Addressed as “sister-in-law” without any warning, Shen Zhuxi’s face burned immediately.

“We’re not married yet — don’t go calling her that,” Li Wu said.

“Understood.” Li Que smiled and waved the lotus-leaf parcel in his hand at Shen Zhuxi. “Little Sister Shen, you’re up just in time — I brought taro cakes.”

Since she hadn’t yet washed or combed her hair, appearing before three grown men like this was a bit embarrassing. Shen Zhuxi dropped her gaze and gave a vague nod, not quite meeting anyone’s eyes, then hurried off to the back courtyard to wash up.

After washing, Shen Zhuxi looked at her reflection in the water vat and gathered her jet-black hair into a simple bundle. Then she returned to the main hall.

The three brothers had already taken their seats. The lotus-leaf parcel had been unwrapped, and even from a distance, Shen Zhuxi caught the rich, fragrant scent of taro. She sat down on the one remaining long bench, and Li Wu slid the lotus-leaf parcel toward her. “Here.”

With Li Diao’er and Li Que present, Shen Zhuxi felt somewhat restrained, and said quietly, “Thank you.”

Li Wu knitted his brow and gave her a look. “Did you wake up stupid?”

Shen Zhuxi very much wanted to tell him he was talking nonsense again, but with the other two present, she forced a smile and said, “Propriety must be observed.”

“I’ve got goosebumps,” Li Wu said, lifting his head to address the two brothers at the table. “You two can head back.”

“After we eat the cakes,” Li Diao’er mumbled through a mouthful.

Li Que put down his taro cake and said, “What about building the room?”

So they were here to build the privy and bathroom for her!

The moment Shen Zhuxi heard it, she couldn’t hold back. “Build it, of course!”

“Not today,” Li Wu said.

Shen Zhuxi asked, “Then when?”

“When the goosebumps go away, then we build.”

Shen Zhuxi nearly choked on her own breath, glaring at him furiously. Seeing this, Li Wu not only showed no irritation — he broke into a grin, his dark, bright eyes full of lively spirit, like sunlight bathing the morning.

“That’s more like it — you look alive like this,” he said. He nudged the taro cake toward her mouth with her own hand. “Eat up. Everything you asked for, not a single thing will be left out.”

Shen Zhuxi took an indignant bite of the taro cake — then forgot to be angry.

The distinctive fragrance of taro spread through her mouth, paired with the crispy, crumbling layers of pastry. A single bite was impossible to forget.

She said in surprise, “How is the filling made? It’s not greasy in the slightest!”

Li Que smiled. “That’s the signature dish of Ding’s Pastry Shop — I don’t know the exact recipe either. If Little Sister Shen wants to learn, I can go ask Ding Sanniang for her secret recipe sometime.”

Shen Zhuxi heard this and hesitated.

“Never mind — since it’s someone else’s trade secret…”

“What does it matter?” Li Wu said. “You can’t even boil water — even if you learn someone else’s secret, will you suddenly know how to make pastry?”

Whenever Li Wu opened his mouth, Shen Zhuxi found it impossible not to retort:

“As long as I’m willing to learn, I can learn anything.”

Li Wu shot her a sideways glance, his eyes openly mocking. “Come back and say that once you’ve learned to light a fire.”

Li Que stepped in as peacemaker, cutting off their bickering.

“Brother, I hear you’ve been studying the Thousand Character Classic lately — how is it going?”

“Simple. Nothing I can’t handle,” Li Wu said. “Read more, write more, and it sticks. Those scholars in town — there’s nothing so impressive about them.”

“Once you’ve finished the Thousand Character Classic, what do you plan to study next? The Analects?”

“Not that,” Li Wu said, frowning. He turned to look at Shen Zhuxi. “What do we study next? I’m not sitting the imperial examinations — I’m not learning any of that pedantic nonsense.”

“Ha,” Shen Zhuxi offered with a polite upward curl of both corners of her mouth. “Come back and tell me that once you can copy the Thousand Character Classic without making a single mistake.”

Li Diao’er crammed the remaining half of his taro cake into his mouth in a few bites, cheeks puffed out, and spoke through the mouthful: “What are you two going on about? I can’t understand a word.”

His childlike gaze wandered from Li Wu to Shen Zhuxi, then back. His five thick, solid fingers picked up the last taro cake in the lotus-leaf parcel, and he said:

“Love each other. No fighting.”

“We’re not fighting. Eat your cake,” Li Wu said, his voice gentling.

Shen Zhuxi found the taro cakes delicious, but after half a piece she couldn’t eat any more. Li Wu, as naturally as ever, ate her remaining half — not even discarding the part she had bitten from — and swallowed it all in one go.

Shen Zhuxi had been about to say something, but thought better of it. He was so completely unbothered that pointing it out would only make her seem like she minded far too much.

Not long after breakfast, Shen Zhuxi was in the courtyard recopying the Thousand Character Classic when the rumbling of cart wheels came from outside the fence, growing closer. As it drew near, she could also hear the labored breathing of men.

The cart wheels stopped outside Li family’s wooden gate. Someone knocked and called from outside, “Li Wu, the goods have been delivered — come out and have a look.”

Shen Zhuxi was nearest to the gate. She went and opened it. The man outside caught a glimpse of her and started slightly, then said, “Everything’s been brought — you’ll have to figure out how to get it inside.”

Shen Zhuxi looked past him. Four dark-skinned men who were clearly laborers stood before an ox cart, on which were stacked dense layers of burlap sacks. Atop the sacks lay four thick, long timber planks. With so much cargo loaded onto a single cart, one only had to look at how deeply the wheels had sunk into the ground to know how heavy it all was.

The sacks were manageable, but as for those timber planks — taller than Li Wu himself — Shen Zhuxi had absolutely no idea how to get them through the gate.

Fortunately, Li Que emerged from the main hall, where he had been wiping things clean. He stood at the doorway, took one look, and without the slightest sign of concern, turned his head casually and called out:

“Second Brother!”

The figure dozing on Li Wu’s reed mat didn’t stir in the slightest, as though he hadn’t heard a thing.

“Second Brother!” Li Que called again. “Big Brother said if you move all this, he’ll make braised offal for you at noon!”

The figure that had been still as a corpse suddenly came to life like a carp flipping out of water, springing up with startling agility. Li Diao’er rushed toward the doorway, asking over and over, “Really? Really, no tricking me? Big Brother is really making braised offal?”

Li Que said, “Move the goods and you’ll find out.”

Li Diao’er asked no more questions. He walked to the ox cart and looked the cargo up and down, apparently deciding where to begin.

Shen Zhuxi was watching, about to ask if he needed help, when she saw Li Diao’er wrap both arms around the four thick timber planks, sink his energy to his core, and with a single low, powerful shout, lifted all seven or eight planks clean off the cart at once!

Li Diao’er’s face turned crimson. Earthworm-like veins bulged across his forehead; the tendons on the backs of his hands stood out in sharp relief. He bent his knees slightly and let out another shout, heaving the massive timbers higher still — up onto his shoulder.

Li Diao’er held his crouching posture, bending at the waist, as though preparing to take on something else.

Li Que said, “Brothers, help put the sacks on his back.”

The scene before her was utterly beyond Shen Zhuxi’s comprehension. Afraid such a mountainous weight might crush Li Diao’er’s bones, and forgetting all propriety, she cried out: “No! That will break his bones!”

The four men who had been about to move stopped. Li Que looked directly at Li Diao’er. “Second Brother, what do you say?”

“Add them quickly,” Li Diao’er muttered. “I want to eat my braised offal sooner.”

Li Que looked at the four men by the ox cart. “Go ahead.”

The four men moved swiftly, loading sacks onto Li Diao’er’s back one by one. With each additional sack, his large feet in their black cloth shoes sank a little deeper into the ground. And yet he kept calling out: “One more.”

Even after he was carrying four thick timber planks and three burlap sacks trailing dust with every shift, Li Diao’er was still saying, “One more.”

Li Que said, “No more room — another sack and nothing will stay balanced.”

Only then did Li Diao’er relent. He bore a load Shen Zhuxi could no longer fathom the weight of, and moved step by heavy step — each footfall like a thunderclap — steadily through the wooden gate toward the back courtyard.

Shen Zhuxi stood there dumbstruck, unable to believe such raw strength existed in the world.

“How can he possibly…”

Without realizing it, she had spoken her thought aloud. Li Que was entirely unsurprised by her reaction. “Born that way. His old dream was to pass the military examination for the rank of top martial graduate.”

This astonished Shen Zhuxi even more. Her expression turned to one of unmistakable surprise, and before she could speak, Li Que had already answered.

“He wasn’t born simple-minded.”

He said no more after that, clearly unwilling to elaborate.

Shen Zhuxi took the cue, quietly swallowed her questions, and asked nothing further.

The three Li brothers — each one, it seemed, was anything but ordinary.

Li Diao’er made three trips before the ox cart was entirely cleared. The four men took their leave with the cart, and Li Que saw them off with a cheerful smile, addressing them as “big brothers” with each breath, charming them into a fine mood and telling them to say the word if anything else was needed.

After the four men departed, Shen Zhuxi followed Li Que back into the courtyard. Li Que said, “Little Sister Shen, Second Brother and I will be imposing on your space for the next few days. There will likely be some noise from the construction in the back — if it disturbs your reading, please bear with us.”

Shen Zhuxi’s face flushed. “I have no books to read — do as you please and don’t mind me at all.”

“Can’t ignore you,” Li Que said with a teasing smile. “If I disturb Little Sister Shen, Big Brother won’t let it go.”

Shen Zhuxi was about to reply when Li Wu walked out from the back courtyard, hands smeared with mud. He looked none too pleased at the sight of Li Que standing before Shen Zhuxi and said:

“Second Brother’s already plastering walls — what are you standing around for?”

“Coming right now.” Li Que smiled at Shen Zhuxi and went toward the back courtyard.

Li Wu walked up to Shen Zhuxi, glanced at the half-copied Thousand Character Classic under the osmanthus tree, and said, “I won’t be practicing writing today. If we push hard, we can get the room built by tonight.”

Shen Zhuxi was eager for the privy and bathroom to be finished as soon as possible. With consideration she said, “Go, go. It’s only one tea-session’s worth of work anyway — I can write it again tomorrow and it’s just the same.”

“What did he just say to you?” Li Wu suddenly asked.

Shen Zhuxi was taken aback.

“Li Que—” Li Wu’s eyes showed displeasure. “What was he saying to you? Why were you being all coy and bashful?”

Shen Zhuxi’s eyes went wide. “I was not being coy and bashful!”

“Good thing you weren’t,” Li Wu said, fixing her with a warning look. “Don’t go making eyes at other men.”

Shen Zhuxi: “…”

When had she been making eyes at anyone?

This person must have a peculiar ailment — one that compelled him to talk nonsense every single day. If his mouth didn’t produce it, his heart couldn’t rest.

Shen Zhuxi couldn’t be bothered to lower herself to his level. She turned and went back to the bedroom for a nap.

Lying in bed, she could still faintly hear the exchange between Li Wu and Li Que drifting in through the bedroom window:

“…I don’t need your help.”

“Big Brother, kick lighter — I still have work to do later!”

Drifting in and out, Shen Zhuxi fell asleep.

At noon, Li Wu came to call her for lunch. Still half-dazed, Shen Zhuxi fell back into memories of the palace, where every meal was attended by servants. Instinctively, she reached out her hand, waiting for Yu Sha to help her up.

Nothing happened for a long while. She opened her half-drowsing eyes to find Li Wu standing at the bedside, wearing an expression of absolute speechlessness.

“Your Highness,” he said, “the dream is over. Come out and eat your steamed buns.”