After the Minor New Year, every household swept its courtyards clean and put up fresh New Year paintings and paper-cut window decorations. As the lanterns came on at dusk, carriages passed through the streets, and occasionally the crack of firecrackers could be heard. Tan’er lifted the carriage curtain, watching the pedestrians the carriage passed among on the street. Not long after passing Dahuoxing Street, they reached Yanhe Lane.

The snow had already been swept clear along both sides of the main road, with few pedestrians about. On either side stood large courtyards behind grey brick walls, lanterns hanging beside gates open or closed, stone lions standing guard at their entrances. Some of these courtyards buzzed with life, others sat in silence, though none revealed what lay within from the outside. Couplets were pasted on either side of the gates; the one nearest their own home read, “By the grace of the nation and the joy of the household, may the people live long and the harvest be bountiful.” As the carriage passed, a commotion erupted from within one such household, someone being thrown out amid the sound of a woman’s weeping.

Over at the Ning residence, a few figures could be seen peeking out to watch the commotion. Once the carriage had passed, Chan’er, Su Yanping, and the others came trotting over. Tan’er glanced over as well and saw two women, one older and one younger, being flung out through the gate — the older one’s head bleeding from a blow.

“I heard it’s the fourth concubine of that household — not very well-behaved, they say, stealing money from the family and neglecting to show proper filial respect to her in-laws, so they threw her out…” Xiao Chan said quietly, pressed close beside Tan’er. “There’s also talk that this fourth concubine had an affair with one of the household servants — her husband didn’t want to drown her in a pig cage or report her to the authorities, so he simply drove her and her daughter out instead.”

In grand households, incidents like this sometimes needed no very detailed explanation, and whether the stories that circulated were true or false was hard to say with any certainty. Tan’er shook her head, watching as the mother pulled her daughter down to kneel and kowtow, weeping in the street. Someone tossed a small bundle out after them, and in the lamplight by the gate, a man stood watching the whole scene unfold with cold indifference before turning and going back inside. The servants shut the gate, and the woman rushed forward, weeping, pounding on it with her fists.

“Right at New Year’s, where’s she even supposed to go…”

Sighing, Tan’er, Xiao Chan, and the others made their way in through the gate. Su Yanping, ever eager for gossip, still lingered by the entrance watching, until Tan’er’s steady gaze finally got him moving, raising a hand as he followed inside — this household now bore Ning Yi’s imprint in a great many things, from tilting one’s head and shrugging to snapping one’s fingers, including some of the more eccentric mannerisms he displayed in battle, which the young men of the household had all taken up as something of a fashion to imitate.

Of course, the one thing that could still be used to tease this second brother-in-law was his apparent inability to woo women. Rumors to this effect occasionally reached Tan’er’s ears too, though when she asked directly, no one dared say a word. In truth, even without their saying so, Tan’er more or less understood — it had a great deal to do with Nie Yunzhu.

Just inside the gate lay the main courtyard used for receiving guests, with a large sitting room beside the main hall, much of it furnished according to Ning Yi’s own design. Various amusing chairs, carpets, and furs filled the space, kept warm by a fire burning in the stove during winter — a place the family used for evening rest and gatherings. By now, Wenfang, Wending, and the others were already gathered there, chattering away excitedly about goings-on at the manor outside the city, various amusing but rather useless new inventions, and ideas for how to turn these new gadgets into profit.

Under Ning Yi’s influence, this household hadn’t developed the kind of rigid distance typical of grand family estates — or perhaps it simply hadn’t reached that point yet. Every time she saw this group of cousins getting along so cheerfully, Tan’er sincerely hoped this atmosphere could last as long as possible.

As the mistress of the household — though a woman, after all — she came over to greet everyone briefly, left behind a couple of small pastries, and then withdrew. Before long, Ning Yi returned from the Chancellor’s residence as well, carrying a bundle of intelligence files. As he headed back to their room, he was saying to Xiao Chan, “On the way back, I saw a woman outside the neighbor’s gate, dragging her child along and pounding desperately on the door, crying her heart out — really pitiful…”

“That’s the fourth concubine of that household. I heard she got old and lost her charm, so they threw her out…” Xiao Chan’s gossip had taken on a slightly different flavor this time. “That’s how Xiao Chan will end up getting thrown out someday too.”

“You’re wronging me. At most I’d just give your backside a good spanking…”

“Mm, and by then, my lord, you’ll be the one who ends up bleeding…”

Tan’er watched, smiling, as the two of them bantered their way in through the gate. Before long, Ning Yi set down the intelligence files he’d brought back. The family chatted for a while; after dinner, they went out to join Su Wending and the others for a bit. While out for a stroll, they saw that the concubine and child next door who had been thrown out were nowhere to be found — in this bitter, breath-freezing snow, there was no telling where they’d gone.

Days could pass slowly enough, and matters of the heart could be pressed down and set aside for the moment, but Ning Yi still had plenty of pressing matters at hand. Things like domestic and northern affairs, for instance — he’d sometimes look over the relevant files, and Tan’er was able to understand what he was working toward. Though a woman, she could often follow Ning Yi’s concerns well enough. As for the current decline of the Liao and the specifics of the situation both at home and abroad, Ning Yi didn’t devote too much attention to those — he mainly busied himself gathering and organizing information tucked away in the margins of various reports, regarding the attitudes of the Jurchen state.

“Actually, looking at the intelligence gathered on the Jurchens over the past couple of years, you can tell these Jurchen people are actually quite wary and respectful of the Wu Dynasty. When we allied with them against the Liao, Wanyan Xiyin actually came in person — I looked into his background, and he’s quite formidable, well-versed in both letters and arms, and he belongs to the pro-Wu faction among them. But over this past year or so, his words and actions suggest he’s grown somewhat disillusioned with the Wu Dynasty too… we’ve fought too poorly. As for men like Wanyan Zongbi and Wanyan Zonggan, comparing their attitudes toward the Wu Dynasty over these past two years, the shift is actually quite alarming. It’s a shame the Secret Investigation Bureau hasn’t gathered much on this front…”

As he flipped through the Bureau’s various reports on the northern territories, Ning Yi gathered together many small details others had overlooked, jotting them down by hand. As he murmured his thoughts aloud, Tan’er occasionally joined in.

“Will copying all this down actually be of any use?”

“Getting the higher-ups to properly prepare against the Jurchens isn’t easy, honestly. Allying with the Jurchens against the Liao made sense partly because the Jurchens are few in number, and we reasoned they wouldn’t dare attack the Wu Dynasty. Another reason was that propaganda about the Jurchens being friendly, and about how, once the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan-Yun were recovered, our two nations would be brotherly states, had already been circulating for a while. If the Jurchens really do decide to turn on us afterward, a great many people would have to bear the blame for it.”

“So it’s precisely because someone will have to bear the blame that preparations need to be made in advance?”

“The trouble is, no one wants to be the one to say something inauspicious. The Liao is still being fought, the Jurchens still seem so honorable and friendly, and if someone were to step forward and say the Jurchens might well turn around and attack the Wu Dynasty next — even just saying ‘might’ — it would already unsettle people below. I can only mention things like this to Qin Sizhi directly… In truth, it’s not that no one at the Secret Investigation Bureau is worried about this. Look at these few reports I copied out, discussing the attitudes of men like Wanyan Zongbi — the handwriting looks quite similar across them, and it seems to be a woman’s hand. The Bureau’s Liaodong division — I don’t know who exactly is behind it, but they’re probably the ones who understand the Jurchen temperament best of all.”

“A woman?” Tan’er’s interest was piqued, and she picked up the report to look. Ning Yi shook his head.

“In this day and age, it’s hard enough for a man to do this kind of work, let alone a woman… I looked at the dates these reports were sent in, did the calculations, and I think this person must have worked her way into the upper ranks of the Jurchen hierarchy — probably as someone’s slave or favored concubine by now. For a woman from the southern dynasty to be willing to do this kind of work, that takes real courage…”

Ning Yi shook his head and went on writing. “None of this intelligence really forms a coherent system, so there’s not much point in compiling a formal threat assessment out of it. I just want to analyze the personalities of each of the top Jurchen leaders — it might prove useful someday, might let us play a few small tricks here and there… Heh, I’ve always said those people only know how to play petty tricks, that they can’t fight a straightforward war — but when it comes to myself, I suppose I’m not all that different.”

“You only said you’d come help with this — it’s not entirely your own responsibility to carry alone… And besides, the Jurchens really are few in number. Maybe they won’t end up attacking after all,” Tan’er said, trying to comfort him.

Ning Yi nodded with a smile. “True enough. Old habits dying hard, I suppose…”

In the warmly lit room, husband and wife chatted on, the air between them at once tense and easy. The baby had already been carried off by the wet nurse, and as the night deepened further, the couple blew out the lamp and went to bed, bodies entwined together beneath the warm quilts. Not long after, Ning Yi got up from bed, poured out some hot water heated on the coal stove, and wet a towel to wipe down Tan’er’s body. Tan’er always felt a touch of shyness about this sort of thing — in an age when intimacy between husband and wife was mostly a perfunctory affair carried out with the lamp blown out and eyes closed, this kind of attending to a woman’s needs wasn’t something a man was expected to do, and it felt somewhat indecent besides. But once the weather had turned cold, Ning Yi no longer allowed her to trouble herself getting out of bed for such things — in an era like this, many an illness was tantamount to a death sentence.

The next morning, before dawn, Ning Yi would get up, either joining the morning training or lighting a lamp to finish up unfinished work in the room, while Tan’er peeked her head out from under the covers to watch him. It was on this particular morning that Ning Yi, looking over one of the reports, frowned slightly. It concerned news of several uprising factions besides the Jurchens that had emerged amid the chaos following the Liao’s collapse — among the Mongol tribes, one faction was rising rapidly on the northwestern steppe, one of the fastest-growing forces among them. Of course, compared to the speed of the Jurchen rise, this particular force was only mentioned in passing in the report.

The Qiyan tribe… had he heard that name somewhere before?

Ning Yi searched his memory for a moment but couldn’t come up with any fitting answer from the threads in his mind. He set the brief report aside without making any note of it.

At that very same moment, amid a swirl of wind and snow in the northern territories, a company of several dozen riders was preparing to set out southward. At the head of the group, Guo Yaoshi drank down a bowl of wine and bid farewell to several commanders of the Ever-Victorious Army before him. “This trip south, I’m going to pay my respects to the current Emperor himself! Brothers, wait for my return — I’ll bring back a share of wealth and glory for every one of you!”

“Such heavy snow, brother…”

“Ha ha, are we men of Liaodong afraid of a little wind and snow? Once we’re past Yanmen Pass, it’ll be warm enough!” Guo Yaoshi said, then, a moment later, guided his horse closer, clapping one of the commanders on the shoulder. “The Ever-Victorious Army is counting on you all now. Remember what I’ve told you — once the snow lets up a bit, go out and conscript more men. I’ve seen it clearly now — we can’t afford to worry about who starves to death anymore. The Wu Dynasty’s soldiers aren’t much to fight with, so we absolutely must keep our own numbers up. We need to be able to fight for ourselves. With men, we’ll have money, grain, and wealth — without men, relying on the various armies of the Wu Dynasty, all caught up in their own petty rivalries, competing over who can flee the fastest, we won’t be able to fight at all. Remember that well… I’ll head off now—”

Wheeling his horse around, Guo Yaoshi led his men off, gradually disappearing into the southward-blowing wind and snow, passing through Yanmen Pass and heading south, toward Bianliang.

Before long, fireworks rose over the capital to mark New Year’s Eve, and Yun Zhu’s health had, at last, fully recovered. A day after the Lantern Festival had passed, she sent Ning Yi a letter inviting him over for a meal. Over these past few months, most of their communication had passed through spoken messages, but this time was different — in her letter, she said she wanted to go home.

She wanted to go back… to visit the old family home where her parents had once lived…