Chapter 9

Xianghe gripped my wrist, her fingertips pressing hard, her knuckles white. Her eyes were full of bewilderment and helplessness.

I gently drew my hand away with an inward sigh.

Half her predicament came from Lu Chong’an’s sweet lies, and half from her own longing for wealth and luxury.

But now her way back was barred. Clinging to them would only lead to greater humiliation.

Qingyan’s expression was calm, neither pitying nor mocking.

“You must choose your own path. No one can do it for you.”

Xianghe stood rooted to the spot. She looked out at the noisy street, her gaze wavering.

The duke’s household had been her only refuge after she escaped. Now there was no room for her there, and an awful marriage awaited her back home. Whichever way she turned, she faced a dead end.

After a long silence, she finally turned in a daze and walked out of the jewelry shop, step by step. Her slight figure disappeared into the crowd.

The shop grew quiet again.

Not long afterward, I heard that Duke Zhenguo had gone in person to exchange the betrothal papers with the Grand Secretary, each family taking back its own.

His heir was confined to the house as punishment. For a long time, no one saw him in the capital.

Xianghe, however, surprised us. When she returned to the duke’s residence that day, she asked the duchess for leave to go.

“You needn’t send me home, Aunt. I have somewhere else to go now.”

Overwhelmed by the broken engagement, the duchess could no longer be bothered with her. She merely waved her consent. Out of sight, out of mind.

Once, while I was out shopping, I unexpectedly came across Xianghe at an embroidery shop in the south of the city.

I didn’t go in. From across the narrow flagstone lane, I saw a young woman sitting in a corner, intent on her stitching.

Finished embroidery was piled beside her like a little mountain.

I didn’t approach or disturb her. I quietly turned and went back to my jewelry shop.

Everyone has a path of their own. From that point on, Xianghe’s fortunes had nothing to do with me.

My shop, meanwhile, became widely known. The daughters of the capital’s great families all liked to come here to choose their jewels.

Everyone knew that its owner was not only generous in business, but also a dear friend of the Grand Secretary’s daughter.

Whenever she had nothing to do, she liked to stop by the shop for a chat.

“Thanks to you,” I told her, “I’ll be able to expand after the New Year. Then I’ll rename it the Treasure Pavilion.”

Qingyan smiled. “Then let me offer my congratulations in advance.”

As she spoke, she casually picked up a newly arrived orchid hairpin and studied it in the sunlight. She looked relaxed and charming, without the slightest stiff reserve of a well-born young lady.

I took the opportunity to tease her. “You’re free as you please these days, Miss Mu, with no one to constrain you. You must come and sit in my little pavilion more often, and bring me more distinguished customers from the capital.”

She looked up with a soft laugh, deliberately drawing out her words. “So in Mistress Su’s eyes, I’ve been nothing but bait for customers all along?”

I hurriedly waved my hands and laughed, trying to smooth things over. Picking out a little pendant of clear white jade, I tucked it into her hand as an apology.

After seeing her out, I leaned against the doorframe for a while, watching the sunlight in the street. Then I slowly returned to the counter and crossed the white jade pendant I had given away out of my ledger.

Outside the window, the streets bustled. Inside, pearls and jade gleamed.

The ridiculous affair that had once set the capital talking had long since become an old story for idle conversation over tea.

What remained were our leisurely visits, comfortable and carefree.

But I never told Qingyan that I had actually recognized who she was the very first time she stepped into my shop.

After years of making my way in the streets and markets, I had learned to read people well.

The fiancée of Duke Zhenguo’s heir was naturally a woman of noble birth, with a bearing unlike other people’s.

But none of that mattered anymore.

(The End)