Chapter 2

“In three days, the Empress Dowager is holding a chrysanthemum-viewing banquet at the palace. I've come to deliver your invitation, Lady Su.”

My sister didn't take it. She merely raised a brow.

“I've just broken off an engagement with your household. If I attend Her Majesty's banquet, aren't you afraid the capital will have even more to gossip about?”

“That is precisely why you should go.”

His voice was neither loud nor soft, but there was no room for doubt in it.

“If you hide at home, you'll only make the rumors seem true.”

“Stand openly before everyone. Let them see how much better Su Changning is living after ending her engagement to my nephew.”

His eyes never left her face.

I saw the look in them clearly: an ardent admiration he was barely bothering to conceal.

Beside me, Xiao Lie curled his lip and leaned close to mutter in my ear.

“One look from that man at court usually chills people to the bone. Talking this much? He's up to something.”

I stepped on his foot to shut him up.

After a moment's thought, my sister accepted the invitation.

“Then you have my thanks, Your Excellency.”

A fleeting smile touched his eyes. He clasped his hands in farewell.

Before leaving, his gaze passed over me and paused.

“You should come too, Second Lady Su. Her Majesty likes a lively gathering.”

As soon as he was gone, Xiao Lie bristled and began circling me.

“What is he playing at? Why invite your sister to the banquet?”

“She has just ended her engagement to his household. As the man in charge of it, shouldn't he be keeping his distance? What is that old fox scheming?”

His circling was making me dizzy. I caught his arm.

“Why ask me? Who am I supposed to ask? But you're right about one thing.”

“What?”

“That old fox certainly doesn't look at my sister normally.”

His expression became extraordinarily complicated, as though he'd swallowed a fly and discovered an earth-shattering secret at the same time.

After a long silence, he lowered his voice.

“Xie Heng is twenty-six. He's been in the Grand Secretariat for five years. Half the court wants to marry their daughters to him, and he hasn't looked at a single one.”

“He even refused a match arranged by the Empress Dowager herself. People say he has no interest in women. Some say he prefers men.”

“But the way he looks at your sister is clearly…”

“A starving wolf looking at meat.”

I finished for him.

He nodded emphatically, then shook his head.

“No. No, this won't do. He's too calculating, and his methods are too ruthless. If your sister falls into his hands, there won't be a scrap of her left.”

I glanced at him.

“Mind your own business. My sister knows what she's doing. She doesn't need you telling her what to do.”

Speechless, he gave my sleeve an aggrieved tug.

“I'm thinking of you, aren't I?”

“If anything happens to her, you'll refuse to marry me all over again.”

I couldn't help laughing.

Was there anything in his head besides marrying me?

“All right, all right. It's late. General Xiao, kindly go home.”

I pushed him toward the exit as I spoke.

Reluctantly, he dragged his feet to the wall. Before climbing over, he turned back.

Moonlight lay across his face. His eyes were startlingly bright.

“Youwei, I'll bring you buns from Liu Ji tomorrow. Leave the window open.”

Then he sprang up and disappeared into the night.

Chuntao stared after him.

“My lady, why does General Xiao never use the front gate?”

“He's part dog. He likes climbing walls.”

I tossed the answer over my shoulder and went back inside.

My sister sat beneath the lamplight, examining the brocade box Xie Heng had given her.

Inside lay a white magnolia hairpin.

The jade was smooth and lustrous, the carving exquisite. One glance told me it was worth a fortune.

“Sister, that hairpin…”

She put it back, closed the lid, and let her lips curve into an ambiguous smile.

“Grand Secretary Xie is generous indeed.”

I felt there was more to that remark, but she looked perfectly composed, so I didn't press her.

Three days later, the chrysanthemum banquet took place as planned.

By the time we arrived, the Imperial Garden was full of titled ladies and noble daughters.

The moment my sister appeared, eyes turned toward her from every direction.

Our stepmother was there too, whispering with several ladies. At the sight of us, she deliberately raised her voice.

“Our eldest girl is quite something these days. First she breaks off her engagement to the Marquis of Ping's heir and turns the whole capital upside down. Then she gets Youwei to reject General Xiao as well.”

“I've done my best to advise her as her mother. It's heartbreaking.”

Someone promptly agreed.

“Reject General Xiao? A young hero whom so many families would be grateful to have! What could the second girl be thinking?”

“What else? Her sister has ruined her. One breaks off an engagement, and the other follows suit. So much for the Su family's upbringing.”

My hands curled into fists. I was about to speak when my sister laid her hand over mine and gave a slight shake of her head.

She stepped calmly into the gathering and smiled, her voice clear.

“You are right, ladies. I did end my engagement to the Marquis of Ping's heir. I'm sure you've also heard why.”

“While he was still betrothed to me, he brought a woman home from Yangzhou and proposed making her a co-wife of equal rank before our wedding.”

“I may not be a princess, but I do have some self-respect. I can manage without such a husband.”

“As for my younger sister…”

She drew me to her side and looked around the gathering.

“Youwei returned General Xiao's betrothal papers because he is occupied with military affairs, and with their wedding approaching, she wished to wait until my own marriage was settled.”

“That is devotion between sisters. What has it to do with my ruining her?”

“Some households, on the other hand, hear the faintest rumor and rush to invent scandal without knowing anything. One wonders whose upbringing has truly gone astray.”

Her words were reasonable and measured, neither arrogant nor ingratiating. Expressions shifted all around us. The ladies who'd been whispering fell awkwardly silent.

Our stepmother's face went livid. She was about to speak again when a eunuch's shrill announcement rang out.

“Her Majesty the Empress Dowager! His Excellency the Grand Secretary!”

Everyone bowed.

The Empress Dowager took her seat kindly and surveyed the gathering.

Her gaze settled on my sister.

She beckoned.

“Is this the eldest Su girl? Come here and let me look at you.”

My sister approached without haste.

Taking her hand, the Empress Dowager studied her and nodded in satisfaction.

“What a lovely young woman. Such bearing, such strength of character. There are few in the capital to equal you.”

“That wretch of an heir isn't worthy of you.”

A murmur swept through the gathering.

Her Majesty was openly taking my sister's side.

Our stepmother could hardly have looked worse.

The Empress Dowager kept my sister talking for some time before letting her return.

She'd barely sat down beside me when Xie Heng appeared and took the seat on her other side.

“Your speech was beautifully put, Lady Su. I admire every word.”

He offered her a cup of warm tea with the ease of someone who'd done it countless times.

She accepted it and lowered her eyes in thanks, neither warm nor cold.

His refined, courteous manner set alarm bells ringing in my head.

The more serene he appeared, the more frightening the possessiveness beneath it seemed.

At some point, Xiao Lie had slipped to my side too. He solicitously offered me a plate of osmanthus cakes.

“Fresh from the imperial kitchens. I got the first batch.”

I was about to take it when a shrill cry came from behind us.

“Su Changning! You had my Jinghuai confined and had me sold out of the capital! May you die a miserable death!”

I spun around.

Chuchu, hair disheveled, rushed at my sister with a dagger clenched in her hand.

Everything happened at once.

Instinctively, I lunged toward my sister to shield her with my body.

At the same moment, Xie Heng pulled her into his arms and turned, taking the dagger with his own back.

As I sprang forward, Xiao Lie caught my sash and hauled me back. Then he kicked Chuchu to the ground.

The dagger fell with a clang.

The guards seized her. Laughing and crying like a madwoman, she screamed,

“Su Changning, you think you've won?”

“The young lord sent me!”

“He said that once you were gone, no one in the household would stand in our way.”

Furious, the Empress Dowager ordered a full investigation.

The banquet dissolved into chaos.

Chuchu was taken away. The assembled ladies were white with fright.

I ignored everything else and hurried to my sister.

Safe in Xie Heng's arms, she was entirely unhurt.

He, on the other hand, had a cut across his arm. Blood soaked the sleeve of his black robe.

“Your Excellency!”

Her voice trembled as she pressed a hand over the wound.

He looked down at her gently.

“It's nothing. Only a scratch. As long as you're safe.”

Her fingers shook.

She raised her face to meet his gaze.

In that moment, I saw something new appear in her eyes.

Beside me, Xiao Lie stared and muttered,

“He did that on purpose.”

“What?”

I hadn't caught up.

“He could easily have knocked the dagger away. Instead, he deliberately used his body to shield her.”

He ground his teeth.

“That old fox is using his own injury to win her sympathy!”

I thought it through, and suddenly understood.

Who was Xie Heng?

The Grand Secretary, as accomplished in martial arts as in scholarship. How could he fail to dodge one dagger?

He'd done it deliberately.

Used a minor wound to leave a mark on my sister's heart that she would never erase.

He was a hundred times more frightening than Xiao Lie had said.

The attack at the chrysanthemum banquet caused an enormous uproar.

Under questioning by the Court of Judicial Review, Chuchu confessed everything.

She wasn't Xie Jinghuai's cousin at all, but a courtesan from a Yangzhou pleasure house, an entertainer rather than a prostitute.

He'd taken a fancy to her, paid a great sum to buy her freedom, and brought her to the capital under a fabricated identity.

The two had long since become lovers. He'd promised to make her an equal wife if she helped him force Su Changning to break off the engagement herself.

Worse still, Chuchu implicated our stepmother.

It turned out she'd accepted favors from Xie Jinghuai and secretly helped arrange for Chuchu to remain in the capital. At home, she'd made my sister's life difficult at every turn, trying to drive her into ending the engagement.

When the truth came out, the court was in uproar.

His Majesty was livid. By imperial decree, Xie Jinghuai lost his status as heir and was barred from government office forever. He was sentenced to hard labor at a military camp in Lingnan.

Chuchu was exiled to the frontier.

Father divorced our stepmother and expelled her from the Su household.

When the news reached our new residence, my sister and I were drying osmanthus flowers in the courtyard.

Chuntao gave us a lively account, then added,

“My lady, you should have seen it. When they escorted Xie Jinghuai out of the city, people pelted him with rotten vegetable leaves all the way. He looked dreadful!”

I clapped in delight.

“Serves him right! Let that scum rot in Lingnan.”

My sister remained perfectly calm.

“Actions have consequences. Heaven has its own way of dealing with him.”

Xiao Lie came over the wall again.

This time, he'd brought soy-braised pork hock from West Street.

By now, climbing our wall was practically his daily roll call. Missing a day made him restless.

Chuntao had even cleared him a path and moved the flowerpots away from the foot of the wall.

“Youwei, look what I've brought!”

He held up the pork hock like a treasure, eyes sparkling, every bit the hunting dog returning with a prize.

I took it, tore off a piece, and popped it into my mouth.

“You're cheerful today,” I said through my chewing. “Won another battle?”

“What is winning a battle compared with this?”

He plopped down beside me and lowered his voice.

“I have excellent news. After that bastard Xie Jinghuai was dealt with, I had my men dig up everything he'd done in Jiangnan.”

“Seizing farmland, forcing respectable girls into brothels, setting up his own illegal court to try people… Irrefutable proof for every last thing.”

“And guess what? They've changed his sentence. Instead of Lingnan, he's being sent to the bitter cold of the northern frontier. He'll never be allowed back in the capital.”

He was so pleased with himself that his imaginary tail practically pointed at the sky.

“Bully your sister, would he? I'll make sure he never sees the sun again.”

The sight of him fishing for praise filled me with warmth. I poured him a cup of tea.

“All right. I know how formidable you are.”

He made me laugh.

He'd been like this since he was fourteen: charging through the world, fierce and overbearing, yet so careful with me that he seemed to want to cradle me in his palms.

But I'd never understood one thing.

Why did it have to be me?

The capital was full of noble daughters. Well-born beauties were lining up for him to choose from. Why had he set his heart on an unremarkable concubine's daughter like me?

“Xiao Lie.”

He straightened at once, like a soldier hearing his name called.

“Here!”

“Why do you like me?”

He froze. Then his ears slowly reddened.

Turning away, he pretended to study the osmanthus tree. His voice fell.

“You really don't remember?”

“Remember what?”

“The winter I was nine, we won a great victory on the northern frontier. I returned in triumph with my father. His Majesty held a palace banquet, and the generals' children were all brought along.”

He spoke softly, as though afraid of breaking something.

“I'd just killed someone on the battlefield. My head was full of blood. Everyone looked like an enemy.”

“A little eunuch accidentally bumped into me at the banquet. I nearly strangled him.”

“Then I ran out of the hall and hid beneath an old scholar tree. No one could find me.”

He turned and looked at me intently.

“You found me. How old were you then? Six? Seven? You had two little hair buns and a cat in your arms. You weren't afraid. You just crouched beside me.”

“You called me big brother, asked if I was lost, and said you'd take me back.”

I stared.

I remembered none of it.

“You held my hand and led me back to the banquet. All the way, you chattered about your sister's white cat. She'd just had four kittens, and you asked whether I wanted one.”

His eyes reddened at the corners, but he smiled.

“I wondered how anyone in the world could be so pure and clear. Your own fingers were red with cold, yet you pushed your hand warmer into my arms.”

“It took me a long time to find out you were Minister Su's concubine-born daughter.”

“Your stepmother treated you badly. Often, you didn't get enough to eat. I thought: when I grow up, I'll marry you and bring you home. You'll never go hungry or cold again.”

He took my hand. His palm was almost burning.

“Su Youwei, I ask for nothing else in this life. Only you.”

“You won't marry until your sister does? Fine. I'll wait.”

“If she never marries, I'll climb that wall for the rest of my life. There will only ever be one mistress of my household, and that's you.”

My nose stung. I nearly cried.

Usually he was a careless, blundering soldier, yet when he started saying sweet things, they poured out as though they cost him nothing.

“Who said you had to wait a lifetime?”

I pulled back my hand and looked away.

“Hasn't my sister met Xie Heng now? Instead of sitting here arguing with me, why don't you help him court her?”

“If those two become a couple, won't we be able to as well?”

His eyes lit up. Then he grew suspicious.

“You want me to help Xie Heng? Courting your sister is his business. Why should I play matchmaker for him?”