(3) A Night Visit to the Cao Household

The following night, Guo Huilian and her maid Xiaochun were strolling through the courtyard of her own residence after dinner, walking off their meal. Not long after they reached the wall bordering the courtyard, Guo Huilian suddenly heard a muffled grunt behind her; turning around, she saw a masked man in black had knocked Xiaochun unconscious. She was about to cry out for help—Tian Xu had stationed two hidden guards to secretly protect her—but then she caught a faint, elegant fragrance that struck her as strangely familiar...

"Young Master Yu?" Guo Huilian thought it through calmly for a moment. At the secret chamber of Yun Xiang Garden, Yu Shurong had drawn close to her, and the distinctive incense he wore was particularly calm and refined in character, not difficult to place at all. Yueyue Manor also dealt in and used all manner of fine incense, and having been exposed to it over such a long time, she could distinguish a fair amount of it herself. In her daily life, she often helped Sister Han Qian blend incense: the scent Tian Xu most often wore on his clothing was a blend of agarwood, frankincense, and benzoin; the Han family preferred sandalwood as their base, mixed with whatever other fragrances each individual favored; Father himself had never much cared for scenting his clothes at all, feeling it hardly befitted a martial artist to bother with such things—but back in the day, Aunt Xi had insisted, arguing that scented incense could help mask the smell of sweat somewhat, and so he'd grown accustomed ever since to the blend of benzoin and olibanum that Aunt Xi had once chosen for him. After Aunt Xi passed away, he had continued wearing it as a way of keeping her memory close... Yu Shurong's scent carried notes of borneol and olibanum, but borneol was a fragrance especially prized within the palace, and Yueyue Manor carried very little of it, most of its supply concentrated instead at the "Fragrance of Heaven Shop" in Chang'an; she herself rarely used it, and so its scent struck Guo Huilian as something particularly rare and distinctive—which was precisely why that faint trace of borneol on Yu Shurong that day had left such a deep impression on her.

"I never spoke a word, kept my face covered, and wore full night-travel garb besides—how did Fourth Sister manage to recognize me?" Yu Shurong hadn't expected Guo Huilian to identify him so effortlessly, and found himself rather taken aback.

"Whom could Young Master Yu's own distinctive fragrance possibly hope to fool?" Guo Huilian felt a flash of indignation—how utterly improper of this Yu Shurong, breaking into a woman's private quarters in the dead of night like this; her own reputation would be thoroughly ruined by his recklessness alone.

"Whatever business brings Young Master Yu here, it's hardly proper to intrude upon a woman's private quarters like this—I ask that you leave at once."

"No one's watching, in any case..." Yu Shurong spoke with perfect ease, walking over toward Xiaochun and pressing an unmarked pill into her mouth.

"Once she's swallowed this, not even thunder could wake her—she'll sleep straight through till dawn," Yu Shurong said, entirely unhurried.

"Young Master Yu..." Before Guo Huilian could finish speaking, Yu Shurong cut her off.

"Fourth Sister needn't worry—I haven't come here tonight for your sake. It's Manor Lord Tian I'm after. Fourth Sister happens to be Manor Lord Tian's soft spot, and going after him directly would be far too difficult, so I'm simply borrowing a bit of Fourth Sister's light to draw him out. Those hidden guards of yours will surely rush off to report this at once, and I'd wager he'll come rushing here as fast as he possibly can." Yu Shurong moved Xiaochun gently aside and strolled over at his leisure, adding, "Fourth Sister's nose is as sharp as a hound's—I was worried about drawing too much attention, so I made sure not to scent these clothes I'm wearing tonight at all. And yet you can still smell it on me?"

"You..." Seeing how utterly unconcerned Yu Shurong seemed, and hearing him declare outright that he'd come to see Tian Xu, Guo Huilian grew worried—neither of the two hidden guards who had been hiding nearby had shown themselves at all.

"Where are they?" she asked.

"My own martial skill isn't especially high—just enough to scale walls and slip past rooftops, and to handle those two hidden guards of yours. Your manor's Manor Lord and his personal bodyguard together would be more than I could handle... In any case, I've had one of them sealed at the acupoints, and let the other go to spread the word. So let's just wait a little while here together, until your esteemed Manor Lord graces us with his arrival."

Having answered Guo Huilian's question, Yu Shurong went on, "But Fourth Sister still hasn't answered my own question. That won't do, little lady—I always make sure to answer whatever's asked of me..."

"It's only that your whole person seems steeped in fragrance—even changing your clothes couldn't possibly hide such a distinctive scent." Guo Huilian's heart was racing with unease. Yu Shurong was notorious throughout Chang'an for being difficult to handle, and here he was tonight, specifically asking after Tian Xu, all while speaking to her with such careless impropriety—she found herself utterly overwhelmed trying to keep up with him.

"Perhaps it's simply that Fourth Sister can't quite forget me, and that's why your senses are so keenly attuned to my scent?" Yu Shurong said, a smile spreading across his face as he stepped, little by little, closer to Guo Huilian.

"Young Master Yu, please conduct yourself with propriety..." As Yu Shurong drew nearer, step by step, Guo Huilian retreated in kind, step by step—just as it had happened that day at the secret chamber of Yun Xiang Garden. Inwardly, she cursed Yu Shurong for behaving so recklessly; if Tenth Brother were to see or hear of this, there'd be no washing away the suspicion no matter how she tried to explain it.

"Young Master, however handsome and refined you may be, my heart already belongs to another. I ask that you not speak such reckless words again, and sully my good name."

"Fourth Sister's beloved would be that fellow named Tian Xu, wouldn't it?" Yu Shurong suddenly came to a stop and slowly drew down the cloth covering his face, his manner unhurried and composed.

"That's not right..." Yu Shurong shook his head, a look of puzzlement crossing his face. "Shouldn't his surname be Cheng? Why does he go by Tian instead? There are plenty of people in this world who resemble one another somewhat, but to look utterly identical—that's a rare thing indeed..." Yu Shurong seemed to be turning something over seriously in his mind, his brow furrowing faintly as he did.

Had it not been for these startling words, which yanked her sharply back to her senses, Guo Huilian—her breath and heartbeat already thrown into disarray by Yu Shurong's smile and the fragrance clinging to him—might well have found herself unable to withstand the man's extraordinary beauty, even clad as he was in such unremarkable night-travel garb.

"Tenth Brother comes from the Tian clan of Weibo—how could he possibly bear the surname Cheng? Young Master Yu must have him confused with someone else..." Guo Huilian hurried to explain, though inwardly she felt a rising panic. She herself had only just learned this secret—how could Yu Shurong possibly know of it? And that talk of looking "utterly identical"—she couldn't even begin to guess what exactly he meant by it.

"Fourth Sister looks rather guilty just now..."

"Perhaps Young Master's own eyesight simply isn't what it should be?"

"How interesting..." Yu Shurong showed no sign of anger at all; instead, with perfect ease, he produced a fire striker and lit it, holding the flame up to study, in careful detail, the bird-and-flower hairpin that Tian Xu had personally fastened into Guo Huilian's hair. "I saw you wearing this once before, and now here you are wearing it again tonight—my eyesight is quite good, thank you. This hairpin is truly exquisite. Among the young ladies of Chang'an with any real family standing, which of them doesn't insist on changing up her hair ornaments day after day, never repeating the same one twice? This piece must surely carry some special meaning for Fourth Sister."