The bluestone steps were covered with crabapple petals. Jiang Yuyao twisted her handkerchief and gazed toward the main hall. Jiang Jinzhao was reviewing the list of congratulatory speeches with the ceremonial officer. As he traced the rice paper with a wolf-hair brush, the bruises left by the ancestral hall's blue bricks were visible on his sleeve.
"Second brother." She turned to look for Jiang Baichuan, but saw him squatting under the veranda, gesturing to the cook: "The roasted venison needs to be sliced thinly. Songyi doesn't like thick slices!"
Peng Yuyan tugged at her sleeve: "Your brothers are also helpless." She deliberately raised her voice, "Unlike my brother, who only knows how to do things all day long."
"Do you know about the coral tree you're sending to the county lady?" Peng Xuanyue passed by, holding a brocade box. A ray of red light shone through the cracks in the box lid. "Just now I saw your brother picking out this in the storeroom for half a day. He was planning to send this."
Jiang Yuyao dug her fingertips into her palm. The red coral was a tribute Jiang Baichuan had received for his birthday last year. She had begged for it for a long time but it hadn't been given to her.
Suddenly, the jingling of rings and pendants could be heard from the main hall. Fifth Princess Xinyi Mingyao, twirling Buddhist beads, entered the courtyard. Her plain brocade robes couldn't conceal her air of nobility. "I've heard in Rong'en Temple that the Yongding Marquis's mansion has produced a remarkable county lady."
Yang Shuyu held her arm and chuckled: "Princess, you don't know, this county lady is..."
"Greetings, Princess!" Jiang Yuyao suddenly knelt and shouted, causing Peng Yuyan to stumble. The gravel on the blue bricks hurt her knees. When she looked up, her face was already terrified. "I have spoken out of turn. I beg the princess to punish me."
Xinyi Mingyao lowered her eyes to examine the face that bore a striking resemblance to Jiang Songyi. That day in the imperial study, the memorial from the Marquis of Yongding, accusing her of "excessive arrogance," still sat on her father's desk.
"Slap your face." The Buddhist beads brushed across Jiang Yuyao's cheek. "I hate people who try to be clever the most."
Yang Shuyu's gilded armor had already touched Jiang Yuyao's cheek. Peng Yuyan was about to dissuade her when Jiang Baichuan suddenly rushed over with a kitchen knife in hand: "Your Highness! The kitchen has just steamed some fresh vegetarian dumplings!"
The cold light of the blade flashed across the Buddhist beads, and Xinyi Mingyao took a half step back. Jiang Baichuan took the opportunity to pull Jiang Yuyao up and said, "This girl is clumsy. I will take her to the kitchen to help with odd jobs!"
At the corner of the corridor, Jiang Songyi was handing the red coral tree to the housekeeper. Jiang Baichuan paused, and the jade hairpin in his sleeve fell to the ground with a clang. Jiang Yuyao picked it up first: "Second brother, this is it."
"I picked it up on the street." Jiang Baichuan snatched the hairpin and stuffed it into Jiang Songyi's pocket. "If you think it's ugly, just throw it away."
Jiang Songyi stroked the crooked orchid pattern on the hairpin—it was clearly the one she had asked Jiang Bochuan to carve for her coming-of-age ceremony two weeks before he disappeared. That day, he had said, "I'd rather go gamble than carve this crap."
Suddenly, bells and drums rang out in the main hall. Xinyi Mingyao looked at Jiang Songyi, who had arrived late. As her crimson skirt brushed past her feet, the red mark on her neck stung her eyes—this was where the Northern Frontier assassin's silver scissors should have been.
"The county lady is so arrogant." The Buddhist beads slammed on the table. "You made me wait for a full quarter of an hour."
Jiang Songyi knelt and saluted, "I was just checking the purple jade crown awarded by the Queen Mother." She raised her eyes and smiled slightly, "Since the princess is wearing a monk's robe, I think you don't mind reciting the Heart Purification Mantra a few more times."
Xuan Qi nearly laughed out loud from his perch on the beam. The girl who had gouged out flesh on that snowy night three years ago was still as sharp-tongued as ever.
At the coming-of-age ceremony, just as Jiang Jinzhao was reciting the words "a refined and elegant mind," Mei Weixing suddenly fell into a jar of wine. Peng Yuyan screamed and overturned the table, revealing a mandarin duck bellyband buried under the dishes.
"This isn't it." Yang Shuyu exclaimed, covering her lips with her hands. "It's from the Peony Banquet."
Xinyi Mingyao's Buddhist beads suddenly broke, sending the sandalwood beads tumbling under Jiang Songyi's skirt. She bent to pick them up, only to see a pair of silver scissors with Northern Frontier runes engraved on the inside—exactly the same silver scissors her savior had left behind three years earlier.
The gold bracelet on Jiang Yuyao's wrist banged against the bluestone table, causing her eyes to turn red with pain. "Fifth Princess, you're making things difficult for me. Sister Songyi will definitely be furious." She deliberately showed the bruise on her wrist. "My father loves you the most. If you knew..."
"Do you think I'm a three-year-old child?" Xinyi Mingyao crushed the teacup with her fingertips, and the glaze flakes pierced into Jiang Yuyao's palm. "If Marquis Yongding really loved you, why would he let you wear last year's old clothes to the banquet?" She had already seen the frayed Suzhou embroidery on the hem of Jiang Yuyao's skirt. It was the one she wore at the Shangyuan Palace Banquet.
Yang Shuyu sneered and pulled off Jiang Yuyao's scarf. "The Marquis took half a month off to prepare for your coming-of-age ceremony, and all the military colleagues came to watch. On the day of your coming-of-age ceremony, the Marquis was at the border and didn't even send a letter home, right?"
Jiang Yuyao suddenly lowered her head and sobbed, her tears falling on Xinyi Mingyao's deerskin boots: "Sister is the jewel of the Marquis's Mansion, I am no match for her." Before she could finish her words, her chin was pinched and her face was lifted up. The familiar jealousy danced in the Fifth Princess's phoenix eyes.
"In that case, I'd like to see the quality of this pearl." Xinyi Mingyao shook her off, his gilded armor brushing against Yang Shuyu's sleeve. "Go, invite County Lady Jiaqing."
A sudden commotion erupted at the banquet. Jiang Songyi was helping the old lady to her seat, her moon-white skirt sweeping across the blue bricks, and the silver butterfly-like hairpins in her hair fluttered, ready to take flight. Xinyi Mingyao's breath caught—that woman, without makeup, made all the peonies in the garden look gaudy.
"The lady's attire today is rather plain," Xinyi Mingyao said deliberately, crushing a grape between her fingers. The purple-red juice flowed down the table, reminiscent of the bloodstains on the face of the dancer she had disfigured last year.
Jiang Yuyao quickly replied, "Sister has never liked bright colors." She tugged at her lilac-colored dress, the material of which was originally given to her by Jiang Songyi because she thought it was too bland.
Xinyi Mingyao, however, was no longer listening. She stared at Jiang Songyi's jade-like profile and thought of her father's newly acquired Hetian jade—a flawless object that should be smashed to pieces.
Yang Shuyu suddenly screamed, "Ah!" Everyone turned to see the old lady's cane, supported by Jiang Songyi, slip. Her moon-white figure, like a flowing cloud, swooped down the steps. Her dark blue hair brushed against Xinyi Mingyao's desk, emitting a faint, bitter medicinal aroma.
"Grandmother, be careful." Jiang Songyi's fingertips gently rested on the old lady's elbow. The jade bracelet on her wrist made Xinyi Mingyao's eyes turn green. It was the ice-type jade tribute from Nanzhao. She had begged her father for three months last year, but he still refused to give it to her.
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