Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Yu Huaiqian had the paper clenched in his hand, the ink not yet dry.
I looked at the black smudge on the pad of his finger.
“I don’t understand it.”
“You can explain it to me.”
His brows drew together slightly.
“This isn’t a matter of explaining or not explaining.”
I asked, “Then what is it a matter of?”
He didn’t answer.
I withdrew my hand and stood before the desk.
A single clear-oil lamp burned in the room.
Its light fell across that sheet of paper, and I could only make out half a line.
Frost Branches Reflecting on Water.
Four words.
At the Qushui Banquet, when Fu Qingxiu recited that line, the entire hall had gone quiet for a breath.
I hadn’t heard anything especially wonderful in it.
I only saw Yu Huaiqian pause with his wine cup in hand.
He looked at Fu Qingxiu.
For a very long time.
Fu Qingxiu had broken off her engagement and returned to the capital, dressed in moon-white robes.
No one at the banquet dared to laugh or speak too loudly.
Yet her smile was very faint.
Like a wisp of wind brushing over the water.
Everyone said she was pitiful.
That engagement had once been considered an excellent match in the capital.
Her fiancé had gone away to another region and did not return for three years.
When he finally came back, he brought a woman with him.
So Fu Qingxiu broke off the engagement.
After Yu Huaiqian heard about it, he stood beneath the corridor for a long time.
I asked him if he felt upset.
He said, “We were old friends, that’s all.”
I believed him.
But now, he had filled an entire page with a line she had recited offhand.
When I asked, he said I wouldn’t understand.
Those words hurt worse than him snatching the paper away.
I lowered my eyes to his hand.
“You used to say it didn’t matter if I didn’t understand things like this.”
Yu Huaiqian looked as if the words had pricked him.
“I wasn’t looking down on you.”
“You were just now.”
“I was only afraid you’d feel upset if you saw it.”
I gave a small laugh.
“If I don’t understand it, why would I be upset?”
My question left him speechless.
A soft knock came from outside the door.
Fu Qingxiu stood beneath the corridor.
She held a white porcelain cup in her hands, and only a single jade hairpin adorned her hair.
“Huaiqian, you drank chilled wine at the banquet earlier.”
She lifted her eyes and saw me, as if she had only just realized I was there too.
“Sister-in-law, you’re here as well.”
I said nothing.
She set the porcelain cup down by the door.
“I made some sobering soup.”
“Back when we studied at the Yu Family, Huaiqian would get a headache whenever he drank chilled wine.”
Yu Huaiqian immediately said, “Just leave it there.”
Fu Qingxiu did not come in.
She glanced at the paper in his hand, then lowered her head and smiled.
“It was just something I said offhand. You actually wrote it out?”
Yu Huaiqian’s expression stiffened.
I looked at her.
Her tone was light.
But her gaze had settled on my face.
As if she were waiting for me to feel humiliated.
I asked, “Miss Fu knows how to make sobering soup?”
Fu Qingxiu froze for a moment.
“A little.”
I said, “That’s good.”
“A household always needs soup.”
The moment those words fell, Yu Huaiqian looked at me.
Fu Qingxiu looked at me too.
Then she quickly smiled.
“Sister-in-law, you really do have an interesting way with words.”
I walked over and picked up the cup of sobering soup.
“As for the soup you brought, I’ll have a servant heat it for him.”
“He’s married now.”
“In the future, don’t bring soup over in the middle of the night.”
Fu Qingxiu’s eyes reddened at once.
“Sister-in-law, you’ve misunderstood.”
Yu Huaiqian spoke. “Jiang Tang.”
I turned my head.
“What?”
He pressed his lips together.
“Qingxiu has only just returned to the capital.”
I nodded.
“That’s why I was being very polite.”
Fu Qingxiu lowered her head.
“Huaiqian, I’ll go back first.”
When she left, her sleeve brushed against the flowering branches beneath the corridor.
The sound was very soft.
Yu Huaiqian watched her retreating figure.
I set the sobering soup on the table.
“Still looking?”
He abruptly came back to himself.
His expression was ugly.
“What is wrong with you tonight?”
I looked at him.
“I’d like to know that too.”
“What is wrong with you tonight?”