Liu Xiaolou grabbed Susu’s wrist, leaving her a little surprised. “Young master, what are you trying to do?”

“Before I went into seclusion,” he explained, “do you remember I pulled you into the room?”

Susu nodded. “Yes.”

Still holding her, Liu Xiaolou sat her down beside him on the bed. “It was for cultivation. That day I had a sudden insight, so I wanted you to join me in cultivating together. But now that feeling has vanished, and I want to try again, to see if I can bring it back.”

Curious, she asked, “How do you try?”

“Like this. First take off your clothes, so they won’t get in the way of the posture.”

She suddenly understood, and her face flushed bright red. She covered her mouth and laughed. “Leaving aside whether my lady would even allow this, are you really able to?”

“Whether I can or not, isn’t that something we’ll only know if we try?” said Liu Xiaolou.

Susu hid her face. “So young master has never tried before?”

Liu Xiaolou admitted, “I’ve discussed it with fellow cultivators, but I’ve never actually practiced it myself. This is a Daoist technique, nothing to be shy about. Susu, your face is burning hot.”

She caught his wandering hand. “Young master, don’t you prefer…”

He looked puzzled. “Prefer what? You know what I prefer?”

Susu hesitated, embarrassed to say it outright. She patted Liu Xiaolou’s hand. “Young master, things like this can’t be forced.”

“I know it can’t be forced,” Liu Xiaolou replied, “which is why I’m asking you to give it a try."

“Your hand, young master…”

“Don’t move, don’t move.”

“Ah... did you find the insight?”

Liu Xiaolou tried hard to recall that spark he’d felt before, but no matter how he searched, it wouldn’t come back. Without that layer of comprehension, there was no way to double the benefit of his cultivation. Feeling disappointed, he sighed. “That feeling really is gone.”

Susu covered her mouth, laughing. “So what do we do now?”

Since he couldn’t recover the fire from before, he decided to test the dual cultivation method handed down by his sect, hoping it might lead to a new kind of insight. “Come, let’s change positions, and...”

Before he could finish, Xiaohuan’s voice called from outside the door. “Young master! Young master!”

Liu Xiaolou rolled his eyes, speechless.

Susu scrambled to pull her half-slipped clothes back into place, then quickly got off the bed. “Xiaohuan, is that you? Come in. I was just helping young master with his bath.”

Xiaohuan pushed the door open, came over to help Liu Xiaolou put on his clothes, then glanced at the tub of water. “Young master, you’ve been in seclusion for many days. Now that you’ve come out, has your cultivation improved?”

Liu Xiaolou nodded. “It has. My progress has been great.”

“Then congratulations, young master. It’s like this. Ninth Lady has returned. She wishes to see you. I wonder if you have the time?”

Among the Su family’s younger generation, the women were outstanding, while the men lagged behind. Liu Xiaolou had heard that there were three most remarkable daughters. The second had married early, the fifth had become his wife, and the other was the Ninth Lady. But this Ninth Lady was not Su by blood. She was Su Zhi’s adopted daughter, and for the past few years she had been traveling the jianghu.

This marriage of his had been arranged in such haste that there hadn’t been time to inform her, so the Ninth Lady hadn’t attended. Now that she was back, it was only natural she would want to meet him.

He stepped down from the bed and moved to the bronze mirror to tie up his hair. Susu came over to help, but Liu Xiaolou gently refused. “No need. I’ll do it myself. You two take the bucket out and empty it.”

Suddenly another Ninth Lady came to mind, that peerless face and graceful bearing… He couldn’t help but sigh. He had married far away into Shenwu Mountain, and who knew where that Ninth Lady was now? They said this Ninth Lady too was a beauty who could captivate all who saw her. Was it that every woman called Ninth Lady was destined to be so beautiful?

Susu carried the water bucket outside, while Xiaohuan gathered up the towels and dirty clothes. The two of them whispered back and forth about something, then suddenly burst out laughing.

After a while they came back, helped Liu Xiaolou straighten his clothes, and then started toward the door again.

As they passed the practice grounds in front of the pavilion, Liu Xiaolou asked, “My dear wife isn’t here today?”

“The Madam went to the back mountain,” replied Xiaohuan.

“The back mountain? I haven’t been there. What’s in the back mountain?”

“That’s also where the Madam cultivates her Daoist techniques. If young master wishes to go, you can ask her. If she agrees, then you may enter.”

“So the whole back mountain is her domain? No one else can go?”

“Not exactly, but much of the back mountain is restricted. Even we maids, and Susu too, if we don’t have permission, we can’t set foot there.”

“Oh.”

Leaving the SunRain Hibiscus Garden, there was a small hill not far away. Xiaohuan pointed and said, “Ninth Lady is waiting in the Wangshan Pavilion up there. Once you go up, you’ll see her. She instructed that she wishes to meet you alone, so we’ll stay here.”

Alone? What was that supposed to mean? Was it going to be another round of harsh words?

The three-year pact hadn’t been made public, and very few people knew about it. Liu Xiaolou wasn’t even sure whether Susu and Xiaohuan, the two personal maids, were aware of it. But since even Second Master Su Xun didn’t know, there was little chance this Ninth Lady did. Which meant, most likely, she just wanted to say the same things others in the Su family had told him before the wedding: “You’d better treat our Fifth Lady well,” “If you ever wrong her, you’ll regret it,” and so on. He imagined this Ninth Lady would be no different.

Still, for the sake of that one spirit stone every month, with good food, a warm bed, and people to wait on him, he could endure it one more time. And if he couldn’t? What choice did he have? From what he’d heard, Su Ninth Lady was already a cultivator at the tenth layer Qi Refinement stage. Best to keep his head down and not provoke her.

It struck him that it was nearly a full month since he’d married into the Su family. Time for his spirit stone allowance soon.

Thinking of that, Liu Xiaolou climbed the moss-covered stone steps. After about half an hour’s walk, winding past several rows of old pagoda trees just budding with new shoots, he arrived at the Wangshan Pavilion.

Sure enough, inside stood a woman in a pale yellow, fitted dress, her back to him as she gazed out over the distant mountains.

Even just from her back, there was a grace and elegance about her. Then his eyes drifted down to her waist, slender as a willow. And he quickly looked away. No, better not stare. Why was he so fixated on slender curves lately?

He stepped up to the pavilion, bowed, and asked, “May I ask, are you the Ninth Lady?”

The woman turned, fixing her gaze on him. He froze on the spot.

She really was beautiful. Every bit as breathtaking as the rumors said.

But it wasn’t her flawless face that stunned him. It was—

Ninth Lady’s voice was cold. “Very good. Liu Xiaolou, you’ve done very well. I told you to stop pestering Zhou family’s Seventh Lady, and yet you came running to my Su family to bother my Fifth Sister. Do you really have no fear of death?”

Liu Xiaolou could only groan inwardly. Truly, speak of the devil and she appears. Just moments ago he’d been thinking about her, and here she was standing before him. Not two different Ninth Ladies after all; just one and the same!

This was the very same Ninth Lady who had inexplicably gone off to Ewe Ram Mountain to work as a hired hand. The one whose carriage he’d stopped near the Zhou estate by Dongting Lake. The one whose rice fields he had tried to cut from in secret, only to be beaten for it. The one who had carried him around the Zhou manor like a chick in her hand. And now, once again, fate had thrown him right into her grasp. Enemies really do cross paths too easily. There was nothing he could say.

Forcing the ugliest smile he could manage, Liu Xiaolou stammered, “Aunt, no… Ninth Lady…”