6. Chapter 6

“Husband! We have an invitation to a dinner hosted by that scholar! Su Zhe!” Tao Mo waved the paper around, clearly proud of his ability to read it for himself. Gu She even smiled for a moment, before the words sank in.

“Oh no.”

“Oh no? But you’ve been trying to meet him!” Tao Mo sat down across from him and started brewing the tea Gu She had already forgotten about. “Oh, we should bring him a gift!”

Mu Chun, leaning casually against the doorway like the common criminal he was at heart, snorted. Princess Chen rolled her eyes at her husband, then turned to Tao Mo. “You should give him some of your calligraphy. I hear that he’s been angling to try and see what you gave the Noble Consort Jing,” she suggested.

“He’ll never make it that far into the inner palace, though,” Mu Chun said with a frown.

“Exactly why Tao Mo should bring the calligraphy to him!”

“No. No, I think—” Gu She tried to interject.

“What an excellent idea! Thank you, Princess Auntie!” Tao Mo bowed and that was the end of it, whether Gu She liked it or not.

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Mei Changsu stared at the scroll wordlessly, eyes roaming over it as if he were devouring it.

Next to Gu She, Tao Mo shifted a little nervously, but all Gu She could do was watch the strategist carefully. Endorsed by Jingyan or not, he was still a ruthless jianghu master who could have them killed before they could stand.

He handed the scroll off to his manservant. “I see we understand each other,” he said to Tao Mo with a graceful nod of his head.

Tao Mo glanced briefly at Gu She. “I’m...glad?” He offered to Mei Changsu. “We have heard many great things about the scholar Su Zhe!”

Mei Changsu smiled, but it was fierce, even on such a delicate face. “As have I of Magistrate Tao.”

Gu She kept trying to breathe steadily. The odds of them leaving the manor alive were narrowing, and he had no idea why.

“Good!” Tao Mo smiled happily. “Is your family name Méi as in the plum blossom?”

If anything, Mei Changsu tensed up even further. “Yes.”

It was a curt, almost rude answer. Gu She saw, out of the corner of his eye, one of the jiangzou men shift ominously.

Tao Mo sighed. “So beautiful! In the midst of the darkness of winter, when all hope is lost, the plum blossom blooms! It reminds us all of the potential of life, if we are patient for the spring. Don’t you agree?”

Gu She was on the verge of grabbing his husband and just making a desperate run for it, but Mei Changsu’s whole posture changed. It was slight, and subtle, but his shoulders relaxed and his eyes went from murderous to curious.

“Indeed.” Mei Changsu nodded slowly, as if pondering a great thought. Then he leaned forward and poured them all tea with his own hands. “It is a matter of tending the garden, though, don’t you think, Magistrate?”

Tao Mo nodded. “Weeds are everywhere! Sometimes a cold winter will kill a lot of them off but I find it best to keep at it, pull them all up at the root!” He fisted his hand and yanked, as if pulling a stubborn plant from the ground. “It take patience. Sometimes drastic action must be taken! But we remember the fires of winter only stand in for the warmth of spring.”

Mei Changsu looked shocked for a moment, then offered Tao Mo a cup. “Perhaps I misunderstood Magistrate Tao’s true concerns.” He then offered Gu She a cup of tea, who took it far more warily.

“Perhaps?” Tao Mo agreed uncertainly. “I am finding that there are many different kinds of weeds here than up north. Some are even pretty! But I had one that was choking out my flowers, so it had to go,” Tao Mo said sadly. Gu She knew the weed he was talking about, which was in fact not a native to the area. Tao Mo had burned it, crying for its lost beauty.

Mei Changsu’s eyes narrowed but there was a slight smile on his lips. “I believe I know the weed to which you refer.”

Which he did not and could not and Gu She suddenly realized, like being clapped with lightning, that there were two very different conversations going on. He coughed and covered his mouth with his sleeve. “Husband—”

“There are so many!” Tao Mo nodded.

“Indeed. But I forsee a fortuitous spring for all of our gardens, if we can simply keep to the way,” Mei Changsu said, making a roundabout poetic reference to the Tao te Cheng that would go right over Tao Mo’s head like a gust of wind. But Mei Changsu seemed to accept Tao Mo’s congenial agreement with a decisive nod. He then moved the conversation on to the emperor, who was preparing for the spring hunt retreat in a month. He paid close attention to Tao Mo’s mostly irrelevant replies and then replied with incongruous comments about “snakes in the garden” and “birds flying from hidden masters” and Gu She was thoroughly lost.

As they finally, finally left Su Manor with their throats intact, he decided it was time to sit Jingyan’s ass down with Mu Chun and Princess Chen and figure out what the hell was really going on.

“No one told me Mei Changsu is such an avid gardener!” Tao Mo said happily, patting his arm. “That went so well, don’t you think, husband?”

Gu She plastered on a smile. “Yes, dear.”