Ever since her mother recovered, Ye Pingjun had gone back to Mingde Girls' School. She had also asked Bai Liyuan to return the gold bracelet Mrs. Li had given them. Pingjun managed the Ye household's expenses herself. She figured that once autumn came, the tenant farmers would send up some rent, and with a little tutoring on the side she could repay part of the nearly four hundred yuan hospital bill owed to Yu Changxuan. Only then did she feel at ease.
It was a Sunday morning and the school was closed. Her mother, just over a serious illness, wanted to climb the mountain to the Guanyin Pavilion and give thanks for her recovery. Seeing that her mother was still weak, Pingjun said she would go in her place that afternoon. She spent the morning on her schoolwork in the outer room, then took a watering can out to tend the clumps of hostas along the foot of the wall. They were in bloom, the long white flowers pure as jade and without a speck of dust. Pingjun wore a moon-white long gown and her hair in two small buns, her features fine and clear, and with a light breeze stirring she looked like something out of a painting of immortals. Auntie Zhao, who lived in the same courtyard, had been sitting in front of her own door picking over rice. Now she watched Pingjun for a long while, then sighed. "Such a pity, miss. Pretty as a flower, and you weren't born to a young lady's fate."
Pingjun turned and smiled. "There are many kinds of flowers. The delicate ones are the young ladies' fate, and someone is always there to cherish them. People like me are like these hostas. We grow wherever we happen to fall, and that's fine too."
Auntie Zhao laughed. "You've read books, miss, so you know more than the likes of us. When you go to the temple to burn incense, bring a stick back for me too."
Pingjun agreed with a smile. That afternoon she carried some incense and candles up the mountain herself. The long stone steps ran up between green trees and wildflowers, and a faint fragrance floated in the air. She went in through the temple gate and lit a candle and set incense before the Buddha as her mother had instructed, then knelt on the cushion and kowtowed. When she came out again she saw an old man outside who had set up a table to tell fortunes with divining sticks, though no customer had come to him. After a moment's thought she walked over and said, "Old sir, I'd like to draw a stick."
The old man brought the stick cylinder. Pingjun took it, and it felt heavy in her hand. "It's so heavy," she said with a smile.
"These are people's fates in here," the old man said. "A whole lifetime. How could it not be heavy?"
His words made Pingjun a little more careful. She shook the cylinder hard and drew out a stick. Its title was "Wind Sweeping the Leaves in the Forest." She did not hand it to the old man but read it herself:
Since ancient times the tender-hearted have been left with regret;
Good dreams were always the easiest to wake from.
One beauty to topple a city, a thousand rows of tears;
The fragrance fades, the lotus withers, autumn on the jade mat.
Pingjun stood looking at the stick in silence for a long time. The old man saw her standing there lost in thought and called out, "Miss, let me see it, and I'll explain it for you."
Pingjun slowly put the stick back in the cylinder. "I forgot what my mother told me," she said with a smile. "A young girl shouldn't casually get her fortune told. Never mind, I won't have it explained."
She put the money for the fortune on the old man's table and turned to go down the steps. The stone path stretched down in layers, and wind rustled through the treetops all around. It was evening, and the golden sunset glow lay across the whole path. Pingjun walked slowly, and without noticing she passed close by someone. It flashed through her mind like a bolt of lightning. She caught her breath and had already turned her head.
He stood there smiling. His handsome face was even more refined than it had been four years ago. Behind him the mountain was a rustle of green leaves and layered peaks, and he stood on the stone steps like a young tree of fragrant orchid and jade. His easy, graceful bearing, so bright and high-spirited, was beyond any words.
After four years apart, the reunion came without any warning at all. Pingjun glanced at him and in an instant her thoughts were a tangle. Her face flushed red, and in her confusion she turned to run down the steps. He hurried forward and caught her, laughing. "What are you running from? I'm not a tiger!"
His long hand closed around hers and sent a wave of warmth through her, and her whole face burned. She grew angry out of sheer embarrassment. "Jiang Xueting, I don't know you."
Jiang Xueting laughed at once. "Now you're contradicting yourself. If you don't know me, how do you know I'm called Jiang Xueting?"
Pingjun's face was bright red. She lifted her head and glanced at him. "You lied to me. You said in your letter that you wouldn't be back until August..." Jiang Xueting saw that her eyes were actually turning red, and he smiled. "I missed you too much. Is coming back a month early not allowed?"
Pingjun shook off his hand and went on down the mountain. After a few steps she said, "You... When did you get off the ship?"
Jiang Xueting followed her. "This morning. I went to your house in the afternoon, and Auntie said you'd come to worship at the temple, so I hurried here to find you. And you, the moment you see me, you turn and run."
He had barely finished when Pingjun suddenly stopped. Her lips were pressed lightly together. She said nothing and no longer went down, only leaned with her head lowered against a tree beside the steps and pressed a hand to her chest. After a long while she drew a deep breath, raised her head and said to Jiang Xueting with a smile, "No, I can't talk to you yet. My heart is pounding too hard."
Jiang Xueting saw that even the hand pressed to her chest was trembling slightly, and knew how stirred she was. He stood quietly beside her, listening with her to the wind in the mountains. The two of them stood there in silence for a long time. When she gradually calmed down, Jiang Xueting said with a smile, "Pingjun, I have good news for you. In a little while I'm going to the Nanming Military Academy as a member of the administrative committee."
Pingjun turned to look at him. His face showed a proud, confident satisfaction, and he could not hold the words back. He talked on eagerly. "In Fusang I joined the Protect-the-Nation Society, and I became head of its Deliberation Department. You know the Mou family? The venerable old Mr. Mou of the Mou family was my teacher in Fusang. He's a man I admire enormously, and he's the one who recommended me to the Nanming Military Academy."
Pingjun saw that the first thing he wanted to talk about, the moment they met, was this, and that he glowed as he spoke of it. She understood how much it weighed with him, and said with a smile, "I don't really understand any of this, but if you say old Mr. Mou is a good man, he must be a very good man."
Jiang Xueting nodded and reached out to tidy the hair at her temple. They had grown up together, with deep feeling between them, a childhood pair who had never had a thought of anything but each other, so a gesture like this was the most ordinary thing in the world. His fingers paused in her hair. "So you break your word too," he said with a smile.
"What did I do?" Pingjun asked.
"Who was it that wrote in her letter that she would wear the jade hairpin I gave her carefully? If you try to deny it, I have the letter as proof." Since he had asked, Pingjun saw no point in hiding it and told him the truth. "A while ago I wasn't careful as I walked, and I lost the jade hairpin."
Jiang Xueting hummed in acknowledgment and smiled. "If it's lost, it's lost. In a few days I'll buy you another." He took her hand and led her down the steps. "Let's go back. Auntie said she'd make osmanthus cakes for me. In all my years abroad, the thing I wanted most was your mother's osmanthus cakes."
They came down the mountain together, and Jiang Xueting suddenly said, "Wait for me a moment."
Pingjun was startled. Jiang Xueting walked over to a child at the foot of the mountain who sat by a basket of pears for sale. He bent and handed the child some banknotes, and a moment later he came back wheeling a bicycle. "Let's go," he said to Pingjun with a smile. "I'll ride you home. Do you want to sit in front or behind?"
Pingjun pressed her lips into a smile and started toward the back of the frame. But he swung the bicycle around sideways, held the handlebars with one hand and, using his long arm, planted himself on the rear seat to block her, his eyes shining. "Not allowed in the back!"
She turned and walked off, and he wheeled the bicycle along behind her, laughing the whole way. "Little miss, want a ride? Want a ride?" She grew so annoyed at his clamor that she turned and scolded him. "You have a thick skin!" He brought the bicycle around in front of her and conceded with a laugh. "All right, you can sit in the back."
Jiang Xueting took a pinwheel from the basket and put it in her hand. He rode fast with her on the back. She held tightly to the hem of his clothes with one hand and raised the pinwheel with the other, and it spun whirring before her eyes. A cheerful smile was on her lips, and the sun shone on her, and the bangs on her forehead were blown into disorder. He deliberately swerved the handlebars, the bicycle gave a violent lurch, and she cried out in fright and threw an arm around his waist, then hurried to let go again.
He held the handlebar with one hand and with the other reached back to press down her hand, which was about to pull away. The bicycle, with one side let go, began to wobble, and she cried in fright, "Don't let go!"
A smile played on his lips. "Then you don't let go either," he said softly.
Dusk was coming on. On one side stood an old courtyard wall with green wisteria leaves climbing half of it, a thick sheet of glossy green. A car was parked at the mouth of the lane, with tall attendants standing beside it. Everything around was still. The girl's laughter and the whirring of the pinwheel had long since passed.
Yu Changxuan sat inside the car, gazing in silence at the red velvet box in his hand. In it lay a string of bright pearls, which looked even lovelier against the velvet.
When he had chosen this pearl necklace at the foreign firm, he had thought that if she wore it she would be beautiful beyond words.
Suddenly there was a clatter from the back seat. Gu Ruitong, the head of the guard, turned around. The necklace had come apart, and the clear, gleaming pearls had scattered and rolled into the gaps beneath the seat. Gu Ruitong looked at Yu Changxuan's face, said nothing for a long while, and turned his head back.
Yu Changxuan sat by the window, his brows drawn tight. The box had been lined with white sandalwood incense, so even with the pearls scattered, a delicate sweet fragrance slowly spread and lingered at his nose like something from a dream. He could not drive it away, and it unsettled his mind completely.
Jiang Xueting led Pingjun all the way back to the courtyard house. As soon as they came through the door they smelled osmanthus cakes. A plate of red and white osmanthus cakes sat on the table, and Jiang Xueting went to eat one, but Pingjun hurried to stop him. "Glutton," she said with a laugh. "Wash your hands first."
Jiang Xueting went to wash his hands, grinning. Mrs. Ye came out of the inner room. "Ping'er, Xueting brought you quite a few things this time. I put them in your room. Go and look."
Pingjun nodded. When Jiang Xueting had washed his hands he came over and picked up osmanthus cakes from the table, without using chopsticks, and ate several in a row. Mrs. Ye laughed. "Four years away and you haven't changed one bit. You loved this as a child, and you still love it now that you're grown. Don't eat so fast. Ping'er, pour some tea!"
Jiang Xueting's hands were fragrant with osmanthus cake. He looked up with a smile. "Only Auntie's cakes are really good. Anyone else's, I wouldn't even look at them." Pingjun poured a cup of tea and set it before him. "Stop sweet-talking my mother," she said, smiling.
Mrs. Ye looked at the two young people, a handsome man and a lovely girl, a perfect match, and was very happy. Her still somewhat pale face was smiling. "Ping'er, I'm going out to buy some vegetables. Xueting, can you stay here for dinner tonight?"
Jiang Xueting agreed at once. When Mrs. Ye had gone out, Pingjun sat in the chair on the other side of the table, watching him eat with a smile. After a while she picked up a piece herself and ate it slowly. After thinking a moment, she said, "You only got back today. Where's the sense in not going home to your brother and sister-in-law for dinner? What if they're upset?"
Jiang Xueting answered casually, "It's nothing. They don't care what I do. They'd be happier if I stayed away."
He looked at the half-eaten osmanthus cake in Pingjun's hand, reached over, took her wrist and leaned in to bite it. Half of Pingjun's face flushed red and she tried to pull her hand back. In the middle of this tugging, the door was pushed open and their neighbor Auntie Zhao walked in. When she saw the scene she let out an "Aiyo!" and held one hand half over her eyes, the other waving in the air. "What... it's nothing! I just came to look. Go on, go on, eat."
Auntie Zhao hobbled back out on her small feet. Pingjun's whole face was crimson. She looked up and saw Jiang Xueting still laughing, and in her anger she threw the half cake at him. He caught it neatly and ate it with a smile. Then the door opened again, and it was Mrs. Ye, back from the street corner with a few side dishes.
With the arrival of high summer the days grew steadily hotter. To avoid the increasingly bitter struggle between the Chu and Mou factions inside the central government, Yu Zhongquan had pleaded poor health and gone to Fenghua Mountain Villa, one of the Yu family's summer retreats. His departure gave Yu Changxuan a great deal of freedom. He stopped going to the Army Ministry altogether, and no one, Tao Ziyi or Jun Daiti or anyone else, got any attention from him. All day he did little more than practice shooting and ride horses at the parade ground.
One afternoon, with the sun blazing in the sky, Yu Changxuan and Li Boren and a few others came back from shooting practice at the parade ground. Having nothing else to do, they pulled in two staff officers from the Ninth Army and played mahjong in the small reception room at the Yu residence. After several rounds of clattering tiles, the stack of banknotes in front of Yu Changxuan kept growing. He knew that Li Boren and the others were deliberately throwing the game to let him win, which he hated more than anything, and it only made him more bored.
Li Boren saw that Yu Changxuan looked indifferent. He was holding a seven of circles and tapping it aimlessly on the table, tick, tick. Li Boren said with a smile, "What's the matter, Fifth Young Master? You look listless. Is there some knotty problem in military affairs?"
Yu Changxuan did not even bother to lift his eyelids. "What knotty military problem could I have?" he said lightly. "My father stands in front of everything for me. Even if I were Emperor Jiaqing on the throne, wouldn't there still be a retired emperor standing behind the dragon seat?"
A colleague at once said flatteringly, "Why would the Fifth Young Master say that? You're a young man of great promise..." Yu Changxuan snorted and cut him off. "I can't accept that. I'm just leaning on my father's power. I became a staff officer at the Army Ministry at twenty-four. People must be jabbing at my back until it bends."
One man at the table laughed. "No need to belittle yourself, Fifth Young Master. Everything is ready now and only the right moment is lacking. When you bring back a resounding war record from the battlefield, those people will naturally be struck dumb."
Each of these flattering remarks only annoyed him more. Yu Changxuan tossed the seven of circles into the pile of tiles on the table, and his face showed a flash of anger. "Are we playing or not? So much nonsense!" Li Boren saw that Yu Changxuan's temper was so bad today that anything he said would only rub him the wrong way, and said quickly, "Right, why all the dawdling? I'm waiting to win my money back. One more round!"
He reached out and began shuffling the tiles on the table. But Yu Changxuan stood up and, without a word, turned and walked out of the room. Gu Ruitong and Wu Zuoxiao were both startled, and Gu Ruitong hurried to lead the guards after him. Li Boren caught Wu Zuoxiao by the arm. "Adjutant Wu, what happened? The Fifth Young Master is so angry. Give us brothers a hint."
Wu Zuoxiao turned back with a pained expression. "It's all that Miss Ye. Time after time she's made the Fifth Young Master lose face. His temper has been terrible lately, and when he blows up, there's no peace for any of us. I advise you gentlemen not to walk into the gun. Better go home, quickly."
Li Boren understood now. "Ha," he laughed. "I wondered what it was. Blowing up like he'd swallowed gunpowder. So he's lovesick. It turns out our Fifth Young Master can't take Miss Ye's position however long he besieges it. No wonder his temper is so bad."
Wu Zuoxiao saw the pleased smile in Li Boren's words. "To look at you, Staff Officer Li, you must have a good idea."
"An idea, there might be one," Li Boren said with a smile.
Wu Zuoxiao's eyes lit up as though he had found a savior. "Of course! A wicked scheme like this, only you could think it through so thoroughly." The moment he finished, Li Boren aimed a kick at his calf. The officers around them laughed loudly. They were used to joking around like this. Wu Zuoxiao went on, "Hurry up and say it, so we brothers don't have to keep taking the blame from the Fifth Young Master without end!"
Li Boren answered calmly, "Rest easy, Adjutant Wu. Leave this to me. What kind of person is our Fifth Young Master? Is there anyone he wants that he can't get?"
That day, Mingde Girls' School had just let out and Ye Pingjun was packing her schoolbag to go home when Bai Liyuan came over grinning, holding up a box seat ticket and exclaiming, "Pingjun, look, look! A ticket for the Yuchun Garden. My cousin's wife showed it off in front of me yesterday and I grabbed it from her by force. Let's go see the opera tonight. Mei Jianqiu from the North Capital has come to perform The Jade Hairpin here in Jinling, and this is the last show."
Mei Jianqiu was a famous star of the North Capital's Peking opera, and The Jade Hairpin had been advertised in the papers for a long time. Pingjun had wanted to see it for ages, but she pushed the ticket away and said apologetically, "Xueting is coming to my house tonight. I can't go."
Liyuan's face fell. She looked at the ticket for a moment, then suddenly looked up with a smile. "Then it's even better. Take this box ticket. You and Jiang Xueting go, and I won't."
She thrust the ticket into Pingjun's hand. Pingjun pushed it back quickly. "No. The ticket is expensive, and anyway, how can the two of us go when you don't? I won't take it."
Liyuan stuffed the ticket into Pingjun's schoolbag, laughing. "Don't stand on ceremony with me. I'll have my father take me to the cinema. Thinking about it, going to the opera with Jiang Xueting will be much more fun than going with me. I won't be your little lightbulb." Her words left Pingjun flushed to the ears. Pingjun picked up a book from the desk and swatted at her. Liyuan cried "Aiyo!" and ran laughing out of the classroom.
Pingjun took the ticket home and found that Jiang Xueting had already come. He and Mrs. Ye were sitting in the courtyard under the locust tree, enjoying the cool. On the little table were several kinds of dried fruit, a dish of spiced beans, and a plate of fresh grapes. Neighbor Auntie Zhao was there too, sewing something. It was a quiet, peaceful scene. Auntie Zhao sat facing the gate and was the first to see Pingjun come in. "You're back early today, miss," she said with a smile.
Pingjun answered, and when she saw Jiang Xueting smiling at her she pursed her lips in a smile but ignored him. She went and sat before her mother, took out the box ticket and set it openly on the table. "Liyuan gave me this box ticket. Tonight let's all go to the Yuchun Garden to see Peking opera."
Auntie Zhao was sewing, and scratched her hair with her needle. "I'm an old woman who can only follow storytelling and the like. I couldn't sit through Peking opera, and I wouldn't understand it."
Mrs. Ye picked up the ticket and looked at it. "So it's The Jade Hairpin." Jiang Xueting said beside her, "That's a famous opera. In Sichuan opera it's called Two Lifetimes of Fate." Auntie Zhao was puzzled. "Two Lifetimes of Fate? Why such a name? Can a person live twice?"
Pingjun, eating grapes, found Auntie Zhao's question amusing. After a moment's thought she said, "I suppose it's about the ways of the world. I think a 'lifetime' doesn't have to mean birth, old age, sickness and death. Every time you get to know a person and go through a story with them, that can count as one lifetime."
"Is that so?" said Auntie Zhao. "Then by that reckoning, miss, being with the three of us means you've lived three lifetimes?" Jiang Xueting said, "I see what she means. A lifetime is when you know a person and understand a person." As he spoke he looked at Pingjun and smiled slightly. She lowered her head to pick at the grapes, but the corners of her lips were smiling too.
Mrs. Ye set the box ticket back on the table. "I've had a headache these past few days and can't go anywhere lively. You and Xueting go and see it, just don't come back late." This suited Jiang Xueting exactly. He agreed at once and could not stop smiling. Pingjun saw how carried away he was, glared at him, and said, "What are you laughing at? Go by yourself." She stood up with a red face and went into the house to put down her schoolbag. A moment later Jiang Xueting followed her in. Her blush had not faded as she turned away, and she felt her hair give a slight tremble. She reached up and took down what was in it. It was a flawless white jade hairpin, its top carved in the shape of a delicate hosta flower, plain white throughout, its tail slightly pointed.
Seeing her hold the white jade hairpin in a daze, Jiang Xueting said with a smile, "This one is better than the last. Don't lose it again."
"However good it is, it isn't the original one," Pingjun said regretfully. Her words left Jiang Xueting feeling vaguely unsettled, but he smiled anyway. "Whichever one it is, I gave it to you."
Pingjun held the hairpin and smiled with a slight nod. Jiang Xueting took the hairpin and slowly slid it into her hair. Against her black hair the jade made her clear, elegant face even more graceful. Jiang Xueting smiled, then bent and said softly at her ear, "You're much prettier than the hosta."
Pingjun turned shyly so that her back was to him. As she raised her head she saw the hostas blooming in the courtyard, a great clump of tender green dazzling to the eye, their long white flowers giving off fragrance. They really did look like jade hairpins stuck in the treetops. In the light breeze the long stalks held up their leaves and the slender buds swayed like drifting green cloud. The view was beautiful beyond telling.
In the evening Jiang Xueting stayed for dinner at the Ye house, and afterwards he and Pingjun went together to the Yuchun Garden to see the opera. They went into the box upstairs. Below was a large stage joined on three sides, and in front of it a row of fine seats; wealthy families who preferred not to sit in the upstairs boxes naturally sat there. The opera had not yet begun. Pingjun sat in the upstairs box and glanced casually below. She saw Mrs. Li sitting in the seats downstairs, and next to her was Li Boren. Beside Li Boren there was an empty seat.
Jiang Xueting was drinking tea when he heard a crash. He turned and saw that Pingjun had knocked over the spiced beans on the table, scattering them across the floor. He could not help laughing. "How can you be so careless? If Auntie were here she'd say you were clumsy."
Pingjun forced a smile. "My mistake. Xueting, I don't want to watch the opera. Let's go."
Jiang Xueting was a little surprised. Her face was gradually turning red, and he thought it was because the box was too hot. "If you're hot, I'll go out and buy some soda." He stood and went off to buy it. Just then Mrs. Li looked up toward the box. Pingjun, flustered, turned and called, "Xueting." But he had already gone out.
Pingjun's mind was in an even greater tangle. She thought she would just leave with Xueting when he came back. Down below, Mrs. Li said something with a smile to Li Boren beside her. Li Boren smiled, waved over two trusted guards, and gave them some instructions. The two guards nodded, turned, and left the theater.
Before long the opera began on the stage. The gongs and drums sounded for some time, and then a few guards escorted Yu Changxuan over. Li Boren was already on his feet. "Fifth Young Master, you're really hard to invite. I made three or four calls to the army headquarters before I got your illustrious presence."
Yu Changxuan sat in the empty seat next to Li Boren. "Brother, you know I have no great interest in Peking opera. What do you want with me for no good reason?" As he spoke, Li family servants brought out a set of iron-red teacups with ruyi patterns. They were thin-walled, with a lustrous glaze. Yu Changxuan picked one up and weighed it in his palm. "This is from the official kilns of the Daoguang reign, isn't it? Bringing an antique like this just to watch an opera. What an extravagance. How much military funding have you embezzled this year, Brother?"
Mrs. Li said quickly, "Fifth Young Master, don't talk nonsense. This is part of my dowry that I brought into the Li family. I had the servants bring it specially for you, because I was afraid you'd find the teacups at the theater unclean. You say 'embezzle' so lightly. If your father heard, would our Boren be all right?"
Yu Changxuan laughed. A servant came up and poured fine Pu'er tea. Yu Changxuan lifted the cup. "Brother knows I don't like tea or opera. I'll finish this cup of yours and then I'm leaving." Li Boren smiled meaningfully. "Who asked you to come for the opera? I asked you to come to see the person you think about all day."
Yu Changxuan was still holding the tea. He raised his eyes and glanced at Li Boren. Li Boren gestured toward the upstairs boxes. Yu Changxuan looked up and saw Ye Pingjun sitting alone in a box upstairs. He silently lowered his eyes, slowly drank a mouthful of tea, set the cup back on the table, said nothing, and turned to watch the opera.
Mrs. Li and Li Boren exchanged a smile. Mrs. Li said solicitously to Yu Changxuan, "Fifth Young Master, would you like to go up yourself? Or shall I call her down?"
Yu Changxuan fixed his eyes on the stage, watching the painted red and white faces sing and wail, as though absorbed in it. After a long while he said calmly, "Why should I go up?"
"All right," Mrs. Li said with a laugh. "Then I'll finish the good deed and go and invite our Sister Pingjun down." She stood and looked up at the box with a smile, beckoning Pingjun warmly. The guards standing behind her had already gone upstairs to invite Ye Pingjun.
Outside the Yuchun Garden there were of course vendors selling snacks and sweets. Jiang Xueting remembered that Pingjun had eaten very little at dinner because she was in such a hurry to see the opera. He saw some steaming glutinous rice lotus root that looked sweet and delicious and had the vendor wrap a portion in a lotus leaf. He was taking out his money when he heard a voice behind him. "Miss Ye and the Fifth Young Master are at it again over who knows what. A little while ago they were all sweetness, going everywhere in pairs. Now they can't even sit together to watch an opera. One upstairs and one downstairs, ignoring each other, and Mrs. Li has to smooth things over in the middle."
Another voice added mockingly, "I think Miss Ye doesn't know when she's well off. Because the Fifth Young Master has put some effort into her, she's started putting on airs. If Mrs. Li weren't doing this for her own cousin Miss Bai's classmate, she wouldn't bother with this business at all. Does our Fifth Young Master lack for women?"
Jiang Xueting looked back. A short distance behind him stood two guards with their rifles slung behind them, laughing and smoking, blowing out clouds of smoke as they talked. As he watched, he felt warmth in his hand. He turned and saw the vendor putting the glutinous rice lotus root, wrapped in a lotus leaf, into his hand. He stood dazed for a long time, then suddenly threw the lotus root aside. "I don't want it," he said, and turned and went into the theater. He had climbed only a few steps when he saw Ye Pingjun standing far off before the seats in front of the stage, with a smiling lady holding her arm and talking to her warmly.
Before him the stage was a blaze of splendid brocade. The sound of strings and woodwinds in his ears turned in an instant into harsh noise. Jiang Xueting's body halted, and he stood rigid on the stairs.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Li was still holding Pingjun's arm and chatting affectionately. "When you came to our house last time you still knew to call me Sister. How long has it been, and you've forgotten both me and your brother-in-law. You haven't even come to sit with us."
Pingjun smiled. "I have a lot of schoolwork."
Mrs. Li took Pingjun's hand. "They say if it's fated you can't avoid it, and here we are meeting at the opera. Come and say hello to your brother-in-law and the Fifth Young Master." She pushed Pingjun forward. Pingjun nodded to Li Boren and said with a smile, "Brother-in-law." Li Boren half rose from his seat with a smile. Pingjun then turned to Yu Changxuan and said, "Fifth Young Master." But Yu Changxuan seemed not to have heard her at all. He turned his head and said something quietly to the attendant beside him, as though he had no regard for her whatsoever.
Mrs. Li and Li Boren were both stunned. Li Boren stood quickly and gave up his own seat, saying with a smile, "Sister Pingjun, sit and watch for a while." Mrs. Li took the chance to push Pingjun toward the seat next to Yu Changxuan, but Pingjun shook her off and stepped away. She turned and said to Mrs. Li with a smile, "I came with my boyfriend, and he must be looking everywhere for me. I won't disturb your opera. I'll be going now."
The smile froze on Li Boren's face. Mrs. Li was still staring at Yu Changxuan in a daze. Ye Pingjun had already walked away from her and gone straight out of the theater gate. Out in the street a cool breeze met her face and she felt a little relieved. She immediately began looking for Jiang Xueting, but there were people coming and going all around and no sign of him. She did not dare go back inside to look. She was at a loss when she heard a voice behind her. "Why did you come out?"
Pingjun turned. Jiang Xueting was coming out. She hurried over, rubbed her temples and put on a look of discomfort. "It's stuffy in there. My head hurts badly. Let's go home."
Jiang Xueting looked at her. "You couldn't wait to see the opera, you didn't even finish dinner, and now you want to go as soon as it starts. Your temper is getting stranger and stranger."
Pingjun found something odd in his words and said quickly, "My head really hurts. If you want to watch, I'll go back in with you."
Jiang Xueting smiled slightly. "I'll take you home." He hailed a rickshaw, helped Pingjun into it, and climbed in himself. He told the puller, "Number 13, Chang'an Lane, Shuangde Road," and the rickshaw puller started to run. It was a night with a touch of cool wind. As the two sat in the rickshaw, Jiang Xueting reached over and held Pingjun's hand. "Why are your hands so cold?"
"It must have been too hot in the theater," Pingjun said. "My hands got sweaty, and now that I'm outside the wind has made them cold."
Jiang Xueting smiled and looked down at her snow-white, lustrous little hand. Her nails were trimmed clean and had a faint blush to them. "I remember when we were little you kept making me climb over walls into other people's yards to pick balsam flowers to paint your nails. You can't have been seven. At such a young age you already cared about looking pretty. I fell off the wall because of it and got a big lump on the back of my head that wouldn't go down."
"Has it gone down now?" Pingjun asked with a laugh.
Jiang Xueting took her hand and moved it to the back of his head, wearing a mischievous smile. "Feel it yourself and see whether it has gone down."
Pingjun pulled her hand away with some force and glared at him, though her lips were smiling. "Sit properly. You always blame everything on me. My mother said back then that you were born with a rebellious bone, and that it wasn't a lump from the fall at all."
Jiang Xueting smiled and said softly, "Even if I grew a rebellious bone, I grew it for you. And you want to wash your hands of it? No chance!" His gaze made her face burn, and she lowered her head and said with a smile, "You really are getting more unreasonable."
The rickshaw happened to reach her door. As soon as it stopped, Pingjun got down. She heard footsteps behind her and turned to see Jiang Xueting also getting off. Pingjun said with a smile, "It's so late and you're still not going home. Be careful, or your brother will be furious."
Jiang Xueting said nothing and just stood there. Pingjun stood beneath the jujube tree at her door, smiling at him. He stepped closer and stood before her. The moonlight slanted across, and his face began to flush. After a while he said, with a slight stammer, "In my four years in Fusang... I thought of you every day, missed you. I always wrote to you, and you... wrote to me..."
Pingjun could not help laughing. "What are you trying to say?"
Jiang Xueting's face flushed even redder, but he finally gathered his courage, seized Pingjun's hand, and said, "Pingjun, I... Can I... kiss you?"
His words left Pingjun red to the ears. In a panic she tried to pull her hand back, but at that moment his strength was great. He lowered his head toward her, his voice still trembling. "Pingjun, I... I..." They had grown up together as childhood sweethearts, but being this close was a first for both of them. Pingjun was timid. In an instant his warm breath was on her face, and she shrank back instinctively. "Jiang Xueting, what are you doing..." There was a splash, and a basin of cold water was thrown over them, drenching Jiang Xueting to the skin.
It was a flame meeting ice, gone in an instant. The two of them were stunned. They turned and saw Auntie Zhao standing at the door with a basin in her hands, staring blankly at them, her face white. After a long while she stammered, "This... how could... I walked right into it again! Why didn't you say something? It's pitch dark, I just came out to throw out a basin of water, just a basin of water!"
Auntie Zhao dropped that line and turned to hide in the courtyard. From far off her mutterings could still be heard. "Heavens above, this old woman is really committing a sin!"
Pingjun looked up at the dripping Jiang Xueting and could not help laughing. She turned and ran into her own courtyard and pressed her hands against the double doors to close them. But Jiang Xueting was still standing stiffly under the jujube tree, his face covered with glistening drops of water. She left the door open a crack, neither wide nor narrow, her dark eyes bright and the corners of her lips lifted, and said softly with a smile, "Silly, why aren't you going home? You'll catch a cold."
Only then did Jiang Xueting come to his senses. He answered quickly and looked at her once more. Pingjun, head lowered, her cheeks flushed, paid him no further attention. She shut the door and turned to find Mrs. Ye sitting under the locust tree fanning herself in the cool, looking at her with a smile. Pingjun grew even shyer. "Mother, I'm back," she said. Mrs. Ye said with a smile, "Why back so early? Was the opera good?"
"Mm, it was quite good," said Pingjun. Mrs. Ye smiled. "Come, tell me about it." Pingjun agreed, but could not help looking back again. She saw only a tall wall and a jujube tree rising above it, and had no idea whether he had left. Her lips curved in a playful smile. She went to the stone table and sat, noticed tea on the table, felt thirsty, and poured herself a cup. She heard Mrs. Ye urge her, "I'm waiting for you to tell me about the opera. Go on, say something."
Pingjun had not watched the opera at all and could not answer for a moment, so she brushed it off. "It's all the same old thing. It's about a husband who doesn't trust his wife, and after some events they make up and are together again."
Mrs. Ye did not quite follow. Fanning herself slowly, she said, "Could it be that the man is fickle and has fallen for another woman?" Pingjun said, "Not in the opera, but there are so many fickle men in this world, ones who start something and then abandon it, who cast off the old for the new. Why go to the opera to see them?"
She spoke without thinking, and unconsciously glanced again toward the wall. All she could think about was whether Jiang Xueting had left or not. When she heard a few cat cries she suspected he was out there teasing her. She had not realized that this girlish preoccupation had spread across her face. Mrs. Ye noticed and said with a smile, "Is Xueting still standing outside?"
Pingjun was flustered at once and quickly changed the subject. "He left long ago. Mother, my hand is itchy. Scratch it for me." She stretched her snow-white wrist onto Mrs. Ye's knee with a beaming face. Mrs. Ye smiled and tapped Pingjun's head fondly with her fan. "You, how old are you and you still act spoiled. Go out and see. If Xueting is still standing out there, tell him to come in. He always comes and goes as he pleases. What is it today? Are you two fooling around again?"
Pingjun felt even guiltier. She stood up, flushed. "I wasn't fooling around with him. You want me to go and look, so I'll go and look." She went to the door, opened the double doors and looked out. Under the jujube tree it was empty, with only moonlight casting tree shadows on the ground. She felt a little disappointed but still went down the steps and stood in the middle of the road. She looked up and saw a kitten leap from the jujube tree's trunk onto the wall beside it and walk along the tiles on top of the wall, mewing as it went.
Pingjun turned to go back into the courtyard and saw a car parked in the darkness of the lane ahead. She was startled and looked more carefully. She heard a car door open, remarkably loud in the night lane. Yu Changxuan had stepped out of the car and was standing in the open, looking at her.
Ye Pingjun raised her head and her eyes met his squarely. Her heart gave a sudden leap. Even across this distance she could feel the two deep lines of his gaze shooting straight toward her. She was suddenly afraid and spun around in a panic, frozen where she stood. He wanted to go forward, but she turned and ran unsteadily back into the courtyard, as if fleeing some flood or beast. The double doors slammed shut behind her with a bang.
The moonlight was like water, the ground full of tree shadows. In the quiet night lane there was only the sound of wind through the leaves.
Yu Changxuan stood there without moving.
Adjutant Wu Zuoxiao saw the scene and, after hesitating for a long time, got out of the car anyway. The cool night wind blew in waves. He looked at Yu Changxuan's face and grew a little afraid, but tried to put it as tactfully as he could. "Fifth Young Master, if we go back late, Madam will probably worry."
Yu Changxuan was seething. Without a word he kicked the car body with a bang, hard and heavy. Even Wu Zuoxiao flinched. He knew this was Yu Changxuan's old habit of venting his anger, but kicking a solid car like that made even Wu Zuoxiao's face show alarm.
After kicking, the corner of Yu Changxuan's mouth twitched slightly, but for a long time he made no sound. Wu Zuoxiao watched him stand silent so long. His gaze circled around Yu Changxuan's foot and finally came to rest on his face. In the end he risked asking, "Fifth Young Master, does it hurt?"
Yu Changxuan could not hold out any longer. He bent over, lowered his head against the car, and said in a muffled voice, "Get lost!"
It was very late, but the Yu residence was still brightly lit. The steward Zhou Tai had arranged for freshly made rock sugar pear juice to be brought and set out in the flower hall for anyone who wanted it. Jun Daiti had come too, and she and Qixuan were playing with a clattering nine-linked ring puzzle. Minru and Jinxuan, off to one side, were fiddling with newly cut patterns. Suddenly Qixuan said, "Daiti, you did it wrong. I'd finally gotten one ring nearly off, and now that you've done that, all my work is wasted."
Daiti had already looked distracted, and at Qixuan's words she put the puzzle down. "I'm done playing. All that clattering has given me a headache." Qixuan said, "Then shall we go upstairs to Second Sister's room and play a little cards? What do you think?" Daiti, hearing they would go upstairs, picked up the nine-linked ring again and said softly, with her head lowered, "Let's sit a while longer. After a while I'll go home."
Minru smiled slightly and looked out of the hall. "How strange today is. It's so late, and Fifth Brother still isn't back?" Jinxuan picked up an embroidery hoop and put in a few stitches. "He's probably gone dancing with the Tao sisters again," she said casually, smiling. "Fifth Brother isn't someone who can sit still. Sister-in-law has seen it too, Fifth Brother and the second Tao sister have been seeing a lot of each other lately."
Daiti still sat silent, but her face changed color and flushed. Minru said offhandedly to Jinxuan, "I've seen it. But Father and Minister Tao are quite at odds politically. I think Fifth Brother and Second Sister Tao won't last."
As they were talking, they heard footsteps outside. Jun Daiti turned at once to look at the hall door. It was Madam Yu, coming in from outside with several people from the guards' office behind her. Daiti turned her head back, said nothing, and tossed the nine-linked ring aside. They heard Madam Yu say as she walked, "Why on earth did he go off to Fengtai? That place is always windy and cold. What demon has gotten into him this time?"
The attendant officer reported faithfully, "The Fifth Young Master said the Army Ministry has been busy these past few days and that working at the residence would only disturb you, so he moved to Fengtai. When the work is finished he will come back."
Madam Yu sat down on the sofa and listened, and could not help smiling. "It's hard on him that he has such filial feeling. It seems I haven't spoiled him for nothing." After a moment's thought she said, "Then take a few cooks and servants over there. And take Qiuluo too. That girl has always waited on him and has been diligent. And have..."
Before Madam Yu could finish, Qixuan said with a laugh, "And bring two pounds of rock sugar, weigh out a pound of bird's nest, and all the ginseng and deer antler and crabs and shrimp legs and rose liqueur too. Take it all over, and when Father comes back, Fifth Brother gets another whipping and then everything is complete."
This remark was a reference to a famous story. Everyone knew it, even Eldest Sister-in-law Minru, who had married in later, and she could not hold back her laughter. "Our little sister gets more precocious every day. Be quiet a while!" Jinxuan also laughed. "You, Little Six, you're not very old but you know a lot."
The Yu family had been a line of generals and marshals since their ancestors, a distinguished aristocratic house. The men of the Yu family were practically born to be soldiers. Before Yu Changxuan was ten, his father had sent him to the Nanming Military Academy for training. Madam Yu had always doted on her youngest son and kept sending rare medicines and tonics to the academy. She even brought the family's cooks and had a makeshift little kitchen built outside his dormitory just to serve Yu Changxuan, until the name of the Yu family's Fifth Young Master rang through the whole Nanming Military Academy. When Yu's father returned from the battlefield and heard about it, he stormed to Nanming in a rage. He walked into the little kitchen and found rock sugar bird's nest porridge simmering there, and it enraged him so much that his eyes bloodshot. He dragged Yu Changxuan back to the residence and whipped him soundly. Madam Yu was punished too, sent to the Yu family's private estate, Fenghua Mountain Villa, to reflect for a month, before the matter was closed.
What Qixuan had just mentioned was that old affair. Madam Yu, unable to hold back a smile, poked her on the forehead with a finger. The steward Zhou Tai came in and led the attendant officer off to carry out the arrangements Madam Yu had just given. The attendant officer left the Yu residence and went straight to Fengtai to report.
Fengtai was another private residence of the Yu family, located at the foot of Yuxia Mountain in Jinling. Because the mountain was covered in maples, whose red leaves flew in the deep autumn and dyed the woods crimson, it was named Fengtai, Maple Terrace. That day Gu Ruitong was on duty. Dawn was just breaking, and he had been dozing a while in the guard chief's room when he heard a gunshot go off outside. He jolted up from his seat and rushed out in a few strides. An attendant officer said, "It's the back courtyard!" Gu Ruitong said nothing more and led the guards to the back courtyard. A few guards who had arrived earlier were standing there, and in the middle of the courtyard stood a man straight as a post. It was Yu Changxuan.
"Fifth Young Master!" Gu Ruitong said in alarm.
Yu Changxuan held out his arm level, pointing a pistol ahead and aiming. Gu Ruitong waved the guards away, walked forward and said with a smile, "A gunshot this early in the morning. Fifth Young Master, this isn't shooting practice, you're training our nerves."
Yu Changxuan said nothing. His eyes were deep and still as a lake. Gu Ruitong saw how terrible his expression was, and knowing his temper, stepped to one side. Suddenly he heard Yu Changxuan say coldly, "What is she? Do I have to keep crawling to her and fawning over her?"
Gu Ruitong was startled. Yu Changxuan raised his hand and fired again, dead center in the target. The shot in the quiet dawn was piercing. It startled the birds roosting in the trees, and they flapped up in a chaotic flutter. Gu Ruitong stepped forward. "Fifth Young Master, there are fragrant grasses everywhere under heaven."
Yu Changxuan's face was dark. He aimed at the bullseye for a long while without a word, then suddenly put away his gun and turned to leave, tossing back only one cold line. "I don't believe I can't deal with her."
That morning, the sun had not fully risen, and its pale yellow light slanted into the courtyard, which was full of the fresh scent of locust trees. Pingjun had washed her face and done up her hair in double round buns. She was pouring the basin water at the roots of the locust tree when she saw Auntie Zhao across the way come out to pick vegetables. She thought of last night and blushed first. She hurried into the house, almost colliding with her mother coming out. Mrs. Ye said, "What is it? So careless."
Pingjun smiled slightly, went into her room, took her blue cloth schoolbag, straightened her skirt and came out. Auntie Zhao called to her with a smile, "Off to school, miss."
Pingjun answered quickly, not daring to look at Auntie Zhao's beaming face. She heard her mother say, "Be careful on the road. Don't dawdle and miss your lessons." She answered, "I know," and went to open the front gate. She had pushed open only one leaf of the door when she stopped dead. A car was parked in front of her house, with several guards standing beside it, and Gu Ruitong stood nearby smoking. Hearing the door, he looked up.
The smile on Pingjun's face froze. Seeing her, Gu Ruitong threw his cigarette on the ground and ground it out with his foot, then raised his head and said calmly, "Miss Ye, please come with us."
Pingjun looked at Gu Ruitong, bit her lip silently and released it. After a long moment she said, "Brother Gu, I know you're a good man. Will you let me off this once?"
Gu Ruitong's expression seemed to stiffen, showing a cold distance. The attendant officer beside him had already opened the car door. Gu Ruitong stood at attention, bowed his head, and held out a hand in a gesture of invitation. "Miss Ye, please get in the car," he said, doing his duty.
Seeing this, Pingjun said angrily, "In broad daylight, do you really think you can kidnap someone if I refuse to go?"
Gu Ruitong did not reply. He only said calmly, "Miss Ye, please get in the car."
As they stood at this impasse, the gate opened. Mrs. Ye and Auntie Zhao had heard the noise and come out. When they saw what was happening, their faces went white. Mrs. Ye caught Pingjun's hand and tried to hide her behind herself. Pingjun saw her mother's hand shaking. She knew she would have to get through this today, and that her mother, just recovered from a serious illness, could not bear a shock. Having reckoned it all in her mind, she said softly to Mrs. Ye, "Mother, don't panic. I'm just going to a friend's house."
Mrs. Ye was so frightened she did not know what to do. "Ping'er..." she said in a trembling voice.
Pingjun said nothing more. She walked up to Gu Ruitong, lowered her head slightly, and got into the car. Gu Ruitong shut the car door with a bang, walked around to the front and got into the front seat. Four more guards stood on the running boards to escort the car, and it drove off.
Fengtai lay at the foot of Yuxia Mountain and was somewhat windy, so even in a summer like this the residence had a chill to it. The courtyard was unusually open and clean, planted with pines, cypresses and maples whose dense foliage spread a wide shade. Thousand-petal pomegranates stood by the little pond, and small fish swam contentedly under their broad, swaying leaves.
Gu Ruitong was in the duty room and had taken only a few sips of tea when he heard a door upstairs. He came out and saw the Army Ministry's political director coming downstairs; their official business was evidently finished. He then went up to Yu Changxuan's office. The door was ajar. He called, "Fifth Young Master," and went in.
Yu Changxuan was reading a file. He looked up at Gu Ruitong's entrance, tossed the file on the desk and said with a smile, "Look, another tiger-and-dragon fight. A good part of this year's Nanming entering class is from the Mou family. It seems old Mou means to fight it out with Chu Wenfu."
Gu Ruitong said, "I saw the political director's face just now and it didn't look good. It seems you didn't give him what he wanted, Fifth Young Master."
Yu Changxuan took a cigarette from the box beside him, and his smile held a touch of proud, high-spirited satisfaction. "The one I hate most is that political director. All day long, whining like somebody's stepmother! I just refuse to give him face, and leave him unable to go up or down."
"I'm afraid if his face is insulted and the Commander finds out..." said Gu Ruitong. The "Commander" he spoke of was Yu Changxuan's father, Yu Zhongquan. Yu Changxuan put the cigarette in his mouth and lit it with a lighter. Smoke curled up. He looked at Gu Ruitong with a faint smile on his clear, handsome face. "Brother Gu, guess what my father is thinking."
Gu Ruitong could not guess. Yu Changxuan smiled, drew his sidearm from its holster, and slowly ran the muzzle, pointed down, across the map of the country on his desk. The black muzzle stopped at Xishui and the Nanhuai Mountains, the boundary line between the Xiao warlords north of the river and the central government ruled by the four great families to the south.
Yu Changxuan looked at the map, holding the cigarette in his left fingers and the pistol in his right hand. The muzzle slowly came to rest on the sphere of influence of the Xiao warlord clan north of the river. At that moment the whole magnificent land lay under his gun. Yu Changxuan looked up and said calmly with a smile, "Brother Gu, I'll tell you something. My father once told your father that only this place is the enemy, one that has to be wiped out. The rest are all trash. Let them make their trouble!"
The Yu and Gu families were bound by a generation's sworn friendship, and Gu Ruitong had heard Yu Changxuan's words from his own father. But hearing them again today from Yu Changxuan's own mouth, such ambition and overbearing force still shook him. Gu Ruitong steadied himself. Yu Changxuan stood smoking and looking silently out the window at the maple leaves covering the hills. Gu Ruitong lowered his head. "Fifth Young Master, that Miss Ye has been waiting in the reception room all morning."
Yu Changxuan turned. "Then let her keep waiting," he said calmly. He tossed the cigarette butt into the ashtray, went to take a riding whip from the wall and turned to say with a smile, "Counselor Chen of the Defense Ministry sent me a fine horse. This afternoon I'm going to break it in at the parade ground. Come, I'll open your eyes."
Seeing Yu Changxuan in such high spirits, Gu Ruitong hesitated. "But Miss Ye is still..." Before he could finish, Yu Changxuan turned. "What nonsense!" Gu Ruitong stopped at once and followed Yu Changxuan out. Taking along several adjutants and attendant officers, the party left Fengtai and headed straight for the parade ground.
At around ten o'clock in the morning the Jiang house was very quiet. Jiang Xueting's elder brother, Jiang Xueyong, had gone early to the private bank to deal with business. Since returning from Fusang, Jiang Xueting had been staying in the small study in the back courtyard. He had read a few pages and was feeling somewhat bored. It was too early to go to the Ye house, so he looked up and out of the window. In the courtyard stood a lush osmanthus tree whose layered leaves cast a broad shade, and a few slender-waisted wasps hummed among the leaves.
Jiang Xueting watched the scene in a daze for a while, then suddenly smiled. Ye Pingjun's face rose unbidden in his mind. He loved her, and naturally thought of her every moment. As he was thinking of her, an old servant woman came into the courtyard and called toward the study window, "Young Master Jiang, Madam wants you in the front."
Hearing that his sister-in-law was summoning him, Xueting answered quickly, tidied the books on his desk, and went to the front hall. He heard laughter and talk in the parlor, and his sister-in-law saying repeatedly, "Mrs. Li, Staff Officer Li, you've really saved us. If you hadn't told me this today, my Xueyong would have suffered badly. Just yesterday he was saying he wanted to move a big sum to the Central Bank to buy gold, saying it was a huge profit for a small stake."
Seated on one side of the parlor sofa was Li Boren's wife, wearing a persimmon-red qipao with gold flecks, charming and alluring, and speaking to Mrs. Jiang with great intimacy. "It's lucky I came to tell you early, before you bought. Think about it. The government is dumping public gold at such a low price to pull currency out of circulation. Where in the world is there such a bargain? There must be some entanglement in it. They talk about gold bonds, but if the government in the end doesn't honor them, it's a pile of waste paper. Your Xueyong and our Boren are friends, and now there's the Fifth Young Master connection too. Yesterday Boren came home and told me Xueyong would likely suffer, and sent me to notify you right away. Money and beauty are the two things that trap people!"
Jiang Xueting stood at the parlor door. He saw that his sister-in-law looked at Mrs. Li with deep gratitude, and Mrs. Li's face was so earnest she seemed to be pouring out her heart. He was still standing there stunned when Mrs. Jiang saw him and put on a rare smile. She said to Jiang Xueting, "Xueting, the good younger sister you know has helped our family enormously."
Mrs. Jiang had always spoken to Jiang Xueting coldly, and her sudden warmth now astonished him. "What younger sister?" he said. Mrs. Jiang quickly gave him a look and said with a smile, "Who else? Pingjun, of course. Pingjun is truly a lucky girl, and the rest of us have benefited along with her." Mrs. Li turned to look at Jiang Xueting and said warmly with a smile, "This must be Pingjun's brother, Mr. Jiang?"
Jiang Xueting said with distaste, "How did I become her brother?"
Mrs. Li smiled. "I've long heard Pingjun speak of having a brother like you, who came back from studying in Fusang, studied political science and law, and on returning went straight to the Nanming Military Academy as an administrative committee member. A truly talented young man. I've wanted to meet you for ages. You're lucky to have a sister like this."
Jiang Xueting felt as if he were in a fog. His sister-in-law said with a smile, "By your account, the matter of the Fifth Young Master and Pingjun is as good as settled?" Mrs. Li leaned toward Mrs. Jiang and said in a low voice, pressing her lips into a smile, "Of course. Let me tell you, Mrs. Jiang, you're about to become relatives of the Yu family. The Fifth Young Master is so good to Miss Pingjun, he practically holds her in his palm for fear she'd fall. Even when Miss Pingjun throws a little tantrum, the Fifth Young Master coaxes and coaxes her. Just to mention one thing, a while ago when Miss Pingjun's mother was so gravely ill, it was our Fifth Young Master who sent people to take her to the hospital. And her silks and satins, her food and daily expenses, the Fifth Young Master has taken care of everything."
Mrs. Li kept her voice low, but it was just right for Jiang Xueting to hear every word. She paused, then turned to Jiang Xueting and said with a meaningful smile, "And one more thing. Just being the Fifth Young Master's brother-in-law, Mr. Jiang, you won't lack for good things in future. Just wait and see."
Suddenly Jiang Xueting understood. He looked at the beaming Mrs. Li and was instantly dizzy, a buzzing in his ears, utterly at a loss. He turned and walked out without even listening to his sister-in-law's repeated calls, and left without looking back.
Jiang Xueting left the Jiang house in a daze, with Mrs. Li's words ringing in his ears and tearing at his heart like a churning sea. He pieced together everything he had seen and heard these past few days, and it all fit. A nameless anger rose in him. He was by nature suspicious, and since childhood had been prone to wild thoughts that tied him up in knots. The more he thought, the more real it seemed, and the angrier he got. Before he had walked an hour, without anyone else needing to spread rumors, he had worked out for himself the line "Gold is the most heartless thing; it changes the hearts of all the daughters of the world."
Without noticing, he had come to a busy street. A luxurious car was parked at the roadside, and a little maid was handing a bunch of flowers in through the window. From the window came a woman's displeased voice. "What is this weedy stuff? I told you to buy yellow roses. Who told you to bring back this strange thing?"
The little maid said, "There were no yellow roses left, Second Miss. These are lovely too. They're hydrangeas."
Tao Ziyi put her hand out of the window, plucked one round hydrangea blossom and tossed it carelessly outside. "I don't care what flower it is. I want yellow roses. Go buy them." The flower hit Jiang Xueting squarely. He was still dazed and caught the hydrangea mechanically, looking over in surprise. Tao Ziyi snorted and said angrily, "Fool, what are you looking at? Do you want to die?" She tossed her head and said to the driver in front, "Drive."
The car sped off. Jiang Xueting had paid no attention to it at all. He just stood by the road, a dark sadness in his clear eyes. Rickshaws passed in front of him, bells jingling, and one puller called out, "Sir, want a ride?"
But he heard nothing. His face was blank and his mind a tangle. Without realizing it he crushed the hydrangeas in his hand and scattered them at his feet. After a while he tilted his head back slightly to look at the clean blue sky, and his face wore a look of tragic grandeur. He let out a long sigh.
In the afternoon the sunlight moved and shone on the other side, and the third-floor reception room turned cold and shaded. The window was half open. In the distance were the green layered peaks of Yuxia Mountain, and a faint whoosh of wind came and went like the swell of a tide.
The reception room was very quiet. Only the floor clock against the wall ticked as its hands moved.
The food on the table had long since gone cold. Ye Pingjun sat on the sofa, her soles numb, her hands icy. From time to time the footsteps of guards passing back and forth sounded outside the door. She turned her head and looked out the window at a dazzling blue sky. She remembered that when she was very, very small there had been weather just this fine. Jiang Xueting, with a bamboo pole, had taken her to catch cicadas and crickets, and had even mixed mud to plug ant holes. In those days they went to the same old-style school, and when they played truant Jiang Xueting took her climbing over the school wall. By the wall stood a leafy pomegranate tree that shaded half of it, its brilliant blossoms blazing in clusters like a tree of flame. She sat on top of the wall, one hand covering her eyes and the other gripping the tiles, not daring to jump. Jiang Xueting, who had gone over first, stood below at the foot of the wall waving. "Pingjun, Pingjun, don't be afraid. I'll catch you. Jump down."
She slowly moved her hand away from her eyes and looked down at Jiang Xueting below. He wore a clean long gown and his face was still childish. He stretched out his arms and shouted up at her. "It's all right, it's all right. I'll catch you with my hands. Jump, hurry."
She was a mischievous child too. She gathered her courage and called out clearly, "Xueting, you have to catch me." She shut her eyes, made up her mind and jumped. Wind rushed past her ears. A jump that lasted only an instant felt as if she had fallen for so long, such an endless time... Her whole heart hung in the air, as though she had stepped into nothing and plunged straight into a bottomless black hole...
The door suddenly clicked, and then came the sound of footsteps. Ye Pingjun, chilled through, started awake from her dream and lifted her head from the sofa. Outside the window it was already a swarm of night. The lights in the reception room had been turned on. Gu Ruitong stood at the door with a few guards. He looked at Pingjun and said politely, "Miss Ye, the Fifth Young Master says he doesn't want to see you. Please go home."
When she left Fengtai, the night was hushed. Fengtai was vast, and guards led her out. He stood on the third-floor terrace watching her, and she did not know it. The courtyard lights were on, and the pines and maples cast long shadows along both sides of the pebbled path. Her moon-white clothes swayed gently in the night wind. Everything around her was dimmed in the night, yet she still shone brilliantly, like a fluttering butterfly.
He held a cup of freshly brewed orchid tea. As he gazed quietly at her he slowly raised the cup to his lips and drank, and the tea's fragrance was strong. Finally her figure vanished, and the path was empty, left only with mottled tree shadows.
His heart too, in an instant, became empty, hanging there neither up nor down. Her figure was carved into his mind, every frown and smile, a light turn, or a quiet glance back...
He stood there and did not move for a long time.
It was deep night, and a pale gold crescent moon hung in the sky. Since the Chang'an Lane area was home to ordinary people, it was especially quiet at this hour. The military car slowly stopped. Ye Pingjun was about to get out, but Gu Ruitong had already opened the car door for her from outside. She stepped out and walked toward her own door. Gu Ruitong turned, got back into the car, and it soon drove out of Chang'an Lane.
Listening to the sound of the car recede, Pingjun felt all her strength drain away at once. Her head swam, and she reached out to steady herself against the jujube tree beside her, and only then did her pounding heart slowly settle. She heard footsteps ahead. After a whole day of fear and strain, her nerves were still taut, and she looked up in alarm. It was Jiang Xueting.
Pingjun breathed out softly. "Xueting..."
"Where have you been?" he said coolly.
Hearing the chill in his voice, Pingjun's heart sank, and she did not know how to answer. Jiang Xueting had waited at her door for her the entire day and had watched with his own eyes as she stepped out of a military car, and with the look on her face now, he was even angrier. His words came one after another, cold as frost and rain. "Don't bother making up something to put me off. I know everything. It's really hard on the Fifth Young Master, taking such trouble. Cars to pick you up and take you home, silks and sweets, nothing lacking. Even at the opera, flirting with your eyes between the upstairs and the downstairs. I'm already the brother-in-law, I hear, and there are plenty of benefits to come. Let me thank you in advance, little sister, and when you're the Fifth Young Master's wife, don't forget to give me a boost!"
Pingjun's face was pale. Seeing his angry state, she knew he had misunderstood. Her eyes were clear. "Who told you all this?"
Jiang Xueting gave a cold laugh. "Do I need someone else to tell me? I have eyes of my own!"
Pingjun had grown up with him and knew his nature well. Rather than get tangled up explaining now, it was better to cut straight through. She took the jade hairpin from her hair and held it out to him, saying calmly and without pleading, "I don't know where you heard these things, but if you believe me, don't be so angry. Listen to me and let me explain. If you don't believe me, take this hairpin back and from now on treat me as a stranger."
Hearing her speak so plainly, Jiang Xueting felt a twinge of unease, but he did not want to lose to her or lose face, and forced himself to say indifferently, "A thing that's already dirty, what would I want with it?"
Pingjun looked at Jiang Xueting and said, word by word, "It isn't dirty!"
Jiang Xueting had never expected her to be so upright. He clenched his fists, and wave after wave of anger rushed to his head. "Only when the person is clean is the thing clean!" he said coldly.
His words were like a knife cutting straight into her heart. Pingjun looked at him, and in an instant her eyes brimmed with tears. She was normally strong, but she was after all still a young girl, and she could not hold back. Her voice choked. "What did you say?"
Jiang Xueting snorted. The anger in his chest almost burned him up. He loved her so much, and she was this greedy for vanity. He had been stubborn since childhood and once he fixed on something he never changed. He turned his head and said bitterly, "Only when the person is clean is the thing clean. If the person isn't clean, how clean can the thing be?"
The pain in Pingjun's heart came crashing like mountains and seas. Her hands and feet were icy, yet she stood perfectly straight, her gaze clear and cold. She would not condescend to explain a single further word. If he could distrust her so, what use was saying more? She was proud too, and would not bear being doubted and insulted like this. She seized the hairpin and hurled it hard at him, tears in her eyes. "Jiang Xueting, here is your jade hairpin back!"
The hairpin struck him and bounced back, landing with a click in a dark corner. He still cared about her after all, and turned in alarm to look at her. In the moonlight her pale face was streaked with tears and her body was trembling in the night wind. His heart softened at once and he moved to step forward, but she shoved him away and ran into her own courtyard. She did not look at him at all, and shut the door.
The night was dead still. Only the jujube tree rustled in the cold night. The streetlight shone dimly down, leaving everything drowsy and dim. Jiang Xueting stood on the stone steps for a long time, silently gazing at the tightly shut gate, his heart hollow. He hesitated before the closed door, and for some reason his heart began pounding hard. The sight of her resolute face, wet with tears, was lodged in his mind. In that instant countless thoughts flickered through his head, tangled like a snarl of thread. He only said softly, "Pingjun..."