Chapter 9

Everyone turned toward the sound.
A young man was approaching, as striking as a gust of fresh wind. He wore an elegant blue robe, his handsome features as if carved with care; his sword-like brows lifted slightly over bright, deep-set eyes.
Li Jinxi’s lips curved in an easy smile as he bowed properly to Li Yu. “Sister, I bid you peace.”
Li Yu frowned faintly at this younger brother. “A-Jin, why are you stopping me?”
Looking faintly abashed, Li Jinxi said, “Sister may not know, this Lady Shen was brought here by me. If my carelessness has led to such a misunderstanding, then the fault lies with your younger brother.”
The moment she saw the Third Prince, Shen Ling clung to him with her eyes like a drowning person spotting a lifeline. She broke free of the guards’ grip and looked up at him, pitiful as could be. “Your Highness…”
Li Yu’s brows drew together. She gestured, and the guards immediately blocked Shen Ling from throwing herself at him. “Explain,” she said coldly. “What do you mean by that?”
Li Jinxi smiled lightly. “As I passed through the city gate, this Lady Shen suddenly stopped my carriage, saying she wished to go to Mount Li to find her kin. I thought her quite pitiful and gave her a ride.”
Since he had been the one to bring her, seeing her about to be tossed out now pricked his conscience. He turned toward Shen Ling. “Have you found your elder sister, then?”
At his words, Shen Ling’s eyes brimmed over again, her misery almost theatrical. “Thanks to Your Highness, this humble girl… has indeed found her elder sister.”
Guileless as he was, Li Jinxi visibly relaxed. “Then all is well.”
He had no idea Shen Ling’s expression had only grown more strained.
Li Jinxi turned back to Li Yu. “Though she had no invitation, she is someone I brought in. I hope Sister will give me some face and allow her to stay.”
Li Yu’s anger flared. “Oh, A-Jin, you are forever soft-hearted, never asking who people are before dragging them along. And now that you’ve let someone use you, you still plead her case? Ask her who this so-called ‘elder sister’ is!”
At that, Li Jinxi’s smile froze. If things were really as his sister implied and he’d been used, then most of his dignity today had just been ground into the dirt. Face darkening, he looked at Shen Ling. “I don’t know which lady you were referring to as Elder Sister?”
Shen Qing’s intention had been simple: let Shen Ling make a fool of herself at the banquet. Then she and Li Yu could play good cop and bad cop, one scolding, one interceding, and grant her leave to stay.
That way, Shen Qing could search for the Glass Heart unimpeded, and Li Yu could gain a reputation for being kind and magnanimous.
In her previous life, Li Yu had lacked that sort of smooth, hypocritical polish. She was too blunt, too forceful, and paid for it with a bad ending. Now that Shen Qing had been reborn, she refused to let her friend walk the same path.
Li Jinxi and Li Yu were full siblings, both born of the Empress. The Third Prince was known for being kindhearted and upright, almost to a fault.
If Li Yu could also earn a reputation for gentleness in this lifetime, it would only help.
But now that her “silly little brother” had barged in, if Shen Qing continued to deny Shen Ling as a “younger sister,” Shen Ling wouldn’t just be slapping Li Jinxi’s face, she’d be trampling the Wanyi Princess’s dignity, too.
For her friend’s sake, Shen Qing swallowed her disgust and stepped forward before Shen Ling could speak. She bowed gracefully. “Your Highness, this girl is indeed this minister’s daughter’s younger sister.”
Li Yu stared at her in surprise.
Shen Qing discreetly patted the back of her hand. Li Yu instantly understood her meaning and, gritting her teeth, shut her mouth, though the look she shot her dim-witted brother was considerably darker.
Li Jinxi, on the other hand, was openly astonished. “Lady Shen? Since when did General Shen have another daughter?”
Shen Qing smiled without warmth. “This one is likely the daughter of some distant relative. She is not my father’s own child.”
“Ah… I see.” Li Jinxi’s smile turned stiff. So a relation so distant they barely shared a branch still counted as “Elder Sister.”
But if they acknowledged each other as sisters, what did his sister mean by saying he’d been “used”?
He hadn’t puzzled it out when Li Yu grabbed his sleeve. “Sister?” he asked, confused.
Li Yu turned to the gathered young ladies and smiled. “Please continue with the purification rites. This princess must step away for a while.”
With that, she dragged Li Jinxi off toward a nearby pavilion.
Naturally, she was going to “advise” her dear brother not to go picking up stray cats and dogs off the street anymore.
Shen Ling was left standing where she was.
As for Shen Qing, faced with such a troublesome person, her disgust was unrestrained.
With the princess’s order given, the guards no longer tried to throw Shen Ling out, but the girl’s dignity had already been shredded in front of everyone.
All those present knew perfectly well: Shen Qing had only recognized Shen Ling as her “sister” to spare the Third Prince and Princess Wanyi from losing face. As for Shen Ling herself, no one had a single good word to say.
So although Shen Ling technically remained at the banquet, no one went near her. She stood there with tears quivering on her lashes, entirely alone.
Even if she wanted to approach Shen Qing, she couldn’t.
Cuizhi had just come back with a tray of sanle mash wine and had already recruited several servants to keep watch. Any time Shen Ling tried to drift in Shen Qing’s direction, the servants cut her off without the slightest politeness. Should she persist, they’d simply shove her back out.
It vented Shen Qing’s irritation nicely, and saved her the effort.
At that moment, Shen Qing had just found her seat when she felt a tug at her sleeve. She turned, and found herself looking into a pair of clear, unguarded eyes.
It was Zhao Ranyan, daughter of the Jingzhaoyi family.
She carefully set down the white porcelain basin of ritual water she’d been carrying and settled at the mat beside Shen Qing. Cradling the basin, she dipped her head gratefully. “Thank you just now, for you and Her Highness stepping in. Otherwise, I… I don’t know what would have happened.”
When it came to girls who had already been tripped up by Shen Ling, Shen Qing felt nothing but sympathy. Her apricot eyes curved. “You’re too polite, Lady Zhao. It was nothing.”
That smile left Zhao Ranyan momentarily dazzled. Heat climbed into her cheeks and she grew visibly flustered. Pressing her lips together, she whispered, “If you don’t mind… you can call me by my courtesy name. It’s Mingyue.”
As she spoke, two small dimples appeared at the corners of her mouth.
Shen Qing warmed at once. “Then Mingyue mustn’t stand on ceremony either. Call me by my childhood name, Yuan.”
“Yuan…” Zhao Ranyan tried it shyly, clearly still unused to such easy familiarity.
After exchanging courtesy names, conversation flowed as easily as water between girls of the same age. Before long, Zhao Ranyan suggested with a shy brightness, “Why don’t I perform the ritual cleansing for Lady Shen with mugwort?”
Her offer was pure kindness; naturally, Shen Qing wouldn’t refuse. She nodded at once in agreement.
In the empty space of her heart, however, clouds were gathering. She wasn’t only worried about Shen Ling, who’d yet to stir, but also about whatever evil spirits might surface, and about Li Daoxuan over on the men’s side, kicking the ball and playing pitch-pot with the other noble youths.
Even Zhao Ranyan’s name pricked at her, an itch in the back of her mind. It sounded so familiar, and yet there was a veil over her memory; no matter how she reached for it, she couldn’t quite see through.
So Shen Qing was a little absent-minded, while Zhao Ranyan, full of earnest enthusiasm, took the mugwort from the white porcelain basin. She dipped it in the water and gently brushed Shen Qing’s shoulders and brow, murmuring a blessing as she did: “May Lady Shen be freed from sickness and calamity, may you live without illness, without worry.”
Without illness, without worry.
Shen Qing’s head snapped up; she looked straight at Zhao Ranyan. In that instant the fog cleared, and memories from her previous life flooded in with painful clarity.
She remembered now: at the last banquet, only one person died, and that person was Zhao Ranyan. Madam Zhao had cried until she went half blind, and the Jingzhaoyi himself had fallen on his way back from court and broken his leg.
If Shen Qing hadn’t come to this banquet today, she might have missed every sign of what was to happen. She would only have heard, much later, the obituary announcing Zhao Ranyan’s death. But now that she’d met this gentle, kind-hearted girl, there was no way she could just watch her walk toward the grave.
So she lifted her own sprig of mugwort, dipped it in water, and returned the gesture with care. “May Lady Zhao be blessed with peace and prosperity,” she said solemnly, “and live a hundred years.”
Once the ritual was done, the matrons from both households came forward to lift away the porcelain basin.
Zhao Ranyan was clearly more at ease with her now, no longer so stiff and nervous.
Shen Qing pointed to the hairpin in Zhao Ranyan’s hair. “Lady Zhao’s hairpin is truly lovely.”
Zhao Ranyan’s hand flew up to touch it; her brows curved in quiet delight. “This was my mother’s gift to me when I came of age.”
Shen Qing propped her chin on her hand, sounding half-envious. “I wonder which jeweler crafted it. This younger sister would very much like to have a hairpin as beautiful as yours.”
“I’d have to ask my mother when I go home,” Zhao Ranyan said.
“But I want to buy one today,” Shen Qing mused. She glanced up at the sky, still early yet, and then suggested, “The Zhao estate isn’t far from here. How about this: Mingyue, you slip home for a bit and ask your mother where the hairpin came from, and when I’m free I’ll come find you. Then we can stroll through Chang’an’s jewelry shops together. How does that sound?”
At that, Zhao Ranyan looked thoroughly torn. “But the banquet has only just begun, and the purification rites aren’t finished yet. If I leave my seat halfway through… wouldn’t that be improper?”
Shen Qing shook her head. “Why would it be? I’ll speak to the princess later. To be honest, this banquet doesn’t seem all that fun to me. Roaming the jewelers and hairpin stalls sounds far more enjoyable.”
Zhao Ranyan couldn’t help thinking the words a little outrageous. Who invites someone to skip out on a princess’s banquet the first time they speak?
But then she remembered how Shen Qing had stepped in to help her earlier. Clearly, this girl wasn’t ill-intentioned, she probably just really liked the hairpin.
She hesitated, caught between propriety and kindness.
Shen Qing, on the other hand, was suddenly more anxious than ever. A chill wind had crept into the banquet grounds without anyone noticing, and riding on that breeze was a thin thread of yin energy, so faint most people would never detect it.
Seeing the strain between Zhao Ranyan’s brows, Shen Qing forced herself to calm down. She could feel how unreasonable she was being.
She was like this because too many people had died around her in her last life. The moment she felt danger, she panicked.
But Lady Zhao was not her kin. Why should she agree to such an abrupt, inappropriate request?
Forget it. If soldiers come, block them; if water rises, pile up earth. If nothing else, she could keep Zhao Ranyan close to her side. As long as she protected her properly, she would not let the girl die right under her nose.
As that thought settled, Zhao Ranyan’s gentle, hesitant voice drifted back to her. “If Lady Shen truly likes it so much, then I’ll go home and ask my mother. But once I’ve asked, I must return. If my father hears I left the banquet early, he’ll scold me for sure.”
Shen Qing stared, genuinely taken aback.
Somewhere in her mind she’d assumed no one would actually agree to such an unreasonable request from a near stranger, and yet Zhao Ranyan had.
Still, this was the best outcome she could hope for. Shen Qing’s lips curved into a bright, delighted smile. “Then I must trouble Lady Zhao to go ahead. I’ll speak to the princess and follow right after you.”
Zhao Ranyan lowered her gaze and nodded, preparing to leave with the stewardess and her maid.
Just then, another voice called out, “Lady Zhao!”
Both Zhao Ranyan and Shen Qing turned.
A young woman with a bright, heroic face was approaching them. She dropped into a respectful curtsey. “Lady Zhao.”
Zhao Ranyan blinked in confusion. “And you are…?”
The newcomer was Liu Wanxiu, daughter of the Minister of Justice at Dali Temple, the very same girl who had earlier leapt to Shen Ling’s defense without knowing what had happened.
Her cheeks were flushed, and she looked shy and ill at ease. “I came to apologize for what I said before,” she said. “I hope you won’t hold it against me.”
Zhao Ranyan waved her hands at once. “You spoke out of concern, how could I blame you?”
At that, Liu Wanxiu finally let out a sigh of relief. “I’m glad you don’t. I truly was too quick to speak just now.”
“No, no,” Zhao Ranyan insisted.
With her apology made, Liu Wanxiu looked visibly lighter. She practically skipped off to find her own friends.
At last the two of them were alone again, and Zhao Ranyan turned to go.
The chill in the wind deepened, that thread of yin energy growing denser and thicker. Shen Qing looked up and saw dark clouds rolling in from every direction, swallowing patches of blue sky one by one. Even the air, hot only moments ago, turned abruptly cool.
She seized Zhao Ranyan’s sleeve.
Zhao Ranyan turned, puzzled, only to hear Shen Qing say quietly, “Don’t go.”
Because they wouldn’t be able to.
In Shen Qing’s eyes, shadows of yin energy had already ringed Mount Li, and now those shadows were slowly tightening around the banquet grounds.
With such a dense miasma of yin, there was only one likely culprit: ghost, nothing else.
And there weren’t just one or two, either. A glance told her there had to be at least twenty of them.
No wonder, in her previous life, that even with such a crowded gathering only one person died and a dozen were gravely injured.
After all, ghost couldn’t kill directly. They only confused people’s minds and lured them to destroy themselves.
Fortunately, Cuizhi’s pouch was already packed to the brim with blank yellow talisman slips, just in case.
All Shen Qing needed to do was draw enough Purity Talismans before the ghost arrived, hand one to each person, then set up a formation, fire off a signal flare, and wait for the professionals to arrive and clean up the mess.
She exhaled slowly in relief.
As for the men’s side of the banquet, well, with Li Daoxuan and his companions there, why should she worry?
With that thought, Shen Qing suddenly shouted, “Cuizhi! Bring the things!”
Cuizhi moved at once, sweeping everything off the low table in front of Shen Qing and replacing it with a bowl of cinnabar mixed with water, a stack of talisman paper, and a fine wolf-hair brush.
Shen Qing bent over the table and began drawing talismans without pause. First she had to lay down a formation to shield the women’s side. As long as the ghost hit the formation before breaking through, every noble girl here would already have a Purity Talisman in hand.
The other young ladies were startled by her sudden intensity. “Lady Shen, what are you doing?” someone asked.
Shen Qing kept her focus on the talismans. Cuizhi, well-schooled by her mistress beforehand, raised her voice and shouted, “Evil spirits are coming! Everyone, quickly line up over here and take a talisman from my lady for protection!”
A ripple of alarm swept the crowd, but for the moment, skepticism still lingered.
Luckily, many present knew exactly who Shen Qing was, if not the girls themselves, then the matrons watching over them. Some of the noble daughters stepped forward on their own to form a line, and the stewardesses passed the word along, dragging their young mistresses over to queue in front of Shen Qing.
Just then, a gale roared through the valley, and somebody let out a shriek.
Shen Qing finished the last stroke, grabbed five talismans, and flung them into the air. To the onlookers’ astonishment, the talismans hung there for an instant, then began to spin rapidly before shooting outward and vanishing into the surrounding space.
Within moments, the eerie wind battering the women’s section cut off abruptly. Outside their circle, however, trees and colored pavilions were still thrashing wildly, the sky growing noticeably darker as the evil spirits howled and tore at everything.
Faces went bloodless all around. No one doubted Shen Qing anymore. They rushed into line in front of her, waiting for their turn to receive a talisman.
Fortunately, for all their fear, these were daughters of high houses who’d been well raised. They understood perfectly that it was Shen Qing’s barrier keeping the evil spirits at bay. They didn’t shove or trample; they simply queued up as neatly as they could.
It saved Shen Qing a great deal of trouble.
She was still drawing non-stop when something cinched tight around her waist.
Cuizhi’s scream rang in her ear. “Miss!”
Shen Qing’s brush faltered. She looked down, and in the next instant her whole body went rigid, cold sweat breaking out along her back.