“Is your grandmother still in good health?”

Hua Zhi took out the letters she had been keeping close to her body, handed the topmost one over, and spoke the falsehood without a change of expression. “Very well. She only misses you terribly. This is Grandmother’s letter in her own hand.”

She passed the remaining two letters to her father and her fourth uncle. “These are from Mother and Fourth Aunt. Oh, and there’s also this.”

Hua Zhi opened the bundle and took out two scrolls wrapped in oilpaper, pressing one into each man’s hands. They unrolled them immediately, and Fourth Uncle cried out in astonishment: “This is — how can this be? By my reckoning it should only be around now at the earliest.”

Hua Yi was likewise overjoyed. “The Fourth daughter-in-law has given birth? A son or a daughter?”

“A son. Congratulations.”

“Excellent, excellent, excellent. This is wonderful news indeed.”

Hua Pingyang could not tear his gaze away from the portrait, his face full of unconcealed delight. “I had actually been hoping for a daughter. I was thinking that once she got a little older I could hand her off to you to raise — not expecting another Borin, just wanting her to have a fraction of your qualities, and that would be more than enough.”

“Getting carried away, aren’t you? By the time she’s old enough, Zhi’er will already be married off — would you send the child to her husband’s household to be raised?”

At that, the smiles on everyone’s faces slowly faded. Indeed — if the Hua Family were still as it had been, Zhi’er would be preparing to marry.

“I have broken off my engagement.”

The words fell like a stone into still water. Hua Yi’s eyes went wide with fury. He slammed the table and shot to his feet. “How dare Shen Qi!”

Then came a wave of coughing he could not suppress. Hua Zhi hurried to step forward and rubbed his back, while Hua Pingyu stood to one side holding tea, hands trembling with anger, his resentment of the Shen Family now fully set.

Hua Pingyang gently smoothed out the portrait he had clutched and crumpled. “Zhi’er, we will not be trapped here forever. The daughters of the Hua Family will never lack for prospects.”

“When have I ever been afraid?” Hua Zhi’s voice was quiet and even. “I was the one who asked Grandmother to take the initiative and go to the Shen Family to break the engagement.”

Hua Yi looked up at her. His heart had already understood, and understanding it made the bitterness in him all the deeper.

“You have the wrong idea. If I had even the slightest reluctance, could I not simply wait for the Shen Family to break the engagement first?”

“The Shen Family might not have dared to break it.”

Hua Zhi smiled and shook her head, settling back into her seat with perfect composure. Yet what she said next was bold by any measure: “Even if the Shen Family did not break it off and I had married in, would things have gone well for me? Mismatched circumstances — anyone could look down on me. In all likelihood my husband would have blamed me for blocking his path to wealth and prestige. It is better for the Hua Family to step back first rather than let it reach such a point. We preserve our dignity, and the Shen Family owes us a debt of gratitude. Either way, we have protected the Shen Family’s name. Were the Shen Family the ones to break the engagement, no respectable family would be willing to marry their daughters to them afterward.”

Hua Pingyang’s words came with difficulty. “In the present circumstances, that was your best prospect. Knowing your nature, you would never marry into a family and simply abandon your own kin. Zhi’er, you acted impulsively.”

“If the Hua Family were still as it was before, I would have married. Why wouldn’t I?” Hua Zhi gave a faint smile. “He is the eldest legitimate son of the Shen Family, and I am the eldest legitimate daughter of the Hua Family — an excellent match in every respect. And since one cannot entirely escape marriage, marrying into such a household would not have been bad. But things are no longer as they were. Knowing full well that I would suffer going there, why wouldn’t I take another path when another path is open to me?”

“Have you thought about the future—”

“There’s no need to think that far ahead. Does Fourth Uncle believe I will not be able to support myself? Or that Borin would dare treat me poorly?”

Hua Pingyang rubbed a hand over his face and laughed. “Even if you gave him ten more times the courage, he wouldn’t dare.”

“There you have it. As long as he extends his protection to me, the Hua Family will always have a place for me.”

“I am not dead yet.” Hua Pingyu said sharply. “If he ever treats you poorly, I will break his legs.”

Hua Zhi was startled for a moment, then broke into a smile that was bright and full as spring blossoms. “Yes — I still have Father!”

Hua Pingyu abruptly rose, gathered his portrait and letters, and walked out. “I’m going to see what Chen Shan is up to.”

Hua Pingyang rose too, pressed his hand firmly onto his niece’s shoulder, and followed him out.

Left alone in the room together, grandfather and granddaughter were quiet for a moment. Then Hua Zhi moved to sit in the lower seat beside her grandfather and said in a gentle voice: “Grandfather, to be honest, I have never been particularly inclined toward marriage. The way things have turned out is simply in keeping with my own wishes. I am not aggrieved. You need not feel that you have wronged me.”

“You may not feel aggrieved, but I feel that you have been wronged.” Hua Yi’s frustration had not abated. Shen Qi of the Shen Family had always been driven and upright, with none of the unsavory habits that plagued so many others. He and Pingyu had half a teacher-and-student bond between them. He had been the one who had chosen him, after long and careful deliberation, as a husband for his granddaughter — believing that such a man might perhaps live in harmony with Zhi’er, and that so long as the husband and wife’s feelings were good, Zhi’er would certainly be able to live happily even in those deep inner courtyards. It turned out he had misjudged the man entirely.

“Your father is going to be in low spirits for some time.”

Hua Zhi had not anticipated her father’s reaction to be so strong. Thinking of it, she felt a warmth stir inside her.

“The way things are now is perfectly fine.”

She was probably the only one who thought so. No matter how Hua Yi turned it over in his mind, there was nothing he could settle on, and so he shifted the subject: “How many days were you on the road? Did you arrive just in time for the snow? Even if you had been concerned about us, there was no need to come in person — you could have sent someone. You have never traveled far from home. It was too dangerous.”

“I made thorough preparations before setting out. If I hadn’t come in person, my heart would never have been at ease. What someone else told me could never match seeing it with my own eyes. I can endure this much hardship.”

Hua Yi could plainly hear her deflection, but he did not press the point, choosing instead to go along with it: “You’ve always been one to conceal your own abilities. Even I don’t know what you are capable of. But with you at home, I find that I am at peace.”

“You needn’t be at peace too soon. By the time you return, the Hua Family’s century of honorable reputation will likely be thoroughly steeped in the smell of commerce.”

“Reputation cannot fill your bellies. What use is it.” Hua Yi pulled the thick cloak closer around himself. He did not want to ask how much hardship Zhi’er had endured to hold up so vast a household, and he did not want to inquire into what state the others at home were in right now. No one understood better than he did just what this granddaughter — who had grown up before his eyes and yet always managed to be beyond his full comprehension — was truly capable of. Knowing she would not be marrying, he was, in truth, at ease. Yet for precisely that reason, the pain in his heart was all the greater.

How wretched it was — to depend on a granddaughter to carry a family. This was his failure. And so he had all the more reason to live. Only if he lived could the Hua Family hold its head up, and no one would dare fail Zhi’er. Only if he lived and brought everyone back would her efforts not have been in vain.

Seeing that her grandfather’s spirits had grown low, Hua Zhi sensed that her words of comfort could do little to ease him. She simply opened the bundle she had packed the night before. Seeing the gold bars inside — more than the original number she had packed — she was taken aback for a moment, then composed herself without a trace of reaction. “I have been running some businesses at home. There is income coming in every day. When I set out I brought along as much silver as I could carry. Most of it has been exchanged for gold bars; the rest is in banknotes and silver, easy to draw on as needed. Grandfather, silver is the last thing you need to worry about. I am able to earn it. Please do not make yourselves suffer needlessly.”

Looking at that bundleful of gold bars, Hua Yi managed a faint smile. He did not ask what businesses she was running, saying only: “Your actions are always measured and careful. I trust you.”

“Yes. I will hold the Hua Family steady and wait for your return.”

PS: No double update — the character outline was sent back to me, and I have to rewrite it. Wah.