Now that Luoyun’s sight had been restored, she had not expected to find herself suddenly captivated by a man’s beauty. The peerless, exquisite person before her — though overbearing and somewhat unreasonable — was truly like a fruit one tasted and could not stop craving, an addiction not easily broken.

And so, with only half-hearted resistance, she allowed Han Linfeng to kiss her. Husband and wife, reunited after a long separation, could at last exchange a few tender moments to ease the longing that had accumulated between them.

Yet even as the two nestled together in each other’s arms after that brief interlude of warmth, Luoyun’s thoughts drifted back to her young sister-in-law’s unresolved predicament.

Though Zhao Gui Bei had volunteered to help Han Yao avoid the duty of a marriage alliance, it was not as simple as merely notifying his parents.

If the wedding were rushed through hastily, even if the General agreed, Princess Yuyang would not give her consent so readily.

But once the imperial edict reached Liang Zhou, it would be too late even if Zhao Dong agreed to the marriage — so what was to be done?

At this thought, Luoyun grew irritated that her husband was lolling about on her bed neglecting matters of importance, and so she pushed at the reluctant Han Linfeng, urging him to get up at once and attend to proper business.

Han Linfeng, however, did not stir so much as an inch. He pressed another kiss to her cheek, then settled contentedly with his arm around her slender shoulders, and said with unhurried ease: “When I received the letter from Lord Li, I dispatched soldiers to observe the route of the imperially appointed envoy along the way. They should still be three days out.”

Luoyun felt a fresh surge of anxiety. “Then should you not move quickly?”

Han Linfeng simply smiled. “No matter how urgent the situation, there is always time to spend a tender moment with one’s own wife. Do not worry — I have already made arrangements. There should be time enough.”

At this, his smile grew faintly subdued. “What concerns me most now is no longer Han Yao’s marriage. Since His Majesty has already settled upon a candidate for the marriage alliance, the next step will be to negotiate peace with the Tiefu, and then to deploy full force against the Iron-Masked Army. Measured against all that, Han Yao’s affair hardly amounts to much. Whether a daughter suffers mistreatment depends entirely on whether her father and brothers are cowards. If things truly go wrong and we reach the worst possible outcome, then we display our strength and show what we are made of. Your husband has accumulated some standing by now — if it truly comes to a contest of force, I may not lose.”

The great vessel that was Prince Beizhen’s household had long since had its true helmsman in Han Linfeng. Prince Beizhen let many things pass without comment, though when great matters arose and father and son diverged in their views, they would indeed argue — yet for the most part, Lord Beizhen would still defer to his son.

Seeing that Han Linfeng had made up his mind, Luoyun said no more.

She had never interfered in his affairs beyond the household walls, and she had no desire to bind his hands or feet. This matter was one where family affairs and affairs of state had become entangled together — she trusted that he already had a clear reckoning in his heart.

There was still a young General being kept under watch in the household, and Han Linfeng knew he needed to act swiftly and decisively. And so after a brief rest, he rose.

He did not, however, go to find Zhao Dong. Instead, he summoned several subordinates who spoke the Tiefu language and quietly arranged certain tasks for them.

He was not yet in any hurry to seek out Zhao Dong. Before the two families could negotiate, Han Linfeng knew that the most critical thing was to prevent the imperial edict for the marriage alliance from reaching Liang Zhou.

He understood Zhao Dong’s character far too well.

If the man learned that Han Yao had been personally named by His Majesty as the one to be sent in the marriage alliance, he would sooner execute his own son and deliver an apology to the Han family than allow his son to defy the imperial will and take Han Yao as his wife.

Since that was so, these practical matters would have to be arranged by him — in his capacity as the eldest brother-in-law.

And so the people of Prince Beizhen’s household waited in restless anxiety, day after day, for that imperial edict — which never came.

As it transpired, the imperially appointed envoy carrying the edict had met with misfortune along the road. At the mountain waystation where Han Linfeng’s party had once previously encountered a band of brutal highwaymen, a second robbery had taken place.

Every soldier at the entire waystation had been seized by masked brigands, stripped of their clothing, trussed up firmly, and thrown into a vegetable cellar, where they remained for a full two days. All correspondence passing through the station, including the imperial edict, had been carried off by the brigands.

According to the unfortunate soldiers, the perpetrators had all been speaking the Tiefu tongue — and must therefore have been Tiefu men.

The station master of that waystation had been robbed by the Tiefu once before and remembered it vividly.

The Tiefu brigands who came this time were somewhat more courteous — they had killed no one — but the station master cursed them endlessly in his heart all the same, and naturally heaped the blame squarely upon the Tiefu without a second thought.

With the edict lost, the envoy could claim nothing, even if he himself remained. After being essentially starved for two days, they were finally discovered by a passing courier who noticed something amiss at the station, heard the sounds from the vegetable cellar, and pulled them free.

The envoy had lost the imperial edict, and on top of that had contracted a chill. Running a fever severe enough to leave him barely conscious, he was transported to the offices of the local magistrate in Hui City to receive medical attention.

Meanwhile, Zhao Dong, upon reading the letter that Han Linfeng had personally delivered to him, nearly choked on his own fury.

It was a confession written and sealed in his son’s own hand — a thorough, detailed account of how the boy had come to harbor feelings for the young commandery princess, Han Yao.

Everything his old man had never once experienced in a lifetime — all those fanciful romantic whims — the little rascal had gone and made up for in a single stroke.

And climbing a tree to deliver a sugar figurine to a girl, no less? How had he not fallen out of that tree and smashed himself flat in the young lady’s courtyard?

When General Zhao arrived in person at Prince Beizhen’s household, he planted himself right before the Han family’s ancestral shrine and, without a single word, picked up a horsewhip and began to lash. Two lashes were not enough to satisfy his fury, and so he followed it up with kicks.

Had Han Linfeng not thrown himself in the way with all his might, the man would very nearly have kicked his own son to death.

Han Yao, concealed in the shadows beside the ancestral shrine, listened to the sounds from within, gnawing at her fingernails in anguish, before she gathered up her skirts and made to rush inside.

Luoyun, standing to one side, quickly caught hold of her and murmured: “If you go in now, all those lashes the young General just took will have been for nothing. Listen to your elder brother. Leave everything else alone. If your heart aches for him, save it for when you are wed and love him all you like then. For now — hold yourself steady for me.”

With her sister-in-law’s words in her ears, Han Yao could only keep gnawing her fingernails and anxiously listen to the sounds coming from within.

Zhao Gui Bei had taken Han Linfeng’s advice about keeping secrets to heart. Even as he was being flogged until his whole body was aflame with pain, he did not breathe a single word about the possibility of Han Yao being sent off in a marriage alliance. He said only that he genuinely cared for the young commandery princess and begged his father and Prince Beizhen to grant their blessing.

What else was there to be done, now that matters had come to this?

Zhao Dong, burning with shame that his son had tarnished the young commandery princess’s reputation, found he had almost nothing to say against Han Linfeng’s demands.

Though he felt the immediate marriage was somewhat rushed, his son was still kneeling before the family’s ancestral shrine — so rushed was probably appropriate.

Moreover, Han Linfeng was right. Zhao Gui Bei needed to return to his post soon; it was a time of war, and wedding ceremonies ought to be kept simple. Better to have it done quickly.

A man of integrity owns the consequences of his actions. If you dare sneak off to meet a young girl in secret and buy her sweets, you had better be prepared to own it.

And so in the end, Zhao Dong gave his word to Prince Beizhen’s request: the wedding was to take place within two days.

After Zhao Dong met with Prince Beizhen and his consort, even he had nothing to say — the situation was simply too awkward — and after offering a solemn bow, he declared that he would go to Hui City to find the boy’s mother and begin preparing the betrothal gifts with all haste.

The wedding might be simple, but the proper rites could not be dispensed with entirely. The girl should not be made to feel she had been slighted.

As for Consort Wang, she had been in a daze from beginning to end. She had still been preoccupied with deliberating over which of Han Linfeng’s “potato subordinates” to pick for her daughter, when suddenly a magnificent windfall — gilded and bejeweled — dropped straight from the sky and struck her square in the face.

The result was that while Prince Beizhen and the General hammered out the terms of the marriage, she stood to one side quietly asking Luoyun to pinch her. She suspected that in her tormented anxiety over her daughter’s marriage prospects, she had gone soft in the head and was now wandering through some pleasant delusion.

How could Luoyun do such a thing? She could only watch helplessly as her mother-in-law pinched the back of her own hand black and blue.

After the General took his leave, Consort Wang grabbed hold of Prince Beizhen and demanded to know what had happened.

Prince Beizhen had no intention of explaining all the layers of intrigue to a woman, and so he said simply that Zhao Gui Bei had taken a liking to Han Yao and had asked Prince Beizhen to act as intermediary.

Once Consort Wang confirmed she was not dreaming, her legs went weak all over again, and she nearly crumpled to the floor — yet her face was radiant with joy as she clutched her daughter-in-law’s arm and was helped to the ancestral shrine to burn incense and offer thanks to their ancestors.

Prince Beizhen made an observation that bore some musing: as she burned incense, she might also properly thank her eldest son.

As for Zhao Dong — when he reached Hui City and briefly informed Princess Yuyang of what had occurred, even the princess, who had still been wearing a cold expression and harboring resentment toward him, suddenly forgot her grievances entirely.

After all, compared to his drunken slip of the tongue, this bewildering marriage their son had gotten himself into was like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.

She was too stunned to close her mouth for a good while, and first leaned over to smell whether there was any wine on his person and whether he was truly sober.

Then she widened her eyes and demanded: “What? This is pure nonsense! What could that girl from Prince Beizhen’s household — a girl who had her engagement broken off — possibly offer that would make her worthy of my son? How could you agree to such an absurd match without even consulting me?”

Zhao Dong knitted his brows and sighed, opening his mouth as if to speak, then thinking better of it, and finally said: “She is a proper commandery princess — what could possibly make her unworthy? Say no more. Just prepare the betrothal gifts.”

But Princess Yuyang was not about to let it go. Seeing Zhao Dong’s manner, she vaguely sensed something was being kept from her and asked outright whether father and son had been caught out in some wrongdoing by Consort Wang.

That Consort Wang was a formidable woman when it came to negotiating her children’s marriages. She had previously tried to pressure the Duke of Jun’s estate in the capital — was it possible she had pulled the same tactic again with their family?

When the princess finally managed to pry out the full account, she slapped the table in fury: “All he did was deliver a few sugar figurines! It is not as though anything unseemly happened! Han Yao used to give Gui Bei things to eat all the time! It was nothing more than the ordinary affection of children — how has it turned into a betrothal negotiation?”

Zhao Dong slapped the table in return: “What children? They are both grown tall and strapping — that boy’s stubble is practically thick enough to scrub pots with! It was Zhao Gui Bei who led the young commandery princess astray. What kind of man perches on top of a wall to hold secret meetings with a young lady? And all along swearing he intends to marry her. He was caught red-handed by the Shizi, dragged down from the top of that wall — the Zhao family’s dignity is still hanging on that courtyard wall over there! How is the young lady’s honor and reputation to be preserved? Our son has already written and sealed his own confession. He is still being detained in their household. If you refuse, then he can simply kneel himself to death at the Han family’s ancestral shrine.”

Princess Yuyang found herself with nothing to say in rebuttal. After all, she had noticed long ago that her son had feelings for that girl — she simply had not anticipated that even removing herself from Prince Beizhen’s household had not been enough to sever this ill-fated attachment.

In that moment, her resentment swelled all the more. Unable to resign herself, she muttered: “They are a household of crafty merchants through and through! They must have used some scheme to trap my son!”

Zhao Dong looked puzzled: “You have always been on good terms with Consort Wang and the Shizi’s consort. Why did you suddenly move out of Prince Beizhen’s household? And why are you calling them crafty merchants behind their backs?”

Princess Yuyang found she could not easily explain, for her private thoughts were hardly the sort of thing she could discuss with Zhao Dong.

She could only say stubbornly: “Who is going behind anyone’s back? I would say it to that Shizi’s consort’s face. Do you imagine that mountain of gold and silver she has comes from nowhere? The ancients say, there is no merchant who is not cunning—”

Zhao Dong had no patience for a lecture on classical texts and said simply: “Congratulations to the princess on becoming kin to crafty merchants. My duties at the front are pressing; I will have to entrust Gui Bei’s wedding entirely to you. That boy has had a hard life — he lost his birth mother while he was still young. If you do not look after him, then he—”

Princess Yuyang had equally little patience to be lectured on the virtues of maternal devotion, and turned away in a huff: “When have I ever neglected Gui Bei? After all, in his heart there has only ever been one mother — he has never confused this, and is admirably constant.”

Zhao Dong had not caught the undercurrent in Princess Yuyang’s remark. His mind was already full of affairs of state.

That very morning, a scout had brought word that the Tiefu had raided a rear waystation the previous day, making off with a batch of military intelligence. It was said they had also seized an imperial edict being carried by an envoy — an act of unprecedented audacity.

Infuriating as it was that the Tiefu had grown this brazen, those people at court were still bent on seeking a peace settlement — and by all accounts were even pursuing the route of a marriage alliance, though no one knew which young woman of the imperial clan was to be placed upon this sacrificial altar and forced to wed into foreign lands.

As for Princess Yuyang, after venting her frustrations, she understood well enough that Zhao Dong never changed his mind once it was made. Her anger would accomplish nothing.

Because Zhao Dong had already reached an agreement with Prince Beizhen: in three days, the wedding would take place immediately.

Princess Yuyang had heard that Prince Beizhen’s household, seemingly afraid the Zhao family might have second thoughts, had refused to release the groom. Worried that Gui Bei might be suffering in the household, she could only steel herself to rally her spirits, directing several of her attendant nannies to oversee the selection and purchase of an adequate array of betrothal gifts — enough, at the very least, not to embarrass her husband or her son.

Back in Hui City, the envoy carrying the imperial edict had at last recovered from his fever and was preparing to at least make some belated effort at restitution by proceeding to Liang Zhou to deliver the edict verbally. He had just stepped out of the magistrate’s offices when he caught sight of a wedding procession out in the street — draped in red and festive — bearing several loads of betrothal gifts toward the city gates.

He watched the spectacle for a while, then led his attendants to have a proper meal in Hui City before at last setting off toward Liang Zhou.

Who could have known that when he rode through the gates of Liang Zhou, he would find the entire stretch from the city gates to the streets hung and draped in festive red. The further in he rode, the more bewildered he became, and when he finally led his party to the gates of Prince Beizhen’s household, he found a striking character for “joy” plastered prominently upon the doors.

He dismounted and seized a passing spectator by the arm. “Who is being married in Prince Beizhen’s household?”

The passerby grinned. “Not married in — married out! The young commandery princess of Prince Beizhen’s household is being given away in marriage. Today is the joyous occasion itself!”

The envoy’s eyes practically bulged. He stared rigidly ahead and pressed on: “Given in marriage? Which daughter?”

The passerby stared at this out-of-towner with his thick capital accent. “Prince Beizhen has only one daughter. Naturally it is Commandery Princess Han Yao!”

“Oh — no—!” The envoy slapped his thigh in desperation.

Just by a matter of days, and already — how had Prince Beizhen’s household gone and married off their daughter? His Majesty had been intending to send Han Yao to the Tiefu king’s encampment as a marriage alliance! How could Prince Beizhen’s household have given her away in marriage?

At this thought, the envoy hitched up his robes and made to charge inside, attendants at his heels.

But the guards at the gate brought him to a halt, impassively demanding to see his invitation.

The envoy had no invitation. He announced in clipped tones that he was an imperially appointed envoy from the capital, here to deliver an edict.

The guards then asked him to produce his official credential tablet and the imperial edict. But the envoy had been stripped to nothing at the waystation, robbed of every last thing he possessed — what did he have to show?

And so the guards, without so much as announcing him to the household, simply drove him and his attendants away from the gates.

The outcome was that by the time the envoy finally, by great fortune, spotted a familiar face from the capital at the gate — Qingyang, one of the Shizi’s personal guards — it was already noon the following day.

After Qingyang verified his identity and heard the account of his ordeal at the mountain waystation, even Qingyang could not help drawing a sharp breath, repeatedly saying what a truly difficult assignment this had been for the envoy.

Seeing him go on and on without end, the envoy grew impatient and said: “Would you please just let me inside to see Prince Beizhen?”

Only then did Qingyang snap to his senses and hastily led the envoy into the household.

As the envoy made his way through the compound, festive crimson met his eyes at every turn. With each step he took, his spirit deflated further, until at last the envoy’s own resolve had entirely given out: the Tiefu king was hardly a man who collected other men’s worn-out sandals. The young commandery princess had already bowed before heaven and earth. The bridal chamber had in all likelihood already been entered.

Transmitting the imperial edict now would serve no purpose whatsoever beyond casting a shadow over a joyous occasion.

When he was finally brought before Prince Beizhen, the Prince asked with feigned ignorance what edict he had come to deliver.

The envoy, drained of all energy, relayed the contents of the edict, then asked Prince Beizhen whether he had perhaps caught wind of something and hastened to marry off the young commandery princess for that reason.

Prince Beizhen furrowed his brow. “Here in Liang Zhou, so remote from everything, how could I possibly hear news from the capital? Besides, my daughter and young General Zhao have long been mutually fond of one another — a young man of marrying age, a young woman of marrying age, it is quite natural. Had I known in advance of His Majesty’s intentions, I would of course never have dared arrange the betrothal or the wedding. But as it stands — you have arrived the day after the wedding, Envoy. What… what is to be done about this?”

The envoy had not initially known who the young commandery princess had been given in marriage to. But upon learning she had wed the son of Supreme Commander Zhao Dong — the very child raised by Princess Yuyang — whatever remaining indignation had been welling up inside him was swallowed whole.

He had come from the capital. Princess Yuyang was the kind of woman who dared fling a dish at the Emperor himself. To arrive the day after her son’s wedding and tell the princess that her son had stolen away the Tiefu king’s intended marriage consort — that simply would not do.

The envoy had come to feel that this entire assignment had been accursed from start to finish. After exchanging a few rueful sighs with Prince Beizhen, he took his leave on uncertain steps and departed the household, making haste back to the capital to report the turn of events in Liang Zhou to His Majesty.

Zhao Gui Bei, standing at Han Linfeng’s side in the corridor, had been quietly listening to the movements inside the reception hall. When he saw the envoy depart, he let out a long, slow breath of relief.

Since the imperial edict had not been successfully delivered, Han Yao’s situation could be considered half resolved. Surely His Majesty could not compel a subject’s wife to go in a marriage alliance? That would be the kind of thing written into the history books in perpetuity.

Han Linfeng saw Zhao Gui Bei turn to go and caught him by the arm. “Where are you off to?”

Zhao Gui Bei lowered his voice. “I’m going to tell Yaoyao. Breakfast was thin rice porridge — she does not like it. I was thinking I should ask the kitchen to prepare some roasted sweet potatoes for her.”

Since Zhao Dong had no residence of his own in the area, and the wedding date was already so rushed, the ceremony had not been held in Hui City but rather in the Wang household in Liang Zhou.

Both the General and the Princess had attended the ceremony the day before. The General had held himself together tolerably well — his son had behaved shamefully, seducing a young commandery princess — but at least the boy had settled down and established a household of his own.

It was the mother-in-law, Princess Yuyang, whose expression had been less agreeable. She had not smiled once from beginning to end, and seeing this, Han Yao had felt unsettled in her heart, with no small measure of apprehension.

As a result, Han Yao was still cocooned in her bedding and refusing to get up, and the thought of having to serve tea to her mother-in-law the princess shortly made her lose even more of her appetite.

What worried Han Yao most was whether, even having married Zhao Gui Bei, she could truly escape the Emperor’s edict.

Han Yao had no idea that the envoy had spent the previous two days being stripped of his clothes and robbed. For the past several days, she had been unable to eat or sleep in peace. Even the previous night, their wedding night, there had been nothing of the sweet intimacy that such a night should hold.

The new bride had simply wrapped her arms around the groom and wept in his embrace all night long, until young General Zhao’s heart had been all but wept to dissolution.

Zhao Gui Bei watched Han Yao in this state and his heart ached for her. Now, having seen the envoy arrive empty-handed without the imperial edict to create any difficulties, he wanted to go and tell Han Yao the good news at once, so that she might set her mind at rest and eat something.

Meanwhile, it so happened that as their son had been married the day before, Princess Yuyang had come from Hui City and was temporarily residing in Prince Beizhen’s household.

She was awaiting the new couple to come and serve her a cup of tea, but Yuyang had already sent someone to summon the Shizi’s consort to her early.

Before Luoyun arrived, the princess had still been drinking the herbal remedy that Luoyun had formulated for her.

This remedy seemed to suit her constitution well. Since she had begun taking it, her lower abdomen had felt warm and pleasant, and her monthly cycle had become regular and free of discomfort.

When she had stormed out of Shizi’s residence in a fit of pique, Luoyun had still had her people pack up a generous quantity of the medicine for her to take along.

Princess Yuyang had initially intended to throw it all away, but then reasoned that she might sever ties with a cunning woman without taking her grievance out on her own body — and so continued drinking the remedy.

Now, knowing that Luoyun was about to come before her, Princess Yuyang had no wish to appear to be accepting any favors. Though the herbal soup was not yet finished, she had it taken away and replaced with a bowl of lotus seed, cured ham, and squab broth to drink instead.

When Luoyun came to pay her respects, Princess Yuyang did not so much as lift her eyelids. She simply went on drinking from her bowl, unhurried and unconcerned.

After Luoyun had remained kneeling for some time, the princess finally spoke, at her own leisurely pace: “When I heard that an envoy had come to deliver an imperial edict, I learned for the first time that my royal father had intended to send that child Han Yao off in a marriage alliance. Yet it so happened that at precisely this juncture, my son was caught out in his conduct by your household — and then it was a mad rush to get them married. Is it not just a shade too convenient?”

Luoyun, knowing the princess had come to settle scores, remained composed and said simply: “Young General Zhao came to the household several times in secret to see my young sister-in-law. I, as her sister-in-law, failed to notice — that failing is indeed mine to own. But since the two of them are now wed, to dwell on these details further would not reflect well on either of their reputations.”

Princess Yuyang understood this reasoning well enough. Even if the Han family had truly known about the impending marriage alliance, Zhao Gui Bei had married Han Yao of his own free will — he had not been entrapped by any deliberate scheme. If it truly came to an accounting, that boy Gui Bei would have to bear the charge of having acted in full knowledge of what he was doing.

Yet this very thought only made Princess Yuyang all the more aggrieved. The look in her eyes as she regarded Su Luoyun grew sharper, and her words carried equal ill temper: “The Shizi’s consort is far too courteous. Why do you continue to kneel? Am I expected to come down and help you up myself?”

Su Luoyun, however, showed no inclination to rise. Instead, she lowered herself into another deep bow before Princess Yuyang and said earnestly: “It is right and proper that Your Highness harbors resentment toward me. The foundation of any bond between two people is a genuine and unaffected warmth in the heart. Yet Han Yao that child is pure in nature, gentle in temperament, and most dutiful and deferential in all things. Now that she has received this great fortune and become your daughter-in-law, it is the blessing of a lifetime. I only hope that Your Highness will not, on account of your feelings toward me, look upon that child with a cold eye—”

Princess Yuyang cut her off with cool indifference: “Han Yao, having married into the Zhao family, is now naturally a woman of the Zhao family. I did not grow up in some fish market or back-alley bazaar — I am not the sort of petty woman who takes out her resentment on a daughter-in-law. I only hope that in the future, you will not find cause to maintain too close a connection with my household. I have no wish to see my daughter-in-law learning bad habits.”

Su Luoyun knew Princess Yuyang’s character well. Though she had a fierce temper, she was not a woman who plotted or schemed in secret. Having said what she said, so long as Luoyun kept her visits to her young sister-in-law sparse in future, Han Yao would not be made to suffer at her mother-in-law’s hands.

And besides — there was still a distinctly recognizable medicinal scent in this room that had clearly not fully dissipated.