Chapter Eleven: The Fragrance

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Time always seemed to pass especially quickly when one was with the person one loved. Jing Hu had once thought the dragon-boat race unbearably long; after watching the opening, she had lost all interest.

Yet today, being with Ke Mingxu, she felt that time was passing far too quickly. Before she knew it, the race was already over.

Ke Mingxu had guessed correctly, just as Jing Hu had known he would. The dragon boat belonging to the Qi family of Marquis Chengyi’s household had won first place.

The youth wearing the blue forehead band was Ke Mingxu’s junior fellow disciple. When he came closer, Jing Hu leaned forward slightly, wanting to see his face more clearly.

The Dragon Boat Festival was hot, and he had just climbed down from the boat. His clothes were drenched with sweat, and naturally so was his forehead band.

The young man was handsome, with sideburns as sharply trimmed as if cut by a blade, eyes bright as morning stars, and a radiant smile. In terms of appearance, to judge fairly, he was every bit the equal of Ke Mingxu. Only their temperaments differed.

Before long, a young woman stepped forward, took out her handkerchief, and gently wiped the sweat from his brow.

Jing Hu saw only the woman’s profile, but she recognized her. She was Qingrou’s fifth sister, Xu Peirou, the Lady of Huaiyi, a title personally bestowed upon her by the Emperor.

In the tenth-odd year of the Zhaoyong era, only two women had received imperial titles as princesses of the imperial clan. One was Jing Hu herself, the Little County Princess. She was, after all, a daughter born of a concubine, and only a commandery prince’s legitimate daughter was normally eligible for the title of County Princess.

The other was this Lady of Huaiyi. Jing Hu had received her title because of her father’s favor, though it might also have had something to do with the fact that her mother belonged to the same clan as Empress Yuanli, the Emperor’s most beloved consort.

As for the Lady of Huaiyi, rumor had it that she had merely slighted the Grand Princess Zhenhui and thereby won the affection of Princess Zhenjing.

By that reckoning, her title was even more inexplicable than Jing Hu’s own.

Still, the two of them were being so intimate in full public view...

“Senior Brother Ke, your junior fellow disciple is married to Qingrou’s fifth sister?” she asked, as though she had suddenly remembered the gossip she had once heard about Marquis Chengyi’s household.

A duke’s daughter, raised beneath the care of Grand Madam Zhou, had remained unmarried for many years, only to end up marrying the youngest son of the already fallen household of Marquis Chengyi.

There had been no small amount of discussion in the capital at the time. But Jing Hu had never taken much interest in marriages. With that much time to spare, she would rather play a few more rounds of dominoes.

She had not expected that she would be able to connect all those scattered details today.

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Ke Mingxu’s junior fellow disciple was younger than he was, and yet he had already married. Then what of Ke Mingxu...

Ke Mingxu continued gazing in that direction and remained silent for quite some time. He looked somewhat cold, though that coldness seemed only to be a shell wrapped around himself. Whenever he spoke to Jing Hu, his tone remained gentle.

“Yuanfang married the Lady of Huaiyi from the Duke Dingguo’s household. She is also my cousin. They have only recently wed, so naturally their feelings for each other are still very deep.”

Jing Hu suddenly hesitated, unsure whether she should continue asking questions. She did not know why Ke Mingxu’s mood had suddenly grown so heavy.

After thinking it over, she gave him a sweet smile, tugged at his sleeve, and squeezed in front of him, blocking the view of the people outside the window.

“Senior Brother Ke, shall we dine at Panmoon Tower tonight? I haven’t been out for ages. I’ve been shut up at home for more than half a month, and there hasn’t even been anyone to play with me.”

She made herself sound so pitiful that by the end her words had taken on a slightly coaxing, wheedling note. Ke Mingxu’s gaze naturally settled upon her.

He wondered whether the Little County Princess knew how lovely she was. Given time, she would surely become a beauty capable of captivating an entire city. When beauty was unaware of itself, those traces of innocence were always the most endearing.

The capital’s two great beauties had both already found husbands. He wondered where this peerless blossom would one day bloom.

Ke Mingxu ought to have refused. He had planned to spend the evening helping his teacher restore an ancient text. The *Tale of Yan Dan* had only been restored halfway, and with care, he could finish it tonight.

But how could he fail to see that she had noticed something was wrong with him and wanted to comfort him?

Thus, he did not refuse. “The Crown Prince presumably will not be returning today. I came out with only a light escort and did not bring much silver. Little County Princess, did you happen to bring any money with you?”

Jing Hu was stunned when she heard this. In the past, whenever she played dominoes, she had merely assisted her grandmother, the Dowager Commandery Princess of Yongning, in keeping track of the tiles. The money they won did not belong to her, and most of it went toward purchasing the latest collectible domino sets from the Fortune Pavilion.

The only time she had ever taken money out with her had been in the third month, when she went to a teahouse to play dominoes. After her elder brother Jing Shen had dragged her home, her mother had refused to let her carry money whenever she went out.

She had no idea whether the two guards who had accompanied her had any money on them. But she was a County Princess, and Ke Mingxu was a top-ranking scholar—wouldn’t it be utterly humiliating if they had to borrow money from the guards just to pay for a meal?

Jing Hu steeled herself and removed the pair of red-coral hairpins securing her hair.

Her father had given them to her when she was ten. They were made from the reddest and most beautiful coral of the Eastern Sea, set together with the roundest, lustrous pearls.

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Jing Hu might have loved playing dominoes best of all, but like any young girl who cared about her appearance, she naturally adored jade, pearls, and other ornaments. This pair of hairpins was her most treasured possession.

If she had known things would turn out this way, she would never have worn them today.

The Little County Princess held the hairpins out to Ke Mingxu and asked, “Senior Brother Ke, do you know how much it costs for two people to dine at Panmoon Tower?”

She extended the hairpins toward him. “Would these be enough?”

Ke Mingxu took them with a smile and examined them in his hand for a moment. Then he laughed.

“It was wrong of me to tease you like that, Little County Princess. You needn’t give up your hairpins. I can still afford the price of one meal.”

Jing Hu would never normally have fallen for such a trick, but she seemed to possess an instinctive trust in him. When he said this, she actually believed him and began to fret in earnest.

She did not take the hairpins he offered back. Instead, she slipped her hands behind her back.

“You teased me, Senior Brother Ke, and made me truly nervous for once.”

“Of course you should be the one treating me to this meal. But there isn’t a bronze mirror here. How am I supposed to put these hairpins back into my hair evenly? It seems I’ll have to trouble you to do it for me.”

There was a hint of slyness in her smile, but she was not entirely unreasonable. After all, she was a Little County Princess born to wealth and honor; such things had always been done for her by others.

Ke Mingxu therefore walked around behind her and carefully put the pair of hairpins back in place. When Jing Hu had removed them, she had inevitably pulled out a few strands of her hair. He meticulously smoothed each one back into order.

Though she was still young, she had been blessed with magnificent hair—dark as clouds, its loose strands flowing like willow branches. In a few more years, when she came of age, she would surely be even more beautiful.

With Ke Mingxu standing behind her, Jing Hu immediately found her thoughts wandering. Apart from her maids, not even her parents or elder brothers had ever done something like this for her.

In her mind, she pictured him standing behind her, placing the hairpins into her hair. The pleasant scent of pine and cypress still clung to him, mingled faintly with the fragrance of sweet flag blossoms, which spread through the air with his movements.

It was the scent she loved most.

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