The girl with lowered eyes and gathered sleeves suddenly raised her head, and a bewilderment like rising mist showed in her round eyes.
“The household has long been looking for a match for the Eldest Miss, and of course you and the Third Miss cannot be left out.” Madam Ji took Yu Nanzhi’s hand and explained slowly. “But don’t worry. Mother-in-law has no intention of settling it right away. This time is only a meeting. After all, which household does not pick and choose when looking for a match? There is no sense in being so hasty.”
Madam Ji comforted Yu Nanzhi with her words, but privately she thought the chance of this viewing coming to anything was extremely low. Young people’s tastes sometimes pointed in exactly the opposite direction from their elders’ [1]the shaft aimed south while the wheels run north (nán yuán běi zhé, 南轅北轍) (Idiom), two things headed in diametrically opposite directions jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253954_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253954_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. By rumor Third Master Fang seemed to prefer bright, alluring women, entirely unlike Yu Nanzhi.
Madam Ji dropped her voice very low. “When you meet Third Master Fang later, just don’t be impolite. Deal with him however you like.”
Yu Nanzhi’s steps halted suddenly, the surprise in her eyes like cracking ice. She murmured, “Does Second Aunt mean…”
“Keep your voice down.” Madam Ji raised a finger to her lips, her beautiful eyes turning as she swept a glance around.
Yu Nanzhi caught on. Her own grandmother seemed to have some winding, roundabout relation to the Grand Madam of the Marquis of Pingyuan, so a direct refusal was awkward, and this trip of hers was simply going through the motions.
Then she could relax.
This good mood lasted all the way until she met the Grand Madam of the Marquis of Pingyuan. Yu Nanzhi fell a few steps behind Madam Ji, clasped her hands and greeted her with a smile.
The Grand Madam of the Marquis of Pingyuan was on in years and her eyes were not what they had been. She opened her clouded eyes and looked the girl in front of her over. “She really is a fine-looking one. Seventh Sister does know how to raise children.”
Relying on her lowered head to keep the Grand Madam of the Marquis of Pingyuan from seeing her expression clearly, Yu Nanzhi quietly curled her lip.
She had only been brought to Chang’an from Luoyang at fifteen. The way she was now had nothing whatever to do with the grandmother she had come by for nothing and lived with for only two years.
While she was being looked over, Yu Nanzhi was also secretly studying the Grand Madam of the Marquis of Pingyuan.
The Grand Madam of the Marquis of Pingyuan’s half-grey hair was combed without a strand out of place, and her gold-set-with-jade temple ornaments were dazzling under seven or eight candles. Her back was perfectly straight, but if anyone spoke a little louder, the wrist wearing the gold bracelet with the treasure-flower design would tremble slightly, revealing a timidity almost too faint to notice.
It made sense, when one thought about it. Although the Grand Madam of the Marquis of Pingyuan came from the Zheng clan of Xingyang like the Grand Madam of Zhenguo, she was only of a collateral branch, and that branch’s standing had long since declined. Her father’s generation entered service, and all their lives they hovered around the eighth rank. Had her father not happened to do a favor for the Commandant-Escort of Grand Princess Changping, there would have been no chance of her being taken into the Duke of Xing’s household. But the Commandant-Escort settled his only son’s marriage on his own without consulting anyone, which made the Grand Madam Zheng thoroughly hated by Grand Princess Changping. If it had been only a princess for a mother-in-law it would have been one thing, but the Grand Madam Zheng’s eldest son also married a princess, so among all the women of the family her position was the lowest, pressed from both sides by mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. It was a resentment with nowhere at all to go.
“The Grand Madam praises her too much,” Madam Ji said politely.
The Grand Madam Zheng said, “What is there to be modest about? This girl of your household has grown up well, and her temperament suits my heart even better, soft and gentle, plainly not one to stir up trouble. Compared with that… she is much better.”
Seeing the Grand Madam Zheng go further and further off the mark, Madam Ji hurriedly cut in with a joking tone. “The Marquis of Pingyuan’s household really is very stingy today.”
The Grand Madam Zheng said, “Stingy how? Have you been short of food, or short of drink?”
Madam Ji said, “If you are not the greatest skinflint alive [2]the old man of the Han age (Hàn shì lǎo rén, 漢世老人) (Idiom), a byword for a man who will not part with a copper jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253954_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253954_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, then how is it that from the moment we came in until now our Second Miss has not even received a first-meeting gift?”
The Grand Madam Zheng said, “You old skinflint [3]slave to guarding her coin (shǒu qián nú, 守錢努) (Slang), a miser jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253954_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253954_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. So you came to me today to ask for things.” The Grand Madam Zheng had someone bring out the meeting gift that had long been prepared and gave it to Yu Nanzhi. “A pair of southern-pearl and silver-thread double-butterfly hairpins, for the young lady to wear for fun.”
Yu Nanzhi thanked her at once.
Whatever the reason behind this handsome gift, it was money, wasn’t it?
The Grand Madam Zheng roused herself to exchange a few more pleasantries with Madam Ji, then said to Yu Nanzhi, “It must be uncomfortable for a young lady to sit with dry old sticks like us. The green plum outside our Liuyun Pavilion has set its buds today. Why not go out to the pavilion and have a look?”
Yu Nanzhi agreed, and guessed that what the Grand Madam Zheng wanted her to see was not only the green plum.
The way to Liuyun Pavilion was somewhat desolate. Looking around, there was not the least green or a single petal to be seen. It was deathly bleak.
In the days of Grand Princess Changping, when the Marquis of Pingyuan’s household was still the Duke of Xing’s household, plum trees had been planted everywhere. Over the past ten-odd years those plum trees had been cut down one after another and replaced with peach trees. Only that one green plum survived, because it was too precious.
This was probably the Grand Madam Zheng’s silent revenge on her long-dead princess mother-in-law.
But such trifling things were all she could do to let out her resentment.
Inside Liuyun Pavilion a maid watched over a small red clay stove, glancing anxiously around from time to time.
Third Master Fang had not come, as expected.
Yu Nanzhi asked the maid on duty for a cup of wine.
In the silver cup the wine was golden, with broken petals floating in it. It was new osmanthus wine, brewed in the autumn of this year and opened in winter.
【That wretched brat who broke off my branch is coming!】
The green plum outside the pavilion shrieked loud enough to pierce an eardrum.
Yu Nanzhi lowered her head and took a small sip. When she looked up she glimpsed a figure lifting the curtain and coming into Liuyun Pavilion. He flicked up his robe and sat down lazily across from her, his neck held high, and a heavy scent of powder and rouge came off him, barely concealed at all.
This was Lihan Rouge Scent, exactly the same scent she had smelled earlier on Third Miss Guo.
Yu Nanzhi bowed slightly. “This humble girl greets Third Master Fang.”
“Second Miss Yu, I greet you here.” Third Master Fang seemed impatient. He waved a maid over. “Bring me a cup of Jiannan Shaochun.”
Third Master Fang poured and drank by himself and paid Yu Nanzhi no attention. For a while there was nothing said between them in Liuyun Pavilion.
Yu Nanzhi was in no hurry either, breaking a hu flatbread apart bit by bit. This unmoving manner, in Third Master Fang’s eyes, told him exactly that the rumors were not wrong—
The second young lady of the Duke of Zhenguo’s household was, to put it nicely, meek and humble, and to put it plainly, wooden, a complete dolt [4]a dull-headed goose (dāi tóu é, 呆頭鵝) (Slang), a slow-witted, gormless person jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253954_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253954_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. She really had come from among the common folk, without the least air of a noble daughter of a great house. She could not even compare with the ladies of Pingkang Ward.
Why on earth had his own grandmother chosen her?
He was going to make sure this thing collapsed completely.
“Is there… something on this humble girl’s… face?” Yu Nanzhi suddenly spoke, cutting off Third Master Fang’s train of thought.
“Cough, cough—” Third Master Fang came to himself with a jolt, choked on his wine and began coughing violently. Most of the wine in his cup spilled and soaked the front of his robe.
The maids on duty rushed over and took out handkerchiefs to wipe him.
Yu Nanzhi stayed quietly to one side, tasting the new osmanthus wine and watching the chaotic scene with a cold eye.
To be fair, Third Master Fang was well made on the outside: brows like cut ink, slanting up toward his temples. But the corners of his eyes had a natural upward curve that gave him an air of wanton dissipation. Before elders and superiors he hid it better, before people of his own age he could not cover it at all.
No wonder Third Miss Guo had picked him out and gone to the trouble of drawing him in as her newest devotee [5]a vassal beneath her skirt (qún xià zhī chén, 裙下之臣) (Idiom), a man wholly in thrall to a woman jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253954_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253954_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
Third Master Fang caught his breath and began picking over Yu Nanzhi’s face. “Second Miss Yu seems to have shadows under her eyes, and her brows are too thin. Hanyan brows and Fuyun brows are what is most in fashion now. Her makeup is also too plain, she ought to wear the wine-flush style.”
Yu Nanzhi was glossy as jade, with two black eyes like ink and a natural touch of sweet innocence, her lips full and showing the spring red of a crabapple. Third Master Fang could find no fault in her looks, and to talk nonsense regardless would have been an act against his own conscience, not the sort of thing a young master of a great house should do. So he could only pick at her makeup.
The girl’s hand breaking the hu flatbread paused for a moment. She considered that Third Master Fang was just now completely out of his senses over Third Miss Guo and could wish for nothing better than to push the match further and further away.
Still, he had some bottom line after all, and had not attacked her person in any especially vicious way.
The present Sage’s empress had died early, with the posthumous name Minghui. In her lifetime Empress Minghui had practiced strict frugality and had ruled that the ru skirts worn by those in the inner palace could not have more than seven alternating colors, and had forbidden heavy makeup. The Sage missed his first wife and had kept this rule to this day. What those above did, those below copied, so the makeup and dress of well-born ladies were mostly lightly shaded, with fine, clear brows, charming without being gaudy. The several styles Third Master Fang mentioned were now seen mostly in Pingkang Ward and the Hu-girl taverns.
The meaning in and behind his words was—
I do not like your sort.
Of course, if she did not mind calling Hu girls and singing girls her sisters in the future, she was welcome to please herself.
The reasons for putting her off were set out perfectly clearly.
Neither party had any interest in the match. Yu Nanzhi and Third Master Fang chatted idly about the season and the weather, and by unspoken agreement drew a cross over this meeting.
“Second Miss Yu, I have an appointment with someone, so I will take my leave here.” Third Master Fang rose to go. “The green plum is rare. The Second Miss may enjoy the flowers as she pleases.”
A playful impulse rose in Yu Nanzhi, and she deliberately laid bare the secret in his heart. “Lihan Rouge Scent is a rare women’s perfume. Third Master Fang’s taste in incense really is out of the ordinary. In such a hurry, are you also going to hear Third Miss Guo’s pipa?”
The words had barely fallen when Third Master Fang’s back gave a violent stagger. He turned and saw Yu Nanzhi looking perfectly innocent, as though she had really said it offhandedly. But his conscience was not clear [6]there was a ghost in his heart (xīn lǐ yǒu guǐ, 心裏有鬼) (Idiom), to be carrying a guilty secret jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3253954_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3253954_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, and he almost fled in disgrace.
Having collected the interest on this great viewing performance at Liuyun Pavilion, Yu Nanzhi covered her mouth and laughed softly.
But before her mood could lighten, a snort of laughter came from not far off at almost the same moment.
Someone was hiding nearby and watching.
Her gaze went to the plum tree outside the pavilion. Snow fell on the jade branches, and there was not a sound.
Was this lone tree simply solitary by nature and disinclined to talk, or was there some other special reason blocking its speech, so that it could not warn her in time?
And so far as she knew, only one person could cause the latter.
Yu Nanzhi acted as if she had heard nothing. She arranged her cream-colored shawl, put her cloak back on, rose by herself and left Liuyun Pavilion, walking toward the warm chamber.
The girl’s figure turned into the corridor and disappeared. Two young men stepped out from behind the carved rockery.
“Your Highness, spying and listening in like that just now does not accord with the rites.” The young man who spoke wore a plain green lan robe, and his whole bearing was gentle and refined without losing its nobility.
Cui Zixu answered back, “Third Master Xie, you are a bit too pedantic. It was you who chose this path. Besides, if we had rushed out rashly it would only have cost the young lady her face.”
Xie Lingze thought it over and found it reasonable, and did not press the point. He changed the subject. “The one who left first just now was Third Master Fang, but the young lady who left after him looked unfamiliar.”
Cui Zixu said, “It is Second Miss Yu of the Duke of Zhenguo’s household.”
There was surprise in Xie Lingze’s tone. “So it’s her. My sister has mentioned her to me a few times. They all say she is rather timid and cannot be counted on in big matters. The Marquis of Pingyuan’s household has taken a liking to her? Well, that makes sense. The Duke of Zhenguo commands the Yulin Guard and defends the capital region, and Vice Minister Yu has just led the Ministry of Works in finishing the work on the Yellow River dikes in the Huazhou section. The Grand Madam Zheng has a good eye.”
“Indeed,” Cui Zixu sighed quietly.
It was not that her eye was good, but that her eye was rather too good.
Xie Lingze noticed nothing odd in his friend’s tone and urged him on. “We had better hurry over. Fourth Master Gu and the others are still waiting.”
Cui Zixu nodded, and as he raised his eyes his gaze fell by chance on the ridge beast up to the right.
After a while a pretty face poked out from behind the ridge beast. The girl in a clear-sky-blue rabbit-fur cloak sat high on the roof and curled her lip.
References[+]