Xiangcao had stayed the night at the Shizi’s residence alongside her young mistress, yet she had no knowledge of what had been said behind closed doors between the young mistress and the Shizi — and she too wore an expression of complete shock.
As for Guiyan, he remained convinced that his elder sister had been wronged and was only submitting to a mismatched marriage out of resignation.
Luoyun thus repeated the entire fabrication once more, word for word, as the Emperor had commanded.
As she told it again, she found that even she herself had begun to feel as though it were true.
After all, her private exchanges with Han Linfeng over the garden wall had occurred more than once or twice. There had been late-night tea together, moon-gazing on rainy evenings — when she thought back on it carefully, there was genuine grounds for suspicion of a secret romance.
Even so, everyone exchanged uncertain glances, still finding it difficult to believe that so outlandish a marriage had truly come to pass.
When the assembled household finally dispersed from the room, Nanny Tian noticed that Caijian and her maidservant Xique had vanished. Upon asking the gatekeeper, she learned that Caijian had apparently gone back to the main Su residence to fetch something, and had left in a hurry with her maidservant.
Su Luoyun heard this and understood at once what Caijian was up to.
She pressed her fingers to her temple with a weary sigh. It seemed the gates of the Su household would know no peace today.
Sure enough, by the time the evening meal came around, Caijian had not returned — and Su Hongmeng came rattling up in a small sedan chair, hammering at the gate.
For a man who was supposedly her father, he had remarkably little awareness of events — it was only through Caijian’s mouth that he had come to know even the barest fragment of the truth.
That morning he had gone to the teahouse for tea and chatted idly with a former colleague from the Trade Bureau.
He had even heard the talk circulating about the Sixth Prince’s banquet — some sort of scene that had apparently unfolded at the mountain temple.
He had listened and laughed about it, without so much as a passing thought that it might have anything to do with his own daughter.
Then Caijian had come rushing back home and repeated everything she had overheard at the Su family’s small courtyard, recounting it all for her father.
She had even ended by asking him — what exactly had happened between elder sister and Han Shizi the day she went to the mountain temple, and why had Guiyan taken up a woodcutting axe to go smash down the Shizi’s gates?
Su Hongmeng’s eyes had grown wider and wider as he listened, until at last it dawned on him — the young woman who had been dragged off the mountain path by that good-for-nothing from Beizhen was his own eldest daughter.
“Oh heavens! Oh heavens!” Su Hongmeng stamped his feet and slapped his hands together at the time, his whole body trembling with fury.
It was only then that Caijian finally put it all together. She covered her mouth, struck dumb. “Father, this — what is to be done? If she stirs up a city-wide scandal, I — I’ll never find a husband! She — she’s taking revenge on me! It’s not as though I meant to harm her eyes…”
At this, Caijian clamped her hand over her mouth again, terrified of letting slip her role in her elder sister’s blindness.
Su Hongmeng had no patience for any of that. He pointed at Caijian and her maidservant Xique and declared that if either of them breathed a word of this to another soul, he would break both their legs.
He then ordered Caijian to stay home and not set foot outside, and hurried off in haste toward Sweetwater Alley.
The entire journey, Su Hongmeng was consumed with helpless dismay. His family’s luck had been wretched — he had only just dealt with the matter of Ding Shi, and now the family elders had arranged a series of prospective women for him to look over.
He had finally set his sights on the widowed woman from the Xie family, and had been working out a plan to marry this county magistrate’s elder sister, using the connection to help him find his way back into official life sooner. And now this wretched girl had gone and caused such a disgraceful scene.
With every step of the journey, his fury mounted. By the time he reached the gate, he was kicking it open rather than knocking.
When he came face to face with Luoyun, he repeated what Caijian had reported, his face by now the color of a pig’s liver. “Just what — what is the meaning of all this? Do you have any idea how close your reputation is to being ruined? This is still only rumor — no one yet knows whose daughter it was — but if it truly spreads, what then?”
Su Luoyun said nothing. She had finished her evening meal and was now tallying the accounts for the shop.
The shop’s bookkeeper always carved the figures with a small knife onto bamboo slips, then handed them to Luoyun, who would run her fingertips along the carved notches to read the entries.
She continued moving the abacus beads as she sat, apparently with no intention of defending herself.
Su Hongmeng, infuriated, strode over and snatched the abacus from her hands, then smashed it to pieces on the spot. He kicked at the scattered beads rolling across the floor and declared flatly, “Things have come to this — you can no longer avoid marriage! The family elders brought it up long ago — having a blind unmarried daughter of advancing years is simply not proper. If something truly happened between you and that Shizi, all the more reason to hurry up and marry before word spreads further, to salvage your reputation!”
Luoyun said slowly, “The Shizi said—”
Su Hongmeng was too irritated to listen. “Said what? Said you’re beautiful, like a flower, that a man can’t bear to let you go? Or that he was taken with you and invited you into his household? He saw you as a diversion — did you really think he’d make you his concubine? Now that this matter has blown up so large, he’s no fool — of course he’ll wash his hands of you. Stop dreaming!”
Su Hongmeng drew a long breath. “As it happens, your cousin uncle Shenghong has a nephew around your age — that one called Wang Biao. He lost his wife at thirty and has not remarried. He saw you at a family banquet some time ago and has thought of you ever since. Cousin Uncle Shenghong mentioned it briefly to the nephew, and the man is willing to take you. You can settle the engagement and be married — it will preserve your reputation.”
Luoyun tilted her head slightly and said, with quiet sarcasm, “Cousin Uncle Shenghong has a nephew of such broad-minded generosity? Surely not the one who has been in gambling debt for years running, borrowing money everywhere, getting into brawls? Is he not bothered by my blindness out of the goodness of his heart, or is it my dowry he has his eye on? How is a man like that any better than the Ding family’s son you proposed before? And you have the nerve to mention him to me?”
Su Hongmeng let out a cold snort. “And you think you’re in a position to be choosy? At least he comes from a decent family, and he’s offering to take you as his principal wife. Wang Biao has all his arms and legs — it’s only that without a wife to keep him in line, he’s been inclined to go out and amuse himself. And besides, he’s a relative on our Su family side — we know the kind of person he is. Once you’re married, this household will have some peace. As things stand, never mind Caijian’s prospects for a match — even when I seek to remarry, people will make a point of asking why my daughter has yet to find a husband. And there’s the matter of this scandal you’ve stirred up — do you mean to drag the entire family’s name through the mud with you?”
Hearing her father’s cutting words, Luoyun thought back to what Han Linfeng had said to her.
He had said that unless she married out of this household, she would never be free of the Su family’s endless troubles. It seemed he had been right about that as well.
A marriage of convenience with Han Linfeng, however difficult in a thousand other ways, was still preferable to remaining under the thumb of a father as heartless as Su Hongmeng.
At this thought, she said calmly, “My marriage is not something Father needs to concern himself with. I still have matters to attend to, so I will not keep you further. If there is nothing else, please head home soon.”
But Su Hongmeng was not about to let her brush him off again. Drawing on his full paternal authority, he said with firm conviction, “I have already given my agreement to the other party on your behalf! In a few days, you will marry into that family. If you refuse — if you go back to your old tricks, hanging yourself or cutting your hair and making a scene — I will let you have your way. Better to die than to carry on disgracing yourself like this and ruining the Su family’s name!”
At these words, Su Luoyun let out a soft laugh, and asked with unhurried ease, “Father has truly given his word to the other side?”
Su Hongmeng was not bluffing. The day before, he had been unable to resist the family elders’ persuasion and had very nearly signed the marriage contract then and there.
But then, thinking of that girl’s nature — stubborn as a stone in a cesspit — he had wavered. Yet today, hearing what Caijian had reported, he felt a kind of relief wash over him, as though this match were heaven-sent for the Su family — perfectly timed, perfectly suited.
The business at Shouwei Zhai was being squeezed nearly to ruin by Shouxiang Zhai. If Luoyun married, he would put together a respectable dowry for her, and then naturally reclaim Shouxiang Zhai in the process.
Once she had a husband, she would have someone to rely upon — how could she take a profitable shop with her to her husband’s family? At worst, if they could not make ends meet in the future, he could offer the son-in-law’s household a little assistance.
This time, no matter how the wretched girl ranted and raved, he would not give an inch.
Having said all of this, Su Hongmeng had fully expected Luoyun to weep and make a scene. Instead, she simply reached up to smooth a loose strand of hair from her cheek and said with perfect composure, “If Father has nothing else to say, please head home soon. After all, you are about to marry off a daughter — even if this was rather hastily arranged, some preparation is still needed…”
Su Hongmeng was caught off-guard. He looked back at his daughter’s face again and again, then ventured cautiously, “You’re willing to marry?”
Luoyun smiled and nodded. “Of course I am… It is getting late. Head home now — I won’t keep you for dinner.”
Su Hongmeng said nothing, and after walking a few steps, turned back again. He studied his daughter’s perfectly composed expression and probed further, “If you’re not happy with this man, I can still look for someone better…”
In truth, he was not particularly fond of the man himself. It was only that Su Luoyun appeared soft and gentle on the surface but had a fiercely stubborn nature underneath — if she refused to marry, he needed someone with a forceful enough character to keep her in line. That was why he had settled on Wang Biao.
But if Luoyun had come around on her own and was willing to marry, he actually did want to find someone more reliable for his daughter.
Luoyun thought of the man’s usual conduct — beating and cursing his parents, causing scenes drunk at family banquets — and nodded with satisfaction. “There is no need. Since Father has chosen this man, I have no objections.”
Su Hongmeng let out a great sigh of relief. It seemed his daughter had truly suffered some serious harm at the hands of the Beizhen Shizi, and it was that which had so suddenly changed her mind.
If things stood this way, his discussions with the young widow from the Xie family would go considerably more smoothly.
With this thought settled in his mind, Su Hongmeng finally recovered his composure. He offered Luoyun a few words of consolation, telling her to think of it as being bitten a few times by a mad dog — sleep it off and it would be forgotten.
When he finished speaking, Su Luoyun did not so much as glance in his direction, her expression unusually cold.
Su Hongmeng himself was, in truth, somewhat embarrassed. By any measure, when a daughter had been wronged, a father ought to go and demand justice on her behalf.
But the other party was a member of the imperial family. To go knocking at that door would be to hurl an egg against a stone wall. If the matter were made known to all, never mind Caijian’s prospects for marriage — his own remarriage would fall through as well.
This thought led Su Hongmeng to make a few more excuses to himself for his own cowardice, but Su Luoyun had no wish to hear them. She said coldly, “It is late. Father, you should head home.”
Su Hongmeng made a sound of assent. He did indeed need to hurry back and discuss with his cousin uncle how to finalize Luoyun’s match without delay.
With this in mind, he did not linger any longer, and hurried off once again.
Su Luoyun sat alone in silence for a moment, nudging the scattered abacus beads across the floor with her foot. It was fortunate she had been too idle of mouth just now to mention the Emperor’s marriage decree. Since her father was so enthusiastically playing matchmaker, she would let him bustle about. She could only hope that when the news of the imperial decree spread, he would not be so frightened he fell clean out of his chair. That Wang Biao was a scoundrel — if he found out her father had made a fool of him, there would certainly be a scene.
Then there was the matter of Guiyan and the others, who had continued to half-believe and half-doubt what their elder sister had told them.
It was not until the next day, when servants from the Shizi’s residence arrived bearing gifts, that the dream-like affair finally took on solid, tangible form.
What the Shizi had sent were all items prepared as betrothal gifts for Luoyun.
He had arranged them with remarkable swiftness — six chests arrived at once, filled with complete sets of porcelain ware. These were reportedly a new pattern fresh from the Ru kiln, uniformly a rich blue-green, with fully developed crazing, the body translucent and delicate, of considerable value.
Luoyun could not see them, but when she ran her fingers across the surface and gave each piece a light flick, the tone that rang out from the fine porcelain was wonderfully clear and pleasing.
The six chests of hair ornaments and silk that followed were likewise of the highest quality, without the slightest appearance of having been hastily thrown together as a mere formality.
She later heard from the household steward that in the two years the Shizi had been eating and drinking his way through the capital, he had made many connections among his circle of companions. Though the betrothal gifts had been assembled in a hurry, he had the right channels to draw upon.
The porcelain, for instance, had originally been ordered by the young master of the Lu family.
Young Master Lu, upon learning that his good friend had been forced by the Emperor into a haphazard match and compelled to marry the blind young woman, was seized with deep remorse for not having stopped Han Linfeng that day. Hearing that he needed to put together betrothal gifts and was unwilling to appear so shabby as to invite further mockery, he immediately and willingly yielded his order, giving this freshly fired batch of porcelain to Han Linfeng.
The remaining items had come together in much the same way — no matter how urgently things were needed, Han Shizi always seemed to find a means of procuring quality goods, which were then sent to the Su family’s small courtyard.
Guiyan showed no courtesy to Steward Geng, who came to deliver the gifts. The steward, for his part, regarded the Su household — watching this mountain pheasant transform into a phoenix — with a distinctly complicated expression.
His master’s marriage had come about in the most inexplicable fashion. From what could be gathered, it seemed this Miss Su and the Shizi had been discovered in a private moment together, and left with no choice, the Shizi had petitioned the Emperor to formalize the union through marriage.
But even so — even for a dalliance between a man and a woman — which noble young gentleman in all the capital did not have beauties in abundance? Surely that alone was insufficient cause for the Shizi to marry a woman of such low station, and blind besides.
Even if His Majesty had little regard for the Beizhen Wang line, to bestow such a match was surely too great a slight against the Shizi.
With these thoughts in mind, Steward Geng, along with the manservants and maidservants accompanying him, found their attitudes toward Su Luoyun growing decidedly complicated.
They all felt their master was too inexperienced in the ways of the world, and had been outmaneuvered by a calculating woman of common merchant stock.
The steward had witnessed too many such stories in great households to be without his own views on the matter. In his estimation, this hasty marriage was ill-matched, and was bound to come to no good end.
Even the betrothal gifts themselves had been scraped together from various sources — fine as each item was, the haste of the whole affair was plain enough for anyone to see.
At least the woman’s family was a small, modest household. They did not seem to be particular about such things.
Only — the nerve of that Miss Su’s younger brother and maidservants, putting on airs and making surly faces at the people sent from the Wang residence to deliver gifts!
Truly, when one person from the Su family’s blind daughter flew to the skies, every chicken and dog in that small courtyard rose with her.
All the steward could do was sigh quietly to himself, while keeping a careful eye on the Su family’s expressions as he carried out his deliveries.
Su Luoyun, however, showed none of the unease one might expect from a bride with a wedding fast approaching. She simply continued making arrangements for the days ahead.
For instance, after her younger brother completed his preliminary examinations, he would need to continue his studies. She intended to have him board at Luming Academy in preparation for the major examinations — so that when she entered the Shizi’s residence, he would not be left to go back and live with their father.
Additionally, she had earned a considerable sum over the past year and had used it to purchase a good deal of farmland in several neighboring counties.
So long as there was no war, good farmland, when sold, was a venture that only gained and never lost. She calculated that the Shizi had only a few more years of study in the capital, and that by the time he returned to Liangzhou, she would likely have obtained her freedom as well.
Farmland would earn several years of tenant rent, and when sold on thereafter, was a far better arrangement than keeping the money in a bank vault.
When that time came, she had no intention of remaining in the capital. She would sell the land and the shop, relocate elsewhere, and establish a new household.
Thinking of how her father was still over there busy arranging her engagement to Wang Biao — and that the matter had likely been settled by now — she supposed she ought to let her father know, to prevent him from making such an uproar that he brought upon himself a charge of deceiving the Emperor. That Wang Biao was a scoundrel; if he found out her father had played him for a fool, he would certainly cause trouble.
When she found a moment of leisure that day, she alluded gently to Han Linfeng — remarking that the two of them had been in such a rush that they appeared not yet to have informed Su Hongmeng, and that by custom, the betrothal gifts ought properly to be delivered to the main Su household.
Han Linfeng was perched atop the ladder at the garden wall, propping his head on one hand, watching Luoyun below break off pieces of dried fish to feed Ah Rong. He said languidly, “Your father has barely finished with his lawsuit and is busy looking for a new wife. Why trouble him with this? I’ll send a calling card in a few days. There will be no need for you to step in either — I’ll speak with him myself. The Shizi’s residence cannot easily spare many carriages, so it is more convenient to have the bride depart from Sweetwater Alley. It is also simpler to leave the betrothal gifts in your courtyard.”
Su Luoyun was well aware that the Su family had recently suffered a significant loss of money from the lawsuit settlement. If these betrothal gifts were truly sent to the main Su residence, her father would skim some off the top before handing them over — a case of the wild goose plucked of its feathers in passing — and she would not receive them in full when she came to the wedding.
She did not place great value on these things herself, but she had no desire to let her father profit from them for nothing.
It even occurred to her that if she were marrying in earnest, she might have dreaded her husband’s family looking down on her because of Su Hongmeng’s character. She would surely have felt too embarrassed to tell her husband the full truth of her family circumstances, and might even have developed an inferiority about it.
But her match with the Shizi was one of mutual convenience, and Han Linfeng already knew exactly what her father was.
In his presence, she felt not the slightest burden of concealing her family’s disgrace.
She even found herself thinking, in a fleeting moment of regret, that it would have been nice if he had truly been her husband. With the depth of mind this false husband possessed, turning it against Su Hongmeng would have been like using a dragon-slaying blade to kill a chicken.
One stroke, and it would all be over — feathers everywhere.
Imagining her father, still over there confidently arranging her engagement, receiving the Shizi’s message in due course — he would likely tumble clean off his chair in shock.
Su Luoyun could not help letting out a soft laugh.
Han Linfeng, seeing her suddenly laugh, raised an eyebrow and asked, “What has made you so happy?”
Luoyun did not feel like answering. When she had finished feeding Ah Rong, she wiped her hands and held out a fresh-washed cluster of grapes toward the top of the wall. “These are grapes sent from the tenants at my farm. They are very sweet — the Shizi might as well have some.”
Han Linfeng simply vaulted over the wall and dropped down, took the grapes from Luoyun’s hands, and then quite naturally plucked one off and placed it in Luoyun’s mouth.
Although Luoyun had already accepted the reality of her impending marriage to Han Linfeng, she was entirely unprepared for such a presumptuous gesture, and instinctively took a step back. After swallowing the grape, she said, “Shizi, you—”
Han Linfeng appeared to see nothing wrong in his own behavior. He calmly reminded Luoyun, “You and I are to be married, after all. Moreover, His Majesty expects us to have come together by our own free will — to appear affectionate in public. We will need to put on a showing at banquets as well. I do not demand that you smile at me warmly, but I do hope that when the time comes, Miss Su will give me a measure of courtesy and not be too distant.”
Luoyun understood perfectly well what the Shizi meant. Even a marriage of appearances required putting on a convincing show in public — giving sufficient face to the Emperor’s decree.
When the Shizi offered her another grape, Luoyun, though somewhat uneasy, no longer pulled away. She steeled herself and ate it.
Han Linfeng then added with mild indifference, “We are to be married soon. There is no need to call me Shizi — just call me Linfeng.”
Afraid the Shizi might develop a habit of feeding her grapes, and unwilling to change how she addressed him, Luoyun quickly changed the subject. “The Shizi need not make the betrothal gifts too lavish — otherwise it will only make my own preparations look insufficient by comparison. And the wedding dress need not be too expensive either… there is no need to order it from the Lu family’s embroidery house…”
It was only now that she had learned Han Linfeng had ordered her bridal garments from the Lu family’s atelier.
To speak of it — Lu Lingsiu had promised on the day she left that she would come again the next day. But she seemed to have been kept at home by her family and was not permitted out. Only Lu Shi had come again alone.
Luoyun had not opened the gate for him, only sending Xiangcao out to relay a message through the door, saying only that whatever was being rumored outside was not to be believed, that she was perfectly well, and that he need not concern himself on her behalf.
Lu Shi had stood outside, knocking at the door with his voice cracking, saying things to the effect that no matter what, he would never abandon her or wash his hands of her. How many of those words had drifted over the wall into the Shizi’s courtyard, she could not say.
She had thought that once Lu Shi stopped coming, all would be well. But unexpectedly, Han Linfeng had gone ahead and ordered her bridal garments from the Lu family’s embroidery house.
Su Luoyun had no wish to be entangled with the Lu family, and so hoped to discuss with the Shizi the possibility of commissioning the garment from another atelier.
But Han Linfeng only pushed another grape her way and asked in return, “The Lu family’s embroidery work is renowned throughout the capital. What is wrong with their establishment?”
Su Luoyun was momentarily at a loss for words, and as she slowly chewed the grape and tried to think of a tactful way to explain, Han Linfeng continued without any hurry, “I am aware that the Lu and Su families are close. Since this is your happy occasion, there is nothing wrong with letting friends and family know a little sooner. When a man and woman marry, it puts certain concerns to rest. Is that not how it goes?”
Su Luoyun had never in all her life felt her blindness as inconvenient as she did at this moment.
Were it otherwise, she could have studied Han Linfeng’s expression carefully right now, to work out exactly what he meant by those words.
He had once come across her talking with Lu Shi in the alley. Could it be that he was still worried she had some unresolved entanglement with Young Master Lu?
And the way he said it — it sounded like a warning. But it also sounded, just a little, like jealousy.
Su Luoyun was struck by a sudden amusement, feeling her own reasoning had become somewhat absurd. She was not anyone the Shizi had feelings for — a man of such deep cunning, how could he possibly be struck with groundless jealousy over a blind woman?
Still, with things as they stood, she could hardly press him firmly to change embroidery houses. The Lu family would find out sooner or later regardless, and she would need to tell her good friend Lu Lingsiu the same imperial-commanded lie all over again.
Han Linfeng paused for a moment, then asked Su Luoyun how her dowry preparations were coming along.
When Su Luoyun answered honestly that she had prepared almost nothing, he found her rather too careless about the whole affair.
He did not require a ten-mile procession of trousseau from her, but a young woman ought to have at minimum the essential items a bride was expected to bring.
So the next day, he invited her out for a stroll through the streets, with the added purpose of personally helping her select some jewelry and hair ornaments to fill out her dowry.
Luoyun felt the Shizi’s criticism was fair — she had indeed been neglecting the matter of her trousseau — though there was no need for him to spend his own money on it. It was not as though she lacked the means to furnish things herself.
Han Linfeng seemed to find idleness disagreeable and insisted repeatedly, so in the end the two of them shared a carriage and set off into the streets together.
Luoyun went out wearing a veiled hat, which concealed her face. And as for Han Shizi — it was not uncommon to see him out in public accompanied by one or two attractive companions.
So when this properly betrothed couple went out together, passersby simply assumed the Shizi had taken some new favorite out for a stroll.
Su Luoyun had never been able to understand why the second young miss of the Fang family was so hopelessly captivated by Han Linfeng.
But after one day out with him, she at last came to understand what it meant to be treated with the gentle, jade-smooth attentiveness that she had only heard described before — what it felt like to bask in a care as warm and easy as a spring breeze.
Her eyes could not see, and yet she disliked the kind of overly solicitous fussing that people reserved for the blind. He always managed to offer a quiet word of guidance at precisely the right moment, with exactly the right measure — enough that she would not be embarrassed in public, but never so much as to make her feel handled.
When choosing jewelry, he had all the styles brought out and let her feel through each one in turn before making her selection. He would even hold pieces up to her hair himself from time to time, to see how they looked. He seemed entirely unbothered by the prospect of being seen accompanying a blind woman in public — as though the thought of it reflecting poorly on him had never crossed his mind.
Even if this was all done purely for the Emperor’s benefit — to maintain the appearance of a couple in love — he was carrying it rather too convincingly.