Red Blossom in Snow by Jeannie Lin

Author:Jeannie Lin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jeannie Lin

Song Yi required Sparrow the next morning to help her re-pin her hair. Perhaps Mother had thought of these practical matters in sending Sparrow along with her.

She sat while the girl combed and parted her hair. “How does he like you to wear it?” Sparrow asked.

“I don’t believe the magistrate gives much thought to that.”

He had certainly undone all of her elaborate work last night with hardly a pause.

“Nothing too complicated,” Song Yi added as an afterthought, her pulse skipping from just the hint of what the next night might bring.

“What is he like, a-chí?” the girl asked curiously while she braided and looped.

“A courtesan must exercise discretion. How else can she be trusted with secrets?”

“But not to her sisters!” Sparrow protested.

That might have been true in the past, but Song Yi wanted this new spark, this tiny promise of what could be for herself alone.

If Li Chen had been waiting impatiently for them, he didn’t show it. He stood on the bank. He’d managed to fix his appearance without assistance. His hair was neatly back in its top-knot, his robe smooth and impeccable. His expression brightened as he saw her, with no sign of any long nights with little sleep.

“There’s a story,” she began as they embarked. “Of a scholar who went to sleep at night and faced all manner of ghosts and demons in his dreams. Yet each day he woke up without any sign on him that there had been any turmoil.”

“Demons?” he questioned.

“Do you not require sleep, Magistrate?” Song Yi cast a meaningful glance at Li Chen which made him blush.

“It must be a habit from my academy days.”

“I hear they called you daoshi,” Sparrow teased, enjoying his struggle.

For a moment, Chen appeared startled. Then he burst out laughing. “I suppose they did.”

The laughter changed his face. The deep, serious lines eased away and his eyes were alight. There was a boyish quality to him Song Yi had never seen before.

Li Chen’s smile actually made him quite handsome.

“Was it because you were so austere and disciplined?”

“I believe it was because they thought I was a know-it-all,” he replied. “Which wasn’t true. If I knew everything, I wouldn’t have had to study all the time.”

He was relaxing into the story now. “Did you know, Miss Sparrow, when I was younger and forgot my lessons, I would be punished.”

The girl’s eyes grew wide. “Punished?”

“With a willow switch. Smack across my hand.”

“Perhaps we should try that method with Sparrow when she plays a bad note,” Song Yi remarked.

“A-chí!” Sparrow wailed, affronted.

A ball of warmth grew inside Song Yi’s chest. He was being so wonderful indulging Little Sparrow.

“You must have graduated first in your class, Magistrate, studying so hard,” Sparrow pressed.

Song Yi shot her courtesan-sister a look which Sparrow, of course, ignored.

“Not first, Miss Sparrow. It was a challenging exam that year.”

“Seventh,” Song Yi chimed in. “Among all the degrees conferred in that period. And at only twenty years of age. All of Pingkang was delighted with him.”

Chen’s face grew even redder, but there was a glow in his eyes.

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