The moment Cui Zixu came in, everyone in Fengyi Pavilion hushed and held their breath. County Princess Wanquan, who had been eating a pastry, immediately sat up properly, afraid her brother would find fault with her. Yu Qiuzhi still stood there smiling and talking, only she smoothed the loose hair at her temple without letting it show.
As for the other noble young ladies in the pavilion, there is no need to speak of them: every one of them had a charming smile in her eyes and kept making eyes at Cui Zixu [1]sending autumn ripples across in secret (àn sòng qiū bō, 暗送秋波) (Idiom), to cast covert amorous glances at someone jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253947_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253947_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
Of everyone present, probably only Yu Nanzhi had no interest in this son of the princess. She still kept her eyes lowered, fighting off sleep.
However outstanding he was, what did it have to do with her? She and one of fortune’s darlings like this were fated to have nothing to do with each other.
From what the willow tree in the Duke of Zhenguo’s household had reported, the father she had come by for nothing [2]bargain-price dad (pián yí lǎo diē, 便宜老爹) (Slang), a father acquired with no effort and little affection jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253947_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253947_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); and her grandmother meant to find her a second son of noble birth who did not stand out, so that there would be no pressure and nothing could go wrong. She had already looked into every young master in Chang’an who met that standard, and could guess who they were with her eyes shut.
But somehow, the young master from the plum grove suddenly flashed through Yu Nanzhi’s mind.
Yu Nanzhi’s thoughts wandered. Half asleep and half awake, she did not notice her head nodding forward in small repeated jerks [3]like a chick pecking at rice (xiǎo jī zhuó mǐ, 小雞啄米) (Metaphor), the little bobbing nods of someone struggling to stay awake jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253947_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253947_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
Cui Zixu paid his respects to the Grand Princess and took his seat. A maid eagerly served him tea. When he lifted the cup he nodded slightly in thanks, and his deep gaze passed over Yu Nanzhi without a trace.
It was his nature: just sitting there quietly he was as cold as frost on a leaf, and fitted the noisy hall about as well as a square peg fits a round hole. Only when he looked at the dozing girl did ripples rise in his eyes and his brows knit slightly.
Following Cui Zixu’s line of sight, everyone in Fengyi Pavilion looked toward Yu Nanzhi.
A pain came at Yu Nanzhi’s waist. She came to herself with a jolt and met the Grand Madam of Zhenguo’s look of despairing exasperation [4]galled that the iron will not turn into steel (hèn tiě bù chéng gāng, 恨鐵不成鋼) (Idiom), impatient disappointment at someone who will not live up to what you want of them jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253947_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253947_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. Then she raised her head blankly and found that everyone was staring at her.
When her gaze fell on Cui Zixu’s handsome face, the blood in her whole body almost froze, and the heart in her chest seemed to take a long while before it started beating again.
She looked at the young man across from her with a complicated expression, her heart pounding. She should have guessed long ago, apart from the master of this residence, who else could sit at leisure in the plum garden playing with a cat?
Cui Zixu had been known for his talent since childhood: at three he could recite, at six he could write poems, at ten he could take up a brush and compose a fu. His whole bearing was that of lone frost and snow, and his fine name had spread throughout Chang’an. He was the man over half the noble young ladies dreamed of.
Yu Nanzhi felt the needle-sharp gazes coming from every side and sighed inwardly at her own bad luck. If these noble young ladies found out that she and Cui Zixu had had dealings in private, they would tear her apart alive.
She pulled out a rueful smile, then lowered her head and went on pretending she did not exist.
Cui Zixu moved his gaze away without any change of expression and lowered his eyes to the tea leaves floating in his cup.
The Marchioness of Changxin broke the awkward atmosphere. “Wasn’t it said that Eldest Miss Yu brought a painting by Yu Xi? Thanks to Your Highness, we may open our eyes today as well!” She was on close terms with the Grand Madam, so of course she was glad to talk Yu Qiuzhi up.
With the Grand Princess’s nod of approval, Yu Qiuzhi carried the painting forward with quick steps and unrolled it, speaking of the allusions in it. Her clever remarks came out in a bright unbroken run, and the ladies present praised her again and again. Yu Nanzhi took the chance to hide behind the carved screen. Suddenly she felt a tug at her sleeve, and turned to look: it was Hanying.
Yu Nanzhi saw Hanying nod, and knew she must have brought the painting.
By now the mood in Fengyi Pavilion was at its height. The Grand Princess had always loved plum blossoms, and she was so taken with the “Winter Plum in Snow” in her hands that she could not bear to part with it. She looked with a smile at Yu Qiuzhi standing beside her, then turned her gaze to Cui Zixu, who was drinking his tea by himself. “Seventh Son, come and look as well.”
Cui Zixu was Grand Princess Heyang’s only son, but he was ranked by the order of the Cui clan, in which he was seventh, so he was also called Seventh Master Cui.
Cui Zixu nodded and said coolly, “Your son has long heard that in Yu Xi’s plum paintings the birds are done in fine brushwork, exquisite and lifelike. Your son will take the chance to see for himself.”
That the Grand Princess valued this painting was just what the Grand Madam of Zhenguo wanted, but she had not expected the Grand Princess to call Cui Zixu over to look at it.
As far as she knew, even the palace had asked after Cui Zixu’s marriage several times, and the Grand Princess had never given way. It seemed the Eldest Miss’s plum painting had really reached her heart, and had actually moved the Grand Princess to think about it.
Even if in the end it was not Seventh Master Cui but only some other son of a prince or duke, that would be enough.
Cui Zixu knelt straight-backed before the huanghuali table, his well-jointed hand lightly tracing the scroll in front of him. He was like bamboo standing proud in the snow.
After a while he said, “The brushwork is good, but there is a faint smell of eyebrow ink about it. Yu Xi always used pine ink. This painting is a recent copy, isn’t it?”
The noble young ladies had long resented that Yu Qiuzhi had taken the Grand Princess’s attention the moment she arrived, and all felt indignant. Hearing this, they could not help covering their faces and laughing to themselves.
The mockery and the stares came at her like a tide. In an instant the blood ran cold in Yu Qiuzhi [5]as if dropped into an ice cavern (rú zhuì bīng kū, 如墜冰窟) (Metaphor), a sudden plunge into freezing dread jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253947_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253947_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. She turned her head and fixed her stare on Yu Nanzhi, who looked entirely innocent, blades tempered in her eyes.
Yu Nanzhi’s thick, long lashes trembled and she frowned slightly, as if frightened by Yu Qiuzhi. Seeing the Grand Princess in the seat of honor look worse and worse, she stepped away from her seat, bowed, and offered up a painting box. “The genuine work is here. Please forgive us, Your Highness. This subject saw some days ago how fine the painting was and made a copy of it. I did not expect that we would leave in such a hurry today and take the wrong one. Elder Sister, your younger sister is right, isn’t she?”
In the Duke of Zhenguo’s household the flowers and plants and even the cats and dogs all whispered the news to her. She had long known that Yu Qiuzhi and her maid had planned to steal the “Winter Plum in Snow,” and had prepared a fake painting for her on purpose. She had not expected Yu Qiuzhi to walk right into the trap.
Yu Nanzhi knelt calmly on the floor. Only then did the people in the room notice her. The candlelight flickered, making her skin look even paler, and she was as still as a jade statue.
Everyone who had reached the position they held today was an old hand at reading a room [6]a spirit in human shape (rén jīng, 人精) (Slang), someone extremely shrewd and worldly-wise jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253947_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253947_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. Of course they saw what lay behind it, and secretly pitied this Second Miss Yu who had once been lost among the common folk.
When people looked at Yu Qiuzhi, her face was black and green. It was a long while before she forced out a sentence. “Thank you, Younger Sister, for covering for me.”
The scroll was unrolled. From a distance the two paintings looked almost exactly alike, and Yu Nanzhi’s explanation sounded believable enough. The Grand Princess did not want to look into it any further. She nodded, and the farce was over.
After the banquet, Yu Nanzhi said a word to the Grand Madam of Zhenguo, got up and went out of Fengyi Pavilion for air.
The heavy snow had let up a little. Melted snow water dripped down from the eaves and wet the hem of Yu Nanzhi’s skirt.
She walked slowly along the corridor until she stopped in front of a corridor pavilion.
“Elder Sister, ten thousand blessings.” She clasped her hands and bowed.
The plum blossoms along the way had brought her word, and she had known long ago that Yu Qiuzhi would not let today’s business pass easily.
“So Younger Sister has eaten and drunk her fill?”
Yu Qiuzhi turned her head and gave Yu Nanzhi a long look. She was clearly smiling, but Yu Nanzhi felt that those eyes, usually so full of feeling, were dark and heavy.
“The red plum is beautiful, but the wind is strong out here. Younger Sister is not in good health, so you had better go back to your room and behave yourself.”
Yu Nanzhi laughed inwardly. No wonder Yu Qiuzhi could win the favor of everyone in the Duke of Zhenguo’s household, and even make the Grand Madam swallow her pride and run about over her marriage [7]fling away her old face (huō chū lǎo liǎn, 豁出老臉) (Idiom), to set aside one’s dignity entirely for someone else’s sake jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253947_1_7').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253947_1_7', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. Her way of speaking and acting really was skillful. That sentence sounded like concern, but it was in fact a jab that Yu Nanzhi had schemed to steal her thunder.
Yu Nanzhi held her hand stove. The cold wind lifted the bamboo blind at the edge of the corridor, and Yu Nanzhi’s face took on an unnatural flush that made her look even more beautiful.
“What is Elder Sister saying? Your younger sister… I don’t quite understand.” She bit her cherry-red lips, her thin shoulders shook slightly, and her eyes filled with tears.
Yu Qiuzhi’s face darkened at this. She had actually forgotten that this person was better at acting than she was. If not for today’s real and fake plum paintings, she would still think as she had before: so what if Yu Nanzhi was the true-born daughter, she was still weak and easy to bully.
“Yu Nanzhi, stop pretending!”
“Elder Sister, why are you so fierce? You were never like this before.” Faced with Yu Qiuzhi’s accusation, Yu Nanzhi covered her chest and opened her mouth in shock, almost thinking she had misheard.
“The business with the plum painting was your doing!”
Yu Qiuzhi’s tone was utterly certain. She would never forget the look her grandmother had given her just now, it was disappointment. She instinctively ignored that the cause of it all was her own greed, and pushed the whole responsibility onto Yu Nanzhi.
Hearing this, Yu Nanzhi smoothed her sleeve, then looked up at the snowflakes drifting outside the corridor and said slowly, “When I first came to Chang’an I understood nothing, and I have Elder Sister’s ‘care’ to thank for it. But watching how Elder Sister acts today, I finally understand that when something goes wrong it is all the injured party’s fault.”
When she had finished, Yu Nanzhi did not even bother to look at Yu Qiuzhi and walked straight on. Yu Qiuzhi had grown up petted and spoiled and was rarely ignored like this. She was stunned for a moment, then anger seemed to burn in her, and she hurried after Yu Nanzhi.
“Stop right there!”
Yu Nanzhi turned around and looked into Yu Qiuzhi’s eyes without any fear. “What else does Elder Sister have to instruct me in?”
Yu Qiuzhi was left with a tight chest by that “what can you do to me” expression. After they had stared at each other for a moment, she did not dare after all to give anyone a hold over her, and said with a dark face, “You just wait!”
With that, she stalked off toward Fengyi Pavilion.
Yu Nanzhi burst out laughing. Her head was down and she had not yet left the corridor when a pair of black gold-woven cloud shoes and a moon-white hem came into her view.
“Second Miss Yu, how are the plum blossoms of the princess’s residence?” Yu Nanzhi could not shake the feeling that there was more in Cui Zixu’s words. He must have listened in on her conversation with Yu Qiuzhi.
Yu Nanzhi had always been able to hold her nerve. In an instant she put on the look of a creature that would not hurt a fly, turned her wrists and saluted Cui Zixu. “This subject greets the Prince of Qinghe.”
Cui Zixu raised his hand coolly. “Rise.”
The afternoon wind had picked up and lifted the sleeves of both of them. Yu Nanzhi stole a look at Cui Zixu’s expression and could see no change in it, but she had already made up her mind to keep away from him. This Seventh Master Cui was her bane: whenever she ran into him, either her ability failed or she was caught having it out with someone.
“Sisters have had a small quarrel, and Elder Sister was in a bad mood and threw out a few harsh words. Your Highness will not take it too seriously, will you?”
Cui Zixu raised an eyebrow and gave Yu Nanzhi a look that was half a smile.
That sentence was said for him to hear.
At the time he had come out of the front hall meaning to go back to his courtyard and see whether Yunu had eaten well, and had run into a pair of sisters quarreling in front of the corridor pavilion. He held to the way of a gentleman and could not meddle in another family’s affairs, so he stood behind the curtain, meaning to come out after they had finished quarreling.
He had not expected to see such a splendid play.
Even now this Second Miss Yu was still standing here playing meek and clever, when anyone could see that Eldest Miss Yu had been driven to stamping her feet. Watching her like this, she looked rather like the way she had been back in Luoyang.
“Brother… Second Miss Yu?” County Princess Wanquan’s puzzled voice suddenly sounded. Yu Nanzhi thought that these two Cui siblings must both be cats turned into spirits, they walked without making the least sound.
“So it’s Wanquan. Weren’t you playing pitch-pot with the others?”
“It was too stuffy inside, so I came out for a walk.” As she spoke, County Princess Wanquan looked at Yu Nanzhi. “Second Miss Yu, the Grand Madam of Zhenguo has already taken her leave of my mother. You had better hurry back.”
“Yes.” Yu Nanzhi felt like a prisoner reprieved, and thought it would not be out of the question to have Nanzhi Que give County Princess Wanquan a better review. She curtsied to each of the Cui siblings, then lifted her skirt and ran off.
The young man watched that figure trot away, shook his head and smiled helplessly, which left County Princess Wanquan beside him staring.
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