Maids carrying rare delicacies filed in one behind another [1]threaded in like fish on a line (yú guàn ér rù, 魚貫而入) (Idiom), to come in in single file, one close behind the next jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253955_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253955_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. Young men and women in splendid clothes, scented robes and cloud-piled hair talked in clusters at their own tables, and now and then someone caught an inspiration and, with a sweep of the brush and a splash of ink, composed a fine poem. The scent of wine filled the nose and the warm air was intoxicating. It was a lively scene.
After Yu Nanzhi came back to the warm chamber she found Yu Qiuchi easily. The reason was simple: Yu Qiuchi was still in her original place, and had even held her seat for her.
Seeing Yu Nanzhi come back alone, Yu Qiuchi asked, “Second Sister, you’re finally back. By the way, why isn’t my mother with you?”
With the plants passing word, Yu Nanzhi of course knew that the Grand Madam Zheng had kept Madam Ji in Ninghui Hall and was running on without a pause about all her grandson’s good points. She picked out only the essential part to answer. “The Grand Madam kept Second Aunt to talk, so I came back first.”
Yu Qiuchi nodded and then started on the gossip with Yu Nanzhi. “Not long after you left, Third Miss Guo went out and her brother, Eldest Master Guo, took over on the se. She was gone quite a while before she came back. We were all guessing whether she went to meet some lover.”
Wasn’t that just it?
She had only just had a marriage viewing with that lover of Third Miss Guo’s.
Yu Nanzhi said, “Perhaps. Let me think… Mm, it would be good if we knew which other young masters left their seats at that time. It might well be one of them.”
This guess struck Yu Qiuchi exactly where she wanted. She clapped her hands and laughed. “Why didn’t I think of that? Nanzhi Que may well write about it in the little newspaper tomorrow.”
Nanzhi Que herself said nothing.
“By the way, the Marquis of Pingyuan’s household really has a great deal of face this time,” Yu Qiuchi went on whispering close in Yu Nanzhi’s ear [2]biting her ear (yǎo ěr duo, 咬耳朵) (Slang), to talk in confidential whispers jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253955_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253955_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. “Not only did many people come, but a few who would never normally show themselves here came as well. Second Sister, guess who?”
“Clap! Clap! Clap!”
Three sudden claps broke off the sisters’ whispering. The patterned gauze screen between the men’s and women’s seats was taken away, and the young men and young women were exposed to one another with nothing in between.
“No need to guess.” Yu Nanzhi’s voice dropped abruptly at the end, her teeth grazing her lower lip. “I have already seen him.”
At the head of the men’s seats Cui Zixu sat at ease. The moon-white brocade robe outlined his tall figure exactly right, and the hidden plum-blossom pattern woven in silver thread caught the blazing candles of the room and rippled with light, drawing every eye.
Cui Zixu’s wide sleeve was half rolled up, the gold cup in his hand half lifted and half not. His gaze crossed the lamplit hall and fell on the women’s seats, though only for an instant. Then he tipped his head back and drank it off by himself, as if the moment before had been only an illusion.
The women’s seats went three parts quieter in an instant. Pearl pendants knocked lightly together in twos and threes, and several pairs of almond eyes stole glances toward the men’s seats under cover of straightening hairpins and pouring tea.
But in Yu Nanzhi’s eyes it was a plain and open provocation.
She silently told herself to endure a little while longer, and that when she found the chance she would pay it all back.
Yu Qiuchi’s voice drifted over softly. “Everyone in Chang’an knows about the old entanglement between Grand Princess Heyang and the Marquis of Pingyuan’s household. The princess’s residence and the Cui family never invite the Fang family when they entertain, still less enter the Marquis of Pingyuan’s gate, and the Fang family avoids the Grand Princess whenever they can. With this Prince of Qinghe turning up, hasn’t everyone’s jaw dropped? Could the two families be planning to make peace?”
“Perhaps,” Yu Nanzhi agreed offhandedly, but in her heart she thought that if Grand Princess Heyang knew her son was making peace with her former husband’s family behind her back, she would break his legs.
Of course, a reconciliation was out of the question.
Years ago Grand Princess Heyang had married Consort Fang, her sweetheart since they were children, and their feeling for each other was very good. But only two years later Consort Fang was talked round by his own younger brother, Third Uncle Fang, was drawn into the deposed crown prince’s treason case and was implicated and imprisoned. The Grand Princess knelt outside Penglai Hall for a full day and could not beg a pardon for Consort Fang. All that came was the late emperor’s edict ordering her to separate from him.
Not long after, Consort Fang and Third Uncle Fang were given death. The Grand Madam Zheng’s second son, the only one not involved, inherited the title at a reduced rank, but was stripped of all offices and barred from court for life.
A year later Grand Princess Heyang remarried into the Cui clan.
An imperial command is hard to defy, but although the Fang family said nothing aloud, in private they mostly blamed the Grand Princess for failing to save the two Fang sons. And the Grand Princess resented the Fang family more. If the Fang house had not been so poor at raising sons, indulging Third Uncle Fang until he did as he pleased with no notion of his own smallness, she and Consort Fang might not have come to such an end. That she had not made trouble for them was already something.
Only, because of some hidden reason, the two sides merely kept apart, each strictly to its own side [3]well water does not trespass on river water (jǐng shuǐ bù fàn hé shuǐ, 井水不犯河水) (Idiom), two parties keeping wholly out of each other’s affairs jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253955_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253955_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
“Um…” Yu Qiuchi leaned close to Yu Nanzhi and lowered her voice, curiosity all over her eyes. “Didn’t the Prince of Qinghe come to our house before? And Second Sister met him?”
Yu Nanzhi drew her gaze back from Cui Zixu. “He came to the household to borrow paintings. Second Brother happened to have business, so I helped by taking the Prince of Qinghe to the book pavilion.”
Yu Qiuchi said, “Look at the way the girls of every household here just went at him like a pack of hounds. If they knew that story, wouldn’t they envy you to death?”
A look of terror came over Yu Nanzhi’s face and she called on the Buddha. “You mean… tear me apart alive? Amitabha, whatever you do, don’t let anyone know.”
Seeing Yu Nanzhi go deathly pale and sway on her feet, Yu Qiuchi suddenly remembered that her second sister was not bold and could not take jokes like this. She quickly swore in her ear, “Don’t panic, Second Sister. Your little sister swears before the Buddha that she will not breathe half a word of it to anyone. If I break this, let me be punished with sores on my mouth and tongue—”
“Don’t, please.” At this Yu Nanzhi’s face grew worse still, and she stopped Yu Qiuchi from saying the rest. “How can one make an oath so lightly?”
Yu Qiuchi stuck out her tongue. “Don’t fret, Second Sister, I won’t say it, I won’t say it. Oh, look over there, are they going to play and dance?”
She changed the subject without leaving a trace.
In the middle of the warm chamber a many-colored brocade dance mat from the Western Regions was spread out, with four lion mat-weights set at its four corners.
Second Miss Fang wore a rose-colored pomegranate skirt with a silver-dusted gauze shawl over it, a few gold-millet pearl flowers scattered through her hair. She stood in the middle of the dance mat, clapped her hands and said with a smile, “It is rare for you all to gather at our humble house. If we only drink wine and tea it will be far too dull. This humble girl knows that none of you are ordinary people. The dance mat is prepared now and everything stands ready to welcome you. If anyone is willing, whether to dance or to play, all of it will be a rare treat for our eyes.”
People of the day liked liveliness, and everyone had one of the two, dance or music. When a banquet was at its height it was common enough to take the floor oneself and play or dance.
Only the pressure on the first to take the floor was always greater. The tables went quiet for a moment, and then a peal of laughter like silver bells rose outside the warm chamber. A clear female voice struck the door curtain and made it move three times.
“Such a fine thing, and you didn’t wait for me?”
The rolled curtain was lifted and a young girl strode in. She wore a rolled-brim Hu cap, her black hair pinned high with no pearls or kingfisher ornaments, a single green feather stuck in at a slant. Her narrow sleeves were bound at the wrists, and the red Hu dress drew in a crisp waistline.
She walked into the middle of the chamber, her brows and eyes as if cut with a knife, spirit showing in every movement. “I came late, and have come especially to beg the host’s pardon.”
Second Miss Fang steadied the girl as she bowed. “Late or not late, what does it matter? Fifth Miss Feng, you have come at exactly the right time. I hear you have recently learned the huxuan dance. Why not open our eyes for us?”
“Then I will make a show of myself.” Fifth Miss Feng was frank by nature and did not decline. She looked toward where the musicians were. “How can one dance the huxuan without a jiegu drum?”
Second Miss Fang said, “Our humble house has not prepared well enough. We have a drum but no one to beat it.”
Fifth Miss Feng smiled slightly. “What is difficult about that? Among the young masters present, is there not one who is good at the jiegu?”
The men’s seats grew noisy for a moment, one pushing another and being pushed back. Second Master Qi and Eleventh Master He were especially restless to have a go, only they were not good at music and were afraid of disgracing themselves in public, so they did not dare step out.
Suddenly seeing a girl so unlike the rest, Yu Nanzhi could hardly take her eyes away. So she had finally seen the one who threw the plum. She had not expected such bearing, and many of her earlier guesses about her would all have to be knocked down and started again.
Yu Nanzhi came back to herself and saw Yu Qiuchi staring across at Yu Shuhuai, plainly enjoying his predicament [4]delighting in calamity and rejoicing in misfortune (xìng zāi lè huò, 幸災樂禍) (Idiom), taking pleasure in someone else’s trouble jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253955_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253955_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. “At Father’s birthday three years ago, Second Brother beat the drum in front of everyone. This time he will most likely be pushed up there again.”
Sure enough, across from them Yu Shuhuai was seized under the arms by two men and carried onto the dance mat, while another young master in orange shouted from behind, “Second Master Yu, back in the Imperial Academy you played the jiegu best of any of us, and even the Director praised you. Let us see it.”
Yu Shuhuai smoothed the creases at the corner of his robe and was about to refuse when Fifth Miss Feng, all smiles, had already curtsied, her tone grateful. “This humble girl thanks Second Master Yu for his generous help.”
The stage was already built. Yu Shuhuai had been pushed into it whether he liked it or not [5]a duck driven up onto the roost (yìng gǎn yā zi shàng jià, 硬趕鴨子上架) (Idiom), to force someone into a task they are unwilling or unfit for jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253955_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253955_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, he could not simply put it down and walk away [6]set down the carrying-pole (liào tiāo zi, 撂挑子) (Slang), to abandon a job one has taken on jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253955_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253955_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
Besides, Fifth Miss Feng’s father, Vice Director Feng, had taught him and advanced him, and the Fifth Miss very rarely asked for help in public. If he refused, she would probably not be able to save her face.
Yu Shuhuai made his decision quickly and clasped his hands. “In that case, I will make a show of myself.”
“Boom—boom—”
Yu Shuhuai hung the many-colored pottery jiegu at his waist, took up sandalwood drumsticks and struck the drumhead at the edge of the dance mat. Fifth Miss Feng turned with it, her toes touching down and springing away, her red sleeves opening out, the ruyi pattern embroidered in gold thread turning and shining under the candlelight. She was like a red lotus in full bloom.
The onlookers heard the drumbeats grow faster and faster, and that stroke of red turned faster and faster too. The silver chains on her belt rattled, hooking at people’s hearts.
“Good!” Someone was the first to strike the table and cheer.
The young lady of the Reminder of the Left’s household suddenly stood up, her smoke-purple shawl sliding to the floor. “I want to dance too!”
First three or five girls lifted their skirts and took the floor, then several young masters undid the jade hooks at their belts and stepped onto the dance mat in dance steps.
More and more people took the floor. Gold-woven and embroidered gauze spun all through the hall, the armlets on their wrists struck out a clear ringing, and wine spilled from gold goblets and was trodden into stars in a moment.
Slender fingers tapped a crisp rhythm on the edge of the table. Yu Nanzhi’s gaze swept over the dancing crowd again and again, and finally fixed on a scene she had not expected.
Fifth Miss Feng, whirling all around the floor, happened every few breaths to pass exactly three paces from Yu Shuhuai. It was plainly deliberate.
Something suddenly became clear to Yu Nanzhi. Second Uncle Yu and Vice Director Feng had passed the jinshi examination in the same year, and she had heard the servants of the Duke of Zhenguo’s household mention that in the years before Second Brother entered the Imperial Academy he had often gone to the Feng house to seek instruction in policy essays. Although Fifth Miss Feng had gone to her maternal grandfather’s home in Shuofang and lived there a year and a half before returning to Chang’an, the two of them must have known each other before.
She had nearly made a mess of it!
In outsiders’ eyes, the Duke of Zhenguo’s household had found its true-born daughter and yet had not driven out the adopted daughter, and had instead taken pains to arrange a match for her. That was exactly a sign of clear and bright family ways. The little twists and turns between the adopted daughter and the true-born one were only ordinary, after all, whose sisters do not have some friction now and then?
She would look into it once more and confirm whether it was true.
So Yu Nanzhi thought.
Suddenly her wrist was gripped. Yu Qiuchi pulled her away from her seat. “Quick! Let’s go and dance too!”
Plunged into the dancing crowd, Yu Nanzhi’s head was still muddled when Yu Qiuchi and the young lady of the Reminder of the Left’s household took her by either hand and pulled her into a dancing line, holding hands and turning in circles.
One or two turns were all right, but after ten or twenty Yu Nanzhi was dizzy, and the moment the hands holding hers let go she staggered a few steps. She barely steadied herself, then pretended to dance her way closer to where Yu Shuhuai and Fifth Miss Feng were. A drunken young man with a wine pot in his hand came swaying into her. Yu Nanzhi bent back at the waist and spun nimbly on her left foot, and the drunk carried on with his own momentum and fell flat on the floor, mumbling drunkenly, “Come on, drink some more…”
Yu Nanzhi sniffed at her cuff with some distaste and made sure the faint sour smell of wine had not got onto it. She was about to turn and leave when Fifth Miss Feng caught her. The girl in red asked with a smile, “You must be the second sister of Second Brother Yu?”
Yu Nanzhi nodded again and again, staring at Fifth Miss Feng and hardly able to look away. At a distance she had not noticed it, but up close she found that Fifth Miss Feng’s looks were secondary. What was most precious was the life in her, all but bursting out of her, bright as the morning sun.
“You must know already: my surname is Feng, and I am fifth in the family. Just call me Sister Congrong,” Feng Congrong said.
“Sister Congrong!” Yu Nanzhi rather liked Feng Congrong and called it out readily.
A smile broke at the corner of Feng Congrong’s mouth, but when her gaze swept over the drunk on the floor it gradually turned cold. “Every time there is always some fellow like this who likes to make a drunken scene and cannot weigh his own strength. Sister Nanzhi, stay with me later and I will teach you the huxuan dance.”
Such a soft, sweet little sister must not be disturbed by anyone.
Feng Congrong and Yu Shuhuai had the same thought without arranging it.
Feng Congrong’s proposal was exactly what Yu Nanzhi wanted, and she agreed at once.
But she had barely taught her a few huxuan hand gestures before Feng Congrong drifted close to Yu Shuhuai again, silently driving off any young lady who tried to come near.
Yu Nanzhi kept an eye on what was happening over there while she practiced the gestures she had just learned, amusing herself.
Suddenly a faint draught passed behind her. The long necklace-chain hanging at the back of her neck struck sharply against a jade pendant tied to someone’s belt, and there was a crisp sound.
Yu Nanzhi turned in astonishment and said, “So it’s you?”
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