Chapter 1

“Lord Song.” I bent my knees a little, which would have to do for a curtsy.

Song Jin ducked out of the sedan chair. When he straightened, he seemed taller than before.

His eyes tapered at the corners, his nose was straight, and his jaw was firm. Even without meaning to, he could make a person feel intimidated merely by looking at them.

He looked down at me, and I quietly retreated half a step.

His brows drew together more tightly. His thin lips pressed shut.

“What is it? Can’t you even speak to me properly now?”

He opened the umbrella in his hand and held it over my head.

“The rain isn’t heavy. I’m quite all right. You should take care of yourself, my lord. If you catch a chill and it interferes with affairs of state, how could I answer for it?” I spoke as pleasantly as I could.

Ever since I had known him, his health had been poor. The slightest change in the weather brought on a cold, and the smell of medicine clung to him all year round.

I was not merely being polite. I truly worried that the rain would make him ill, and then his mother would be blaming me before I even got through my own front door.

“Come home, then.” He stopped insisting and walked ahead of me beneath his umbrella.

For all his standing as a second-rank official, he still wore only a long blue cotton robe. His pace was unhurried, but his back was straight.

He had established a household of his own. When Grandfather and I left, he had just gone to Shanxi with His Majesty.

With a household of his own, surely he no longer lived at my house. When he said we were going home, I wondered whose home he meant.

My family lived in Crabapple Lane.

It was so narrow and long that a carriage could not get through.

The courtyard house had come down through the Wen family. Grandfather was the third generation to own it.

I had heard that our ancestors were merchants and quite wealthy, too. Grandfather was one of three brothers. Originally they all lived together, and with so many people under one roof, there was no end to the quarrels. My great-grandmother disliked Grandmother and made her life difficult at every turn, so Grandfather had asked to divide the family household for her sake.

The house with two courtyards in Crabapple Lane was the smallest property the Wen family had.

Father, however, had made something of himself. He had risen all the way to deputy director of the Court of State Ceremonial, an office of the junior fifth rank. Though his work concerned only ceremonial arrangements for court audiences, he was still an official in the capital.

Relatives who had once ignored us began visiting now and then during those last years Grandfather and I lived in the capital. But after Grandmother died, Grandfather grew ill-tempered. Perhaps old grievances made him unwilling to see them.

“Where have you and Grandfather been all these years?” Song Jin asked.

He was naturally aloof. I used to complain that he hardly seemed human. Now he seemed even less so.

“From Jiangnan to beyond the passes. Quite a long way.”

I had learned a little of the world over those years. Only then did I discover that even in an age of peace and prosperity, people less fortunate than I were everywhere. I had fewer grievances after that.

“You always were free-spirited. Heh.” He gave a low laugh. I could not tell whether it was praise or mockery.

Never mind. Even as a boy, he had kept his thoughts buried deep. Most people could never fathom him.