The following day, the evening banquet took place as agreed, at the largest pleasure house in Xiangzhou.

Tian Shujiong had reserved the pleasure house’s grandest private room to entertain Li Wu.

Men of standing and influence all enjoyed gathering here for entertainment and amusement — not necessarily to consort with courtesans, for the pleasure house did indeed gather many performers of exceptional skill, offering spectacular performances that could not be found elsewhere.

For Li Wu, the reason he had always declined invitations to drink and dine at pleasure houses was not that he looked down on such establishments — it was simply that he—

“Ha…” He stared with vacant eyes at the songstress who was performing a mournful, melancholy aria, and let out a loud, resonant yawn.

This songstress was said to be one of the top performers here. It cost a thousand gold to hear her sing a single song.

If that was the case, then this yawn of his was also worth a thousand gold.

He could not understand how anyone would willingly spend a thousand taels to listen to her drone on up on that stage. If money were so easy to make, he could stop doing all that exhausting, backbreaking work and just put on a wig, sit up there himself, and make a few sounds — surely people would come and hand him money?

Seated beside him, Tian Shujiong noticed this resonant yawn and immediately called out: “Stop singing! Even your father would be sung to death at this rate — the new year is almost here, could you not switch to something more festive?”

Having risen to become the top performer, her skills were undoubtedly exceptional. Beyond that, she was currently the most sought-after name at the pleasure house. Accustomed to hearing constant praise and flattery, this was the first time she had ever heard someone say she was singing her own father to death.

The songstress’s eyes immediately reddened, and she took on an expression of tearful distress.

“Enough, enough — who’s going to say I bullied you if you leave — step down!” Tian Shujiong waved her off impatiently.

After the songstress withdrew, another troupe of performers entered the private room and began to play. A group of foreign dancing women in gauzy, sheer clothing, with voluptuous figures, filed in one by one and broke into a provocative dance.

Li Wu’s gaze was fixed intently on one of the dancing women. Tian Shujiong seized the opening to start a conversation: “Xiangzhou is truly a place of outstanding people and beautiful scenery — even the women of the pleasure house are rather exceptional. I’ve heard that Elder Brother Li has traveled across the land and been to many places — which region’s women does Elder Brother find most to his liking?”

“My wife suits me best,” Li Wu said without hesitation.

Then why are you staring at another woman?

What a two-faced man!

Tian Shujiong felt it was his obligation to tear off this mask. He beckoned to the full-figured dancing woman Li Wu had been unable to take his eyes off, calling her to his side.

“I see that Elder Brother Li is looking so intently — why don’t I just give her to you?”

As soon as Tian Shujiong’s words landed, the dancing woman startled, then broke into great joy.

Li Wu’s face, meanwhile, lit up with delight: “You’ll truly give her to me?”

“Naturally!” Tian Shujiong waved a magnanimous hand, feigning composure. “With the Tian clan’s financial resources, this is hardly anything worth—”

Before he could finish, Li Wu reached out and plucked the gold cicada pendant from around the dancing woman’s neck.

Li Wu turned the pendant over in his hands with evident pleasure — it was as large as a ripe green date, heavy and solid, and crafted in the lifelike form of a cicada. From the moment the dancing woman had come on stage, his gaze had been drawn to this remarkably lifelike gold cicada. Something this size — what would it fetch?

“Little Rat Brother is far too generous,” Li Wu said, stuffing the gold cicada into his breast pocket and giving Tian Shujiong’s back a hearty slap. “Worthy of the fat — worthy of being—”

Tian Shujiong narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

“Truly extraordinary man!” Li Wu said.

“Since Elder Brother Li has taken the gold cicada, why not accept the beauty together? A gold cicada paired with a beauty — would that not make a wonderful tale?”

“How thoughtful of Little Rat Brother,” Li Wu said. “The thing is, I already have people for cooking, cleaning, and sweeping the gate at home. What I’m short of is someone to pass the paper in the privy — I wonder if this…”

Li Wu glanced at the dancing woman. She had already dropped to her knees on the floor, face white as a sheet, trembling uncontrollably.

“What are you kneeling for? It’s not as if you won’t be paid your monthly wages!” Li Wu turned to look at Tian Shujiong. “Isn’t that right, Little Rat Brother? You’ll pay her wages, won’t you?”

“…Since the young lady is unwilling, let us not force her. You may go.” Tian Shujiong waved his hand. The dancing woman fled back to the stage as if she had been pardoned.

“Such a pity.” Li Wu watched the direction in which the dancing woman had retreated with an expression of genuine regret. “My wife likes these sorts of things. If someone were to perform while she was using the privy, she would surely be delighted.”

Tian Shujiong: “…”

Could anyone possibly be delighted by that?

He cleared his throat and said: “Elder Brother Li and your wife are deeply devoted to one another — truly…”

“Devoted to what?” Li Wu cut him off, frowning.

“Your affection is very deep,” Tian Shujiong said. “It really makes one envious.”

“Being envious won’t do you any good,” Li Wu said, adopting a guarded look. “She has already married me.”

“Elder Brother Li misunderstands — I only meant to say…” Tian Shujiong simply gave up and changed direction entirely. “Juwbao, bring up the fine wine I’ve prepared!”

The twin boys standing behind Tian Shujiong gave a bow and walked briskly out of the private room.

“Those two boys of yours are quite an unusual sight,” Li Wu said, watching their retreating figures. His gaze landed on the twins’ hands, which were perpetually clasped together.

“Elder Brother Li must be wondering why they always hold hands,” Tian Shujiong said, cutting to the heart of it with practiced ease. “In truth, they were born with a disability — their palms were fused together at birth, and so they were abandoned by their own parents early on. When I found them at the broker’s, they were already five years old. The physician said that to forcibly separate them at that age would, in all likelihood, leave each of them with one ruined hand.”

Tian Shujiong glanced at the retreating figures of the two twin boys and said:

“I figured — since either way they’d each end up losing the use of one hand, why not just leave it as it is? I do love collecting rarities. For someone to serve at my side, how could they not be a little unusual to match my own worth? By the way—” Tian Shujiong said suddenly. “I heard that Elder Brother Li and his two brothers are inseparable — why don’t I see them today?”

“Someone has gone missing in the city. I sent them to investigate,” Li Wu said.

“Ah, that explains why the patrols on the streets increased overnight,” Tian Shujiong said, seemingly enlightened, and appeared to harbor no suspicion.

While the two were speaking, the twins returned. On the dark-colored tray they carried sat a midnight-blue wine jar, its glaze smooth and brilliant, almost mirror-like. As they drew near, Li Wu caught a faint, elusive waft of wine fragrance.

“What wine is this?” he found himself asking.

“This is Lingxiao Wine — one of the tribute wines from the south of the Yangtze. In former years, only nobility within the palace had the chance to taste it.” Tian Shujiong said with satisfaction. “I heard that Elder Brother Li has a love for fine wine, so I specifically had someone procure a jar from the black market. It is perfect for enlivening the occasion tonight!”

Tian Shujiong personally filled the cups before them both. He raised his and said: “Elder Brother Li, I drink this toast to you — the rise of my Tian clan rests entirely in your hands!”

Tian Shujiong tilted his head back and drained his cup. While he did, Li Wu quietly tipped his own wine into the sleeve of his robe, soaking into the cotton handkerchief he had prepared there in advance.

The rich, alluring fragrance of the wine drifted in through his nose. Li Wu swallowed back the saliva in his mouth and silently vowed to himself — once he had captured this plump duck, he would get his hands on ten or twenty jars of this and drink to his heart’s content.

Seeing him set down an empty cup, Tian Shujiong called out cheerfully: “Don’t just drink — eat, eat!”

Li Wu picked up a glossy, oil-sheen piece of braised pork belly from the dishes before him and placed it in his mouth.

“To be honest with you, the reason I haven’t married to this day is precisely that I fear taking home a woman whose face I’ve never seen and having her cause me grief. I’d like to know — how did Elder Brother Li and your honored wife come to meet? Was it also a matter of your parents’ orders and the matchmaker’s word?” Tian Shujiong said.

Li Wu appeared to deliberate, then said after a pause: “Now that you mention it, it does seem we were arranged.”

“Arranged by whom?” Tian Shujiong asked in astonishment.

“Arranged by fate.”

Tian Shujiong: “…Waiter, pour Elder Brother Li another cup.”

After several rounds of wine, the cotton cloth in Li Wu’s sleeve grew heavier and heavier. Though his lips had barely touched the wine, his body was gradually growing warm.

Li Wu sensed something was wrong. Affecting nonchalance, he rose from his seat to take his leave. But the moment he stood, both his legs suddenly gave way beneath him.

Before he could react, he had already collapsed to the ground.

Danger! The alarm bells rang out furiously in Li Wu’s mind.

“Surprised, aren’t you! The wine had nothing in it — it was the food!” Tian Shujiong looked at Li Wu sprawled on the ground and said with overbearing smugness. “This gentleman is no easy adversary. Did you think good fortune just falls out of the sky? And you dared call me ‘Little Rat Brother’? By family rank, you ought to call me cousin-in-law!”

“Where the hell would I get a cousin—” Li Wu’s words cut off mid-sentence as a flash of understanding struck him. “You’re my wife’s cousin?!”

“Ptui, ptui, ptui! This gentleman has no desire to be your cousin-in-law! No matter what underhanded scheme you used to spirit away the young lady of my Bai clan, this gentleman will make you spit out every last bit of it!” Bai Rongling gave a sweeping wave of his hand, and immediately two burly men burst out from behind the door and heaved Li Wu up between them.

The twin boys came running over and nimbly plugged Li Wu’s mouth.

“Mmph mmph mmph mmph mmph mmph mmph mmph?!”

“Carry him into the room next door—” Bai Rongling swept his gaze over the assembled dancing women and singled out the most voluptuous one. “You, go attend to him. Draw on every last bit of skill you have, and make sure it’s as loud as possible.”

“But this is the Prefect, sir — this servant is afraid…” the dancing woman said, her expression fearful.

“What kind of prefect? Nothing but an upstart peasant relying on borrowed power! Take this money and go to Yangzhou — a life of wealth and luxury, to say nothing of whatever trouble comes — my Bai clan will protect you!” Bai Rongling yanked the bulging purse from his waist and flung it over.

The dancing woman unwrapped it and looked inside. The gleaming golden light muddled her reason.

After the dazed dancing woman and the burly men carrying Li Wu had departed, the twin boys spoke up: “Young master, will this truly work?”

“Of course it will. The women of my Bai clan are the most jealous of all — my aunt is the best example of this. And her daughter could hardly be any different!” Bai Rongling said with great certainty. “I’ve already had someone send a message to the Li household. The moment my cousin hears that her husband has come to a pleasure house, she will certainly be unable to stop herself from coming to see for herself. When she hears with her own ears her husband and another woman behind closed doors — I don’t believe my cousin will still be able to endure it!”

At that point he would step forward and reveal his true identity, and with earnest, patient persuasion convince her to come home with him. His cousin would surely resent him for a time, but she would eventually understand — a man like this was not worth entrusting her life to!

Once he brought the Princess of Yue back to Yangzhou — the same one everyone believed had long since perished — his father would surely look at him with entirely new eyes! As for whether to tell the Fu clan of this matter, that was a worry best left to the elders!

Bai Rongling brimmed with confidence, as if he could already see himself making his father finally regard him with esteem, and holding his head high among his crowd of outstanding cousins.

The excitement went to his head a little — in order to deceive others into dropping their guard over the food, he had toasted so many cups that he had gotten himself half-drunk in the process.

“I’ll go out and get some air — you two stay here and watch the door. Don’t let them come out from next door,” Bai Rongling said.

He planned to step outside to clear his head, and incidentally check whether his cousin had arrived yet. The drug he had put into the food was no ordinary, commonplace thing — Li Wu would be fighting for the entire night. His cousin certainly would not stand outside listening from beginning to end. In his vision of events, his cousin would fling open the door and rush out, weeping bitterly.

That was when his moment to appear would come.

Come to think of it — he too had a hand of fate in this. Had fate not arranged it so, he would not have discovered the clue to his cousin’s whereabouts before everyone else, and tracked her all the way here.

Bai Rongling walked out of the pleasure house’s main hall in high spirits. The moment he stepped through the door, a heavy blow landed on the back of his head.

He had not even made a sound before Bai Rongling crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

A pair of large hands caught his body, and he was promptly dragged into the dark shadows along the wall.

“No one saw?” Li Que opened a burlap sack and asked.

“No one, no one,” Li Kun said. “Diao’er’s hands are quick.”

The two stuffed Bai Rongling into the sack. Li Que tied it shut with a rope, and Li Kun slung the sack over his back.

“Elder brother really is clever — he got this ‘Tian’ fellow out here alone without anyone even noticing,” Li Que said admiringly.

“Wait for big brother?” Li Kun said gruffly.

Li Que shook his head: “Elder brother will make his own way out. Let’s proceed as planned.”

Two figures and one burlap sack disappeared without a sound into the shadows beneath the wall.

Not long after Li Que and Li Kun had left through the pleasure house’s rear gate with the sack, a furtive figure appeared at the pleasure house’s main entrance — ablaze with lanterns and festive decorations.

Shen Zhuxi stood in the alley, her heart pounding wildly, filled with anxious uncertainty as her gaze swept repeatedly toward the pleasure house, from which a continuous stream of warbling voices and laughter drifted out.

Ti Niang stood behind her and hesitated: “Madam, do you want to go in?”

“No, I won’t go in…” Shen Zhuxi said without thinking.

How could she go in? She was a respectable woman — how could she enter a pleasure house? And beyond that, if she went in now to catch him, would that not humiliate Li Wu completely?

“Why do men all have such a fondness for pleasure houses?” Shen Zhuxi said with a downcast expression.

Even the Emperor, when he was still Crown Prince, had often disguised himself in common clothes to attend gatherings at pleasure houses.

The gentlemen of the capital — anyone with a name worth knowing — would routinely hold their gatherings and discussions at pleasure houses. Sometimes it was simply to appreciate music and dance, but no one could say for certain whether, in the end, things might progress to appreciating something else entirely — in bed.

She had heard it constantly in the palace and out — so-and-so had given such-and-such a beauty as a gift. In the eyes of powerful men, beauties were like gold and silver: all of them gifts to present to others.

Would Li Wu accept gifts offered by others?

Shen Zhuxi’s heart burned like fire, yet her feet remained planted firmly to the ground.

She did not dare go and see with her own eyes. She did not dare indulge the hope that Li Wu, having risen high in the world, would still be devoted only to her.

She could only trust him — a willful, self-blinding kind of trust, covering her own eyes. Until the fire burned through the paper, she would blindly trust him.

Because she had made a promise to him.

Shen Zhuxi’s eyes grew damp. She did not want to imagine the worst, yet she had seen too many terrible endings. Some things, from the very beginning, were nothing more than wishful thinking.

She closed her eyes, then suddenly turned around: “Let’s go.”

Ti Niang said in surprise: “We’re not going in?”

Madam had rushed here white-faced, and it was all just to look at the front gate?

Ti Niang had barely moved to follow when a figure came stumbling out from behind her, crashing into her shoulder.

Someone already drunk and rampaging when the moon hadn’t even come out yet?

She was about to open her mouth to give the person a piece of her mind, but when she saw who stood before her, she shut it at once.

A burning hot hand seized Shen Zhuxi’s wrist. She spun around in fright, and met a pair of glistening dark eyes, bright and blazing as if fire were roaring behind them.

She stared at him, wide-eyed in disbelief.

“Li Wu…”

Inside the pleasure house, a dancing woman with a voluptuous figure had just come to her senses. Before she could register the pain at the back of her neck, what she noticed first was the open window, the purse on the ground that had been brimming with gold and now lay completely empty, and the golden hairpins and jeweled earrings that had been scattered dazzlingly across the dressing table — all of them now gone without a trace.

The dancing woman’s eyes rolled back, and she fainted once more.