After Li Wu walked out of the Wang residence, he felt a lightness in both body and spirit, and even his footsteps seemed considerably more buoyant.

The coachman who had brought him here was crouching beside the carriage gnawing on a sesame flatbread. Seeing him emerge, the man quickly scrambled to his feet and called out:

“Young Master Li, Chief Clerk Lin instructed me to take you back. Please, get in.”

Only a fool would pass up a free ride. Li Wu climbed in without a moment’s hesitation and rode the same carriage back to that unremarkable-looking courtyard that concealed over four hundred able-bodied men within its walls.

Li Que, who had been waiting in the front courtyard, visibly relaxed when he saw him return.

“Where’s your sister-in-law?” Li Wu hadn’t spotted Shen Zhuxi anywhere in the courtyard, and his brow furrowed with displeasure.

“Sister-in-law and Second Brother went out into the streets.”

“Do you know what they went to buy?”

“Sister-in-law said she wanted to look around the fabric shops and ready-made clothing stores, so she probably went to buy clothes.”

Li Wu pivoted on his heel and walked back toward the gate.

“Come on, let’s go find them.”

“We’re not eating at home?” Li Que fell into step behind him.

“I made some money — I’ll treat you all to a proper meal.” Li Wu reached into his chest pocket and produced a banknote, letting just a corner peek out.

“Miss Wang really is a woman of her word,” Li Que said with a grin.

The two of them made their way to the main street and boarded a slow-moving ox cart that trundled along with the jingle of bells.

Several passengers of varying ages and dress already occupied the cart. Among them, a woman cradled a wailing infant and rocked it continuously, humming a nursery rhyme in the local Xuzhou dialect with patient tenderness, her eyes brimming with the soft warmth of a mother’s love.

During this famine, the Xuzhou prefect had opened several granaries, saving a great many lives. Unlike the disaster refugees in other regions — those whose eyes flickered constantly with the desperate gleam of hunger and greed — the people of Xuzhou carried about them a rare tranquility and steadiness, precious in such turbulent times.

“Where to, good sirs?” the old man driving the cart asked.

“Where are the largest fabric shops and ready-made clothing stores in the city?” Li Wu asked.

The old man replied with easy good cheer: “Cotton Street — all the cloth and clothing shops in the city are there.”

“Then Cotton Street it is.” Li Wu fished out a small string of copper coins and tossed it to the old man. “Keep the change.”

“Much obliged, good sir!” The old man accepted it with great delight.

The ox cart carried the two brothers through the busy thoroughfares with its cheerful jingling. Li Wu looked at the rows of shops lining either side of the street and remarked, “Pengcheng County and Xiangyang County look like two entirely different worlds.”

“They do,” Li Que agreed wholeheartedly, his gaze drifting along the street vendors.

The Xiangzhou prefect, Fan Wei, was consumed by greed and had devised every manner of new taxes to squeeze money from the people. The people suffered unbearably under him, and the result was that markets throughout Xiangzhou were withered and bleak. Even the commercial development of the other counties — aside from Xiangyang, the prefectural seat — could barely hold a candle to tiny Yutou County.

The two men observed everything they passed with watchful, assessing eyes, and before they knew it, two full rounds of passengers had come and gone from the ox cart.

“Whoa —” The old man pulled on the reins and brought the ox cart to a slow stop. “Good sirs, Cotton Street!”

Li Wu and Li Que hopped off. The old man clicked his tongue at the big yellow ox and ambled leisurely onward.

After asking around for the largest clothing shop on Cotton Street, Li Wu set off with Li Que in tow.

“Why didn’t you ask where the fabric shops were, Big Brother?”

“Fabric shops require you to choose the cloth and then have the garments made — that takes at least three to five days. Your sister-in-law may seem scatterbrained in everyday life, but she never drops the ball when it counts. She doesn’t know how long we’ll be staying here, so to be safe, she’ll definitely opt for ready-made clothes.” Li Wu spoke with certainty. “We’ll work our way through every clothing shop on this street, and we’re bound to find her.”

“Big Brother really does know Sister-in-law well,” Li Que said admiringly.

“Your sister-in-law is head over heels for me —” Li Wu gave his head a mock-weary shake. “I can hardly let her down. Take a guess — when we find her, how many outfits will she have bought?”

Li Que hesitated, uncertain of the answer. “Three?”

“As long as it’s not three cartloads, we’ll be fine.” Li Wu heaved a sigh, patting the breast pocket where the thousand-tael banknote rested. “Your sister-in-law has endured a great deal of hardship alongside me on this journey. This banknote is what she deserves.”

Li Que cast a quick glance around them, then lowered his voice and said hurriedly: “Come to think of it, it’s strange — when I first met her, I didn’t think Sister-in-law seemed like an ordinary palace maid, but now I don’t think she seems like an ordinary princess either. I always assumed princesses couldn’t endure hardship, but it turns out…”

“Would any woman I set my eyes on be ordinary?” Li Wu cast him a satisfied sideways glance.

Li Que immediately replied: “Of course not — Big Brother is no ordinary Big Brother, so naturally the woman Big Brother chooses would be no ordinary woman. Sister-in-law is of noble birth, with the beauty of flowers and the grace of the moon, tender and thoughtful, and perfectly matched with Big Brother, who is accomplished in both civil and martial arts, possesses towering talent, and can compose poetry at will — truly a match made for each other!”

Li Wu gave a thoroughly pleased nod. “Quite so.”

The two of them walked into a pavilion-style shop hanging a sign that read “Yunni Pavilion,” and immediately caught sight of Shen Zhuxi with her back to them, counting out payment at the counter.

Li Kun stood to one side with nothing to do, both hands loaded with packages — large cloth-wrapped bundles and small lotus-leaf parcels alike.

The moment he spotted Li Wu and Li Que, Li Kun’s eyes lit up at once. “Big Brother’s here!”

Shen Zhuxi turned around on instinct.

“Ah —”

She nearly walked straight into Li Wu, who had silently positioned himself directly behind her, and only steadied herself at the very last moment.

Li Wu looked at the gap that had opened between them with undisguised disappointment. “You’re hopeless and oblivious in everyday life — how is it you’re fastest to react at a moment like this?”

Because he was the one who had trained that reflex into her!

Shen Zhuxi had no wish to give him the wrong idea, so she swallowed the coy reproach that rose to her lips and turned her gaze to him and Li Que behind him. “How did you both end up coming?”

“You weren’t home waiting for me, so I had no choice but to come find you.” Li Wu pulled the banknote from his breast pocket and slapped it down on the counter with a sharp crack. “Take it. Spend whatever you like —”

One look at the amount written on the banknote told Shen Zhuxi that Miss Wang had been thoroughly fleeced.

It seemed the visit to the Wang residence had passed without incident.

A shop assistant came through the back door carrying an armful of colorful new garments. Before he could notice the banknote on the counter, Shen Zhuxi pressed her arm against the counter’s edge, and a sweep of her wide sleeve left the surface bare.

“Madam, the clothes you requested have all been brought out — please check if these are the ones,” the assistant said.

“Don’t wrap them yet —” Shen Zhuxi said, then turned to look at Li Wu. “You’ve come at just the right time. I’ve already chosen two formal reception robes each for the three of you brothers — try them on and see if they fit. If anything needs adjusting, we can have the seamstresses take your measurements and alter them now.”

“You chose them for us?” Li Wu was momentarily taken aback. Only then did he notice that the garments in the approaching assistant’s arms were all men’s robes. He riffled through them and asked in surprise, “What about yours?”

“I’m not short on clothes — I ordered quite a few from Jinyu Tower and never even got the chance to wear most of them.” Shen Zhuxi said cheerfully. “Once we get back to town, I’ll have new clothes to wear. No need to spend more money now.”

It was meant to be a happy remark, but Shen Zhuxi noticed that Li Wu had gone unusually quiet.

“…What’s the matter?” Shen Zhuxi looked at him with a puzzled expression.

“Unworn or not, clothes go out of fashion. Everyone else will be wearing something new — you can’t be the exception.” Li Wu spoke. “Pick what you like. If you see something you want, buy it. If you don’t spend this entire banknote today, I won’t let you come home.”

Shen Zhuxi hesitated for a moment, but joy ultimately triumphed over reason, rising to her face in a brilliant smile as radiant as spring blossoms in full bloom.

“I can really buy whatever I want?”

“Buy it. Buy whatever the hell you want.” Li Wu said.

Shen Zhuxi was beside herself with excitement. She turned to the shop assistant and said: “Bring out the sash with the twin phoenix and flowering tree pattern I was looking at before, and that balsam-pink flying phoenix with the twining grape vine motif…”

“All those phoenixes flying everywhere — how gauche,” Li Wu said from the counter, and turned to the assistant. “Bring her some outfits embroidered with ducks.”

Shen Zhuxi ignored his nonsense entirely and continued: “And the honeysuckle-patterned gauze robe in hyacinth bean blossom red, and the star-blue brocade skirt with the clustered floral and bird motif…”

She rattled off all the garments she had been coveting in one breath, and by the end the shop assistant wore a thoroughly bewildered expression, with no telling how much he had actually managed to retain.

“Please wait a moment, Madam — I’ll fetch them right away.”

The assistant went pattering up the stairs to the second floor, and Shen Zhuxi turned to Li Wu. “What did the prefect say to you?”

“He thanked me for saving his daughter.” Li Wu said.

Shen Zhuxi was startled. “Miss Wang really is the prefect’s daughter?”

“More than that.” Li Wu said. “Wang Wenzhong has three wives and concubines and seven children, yet only one daughter among them — Wang Shiyong. He dotes on this late-born only daughter considerably. This time was no different — as a reward for saving her life, he granted me the position of a centurion commander.”

“This Xuzhou prefect repays kindness with kindness — he seems to be a decent official?” Shen Zhuxi said, pleased.

“If someone whose faults aren’t glaringly obvious counts as a decent official — then yes, he’s a decent official.” Li Wu gave a sardonic curl of his lips. “If you’d been there, you could have admired the expression on our prefect’s lofty face. I imagine that in his eyes, deigning to speak with me at all was a heaven-sent act of grace, and granting me a centurion position wasn’t out of gratitude — it was his way of hoping I’d take the modest reward and stay well away from his precious daughter.”

“But you and Miss Wang have nothing going on at all —”

“Some people are simply blind. They always think their old broom is plated in gold and set with jewels — that everyone wants it, that everyone’s fighting to grab it.” Li Wu grumbled. “Pah! It’s not as if I’m a manure hauler — carrying every piece of rubbish home with me!”

“When did Miss Wang ever offend you?” Shen Zhuxi couldn’t help saying.

“She’s irritating.” Li Wu answered without a moment’s thought, impatiently. “Being irritating is the greatest offense of all. I have ten thousand things demanding my attention — I’m already swamped dealing with my own affairs. Where would I find the time to listen to her going on and on? What she gave me was hush money, not payment to keep her company in conversation!”

Shen Zhuxi felt a lingering unease and pressed her own lips together.

She thought to herself that she talked quite a lot in everyday life — certainly more than Miss Wang, at any rate. Li Wu might not say anything to her face, but did he secretly find her irritating too?

The moment that thought took hold, Shen Zhuxi immediately realized: when she was with Li Wu, she talked far too much.

How strange — she hadn’t always been so talkative.

She could only blame this insufferable man. Being around him made it impossible to maintain her own pace. He chattered endlessly every single day and managed to drag her right along with him.

She had been perfectly poised and refined before leaving the palace! But look at her now — she’d turned into a complete chatterbox.

It was entirely this insufferable man’s fault!

“Why have you gone quiet?” Li Wu suddenly looked at her, his brow knitted together. “I’ve been saying all this and you fob me off with a few words — what, are you fed up with seeing me? Do you find me too talkative and irritating?”

His rapid-fire string of accusations left Shen Zhuxi completely flustered.

“…But if I talk too much, don’t you find me irritating?”

“You’re not irritating at all. You could say ten times as much and you still wouldn’t be irritating.” The words tumbled out of Li Wu’s mouth before he could stop them.

Shen Zhuxi was left speechless, and the swiftly rising warmth spreading across her face answered for her.

“Third Brother, what are you…staring at?” Li Kun squinted at Li Que, who stood nearby turning a robe over and over in his hands, studying it at length.

“I’m looking at how the little sparrows embroidered on this robe are all in pairs,” Li Que said with a sigh.

“I don’t understand what you mean…” Li Kun looked completely mystified.

“Better that you don’t,” Li Que replied, giving him a look of complicated feeling. “I’d rather not understand it myself.”