Earlier at dinner, a female official of the Duchess surnamed Lu had already assigned each of the young women their bedchambers.

Though it was called an “assignment,” since this excursion was primarily for leisure and recreation, the Duchess and the female official had not wanted to be too restrictive with the girls. After announcing the rules for retiring, they turned a blind eye and let the students freely choose their own roommates.

Pei Min and Qin Yao naturally wanted to share a room. Wang Yingning was the most popular among their companions — she was tugged this way and that by Liu Bingyu and the others, but she declined each of them with a smile and had a palace attendant move her bedding to Qin Yao and Pei Min’s bedchamber.

Though Wang Yingning’s temperament was gentle and easygoing and she got on well with everyone, ever since the incident at the Dayin Temple when they had been attacked, it was plain that she treated Qin Yao differently from the others.

The three of them got out of the water, dried off and tidied themselves up, and walked back together to the bedchamber.

“I heard that the Emperor brought the musicians from Yongle Palace with him to Yuquan Mountain, and tomorrow evening the musicians will perform ‘Spring River in the Flower Moonlight’ in the music hall — we are in for a real treat,” Pei Min said. Though she was a person who preferred quiet, she was enthusiastic about anything that could broaden her knowledge or cultivate her sensibility.

“Oh, that’s wonderful,” Wang Yingning smiled in reply. In truth, she had heard the Yongle Palace musicians perform that very piece well over a hundred times and had grown thoroughly accustomed to it — but seeing how eager and animated Pei Min was, she hadn’t the heart to dampen her spirits.

Qin Yao said nothing and thought to herself: if the malevolent creature came back, Lin Xiao would never allow the Emperor to remain in harm’s way. He would certainly urge the Emperor to descend the mountain as early as possible, meaning they would most likely set out back to Chang’an first thing in the morning. There would be no opportunity to stay through the evening and listen to music.

“Ah-Yao, what are you thinking about?” Pei Min noticed that Qin Yao had been unusually quiet the whole way and found it strange.

“Nothing — just a little tired.”

Pei Min reached over and pressed the back of her hand to Qin Yao’s forehead. “Could it be that you stayed in the water too long and caught a chill?”

Qin Yao smiled and gently lifted Pei Min’s hand away from her forehead. “I’m perfectly sturdy — I don’t catch cold that easily.”

And then she saw Pei Min’s body go rigid, her expression suddenly taut, as she stared fixedly at something over Qin Yao’s shoulder.

Both Qin Yao and Wang Yingning followed her gaze — and saw a young military officer approaching from a distance, his figure upright and powerfully built, remarkably martial in bearing, his face a shade dark from sun exposure but with strong and handsome features.

Qin Yao recognized him at once — this was the Vice Commander of the Imperial Guard she had seen at the academy gates that morning. His surname was Xu, she recalled, and he was reportedly the youngest son of the Duke of Anlu.

The man appeared to be occupied with some business. He reached the three women and gave only the briefest of nods before continuing on down the other fork of the path.

Qin Yao pulled her gaze back and stole a glance at Pei Min. The expression on her face had changed — from the mixture of awkward embarrassment it had held before, it had turned ashen.

This gave Qin Yao an inward shock. That morning when she had seen this Commander Xu, Pei Min had already appeared somewhat unsteady; just now she had nearly lost her composure entirely. Could it be that she had long harbored feelings for this young Commander Xu?

After this chance encounter, Pei Min’s spirits sank once more. No matter how Qin Yao and Wang Yingning took turns coaxing and teasing Pei Min to draw her into conversation, she did not open her mouth again.

Back in the bedchamber, the three of them washed up, got into bed, and lay down. The bedding was generously wide; all three of them wrapped themselves in their own quilts and lay side by side looking up at the canopied hangings above, talking in low voices.

“You still haven’t told me how things between the Princess Consort of Lan and the Princess ended,” Qin Yao said, turning her head toward Wang Yingning and Pei Min.

Wang Yingning cleared her throat softly and said quietly, “How else could it end? The Princess Consort of Lan naturally apologized with great sincerity, and said she still had a piece of East Sea cold jade at her household from years ago, no inferior in quality to the Princess’s hairpin, and promised to have it retrieved and presented to the Princess as compensation once they returned.”

“And what did the Princess say?” She had loved that apricot blossom hairpin so dearly — how could she let it be smashed to pieces and simply let the matter go?

Pei Min finally spoke up: “The Princess refused to say a word and just went on crying, refusing to give the Princess Consort of Lan any way to save face. Instead she pushed Princess Kangping and the others to act as her antagonists. Princess Kangping wouldn’t let it go, insisting that Nanny Li had to be beaten to death before it would be settled.”

Qin Yao nodded, unsurprised. That was entirely in keeping with the Princess’s usual style.

“But then the Princess Consort of Lan asked the Princess where the hairpin had been made, offering to have her own piece of East Sea cold jade crafted into an identical replacement. The moment the Princess heard this, she completely reversed course. She said there was no need — no need for the East Sea cold jade either. She said the hairpin was broken and that was that — what would be the point of having an identical one made? All the same, she refused to let Nanny Li off easily. In the end, she pushed Princess Kangping to summon a few palace attendants, who gave Nanny Li ten strokes of the cane before the matter was closed.”

Wang Yingning saw things with uncommon clarity, and in just a few brief sentences she laid the Princess’s intentions and methods bare.

Pei Min said hesitantly, “I have a suspicion — though I don’t know if I’ve guessed right.”

Wang Yingning, hearing this, smiled knowingly and said, “You may have thought of the same thing I did. You go first.”

Pei Min said, “At first, watching the way the Princess was sobbing, I fully expected her to refuse to give the Princess Consort any way out — to punish Nanny Li harshly. But then the moment she heard that the Princess Consort also had East Sea cold jade and even intended to go to the very shop where the Princess bought her jewelry to have an identical piece made, the Princess’s attitude changed entirely. She accepted the apology and didn’t press Nanny Li further. If she had genuinely wanted to pursue it, that Nanny Li wouldn’t have gotten off with just ten strokes of the cane — she would have lost at least half her life. And yet the Princess suddenly changed her approach and let the matter end rather abruptly. I think there’s definitely something peculiar going on underneath.”

Wang Yingning gently smoothed the quilt over herself and said in a leisurely tone, “That was exactly when I began to grow suspicious too. Ordinarily, given that the Princess had been openly wearing that hairpin since she received it — clearly going out of her way to display it before everyone — it was obvious she thought very highly of whoever gave it to her, with a kind of attachment by association. By all rights, she shouldn’t have panicked at the mere mention of the Princess Consort going to the shop to have a replica made. So my guess is — could it be that the Princess didn’t want anyone to find out who gave her the hairpin?”

Qin Yao knitted her brow. Judging by the appearance of the Princess’s pin, it was clearly made in the same style as the plum blossom pin she had seen in the snow — most likely also the work of Runyu Studio’s craftsmen. She remembered when she had visited the shop herself, there had been only one plum blossom pin available; she hadn’t seen an apricot blossom pin. She wasn’t sure whether Xia Yuan’s pin had been purchased before her visit or after.

Pei Min said with a scoff, “Since she’s been showing it off everywhere, she clearly doesn’t mind people knowing that someone spent lavishly to please her and gave her the pin. So why is she being secretive about it now? What does it matter if the Princess Consort finds out who gave it to her?”

“Which is why it doesn’t quite add up,” Wang Yingning said thoughtfully. But after a moment, she relaxed and said, “Although, digging too deeply into these things doesn’t amount to much. Everyone has their own reasons for what they do.”

“True. Other people’s affairs are none of our concern, as long as we’re not dragged into them,” Pei Min agreed, offering her summary judgment on that evening’s Yuquan spring drama.

Qin Yao murmured her agreement while quietly listening to the sound of the water clock outside, hoping Wang Yingning and Pei Min would fall asleep soon so she could go and meet up with Lin Xiao.

“Hmm.” After a silence, Pei Min finally couldn’t hold it in any longer and spoke again. “Do you think it’s possible for someone to change so completely in a short time — into a different person entirely?”

Qin Yao found the question strange. “What’s the matter?”

Pei Min seemed to be struggling inwardly. After a long pause, she finally spoke with reluctant shyness: “Say there was a person who, from the very first time he met you, kept finding reasons to be near you — shameless and persistent, saying he… he liked you, and that he would one day make you his wife. But then after a period of not seeing you, he was like a completely different person. Not only did he not look at you anymore — he even behaved as if he had never set eyes on you before in his life…” Her voice grew softer and softer as she spoke, until it was barely audible by the end.

Qin Yao and Wang Yingning were quick-minded enough to realize at once that Pei Min was speaking of herself — and that in all likelihood, the other person she referred to was none other than the Commander Xu they had encountered on the path this evening.

Both of them felt a wave of astonishment rise within them. It had never occurred to either of them that a person as proudly self-possessed as Pei Min could ever be caught in the grip of romantic torment. After a long silence, Qin Yao chose her words carefully and said, “Ah-Min—”

But before she could continue, Pei Min cut her off with blushing haste. “I was only asking on behalf of a cousin in my clan. I don’t really understand these little feminine matters of the heart either, and you two probably don’t have much advice to give. It’s late now — we have to be up early tomorrow. Let’s all go to sleep.”

With that, she buried half her face in her quilt and said no more.

Wang Yingning, seeing she was unwilling to continue, naturally did not press further. She let out a quiet sigh and closed her eyes to sleep.

Qin Yao lay in the darkness with her eyes open for a long while, until she could hear from their breathing that both of them had finally fallen into a deep sleep. Then she quietly climbed out of bed, took her clothes from the standing screen at the bedside, and dressed.

Before leaving, she took a few talisman papers from her robe and set up an airtight Six Harmony Formation in front of the bed to guard against the malevolent creature coming to harm the two of them while she was gone. Once everything was in order and she was satisfied, she slipped out and made her way outside, avoiding the notice of the palace attendants.

Meanwhile, in a servant’s room in one of the side halls, the Princess Consort of Lan sat at the edge of the bed and personally helped Nanny Li apply medicine to her wounds, sighing as she did so. “Nanny, you have suffered today. Rest well. Once we are back in Chang’an, I will have Yu Ruoshui come and properly attend to you.”

She was just about to rise when, although Nanny Li’s back was livid with cane wounds and she had been drifting in and out of consciousness with the pain, the moment she heard the Princess Consort move to leave, she suddenly reached out and seized her with one hand. Enduring the pain, she said, “My Lady — old Nanny is not afraid of suffering on your behalf. What I fear is you living unhappily. You are still so young — how are you to go on enduring this? My Lady — no, Miss — please listen to this old Nanny just once. Let go of any thoughts you should not be having.”

The Princess Consort of Lan’s expression shifted. She quickly pressed her hand over Nanny Li’s mouth and said sharply, “Nanny — are you delirious with pain?”

Nanny Li shook her head and firmly removed the Princess Consort’s hand from her mouth. With pained and desperate urgency she said, “Miss — Nanny raised you from infancy. You may be able to hide your heart from anyone else in this world, but you cannot hide it from Nanny!”

The Princess Consort of Lan’s complexion turned markedly worse. Her hand weakened, and she was no longer able to bring herself to cover Nanny Li’s mouth and stop her from going on.

“Two years ago, what was it that drove you to scheme so carefully to marry into Prince Lan’s household as his second wife? Did you truly think Nanny couldn’t guess?” Nanny Li gripped the Princess Consort by the arm, her voice raw with grief.

The Princess Consort stared blankly for a moment — and then, all at once, pressed her hands over her face and said in a trembling voice, “I only resent — I only resent that he would not even give me a single glance. Nanny, you don’t know — I…”

Midway through, she suddenly wrenched her hands from her face and lifted her head sharply to stare straight ahead, her eyes burning with a blaze that seemed about to ignite. Something had come to her — something deeply mortifying — and the rest of the words died on her lips.

“And so you threw your entire life into it? Thrown away your own fate was not enough — you kept going back to provoke him? Listen to Nanny — that person is not like an ordinary nobleman’s son. He has a mind of his own and the means to act on it. These past two years under his hand, how many times have you been bested? Has there been even one occasion you came out the better? Keep going like this, and you will end up losing your very life to him!” Nanny Li’s voice grew sharper and sharper, urgent to the point of severity — as though the person before her stood at the very edge of a precipice, one more step from a bottomless abyss.

“Nanny, don’t say any more — please, stop.” The Princess Consort pressed her hands over her face again, shaking her head again and again as though she could no longer bear the weight of it. Her voice was thick with the sound of tears.

“Besides old Nanny, who else would dare say such things to you? Never mind that person — even the Prince himself, scattered and careless as he appears, has a clear and unclouded mind. He lives alongside you day and night. Can you truly keep this secret from him forever?” Nanny Li clutched the Princess Consort’s sleeve with both hands, the veins at her temples standing out — she would not yield a single inch.

The Princess Consort’s movements stilled. She slowly lowered her hands from her face, and something like dread began to surface in her eyes.

“And the young prince — barely one year old, so sweet and clever, at the age when he clings most to his mother. If you will not think of yourself, Miss, at least think of Min’er!”

Despair slowly spread across the Princess Consort of Lan’s face like a spreading stain. After a long moment, her long lashes trembled, and a single tear traced silently down her cheek. She said in a hollow voice, “I know. I know all of it.”

Nanny Li exhaled softly, releasing a portion of her tension. She pressed on, gently but persistently: “So things like today must never happen again. This time it was only ten strokes of the cane — Nanny has borne it, and that is that. But what about next time? Next time it may be heaven and earth collapsing all at once. Once it comes to light, there will be no one in the world who can protect you. Miss, you are still so young — if you were truly to come to ruin and disgrace, how would the young prince face the world? Even the Master and Mistress below the ground would not rest in peace if they knew!”

“Nanny.” The Princess Consort of Lan suddenly turned and threw her arms around Nanny Li, her voice trembling. “I know. I know everything now. I will never lose my senses like this again.”

Nanny Li sighed with relief and contentment, and gently stroked the Princess Consort’s back over and over until she saw her grow calm. Then she said softly, “Miss — this life is what it is. Let us accept our fate. From now on, go before the Bodhisattva and pray more fervently — pray that in the next life, you will be given everything your heart desires, a good match that brings you joy. All right?”