In the little thatched hut on this winter night, the lamplight flickered. Song Yuming ate quickly and put down his bowl and chopsticks. He was very much in the mood to sit and watch Xue Dongting nibble at her food. The more he watched the more he felt his little wife was gentle and charming.

Xue Dongting was busy looking down, eating, knowing the fisherman was looking at her, but she ignored him completely.

It was pitch-black outside, the sound of waves cras.h.i.+ng here and there, vast and tranquil. Xue Dongting finally set down her bowl and chopsticks and got to work cleaning up the dishes. The fisherman stood and acutely said, “You cooked, I"ll clean.” And he took the bowls and chopsticks and stepped out.

Xue Dongting smiled. Once the fisherman had left, she sat on the edge of the bed and poured the money bag out into her hand and counted it up. Fifty-six coppers in all. She felt all warm and fuzzy inside as she added them to her hemp cord of cash. The north wind rustled the thatching on the roof. Song Yuming walked in and saw Xue Dongting stringing the coins and said, “There"s some s.p.a.ce on the southern end of the courtyard. In the spring we can built a tile-roofed house, then we won"t have to listen to the sounds of this earthen hut.”

“Mm,” she said. “If you like… But I rather like the sound of this thatched hut.”

“Wait "til you"ve you"ve heard enough, then it"ll get annoying… Cats sometimes like to climb on the roof, and sometimes dust will drop down onto your nose while lying in bed…”

Xue Dongting"s face sank. A white cat came to mind, the one that woman always carried with her, the one Third Prince always liked to tease.

But she didn"t like it one bit. She was even a bit afraid of it. Before she didn"t understand why she was afraid of a cat, but now she knew. It"s owner was not in the end a limp willow in the women"s quarters, that woman"s delicateness carried with it a quietly designing venom.

Song Yuming saw her change of expression and knew she was scared. He made to comfort her. “They"re tiny stray cats, they"re not scary.”

Xue Dongting snapped out of her reverie and forced a smile. “Mm, with you here I have nothing to fear.”

Song Yuming smiled too. “With me holding you, no cat would dare come near.”

She side-eyed him, saw the fisherman"s smile, and she knew what this man was thinking. She turned away and ignored him.

He went over and held her and whispered in her ear, “It"s getting late.”

Outside the bitter wind raged, but inside it was warm and gentle as spring…

A long time later, a few strands of black hair clung to the woman"s flushed cheeks. She was cuddled up in the fisherman"s heaving chest, drawing circles over and over on his broad chest. Fisherman Song held his little wife, who was gentle as water, as he listened to the tides out there on that emerald sea. He whispered, “I asked someone to go to the incense shop in town and inquire. We might be able to get a few dozen taels of silver for our pieces of dragon saliva incense. It"s almost the new year, we ought to get a few things for the house. You coming here is an inconvience to you, your eating and clothing expenses here are probably not as much as before.”

Xue Dongting smiled. Her voice was soft and delicate, “The scent of dragon saliva incense fills the air here, and at night we burn whale oil lamps, plus there"s mushrooms and smoked meat and perch, I eat better here than I did at Cloudgem Lodge. What"s the inconvenience? I"m bound to get fat.”

Song Yuming looked down her cleavage, half-smiling. “Yes, get a bit fatter, my little pavilion is too skinny!”[1]

She didn"t need to look at him to know what he was getting at. She hammered him with her fist hard, but hearing him call her little pavilion made her all warm and fuzzy inside. She didn"t argue with him.

Song Yuming caught her little hand and sighed. “Fat or skinny, whatever, I like you however you are.”

[1] Little Pavilion is a cutesy name and pun based on Dongting"s name as the Ting 亭 in Dongting 東亭 means “pavilion”. Dongting means, literally, “Eastern Pavilion”. Note, this is not the same Dongting as the famous lake, which is 洞庭.