Miaomiao, You Have My Heart - Chapter 3

Before I knew it, more than a month had passed since our wedding.

One day, my mother-in-law sent word that the wife of the General Who Guards the North was hosting a banquet and had invited me to go with her.

Rong Huai’an was at his desk working. He looked up. “Would you like to go? If not, I can decline for you.”

“I do! I’ll only be bored if I stay at home.”

The Rongs were all kind, and I felt at ease with them.

The next day, the banquet was exquisitely arranged. A celebrated courtesan played music in a pavilion at the center of the lake, while laughter rose in waves beside the waterside gallery.

The ladies chatted about this and that until the conversation turned to me.

“Huai’an has such a cool temperament. Do you get along comfortably?”

One particularly blunt lady said, “He put off marriage for so long, I always thought he preferred men.”

The woman beside her gave her a nudge. They were all speaking far too freely for me to handle. I blushed and stammered, unable to get a word out.

My mother-in-law came to my rescue. “My daughter-in-law is young. Don’t tease her.” Then she turned to me. “Miaomiao, I see they’re playing pitch-pot over there. Why don’t you join them?”

I beamed. “Thank you, Mother. You’re the best.”

She laughed. “You little sweet-talker.”

I went the way she pointed. In the open space outside the front hall stood a bronze pot and several bamboo arrows. I picked one up and weighed it in my hand.

Standing beyond the line, I held the arrow in my left hand and flicked it casually with my right.

Whoosh—

It arced through the air and dropped squarely into the pot with a clear clang.

Not bad. I hadn’t practiced in ages, but I still had it. I clapped my hands proudly.

The young man closest to me stared, round-eyed. “What a throw, miss!”

“I’m Chen Hengzhi of General Zhenyuan’s household, the sixth son. May I ask your name…?”

Before he could finish, Xiaocui came over and whispered something to me. I turned back to Chen Hengzhi. “What were you about to say, Young Master Chen?”

He shrank back two steps. “N-nothing.”

The banquet did not end until dusk. As my mother-in-law and I prepared to leave, the general’s wife came to see us out.

Chen Hengzhi tugged urgently at her sleeve. “Mother!”

She cast him a sidelong look, then asked, “Madam Rong, may I ask whether this young lady is betrothed?”

I froze. She had only recently returned to the capital and did not know me. She must have taken me for a cousin staying at the marquis’s residence.

“My youngest son fell for her at first sight,” she went on. “He insists that I ask. If she isn’t promised to anyone, might the two of them spend some time getting acquainted?”

My mother-in-law looked awkward. “Madam Chen, perhaps you haven’t heard. Qiumiao is my daughter-in-law.”

The corners of Chen Hengzhi’s mouth, which had just begun to rise, fell at once. He looked ready to cry.

“Then might Miss Tan be considering a divorce—ow!”

His mother stamped hard on his foot.

All at once, a chill swept over me, cold against my back.

“My lady, it’s time to go home.”

I turned. Rong Huai’an was standing there. I had no idea how much he had heard.

On the way home, he sat with his eyes closed as if resting. The air in the carriage was cold enough to freeze an ice pop.

“Miaomiao,” he said calmly, “you’re young. You’re bound to run into men who behave improperly. If anyone says anything like that to you again, remember to come and tell me.”

“Will you?”