At night, the wind howled. Passing through the second-floor corridor connecting the Golden Wind Pavilion to the inner courtyard, one could hear a woman’s furious cursing coming from that direction.

“You heartless thing! Ungrateful wretch—”

The voice was shouting at the top of its lungs, sounding like it belonged to the owner of the Golden Wind Pavilion, that Madam Yang. This Madam Yang was in her forties, and though past her prime, her usual bearing and temperament were quite refined—dignified and elegant in a way that made it hard to imagine her shouting so recklessly, heedless of appearances. Xi Junyu listened, pausing with interest. A moment later, an answering voice rang out just as fiercely—a woman’s voice, equally full of spirit and pleasant to the ear.

“You greedy, insatiable woman! Leech—”

The Golden Wind Pavilion had an outer and inner structure; the inner building connected to the outer one, and further in past the inner building was the inner courtyard. Each level did business, though Xi Junyu usually preferred to host guests in the outer building—not out of any distinction in class, purely by preference. He now stood by that passage listening to the exchange inside. Something crashed—probably thrown by Madam Yang.

“Shameless! You were meant to be a young mistress… you could have been a young mistress… and you throw it all away—”

“So what if I could be a young mistress! I don’t want it!”

“Shameless—”

It had been stifling at noon, and the sky had looked strange all day. As evening approached the wind picked up outside; a storm looked likely by night. Business at the Golden Wind Pavilion wasn’t at its best. A woman hurried out from that direction, and upon seeing him, bowed with a smile. “Young Master Xi.” They knew each other from before. “Hosting guests today?”

“Yes, out front, in the Spring Dawn Room, just wrapping up,” Xi Junyu nodded. “What’s going on in there?”

The woman’s expression turned hesitant. “Madam’s angry. Ah, this matter…”

She seemed on the verge of saying more but held back. Xi Junyu didn’t press her. Just then, the voice of a manager from the Su family called from behind him: “Junyu, what’s wrong? Why were you gone so long?” He turned and replied, “Coming right away,” then turned back to take his leave of the woman.

Today he had been hosting guests here together with that manager, and things were nearly wrapped up; he’d only stepped away to use the privy. Returning now, both sides were already exchanging farewells, with the manager leading the guests out. He only saw them to the door, then came back to settle the bill and handle the remaining matters. With nothing pressing to do, he dismissed the other women who had been keeping company, keeping only one he knew fairly well, asking her to play some simple tunes on the zither in the room while he sat by, eating and thinking things over.

Sitting by the window—though it was closed—the strong wind still carried the noise of the quarrel over, mixing with the soothing zither music. Something of an odd accompaniment, not unamusing.

“If some rich young master paid to redeem you, I wouldn’t say a word—I’d even send you off with a dowry! But this, this is throwing yourself away—”

“I’m throwing away my own life, my own way! Is it that the redemption money isn’t enough, or what?”

“I don’t care about your paltry money! Without me, there’d be no Golden Wind Pavilion! You want money? Where do you think money comes from—”

“You just want to keep me here, keep me earning for you! You just want me trapped here for life—”

“Nonsense! Ungrateful wretch! Nonsense… ask yourself! Go ask yourself! When have I, Yang Xiuhong, ever sent a girl off to marry without being happy about it, without her being willing! Sisi before you, Xiaoyu, Lihong, Bai Duo’er, Pan Shi… I was even the one who matched Bai Duo’er with her husband! Every one of them was a top girl in this house! They found good places to land, and every single time I sent them off happily with a dowry! But you, what exactly are you trying to do—”

“I! Like! Him!”

“You’ve let grease clog up your brain! You think leaving here to redeem yourself means you won’t still be out in public eye after? Then what was the point of redeeming yourself at all! I knew I shouldn’t have been so soft-hearted. That Nie girl… she used to be from an official family, head full of nonsense about how the world works… I shouldn’t have let her get involved either. She doesn’t understand the world, and neither do you! What background did you even come from before! You’ve let grease clog your brain—”

“Fine, grease has clogged my brain, and clogged or not I’m still doing this—”

“I won’t allow it! Won’t allow it, and what of it—”

“…”

“…that Young Master Chen, that son of the Tie family, and that Master Zheng—which one of them isn’t good enough? It’s not like I’m marrying you off to some old man. You want money, you want to be a young mistress—then go be one! Whoever you marry, why would I be unhappy about it? Oh, you don’t like them—then Cao Guan, Liu Qingdi, real talents, less money maybe but still from a wealthy family, and if he passes the exams and becomes an official one day… the life of a young mistress! Whoever you marry, it’s still marrying well! Are you really planning never to marry at all? Just wait and see, once you actually go sell whatever it is you’re planning to sell, see who’ll even want you then. Shameful! So shameful! From now on everyone will say Yang Xiuhong raised a freak of a daughter! A girl with a twisted temper—”

The two of them argued loudly in the room, and by the time Madam Yang’s anger peaked, her voice had cracked with furious sobbing. Xi Junyu found it entertaining. She’d mentioned Cao Guan, Liu Qingdi… could the one trying to leave actually be that Yuan Jin’er? This woman had been the top of the Four Great Courtesans two competitions running, and after only two months at the top, she was already planning to redeem herself? A money-losing proposition—no wonder Madam Yang was this furious. And from the sound of it, she wasn’t even trying to marry—she wanted to redeem herself outright. Setting up on her own? That didn’t quite fit either…

Given Xi Junyu’s standing, it wasn’t that he couldn’t afford to patronize a top courtesan like this if he wanted to, but it would certainly be a considerable expense, so although he’d visited the Golden Wind Pavilion many times, he’d had little direct interaction with Yuan Jin’er. He’d only seen her sing and dance in public a few times, always lively and graceful. He hadn’t expected her to be this sharp-tongued in a fight—giving as good as she got against Madam Yang.

“The money’s all here anyway! If you think it’s not enough, say so, worst case I’ll hand over everything I have—”

“And you—what’s so great about going out and showing your face in public, showing it off to those men, at least right now it’s mostly scholars and men of letters!”

“My face and my head are my own!”

“For your whole life! No man will want you!”

“I don’t want a man either!”

At that, Madam Yang’s voice had gone hoarse from anger.

“…even if you went off to set up your own household, I wouldn’t be this angry… at least you’d still have had the chance at being a young mistress, at least you’d still have had that chance—”

Yuan Jin’er fell into stubborn silence.

“…what exactly are you unhappy about! What exactly! You came into this house, I made you the top girl, made you famous, you’ve met people others could only dream of meeting—scholars, men of letters, high officials, celebrities, wealthy landowners too—I let you have your way, never made you spread your legs for customers, if you didn’t like someone I never let them touch you… and now you’ve let grease clog your brain, you’re determined to walk yourself into a dead end, what exactly are you unhappy about… selling smiles, showing your face in public… that’s just a woman’s fate! Depend on yourself—what a joke! Can you really depend on yourself for a whole lifetime? Getting to be a young mistress would be the best outcome—others couldn’t get that no matter how hard they begged! What good fortune from past lives brought you this chance! You don’t like it? Then go die and hope to be reborn a man next life… a woman’s fate is what it is! It’s everyone’s fate! Shameless—”

A patter of raindrops began on the roof, and the next moment a torrential downpour arrived all at once, blanketing the entire city. The voices became harder to make out; faintly, Yuan Jin’er could be heard shouting, “Then beat me to death—”

Xi Junyu pushed open the window. Because the eaves overhead extended out quite far, the rain didn’t blow into the room. Looking out from there, he could see shadows moving on the second floor of the Golden Wind Pavilion’s inner building, which faced the Qinhuai River—the shadows of two women arguing. Fragments of the quarrel drifted over on the wind and rain, too broken to make out fully, only enough to guess roughly whose shadow was whose in the fierce exchange. At one point, what looked like Yuan Jin’er’s shadow moved toward the window and shoved open the two panes facing the river; inside, candlelight flickered and swayed.

“Jump then! Jump in the river and die, and be done with it! I’ll just pretend I never raised a daughter—”

Amid Yang Xiuhong’s shouting, Xi Junyu saw the figure by the window climb up without a word of hesitation, then lean half her body out into the curtain of rain visible from where he stood, and leap—a splash sounded below as she plunged into the Qinhuai River, its waters already churning with waves in the downpour.

“Ha!” Xi Junyu laughed to himself. To think such a woman still existed in this day and age.

“Miss—” a voice called faintly from inside the building, and another woman rushed toward the window—likely Yuan Jin’er’s maid. Madam Yang shouted as well: “Let her shout herself to death! Let her! Better if she dies… she swims that well, a turtle couldn’t even drown her! Damn wretch! Ungrateful wretch—”

“Miss…”

“Take it! Take it! Take your miss’s things… here, her indenture papers, hers… get out! Get out, all of you!”

Madam Yang went on throwing things. The maid dropped to her knees and kowtowed several times, then snatched up the items and ran out shouting “Miss—”

“Get Master Chen! Take a boat over and follow her! Fish that reckless woman out for me! I won’t have people saying I, Yang Xiuhong, drove someone to their death!”

Amid the pouring rain, one side of the Golden Wind Pavilion had erupted into commotion. Xi Junyu watched the scene from upstairs, laughing to himself for a good while. Not long after, he left the room, intending to head out. In the corridor, he ran into a couple of acquaintances—Wu Qilong and Wu Qihao, the eldest and second sons of the Wu family. Seeing them, Xi Junyu stepped to the side of the corridor to let them pass; the two of them looked pleasantly surprised.

“Ha, Manager Xi, what a coincidence, you’re here at the Golden Wind Pavilion too today? Some kind of engagement?”

“I was just seeing off Manager Yu of the Siqing Workshop—he’s already left.”

“Ah, if you’ve nothing else pressing, why not join us for a bit? Nothing urgent today, and running into you like this is fate.”

Xi Junyu smiled and shook his head, then politely declined: “My thanks for the kind offer, gentlemen, but I still have some matters to attend to, so I won’t intrude. Next time, next time…” The two Wu brothers were both known for their warmth and hospitality toward others of lower standing; Wu Qilong in particular had always thought highly of Xi Junyu. The two sides chatted a bit longer before the Wu brothers finally, with some reluctance, took their leave with a smile. Xi Junyu waited for them to pass, then turned and walked toward the exit.

With rain this heavy today, travel would be difficult. By his reckoning, Xiao Chan’s father had only just been buried today, and Ning Yi… would probably be back tomorrow night. As for matters at the Siqing Workshop, those were more or less settled; he ought to go report on the situation…

He stood at the entrance looking out at the astonishing downpour, as an attendant led a carriage over. “Manager Xi, where to now?”

“Back to…” he thought for a moment, “the Su residence.”

The carriage clattered off into the curtain of rain, following the still-lit main street toward the Su residence. Not long after, on a street near the river not far off, another carriage—this one belonging to the Su household—likewise passed through the sheets of rain, heading this way. The one driving, wrapped in a straw rain cape, was Dongzhu. They had finally made it back to Jiangning that night.

Nightlife in the Wu Dynasty was fairly lively, and the city gates generally didn’t close at night, or if they did, it was very late. Still, with refugees having recently gathered outside the city, Ning Yi had worried the whole way back whether the gates might close early tonight. Along the road back, they’d also seen the sky turn dark and threatening, and fortunately the downpour only began after they’d made it through the city gates. He pulled Bodyguard Geng into the cabin with him, then handed the straw rain cape to Dongzhu, who was driving. Passing through this area, he faintly heard someone shouting: “Miss…”

He lifted a corner of the side curtain to look out. Near the Qinhuai River there were many buildings here too, mostly brothels, lanterns lit beneath their eaves. There were people inside the buildings, but hardly anyone on the street. As he looked out through the lifted curtain, a woman seemed to be climbing up the bluestone steps between two wooden buildings by the river, her maid standing nearby holding a small bundle.

It wasn’t clear why this woman had ended up in the river, but with the rain just starting, the Qinhuai at night was already churning with waves—quite dangerous. It was impressive that she’d managed to climb back out, and she still moved with an air of ease. But she’d been wearing thin clothes when she fell in, and now she was soaked through, her garments clinging to her curved figure, nearly transparent. Her legs were long and shapely, one embroidered shoe apparently lost in the water, leaving one bare foot exposed. Standing there in the downpour, the sight was undeniably striking.

Someone across the street or on a nearby upper floor had apparently caught sight of her by chance; Dongzhu, driving the carriage, was likely among them. The woman wiped her face with her hand, only then noticing her state. She looked down at herself, then frowned and looked up: “Never seen a woman before?”

The words came out sharp and defiant, but with a faint trace of embarrassment, her voice not loud. Having said that, she spun around and jumped straight back into the river with a splash, and in the blink of an eye had swum off some distance into the waves.

“Miss, Miss…” the maid called, chasing after her along the riverbank…

“Tsk, tsk.” What a striking woman…

Ning Yi mused to himself, with a vague sense that he’d seen that woman somewhere before, though on reflection that didn’t seem quite right—perhaps he was just reminded of some actress he’d seen in a film once, something with a similar scene. As he was thinking this, Xiao Chan leaned in closer. “Husband, what are you looking at?”

“Heh, nothing.”

“I don’t believe you.” Xiao Chan shook her head.

“…Dongzhu probably saw it too, go ask him.”

“Huh?” Xiao Chan looked puzzled for a moment, then lifted the front curtain. “Brother Dongzhu, Brother Dongzhu, what did you two see just now?”

“Wh-what?” Dongzhu startled, then looked flustered. “N-nothing, I didn’t see anything…”

“Oh?”

Ning Yi burst out laughing inside the carriage. Xiao Chan looked at Dongzhu up front in confusion, then back at Ning Yi inside, before retreating to her seat with a pout. “Bullying me…”