On the twentieth day of the fourth month, the weather had been fine since early morning.

The great red semicircle of the sun crept shyly above the horizon, and once it found no danger lurking nearby, it leaped boldly into the sky with relief.

One moment it went unnoticed, and the next it had already climbed to the heavens without anyone realizing.

One by one, ornately carved carriages departed from the gates of grand manors and wealthy estates throughout Pengcheng County, gradually converging outside a residence with high walls and deep eaves on the southern outskirts.

After the He family carriage came to a stop at the gate, Madam He peered out through the half-open window and said to Master He, who was preparing to alight beside her, “My lord, we have arrived at the same time as the Ji family carriage.”

“Then so be it — mind that tongue of yours. The Ji family are our biggest patrons, so you must get on well with Madam Ji…”

Master He took the hand of an attending manservant and stepped down from the carriage using the mounting block.

Inside the carriage, Madam He rolled her eyes in the direction of the Ji family carriage, then descended herself.

The moment her feet touched the ground, she broke into a delighted smile aimed at the Ji family, who had just alighted as well.

“Master Ji! Madam Ji! What a wonderful coincidence!”

Master Ji and his wife were both built like great bears, and standing side by side, they resembled nothing so much as a solid brick wall capable of blocking the wind.

Master Ji smiled, his belly jutting out like that of a woman six months along, and exchanged a respectful bow with Master He, exchanging pleasantries with great civility.

Between Madam Ji and Madam He, things were considerably warmer. Madam He hooked her arm through Madam Ji’s and enthusiastically invited her to sit together later.

In her eagerness to forge a rapid connection, Madam He even shared a piece of gossip she had just managed to glean.

“I hear this newly arrived Centurion Li was originally from some decrepit little county in Jinzhou. Never mind being educated or knowing proper etiquette — apparently he can’t even read a single character. Sister, don’t set your expectations too high for the food today. We’re really just here to make an appearance, that way we haven’t slighted the Prefect’s face either.”

Madam Ji smiled pleasantly along with her, and Madam He seized the moment to press her invitation for them to sit together.

Madam Ji continued to smile pleasantly, yet left people quite unable to tell whether she had agreed or not.

Madam He ground her teeth inwardly: Ugly people always make such a fuss! If it weren’t for the family business, she would never bother dealing with this great fat pig.

At that very same moment, Madam Ji was inwardly sneering: She had no such down-and-out sister. If she wanted to share a table, perhaps the He family ought to first repay what they owed the Ji family!

After their exchange of apparent warmth, both elegantly dressed women returned to their respective husbands’ sides, each wearing the same expression of silent contempt for what had just passed between them.

The appointed hour of the banquet had arrived, and more and more carriages and horses were drawing up before the gate of Wang Wenzhong’s private villa.

Master Ji, smiling and nodding to the acquaintances around him, murmured through clenched teeth to his wife beside him.

“What did you two talk about?”

“Pleasantries we already knew were useless,” Madam Ji replied, smiling just as pleasantly, squeezing words through her own teeth that bore no resemblance to her expression.

“If it weren’t for Lord Wang’s invitation, I truly would not have wanted to come to this banquet.” Master Ji let out a sigh. “Not to mention the time wasted sitting in traffic on the road… A Centurion who crawled up from the mud — does he deserve to dine at the same table as me? Have you ever seen the way farmers squat along the edge of a paddy field to eat? Just thinking about sharing a table with someone like that turns my stomach.”

Madam Ji patted Master Ji’s arm and consoled him, saying, “My lord, just have a few bites at the table later. I’ve already instructed our kitchen to prepare a proper feast — we’ll have a good meal when we return home.”

“There’s nothing else for it,” Master Ji sighed. “In this world, one cannot always do as one pleases. When we meet Centurion Li later, you must not let anything show. Whatever else may be said, this invitation came from the Prefect. If we fail to show Centurion Li face, we are failing to show the Prefect face.”

“Rest assured, my lord.”

The Ji couple walked through the villa gates with smiles on their faces.

A familiar face came out to greet them. Madam Ji exclaimed in pleased surprise: “What are you doing here?”

Master Ji recognized him too, and said in astonishment, “Little Xu, shouldn’t you be at the tavern?”

Standing before them was the waiter from the largest tavern in Pengcheng County, wearing his familiar smile — yet he was no longer dressed in plain cloth garments, but in a neat and pristine new silk robe, and the signature towel that always hung over his shoulder was absent.

The waiter smiled warmly and said briskly, “Honored guests, today I’m not Little Xu the waiter — I’m Butler Xu! Madam Li negotiated with my master and borrowed me for a day to attend to the guests. If there is anything lacking in the hospitality, please be patient with me…”

“The tavern actually let him go?” Madam Ji was even more astonished.

Master Ji frowned in puzzlement. The tavern owner he knew was famously tight-fisted. Such a man allowing someone to be borrowed from his establishment?

“Madam Li gave our master a painting called Mountain Void in Autumn Colors, and he was absolutely delighted with it — next time you come to dine in the Heaven Suite, you’ll see it mounted on the wall. It truly is extraordinary, far more beautiful than what our master had hanging there before.”

“What our master had hanging there was Zhang Shuangzi’s painting of bamboo and rocks. This Madam Li is a mere woman — her painting surpassed even Zhang Shuangzi’s?” Master Ji’s face was full of skepticism.

Little Xu smiled and said, “I would not dare deceive you, sir. The moment Madam Li finished painting it right then and there, our master immediately had Zhang Shuangzi’s painting taken down!”

“Now that does interest me,” Master Ji said with a smile. “When I have a spare moment, I shall certainly visit your tavern’s Heaven Suite and see for myself what kind of painting managed to defeat Zhang Shuangzi’s bamboo and rock piece.”

“When that time comes, Little Xu will personally attend to you himself. For today, please allow Butler Xu to escort both honored guests inside.” Little Xu bowed and gestured forward, his five fingers held neatly together.

“Whatever you do, don’t seat me at the same table as Madam Fang,” Madam Ji murmured to Master Ji. “Madam Fang is excellent in every way, except for her vegetarianism. If I were her, I couldn’t get through a single day.”

“Just have a few bites — you said yourself, we’ll have a proper meal when we get home,” Master Ji soothed her.

The two of them passed through the elegant little front courtyard garden and were led by manservants and maidservants into separate reception halls.

The reception hall Madam Ji entered was set aside specifically for the lady guests. It was not only beautifully appointed, but a faint and delicate floral fragrance drifted through the air.

The moment she stepped through the door, a charming figure in a clove-purple gown stood out from the rest.

The young woman was still in the first bloom of youth, the faintest trace of girlishness still lingering on her face. Her wide-sleeved short jacket in a soft shade of lilac was at once delicate and understated. Compared to the other noble ladies in the hall, laden with gold ornaments, her accessories were remarkably simple — only a lotus-petal hairpin tucked into her thick, cloud-like married woman’s coiffure.

Because her accessories were so few, the face below — as fresh and lovely as a crabapple blossom — stood out all the more vividly.

In a single glance, Madam Ji was certain who this was.

The wife of Centurion Li had become renowned among the ladies’ circles of Xuzhou for the tale of riding home together on the same horse as her husband on the day of his triumphant return. Madam Ji had long heard her name, and now that she saw the woman in person, she suddenly understood why Centurion Li had chosen to ride alongside her at his most glorious moment.

To carry a woman of such breathtaking beauty upon one’s horse during a triumphant return — for any man, that would be the gilding of an already golden lily.

Not just Centurion Li — any man under heaven would have been willing.

Madam Li appeared to be only sixteen or seventeen years of age — not much older than Madam Ji’s own eldest daughter by birth. Though the two looked nothing alike, the same quality of innocence they shared made Madam Ji feel a warmth by association, and she found herself harboring a faint affection for this Madam Li she was meeting for the first time.

Shen Zhuxi was laughing and chatting with the table of lady guests near the entrance, and after some effort, had already successfully made herself one of them.

Before the maidservant could announce the newcomer, she had already noticed Madam Ji’s arrival.

“Madam Ji—”

Shen Zhuxi walked over with a smile and gave Madam Ji a peer-to-peer greeting bow.

Her form was precise, her bearing dignified — not even a court etiquette tutor, one of those who had fled the palace during its downfall and been hired at great expense by the Ji family, could have found fault with it.

Madam Ji was inwardly startled and instinctively returned the bow.

“How did you know I was Madam Ji?”

The moment the question left her lips, she regretted it. With her figure being what it was, the most distinctive among all the ladies, recognizing her would hardly be difficult.

Shen Zhuxi replied composedly, “I had long heard that Master Ji and Madam Ji are both great philanthropists — always wearing smiles wherever they go, never losing their tempers, never growing angry. So the moment I saw you, I guessed Madam Ji had arrived.”

Madam Ji said, half-jokingly and half-seriously, “You ought to say that to Madam Fang and her household. They are the truly great philanthropists — they abstain from meat entirely.”

Shen Zhuxi naturally would not take that thread further.

If Madam Ji had even a trace of admiration for the vegetarian Fang family, the Ji household would not be getting through quite so much fresh meat every month.

If those who abstained from meat were called great philanthropists, then what was to be said of a household like the Jis, who went through such quantities of pork, beef, and mutton?

Shen Zhuxi collected herself and, with the same careful attention she had once given to her brothers and sisters, steered gracefully around the subject.

“To hold compassion in one’s heart for birds and beasts is indeed a sign of great goodness. But it is even harder to extend that same compassion to every person around us.”

Before Madam Ji could continue on that topic, she smiled and added, “When I heard how Master Ji and Madam Ji distributed porridge to the people of the county last year, I was moved with admiration, and have been ever since. I am glad to finally have the chance to meet you in person. Were it not for your generosity, who knows how many more disaster-stricken people Pengcheng County might have had.”

Madam Ji, unaware that Shen Zhuxi had redirected the conversation, waved her hand in modest denial — yet a genuine smile had bloomed on her face. She prided herself on having a sharp eye for character; a person like Madam He, two-faced through and through, she could see through in an instant.

But Shen Zhuxi’s smile reached from her eyes all the way to the depths of her heart, and it was hard not to like her for it.

“You have come all this way from the eastern part of the city — the road must have been congested for some time?” Shen Zhuxi asked with concern.

Had anyone else posed this question, Madam Ji would not have been the least bit moved. But coming from Shen Zhuxi, who had only recently arrived in Pengcheng County, it could not help but be surprising.

To have prepared to this degree — Madam Ji felt, for the first time, a genuine sense of being made welcome.

“There was some congestion for a while,” said Madam Ji, “but we had food and drink in the carriage, so aside from nearly dozing off from all the sitting, there was nothing to complain of.”

“Then you must try my homemade flower tea,” Shen Zhuxi said with a smile. “It not only helps to sharpen the mind and banish drowsiness, it also has beauty-enhancing properties.”

There was little Madam Ji hadn’t tasted or tried in her life, and her expectations for this homemade flower tea were not particularly high. But for the sake of Madam Li herself, she smiled and said, “That sounds like just the thing.”

Shen Zhuxi personally led Madam Ji to a table near the inner part of the hall, and a maidservant standing nearby immediately stepped forward to pull out her chair.

These courtesies known only to the great households — wherever had a Madam Li, married to a commoner, learned them?

Upon entering, she had noticed Madam Li in animated conversation with Madam Zhao — a woman who thought very highly of herself, who looked down on everyone else through her nostrils simply because she could recite a few sour lines of verse and dabbled in lutes, chess, calligraphy, and painting. Before today, Madam Zhao had never deigned to associate with other ladies, yet here she was, quite out of character, chattering away without stop to someone of a far lesser station than herself.

And then there was what she had just heard upon entering — that this Madam Li had used a single painting, one that far surpassed Zhang Shuangzi’s work, to borrow the most capable attendant from the most miserly proprietor in Pengcheng County. This spoke not only to remarkable skill in painting, but to a social grace that left nothing unattended.

Such a person — talented, beautiful, and accomplished in every direction — did not look as though she came from a modest background.

And yet, they said that Centurion Li was an orphan who had once been a beggar.

Forget families of some standing — even a merchant family would hesitate at length before marrying a daughter to such a man. By any measure, a woman of Madam Li’s caliber should not have ended up with him.

If the Ji family had a son-in-law like that, the Ji name would be entirely ruined, and none of their remaining sons and daughters would be able to make a decent match.

Centurion Li had some ability, it was true. But he had no father and no mother. He was a beggar — an origin even lower than that of a hereditary musician. Not only was he ineligible to sit for the imperial examinations, he had never even attended school, and until recently had been idle and without any proper means of living.

Could it be… that these two had eloped?