Sure enough, Second Master Qi started howling like a soul in torment again [1]ghosts weeping and wolves howling (guǐ kū láng háo, 鬼哭狼嚎) (Idiom), a hideous drawn-out caterwauling jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253960_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253960_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, every word pouring out his “deep and unregretted feeling” for Feng Congrong, as if everything he had done had been because of her.
“Tsk—”
A cold laugh sounded.
“Who is laughing?” Second Master Qi looked around and saw only Cui Zixu sitting high on his horse. The gaze looking at him held not only coldness but contempt, and it scraped at him like a knife.
“In all my life this is the first time I have seen a man with so little backbone, pushing his own fault onto a girl who has nothing to do with it, conjuring a charge out of thin air to get out of the blame.” Every frown and smile of Cui Zixu’s was full of grace, yet he did not hide his scorn for Second Master Qi at all.
Yu Shuhuai, who had always called himself a gentleman, heard what Second Master Qi meant. The veins on his forehead and neck stood out with anger beyond words, and he clenched his fist and was about to go and put one on his face.
“Second Brother Yu.” Feng Congrong’s slender fingers brushed by chance over the back of Yu Shuhuai’s hand, and she turned her head and shook it at him, which calmed Yu Shuhuai’s temper with surprising ease. “However it stands, since I am involved in the matter, let me say a couple of words to Second Master Qi.”
Never mind her own little hidden thoughts. Simply because Second Brother Yu had been willing to put himself forward to help just now, how could she truly leave him to it and look after her own skin alone?
Feng Congrong stated it slowly. “Second Master Qi, this is already the eighth time in these two months that you have come to the West Market to corner me. If I remember rightly, as early as last month I told you perfectly clearly and plainly that I, Feng Congrong, have no interest in you, and asked you not to disturb me again.”
Second Master Qi argued craftily, “But you still come here often and show no intention of keeping away at all. Isn’t that playing hard to get [2]slacken the line in order to land the fish (yù qín gù zòng, 欲擒故縱) (Idiom), to feign indifference so as to draw someone on jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253960_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253960_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });?”
Feng Congrong was almost laughing with anger. She had never expected to meet a creature who genuinely could not understand human speech. “I do not know where Second Master Qi gets his confidence, thinking he is worth my going to eager pains over. My father holds the fourth rank and manages the affairs of the Secretariat, and my mother’s family has long garrisoned the northern frontier. With your family and your talent, in what single respect are you a match for me?”
“Smack—”
A palm print appeared on Second Master Qi’s left cheek. He covered his face with his hand, his eyes wide.
Feng Congrong drew back the hand that had just delivered the slap and lifted her chin proudly. “Kindly remember this, young master: when a girl has clearly said no in this matter, she is not playing hard to get [3]slacken the line in order to land the fish (yù qín gù zòng, 欲擒故縱) (Idiom), to feign indifference so as to draw someone on jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253960_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253960_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, still less refusing with one hand and beckoning with the other. You had better clear out that endlessly overflowing confidence of yours—”
Feng Congrong’s voice paused. Looking at this fellow in front of her with his resentful expression, she sighed lightly.
There is no reasoning with a man determined to keep his fantasy [4]one who dreams all day cannot be woken (zhěng tiān zuò mèng de rén shì jiào bù xǐng de, 整天做夢的人是叫不醒的) (Idiom), no argument reaches a person who insists on his delusion jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253960_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253960_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
Did this Second Master Qi think Consort Qi’s position in the palace was really secure? There was no knowing how many women in the inner palace were waiting to replace her, and this younger brother was precisely his sister’s greatest weak spot. When the news reached the palace later, Consort Qi would be in a desperate fix again.
But Second Master Qi had never had any brains and did not think that far. He finally came out of the shock of being struck and pointed at Feng Congrong, shouting, “You actually dared to hit me!”
Feng Congrong looked at him in puzzlement, the expression on her face seeming to say, “Don’t you think you deserve to be hit?”
Second Master Qi suddenly seized Cui Zixu’s sleeve. “Your Highness the Prince, this Fifth Miss Feng struck someone right in front of you and does not count you for anything at all. You must uphold justice for me!”
The gaze of the young man in purple moved slowly down and settled on the hand pulling at his sleeve. The fingers holding the reins curled with some distaste, and the black horse under him gave a small sneeze and stepped back a pace. The hand on Cui Zixu’s sleeve was forced loose, and its owner staggered and almost fell, the head-wrap on his head knocked askew to one side.
Second Master Qi had just straightened his gauze cap when he heard Cui Zixu say, “Since it is all true, take Second Master Qi back to be punished!”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Second Master Qi jumped up. The several Qi family guards exchanged glances and immediately closed around their young master, since if anything happened to Second Master Qi it would certainly go very badly for servants like them.
“My elder sister is in high favor in the palace, and besides… Prince of Qinghe, as I recall the Jingzhao Prefecture office is under the Prince of Ruyang. For the Prince to stick a foot in sideways is to overstep your authority. Be careful the Sage hears of it and punishes Your Highness.”
Cui Zixu had not expected Second Master Qi to be clever for once and remember this, but unfortunately his information was not very current. “Uncle Ruyang left Chang’an yesterday and has gone to Jinyang with his princess. Before he set out he specially recommended me to the Sage to act temporarily as Prefect of Jingzhao.”
Cui Zixu waved a hand and several bailiffs rushed forward and trussed Second Master Qi up. The head constable, afraid Second Master Qi would be too noisy, produced a handkerchief from somewhere and stuffed it firmly into his mouth.
The troublemaking Second Master Qi was dragged off, and several enthusiastic cheers broke out around them, all praising how handsomely the Jingzhao Prefecture office had handled it. Yu Nanzhi stood in the crowd looking from a distance at Yu Shuhuai and Feng Congrong standing shoulder to shoulder, let her gaze rest on Cui Zixu for one breath as if giving alms, and said silently in her heart, “This fellow has finally done one good thing.”
She pulled her veiled hat tight and prepared to leave the West Market with Liu Ruyan and go back to Liquan Ward. Before withdrawing from the crowd Yu Nanzhi’s steps paused and she looked back once.
Strange, that feeling of being watched had come again.
A small pavilion in winter, tea boiled with snow water.
Yu Nanzhi propped her chin on one hand and stared listlessly at the golden milk pastry on the plate.
She had only just come back from Liquan Ward in the afternoon when the Duke of Zhenguo, returned from the Yulin Guard, called her here. Of course it was not only her: everyone in the Duke of Zhenguo’s household had come except Yu Qiuzhi, who was still under punishment picking broad beans. It was given the fine name of examining the recent studies of the household’s juniors, and of building some feeling among them along the way.
At the head of the room the Duke of Zhenguo and Yu Shuhuai were talking happily, every word an instruction to Yu Shuhuai to be careful and cautious when he took up his duties in the Secretariat after the new year, with occasional passages about the present political situation at court.
Yu Qiuchi, being a girl as well, could get no word in. She sent a maid for her embroidery frame and went on embroidering a peach-blossom spring scene. Yu Nanzhi did not want to disturb Yu Qiuchi, but happily she soon found someone who felt even worse than she did, Yu Shutang.
The ten strokes of the board he had taken earlier had not yet fully healed, and just now, questioned on his studies, Yu Shutang could not answer a thing that was put to him. He could not even recite the Analects straight through, stumbling and halting, which made the Duke of Zhenguo very angry. He cursed him four or five times as an “empty sack of an unfilial son” [5]a sack of straw (cǎo bāo, 草包) (Slang), a useless, empty-headed good-for-nothing jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253960_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253960_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); and gave him twenty strokes of the ferule. The redness and swelling in his palms had not gone down. Yu Shutang bared his teeth in pain but did not dare make a sound, and could only endure it in his seat, unable to keep still.
Yu Nanzhi glanced now and then at Yu Shutang’s expression, changing back and forth like a chameleon’s, and at last found some amusement.
Suddenly there was a weight on her knee. Daju leapt nimbly onto the table, put his two little paws neatly together and settled himself pressed close against Yu Nanzhi.
【Master, latest news: Second Master Qi has run into serious trouble [6]his luck has turned right over (dǎo le dà méi, 倒了大黴) (Slang), to meet with thoroughly bad fortune jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253960_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253960_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.】
“How exactly? Tell it in detail.” Gathering Daju into her arms, Yu Nanzhi scratched the cat’s chin, her voice pressed as low as it would go.
Daju said, 【At the wu hour today someone saw the Prince of Qinghe make a trip into the palace, and in less than two quarter-hours an attendant from the Sage’s side came out of the palace to the Jingzhao Prefecture office to deliver an edict. Second Master Qi was given twenty strokes of the rod straight off and ordered confined to his home for half a year to reflect on his faults, and every day he must also copy out the Tang Code. And the great prop he leaned on, Consort Qi, is now kneeling before Penglai Hall with her hairpins removed, awaiting punishment.】
The Tang Code had five hundred and two articles and its content was complicated. For Second Master Qi, copying it once would be enough to send him up to heaven. The Sage really had gone to great pains. He was making a conspicuous example of one man [7]kill a chicken to frighten the monkeys (shā jī jǐng hóu, 殺雞儆猴) (Idiom), to punish one person publicly in order to cow the rest jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253960_1_7').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253960_1_7', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, a warning to the other idle rich sons of Chang’an that they must on no account break the law.
Yu Nanzhi asked, “How is Sister Congrong?”
Daju climbed onto his master’s shoulder and rubbed his head affectionately against Yu Nanzhi’s cheek. 【She went home and ate three extra bowls of rice and drank a cup of green plum wine.】
It sounded as if her heart was quite happy.
Yu Nanzhi was thinking about it in silence when a corner of the curtain around the pavilion was lifted and a little cold wind slipped in through the gap. Then she heard a servant report from outside the pavilion, “Your Grace, the Prince of Qinghe’s carriage has arrived at the gate.”
Yu Qiuchi looked up from her embroidery, her eyes questioning Yu Nanzhi curiously.
Yu Nanzhi shook her head and tightened the arm holding Daju. In all Chang’an he was the only one whose news she could not obtain. She really knew nothing at all.
At the head of the room the Duke of Zhenguo and Yu Shuhuai exchanged a glance, understanding passing through both their eyes. What had happened in the West Market this morning had not yet been settled. The Prince of Qinghe had probably come for that.
“Come with me to the front hall to receive him.” As he spoke, the Duke of Zhenguo took Yu Shuhuai and Yu Shutang out of the pavilion.
The teapot on the small red clay stove gurgled and gave off a great cloud of steam.
Yu Nanzhi stayed in the pavilion a long while and thought that the Duke of Zhenguo and the others would probably not come back, so she prepared to leave. She lifted a crack in the windbreak curtain in front of the pavilion, and voices carried from the long corridor outside. Looking up, she saw the Duke of Zhenguo walking along side by side with Cui Zixu.
Cui Zixu was still dressed as he had been in the morning, his purple official robe unchanged, a long pearl-hung tassel and a jade pendant hanging at his waist. As he walked they knocked together now and then with a crisp ringing.
Coming down the steps and into the snow, Cui Zixu reached out and lightly brushed the drifted snow from the front of his robe. His brows and eyes suddenly moved a little, as though something had stirred in him without his meaning it [8]a ripple raised on the lake of his heart (xīn hú yī yī, 心湖一漪) (Metaphor), the first faint movement of feeling jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253960_1_8').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253960_1_8', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. Where his eyes reached, a young girl in a pale purple ru skirt leaned at a door peeking out. Their gazes crossed for only an instant, and a flash of dismay went through Yu Nanzhi’s eyes.
The next moment the curtain fell heavily and cut off Cui Zixu’s line of sight. The figure of the girl in the purple skirt disappeared completely.
The Duke of Zhenguo had of course seen the whole of it. He glanced at Cui Zixu’s expression and started to speak and stopped, not knowing whether he ought to apologize for his daughter’s impolite behavior.
Although he was more inclined to think that his own girl had only been looking at the scenery just now and had not noticed the several of them at all.
“It is nothing.” Cui Zixu waved a hand and walked on.
Yu Nanzhi suddenly came back after having gone, which startled Yu Qiuchi. She asked carefully, “Second Sister, what is it?”
“Nothing.” The girl in the purple skirt answered calmly, but the fingers clenched under her wide sleeve gave away the tangle of her thoughts.
The business in the West Market ought to count as official business and should be discussed in the front hall. Why come to the snow-viewing pavilion in the back courtyard?
He really must be idle and bored.
After a while the cold wind blew quietly into the pavilion. Yu Nanzhi suddenly raised her eyes. A deep purple hem drifted past in front of her, and a pair of silver-threaded pale satin cloud shoes seemed to pause for one breath before her seat, then walked slowly up to the seat of honor.
And Yu Nanzhi went slightly blank again. That jade pendant hanging at Cui Zixu’s waist, she seemed to have seen it somewhere before.
References[+]