Deng Jiu heard from his servant that Princess Yongning had gone out alone, without bringing her younger sister. He curved his lips into a smile, changed his clothes, and set out for the Eastern Market as well.

He rode to the Hechun Tavern. As soon as he dismounted, a shop attendant hurried to greet him. “Would the gentleman’s surname be Deng?”

Deng Jiu asked, “How did you know?”

The attendant smiled. “The honored guest upstairs gave instructions. If a handsome young gentleman named Deng were to arrive, please invite him upstairs.”

The corner of Deng Jiu’s mouth curved up.

This Princess Yongning — all those wild rumors about her, and yet in the end, she was no different from other women. Hadn’t she risen to his bait the moment he crooked his finger?

Push a little harder, and he’d more or less be able to enter her bedchamber, wouldn’t he.

Deng Jiu composed himself with an air of nonchalance and followed the attendant upstairs into the private room.

The door swung open, and he saw the beauty leaning by the window, radiant as the morning glow. Setting aside her mind — her appearance alone was leagues beyond any other woman. If he could have her, he would truly have something to boast about for the rest of his life.

Xie Yuzhang heard the sound and turned her head, seeing Deng Jiu, she smiled sweetly.

Deng Jiu’s heart beat faster at once. In a tone he himself considered quite natural, he said, “What is the Princess doing?” — and walked toward her.

Xie Yuzhang saw the tension in his bearing and gave a light, amused smile. “I was just thinking of Deng Ninth.”

Deng Jiu looked — spread on the table before him was none other than the portrait of a beauty he had made for Xie Yuzhang on the day of the Shangsi Festival. His confidence surged a hundredfold. He swept aside his robe and sat across from Xie Yuzhang with an air of easy elegance, smiling with boundless self-satisfaction. “Well then — has this portrait of a beauty found favor in the Princess’s eyes?”

Xie Yuzhang smiled, her eyes curving. “Does Deng Ninth wish to hear the truth?”

Deng Jiu had supreme confidence in himself. “Of course.”

Yet his eyes were fixed on the slender hand gently caressing the surface of the portrait — skin as smooth as congealed fat, fingers as delicate as peeled scallions; truly a flawless beauty.

As he was thinking this, he watched those jade-like fingers lift the portrait, and slowly tear it in two.

Deng Jiu needed several long moments before he could react. His eyes went wide. “You—!”

Xie Yuzhang called out, “Yuan Jin!”

Several powerfully built men burst from behind the folding screen. At their head was Yuan Jin, the head guard of Princess Yongning’s residence. Without a word, they pressed Deng Jiu flat against the tabletop.

Deng Jiu raged. “Let go of me! Xie! What do you think you’re doing!”

Xie Yuzhang poured a bowl of tea directly over Deng Jiu’s face. Her expression was cold as frost and ice. “Who gave you the right to speak to me as ‘you’ and ‘I’? I am a first-rank Princess of Da Mu. And who, exactly, are you? What office do you hold? What rank do you stand at? That I have not demanded you kneel before me is already a concession I am making out of respect for your elder sister’s face.”

Deng Jiu said, “I have no grudge against you—”

Xie Yuzhang gave a cold laugh. “And I have no grudge against you either. So why was I made the subject of your wager? I am a straightforward, upright person — what right do you have to subject me to such an insult?”

She tore the portrait piece by piece into shreds and threw them directly into Deng Jiu’s face.

Deng Jiu was momentarily speechless, but with the portrait destroyed, his anger flared again. “Making that wager was wrong of me! But that doesn’t mean you had the right to tear up my painting!”

“Do you think your painting is some priceless masterpiece for the ages? You said you wanted to hear the truth — then I will tell you.” Xie Yuzhang gave a cold smile. “The brushwork is neither fine enough nor vigorous enough — clearly the wrist strength is lacking. It is the work of a child.”

She looked Deng Jiu over for a moment and gave a small nod. “A reckless and impetuous young man like you has a restless mind — you lack the disposition to sit down and truly hone your craft. But when technique falls short, a sufficiently profound artistic conception can compensate. Sadly… artistic conception is a matter of innate talent.”

Deng Jiu had always been an extraordinarily proud person. In Hexi, his reputation had been splendid — there was no one who hadn’t sung his praises. Hearing Xie Yuzhang’s words, he felt only the sting of humiliation, and said furiously, “What nonsense — everyone says…”

“That you have exceptional talent and will surely become a great master someday, is that it?” Xie Yuzhang cut him off.

Deng Jiu’s eyes went wide. He didn’t say yes — but he didn’t say no either, which meant yes.

Xie Yuzhang gave a scornful smile. “You really ought to get out more, see more of the world, listen to more of what people say — then you would understand. What does ‘will surely become a great master someday’ actually mean? You fool — it means you are not a great master now.”

Deng Jiu’s fury rose further. “I am still young!”

Xie Yuzhang snorted with contempt. “Young as you are, you must be eighteen or nineteen by now. You’re almost at the age of adulthood — aren’t you embarrassed? I know a person who, at sixteen, painted a portrait of a beauty that far surpassed anything you could produce.”

Deng Jiu demanded, “Who is he? How old is he now? Tell me!”

Xie Yuzhang said, “His surname is Lin. He is about the same age as the current Emperor.”

Deng Jiu said, “That’s impossible! Among painters of beautiful women in that age range today, there is no one surnamed Lin who has made a name for himself!”

Xie Yuzhang sighed. “Because he stopped painting long ago.”

Deng Jiu cried, “He lacked the perseverance to keep going! And you still dare to praise him!”

The warmth drained from Xie Yuzhang’s expression.

“Lack of perseverance?” Xie Yuzhang said. “Young people like you — the thing you understand least is that the world is unpredictable. You believe that one day you will certainly become a great master, but in reality, all it takes is one small upheaval, one slight deviation in the course of a life, and a talent that was once praised by all will vanish like smoke without leaving the faintest trace.”

Deng Jiu declared with arrogance, “I am of the Deng clan of Liangzhou — what upheaval could possibly befall me? You are nothing but speaking like a frightened woman, trying to intimidate me.”

There he was, with his arms pinned behind him and his head pressed down against the tabletop, his face squished out of shape, and yet he was still saying such things — it was downright laughable.

Xie Yuzhang said, “Give me his right hand.”

A look of foreboding crossed Deng Jiu’s face. He strained with everything he had, but he was no match for the guards’ strength. His right hand was pressed onto the tabletop, and he shouted in terror, “What are you going to do!”

Xie Yuzhang drew the dagger from her waist.

When this dagger had been sent back from the palace, it had been fitted with a new sheath, finer looking than before. But once drawn, it was the same weapon as always — a razor-sharp blade of meteoric iron.

The cold dagger swept lightly back and forth across the back of Deng Jiu’s hand. Xie Yuzhang said, “What is an upheaval, you ask? For example — if today I were to cripple this hand of yours, let us see whether you could ever become a great master after that.”

“You wouldn’t dare! You wouldn’t dare!” Deng Jiu screamed. “I am of the Deng clan of Liangzhou! My elder sister is the palace’s Consort Deng—”

“Consort Deng, I know her.” Xie Yuzhang said. “A perfectly fine young man, and when faced with danger, rather than invoking the rank of his father or elder brother, his first instinct is to invoke his elder sister. The Deng clan of Liangzhou — so that’s all it amounts to. No wonder they were forever pressed down under the heel of the Huo and Wang clans.”

She said, “But you are to be disappointed. Your elder sister, however high her position may be, is not someone I fear. And I also know well enough that you and your companions, in your hearts, have been treating me as the Princess of Zhao. I simply don’t understand how you can be so blind — the Zhao dynasty has already fallen. Where would a princess of Zhao come from now? I am called a princess because I am a princess of Da Mu.”

“Since I am a first-rank princess of this dynasty, what is there I should not dare when it comes to disciplining a completely titleless, officeless, commoner youth like yourself!”

“Deng Jiu, open your eyes wide and watch!”

Deng Jiu opened his eyes wide, watching helplessly as that dark, ice-cold dagger rose high into the air, then plunged down with a rush of wind!

In that instant, Deng Jiu’s heart seized violently. He squeezed his eyes shut and screamed at the top of his lungs when pain shot through the back of his hand!

……

……

From all around him came bursts of muffled laughter.

Deng Jiu trembled as he opened his eyes. The dagger was right there before him, driven cleanly between two of his fingers and standing upright in the table. And what had stabbed the back of his hand and caused him the sharp pain was a chopstick held in one of the guards’ hands.

The guard laughed and said, “Coward.”

Xie Yuzhang sheathed the dagger. “Throw him out.”

Deng Jiu was not the only one who had heard that Princess Yongning had gone out alone. His whole pack of companions had all been rubbing their hands in anticipation — not only did they want to win the wager, they wanted to get the beauty into bed. When word reached them, each of them had preened and dressed themselves up and come along, arriving only a little behind Deng Jiu. The moment they walked in, the shop attendant blocked them at the foot of the stairs. “My apologies, gentlemen, the honored guest upstairs has reserved the entire floor.”

Deng Jiu’s horse and servants were plainly visible outside, which could only mean he had gotten here first. Had he already made his move? The group was gnashing their teeth in frustration!

It was at precisely this moment that a pig-slaughtering shriek erupted from the floor above — even the attendant was stunned.

Then came the heavy thud of footsteps, and a figure appeared at the top of the stairs and was simply tossed down. The person tumbled and crashed from one step to the next, and the group caught him and took one look — who else could it be but Deng Jiu?

Only that once-handsome face had been bounced against the stairs several times over, leaving it bruised and reddened in several places.

Everyone looked at him in bewildered alarm. “Ninth, what happened?”

Before Deng Jiu could speak, a voice rang out from the staircase above. “Move.”

The group looked up. Princess Yongning, Xie Yuzhang, stood there with a jade-like face carrying a frosty authority, a riding crop in hand, her pair of phoenix eyes blazing with cold light. Her beauty was truly without equal in the world.

For a moment, every one of them was struck dumb, too stunned to realize she was simply telling them to stop blocking the staircase.

Xie Yuzhang said nothing more. She snapped her wrist, and one sharp stroke of the riding crop cut through the air!

The group started in shock and scrambled to duck and dodge out of the way. By the time they steadied themselves, the Princess had already swept past with her guards in a clanging, spirited procession, walked out of the tavern, swung up onto her horse, and galloped away.

The group then turned to ask Deng Jiu what had happened, but Deng Jiu had already clambered up, rushed outside, mounted his horse, and fled.

The young men looked at one another in bewilderment. They were just about to speak when one of them suddenly said, “Wait — why is there an unpleasant smell?”

He raised his hand and sniffed. His eyes went wide. “It’s on my hand!”

Another one looked down at his shoe. “Why is the top of my shoe wet? And it smells too! Which one of you—!”

This was not something anyone was going to admit to. Everyone swore up and down it wasn’t them, and indeed, all of their own clothes and trousers were perfectly dry and clean.

Then they looked at the staircase. There were tell-tale traces scattered across the steps, and in the spot where Deng Jiu had been sitting on the ground, there was also a damp mark with the imprint of his clothing creases pressed into it clearly.

The group stood there in stunned silence for a long moment. “Could it be that Deng Ninth…”

After leaving the Eastern Market, Xie Yuzhang did not return to Chongren Ward. She went directly to the palace. Once inside the palace, she did not go to pay her respects to Li Zhenzhen either, but went straight to Consort Deng’s Jinglan Palace.

When Deng Wan learned she had come, she was considerably surprised. She tidied herself briefly, then came out to receive her. “Yongning — what brings you here all of a sudden?”

Xie Yuzhang smiled and greeted her with a curtsey, then sat down. “I heard that Your Highness has an ancient inkstone carved with mountain stream and water-ripple patterns — a five-hundred-year-old antique, crafted by Master Qu. I have been terribly tempted by it and came to ask whether Your Highness might be willing to part with it.”

Deng Wan was momentarily taken aback, then smiled. “You are one step too late. That inkstone — I have already given it to someone.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “What a pity.”

The two made a bit of small talk, and then a palace attendant came to report, “The little Prince has awakened.”

Xie Yuzhang rose and took her leave.

Deng Wan watched her retreating figure with a small frown for a moment, then turned to go see her son.

Her trusted attendant said, “What is she about, barging in here and asking for Your Highness’s things so presumptuously?”

Deng Wan said, “Go out of the palace right now. Ask Mother whether Ninth has done anything improper recently.”

The attendant was mildly surprised.

Deng Wan said, “That inkstone was a gift from His Majesty to me, and I passed it along to Ninth when he came to the capital — no one else knows about it. His Majesty is not a man who chatters about such small, trivial things. So where did Yongning hear of it? The only one I can think of is Ninth. Ninth has always been headstrong and reckless, but the capital is not like anywhere else — I am genuinely worried. Go and look into it, then come back and tell me.”

The attendant accepted the order and left. Deng Wan went to her son’s room.

The Second Prince was barely six months old, fair and plump — the most adorable age there is. Because of him, the Emperor’s visits to Jinglan Palace had grown more frequent.

The moment Deng Wan saw her son, a look of pure happiness spread across her face. As she lifted him into her arms and breathed in the sweet milky scent of him, she felt that there was nothing left in the world she could want for.