Just a few days after Yixiu was returned to the capital, the news came from the Yun family: Yixiu had died suddenly.

No one knew exactly how it had happened. The Yun family kept its mouth firmly shut and deflected everything with talk of illness.

So speculation ran rampant — some said she had hanged herself in the night, others said she had thrown herself into a well. In any case, the accounts all pointed to the conduct of a virtuous martyr, worthy of being recorded in the annals of exemplary women.

The news reached Rong Lin Girls’ Academy, and everyone was moved.

They had shared time as classmates, and even if Yixiu had sometimes carried herself with a touch of arrogance, all who knew her felt a heaviness in their hearts when they heard.

Those closest to the Yun family went to Yun Manor in person to pay their condolences. Those who could not make the trip set up a memorial in a corner of the academy for Yixiu — burning the textbooks she had left behind, along with farewell poems and letters that the girls had written together for her.

A few who had been close friends with Yixiu couldn’t hold back their grief amid the flickering flames and held onto each other, weeping.

Chu Linlang held her young friend Guan Jinhe, letting her cry.

Guan Jinhe kept blaming herself — if only she had persuaded Yixiu more on that day, convinced her to get off the ship too, would this tragedy have been avoided?

Chu Linlang said nothing. Life and death and the affairs of this world were impossible to foresee. If there were so many things one could know in advance, would there be so much injustice in the world?

The one who had lost her spirit was not only Guan Jinhe. That day, leaving the academy, Tao Yashu did not rush back. Instead, she invited Chu Linlang to share a cup of tea with her.

In a private room at a teahouse, after Tao Yashu had dismissed all her attendants and maids, she fell into an unusual silence.

When Chu Linlang asked whether she was sad for Yixiu Junzhu, Tao Yashu nodded — and then shook her head: “I’m not only sad for her. I’m sad for myself as well. If you hadn’t stopped me that day, I would have ended up the same way as Yixiu, wouldn’t I?”

Chu Linlang understood. Tao Yashu was still haunted by what could have been.

What virtuous sacrifice to protect her honor? Yixiu had never been that kind of fierce and resolute person. Not a single person who knew her character would believe it for a moment.

Tao Yashu couldn’t help thinking: if she had thrown all caution aside and turned against her aunt and the others, forcing them to tarnish her name — the Tao family’s sense of family discipline ran even stricter than the Yun family’s, and what the Tao family was capable of would be even more ruthless and unyielding. Her own fate would not have been much better than Yixiu’s. How could that not leave her frightened?

Chu Linlang couldn’t help reaching over and drawing Tao Yashu into her arms, feeling the faint trembling in her body.

No matter how composed and mature she was as a noblewoman, she was ultimately still a young girl.

A classmate in the full bloom of youth — in the blink of an eye, just gone, the cause of death so mysterious and full of shadow. For everyone who had shared a similar experience, it cast a shadow that could not easily be erased.

Chu Linlang soothed Tao Yashu, and said quietly: “It is Yixiu’s father and brothers who are at fault — their daughter was violated, and they should have protected her. If they wanted to restore the family’s honor, they could have enlisted in the military and gone to the front to cut down the enemy. A daughter’s humiliation ought to be washed clean with a man’s blood and heat. If they had done that, who would not respect them as real men? But what they could think of, as their way of preserving so-called honor, required the life of the most fragile girl in the family to be the price. She died — and does that family become clean? To hell with honor like that — it’s not worth having.”

These were ideas Tao Yashu had never heard expressed before. They felt fresh and strange — and at the same time, they stirred something in her blood.

She said softly: “That you can think like this — you really do seem like a woman of heroic spirit.”

Chu Linlang quickly disclaimed any credit: “I’m just borrowing someone else’s flowers to offer at the altar. Those aren’t my words.”

But when Tao Yashu asked whose words they were, Chu Linlang said she couldn’t remember.

She could hardly say it was her former employer — Lord Situ Sheng — could she?

That would take a great deal of explaining, and in the process her last shred of reputation as a decent young woman would be thoroughly destroyed.

Seeing that Chu Linlang wouldn’t say, Tao Yashu didn’t press further. After this matter, her father had also been thoroughly frightened, and had gone so far as to blame Tao Fourth Aunt, saying she should never have allowed Yashu to go on the summer outing at all.

A few days later, her father even wanted to have her withdraw from the academy entirely, and simply stay home to prepare herself quietly for the day she would enter the palace.

As she said this, Tao Yashu once again fell into a listless and oppressive low mood. By now Chu Linlang could see clearly that this young Tao Yashu — whom so many envied — was not at all enthusiastic about entering the palace. She was simply forcing herself to prepare actively, holding herself to strict standards in every way.

This way of living — never for one’s own sake — even though she bore the name of a great noblewoman, was not something Chu Linlang envied. She felt, if anything, a measure of pity.

Tao Yashu made an agreement with Chu Linlang: if she no longer attended the academy, she hoped Chu Linlang would accept her invitations and come to see her from time to time.

Chu Linlang readily agreed with a smile, and then said her farewell to Tao Yashu. Each took her own carriage and departed.

Chu Linlang watched Tao Yashu’s carriage until it was out of sight, then prepared to board her own.

On the bustling main street, a handsome young man came riding toward her on a tall horse from diagonally across the road. When he caught sight of her, he gave her a visible glare before galloping past.

Honestly. Chu Linlang inwardly spat her contempt.

Because her mother Sun Shi had come to the capital to stay with her, the small courtyard was no longer a place where a certain person could come and go as freely as he pleased.

And so the promised slow-braised salted pork belly had not yet been delivered to someone’s mouth.

What had been agreed upon as their quiet, covert communication had been reduced to nothing more than exchanging glances across the road.

Of course, her mother had reminded her several times not to have further dealings with Lord Situ, and Chu Linlang did not want to upset her mother, so she could only keep up appearances for now.

For Lord Situ, an entire day currently meant not only a proper dinner without a destination, but even a simple embrace and a kiss had become impossible to find.

So in all the many days since Chu Linlang had returned to the capital, it had only been yesterday — when he managed to grab her as she was leaving the academy — that he had pulled her into a carriage, pressed her down on the soft cushion, and kissed her long and hard, giving some small comfort to the longing that had built between them.

But when Situ Sheng invited her to spend the night at the Deputy Minister’s residence, Chu Linlang shook her head like a rattle drum.

Where he lived was surrounded by powerful nobles on every side, and every household had so many servants. If she stayed overnight today, by tomorrow there would already be people spreading talk of an “illicit affair” between the two of them.

Chu Linlang thought it unwise, and declined. She was actually quite thirsty for a “sip” herself — but there was simply no convenient arrangement at the moment.

It seemed she truly needed to work hard and make more money, so that one day she could buy a separate small estate outside the capital — a place suitable for private trysts.

When a man is refused by a woman, any man would pull a sulky face. Situ Sheng was no exception.

Running into her today by chance on the street, he had given her that glare of his — which was probably the reason for his sulky expression.

Thinking about how hard he had glared at her just now, Chu Linlang felt a small flash of irritation in her heart — but then she glanced at the food box she had prepared, and after all, called Dongxue over to whisper a few words in her ear before sending her off to deliver a message.

As for Dongxue — she went to the government offices, but couldn’t find Lord Situ. When she asked Guanqi, who was on duty, she learned that Lord Situ had gone to visit Master Liao, who had been wounded.

At that moment, Situ Sheng was at Liao Jingxuan’s home, sharing a pot of clear tea with him.

Liao Jingxuan was a bachelor, and his daily life was much like Situ Sheng’s had been before. When Lord Situ arrived, there wasn’t even a decent cup of tea to offer a guest. The scholar’s page had to run next door to borrow a small amount of tea from a neighbor before managing to brew a lukewarm cup.

Situ Sheng, influenced by Chu Linlang, had come to understand what a life of warmth felt like — and from the heart, he encouraged his close friend: if there was a suitable woman, it was better to settle down and marry sooner rather than later.

Liao Jingxuan smiled with a hint of resignation: “Once this wound heals, I still have to go with the Ministry of Works to the border to oversee the construction of fortifications. What kind of woman could endure that kind of hardship? If she doesn’t come with me, she’d be living as a widow. Better to leave it — no need to make someone miserable.”

Situ Sheng was not the sort to make easy small talk, and naturally shifted the subject.

Master Liao used the excuse of pouring tea to murmur quietly: “There is internal strife in the Kingdom of Jing. The Khan has changed…”

Situ Sheng narrowed his eyes sharply: “Can you be certain?”

Master Liao showed a flash of white teeth through his thick beard: “Do you think I spent all these years building border walls for nothing? My news travels faster than the official dispatch still riding the road right now. The old Khan, Nanu, was killed with a single blade by his own nephew in his tent. Take a guess — which nephew has now taken the throne?”

Situ Sheng did not pick up the thread. But the hand holding his teacup was trembling faintly.

This Khan Nanu had been the one who, years ago, had ordered Situ Sheng’s grandfather’s head to be hung from a flagpole for public display. The pity of it was that he had not yet been able to avenge his grandfather — and now the man he hated had already been destroyed by someone else…

Master Liao saw the faint trembling in his hand and sighed with quiet understanding, then said softly: “It is Angu, the Khan of the Duolun tribe, the one who had always been on terms of friendship with Great Jin, who has inherited the throne of the great Khan.”

This Angu was known to Great Jin’s people for two things above all: years ago, after the defeat at the Battle of Fu River, he had strongly urged his uncle the Khan to negotiate a truce with Great Jin — and additionally, his son-in-law was none other than Yang Yi, the Great Jin general who had surrendered to the Kingdom of Jing.

Angu himself revered the classical learning of the Central Plains and could speak fluent Great Jin court speech.

That he had been able to persuade Yang Yi to surrender, and then shield Yang Yi before the Khan, was testimony enough to the sharpness of his tongue.

Hearing that it was Yang Yi’s new father-in-law who had inherited the title of great Khan, Situ Sheng’s hand stopped trembling — but the pent-up darkness in his eyes only deepened.

Master Liao said quietly: “According to reports, Yang Yi the general was among those who entered the palace to assassinate Khan Nanu of the Duolun tribe…”

Situ Sheng’s gaze had gone ice-cold as a blade’s edge: “And what does that prove? That it was right of him, back then, to use the reputation of the Yang family’s cavalry of three thousand as his hostage for survival, defiling the honor of the entire Yang army — was all that correct?”

Master Liao said no more. The three generations of grievance and enmity in the Yang family could never be untangled with a few words.

He paused, then continued: “Originally, with Angu inheriting the Khan’s position — and having previously been a strong advocate for opening border markets — the frontier appeared to be easing toward stability. But now, because of the girls’ academy summer outing incident, relations between Great Jin and the Kingdom of Jing have grown tense once more. The border markets have been completely shut down, and all passage through the border fortresses is being strictly controlled to prevent any further incidents of women being seized. The Crown Prince, who had previously championed a policy of peace and goodwill with the Kingdom of Jing, has now had it dug up again that he had been conducting private commercial dealings with the Kingdom of Jing. Our national heir apparent is having a rather difficult time of it.”

Situ Sheng’s gaze grew cold and fixed: “If that Nanu was a savage and violent wolf, then this Angu is a cunning fox. The Duolun tribe had always been obscure and unremarkable among the many tribes of the Kingdom of Jing — yet over these years of conflict with Great Jin, Angu moved without drawing attention, raising troops and buying talent, willing even to use his own daughter as a tool to win over capable generals. He also cultivated a secret friendship with the Crown Prince, adept at playing both sides — and finally transformed the Duolun tribe into the most powerful faction in the Kingdom of Jing. Do you truly believe that a man who has endured with such patience, who has so earnestly imitated the customs of the Central Plains, after inheriting the throne of the great Khan, would be content to settle in a corner, living without fixed home on the desert steppe?”

Liao Jingxuan nodded and said quietly: “But it does no good if only you and I see it clearly. After the Battle of Fu River, the court has lost all will to fight the Kingdom of Jing again. Besides, Angu has cultivated his presence in Great Jin’s court with great care. I fear that when news of his inheriting the Khan’s position spreads, many officials will rejoice, convinced there will be no more border conflicts, that they can rest easy from now on.”

Situ Sheng let out a cold laugh: “I’m afraid there are some who are even more worried about there being no border conflict — otherwise, where did this attack on the girls’ academy come from?”

At this point, Guanqi came to find him, whispered a few words in his ear, and Situ Sheng rose and took his leave.

Liao Jingxuan offered less-than-sincere hospitality: “Won’t you stay and eat before you go?”

Situ Sheng took one look at the robe with the elbows worn thin, and couldn’t help but say: “Eat what? Would I need to borrow a few dishes from the neighbors?”

Liao Jingxuan laughed out loud: “I’ll have my page go buy some wine and food.”

Situ Sheng was already walking away without looking back, calling out: “I’ve been invited somewhere to eat something good — I won’t suffer in your place!”

Liao Jingxuan watched him striding away in a hurry and couldn’t help smiling: “What delicacies are you going to eat that make you boast like this?”

The place Situ Sheng galloped toward on his fast horse was not a restaurant, but the shop that a certain female merchant had recently purchased in the capital.

With the well-connected help of Madam He’s extensive social network, this female merchant had recently taken over a reliable shop in the capital.

The storefront was not large, but the location was excellent. It sold various specialty goods from the Jiangnan region — along with the distinctive bolts of fabric she had sourced from the Xiu坊 in the river port during this last trip.

She had been busy in the shop for some time when a customer entered. Chu Linlang looked up — and it was exactly the one who had glared at her on the street.

She had sent Dongxue earlier to find Guanqi at the government offices and pass along a message, inviting someone to come sit at the shop. He had come rather quickly.

When a customer enters, they are a guest. Chu Linlang smiled and went to welcome him, and said to the Deputy Minister with a bright smile: “What an honored guest — forgive me for not receiving you properly. What would Lord Situ like to purchase today?”

Situ Sheng glanced at her: “Some fabric.”

Chu Linlang promptly reached for a bolt, unrolled it, and held it up for him to see: “My lord, does this not look beautiful?”

The shop was empty of other customers at this moment. Using the fabric as cover, Situ Sheng took the opportunity to steal a quick kiss on her face: “…Extraordinarily beautiful.”

Chu Linlang startled at his boldness and immediately glanced toward the entrance to check whether anyone had witnessed this improper scene.

Turning back, she murmured: “What are you doing? You’re getting bolder every day!”

Situ Sheng said nothing. There was no way for him to tell Chu Linlang that he was simply growing less and less able to endure her constant habit of keeping herself at a distance.

Though Linlang always had some high-sounding justification that he couldn’t refute.

He understood, in truth, what he was quietly put out about.

In Linlang’s heart, while he did hold some place, it was not a large one.

He was probably ranked somewhere after her mother, her business, and even the growing circle of close friends she was acquiring.

This small, private annoyance — what man could easily admit to such a grievance out loud? So it sat unspoken, lodged in his heart, sometimes rising unbidden as a surge of sourness he could not quite suppress…

Chu Linlang, noticing he was looking at the fabric quite seriously, asked: “Do you actually want to buy fabric?”

Situ Sheng nodded: “I visited Liao Jingxuan just now. His wound isn’t healed, and his clothes are in bad shape. I’d like to ask you to make him a few garments.”

The life of a bachelor — only those who had lived it understood it. No wonder Master Liao was always somewhat disheveled. Still unmarried at his age, he genuinely lacked someone to look out for him through the cold and warmth of each day.

The best robe he had, to boot, had been slashed apart during the encounter with the water bandits. Even the not-particularly-particular Situ Sheng had found it hard to stomach the sight of his shabbiness — so he had thought to buy some fabric and ask Chu Linlang to make him a few garments.

This was the kind of favor Chu Linlang was naturally happy to help with — but the moment sewing came up, she suddenly thought back to the brand marks she had noticed on Liao Jingxuan’s shoulder.

So she ventured a question: “Was Master Liao adopted by his parents?”

At that moment Situ Sheng was in the back room of the shop eating the slow-braised salted pork belly that Chu Linlang had made specially for him, packed into a food box and brought to the shop to ease his craving.

A great thick slab of meat laid over a mound of rice, garnished with some sweet vegetables. It was wonderfully good.

Hearing her question, Situ Sheng bit into a tender piece of the soft-braised pork and said: “I’ve never heard anything like that. Why do you ask?”

So Chu Linlang told him what she had observed.

The brand marks on Liao Jingxuan’s shoulder looked far too similar to those on her mother Sun Shi’s shoulder. She wondered if they might be the kind left by human traffickers.

Situ Sheng was not particularly alarmed at first — but as she finished speaking, he stopped his chopsticks: “You’re certain?”

Chu Linlang helped wipe his mouth: “How could I be certain about something like that? Perhaps Master Liao’s mark came about through some other reason entirely. Whatever you do, don’t go asking him directly. It would be terrible if it disturbed the bond between a parent and child.”

Situ Sheng understood what Chu Linlang meant. From what he knew, Liao Jingxuan’s parents were deeply devoted to him. Going to ask bluntly whether he had been purchased would be outrageously rude.

And even if he had been adopted, if the Liao family had chosen not to tell him, it wouldn’t do to expose it.

But hearing her account, Situ Sheng furrowed his brow for a moment and then said: “What did the mark look like? Draw it for me.”

So Linlang took paper and brush and sketched out a rough shape of it.

Situ Sheng put the sketch away carefully and returned to eating. In the back room of this little shop, he finally managed to eat the home-cooked dishes he had been longing for — followed by good tea, and naturally, some kisses and an embrace with the beautiful cook, to ease the longing that had built between them.

Chu Linlang took advantage of the fact that the back room was deserted on all sides, and wrapped her arms around the man’s neck, tilting her head back to return his kisses.

She was a little shorter than him, so when she reached up to hook her arms around his neck she had to stand on her toes. Situ Sheng simply lifted her up like a child in his arms, and kissed her with even greater abandon.

Chu Linlang had never known — how was it that what had gotten into one’s mouth only seemed more and more worth savoring?

This extraordinary find she had secretly kept for herself, telling herself it was just to satisfy a craving before they went their separate ways — and yet it had only made her more and more addicted. If one day his true destined partner appeared, and she found she couldn’t let go — what then?

Hearing her murmur that she couldn’t let go, Situ Sheng bit down on that heartless face of hers.

When had he ever said that this was only a passing affair? The way she spoke, it sounded as though she was ready at any moment to part cleanly with no looking back — was that how she saw it?

When he had held himself back from touching her, it was not because he intended to walk away. It was because he hoped that someday, he could possess her openly and properly.

He had never agreed to any of this “live for today” nonsense, preparing for a graceful exit when the song ended.

If he could, he truly wished he could live in this world without reservation, free of all burdens — with her…

But for now… that was not yet possible.

Chu Linlang sensed that Situ Sheng’s mood had suddenly grown subdued, and asked: “What’s wrong?”

Situ Sheng held her as they sat beneath the date tree in the shop’s back courtyard, and quietly told her about the news he had heard from Liao Jingxuan.

After this pleasant midday interlude in the shop, Situ Sheng still had to return to his official duties.

Chu Linlang was retouching the rouge on her lips and also wiping the red marks from the face of the man who had come to steal a kiss: “By the way, that Tao Huiru has been making inquiries about you. How did you manage to put her off?”

Situ Sheng replied: “She was looking for someone around seventeen or eighteen years of age. I had her find one who was already dead, and she settled down.”

Chu Linlang found this strange: “Why seventeen or eighteen? Why not twenty-five?”

For some reason, upon hearing her question, Situ Sheng quickly looked away and didn’t meet her eyes. He said with studied composure: “She must have concluded that I was dead, and then decided that after my mother was cast off, she had gone on to give birth to another son.”

Ah? Chu Linlang didn’t notice the man’s rare moment of unease. She only found it remarkable that Tao Fourth Aunt could have come to such a conclusion.

Wasn’t that also evidence, in its way, that Yang Yi and Lady Wen had originally been deeply in love? So much so that Tao Huiru believed that even if Lady Wen had lost her mind, it wouldn’t have stopped Yang Yi from reuniting with her and having a child together.

The relationship between Yang Yi and Lady Wen was one of those scars at the bottom of Situ Sheng’s heart that could not be touched. If he didn’t bring it up, Linlang always took care not to ask.

But having heard his words today, she genuinely found herself a little curious about the tangle of love and hatred that had once wound around those three people.

Since Situ Sheng had entrusted the clothes to her, she naturally put her heart into it — though his little jealous comments along the lines of “you don’t have to do it yourself, just have the maids do it” she simply pretended not to hear.

She had originally agreed with Situ Sheng that once the garments were made, he would deliver them.

But over the next few days, Lord Situ was busy again. To prevent the Master from remaining in his worn and tattered state, Chu Linlang decided to drop off the clothes herself when she happened to be passing by.

Master Liao’s residence was not far from the place where her first husband now lived — it was on the street just beside Jicui Lane.

When Chu Linlang stepped down from her carriage at the entrance to the lane, she unexpectedly ran into Hu Shi, whom she had not seen in some time.

But Hu Shi appeared to be dressed for a long journey. Her head was wrapped in several thick layers of kerchief. In the middle of summer, she was still wearing a padded jacket. And her formerly round belly… was flat.

Hu Shi was in the middle of boarding a carriage when she looked up and saw Chu Linlang.

Since they had caught sight of each other, there was no avoiding an exchange. Chu Linlang asked Hu Shi where she was headed.

Hu Shi smiled a bleak and hollow smile: “Chu Niangzi, you’re not quite an outsider, so I don’t need to hide it from you. My son… was destroyed by that pestilent woman Xie Shi.”

With that, she looked on the verge of tears. At this moment, a woman with somewhat dark skin leaned out from the carriage and said to her: “My dear girl, don’t cry. You’re still in your recovery period after the loss. Crying will damage your health.”

It turned out that during the time Chu Linlang had been back in her hometown, the Zhou household had stirred up trouble again.

Because the food in the household was poor and Hu Shi had a powerful craving she simply couldn’t suppress, she had taken the bracelet Chu Linlang had once given her as a gift, pawned it, and had her maid buy a hen to make a stew.

But Xie Youran had suddenly found herself unable to locate one of her gold hairpins. When she saw Hu Shi eating stewed chicken, she asked the maid what Hu Shi had pawned to come up with money to buy a chicken.

A few mental connections later, Xie Shi became convinced that Hu Shi had stolen her hairpin, pawned it, and used the money for the chicken.

That had set off a terrible scene, and the freshly stewed chicken was overturned and ruined.

Hu Shi had been craving this for a very long time and had also been swallowing Xie Shi’s vile treatment for a very long time. A woman’s temper runs higher than usual when she is pregnant, and this time she simply could not hold back.

Hu Shi went directly and pulled out Zhou Sui’an’s mother Zhao Shi — along with Zhou Sui’an himself, playing dead in his study — and held up the pawn ticket for Xie Youran to see: “This is clearly the bracelet Chu Niangzi gave me as a gift. Who touched your money? And while we’re at it — you’ve been in this household all this time, and have you given the concubine even a single kind gesture? The former first wife was far more generous than you. She gave me a bracelet, gave me whole pots of ginseng and chicken soup. And she came from a general’s family! But you’re tighter than a merchant’s daughter — you’re so stingy you can’t even match a merchant woman!”

This, to Xie Youran, was the ultimate provocation.

What she hated most was anyone comparing her to the one who had come before. Yet in this household, her mother-in-law, her young sister-in-law, her husband — everyone constantly held her up against Chu Linlang, and found her wanting in every single way.

That was aggravating enough on its own — but for Hu Shi, a mere concubine, to also make the comparison?

Xie Youran lunged forward and grabbed Hu Shi by the hair.

—