A Rake Among the Flowers

Li Weiyang was very fond of Minde. In the child’s eyes, she saw a deep attachment to her. Although Third Madam was his adoptive mother and treated him as her own son, she was too cool and reserved by nature. Most of the time, the child was terribly lonely.

In the garden pavilion, Li Weiyang gently told him about her life in the countryside. She described rolling up her trouser legs to wade into the water and search among the weeds for wild duck eggs. Then she would light a fire on the riverbank and bury the eggs in hot sand until they were cooked, eating every last one.

Li Minde listened intently, longing shining in his beautiful eyes.

He had never experienced anything like that in the Chancellor’s residence. It wasn’t just that it sounded novel; the life she described seemed to hold a kind of freedom. He blinked and said, “Third Sister, one day I want to see the place where you lived.”

Li Weiyang gazed into his eyes, bright and alive as wings in flight, and smiled. “Silly boy, that place wasn’t exactly somewhere fun to be.”

Li Minde looked up at Li Weiyang. In the sunlight, her face was young and bright as spring sunshine, pure and untouched by the hardships of life. Yet the black pools of her eyes, deep as ancient wells, seemed to grow darker. Her expression revealed neither joy nor sorrow; it was so complex that he couldn’t make sense of it. This Third Sister really was different from everyone else... Li Minde couldn’t help thinking.

On the other side of the garden, Li Changle had just passed by a rockery when a figure suddenly startled her.

“Cousin!” At the call, a young man in a brocade robe leaped out from behind the rocks and blocked her way.

When Li Changle saw who it was, she smiled faintly.

Li Changle’s maternal aunt had married General Zhongyong, and her husband’s family later inherited the title of Marquis Bochang. Their legitimate eldest son, Gao Yuan, had entered the palace to serve as the Crown Prince’s companion. During an assassination attempt, he took an arrow meant for the Crown Prince and died in the prime of his youth. Grateful to Gao Yuan, the Crown Prince petitioned the Emperor to grant his aunt the honorific title Lady of Wei. Having lost her brilliant eldest son, skilled in both letters and arms, Lady of Wei doted all the more on her younger son, Gao Jin. He was handsome and refined, with an elegant bearing, but having grown up amid rouge and silk, he was a rake at heart. Marquis Bochang had tried several times to discipline him as his behavior grew more outrageous, only to be stopped by Lady of Wei, who always took her son’s side. Since Gao Yuan had once been the Chancellor’s prized pupil, Marquis Bochang had little choice but to bring Gao Jin to see the Chancellor often. He hoped the boy might...