On this rainy night, the noise and commotion in and around the inn gradually died down, leaving only the storm and the wind outside the window — which only made the atmosphere in the room feel all the warmer and more peaceful by contrast. The oil lamp’s flame flickered, casting light over a screen painted with peach blossoms and cuckoos, standing at the center of the room and encircling a large bathtub, in which two bodies, unclothed, lay together.

“…Her name is Lou Shuwan. The Lou family’s main business in Hangzhou is porcelain, though they deal in other trades too, fairly widely spread out. They’re counted among the more prominent wealthy merchants there, probably with deeper resources even than our own Su family. Father took me along on trips years ago and I met her a few times, met her father too — a formidable man, named Lou Jinlin. Oh, and she has two older brothers, one named Lou Shuwang, the other Lou Shuheng — I only met Lou Shuheng once, not sure what kind of person he is…”

The lamplight fell over her smooth, delicate skin, giving it the fine sheen of porcelain. Su Tan’er tilted her head slightly, using a small wooden ladle to pour warm water down over her neck, speaking softly as she did. She sat now in Ning Yi’s lap, their bodies pressed together beneath the water without reserve.

By this point their relationship was, of course, quite intimate already, but even so, this sort of thing still left Su Tan’er feeling a little bashful. After all, in this era, a newlywed couple going this far might already be considered somewhat indulgent. Still, being away from home, and with Ning Yi pointing out that it was getting late and they should hurry to sleep, so there was no real need to bathe separately, she’d swallowed her embarrassment and joined him in the tub — though by now, it seemed this might end up taking even longer than usual.

They were now several hundred li from home, and the earlier chance encounter with Lou Shuwan had genuinely surprised Su Tan’er, though she was glad of it nonetheless. The two of them weren’t especially close friends, but from their meetings years before, Su Tan’er knew Lou Shuwan to be a rather independent woman — the two of them were, in some ways, alike. Back then Su Tan’er had set her heart on becoming a formidable businesswoman herself, and so had always thought well of Lou Shuwan. Chatting again with her over dinner just now, she’d found her, vaguely, still that same independent, capable woman from before — though there was also, faintly, something different about her now, which was probably just a matter of having grown up.

But her reason for bringing all this up now wasn’t really to properly introduce her husband to this friend she’d taken a liking to — it was mostly just that she felt embarrassed, and kept talking to distract herself from what was happening. And so, when her husband’s hand slowly traced over the sensitive parts of her body beneath the water, she only tilted her head back, biting her lower lip gently, and kept talking.

“…This time it seems she’s shipping goods south too, much like before — she’s still managing the Lou family business herself. Sister Shuwan really is impressive.”

“Like you?”

“I can’t compare. I hear the whole Lou family is impressive. Our Su family… well, we can’t match them.”

Su Tan’er, feigning deep concentration on the conversation, found her breathing growing ragged despite herself, though she made a point of seeming indifferent to what was happening beneath the water. Ning Yi, meanwhile, was thoroughly absorbed in exploring her body underwater, humoring her chatter with a smile.

“Doesn’t seem that way to me…”

“…Mm… it’s nice running into someone we know, at least. This trip to Hangzhou, we’d actually planned to visit her anyway. Husband, why don’t we travel south together — we’d originally planned a trip to Tai Lake too, we could adjust the itinerary… um… would that be all right?”

“Mm, whatever you like. I’ve got no particular interest in Tai Lake…” At the moment, he had no particular interest in anything else either…

“I wonder if Sister Shuwan’s married yet — forgot to ask just now… Seeing she’s still out managing the Lou family business herself, though, surely she can’t still be unmarried…”

She turned the possibilities over in her mind, glancing sideways at Ning Yi without voicing them. Ning Yi raised an eyebrow, unconcerned, offering no opinion either way. After a moment, he reached out, brushed aside Su Tan’er’s hair, and bent to kiss the back of her neck gently. Tan’er lowered her head with a laugh, seeming lost in thought.

“Husband, you always judge people so well — what do you think?”

“Why ask me?” Still no interest.

“The Lou family has some business in cotton, which actually overlaps a little with our Su family’s cloth trade — though since we’re so far apart, there’s never really been any competition, so it’s never been an issue. That’s actually how Father first got in touch with the Lou family. Now that we’ve taken over some of the Wu family’s business, on top of what the Su family already had in Hangzhou, we might well end up dealing with them once we get there… mm, husband…”

“I’m not particularly fond of that woman…”

“Mm.”

“Too flashy, too much allure on display for my taste,” Ning Yi remarked idly. “Besides, when we met earlier, I noticed there was a man in her room.”

“Oh? Could that be… her husband?”

“Ha…” Ning Yi gave a noncommittal laugh — it plainly wasn’t, or else why wouldn’t the man have come out to greet them under those circumstances — though there was no need to make a fuss over such things either. There could be any number of reasons, and frankly he didn’t much care what other people got up to.

“Never mind her, anyway — what I want to know is, at a time like this, does my wife really have any interest in discussing other women with me?”

Su Tan’er lowered her head, then burst out laughing. “I’m already… like this, husband can do as he pleases, why be so overbearing about it — can’t I just yield without resistance to my husband…” Su Tan’er, being who she was, laughed as she launched her gentle counterattack.

“Tsk, if you just yield without resistance, where’s the satisfaction in that for me? Where’s that Su Tan’er who once picked up a torch to set a house on fire? Care to put up a fight? I hear the more you resist, the more excited I get…”

Ning Yi rambled on nonsensically, but Su Tan’er had already flushed red at the mention of the torch and the house, redder even than when she’d first been pulled into the tub. That incident, though something she’d planned for a long time and finally gritted her teeth to carry out, was still deeply embarrassing to her — after it happened, the two of them had tacitly agreed never to bring it up again, and this was the first time it had ever been used to tease her. After a moment, she pressed her lips together. “I’m done bathing. Time for bed.” She reached a hand out of the tub for a towel.

She didn’t quite dare stand up fully to reach for it, keeping her back to Ning Yi instead, stretching out one hand, fumbling several times before finally catching hold of it. Behind her, she heard Ning Yi laughing. “Fair enough — the water’s about cooled off anyway.” A moment later, Su Tan’er suddenly felt her body go weightless.

“Ah…”

She gave a small cry as the lamplight flickered and both bodies rose abruptly from the water. Ning Yi had scooped her up by the bend of her knees, cradling her against his chest. Entirely bare now, her skin exposed to the open air, she instinctively pressed her legs together and curled inward, unsure where to put her hands, not daring to open them too wide either — flustered, she could only press herself against Ning Yi’s body, and after a long moment of embarrassment, clutched the towel to her chest instead.

“Put me down,” she said softly.

“Not a chance.” Ning Yi was already laughing as he stepped out of the tub, carrying his wife toward the bed. Su Tan’er shot him an irritated glance and bit her lip. Still, this wasn’t the first time the two of them had seen each other unclothed, and having grown used to the situation, she unfolded the towel, trying to wrap herself in it. But as Ning Yi set her down on the bed, she remembered the water still on her body hadn’t been dried off, and before she could react, he’d already flipped her over — drawing another soft cry from her, this one with something almost like a tearful edge to it.

The towel covered the front of her body but not her back, and being made to lie like this so suddenly left her feeling almost as if she were lying bare on display for Ning Yi’s viewing. Under the circumstances, lying on her back and being seen wouldn’t have felt nearly as embarrassing — but lying face-down like this struck her as genuinely indecent. Fortunately, Ning Yi soon pulled the towel over her and turned her back around.

“I’ll be right there.”

Ning Yi said this as he went back to the tub to dry himself off. Su Tan’er lay quietly, watching his silhouette, and sighed. This really was starting to feel like yielding without resistance, wasn’t it. A moment later, she saw Ning Yi blow out the lamp, his shadowy outline moving toward her.

She closed her eyes and decided that if it was yielding without resistance, so be it — she wouldn’t fight him on it.

In the thunderstorm, in the darkness, that familiar warmth drew close, and gently, the towel was drawn away, and her body opened to him…

…

After the clouds and rain had passed, the air felt clean and fresh, and all that met the eye was a scattering of wilted leaves and broken branches.

This was the scene in Changzhou the next morning. Looking out from the inn onto the street outside, the branches and leaves of the trees lay scattered and broken from the wind, and the storm — no one quite knew when it had stopped — had left the air still damp, but on the whole, the storm had passed, and it looked as though another clear, sunny day lay ahead.

By the time Lou Shuwan came by to greet them, Su Tan’er had already risen and finished dressing and grooming herself for the day. She wore only a simple dress today in moon-white and lake-green, with pearl flowers pinned in her hair, giving off the air of a warm, contented young wife.

Ning Yi got up somewhat later than her — ordinarily a disciplined man who rose earlier than most, this morning he’d found it rather amusing to lie in bed and watch Su Tan’er get ready instead. Su Tan’er, noticing him watching the whole time, wrung out a washcloth while washing her own face and went over to wipe his face too, several times over, treating him almost like a small child.

Once she’d finished dressing and grooming, she crouched by the edge of the bed, gazing at him, chin propped on both hands, and said in a soft, gentle voice, “Husband pays no mind to propriety, does whatever he pleases, doesn’t know the meaning of shame — just like a child.”

Ning Yi laughed at that — it was the first time he’d heard that particular assessment of himself. In truth, Su Tan’er herself looked rather like a delicate, mischievous child at that moment; he reached out and gave her nose a playful tweak. “Propriety has nothing to do with any of this — you’re just making things up.”

“Husband’s just like a child,” Su Tan’er repeated with a laugh — in truth, whenever she found herself in Ning Yi’s arms, she always felt a bit like a child herself.

But then, the two of them were both still young — both, in a sense, still children.

They were speaking softly like this when Lou Shuwan came knocking at the door. When it opened, Ning Yi was still in bed. Because of this, Ning Yi decided he’d dislike this Lou Shuwan for a few days at least — an unfair judgment, perhaps, but a third wheel is never welcome.

Though he’d jokingly resolved in his heart to dislike her for a while, there was, naturally, no real prejudice in how he actually treated her. They stayed in Changzhou for a day, and by the time they left on the third day, Lou Shuwan and her party had already become traveling companions, moving some of their cargo onto the pleasure boat as well, and introducing their attendants — maids, stewards, and the like. As for the scholar traveling with her, he went by the name Lin Tingzhi; his exact relationship to the group wasn’t entirely clear, though for now he was simply tagging along back to Hangzhou, treated more or less as a guest — reportedly a rather talented and well-regarded scholar in Hangzhou.

For her part, once Lou Shuwan learned of Ning Yi’s status as a matrilocal son-in-law, she rather looked down on him in her heart. Throughout the journey, she made a point of monopolizing Su Tan’er’s company as a matter of course…