After days of careful planning, Li Wu personally led three thousand five hundred soldiers and launched an uprising in Yangzhou under the banner of purging the threat to the throne.

The Bai Family of Yangzhou had taken root across three generations in the Jiangnan region, their hidden family influence spreading through the waterways of the south in a dense and tangled network. Combined with Li Wu’s use of troops — swift and unconventional — it took only a single night. When dawn broke, the banners flying atop Yangzhou’s city gates had changed. The soaring azure phoenix wheeled and circled in a blaze of golden light.

As agreed, Bai Yougang, in his capacity as the maternal grandfather of the Princess of Yue, personally presided over her wedding to Li Wu.

Because the situation was extraordinary — Yangzhou had only just been wrested back from the Fu Family soldiers — Bai Yougang feared that malicious intruders might infiltrate the wedding banquet, and so no invitations were sent out broadly. Only those families with close ties to the Bai Family were invited, with the number of guests strictly controlled.

On the day of the wedding, the whole of Yangzhou was draped in lanterns and festive decorations. The Bai Family had porridge stalls set up outside every Bai Family money-house — lotus seed and longan porridge, for rich and poor alike. Anyone who offered a word of blessing for the couple could receive a bowl of thick, fragrant porridge.

As night began to fall, the wedding procession moved with drums and gongs along the great road between Yangzhou’s southern and northern gates, scattering small, elegant pouches filled with wedding sweets and copper coins along the way. Many children followed joyfully behind the procession, laughing as they scrambled to pick them up.

Li Wu rode atop a tall, magnificent horse adorned with a great red flower, tugging uncomfortably at the collar of his wedding robe — tailored so precisely that not a single thread of give remained — and called out to the lead ceremonial attendant walking ahead of him: “Can we move any faster? At this pace, the moon will be up before we’re done!”

“Please, my lord, there’s no need to rush!” the ceremonial attendant called back, waving her red embroidered handkerchief. “The time for fetching the bride, the time for the bowing ceremony, the time for entering the bridal chamber — all of it has its proper ritual — too fast won’t do, too late won’t do either! My lord, please be patient and take it slowly!”

Li Kun, riding on horseback behind Li Wu, stopped craning his neck to look around and nudged Dong Miji, who was riding nearby, lowering his voice to consult him. “The bridal chamber… what is that? A room with a hole? Does it have a hole?”

“It’s a room in a cave,” Li Kun said with complete gravity, keeping his own voice down. “You sleep together in a cave. That is a bridal chamber.”

“So we are going… to a cave… now?”

“We are going to the pig’s home, Big Brother and the pig sleep together,” said Li Kun. “The pig is clean and does not want to sleep in a cave.”

Dong Miji nodded with the air of one who half-understood.

“Stop talking — stop it, and smile! Smile now!” The ceremonial attendant noticed Li Kun and Dong Miji whispering at the back and waved her red handkerchief at them. “The bigger the smile the better — today is a joyous day!”

Li Kun and Dong Miji quickly did their utmost to pull the corners of their mouths upward, producing a strained, lopsided expression that veered toward the comical.

Taking advantage of the ceremonial attendant looking the other way, Li Wu quietly squeezed his legs against his horse’s flanks, and the steed picked up its pace.

“Ah, my lord, slow down, slow! Did we not say that the auspicious time cannot be too fast or too slow?”

Li Wu clasped both hands behind his back, sat up straight with his chest out, and declared with complete self-assurance: “It’s the one walking — what does that have to do with me? You may speak to it directly!”

The wedding procession was loud and lively with bickering all the way there; the Bai Family waiting to receive the groom was no quieter.

The old nanny of the Bai Family was about to perform the facial hair removal ritual on the bride. Bai Laofuren, who had been through this herself, was worried that Shen Zhuxi might not be able to bear the pain, and kept one hand on her shoulder, comforting her gently.

“If it hurts in a moment, you must bear the urge to cry. If your face gets wet, the ritual cannot be completed — do you understand?”

Shen Zhuxi nodded tightly, her nerves on edge.

“But if you truly cannot hold out, it doesn’t matter,” Bai Laofuren said, her face warm with a tender, nostalgic smile. “The day your mother was escorted into the palace, the nanny performing the ritual had to start three times before she finished… your mother cried easily from childhood, the tiniest thing could bring on her tears.”

By the end, Bai Laofuren’s expression had turned wistful and sorrowful. To redirect the mood, Shen Zhuxi immediately turned to the nanny and said, “I’m ready — please begin.”

“Your Highness, brace yourself…”

The nanny, knowing the identity and standing of the person before her, made the movements gentler by a hundredfold compared to usual.

Shen Zhuxi had braced herself fully, only to find the pain no more than the sting of a small ant’s bite. Her expression relaxed almost at once, and she even had the composure to give the anxious Bai Laofuren a slight lift of the corners of her mouth and a reassuring look. “Grandmother, do not worry — this does not hurt at all, not compared to…”

She had been on the verge of listing a great many experiences that had caused her a hundred times more pain: the insides of her thighs rubbed raw from horseback riding, her ten fingers left bloodied and blurred from drawing her bow continuously during the defense of the city… was there a single one that had not hurt a hundred times more than this?

But looking at the worried face of Bai Laofuren, and at Bai Yougang listening intently from one side, not a single word would come out.

“…Not compared to scraping a knee — this is much gentler than that,” said Shen Zhuxi with a smile.

Bai Laofuren exhaled in relief and said with a laugh, “At your age, do be careful when you walk. It’s fine for now — but later, when you’re carrying a child, if you’re still this careless and reckless, what is to be done?”

Shen Zhuxi lowered her head in shy embarrassment.

“What is there to it? Have someone watch over her,” Bai Yougang said with a dismissive huff. “My Bai Yougang’s only granddaughter — even if she falls, there must be someone there to cushion her!”

“You…” Bai Laofuren shook her head at him with an affectionate, helpless smile.

After an incense stick’s worth of time, the nanny withdrew. The most auspicious woman chosen from all the families the Bai Family knew in Yangzhou — carefully selected from the most — stepped forward with a newly made golden comb.

The selection of the auspicious woman was itself a matter of great care: she had to be a person of complete fortune, meaning all six kin present and children plentiful — only then could she be considered truly auspicious. Shen Zhuxi and Li Wu’s first marriage had taken place in Yutou town — simple and bare in every respect, the barest of bowing ceremonies, and in a daze she had become Lady Li. Now, for the second time, the Bai Family had thought of everything: whatever others had at their weddings, Shen Zhuxi had it too; whatever others lacked, Shen Zhuxi had it still.

“One stroke of the comb to the end; two strokes to white-haired brows in harmony; three strokes to children and grandchildren filling the hall; four strokes until four silver shoots stand in full splendor…”

The auspicious woman, her face wreathed in joy, drew the golden comb carefully through Shen Zhuxi’s full head of jet-black hair. Bai Laofuren watched from one side with a face full of warm contentment; Bai Yougang sat with eyes brimming with tears.

“Today is such a happy day — Patriarch, please don’t cry…” Bai Laofuren gave Bai Yougang’s arm a gentle nudge, her voice soft and low.

“I am not crying!” Bai Yougang declared with a stern expression, flatly denying it for the umpteenth time — though his eyes, unhelpfully, gleamed with tears that paid no heed to their master’s wishes.

Who could have imagined that Bai Yougang, the patriarch who believed in shedding blood and sweat but never tears, was privately more given to weeping than a young child?

Bai Laofuren, at a complete loss, could only press the already-damp handkerchief in her hand once more against the corners of Bai Yougang’s eyes.

“Nine strokes in the pattern of nine sons forming a linked circle, with all things present; ten strokes that husband and wife may grow old together to white hair…”

All ten strokes completed, the auspicious woman withdrew. The red veil was placed upon a sandalwood tray and brought before Shen Zhuxi.

Only at this moment did Shen Zhuxi truly feel the reality of becoming a bride.

Tears welled up unbidden, and she looked through blurred eyes at Bai Laofuren, whose eyes were equally red, and at Bai Yougang, who had already begun wiping his own eyes.

“Maternal grandfather, maternal grandmother…” Shen Zhuxi said, her throat tight.

“On such a joyous day, don’t cry. Before you go to bow at the altar, there is still one more thing to be done.” Bai Laofuren smiled through her tears. “Patriarch, please go out and look after the guests first…”

Bai Yougang seemed to know what she was about to do. For once, he did not argue — which was rare for him — and instead rose obediently and walked out.

The puzzlement in Shen Zhuxi’s eyes gave way to quiet understanding and shy bashfulness the moment she saw what Bai Laofuren had produced.

Seeing that the room held no one else besides herself and Bai Laofuren, she said quietly, “Zhuxi already knows of such things…”

“Every bride goes through this — even if you already know, this step cannot be skipped,” Bai Laofuren said warmly. “Knowing a little more is never a bad thing. If you wish to conceive quickly, you must remember this in particular…”

Bai Laofuren leaned close and murmured something into Shen Zhuxi’s ear.

Shen Zhuxi’s shock outweighed her embarrassment.

“Raise the lower body and keep what was given inside?”

Bai Laofuren nodded with a gentle smile.

“And if one does not keep it inside — what happens?” Shen Zhuxi asked.

“Then one cannot conceive, foolish child!” said Bai Laofuren.

Shen Zhuxi: “?”

She sensed that something was not quite right.

“But if one does not… like in the picture,” — she rapidly tapped a fingertip against one of the poses illustrated in the booklet, her face flushing scarlet — “if nothing is placed inside, nothing mingles…”

Bai Laofuren misread her meaning and said earnestly and patiently, “Once or twice is one thing — but Your Highness cannot do so every single time. You and Li Wu both need a child… not only to deepen the bond between you as husband and wife, but to carry on the bloodline of both your families.”

Was there anything left that was unclear?

So what she had assumed was the act of sharing a bed was not the act of sharing a bed at all! After all this time, all those moments with Li Wu, those things they had done… there was not the slightest chance of conceiving!

Shen Zhuxi was overcome equally by embarrassment and the urge to laugh; her face had turned thoroughly red.

“All right, Your Highness need not feel awkward — when your mother at the time…”

Bai Laofuren again could not help but bring up her long-gone daughter. Before the words were finished, she recalled her daughter’s end, and her expression clouded.

Shen Zhuxi pretended not to notice, and assumed the demeanor of a bashful young woman, taking Bai Laofuren’s hand and saying a great many playful, lighthearted things.

Finally, the sound of a servant’s announcement came from outside the door — Li Wu and the others had already entered the Bai Family gate.

Full of nervous anticipation and shy fluttering, Shen Zhuxi lowered her head and allowed the maidservants to drape over her a silk veil adorned throughout with pearls and gold and jade. Supported by her attendants on either side, she walked slowly out the door.

Because of Li Wu’s particular circumstances — no parents and no residence of his own in Yangzhou — the wedding ceremony could not take place at his home. Bai Yougang had no thought of using this to press Li Wu into submission, and Li Wu had no thought that Bai Yougang was hinting he should become a son-in-law who lived in his wife’s family home. Two candid-minded men put their heads together briefly and decided to hold the ceremony at the Bai Family home.

For Bai Yougang, this could show outsiders his son-in-law’s respect and deference — a welcome outcome.

For Li Wu, every last expense of the wedding was being covered by his wife’s immensely wealthy extended family — an arrangement he could not have wished for more.

Both parties came away satisfied, and Bai Yougang found this son-in-law of modest origins somewhat less disagreeable than before. On the eve of the wedding, the two had even slipped away from the others in the rear garden and shared a private drinking session together, each returning home bracing himself against a wall.

Not long after Shen Zhuxi had been escorted to the bridal chamber, the Bai Family’s wedding banquet formally began.

The Bai Family was alive with joy, the guests reveling without restraint.

A voice calling out “the ceremony is complete” — and a burst of boisterous, delighted cheering — floated out from behind the firmly closed gates of the Bai Family.

The Bai Family blazed with light, the lanterns hanging outside the gate swaying gently. Above the city towers hung a sky of stars as brilliant as a river of light, reflecting over a Yangzhou that glowed with festive joy tonight. No one could know what turbulence the future would bring.