Everleaf slowly became part of Yang Mi's routine over the following days.
Sometimes she arrived before Ren and sat alone reading near the eastern window, and sometimes Ren was already there with two cups waiting on the table. He never asked why she avoided returning home too early, and he never questioned the faint sadness that occasionally appeared in her eyes whenever the conversation touched marriage or family.
That was perhaps why Yang Mi found it easy to speak with him.
Ren did not treat her like she might break.
He did not send physicians every time she coughed, did not order servants to follow her from one room to another and certainly did not stare at her as though he expected her to disappear the moment he looked away.
One morning Ren placed a book of famous river poems on the table.
"You should read this."
Yang Mi looked at the cover. "Why?"
"You said yesterday that most scholars write beautifully but say very little. I want to prove you wrong."
She accepted the book and opened the first page. "And if this is boring?"
"Then I will personally admit that you are right."
"That sounds dangerous."
"For whom?"
"For your pride."
Ren smiled. "My pride has survived worse."
Two days later Yang Mi returned the book.
Ren had barely finished pouring tea when she placed it in front of him.
"Terrible."
Ren stared at her. "You finished it?"
"Last night."
"And your conclusion is terrible?"
"The man spends half the book complaining about missing a woman."
"It is considered one of the finest expressions of longing written during the previous dynasty."
Yang Mi picked up her tea. "If he missed her that badly, he should have gone to see her."
Ren nearly laughed into his cup. "Perhaps he couldn't."
"Then he should explain why."
"What if the reason was difficult?"
"That is still better than leaving the woman wondering."
Ren's smile slowly faded.
Yang Mi looked toward the river outside the window, her fingers tightening slightly around the porcelain cup. "Men seem very good at deciding what women should know and then calling it protection."
The words were spoken lightly, but Ren heard what sat beneath them.
"So your husband has kept something from you."
Yang Mi turned her eyes back toward him. "You ask too many questions."
"You brought up husbands."
"I brought up foolish poets."
"The distinction appears thin."
Yang Mi tried not to smile, but the corner of her mouth betrayed her.
Across the street, Bai Jue's face became colder.
Da Yi rubbed his temple.
"Again?" Bai Jue asked.
"Again what?"
"She smiled."
Da Yi closed his eyes. "My lord, people smile."
"Not at me."
"You followed her here dressed as a grain merchant yesterday."
"That has nothing to do with this."
"Your Highness frightened the actual grain merchant so badly he left his cart behind."
Bai Jue ignored him and looked toward the window again just as Ren leaned slightly closer to Yang Mi.
His eyes narrowed.
"What is he saying?"
"I don't know."
"Find out."
"My lord—"
"Da Yi."
Da Yi sighed deeply. "Yes, Your Highness."
Ren's reason for visiting Everleaf had never originally involved Yang Mi.
Several months earlier, his younger brother Yu had discovered discrepancies in trade records entering the capital from the southern river route. Ships registered as carrying tea leaves, silk and medicinal herbs repeatedly arrived heavier than when they departed the docks, and several merchants who questioned the documents had either disappeared or suddenly withdrawn their complaints.
The trail eventually led toward Counselor Su.
That alone made the investigation dangerous.
Counselor Su had served the court for years and built a reputation as one of the Emperor's most loyal ministers. He spoke constantly about duty, criticized corruption during court sessions and regularly donated grain during bad harvests, yet beneath that respectable surface Yu had discovered payments connected to Nanlyu, the rival kingdom strengthening its army along the southern border.
Everleaf Tea House appeared repeatedly in the transport ledgers.
Ren therefore came disguised as an ordinary scholar while Yu investigated the warehouses and river routes nearby.
He had intended to visit only once.
Then he met Yang Mi.
At first she had simply been the quiet woman sitting beside the window eating sesame cake while reading a book upside down because she had been too distracted to notice. On his second visit she argued with him about the quality of jasmine tea, and by the fourth she had begun insulting famous poetry without the slightest idea she was doing it directly in front of the Emperor.
Ren found himself arriving earlier each morning.
He told himself it was because the eastern table offered the best view of Everleaf's rear corridor.
Yu did not believe him.
Neither did the palace guards secretly positioned nearby.