On this day, Mo Zi was in the bamboo grove cottage studying a gilt-edged calling card in her hand.

On the card’s surface was a fierce-looking golden leopard, and inside were only two large characters—Xu Hang. If one looked carefully at the red seal stamp, there were also four small script characters—Cloud Leopard Xu Jiu. Along with Xu Jiu’s calling card came an invitation, inviting Brother Mo to a banquet at Wu You Pavilion on the night of the fifteenth full moon.

It had been over half a month since the incident with Zhen Niang. Just when they thought the other party might have truly been intimidated by Mo Zi’s threats and wouldn’t come looking for more trouble, Cen Er was secretly breathing a sigh of relief when he received this card specifically addressed to Brother Mo for personal delivery. He hastily forwarded it to Mo Zi’s hands.

The fifteenth full moon was tonight, and there were still three days until the grand opening of the Autumn Gazing Tower.

Cen Er’s intention was for Mo Zi to avoid it if possible and not attend this Hongmen Banquet. But Mo Zi felt that since Xu Jiu had only come looking for her after more than half a month, he seemed to be someone who handled matters quite steadily. If she avoided him, it would give the other party an excuse for direct confrontation. So she had Cen Er send for Zan Jin, planning for the two of them to attend alone.

To speak honestly, she thought the banquet location was fairly well chosen. Wu You Pavilion was a public place—swords and violence wouldn’t be appropriate. Moreover, Wu You Pavilion was to some extent a competitor of the Autumn Gazing Tower, making it worth visiting for some market research.

However, lately she had started to feel conflicted about the issue of makeup. In Luo Zhou, there weren’t many occasions requiring her to disguise herself as a man, and when traveling by boat, everyone in the crew knew she was female, so except for that one time when Xiao Er and Zhong An hitched a ride, she had been quite casual about it, just applying a bit of powder and carelessly getting by. But now it was more troublesome. Since Qiu Sanniang had made her a manager, she had to frequently go out and about. If she had to apply all that powder every day, her skin would probably be ruined within a few years.

Perhaps it was better to appear in her natural state like Qiu Sanniang did. Though she looked somewhat too delicate, she had never intended to guard the secret of being a woman to the death. Women in business were rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns, but it was neither a capital offense nor something everyone would condemn. Merchants valued profit—as long as they could make money from you, what difference did it make whether you were male or female? There might be trouble, but it would only come from the customers’ side. For instance, discrimination against women. But the shipping industry currently had more demand than supply. She believed that good wine needs no bush—as long as she could secure one deal, hmph, the situation would open up. By then, people would be begging to come to her door.

Thinking of this, Mo Zi decided that starting today, she would use less powder, until one day she could go bare-faced, giving people a period of adjustment. As for if anyone asked, she would just say she hadn’t been going out lately and had become fairer. She would carry her makeup kit with her, and if she happened to run into someone like Xiao Er, she could change her face in an emergency.

“Xiao Yi, I need to go over the wall tonight.” Looking behind her, Xiao Yi was lying in a bamboo lounge chair dozing off, seemingly not having heard her speak, completely motionless.

Mo Zi sighed. So it really was better to rely on oneself than others. Ever since that night when the girl encountered her senior martial brother, she had lost all energy for jumping walls and climbing trees. On these rotation rest days, she was actually lying in a chair so close to the ground to sleep, proving she didn’t even dare go up on the roof. She could imagine the situation of a young girl being led around by a group of half-grown senior brothers—either very happy or very miserable. Clearly, the treatment Xiao Yi received was the latter. However, if Xiao Yi wasn’t even willing to climb over the wall, what was she to do? She very much wanted to have the spine not to pass through Yuan Cheng’s residence, but in this prince’s mansion, there was no other way to get out.

“Xiao Yi.” She tried to make her voice sound as pitiful as possible.

“Use a ladder.” It wasn’t that she hadn’t heard, but was pretending to be deaf and mute.

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” How was she supposed to know Xiao Yi’s psychological trauma was so severe? “I haven’t even started making one yet. And even if I can get up, how do I get down? I can’t very well tell that family’s people, ‘Can I please leave a ladder at your house?’ Can I?” Just being able to borrow their path was already quite generous.

“However you came over that night, that’s how you go over today.” Xiao Yi quite rarely offered a suggestion.

“You still have the nerve to mention that night?” Mo Zi laughed in exasperation. “I meowed like a cat for ages, thinking you weren’t there.”

They had agreed that she wouldn’t spend the night out and that Xiao Yi would wait at the appointed time to receive her, but who knew she wouldn’t even show her face. Later, Hua Yi appeared and helped her jump over the wall. Otherwise, she would have had to spend the night in a haystack with a bunch of rabbits. Thinking back, she really was pitiful—she had never lived anywhere where she could properly come and go through a door.

“If you don’t bring me over, your senior brother will come bring me instead. Wouldn’t he still see you?” That night, Hua Yi whooshed over the wall, landing at a spot that was simply perfect—right in front of Xiao Yi, eye to eye.

“Xiao Yi, I had no idea your voice could get that shrill.” At the time, Xiao Yi had let out half a shriek before immediately covering her own mouth with her hand, her narrow eyes full of panic.

“I haven’t seen your other senior brothers, but this one seems alright to me.” Hua Yi had that natural villainous look with his single-fold eyelids slanting upward, but his quietness made her feel his temperament was quite steady, seemingly reliable. “He even greeted you, but you ran too fast and didn’t hear him.”

“I heard him.” Xiao Yi’s ears were sharper than her legs. “It wasn’t a greeting. He said I left the mountain without permission and would be punished according to sect rules.”

“He was just saying that. Your master doesn’t even care that you came down from the mountain—what business does he have interfering when he’s ranked second from last?” If Xiao Yi could be as thick-skinned as her, everything would be peaceful. “But I didn’t know you had escaped from your sect.”

“It wasn’t escaping, it was completing my training and coming down the mountain.” She corrected Mo Zi’s wording point by point. “I clearly went through all the techniques once as Master instructed, but my senior brothers said I had to defeat them before I could graduate. That was completely impossible! I was anxious in my heart to find Miss and repay her kindness, so I used sleeping drugs to knock out my senior brothers, kowtowed alone before the Patriarch’s statue, and left in the dead of night to complete my apprenticeship.”

No wonder they said she escaped, Mo Zi thought with secret amusement.

“Speaking of your little senior brother, he’s actually a Qianniu Guard.” The Qianniu Guards, retained by the Great Zhou Dynasty, were the Emperor’s personal guard unit. Although Hua Yi wore ordinary clothes, Mo Zi had seen his waist token.

“I didn’t know.” After Xiao Yi left her sect, her master would come find her once a year, but she never saw those annoying senior brothers again.

“He’s much older than me, twenty-four already.” Little senior brother? It sounded quite absurd. And the eldest senior brother’s age—he could be her father.

Mo Zi was somewhat distracted at this moment, suddenly thinking—what did it mean that there was a Qianniu Guard by Yuan Cheng’s side? The Qianniu Guards were the Emperor’s personal guards, who could only be dispatched by the Emperor. Hua Yi appearing beside a Grand Academy Erudite—wasn’t that thought-provoking?

Xiao Yi called Mo Zi’s name twice, and seeing no response, pulled on her sleeve. “I’ll first get you up on the wall, and if there’s no one there, I’ll get you down again.”

Mo Zi came back to her senses and said “Ah.” “What if there is someone?”

With an expression that said ‘that depends on your own abilities,’ Xiao Yi chuckled without speaking.

Mo Zi couldn’t help with curing Xiao Yi’s phobia of senior brothers, she thought, but getting to the top of the wall was also good. While others found it easy to go up a mountain but hard to come down, she was the opposite—hard to go up but easy to come down. During her time as a soldier, she could jump from a second floor without any injury.

Near dusk, Xiao Yi first scouted ahead, then moved Mo Zi up to the top of the wall, then actually jumped back down on her side, having Mo Zi check whether there was anyone on the other side.

Mo Zi said several times there was no one, but Xiao Yi was quite uneasy, pacing in a figure-eight pattern like a bee below the wall, always hesitating. Seeing she was about to dry out from being left hanging, Mo Zi simply said she would handle it herself and jumped down.

From then on, crossing the wall became this half-and-half mode.

Walking north, the surroundings were as quiet as before, with perhaps a few fewer rabbits—maybe Yuan Cheng had used them to entertain his colleagues. There was one thing she didn’t understand: Yuan Cheng didn’t even maintain his residence, so how would anyone be willing to come when he invited guests for meals? Could it be that the noble officials of the capital had tired of beautiful and elegant courtyards and now enjoyed the wild charm of overgrown weeds? If so, perhaps the style of the Autumn Gazing Tower needed to be reconsidered?

Meeting up with Zan Jin at the alley entrance outside the gate, she was surprised to see Chou Yu there too.

“Brother Mo, I hear Wu You Pavilion has many beauties. How about letting this Chou Yu broaden his horizons?” Chou Yu had changed into a long robe and was grinning mischievously.

“Brother Chou Yu, seeing you dressed like this, I’m really not used to it. It’s like tying an iron chain around a wooden core—uncomfortable!” Mo Zi laughed heartily.

“No choice—I can’t very well wear our short jacket and tight pants and scare away the delicate beauties.” Chou Yu continued his self-admiration. “How is it? Although I’m not used to wearing this, I have at least one part scholarly air, don’t I?”

Mo Zi smiled with pursed lips, nodding perfunctorily.

How could Chou Yu not see this was insincere? He wrinkled his nose and brow, looking down at himself. “Not one part? Half a part would do. But Brother Mo, your complexion isn’t dark anymore—you look ten times more refined.”

“I haven’t been running the boats lately, naturally I’ve become much fairer.” Since Chou Yu knew about her female disguise, Mo Zi playfully trotted out her excuse.

“Makes sense, that explanation works.” Who among those who ran boats year-round wasn’t dark? “My old man used to have a face like black charcoal. The prettier girls all thought he was ugly, so he could only marry my mother who was just as dark as him. Later he washed his hands of the business and became a gentleman at home. In just half a year, guess what happened?”

“What happened?” Mo Zi rarely heard Chou Yu mention his family.

“My old man turned into a fair-faced elderly gentleman, quite handsome. Those young ladies who hadn’t favored him back then were so full of regret they couldn’t express it, and could only envy my mother. My mother saw that my father became handsome after staying home for half a year without going out, so she also learned from him and stayed home for half a year. The result—”

“Chou Yu, don’t keep us in suspense.” Zan Jin was also listening with interest.

“My mother didn’t become fair, and didn’t become good-looking either. She was naturally dark and plain—couldn’t change. However, her martial arts were better than my old man’s, so even though he became handsome, he didn’t dare have a wandering heart. The worst part is that we three brothers take after our mother—born with it, girls don’t love us when we come out!” Chou Yu stamped his feet, sighing and lamenting.

Mo Zi couldn’t stop laughing, sitting on the cart shaft shaking all over. “It must be that your father loved your mother—how could it be fear?”

Chou Yu’s breathing suddenly grew heavy, his eyes reddening. “Brother Mo is right. If my father didn’t like my mother, he wouldn’t have followed her in death when she died.”

In this world, there wasn’t much of anything else, but there were many orphans.

Mo Zi bit her lip, offering this consolation: “At least you three brothers have each other with such deep feelings—enduring hard days is easier that way.”

Chou Yu scratched his head awkwardly. “Brother Mo, hurry and get in the cart. I’m eager to see the beauties!”

The three of them in one cart headed toward Yuhe Ward.

Wu You Pavilion—Mo Zi had previously stood at its base wall once, glimpsed it twice from horseback, and chatted about it a few times with Zhong An. However, when she actually walked inside, she still sighed in admiration.

In the center hung eight large red-tasseled scented glazed revolving lanterns, and on the four walls hung a hundred bright gold filigree flower frames, illuminating the square and spacious great hall magnificently. Inside the hall stood six red load-bearing pillars, almost all of them inscribed with words and poems—probably the spontaneous inspirations of famous literati and scholars who had visited. A carpeted staircase with floral patterns rose from the middle and divided to both sides, with carved red railings inside of which were individual private rooms.

When Mo Zi arrived, it wasn’t yet completely dark, but there were already many customers here, one hand holding wine cups and the other embracing beauties, laughing continuously.

“Three honored guests, it’s been so long!” A woman came to greet them, graceful in figure, somewhat flirtatious, somewhat refined, somewhat older in years, but didn’t seem to be the head madam. “Would you like the main hall or a private room upstairs? Do you have regular favorites among the girls, or would you like to try someone new this time?”

Here, even when seeing new customers, they first spoke as if to regular patrons.

“We’re here for a banquet.” Mo Zi produced the invitation.

One breath was all powder and wine fragrance. Although this Wu You Pavilion was more luxurious than ordinary pleasure houses, the air was equally turbid.

“So you gentlemen are Ninth Master Xu’s guests—I nearly showed poor hospitality! Please follow me upstairs.” What had been an ordinary customer service attitude now became enthusiastically effusive, her face smiling so broadly that crow’s feet multiplied. “I’m Third Mother of Wu You Pavilion. When you gentlemen come again in the future, just ask for me directly and I’ll select the most charming girls for you.”

Before this business had even begun, she was already trying to secure the next one. Mo Zi raised her eyebrows but didn’t respond.

Chou Yu was talkative, and by the time they reached the private room, he was discussing with Third Mother whether the fees could be discounted.

Seeing the private room was completely empty, Mo Zi interrupted Chou Yu’s excited chatter. “Third Mother, hasn’t Ninth Master Xu arrived yet?”

“The Ninth Master suddenly had urgent business and has already sent word that he’ll be half a shichen late. He also said when the guests arrive, just serve them good wine and good food first. Please sit for a moment, gentlemen. I’ll immediately have someone bring wine and dishes.” Third Mother seemed afraid of Chou Yu’s incessant chatter and hurried off to attend to business.

“Chou Yu, men who come to places like this don’t ask if things can be cheaper. However much silver you have in your pocket, they’d best empty it all in one night to be satisfied—how could they make it cheaper for you?” Mo Zi found a seat close to the door.

Zan Jin sat on her left.

Chou Yu muttered: “That still depends on whether the girl is pretty or not. I hear the most beautiful one at Wu You Pavilion is one called Mo Chou. If she comes to keep me company, I’ll throw down all the silver on me.”

“You talk as if you brought a lot of silver.” As Mo Zi spoke, she surveyed the room. She could only appreciate the spectacle of other things, but the complete set of furniture was genuinely solid rosewood—clearly this private room was reserved for distinguished guests. However, what act was Xu Jiu performing? A Hongmen Banquet? An Empty Fort Strategy?

“Twenty taels—most of my private savings. Money is managed by my eldest brother. If I ask him for it, he goes on and on.” Chou Yu grabbed a teapot and poured three cups of tea.

It was hard to imagine Fat Shrimp or Water Snake going on and on, and besides, if Chou Yu thought twenty taels of silver could get Miss Mo Chou to keep him company, Mo Zi hoped he’d be more realistic. She told Chou Yu everything she’d heard from Zhong An, including the story of the bookworm scholar who broke his leg to win a beauty’s smile.

Chou Yu slapped his thigh and cursed, “Bear’s granny’s disease!” loudly declaring he couldn’t afford it.

Mo Zi chuckled and picked up her teacup to drink.

Zan Jin’s large palm reached over and pressed down, saying in a low voice, “Brother Mo, don’t drink.”