Chapter Four: Coral

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To her surprise, Ke Mingxu recognized her and treated her gently. Had he been paying attention to her all along? But when exactly had he come to know her? She had been away from Yanjing for more than half of last year.

For the past two weeks, Jing Hu had been staring absentmindedly at the handkerchief he had lent her that day. It was nothing luxurious—just an ordinary cotton cloth.

One corner was embroidered with a red-crowned crane. Sister Qing had told her that the family totem of the Ke household was the red-crowned crane.

On another corner, she had personally embroidered a swallow with a golden forehead, the imperial totem. After some thought, she stitched a coral flower by the swallow’s beak.

A swallow carrying a flower—she admired her handiwork in the sunlight and felt quite pleased.

Jing Hu’s name always misled others. They thought the “Hu” in her name meant coral from the Eastern Sea, but few knew it actually referred to the coral flower.

When her mother was pregnant with her, foreign envoys had brought rare flowers and herbs as tribute. Among them was a pot of coral flowers granted by the emperor.

Her mother tended to that flower every day and gave birth to Jing Hu, a girl as beautiful as a coral blossom. That was the origin of her name.

Though her mother and elder brother often said she was uneducated, aside from playing bone dominoes, she excelled in needlework. She had embroidered a long scroll based on Qian Weicheng’s "Spring All Things Together," which even the emperor had praised.

Playing bone dominoes was a pastime for her; so was needlework. Sometimes, she would be so absorbed that whole days passed with the sunrise and sunset unnoticed.

If she couldn’t even do needlework, these days of confinement would be unbearable.

The day she parted ways with Zhen Ning and the others, she suddenly remembered one question Qing Rou had yet to answer.

Ke Mingxu was no longer young. Even in scholarly families, he should have been married by now.

Had he married? Was he engaged? If so, which family’s daughter did he wed?

She could have asked her sister-in-law directly, but she didn’t like her much. She found her sly and scheming—a stark contrast to Ke Mingxu.

And she felt uneasy, as if her cunning sister-in-law would see through her true intentions even with a simple question.

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So she could only wait for Sister Qing to clarify her doubts. Lately, even playing bone dominoes had lost its charm.

Ever since November last year, Sister Qing’s mother had fallen ill and moved to Xihe Garden for recuperation. Sister Qing needed to attend to her constantly. The last time they met, Sister Qing’s liveliness was a good sign.

Her own confinement was due to her mother, the imperial consort, clashing with the Princess Consort of the Commandery Prince. Every day, her mother feigned illness, keeping her father, the Prince of Yongning, confined to his chambers.

The Princess Consort hailed from the Duke of Dingguo’s household—actually Sister Qing’s own aunt. The noble families of Yanjing were intermarried in a tangled web.

She was but a hollow figure—well-read in poetry and literature but only knew how to wield power in the inner chambers. Whenever her mother feigned illness, she used that as an excuse to confine her as well.

The Princess Consort knew Jing Hu’s spirited nature—like a wild horse without reins, she couldn’t stay indoors for long. If only she could persuade her mother to stop the charade, she’d be free to go out and play.

Jing Hu knew the Princess Consort bore ill will toward her and her mother. When she was little, she might have thrown tantrums before her mother to hasten her recovery.

But now that she was grown, she understood the inner palace struggles. Showing any weakness meant the opponent would forever trample on it, leaving no way to recover.

Her fondness for going out was her weakness, a lever the Princess Consort wielded. This time it was her mother’s illness; next time, some other excuse would keep her locked away, never to roam freely again.

So these days, she spent her time locked in the Qixue Pavilion with her mother, locked in a silent standoff.

After two weeks, she was near her limit. If she weren’t allowed out soon, she feared she’d climb the short-necked tree in her courtyard and scale the wall to escape.

As she entered the Qixue Pavilion, mulling over the consequences if caught sneaking out, her mother called to her, “Hu’er, what are you thinking about?”

In earlier years, her mother’s feigned illness required her to look haggard. But now the trick had grown old. Having used cosmetics, the nearly forty-year-old woman still had firm, fair skin without a single wrinkle.

She even looked younger than the Princess Consort, who was almost ten years her junior.

As soon as Jing Hu entered, her mother ordered, “If you have nothing to do, don’t loiter around me. You’ve skipped bone dominoes for several days, and you look listless.”

She handed her a food box decorated with crimson peonies and bees. “Take this to your sister-in-law. This is the first batch of lotus seed pastries from the Sanqin Studio today. She likes them.”

It was merely an errand, and Jing Hu had little temper before her mother.

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Unlike her, her mother was fond of this daughter-in-law.

After all, she was the legitimate eldest granddaughter of the Grand Tutor Ke, while her elder brother was a son of a concubine. By rank, they had indeed married up.

But her mother’s fondness was not just due to lineage. More importantly, it was her eldest son, the heir Jing Xun, who had originally negotiated the marriage.

He had refused to marry the crown prince’s daughter and had chosen to marry the son of a concubine instead, with no objection from Grand Tutor Ke. Wasn’t this proof that her own son was far superior to the fool born to the Princess Consort?

Jing Hu, however, thought differently. Her heir brother favored a young lady from the Wan family and had even secretly fled to the northwest for her, only returning this March.

Others didn’t know, but she did. Once, while going out to play bone dominoes at the Li household, she had met Jing Xun with that Wan family maiden.

Her useless brother was truly obsequious in front of her. To silence her, he had even bought her a full set of coral hair accessories.

Jing Hu promptly sent them to the pawnshop, exchanged them for silver, and then went to the gambling pavilion to buy a set of bone dominoes made of conch shell—the set she had coveted for a long time but never saved enough money to buy.

Giving a gift without knowing the recipient’s tastes—no wonder he couldn’t win over that Wan lady and had fled to the northwest to nurse his broken heart. Pathetic.

Soon, Jing Hu arrived at Hejing Hall, where her elder brother and sister-in-law lived. At that moment, her sister-in-law was speaking with someone in the main hall.

As she entered the courtyard, a small maid approached her. Since there was a visitor, it was convenient. She had planned to put down the food box and leave but suddenly heard Ke Mingxu’s voice.

She couldn’t have misheard.

“...It’s just that you’re overthinking. Matters like these can’t be rushed; take your time. There’s no need to take medicine—just make sure you replenish your energy and qi regularly.”

Jing Hu couldn’t help but smile and hurried toward the main hall, lifting her skirts as she went.