Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Xie Lingchao and I had been betrothed since childhood.

When I was little, children my age disliked me because of my strange strength.

Only Xie Lingchao never shunned me.

Ignoring the hand I had accidentally squeezed red, he carefully wiped away my tears. “It’s all right, little Yuzhu. I know how to make them play with you.”

His methods were clumsy.

When I could not control the force of my polo strikes, he practiced with me again and again. When I kept snapping kite strings, he combed through folk manuals until he devised one even I could not break.

Clumsy or not, his methods worked.

I gained friends and no shortage of envy. Even the noble ladies in the palace teased that I had secured the finest husband imaginable.

So when had everything changed?

Perhaps in the second year after I followed Father to his post in Longxi.

A young woman surnamed Xue began appearing with increasing frequency in Xie Lingchao’s letters.

At first, he complained about her. Her sisters bullied her repeatedly, yet she endured everything without a fight. She was hopelessly timid, he said.

Then came pity. Her concubine mother had died young; the poor girl had no control over her fate.

Finally, he wrote with admiration:

“A-Miao lives up to her name—what a remarkable girl! All that meekness was only her hiding her strength and biding her time. She has finally dealt with those vicious sisters of hers and made them suffer dearly.”

Even across a thousand mountains and rivers, I could feel his delight as his brush formed those words.

I sat beside the window, the thin paper in my hands, staring blankly into space.

My birthday had passed half a month before the letter arrived. Aside from a few perfunctory greetings, every line was about Xue Miao—the amusing things she had done, the petty happenings of her day.

Once, my childhood sweetheart had thumped his chest and sworn to prepare the most unique coming-of-age gift in the world for me.

Now, he could not spare me a single birthday wish.

Eventually, Xie Lingchao did remember my coming-of-age ceremony.

In a rush, he sent a large chest of precious jewelry to Longxi.

I never received it.

By the time I learned of the chest, I was already sitting in a teahouse beside the Imperial Academy.

I had planned to wait until classes ended, but a familiar voice drifted from behind a screen. One of Xie Lingchao’s friends was speaking.

“Lingchao, did you truly give the golden sparrow hairpin to Lady Xue? That was supposed to be Lady Liao’s coming-of-age gift. You spent two full years carving it.”

“It is only a hairpin. For Yuzhu, it would be one more ornament among many.”

Xie Lingchao’s voice had deepened in the two years since I had last heard it, but its careless note was unchanged.

“A-Miao is different. She is a concubine-born daughter, and life is hard enough for her already. If I do not stand up for her, who knows what torment her stepmother will put her through?”

His friend clicked his tongue. “So you mean to play the hero. But what if Lady Liao finds out—”

“She won’t. I already ordered people to gather a whole chest of rare treasures for her. I’ll say it was delayed on the road. Yuzhu is simplehearted; she won’t suspect a thing.”

He chuckled softly. “Even if she does learn the truth, she’ll only sulk for a few days. She’s easy to coax.”

The group burst into laughter.

“True enough. Everyone knows Second Young Master Xie has had Liao Yuzhu wrapped around his finger since childhood.”

“I remember she cried for days before leaving for Longxi. Her eyes were so swollen when she boarded the carriage that she hid behind a veiled hat…”

“She refused to go unless you promised to write every month.”

Xie Lingchao sighed. “I hated to see Yuzhu leave too, but in hindsight, perhaps it was for the best. She is wonderful in every way except for that monstrous strength. I thought nothing of it when we were children, but now… a young lady ought to be more delicate.”

“Like A-Miao. Even when she is angry, she is as harmless as a kitten. It makes one want to cherish her.”

Others chimed in, but I could no longer make out the words.

My head rang. It felt as though a hammer had slammed into my chest, and my fingers tightened around the corner of the table.

Crack.

The corner broke off in my hand.

I stared at my palm. Splinters had pierced the skin, and a bead of red welled up.

Ever since Xie Lingchao practiced polo and swinging with me, I had learned to control my strength. Nothing like this had happened in years.

Before I left for Longxi, he had joked that he wanted a purse embroidered by my own hand when we married. I spent two whole years learning needlework from the manor’s embroiderers.

The purse, embroidered with a pair of mandarin ducks entwining their necks, needed only a few more stitches.

Only a few, Xie Lingchao.

“What was that?”

Someone behind the screen stood, apparently intending to investigate. I moved to slip away, but a woman dressed as a study attendant—her brows carefully painted—passed through the curtain and entered the neighboring room.

“Xie Lingchao, you have some nerve, abandoning me to skip class by yourself.”

For reasons I could not explain, I knew at once.

This was Xue Miao.

Sure enough, Xie Lingchao laughed lazily. “You insisted on pretending to be my study attendant. Who brings an attendant when playing truant? Well, little A-Miao, did you finish this young master’s assignments?”

I slowly turned. Her shadow leaned toward him and gave his arm a light thump.

“I did. How will you reward me?”

He caught her wrist with his folded fan and looked up at her. They were standing so close. Their silhouettes played across the screen like the shadow plays I loved, every movement steeped in intimacy.

“Tell me what you want.”