With Grandmother’s passing, Hua Zhi was required to observe deep mourning — no meat for a hundred days.

Fu Dong racked her mind to make the meals as palatable as possible. Though Hua Zhi ate without tasting a thing, she forced herself to take a few extra bites. Taking advantage of a time when everyone was resting, she slept for half an hour.

But she had not expected that the more she slept, the more exhausted she became.

Ying Chun watched her young mistress struggling to keep her eyes open and could not help but urge her gently, “Everything outside has been arranged. Please sleep a little longer.”

Hua Zhi shook her head and slipped on her shoes to get out of bed. If she lay back down, there would be no getting up again tonight.

“Has anyone come looking for me?”

“The Fourth Madam came by once. Seeing that you were asleep, she would not allow the maids to disturb you.”

“Did she say what the matter was?”

“No.” Ying Chun steadied her as she sat down and began to remove her trouser leg. “This servant will apply your medicine.”

In truth the medicine had already been applied once before the meal, but the sight of that raw, bloody wound had given the maids quite a fright. Had Hua Zhi not reminded them that the medicine was irreplaceable, they likely would have emptied the entire bottle onto the wound.

Once the medicine was freshly applied, Hua Zhi draped her white cloak over her shoulders again and went to the front courtyard.

The entire Hua residence blazed with light. Every passageway she moved through was busy yet orderly, everything appearing neat and well-managed.

The Fourth Madam was directing servants to clear the snow from the walkways. Catching sight of Hua Zhi, she hurried over. Seeing that small face drained of all color against the stark white of her mourning attire, the Fourth Madam furrowed her brow, and in a hoarse voice said, “For the moment I can still manage things here. You go back and rest properly. Once it comes time for the transfer of the remains in the second half of the night, you won’t have a chance to rest even if you want to.”

Hua Zhi had actually grown rather fond of the Hua Family’s state right now — no one had any room to spare on matters that did not truly matter. Young and old alike were doing all they could to tend to the grandmother’s funeral arrangements, and a sense of solidarity had emerged unlike anything before.

If the Hua Family could sustain this, she was confident she could see them through to a good and lasting future.

“I slept a little already and feel somewhat better. Fourth Aunt, take Bai Jun and rest for the first half of the night. Come back when it is time for the transfer.”

Wu Shi shook her head. “There is no sense in me, the youngest, going to rest while the other three sisters-in-law all keep vigil. It would reflect poorly on me. When you are the one managing the household, you must hold a level hand in these matters — this is exactly where disputes come from.”

“No one will be left out. The lying-in-state will last seven days. We cannot have everyone go seven days without sleep — no one could endure it. Take turns resting, two hours at a time.”

Wu Shi thought about it and found she could not argue, so she agreed with a nod.

Hua Zhi went into the room and let her gaze pass over her mother and her two aunts by marriage before settling on the second aunt. Of the four wives, this concubine-aunt had the most fragile health.

“Second Aunt, go back to your room and rest for two hours. You must return without fail once the two hours are up.” Hua Zhi looked toward her mother and the third aunt. “Once Second Aunt and Fourth Aunt return, you and Third Aunt may go rest.”

No one raised any objection.

“Bailin, you and the others must also take turns resting. You sort out the schedule.”

“Yes, Elder Sister.”

A few more arrangements were made, and the room quickly emptied by half, leaving only a handful of people still keeping watch.

Hua Zhi trimmed the lamp wick, then — to the wide-eyed alarm of Hua Xin and the others — sat down on the edge of the bed and took the grandmother’s already stiff and cold fingers in her hand, as though tending to someone simply asleep. She smoothed the burial coverlet upward.

For a long while after, she simply sat there. No one knew what she was thinking, and no one dared disturb her.

Hua Zhi was different from the rest of them. From that night onward, it was something Hua Xin felt in the deepest part of her heart.

Though the transfer of the remains was set for the third watch, the monks began their rites at the second watch.

For the transfer to proceed, the monks would of course need to enter the inner courtyard.

Hua Zhi had all the women — including the maids — withdraw into the rear courtyard. As the head of the household, she was the one who needed to remain and oversee things.

Zhu Shi gripped her hand tightly and would not let go, shaking her head at her with a face full of tears.

Hua Zhi pried her hand free, placed it into the Fourth Aunt’s hands, and said, “Close the gate. No one is to enter or leave without my word.”

The four sturdy matrons who had accompanied her to the Song Family responded loudly and with great gusto. From now on it would be the Eldest Young Lady running the household — nothing could please them more than to be in her favor.

Of course, this was not a moment for being pleased.

The gate eased shut. Those left behind inside watched through the ever-narrowing gap as the slight, slender figure of Hua Zhi walked away, and someone let out a soft, stifled sob. Their reputations had been preserved — but what of Hua Zhi? What of the Hua Family’s eldest young lady?

Hua Zhi was not alone. The four senior maids, led by Ying Chun, had refused to withdraw under any circumstance and stayed glued to her side. The elder servants from the Old Madam’s household surrounded her in a loose, protective circle, offering her as much cover as they could manage. And there was Hua Bailin with his younger brothers, standing in front of their elder sister like a litter of cubs guarding their food — though they were not yet tall enough to block the sight lines of those around them.

In that moment, no one could deny that the Hua Family was a family of one heart.

The sound of wooden fish drew near from a distance. With Master Prajña at the head, forty-nine monks entered the inner residence through the second gate, then made their way into the Old Madam’s courtyard.

Eight monks followed Master Prajña into the Old Madam’s room. The others settled themselves in an orderly fashion in the courtyard, and Sanskrit chanting rose above the tapping of wooden fish.

At Steward Xu’s signal, Hua Zhi led her brothers inside to kneel. Steward Xu handed each of them a braided straw pad — kneeling on it, the chill was not nearly as bone-deep.

Everything superfluous had already been cleared from the room. Xu Jie and the others, with solemn and reverent expressions, carefully transferred the Old Madam from the bed to a funeral board. Nine monks took up places around the funeral bier, and Hua Zhi could not make out what they were chanting — she could only hear their voices faintly merging with those of the forty outside to become one.

The rites continued until a quarter past the third watch before the transfer of the remains was at last complete.

It was Ying Chun who helped Hua Zhi to her feet. She went first to pay her respects to Master Prajña and had Steward Xu escort the monks to rest, then walked to the right side of the mourning hall and called Nanny Su over. “Hang a curtain here — the second young miss and the others will keep vigil from this side.”

Nanny Su had never heard of female family members keeping vigil in the mourning hall before. She opened her mouth as if to offer a word of counsel, but in the end said nothing and simply went to make the arrangements. The fact that it had not been done before did not mean it could not be done now — the Great Qing’s rules of propriety had never stated that women could not keep vigil in a mourning hall.

Not only was a curtain hung, but straw was laid on the ground, covered with a mat, and topped with an old quilt. Women were delicate, and Hua Zhi had no intention of subjecting them to the same treatment she had devised for Hua Jing.

Thinking of Hua Jing, Hua Zhi set aside what she was doing and headed outside.

Snow drifted down in lazy, meandering flakes. The roof had already accumulated nearly two inches of snow. The lane at the entrance had been cleared over and over, and the ground in front of the lean-to where Hua Jing was staying had likewise been swept clean — but all the removed snow had been heaped around the lean-to. In other words, Hua Jing was not only surrounded by a world of ice and snow, but also by what amounted to a wall of packed ice on every side.

“Whose idea was this? Not bad.”

Nanny Su glared at the lean-to with undisguised satisfaction. “The sixth young master’s idea. Around midnight, the sixth young master also had someone quietly dig out a rather large hollow behind the lean-to, then had water poured into it. Once the water froze, a fresh dusting of snow over the top — and no one could tell anything was amiss.”

So there was more than one wall of ice. Hua Zhi was not the least bit surprised that this was Bailin’s doing. Before the Hua Family’s fall, all the mischief the other boys in the family had ever caused put together had not amounted to what he alone had managed.

Author’s Note: That earlier version of this chapter didn’t have this section at the end — I had skipped over it. But no matter how I looked at it later, something felt off, so I… rewrote it. The girls have been so excited and eager, and I’ve been feeling the pressure terribly — always afraid of not writing it well enough and letting you all down.