Chapter 4

Chapter 4

At the end of May, there was going to be a poetry duel at Zhulu Teahouse.

The host was County Princess Chaoyun, and the people challenging her were me and my wretched little basket of bad-poet friends.

Xie Jinghong didn’t ask where I found the nerve to challenge someone else with my level of poetic skill, when I couldn’t even get the tones right.

He only paused slightly when he heard County Princess Chaoyun’s name.

Only then did I remember that before the Xie Clan fell from power, Xie Jinghong and County Princess Chaoyun had been discussing marriage. But after the Xie Clan’s downfall, County Princess Chaoyun quickly became engaged to the heir of the Duke of Qi’s household.

Her fiancé, Li Shixu, would definitely be attending this poetry gathering too. How awkward would it be for Xie Jinghong to run into them?

“If it’s inconvenient…”

He shook his head. “There is nothing inconvenient about it.”

“You can wear a mask if you want.”

I was worried he was forcing himself, and also worried that if he stepped back into the circles of noble sons again, he would hear some ugly remarks. All at once, I regretted the decision a little. “Forget it. I’ll find someone else.”

“Don’t worry.”

Xie Jinghong lowered his eyes, and his voice abruptly turned a little stiff. “You don’t need to tell anyone that we… Just say I’m someone you hired with money.”

I froze.

I had the feeling he’d misunderstood something.

But after thinking about it, he hadn’t exactly misunderstood either.

The whole marriage thing was good enough to fool my family. Outside, of course it was more appropriate for us to interact as friends. Otherwise, those awful friends of mine would definitely laugh at me until next year.

“All right, then. I’ll be counting on you when the time comes. Don’t hold back, okay? I bet my favorite set of hair ornaments against Chaoyun!”

He nodded. “All right.”

After explaining that, I hurried off again.

My mother had instructed the servants not to neglect Xie Jinghong, and she had prepared the best guest room and daily necessities for him, but she probably hadn’t expected the Xie family to have fallen so low that even their clothes had to be patched and mended before they could be worn.

I had to hurry and have someone make clothes for Xie Jinghong.

As it happened, the tailor shop had come to deliver my third brother’s clothes. Without a second thought, I intercepted the two best-looking outfits and dragged the shopkeeper straight to Xie Jinghong’s courtyard.

“This blue-green one, that moon-white one, and that bolt of Yuezhou Wu satin. I want them all.”

Xie Jinghong stood tall and straight as a pine, with bright eyes and refined brows. Any fabric looked good when held up against him. He tried to stop me several times, and only then did I reluctantly limit myself to nine bolts of cloth.

As he looked at the still-unsatisfied expression on my face, Xie Jinghong suddenly curved his lips.

I rubbed my eyes, thinking I must be hallucinating.

Sure enough-when I looked again, that faint curve had vanished.

See? I knew it. How could Xie Jinghong suddenly smile? If he suddenly became someone who loved smiling, I’d have to hire an exorcist for him.

By the time the third outfit was finished, the poetry duel began.