Chapter 4

One day, Princess Zhaohua came to her daughter’s chamber.

She personally chose Xie Yao’s clothes and cosmetics. I waited silently outside while Xie Yao protested, the princess slapped her, then soothed her with sweet words until she finally submitted.

Xie Yao was fourteen. The previous night’s banquet had been held to select a husband for her. Now she was to dress in all her finery to meet a somewhat older gentleman, an edict secretary from the Wang family.

The history behind the arrangement stretched back years.

The present emperor was not the Empress Dowager’s son. Their blood connection was distant beyond counting. When the previous emperor died without an heir, the Empress Dowager overpowered the court and selected a minor prince of the imperial clan for the throne.

Thus, though Zhaohua was called the emperor’s sister, the highest title she could receive was princess of the second rank.

At first, the brother and sister repaid their benefactor. In their years of weakness, they obeyed the Empress Dowager, coaxed her into surrendering a portion of her power, and agreed to marry Zhaohua into the Wang family, her maternal clan.

What followed was predictable.

Once a bird’s wings hardened, it no longer obeyed its keeper.

Zhaohua married a Wang, but within half a month of her husband’s death, she became entangled with the newly crowned top scholar, Xie Zheng. The affair humiliated the Empress Dowager. Yet Xie Zheng proved more than a pretty ornament. His achievements raised him all the way to a marquisate, and he bowed so low that every festival saw him kneeling beside Zhaohua for a full day outside the Palace of Benevolent Tranquility. In the end, the Empress Dowager could only swallow her disgust.

Years passed in surface peace, but the insult remained a thorn.

By coincidence, the eldest heir of the new Wang generation—the Empress Dowager’s beloved great-nephew—once glimpsed Xie Yao when the wind lifted the gauze curtain of her carriage. One breathtaking look beneath the moon, and he fell in love.

It was a perfect opportunity to reconcile with the dowager’s faction.

Xie Zheng refused to let it pass. Zhaohua considered the Wang family’s generations of wealth and the heir’s handsome, accomplished reputation. Thus, her daughter was forced into this meeting.

No one knew Xie Yao already had someone in her heart.

She left in sumptuous silk, with an elaborate coiffure and ornaments carved from jade and kingfisher feathers. She returned listless. Only when she found a letter tucked into the window frame did a genuine smile appear.

“Lanhua, did anyone come while I was away?”

I shook my head. “No one.” After pretending to think, I added, “Only Xing’er, the young master’s maid, came to borrow some thread.”

“It was him. I knew it! I knew it!”

Color and emotion shifted across her face. She could barely restrain her smile. At last, she pressed the letter to her chest, twirled several times, and pulled my ear close to solemnly order my silence.

I nodded and smiled with her.

“The young mistress is finally happy. This servant does not know why, but I am truly happy for you.”

Xie Yao returned very late that night.

Grass clung to her clothes. While she was gone, the princess’s spies came several times, and I turned them all away. My mistress praised me, and from then on, concealing her movements became another of my duties.

It happened more and more often.

Xie Yao no longer objected to meeting the Wang heir, but she always brought a guard. To prevent gossip, she took me as well.

Even during the Lovers’ Festival, with summer wine and humming cicadas, four of us went to view the lanterns.

The Wang heir’s expression finally cracked.

“Yao’er, the river boats are small. I’m afraid one cannot hold so many.”

Xie Yao snapped, “Then go alone. I’m leaving. A noble daughter does not stand beneath a dangerous wall. What is wrong with bringing attendants?”

In the end, he hired a larger boat.

The river glittered with lanterns set adrift by unmarried men and women, each one bright as a star and steeped in unspoken longing. Yet Xie Yao stood close to her guard. Her gaze was gentle, softer than I had ever seen it. Anyone ignorant of the situation might have assumed they were the lovers.

The Wang heir felt as if he were being made a cuckold.

When Xie Yao pulled the guard onto the deck to hang an ornament, he questioned me indirectly about the man.

I smiled and answered without giving anything away.

“His name is Xu Sixing. He is the son of one of Lord Xie’s distant relatives and came to the estate after His Lordship rose to power. He serves as a guard now. That trace of kinship makes him more trustworthy.”

“Please do not misunderstand, Young Master. Your marriage to my mistress only lacks the Empress Dowager’s decree. The rules of the Xie estate are strict. Her Highness says you must not be allowed too close before the match is official. That is why she personally ordered me to follow.”

“I know your feelings for my mistress are sincere. But Zhao is a land of sharp gossip. Without a proper name, every word becomes improper. A woman’s reputation is precious.”

Thought flashed through his eyes.

As expected, the Empress Dowager’s marriage decree arrived within three days.

Some rejoiced, and others despaired. Outside the women’s quarters, Xie Zheng walked with new pride. Inside, Xie Yao’s eyes turned red. She smashed several valuable pieces of porcelain, rage twisting her beautiful face. She punished everyone nearby and slapped me twice.

In Zhao, a noble bride did not need to embroider her wedding dress.

But she did need to make her future husband a pair of shoes.

Xie Yao was locked in an embroidery tower for half a month. Her moods became increasingly erratic, and the hundreds of servants on its two floors lived in terror.

One day, she struck me.

Then she touched my face. Her gaze lingered on empty air, dazed and distant. She failed to notice that she had pushed the ointment straight into my nostril.

“What about him?” she murmured. “I wonder how he is.”

Surely more desperate than you, little fool.

Xu Sixing had come to live with the Xies five years earlier.

I knew his kind. Perhaps he had once possessed a boy’s natural simplicity, but a few years amid the capital’s luxury had rotted him. A thin stream of his blood came from the same clan as Xie Zheng’s. Coldness ran in that family.

He had once saved Xie Yao.

He had forgotten.

It happened before the estate’s filth stained him. He had been a handsome, clear-eyed youth. When Xie Yao tumbled from a swing and nearly split her head, he caught her.

In the autumn light, the half-grown boy’s face was clean and open. He looked down with concern and offered her a handkerchief scented faintly with soapberry.

Xie Yao had mountains of treasure.

Yet she accepted that handkerchief as if it were priceless and emptied an entire gilded box to preserve it.

It became an enduring dream.

Unfortunately, the boy of her dreams changed in corners she never saw.

The Xie family did not treat Xu Sixing atrociously, but neither did it treat him well. Among a thousand servants, many were cruel snobs who flattered the powerful and crushed the weak. Encountering them was its own nightmare.

I saw him called a parasite. I saw him bow and stammer while begging for a packet of medicine. I saw him dig lotus roots from a pond to fill his stomach.

One autumn day, he stood in robes layered with patches, desolation clinging even to his hair. I gave him a steamed bun, and we sat together on abandoned steps.

He guessed who I was. With clumsy tears, he tried to borrow my hand to punish the servants who tormented him.

I pretended not to understand.

I comforted him at length.

“Never despise a poor young man. This may be a dark time, but it will pass. Beyond the willows, flowers always bloom. I heard an old retainer say that Lord Xie also endured humiliating years. Look at him now.”

Then I acted as if I had spoken too freely.

“Oh, I’m talking nonsense. How can servants gossip about their masters? Do not take it seriously. Forget you heard anything.”

Take it seriously, Xu Sixing. Never forget.

He did not disappoint me. He began investigating Xie Zheng’s rise. His methods were crude and I had to erase several trails for him, but at last an “old retainer” told him the full story.

A man who dreamed of climbing to the summit would not dwell on the cruelty of the tale, Ah Lan’s innocence, or the fickleness of the human heart.

He would think only, Why him and not me?

If he could do it, so can I. I am no worse than Xie Zheng.

After that, Xu Sixing made himself increasingly visible to Lord and Lady Xie. He tried to meet noblewomen, though he still lacked the courage to covet Xie Yao.

Then my letter arrived.

To him, it was a pastry dropped from Heaven. Xu Sixing swore he would seize this ladder into the clouds at any cost. He rehearsed each meeting until he could coax Xie Yao with every skill he possessed.

A newly mature girl who knew nothing of the world was easy to fool.

Then the marriage decree destroyed everything.

But that was only the first step I had prepared.

Next, I would drive the tiger into a dead-end alley.

While Xie Yao was forced to stitch the soles of her wedding shoes, something insignificant happened in the estate.

A guard was dismissed.

The treasure pavilion under his watch had been robbed, and a stolen jade pendant was found beneath his bed. He could not be retained. Because he was a distant kinsman, the steward gave him a few extra taels and allowed him to remain until after the young mistress’s wedding banquet.

I knew the time had come.

That night, Xie Yao called me into her chamber and ordered me to help her elope.

I refused.

I shook my head violently.

“Young Mistress, Her Highness chose this husband for you. She has taken such pains. If you flee, you will break her heart.”

I said nothing about the grave consequences of rejecting an imperial match. I mentioned only Zhaohua.

Xie Yao erupted.

She remembered fourteen years of control, years in which she could not even eat an extra pastry. Her last hesitation dissolved. A twisted thrill rose inside her. She longed to see the grief and fury on her mother’s face.

She struck me, then embraced me, her eyes red with unshed tears.

“Lanhua, you promised to be loyal to me forever. Can you bear to see me marry a man I do not love? Mother never thinks of me. Only you can help. Your disguises are excellent. Didn’t you once dress as me and fool the housekeepers? We are in the same boat. I am your mistress. You must obey.”

I wept with her for a time.

At last, I sighed.

“Very well.”

They did not get far.

They had traveled barely ten miles beyond the estate and had yet to take a proper breath of freedom when they encountered Lord Xie and the Wang heir discussing affairs as they walked.

Before a crowd of witnesses, Xie Yao’s hand was locked in Xu Sixing’s.

Their bundle rolled open.

Silver and gold spilled across the road. Two scarlet bellybands were later found on Xu Sixing.

They belonged to Xie Yao.

She thought and thought. So few people knew. How had their escape failed so quickly? Suspicion touched me, then vanished.

It could not be Lanhua.

Everyone knew I was her most loyal dog.

And truly, I had done very little.

I merely changed the time of their escape and suggested to the Wang heir that discussing wedding details personally with Lord Xie after court each day would delight his future bride.