Hua Zhi paid none of this any particular mind. Instead she made several more visits to her fourth aunt, who was in confinement.

Wu Shi smiled at the sight of her. “If you keep coming here, First Sister-in-Law is going to start feeling sour.”

“I’ve just come from her quarters.” Hua Zhi looked down at the sleeping infant. Only a few short days, and the baby’s face had already filled out — soft, smooth, and pink, without a trace of the wrinkled look of a newborn.

She gestured for a maid to set up the painting stand. “Go and fetch Baijun. I’ll paint a portrait of the three of you — so your fourth uncle can ease his longing.”

Wu Shi’s lips moved but she found no way to refuse the suggestion. Nanny Song was already heading out the door without being asked.

“People will say you’re playing favorites when they find out.”

“Hearts are partial by nature. Whose heart is centered perfectly in their chest?” Hua Zhi adjusted the painting stand as she spoke. “If I have to weigh whether someone will take issue before I can decide to paint a portrait for whoever I choose, I’d sooner not be the one running this household.”

Wu Shi felt gratified — and warm. She thought privately that the old master had not been wrong to dote on this niece.

Baijun was nearly three years old and called out to Hua Zhi with a bright, clear greeting of “Eldest Sister” the moment he saw her. These days he spent more time with his brothers and had grown less clingy with his mother than before — he seemed to have matured a little.

That was how it was. Circumstances compel growth.

“I’ll come down from the bed.”

“No need — stay as you are. You’ll be uncomfortable if you sit up for too long.” Hua Zhi had a maid bring the baby to her fourth aunt. “It will take a while, so find a comfortable position. Baijun — lean against your mother. Come a little closer. Rest against her, relax — yes, just like that. You’ll need to hold still for a while, all right?”

“Yes, Eldest Sister.”

Hua Zhi flexed her fingers, picked up her brush, and began to trace the likeness carefully, glancing up at the mother and her two children from time to time.

“There’s no need to be tense — just be natural.” Her manner as she painted was completely at ease, whatever was comfortable. She even had room to talk. “Grandmother’s health is not good. While I’m away, would you keep a close eye on things, Fourth Aunt?”

“Tending to my mother-in-law is my duty. I’ll be attentive. And if Third Sister-in-Law takes issue with it, I’ll act as though I don’t see her.”

“A vexing little nuisance. Don’t let her concern you.”

Wu Shi shot her a look. “You can say that sort of thing here with me and leave it at that. Imagine if she heard you.”

“I only say it here.”

The warmth of Hua Zhi’s familiarity drew an even more genuine smile from Wu Shi. “She isn’t a bad person. The ambitions she holds in her heart are ones any woman confined to the inner chambers would hold. Spend a lifetime within four walls, and what’s left to strive for is only so much.”

“Is that something Fourth Aunt has wanted?”

“I wanted it too, when I was still in my natal home. Once I was betrothed to your fourth uncle, I stopped thinking about it. He’s the fourth son — there’s no way by family custom that the management of the household would ever come to a fourth son’s wife. And the Hua Family’s ways are upright — there’s little scheming or hidden meanness. Compared to my natal family it was already much better. That was enough — one can’t ask for more.”

“Fourth Uncle is the most able among those of his generation. To speak plainly, he is better suited to an official career than my own father — but the misfortune is his birth order. The Hua Family could not permit another member to hold office.”

“You’re wrong.” Wu Shi’s voice took on a distant, meandering quality. “Even if your fourth uncle were of the same age as your first uncle, your grandfather would not have chosen him. The Hua Family’s heritage is scholarship — your first uncle’s superior learning made him the one to carry on the family’s tradition. As for your fourth uncle, he was better suited to the life he led before all this. By moving through the world as he did, he quietly drew closer many connections that would otherwise have remained distant. In his own way, he was also working on the Hua Family’s behalf.”

Hua Zhi stopped her brush for a moment before going on. “I was wrong.”

“I only came to see it this clearly during these recent days myself. I used to think the people he knew were just fair-weather friends — few of them genuinely sincere. But then the trouble came, and even before my natal family had committed to any stance, they were already sending servants with silver. So it seems your fourth uncle did not spend all those years drinking for nothing.”

Even though she had not accepted the silver, she had taken note of every person. Those who offered warmth in a time of cold — their character was not likely to be poor.

“There are some things you needn’t mention when you see your fourth uncle.”

She knew Wu Shi meant the hemorrhage during the birth. Hua Zhi nodded.

Looking at that calm, composed face, Wu Shi suddenly spoke the gratitude she had been keeping unvoiced. “Thank you. For that day.”

“It was what needed to be done. In that kind of situation, anyone would give their utmost.”

But if not for you knowing a female physician of such exceptional skill — if not for you setting aside convention and entering the birthing room — if not for the words you said that gave her the will to hold on — she would not have made it through. That was the threshold between life and death for a woman, and countless had not crossed it. She had been fortunate to reclaim her life.

Even if she said all of that, Zhi’er would probably brush it off in a sentence or two. This young woman who had so suddenly become the one holding the Hua Family together always made people forget she had only just come of age.

“The affairs of the household — you need not worry. Whatever I can help with, I will give my full effort. Just have your maids come to me whenever needed.”

“That’s exactly what I’ve already told them.” Hua Zhi lightly traced the soft curve of the baby’s earlobe — this child really did take after her fourth uncle, even down to that thick, rounded ear. “Most things they can handle well on their own. But they are servants, and some matters, however capable they are, lie beyond their reach. Those times will need you to step forward. And if you find yourself unable to manage something either, have Nanny Lin go to my maternal grandmother’s household for help. Though of course — any matter the Hua Family can resolve internally must be kept internal. Even the closest relationship grows distant when favors are asked too often.”

“I understand.”

The eighteenth day of the tenth month. An auspicious day.

Early that morning, the Green Moss Lane that had been shuttered for so long threw off all its coverings and revealed a new face to the world.

Every shop along the lane had a canopied awning built out front, each adjoining the next to form a continuous covered walkway. Even in the rain, there would be no worry of getting wet.

Stepping under the awnings and looking up, one found no signboards hanging where signboards would normally be — only rectangular wooden plaques, each bearing descriptions such as “spicy and sour noodles,” with the price listed beneath. Inside were glass-fronted display cases in a row, filled with individual portions of raw ingredients — red and white, each looking clean and fresh.

The shop’s interior held a few sets of tables and chairs, and the walls were papered with a light blue cotton cloth — restrained, refined, and spotlessly clean no matter how one looked at it.

Hua Zhi walked from one end of the lane to the other, then stepped out at the far end and strolled along the bank of the inner river. She let out a long breath and looked over at Shao Yao — and could not help smiling. She had been about to ask how she was finding it, but the look of eyes that couldn’t be dragged away from the stalls said everything there was to know about how powerfully it had drawn her in.

“Didn’t you eat most of these things at home? You’ve had them so many times, how can you still not be tired of them?”

“It’s delicious.” Shao Yao hooked her arm through Hua Zhi’s and swayed. “Huahua, I want to go eat.”

Hua Zhi pinched her scar-covered cheek. “Everything bought and sold here gets properly accounted for — you’d have to pay. How about going home instead and letting Fu Dong make something delicious for you?”

Shao Yao startled at the touch and stood there for a moment, momentarily distracted from the food. That face of hers — no one had ever touched it, not outside of herself. The uneven, ridged texture of it was something no one cared for, herself included. And yet just now Huahua had reached out and touched it as naturally as breathing…

Huahua really does genuinely like her, Shao Yao thought, breaking into a silly, contented smile. The small matter of the snacks no longer concerned her. If Huahua said go home and eat, then home it was.