This woman perhaps did not know — her most captivating appearance was not when she was fawning and flattering others, but rather now, like this: both eyes wide and round, her willow brows arched high, her entire being like a pungent chili pepper, a surge of vibrant spirit rushing straight at him, leaving a burning sensation on the tip of the tongue and a tingling numbness throughout the body. Once tasted, one could never forget…

Of course, there were far too many parts of her worth savoring. Situ Sheng seemed to have returned to his youth, back to when little Linlang had first earned money and led him to browse a candy shop — gazing at the dazzling array of sweets, he had been suddenly at a loss as to which ones to choose.

Just as the two of them were lingering together, there came a knock at the study door.

The soft bundle of sweetness that had been nestled in Situ Sheng’s arms seemed to have been struck by a bolt of lightning. She leapt to her feet, grabbed the feather duster from beside the table, and began dusting the shelves with practiced, convincing movements.

Unfortunately, she had jumped up too forcefully, and her knee accidentally knocked into the corner of the table, causing her to bite her lip in silent pain.

While Dongxue was pouring tea, the eldest young lady had apparently finished her dusting. Without turning her head, she tucked the feather duster under her arm and slipped around behind Dongxue, limping slightly as she departed.

Watching her leave, Situ Sheng lifted his head and said to Dongxue, “In the future, without my instructions, do not enter the study.”

There had never been such a rule in the household before. Dongxue, blunt as ever, actually asked, “Why?”

Hearing such an impertinent question, Situ Sheng patiently offered a single explanation: “It is bad for the knees.”

“Ah?” Dongxue was somewhat baffled and could not quite connect the two things. She simply thought the master was being overly considerate of his servants — was he worried that bringing too much tea would tire her knees?

But Situ Sheng offered no further explanation. He simply waved his hand, and she went out.

He returned to his desk to review the official documents. He needed to get through them quickly — perhaps then he would have a moment to go and check on that young lady’s knee.

—

At that very moment, things were far from peaceful at the residence of the Vice Commander of the Cavalry Camp.

Having heard his uncle relay Chu Linlang’s words, Chen Fang could not help but let out a cold snort. “She does not know what is good for her!”

According to his original plan, as long as he set a simple trap, would this woman not be entirely at his mercy?

That one fleeting glimpse of the Chu woman on the main street the other day had left Chen Fang genuinely itching with desire. A woman of just the right age was like a fruit ripening in summer — too early and it was still tart, too late and it had gone past its prime.

He had always fancied himself a man of refined tastes. Having laid eyes on such a fresh and delectable sweet fruit, how could he pass up an opportunity to taste her?

But this little Chu woman did not know what was good for her and refused to be of use. He would have to think of another approach. After all, in that Deputy Minister’s household, she was not the only one who could be turned.

Thinking of this, Chen Fang shook his head with unconcealed regret. “What a shame…”

His uncle, who had been carefully reading his expressions, immediately grasped the meaning behind his nephew’s words. The short, squat man chuckled and said, “That woman doesn’t know how to play along, but we can’t just let her off so easily. Otherwise, people will start to think that the Crown Prince’s word is meaningless — that no one takes it seriously at all!”

Chen Fang shot him a sharp glare. “Stop invoking the Crown Prince’s name! The Fourth Prince has just been reinstated in court. His Highness is keeping a very low profile with everything he does!”

Aide Chen hastened to smile and agree. But then he leaned close and whispered a few more words in Chen Fang’s ear.

Chen Fang squinted at him sideways. “Preposterous — what a disgraceful scheme!”

But Aide Chen was unperturbed. “The men I have on hand used to do exactly this sort of work out in the mountain forests. They are very experienced at it. Besides, what is she, really? Nothing more than a woman who relies on her looks to cling to men. Even if something were to happen, who could she accuse? She would likely just have to treat it as if nothing occurred — afraid that if word got out, she would be the one to lose her reputation for nothing!”

Chen Fang found this reasoning sound. He cast a meaningful glance at his uncle and, feigning moral superiority, said, “These words of yours — I have not heard a single one of them today. I know absolutely nothing about any of this!”

Aide Chen understood perfectly. He simply smiled ingratiatingly and said, “Of course, of course. Once we bring the woman in, we’ll lock her in a dark room. She won’t be able to see a single face from start to finish, guaranteed!”

Aide Chen had handled affairs of this sort more than once before. Otherwise, how would a mere tea merchant have been able to strut about in the capital? To socialize with the powerful when born of lowly origins, one had to be willing to go to extremes and do the dirty work others refused to touch.

What a pity that the little Chu woman didn’t know how the world worked. Did she truly believe that by leaning on a poor-born scholar who had risen through honest means, she could offend anyone she pleased in the capital city?

—

The following day was the annual Flower Festival.

Besides preparing a flower basket for Situ Sheng, Chu Linlang had also prepared several more of her own, intending to give them to the instructors and her fellow students at the women’s academy.

However, she could not afford anything too costly. The flower baskets paid for out of the household funds were all for Situ Sheng’s use in social engagements.

Her current position was that of a servant, and for affairs of this kind, sincerity was what mattered — nothing more. So her own flower baskets had been handmade over the course of several days beforehand.

Situ Sheng had been ordered to remain confined at home in reflection, making it inappropriate for him to be wandering the streets during such a festive occasion. Besides, General Li had arrived and had been shut away with Situ Sheng in the study for the better part of the morning.

Linlang checked the time, then set out with Xia He, Dongxue, and a young manservant named Wang Wu, going from door to door to deliver the flower baskets.

By the time she reached the residence of Qi Gong, the gate of the Sacrificial Wine Official’s home was practically drowning in a sea of flowers.

Chu Linlang had originally planned to simply leave the basket and be on her way — propriety fulfilled, nothing more. But Qi Jingtang’s wife, Madam Hua, spotted her and came over smiling, accepting the basket from her hands.

Once it was in her hands, Madam Hua discovered that the basket from this Chu woman was rather different from the others. Inside the willow-woven basket there were no fresh flowers at all — instead, there were paper flowers, pinched and folded from writing paper, lightly tinted with color.

Although during the Flower Festival it was customary to paste red paper flowers onto tree branches, any flower basket given as a gift was expected to be filled with brilliant, vying fresh blooms. No one would have the audacity to pass off such cheap paper flowers to another person.

Madam Hua was momentarily astonished, and she could not help but look up at Chu Linlang.

Just then, Qi Gong himself, who had been standing at the gate admiring the flowers, walked over. He lifted his salt-and-pepper brows and peered at the basket of paper flowers. “What is the meaning of this, girl? Are you cursing me to die and never leave?”

At that very moment, the other female students from the academy arrived to deliver their flower baskets as well.

Yixiu Junzhu caught sight of Chu Linlang’s basket and couldn’t help covering her mouth as she let out a quiet laugh. Truly beneath any acceptable standard. But then again, in a gathering like this one, full of the powerful and distinguished, someone of Chu Niangzi’s standing would look shabby no matter what she brought. She would be better off withdrawing from the academy sooner rather than later, and stop muddling about in circles where she did not belong.

Chu Linlang, for her part, remained perfectly composed. She gave a respectful bow, then reached into the basket Madam Hua was holding and drew out one of the paper flowers. She gave it a light pull, and it unfolded back into a flat sheet of paper.

There, on the paper whose edges had been tinted with color, were characters of varying sizes densely written out — all wishes for happiness, longevity, and good health.

Qi Gong had seen Chu Linlang’s calligraphy before. The worm-like character for “law” she had written at his birthday banquet need not even be mentioned. When she had sat the entrance examination for the women’s academy, the characters on her snow-white examination paper had been sprawling and casual, barely achieving a passable tidiness, with no trace of any genuine brushwork force.

But now, the few characters for “happiness, longevity, and good health” on these sheets showed an astonishing speed of improvement — and each had been written in a different script style. Though not yet of the highest caliber, they no longer strained the eyes to look at.

This little girl was someone who applied herself diligently and had a natural aptitude…

Chu Linlang smiled and gave a restrained bow. “Today is the Flower Festival, and I should by rights have brought fresh flowers for the Sacrificial Wine Official and Master Qi. However, your student reasoned that you both have students filling the realm like peach and plum blossoms, and that your residence must already be overflowing with the finest and most varied blooms. As my monthly allowance is modest, I cannot afford flowers of any great value. Yet I still wished to express a student’s sincerity — so I simply folded the writing paper from my recent practice sessions into over a thousand flowers, each one a prayer and a wish, and brought them to present to you both.”

Everything she said was the plain truth. During the Flower Festival, fresh flower prices rivaled those of silver and gold, and for the finer varieties, no amount of money spent would be considered excessive.

Chu Linlang’s money was always spent where it counted most — she had none to spare for competing in displays of wealth.

And no matter how much she spent, it could never match the flower baskets brought by the sons and daughters of great noble households. So she had devised this thrifty way of expressing her gratitude to her teachers.

The writing paper was something she had written on during practice anyway, costing hardly anything. But she had put her whole heart into every character she wrote.

—

The problem was not particularly serious either! Because the Sacrificial Wine Official Qi Gong didn’t seem to have any particular regard for her in the first place. Even taking her in had likely been done for Situ Sheng’s sake more than anything.

With human relations so clearly without any prospect, Chu Linlang felt entirely at ease — and entirely comfortable being thrifty.

What she hadn’t expected was that she would happen to deliver the basket at such an inopportune moment, running straight into Qi Gong himself.

Qi Gong unfolded a few more of the flowers. Every sheet bore different characters, but they were all, in essence, phrases of blessing. Furthermore, the paper flowers had been folded and shaped with remarkable lifelike detail, and a touch of fragrant water had been sprinkled on them — at a casual glance, one truly could not tell they were made of paper.

He let out a cold snort. “‘Fine words and a fawning appearance are seldom associated with true virtue!’ Always fashioning these flattering little things to attract people’s attention.”

These words were harsh — especially coming from the mouth of old Master Qi. Slapping someone with the label of a petty person in that way was enough to leave a person with nowhere to put their face.

Especially with Qi Jingtang and his wife standing nearby, and several other visitors who had come to deliver flower baskets. One wrong move, and a young woman with any pride might burst into tears right there in front of everyone.

Several of the other female students looked on with secondhand embarrassment, including Guan Jinhe, who had a reasonably friendly relationship with Chu Linlang. Guan Jinhe’s own face flushed bright red first, and she watched Chu Linlang with genuine sympathy.

But this Chu woman had remarkable composure. Even being publicly ridiculed did not change her expression. She simply let out a light laugh. “The Sacrificial Wine Official is quite right to scold me. While studying history at the women’s academy, I heard of a supremely filial worthy from a previous dynasty who had copied out sutras to give to his teacher, as a way of conveying his most sincere devotion. It was from this that I conceived my own method. However, the sutras have far too many characters — I was afraid I would not be able to finish copying them — so I deliberately selected just a few auspicious characters to write out instead. And to make it look like there were more, I even wrote them quite large. You are truly sharp, to have seen through my laziness at a glance! Well then, next time I absolutely must not be lazy — I shall diligently copy out an entire thick volume of sutras to pray for your blessings!”

In all his years of teaching, Qi Gong had instructed countless students, and when he was stern, making a student cry was not uncommon.

But this little girl — no matter how he treated her — wore a grin and refused to break, like a tough old piece of meat that simply rolled with every blow, possessing a female commander’s spirit of meeting every advance with a defense and every flood with a dam.

Her words, for all their apparent self-reproach about laziness, were actually a subtle way of informing him: I beg your pardon, but these tricks of emulating the worthy — these ridiculous paper flower schemes — were all learned at your own son’s academy!

Qi Gong had been lightly and deftly countered by the girl once again. He let out a cold snort. “My son, in a moment of soft-heartedness, took you in — and it seems your mouth has grown a sharper set of steel teeth because of it!”

Chu Linlang pressed her lips together and smiled. “Then from now on, when I see you, I shall simply speak less — so as not to irritate you. Would that be all right?”

—

Yet Qi Gong called out to stop her again, and instructed: “Since you’ve come this far, don’t make the trip for nothing — otherwise you’ll go home with a bellyful of cold wind and start saying all manner of strange things about people behind their backs. Go on — join your fellow students in the hall and have some fresh flower cakes and pastries. And take a portion back with you for your master!”

Madam Hua thought to herself: How strange. So many people had come to deliver flower baskets today, and not one of them had been invited in for cake. The inner hall had only limited capacity, and those permitted to enter the ladies’ receiving room for tea and flower admiration were a select few women of recognized standing.

Many court officials of no particular renown had simply left their flower baskets and been sent on their way — they did not qualify for that cup of tea inside the hall.

For instance, this Chu Niangzi’s former husband, Master Zhou, had just moments ago delivered a flower basket at the gate, only to be politely ushered away by the household steward on the pretext that the lane outside was congested with too many carriages.

And yet this young woman — of humble station, freshly subjected to cold words of rebuke — had been personally invited inside by her father-in-law. That was truly unexpected.

It was evident that this Chu Niangzi had found favor in the old man’s eyes.

In that light, the sharp exchange of words that had just transpired seemed rather less harsh — more like a grandfather scolding a mischievous granddaughter.

Naturally Chu Linlang also sensed Qi Gong’s goodwill and immediately smiled her thanks, then affectionately came to take Madam Hua by the arm, and the two of them walked chatting and laughing into the hall to drink tea and eat flower cakes.

Yixiu Junzhu, who had been anticipating an entertaining spectacle, had not expected Qi Gong to show Chu Niangzi such face. She could not help but feel a flicker of surprise.

—

Chu Linlang had always made it a habit not to inquire into Situ Sheng’s official affairs. If something had given him pause enough to mark it carefully, then it certainly had its reasons for caution.

Back then, the person the Emperor had cherished was neither the principal consort, Lady Tao, nor Consort Jing — it was Consort Jing’s cousin, who had died young.

The Empress Tao also had her pride, and moreover, for the sake of her son’s position as Crown Prince, had never breathed a word of this to outsiders or to the Tao family. She simply maintained the facade of imperial marital harmony.

Furthermore, when the sharp exchange of words had been happening in the hall earlier, Linlang had been casually cracking melon seeds in a corner, listening to the drama unfold for her own entertainment.

On the surface it appeared to be a selection of female officials to serve the Empress Dowager, but everyone in the room understood perfectly well that among the women selected this time, there were to be some exceptional ones who would be placed in the Emperor’s inner palace.

Unfortunately, when the Empress Dowager looked at the roster, she frowned and said: “If she has already been granted the title of Junzhu, she is the Emperor’s junior relative — what business does she have entering the palace?” And with that, she crossed out Junzhu Yixiu’s name in a single stroke.

When those words were spoken, the wife of the Yun family had nearly burst out laughing inside.

Everyone knew that this Junzhu had gone into the palace to pay her respects to the Empress Dowager not long ago — and it was plainly clear that the Yun family had wanted to send another daughter into the palace to help their aunt consolidate the Emperor’s favor.

This inexplicable collision of kindred spirits was rather amusing.

It was Chu Linlang who noticed, and she had stepped over quickly, with nimble hands and sharp eyes, to rearrange everything on Lady Tao’s behalf to exactly the right position — not a fraction off. Only then did Lady Tao recover her composure and answer the instructor’s questions with perfect grace and poise.

The inner palace was a den of dragons and tigers. Setting aside everything else, the machinations of her sister-in-law, Consort Jing, alone were enough to make Madam Yun’s heart tremble with fear.

So even though Lady Tao had maids to attend to her, there were still moments when things slipped through the cracks.

Lady Tao had a very pleasant temperament and never scolded anyone. She simply went about quietly correcting things herself, one by one.

Back then he had still been young, still the Crown Prince, and from that point on a rift had formed between the Crown Prince and his principal consort.

The coachman looked apologetic: “I lost my attention at a junction just now, and it is too late to turn around. But the scenery along this route is quite pleasant — Chu Niangzi, would you like to step down and walk for a bit?”

As for that side consort named Fang Xiaonian who had died young, there seemed to be more to the story — something murky that pointed back to the Empress Tao.

But after that, Chu Linlang noticed that every time Lady Tao Yashu looked at her and gave her a nod and a smile, it seemed to carry a trace of genuine warmth.

So the Emperor and Empress both kept silent, never revealing the truth — which had allowed the shameless Tao family to remain smugly self-satisfied, truly believing the Emperor and Empress were deeply devoted to each other, and that the Emperor, out of lingering attachment to the Empress Tao, had long delayed naming a new Empress. Now the family was trying to send in a Tao Yashu who resembled the late Empress Tao.

Ordinarily, a family of such standing as the Tao’s — a family of generations of officials — her master would be expected to treat respectfully, even without making any special effort to cultivate the relationship.

In Chu Linlang’s view, when an old man took a young wife and they were not a young Emperor and Empress growing up together — when a girl in the prime of her youth was married to an old man who could be her grandfather, even if he were the Emperor himself — what pleasure could there be in any of it?

Having finished listening to the gossip and eaten the refreshments, Chu Linlang was ready to dust her hands and take her leave.

However, Chu Linlang had no intention of extending this friendship with Lady Tao any further.

Lady Tao spoke very little, but when Yixiu Junzhu showed her such disrespect in a gathering like this, she naturally had to strike back with reason and evidence.

Once that barbed remark landed, the entire room fell silent, and no one quite knew how to respond.

Watching her daughter being humiliated, Madam Yun was no easy target either. She deliberately smiled and said, “Of course those selected must be filled with trembling reverence — after all, it concerns whether this family’s glory can continue… My Yixiu is different; she doesn’t have Lady Tao’s steadiness. Even if she entered the palace, she would only embarrass herself. Better to keep her at home — we would not dare trouble the Empress Dowager with such a burden. In a few more days, her father will begin arranging her marriage. Unlike you, Lady Tao, she does not have your good fortune of entering the palace to fulfill her filial duties!”

But Lady Tao never condescended to anyone. Though she kept to herself and was not warm toward her fellow students, she was far too dignified to stoop to Yixiu Junzhu’s level and gossip about others’ shortcomings.

This group of women entering the palace held a distinction quite different from that of ordinary selected palace maids.

It turned out that this Lady Tao, who was always composed and rarely spoke, was quite gifted in speech. Clearly she was not someone to be trifled with.

Of course, there were also moments when things exceeded her ability to manage alone. Once during a break between classes, some playful classmates accidentally knocked the things off Lady Tao Yashu’s desk into disarray.

Chu Linlang’s legs had grown numb from sitting in the carriage. Having heard the suggestion, she simply climbed down and walked the rest of the way back with her maid and manservant, taking the opportunity to admire the flower arrangements displayed along the road.

Her several classmates who ran shops had immediately expressed their gratitude to Chu Niangzi for her connections, which had allowed them to obtain goods that were difficult to buy elsewhere. The other young ladies had said much the same.

So after taking her leave of her teacher’s wife, Chu Linlang boarded the carriage and prepared to head home.

It is in a woman’s nature — whenever she passes something reflective enough to catch her image, she wants to take a look.

There were even those who made no effort to conceal it, praising Lady Tao Yashu as the very image of the late Empress Tao from her day — both with the same dignified and composed bearing.

Who would have guessed that she would now, at the venerable age of twenty-four, find herself attending an academy, making friends with a group of young companions, and slowly filling in all the experiences of girlhood that she had not even dared to dream of back then…

Linlang was busy adjusting her hair, which had been jostled slightly out of place, and had not noticed at all that somewhere behind them, at some point, several furtive men had fallen into step.

If she were Lady Tao’s mother, she could not bear to send her own daughter into the palace to serve an old man.

Unfortunately, at the time, Lady Tao Yashu was standing before the teacher in the hall, answering a mid-lesson examination on her coursework, and was unable to go back and tidy things herself.

After attending several classes, Chu Linlang had noticed a particular quirk of this young lady — she was extremely particular about details.

In the Ronglin Women’s Academy, Lady Tao was in a class entirely her own. It was not only her family background and birth; her dignified and elegant appearance, combined with her genuine and extensive learning, made her a person no one could afford to underestimate.

Fortunately, the Empress Dowager had no fondness for the Yun family, and had struck the daughter’s name from the list — she would not have to enter the palace to compete for the favor of an old man. A good marriage to a worthy husband was the truly reliable foundation of a lifetime.

As she turned a street corner, Chu Linlang glanced at a feng shui mirror hanging above an arched gate and checked her hairline — and caught a glimpse of what appeared to be several men walking the same road as her not far behind, at no great distance.

So when they sat down, Chu Linlang deliberately chose a seat some distance away from Lady Tao and her companions, helped herself to the refreshments, and said as little as possible.

Because it was the selection of female officials, Lady Tao received the flattery of all the noble ladies around her.

Since it was the Flower Festival, some trees along the streets that had not yet bloomed had been decorated with red flowers made of silk or paper.

All things considered, Yixiu Junzhu was still the luckier one.

When she saw Chu Linlang entering together with Madam Hua, Lady Tao Yashu was momentarily startled, and then gave a restrained smile, nodding to Chu Linlang in greeting.

People dressed in colorful finery made their way laughing and chatting toward the flower deity shrine in the center of the city, which was causing road congestion, so the carriage moved at a rather slow pace.

Chu Linlang watched these girls in the bloom of their youth and privately thought to herself: she seemed never to have had such carefree, innocent girlhood days of her own.

Who could have known that even if the Empress Tao had not died, the Emperor had come very close to issuing an edict of deposition?

The Guan family’s household discipline was strict, and Guan Jinhe ordinarily could not purchase quality face powder and rouge.

Even with the Empress Dowager’s backing, what good would it do once inside? That face alone was enough to make the Emperor feel genuine revulsion.

Given her family standing, personal character, appearance, and talent, if she were to bear children in the future, the long-vacant position of Empress might very well become hers for the taking.

Once inside the hall, Chu Linlang discovered that her classmate Tao Yashu had also arrived and was seated with several other ladies, drinking tea and eating pastries.

Then, at Madam Hua’s gracious gesture of invitation, Yixiu Junzhu stepped ahead of Chu Niangzi and swept into the hall.

Chu Linlang glanced down the road and frowned, asking the coachman: “Why did you take this route? It’s so congested!”

Watching Lady Tao Yashu being surrounded like a moon among stars, Yixiu Junzhu standing nearby found the sight intolerable and smiled coldly at the right moment, saying: “It is nothing more than entering the palace to serve the Empress Dowager as a female official. Someone who did not know better might think she had been named an Imperial Consort, favored above all the six palaces!”

In Chu Linlang’s view, Situ Sheng’s pause had been most unusual. Could it be that even then he had already known he would offend the ducal Tao family over the matter of official farmland?

Only, the direction they were heading was opposite to that of the crowds flowing toward the flower deity shrine, so it was a slow and jostling struggle to make progress.

Her desk and seat had to be exactly three fist-widths apart — not a fraction less. And the four treasures of the study arranged on the desk top had to be arranged with meticulous precision, each item in its designated place.

Madam Hua had packed up several boxes of fresh flower cakes and pastries for Chu Linlang to take back for Master Situ.

But the Yun family, by virtue of their connection to Consort Jing, knew the inside story all too well.

When Lady Tao came back to find her desk in disarray, her gaze went blank, her body stiffened considerably, and she very nearly lost her place in the texts she was reciting.

Chu Linlang deliberately walked more slowly, staying at Madam Hua’s side and lending a hand with the items people were passing to her along the way. By the time they had walked the whole distance, Madam Hua had come to feel that this young woman, young as she was and not particularly widely read, somehow had an inexplicable quality that made people warm to her.

At those words, the Junzhu’s face flushed crimson with fury. Had her mother not been sitting beside her, quietly pressing down on her arm, she would surely have been unable to hold herself back from squaring off directly against Lady Tao Yashu.

These words sounded humble on the surface, but each sentence was a needle straight into the Junzhu’s heart.

That day, Yixiu had not even managed to get an audience with the Empress Dowager before she slunk out of the palace in defeat.

Lady Tao gave a measured smile and listened in silence, the fingers hidden inside her sleeve slowly smoothing a crease in the fabric of her skirt — a crease that was barely visible to anyone else…

At first it had been nothing more than a passing glance. But a woman’s instincts had made her begin to watch behind her, deliberately and subtly — until she realized that no matter how she walked, those few men maintained the same steady, neither-too-close-nor-too-far distance…

Yet on that particular day, when she had taken the women’s academy roster and asked Situ Sheng to rank the students in order of priority, he had paused when he reached this distinguished Lady Tao’s name. He had held his brush in silence for a moment, then marked it with a “third rank” — the notation signifying respectful distance.

So all that talk outside of the celebrated myth of “imperial marital harmony,” and “the Emperor refraining from naming a new Empress out of lingering devotion to Empress Tao” — it was utter nonsense.

It was plain to anyone with eyes that this was merely going through the motions, and that Lady Tao was very likely to be named an Imperial Consort by the Emperor.

Although she would not enter the palace until three months later, the list of those selected had already been released, and Lady Tao’s name was prominently among them. These three months were a period of rigorous training, so that she would be qualified to serve upon entering the palace. So in addition to her academy coursework, Lady Tao also had palace servants coming to give her private lessons at home.

Madam Hua had heard something of Chu Linlang’s previous experience of failed marriage. That woman-to-woman sense of shared misfortune had stirred in her a measure of compassion for this young woman, so she was naturally all the more warm and gentle with her.

At that moment, the noble ladies in the center of the hall were animatedly discussing the group of female officials who would be entering the palace in three months’ time.

Others might not know the truth — might genuinely believe that the Emperor had cherished his late Empress and therefore long delayed naming a new one.

For instance, Lady Tao’s hairpin was always worn in exactly the same style, and even the placement of her hair ornament never varied by so much as a fraction.

The Yun family, it seemed — perhaps bolstered by the presence of Consort Jing — made no effort whatsoever to show deference to a woman who might well become the future Empress.

A few days prior, some of her classmates had asked Chu Linlang to help purchase some face powders and rouge particular to the Jiangnan region. Today Chu Linlang had thought she might well run into them, so she had brought the items along — and this was the perfect moment to distribute them.

These small, understated acts of thoughtful consideration were noticed by no one except Lady Tao Yashu and Chu Linlang herself.

She had a gift for saying exactly the right thing at the right moment — warm, fitting, perfectly judged — the kind of person who read the room and knew when to speak. It was no wonder she had caught the old master’s eye and been accepted into the academy.

She gave a steady smile and said: “Yixiu Junzhu is quite right. We women merely enter the palace on behalf of our fathers and elder brothers, to fulfill a measure of filial duty before the Empress Dowager. There is nothing worthy of pride. I am of mediocre learning and unremarkable ability, and that the Empress Dowager would favor me fills me with trembling reverence. Even now I recall my summoning by the Empress Dowager with something of a nervous flutter. To have carefully prepared for the occasion only to be passed over in the end would be far too shameful to face anyone.”

So they abandoned the main road when they reached the next turning, taking instead the smaller lane running alongside it. The flower displays lining the route were no longer visible, but the going was far more unobstructed.

Thinking of this, Madam Yun felt her spirits lift considerably, and shifted the conversation to the topic of her daughter’s impending betrothal.

Before long, Guan Jinhe also entered the room. When she spotted Chu Linlang, she grabbed her closest friend and came running over to sit beside Chu Linlang.

The way Lady Tao had phrased it — was she not now openly mocking the Junzhu for failing to make the selection?

—