The young couple was waylaid by neighbours and held in conversation for a long while. Xu Qingzhou was easy and unguarded around family, but out in public he maintained the dignified bearing of a soldier listening with a faint, pleasant smile, yet carefully withholding any stance or opinion.
Fang Yao, for her part, was still little acquainted with these women. Whatever they said, she offered no reply; instead she followed Xu Qingzhou’s example, smiling serenely and holding her peace.
Finding them so unforthcoming, the neighbours eventually lost interest and let them go.
As they watched the couple walk away side by side, one of the women clicked her tongue.
“Just look at them Qingzhou and Fang Yao, well matched indeed! Those two together must have eight hundred wits between them!”
“I saw it all the other day when the fighting broke out in the Xu courtyard! Qingzhou’s new wife is no soft touch, that one she beat Xu Manjiang so thoroughly he’s been hiding his bruised face indoors ever since!”
“Goodness! That fierce?”
“Qingzhou was right to choose a strong-willed wife! Wang Hua has put up with Wang Cuilian’s tyranny all these years now with a daughter-in-law standing beside her, she’ll never knuckle under again!”
“Mark my words there’s going to be no end of excitement in the Xu household from now on!”
Fang Yao was too far ahead to hear their chatter, yet she knew well enough they would whisper and judge. Old Madam Xu had said no one spoke ill of the two of them but that only meant they kept such opinions unspoken. Beside the uproar at Wang Cuilian’s, her own quiet marriage was hardly worth remarking on.
Fang Yao had long steeled herself against gossip and cared nothing for it. The compensation was safe in her keeping; so long as she and Xu Qingzhou built a good life together, success would silence every tongue.
What truly surprised her was the thought: Xu Manjiang rises in the dead of night to wait upon Li Xuemiao?
Clever woman she had sacrificed pride to seize advantage. Surrendering her bride price to cover Xu Manjiang’s debts effectively won her a husband for nothing at all. A masterstroke of loyalty-buying, pure and simple.
The neighbours might complain of Wang Cuilian’s shouting, yet that was nothing compared to the reality Fang Yao recalled from her past life when a single word of displeasure would earn her a stinging slap. Li Xuemiao was daughter to the village chief of a neighbouring hamlet; stooping to marry so far beneath her station meant that once Wang Cuilian short-changed her on the dowry, she would hold her head low before the Li family for the rest of her days.
“Lost in thought? Watch where you are walking!”
Xu Qingzhou reached out and caught her arm just in time. Fang Yao looked up and realized she had drifted straight toward a doorframe.
Turning, she met his familiar, faintly cool gaze and gave an awkward smile. “Nothing. I was just thinking… those women had a point, that’s all.”
“Is that so?” His eyes narrowed, sharp and probing. “Thinking that marrying me is good fortune? Or thinking of Xu Manjiang waiting upon his wife in the dead of night?”
Fang Yao’s expression hardened instantly. Her temper snapped.
“That is quite enough! Since last night you have spoken nothing but nonsense! I am your wife now whatever Xu Manjiang does is no concern of mine! We were engaged half a year and scarcely met half a dozen times! As far as I am concerned, he is beneath caring for! If you truly wish us to build a life together, then speak to me with respect! Utter one more word of this foolishness and do not imagine I shall hesitate to stand against you!”
Her rebuke delivered sharp and biting, Fang Yao shoved him aside, marched through the gate, and stormed into the house, slamming the door hard behind her.
Wang Hua, hurrying out to greet them, stood frozen in alarm. The two had departed so happy and harmonious what on earth had turned them so sour on the return?
“Qingzhou!” Wang Hua rushed forward, face creased with worry.
Only to find her son snubbed and ignored still standing there propping up his bicycle, grinning foolishly to himself!
“What is the meaning of this? What have you done to upset her? Did you not buy enough gifts?”
Xu Qingzhou let out a low, rumbling laugh and lied through his teeth. “Not at all. She thinks I bought far too much. Being thrifty, she is distressed that I spent so much at her family’s expense.”
Wang Hua heard this and not only forgave Fang Yao she admired her all the more for it. As a mother-in-law, she naturally sided with her daughter-in-law, and turned on her son with exasperation.
“And you dare stand there laughing! Your wife grudges every copper because you do not earn enough! Work harder from now on bring more money home, so she need never count every expense!”
“Yes, Mother. You are entirely right. I shall strive to provide better.”
That evening, candlelight cast warm, dancing shadows across the room. Fang Yao heaped the stove with firewood, then sat upon the bed with her needles and wool, practicing intricate patterns.
Xu Qingzhou came in from Wang Hua’s quarters, confident that half a day had surely cooled her temper. He walked over with a smile, long legs carrying him easily to her side.
Before he could even sit, Fang Yao gathered her work and shifted sharply away putting as much distance between them as physically possible, not wishing him near enough to touch.
Xu Qingzhou’s smile faltered for a heartbeat, then curved deeper, rueful and fond.
“Still cross, wife?”
“Go brush your teeth. Your breath reeks!” Fang Yao retorted without looking up.
The smile finally slipped from his face. He stood chastened for a moment, then turned and left the room.
He returned shortly afterward, walked straight back to her bedside, and breathed gently into his own palm, testing the air.
“Fresh now. I do not even smoke you exaggerate dreadfully!” He cast her a look of wounded grievance.
Fang Yao kept her head down, wholly absorbed in her work, refusing to acknowledge him.
Receiving no answer, Xu Qingzhou reached over and rested his hand upon hers, leaning close.
“Smell for yourself, then.”
“Ugh I will not! It will still smell foul! Your very words carry a foul stench!” She shook him off, irritable and flustered.
Only then did Xu Qingzhou realize she had been mocking him all along. His handsome face darkened, his gaze growing intense and shadowed as he fought to keep his temper in check.
Yet he remembered clearly what he had vowed on their wedding night. He knew her nature and resolved not to bicker like a petulant child.
“I apologize for my words,” he said evenly. “Forgive me this once. I give you my word I shall never speak of such things again.”
Fang Yao heard him clearly enough, yet her mind remained fixed elsewhere. Her fingers teased the yarn upon her needles; he had distracted her and dropped a stitch, which she now unpicked to set right.
“Fang Yao. I am apologizing to you. Might I have even a word in reply?”
He watched her unravel the row, one slip and the whole pattern would fall. Seeing himself ignored so utterly, he reached out and closed his hand firmly over hers.
Fang Yao’s work unraveled completely. Heat flared up within her. She wrenched her hand free and shouted without thinking, “Fine, fine, a thousand times fine! Can’t you see I am busy!”
The words had barely left her mouth when she stared, wide-eyed her hand had struck him squarely upon the chin.
Xu Qingzhou stood stunned. Then slowly, deep within his dark eyes, a smoldering fire began to glow, like embers refusing to die. He narrowed his gaze, and his voice dropped to a low, dangerous rumble.
“Daring to defy me, are we?”
Before she could move, he cupped the back of her neck and drew her face close to his their noses nearly brushing, his lips so near she could almost feel their warmth. One breath and he could have swallowed her whole.
“You say my breath reeks? Then smell it all you wish. Breathe it in. Taste every inch of it!”
His breath washed over her warm, clean, and scented faintly with minty toothpaste. There was no foulness there at all. Fang Yao simply could not endure his nearness; her heart raced wildly as she turned her face this way and that, cheeks burning hot with a blush that would not be subdued.