, with a cluster of calamus and several iris plants by its edge, fresh and lovely.

At that moment, a young woman was crouching by the small pond washing freshly picked white roses of Sharon flowers. Hearing people enter, she stood and turned around, anxiously scanning the group before her until she saw Zhang Xingying and finally relaxed, timidly calling out: “Second Brother Zhang.”

“Adi, um… this morning when I left, you said you’d make me a Gulou Zi, and they are, are…”

“Friends, Second Brother Zhang’s friends, who’ve come hoping to taste your Gulou Zi,” Prince Zhao laughed, interrupting Zhang Xingying’s words.

The young woman called Adi was quite beautiful, as fresh as the dewy rose of Sharon flowers in her hands. Though not what you’d call a stunning beauty, that pure and delicate girlish air was particularly enchanting. She seemed very shy, merely nodding slightly to them before lowering her head, picking up the washed white flowers, and turning quickly to enter the house.

Zhang Xingying hurriedly invited everyone inside, but Prince Zhao waved his hand, ordering the wine to be set up under the grape trellis and casually sitting on a stone chair, saying to Prince E: “This little courtyard is nice, much more interesting than your tea room, Seventh Brother.”

Prince E Li Run smiled helplessly, gesturing for Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin to sit as well.

Zhang Xingying brought out a two-foot square Gulou Zi and placed it on the table. The pie was baked golden brown and crispy, its aroma making one’s mouth water. Everyone eagerly broke off pieces to taste. The fragrance of lamb mixed with the crispy crust created a deliciousness that seemed otherworldly, unlike any earthly flavor.

Having just finished playing polo, everyone was starving and found this Gulou Zi particularly delicious. Prince Zhao had claimed nearly half for himself, asking between bites: “Zhang Xingying, did that young lady just make this?”

Zhang Xingying nodded, saying: “She said she’ll make some rose of sharon egg drop soup too. Please eat slowly, I’ll go help.”

With that, he ran inside like the wind. Huang Zixia, holding a piece of the pie, walked to the doorway and saw Miss Adi beating eggs by the stove while Zhang Xingying sat tending the fire.

The flames flickered in the furnace, and a bit of ash flew out, sticking to Zhang Xingying’s face. Adi called to him softly, pointing to her cheek. Zhang Xingying looked up at her and messily wiped his face, only managing to smear the ash across it.

Adi shook her head helplessly, quickly pouring the eggs into the pot, stirring twice with chopsticks before walking to Zhang Xingying’s side. She bent down, raising her sleeve to gently wipe away the ash mark.

Zhang Xingying looked up at her with a smile, somewhat foolish, his face slightly flushed in the occasional flicker of flames from the stove.

Huang Zixia couldn’t help but smile too. She remembered one spring day years ago when someone had climbed a cliff to pick the most beautiful blooming flower for her, getting dust on his cheeks.

Back then, she had also used her sleeve to gently wipe it away, sharing a smile with him.

Perhaps all women in the world were like this.

The smile had hardly faded from her cheeks when her heart began to ache violently. That pain, almost like being carved with a dull knife, forced her to lean against the wall, slowly crouching down, hugging her knees, breathing hard to maintain composure.

That person had already severed all ties with her.

Yet for him, she had become a murderer of her own family, hunted across the four seas.

If she hadn’t fallen in love with him, perhaps her parents, her brother, her grandmother, and her uncles would still be living happily in Shu. None of those nightmarish things would have happened.

“…Chonggu, Chonggu?”

She heard Zhou Ziqin’s voice echoing beside her ear.

Looking up, she indeed saw Zhou Ziqin’s face, concerned and worried: “Chonggu, what’s wrong?”

“I…” She slowly came back to her senses, looking at him for a long while before squeezing out a sentence, “Probably just too tired from playing polo earlier.”

“Ah, you’re too stubborn. Good thing Prince Kui helped take your place, otherwise you would’ve fainted right on the field.” Zhou Ziqin spoke while leading her to sit by the stone table, “Here, have some soup. The fresh rose of sharon is smooth and sweet, you’ll definitely like it!”

Huang Zixia took the bowl of soup from his hands, took a sip, and nodded: “It is indeed good.”

Prince E also praised: “Fresh is delicious, much better than those dishes kept warm on the stove all day waiting for us to call for meals at the prince’s mansion.”

Prince Zhao asked Zhang Xingying: “Her name is Adi, right? Ask if she’d be willing to work at my mansion. She just needs to make Gulou Zi for me whenever I return from playing polo!”

Huang Zixia held her bowl in silence.

So this Prince Zhao simply liked to poach people wherever he went, wanting to take home anything he fancied. Counting her case, this was the third time she’d seen him try to recruit someone.

But Zhang Xingying said: “Your Highness’s pardon, but I truly found Adi collapsed by the road when I went herb-gathering in the mountains last month. Her background is unknown, and she rarely even leaves the house, so I don’t think she could serve Your Highness.”

Zhou Ziqin was surprised: “What? Found her by the road?”

“Yes, yes, she had fainted by the mountain path when I was gathering herbs, so I carried her home on my back…”

Zhou Ziqin couldn’t help but envy him: “Just randomly finding someone by the road, and it turns out to be such a pretty and lovely young lady who’s also such a good cook – talk about striking it rich!”

But Huang Zixia mused: “What is Miss Adi’s background? Where is her family? And why did she faint on the mountain path?”

Zhang Xingying froze for a moment, saying: “She… she hasn’t mentioned it, so I haven’t asked.”

Huang Zixia noticed his avoiding gaze, seeing from his expression that he seemed to be hiding something. But she thought better of it – she was just an outsider, and they seemed so happy together now, so why ask about such things? No need to create complications and trouble for them.

Zhou Ziqin suddenly remembered something and quickly said: “Oh right, Second Brother Zhang, next month my father is hosting a tail-end banquet at home for His Majesty. You must have her make us a Gulou Zi then!”

“No problem, we’ll send it by fast horse. In this weather, it’ll still be piping hot when served.”

As everyone praised Adi’s cooking skills, they noticed Prince E Li Run had been staring into the main hall, lost in thought.

Huang Zixia followed his gaze and saw he was looking at a painting on the altar table.

The main hall originally had a “Fortune, Prosperity, Longevity, Joy” painting, but now another scroll one foot wide and three feet long hung in front of it. This painting was of excellent quality, with snow-white silk mounting a piece of Shu yellow hemp paper. However, what was painted on it was just several messy blots of black ink, without clear lines or shapes – less like a painting and more like stains left by an overturned inkstone.

Prince E Li Run stared at that painting, his face gradually turning pale.