Their eyes met.
The soft snow-light came through the pale green window gauze, dim and scattered. The young man’s skin looked colder still, and his lean chin was very close.
His eyes were like deep water. They made Yu Nanzhi remember the still lake she had seen as a child when her father took her out walking in spring, extremely clear, extremely limpid, and yet somehow making one suspect that waves lay hidden beneath.
Her wandering thoughts came back. The young man’s warm breath came out and drifted over to her thread by thread. Yu Nanzhi’s eyelids trembled slightly, and she suddenly felt something odd she could not put into words.
The next moment the girl turned with the wooden box, took down offhandedly the other box holding “Plantain Lily,” spun lightly on her toes, nimble as a swimming fish, and in an instant was five paces away.
“Your Highness, please make way.”
The girl in yellow held the two wooden boxes in her arms and bowed, her manner respectful and obedient.
Act first, warn after.
The girl before him had finally let a little of her real self show through [1]a crag showing itself (zhēng róng, 峥嵘) (Metaphor), the first glimpse of formidable quality under a mild surface jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253952_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253952_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
A fine sword kept in its case will one day be drawn. From one or two flashes of its edge one may glimpse its bearing.
This was her, after all.
Cui Zixu, rarely for him, was taken aback, and then a light laugh escaped his throat.
“I was absent-minded just now and gave much offense. Please forgive me a little, Second Miss Yu.”
He took no notice whatever of Yu Nanzhi’s movements just now, and took all the responsibility onto himself.
Admitting a fault the moment there was one, with no vagueness at all, courteous and measured, easy and polished in every gesture.
Yu Nanzhi finally understood why this Prince of Qinghe could go on drawing admirers without end.
“‘Osmanthus’ and ‘Plantain Lily’ have been found. I lend them to Your Highness here.” Yu Nanzhi offered up the painting boxes with both hands.
The business was done. All she wanted was to send this “ancestor” off at once, so she could go back to Shuming Court, listen to more gossip and eat some snacks, how pleasant that would be.
Cui Zixu no longer dared be as unrestrained as before. His long lashes lowered over his eyes, and he reached out and took the painting boxes, as if he were used to doing such things.
Yu Nanzhi had thought he would have her carry them for the time being, or call a maid or page from outside the book pavilion to hold the paintings.
The weight in the crook of her arm suddenly lifted. Before Yu Nanzhi could breathe out, Cui Zixu’s faint voice sounded at her ear. “Second Miss Yu is not quite as she was in front of the corridor pavilion yesterday.”
Yu Nanzhi’s fingers tightened on her cuff.
A dignified prince, and as small-minded as this [2]a little belly and a chicken’s gut (xiǎo dù jī cháng, 小肚雞腸) (Idiom), petty and unable to let the smallest slight go jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253952_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253952_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. It was only a round of sharp words between young ladies, and he still held on to it and would not let go.
She had not even taken him to task for the mean little act of hiding and eavesdropping.
Never mind. He was a prince, and she was only a small noble daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo. Circumstances left her no room to argue.
When one should bow one’s head, one bows it. She was a person who knew which way the times ran.
Yu Nanzhi clenched her fists and said, “Your Highness is joking.”
“Whatever Second Miss Yu thinks, let it be so.”
After a while Cui Zixu dropped that one sentence, held the painting boxes and turned to leave, his sleeves flying, leaving only a gust of pine wind behind.
Yu Nanzhi stared at his retreating back, stamped her foot in vexation and snorted coldly.
She had been wrong.
Where did this man get his easy polish?
He was clearly odious in the extreme.
Wasn’t he borrowing paintings to go to Baiguo Garden and view the flowers of the four seasons?
She would just wait to hear about whatever disgrace he got into at Baiguo Garden, and she would make sure that by tomorrow morning there was not a soul in all Chang’an who did not know.
Suddenly the hem of her cloak sank. Yu Nanzhi looked down: it was Daju, who had put out a paw and was hooking her cloak and tugging lightly.
Yu Nanzhi bent down, met those blue cat eyes and asked, “What’s happened?”
Hadn’t she had Hanying carry him back? How had he still followed her to the book pavilion?
Daju gave a meow, jumped onto Yu Nanzhi’s shoulder and pressed his furry head against her ear. 【Master, there is something strange about that Prince of Qinghe just now.】
Baiguo Garden lay in the southern outskirts of Chang’an. As its name says, close to a hundred kinds of fruit trees were planted in it, and it bore heavy fruit in all four seasons. Yet the fruit wine brewed from what it produced was so sought after that a single cup was hard to come by.
Toward evening that day, the Duke of Zhenguo’s household alone received two jars of green plum wine from Baiguo Garden.
Master Xie’s two flower paintings came back along with them.
“Hanyue.”
At the gate of Shuming Court, Hanying held up a lantern and signaled the maid behind her, who wore a sky-water green lan robe, to come forward.
The little maid with her hair in two hanging buns took the two painting boxes with meek deference. Catching sight of the wine jar in Hanying’s hand, she gathered her courage to ask, “Sister Hanying, who sent this to the Miss? It smells so good.”
The maid was called Hanyue, a second-rank maid of Shuming Court. Day to day she was in charge of cleaning and arranging Yu Nanzhi’s dressing case and clothes. She was shy by nature and seldom left the courtyard, and she did not yet know that the Prince of Qinghe had come to the Duke’s household today to borrow paintings.
“What are you asking so much for?” Hanying tapped Hanyue’s forehead with a finger. “I think your curiosity is false and your greedy mouth is true. Aren’t you afraid of eating yourself into a little spotted pig?”
“Sister Hanying, this is my only little pleasure..,” Hanyue muttered under her breath, her plump cheeks puffing in and out.
It was only forty-odd paces. The two maids stepped into the main room, and the warm air struck them in the face. The bits of snow on their lashes melted at once.
Hanying said, “Miss, the Prince of Qinghe has sent someone to bring Master Xie’s paintings back.”
“Put them on the second curio shelf on the left in the study.” Yu Nanzhi’s voice came from the inner room.
Hanyue answered and went. Having set the painting boxes in place and seeing that no one was watching her, she lingered in front of the curio shelf pretending to tidy it, glancing sideways to peek in past the beaded curtain.
The girl wore a grass-green narrow-sleeved blouse and a pale pink ru skirt, her black hair half pinned up. She sat cross-legged on the couch, bending over a huanghuali table, writing and sketching from time to time, her manner quiet and composed. In the corner of the table stood a potted jasmine, its leaves nearly all frozen off by the winter cold. Such a bleak sight really did not match the soft, lovely girl in front of it.
But Hanyue did not dare say anything.
“No one need stay in here to attend me. Take a jar of green plum wine out and share it among yourselves.”
The soft female voice startled the distracted Hanyue awake. She gave a shiver, backed out of the study in small quick steps, and as soon as Hanying came out she pressed up to her, opening a pair of round puppy eyes and begging eagerly to be fed.
The partition door closed, shutting out the wind and snow beyond the courtyard.
Yu Nanzhi’s brows drew together slightly and she bit her lower lip, her mind far from calm. Her right hand held a goat-hair brush and wrote and drew on the xuan paper. On the clean white paper there was nothing but the three large characters “Cui Zixu,” written and crossed out, crossed out and written again, and nothing else at all.
“Still no news of him to be had?” She propped her chin on one hand and talked to herself.
【None.】
The answer came from the old willow outside the window and the jasmine on the table.
“How very strange. Neither flowers and grasses nor birds and beasts can find out the least bit of news about the Prince of Qinghe. Is he really so disliked by all living things? But…”
“If that is so, how can he keep a cat?”
It was truly puzzling.
Yu Nanzhi sighed. Her brush paused, and a blot of ink the size of a fingernail spread on the paper.
The jasmine said, 【It isn’t that no news of the Prince of Qinghe can be found at all. It is only that asking about the man himself directly doesn’t work. But you can learn from other people’s mouths what he said and what he did.】
Yu Nanzhi shook her head.
She had noticed the same thing. The fruit trees of Baiguo Garden had passed word: today in the garden, besides viewing flowers and paintings, a crowd of young masters had also held a sword contest.
A garden full of red plum, swords rising in the snow, young masters in brocade, one could guess just by thinking about it what a feast for the eyes it must have been.
In the contest, Eleventh Master He of the Minister of Justice’s household lost to Fourth Master Gu of the Duke of Baoguo’s household. As for whether the Prince of Qinghe took the field and how it turned out, at first there was nothing at all. Only after all the young masters had left the garden did a crabapple tree in Baiguo Garden learn the result from the mouth of an attendant who had been there—
Cui Zixu crossed swords with Third Master Xie, and after ten strokes Third Master Xie fell back defeated.
At the same time, after the Cui carriages reached Qixia Gate, a party split off carrying the scrolls and the green plum wine straight to the Duke of Zhenguo’s household. All along the way Yu Nanzhi knew this party’s progress down to the last detail, which was how she could send out Hanying and Hanyue at exactly the right moment to take the wine and the paintings.
As long as she was far from the Prince of Qinghe, everything was normal.
“Meow—”
A cat’s cry came.
Daju pushed open the casement window and darted into the room, shook the snowflakes off his fur beside the stove and leapt lightly onto his master’s lap.
【Master, I asked my kind all over Chang’an. That lion cat of the Prince of Qinghe’s, the one called Yunu, really is very strange. From time to time it is as though she were cut off from the world, and none of my kind can find her. On the rare occasions when they do find her and ask what happened before, she knows nothing.】
So it really was like that.
“Even the cat he keeps himself is not spared. The Prince of Qinghe must have a special constitution the same as mine, only the exact opposite.” Yu Nanzhi nodded to herself, thinking. “Put that way, this Prince of Qinghe really was made to be the ruin of me [3]heaven set him to overcome me (tiān kè wǒ, 天克我) (Slang), fated to be the one person who spoils everything for you jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253952_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253952_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.”
【Master, stop thinking about the Prince of Qinghe for now. Tomorrow’s little newspaper is not out yet, and Zhuyan Book Pavilion is still waiting.】
Daju rolled over in Yu Nanzhi’s arms and rubbed his round head against her palm.
【Mistress Liu has something for you.】
The weather was cold, and Daju wore a crimson winter coat that Hanying had made from Song brocade left over from cutting Yu Nanzhi’s clothes. A large pocket had been sewn onto the back of the coat on purpose, and in the pocket was an envelope.
Yu Nanzhi’s hand paused. Through the envelope she felt something hard inside. She tore off the wax seal, and there inside were two sheets of letter paper and a small sprig of red plum.
The first letter was simple. It briefly mentioned how brilliant Yu Nanzhi’s idea of yesterday had been, she was the first person ever to open a wager in a little newspaper. As soon as today’s issue came out it met with an enthusiastic response, and by dusk twenty-one people had written in to vote and bet.
At the end, Liu Ruyan also wrote the most important reason for having Daju bring the letter—
That sprig of red plum and the second letter.
Ever since Zhuyan Book Pavilion’s little newspaper appeared two years ago, there had been a rumor, true or false, that if one had a question to ask about a marriage match, one could throw a branch of a seasonal flower into the pavilion, and every ten days the pavilion would choose one of them and answer it. But once what was asked for had been obtained, the flower-thrower had to send twenty strings of cash to the pavilion, or else the pavilion would dig up every shameful hidden thing the person had done from childhood on and make it public. A year ago Second Master Zheng of the Zheng clan of Xingyang tried to welch on the debt, and the pavilion dug up that he had, one after another, pledged himself for life to three top courtesans of Pingkang Ward. His match with the Lu family’s daughter fell through entirely as a result.
As for how the choice was made, Zhuyan Book Pavilion was entirely arbitrary, and there was no pattern to speak of.
“So it’s her.” Yu Nanzhi unfolded the second letter, a flash of surprise in her eyes.
Daju said, 【That’s right. It’s Fifth Miss Feng, the one two young masters came to blows over in public in the East Market today.】
“Could it have to do with Eleventh Master He and Second Master Qi?” The timing of Fifth Miss Feng’s flower was too much of a coincidence, and Yu Nanzhi could not help making this guess. But as her gaze moved from right to left, and as the jasmine and the old willow kept passing on scraps of news, Yu Nanzhi understood that to some degree she had guessed wrong.
“To whom it may concern: this humble girl is the fifth daughter of the Feng family, sixteen years of age, and seeks a husband. Yet I dare not presume upon the gates of the high nobility. I hope only that his spirit is lofty, like a jade tree in a peach grove, that his family’s ways are clear and bright and that he keeps himself pure and upright, that his judgment is as clear as a mirror and that he holds to what is right without bending, that he is young and talented and has read ten thousand scrolls, and that he passed the jinshi examination before the age of twenty. If there is such a man, I hope you will point him out at once.”
Yu Nanzhi read it and clicked her tongue in wonder. “She says she does not want the high nobility, but look at this string of demands that follows, how many so-called sons of great houses could meet them? There are probably fewer than two handfuls of young masters in Chang’an who fit. If demands like these got out, they would leave people speechless [4]make people bite their own tongues (lìng rén zé shé, 令人咋舌) (Idiom), to astound people into silence jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253952_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253952_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.”
Daju said, 【Is it too difficult? Doesn’t Master want to take it?】
“No.” Yu Nanzhi turned the plum sprig between her fingers. “The flower Ruyan chose this time is very interesting. I want to see what Fifth Miss Feng really means to do.”
Was she using it to put out word and turn away idle rich boys like Eleventh Master He and Second Master Qi [5]sons in fine silk breeches (wán kù zǐ dì, 纨绔子弟) (Idiom), the dissolute, good-for-nothing sons of wealthy houses jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253952_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253952_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, or did she sincerely want to find an outstanding husband for herself?
A cup of tea’s time later she set down the goat-hair brush, rolled up the paper she had written, pushed open the casement window and made a sharp, bird-like cry in her throat.
Wind and snow came suddenly. A little owl slipped out from among the pine needles by the wall, flapped its wings and landed on the windowsill. It tilted its head to one side, its round eyes fixed on Yu Nanzhi without letting go, silly and adorable.
Yu Nanzhi stroked the little owl’s head and stuffed the paper into the bamboo tube tied to its leg. “Xiaoguai, take it to Zhuyan Book Pavilion in Liquan Ward as usual. When you come back I’ll give you meat.”
On the days Yu Nanzhi did not go to Liquan Ward herself, it was mostly he who went back and forth between the Duke of Zhenguo’s household and Zhuyan Book Pavilion in her place.
【Don’t worry, Master. Xiaoguai flies very fast. But when Xiaoguai comes back, he wants fresh mutton.】
Xiaoguai gave a burst of delighted cries, beat his wings hard and flew off into the pitch-black night sky, brushing up a wisp of light cloud where he passed.
References[+]