In winter, darkness fell early. By the hour of You it was already completely dark.
The entire Hua household gathered together, shared a warm and lively meal, and then wasted no time making their way to the covered walkway that had been transformed into the venue for the lantern display.
The heavens were cooperative: there was neither rain nor wind tonight. Though it was a little cold, one extra layer was enough to bear it.
All the lanterns were lit at once, bathing the covered walkway in a soft amber glow. It fell across everyone’s shoulders and seemed to lend them a few extra degrees of warmth.
Hua Zhi raised her voice. “I have prepared some small gifts. The top three who solve the most riddles may collect their prizes from my mother. Everyone do your best!”
“Thank you, Elder Sister!”
The young ladies called out their thanks in bright voices, then set off in twos and threes along the walkway, with laughter and chatter drifting back from time to time.
The three elder women and the ladies of the household all went up to take in the festive atmosphere. Hua Zhi caught Nanny Su’s eye with a quiet signal and slipped away without a sound to the front courtyard.
Fu Dong had been waiting all along, and the moment she saw the young miss arrive, she hurried off to prepare the dishes.
“Hua Hua, I am starving!” Shaoyao wheedled in a long, drawn-out voice.
Hua Zhi washed her hands and came over, flicking her forehead with a finger. “Wipe your mouth clean before you say that.”
Shaoyao instinctively wiped her mouth at once — there was indeed a bit of grease. She grinned sheepishly. “The chicken leg Fu Dong made was so delicious, I brought one for Xiao Liu too.”
“As if getting Xiao Liu a piece means you didn’t sneak one yourself. Xiao Liu is still growing — it is entirely right for him to eat more. But could you possibly grow any taller from eating more?”
“I—” Shaoyao caught herself just in time and swallowed the rest of the sentence, her eyes rolling back and forth. She was indeed growing — just not taller, unfortunately. She was growing somewhere else entirely, somewhere quite useless.
Maidservants filed in one after another. The first thing brought out was a crock of soup. Nianzhu stood to one side. “Fu Dong says to have everyone drink a little soup first to warm the stomach.”
Hua Zhi had never gone a day without something warm to drink. She never made things hard for her own body — whatever the right amount was, that was how much she drank.
Shaoyao had no love for soup. With great scheming ingenuity she ladled out only half a small spoonful at a time, moving with deliberate slowness, her eyes constantly flicking toward the door, waiting for the dishes to arrive. There were several main dishes tonight — she absolutely could not let soup take up any of the space.
Xiao Liu was no more enthusiastic about soup than she was. He looked here and there, eyes curved, the faintest glimmer of amusement in them. Under the weight of Shifu’s gaze, however, he did not dare perform as blatantly as Shaoyao.
Fu Dong, susceptible to pestering, appeared in the doorway before long, carrying a large wooden tray with a medium-sized clay pot set upon it, while the maidservants behind her carried rather less than might be expected.
It was Hua Zhi’s philosophy that rice should be cooked in a large pot but dishes should be made in small batches, and Fu Dong had taken this to heart — the portions she made were never large.
The centerpiece of the table was mutton. Fu Dong’s mutton dishes were peerless — recently, reservations for the mutton banquet at Shi Zhai had been coming in more than anything else. Alongside it sat fish in a broth that had been simmered to a milky white, an orderly arrangement of white-cut chicken, braised pork belly gleaming with rich sauce, braised pig’s trotters, twice-cooked pork, red-braised chicken legs, sautéed fresh mushrooms, two dishes of vivid green vegetables, and several small plates of pickled accompaniments.
Shaoyao could not stop sniffling. Gripping her chopsticks, she used her eyes alone to urge Elder Brother Yan to please start eating — she was barely managing to keep her hands in check.
Gu Yanxi first placed a piece of mutton into Ah Zhi’s bowl, then picked up a piece of white-cut chicken, dipped it in sauce, and bit off half.
Shaoyao’s gaze swept back and forth between the two of them several times. Her chopsticks, however, aimed with singular purpose at a piece of braised pork belly. She had meant to send it straight into her own mouth, yet somehow it changed direction and landed in Xiao Liu’s bowl beside her. By the time she realized what had happened, Xiao Liu had already delivered it to his mouth with a smile. He even remembered to say thank you afterward. “Thank you, Shaoyao Jiejie.”
“My pork!” Shaoyao let out a wail of despair. She did not dare look any longer at those two people who had the power to turn a person’s brain to mush. She grabbed a pair of chopsticks’ worth of food and shoved it into her mouth at speed, then piled several more pieces into her bowl without pause. Only that could compensate for the wound to her heart!
Hua Zhi laughed and kept poking her in the forehead. Fu Dong had been coming up with different delicious things every day now that Shi Zhai was not open for business — how could she possibly be going without? How could she have become this food-obsessed?
As they were all family, there was none of the rule about not speaking at meals. After eating their fill, Gu Yanxi said, “Court resumes tomorrow. I will need to make an appearance.”
“But your wound is not yet healed…”
“No one outside knows I was injured. They only believe there is a rift between me and His Majesty. With the arrangements already in place, that rift ought to be resolved. If I do not appear, it will give others an opening to exploit.”
Hua Zhi gave a small nod of understanding. That was indeed so. On that day, the Empress Dowager had cleared the room — the only ones who knew of Yanxi’s self-inflicted wound were those who had been present. When they left, Yanxi had worn a cloak, and no one had seen the wound. It was precisely for this reason that they could smooth things over.
“His Majesty has ordered you to continue overseeing the Seven Lodges Bureau. Does this indicate his agreement that there will eventually be no more Seven Lodges Bureau?”
“His Majesty understands very clearly the advantages and disadvantages of the Seven Lodges Bureau. He has simply grown too dependent on it to bring himself to act decisively. Now that matters have come to this point, as long as no one can replace me, he can only try this path and see whether it leads anywhere. At the very least, I can still provide protection for a period of time.” Gu Yanxi took a leisurely bite of a dish. “To put it plainly — it means returning the authority of the Seven Lodges Bureau to where it belongs. I have already been willing to relinquish power. The others ought to be quite pleased about that.”
“Which means the affairs you have been overseeing all along must still be handled by you.”
“More or less. I would not trust them to anyone else — the matter of Jinyang in particular. There is definitely the hand of the Chaoli people behind it. If we startle them before we are ready, and they go into hiding again, it will be very difficult to catch hold of them. This time we must absolutely root them out.”
“To think that the Chaoli people, who were known historically for relying on brute force alone, have now developed this kind of cunning. If I had not seen it with my own eyes I would never have believed it.” Hua Zhi placed the last piece of braised pork belly into Xiao Qi’s bowl, paying no mind to Shaoyao’s glare. Shaoyao had already eaten more than half the bowl of it herself. “A change of this magnitude within an entire people does not happen without cause. I suspect they may have produced someone wise among them — this kind of thing is not unheard of among tribal peoples.”
“If we calculate from Yuan Shifang’s age, and if that wise person was still quite young at the time, they may still be alive now. The mastermind behind the Jinyang affair could very well be that person.” Gu Yanxi set down his chopsticks and thought for a moment. “I will have someone investigate from this angle. If the Chaoli people have truly produced someone of this kind, there will inevitably be traces to follow. If such a person truly exists, we must proceed with the Jinyang matter with even greater care.”
“Let us hope we are overthinking it.”
“Better to have thought it through for nothing than to have failed to think of it at all.” Gu Yanxi looked toward Xiao Liu. “Tomorrow morning, go to the palace and request authorization from His Majesty to proceed to Qingzhou.”
Xiao Liu nodded. Shifu’s crisis had been resolved — he could depart with an easy heart now.
“All right — enough of that. Are we full? What do you say we go and guess some lantern riddles to get into the spirit of the season?”
Gu Yanxi raised an eyebrow. “We can go out there?”
“Why ever not?” Hua Zhi looked at the man who put on an expression of pure innocence, a smile playing at her lips. “Does not all of the capital already know you are my betrothed?”
Gu Yanxi could not help smiling. “When I get back, I will arrange to have someone complete the Six Rites and make the relationship formally official. Then I shall be your betrothed in every proper and legitimate sense.”
“Shameless.” Hua Zhi smoothed her hair with her fingertips. “There is no rush. Let us take our time — better not to give His Majesty reason to start thinking other thoughts.”
Gu Yanxi considered this, sighed, and could only nod.