Whatever thoughts each person harbored, they all surged together toward the Sheng’an Hall. Wang Old Madam was especially eager and energetic, striding out at the front of the group, with her dear son-in-law, Old Master Sheng Hong, following close behind.

Awake she was, but the Sheng elder madam was extremely weak, able only to force out a few words with great difficulty. Nanny Fang, afraid she could not bear too much exertion, had not told her the truth. The elder madam simply thought she had fallen ill with a sudden sickness of old age. Upon seeing the Wang family visitors, she assumed they were in-laws who had come especially to check on her welfare, and with great effort raised herself to sit up and thank them.

Wang Uncle’s heart was heavy with remorse. Unable to bear the old woman’s gratitude, he stepped back and retreated behind the others. Wang Aunt supported Wang Old Madam and stood at the bedside, a faint flicker of contempt in her eyes — her own mother-in-law was taking the elder madam’s hands and showering her with warm, attentive words of concern. Had the physician Lin not warned them beforehand, she might well have started pleading on her daughter’s behalf at the very sickbed.

Sheng Hong’s performance was no less elaborate: he beat his chest and shed tears, a picture of profound filial grief that would easily rank among the top ten most devoted sons in all of the capital. Wang Shi, by contrast, lacked the cultivation for such a display. Her face full of shame, she stood beside her elder brother with her head bowed, dabbing steadily at her tears.

After a good round of greetings — some genuine, some performed — the elder madam maintained her composure through the effort, and only truly brightened with joy upon seeing Minglan and Changbai.

“…I know… you are at your post… your record is excellent… well done… Grandmother is proud…” She looked at her grandson, tanned and sturdy from the sun, her eyes shining with pride. Then she saw Minglan leaning against the bed’s edge weeping softly, and with great difficulty said by way of comfort: “…Silly child… …old age is old age… these things cannot always be avoided…” Minglan felt as though a stone were lodged in her throat. She suppressed her sobs with all her might and struggled to keep a smile on her face.

A person who has just recovered from a grave illness has little strength to spare. After just a few words, the Sheng elder madam drifted back into a drowsy sleep. Physician Lin, sporting two dark circles under his eyes and newly silvered strands at his temples from overwork, led the group out to the front hall. He announced with barely contained excitement that just now the elder madam had been able to take her medicine and eat on her own, and that with careful recuperation, she would make a full recovery.

Gu Tingye stepped forward with a long bow and said with a smile: “It is thanks entirely to the physician’s dedication that our elder madam has been able to turn for the better. I will remember this kindness. I hope the physician will continue to advise and guide us on her recuperation.”

Physician Lin bowed in return: “Marquis Gu is too courteous. I will of course do my best in the matter of her recuperation.” He had been waiting for exactly these words. He then mentioned that he had not been home for several days and requested permission to return briefly, to look through his medical texts and prepare some tonic medicines before coming back.

This was readily granted. Sheng Hong saw him off with a thousand expressions of gratitude, personally accompanying Physician Lin to the gate, where a manager respectfully presented him with a generous sealed envelope of silver. Sheng Hong dearly wished to add a few words — “Please, be sure not to breathe a word about my old mother being poisoned” — yet somehow, try as he might, he could not bring himself to say it.

Physician Lin was long seasoned in the ways of the world. Seeing Sheng Hong hesitate and hold back, he understood the unspoken meaning perfectly. In truth, he rather wanted to say: ten years ago, during the Chong Prince’s Court struggle for succession, they had already resorted to crane-crest red poison and viper bile, and he had muddled through that without issue, and lived to tell the tale to this day. Your household is merely a matter of women from the inner quarters poisoning the elder madam — what is there to be so alarmed about? You act as though treason has been committed. You truly have never seen the world!

However, Physician Lin did not allow a trace of this to show on his face. He smoothed his beard and smiled warmly: “They say old people are just like small children — and it is absolutely true. The older a person gets, the more they crave indulgence. From now on, the honored elder madam should really mind what she eats. Sweet things, raw things, spicy things — try to eat them as little as possible.”

Sheng Hong was overjoyed and bowed with repeated thanks. He thought privately: a person of such high quality is truly different — professionally capable, socially perceptive, and gifted with words besides.

After seeing Physician Lin off, Sheng Hong walked back toward the hall with a spring in his step, his body feeling light as air. Just as he reached the doorway, he heard voices in dispute from inside.

Only to hear Wang Old Madam say urgently: “…Now that the Sheng family elder madam has recovered, why must you still hold fast to the matter of your aunt? Setting aside all else — looking at me, your Old Grandmother, I beg you — where do you think the Bureau of Strict Discipline is? Is it the kind of place a person can survive?! If you send your aunt there, you are as good as taking her life!”

Sheng Hong’s heart gave a sharp jolt. He stopped dead on the threshold and did not step inside.

The Bureau of Strict Discipline was overseen by the Imperial Household Department. Originally it existed solely to punish and confine female members of the imperial clan. Later its scope was expanded: those women of powerful aristocratic families who had committed grave offenses but whose crimes did not warrant death — yet who could never be allowed to appear publicly again — were universally sent there. The Bureau of Strict Discipline was nothing like an ordinary convent where disgraced women were exiled. Once sent in, without an imperial edict, one was never permitted to leave for the rest of one’s life.

It was like a living tomb, situated in a remote and desolate corner of the Imperial City. No matter how great a scandal or storm one had caused in the outside world, all disputes entered with the person and were buried there, never to be spoken of again.

Because the matter was handled in such secrecy, he had only ever heard of two cases. The first: the year the Renzhong Emperor selected a concubine, the wife of the Jinyang Marquis, wishing her own daughter to be chosen, had secretly had someone infect the girl already selected — the Jinxiang Marquis’s eldest legitimate daughter — with a scarring pox, disfiguring her face. The second: during the reign of the Wu Emperor, the Old Madam of the Chengguo Duke’s family had personally sent two of her daughters-in-law to the Bureau. The exact reason was unknown.

To this day, there had been no case of any female family member entering that place and coming out alive. Most died of old age within, and their bodies were carried out afterward for family burial. To be frank, a family of the Kang Wang and Sheng standing might not even have the means to send someone there — it would likely take the Ningyuan Marquis’s household stepping forward to make it happen.

His thoughts scattering, he missed some of the conversation inside, and quickly sharpened his ears to listen again.

“…Good child, Old Grandmother begs you, begs you… I know you harbor a deep hatred for your aunt. But even if I ask her to retreat to a convent to pray and fast, would that not be enough? I will make her take religious vows but keep her hair — or even shave her head and become a nun — and never let her come out to harm anyone again.” Wang Old Madam’s aged tears fell continuously as she pleaded desperately: “She truly cannot go to the Bureau of Strict Discipline! They make the residents perform hard labor there — pounding grain, washing clothes, splitting wood — and the food is coarse gruel, half-spoiled. Your aunt has lived in comfort and luxury her whole life; how could she endure that…”

Changbai replied: “At the Bureau of Strict Discipline, family members are permitted to visit twice a year. If Old Grandmother visits frequently, the attendants there will most likely not make things difficult for Aunt. As for hard labor… having committed an act that heaven and earth cannot abide, does Aunt still expect to enjoy ease and luxury?”

He paused, then said with a tone of contempt: “As for a convent — I seem to recall that seven or eight years ago, Aunt was sent to the Kang family shrine for half a year. And yet, only half a year in, Old Grandmother could no longer bear to hear her heartbroken pleading and personally went to the Kang family, insisting and pressing until she persuaded them to release Aunt once more.”

Kang Yima was supremely skilled at wearing down her old mother — she could always eventually make her mother’s heart go soft. A state-managed institution was far more trustworthy.

Wang Old Madam said angrily: “Your heart is hard indeed! Your grandmother has not died — why must you be so relentlessly pressing?!”

Changbai met her head-on: “That Grandmother has kept her life is first due to heaven’s grace and the Buddha’s protection, and second due to Physician Lin’s devoted care — what does any of that have to do with Aunt? Aunt’s intent was to take a life!”

“But she has, in the end, survived!” Wang Old Madam argued.

At this, Gu Tingye interjected: “Old Madam, your words are not quite right. People are entitled to live their lives in a certain way. Our elder madam has always been robust and healthy. After your daughter administered the poison, her health was fundamentally ruined, her vital essence drained away. She might originally have lived to one hundred and eighteen; now she can only live to one hundred and eight. She might originally have listened to operas and watched dances, climbed hills and visited temples, spending her twilight years in joyful ease — now she cannot be parted from her medicines, and will likely be plagued by illness and pain for the rest of her life. This lost measure of years, these decades of happiness — tell me, Old Madam, how is Aunt to repay what she has taken?”

Changbai wore an expression of profound grievance: “What my brother-in-law says is right. And then there is little Quan — how will Grandmother play with her grandchildren in years to come?”

“Precisely so.” Gu Tingye clapped his hands and laughed. “After all, the full extent of what is owed truly cannot be reckoned. And we do not know how many years Aunt has yet to live; we cannot well ask her to go to the underworld ahead of schedule, nor — if the elder madam loses the use of her limbs — go ahead and actually break Aunt’s hands and feet. By nature, sending her to the Bureau of Strict Discipline settles the family’s grievances once and for all!”

Wang Old Madam stared blankly, utterly dumbfounded — where on earth had the Sheng family found such an extraordinary son-in-law?

Minglan stared at her husband’s profile in a daze, the corner of her mouth twitching.

“My cousin handles matters concerning my mother with such ease and efficiency…” Kang Jin, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke, his face etched with grief and indignation. “But what of your honored mother, then?”

Wang Old Madam had actually wished to ask the same thing, but her younger daughter had already developed resentment toward her, and she had not dared to raise it. Hearing her eldest grandson speak up, Wang Shi — who had just imagined herself free of this particular trouble — instantly blazed with fury and glared at Kang Jin.

Changbai replied with perfect composure: “My mother showed disrespect toward Grandmother and harbored disloyal, unfilial thoughts. She must naturally receive punishment as well. My mother will pray before the Buddha and recite sutras on Grandmother’s behalf.”

Wang Shi let out a breath of relief and said with a faint smile: “Precisely — I intend to convert a room in the rear of the house into a small Buddhist hall…”

“Not in the house,” Changbai said, cutting her off swiftly.

Wang Shi stared blankly for a moment, then said awkwardly: “Of course — my wrongdoing is considerable. I ought to find a quiet convent somewhere in the capital…”

“Nor in any convent in the capital.” Changbai looked steadily at his mother. “Mother must return to the ancestral home in Youyang. She will practice devotion in the Sheng family shrine, fast, recite sutras, and reflect on her wrongs. Except on festival days, Mother may not leave the shrine.”

Wang Shi cried out in shock, shot to her feet, and shrieked: “Is this not simply imprisonment?!”

Changbai said word by word: “If Mother is unwilling, I will resign from office. With a mother like this — who has committed a wrong and does not know repentance, and refuses to accept punishment — I would have absolutely no face to continue serving as an official.”

Minglan lowered her head in thought.

Wang Shi had never been fond of Youyang. In the several decades since marrying into the Sheng family, the total time she had spent there added up to less than one month. There, she had no close friends or relatives, and could only rely on the household of the eldest uncle. Given Wang Shi’s relationship with her eldest sister-in-law, it seemed likely that the First Aunt would be quite eager to strictly supervise her “reflection.” At the same time, as both branches of the family were still fairly close, the First Aunt would not be neglectful of Wang Shi’s food and daily care.

Elder Brother’s manner of punishment was a good one.

Wang Shi became frantic and said in a fluster: “…You child — who are you threatening?! Not in the house, and you say a convent won’t do either — you insist I go back to the old home, where I know no one…”

“Separated from her family, alone before the Sheng ancestral spirits, Mother can reflect carefully and quietly — think on Grandmother, think on each person in the family, think on what went wrong in all these decades, and think on whether this should or should not have been done.” Changbai walked over and gently guided his mother back to her seat: “Mother knows how your son is. What your son says, he does.”

Wang Shi was frantic with a head full of sweat, and stammered: “Then… how long must I go for…”

Minglan quietly counted on her fingers inside her sleeve — the accessory who committed attempted murder didn’t count, but the deliberate infliction of bodily harm did stand; Physician Lin said Grandmother would recover, so call it half of a completed crime; at minimum… hmm, five years of imprisonment…

“Ten years,” Changbai said lightly. “After ten years, when Mother has come to a proper understanding, she may come home to attend to Grandmother.”

Minglan drew in a quiet breath and bit down hard on her teeth — She can come out occasionally for holidays and festivals; that doesn’t count as excessive sentencing. It doesn’t count, it doesn’t count.

Wang Shi nearly fainted from the shock. She leapt to her feet in fury and pointed at her son, screaming: “You wretched child!” Then she stormed out of the room like a gust of wind, covered her face and burst into loud sobs, and in her distress did not even notice Sheng Hong standing at the doorway.

The room fell suddenly silent. Wang Old Madam looked at Changbai for a long time without speaking. Kang Jin shut his mouth entirely.

Sheng Hong had been standing outside the room, listening for a good while. Grandmother and grandson continued their argument without end — Wang Old Madam alternating between heartfelt pleas and bursts of angry scolding, but her grandson remained utterly unmoved and refused to yield a single step. Sheng Hong thought for a moment and decided that his wisest course was to go around the front hall and make his way to his adoptive mother’s sickbed to perform his filial duties — tending to her bowls and cups, tasting her medicines, that sort of thing, which was the proper thing to do.

In the end, Wang Old Madam flew into a rage and swept off in a huff. Wang Uncle put forward the question of whether the detained Kang Yima might be taken away first — he was met with a firm refusal from Changbai — and so he had to lead the other nephew, Kang Jin, away in disappointment.

Minglan still felt uneasy and wished to stay until she could see the elder madam talking and sitting up on her own before leaving. Gu Tingye saw that she was reluctant to return home just yet, and with great generosity asked his father-in-law whether the two of them might stay on for a few more days.

Sheng Hong’s mouth went bitter inside (with his son-in-law watching, he would have to put on the performance of a devoted son for several more days), but his face worked hard to show a warmly welcoming expression.

Just then, Hai Shi came, thoroughly composed and capable, to invite everyone to lunch — as if nothing at all had happened, as though it were merely the younger sister and her husband coming to spend a few days at her maternal home, with the eldest sister-in-law attentively preparing a tasty and nourishing meal, smiling and cheerful as she served each dish and ladled out the soup.

Facing an unfilial daughter, a scheming son-in-law, a stone-faced eldest son, and a daughter-in-law who played the innocent fool, Sheng Hong got through the meal with a throat that felt choked and a stomach that ached. He barely managed to endure through the after-dinner tea, then hurried off in haste to his study.

The Sheng’an Hall had many vacant rooms. Nanny Fang, guided by Minglan’s old preferences, quickly and tidily furnished one of them into a clean and tasteful room. Remembering that Minglan was accustomed to afternoon naps, she had even spread out the white rush mat Minglan favored; and seeing it was the height of summer, she had also brought in two large tubs of warm water to the side chamber lest the young couple perspire and be uncomfortable.

Both of them were exhausted. Even faced with the bathing arrangements, neither had the energy for any romantic inclinations. After washing, Gu Tingye stood looking around the room for a moment, then said with a smile to his wife: “It is indeed comfortable. How charming that milady has completely forgotten about going home. I wonder whether milady recalls that there is still a small child at home?”

Minglan was sprawled on the bed pulling a thin blanket over herself. At his words she flung a bamboo-woven pillow at him with some force, and laughed in mock annoyance: “Don’t mock me — I miss little Tuan too, and every night I sleep in Grandmother’s room, I dream of my child!”

Gu Tingye was very pleased to be hit. He hugged the bamboo pillow and climbed happily onto the bed. Minglan loosened the hair band tied at his temples and gently spread his hair out. She said quietly: “This time, I’ve truly done Tuan a disservice. But… alas, there was no way around it — I could only manage one thing at a time. Nanny Cui and Cuixiu will take good care of him.”

Gu Tingye heard the hidden ache in his wife’s words, and gently stroked her back. “You really gave me a scare this time. Watching your usual slow and steady manner, I never imagined you could throw yourself in like this — as if you had become a completely different person.”

After reading Gongsun Baishi’s letter, he had barely been able to believe his own eyes. Sealing off the maternal household, rebuking her biological father, forcibly capturing people, setting traps, interrogating, applying pressure — every one of these acts was a desperate, heedless gamble with no thought for herself. Was this still the clever, calculating, self-preserving, never-wrong Sheng Minglan?

After rushing here, he had felt by turns joy and apprehension, unable to quite articulate the thoughts in his mind. He only knew that he wanted to help her. To protect her.

Seeing Minglan with her head lowered, saying nothing, Gu Tingye let out a quiet sigh: “You still won’t talk to me. Never mind, then…” He moved to lie down and sleep, but Minglan suddenly pressed one hand against his chest and lifted her head to look at him: “I’ll tell you.”

Gu Tingye settled himself cross-legged on the bed.

“The source of Grandmother’s calamity, when all is traced back, is in truth because of me.” Minglan’s expression was grave and solemn. “Behaving improperly has always been the case — Grandmother has turned a blind eye to it for decades, and they managed to coexist peacefully. Kang Yima, too, is not someone who only appeared on the scene in these last two years. Ever since we moved to the capital, she came frequently to talk. Even then she would stir things up and sow discord — yet Grandmother never really lashed out.”

The dull, throaty sound of cicadas came through from outside, one cry after another. The hot afternoon sun slowly seeped in through the window. Around the Sheng’an Hall, tall trees grew in abundance, casting dappled shadows of branches and leaves onto the thin white gauze of the window — dark and dense in some places, lighter in others, and trailing off into fine, barely-visible twigs pale as an eyebrow’s end.

In a corner of the room, two basins of ice stood, emanating a faint mist of cool vapor.

Gu Tingye listened quietly.

“Grandmother never told me, but I know — it was the year Kang Yima tried to send a concubine into the household that truly enraged Grandmother. She became furious, and without stopping to think of the decades of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law propriety, she erupted, scolding and rebuking publicly, and even had her kneel at the entrance to the Sheng’an Hall for all passersby to see. From that moment on, resentment took root in her heart, I suppose.”

A cool breeze drifted slowly on the fan’s edges, one strand at a time, ruffling her fine, scattered strands of hair, brushing against the man’s arm like a faint tickle.

“After that, Grandmother grew increasingly worried that, stirred up by Aunt, she would act against me again, and so her supervision of her grew ever stricter — she even stripped her of the household management, handing it over to the sisters-in-law. She has always been a woman who would not yield even before the Old Master in her strongest moments; for Grandmother to humiliate her so publicly, the resentment in her heart grew deeper and deeper, and that gave Kang Yima the opening she needed.”

The tone in Minglan’s voice was calm, but with a faint thread of sorrow woven through it.

“Grandmother was wrong in this. After all, this is a woman with children and grandchildren — at the very least, basic dignity must be preserved. Grandmother could easily have closed the door and instructed her carefully, explained things patiently and in detail… in the past, whenever she made a foolish mistake, that was exactly what Grandmother did.”

Tears brimmed full in her eyes. She seemed not to notice at all, and continued in a slow, quiet voice: “Why did Grandmother need to vent her anger on my behalf? I have already married out — I can take care of myself. She is at that age when she should be waited on and cherished by her children and grandchildren, living out her days in peace and comfort. Why, the moment she hears I have been wronged, must she work herself into an anxious fury and go on the offensive? Elder Brother is, after all, the blood-born son — what if Elder Brother were to take offense at her for this, making her final years difficult?”

Her long lashes at last could no longer hold the tears. They fell, one drop, two drops, soaking into the soft thin cotton of the blanket in small, dark circles. Minglan pressed the handkerchief to her face and slowly absorbed the warm, wet traces.

“Grandmother truly loves me, worries for me — and it is that love which brought this calamity down upon her own head. …I know what is in the Marquis’s heart. But I cannot deceive myself. The year I gave birth to little Tuan — that woman wanted to burn me to death, and Man Niang wanted to charge herself into me. And then the Marquis came, and arranged each and every thing, settling it all so properly. I knew it in my heart then.”

“Because… I did not punish Man Niang more severely?” Gu Tingye’s voice was dry and rough; he could not even complete the sentence.

“Whether she was punished severely is not what matters.” Minglan slowly shook her head, her eyes reddened. “That time, the Marquis said: however Qi Heng treats you, you simply do not care — you only care what I think in my heart. Today I return those words to the Marquis. However Man Niang was dealt with — I did not give it a second thought. What I care about is what the Marquis did, and what the Marquis thought.”

The cool air slowly spread through the bed-curtain. Minglan set down the fan and softly ran her fingers over the leaf-vein pattern woven into it.

“As for how Man Niang was handled — speaking honestly, the Marquis handled it with propriety. It silenced the gossip outside, gave no foothold to those with ulterior motives, and did not put me in a difficult position. Even after I reflected on it repeatedly afterward, there was no arrangement more appropriate than this one. And yet — do you know? When you truly have someone in your heart, in moments of urgency you will make mistakes. As they say, the more you care, the more your judgment fails you. Like Grandmother…”

She lifted her head, her eyes damp and wide as she looked at him. “When Aunt was charging herself at me trying to kill me — was there not a moment when the Marquis lost his composure? Did you not lose your bearings, even after knowing I was safe, and still burn with fury, wishing you could avenge me instantly?”

Gu Tingye’s heart went utterly blank. He sat in silence.

Minglan’s tears spilled past her lashes. She pressed her sleeve over her face and said quietly in grief: “I know — I know it is not right for me to say this. And yet… I always feel that the ones we truly love are known not by how many wise things they do for us, but by how many foolish things they do for us.”

Gu Tingye was not Qi Heng, not He Hong, not any reckless and naive young man. He had been through betrayal and abandonment, had nearly been destroyed entirely — and precisely because of that, his own moments of “caring until his judgment failed” were all the more rare and precious.

Like the Sheng elder madam: half a life of suffering and cold treatment — yet still willing to give all her love to a child with not a drop of her blood. It was that very love that drove her to charge forward without a thought for herself, pressing on though ten thousand stood against her.

Lowering her sleeve, her face streaked with tears, her eyes carrying something that looked almost like a plea: “We will grow old together, a lifetime of mutual respect and love. I will be a good wife and a good mother… let us simply live like this — live well.”

Having said this, Minglan turned on her side to face the wall, closed her eyes, and said no more.

Gu Tingye leaned against the bed’s headrail and looked at her in silence — her curled figure, soft as willow, lay quietly wrapped in the thin blanket.

He suddenly recalled something she had said, a long time ago — Ordinary husband and wife: entanglements bring hurt too easily. To live out a whole life in calm and quiet ambiguity — that is the best way.

He picked up the woven palm-leaf fan from the edge of the bed, and began slowly fanning it for her.