“The prefect of Jinzhou is hosting a grand banquet for the imperial envoy at his residence. By the looks of it…”

Li Wu listened to Li Que’s words, his expression grave. His hand had not yet touched the bamboo gate when it swung open from the inside.

A feather duster came smacking down across his face, the feathers brushing over his nose and eyes — both itchy and poking.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Li Wu jumped back.

Shen Zhuxi looked at him, flustered. “I was patting the dust off you…”

“Is this how you pat dust off someone?” Li Wu snatched the feather duster from her.

“…Then how should one do it?”

“Like this…” Li Wu gave her a couple of light pats, then tossed the feather duster to Li Que behind him. “A feather duster is not for hitting people!”

“But the shopkeeper at the general goods store told me quite clearly that a feather duster can be used to pat away the dust a person brings in from outdoors, and also to dust furniture — I even bought two of them especially!” Shen Zhuxi said.

“Do I look like I’ve been digging coal? Where do I have that much dust to pat off?” Li Wu said, creasing his brow. “Did you buy everything I asked you to?”

“I did!” Shen Zhuxi said cheerfully.

She led Li Wu inside and showed him the fruits of her half-day’s efforts.

“I bought garlic shoots, pork, taro cakes… washing powder, handkerchiefs, and feather dusters.”

“And the salt?”

“…”

Li Wu sighed.

Li Que immediately said, “Big brother, I was just going into town to pick up some cold dishes to go with our wine — I can bring back the salt as well. Second brother, come with me.”

Li Kun made straight for the kitchen without turning his head. “I’m not going. Where are my taro cakes? Where are my taro cakes?”

“Come with me and I’ll buy you double-filled taro cakes.”

Before Li Que had even finished speaking, Li Kun had already spun around and come racing back.

“You’d better keep your word!”

“When have I ever not kept my word?”

“You never keep your word…”

“Then why do you still believe me?”

“Because I’m your second brother and I have to believe you…”

The voices of the two brothers faded into the distance.

Shen Zhuxi was still feeling embarrassed about forgetting the salt, when Li Wu looked around at the bright, orderly main hall and ran a hand across the surface of the table, which was gleaming like a mirror.

“You cleaned the room?”

Shen Zhuxi brightened up again. “Not bad, is it?”

Li Wu gave a low “mm” in his throat.

“I’m not going to eat and sleep here for nothing. Until I find a way to earn my keep, I’ll be responsible for keeping the house clean.” Shen Zhuxi’s cheeks flushed slightly, and she said in a small voice: “Even though I’m not very good at washing clothes or cooking yet, I learn quickly. I…”

Li Wu cut her off. “Eating and sleeping here for nothing is fine too.”

“What?” Shen Zhuxi asked before she could stop herself.

“Living in a time of chaos — don’t be so rigid.” Li Wu said. “Besides, I let you eat and sleep here for nothing, and you won’t hear of it — are you saying you look down on me?”

Shen Zhuxi was taken aback. “I do not look down on you!”

“Yes you do,” Li Wu said.

“I don’t!” Shen Zhuxi was almost in tears.

“You do. You married me, and providing for your food and shelter is nothing more than what I’m supposed to do. If you turn around and try to offer me money, that’s looking down on me.”

“Then who is supposed to do the household chores?”

“Someone will do them,” Li Wu said. “I didn’t bring you home to make you suffer.”

Shen Zhuxi was still trying to make sense of that when Li Wu had already stepped out of the main hall and walked toward the kitchen.

She followed him, and found Li Wu standing in the kitchen doorway, staring fixedly at the vegetables she had propped up in the clay jar.

“…What is this?”

“The vegetables I bought!” Shen Zhuxi said, perfectly confident. “I stood them upright in a jar of water, and look — they’re just as fresh as when I bought them!”

“…They’d be fine without all that.”

“Impossible!” Shen Zhuxi rejected the idea with complete certainty. “No plant can do without water. These vegetables are a kind of plant too — it’s the same principle. When I used to arrange flowers… when I helped the Princess of Yue arrange flowers, even the most beautiful blooms would lose their colour and go dull if you took them out of water.”

“And what would it matter if they went dull?” Li Wu asked.

“Because dull flowers aren’t pretty!”

“No matter how pretty the vegetable, once it goes into the pot, isn’t it all the same?”

“…”

Shen Zhuxi was struck speechless. He had an undeniable point.

Li Wu sighed again, and took the vegetables out of the jar one by one.

She listened to his continuous sighing and felt a deep wave of frustration. After hesitating for a moment, Shen Zhuxi said in a muffled voice: “Do you think I’m foolish?”

Li Wu neither comforted her nor denied it. He crouched before the stove and fed the split firewood into the firebox.

“Do you think yourself foolish?” he asked.

Shen Zhuxi thought about it carefully.

She certainly didn’t think herself foolish. She picked things up quickly. She wrote well. She had at least a passing acquaintance with the four arts — music, chess, calligraphy, and painting — and excelled in particular at the guqin and se, though she didn’t especially enjoy any of it. She had learned all the things a young lady of refinement was expected to learn. She had learned to read early and had read widely. In the years before she fell out of favour, the doors of the imperial library had always been open to her, and she had browsed many of the rare and precious volumes within.

She answered carefully: “I don’t think I’m foolish.”

“There’s your answer. Do you need to learn everything and do everything just to prove you’re not foolish?”

Li Wu picked up the long iron poker beside him and gave the firebox several vigorous jabs.

Sparks scattered through the air, casting their light across his handsome profile. He said, with offhand ease: “I can’t stand people who have to prove something — to themselves or to anyone else. I am who I am. I don’t need to prove it, and I certainly don’t need to prove it to anyone. The fact that you can’t wash clothes or cook doesn’t make you foolish. Those delicate hands of yours are capable of far more than laundry and cooking.”

Shen Zhuxi felt first a lift of happiness — and then immediately a sinking feeling.

Her guqin playing was passable, but she could hardly go out and perform for coins on the street. Making a living with the written word was one thing, but making a living with music would completely ruin whatever remained of her reputation as an unmarried young woman…

Li Wu had finished building the fire and stood up. “I’ve been out working all morning. My shoulders have gone stiff.”

Shen Zhuxi came back to herself and stood up with concern: “Should we ask Dr. Tang to prescribe a poultice?”

“No need — a good thumping will sort it out,” Li Wu said.

“Ah.” Shen Zhuxi went back to thinking about her means of livelihood.

“Is the thing on your neck a gourd for brains?” Li Wu said, sounding displeased. “I’ve said as much as I have, and you still can’t offer to give my shoulders a thump for me?”

“This… this isn’t appropriate…” Shen Zhuxi’s face went red in an instant.

“How is it inappropriate? There’s no one here but us, and even if someone came, we’re husband and wife — what is wrong with a wife thumping her husband’s shoulders? You won’t even do me this small favour, and yet you talk about going out to make your own living? I see it clearly now — all that talk of not wanting to eat and sleep here for nothing was just that. Talk. You were fooling me from the start. Fooling only me…”

“Bend down a little.”

Before the words were fully out of Shen Zhuxi’s mouth, Li Wu, who had been grumbling a moment before, immediately crouched down.

“Get my back too,” he said.

Shen Zhuxi glanced back toward the bamboo gate to make sure no one was watching, then lightly thumped Li Wu’s shoulders and back.

It was her first time doing anything like this for anyone. Afraid of using too much force, she kept her fist loose and her strikes gentle.

“Are you tickling me? Put some strength into it.”

“Harder.”

“Harder!”

“Are you trying to kill me?”

Shen Zhuxi said meekly: “But you told me to go harder…”

“Did I say hammer me on the back of the neck?” Li Wu said. “Clearly your aim is to knock me into the next world.”

“Where is the next world?” Shen Zhuxi asked ingenuously.

“The underworld,” Li Wu said.

Only then did she realize he was mocking her.

Without making a sound, Shen Zhuxi mouthed the words behind his head:

Tyrant. Ruffian. Foul scoundrel…

Li Wu, entirely unaware, continued giving directions from his own comfortable vantage point:

“Down a little, left a bit — ah, yes, there you go…”

Though he had already crouched down considerably, thumping his shoulders still took some effort for Shen Zhuxi. After a while, her hands were tired, yet Li Wu showed no sign of calling a stop.

“Aren’t your legs tired from crouching?” Shen Zhuxi asked. “How about…”

“Not tired at all. Keep going,” Li Wu said.

Shen Zhuxi thought to herself: she really did want to knock him into the next world just now.

Li Wu, perfectly content, kept sifting through the vegetables she had bought. “You got this many — how many days are you planning to eat?”

“Three meals a day, and it’ll be gone quickly enough.”

“Even at three meals a day, how many dishes do you eat at each meal?”

Shen Zhuxi ventured: “Six or seven dishes?”

“Even the county magistrate doesn’t eat that many dishes in a sitting. What did you used to be in the palace — a maid or a princess?” Li Wu said.

“A maid, of course…” Shen Zhuxi laughed awkwardly. “But with Li Kun and Li Que eating with us, six or seven dishes is nothing.”

“You were sent from heaven specifically to torment me…” Li Wu’s mouth was unsparing, but his hands had already started washing the pork. “What do you want for the midday meal?”

Shen Zhuxi had already prepared her answer. She replied with enthusiasm:

“Stir-fried pork with garlic shoots! Crystal pork jelly! Vinegar-braised bamboo shoots! Honey-glazed lotus root…”

Before she had even finished listing her imagined menu, Li Wu cut her off.

“Everything after the first one — I don’t know how to make any of them.”

Shen Zhuxi said quickly, “They’re simple! I know the recipes — I’ll tell you. The crystal pork jelly is just…”

“If it’s so simple, do it yourself,” Li Wu said.

“You——” Shen Zhuxi gave his back an indignant thump.

Whatever happened to bringing her home so she wouldn’t have to suffer? That hadn’t lasted long before he was already leaving it all to her!

Men really were all big liars, every last one of them!

Shen Zhuxi puffed out her cheeks and glared at him, full of grievance at the crystal pork jelly she was now not going to get. Li Wu, however, broke into a wide grin.

“There you go — that’s more like it. You even know how to hit back now.” He said: “All right, tell me — how do you make the crystal pork jelly?”

And so the two of them divided their labour: Shen Zhuxi handled the talking and directing; Li Wu handled the doing — and the talking as well.

For instance:

“Crystal pork jelly — the name sounds elaborate, but the method is simple. It’s essentially pig skin jelly. First you clean the pig skin and remove the fat. Add water to the pot, then put in spring onion, pepper, and dried tangerine peel, and bring it to a boil…”

“Go grab a few of your loquats.”

“What do you need loquats for?”

“To peel and put in the pot.”

“Dried tangerine peel is not loquat peel!”

“They’re both fruit peel. They both have a clean fragrance. If orange peel works, why can’t loquat peel? Are you looking down on loquat peel?”

And for instance:

“Once the water is boiling, put in the pig skin. Simmer over a low flame, and when the skin has softened, take it out and cut it into thin strips, then return it to the pot and cook until the liquid thickens…”

“What kind of dish is this? Is this food or are you boiling glue?”

And for instance:

“Strain the liquid through a fine cotton cloth…”

“There’s no pig skin left, it’s all glue.”

“Once it’s strained and cooled, it sets into the jelly. Then pour over aged vinegar to eat — rich but not greasy, fragrant but not heavy. It’s a simple, homely dish…”

“This is a simple homely dish? The life you led in the palace was really quite modest.”

Li Wu grumbled as he worked, but his hands never stopped moving.

Shen Zhuxi, thinking about the crystal pork jelly that awaited her at noon, didn’t mind being scolded in the least — scold away. She certainly wouldn’t have any less flesh on her bones, and at noon, she’d even have an extra piece of pork jelly to enjoy.

“Is your shoulder still bothering you? I could thump it some more, and while I do, I’ll tell you how to make the vinegar-braised bamboo shoots…”