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He suddenly laughed, wild and handsome. "Matchmaking? You sisters are devoted, aren't you? One is willing to grab, the other willing to give way. Does Fourth Miss think Shen is easy to fool, or has she taken me for an idiot? Isn't your second sister set on marrying into the Marquis of Danyang's household? Are you planning to wreck her good match and profit from it yourself?" Qingyuan froze. She could not work out how he knew something so private. The Palace Command oversaw investigation and imprisonment across the whole country, but surely it did not pry into the inner affairs of private households this thoroughly. The thought frightened her. She stared at him anxiously and began to wonder whether he truly had eyes and ears everywhere, or had simply reasoned it out from everything he had seen at the banquet today. "My second sister has not been promised to anyone. A daughter of one family is sought by a hundred, so Third Young Master Li and the Commander a...

The carriage rolled toward the Commander's residence. Wind from the window lifted the hair at Qingyuan's temple and laid it across her cheek, where it tickled faintly. She turned her head and rubbed against it, a childish gesture that still held a child's innocence. Baoxian reached over and tugged lightly at her sleeve. She was plainly still rattled by Qingyuan's earlier decision. "Miss, if the Palace Marshal asks about it later..." Qingyuan gave her a reassuring look, telling her to put her heart back where it belonged. When people are suppressed for too long, an extreme urge to destroy takes root in them. She knew what she was doing. Qingru had been shielded too well by the Xie family. Whether it was the old lady or Madam Hu, no matter how wild or crafty Qingru was, they always forgave her without asking why. Qingyuan would never forget that slap. In the Xie household she was only an overlooked concubine's daughter, but at the Chens' she was her g...

Summer rain comes quickly and leaves quickly. As Li Congxin crossed the threshold of the Xie residence, the sky cleared all at once. Clouds still hung over the freshly washed heavens, and from their edge a cascade of light fell across the dark ridges of the rooftops, pouring down every dormant row of tiles until the whole roof seemed set with lines of shining verse. He stood beneath the eaves. He had seen the girl he had longed to see for so long, and his mind was no calmer for it. Yet the clear, bright world lifted his spirits. He drew a breath, walked lightly down the steps, and went toward his carriage. The groom sat on the shaft with the whip in his arms, gazing at the distant view. Catching sight of someone approaching from the corner of his eye, he jumped down and hurried over. "Third Master, where to now?" The Marquis of Danyang kept a private residence in Youzhou. Li Congxin climbed into the carriage, let the curtain fall, and said, "Home." First he woul...

Qingyuan was patient by nature. She might panic at the start, but once she had settled, nothing could defeat her. She no longer wanted to work out what Shen Run had meant by that beast-face jade pendant. If someone did come to the house as a go-between, hinting that the Fourth Miss should go and be the Commander's concubine, such a matter could not be settled in a day, and she had ways of shifting the blame and slipping herself out of it. She had lost sleep over this pendant, day and night. Now that the other side refused to acknowledge it, she could stop dwelling on it. She put it away carefully in the box where she kept her dressing-case things. It was not that she had never considered the alternative. If her circumstances in Youzhou made the road ahead too hard, then once she had won justice for her mother, she could go back to Hengtang. In this world every cause had its effect. When the Master's career was blocked a while ago and the whole household was on edge, she had ...

So he remembered after all. That meant he hadn't been drunk that night. But if he wasn't drunk, why had he pressed the jade pendant on her? Well, she had found him now. Once the thing was returned, this worry would be settled. "After that day I called at your residence," Qingyuan said, "but I never found the Commander in. Today I happened to meet you here. I thought you weren't in Youzhou." Strangely enough, Fangchun had said it would be another half month before his rest days came round, and yet here he was. Official business, she supposed, and she didn't dwell on it. She unfastened the pouch from her button loop and held it out in both hands. "I've kept it for you these past few days and stored it safely. Now it returns to its owner intact." Shen Run looked at the girl standing in the wind, a smile never leaving her face. The Xie household was a den of tigers and wolves, yet it had not worn down the optimism and openness in her natu...