Jinghe Year Fifteen, Fourth Month, First Day. Clear skies.
The Qinhuai's spring waters had just risen level with the banks. Willows on either shore unfurled their green, and spring haze filled the view.
Painted pleasure boats came and went, voices in the Wu Dialect carrying between them. It was Jinling's season of warmth.
An official boat cut through the bustle of the Qinhuai from the south, slowly making its way in.
Wei Nisheng stood at the bow in a scarlet robe, a Silver Fish hanging at his waist, his Black Gauze Cap imposing and proper.
His gaze swept past the mist-veiled willows on both banks toward the city walls emerging in the distance.
When he had left the capital in the first month, the spring chill had still bitten, and remnants of snow had lingered along the canal banks.
Now he returned in the fourth month, and spring filled the city, brushing against his face.
The boat gradually slowed. The open countryside fell away, and the city walls appeared along both banks of the Qinhuai.
Several miles farther on, Wei Nisheng was surveying the riverside city with the lofty bearing of an Imperial Envoy.
Yet when his eyes caught sight of the inner Qinhuai, he could not help freezing.
There, beside the Qinhuai River, stood a little pavilion with winglike eaves and vermilion railings, weathered by years.
A woman stood inside in a Lotus Root spring dress, both hands resting on the railing as she leaned forward slightly to gaze across the river.
Her skirt spread in overlapping folds like lotus leaves. Her hair was neatly pinned with a single plain Silver Hairpin, and wisps beside her temples brushed her cheeks, making her face seem all the more white as jade.
Fu Niang watched the official boat enter