Chapter 7

Scholar Zhu held a peach banquet at the Drunken Immortal Pavilion.

We were all curious to see how many ways one could prepare peaches.

The building was decorated with peach blossoms made of gauze, an ingenious novelty.

Inside, a little stream wound through the room, carrying small boats.

We chose seats in one of them.

Miss Song insisted my brother accompany her. He had to take half a day’s leave.

He arrived in his court robes, travel-worn and dusty.

“Look what I’ve brought you this time.”

He tapped her nose.

From behind his back he produced a finely made short dagger, its blade still blunt.

It was set with five-colored gems, hung with Hetian jade beads, and finished with a delicate tassel.

“It’s beautiful.”

Miss Song laughed and flung herself into his arms, unable to put the dagger down.

“You do play favorites, Brother.”

Watching the laughing couple, I couldn’t resist teasing.

We had once been very close.

Since what happened to my sister-in-law, he had seemed afraid to face me, just as he was afraid to face her.

As he was now.

He did not know whether I meant he should favor me—or An Pingyao.

After a moment’s hesitation, he rubbed my head too.

He told me to have anything I liked made at a shop in the west of the city and charge it to him.

Miss Song had no idea why the atmosphere had chilled.

She thought my brother’s failure to bring me a present

had upset me.

She hurried to promise she would take me shopping afterward and buy me anything I wanted.

Even the stars, if she had to pluck them from the sky.

Scholar Zhu gave our private room special treatment. He sent in one of every dish at the banquet.

He brought peach wine too.

I had never tried it and couldn’t resist a few extra cups.

Perhaps it was the rocking of the boat. I began to feel pleasantly hazy.

Scholar Zhu’s clear, gentle voice flowed beside my ear like running water. It made my ears tingle.

“Don’t drink too much. It’s sweet, but it goes to your head.”

He did not dare look straight at me. He merely took my cup, carefully avoiding my fingers.

Fine beads of sweat stood on his forehead. He must have been terribly nervous.

This marriage might really turn out rather well.

A whole peach banquet. Was this a trap set for me? I had loved peaches since childhood.

I waited for Scholar Zhu to propose, and for my future as the leisurely mistress of the Drunken Immortal Pavilion.

He often brought lovely gifts but never asked to see me. He would leave them and walk away, looking back at every other step.

He wanted to see me, yet feared offending me.

I began embroidering my wedding dress with Mother.

She had clever hands. As a girl, she had outshone every professional embroiderer.

One day, unusually, my brother came home from court without going to keep Miss Song company.

“What a rare visitor! You’ve remembered your little sister today. Once she’s married, you won’t find it so easy to see her.”

Mother hurried to pour him tea.

Excellent White Tip tea, a gift Scholar Zhu had brought that very day.

But my brother seemed unable to speak. He stopped there, staring at me.

“What is it?” I asked, puzzled.

“Qingzhu.”

“Hmm?” I was still winding thread.

“Would you be willing to enter the palace?”

Mother’s needle stopped. A stitch in her embroidered mandarin ducks went astray.

If my brother was asking, my willingness no longer mattered.

He must have received word from above and come to warn me.