Chapter 1

I first met Xu Liuzhao in the balmy fourth month of spring.

My husband, Lin Zhao, had returned triumphant from the northern frontier. The day he came home, I made a point of waiting for him at the gates.

Two fine horses came galloping up one behind the other. The wind swept the dust they raised into my face, and I turned aside to cough.

By the time I looked up again, Lin Zhao had already dismounted. A young woman in a red dress stood beside him.

She was beautiful and lively. Her skin was not especially fair, but her eyes were clear and bright, like stars shining over a bog.

Before Lin Zhao could speak, she asked, “General Lin, is this your wife?”

Lin Zhao swept a cool glance over me, but his voice softened. “Yes.”

Hearing the same old tenderness in his tone finally eased the heart that had leapt into my throat.

We had grown up together. He had always been cold by nature, yet with me alone he was unfailingly gentle.

We married the previous summer. His duties as a general often took him out of the capital, so we spent more time apart than together.

Every return became a passionate reunion, absence making us newlyweds all over again.

Lin Zhao followed me back to our room. The moment the door closed, he pulled me into his arms and kissed me. I clung to his shoulders and pushed weakly at him twice, just about to speak.

He kissed my forehead, then said without warning, “Qingqing, Miss Xu will be staying at our residence for a while.”

It was like having a basin of cold water dumped over my head. In an instant, all the warmth was gone.

I forced a smile. “Why? She still wears an unmarried woman’s hairstyle, so surely she should find some other—”

“Qingqing!” Lin Zhao raised his voice slightly. “Her home is in the northern city, and she has no family in the capital. I was the one who brought her here. If something were to happen to her, how could I live with myself?”

I had no answer.

A husband and wife were one. As Lin Zhao said, she had saved his life, which meant I owed her the same debt.

The young woman soon settled into the general’s residence, and I learned her name.

Xu Liuzhao.

At my instruction, my maid Biyue had servants watch her courtyard every day. That was how I learned that Lin Zhao would visit her from time to time after leaving court—five visits in three days.

Whenever he acquired some novel trinket, I would receive one, and Xu Liuzhao would invariably receive one too.

Yet Xu Liuzhao did not seem particularly warm toward him. She had somehow obtained two dogs and kept her courtyard gates shut each day while she trained them inside.

My heart sank. The misery in me was impossible to name.

When Biyue saw that I had no appetite, she went to great trouble to make me a cup of cherry milk pudding. I took one look at it and told her to take it away.

At the doorway, Biyue nearly collided with Xu Liuzhao coming in.

“It looks so pretty—and delicious. Why aren’t you eating it?”

I glanced at her. My upbringing would not allow me to say anything harsh, so I offered a mild barb instead. “If Miss Xu likes it, perhaps you should take it.”

Xu Liuzhao seemed not to hear the undercurrent in my words. “Sure, thanks! Don’t mind if I do.”

She took the pudding, picked up the little jade spoon only to set it aside, then put her lips to the rim and drained the cup in one go.

I stared at her in disbelief.

Even a young lady with the crudest education in the capital’s etiquette would never have behaved so coarsely.

Xu Liuzhao appeared oblivious. She set down the cup, tilted her head, and smiled at me. “It was tasty. Just a little small.”