Hua Pingyang had already made his peace with it — but the two years of hardship had stirred something in him, rousing the ambition and drive a man ought to carry. So when his father had spoken those words, there had still been a sliver of unresolved resentment left in his heart.

Was he not plainly better suited for officialdom than his elder brother? Had these two years not proven that he was more than capable? Why, after all the hardship of returning, must he go back to being the useless and idle Young Master Pingyang?

And the reason for it, when he came down to it — was that he was too capable?

Hua Pingyang’s smile looked more like a grimace. “Am I supposed to spend over a decade holding back, just as you did?”

“It’s different.” Hua Zhi shook her head. The difference lay between resignation and willingness. Not even speaking of ten years — she would have been overjoyed to conceal herself for a lifetime, to live in quiet and steadiness, peaceful days stretching on, waiting for the day when her children and grandchildren surrounded her and she could simply enjoy her twilight years. But Fourth Uncle, it was clear, was unwilling.

“It is not impossible, though. As Grandfather said — you leave the household and establish your own branch. Father intends to retire. Bailin needs at least three more years before he can be of proper use. You could step in to fill Father’s place in the meantime, and as for afterward… In three years I will have already withdrawn from public life, and you will have separated from the family. I imagine no one will have further cause to pick fault with the Hua Family after that.”

Hua Pingyang looked at the one speaking so calmly of withdrawing from public life, not the slightest trace of reluctance on her face. “Setting aside all of the Hua Family’s rules and circumstances — do you truly wish to step away?”

“If I told you right now I want nothing more than to return to being a common person again, would Fourth Uncle believe me?”

Thinking of the impossibly indolent niece she had once been, Hua Pingyang smiled. He believed it. What others could not bear to release was precisely what she found most suffocating.

“I have never wanted to leave the family.”

“You cannot write two different characters for Hua.”

“And yet I still want to be the fourth son of the Hua Family. You are right — what the Hua Family needs is those who conceal their light.” Even if regret lingered, the last of the obsession in his heart dispersed. It was not that he was not good enough. It was not that he was inferior to others. It was because he was too capable that he could not be the one to hold the umbrella over the Hua Family. What more could he say? He could hardly scoop the sense out of his own head to make himself less.

Thinking of it this way, Hua Pingyang felt considerably lighter. “You really did bring that Zeng boy to stay at your side?”

“I now even have students of my own, you know. Two of them, in fact.”

Hua Pingyang was genuinely surprised. “Not only did you take the Emperor as your student — you also took the Zeng boy under your wing?”

Hua Zhi lifted her chin with a small but unmistakable air of pride. “Impressive, isn’t it?”

“Very impressive.” Hua Pingyang gave a wholehearted thumbs up. One Emperor, one prodigy — a whole academy full of students would not match what she had in just two.

Hua Zhi was pleased. She had felt a quiet pride about it too — only she usually had to maintain the dignity of being an Imperial Tutor. Today she had finally gotten to show off a little in front of family.

Watching his eldest niece like this, Hua Pingyang smiled without a sound. An eighteen-year-old First-Rank Imperial Tutor — search all of history and you would barely find a handful. If it had been him, he did not think he could have brought himself to walk away from what would surely have been an open and promising path ahead. Yet Ah Zhi could speak so casually of stepping down in three years, not a shred of reluctance in her. She truly had not a drop of longing for it — and what kind of a heart would it take to reach that kind of equanimity? Who could compare?

It made him look rather poor by comparison, he thought. Hua Pingyang shook his head. Let it be, let it be — what was wrong with living freely as Young Master Pingyang? No hauling himself out of bed before dawn to attend court, no trivial affairs cluttering his days — just eating well, drinking well, and enjoying himself. That was perfectly fine.

Having wholly made his peace, Hua Pingyang shifted to teasing his niece. “Earlier I saw the Shizi — no, I should say the Regent Prince now — why was he not invited inside? The Hua Family has never treated him as an outsider.”

“It would not have been appropriate for him to be here on an occasion like this.”

“The way I see it, it looks rather like our First Young Miss is feeling shy.”

Hua Zhi raised a cool brow. “Does Fourth Uncle think saying so will make me blush?”

Hua Pingyang burst into laughter, free and unrestrained.

At the moon gate connecting to the garden, Hua Yizheng stood with his hands behind his back. As if touched by their joy, a faint smile had come to his own face. He knew his youngest son was feeling the sting of disappointment — but when it came to the continuation of the family line, no one had the right to be willful about it.

The family banquet began at the second quarter of the Shen hour. Hua Zhi was invited to sit at the main table, beside her grandfather. The seat on Hua Yizheng’s other side was left empty, a full set of bowl and chopsticks placed neatly before it. It had been left for the old mistress.

Looking at the gathering, filled to the brim with people — all those eager, excited, beaming faces — Hua Yizheng swallowed the words he would normally have said on such an occasion and instead called out in a clear voice: “The Hua Family is reunited.”

A brief silence, then the crowd could no longer hold back, and laughter broke out on every side. Day after day they had endured it, waited, longed — and at last they were together again. What could bring more joy than this?

No one spoiled the moment by bringing up the old mistress.

In this moment, everyone treated the empty seat as though someone were sitting in it. They were reunited — they truly were!

Hua Zhi lowered her head and blinked away the sting in her eyes. How wonderful — to be together again. How wonderful.

She had answered her grandfather’s charge. She had fulfilled the promise she made to her grandmother. How wonderful. Truly — even her bones felt lighter.

She filled her grandfather’s cup with wine, then poured half a cup for herself. She raised hers and touched it gently to the one he lifted, and said quietly, “That you were able to come home safely — that is truly wonderful.”

Hua Yizheng smiled, drank it down in one swallow — swallowing together with it all that could not be expressed — two years in which he had lost his wife, in which he had pushed the granddaughter who had once lived for comfort and ease until she became an Imperial Tutor, had brought the Hua Family to the height of its glory. But the price had been too high. The granddaughter who had once been so hale and rosy-cheeked was now skin over bones, her body teetering on the edge of collapse at any moment. He could only wish with all his heart to turn back time, to have been more careful, to have left no opening for the late Emperor to use against the Hua Family.

The Hua Family had no need of Ah Zhi to add splendor to its name. He had only ever wanted this granddaughter — who had grown up before his eyes — to follow her own heart and settle peacefully in her own little corner of the world, to sip tea, read her books, and make those peculiar dishes of hers that always tasted so wonderful. Just watching the contentment on her face would have been enough to make him happy.

Not this. Not this hollow, worn-through version of her.

Hua Zhi refilled the cups of her father and uncles at the table, accompanying each with a shared cup. From the start of the family banquet to its end, the smile in her eyes never once left. Anyone could see she was genuinely happy — and this was especially apparent when she called for her tea things, which had not been used in a very long time.

Her hands moved through the tea ceremony in a flowing, unrushed manner that showed no sign of rustiness. After distributing the tea, she did not push the cups forward to each person herself. Instead she called Zeng Han, who had been staying at her side, to come forward, and instructed him to carry the cups one by one to each elder in turn and pay his respects. There was no formal ritual for this between a teacher and student, but Xiao Han had no family of his own — and she wanted to give him one.

The senior men of the Hua Family understood her meaning without needing it spelled out, and readily drank the tea offered to them, each offering a few words of warm encouragement in the manner of an elder.

“All right, go and find Bailin now. They should be in the garden at this hour. No going to the library collection today.”

Zeng Han — who had already been making his way toward the library — had no choice but to dutifully agree, bid his respects, and withdraw.

Hua Yizheng gave a quiet laugh. “He takes after you.”

“You flatter him, Grandfather. I could never match Xiao Han’s gift. With what little I know, I am honestly afraid of leading him astray.” Hua Zhi slid the distributed cups of tea to the proper places before each person. “There will no doubt be times ahead when I must impose on Grandfather and the other elders.”

The gathering immediately broke into smiles. Hua Pingyang teased her. “At this rate, is this your student, or the entire Hua Family’s student?”

Hua Zhi answered shamelessly. “But am I not also a member of the Hua Family? It amounts to the same thing.”

Laughter rang louder through the banquet hall, and even the servants attending within and without found themselves smiling along.