The water in a mere bathtub, after all, couldn’t drown anyone — even in a moment of panic, the amount of water she could have choked on was limited. After the brief scare passed, Su Tan’er finally came fully to her senses, and embarrassment along with the urge to put distance between them took over. Ning Yi patted the water off himself and stood to leave; Su Tan’er sat on the wooden chair inside, wrapped in the towel, biting her lip.

“Husband… why would husband be… here…”

Her voice trailed off partway through the question, growing quiet. From outside the curtain, Ning Yi answered, “I was going to take a bath, and then… what about you?”

“I… I had Juan’er heat water for me…”

Ning Yi was silent for a long moment.

“When I came back, there was no one else in the courtyard. Juan’er was out… uh, you were asleep — when did you even tell her…”

Inside the bathroom, Su Tan’er had already realized this herself, her face falling into a mortified expression. After a long pause, her voice came back, faint as a mosquito’s whine: “…At noon… what time is it now?”

Looking at the sky outside, it was probably already the hour of Shen. Ning Yi’s reply outside took a while in coming; at last he said with a laugh, “Ha, go ahead and bathe — you’re already wet anyway. I’ll go… change my clothes. It’s fine.”

Having just lifted Su Tan’er out of the tub, his robe was already soaked through. Ning Yi looked himself over and turned to head out, but before he reached the door, a somewhat awkward voice came from inside again: “Hus— husband… wait…”

“Hm?”

“The water… it’s a bit cold.”

…

He changed out of his outer robe and hurried to the small kitchen to light the fire and heat water. Ning Yi’s constitution was quite good these days — bathing entirely in cold water in this weather wouldn’t have bothered him much — he just felt that soaking in a tub of cold water in that particular room wouldn’t suit the mood. But the hot water heated earlier hadn’t been much, certainly not enough for Su Tan’er to bathe in.

In the quiet courtyard that afternoon, autumn leaves rustling, Ning Yi heated water while chatting with Su Tan’er on the other side about goings-on at the academy — its closure, Li Pin’s departure, and the midday banquet.

“…Second Uncle said we’re all one family, no need to divide things into Eldest, Second, Third Branch — that’s just outsiders enjoying the show. His sons are foolish, and eventually this family really is best left in your hands, so since he’s seen you’re so tired lately, he asked me to remind you to rest more… oh, and he also said the business of the world can’t all be finished in one lifetime.”

Carrying hot water over, Ning Yi relayed all this, and from the room on the other side of the wall, Su Tan’er’s voice came through, faintly amused: “Does my husband believe that?”

“Whether you believe it or not, I believe it.” Ning Yi nodded with a smile.

This answer apparently struck Su Tan’er as rather shameless, and she was momentarily at a loss for words. As Ning Yi stepped through the outer door of the bathroom, he added, “The business of the world can’t be finished all at once — that part, taken on its own, does have some truth to it.”

“That depends on whether the matter is urgent or not…” Su Tan’er murmured from inside, then said, “Never mind that part — what about the rest of it? Does my husband believe that too?”

“…One ought to be honest in dealing with others.”

Pushing aside the curtain and entering the bathroom, he found Su Tan’er wrapped tightly in two bath towels plus her clothes, curled up in the chair — normally tall and graceful, but curled up like this with only her face showing, she still carried a strange sort of charm. Her face was flushed, but her eyes were fixed on Ning Yi: “That’s not an answer.”

“One ought to be honest… so Second Uncle seems quite honest too.” Ning Yi said, pouring the hot water into the tub and reaching in to test it.

“Husband isn’t honest.”

“Only dishonest people always think others are dishonest. As for me, I still believe Second Uncle.”

“Shameless.”

“It’s quite hot — the temperature should be about right now… You have some issue with your Second Uncle, you can’t just slander me like this because I called him honest…”

Su Tan’er gazed steadily at him with a smile, enunciating each word: “Husband is shameless and dishonest.”

“Fine, fine — ‘women and petty men are indeed hard to deal with’…”

“Husband is the slickest of all — shameless and dishonest.”

“I won’t argue with you.” He lifted the curtain, about to step out, when her voice came from behind again.

“Not speaking the truth — dishonest.”

“Fine.” Ning Yi sighed, turned back through the curtain, showing only his face, and blinked. “Walking in earlier — that really wasn’t on purpose.”

The moment he said this, Su Tan’er’s eyes went wide, and her already faintly pink cheeks flushed deep red in an instant. She sat there hugging herself, wanting to say something, but unable to get the words out. It was a good while after Ning Yi let the curtain fall and left before Su Tan’er finally pulled aside the towel and stepped down. The bathroom originally had both a curtain and a wooden door for privacy — with the door shut, no one could get in — but Su Tan’er, assuming Juan’er was around, hadn’t bothered to close it properly earlier. Only now did she go over and bolt the wooden door shut.

She was still dressed only in her undergarment, silk trousers, and bare feet; half her body was already soaked and clearly wasn’t going to dry anytime soon. Remembering what that man might have seen a moment ago, her face reddened again, and she hugged herself, leaning against the door panel. He must be laughing out there right now, she thought.

Footsteps sounded — Ning Yi, humming softly, walked past along the corridor outside the bathroom, heading off to heat his own bathwater. Su Tan’er pressed her lips together. “Husband is dishonest!”

She called it out softly — probably audible outside, though she didn’t dare raise her voice too much. She heard the footsteps outside pause briefly. She sniffled, then walked toward the tub with a smile.

…

Su Tan’er finished bathing first, and only then did Ning Yi take his turn; by the time he finished, it was nearly evening. It was around five in the afternoon; Ning Yi sat in the pavilion in the middle of the courtyard letting his hair dry in the breeze. Xiao Chan and Juan’er had already returned, greeting him in the light of the setting sun. Xiao Chan came over and swayed playfully. “Did young master take his bath?” After a bit of chat, she went off to attend to her own duties.

After a while, Su Tan’er came over smiling. She’d simply tied her long hair up and put on a lake-green dress; sitting down, she narrowed her eyes and looked at the sunset through the gaps in the trees. “So, is my husband off to Yancui Tower with Wenxing and the others tonight?”

“Mm.” Ning Yi nodded, then tilted his face up, thinking. “I wonder which girl is the most popular there these days…”

“The most popular one… is called Lü Xia.”

“How do you know that?”

“I went once, dressed as a man.” Su Tan’er covered her mouth and laughed, then said, “Have a good time, my husband. Since Master Li is leaving too, please say goodbye to him for me, and wish him smooth sailing. As for those who aren’t especially honest, you needn’t pay them any mind…”

“Hm?”

“Actually, if you ask me, it would be much better for you to go out with just Master Li than to go along with Wenxing and that lot. There’s not much point to it — I’d worry they’d spoil your mood.”

Su Tan’er’s personality was strong-willed, but she was good to the people of her household — though, admittedly, the number of people she considered “family” in that sense was rather small.

At New Year’s she’d dragged Ning Yi along to visit household after household, and there were occasional banquets and gatherings of that sort in ordinary times too; at every such gathering, she always made a point of looking out for him. In some sense, whether or not Ning Yi actually needed that kind of looking-after didn’t matter much — but this “unnecessary” gesture of hers was proof enough that she genuinely treated this marriage as a marriage worth tending.

That Ning Yi had come this far didn’t mean he was chasing after some pure, romantic love. To him, his position with Su Tan’er in this life bore some resemblance to his position in his last life — had he found himself in a similar situation, assigned a spouse, he’d naturally have had no choice but to “manage” things the same way. It was a particular way of putting it, but it didn’t bother him — you couldn’t expect two people to fall in love at first sight and live in blissful romance; under certain circumstances, you could only view things according to the pattern those circumstances allowed.

Su Tan’er’s marriage had, of course, been out of her control from the start — but having accepted it, she’d shown genuine sincerity, giving what had once been a total stranger real respect and honesty. Ning Yi recognized and appreciated that sentiment — the other party was already working hard to express her sincerity: if at all possible, let’s simply go on living like this together.

She’d never really had much choice from the beginning, and what Ning Yi saw was a nineteen-year-old woman giving everything she had, wholeheartedly earnest and hardworking — on one hand devoting herself to her business, on the other devoting herself to a family she’d never had much say in either. That was her sincerity. Ning Yi appreciated this sentiment; he’d originally planned that if things became unlivable, he’d simply leave — but since things were livable, staying was naturally part of the plan too.

Though this life had once been lived under something of a deliberate “arrangement,” the two of them now genuinely held some real affection for each other, which was, in truth, about as ideal as things could get. When she said what she’d just said, it was really her way of saying Ning Yi needn’t bother humoring these useless young scions of the family. Ning Yi laughed. “It’s fine, they won’t spoil anything.”

“Since husband is going with Master Li and the others, I won’t have Xiao Chan tag along.” Su Tan’er said, pulling several banknotes from her sleeve. “You probably don’t have much silver on you. Here’s five hundred taels — take it. If there’s someone you fancy, do show some proper generosity. With your reputation as the foremost talent, you can’t very well be stingy about it.”

Saying this, she laughed again. “Those brothers in the Second and Third Branches really are useless. If the family were left in their hands, it would all be squandered — Second Uncle and Third Uncle surely know this too. But they’re only in their thirties or forties now; like Father, once their own sons come of age and prove themselves capable, they’ll still be sitting there like patriarchs holding the reins. So you see, not competing for it — that’s the dishonest part. Second Uncle and Third Uncle fight for themselves, not for the younger generation. Wenxing and the others are the real fools — they’ll never head the family no matter what, only ever fated to be the fathers of whoever does…”

Su Tan’er lowered her head, her voice softening. “From now on, husband, don’t take Second Uncle’s side when you speak, all right? Even if it’s just for show, I want to hear you speak ill of the Second and Third Branches… I feel husband ought to be on my side in this. I love hearing husband say Second Uncle and Third Uncle aren’t honest, and I don’t like hearing husband call Second Uncle honest — even if you’re only saying it to be polite, I still don’t like it. I’m quite petty about this sort of thing, you know…”

She looked up, pressing her lips together slightly, smiling as she met his eyes — a smile with a faint note of pleading in it, the setting sun spilling across her face. In that moment, Ning Yi found himself rather moved by this pettiness of hers.

Genuine or not, it really was rather endearing…