Sneaking, sneaking about.

Yuan Jin’er crept furtively down the long corridor inside the building, eyes scanning the stairwell opposite for her target. Spotting the figure descending, she hurried forward a short stretch. When a few girls passing through the corridor looked at her in confusion, she lifted her head, tugged at a strand of hair, and put on a dignified air as she walked forward—though her feet were still taking quick little steps.

Sister Yunzhu had a lot of confidence in him; she herself didn’t feel quite the same. But regardless, this Ning Yi was, after all, one of their own, connected to Bamboo Note. As for this business tonight, that Lü Xia had already decided to side with Xue Yan—there was no winning that one, so giving a little ground as a lesson would do just fine. If she really had to watch her own side lose face, it probably wouldn’t sit well with Sister Yunzhu either, and Ning Yi’s growing reputation hadn’t come easily—she didn’t want to see him embarrassed like that either.

Of course, first things first—give him a good scare.

Peeking through gaps in the corridor that overlooked the garden in the middle, she watched the two of them approaching the same junction from different directions. Yuan Jin’er hid first outside a room at the corridor’s bend, quietly listening to the footsteps drawing near, the sound of singing drifting over from the main hall. At the same time, on another corridor converging toward this point, Liu Qingdi approached briskly from the other side, and as Ning Yi’s figure came into view, he smiled and cupped his hands in greeting. “Brother Ning, what a pleasure…”

“Wuu…”

“Uh…”

Right across from Ning Yi, behind Liu Qingdi, Yuan Jin’er suddenly stepped out. It was, after all, a junction of three paths, and for a moment the three of them wore very different expressions. Liu Qingdi’s greeting still came out reasonably normal; Ning Yi, suddenly finding two people appearing before him at once, froze for a beat, mouth falling open in astonishment.

Yuan Jin’er, who’d meant to be the one doing the scaring, ended up more startled than anyone. She’d planned an elegant, dance-like step forward to block Ning Yi’s path, her triumphant smile arcing upward as she straightened—only to have a man’s back suddenly appear right in front of her. Her eyes went wide mid-motion as she rose up on her toes, and the instant she registered it was Liu Qingdi, she clapped a hand over her mouth, let out a small “eep,” spun around, ducked her head, cheeks puffed out and covered, and slipped back the way she’d come like a phantom.

Ning Yi had watched the whole thing unfold, his cheeks twitching a few times, unsure whether to laugh or what. Yuan Jin’er’s wide-eyed leap-and-vanish had genuinely been a little alarming, but thinking back on it, it was also fairly comical.

His expression cycled through a complicated mix of things, while Liu Qingdi, cupping his hands with great warmth, hadn’t even finished his greeting before losing some confidence, glancing down at himself, wondering privately if something about his own outfit was somehow amusing.

“Brother Ning, today…”

“Ah… going to relieve yourself, brother?” Ning Yi glanced toward where Yuan Jin’er had vanished, thought it over, then, to the man in front of him, smiled and stepped back, gesturing down the corridor. “Excuse me.”

At this Liu Qingdi was truly caught off guard. His reason for coming to greet him had been simple enough—this Ning Liheng never took part in social gatherings like this, and tonight he’d finally managed to run into him. He was confident in himself too, and had simply hoped to trade poems and prose, make a bit of a name for the encounter. Since the man was known to be aloof or eccentric by nature, he’d figured he might as well come stir things up a little, drop a few pointed remarks. Who could have expected such a strange reaction to a simple greeting.

Whatever was going through Ning Yi’s mind, his expression was so odd, and he clearly hadn’t paid the man much attention at all. It was like being doused with cold water—Liu Qingdi had wanted to start the conversation properly, get into the topic, but looking at the other man’s amiable yet visibly distracted expression, clearly saying “go ahead, it’s fine” without much thought behind it—somehow he found he couldn’t summon the mood to continue. Finally, gritting his teeth, he cupped his hands with a smile and stalked off toward the privy, none too pleased…

He hadn’t actually needed to use the privy at all.

Walking off some ten-odd meters, he glanced back to find Ning Yi still standing there lost in thought; noticing the glance, Ning Yi smiled and cupped his hands, and Liu Qingdi returned the gesture with a smile before trudging off, disgruntled.

Watching the man’s retreating back, Ning Yi found the whole thing rather dull. From the attitude the man had shown the instant he appeared, Ning Yi had known exactly what he was after. Honestly, writing a poem tonight wouldn’t have been any trouble—if only to give some face to Li Pin and the Su family, he wouldn’t have minded tossing off a few lines for this man either. But seeing Yuan Jin’er pop out from over there, he’d lost interest in dragging out the conversation—he’d heard this Liu Qingdi and Yuan Jin’er knew each other fairly well in the past, and lingering here risking her being spotted wouldn’t do her any favors.

When he had no interest in talking, there wasn’t much the other man could say to keep things going—a few friendly gestures hinting he should move along, and the man, sensing there was nothing more to gain, had wandered off on his own. Once that figure disappeared, Ning Yi finally walked forward a few steps, past the junction, to check on Yuan Jin’er around the corner.

What a disaster…

Nearby, Yuan Jin’er stood with her back against the wall, reflecting on her humiliation with great intensity…

…

“What’s wrong?”

At the bend in the long corridor, a man and a woman stood talking furtively. Music drifted faintly from the main hall, along with the occasional clink of cups and bowls nearby; someone passing through another junction glanced their way before moving on. Ning Yi had put the question to Yuan Jin’er, and her face, which had carried a trace of frustration, shifted into a faint air of grievance the moment he appeared.

No matter—every time he saw her, she seemed to be carrying some grievance or other anyway.

“Nothing much. So what if I wanted to give you a scare?”

“Oh… you did give me quite a scare just now, actually.” Ning Yi nodded with a smile, watching Yuan Jin’er’s resigned expression, like someone who’d knocked out her own teeth and had no choice but to swallow the blood. “I saw the two of you up there earlier—what were you doing?”

“Selling preserved eggs, obviously. I know Madam Chen here.”

“The pretty one?”

“Mm.” Yuan Jin’er nodded, then frowned. “I wasn’t planning on telling you who’s pretty! Hmph, if it weren’t for Sister Yunzhu, I wouldn’t even bother coming to warn you—consider this a warning: don’t go showing off with poems tonight. Write your poems some other time, not here!”

“Whoa.” Ning Yi thought it over, nodding. “That Lü Xia girl—has she really gotten that far along with someone from the Xue family?”

Yuan Jin’er arched an eyebrow at him, her expression softening slightly. “Good thing you can figure that much out. Lü Xia’s toast tonight is already set on Xue Yan—there’s no way you’re winning that one. The better the poem you write, the more people will later say you threw yourself at someone who didn’t want you. Hmph…” Then she looked at him again. “You’d already guessed some of it?”

“Heh, I was just saying to Dexin upstairs earlier—that Xue Jin took quite a loss last time. Xue Yan may be his elder brother, but without being certain of a win, he wouldn’t act this recklessly. If it weren’t for you telling me this, though, I might really have made a fool of myself…”

“Good that you know.” Jin’er’s expression cleared from cloudy to sunny, then she added, “Sister Yunzhu’s here too—that’s actually why I came to tell you. Thank her properly tomorrow.”

Ning Yi nodded with a smile. “Right, by the way, you and that Liu Qingdi…”

The moment the question left his mouth, she shot him a sharp glare. “Don’t know him!”

The two of them chattered on for a good while longer, Yuan Jin’er even offering suggestions like “why don’t you just hide out here and pretend you were never around”—before finally parting ways. By then the second round of performances in the hall had already been underway for some time.

Yuan Jin’er made her way back to the earlier room, but Sister Yunzhu wasn’t there. She wouldn’t have left without her, so she must have gone to find Madam Chen. Yuan Jin’er left the room again, this time keeping an eye out for Liu Qingdi’s location to avoid another awkward run-in. There were a few acquaintances among the girls at the Swallow Jade Pavilion, and running into her, those with nothing else to do would inevitably stop for a delighted chat. While asking around for Madam Chen’s whereabouts, the beauty known as Lü Xia had been standing on the stage in the main hall for a long while, deep in thought, before finally stepping down, pouring herself a cup of wine to the side, biting her lip in visible hesitation, and finally walking, head lowered, a faint shyness in her expression, toward the table where the Xue family sat.

She then offered that cup of wine to Xue Yan.

In the hall, some laughed, some grumbled—at a moment like this, there was bound to be some displeasure. The second-floor private room where the Su family sat fell into a faint silence; one could easily imagine the mood there.

Before this, both Liu Qingdi and Li Pin had composed poems, and both sides had put up a considerable sum of silver, though Ning Yi had, in the end, never made a move. Yuan Jin’er gave a small shrug and headed toward Madam Chen. Fortunately she wasn’t currently entertaining guests; pushing open the door to what appeared to be a dressing room, she found Madam Chen, then glanced around at the few women busy about the room.

“Huh? Where’s Sister Yunzhu?”

“Your Yunzhu?” Madam Chen thought about it. “Haven’t seen her.”

“Ohh…”

A moment later, she heard a familiar strain of zither music begin to play.

At this point, Lü Xia, the star performer of the Swallow Jade Pavilion, had just finished her performance and made her choice of company for the evening; though the other girls made such choices too, Lü Xia was, after all, the real centerpiece of the night. Though a few more performances remained, this outcome had stirred up quite a commotion in the hall, and the performances that followed unfolded, one might say, against the worst possible atmosphere of the night. Some talked of the Xue family’s wealth and lavish spending, some discussed the talent of Liu Qingdi and Li Pin, and naturally some shook their heads, sneered, or mocked the Su family’s small setback. It was against this backdrop that the zither music began to rise from the stage.

The noisy chatter continued on, that distant zither sound faint at first, unremarkable, like a thin breeze woven into the murmur of the crowd, neither aloof nor out of place—it simply began to sound, accompanying everything else. Probably very few people even noticed it. Yuan Jin’er was likely the most sensitive to that sound, and it took her a few seconds to place it, before her brow furrowed faintly, in disbelief.

“Sister Yunzhu…”

The low words came out as faint and nearly inaudible as the zither music itself. Madam Chen’s expression, too, began to shift. And then, and then, the zither music seemed to grow gradually clearer. The two of them, drawn by that sound, went to the adjacent room; Yuan Jin’er reached out, took a deep breath, and pushed open the window overlooking the hall.

In truth, she had already pictured that figure at the zither in her mind before even looking.