The next day, after having lunch at home, Shen Zhuxi boarded a carriage to meet up with Sui Rui and Jiu Niang, who lived on the other side of Xiangyang City.

After the Battle of Xiangyang, Shen Zhuxi’s carriage had become like a moving beacon within the city — wherever it went, it drew the attention of the crowd. It was for this very reason that she planned to switch to the Sui family’s carriage at Sui’s Chicken Shop before leaving the city, so as not to attract attention and invite unnecessary complications.

The incense-offering trip had been Jiu Niang’s idea, yet the one most excited about it was Sui Rui, who had never gone to offer incense with female friends before.

When Shen Zhuxi climbed into Sui Rui’s carriage, she was so stunned by Sui Rui’s exceedingly thorough preparations that she was left speechless.

The necessities — a warming brazier and hot tea — went without saying, but inside the carriage, which appeared plain yet concealed a world within, there was also a set of playing cards, a large bag of melon seeds, two roasted chickens glistening with fat — and even pillows and light quilts, three sets of each!

Shen Zhuxi carefully found a small empty space to sit in amid the stuffed compartment, and said with a helpless laugh: “Are you planning to spend several days up on the mountain?”

“Better safe than sorry — and it’s so cold up the mountain. If you two can’t bear it, you can always wrap yourselves in the quilts!” Sui Rui said enthusiastically.

“Wrapped in quilts to offer incense?” Jiu Niang curled her lips in disdain. “This lady wouldn’t dare.”

Sui Rui gave Jiu Niang, who was clearly dressed with great care, a suspicious look. “The way you’re dressed doesn’t look like someone going to offer incense — more like someone going to meet a suitor. Dressed so scantily, you’ll freeze to death on the mountain.”

Shen Zhuxi also studied Jiu Niang with quiet curiosity.

Her fragrant, powdered and painted complexion, the figure-hugging short jacket deliberately cinched to define her waist — no matter how one looked at it, she did not appear to be going up the mountain to pay respects to the Buddha.

“Even if it freezes me to death, I still won’t wrap myself in a quilt to offer incense,” Jiu Niang said, rolling her eyes.

“Be honest with me — has something come up?” Sui Rui leaned in toward Jiu Niang with nosy curiosity. Jiu Niang let out a startled “oh” and dodged away; just from her expression, it was impossible to tell whether she wanted to say something or not.

Jiu Niang’s coy expression only made Sui Rui press harder with questions. Jiu Niang deflected left and right, unwilling to say anything clearly, while Shen Zhuxi watched the two of them squabble and playfully chimed in from time to time. Before she knew it, the carriage had already passed through Xiangyang’s city gates.

“Madam, the carriage is about to go up the mountain — it may be a bit bumpy,” Red Lotus’s voice called from outside.

Shen Zhuxi quickly called the two bickering big children to attention and reminded them to sit properly so they wouldn’t fall.

“Have you both thought about what you want to pray for?” Sui Rui had barely closed her mouth before she couldn’t resist opening it again.

“What do you want to pray for?” Jiu Niang shot back.

“I want to pray for a live-in son-in-law!” Sui Rui immediately lit up with excitement — clearly she had made up her mind long ago. “He just needs to be good-looking, ideally a bit tall with a good temper — a beggar would do, a scholar would do, I can support him!”

“I truly envy you, born into such a good family — you don’t have to consider anything beyond appearances.” Jiu Niang said sourly. “Unlike me. The tavern earns some money, but it’s only enough for me to live lavishly on my own. If I wanted to build a family as well, I alone could never manage it.”

“If you were a little more frugal, couldn’t you easily support a man?” Sui Rui said. “You just want everything at once — where in this world is there such a good deal?”

“Isn’t there one right in front of us?” Jiu Niang immediately countered. “Hasn’t our famous Xiangzhou Madam married a husband who has character, looks, and status all in one?”

“How did the conversation come around to me…” Shen Zhuxi’s face flushed red.

“Exactly!” Sui Rui gave Jiu Niang a light push. “Stop using Little Zhu as a shield. You still haven’t explained yourself — who are you dressed up like that for?”

“Who else could it be for? For the eyes of whoever’s looking at me.” Jiu Niang leaned against Shen Zhuxi and deliberately squeezed her voice into a coy tone. “Does Xiangzhou Madam have any suitable men to introduce to this lady? If a good match is made, I’ll burn incense for you at home every single day…”

“Since you know I am Xiangzhou Madam, you still dare to tease me?” Shen Zhuxi said with a straight face. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll have you hauled into the yamen and given fifty lashes?”

“This lady is terrified to death —”

The three of them burst out laughing in unison.

Shen Zhuxi felt a deep warmth stir in her heart. On impulse, she reached out and took one hand of each of them, one on either side.

“No matter what happens in the future, no matter what station in life we each become — let us always remain, just as we are today, sisters with no walls between us.” Shen Zhuxi said sincerely.

“Of course — why would you even say such a thing?” Sui Rui said without a moment’s hesitation.

“This lady doesn’t have the boldness of the Sui Family’s heiress. Our Xiangzhou Madam may well become the wife of a military governor one day — and when that happens, this lady will be the first to bow to you in reverence…”

Though Jiu Niang said these words, there was not the slightest trace of submission in her expression. She even cast a coy glance at Shen Zhuxi, watching her with a smile that was not quite a smile.

Shen Zhuxi was deeply moved. Had revealing her true identity not been likely to bring trouble upon the two of them, she truly would have wanted to confess every secret to her friends.

In the midst of this conflicted feeling, the carriage slowly came to a stop.

“Madam, we have arrived at Anxi Temple,” Red Lotus said.

Shen Zhuxi and Jiu Niang stepped down one after the other using the carriage step. When it was Sui Rui’s turn, she ignored the step entirely and jumped down nimbly.

“The temple — where is it? Where?” Sui Rui looked around in all directions.

The carriage had stopped at the foot of a magnificent flight of stone steps. Wide and long, the grey stone stairs rose one after another like waves of a grey sea reaching for the sky, rolling endlessly up toward the summit and the clear air above.

Beneath the vast blue heavens, a section of brick-red eaves peeked out between earth and sky. In the crisp, cold air of the mountain forest, the faint scent of sandalwood drifted here and there.

“The carriage can only go this far. We still have to climb the mountain path on foot,” said Shen Zhuxi, who had come here several times before.

Sui Rui stared at the seemingly endless stone steps winding steeply upward not far away, knitted her brows tight, and let out a loud click of her tongue.

“All right, let’s go.” Jiu Niang adjusted the short jacket draped over her chest and took the first step forward.

Sui Rui stared at her graceful figure, her gaze settling particularly on Jiu Niang’s swaying hips, and said with a thoroughly bewildered expression: “This place is the middle of nowhere, and besides us there are only monks — who exactly is she swaying for?”

Shen Zhuxi grabbed the still-muttering Sui Rui and hurried after Jiu Niang, who had already started climbing.

On her previous visits to Anxi Temple, she had come to discuss relief efforts for disaster victims, and the abbot had opened the back gate to allow her up through the rear mountain. Now, as an ordinary worshipper, she could only follow the path all other visitors took — the front mountain and the main temple gates.

Climbing the front mountain of Anxi Temple for the first time, Shen Zhuxi felt at ease in the beginning, but by the halfway point she was gasping for breath, her face covered in a fine sheen of sweat.

Sui Rui remained full of energy throughout. Jiu Niang, who had started out fastest, gradually ran out of steam just like Shen Zhuxi, slowing more and more with each step.

Among the four women, the one who moved with the most ease was Red Lotus, who was also the oldest. She followed behind the three of them at an unhurried pace, as though on level ground, her expression perfectly composed.

When the mellow toll of Anxi Temple’s bell rang out over the verdant, layered mountains, Shen Zhuxi finally climbed the last stone step.

The ancient temple — plain and dignified — appeared before her eyes. A young novice monk, his bamboo basket filled with medicinal herbs, walked with his back to them, hopping along into a side entrance of the temple. In the air hung a rich fragrance of sandalwood, which mysteriously soothed the rapid beating of her heart.

“Whose idea was it to build up here? With that many steps, how many people could possibly climb them? Weren’t the people who built this temple worried no one would come to offer incense, and the monks and the Buddha would starve together?” Sui Rui said off-handedly.

“That mouth of yours — you can talk nonsense anywhere else, but you still dare to here? Anxi Temple is a great temple renowned across the nine provinces — how could the temple ever worry about incense donations?” Jiu Niang said urgently, still not quite caught her breath. “Buddha, please don’t take offense, please don’t take offense — consider it as if she passed wind, and forgive her this once…”

Sui Rui pursed her lips and cast a cautious, appraising look at the Buddhist temple before her.

“Is this your first time visiting a temple?” Shen Zhuxi asked curiously.

“The shop is so busy, and my father is too reluctant to hire more hands. I’m occupied with roasting chickens all day — when would I ever have time to come to a temple to offer incense?” Sui Rui said.

“Whenever you want to come out in the future, just send me word.” Shen Zhuxi took her hand and said, “I’ll come to your home to fetch you. Your father certainly won’t say a word.”

Sui Rui immediately said: “Of course he won’t! The Magistrate’s wife willing to associate with a chicken-seller like us — he’d be thanking his lucky stars before he could say anything.”

After the group stepped through Anxi Temple’s solemn main gate, a young monk of eleven or twelve immediately appeared, pressed his palms together in a bow, and said: “Honored guests, you have traveled far — you must be weary. Would you like this monk to lead you to a quiet side room to rest?”

Shen Zhuxi and Jiu Niang immediately nodded. Sui Rui, who had intended to go straight in to offer incense, saw them nodding and nodded as well.

The young monk led Shen Zhuxi and the others toward the side rooms.

Arriving at the door of a side room, the young monk pushed it open and invited them in. The room was clean and simply furnished.

“After the honored guests have offered their incense, would you like to stay for a vegetarian meal?”

Sui Rui immediately said: “Yes, yes, yes!”

Jiu Niang looked toward Shen Zhuxi.

Shen Zhuxi said: “The vegetarian fare at Anxi Temple is renowned far and wide — please do trouble yourself, little monk.”

The young monk recited a Buddhist invocation, bowed his head, and walked out of the room.

“I’ve heard the food here is wonderful — I absolutely must try it. Perhaps I can even improve my recipe and use it for my roasted chicken!” Sui Rui said excitedly.

The two friends fell to discussing Anxi Temple’s vegetarian food, and Shen Zhuxi’s thoughts also turned to it — though what she was thinking about was whether to ask the little monks to pack several portions for her to take home when she went back down the mountain.

She had heard that Li Wu was serving Bai Rongling braised pork day after day, as revenge for the drugging incident that had occurred before. After Shen Zhuxi had felt too sorry for him and put a stop to it, Bai Rongling had still suffered from an upset stomach for several more days. Bringing back this light and delicate vegetarian food would give him something new to taste, and would also help soothe his stomach after so many days of rich, greasy food.

Only — she mustn’t let Li Wu know.

Otherwise she would have to face the impossible question of “Is your cousin more important, or is your husband more important?”

The bell tolled once more.

Shen Zhuxi pushed open the wooden window and gazed out at the deep temple eaves in the distance, drawing in her mind a picture of a monk striking the bell. The open, clean grounds of the temple lifted the spirit, and the sound of her two friends chatting behind her was a comfort. She leaned against the window frame with her chin in her hand and watched a brown sparrow hopping along a bare branch in the courtyard.

Suddenly, the sparrow spread its wings and flew up, circling twice in the clear air before sweeping past the deep eaves and disappearing.

“What are you looking at?” Sui Rui’s voice came from behind her. “Come over here — we’re discussing what vegetarian dishes to order!”

Shen Zhuxi answered and stepped away from the window toward Sui Rui and Jiu Niang.

The brown sparrow flapped its wings, flying over the curling threads of incense rising from the censer, gliding across the boundless blue sky, passing over the unbroken cascade of stone steps, and diving headlong into the dense mountain forest.

At the foot of the mountain, a low-key yet quietly imposing convoy of tall carriages had come to a stop. Elegantly dressed maidservants filed out one by one and took up their practiced positions on either side of the middle carriage.

“Young Master, we have arrived.” Yanhuí jumped down from the driver’s seat and opened both doors of the carriage.

All eyes turned to the middle carriage.

After a brief silence, a pale blue figure slowly descended from the carriage, the cold wind gently stirring his cloud-like sleeves.

The newcomer stood straight-backed, his wide sleeves hanging low, his dark eyes calm and still as a deep, frozen mountain pool. He wore not a single piece of jade on his person, yet he himself was already the most dazzling piece of flawless jade.

He reached out to help Fang Shi down from the carriage. Fang Shi’s movements halted for a moment as she stepped down, her expression one of barely concealed suffering.

“Mother, we have arrived at Anxi Temple,” Fu Xuanmiao said. His composed voice was like a cold underground river. “Mother’s eyes are not well. These one thousand and fifteen steps — allow your son to carry you up.”

“There is no need. Ning Yu will help me up.” Fang Shi said coolly.

When Fang Shi’s words fell, the surrounding air went utterly still.

The dozen or more servants stood motionless, not one of them stirring.

“Ning Yu?” Fang Shi’s voice, tinged now with anger, trembled slightly. “Ning Yu?!”

“Mother,” Fu Xuanmiao said softly, “Allow your son to carry you up.”

Fang Shi stared unblinking in Fu Xuanmiao’s direction, her body trembling faintly in the sharp winter wind.

The sparrow on the branch hopped away once more and was gone, leaving only a solitary, silent branch standing watch.

Two overlapping shadows appeared on the empty stone steps.

Fu Xuanmiao carried Fang Shi on his back and made his way up, step by step, toward Anxi Temple at the mountain’s summit.

“You are steeped in sin, yet you still dare set foot in this sacred ground of the Buddha?” Fang Shi said.

Her dimmed eyes held the faint glimmer of tears, and at the corner of her mouth was a bitter smile of contempt and mockery.

“Mother jests,” Fu Xuanmiao said.

“Jest? In your eyes, are the lives of those born lowly nothing more than blades of grass?”

Fu Xuanmiao curved the corners of his lips and let out a soft laugh.

“What are you laughing at?” Fang Shi’s expression twisted slightly as she struggled to suppress her anger.

Step by step.

Fu Xuanmiao carried Fang Shi on his back, his footsteps steady and unhurried, walking toward the place where the mountain temple bell rang out through the cold air.

The towering outline of the temple had become visible, its deep eaves curving up into the clear, washed winter sky. From the distance, the elusive fragrance of sandalwood drifted over.

“The reason your son said you were jesting, Mother, is because —”

Fu Xuanmiao spoke softly, a faint and imperceptible smile in his voice:

“There are no gods or Buddhas in this world.”