Chapter 1

My elder sister had been adored since childhood. I followed behind her, storing away the pearls she found vulgar, the jade bangles she found cold, and the fox-fur coat she found rank.

Then the young prince from Prince Duan's household, admired throughout the capital, came to our door. For once, I could not look away in time.

But the way he looked at my sister was more earnest than any of those gifts.

I knew I could never compare with her.

The capital's noblewomen mocked us behind our backs, waiting for us to become enemies.

Instead, my sister asked in perfect sincerity, “Shall I make him like you too?”

Only then did I understand: some good things need not be snatched up as bargains. Someone would place them firmly in my hands.

1.

Our universally adored, impossibly eligible leading man was named Xie Linyuan.

When he entered the Wen residence, he brought neither South Sea pearls nor jade.

He brought twelve cartloads of moldy grain.

When the gatekeeper announced him, my sister and I were sharing a box of choice cherries. She ate the plump, fresh ones and pushed the sour, shriveled ones toward me. Long accustomed to this, I closed my eyes and popped one into my mouth. The sourness made my teeth ache.

Xie Linyuan stood in the garden hall in moon-white, narrow-sleeved robes, wearing only an old bamboo token at his waist. The capital said he excelled at everything: statecraft, warfare, poetry, books, riding, archery. Handsome too. The applications sent to Princess Consort Duan by families seeking a match could have stretched from Zhuque Gate all the way out of the city.

I noticed his face first. Only then did I see the dust on his cuffs.

My sister saw the dust before I did.

“Have you come straight from a granary, Your Highness?”

Amusement flickered in his eyes.

“Miss Wen has a keen eye.”

“Not particularly.” She pointed to his shoe. “You've stepped on old rice husks. Fresh ones aren't that dark.”

I quietly set down the teacup I had just raised.

My sister, so the stories went, had dismissed a luminous pearl sent by a duke's heir because its light was too cold. Presented with a costly coral ornament by a merchant, she had only asked whether it would collect dust in her room. Yet here she was, willing to exchange a few extra words with Xie Linyuan.

I put my cherry stone on a plate and looked at her again.

Once Father, Wen Mingxiu, understood the reason for his visit, he had the storeroom keys brought and handed them to me.

Floods had struck the capital's outskirts a few days earlier. The court released grain for relief, and Prince Duan's household took charge of inspection. Xie Linyuan discovered that the grain delivered to the riverside granary was damp and clumped, though the accounts described it as top-grade new grain. Several grain merchants had handled the shipment. One had once rented storage from the Wen family.

“I've come to examine the old accounts,” he said.

Father nodded.

“Yanning manages our household and business accounts. Ask her whatever you need.”

Xie Linyuan immediately turned to me.

His gaze rested on the book in my arms as he waited quietly for my answer.

“I must trouble you, Second Miss Wen.”

I hugged the ledger tighter. The rabbit in my heart, which had never run wild before, gave the door of its cage a small kick.

Only one.

Just then, my sister tilted her head and slipped the last sweet cherry into my mouth.

“Stop daydreaming. Show him the way.”

I answered indistinctly around the fruit.

That unfamiliar flutter was wrapped in sweetness. For the moment, I could not bring myself to examine it too closely.

2.

The Wen family's old warehouses stood in the south of the city.

I took Xie Linyuan to inspect the storage-rental accounts from three years earlier. My sister could have stayed home. Instead, she changed into lighter clothes and came too.

“I know grain.”

She said it as though that settled everything.

Every harvest, I remembered, she spent several days on the estates with Mother. She could indeed distinguish grains by color better than many of our stewards. Xie Linyuan ordered another veiled hat prepared so she could ride with me.

The warehouse door opened. Dust billowed into our faces.

I sneezed.

A clean handkerchief appeared on my left. Another appeared on my right.

Xie Linyuan on the left. My sister on the right.

Looking at them, I suddenly felt my sneeze had been received with remarkable ceremony.

My sister laughed first.

“Use mine. His Highness can save his for the ledger cabinet. It's covered in dust.”

Unembarrassed, Xie Linyuan really did wrap his handkerchief around the handle and pull open the lowest wooden cabinet.

Crouching on the floor, I checked the warehouse numbers and soon found the merchant's rental record. Two years earlier, Futai Grain Company had rented East Warehouse Three to store sorghum and rice brought from the north. On vacating it, the steward had added a note: Water at base of wall. More than three hundred shi spoiled. Removed by grain company.

The moldy grain Xie Linyuan had brought happened to contain the red-husked sorghum common in the north.

“The spoiled grain was never destroyed.” I pressed a fingertip to the small line. “Someone kept it until this year, then mixed it into the relief grain.”

My sister took a handful from a sack and spread it on her palm. She selected several pale grains of rice and broke one in half.

“They dried the outside in the sun, but it's still damp inside. Feed this to children or old people, and at best they'll have stomach pain and diarrhea. At worst, they'll die.”

The warmth faded from Xie Linyuan's face.

“May I borrow the ledger to have a copy made?”

“The original cannot leave the warehouse,” I said firmly. “I'll have the accounting office copy it and seal every adjoining page with the Wen seal. If anyone disputes it, the original will still be here.”

He looked at me briefly, then nodded with respect.

“As you say, Second Miss Wen.”

My fingertips paused at the page's edge before turning it.

Many visitors praised my cleverness when bringing gifts. When actual accounts were involved, however, they still asked Father or my elder brother. Only Xie Linyuan addressed his questions to me throughout, and did not override my answers.

On the journey home, my sister reclined against a cushion with her eyes shut.

I held back for half the way. At last, I asked, “What do you think of His Highness?”

She did not open her eyes.

“Good-looking.”

“What else?”

“Willing to get dusty. Willing to listen.”

I laughed.

“Are you choosing a husband or a servant?”

She opened one eye. Her ears reddened faintly.

“When did I say I was choosing him?”

The wheels rolled over the paving. She wound her hat cord around a finger, over and over.

Watching her hand, I felt the rabbit in my heart gradually settle.

My sister had never before cared much for the treasures people offered her.

3.

Xie Linyuan began visiting more often.

Always on official business.

First came records of grain samples from the riverside granary. Next, he asked me to check grain prices. The third time, he brought Futai's shipping slips for the past six months.

And every time, he happened to meet my sister.

Today, she was arranging flowers in the garden hall. Tomorrow, feeding fish beneath the veranda. The next day, she happened to come and ask what I wanted for lunch. She used to walk straight into my room whenever she wanted me. Lately, her command of “happened to” had become masterly.

I did not expose her.

One day, after he left, I found a pressed crabapple leaf between the shipping slips.

Two tiny words lay among its veins: Thank you.

My sister's handwriting.

I held the leaf for a long time.

A few days earlier, she had scratched her finger in the warehouse. Xie Linyuan drew a thin blade from his bamboo token, removed the splinter, then handed medicine to her maid and stepped back, leaving the maid to bandage her.

At home, she complained that the medicine was bitter. The next day, she sent Prince Duan's residence a box of her own styptic medicine.

Neither had said anything outright.

But I knew accounts.

The exchanges were clear enough.

I replaced the leaf and closed the ledger.

A little sourness stirred in me, like that shriveled cherry. It was not pain, nor quite a grievance. Only, the first time I took a serious interest in someone, no sooner had I seen his good qualities than I saw whom he most wanted to give them to.

At dinner, Mother, Tao Yuzhen, served me bamboo shoots.

“Why aren't you fighting your sister for the crisp roast duck today?”

My sister immediately put a duck leg in my bowl.

“If she won't fight, I'll give it to her.”

I lowered my head and took a bite.

Delicious.

Father mentioned that someone at court had accused Prince Duan's household of using the grain investigation to seek acclaim. My sister put down her chopsticks.

“Who submitted the accusation?”

Father glanced at her.

“You never used to ask about court affairs.”

“This investigation concerns grain that could kill people.”

She answered too quickly. Only afterward did she notice everyone watching.

Mother tried not to laugh into her soup. Father's shoulders shook as he helped himself to food. I pushed my bowl toward my sister.

“The duck's lovely. May I have another piece?”

She kicked me.

After dinner, I took out my private little notebook.

Beneath Xie Linyuan's name, I wrote: Admired once. Account settled today.

Then I found myself laughing.

Feelings were not silver. How could they be reckoned so neatly?

But at least I knew my sister had taken nothing that belonged to me.

Xie Linyuan's heart had already found its destination. My sister had not even realized mine had stirred. So I kept this small matter in my own book.

I dried the ink, locked it in a drawer, and went back to investigating grain the next day.

Futai Grain Company's owner, Pei Zhiyan, was heir to the Duke of Anguo.

Yes. The very man who had once sent my sister South Sea pearls.

Rejected that year, he married a suitable woman the next. His child was already old enough to speak. By rights, it should all have been forgotten. Yet he still felt my sister had humiliated him.

Hearing that Xie Linyuan often visited us, he began spreading rumors at a restaurant. Prince Duan's household was not investigating grain, he said, but seizing an opportunity to seek a marriage. The Wen sisters were clever indeed: one seduced the prince, while the other used her control of the accounts to cover for him.

When word reached home, my sister was helping me try on a new riding outfit.

She tightened the belt.

“Let's go.”

“Where?”

“To make him explain.”

My sister had always been direct. If she found pearls vulgar, she would never keep them while hinting that the giver should offer something else. But Pei Zhiyan was married. Arguing at his door would only embarrass his wife.

I stopped her.

“He spread it at the restaurant. We'll go there. Let everyone who passed it on be present.”

Mother ordered the carriage and had the kitchen pack pastries.

“Arguing on an empty stomach puts you at a disadvantage.”

Father came out of his study and handed me his calling card.

“Take the family carriage. No sneaking about. If anyone asks, say I sent you.”

My sister and I looked at each other.

Other families would shut their daughters away to avoid the storm. Ours supplied a calling card and pastries.

Pei Zhiyan was entertaining guests at Linjiang Restaurant. His face stiffened as we entered.

My sister set a South Sea pearl on the table.

The one he had sent years earlier.

“Heir Pei, I returned this at the time, but your steward refused it. My sister saw it roll down the steps and thought it a pity to let it be crushed, so she picked it up and stored it. Please take it away.”

The table fell silent.

His face reddened.

“It was years ago, Miss Wen. Why bring it up?”

“You brought it up first.”

I laid down the restaurant waiter's written account of his remarks.

“All three statements came from your table. You said my sister seduced His Highness and that I falsified his accounts. The first attacks her virtue. The second stains my integrity. Withdraw them before the people seated with you.”

He stared at the sheet.

“A few waiters' words count as evidence?”

I called for the manager.

He came with two waiters and the banquet booking ledger. The guests, private room, food, and wine were all clearly recorded. If Pei Zhiyan wanted to deny it, he could only blame himself for failing to speak quietly enough.

My sister stood beside me.

“If you refuse, we'll ask the Duchess of Anguo. She governs her household strictly. I'm sure she'd like to hear how her son amuses himself at two unmarried women's expense.”

He treasured his dignity. He feared his mother even more.

After a long silence through clenched teeth, he stood and apologized.

First, I demanded an explanation for the attack on my own honor. Then my sister demanded hers. Two statements, each answered to the proper person.

On the journey home, she opened Mother's box and handed me an osmanthus cake.

“You spoke faster than I did today.”

“If you'd spoken first, you'd probably have scolded him under the table. I was afraid we'd have to pay for the table afterward.”

She laughed until she fell against my shoulder.

The rumor failed to divide us. Instead, the whole capital learned that the Wen sisters were very good at turning up together to settle accounts.

5.

The rumors were suppressed. The spoiled-grain case was not finished.

After apologizing publicly, Pei Zhiyan quietly replaced Futai's manager. He claimed subordinates had mixed in the spoiled grain without his knowledge. An accountant who had fled was to take all the blame.

When Xie Linyuan came to see me, he carried an oil-paper parcel.

I opened it expecting pastries.

It contained broken rice husks.

“Swept from wheel ruts outside the riverside granary,” he said. “They look very like the samples from your old warehouse.”

I rubbed a little between my fingertips. There was a faint scent of tung oil.

“The grain carts once carried wooden goods.”

“Futai doesn't trade in wood.”

The voice came from the doorway.

The newcomer wore a short black robe, his shoulders and back straight. He carried a cracked wooden tag.

After greeting Father, he laid it before me.

“Qi Zhaoye. Assigned to guard the riverside granary.”

I recognized him.

When the young general sent my sister that fox-fur coat, he had just returned from the northern frontier with the finest whole white fox pelt. She disliked the smell and handed it to me. I had it made into knee warmers, useful when checking accounts in winter.

He clearly recognized me too. His gaze paused on my knees.

It was cold that day. I happened to be wearing them.

“Is the coat serving you well?”

I answered honestly.

“I took it apart.”