Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It was the third lunar month, when spring was warm, grass grew tall, and orioles filled the air.

Fu Jing was flying kites with my elder sister in the garden. I was on my period, pale and cramping badly.

I did not dare say so or spoil my sister’s pleasure. I could only wait nearby with a train of palace maids, keeping tea and refreshments ready and retrieving her kite whenever she dropped it.

When she let it fall a hundred paces away yet again, she tipped her chin at me. Gritting my teeth, I had just stepped forward when Third Young Master Fu barked, “I made that kite with my own hands. How could you let her touch it?”

He jogged over and fetched it himself.

When he returned with the kite, he flicked me a glance and murmured into my sister’s ear, “The spring day is too beautiful to waste. Send the irrelevant people away.”

My sister blushed. Turning around, she scolded the assembled maids and eunuchs in a coquettish voice. “All of you, go back. I don’t need anyone following me!”

She kept only her most trusted senior maid.

Fu Jing did not leave the palace until dinnertime that day, which allowed me to spend the entire afternoon lying quietly in bed.

Around then, a southern drink called nut tea had become fashionable in the palace. The tea broth was mixed with all kinds of ground dried nuts.

The matrons served it when we paid our respects at the Empress’s palace. It gave me a rash.

But I dared not utter a word about my allergy. I drank it with everyone else, then excused myself and secretly forced it back up.

Fu Jing caught me once. He stared at me with a frown but said nothing. The next time we visited the Empress, however…

“This drink those southern barbarians invented gets tiresome after a few servings,” he grumbled as he drank.

The moment the Empress heard him, she repeatedly ordered the servants to replace it with plain tea.

If Young Master Fu found something tiresome, it never appeared in the Empress’s palace again.

A few days before my sister’s birthday, Fu Jing entered the palace carrying a hairpin he said was her gift.

Before she could examine it, he proudly set it in her hair with his own hands. He looked from one side to the other, but his brows slowly drew together.

“That scoundrel Hu Bao really can’t be trusted with anything. What wretched taste,” he muttered.

Hu Bao was his personal attendant.

“What about Hu Bao? What does this have to do with him? What happened?” My sister’s sharp ears caught every word.

“Nothing. I never said anything about Hu Bao. You misheard me!” Fu Jing denied it at once.

“Impossible. Tell me now. I heard you!” She would not let him wriggle free and forced him to explain.

“Well… that is… ah, fine. I will tell you, but you must promise not to be angry.” Fu Jing hemmed and hawed. “I’ve had too much to do these past few days and couldn’t make time to visit Baozhen Pavilion, so I sent Hu Bao in my place. He chose the hairpin.”

As he spoke, he tried to soothe my sister, who was visibly bristling.

“Come now, you promised not to be angry. Hu Bao has served me since childhood. I assumed his taste would be as good as mine. How was I to know he would be so unreliable?”

Furious, my sister yanked out the hairpin and tried to stab him with it. Fu Jing dodged while coaxing her.

“I’ll choose one myself tomorrow. Before your birthday, I swear I’ll find the most beautiful, sumptuous hairpin-the one that suits you better than any other! As for this thing Hu Bao chose, just give it to any servant you please.”

My sister stopped and huffed. Her eyes shifted, and she casually tossed the hairpin at me.

“Seventh Sister, you can have it. Hu Bao has served Third Brother for years. His family has been in the Fu household’s service for generations. A hairpin he picked is just good enough for you.”

I caught it and closed my fingers around it.

My sister had not looked closely, but I could see it clearly. The hairpin had been carved from flawless, glass-clear jade. Yet the carving lacked the immaculate precision of a craftsman’s hand. This was no jeweler’s work.

The jade felt cool in my palm, but it seemed to burn me.

That day was my coming-of-age ceremony.

Her Majesty the Empress had said that we two princesses were loving sisters who made no distinction between what belonged to one or the other. We might as well celebrate our birthdays together. How lively it would be.

No one remembered my real birthday.

No one was permitted to remember it.