He pulled open a drawer and took out six sheets of xuan paper. On each, he wrote a name followed by a sentence.
Su Yao: Just be neither servile nor overbearing.
Shen Ling'er: Watch your mouth.
Murong Xue: Don't draw your blade.
Liu Ruyan: No need to put on a show.
Lin Qingdai: Endure.
Xie Wanqing.
His brush hovered for a long while.
The first five had too many thorns; she had none. Someone without thorns was the most vulnerable before Noble Consort Chen, because she could see right through them at a glance.
He put brush to paper: Just be yourself.
He folded the sheets and called for Uncle Fu.
"Deliver these to the six courtyards."
"Your Highness, will you accompany them tomorrow?"
"Mother didn't ask me to."
"But what if..."
"What if what? Are you afraid they'll tear down Hanzhang Hall?" He crossed one leg over the other. "Don't worry. They know better than you do."
Uncle Fu left.
Gu Moran was alone in the study. In the corner of the system panel, a countdown was ticking away.
[Countdown until Ye Qingyun, the Son of Destiny, arrives in the capital: ten days.]
On one side, an enemy was drawing near; on the other, an assessment within the family.
He stared blankly at the ceiling for a while, then closed the panel.
The next day, outside Hanzhang Hall.
Six people stood on the stone steps, in six different outfits, each standing in her own way.
Su Yao was at the front, her manner so proper that no one could find fault with it.
Murong Xue had changed into everyday clothes. Lin Qingdai held both hands behind her back, her chin raised.
Shen Ling'er stood half a step behind Su Yao, clutching her sleeve.
Liu Ruyan stood in the quietest corner.
Xie Wanqing was at the very back, two paces apart from the others.
Eunuch Zhang emerged from the hall.
"Her Highness the Noble Consort says you'll enter one at a time, each for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. Side Consort Su, please go first."
Su Yao stepped into the hall.
She emerged a cup of tea later, her back still straight, but the crease between her brows that had been there for days had eased a little.
Shen Ling'er came up to her. "Sister Su, what did Mother ask?"
Su Yao glanced at her. "It was fine."
She said no more.
Shen Ling'er entered the hall.
Hanzhang Hall was more simply furnished than she had expected. There was a cushioned daybed, a low table, and several pots of orchids, with no unnecessary ornaments.
Noble Consort Chen sat on the daybed, relaxed, looking less as though she were receiving her daughters-in-law than waiting for someone to drop by.
"Are you accustomed to living in the prince's residence?"
"I am. His Highness treats me very well."
"I hear you began studying pharmacology at five. How many prescriptions can you make up now?"
"Over three hundred common ones. I can recognize seventy or eighty percent of the less common ones, too."
Noble Consort Chen nodded. "My hands and feet have been cold since autumn began. The imperial physicians have given me a pile of prescriptions, but none has helped. Do you have a remedy?"
Shen Ling'er hadn't expected to discuss actual pharmacology. Her mouth moved faster than her mind.
"Mother, this isn't deficiency cold; it's liver qi stagnation. In autumn, lung metal overcomes liver wood, and qi and blood draw inward, leaving the extremities cold. The root is in the liver, not the kidneys. Warming tonics won't work; you need to soothe the liver. Eight fen of bupleurum, six fen of white peony, four fen of angelica, two fen of mint, and three slices of fresh ginger to guide the medicine. Take it before meals and avoid spicy food."
Only after she finished did she remember whom she was speaking to.
Noble Consort Chen looked at her.
"Ling'er, your grandfather taught you well."
When she came out, her lips were curved in a smile. She couldn't suppress the delight of being praised by an elder.
Murong Xue strode in and sat down on an embroidered stool, her legs spread as if she were riding a horse.
Noble Consort Chen didn't correct her posture.
"How far are you from home?"
"Half a month's ride on a fast horse."
"Do you miss home?"
"No."
"Really?"
Murong Xue didn't answer.
The hall was quiet for several breaths.
Noble Consort Chen spoke, and not in the language of the Central Plains.
She stumbled over the words, her tones were off, and her articulation was clumsy, but she got every syllable right.
The language of the Northern Territory.
Translated into the language of the Central Plains, it was six words: "Child, you've suffered a grievance."
Murong Xue's throat moved, and it was a long while before she spoke.
"Where did you learn that?"
"When I was young, I dealt with an envoy from the Northern Territory and learned a few phrases. I've forgotten most of them. This is the only one I remember."
Murong Xue stood. She pressed her right fist to her chest and bowed.
A Northern Territory military salute.
"Thank you."
Lin Qingdai went in with her face taut and came out with her head lowered.
Shen Ling'er asked what Mother had said to her.
She pressed her lips together, then relaxed them. "She said, 'Qingdai, don't always bottle things up. Remember to massage your wrists after sword practice.'"
Liu Ruyan stayed the longest, for two cups of tea.
Her face was calm when she came out, but her steps were half a beat slower than when she'd gone in.
No one asked, and she said nothing.
The last one.
Xie Wanqing had stood the farthest away from beginning to end.
Before entering the hall, she looked back. Su Yao gave her a slight nod, and Shen Ling'er smiled at her.
The hall doors closed.
When they opened again, Xie Wanqing's shoulders had relaxed. Her eyes were a little red, but she hadn't shed any tears.
Shen Ling'er went up to her. "Sister Xie, are you all right?"
Xie Wanqing opened her mouth, her voice nasal.
"Her Highness is very gentle."
The six of them walked out through the palace gates together. Six carriages were waiting, and their wheels rolled over the bluestone paving as they headed for the prince's residence.
Inside Hanzhang Hall.
Noble Consort Chen sat alone for a while.
"He chose well with these six girls."
Eunuch Zhang bowed. "Does Your Highness mean the prince has a good eye?"
"I mean he's thoughtful." She walked to the window. "A true wastrel wouldn't have lined a cold-sensitive girl's wedding dress with herb-scented cotton."
She returned to the daybed and picked up the half-finished knee guards. After two breaths, she set down her needle and thread.
"Eunuch Zhang, look into something for me. Find out what books the third prince has been reading in his study lately, and whom he's been seeing. Quietly."
"Yes."
It was already dark when Gu Moran returned to the residence.
He entered waving a wine flask and shouted, "Today's wine has been watered down again!" Then he staggered all the way back to his study.
The door closed, and his smile vanished.
He took out the report Uncle Fu had delivered: all six slips of paper had been returned, each with something added.
Su Yao's was untouched, but it had been folded differently, changed from a square fold to the envelope fold used by the Chancellor's residence. She had read it, but didn't want anyone to know she had.
On the back of Shen Ling'er's, she'd drawn a funny face.
Murong Xue's had been pinned to the table with a dagger. Beside "Don't draw your blade," she'd added a crooked Chinese character.
"Fine."
Liu Ruyan's had come back clean, without a mark. But the paper carried the faintest scent of face powder.
Lin Qingdai's had been torn in two. But both halves were there; she hadn't thrown them away.
Beneath Xie Wanqing's note, a line had been added in small characters.
"I shall remember."
He gathered the six slips and tucked them beneath the inkstone.
The system panel popped up.
[Changes in the six beauties' affection after the assessment at Hanzhang Hall:] [Su Yao: -60 (↑3)] [Shen Ling'er: +8 (↑4)] [Murong Xue: -21 (↑9)] [Liu Ruyan: -13 (↑3)] [Lin Qingdai: -57 (↑5)] [Xie Wanqing: +7 (↑4)] [Overall assessment: Noble Consort Chen's acceptance produced a "mother-in-law's approval" effect on the six beauties, indirectly increasing their perception of the host's sense of belonging in the family.]
All six had gone up.
He leaned back in his chair and tapped the tabletop twice.
An increase was a good thing.
But Murong Xue's had risen the most, by nine points.
"Mother helped a great deal, but affection gained through outside help like this isn't stable. I need to hold on to it myself."
He dismissed the panel and picked up Strategies for Governing the State, which he had read halfway through.
He had read two pages when footsteps sounded outside the courtyard.
Very light. One person, wearing soft-soled shoes.
His ears twitched.
His five senses really had become much sharper after the marrow-cleansing pill.
The footsteps stopped at the door.
Two knocks.
"Husband, I've brought you some tea."
It was Shen Ling'er's voice.
He put down the book, walked to the door, and pulled it open.
She stood outside, holding a pot of tea.
She wore a moon-white skirt and a plain silver hairpin, and her face was clean and bare of makeup.
She looked different from the well-behaved girl who had met the Noble Consort that day, and different from her usual smiling-tiger self.
Shyness was written all over her face.
Gu Moran looked down at the teapot in her hands.
Then he looked at her skirt.
"You didn't bring anything strange tonight?"
"No."
"No pastries?"
"No."
"No incense burner?"
"I didn't bring any of them."
Gu Moran tilted his head and tapped the doorframe with the book in his hand.
"My beloved consort comes to my door empty-handed. That's even more unsettling than when you bring something."
"If you're afraid, Husband, shall I leave?"
"Who said I was afraid?"
He pulled the door open.
"Come in."