The main hall was packed to the rafters.

More than a dozen people were crowded around the square table, while another dozen more crouched or stood wherever they could find space. Li Que moved through the room wearing a broad smile, serving tea and calling everyone “older brother” or “older sister,” coaxing smiles and laughter from the shopkeepers all around.

Outside the man-height wicker gate, having been evicted from the main hall, Li Kun stood before the ox carts with a roast chicken in one hand and a steamed bun in the other, clicking his tongue in undisguised amazement:

“Well, I’ll be…”

Shen Zhuxi hunched her shoulders and stood before Li Wu, whose face had turned an unflattering shade.

“What’s on this cart?” Li Wu asked.

Shen Zhuxi glanced at the ox cart he was pointing at and made out the contours hidden beneath the dust-proof floral cloth.

“I think that’s… a table and chair set, a bookcase, a short daybed, and a new bed.”

“A few pieces of wooden furniture — so why did old man Liu quote me five hundred and eighty taels of silver?”

“It might… it might be because they’re made of huali wood…”

“And what’s on this one?” Li Wu pointed to the second ox cart.

Shen Zhuxi glanced at it from the corner of her eye and said uncertainly, “That might be… a screen panel?”

“Just one screen panel — why does old man Chen want four hundred taels from me?!”

“It’s cut from a solid slab of marble… naturally it costs a bit more…”

Li Wu’s expression darkened further as he yanked the floral cloth off one cart after another.

“What did you buy this for?” He held up an item.

“I noticed the house doesn’t have a single lamp, so…”

“In the daytime there’s sunlight, at night there’s moonlight. If that’s still not enough, I’ll knock ten more windows into the walls for you. And even if you absolutely must have a lamp — did it have to be one with a gold base?” Li Wu held up the gold-footed cloud-pattern lamp she had so carefully selected, grumbling without pause. “All glittering gold and gleaming bright — just asking to attract thieves, it is. Where do you plan to put it? Don’t you feel it would be a crying shame for a lamp like this to end up in our home?”

“…It would be a bit of a shame, yes. That’s why I also ordered a lampshade at the cloth shop — in gossamer silk. It’s a bit expensive,” Shen Zhuxi’s voice grew smaller and smaller, “but it lets the light through beautifully and the pattern is lovely too…”

Li Wu’s expression had reached the outer limits of dark — approaching the color of the kitchen’s soot pile, accumulated over who knew how many generations.

“And what is this?” Li Wu yanked something gold and gleaming from the cart, nearly sputtering on his own breath. “You—”

Shen Zhuxi looked — and her blood ran cold. She had clearly told the shopkeeper she didn’t want it. How had the Guanyin Who Grants Children still ended up in the delivery?!

Seeing Li Wu’s chest heave rapidly with barely-contained fury, too incensed to get out a single word, she worried the Guanyin might claim him before she could explain. She rushed to say, “The shopkeeper gave this to me as a complimentary gift — I told them I didn’t want it — the thing I actually bought is the altar table underneath. Even without using it for worship, it would look lovely with a potted plant or a flower arrangement on top.”

“Fine, fine —” Li Wu strode to the next ox cart. “And what’s on this one? All of your clothes for the rest of your life?”

“That’s a terrible thing to say!” Shen Zhuxi said in alarm. “This is only my wardrobe for the current season!”

“Then what’s with all those shoes underneath?” Li Wu said. “Are you going to be working the fields, or are you some millipede spirit incarnate? Can you even wear this many?”

“I can, I can…” Shen Zhuxi muttered under her breath. “You can’t expect me to wear every outfit with the same pair of shoes…”

Li Wu went down the line, asking about the contents of every cart. Shen Zhuxi’s gaze gradually drifted and finally settled on the old ox standing in front of her.

The old ox watched her with copper-bell eyes, flicking its tail to swat away the flies and gnats buzzing around it. How blissful it was — when it didn’t want to hear something, one swish of that tail and it was done. Shen Zhuxi desperately wished she had a tail like that, something to swish and send the insufferable Li Wu flying away.

“And this?” Li Wu stared at the last cart piled high with white sheets in disbelief. “Are you opening a private school?”

Shen Zhuxi darted a glance at the cart. Her ears went faintly red. She gave Li Wu a quiet answer, but he hadn’t heard, and frowned. “What did you say? You’re actually opening a school?”

“It’s toilet paper!” Shen Zhuxi said, flushed, raising her voice. “I refuse to use a dry scraping stick ever again!”

“You’re going to wipe yourself with paper?” Li Wu’s eyes went wide, as if he had just heard the most unbelievable thing in the world. “Are you out of your mind? Even the county magistrate still uses a scraping stick — and you want to wipe yourself with writing paper?”

“Why do you have to say it like that — why can’t you just call it toilet paper instead of that other word?!” Shen Zhuxi’s face grew redder.

“No. The paper goes back.” Li Wu said through gritted teeth. “There are perfectly good scraping sticks — why won’t you use them? It’s not as if you’re the Empress in the imperial palace!”

“No. The paper stays.” Seeing his absolute resolve, Shen Zhuxi threw aside all dignity and said, on the verge of tears, “My rear hurts! The skin is rubbed raw! Even if you kill me, I’m not using a scraping stick ever again!”

Shen Zhuxi flung herself across the cart of toilet paper, arms spread wide, shielding her lifeline.

With tears in her eyes, she declared, “I cannot live without toilet paper. If you send it back, you might as well send me along with it!”

Li Wu stood unmoving, his deep gaze fixed on her. “Do you know what I’m thinking right now?”

“…What?” Shen Zhuxi said, choked up, her almond-shaped eyes shimmering with tears.

“I’m thinking about knocking a skylight through the top of your head.” Li Wu said through clenched teeth.

Li Wu had Li Que call all the shopkeepers outside and began renegotiating the order list.

“These pieces of furniture — take them back. I don’t want huali wood. Bring me something in decent ordinary hardwood instead. Old man Liu, if I catch you sneaking lesser timber in there, don’t blame me when I pay a visit to your home.”

“Who the blazes brought that Guanyin Who Grants Children?! Get it out of here! Don’t try to fob your rubbish off on me. Without that Guanyin, give me a new quote on the altar table alone — and if you’ve inflated the price, I’ll send you to meet the Buddha in person!”

As Li Wu redistributed everything, the shopkeepers’ faces fell one by one into expressions of dismay. One who couldn’t let it go tried to speak up, but Li Wu speared him with a glare. “I haven’t even gotten around to taking issue with you people for taking advantage of my woman — what’s the matter? See a fat lamb and lose all sense of direction? Forgotten which household this fat lamb came from?”

The aggrieved shopkeeper quietly lowered his head.

After Li Wu had finished his tirade, he finally turned to the carts from the Jin Yin Lou clothing shop and the He Liu Tang medicinal shop.

“These clothes and shoes — you pick out half of them yourself. The rest goes back.” Li Wu turned to look at Shen Zhuxi, who had been gazing longingly at the carts.

Shen Zhuxi walked forward reluctantly, looking at the garments piled on the cart, completely unable to bring herself to let anything go.

Keep only seven or eight outfits — how could that possibly be enough? Shen Zhuxi was devastated. She threw a resentful look at Li Wu standing nearby. Li Wu stood there with an impassive expression, utterly unmoved.

Li Wu the duck! Li Wu the duck! He was going to be the death of her!

With tears threatening, she surrendered half of her new clothes and shoes. Then came the He Liu Tang cart, stacked high with toilet paper.

Shen Zhuxi stood before the cartload of toilet paper. The thought of having to scrape herself with a dry stick again sent tears streaming freely down her face.

Mother, why did you leave your child behind to suffer alone in this world?

“Alright, alright… keep half the cart. Take the rest back.” Li Wu pinched the bridge of his nose, looking thoroughly exasperated.

The He Liu Tang proprietor’s face immediately brightened. He answered with a resounding acknowledgement. The other shopkeepers, suffering the indignity of returned goods, watched him with undisguised envy.

The moment she heard those words, Shen Zhuxi’s tears stopped.

As long as the toilet paper remained, hope remained.

Then came the matter of settling accounts.

Li Wu walked into the main hall with a dark expression, and emerged a short while later with the same dark expression. The shopkeepers lined up before him one by one to collect their payments.

“Boss Li, wishing you prosperity — please come again.” The He Liu Tang proprietor beamed so wide his old face nearly split in two. He reached out and pinched at the ingot of silver, infant-fist-sized, in Li Wu’s hand. He tugged — it didn’t move. Tugged again — still no movement. “Boss Li, would you… let go?”

The He Liu Tang proprietor summoned his strength for one more pull and finally wrenched the silver ingot from Li Wu’s iron grip. Many of the other shopkeepers cast looks of pure envy and admiration at the beaming He Liu Tang proprietor.

The ox carts departed one after another. Shen Zhuxi and Li Wu stood side by side watching them go, each lost in their own thoughts, yet wearing the same expression — full of longing. One longing for the silver that had left his hands, the other for the goods she had lost.

Li Wu clasped his hands behind his back and turned to look at Shen Zhuxi.

“I kept your toilet paper. Kept plenty of other things too.” His gaze was unreadable. “If you pull a disappearing act on me again without a word…”

“I won’t run, I won’t run,” Shen Zhuxi shook her head quickly. “Absolutely not running.”

“The gossamer silk at the cloth shop hasn’t been refunded yet. Come with me tomorrow to cancel the order.”

Without waiting for her reply, Li Wu turned and walked back through the courtyard gate.

He went to the kitchen and dug out a small clay jar from beneath the pile of firewood in the corner. This jar held silver he had scraped together during the chaos of the capital’s fall — opportunistic earnings from the turmoil. It had once been completely full. Now only a few scraps of broken silver remained.

As he stared into the empty jar and pondered the nature of existence, Li Que’s voice came from behind him.

“Big Brother is really going to keep all of that?”

“…Never mind. Money spent can always be earned back.” Li Wu said. “This troublesome woman was picked up just to bring disaster upon me — no fate for riches, yet she carries herself like a princess nonetheless.”

Li Que smiled. “I think Big Brother seems quite happy to be having disaster brought upon him.”

“…Are you asking for a beating?” Li Wu shot him a look sharp enough to draw blood.

Li Que offered consolation: “Big Brother, why not look on the bright side — the year we three brothers first swore brotherhood, Big Brother told me that one day you would accomplish great things and marry a princess. Is this not that wish fulfilled?”

“You really are asking for a beating —”

Li Wu grabbed the fire poker and got to his feet. Li Que bolted out of the kitchen at top speed.

“Big Brother has had a long day — your little brother will take his leave first! I’ll be back on the day of the wedding to offer my congratulations!”

Li Wu lingered in the kitchen for a while, then made his way to the bamboo curtain outside the bedroom.

“Shen Zhuxi.”

No sound came from within. He was accustomed to this. He lifted the bamboo curtain and stepped inside. Sure enough, that foolish woman was lying on the bed, crying quietly to herself.

Li Wu sighed and sat down at the foot of the bed. Shen Zhuxi turned over, pressing her back to his line of sight.

“I haven’t even cried, so what are you crying about?” Li Wu said.

“What do you have to cry about.”

“I’m about to take home a princess who sleeps on a golden bed and sits on a golden throne — and you think I’m not entitled to tears?”

Shen Zhuxi broke into a laugh through her tears. “I never asked for a golden bed or golden throne.”

“And should I be thanking you for that?” Li Wu said. “Get up. Look at me when you talk.”

“I don’t want to get up.” Shen Zhuxi said stubbornly.

“Get up.” Li Wu took hold of her arm and pulled her upright from the bed with no effort at all.

He studied her face, though she still refused to look at him. Those clear, dark almond-shaped eyes had been washed by tears, and the long lashes still clung to glistening droplets — every time she blinked, the teardrops shimmered, stirring the heart. She looked just as she had the first time he’d seen her, trapped behind the bookcase, eyes full of tears, staring at him in frightened desperation, as though he were her only anchor in the world. As though without him, she could not survive it.

Now he understood it completely — this foolish woman, without him, truly could not survive in this harsh world.

How had she lived before this? How had she gone through life without a single trace of the world’s grime touching her?

“Everything you want, I’ll give you,” Li Wu said. “Just not right now.”

Shen Zhuxi slowly raised her head, her voice thick. “Then when?”

In truth, Shen Zhuxi no longer wanted those things quite so desperately. Even the finest goods couldn’t compare to what she’d had in the palace. What had hurt her was the feeling that Li Wu had dismissed her, gone back on his word, made her lose face before all those shopkeepers.

But thinking on it now — she had only been looking at materials and styles without once asking the price, buying far too much. The person paying her accounts was no longer Fu Xuanmiao. It was the most ordinary commoner in the world. How could she expect a commoner to satisfy a princess’s wishes?

And moreover — though Li Wu hadn’t been able to give her everything she wanted, he had given her things she had never had before.

Being comforted by someone when she cried — Shen Zhuxi had never once imagined such a thing. So it turned out that when someone coaxed you through your sadness, the anger and hurt dissolved this easily.

“Not long from now,” Li Wu said, his voice carrying no trace of doubt. “Everything others have, you’ll have too. Do you trust me?”

Shen Zhuxi looked into his eyes — the most spirited, most forceful eyes she had ever seen. How could such eyes exist on a mere commoner?

He might achieve modest success, but what then? Whatever he accomplished would mean nothing compared to her father, her brothers, or even Fu Xuanmiao. However hard he strove, his origins would always be the ceiling of his life. What she truly wanted, he could never give her.

And yet Shen Zhuxi nodded, and couldn’t help smiling.

“…I trust you.”

“And also…” Li Wu began, then stopped.

“Also what?” Shen Zhuxi asked, her eyes widening in curiosity.

“Also — don’t hide away and cry alone. If something is wrong, tell me. If I can fix it, I’ll fix it. If I can’t, I’ll find a way to fix it.”

Shen Zhuxi was taken aback, and found herself asking without thinking, “Why?”

He cupped his palm gently over her tear-damp eyes, plunging her vision into darkness. Her eyelids felt warm where his hand rested, and Li Wu’s helpless voice came close.

“…What an absolute fool.”