Chapter 4

Xiao Ye entered at the center of an admiring crowd, impeccably dressed, and came face-to-face with me.

“Why, Little Qiao. Have you come to see the new top scholar too?” He snapped open his fan and waved it with rakish elegance. “A day apart feels like three autumns.”

“I’m Little Qiao, and my sister is Little Qiao. Which of us is your Little Qiao? Can’t you call one of us Big Qiao?”

His foxlike eyes slid toward me. “Oh? How does Young Lord Qiao know I call my wife Little Qiao?”

Damn. A slip of the tongue!

Fortunately, I was clever. “Didn’t you make your bridal visit home? I sat with my sister for a while. She told me.”

I flicked my ponytail smugly.

Then discovered I could not leave. Xiao Ye had caught its end between two fingers.

“I got married, yet Young Lord Qiao’s hair has somehow become shorter.”

I spun and slapped his hand away. “Are you a child, pulling people’s hair?”

“My apologies, Little Qiao. I only thought you smelled pleasant—rather like I do.”

I glared at him.

Did he know I was the one he had married? Why did every word sound loaded?

Xiao Ye and I took seats upstairs.

We were sworn rivals. Usually I occupied one table and he another, our camps divided as clearly as two banks of a river.

Today, our friends cheerfully shoved us together. “Now that there’s a marriage, you’re family! Sit together!”

“Who is his family?”

One busybody laughed. “Young Lord Qiao, listen to our stubborn little brother-in-law. Everyone in the capital knows Prince Shu and his consort are sweet as honey. The morning after their wedding, they nearly missed their palace audience! You might as well call him Brother-in-law.”

“What? Aren’t you all supposed to be spreading the story that he was thrown into the study on his wedding night?”

“If I slept in the study, was the person in the bridal chamber you?” Xiao Ye hid his face behind his fan, clever eyes glinting over its edge.

“I…”

At last I understood what it meant to suffer in silence.

Furious, I poured a cup of wine and tossed it back.

“Why is everyone celebrating while Young Lord Qiao drinks alone?” A beautiful courtesan glided over. “Shall I keep you company?”

Xiao Ye set down his cup and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “No need.”

“How do you know I don’t need company? Tonight I want to drink and chat with pretty ladies.”

Cold menace rolled off him. “Very well. I will join you.”

“Wait. What do you mean, join me?”

“We have been married three days, and you are already visiting a pleasure house. If you can partake, why can’t I?”

“You are the married one, not me! Where is your masculine virtue?” I seized both his hands and addressed the eager courtesans around us. “Go away, all of you. Don’t set your sights on him. He has a wife.”

For all his fame, Xiao Ye never frequented the pleasure quarters. Supposedly the courtesans even had a wager over who would be first to claim his virginity.

I suddenly felt it was good that we had sat together tonight. At least I could keep him from fooling around.

Last night he had said he would love only me and wanted to spend every day and night at my side. Then he turned around and came drinking in a brothel. Rotten, stinking man!

Xiao Ye, meanwhile, recovered his genteel smile and tightened his hand around mine, never looking away. “Indeed. I have a wife.”

“Oh-ho! The way Young Lord Qiao controls his brother-in-law, anyone would think you two were married,” everyone hooted.

Blushing, I tried to pull free, but he drew my hand onto his thigh.

Beneath the table, Xiao Ye kept our fingers intertwined. “Forgive the spectacle. I shall drink three cups as punishment.”

“Good!”

Xiao Ye drank with remarkable enthusiasm that night.

He refused no toast. Whenever I lost a drinking game, he took my forfeit too.

“Little Qiao is getting drunk. Since we are family, I will drink for him.”

At that rate, he soon passed out.

“Young Lord, take your brother-in-law home. He’s always the one who escorts you. It’s time you returned the favor.”

I stopped short. “What did you say?”

“You didn’t know? Whenever you drank too much and caused trouble at Canghua House, he smoothed it over, paid your bill, and insisted on taking you home. You always called Prince Shu your sworn enemy, but the rest of us knew you two were cut from the same cloth.”

“When did any of that happen? Why don’t I remember?”

I had many friends. I always assumed they took turns treating me and carrying me home. I had even given them expensive gifts in return.

“Ha! You really do get hopelessly drunk. Still, I imagine His Highness finally got his wish tonight. He has been waiting years for you to invite him to drink!”