Ye Li let her mind drift to the Zhanyan Pearl, the most coveted of the three prizes she had won at the Hundred Flowers Festival.
It was said that whoever wore Zhanyan Pearl would keep their youth forever. For most women, that promise outshone any jewel, any bolt of silk, any treasure in the known world. But Ye Li, whose mind carried far more years than her fifteen-year-old body, found it a rather indifferent gift. She was young. She would be young for a good while yet. If she reached fifty with the face of a woman of twenty, she was not at all sure she would be grateful for it. Besides, she had her doubts about the pearl's reputation to begin with. Princess Zhaoyang, its original owner, had indeed looked somewhat younger than her years, but she was hardly the picture of immortal bloom.
Still. Just because she had no use for it did not mean anyone else had the right to take it from her.
"Father, forgive me," Ye Li said, her voice even. "The Zhanyan Pearl is no longer with Li'er."
"Impossible!" Ye Ying's exclamation cut across the room. She turned to her half-sister with eyes that moved between suspicion and calculation. "Could it be that Third Sister is simply reluctant to part with it? Ying'er only asks for Empress Zhaoyi's sake. After all, Empress Zhaoyi is our family's support in the palace."
Ye Li kept her expression mild. Support. She turned the word over in her mind with quiet contempt. How many aristocratic families had stood firm for a century by pinning their fortunes to a single woman's favor inside palace walls?
"Fourth Sister thinks too much," she said. "It is only a pearl. I gave it away."
"Gave it away?" Wang's voice climbed. "Who gives away the Zhanyan Pearl?" Any woman in the world would want it. If she herself had not been thinking of her daughter inside the palace, Wang would have kept that pearl without a second thought.
Ye Li looked at her with something close to puzzlement. "Li'er is only fifteen," she said. "It is a little early to be worrying about staying young."
She did not share her private view, which was that girls of fourteen and fifteen struck her as too unformed to be called beauties in the way the ancients insisted. Even Ye Ying, for all her prettiness, had none of the particular quality that a woman of twenty possessed.
Lady Ye had been watching all of this with a composed face that gave nothing away. She let a beat of silence pass, then spoke. "Who did Li'er give it to? Perhaps it can be retrieved. We would replace it with something equally precious, or more so."
Ye Li looked at her grandmother without blinking. Her expression went carefully flat. "Retrieved?"
Lady Ye was far too experienced to be unaware of what she was asking. Requesting back a gift one had given was a breach of conduct even a child understood. But the Zhanyan Pearl's value to Concubine Zhaoyi was real and urgent, and the old woman had already decided that it would be far better for Ye Li to retrieve it herself than for the Ye family to go asking. She also harbored a quiet suspicion that Ye Li had simply invented the story of giving it away and was holding onto it. A warm smile settled onto Lady Ye's face.
"Good child. Grandmother knows this is a little improper. But you understand how much this pearl means to Empress Zhaoyi. She has had a difficult time in the palace. With Zhanyan Pearl's help, the emperor's favor might turn more easily toward her, and that would benefit all of us."
Ye Li's brow creased. She looked down for a moment, then said, as if reluctant to deliver disappointing news, "But Grandmother, I have already sent both the Zhanyan Pearl and the Snow Zither Qin to my uncle."
Ye Shangshu's face went dark. His eyes cut to Ye Li with barely restrained anger. "Nonsense. What use does your uncle have for the Zhanyan Pearl?"
Under other circumstances he might have sent someone to intercept the gift before it arrived. But the recipient was his late wife's family, her father and her uncle, and even Ye Shangshu did not have the nerve to claw back something sent to the Xu household. Lord Qingyun had two sons and a daughter. The second son, Xu Hongyan, was the only one of that generation still holding office. But the man who truly occupied the back of Ye Shangshu's mind was his wife's uncle, Xu Hongyu, who had left the capital ten years ago and was now regarded as the foremost Confucian scholar of the age. Unlike his nephew, who carried a certain sharpness beneath his composure, this great scholar presented to the world a face of perpetual gentleness and courtesy. Yet if Xu Hongyu decided he disliked a person, that person would find their life made quietly unbearable in ways that were never traceable to any single cause. Ye Shangshu had tested that truth himself, years ago, and had never forgotten it. It was precisely why, for all his connections and all his nerve, he had never managed to get Ye Rong admitted to Lishan Academy.
Ye Li let a small smile touch the corners of her mouth. "A few days ago, Uncle sent a letter saying that Grandfather's pine organ had broken," she said. "When Li'er received the Snow Zither Qin, she was so glad to have something suitable to send that she had it dispatched immediately." She paused, as if just remembering. "And since the Zhanyan Pearl was of no real use to Li'er at her age, she sent that along to Auntie as well. The purple jade hairpin with the nourishing properties went to Second Auntie."
Ye Shangshu's expression went through several changes. For reasons he could not clearly articulate, the mention of his father-in-law's broken instrument sent a cold thread moving through him. The certainty drained out of his posture. He could not bring himself to press Ye Li hard. He only said, with a strained effort at mildness, "You, child. Why did you not speak with your father and mother before sending things off like this?"
Ye Li raised her brows very slightly. She did not voice what she thought, which was that her father had spent so long in official life that he had either lost his reason or genuinely believed Wang was a woman of virtue. That she would have been expected to discuss a gift for her late mother's father with her stepmother, and that after such a discussion anything worth sending would somehow never have left the house.
"It was Li'er who did not think carefully," she said instead, lowering her head with an expression of mild contrition. "When Uncle mentioned that Grandfather was upset, Li'er only wanted to be filial. She acted too quickly."
Ye Shangshu let out a thin smile. "Father knows Li'er is dutiful."
"Father!" Ye Ying's voice was sharp with frustration.
Ye Shangshu's face settled into something formal and final. He waved his hand once. "This matter is closed." He paused. "When the time comes for Yue'er to return to the palace, I will provide more silver for her expenses. The people above and below in the palace cannot be neglected."
Wang said nothing. She had lived alongside Ye Shangshu for twenty years, and one look at his face was enough. There was no point pressing further. She swallowed her resentment and let it settle into the familiar place where she kept everything she could not say, adding to it a fresh layer of bitterness aimed at Ye Li and at the memory of the first wife. It was always the same. The moment the Xu family entered the conversation, her husband stopped thinking about anyone else. As if the Xu family were his own blood and the Wang family were nothing.
Coming out of Rongle Hall, Ye Li exhaled slowly, the tension of the past hour falling away from her shoulders. She glanced sideways at Ye Ying, who had come out behind her.
"Fourth Sister," she said pleasantly. "I'll go back first."
Ye Ying did not seem to hear. A soft smile arranged itself on her face. "Third Sister is remarkably generous. To give away such a priceless thing without a second glance."
Ye Li turned to look at her. "Fourth Sister flatters me. Grandfather and my two aunts are not strangers. Besides, the uncles and aunts were always good to me growing up, even though I was born under this roof and somehow managed to not receive much of what grew and thrived within it." Her voice remained light. "Now that I have a few things worth giving, of course I should honor my elders. People ought to be grateful for what they have received. Don't you think so? Those of us who have spent years eating and wearing what my mother's dowry provided might think about that from time to time."
Ye Ying's teeth came together. "Third Sister is right," she said, very quietly. "Little sister has learned something today."
"You are kind to say so." Ye Li smiled. "I am a plain sort of person. I only know how to return a favor with small material things. I could never match Fourth Sister's refinement, her ability to rise above such worldly trifles. Walk slowly, Fourth Sister."
"Walk well, Third Sister."
Ye Li did not look back to see how Ye Ying's expression shifted. She walked at an easy pace in the direction of Qingyi Pavilion and, when Qingshuang fell into step beside her, spoke without slowing down.
"Tell someone to let Concubine Zhao know the time has nearly come. Find the Madam something to keep her busy. I don't want to see either of them for a while."
"Yes, Miss."