Chapter 3

The next day, I went back to the pavilion.

The sun was high, yet Xue Rao was still in bed.

She looked at me through a tangle of hair.

Perhaps I was staring too hard. She glanced down at her pale mauve clothes.

I hurriedly looked away.

“What brings you here, Third Miss?”

Xue Rao lounged against the headboard.

If not for the scab at the corner of her mouth, her face would have shown no sign of yesterday’s ordeal.

I took a porcelain bottle from inside my robe.

She accepted it suspiciously and held it to her nose.

“Floating Jade Balm. For the wound on your face.”

Watching her expression grow flippant, I pressed my lips together. “Yesterday was partly my fault.”

Xue Rao gave a little laugh. “What a kind heart you have, Third Miss. But the second young master put medicine on my face last night. It’s the other injuries no one’s bothered with…”

She indicated the injuries that had yet to be treated.

My eyes widened despite myself.

The marks were dreadful.

“He hurt me again last night. These wounds still ache.”

She raised a hand. “I can’t tend some of them myself. Will you help me put the medicine on, Third Miss?”

“Xue Rao!” I backed away, unable to believe her. “You… you’re simply—”

“Simply what? You have someone to care for you when you’re sick or hurt too, don’t you?”

She watched me, her voice still soft.

I swallowed the word “shameless.”

My mouth opened, but all I managed was a threat. “Xue Rao, if you insist on throwing my kindness back in my face, you’ll regret it.”

She gave me a smile as though nothing were wrong.

“If you don’t want to help, never mind. Why say things I don’t understand?”

I all but fled.

I wasn’t even sure how she had won.

I had thought Xue Rao healthier than me, prettier than me, more beloved by my brothers.

But their love had turned into something else entirely, and I did not know what to do with the feeling in my chest.

Of course, there was nothing I could do to her.

It was simply that I had grown tired of reading alone and wanted a girl to study and play with me.

After much consideration, Mother sent Xue Rao to my courtyard.

She arrived with her head high and her chest out, a proud peacock.

Within minutes, she was dozing through the lesson.

Mistress An was the female tutor my family had hired especially for me. She was strict about her teaching.

She immediately assigned Xue Rao three scrolls of handwriting practice as punishment.

By sundown, Xue Rao’s hands were trembling, and she looked at me as if she wanted to cry.

“Third Miss, I was wrong.”

I sat beside her sipping tea and casually pointed at a scrawl.

“Yes, that one’s wrong.”

She threw down her brush in despair. “These characters and I have never met. How am I supposed to write them properly?”

“Very well. Stop for now. I’ll speak to Mistress An tomorrow.”

Xue Rao’s head shot up. Her bright eyes reminded me of Mother’s little cat.

She was unhappy, but I thought the spring day had been delightful.

I covered my smile with my round fan. “Cuiyao, has Nanny arrived?”

“Third Miss, I truly know I was wrong.”

Xue Rao’s face crumpled as she held up her hand, freshly pricked by the needle again. “I was petty. I misunderstood your kindness.”

Without so much as blinking, I calmly threaded my needle.

“Mm. Then I’ll forgive you, just this once.”

“Could I go back to the pavilion now…?”

I put down my half-embroidered lotus and yawned.

“Of course. We have a qin lesson tomorrow morning. Come a little early.”

Xue Rao’s eyes went round. I accepted the medicine Nanny brought and waved a hand.

“See Fourth Miss home.”

Besides music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, Mother had arranged lessons in needlework and arithmetic for me over the past two years.

I had already come of age. However poor my health, the family had to start looking for a match.

With the Xie family’s present influence, there was no need for me to bear heirs for anyone.

A Xie daughter marrying a young man of equal standing would make a fine alliance between two great families.

My father and brothers’ power would secure a lifetime of wealth and honor in my husband’s home. In return, I would be another rung on the ladder of the Xie family’s ascent.

However reluctant Mother was to part with me, she still had to teach me to manage a household.

Now that Xue Rao was with me, it did seem a little more interesting.