"Your Highness?" Princess Linchuan noticed something strange.
The prince coughed, covering his lips with his hands. Black blood oozed from between his fingers. "It's okay." He stared at the red mark on Jiang Songyi's neck. It was an old wound from a pair of silver scissors. It was left there three years ago on a snowy night in the northern border when the masked girl saved him.
Jiang Jinzhao was scolding the court doctor in the side hall when he saw a servant running towards him: "Master! The Crown Prince is vomiting blood!"
The blood in the copper basin reflected Jiang Songyi's pale face. She clenched her silver hairpins tightly, and the secret guard's whisper echoed in her ears: "Master, the wolf cubs from the northern border have found the capital."
…
As dusk soaked through the window paper of the ancestral hall, Jiang Yuyao slumped limply on the futon. Liao Xianxian, calculating the time, cried out, "Hurry, someone! The young lady has fainted!" The scream startled the crows from under the eaves, but failed to shake the solitary lamp in the study.
Jiang Jinzhao paused his brush on the rice paper, the ink spreading into a black spot. The servant looked at his expression and said, "Miss Yuyao."
"Go get the doctor from the Zhou residence." The wolf-hair brush fell heavily, turning another page from the copied "Instructions for Women." In the gilded incense burner on the desk, the sunken incense sticks my sister had given me last month had long since burned out.
In the west wing of the main courtyard, Xu's fingertips traced the pearl necklace on the gift list: "Songyi, would you like to wear this on your coming-of-age day?" Jiang Songyi lowered her eyes to stare at the chrysanthemum petals floating in the tea. Suddenly, Biluo's voice exploded in her ears: "The eldest son has sent the court doctor to the ancestral hall!"
"He's really kind." Madam Xu slammed the mother-of-pearl box shut. "Since you love your half-sister so much, why don't you go to the ancestral hall to keep her company?" Biluo responded and was about to pass on the message, but she heard Jiang Songyi chuckle, "Mother, why are you so angry? Brother is afraid that Sister Yuyao will get into trouble if she kneels down."
Mrs. Xu caught sight of her daughter clutching her handkerchief tightly and turned to say, "Tell the eldest son that, since he wants to fulfill his duty as an elder brother, he should go to the ancestral hall and copy the Classic of Filial Piety a hundred times."
Before he finished speaking, the beaded curtain rustled. Jiang Baichuan rushed in, carrying a brocade box: "Mother, look at this filigree gold hairpin." His voice stopped abruptly - the sneer in Jiang Songyi's eyes was colder than the dice he saw in the gambling house yesterday.
"You've arrived just in time." Xu grabbed the gift list and threw it over. "Take your gold and jade and go to the ancestral hall to keep your eldest brother company!"
As Jiang Baichuan was dragged through the hallway by two maids, seven or eight hairpins tinkled and fell from his arms. Jiang Songyi leaned over to pick up a butterfly-shaped hairpin inlaid with kingfisher feathers, and suddenly heard Xu sneer, "He's willing to buy a headdress for that concubine's daughter."
The ancestral hall was chillingly cold. Jiang Yuyao, wrapped in the fox fur coat Liao Xianxian had smuggled in, stared at the candlelight, counting the hours. The wooden door creaked open, and Jiang Jinzhao, breathing in the breath of snow, knelt on the adjacent futon.
"Brother!" Jiang Yuyao's eyes were filled with tears. "Yu'er knows she was wrong."
The rustling sound of a wolf-hair brush scraping against rice paper answered her. Spread out before Jiang Jinzhao was the guest list for Jiang Songyi's coming-of-age banquet, his red brush still lingering over the words "Princess's Mansion." The rouge Yuyao had deliberately spilled at the Peony Banquet that day seemed to stain her sister's skirt red again.
Jiang Yuyao caught sight of a crack on the edge of the inkstone—this wasn't the Duan inkstone she'd given her! Just as she was about to speak, she saw Jiang Jinzhao draw an ink circle around the three characters "Jiang Yuyao." The ink seeped through the back of the paper, just like her suddenly clenched palm.
In the main courtyard's warm room, Jiang Songyi played with the confiscated hairpin. Biluo suddenly leaned in and whispered, "The eldest son is copying the 'Book of Filial Piety.'"
“How much did you copy?”
"I've wasted three cuts of rice paper."
Jiang Songyi's fingertips brushed the sharp end of the golden hairpin when she heard Jiang Baichuan's wailing from outside the window: "Mom! This blue brick floor is freezing my knees!" She pushed open the carved window and saw Jiang Baichuan peeking through the crack of the door, shouting: "Those hairpins are for Qinghe!"
Mrs. Xu shoved the hand warmer into her daughter's hand and said, "Since it's for Qinghe, you should deliver it tomorrow." She sneered at the direction of the ancestral hall, "Let those two blind men see for themselves what true brotherly love is."
The midnight drum had sounded three times. Jiang Jinzhao rubbed his stiff wrists and caught a glimpse of Jiang Yuyao, dozing in a corner. The family tree on the altar had been blown open by the wind, revealing the three characters "Jiang Yuyao" in small, fresh ink on the yellowed pages—they were the words he had taught his sister to write when they were ten years old, holding her hand.
"Brother." Jiang Yuyao murmured in a dreamy voice, "Yu'er is cold."
Jiang Jinzhao paused as he untied his cloak, finally draping it over the copied "Book of Filial Piety." The still-dry ink on the words "blood relatives" gradually blurred into a blur.
The ancestral hall door hinges creaked as Jiang Baichuan was kicked through the threshold by a guard. The cold air from the blue brick floor crept up his knees. He grimaced and moved to Jiang Jinzhao's side, "Brother."
"Kneel straight." Jiang Jinzhao's ink-dipped pen tip hovered over the congratulatory paper. "Mother wants us to reflect on our mistakes, not to gossip."
Jiang Yuyao's eyes were filled with tears, and she deliberately dropped her handkerchief at Jiang Baichuan's feet: "Second brother, are you coming to accompany me too?"
Biluo walked in under the moonlight, carrying a medicine pot. Behind her, a maid held three bowls of medicine. "Madam said that the ancestral hall is cold and the three masters need to warm up."
Jiang Yuyao stared at the dark medicine in the bowl. The taste of coptis root made her throat tight. "I... I just drank it."
"The Second Young Lady is weak, so she should take more supplements." Biluo winked, and two maids held Jiang Yuyao's shoulders. The medicine bowl rested between her lips and teeth, and the bitter liquid flowed down her jaw and soaked through her clothes.
"Ahem!" Jiang Yuyao choked and her face flushed red. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jiang Baichuan counting copper coins, the jade hairpin in his palm radiating a warm glow. "Second brother's hairpin."
"It's none of your business." Jiang Baichuan stuffed the hairpin into his sleeve pocket. He had lost everything at the gambling den the day before, and this last one was to be used as an apology gift to Jiang Songyi.
When the three-watch gong sounded, Jiang Yuyao collapsed on the futon, retching. Biluo stood in the corridor and chuckled, "Second Miss, be careful. There's still Angelica and Astragalus Soup tomorrow morning."
The copper bells on the eaves jingled in the night wind. Jiang Yuyao clutched the corner of her clothes and sobbed, "Big brother, mother is trying to kill me."
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