"How can you leave me like this?" She threw the words as if they were stones. Dongfang Yu looked at her without surprise. He did not move his fan. The parish lanterns threw a weak light over his face and made the hollows sharper. "If I meet someone else," he said, "it is over." "You mean—" She did not finish. A servant made a small step back as if expecting a thrown cup. "You know my duty," he continued. "You know how a marquis must secure his household. I cannot be weak." "You mean you will choose another woman and call it duty," she said. "You mean you will let your mother decide what your marriage is." He closed his fan. "I will preserve the line. I will make choices that ensure the Dingyuan marquisate survives." "Then say it plainly." Her fingers tightened around the silk sleeve. "Say you will divorce me." He stared. For a moment his expression was unreadable. "Rushuang," he said softly, "I will not keep a wife who stands in the way of the household's needs." She laughed once, low and barren. "So it was never love." "It was never enough," he replied. A servant coughed. Goldkeeper Jin, who had lingered near the pavilion's edge, cleared his throat as if to intervene. Dongfang's eyes slid to him, and Jin's posture froze. "You will speak to me like this in my garden?" Rushuang said. "You will break me here before the staff?" "This