Shen Yujiao’s heart clenched, her thoughts racing.
Was it that shady man in gray just now? Or an enemy of Xie Wuling come to settle scores?
She had known it, ruffians never lived on the straight path, surely he had plenty of trouble outside.
The knocking still pounded on. Shen Yujiao hurriedly hid Ping’an under the bedding, then rushed into the kitchen.
Her pale fingers had just closed around the handle of a kitchen knife when, the pounding suddenly stopped.
“How strange, didn’t Brother Xie say his wife was home? Why is no one answering?” The same rough male voice.
“Or maybe she’s gone out? Should I ask next door?” A middle-aged woman’s voice.
“Alright, you go ask.”
Then came knocking on Aunt Liu’s door next door: “Anyone home?”
Inside the courtyard, knife in hand, face tight with vigilance, Shen Yujiao: “…”
Listening to this exchange, it seemed… they weren’t enemies after all?
As she pondered, another knock sounded at her own gate: “Jiaoniang, are you home?”
This time it was Aunt Liu’s voice. Shen Yujiao’s taut nerves loosened a little. Glancing at the blazing sun overhead, she thought, coming to seek vengeance in broad daylight? That would make Jinling’s governance too worthless.
“I’m here, Aunt Liu,” she answered.
“See, I told you she was in. Probably didn’t hear with the baby,” Aunt Liu said to them, then raised her voice: “Since you’re there, open up. The people from the woodworks have come to deliver your tub.”
Delivering a tub?
Shen Yujiao froze, then quickly set the knife down. “Alright, coming.”
When she opened the courtyard gate, sure enough, a handcart was parked outside, carrying a man-high wooden bathing tub bound with hemp rope.
At the door, besides Aunt Liu, stood a man and a woman. The man was sturdy, clearly one who labored for a living; the woman was broad-shouldered and solid, her face simple and good-natured.
“You must be Brother Xie’s wife?” The woman looked at Shen Yujiao, her eyes full of admiration. “My, Brother Xie really has good fortune, to have found such a pretty little lady for his wife.”
Standing at the doorway, Shen Yujiao flushed slightly. “And you are…?”
The woman let out an “oh”: “We’re from the woodworks. My surname’s Liu, this is my husband Old Song. Brother Xie came to us early this morning, ordered a tub and some other things, and asked us to deliver them here.”
Once Shen Yujiao understood, she quickly stepped aside. “Thank you for the trouble.”
“No trouble at all.”
She smiled, turning to direct her husband in unloading.
Besides the big tub, there were also three new wooden basins, a red-lacquered chamber pot, and a small wooden rocking horse for a child to play with.
When Shen Yujiao saw the red-lacquered toy horse dotted with black ink, her eyes flickered twice.
He had even thought to buy the child a toy…
“Aunt Liu wasn’t fooling you, was she?” Aunt Liu, guessing her thoughts, leaned close with a grin. “Ah Ling, he’s truly the most thoughtful one!”
Shen Yujiao gathered back her wandering thoughts and gave a faint smile: “Mm.”
Over there, Aunt Liu and Old Song, having unloaded the goods, came over: “Xie Niangzi, younger brother Xie has already paid the silver. Please check the goods, if everything is in order, press a handprint, and we’ll go back to report to our shopkeeper.”
Shen Yujiao took the receipt, confirmed that all items were intact, dipped her thumb in red clay, and pressed a print.
Aunt Liu tucked the slip away, smiling as she cupped her hands toward Shen Yujiao: “All right then, you get back to your work, we’ll be off.”
Seeing this, Shen Yujiao bent her knees gracefully in return: “Many thanks to you both.”
Aunt Liu was startled and intrigued by the gesture: “What kind of salute was that? Looks awfully fine.”
Shen Yujiao was taken aback: “Hm?”
Seeing the little beauty’s dazed expression, Aunt Liu laughed even brighter: “Nothing, nothing, just praising you.”
Aunt Liu* beside them joined in with a smile: “Jiaoniang’s not local. Her family was once official-born, though later fell on hard times. But she did study books and rites, unlike us rough folk.”
* different spelling liu; just fyi
“No wonder.” Aunt Liu’s smile blossomed: “You’re so pretty, and younger brother Xie’s handsome too, the two of you really make a fine pair.”
Shen Yujiao wasn’t used to such lively neighborly warmth, and only gave a shy smile.
Fortunately Aunt Liu only exchanged a few words before taking the receipt and leaving.
Shen Yujiao secretly let out a breath. She was just about to walk Aunt Liu to the door when she saw several men pushing a cartload from the alley entrance: “Excuse me, is this the household of Master Xie Wuling?”
Looking at yet another cart piled with goods, Shen Yujiao and Aunt Liu glanced at each other,
There’s more?
In the next hour, several more carts arrived one after another. The Xie family’s small courtyard never once closed its gate.
Aside from the first deliveries of bath tubs and chamber pots, later came a dressing table, tables and chairs, a full-length mirror, a long incense altar, screens, incense burners, bed curtains, quilts, pillows… even two pots of miniature landscape bonsai.
The courtyard that once felt spacious now became cramped and crowded.
Aunt Liu stared in astonishment. Then, thinking it over, she nodded: “He’s going to marry a wife, of course the household should be stocked with things.”
Seeing Shen Yujiao dazed, she asked: “Jiaoniang, want me to help you put things in order?”
Shen Yujiao came back to herself and politely declined: “Let’s wait until Xie Wuling returns and see how he wants to arrange it.”
Noting the weight of the tables and chairs, Aunt Liu didn’t insist, and went back next door.
It wasn’t until around shenshi that Xie Wuling returned.
Two others came back with him.
Setting down the basket of fruit in his hand, Xie Wuling lazily introduced: “This one’s Wildcat, this one’s Sparrow, both sworn brothers of mine!”
Wildcat and Sparrow put down the things they carried and bowed in unison to Shen Yujiao: “Greetings, sister-in-law!”
Looking at these two ruffians, clearly older than herself, and hearing them call her that in chorus, Shen Yujiao could only squeeze out an awkward smile: “Hel…hello.”
Yet her feet moved instinctively closer to Xie Wuling, and in a low voice she asked: “Why did you buy so many things today?”
“They’re all necessary. Since I had time today, I bought them all at once.”
Noticing how she had stepped nearer, Xie Wuling’s lips curved. Raising a hand, he directed Wildcat and Sparrow: “That incense altar and the two bonsai, put them in the main hall. The dressing table and the screen, move into the bedchamber. Easy now, don’t knock them…”
“Got it, Boss!”
Wildcat and Sparrow rolled up their sleeves and heaved the furniture inside.
Fearing the noise would startle the child, Shen Yujiao went inside and carried Ping’an out.
Looking again into the courtyard, she saw Xie Wuling with one foot on a stone, bent over the water vat rinsing fruit. After hesitating a moment, she went up and said softly: “You’ve been busy outside all day. Let me do the washing.”
“It’s just washing some fruit, no need for you to lift a hand.”
As he spoke, Xie Wuling held out a washed pear to her: “Try it, see if it’s sweet.”
The pear’s yellow skin tinged with green didn’t look very sweet, but at the thought of its refreshing tartness, Shen Yujiao’s mouth watered.
She accepted the pear, sat down on a stool, and took a light bite.
Xie Wuling fixed his eyes on her: “How is it?”
Shen Yujiao’s brows drew together: “Sour.”
“That sour?” Xie Wuling frowned too: “That old fruit seller dared to cheat me! Kept saying thin skin, juicy and sweet, tomorrow I’ll overturn his stall!”
When he smiled, he was carefree and rakish; when he scowled with anger, he carried a frightening ferocity.
Afraid he really would cause trouble, Shen Yujiao quickly said: “Actually, it’s not that sour. Just the first taste is, but savor it carefully and it’s sweet.”
Xie Wuling looked at her skeptically: “Really?”
Shen Yujiao’s gaze was earnest as she nodded, then took another small bite and chewed slowly: “I quite like it.”
Only then did Xie Wuling’s expression ease. He bent again to wash more fruit: “If not for the war down in Huainan, with Zhang Ying that old thief blocking the waterways to Jinling, right now would be the best season for Dang County’s crisp pears. They say Dangshan pears have skins so thin you can’t find them when they fall to the ground. Truly overflowing with juice and sweetness, beyond words.”
Catching Shen Yujiao pause in eating, he narrowed his eyes: “What, haven’t you heard of Dang County’s crisp pears in Chang’an?”
Lowering her gaze, Shen Yujiao answered softly: “Dang County’s crisp pear, dew of fruits, saint among medicines. Each year Huainan sends them to Chang’an as tribute pears.”
Xie Wuling raised his brows: “So you’ve eaten them in Chang’an?”
“I have.”
“Since you have, then why did you space out just now when I mentioned Dang County’s crisp pears?”
“I…”
Shen Yujiao tightened her grip on the pear in her hand: “When you mentioned the Huainan war, I suddenly thought, Huainan isn’t far from Jinling. I wondered how the fighting is there, and whether it might affect this side.”
“That’s nothing for you to worry about. That old thief Zhang Ying may hold his troops arrogantly, but our Prefect Cui of Jinling is no vegetarian. When Zhang Ying first rose in rebellion, Prefect Cui already stationed troops at the Huainan–Jinling border, and any rebel who tries to cross is executed on the spot.”
Xie Wuling drawled lazily: “Besides, hasn’t the court sent the Second Prince to lead the campaign? I heard he’s even brought in some so-called Gentleman of Hedong surnamed Pei as his strategist. Word is, that man commands like a god, with endless ingenious moves. That old thief Zhang Ying likely won’t last long.”
Commands like a god, endless ingenious moves…
She knew it, he had the talent to govern a nation, only waiting for the right chance, the right ruler, to unfurl his grand ambitions.
Shen Yujiao gazed at the yellow-green pear in her palm, and her heart too welled with a faint, sour, indescribable feeling.
She harbored resentment and hatred toward Madam Wang, but toward Pei Xia, she could neither resent nor hate him.
After all, three months ago, who could have foreseen the Huanglong flooding the Heluo region, or imagined that the Old Madam of the Pei clan could be so vicious, taking advantage of her son’s campaign abroad to strike from beneath the cauldron and make her daughter-in-law “perish”?
Sometimes when Shen Yujiao recalled it, it still felt dreamlike and unreal,
She knew her mother-in-law disliked her, but how could she be… so venomous and narrow-minded?
Had she not experienced it herself, she could hardly believe that such a woman had held up the Pei household all these years, and even borne and raised a virtuous gentleman like Pei Xia.
“What are you thinking about, so lost in thought?”
A big hand waved before her eyes. Shen Yujiao snapped back to awareness, only to see Xie Wuling squinting at her: “Your brows are knitted so tight, don’t tell me you’re worrying over the front-line battles?”
“Those are for the court officials and generals to worry over, what business has a mere little woman like me to fret?”
Steadying her heart, Shen Yujiao spoke lightly: “I was thinking, you bought so much today, surely spent a lot of silver. Such extravagance, I truly feel unworthy of it…”
“There you go again.”
Xie Wuling said: “If you really feel unworthy, how about this, give your husband a kiss, and then you won’t be.”
Shen Yujiao froze.
Xie Wuling gave her a sidelong look: “What? Didn’t you just say you feel unworthy?”
His expression was half teasing, half serious, she couldn’t read him at all. Her snow-pale face gradually heated, and she stammered: “We’re not married yet, it’s improper for men and women to touch.”
Xie Wuling clicked his tongue in disappointment: “Then what are you feeling unworthy about? Just eat your pear honestly.”
Shen Yujiao: “…”
Was she just looked down upon by a rogue?
After a long silence, she bit her lip and ventured: “Otherwise, I could teach you characters and proper rites?”
Xie Wuling had just bitten into a pear himself, sour enough to make him bare his teeth. Hearing her suggestion, he laughed: “What’s the point of learning that? I’m not sitting for the civil exams.”
“Reading isn’t only for the exams. It can bring wisdom, refine the mind, broaden knowledge, and grow one’s talent. As the ancients said: without food one goes hungry, without study one stays ignorant…”
“Then with all the ink in your belly, can you eat it when you’re fleeing famine?”
“….” Shen Yujiao was choked speechless.
Seeing her at a loss for words, Xie Wuling snorted a laugh: “Let me give you a saying in return, ‘Of all things useless, none more so than a scholar.’ When trouble really comes, what you rely on is this!”
He clenched his fist as big as a sandbag and swung it twice through the air, the rush of wind almost audible.
At once Shen Yujiao understood the meaning of “When a scholar meets a soldier, reason is useless” and “If the ways differ, they cannot work together.”
“Boss, easy with the words, no need to wave fists around!”
“Yeah yeah, we don’t hit women.”
Wildcat and Sparrow came out just then after moving furniture, only to see their boss brandishing a fist with a swaggering face.
“Bullsh*t! Do you take me for some scum who beats his wife?”
Xie Wuling dropped his hand and jerked his chin at them: “Come eat some fruit, rest a bit before moving more.”
“No resting, once we finish this last bit we need to head home.”
Saying so, the two didn’t pause, swiftly setting the rest of the furniture in place.
Watching the one fat and one thin figure, Shen Yujiao asked curiously: “Are their real names actually Wildcat and Sparrow?”
“Of course not. Wildcat’s real name is Hu Sanmao, Sparrow’s Liu Yaoji.”
Xie Wuling answered offhandedly, then polished off the pear in a few bites and wiped his hand on his sleeve: “Sit here, I’ll help move things too.”
Shen Yujiao gave a soft assent and sat beneath the eaves with the child in her arms, watching the three men bustling about arranging the courtyard.
The sunlight was just right; fine motes of dust floated up in the air, drifting leisurely through her sight.
For a moment, she felt a strange illusion— as if she really had been given another life.
—-
Chang Residence, West Courtyard.
The setting sun slanted over the garden’s curious rocks and miniature peaks. A cage with a small yellow bird hung under the veranda, trilling out crisp chirps now and then.
Chang Song teased the bird, then looked down at the gray-robed servant below the steps, his face half skeptical: “Truly as pretty as you say?”
“Really! That young lady is truly lovely, such a fair, tender little face, and a waist so slender…”
The little servant gestured with his hand, clicking his tongue in praise: “Especially her bearing, this lowly one doesn’t even know how to put it, but she’s nothing like the girls of Qinhuai River. Just standing there, it was as if her whole body glowed!”
Chang Song snorted: “Glowing? What is she, a celestial being?”
But this servant had lingered around the Qinhuai pleasure boats for many years, not some green lad who hadn’t seen the world. For him to praise her like this showed that the bride Xie Wuling was to marry was truly a beauty.
“It’s just that the young lady is on guard. This lowly one squatted at the gate for a long time before finally catching a glimpse of her. She seemed to spot me, and her face instantly fell, bam, she shut the door right away, and after that, she never came out again.”
The servant bowed and said: “I asked around and learned that ever since the young lady arrived, she hasn’t stepped outside at all.”
Hearing this, Chang Song frowned: “Never goes out? That makes things tricky.”
He’d already been curious, and now with the servant’s glowing words, his itch grew worse.
“Second Master, don’t worry. Isn’t Xie Wuling going to have her name officially registered in the household books? He’ll definitely have to take her to the yamen.”
“You brat, quick on the uptake.”
Chang Song shot the servant a look of approval: “Go on, ask Qian Gui what day he and Registrar Wu have arranged.”
The servant grinned: “Yes, sir.”
—-
It wasn’t until the blood-red sunset was fully devoured by night, after seeing the two brothers Wildcat and Sparrow off, that the small Xie family courtyard finally grew quiet.
Shen Yujiao stood at the door of the bedchamber, lit by a single yellow bean-sized lamp flame, staring at the neat flower-and-bird screen, the camphorwood dressing table, the bronze quatrefoil mirror, the celadon lotus-shaped incense burner, the brand-new pink gauze bed canopy… She could hardly connect this room with the bare walls of just two days ago.
Xie Wuling leaned lazily against the wall, arms folded: “If anything’s still missing, remember to speak up.”
“It’s already all complete.” Shen Yujiao turned her face toward him. “You really shouldn’t spend more.”
By this time next year, he’d still have two children to raise, money would be needed everywhere.
“It’s not like I spend like this every day.”
Xie Wuling was unconcerned. His gaze shifted back to her bright, liquid eyes, lips tugging faintly upward: “Even birds know to build nests when courting. I’m marrying only once in this life, how could I treat it carelessly?”
In the hazy early autumn night, his long, peach-blossom eyes looked at her as if always carrying a shallow smile, yet always burning bright.
Shen Yujiao could never withstand that gaze. At most she held out two breaths before quickly averting her eyes: “Running a household isn’t easy. Anyway… it’s better if you’re more frugal.”
“Looks like I’ve truly married a virtuous wife. Fine, once we’re wed, I’ll hand the household’s silver over to you.”
“Ah?”
“What ‘ah’? Don’t tell me you don’t even want to handle something so small?”
“N-no, that’s not what I meant.” Shen Yujiao muttered inwardly, embarrassed. How could this man be so trusting? Wasn’t he afraid she’d take the silver and run?
As if seeing through her thoughts, Xie Wuling suddenly pushed off the wall and strode toward her: “If you really had the ability to run off, I’d admit defeat. But if you ran and I caught you again…”
His tall figure leaned down, breath warm against her forehead, his voice dropping low: “Little Jiaoniang, then I won’t care whether or not there’s a child in your belly.”
Shen Yujiao froze. Once she grasped the meaning in his words, the tips of her ears burned hot, and she hastily stepped back: “Xie Wuling, you scoundre, ah!”
Before she could finish, her heel caught on the threshold. Just as her body tilted backward, a large hand hooked firmly around her waist and pulled her forward.
In the next instant, the man’s strong breath closed in around her. Shen Yujiao’s mind went blank. By the time she realized, she didn’t even care about the sting on her nose as she struggled against his solid chest: “Y-you, let go.”
But that broad palm stayed securely at her lower back. From above, his lazy voice came: “Were you just about to curse me?”
Shen Yujiao started, lifting her face, straight into those inky black eyes. Her heart gave a sudden jolt. “No.”
“Then what was that ‘you scoundre…’?” His head dipped even lower.
“I, I…”
She felt she might melt in his arms. How could his body be this hot, his breath so scorching it made her heart tremble? She forced herself to stay steady: “I was trying to call your name. Wuling.”
“Really?”
“Really!” Shen Yujiao wriggled slightly, his palm’s heat seeping through the thin fabric of her dress, flooding into her skin. “Now let go…”
Xie Wuling’s nose filled with the faint fragrance of her hair. Looking at her shy and timid appearance, like a soft rabbit fallen into a snare, his throat worked involuntarily.
Why was she so fragrant, and her waist so soft…
“Xie Wuling…”
Her hurried, delicate voice suddenly snapped his gaze.
In the night faint with osmanthus fragrance, silence lingered for a moment. Then Xie Wuling pressed his lips together, released her, and barked gruffly: “Next time, watch where you’re walking!”
Throwing those words, he turned and strode into the main hall.
Leaving Shen Yujiao standing there, utterly baffled.
Why was he angry? If he hadn’t suddenly been shameless, how would she have tripped?
That scoundrel, shifting blame onto her!
Fuming, she slammed the bedroom door shut, completely unaware that in the pitch dark, the man who had just gone inside walked back out again, carrying a bucket of cold water, his face black as thunder, heading to the backyard.
