It was the height of summer. The sun had barely tilted toward the horizon, yet the heat was already so oppressive that the slightest movement brought a body out in sweat.

The Hua Family, whose estate occupied half of Hualin Lane, was as quiet as ever. Maidservants moved through the compound with softly swaying skirts, not making a single sound. Manservants came and went about their duties, and no matter how urgent their tasks, they dared only to walk briskly — not one of them dared to run.

The Hua Family was a household of refinement and distinction, a century old in its standing. Its rules were strict, and its demands upon servants were famously exacting. Yet precisely because the Hua Family had long maintained an unblemished reputation, countless people still hoped each year to be taken into their service. Compared to those great households riddled with unsavory affairs too numerous to count, the Hua Family’s strictness was really nothing at all. What was more, servants in the Hua household actually had the opportunity to learn to read — a rare privilege, though regrettably the family did not often purchase new servants.

The sun climbed higher. The cicadas’ cries grew more insistent, somehow adding several degrees of restless heat to one’s heart.

In a courtyard to the south, Hua Zhi — the eldest daughter of the Hua Family — had grown somewhat tired from reading. She set down her book, gently rubbed her eyes, and turned to look at the maidservant fanning her. “Sitting still isn’t even that hot. Take a rest.”

The maidservant pressed her lips into a smile. “This servant is not tired.”

A maidservant who had been doing needlework off to the side quickly washed her hands, brought over a bowl of chilled mung bean soup, and watched her young mistress drink it slowly, sip by sip. Then she moved behind her and began pressing along the back of her neck.

The door curtain rustled softly. A maidservant dressed in peach-red lifted it aside as another, clothed entirely in jade green, carried in a basin of water. The two worked in tandem, helping Hua Zhi rinse her hands, then produced an array of small bottles and jars to tend to her mistress’s hands.

Her fingers were slender and delicate, the tips rounded, the knuckles almost imperceptible. Her skin was luminous and fair. One needed only to look at those hands to know this was a young lady of wealth and comfort, raised in a prominent household where her hands had never once touched coarse work.

The corners of Hua Zhi’s mouth curved ever so slightly upward. In the midst of the surrounding quiet, she asked, “Well then? Has any of you set your eye on someone?”

All four of them continued their tasks in silence.

“Ying Chun, you speak first.”

The massage paused for just a moment before resuming at its steady, moderate pressure. “This servant will follow whatever the young miss decides. Whoever you say this servant should marry, this servant will marry.”

This answer was no surprise to Hua Zhi whatsoever. “And you, Bao Xia?”

The maidservant who was massaging her fingers glanced up briefly, then bowed her head and carried on. “This servant has said she will not marry. She will serve you for the rest of her life.”

Nian Qiu, who was working on the other hand, did not even wait to be asked, nodding in agreement. “This servant’s thoughts are the same as Bao Xia’s.”

There was no need to ask the last one, Fu Dong. She was timid and obedient by nature, and had always looked to her three elder sisters for guidance.

Hua Zhi let out a quiet sigh of resignation. “Whether two people can make a life together is something only you yourselves can know. It isn’t enough for me to say someone is good — you need to look for yourselves. That will serve you far better than a life lived in discontent.”

“You are still an unmarried girl yourself, and yet you speak as though you have been through it all,” Bao Xia muttered. “Besides, this servant refuses to marry. And don’t think about leaving us behind at the Hua Family either. Wherever you go, this servant goes.”

“What is so wonderful about following me into marriage? However fine the Shen Family may be, can it compare to the Hua Family we know so well? If I had a choice, I would much prefer to stay in the Hua Family as an old spinster.”

Nian Qiu scooped a dollop of fragrant ointment and smoothed it onto the back of Hua Zhi’s hand, laughing as she did. “If Madam heard you say that, she would surely weep her heart out with you.”

She really would. The saying that women were made of water could find its fullest proof in her mother. Those tears came whenever they pleased. Her mother’s soft and delicate manner made Hua Zhi choose every word with great care whenever they spoke, for fear that a single poorly chosen phrase might strike right at her mother’s heart, leaving Hua Zhi to spend a long while consoling her afterward.

That was precisely why she had never once expressed even the slightest reluctance about the matter of marriage. She would never get past her mother.

“If you wish to follow me to the Shen Family, that is fine — but only those of you who have found yourselves a match. If you come along as my dowry maidservants, what will you do should my future husband take a liking to one of you? Would you truly go along with it, half-willingly, and become my sister in the household?”

All four of them immediately stilled their hands and knelt before Hua Zhi in a row. Ying Chun, the most composed among them, spoke on behalf of her sisters to lay out their resolve.

“These servants would sooner die than harbor such thoughts. Only — all these years, it has been just the few of us attending to you. If we were all to marry and go off to live our own small lives, you would arrive at the Shen Family without a single person to talk to. You say that when you marry, you will take us with you, but these servants do not trust themselves. Once we are married and have children of our own, this servant fears every last bit of our strength would be poured into our own families. How could we still serve you with wholehearted devotion? We have all decided — when you wed, we will dress as married women, so that everyone in the Shen household will know from the start that we have no such intentions. Surely they will not be short of people without us. We ask that the young miss grant us this.”

“And regardless of whether you agree or not, that is what we will do,” Bao Xia said, her eyes reddening. They had entered the household when they were only four or five years old, understanding nothing, speaking only the dialect of their home villages. It had been their young mistress who brought them to her side, gave them their names, taught them to read and do sums, and guided them in how to conduct themselves in the world. What maidservants anywhere had fortune as good as theirs? They would give their lives for their mistress without a moment’s hesitation. Leaving her was utterly out of the question.

“The Shen Family is not some dragon’s den or tiger’s lair…” Hua Zhi stopped short. “Bao Xia, go outside and see what has happened.”

Bao Xia rose to her feet and hurried out. Hua Zhi called after her, “Do not let anyone see you.”

“Yes.”

The broken, intermittent sounds drifting in from outside unsettled something in Hua Zhi’s heart. The Hua household was a place accustomed to silence. In a great family like theirs, anything out of the ordinary was not necessarily a good sign.

Seeing that the three remained kneeling, Hua Zhi gestured for them to rise, and walked herself toward the doorway.

She had not yet reached it before Bao Xia came running back in — truly running — so breathless was she that Ying Chun swallowed the reproach that had already formed on her tongue.

“Young miss, there are officers — so many officers have come…”

Hua Zhi’s heart sank. With her grandfather holding the rank of Senior Second Grade, what common officers would ever dare set foot in the Hua household? This must mean…

Listening to the commotion outside, Hua Zhi made her decision without hesitation.

“Bao Xia, keep watch at the gate — do not show yourself. Ying Chun, take out half of my banknotes and bring all of the gold bars. Leave the visible things untouched. Nian Qiu, Fu Dong — the two of you move that chest aside, lift the bricks, and put everything in. Be quick.”

“Yes.” The three of them had hearts pounding wildly in their chests, but seeing their young mistress so composed, they steadied themselves as well, each attending to her task.

Hua Zhi felt a surge of relief that even having lived one life before this one, she had never let go of her vigilance. Long ago she had fashioned a hidden compartment in the most inconspicuous spot she could find. It was not large — just enough to hold some gold and silver — but once the bricks were set back in place, no one looking from the outside could tell that even one of them could be moved.

The four of them swiftly set everything back in order. Then they all looked to their young mistress at once, awaiting her next instruction.

Hua Zhi settled herself back onto the daybed and extended her hand. “Continue.”

The three returned to their places. But they had never faced anything like this before, and their hands trembled ever so slightly.