However, she could foster-raise the cat — but the unpleasant terms had to be stated upfront.

Su Luoyun cradled the kitten in her arms and hesitated. “Living creatures like this inevitably fall ill or run away. Although I will take every care, if something should happen to it, Shizi will not blame me, will he?”

“Birth, aging, illness, and death — these are the common lot of all living things. Why would I blame you?” Han Linfeng replied, eyes lowered.

Hearing this, Su Luoyun let slip a rare smile — the first in several days.

Her eyes ordinarily carried a cool, unapproachable clarity; yet the moment she smiled, her thick, dark, and long-arched lashes framed two crescent curves that made her look utterly charming.

Han Linfeng watched as the young woman gently rubbed her cheek against the tiny kitten’s fur, and something inside his own chest seemed to be softly nuzzled in turn, leaving it pleasantly unsettled.

When he came back to himself, he found his long arm half-raised — a mere breath away from reaching out to stroke her other rosy cheek…

He frowned at his half-lifted hand, seemingly startled by his own loss of control, and forcibly redirected the gesture. He slipped the account ledger from her hands, bid Su Luoyun a brief farewell, and vaulted over the courtyard wall.

Su Luoyun had no idea the Shizi had just lost his composure. She simply hugged the kitten and called for Xiangcao to find some goat’s milk, murmuring to herself: “Since you are white as snow all over, I shall call you Little Snow!”

On the other side of the wall, Qingyu waited for the Shizi to drop down, then cautiously sidled over. “Shizi… have you taken a liking to this Miss Su?”

He was not a particularly perceptive man, yet even he had sensed something amiss. Even if the Shizi pitied this blind young woman, surely he was looking after her a bit too much?

To say nothing of the fact that the Shizi was not the sort of person who would go out of his way to ingratiate himself with any woman — not even the daughters of noble marquis houses who openly admired him had ever received such attentive consideration.

And yet, simply because the Shizi had overheard Miss Su teasing Little Rong from his side of the courtyard wall one day — saying that if she also had a cat, it would certainly be wonderfully warm to hold in bed on winter nights — he had acted on it. Qingyu had heard it too, and had completely forgotten the remark. But several days later, the Shizi had specifically procured this just-weaned kitten from a young lord of the Duke of Ji’s household and taken pains to deliver it to her.

Qingyu felt that his young master had been too long in lonely isolation, and that some faint earthly desire had now stirred in him — a budding fondness for the blind girl.

He had to speak up and remind the Shizi, hoping he understood that there were many improprieties to this private attachment.

Han Linfeng heard these words and could not help but furrow his brows; his steps faltered briefly. He did not feel that he had developed feelings for Su Luoyun.

Between himself and her, it was nothing more than a series of coincidences, from which he had come to feel a measure of compassion for this blind young woman.

She was simply a woman of pitiable circumstances who was striving to live with a shred of dignity — nothing more.

Han Linfeng was not a man of leisure who idled his days reading romantic tales of talented scholars and beautiful ladies; he also understood perfectly well what manner of wife he should take in the future.

By every measure, the young woman next door was not a suitable match.

Qingyu’s reminder was apt. He himself had apparently been too long immersed in this quiet, unhurried, languid life of the hutong.

“Qingyu, you are overthinking things. I know what I am doing.” With those words, Han Linfeng swept his long sleeves and strode with great steps toward the study.

Qingyu followed behind his young master, exhaling a quiet breath of relief. He knew the Shizi’s character well — the man possessed an iron self-command.

Since his young master said he was overthinking it, there would be no further entanglement with Miss Su of the Su family.

* * *

As for Su Luoyun, the matter she had long been anxiously awaiting soon showed progress.

It was said that while the Emperor was playing cuju with a group of young courtiers inside the palace, someone suddenly brought up the disaster in Shanxi and the treasury’s inability to fill the shortfall. Then somehow the conversation turned to how the late Emperor Xuanzong had once issued a decree selling off surplus imperial tribute goods — an act that had been praised by officials throughout the court as a mark of sage governance.

Emperor Huizong had been troubled for a long time over the Shanxi famine. He had not expected that, in the middle of playing a game with a group of young men, inspiration would suddenly flash through his mind.

That day, the Emperor abandoned the match partway through, returned to the imperial study in high spirits, and summoned the officials of the Bureau of Monopolies, inquiring about the inventory of imperial tribute stores.

The Director of the Bureau, suddenly called before the Emperor for questioning, was flustered. He claimed the Emperor’s questions were so unexpected that he had not yet had time to examine the account ledgers, and answered everything with vague, equivocal replies that amounted to knowing nothing at all.

By some remarkable coincidence, at that very moment, a young eunuch attending at the side was sorting through memorial boxes submitted by the various ministries for the Emperor, and discovered a ledger tucked inside the memorial box submitted by the Bureau of Monopolies.

It was obvious that some careless civil official at the Bureau had let the ledger slip in among the memorials and packaged everything up together for submission.

When the young eunuch helpfully returned the ledger to the Director, the Director’s body began to shake violently.

He could not believe this was mere coincidence. He was certain the Emperor had heard some rumor and was deliberately using the ledger to pressure him — a deliberate test.

When the Emperor genially asked how large this year’s imperial tribute inventory was, and how much silver its sale might yield, the Director dared not conceal the truth and reported the exact figures.

The Emperor was greatly satisfied and directed the Director to implement the matter quickly, handing the proceeds of the sale over to the Ministry of Finance for disaster relief.

The Emperor was, however, rather puzzled: the weather of late was not particularly hot, and blocks of cooling ice had been placed in the imperial study, so why was the kneeling Director sweating so profusely? When he rose, the back of his official robes was thoroughly soaked through.

In any case, after that day, the gates of the Bureau of Monopolies were shut tight. Every official and minor clerk connected to the matter was confined to the Bureau’s rear courtyard for a full day and night.

The Director flew into a furious rage, demanding an investigation into how the ledger had ended up in the Emperor’s hands.

Others managed well enough, but Su Hongmeng broke out in a cold sweat. Fortunately, being of merchant stock, he was practiced in brazen lying without the slightest change of expression. Even as he howled and wailed from the paddling administered to his backside, he did not forget to cry out his innocence, deflecting the blame for the missing ledger onto another warehouse keeper who had been cross-checking the accounts.

The Director investigated every direction and came up empty-handed. In the end, he could only announce, with a darkened face, that the funds would have to be made up, and that they had all better guard their own mouths carefully if they wished to keep their heads. Once the stakes were made plain, the gathering dispersed on the spot.

Su Hongmeng had never suffered such a beating in his life. The pain left him unable to walk, and he could only have his servants carry him home on a plank door.

The other warehouse keeper was also lying on a plank, but the moment he emerged from the yamen gates and caught sight of Su Hongmeng, he had a sudden surge of energy — he leaped up, removed his shoe, and beat Su Hongmeng’s face hard with the sole!

The two of them knew their own accounts best. That missing ledger had clearly been in Su Hongmeng’s keeping.

And this scoundrel with the surname Su had the nerve to deny it to the end, even dragging him down with him!

When Su Hongmeng finally made it home, he brought with him not only a battered backside, but also a face covered in shoe-print marks — his dignity utterly destroyed.

Though he had been beaten and humiliated, he still had to slink back home and scrape together the silver.

In principle, the silver had to be disgorged by each party who had swallowed a share of the fat. Yet who would willingly regurgitate a full mouthful once it had been consumed?

Naturally, the Director laid the blame on those below him for leaking word, and after delivering a round of severe blows, further ordered them to contribute the lion’s share.

After all his maneuvering in circles, Su Hongmeng ultimately had no choice but to thoroughly bleed silver, exactly as his daughter had originally advised him.

Because payment was demanded urgently from above, he had no choice but to sell shops and estates. Many were sold at far below their value, leaving him at a substantial hidden loss.

Yet in the course of all this selling, Su Hongmeng discovered many long-buried old accounts, and learned that over the years Ding Shi had been managing the household, she had embezzled a considerable sum of the Su family’s money to subsidize the Ding family.

At this critical juncture, the Su family was in desperate need of funds — every last morsel mattered. Given all this bleeding, how could the Ding family be allowed to sit comfortably on the sidelines?

But extracting flesh from Ding Shi was easier said than done. And so quarreling between husband and wife in the dead of night became a nightly occurrence.

Watching Ding Shi refuse to surrender a single coin, Su Hongmeng felt all his old and new grievances surge up at once. The last vestige of middle-aged composure and deep-set calm abandoned him entirely, and he pressed Ding Shi down into the bedding and gave her a thorough beating.

Unfortunately for Ding Shi, her father and brothers had already been beaten into uselessness at Sweet Water Lane and were still recovering from their injuries at home, leaving no one to stand up for her.

Unable to withstand Su Hongmeng’s beatings, Ding Shi had no choice but to surrender some of her private savings to rescue him.

Su Hongmeng also sought emergency funds from his eldest daughter.

But this eldest daughter of his had apparently inherited his own notorious stinginess, and simply refused to come and see him.

With no other recourse, Su Hongmeng dragged his battered backside and limped his way to Sweet Water Lane.

Once inside the main hall, Su Hongmeng dismissed the servants and confronted her with a grave expression, asking about certain hidden matters.

Speaking of the missing ledger, he suspected Su Luoyun’s involvement — after all, it had vanished not long after she had departed.

Su Luoyun turned the question back on him: where had the ledger ultimately been found?

Upon hearing that it had been found inside the imperial study, Luoyun smiled. “Father, do you believe I possess such heaven-reaching abilities that I could reach directly into the heavenly court?”

Hearing his daughter answer with a question, Su Hongmeng was left speechless. His blind daughter did have a certain cleverness, and had befriended some persons of rank, but the Emperor’s imperial study was still a world away! She certainly had no means of entering and exiting the imperial study at will.

Was it truly possible that someone had carelessly let the ledger slip in with the memorials and deliver it to the imperial study?

Su Luoyun’s expression remained unchanged. After inquiring about her father’s injuries, she even had the leisure to throw cold water: “If Father had simply followed my advice from the beginning, perhaps this beating could have been avoided…”

Su Hongmeng, stubborn as an old mule, refused to admit that he had brought this upon himself through his own short-sightedness. He glared at her. “Don’t play the Monday-morning general with me! The Bureau Director and I had a falling-out, and this is his settling of private scores!”

Su Hongmeng then began lamenting his poverty, opening his mouth to borrow money from his daughter and asking her to sell her shops and land.

Su Luoyun told her father directly that she had done the calculations — the Su family could manage to produce the sum on its own, so he had best not think of squeezing money out of her.

At this point Su Hongmeng was like a scalded duck with no fear left — seeing that at such a critical moment his daughter wanted to stay out of it entirely, he flew into a rage and made to strike her, just as he had dealt with Ding Shi.

But Su Luoyun had come prepared. She said in an unhurried tone that presently a guard from next door would be coming to her household on behalf of the Shizi’s residence to place an order for incense and spices, so her father would do well to exercise some restraint. Otherwise, if bruise marks were left, she would have to spend the effort explaining things to the Shizi.

Su Hongmeng’s heart turned over at that.

He recalled the lawsuit, and then recalled the ordeal of the Ding father and sons. With that restraint weighing on him, he could only lecture Su Luoyun in a stern voice about minding a young woman’s reputation and not bringing disgrace upon the family — and so forth and so on.

Although he had failed to squeeze money out of his daughter, Su Hongmeng managed to cobble together the required sum from here and there, and delivered it.

The most wretched outcome was that, even after bleeding so heavily, he still could not hold onto his official post. While he was convalescing at home, the Bureau Director used the pretext that he had been careless in his duties and miscalculated three minor account entries to dismiss him and expel him from the Bureau of Monopolies.

Su Hongmeng’s ambitions in officialdom had barely stretched their wings before they were shot down mid-flight. Not only had he failed to bring glory to his ancestors — he had also lost a fortune in silver. His heart was choked with fury and indignation.

Things being as they were, Su Hongmeng could only accept his misfortune.

* * *

Though he had paid out a great sum, there was one benefit: he no longer needed to endure Ding Shi holding leverage over him.

His heart had long been seething with suppressed anger, and his battered backside had never fully healed. At times, when he passed by the stable on his way out, he would think back to that day when the Ding father and sons had come to the Su household to slaughter horses and throw their weight around.

Moreover, news of Ding Shi’s scandal seemed to have spread among the neighboring households. These past few days, when Ding Shi accompanied him out to see a physician, Su Hongmeng noticed neighbors standing in their doorways watching them with smiles that seemed to carry hidden meaning.

The Su clan elders had quietly sought out Su Hongmeng several times in private. Their unspoken implication was clear: the Su family’s vast estate must not be allowed to fall into the hands of a prostitute.

In the early years of her marriage, Ding Shi had been deferential and courteous to relatives and friends, seemingly even better at endearing herself than the deceased Hu Shi.

But as the years passed and the Taste of Home restaurant’s business grew ever larger, she began introducing members of her family into the enterprise little by little.

Su Hongmeng had many shops, and the Su clan had no shortage of relatives and associates; whenever a conflict arose with the Ding family members, Ding Shi would invariably take her own people’s side.

As the saying goes: a gift of a peck of rice earns gratitude, but a gift of a bushel earns resentment. Although both sides were supported without purpose, over time each faction had come to see themselves as the rightful masters, and considered even a single bite less of meat to be a great personal wrong.

Now the Su clan’s own relatives had been crowded out one by one by Ding Pei until they were in disarray — and the missing meat was far more than a single piece.

Now that Ding Pei’s misconduct had finally been exposed, the Su clan elders were fully primed, their resolve firmly anchored in the virtuous principle that “it is better to destroy one marriage than to tear down one temple.” Day after day they urged Su Hongmeng to put away his wife and take another as soon as possible.

Su Hongmeng had originally only intended to send Ding Shi back to her family home to wait out the storm. If she went quietly, he truly had no desire to formally repudiate her.

After all, they had been husband and wife for many years, and she had borne him two sons and a daughter. What is more, she had never concealed her past from him — it seemed too heartless to turn his face against her entirely.

But Ding Shi had used the matter of the imperial tribute sale to hold power over him, and had set her brothers on him like vicious hounds to cause a scene at his home. And then came the dismissal, the beating, and the loss of silver.

All these misfortunes piled upon one another only deepened Su Hongmeng’s conviction that Ding Shi was a curse upon his life.

Combined with days of earnest persuasion from the clan relatives, Su Hongmeng steeled his resolve and decided to put away his wife and take a new one.

One morning, simply because the dishes Ding Shi had prepared were a little too salty, Su Hongmeng flew into a rage and accused her of disrespecting her husband and being arrogant and willful. He at once summoned the clan elders as witnesses and wrote out a letter of repudiation, formally divorcing Ding Shi.

Both Su Caijian and brothers Su Jinguan and Su Jincheng stood there dumbfounded — merely because a dish did not suit his palate, how had it come to their mother being divorced?

Several maidservants held Ding Shi down so she could not snatch the letter. Looking at her blank-faced children, she screamed in fury: “What are you all standing there for? Go and beg your father not to press his thumbprint down!”

Jolted awake by Ding Shi’s cry, the three siblings came to their senses at last. Su Jinguan lunged forward in a single step, trying to snatch the document from their father’s hands.

But the clan uncles who had been summoned were no pushover either; they planted their walking sticks across the path and refused to let the two brothers approach.

In any case, that day the Su household was exceedingly tumultuous. With several clan uncles providing their authority, Su Hongmeng pressed his thumbprint to the letter of repudiation and formally divorced Ding Shi.

The three children wailed bitterly. Ding Shi sobbed and cried that none of her children had yet married, and that so long as she had a single breath left in her body, she would go nowhere.

Watching his former wife weeping with her face haggard and her hair in disheveled disarray, Su Hongmeng’s heart was in fact somewhat soured. With Su Caijian and the others kneeling and pleading bitterly, he even had a moment of softening — thinking of letting Ding Shi remain in the house for the time being.

But the several clan elders worried that Ding Shi might stage a sudden revival, and kept urging him: if the divorced wife did not leave the house, how would outsiders know the Su family had cleansed its disgrace? If he were to marry again in the future, it would not look well.

And so, under the persuasion of the “marriage-wrecking” clan elders, Su Hongmeng disregarded his children’s weeping pleas, had Ding Shi’s belongings packed up, and sent her away in a horse carriage back to the Ding family.

That day, Xiangcao had gone out to buy things and happened to pass through the Su family’s lane. Seeing a crowd of people gathered at the alley entrance, she took a glance at the commotion and caught sight of a maidservant violently dragging Ding Shi toward the carriage.

Ding Shi’s state was wretched beyond words. The shoes had been yanked from her feet; she was shoved up into the carriage disheveled and in disarray, tossed in like a sack of rags.

Xiangcao watched the surrounding crowd’s pointing and whispering, felt deeply gratified, and hurried back to tell the eldest young lady what she had seen.

Su Luoyun had long since anticipated that once her father had settled matters with the Bureau of Monopolies, he would deal with Ding Shi.

She felt no particular sense of surprise or elation. She simply went to her mother’s memorial tablet and placed fresh incense and added offerings of fruit.

If her mother were still alive and heard such news, she would not, perhaps, feel too greatly pleased.

Ding Shi was despicable, yes — but her father, in casting out the mother of his children, had not left even a shred of dignity to a woman who had shared his pillow for more than a decade.

How he drove away this former wife was so very much alike the way he had once disregarded her own mother. A man so inconstant in his affections left the heart cold.

Luoyun had grown older and seemed to have gradually come to understand her mother’s heart.

Now, at last, she understood: what had caused her mother to wither so swiftly was not merely her father’s taking of a new love.

Her mother’s wound was one of the heart — she had finally understood that the man she had entrusted herself to and devotedly loved her whole life was never worth loving at all. That was the most utterly hopeless, most agonizing thing of all.

And so, when Xiangcao asked the eldest young lady if she wished to go back to the Su household to watch the spectacle, she replied coolly: “Fortunately, I cannot see — otherwise such a spectacle, even witnessed, would feel like grime on the eyes…”

With Ding Shi gone from the Su family, there was merely one fewer person to add obstacles and trip her up. As for her father — he would no doubt soon take another wife, and what character that new wife would have remained to be seen.

Su Luoyun had never believed that one’s life became better simply because another person fell from grace. And so she still had to work diligently and live well by her own efforts.

* * *

Han Shizi had done her such an enormous favor that she had to express her gratitude somehow. Yet a favor of this magnitude was clearly not repaid by merely purchasing a few boxes of chestnut cakes.

Su Luoyun thought it over, then spent a considerable sum purchasing a piece of mutton-fat white jade, roughly the size of a palm, and commissioned someone to carve it into a figurine of the Laughing Buddha.

The jade was superb — translucent and lustrous, so clear it gleamed like water throughout the plump, rounded belly.

This jade ornament was not a personal item to be carried on one’s person, and so it also avoided the impropriety of a man and woman exchanging gifts in private.

A Laughing Buddha like this, always smiling and open-mouthed, was perfectly suited as a gift for a person of noble standing. Su Luoyun had Xiangcao place it in a box, then brought her younger brother along to deliver it personally to the Shizi’s residence.

However, Han Shizi appeared to have guests and did not come out to receive her immediately. He simply had the household steward accept the jade Buddha on his behalf.

Since the honored one was occupied, Su Luoyun naturally did not dare to intrude further, and took her leave with her younger brother.

But just as they were turning into Sweet Water Lane, she heard the sound of horses and carriages rolling out from Qingyu Lane — the Shizi was apparently heading out again for some excursion.

As was their usual practice, Su Luoyun habitually stopped at the lane entrance to exchange a few pleasantries with the Shizi when he passed.

All the more so since she had just delivered a gift without being able to see him in person.

On ordinary occasions, the Wang family’s carriage would slow to a stop upon catching sight of their friendly neighbor from next door. But today, the carriage passed by the siblings as if it were rushing to the front lines for battle — whistling past them so swiftly that the gust of air puffed up both their sleeves.

Su Luoyun paid it no mind, thinking the Shizi must have urgent business elsewhere.

But in the days that followed, whether morning or evening, she never again encountered the Shizi taking a leisurely stroll at the lane entrance.

As time went on, Su Luoyun finally understood: the Shizi seemed to be avoiding her.

Though she was certain she had not offended him in any way, when she thought about it, her father’s affairs had truly been a great deal of trouble. The Shizi was kind-hearted and had helped her, but in doing so had taken on risks. The Shizi likely did not wish her to feel she had grasped a hold over him and could make demands of the Shizi’s residence at will — hence this moderate coolness and distance was only natural.

Since the honored one was keeping his distance, she too must have the good sense to read the room and naturally need not deliberately maintain those social courtesies. That would save both sides the trouble of awkward pleasantries morning and evening.

* * *

One day, just as she returned from the shop and had not yet reached the lane entrance, she heard someone calling out behind her.

The voice belonged to Lu Shi — someone she had not seen in quite some time.

He was older than her younger brother and had long since passed the preliminary examinations. However, he too needed to sit for this year’s metropolitan examinations and should at this time have been at home studying hard — she did not know why he had come here.

Though Lu Shi had called out, upon seeing Su Luoyun’s clear and lovely face, he suddenly found himself at a loss for words.

He hesitated a moment, then said: “I heard Father mention your father’s situation, and feared you might be troubled and worried, so I came especially to see you.”

Su Luoyun stepped back and curtseyed. “It was originally through Master Lu’s recommendation that my father entered the Bureau of Monopolies. Now that he has fallen from favor and been dismissed for his mistakes, this has indeed reflected poorly on Master Lu. By rights, it should be my father who comes to offer his apologies — I truly dare not trouble the young gentleman with such concern.”

Lu Shi’s lips moved slightly. He had not come to untangle the grievances between the two families.

Ever since that day when Su Luoyun had set him straight, Lu Shi had spent a long while in reflection. His nature was too pliant and weak — he had allowed himself to be persuaded by his mother and agreed to marry Su Caijian. From that one misstep had come a whole cascade of errors, and he had lost Su Luoyun’s heart. This was entirely his own fault.

Su Luoyun’s refusal to trust him again stemmed from nothing other than the fact that he could not make up his own mind and could not stand on his own two feet.

But he did not want to lose Su Luoyun. Remembering the carefree closeness they had shared growing up together side by side, Lu Shi’s heart always ached with a dull, grinding pain.

After the marriage arrangement with the Su family fell through, his mother had introduced several other prospects to him, all of which Lu Shi turned down without a second thought.

He had set his mind firmly: once he topped the imperial examinations and had an official rank to his name — no longer dependent on his family for support — he would go to the Su family to propose marriage again.

Once he received an official appointment, he would most likely be sent to a distant post to gain experience. He would go somewhere far from home, and bring Su Luoyun with him to live their own life.

That way, Su Luoyun would not need to wait upon a mother-in-law and could live freely as she pleased.

Having made this decision, he had come to see Su Luoyun, to make his feelings clear, to seek her forgiveness, and to ask her to wait for him a little longer.

Su Luoyun listened to Lu Shi’s halting, boyish words, and let out a quiet sigh inwardly. She thought back to something Lu Lingxiu had said to her at the shop two days ago: her brother had quarreled with the family several times more, swearing that he would absolutely not become betrothed to anyone else, and that apart from Su Luoyun of the Su family, he would sooner remain unmarried for the rest of his life. If his mother continued to nag him, he would burn all his books and forget about the autumn examinations.

The Lu family’s mistress had been so worn down by her son’s scenes that, fearing he would ruin his own future, she had no choice but to concede: if he passed the examinations this time and earned his rank, he could marry whomever he wished, and she, as his mother, would not stand in the way.

The Lu family’s mistress knew full well that the Su and Lu families had now completely fallen out, and that the eldest young lady of the Su family was no fool — she would never agree to marry her son again. So why make herself out to be the villain? She might as well let the Su family’s young lady knock him back herself when the time came.

And Lu Lingxiu had earnestly entreated Su Luoyun, saying that with her brother’s metropolitan examination approaching, his mind absolutely must not be thrown into turmoil. If he should slip away and come to find her, saying some foolish things, she begged Su Luoyun to have mercy on her brother’s future prospects and not say anything that would wound him too deeply — only to wait until after this hurdle was passed before saying anything at all.

Su Luoyun had thought at the time that her good friend was worrying unnecessarily. Only now did she find that no one understood a brother better than his own sister — Lu Shi truly still harbored lingering hopes.