Flower Stealing Master

“My master?” Song Qingshu gave a cold laugh. “Wan Gui isn’t fit to tie my shoes. What makes you think he has any claim to that title?”

“You—!” The insult to her husband made Qi Fang’s temper flare — and then something clicked, and she stiffened. “You’re not Xiong Da!” The voice was all wrong, and the bearing — that air of casual, unhurried superiority — was nothing any household guard could have produced.

There wasn’t much point in keeping it up. Song Qingshu peeled the disguise from his face and let her see him properly. “No, I’m not.”

Qi Fang took a step back, startled by the transformation — from a rough, lumbering guard to someone who looked like he’d walked out of a painting. “Then who — who are you?”

“Song Qingshu.”

“The Golden Serpent King — Song Qingshu?” She stared at him, and despite herself, looked him over with frank curiosity. She’d heard enough stories about this man. Seeing him in person, she had to admit the storytellers hadn’t been exaggerating.

Half the ladies in Lin’an would lose sleep over a face like that, she thought. She’d spent two years moving in noble circles, and Song Qingshu’s name came up in those conversations more than she cared to count.

Not that looks were what drew her to people — if they were, she’d never have fallen for Di Yun. She gathered herself quickly and drew up her chin. “You’re being hunted all over the place by my husband’s family, and you still have the nerve to show up here? Are you tired of living?”

Song Qingshu just smiled. “With respect, your situation right now is a lot more dangerous than mine. Bit odd to be worrying about other people.”

“I’m not worrying about you.” She was still furious about what had happened — him pinning her down, seeing her unclothed — and the last thing she wanted was to seem remotely warm toward him. “And what danger am I in, exactly?”

Song Qingshu held up the face mask he’d been wearing. “Think about it. My cover identity tonight was your bodyguard. Whoever set that trap was trying to get rid of me — but Xiong Da had no real enemies. Why go to all that trouble to frame him? The only explanation that makes sense is that someone wants to move against you, and they needed to clear away your protection first.”

Qi Fang’s eyes went wide.

“And tell me — did you actually send Sixi to fetch me for questioning?”

She started to answer. “I was about to take a — no, of course I didn’t give that order.”

Song Qingshu spread his hands. “There you go. After Sixi got me away from Manager Du’s men, he didn’t bring me up here. He walked me to the stern and tried to put a blade in me.”

“Tried to kill you?” Qi Fang’s expression shifted. She wasn’t Huang Rong — she didn’t have that kind of quick, instinctive cleverness — but two years as the granddaughter-in-law of a powerful Minister had sharpened her considerably from the country girl she’d once been. She could see immediately that this was serious.

“Fortunately, I was expecting something like it. He ended up in the river instead. Then I came straight here.”

Qi Fang felt cold. From his tone, Sixi was almost certainly dead. She was quiet for a moment. “All the same, this is only your side of things. Sixi’s gone now — no one to confirm or deny any of it. Why should I believe you?”

Song Qingshu’s brow furrowed. “You know, if you’d been half this careful a few years ago, Di Yun wouldn’t have ended up the way he did.” He caught the flash of pain on her face and pressed on, more gently. “Look — I could’ve slipped away without a word. I came here because of Di Yun. I didn’t want something happening to you and that fool being heartbroken over it.”

“Martial brother…” His name softened something in her face. “Where is he now?”

“I don’t know — haven’t seen him in a while. We went into Yanjing together, me to deal with the Emperor, him to use the Bordered Yellow Banner’s intelligence network to track you down. About a year ago he told me he’d found a lead on your whereabouts and went off to follow it. He never found you?”

“No.” Qi Fang looked genuinely puzzled.

Song Qingshu frowned. Had something gone wrong? But Di Yun’s martial arts were solid enough these days — he could look after himself.

He set the worry aside. “Must have been bad information, then.”

Qi Fang sighed, soft and unhappy. “Even if he found me now — I’m another man’s wife. I can’t let myself think about him.”

“I already told you, Wan Gui used dirty tricks to tear you two apart—” He stopped, seeing the set of her expression. “Fine. I know you’re not going to take my word for it. Wait until Di Yun finds you himself and let him explain it.”

‘This woman is so stubborn, clinging to that outdated feudal nonsense of “marrying a chicken, following the chicken; marrying a dog, following the dog,”‘ Song Qingshu thought, feeling utterly frustrated.

But the mention of Di Yun had softened her enough. “Tell me more about him,” she said, curiosity breaking through. “How did the two of you even meet?” She couldn’t quite picture it — her straightforward, slightly dense martial brother mixed up with someone like the Golden Serpent King.

“How we met?” Something fond moved across Song Qingshu’s face. “It all started back in the Jingzhou prison…”

He gave her the broad strokes — and as he talked, the memories came back to him: those first desperate days in this world, and then Bing Xue’er appearing like a bodhisattva out of nowhere, and his thoughts drifted.

“He suffered so much.” Qi Fang pressed a hand to her chest, steadying herself against the weight of what she was hearing. By now she believed him seven or eight parts. The details were too specific to be invented on the spot, and the Di Yun he described was exactly the martial brother she knew — that couldn’t be faked.

She was quiet for a long moment. Then: “All right. I’ll believe you, for now. For my martial brother’s sake, I won’t say anything about where you are. When we reach somewhere safe, you can slip away quietly.”

“Fair enough. And in return, I’ll stay close and keep watch over you until then.”

“Stay close?” She blinked. “You mean — in this room?”

“Obviously.” He said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “Normally I’d manage from next door just fine, but the Jinbōxún flower’s poison has knocked out most of my martial arts. If something actually happens, I won’t be able to reach you in time from there. This is the only way I can actually protect you properly.”

“Absolutely not!” Qi Fang’s face went from surprised to indignant. How could she possibly share a room with a strange m@n?

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