Inside the carriage belonging to the Marquis Kaiping household, Lang Zhengping watched the commotion unfolding before the residence with its two small red lanterns, and the corner of his mouth curved upward into a cold smile of quiet triumph.

Lu, you wicked woman — so you too have a day when your face falls and you are left in disgrace.

Lang Zhengping’s two carved walnut pieces slid rapidly between his fingers. He glanced over almost without thinking — and paused. That young woman in the green robe looked remarkably like his exceptionally gifted and bright niece.

As the green-robed figure drew closer and came fully into view, he blinked in recognition. Why, it really is my niece!

Lang Zhengping’s walnut pieces slipped from his grasp. As she lifted the carriage curtain, he broke into a wide grin. “Jiuchuan, what brings you here?”

“I was about to ask you the very same question,” said Lang Jiuchuan. Her eyes swept once in the direction he had been looking, and a thought clicked into place. “Surely the scene ahead is not your doing?”

Lang Zhengping sighed, “If only all the children in this family were as clever as you — what would I ever have to worry about?”

“Get to the point.” Lang Jiuchuan helped herself to a teacup and poured from the small pot on the side table, draining it in one go. Then she pinched up a piece of snow-white cloud cake and took a bite.

My, how soft — dense with milky fragrance, sweet but not cloying. Quite delicious.

Lang Zhengping watched her eat the cake with visible satisfaction, her eyes curving like a small child who had just tasted one of the world’s great pleasures. His heart softened at the sight, and he pushed the other plate of pastries toward her. “The confections from Sufang Studio are famous throughout Wu Jing. These cold-plum cream pastries are fragrant and flaky — they are flavored with winter plum blossoms and only available in winter. Have a taste.”

Lang Jiuchuan did not stand on ceremony. She took a piece and nibbled at it in tiny bites, rather like a small mouse.

Lang Zhengping’s heart turned soft again. Catching her eye on him, he cleared his throat and forced his face into an artificially stern expression. “Ever since you told me that the Lady Lu was behind what happened at our late grandfather’s funeral — that she had arranged the whole thing — I have regarded the Lu Family as enemies of the Lang Family, and I had people keeping a specific watch on them. Once you start looking, you soon discover that some people are nothing but sanctimonious hypocrites, wearing an actor’s face from birth, as though it were painted on and cannot be peeled away.”

He cast Lang Jiuchuan a sidelong glance and lifted his chin ever so slightly, telegraphing the clear message: I have gossip. Come and ask me.

Lang Jiuchuan was too busy eating to pay him much mind.

The corner of Lang Zhengping’s mouth twitched faintly. He refilled her tea. “Eat slowly — don’t choke.” He set down the cup and turned his gaze to the scene outside. “I had people watching the Lu household — everyone, right down to the servants, without exception. I must have used more beggars for surveillance throughout Wu Jing than I can count. And what did we find? That mild-mannered, agreeable Official Lu — it turns out he has been keeping a beautiful mistress on the side, and has even fathered two children by her.”

“Lu Changxue has a reputation in court as a kind and decent man, and at home as a devoted father and husband. Yet he has been maintaining a mistress outside the home, who has borne him a pair of seven-year-old twins — a boy and a girl. His official salary alone could never have sustained a second household, so he has been taking bribes. While overseeing renovations on a charitable hall, he substituted inferior materials — and at the end of last year, the building collapsed.”

Lang Jiuchuan looked up. “Were people killed?”

Lang Zhengping nodded. “Two orphans with broken legs were crushed to death.”

Lang Jiuchuan’s eyes went cold.

Lang Zhengping quickly added, “I have already had the evidence forwarded to Censorate Investigator Ye — Ye Cheng, that is. He is a live-in son-in-law; his wife comes from a family of pig butchers, who put him through his studies all the way until he passed the imperial examinations, so the two of them are deeply devoted to each other. But whether because his wife slaughtered too many pigs in her youth and upset the natural balance of things — they had no children after years of marriage. Lady Ye herself personally arranged for a woman of good standing to come in as a proper concubine. After many years, they finally had a daughter, who was registered under Lady Ye’s name and is cherished by both of them like a jewel.”

“The important part.”

“This Lady Ye has always been particularly sensitive about anyone implying that her years of pig-butchering caused harm to the natural order and left her unable to bear children. Well, that wicked Lady Lu — at a banquet, in order to ingratiate herself with Princess Chengle — took a veiled jab at Lady Ye and advised her to embrace Buddhism, burn more incense oil, and atone for her blood debts, so that her prayers might finally be answered. In other words, she was insinuating that Lady Ye had killed too many living things and that was why she could not have children — which was more than enough to make Lady Ye despise her.”

Lang Jiuchuan had finished eating. She brushed the crumbs from her hands and said, “I had no idea you were so well-versed in the affairs of women’s inner quarters. What of court matters? Do you follow those equally well?”

Lang Zhengping choked slightly and said, “I heard all that from your First Aunt. In any case — I had people keeping watch on the Lu household, and what I have just told you is the result. Do you see that small bookshop ahead? Right beside those red lanterns? Every twenty-sixth day of the month, Lu Changxue comes here to buy books. The bookshop is actually one he had people open for him, and there is a small connecting door between it and the residence next door, specifically so he could slip over conveniently to… ahem… visit his concubine and children.”

Lady Ye is a “warm-hearted soul.” Upon receiving this information, she had another close acquaintance invite Lady Lu to come to this very bookshop to browse for Buddhist sutras. Meanwhile, he arranged for a woman of rough and rowdy disposition from the lower quarters to pose as a “chief wife” leading several others in a deliberate scene of husband-catching — and so staged it that the real wife stumbled directly into the middle of everything.

“That wicked Lady Lu is even more tight-lipped and image-conscious than Lu Changxue himself, and more ruthless to boot. If she had learned of the mistress’s existence privately, she would have quietly and graciously arranged to have her sent away elsewhere. If she were feeling truly cold-blooded, she would have had the woman sold off — who knows where. That pair of twins takes strongly after their mother and are said to be exceptionally striking in appearance. Here in Wu Jing, there are certain establishments that… keep young—” He caught Lang Jiuchuan’s gaze and immediately explained himself. “Do not look at me like that. I have no taste for such things. The point is that wicked Lady Lu has a vicious heart, and I could not possibly allow her to quietly bury this and carry on as though nothing happened. I had to strip away at least one layer of that false face of hers.”

“I can see that. So it turns out you are quite the expert at inner-household maneuvering,” said Lang Jiuchuan with genuine regret. “If only this level of cunning were directed toward the court, the Lang Family would not be so short of capable talent.”

Lang Zhengping stared at her. “……”

He huffed irritably and said, “That is still not the main point. Do you know why she is in such a disgraceful state right now? It is because Lu Changxue struck her himself. My people prodded at his sorest spot — and do you know what that was?”

“Nothing other than some dark domestic secret.”

Lang Zhengping’s eyes blazed with the gleam of someone bursting with gossip. “It is the Lu Family’s fourth son — the one sent to the Rong Family to learn a trade. He is not Lu Changxue’s own flesh and blood. He has been wearing a cuckold’s green cap for over a decade and apparently could no longer bear it. Of course, it was my people who baited him into saying so — that is what got dog fighting dog. Now, can you guess who Lady Lu’s lover is?”

Lang Jiuchuan frowned. A thought flickered at the edge of her mind. Surely not…

“He is a monk at the Huguo Temple who goes by the dharma name Xuanming — and he is also a member of the Tantai imperial clan.”

Clang.

Lang Jiuchuan set her teacup down on the small table with a sharp thud and said, her face dark, “They dared to defile the sanctity of a Buddhist temple?”

Lady Lu went to Huguo Temple without fail on the first of every month — and all along it was simply to meet her lover? Had Abbot Xuanneng any knowledge of this disgraceful affair?