Chapter 2

Father had traveled back to Qingzhou with the Xiao family’s merchant caravan.

If I wished to send a letter, he said, I could ask the caravan to take it.

This letter concerned my future. I dared not entrust it to anyone else and decided to deliver it myself.

A misty drizzle was falling outside.

Sheltering beneath an oiled-paper umbrella, I found the inn.

Unfortunately, the Xiao caravan was just about to leave.

I stopped in front of the horses and carriages. “Could I trouble you to take this letter to the Xiao family in Jiangnan?” I asked a young servant gently.

He looked at the address on the envelope, then looked twice at me in surprise.

Turning away, he went into the carriage.

Suddenly, I heard laughter inside.

Whoever was in there said something too indistinct for me to catch.

“Then I’ll turn her down for you,” the servant answered.

Perhaps delivering the letter would be inconvenient after all.

I stayed where I was, waiting for him to return it.

Instead, I saw the carriage curtain lift briefly.

Before I could make out the person inside, it dropped again.

The servant came back out, muttering, “The young master’s getting stranger by the day. First he refuses her, then he takes the letter.”

“Your letter has been delivered, miss,” he told me. “You needn’t worry.”

That struck me as odd. I had only just handed it over. How could it already have been delivered?

But he seemed so certain that I asked no further questions.

To thank him, I held out a food box. “I’m sorry to trouble you. These are some pastries I made. Take them to eat on the road.”

Holding the box, the servant looked embarrassed. “But my young master never eats food prepared outside his household. Miss, I’m afraid we can’t—”

Before he had finished,

the person inside snatched the box into the carriage.

The servant had nothing to say.

The caravan set off.

Thinking of what had just happened, I couldn’t help smiling.

Whoever sat inside that carriage reminded me of my tabby cat.

It usually hid under the bed and refused to come out.

But put some food beside it, and a little paw would dart out to hook it in.

On my way home, the rain eased.

I spent ten copper coins on a bunch of lotus flowers, their buds just about to open.

Passing a general store, I bought some ingredients as well.

Ever since a bout of high fever, strange foods kept coming into my head. In my spare time, I liked to try making them.

Whenever Ah Jing ate them, he was delighted.

The letter from Jiangnan arrived half a month later.

I was in the kitchen making soup dumplings, with the cook kneading the dough while I seasoned the filling.

I had just set them in the steamer when Ah Jing ran in, waving an envelope.

He pinched a piece of flaky pastry from a bowl. “Sister, is that a letter from my brother-in-law?” he asked curiously.

Ever since learning that I might marry and move to Jiangnan, he had been talking himself into accepting it. He was already calling the man his brother-in-law.

Such an old head on such young shoulders.

I opened the letter.

Third Young Master Xiao’s handwriting was extravagant, all sweeping flourishes.

Father had described him as proper and self-controlled.

But if handwriting revealed character, his writing hardly matched his temperament.

I had sent him a single thin sheet.

He had sent back more than a dozen pages.

At first I grew rather solemn, wondering what serious matters required so many words.

Then I read more closely and couldn’t help frowning.

“Miss Xie, when I woke this morning, I heard a magpie calling in the branches and thought something good must be coming. And guess what? I went outside, found two copper coins, and bought a flower. But my joy turned to sorrow—the flower attracted a bee!”

“There was a downpour this afternoon. I have good news and bad news. Which would you like first? Let’s start with the bad. I was out on a pleasure boat and fell into the water. The good news is that I rescued a child who had fallen in.”

Ah Jing could already recognize quite a few characters. Peering over, he asked enviously, “Sister, doesn’t my brother-in-law have to study? All he does is eat, drink, and enjoy himself. What a wonderful life.”

I tapped him on the head and read on.

Only on the last page did the third young master finally turn to business.

His handwriting stopped dancing, too.

He had even changed to formal regular script, every character neat and upright.

Clearly, he had worked hard at his calligraphy. There was strength and character in it.

Only then did I begin to believe Father’s claim that he was well-read, disciplined, and proper.

“Miss Xie, I have read your letter more than a dozen times. It seems to me that two people ought to know each other before they marry. What if we corresponded for three months? If, at the end of that time, you feel I am reasonably trustworthy, I will explain matters to your father and invite you to Jiangnan to formalize our engagement. Then we can take our time discussing the wedding. If you find the arrangement unsuitable, that is quite all right. I will still help you settle here and find an academy for your brother.”

Despite being coerced by Father’s appeal to an old debt, Third Young Master Xiao was still so understanding.

He must be an openhearted, honorable man.

I had already begun to warm to him.

I read on.

“Miss Xie, if you agree to continue exchanging letters, please turn this page over.”

Curious, I flipped it over. On the back, in large characters, he had written:

“Miss Xie! I am delighted that you have agreed to write to me. Could you please make some more of that dried meat you sent before?”

Beside it was a wonderfully lifelike little drawing of a man clutching an empty bowl and sobbing.

I couldn’t help laughing.

Honey-glazed dried meat would have gone moldy long before reaching Jiangnan.

Besides, I had made very little. Without the magical oven from my dreams, I couldn’t get the heat right.

I simply wrote out the recipe and sent him that instead.

Father offered to post my letter on his way out.

He looked at the address, his expression turning uncertain.

I faintly heard him mutter,

“Ah Yao really did get a reply. So it is Vermilion Bird Street? Did I get that address wrong or not…?”