"There's a small problem here."
The leg meat of a three-month-old lamb, finely minced, spread thin over paper-thin pastry, rolled into thumb-sized rolls, and deep-fried until the pastry turns golden. Served with fine salt, fennel, and pepper, the filling is juicy and the crust crisp and savory—this lamb pastry crisp was Xu Qiaoxi's favorite dish on ordinary days.
Xie Jilian picked up one roll and placed it on her lacquered plate. Xu Qiaoxi hung her head and made no move to eat.
The two sat facing each other in silence. After a long while, Xie Jilian let out a sigh.
"Does Qiaoxi know the market price of a lamb nowadays? How much does triple-milled, triple-sifted fine flour cost? Pepper is worth its weight in gold, and salt is directly controlled by the government. Such exquisite dishes—outside the Xie household, no one else could afford to provide them."
"I…"
Xu Qiaoxi raised her head to glance at him, then faltered and lowered it again.
Last night she had dreamed she was back in her university dormitory.
There was an annoying mosquito in the night, buzzing and biting her cheek. The bite was hard and hot, itching tormentingly, so she had to get out of bed to fetch some cooling balm.
To avoid waking her roommates, Xu Qiaoxi didn't put on slippers. In the darkness, she crept barefoot to her small desk, when a faint light suddenly appeared behind her.
Her night-owl roommate extended her phone from behind the bed curtain, as if catching her in the act, and whispered with a stifled laugh: "Xiao Xu, what are you doing?"
Xu Qiaoxi turned around and shook the little green bottle toward the light. "There's a mosquito. Do you want some?"
Her roommate shook her head. "None over here. Why aren't you wearing shoes? Hurry back—I'll shine the light for you."
Xu Qiaoxi smiled and nodded, but the phone light grew brighter and brighter, dazzlingly bright, like the noonday sun.
The next moment, Xu Qiaoxi woke up. Not in the dormitory, but in Red Jade Terrace.
The red camellias outside the window had vanished without a trace overnight. The deep green leaves were scorched bright by the blazing sun, and from afar came the faint drone of insects, echoing through the empty bedchamber, falling upon her in countless strands and tangling around her.
Xu Qiaoxi sat on the bed, knees drawn up and head buried in her arms. Layer upon layer of helplessness and confusion churned inside her like a rolling deep sea, and from the far end of that sea rose a bright moon, telling her plainly: leave this place, don't entangle yourself with these people.
She knew full well that the Xie household was the best refuge. But if what happened yesterday were to happen again, what could she do?
Could she ask Xie Jilian to sever ties with those absurd aristocratic clans for her sake?
When it came down to it, she didn't belong here.
"Lingjia, I shouldn't have lost my temper at you at Baojia Temple. I'm truly sorry—I was just so frightened at the time."
Reflecting on yesterday's events, Xu Qiaoxi felt most sorry toward Xie Jilian.
All this time, she had been eating his food and using his resources. Without him, she might have starved to death in the woods long ago. And yet when he came to show concern for her, she treated him like an enemy instead.
It was utterly inexcusable.
"The one who should apologize is Lian. I should have accompanied you both."
Xu Qiaoxi shook her head desperately. "You've already done more than enough for me."
She couldn't depend on him like a pampered house cat.
"Lingjia, I know that breaking our agreement is not the act of a person of honor, and I'm sorry about that too. But have you ever considered that perhaps someone else would be more suited to be your 'little wife' than me?"
For instance, when confronted by the aristocratic clans—perhaps a woman of this era would have found a cleverer solution? At least she wouldn't have offended every single top-tier clan like she had.
Xu Qiaoxi didn't regret hitting Wen Shuo. He deserved it. But she was afraid of the aftermath—afraid her head might roll.
Xie Jilian saw her face full of misery, set down his chopsticks, and smiled with a hint of melancholy.
"This is the first time you've called me 'Lingjia' since we met, and I never expected it would be to part ways."
"What Qiaoxi says makes great sense. There are countless women under heaven, and if one sincerely searched, one could surely find someone more suitable than Qiaoxi."
"But," he paused in his speech, then slowly shook his head, "Lian cannot let you go."
"Why?"
"Situ Wen wants your life." He spat out this cold sentence like a stone dropped into a dry well—no one knew when it would finally hit the bottom.
Fear comes entirely from unpredictability, from waiting in ignorance.
"Qiaoxi can guess—if you were to walk out of Qianchuan Chunting, how many days before you'd drop dead on the streets of Luoyang?"
Like a thunderbolt striking down, Xu Qiaoxi lost all strength to kneel upright and toppled sideways from her heel rest.
Xie Jilian's pupils captured this expression, and a flicker of excited delight leapt up in his eyes before he shifted his gaze to conceal it.
The sight of her—struck down by frost because of him, trembling and uneasy—one more glance and he would lose himself in mad laughter.
His heart beat triumphantly in his chest. Xie Jilian's breathing trembled slightly, and his voice was unnaturally hoarse.
"As for the 'going home' you mentioned, Lian has entrusted people to search famous mountains and great rivers for an immortal path eccentric. Even the fastest news would take half a year to arrive."
"Lian knows you've experienced terrible things and wish to distance yourself from trouble, but now is hardly the right time."
Xie Jilian spoke gently and soothingly, picking up Xu Qiaoxi's soup bowl and ladling her a serving of pale golden, fragrant ginseng chicken soup.
"Drink a little. It's nourishing—there won't be any strange medicinal taste."
Xu Qiaoxi's gaze drifted slowly from the soup, from the beautiful jade-like hand holding the bowl to the owner of that hand, her heart a tangle of mixed emotions.
"Thank you."
She lifted the spoon and listlessly scooped half a bowl into her mouth. The meal table was quiet. Xu Qiaoxi looked up:
"Why aren't you eating?"
Having known him for so long, she realized she'd never actually seen him eat.
Xie Jilian had, at some point, opened the sachet he carried with him. He pinched out a pale orange square candy between two fingers and placed it casually into his mouth. His teeth gently bit down, and the fresh, sweet-tart taste of citrus spread across his lips and tongue.
With the candy in his mouth, he spoke, feeling the sugar grains clink against his teeth as he talked.
"Does Qiaoxi want to hear the truth or a lie?"
Hmm?
Xu Qiaoxi was confused, only seeing Xie Jilian looking at her with a faint smile.
"If you want to hear a lie, then it's 'To nourish the heart, nothing is better than few desires.'"
"If you want to hear the truth…"
The candy crunched between his teeth. He tapped his cheek with his index finger, utterly unconcerned: "There's a small problem here."
"Eating makes me uncomfortable."
"So you just never eat? Only candy?!" Xu Qiaoxi stared at his bag of sweets, dumbfounded.
It turned out there really were people in the world who stopped eating for fear of choking—and that person was Xie Jilian!
Too shocked for words, Xu Qiaoxi looked at him as her thoughts gradually drifted off course.
Why was his skin still so fair when he ate candy like it was a meal? What kind of divine genetics were these…
"What about something light? Would that still be uncomfortable?"
At this, Xie Jilian's brows pressed down slightly, and he shook his head to indicate he didn't want to.
Seeing that she couldn't persuade him, Xu Qiaoxi picked up the crispy lamb he had placed on her plate earlier and ate it herself.
Her pale pink mouth puffed out roundly as she chewed. Xie Jilian watched that mouth eat bite after bite of the meal, then picked out another orange candy from his sachet and placed it between his teeth, chewing it slowly.
There was a small problem in his mouth.
But it wasn't his teeth. He didn't care about the bad tooth anyway—it didn't hurt.
"Does Qiaoxi want to hear the truth or a lie"… The corner of Xie Jilian's lips curled up, and he quickly lowered his eyelids to conceal the amusement sparkling in his eyes.
He was lying to her.
There was no choice to be made—both were lies.
The summer days stretched long, and cicadas began to drone. In the Red Jade Terrace study, bronze ice chests stood on the east and west sides, their crushed ice glittering like miniature snow mountains. Lan Yan stood behind the ice, fanning Xu Qiaoxi with a fan.
A cool breeze drifted through, stirring a stack of ink-covered papers on the desk.
Xu Qiaoxi bent over her writing. She wasn't skilled at holding the brush, and her strokes ran wild like a runaway horse, but her attitude was earnest.
This one—is 'treasure', and this one—is 'solid'. I didn't mix them up this time, did I?"
She showed the paper to Wei Zhao beside her, hoping he would nod in approval.
Wei Zhao glanced over her handwriting and smiled gently: "The young madam is truly quick-witted. Your speed in learning characters is outstanding."
Of course—she did have a foundation from modern education, after all. She just needed to fill in the gaps with the traditional characters she wasn't familiar with.
Since the incident at Baojia Temple, Xie Jilian had instructed her not to leave Red Jade Terrace unless necessary. Since Xu Qiaoxi would be bored alone anyway, she simply told Wei Zhao about the difficulties she'd encountered when looking through books last time.
Wei Zhao was a mild-mannered, gentle person, and since he and Xu Qiaoxi were both "living under someone else's roof," their circumstances were similar. Over these past days, the two had miraculously become "both teacher and friend."
His fingertip circled over Xu Qiaoxi's characters. "It's just this part—if you don't tremble when writing the horizontal stroke, it would be even better."
Xu Qiaoxi looked at her horizontal strokes, which trembled more than plucked strings, and shamelessly explained: "I'm not trying to be a calligrapher. I just want to recognize the characters."
"But if you're someone close to the young master, and your handwriting isn't good…"
"I'm not learning for his sake."
Xu Qiaoxi said this with complete matter-of-factness. Wei Zhao couldn't contain his surprise, opening his mouth but finding nothing to say.
Just then, Lu Yun ran in from outside, clutching a small gray cloth pouch.
"I found them!"
Xu Qiaoxi's eyes lit up instantly. She quickly pushed aside the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone on the desk to make room for Lu Yun.
When the gray cloth pouch opened, what tumbled out were over a dozen round coins with square holes in the center.
"Oh, they're so light!"
Xu Qiaoxi grabbed three or four and weighed them in her hand, not expecting them to be so feathery.
Lu Yun nodded and added: "Our dynasty doesn't mint coins. We've always used the old currency from the previous dynasty."
"So what can these coins buy now?" Xu Qiaoxi asked, holding the money in her palms.
Lan Yan laughed from behind the ice chest. "Nothing at all!"
"The outside world is in complete chaos. With natural disasters and war, people stopped using money long ago. It's all barter now—grain and cloth are worth more than coins."
Lu Yun said: "That's right. So when you asked me this morning what money was, I had to go around asking people to gather some up."
Their words made Xu Qiaoxi gasp sharply. The coins slipped through her fingers and fell onto the desk with faint clinks.
In her nineteen years of life, Xu Qiaoxi had never imagined that a dynasty's capital wouldn't even use money.
So this was what a chaotic era looked like.
If she wanted to get out of here, it would be far harder than she had estimated.
"Why is the young madam concerned about the outside world?" Wei Zhao, who had been watching their exchange from the side, voiced his confusion.
"Nothing much, just curious."
Xu Qiaoxi put the coins back into the pouch one by one, returned it to Lu Yun, and bent her head back down to study and write her characters.
The sun's shadow gradually shifted, the ice floated in the chests, and outside, the summer cicadas had been droning all day, still buzzing tirelessly without end.
Wei Zhao gave Xu Qiaoxi's writing one final check, and only after confirming there were no errors did he leave Hongyu Terrace.
The setting sun sank into the clouds, the sky burning like blood. Wei Zhao walked along the half-dried stream of Qianchuan Chunting and spotted Xie Jilian at a lookout pavilion nestled among the rocks.
He stood alone, gazing at the stream below the pavilion—what had once been a glistening ribbon like the Milky Way was now nothing more than a trickle barely reaching his ankles.
The streams of Qianchuan Chunting connected directly to the Luo River, like blood converging at the heart, rising and falling where Xie Jilian could observe at any moment.
"Milord, this drought has already affected seventeen commanderies across eight provinces. Without grain supplies, both the inner and outer front lines are on the verge of collapse."
"Let them collapse, then. What's the hurry?"
Collapse at the front lines was exactly what he wanted.
Xie Jilian gave his horsetail whisk a light flick. "Tell the fortified manors and estates that if the court comes demanding grain, say the drought has left nothing to harvest—the Xie family has nothing to give. Then we'll see how the Wang family responds."
He lifted his gaze, his peripheral vision catching the ink stain on Wei Zhao's fingers.
"Coming from Hongyu Terrace?"
"Yes." Wei Zhao rubbed off the ink. "The young lady enjoys learning to read and write, and she also takes an interest in the people's affairs."
Xie Jilian gave a faint "mm" in acknowledgment, spinning the white jade handle of his whisk in his hand.
The court had become a mess lately—that boy Sima Zhi was having one of his mad fits again. He had no time to keep Xu Qiaoxi company, but Wei Zhao made for a fine substitute.
"She likes to learn, so teach her well. But as for matters of the people—what to say and what not to say—Mingguang understands, doesn't he?"
Wei Zhao nodded in assent. The spot where the ink had stained his fingers was rubbed red, faintly burning.
The young lady was such a good student. But he dearly hoped she wouldn't be too eager to learn.