The next afternoon, an invitation arrived from the Green Vine Courtyard.
Cui'er brought it, standing at the study door with a smile and holding up a note folded into the shape of a flower petal.
"Your Highness, my mistress says she has blended several new kinds of incense and invites you to come and sample them."
Gu Moran opened the note and looked at it. A crooked little flower was drawn on it, with a line of writing beside the petals: Husband, you have nothing else to do anyway, so come on over.
The handwriting was cute, and the tone was even cuter.
But he knew all too well what filling lay beneath that cute exterior.
Little black sesame dumplings~
He tucked the note into his sleeve and followed Cui'er to the Green Vine Courtyard.
The courtyard had been arranged differently from the past two days.
The table and chairs had been moved to the center of the courtyard. Six bronze incense burners stood in a semicircle, two chi apart, each lid pierced with a different pattern of holes.
Six wisps of smoke drifted from the burners, each a different color and following a different course.
Shen Ling'er sat at the center of the semicircle, a plate of pine nut candy beside her and her chin resting on the back of her hand.
When she saw him enter, her eyes curved into crescent moons.
"You came so quickly, Husband."
"Ling'er invited me, so I came running."
"Sit, sit." She patted the chair beside her. "I've been studying how to blend incense lately and made six varieties. Please pick the one that smells best, Husband."
Gu Moran didn't sit down right away. He first walked past the six incense burners.
He walked slowly, pausing for two or three seconds before each burner, his nostrils twitching.
The first had a sandalwood base and a rather strong scent. Something had been mixed into it, but he couldn't identify it at once.
The second had a floral scent, with jasmine as its base. It smelled quite normal.
The third had a woody scent, like turpentine, but with a faint sweetness woven through it.
Benzoin.
He lingered for another two seconds in front of the third burner.
Benzoin, paired with the herbs the system had reported yesterday-peppermint leaves to sharpen the senses, clove powder to mask the smell, benzoin to calm the nerves...
Spirit-Relaxing Powder.
He had looked into her background at the Imperial Medical Bureau and knew that Spirit-Relaxing Powder was a formula the Shen Family never shared with outsiders. It was used mainly to treat palpitations and insomnia, with the side effect of lowering a person's guard and loosening their tongue.
Last time, she had put cattail pollen directly into the pastries. The method was crude, and he had exposed it on the spot.
This time, she had learned her lesson and switched to incense, letting him breathe it in himself.
He moved away from the third burner and continued along the row.
The fourth had a medicinal scent and smelled rather bitter. It didn't seem like a trap, but something there to make up the numbers.
The fifth was so faint that he could hardly smell anything at all.
He leaned closer and sniffed. It was just ordinary mugwort.
No other herbs had been added.
The sixth had a fruity scent and smelled pleasant, but it had nothing to do with Spirit-Relaxing Powder.
After making a circuit of the six burners, he went over to the fifth and sat down.
Shen Ling'er's eyes lit up.
Sure enough, he had sat down in front of the No-Trouble Incense-she had expected him to pick the safest one.
"You picked this one, Husband?"
"This one smells the best."
"Really? I think the third one is better."
"The third one is too sweet. I don't like sweet things."
Shen Ling'er tilted her head, seeming to consider something.
Gu Moran sat beside the fifth burner, leaning back against the chair in a relaxed posture, his right hand resting on the armrest with his fingers hanging loosely.
Then his index finger brushed the edge of the third incense burner's lid.
The touch was light, as though unconscious.
The lid shifted half a cun.
That half cun changed the direction of the smoke issuing from the third burner. Instead of rising toward the sky, it now followed the breeze toward where Shen Ling'er sat.
Shen Ling'er didn't notice.
All her attention was on his expression, searching his face for any trace of whether he had fallen for it.
Separated by the six incense burners, the two looked at each other.
"Husband, may I ask you a question?"
"Ask."
"Do you think I'm pretty, Husband?"
"Pretty."
"How pretty?"
"Among my six wives, you rank in the top three."
"Only the top three?" Shen Ling'er pouted. "Then who are the top two?"
"Liu Ruyan and Eldest Miss Su. You and Murong Xue are tied for third."
"Hmph, I don't accept that."
"If you don't accept it, you can try harder."
"How?"
"Poison me less and smile more."
Shen Ling'er opened her mouth, intending to retort, but the smoke from the third incense burner had been drifting around her for quite a while.
Spirit-Relaxing Powder's effects weren't strong. It wouldn't put a person to sleep; it merely relaxed the nerves, making them skip a step of thinking before speaking.
She had mixed the medicine herself, so she knew the dosage better than anyone.
But she hadn't expected the smoke to blow into her own face.
Gu Moran lifted his fingers from the armrest, took a piece of pine nut candy from her plate, and tossed it into his mouth.
"Ling'er, you're good with your hands."
"What hands?"
"Your hands at blending incense. You controlled the heat in all six burners just right, and the amount of smoke is even. That shows you put effort into getting the balance between temperature and the amounts of ingredients."
Shen Ling'er's mouth moved half a beat faster than her brain.
"Your fingers are pretty too, Husband."
The words were out.
She froze for a moment.
Gu Moran chewed the pine nut candy without responding, merely looking at her.
Shen Ling'er thought for two seconds before it dawned on her.
The smoke from the third burner was drifting toward her.
She turned to look. The third burner's lid was crooked by half a cun.
She turned back to Gu Moran. His right hand was resting on the armrest, and his index finger was just close enough to reach the third burner's lid.
"You moved my burner."
"I didn't move anything."
"You..."
"Ling'er, I'm very happy you think my fingers are pretty."
He stood up, walked over beside her, and reached out to straighten the third burner's lid.
His cuff brushed across the back of Shen Ling'er's hand.
It didn't touch her; it brushed her.
The fabric grazed her skin, leaving a faintly cool sensation.
Shen Ling'er's hand flinched.
She looked up. There was less than a chi between them.
"I'm very happy you complimented me, Ling'er."
Gu Moran bent down and pecked her earlobe, then turned and walked away, waving a hand behind his back without looking back.
"Farewell, Your Highness!" Cui'er called from the courtyard gate.
Shen Ling'er sat motionless in her chair.
She touched her ear.
It was burning.
"Cui'er."
"Yes!"
"Close the gate."
The gate closed.
Shen Ling'er jumped out of her chair, rushed to the medicine shelf, and pulled out the Shen Family Pharmacopoeia, flipping rapidly to the page on Spirit-Relaxing Powder.
Side effects: lowers the subject's guard and weakens their control over their emotions; may cause them to reveal their true thoughts without realizing it.
Her gaze swept downward.
Precautions: Spirit-Relaxing Powder is equally effective on the person who prepared it. Pay attention to the wind direction when using it.
She closed the book.
Then opened it again.
She looked at the line about "revealing their true thoughts without realizing it."
Then closed it again.
She stood in front of the medicine shelf clutching the book, her ears going from red to pink, then from pink back to red.
"Was I telling the truth?"
She asked Cui'er.
Cui'er didn't understand.
"What truth?"
"I said his fingers were pretty."
Cui'er glanced at her.
"Madam, were you affected by your own medicine?"
"Shut up!"
Shen Ling'er shoved the book back onto the shelf, sat down at the table, poured a cup of cool tea, and drank it down.
When she finished, her finger traced the rim of the cup, round and round.
His fingers really were pretty.
Long and slender, clean, with distinct knuckles and a little ink on the tips.
That had nothing to do with Spirit-Relaxing Powder.
She thought the same when she was clearheaded.
It was just that she wouldn't say it aloud when she was clearheaded.
Her ear still tingled. She buried her face in her arms.
After Gu Moran returned to the study, the system panel popped up with its data.
[Shen Ling'er's favorability: +4 (↑6). Source of fluctuation: the host gently accepted her emotional disclosure after Spirit-Relaxing Powder backfired, generating a sense-of-security tag for the first time. Wariness and curiosity coexist; she has begun to ask herself, "Is he really different?"]
It was positive.
Gu Moran looked at the +4, and the corners of his mouth curved upward.
The osmanthus cake incident had taken her from negative six to negative two, four points.
This time, the incense had taken her from negative two to positive four, six points.
Every time she made a move, he used it as a springboard.
The deeper the pit she dug, the higher the favorability he brought out of it.
"Eldest Miss Shen, keep digging."
He picked up the tea on the table and took a sip.
Another line of small text flashed at the bottom of the system panel.
[Monitoring: Shen Ling'er's current heart rate is elevated. Its duration has exceeded the effective window of Spirit-Relaxing Powder.] [Determination: not a residual reaction to the medicine.]