Ye Qingyun put down the wine pot.
He remained seated, his hand still resting on its handle.
The page was at a loss whether to stand or sit.
Outside, Chang'an Street was bustling. Downstairs, someone was hawking sugar-roasted chestnuts, their sweet aroma mingling with the scent of wine as it drifted through the crack in the window.
Ye Qingyun stared at the page.
"What did you just say?"
The page swallowed his steamed bun, choking and thumping his chest twice.
"Miss Su got married. It was an imperial marriage decree."
Ye Qingyun nodded. "Oh."
He reached for the wine pot, intending to pour himself a cup.
The spout tilted, and all the wine spilled onto the table, running along the wood grain toward his cuff.
Ye Qingyun looked at the puddle of wine.
In his head, he had mapped out his path after entering the capital dozens of times.
Enter the Chancellor's Residence. Present the marriage agreement. Break off the engagement. Compose a poem.
Su Yao would chase after him. The chancellor would regret it.
He had planned the whole sequence, right down to how his robes would sweep out when he turned around.
Now he hadn't even taken the first step, and someone had dismantled the stage?
"An imperial marriage decree?"
The page nodded.
"Yes. His name is Gu Moran. The third prince. I heard he's a wastrel."
"A wastrel?"
"That's what I heard them say."
Ye Qingyun set the wine pot firmly back on the table.
"She married a wastrel?"
The page lowered his head to look at his bun.
At a time like this, the bun was safer than his young master.
"Mm-hm."
"Su Yao?"
"Mm-hm."
"The chancellor's legitimate daughter."
"Mm-hm."
"My fiancée, Ye Qingyun's fiancée."
The page's bun stopped at his lips.
"Well... she used to be."
Ye Qingyun looked up at him.
The page immediately changed his tune.
"She is, she is. If you say she is, young master, then she is."
Ye Qingyun stood and walked to the window.
The clatter of carriages and horses on Chang'an Street, the voices of the crowd, and the laughter from the tavern all crowded into his ears.
He braced himself against the window frame and looked out, making sure this really was the capital.
He hadn't taken a wrong turn.
He hadn't wandered into someone else's dream.
"I haven't even arrived yet."
Page: ?
"I haven't even set foot in the Chancellor's Residence. How did she get married first?"
The page opened his mouth.
"Maybe... the imperial decree was in a hurry?"
Ye Qingyun turned to look at him.
The page stuffed the bun into his mouth and decided to keep quiet to save his life.
Ye Qingyun paced a couple of steps across the room, his sole passing through the spilled wine and leaving half a wet footprint.
"I originally came to break off the engagement."
He said it with utter seriousness.
So seriously that even the page felt embarrassed for him.
"Now she's married."
Ye Qingyun's expression darkened.
"So who am I supposed to break the engagement off with?"
The page's mouth moved.
"I heard the third prince married six women at once. Miss Su is one of his secondary consorts."
The breath Ye Qingyun had just released caught in his throat.
"Six?"
"Mm-hm."
"Su Yao is a secondary consort among the six?"
"Mm-hm."
"The chancellor's legitimate daughter, one of the four beauties of the capital, chose to be a secondary consort instead of the principal wife of me, the foremost talent?"
The page swallowed the last bite of his bun.
"There was an imperial decree. She couldn't do anything about it."
Ye Qingyun walked back to the table, picked up his cup, and drained it.
The wine burned going down, making his brows draw together.
But that little burn couldn't suppress the images in his head.
He had originally imagined Su Yao standing outside the Chancellor's Residence, calling his name with reddened eyes.
Now that image had become six bridal sedan chairs entering the prince's residence together.
He hadn't even opened his mouth to break off the engagement, and she might already have consummated the marriage.
Ye Qingyun gripped the cup, its rim digging into his palm.
"Gu Moran."
He repeated the name.
"What gives him the right?"
The page said quietly, "Being a prince?"
Ye Qingyun looked at him.
The page shrank back.
"Maybe the imperial decree, too."
Ye Qingyun put down the cup and snatched up the calling card on the table.
"Let's go."
The page nearly lost his footing.
"Where to?"
"The Chancellor's Residence."
"Now?"
"Now."
"It's already dark, and she's already married. What are you going there for, young master?"
Ye Qingyun tucked the card into his sleeve and walked to the door, only to stop.
The drinkers' laughter rose from downstairs, making his ears burn.
He couldn't just let it go.
"To get a clear answer."
The page grabbed their bundle and hurried after him.
"About what?"
Ye Qingyun stepped onto the stairs.
"To ask Su Wenyuan what gave him the right to marry Su Yao off before waiting for me, Ye Qingyun, to reach the capital."
The page followed behind, his steps tangled in his haste.
"Young master, didn't you come to break off the engagement?"
Ye Qingyun didn't look back.
The page muttered under his breath.
"Sounds more like you came to demand an explanation."
The two left the Azure Cloud Inn.
The night wind rushed down his collar, clearing Ye Qingyun's head a little.
Once his head cleared, his anger burned even hotter.
He touched the bamboo tube at his waist.
Beneath its wax seal, the ancient scroll pressed against his clothing and gave off a little warmth.
That warmth gave him confidence.
He was no longer the poor scholar he had once been.
He had a reputation for talent, an ancient scroll, and the Ye family's old agreement.
His arrival in the capital shouldn't have begun like this.
Outside the Chancellor's Residence, two red lanterns hung from the vermilion-lacquered main gate.
A gatekeeper was sweeping the steps.
Ye Qingyun stepped forward and took the calling card from his sleeve.
"Ye Qingyun of Jizhou, requesting an audience with the chancellor."
The gatekeeper took the card, looked at the name, then looked at his clothes.
His gray-blue robe had been washed pale, and the edges of his cloth boots were frayed.
The gatekeeper folded the card shut.
"Young Master Ye, the chancellor is not receiving visitors today. Please come back another day."
Ye Qingyun stood his ground.
"Please announce me."
The gatekeeper frowned.
"Young Master Ye, it's late."
"I have an old agreement with the Chancellor's Residence."
The broom in the gatekeeper's hand stopped.
The card was sent inside.
Ye Qingyun waited outside the gate.
A quarter of an hour later, the gate opened.
It wasn't Su Wenyuan who came out.
It was Li Yuan, an adviser.
Li Yuan was thin, with little flesh on his face. His eyes traveled over Ye Qingyun from head to toe, finally stopping on the bamboo tube at his waist.
"Young Master Ye."
Ye Qingyun cupped his hands.
"Mr. Li, is the chancellor in?"
"Yes."
Li Yuan answered without hesitation.
Ye Qingyun paused.
"Then why won't he see me?"
"He is unwell."
The lanterns by the gate swayed gently in the wind, their red light shifting back and forth between the two men.
Ye Qingyun suppressed the fire in his chest.
"I didn't come as a guest."
"When was the old agreement between the Ye and Su families annulled?"
Li Yuan was in no hurry to answer.
He took in the anger on Ye Qingyun's face before speaking.
"There was indeed an old agreement, but it was a verbal agreement between our elders."
"My father saved Old Master Su's life."
"The chancellor has never forgotten the debt of gratitude he owes the Ye family."
"Never forgotten?"
Ye Qingyun took half a step forward, and the gatekeeper immediately held the broom across his body.
"If you hadn't forgotten, why did you marry Su Yao off to someone else?"
Li Yuan sighed.
"Young Master Ye, the marriage was decreed by the emperor."
"Did the Su family never mention my name, Ye Qingyun, to His Majesty?"
"The third prince is an imperial prince, the son of Imperial Noble Consort Chen. His Majesty issued the decree himself. If the prime minister rejected it, he would be defying an imperial decree."
Ye Qingyun stared at him.
"What about Su Yao herself?"
Li Yuan didn't answer.
Ye Qingyun asked again.
"Was she willing?"
Li Yuan looked at him, his tone softening.
"Young Master Ye, the marriage of a prime minister's legitimate daughter has never been something a simple yes or no could decide."
At those words, Ye Qingyun's throat tightened.
The anger he had prepared was sent in another direction by those words.
If Su Yao hadn't agreed willingly...
Then was she forced too?
Gu Moran, a good-for-nothing imperial prince, used an imperial decree to snatch his fiancée?
The stage in his head was being set up again.
Only this time, he was no longer the one whose engagement had been broken off.
He had become the one who would save her.
Li Yuan watched his expression change, then took a folded sheet of paper from his sleeve.
"The prime minister asked me to pass this on to you."
Ye Qingyun took it and unfolded it.
There was only one line on the paper.
"At the poetry gathering the day after tomorrow, I shall await you."
It bore Su Wenyuan's personal seal.
Ye Qingyun studied it for a long time.
"The prime minister won't see me, but he wants me to go to the poetry gathering?"
Li Yuan said, "Some things are better said at the poetry gathering than in front of the residence gates."
Ye Qingyun folded the paper and tucked it into his sleeve.
"Will Miss Su be there?"
Li Yuan didn't answer directly.
"Many people from the capital will attend the poetry gathering that day."
That was enough.
Ye Qingyun turned around.
The study attendant came forward.
"Young master, are we going back to the inn?"
Ye Qingyun said nothing.
He touched the bamboo tube at his waist.
The ancient scroll's warmth pressed against his palm through the fabric.
"The poetry gathering the day after tomorrow."
He repeated those words.
Ye Qingyun raised his head and looked in the direction of the imperial city.
"I'll reclaim the recognition they owe me at the poetry gathering."