“Who are you people — do you have any idea where this is—” The words were still leaving Chen Chong’s mouth when a single punch dropped him. Wu Da yanked the quilt from the bed and threw it over the unconscious Chen Chong — better not to offend the Young Miss’s eyes.

Liu Jiang, who had followed them in, had no thought for anything else. He closed the distance in three strides, pulled off his own outer garment and draped it over his sister’s shoulders, then pried the shard of porcelain from her rigid hands and threw it aside. He gritted his teeth — not a single word of comfort would come out. His younger sister no longer even had the strength to take her own life. If they had come one moment later, when Chen Chong had discovered even that much…

Every time he let himself imagine it, Liu Jiang wanted to cut Chen Jin and his son to pieces.

“Brother?” The girl called out in a hoarse voice, blinking hard. She stared at Liu Jiang as if to be sure, then called again: “Brother — brother—”

“Brother’s here. Don’t be afraid — brother’s here.” The large, broad-shouldered man’s eyes had reddened. His voice, try as he might to soften it, remained rough and coarse.

“Brother—” The girl began to weep without restraint, pouring out every last shred of terror and shame and grief in one heaving outburst. Even Wu Da and the other men, who were not given to sentiment, felt the ache of it. Today she had been fortunate — fortunate that the Young Miss happened to come. If not…

Tsk. That Chen Jin and his son — not a decent bone between them. And after the Hua Family had treated them so well.

Hua Zhi listened to the sound of weeping with an expression that gave little away, then stepped down from the corridor and walked on. The others quickly fell in behind her.

Though Chen Jin’s heart was pounding, he did not feel a great deal of genuine fear toward Hua Zhi. His father was the Old Madam’s milk-brother, after all. The Old Madam had always treated them differently from the rest. Even if the Young Miss was mistress of the house, what could she really do to them? Would that not be the same as slapping the Old Madam in the face?

“I was not aware the Young Miss would be coming today—”

“There are many things you are unaware of. This is not the most remarkable of them. Wu Da.”

“This servant is here.”

“Lock Chen Jin and his entire family in the woodshed. Then ask around and find out what fine works they have been engaged in over these past years.”

“Young Miss, I am the Old Madam’s people — you cannot—”

“If Grandmother knew what you have been doing under the Hua Family’s name, I think she would be the first one who would not let you off.” Hua Zhi smiled, but the smile did not reach her eyes. “What a joke — the masters of the Hua Family have never once abused their position to bully others, and here you are strutting about. What are you still waiting for?”

Wu Da stepped forward and seized Chen Jin at once. The other men split off in different directions and herded the entire Chen family, young and old, into the woodshed.

Chen Jin had been living these past years like a small-time landlord. He had never been treated this way in his life. He threw back his head and hollered the Old Madam’s name at the top of his voice. Seeing that, the others took it up as well, crying and shouting in a great clamor, as though they truly had been wronged.

Bao Xia walked over and gave the women of the family several sharp slaps. “If you cannot learn to hold your tongues, I can always have those two pieces of flesh sewn shut.”

The Chen family’s eldest grandson looked no more than about five years old. Seeing his mother struck, he stamped his feet and tried to hit Bao Xia. Wu Da grabbed him by the back of his collar and hoisted him up. Chen Jin’s daughter-in-law went weak in the knees, terrified that the man might carelessly injure her son, and immediately began speaking in a much softer voice.

Wu Da had no real intention of doing anything to a child. He tossed the boy into his mother’s arms — the solidly built little creature nearly knocked her off her feet — and said: “Walk in on your own, or I’ll throw you in. Your choice.”

That settled it. Not another person dared to drag their feet. They trotted into the woodshed and closed the door behind themselves.

A crack of thunder sounded. The long-withheld rain came all at once in a downpour, drumming down in sheets. Hua Zhi stood beneath the corridor eaves and watched the large drops splash up small blooms of water on the ground, her mind drifting without quite knowing why.

“Miss — this account book is full of holes from one end to the other. This servant looked at the one from two years ago, and the problems jump out at you — how could the Hua Family’s own accountants not have—”

Nian Qiu, who seldom spoke at length, had an expression of outright fury on her face. Then, recalling that her Young Miss did not like to hear people speak ill of others behind their backs, she bit down on the words and stopped herself.

“If even you can see it, there is no chance the experienced accountants at home would have missed it. The answer is that Grandmother let it pass.” Hua Zhi took the account book from Nian Qiu and flipped through it. “Grandmother probably never imagined they would be brazen enough to take it this far.”

Brazen indeed. Twenty hectares of farmland — one season of rice, one of wheat — and after supplying the Hua Family’s share, there was almost no surplus grain left over for the whole year. Said aloud, it would make people laugh until their teeth fell out.

At that moment, Liu Jiang came out from inside, one arm half around his sister, bare-shouldered under the garment he had given her. He spotted Hua Zhi and his eyes lit up. He quickened his pace and then, with his sister in tow, dropped to his knees before her. “This servant gives deep thanks to the Young Miss for saving our lives.”

Wu Da could not stop him in time and had to hurriedly strip off his own outer garment and toss it across to the man.

Liu Jiang only then remembered that he was improperly dressed and had offended the Young Miss’s eyes. He crouched over and hastily put the garment on, then followed up with a string of apologies.

“Rise.” Hua Zhi looked at the young girl who was still trembling, and her expression gentled. “I believe your name is Liu Juan. The last time I came here, it was you who walked with me and showed me around.”

She remembered her for more than one reason — partly because of her good memory, and partly because of the smile that seemed to live permanently on that round face. Even in a life that was lean and plain, with no fine clothes, no pretty ribbons, with hands roughened from housework and both parents gone, with only a brother to share the world with — still that smile came from somewhere deep and true. Her happiness had never been diminished by the lack of things.

And now Chen Chong had destroyed all of it. After a trial like this, that kind of smile would be very hard to find again. Hua Zhi felt a pang of regret. The world already held more than enough suffering. If she had come a little faster, perhaps things might have ended a little less scarred.

Liu Juan knelt once more and pressed her forehead firmly to the ground. “This servant is Liu Juan. The debt of life I owe the Young Miss — I would be willing to serve as a horse or an ox to repay it.”

“I feel rather undeserving of such a heavy bow. Chen Chong is a servant of the Hua Family — it was the Hua Family’s failure to keep its household in proper order that allowed this to happen. It is I who should be offering an apology to you.”

Liu Juan seemed startled. “Young Miss—”

Fu Dong went over and gently helped her to her feet, her voice, always soft, now even gentler than usual. “Our Young Miss doesn’t like all this bowing and kneeling. Please do stand up. I came with the Young Miss last time too — do you remember me?”

“I do. You gave me some very delicious pastries.”

Nothing made Fu Dong happier than hearing people praise her cooking. These words from Liu Juan struck straight to the heart of it, and her smile brightened until she seemed to glow. “I am just about to make some pastries for our Young Miss. Could you come and help me in the kitchen?”

Liu Juan wanted very much to say yes. She looked back at her elder brother, then stole a glance at the Young Miss, uncertain whether she should agree.

Fu Dong could easily see that she was tempted. She took Liu Juan by the hand and began walking toward the kitchen, talking as they went: “The pastry you had last time — was it the mung bean cake? It just so happens that today is hot and our Young Miss has too much heat in her system, so we are making those again…”

Their voices grew quieter as they moved away. Liu Jiang watched his sister being drawn, in just a few words, out of the shadow she had been lost in, and he blinked back the redness in his eyes and knelt once more before Hua Zhi. “From this day forward, this servant is at the Young Miss’s disposal entirely.”

“As it happens, there is a use I have in mind for you.” She gestured for him to rise. Then, seeing Bao Xia approaching from the far end of the corridor, she paused and held the rest of what she had to say.