The warm chamber of Grand Princess Qianjin’s residence was in an uproar just then.
The three of them stepped carefully in through the door, and through the huanghuali screen with its peach-blossom pattern and gold-flecked silk they heard the weeping complaint inside.
“My Eleventh Son is the most obedient of all in his daily life, and to me, his mother, he never refuses a thing. Just this early autumn my mouth craved pomegranates, and there happened to be none in Chang’an. He said not a second word and rode off toward Tong Pass. A whole day there and back, and the skin on the inside of his thighs was rubbed through two layers.”
Eleventh Master Yang’s mother, Madam Xu, sat on a low stool nearest Grand Princess Qianjin, clutching a silk handkerchief and describing what a fine person her youngest son was, her voice carrying a choked, tearful tone. The wife of Eldest Master Yang stood behind her, speaking now and then to comfort her and smooth her mother-in-law’s breathing.
Grand Princess Qianjin sat upright in the highest seat, her face like ice and frost, like a carving of ice, giving off cold at every moment and taking no more notice of Madam Xu than of a piece of furniture.
If it were not for the face of the late Aunt Yunmeng, and the fact that with the two families’ betrothal not yet dissolved they could just about be counted as relations by marriage, Madam Xu would not have deserved a seat before her, let alone this whole performance.
Grand Princess Qianjin had grown up from childhood in the imperial house, where human hearts are at their most treacherous. Could she not work out what Madam Xu was after with all this weeping and sniveling? Was it not to excuse her fine son Eleventh Master Yang and clear him of responsibility for fleeing the wedding?
“So it certainly cannot have been my son’s own wish to disappear before the wedding. Some villain must have carried him off. I beg Your Highness to inform the Jingzhao Prefecture office and have them help find him and seize the villain. This subject’s wife fears that if it drags on any longer the worst will have befallen my son!”
With a thud the noble lady with the grieving face dropped from the low stool and knelt prostrate on the floor, her whole body trembling without stop. She had acted for half the day and Grand Princess Qianjin had shown no sign, so Madam Xu could only make the play more real.
Grand Princess Qianjin did not trouble even to lift an eyelid, and said coldly, “By what Madam Xu says, your son’s whereabouts have become the Jingzhao Prefecture office’s first priority?”
He Yan, the wife of Eldest Master Yang, also came of a titled house. Although she knew Madam Xu’s behavior was extremely unwise, with the one word “filial” pressing down on her she could in the end only keep her mouth shut. Seeing that one more sentence from her mother-in-law would step on the mine and set it off, she quickly signaled the maids to take Madam Xu on either side and half support, half lift her up.
The mistress of a great house, weeping and streaming in front of everyone [1]tears and snot running all over her face (tì sì héng liú, 涕泗橫流) (Idiom), crying in an unseemly, uncontrolled way jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253963_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253963_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, what sort of decorum was that?
Madam Xu tried to struggle, but her daughter-in-law held her arms firmly.
“Your Highness sees clearly. The Jingzhao Prefecture office oversees the affairs of all the counties of the capital region. Matters are many and tangled, and the officers there have long had more than they can attend to. How would we dare overstep and trouble them with my brother-in-law’s affair?”
Although she had avoided the trap in Grand Princess Qianjin’s words without any change of expression, He Yan’s face still carried anxiety. After all, no one knew what this princess of the imperial house was thinking.
“Fifth Sister need not bicker with her. Look how your brows are knit, if you make wrinkles out of anger it will not be worth it.” The bright, beautiful lady beside her, adorned with gold and jade and dressed in fine silk, spoke with a smile. Her red-tinted fingertips brushed lightly at the foam on the surface of the tea, and her plain hand passed the gold teacup steadily to Grand Princess Qianjin.
Grand Princess Qianjin took up the cup and sipped lightly, and delight suddenly spread in her eyes. She praised her: “Heyang, your skill at making tea grows finer and finer.”
Grand Princess Heyang said, “I am not like Fifth Sister, who goes to the Han family’s banquet today and the Lu family’s banquet tomorrow. Staying in the princess’s residence day after day, one must find some diversion. Zixu was thoughtful and found an incomplete copy of the Classic of Tea, and this was prepared according to the recipes in it.”
Grand Princess Qianjin said, “I have a jar of the finest Dahongpao from the Wuyi Mountains here. Remember to take it with you when you go later.”
…
The two Grand Princesses, a word from one and a word from the other, had almost passed the matter over for the time being. He Yan was just about to breathe out when a piteous wail burst from Madam Xu’s mouth:
“My poor son!”
It was that the maids restraining Madam Xu had loosened their hold, which gave her the chance to go on digging her own grave [2]working away at her own death (zuò sǐ, 作死) (Slang), to persist in the very thing that will bring disaster on oneself jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253963_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253963_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
Grand Princess Qianjin’s face, which had only just cleared, fell again, her color like a dark rainy day.
Yu Nanzhi sighed from the heart at He Yan’s bad luck in being landed with an ally who only made everything worse [3]a pig of a teammate dragging at her hind leg (tuō hòu tuǐ de zhū duì yǒu, 拖後腿的豬隊友) (Slang), a partner whose blundering does more damage than the enemy jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253963_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253963_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
Eleventh Master Yang’s father, Vice Minister Yang, had had two wives in all. The first wife, of the He family, had been chosen by Grand Princess Lanling in her lifetime, and was the mother of Eldest Master Yang and Sixth Master Yang and He Yan’s aunt. Madam Xu, however, did not come from a great house but was the daughter of a clerk of Wannian County. She had been known in the ward from childhood for her rich beauty, and Vice Minister Yang, long a widower, happened to lose his heart to her the moment he saw her.
By then Grand Princess Lanling had already passed away, and after insisting again and again Vice Minister Yang succeeded in taking Madam Xu as his second wife, and Eleventh Master Yang was born. But Madam Xu’s temperament was also exposed without reserve, vulgar, ignorant, stubborn and with no thought of improving, a constant reminder to Vice Minister Yang of how foolish it had been to choose a person by looks alone.
The thing was done and could not be undone [4]the timber was already made into a boat (mù yǐ chéng zhōu, 木已成舟) (Idiom), what is finished cannot be taken back jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253963_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253963_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, and Vice Minister Yang was not a man to abandon a wife and children, so he could only make do and go on. Fortunately, a few years later the eldest daughter-in-law He Yan came into the house. Within, she put the disorderly residence in order, without, she took on the heavy duty of socializing with the women of the other households. Madam Xu no longer had to keep losing face, and only needed to show herself at their own banquets at the festivals.
Of course, the price of the Yang household doing things this way was that Madam Xu, who had lost authority over the household accounts, and He Yan were thoroughly sick of the sight of each other. If Eleventh Master Yang’s flight from the wedding had not been so grave a matter, He Yan would not have wanted to put up with Madam Xu’s occasionally remarkable turns of mind at all.
After all, Madam Xu could not perceive that she was losing face. The one embarrassed enough to wish she could find a pit and bury herself in it could only be He Yan.
“Mother!”
A female voice came, carrying grief.
Yu Nanzhi thought, “Here she is at last.”
At that moment County Princess Liyang leapt in through the door, her whole appearance so changed from the one in Xianyun Pavilion as to be unrecognizable. The corners of her eyes were red and her eyes were brimming with tears, which slid down like jade beads the instant she saw Grand Princess Qianjin.
“My Lingxian, how have you come to this? Tell your mother whatever wrong you have suffered, and your mother will set it right for you.” Grand Princess Qianjin gathered her daughter into her arms and began soothing her in a gentle voice.
County Princess Liyang wept out her complaint. “Mother, is your daughter really so unbearable that people find her hateful?”
Grand Princess Qianjin patted her daughter’s back lightly. “Our Lingxian is quick and clever, and there is no one in Chang’an who does not praise her. Who said such muddled things to you?”
“Is that true?” County Princess Liyang opened her beautiful eyes wide, seeming still not to believe it. “If it really is as Mother says, then why is everyone outside saying Eleventh Master Yang has fled the wedding? If there is nothing wrong with me anywhere, then why did he abandon me on the day of the marriage?”
“Your daughter as she is now is the laughing-stock of all Chang’an!”
County Princess Liyang wept until the tears streamed, and even Yu Qiuchi could not help turning her head. “How is it that the County Princess seems like a completely different person?”
She still remembered how fierce County Princess Liyang had been when she left Xianyun Pavilion.
Compared with Yu Qiuzhi, Yu Nanzhi got along much more harmoniously with this sister Yu Qiuchi. She lowered her voice and hinted, “Do you see that handkerchief clutched in the County Princess’s hand?”
Yu Qiuchi did not understand. What did a handkerchief have to do with it?
Yu Nanzhi explained further, “When the County Princess passed in front of us just now, I smelled a very faint garlic smell on her. And the County Princess keeps wiping around her eyes with that handkerchief. Third Sister, what do you think that is because of?”
Only the smallest amount of garlic water was needed to irritate the tear glands. Yu Qiuchi understood the trick at once. “The County Princess is pretending?”
“Shh—” Yu Nanzhi laid a finger lightly against her lips. “It is enough that we both understand and neither says so. Why say more?”
Yu Nanzhi could tell because she often used this trick herself, even now she carried a handkerchief soaked in garlic water on her. As for the others, anyone who knew how County Princess Liyang usually behaved could guess something of it—
Grand Princess Qianjin and her daughter were putting on a play.
To be exact, County Princess Liyang was the lead and Grand Princess Qianjin was playing along.
This world is full of people too lazy to think. They do not look into the inside of a matter: whoever cries is in the right, whoever is more pitiable is in the right.
Was that not exactly what Madam Xu was counting on? What was more, in feeling and in reason County Princess Liyang’s side had the firmer footing whichever way you looked at it, so the effect would only be better. Grand Princess Qianjin had been unwilling to do it earlier because she was a princess of the imperial house and weeping and sniveling in public would be beneath her dignity. But County Princess Liyang was different: she was both a junior and the injured party, and had no such worry at all.
“The offering of gifts, the asking of names, the divining of good fortune, the sending of betrothal presents, the setting of the date, over all that long time in between, if Eleventh Master Yang was dissatisfied with me or had his heart set elsewhere, he had only to say so straight out. It would only have meant the match being called off. I am not the sort to hang on and hound a man until I get him [5]clinging to the death and battering away at it (sǐ chán làn dǎ, 死纏爛打) (Idiom), to pester relentlessly and refuse to be shaken off jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253963_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253963_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. Why humiliate your daughter?”
County Princess Liyang buried her face deep in her mother’s arms, her thin shoulders trembling without stop with each sob.
Yu Nanzhi’s left index finger kept scoring at her right palm, and a thread of doubt rose in her heart. She knew perfectly well that County Princess Liyang was pretending, and yet she faintly heard in her tone some genuine, heartfelt hurt.
She wondered whether it was only her imagination.
Grand Princess Qianjin could not bear to see her daughter like this and said, “Xian’er, don’t cry. Your mother will certainly make them give you an account of it. There now—”
Grand Princess Heyang beside her chimed in at the right moment. “Madam Xu, Mistress He, you have seen it too. Our Liyang has been greatly wronged, and your son is still nowhere to be found. Liyang has been held up and loved from childhood. Even the loss of one strand of hair would grieve Fifth Sister for half a day, let alone suffering so great a disgrace. If there is no account given of today’s business, then not only the Zheng clan of Xingyang but the imperial clan as well will not let it pass.”
“Your Highness is joking. The imperial house’s dignity, how would we dare offend it? When the Eleventh Son is found, the Yang family will certainly bring him under escort to the princess’s residence to apologize in person.” Once Grand Princess Heyang’s words were out, the gravity of the matter rose in a straight line, and He Yan could not but handle it carefully. Pressed by the situation, she chose decisively to bow her head and own herself beaten [6]admitting she was the lesser (rèn sǒng, 認慫) (Slang), to back down and concede one dare not fight jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253963_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253963_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
Madam Xu wanted to argue again, but she met the sidelong look coming from the corner of He Yan’s eye, cold as ice to the bone in a way it had never been before, and could not help shrinking back. However shallow her understanding, she knew how to read a look. There was not one of the people in front of her she could afford to provoke, so she bit her lower lip and did not dare open her mouth again, leaving everything to He Yan.
He Yan’s good sense pleased Grand Princess Heyang somewhat. She smiled and called over her personal female official. “The Yang family need not trouble themselves over finding Eleventh Master Yang. Using a public office for private ends is not proper, but This Palace does have a son doing odd jobs at the Jingzhao Prefecture office for the time being, who can run errands. Go and see whether Zixu has come.”
“Heyang, I do not know what to say. We really have put you and your son to trouble.” Under Grand Princess Qianjin’s comforting, County Princess Liyang at last stopped weeping, and Grand Princess Qianjin was able to free a hand and nod her thanks to her sister.
Yu Nanzhi, not far from the door, felt a stir in her heart. Grand Princess Heyang’s son, wasn’t that Cui Zixu?
An acting Prefect of Jingzhao was still a Prefect of Jingzhao, and yet he was described as doing odd jobs. There was no telling how that fellow would feel to hear it.
Her ears suddenly went quiet, and Yu Nanzhi stopped her thoughts.
Suddenly a cool wind came in at the door and stirred up the warm scent of the room.
Someone else had arrived.
References[+]