Chapter 2

News that the general had won his battle and was returning home had spread throughout the capital.

Three days beforehand, I began putting the general’s residence in order to welcome him. At dawn I personally watched over the pigeon soup on the stove. When I heard his party had entered the city, I hurried to dress, hesitating over the jewelry in my box. Even my maid Lüzhu saw through me and teased that I should wear the flowering-plum hairpin from our betrothal: surely the master would be unable to keep his hands off me.

The general’s mount appeared in the distance, Zhaoye’s snowy white figure unmistakable. The servants at the gate were already cheering that their master had returned.

I saw the husband I had longed for day and night. Xu Ziyi seemed thinner. The fighting must have been fierce; he must have worked himself too hard.

He dismounted, but did not look at me. Instead, he gently lifted the carriage curtain. A young woman leaped eagerly down, her blue skirts opening in the air like a morning glory, lively and bright.

“Mischievous as ever.” My husband gazed at her tenderly and brushed a finger along her nose.

She stuck out her tongue, entirely unconcerned.

“My husband…”

The words died on my lips as she bounded up to me like a little rabbit.

“So you’re the general’s wife.” Smiling, she looked me over. “Ziyi’s told me about you. People may gossip because the two of you pledged yourselves to each other for love, but you’re both victims of the feudal system, really.”

What did “the feudal system” mean?

…Had he told this young woman about our past?

I felt uneasy.

“Good, good. All that matters is that my son is home. You’ve grown thin, and so tanned.” The old madam could not help shedding a few tears. “Your elder brother died so young. Thank heavens you’ve done us proud, Ziyi. Just like your father…”

“Mother, why are we standing at the gate when we could be sitting comfortably inside? Anyone would think this great general’s residence had nowhere for us to talk.” Concubine Zhou smiled, the crimson mole at the corner of her eye making her all the more charming, and helped the old madam through the gate.

After a round of greetings, the women of the family and the maids clustered around the old madam and accompanied her to the eastern sitting room.

“My husband, I’ve made pigeon soup. I’ll wait—”

“Miss Xuanmeng and I have matters to attend to over the next few days. Don’t wait for me.”

I froze, then ignored the ache in my heart, lowered my head, and softly agreed.

“Ziyi, she’s just as virtuous as you said. She isn’t even jealous.” Miss Xuanmeng peered at me as though I were some curious new object. “She’s pretty, too. What a waste. All she knows is how to cling to a man. What could she ever amount to?”

“Haven’t I told you? How could women like her compare with you?”

I stared blankly at Xu Ziyi as humiliation settled over my heart.

Sensing my distress, Zhaoye nuzzled my face with her neck.

Her name meant “lighting the night.” Snow-white from head to hoof, without a single mark of another color, she flashed like lightning when she galloped through the dark. That was how she had earned it.

I had helped deliver Zhaoye myself. Fierce and difficult to tame, she obeyed only me.

Back then Xu Ziyi had still been a sniveling little boy. Zhaoye had kicked him into a mud pit, and he had run crying to the late general.

The late general was a fond father. Unable to withstand Xu Ziyi’s pestering, he told him a shortcut: win over the little girl who fed the horses. Me.

My father was a horse trainer at the stud farm, and I was his only daughter, Zhou Qiongyue.

Seeing how obedient Zhaoye was with me, Xu Ziyi was desperately envious. He tried every means of pleasing me. But I was stubborn and proud, and cared nothing for gold or silver. Poor Xu Ziyi racked his brains to find curiosities for me: glass beads, little figures woven from mandrill fur, captured cavalry sabers. At last, I agreed to let him touch Zhaoye’s coat.

That was when our bond began. It seemed impossible: a horse servant’s daughter and a general’s only son pledging themselves to each other in secret, overcoming all the barriers of rank, and finally marrying.

…But that was all in the past.