"Fancy seeing you here!"
Mayumi rubbed her brow in slight irritation, though Lin Daiyu, timid as always, had no such luxury. The two maids bowed low as a small contingent approached the bridge.
At its head, draped in a flowing purple silk, is none other than Ximen Qing's current beloved. Behind her, a dozen attendants moved with quiet precision, their every step attentive to her presence.
"Lady Jin Lian," Lin Daiyu said, inclining her head in a practiced, formal bow.
Mayumi found herself uncertain how to respond. Like a warrior thrust into the role of gardener, any attempt to navigate this aristocratic world felt doomed from the outset. Her usual reliance on Shan's flawless eloquence is also of no avail here. Brute force, after all, would only brand her as uncultured in the eyes of the nobles.
Following the universal etiquette of host and guest, Mayumi lowered her head in greeting toward Jin Lian. But before she could finish, a hand flashed across her face.
Slap!
The swordswoman recoiled, uninjured but stunned. Lin Daiyu and her two maids widened their eyes in shock, furthering the unexpected nature of the assault.
Jin Lian, retrieving her hand, smiled faintly, entirely unconcerned that her act violated the delicate codes of gentry decorum.
"Lady Jin Lian, she is a guest," Lin Daiyu said, though her words fell on deaf ears. It seemed everyone had assumed that even Jin Lian would adhere to the unwritten rules of the Upper Ring.
"Quiet, you whore!" Jin Lian spat, ignoring the honorifics. "Think carefully before speaking out. The honor of the Ximen family rests on those who defend it. Know your place."
The maids remained too frightened to intervene, and as Jin Lian continued to belittle Lin Daiyu, Mayumi struggled to decipher the hierarchy at play. The woman before her, a potential future head lady, is still an outsider. Yet she treated the clan leader's own niece with brazen disdain, despite lacking a drop of Ximen blood herself.
"Very well," Mayumi said sharply. "What is it you want?"
Jin Lian's lips curled into a self-satisfied smile. "Your past insolence has yet to be accounted for. While Shan proved himself a simpleton when he failed to grasp the honor my beloved extended to him at once, but it will not be long before he rues that refusal. I travelled to his ransacked residence to bestow upon him an opportunity granted perhaps once in a generation, and he repaid such generosity with nothing but disdain!" She levelled a trembling finger at Mayumi, eyes burning with vindictive heat. "And you, think carefully before resorting to such unseemly antics before the guests of a respectable household!" With that, the noblewoman lifted her hand and made to strike the swordswoman once more. "When Shan inevitably throws in his lot with the Ximen clan, you will answer to me, and to me alone." She swept her arm in a vicious backhand, aiming squarely for Mayumi's cheek.
A firm arm intercepted this endeavor. Even Mayumi herself could not hide her surprise at how effortlessly the blow was halted. Nobility often carried airs of authority, but their physical strength rarely matched it. Jin Lian's strike was little more than a flourish of privilege.
"And what makes you think the White Scholar would ever pledge loyalty to the Ximen ilk?" Mayumi asked, challenging the assumption entirely.
Despite the Ximen family's effort to incentivize scholars to join their ranks with lavish enticements and carnal instincts, someone like Shan required more than gilded words and ostentatious gifts. His allegiance towards the state and the concerning adherence to a tyrannical philosophy could not be bought with wealth or status alone.
Remembering the ruthless efficiency with which Takeko had done to her bodyguards during their in last encounter, Jin Lian drew back her hand. The subtly armored shoulder of Mayumi's attire offered a deterrent.
"You there!" Jin Lian snapped at one of her younger maids, which the girl flinched under her gaze. "What are you waiting for?"
It is implied that Jin Lian demands one of her attendants should strike Takeko, a ludicrous proposition, considering the brown-haired swordswoman had single-handedly bested a cadre of Ximen family guards while unarmed.
"M-my lady… this isn't my task," the girl stammered, her voice quivering.
"Then would you rather lose your position?" Jin Lian's glare darkened, a threat as precise and cold as a drawn blade.
There was little room for maneuver. Every word and action here could threaten the attendant's livelihood.
"This is between the two of us, Jin Lian, so do not involve others," Mayumi interjected firmly.
Attempting to 'punish' Shan's retainer would be reckless. As a member of the hosting family, any transgression inflicted on outsiders risked compromising Ximen Qing himself, potentially unravel whatever designs he had to lure Shan into serving the clan rather than the city itself.
With that in mind, the Ximen heir's current paramour chose restraint, applying subtler forms of retribution to atone for her prior humiliation.
"Fetch me water," she commanded bluntly. One of her attendants returned with a bucket brimming to the rim. In one swift, fluid motion, Jin Lian flung it toward Mayumi.
Lin Daiyu instinctively raised her arm, shielding her zither from the splash. As for Mayumi, she merely kicked the bucket back toward the river with such effortless precision that Jin Lian's fury only deepened.
The swordswoman withheld retaliation, knowing that physically harming this petty seductress would grant fuel to the Ximen clan. Moreover, Jin Lian's spite might not even reflect Ximen Qing's will. Thus, violating the traditional customs expected on host and guest.
"Quick! Another bucket!" Jin Lian barked hastily.
Mayumi raised her fist in a feigned gesture of intimidation, a silent warning to deter further childish theatrics. Only then did Lin Daiyu intervene, an act that provoked Jin Lian to pour water over the gardener's head, drenching both her and the zither.
"My lady!" one of the two maids rushed to assist Lin Daiyu. Mayumi relaxed her stance, observing cautiously.
Jin Lian's attention snapped to Lin Daiyu, reading the intervention as defiance against the Ximen household.
"You garden wench! Do you not know that siding with those who scorn your own family is an unforgivable transgression?" Jin Lian hissed, venom in every word.
One of Lin Daiyu's personal attendants offered her employer a small handkerchief. But unlike the one she serves, this nameless attendant bristled, even demanding an apology from Jin Lian.
"S-such insolence!" Jin Lian spat, and her hand shot out to slap the retainer. Though the motion was the quick, the noblewoman's long nails raked across the girl's cheek, drawing a thin line of red.
"Xiao Mei!" Lin Daiyu placed a hand over her assistant's face, ensuring no blood spilled.
Still, Mayumi observed quietly, noting that even the affluent of the Upper Ring were not immune to mistreatment. Assaulting another's retainer is an indirect way at striking at a fellow member of the gentry, sufficient to assert dominance without inviting serious fallout. Clearly, Jin Lian's audacity suggested a deep confidence in her immunity, which is strangely not afforded to Lin Daiyu's status as an actual member born into the clan.
"You will pay for this!" Jin Lian warned at the swordswoman, before storming off.