As dusk dyed the window lattice purple, Jiang Wan used a silver needle to trim the lamp wick. The candle sputtered and popped, casting a glow that made the chill in her eyes all the more piercing. Lü'e pushed the door open, clutching a stack of account books; her skirt swept across the threshold, stirring a breeze as the books thudded onto the sandalwood table.
"Miss! Xiaotao has found out some news." Lü'e was panting, the silk flower on her temple having slipped behind her ear. "Cuier, the maid who was on duty in the garden that day, suddenly moved new silk fabrics into her room yesterday and even said she was saving money to buy her own freedom!"
Jiang Wan set down the silver needle, her fingernails tapping lightly against the cover of an account book. "New silk? She’s a cleaning maid; where would she get the monthly allowance to afford such things?"
"That’s exactly what’s suspicious!" Lü'e leaned toward the table, lowering her voice. "Xiaotao spent half the night fishing for information, but Cuier would only say it was 'a reward from someone' and clamped her mouth shut after that. But just think, Miss, in this mansion, besides..." She suddenly broke off, her gaze darting warily toward the door.
Jiang Wan stood up and closed the carved wooden door, the copper ring knocking against the wood with a soft sound. A night breeze drifted through the hall, causing the *Court Ladies Wearing Flowers in Their Hair* painting on the wall to sway slightly. She traced the edges of the account book, recalling Jiang Rou’s pallid face and Hongxiao’s panicked, evasive eyes when they were in Old Madame’s courtyard yesterday—the matter could not possibly be this simple.
"Go fetch Xiaotao," Jiang Wan said. As she turned, the pearl tassels in her hair shimmered in a fine spray of light. "Tell her to find out who Cuier has been close to lately. Also, bring me the duty roster for that day in the garden."
After the watch drums had struck twice, Xiaotao returned with dark circles under her eyes. In the dim, yellowish glow of the oil lamp, she unfolded a wrinkled sheet of rice paper. "Miss, Cuier changed her duty hours three times this month, all to the times you frequent the garden. And..." She swallowed hard. "She and Hongying from Jiang Rou’s courtyard were seen together at the rouge shop three times last month."
Jiang Wan’s fingertip glided over the duty roster, pausing at Cuier’s name. The vermilion annotations on the edge of the page were not yet dry; they were in the handwriting of her stepmother, Madame Li. She suddenly remembered the day she was reborn, when Madame Li was shedding crocodile tears in the ancestral hall, and a mutton-fat jade bracelet had slipped from her sleeve—the engravings were identical to the ones on Hongying’s wrist.
"Lü'e, go to the kitchen and borrow a ladder," Jiang Wan said, suddenly rising, her skirt brushing a wolf-hair brush off the desk. "Tonight at the hour of the Rat, we are going to the garden."
By the hour of the Rat, the moonlight, like silk soaked in cold water, lay chillingly across the winding veranda. Jiang Wan stepped on Lü'e’s shoulders to climb the rockery. As her fingertips touched the uneven crevices of the stone, she felt a few sticky beads of wax. She pulled a tinderbox from her sleeve and lit it; there, stark on the rock wall, was a partial rouge print in the exact shade of "Begonia Drunk," the rouge Hongying wore every day.
"So, it was here," Jiang Wan sneered. As she jumped down from the rockery, the hem of her skirt scattered a few fallen leaves. "They were hiding behind the rocks to spy. No wonder they knew what I said to my cousin."
Lü'e held the lantern closer, illuminating the carvings on the stone wall: next to a crookedly carved character for "Jiang," a new character, "Shen," had been etched, with strands of pink silk embedded in the strokes.
"This was clearly carved on purpose!" Lü'e stomped her feet in anger. "They were just waiting for a servant to discover it to confirm the rumors about you and your cousin!"
Jiang Wan used a handkerchief to wipe away the carving, the silk thread feeling warm against her fingertips. In the distance, the clapper sounded; it was the third watch. Looking at the lights still burning in Jiang Rou’s courtyard, she suddenly remembered how, in her past life, just before she was thrown into a pigpen, Jiang Rou had held a lantern just like that, shedding hypocritical tears beneath her window.
"Let’s go back." She tossed the handkerchief into the lantern. The flames roared upward, casting a crimson glow in Lü'e’s eyes. "Tomorrow, it’s time for some people to taste the bitter wine they’ve brewed themselves."
The next day at noon, Jiang Wan deliberately dressed in a plain white *ru* skirt, wearing only a sandalwood hairpin in her hair as she took Lü'e toward Jiang Rou’s courtyard. Passing through the corner gate, they bumped into Hongying coming out with a food box; the scent of rouge leaking from the crack in the lid was identical to the smell at the rockery the night before.
"Where is older sister heading?" Jiang Rou leaned against the doorframe, twirling her gold-plated nail guard. "Don't tell me you're going to see your cousin again?"
Jiang Wan did not answer and walked straight into the courtyard. On the stone table under the pomegranate tree, next to a half-eaten hibiscus cake, lay a copy of *The Story of Yingying*, and bookmarking the pages was the same green feather Hongying had worn two days prior.
"Younger sister has such elegant tastes." Jiang Wan picked up the bookmark, the green feather glinting coldly in the sun. "But why does this bookmark look exactly like Hongying’s jewelry?"
Jiang Rou’s expression flickered, and she forced a laugh. "It’s just the maids swapping things to wear; why must older sister make such a fuss?"
"Is that so?" Jiang Wan suddenly threw the bookmark onto the ground; the jade hit the stone table with a sharp chime. "Then, younger sister, can you explain why Hongying had a secret meeting with Cuier at the rouge shop? And why the 'Begonia Drunk' rouge, unique to your courtyard, was found on the rockery stone?"
Before her words could fade, a commotion erupted outside the courtyard. Several matrons dragged in a deathly pale Cuier; her hair was disheveled, and her clothes were stained with mud.
"Eldest Miss, please see the truth!" Cuier knelt with a thud, her knees hitting the bluestone floor with a dull sound. "It was Miss Hongying who gave me five taels of silver to watch you while I was on duty in the garden, and she even taught me how to carve the characters and spread the rumors..."
The nail guard in Jiang Rou’s hand clattered to the ground. "You... you lie! Father would never believe the nonsense of a base servant like you!"
"Oh?" Jiang Wan pulled an oil-paper packet from her sleeve and unfolded it to reveal several strands of silk covered in wax. "These were recovered from the crevices of the rockery, and they are the exact same material as the window gauze in your courtyard. And this—" She held up a crumpled banknote. "The fifty-tael banknote that Cuier hid in the sole of her shoe—the signature on it is..."
"Enough!" Madame Li’s voice came suddenly from outside the courtyard. She entered, leaning on a maid’s arm, the jade hairpin at her temple shaking in a way that made one’s heart flutter. "It is just the maids being ignorant and spreading a few idle words; why make such an unsightly scene?"
Jiang Wan curtsied, though her smile did not reach her eyes. "Stepmother is mistaken. This concerns my reputation and, more importantly, the face of the Marquis’s Mansion. If we don’t get to the bottom of this today, will it be Father and Stepmother’s turns to be gossiped about tomorrow?"
Madame Li’s face changed abruptly. Just as she was about to speak, footsteps sounded outside. Marquis Jiang strode across the threshold with a dark expression, the jade pendant at his waist clinking against his sword tassel. "Very well! I would like to hear for myself who is tarnishing the reputation of the Marquis’s Mansion!"
Cuier let out a wail and pointed at Jiang Rou. "It was the Third Miss! She said that as long as I ruined the Eldest Miss’s reputation, she would send me to Zuixian Pavilion to be a manager!"
"Father!" Jiang Rou rushed over to clutch the Marquis’s legs, her face smeared with tears. "I am wronged! It was older sister who framed me..."
Marquis Jiang kicked the hibiscus cake aside, its crumbs splattering onto Jiang Rou’s skirt. "You still dare to argue! Someone, drag Hongying to the ancestral hall and administer the family law! Jiang Rou, you are confined to Listening Snow Pavilion starting today; you are not to step out a single inch without my orders!"
As dusk deepened, Jiang Wan stood under the paulownia tree in her courtyard, listening to the cries coming from afar. Lü'e approached with a freshly brewed cup of Biluochun tea, the tea leaves swirling in the broth. "Miss, we have finally let out a breath of frustration."
Jiang Wan took a sip of tea, the bitterness spreading across the tip of her tongue. "This is only the beginning." She looked at the last trace of sunset on the horizon, thinking of those cinnabar-lacquered gates of the Crown Prince’s Mansion. "The true enemy is still waiting for me in the palace."
The night breeze swept up the fallen leaves, shredding the spiderwebs in the corner of the courtyard. As Jiang Wan turned, the sandalwood hairpin in her hair caught a warm, gentle light in the twilight—this game was merely a minor display of her edge. Every step of the path ahead would have to be taken more steadily, and more ruthlessly.