Ding Pei noticed Su Hongmeng’s expression shift slightly, yet she did not panic. Assuming the bearing of a household mistress, she turned to Su Luoyun and said: “You are a daughter of the Su family — if you had a new recipe, you should not have kept it to yourself to begin with. Even if the recipe was leaked, it happened within the family’s own shop. How can you come and question your father as though it were stolen by some thief? Besides, you were at the shop preparing the recipe all along — it is quite possible that one of the artisans happened to observe you at work and learned the method without intending to. These are all seasoned old hands at the shop; some have been working for the Su family since your grandfather’s time. Surely you cannot ask your father to go and interrogate them and make enemies of all the old staff?”

Su Luoyun said nothing, waiting only for her father to deliver a fair judgment.

But Su Hongmeng fell silent, seemingly weighing the implications of the matter.

In a business like a fragrance shop — much like a restaurant — nothing was more ruinous than changing artisans and losing experienced hands. Though Su Hongmeng was quite certain there was something concealed in all of this, Ding Shi’s words were not without reason. His household was large and his enterprise extensive; sometimes one had to hold back for fear of collateral damage — he would need to give it careful consideration.

After a long while, Su Luoyun finally heard Su Hongmeng say: “Your mother makes a fair point. Even if they stole your recipe, we must take the long view. The recipe has, after all, remained within the family shop. I will look into it gradually, and once I have found something, we can decide how to handle it then.”

Though Su Luoyun had anticipated her father’s response long before, she could not suppress the disappointment that rose within her all the same.

She drew a slow, deep breath, rose to her feet, and addressed her father: “You are right — my grievance is not worth making enemies of a few experienced artisans. But Father, what of the share of profits you promised me? How is that to be reckoned?”

Before Su Hongmeng could speak, Ding Pei got in first: “Your father originally agreed to give you two parts in ten from the sale of the new fragrance. What was sold before, I will have the accounts office settle with you. But now that the Pale Pear Fragrance Balm is no longer being made, how can we give you a share going forward? Let us say this: if you can devise another new fragrance that sells well, I will take it upon myself to decide on your father’s behalf — three parts in ten for you. How does that sound?”

Su Luoyun broke into a full, cold smile: “I have heard that you come from a humble background and had little schooling, and know nothing of the sages’ rites, righteousness, wisdom, and good faith — but your abacus works better than any accounts clerk. Since you have already thought it all through, I shall not be petty about it. Those two parts in ten — I will not take them.”

It was only later, through Nanny Tian, that Su Luoyun came to learn the full story of how this Madam Ding had come to know her father — a history that seemed to have been anything but smooth.

Reportedly, Ding Pei’s ancestors had once included distinguished Confucian scholars of great renown, and the family had been comfortably well-off. But by the time of her grandfather’s generation, they had fallen into utter decline. She had lost both parents early in life and lived as a dependent in her uncle’s household. Later she encountered Su Hongmeng, and from that point on she attached herself entirely to him.

Bearing the added distinction of being the eighteenth-generation impoverished descendant of a great Confucian scholar, Su Hongmeng’s keeping of this secret beauty had all the trappings of a stage drama — the devoted young man rescuing the damsel in distress — deeply moving to all who heard it.

Though Ding Pei had received little formal education, she had from childhood known how to read a room and make herself agreeable, a skill that the dignified Hu Shi could never have matched. It made Su Hongmeng feel that this privately cultivated affection had far more flavor than the arranged match brokered by his parents.

She was deeply sensitive about her lowly origins — especially this particular Yun Bin Tian Shang – Chapter of her past as a kept mistress — and never spoke of it to anyone.

Ding Pei understood her own background better than anyone. Hearing Su Luoyun’s veiled mockery that she knew nothing of propriety, righteousness, or conscience, her expression turned immediately unpleasant.

Su Hongmeng, however, only noticed the second half of what his daughter had said. His daughter was actually waiving the profits — naturally, that was a welcome development.

Money was flowing out of the household like water these days; that girl Caijian was outfitting her trousseau as though she meant to strip the entire Su family bare and carry it away with her.

If his daughters could all be this sensible, his burdens would lighten considerably.

Before Su Hongmeng had the chance to smile with satisfaction, Su Luoyun continued: “However, I have long wished to open a small shop to occupy my time. Father has a great many shops under your name, and I should like one of the prosperous ones in the southern part of the city. Let those profits be counted as the price of the shop, and have it transferred into my name. Additionally, the procedure for entering my name into the Fragrance Guild’s registry — that too must be handled separately by Father on my behalf.”

Of the two things she was asking for, it was actually the registration into the Fragrance Guild that was the more difficult to obtain.

The fragrance trade in the capital was a finite business — it was precisely because there were few wolves that there was enough meat to go around.

Anyone who came from outside the capital wishing to open a shop had to first be entered into the capital’s Fragrance Guild Registry, obtain the approval of the leading figures within the guild, and only then could they open a shop and conduct business.

Without that, if one came barging in uninvited, one would only be squeezed out and forced to leave. This was precisely why Su Luoyun, despite already possessing a new recipe, had not been able to open her own shop to sell it.

Ding Pei gave a cold laugh: “You said that I have a good head for figures — I think it is you who works the abacus. How much would your two parts in ten even amount to? And yet you want to exchange it for a shop, and on top of that enter the guild and start fresh on your own footing. That is quite an audacious demand.”

Su Luoyun replied just as coldly: “Your own daughter’s wedding demands mountains of gold and silver, and every bit of it is given without question. I only want a shop as compensation — how is that audacious? Is my recipe simply to be stolen by a heartless thief within the household and left at that? If everyone thinks a blind girl is easy prey, then there is no need to sit here and haggle. I will go directly to the prefect’s office and beat the drum. Let the magistrate speak for this motherless blind girl… If it comes to that, let all those who have bullied me bleed from all seven orifices and come to no good end…”

As she said this, her eyes — their focus lost — stared blankly and directly at Su Hongmeng.

Su Hongmeng’s heart gave a jolt at the sight of it. This daughter of his, when truly pushed to the limit, was genuinely capable of throwing all caution to the wind.

Su Hongmeng had not known about any of this; he listened with widening eyes, suspicion turning in his gaze toward Ding Shi’s face.

Ding Shi had underestimated the blind Su Luoyun. She had truly never expected that, several days after the fact, Su Luoyun would have been able to trace things back to the apothecary. It had been a moment of carelessness on her part — she should never have sent her own manservant to buy the medicine.

Even as this thought crossed her mind, Ding Shi had already dissolved into tears, her face a picture of fragile grief: “How would I know what my servants buy? The courtyard has been overrun with mice these past few days — perhaps Wang San bought it to poison them. How could things be as alarming as Luoyun makes them sound?”

Su Luoyun had anticipated this excuse long before. She continued, unhurried and composed: “Ordinary arsenic rat poison costs no more than three copper coins a packet. Yet three qian of this refined aconite root would sell for a full tael of silver. To think that the First Mistress’s manservant has such a well-lined purse — that even to kill a mouse, he selects the most costly of medicines? Father, my own grievance is a small matter. But you had best look carefully into your own household. If there truly is a thief within these walls, who is to say that one day your own tea might not be laced with aconite or arsenic?”

That final line struck her father at his most vulnerable point. Su Hongmeng felt a cold sweat break out along his spine.

He glared at Ding Shi and said in a low, grave voice: “Someone — bring Wang San from the Madam’s courtyard here at once!”

Wang San at first had no idea why he had been summoned. But once he understood that Su Hongmeng was questioning him, he panicked and cast a fleeting look toward Ding Shi. Ding Shi was thrown into brief confusion — but quickly composed herself, her expression steady, a smile at the corners of her lips that never reached her eyes, her words gentle on the surface yet barbed within: “The master is asking you questions — simply tell the truth. You were always running to the shop; if you colluded with someone there and made some private deal, that is not so grave an offense. Just say it plainly. Given that you have always been clever and capable, the master and I will deal with you leniently…”

Wang San was quick-witted; upon hearing these words, he seemed to receive some illumination, and knelt down, knocking his head repeatedly against the floor: “I had heard the master say that the recipe was rare and precious, and greed got the better of me. When I saw that maid Xiangcao take out the recipe, I thought that if I could copy it, I could surely sell it for a good price. So the next day I obtained some aconite root, wanting to put Xiangcao to sleep for a spell. I only copied the recipe — I had no intention of harming anyone!”

Su Hongmeng asked, his face stone cold: “And to whom did you sell the recipe?”

Wang San stole another glance at Ding Shi, then clenched his teeth and said: “I sold it to… Master Xiao at the shop. He saw the recipe was good, asked no questions about where it came from, and paid me five taels of silver for it…”

At that moment, someone found five taels of silver ingots beneath Wang San’s bed — which did seem to corroborate his account. It appeared as though, having seen Xiangcao alone and unguarded, he had acted on a sudden impulse driven by greed.

But Xiangcao had sharp eyes. She leaned close and whispered to Su Luoyun: “Young Mistress, Ding Shi’s old serving woman has disappeared. Could she have gone to the shop to coordinate a matching story with Master Xiao?”

Su Luoyun, hearing this, gave only a faint cold smile. She had previously thought her stepmother was merely skilled at stirring up trouble before their father — nothing more than the usual maneuverings of the inner quarters. But the poisoning of Xiangcao had made her understand that she had underestimated her stepmother’s vicious cunning. This woman seemed capable of virtually anything.

Ding Shi had by now regained her composure and recovered her sense of direction. She turned to address Wang San, who was still kneeling on the ground: “The Su household has no place for a person of your filthy mind. However, what you have done amounts to no more than being a thief within the household. The stolen silver will be returned, and no real loss has been done to the shop. Even if you were handed over to the authorities, it would be no more than ten strokes of the board and three to five days of detention.”

Then she turned to Su Hongmeng and added: “Only, Master — he has seen the recipe. If he is sent to the authorities and receives only a few strokes of the board, he might bear a grudge afterward and leak it to another household. That would be a true loss to our family. This matter must be carefully considered…”

Su Hongmeng cast Ding Pei an oblique glare, seemed about to say something, then forcibly restrained himself and said nothing, his face dark.

Wang San, hearing this, immediately caught the implication, and knocked his forehead to the floor in rapid succession: “The master and mistress have always been good to me. If you are willing to spare me this once and not send me before the magistrate, I swear to heaven I will never let the recipe leak. If I break this vow, may lightning strike me dead!”

The Su family was a merchant household, without the fierce authority of a princely estate that could have servants beaten to death at a moment’s notice. When faced with a disobedient servant, the most they could do was sell him off through a broker. If they wished to silence someone by force, the servant’s family would come causing trouble, and even with Su Hongmeng’s small government position, he would find himself embroiled in a lawsuit.

Ding Pei had calculated that Su Hongmeng would not be willing to risk the recipe leaking outside, which was why she had spoken as she did — to give Su Hongmeng cause for hesitation in how he handled the matter.

As for Wang San, he was a distant relation on her maternal side, connected by a circuitous family tie. She would compensate him afterward with silver and send him on his way.

Sure enough, after glaring at Wang San and roundly berating him, Su Hongmeng only had the manservant bound and locked in the woodshed, without moving to deal with him further.

Finally, he let out a long sigh toward Su Luoyun and said: “When a household grows large, it inevitably harbors a rat or two gnawing through the walls. He has admitted it was his own greed — it has nothing to do with your mother. Let us settle it this way: from now on, I will increase your monthly allowance. As for the recipe, fortunately he did not manage to sell it to an outside household. I will deal harshly with Wang San and that muddleheaded Master Xiao… But all of this is household trouble — let us not go spreading it about.”

It was evident that even though Su Hongmeng had now come to understand the full picture, he had no desire to pursue the matter further. He made no mention of compensating Xiangcao or opening a new shop for Su Luoyun — he merely wanted to smooth things over and muddle through.

Before her father had even finished speaking, Su Luoyun slammed her palm down hard on the table: “Even clay figures have a little backbone. My fragrance balm can be dressed up as a new product simply by adding a pinch of crushed pearl powder? My maid can be dosed with poison and we are all expected to pretend it never happened? If someone has so thoroughly abandoned all shame, why should I go on covering for the Su family? What is household disgrace and what is public disgrace? If I am to have no peace, then no one else shall either. In any case, before I came here, I had already prepared a written complaint, along with the evidence, and placed it in Nanny Tian’s hands. She is at the magistrate’s gate right now, along with the apothecary’s shop assistant and the physician who treated Xiangcao — witnesses and evidence all in order. If she does not see me obtain justice, she will beat the drum at the magistrate’s gate to lodge a formal grievance. Mother, may your spirit in heaven be my witness. Let all those who have wronged your daughter bleed from all seven orifices and come to no good end…”

As she spoke these words, her unfocused eyes stared straight and unblinking in the direction of Su Hongmeng.

And the sight of it made Su Hongmeng’s heart lurch within his chest. This daughter of his — when truly driven to her limit — was genuinely capable of throwing everything to the wind without a second thought.