Princess Cang Xueyi's seventh meal at her writing room took place on the third day of the third month of the winter.
Su Yan attended by the unmarked carriage line. He arrived at the third hour past noon. Mingxue inclined her head, slid the lattice, withdrew.
Cang Xueyi was already seated.
She had, this afternoon, *changed*. She wore the careful preceding small private formal robes of a Princess of Beicang at a small careful preceding private courtesy meal — *not* the plain pale-blue under-robe she had worn at the past six meals, but the formal pale-violet outer robe with the small careful preceding plum-flower embroidery she wore on the days her father required her at small careful preceding ceremonial functions.
She had — by Su Yan's careful preceding small private read of her preceding small private substrate as he entered — *prepared something*.
He inclined his head. He sat opposite her on the cushion.
She poured.
The pour was, by every preceding standing calibration, *clean*. She set his cup before him. She set her own. She did not, by her preceding preference, drink first.
"Su Yan."
"Cang Xueyi."
"I have, by my preceding preference, prepared a small careful preceding letter for you," she said, in her small even voice. "I would prefer that you read it after this meal closes, alone, in your preceding small private writing room at the eastern wing. I would prefer that you not, by your preceding preference, reply by letter — but instead, by your own preceding preference, *send me a small careful preceding sign* in person at the careful preceding small private hour of our next bi-weekly meeting that I will, by my preceding read, recognize."
She drew, from the inner sleeve of her formal robe, a small folded sheet of pale-violet palace stationery sealed with her preceding small private violet wax.
She slid it across the table.
She did not say anything further about it.
She picked up her cup. She drank, slowly. He picked up his.
The careful preceding small private seventh meal — by the small careful preceding small private hour of one prepared letter at the careful preceding small private cushion — *proceeded*, by the careful preceding small private mutual courtesy of two columns having become one over sixteen months of preceding small private patient calibration, into the small careful preceding small private ordinary rhythm of two cups, three cups, the small careful preceding small private exchange of news from the past two weeks.
She did not, in the rest of the meal, reference the letter.
He did not, by his preceding preference, ask.
When the meal closed at the fifth hour past noon, she escorted him to the door of her writing room — by her preceding preference, this afternoon, at the careful preceding small private hour of a small precise unhurried preceding *third* back-of-hand against one cheek, the careful preceding small private hand held this time for the count of perhaps thirty breaths.
She did not kiss him. He did not kiss her.
The careful preceding small private mutual preference — by the careful preceding small private hour of three months until the careful preceding small private extraction — was, by both their preceding preferences, *to wait*.
He inclined his head — small, formal — at the door.
He returned, by the unmarked carriage line, to the noble-district embassy.
---
He read the letter in the careful preceding small private lantern-light of the second-floor room, at the small writing-table by the window, after the lattice door was bolted and Aluan was at the corridor.
It was, by every careful preceding small private read, *short*.
> *Su Yan. By the careful preceding small private hour of seventeen letters and seven meals across nineteen months, I have — by my own preceding preference — decided that the careful preceding small private hour I want you to read this letter at is the careful preceding small private hour of three months from this afternoon, when by your own preceding preference at the careful preceding small private hour of one extraction's preceding small private completed calibration you will, by my own preceding read of your preceding small private bookkeeping, *go to the eastern continent's central facility* to bring your mother home.* > > *I am writing the letter now, by my own preceding preference, because the careful preceding small private hour of the extraction is — by every careful preceding small private bookkeeping the kingdom of Beicang has been keeping for two centuries on missions of this preceding small private kind — *physically dangerous* in a way that the careful preceding small private hour of one bi-weekly correspondence and one quarterly meal, by my preceding read, has not yet permitted me to *say to your face*.* > > *I am writing the letter to *say*, in writing, in my own hand, in the careful preceding small private private ink of one princess of Beicang to one substrate-cultivator she has, by her own preceding preference, taken seven kisses to come close to taking, *the careful preceding small private hour I have been afraid to say*.* > > *Su Yan. I love you.* > > *I have loved you, by my own preceding read of the careful preceding small private hour of my own column-keeping, since the morning of the courtyard ceremony nineteen months ago. I did not, by my preceding preference, allow myself to name the careful preceding small private column for the first eight months. I named it, by my own preceding preference, on the morning the original annulment burned. I have, by my own preceding preference, allowed the column to *deepen* across eighteen months of small careful preceding small private bookkeeping until — by the careful preceding small private hour of three months from this afternoon — the column has become *the column I want to spend the careful preceding small private hour of the next sixty years writing*.* > > *I would, by my own preceding preference, write the column without you knowing if you preferred to not be told. I am, by my own preceding preference, telling you because the careful preceding small private hour of the extraction is — by every careful preceding small private bookkeeping — *one I would not be able to send you to without saying first*.* > > *Come back. Come back with your mother. Come back to the small careful preceding small private writing room of mine where I will, by my preceding small private preference, be waiting on the morning of your return.* > > *I love you. I love you. I love you.* > > *— Cang Xueyi*
Su Yan read the letter once.
He read it twice.
He sat with it in the small careful preceding small private lantern-light of the second-floor room for the count of perhaps three minutes, with his hands folded on the writing-table and his face — by the careful preceding small private discipline of seventeen months of public composure — *not moving*.
Then, by his preceding preference, he allowed his face to move.
He cried, briefly, quietly, for the count of perhaps a hundred breaths — the third time he had cried in this body, after the alley and after Master Lou's preceding small private letter and after the cellar's hidden inheritance.
He stopped.
He inhaled.
He inked his mother's writing brush.
He did not — by Cang Xueyi's preceding preference — *write* a reply.
He folded the letter, very carefully, along its preceding crease. He tucked it into the inner pocket of his outer robe, beside the cracked pendant in its cotton wrapping and the substrate-anchor stones at the small lacquered traveling-case.
He sat at the writing-table for the count of perhaps another quarter of an hour.
In his chest, the ember pulsed — slow, considered, *gentle* — and the dry voice, very quietly, said: *Honored. By her own preceding preference, by yours, by your mother's. Honored.*
Su Yan inclined his head, in the careful preceding small private lantern-light of the second-floor room, in the direction of the ember.
He went, at his unhurried pace, out of the writing room — across the corridor to Linglong's room two doors down — knocked, slid the lattice open at her quiet acknowledgment, and sat opposite her at the small careful preceding small private cushion at her preceding small private window.
He did not, by his preceding preference, tell her what the letter had said.
He sat, instead, in the careful preceding small private quiet of one sister-bond companion's preceding small private room, for the count of perhaps half an hour.
Linglong, by her own preceding preference, did not ask.
The two of them sat, in the careful preceding small private cool winter night of the eastern wing of the eighth district of Cloud Sky City, in the careful preceding small private precise unhurried preceding hour of one substrate-cultivator who had — by the careful preceding small private hour of one princess's preceding small private letter — *received* the careful preceding small private hour of the kingdom of Beicang's preceding small private most precious courtesy.
The careful preceding small private hour of the extraction — by the small careful preceding small private hour of one letter — was, by every careful preceding small private bookkeeping of his preceding small private column-keeping, *no longer optional*.
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