Zhou Shaojin asked Fan Qi: “Would you like to wander around Jinling City as you please?”
“Yes!” Fan Qi didn’t know Zhou Shaojin’s intention. His eyes looked timidly at Zhou Shaojin, but he still spoke the truth.
Zhou Shaojin couldn’t help but laugh. She had Shi Xiang take out two taels of silver for him and said: “If you can explore all of Jinling City, so that no matter where I ask about, you know the place—not only will these two taels of silver be yours, I’ll reward you with another two taels!”
Fan Qi didn’t dare accept it. Scratching his head, he asked: “What does Second Young Lady want me to do?”
“You’ll be serving me from now on. I can’t very well be telling you where to buy things, can I?” Zhou Shaojin said with a smile. “Go ask Chief Steward Ma if what I’m saying makes sense.”
“I understand!” Fan Qi quickly said. “Chief Steward Ma said that when the master gives orders, we should know what needs to be done and how to do it, rather than asking the master where to buy this or where to find that.”
Zhou Shaojin smiled and nodded.
Fan Qi took the silver and ran off.
Shi Xiang laughed: “Young Lady doesn’t need to subsidize Nanny Fan like this, does she?”
Zhou Shaojin didn’t explain, just smiled and said: “When you find yourself a son-in-law, I’ll subsidize you the same way.”
“Young Lady!” Shi Xiang’s face flushed red as she ran out.
Zhou Shaojin’s smile gradually faded as she sat on the arhat couch, lost in thought for quite a while.
Since she didn’t need to go to Hanbi Mountain House to copy scriptures, Zhou Shaojin had a good long sleep.
When she went to pay her respects to her grandmother that evening, her sister whispered to her: “Uncle Mian has already spoken with Cheng Lu, saying that with rumors spreading lately, it would be better if he kept his family’s properties registered under the fifth branch. But Cheng Lu begged pitifully, saying he’ll be sitting for the examinations in June, and could they wait until after his examinations to settle his family’s property matters. Uncle Mian couldn’t force him, so he agreed to discuss it again in August.”
Zhou Shaojin hadn’t expected her grandmother and Uncle Mian to act so swiftly and decisively.
In fact, if nothing changed, once Cheng Lu passed the prefectural examination in June, he would qualify for exemption from corvée labor. He wouldn’t need the fourth branch’s protection anymore. But Uncle Mian’s warning would at least make clear the fourth branch’s attitude and make him feel uncomfortable, which was good enough.
She was very grateful and expressed her thanks tactfully when she saw Old Madam Guan.
Old Madam Guan smiled and said: “I’ve watched you all grow up since you were small. You’re my granddaughters. If I don’t look after you, who will?”
In her previous life, why hadn’t she looked carefully at these matters? She had wasted so many opportunities.
Zhou Shaojin resolved that she must properly show filial piety to her grandmother’s family in the future.
The next day, she went to Hanbi Mountain House to copy scriptures as usual, only to encounter the personal nanny of Instructor Lin’s wife coming to deliver return gifts to Old Madam Guo.
The Cheng family’s first branch had high status. Not just anyone could come and go freely, let alone enter Hanbi Mountain House where Old Madam Guo resided.
She asked Xiao Tan curiously: “Are Instructor Lin’s family and the Old Madam very familiar?”
“I don’t know.” Xiao Tan was now quite relaxed in front of Zhou Shaojin and said with a smile, “I only know that the day before yesterday, the Old Madam had me deliver some scholar’s supplies to Instructor Lin’s family, saying they were for Young Master Lin to use in the examinations. Today Instructor Lin’s wife sent someone to return the courtesy… I’ve never seen the Old Madam have dealings with Instructor Lin’s family before.”
In other words, Old Madam Guo was thanking Instructor Lin’s family for speaking up for Cheng Xu that day in the open hall of Siyi Tower!
Zhou Shaojin quickly put this matter out of her mind.
A few days later, every household began sending Dragon Boat Festival gifts.
Zhou Shaojin paid attention and noticed there were no festival gifts from Wu Baozhang for the sisters.
It seemed that after that incident, this life had diverged from her previous one.
This made Zhou Shaojin more confident about the future.
Fan Qi came to find her happily: “Second Young Lady, test me and see if I can answer!”
Zhou Shaojin smiled and asked him about several places. He answered them all fluently.
“Since that’s the case, I’ll entrust you with a task.” Zhou Shaojin said with a smile. “Do you know a place called Cunyi District? Master Lu from the Cheng family lives there.”
“I know, I know.” Fan Qi said quickly. “There’s a Puxian Nunnery there, occupying less than an acre of land, with a main hall three bays wide. The east, south, and north sides face official streets, and to the west is the Mei Mansion’s garden.” After speaking, he added, “Do you know about Mei Mansion? It’s the family that grows hundreds of plum trees. Actually their surname is Liu, but because they grow so many plum blossoms, when it gets cold, the entire official street can smell the plum blossom fragrance. Everyone calls them ‘Mei Mansion,’ and over time, people have forgotten that the master’s surname is actually Liu…”
Though Zhou Shaojin had grown up in Jinling City until she came of age before leaving, she had rarely gone out and certainly wasn’t familiar with the streets and alleys of Jinling City. But Fan Qi’s mention of “plum blossom fragrance filling the entire street” seemed somewhat familiar, though she didn’t know when or from whom she had heard it. But she didn’t think much of it and laughingly interrupted Fan Qi’s words: “All right, all right. Just tell me what you know.”
Fan Qi grinned sheepishly.
Zhou Shaojin said: “I want you to help me inquire about Master Lu’s household affairs.”
Fan Qi’s eyes widened.
Zhou Shaojin said quietly: “However, you can’t tell anyone about this, including your mother. Can you do that?”
“I can’t tell my mother!” Fan Qi hesitated somewhat.
Zhou Shaojin smiled: “If your mother asks what you’re doing, just tell her I told you not to say. Your mother definitely won’t ask you anymore.”
Fan Qi said: “If it’s as Second Young Lady says and my mother doesn’t ask anymore, then I definitely won’t tell her.”
Zhou Shaojin smiled slightly and said: “I know Master Lu’s great-grandfather and the fifth branch were blood brothers. Help me find out—when was the house Master Lu currently lives in purchased? How many years have they lived in Cunyi District? Who do they associate with most closely? What do the neighbors say about Master Lu and Great Madam Bai? Have you memorized all that?”
What child doesn’t have curiosity?
Fan Qi was very interested. He repeated Zhou Shaojin’s words and asked: “Second Young Lady, did I say it correctly?”
“Yes, yes, yes.” Fan Qi was even more clever than Zhou Shaojin had anticipated. Her eyes curved into crescents with her smile, and she rewarded him with another two taels of silver. “This is for your tea money. If you do the job well, there will be more rewards!”
“Second Young Lady, you’ve already rewarded me!” Fan Qi didn’t take the two taels of silver, but said sheepishly, “Second Young Lady, I… I want to learn to read from Sister Shi Xiang… Why don’t you reward me with that instead?”
Zhou Shaojin was stunned, then laughed and said: “All right, I’ll tell Shi Xiang to teach you to read. Once you’ve learned all the characters Shi Xiang knows, I’ll speak to Master Gao or Second Master Yi and have you hold their paper and ink, so you can listen to those teachers lecture at the clan school.”
Fan Qi was so excited he almost jumped up. He kept thanking Zhou Shaojin, and when he went out, he nearly tripped over the threshold, causing Shi Xiang, who was serving outside, to cover her mouth and laugh.
Zhou Shaojin’s mood brightened considerably because of this.
That evening she lit a lamp to help rush the summer shirts for her sister and herself, and also made a dark green horse-face skirt for Old Madam Guan.
By the time invitations to flower-viewing parties and poetry gatherings came pouring in from various families, Fan Qi came to report back to Zhou Shaojin: “Master Lu’s house was passed down from his ancestors. It was bought by Master Lu’s great-grandfather when he split off from Jiuru Lane. By the time it came to Master Lu’s father, Master Bai, he also bought the neighboring residence, which is how it reached its current scale of seven mu.
“Master Bai passed away in the yiyou year, which was the eighth year of Zhide. According to the neighbors, Master Bai was bedridden for nearly half a year before his death. During that half year, it was like he became a different person—not only was his temper violent, he would scold maids and kick servants, nearly causing a death. If the people from Jiuru Lane hadn’t stepped in to help, Master Bai would have ended up in the yamen before going to meet the King of Hell.
“Perhaps because of this, after Master Bai’s death, Great Madam Bai felt ashamed and didn’t socialize much with neighbors. Apart from visiting her natal family, she only visited Jiuru Lane. She keeps a very strict household. All the neighbors mention that Great Madam Bai is virtuous and observant of propriety, a virtuous woman.
“As for Master Lu, he’s been excellent at studying since childhood. Normally he either goes to clan school or stays home reading. Even when he goes out, it’s with classmates from the clan school or other young masters from the Cheng family. Everyone in Cunyi District says Master Lu has the makings of a scholar—he might even become the top scholar. Everyone envies Great Madam Bai, saying she’s blessed with good fortune in her son.”
After finishing, he swallowed, still eager to continue: “I heard that Master Lu’s family used to have only about one hundred and twenty mu of paddy fields and two shops, all rented out to others while they collected rent. It wasn’t until Master Bai’s generation, after he passed the xiucai examination but didn’t continue pursuing the examinations, that he started trading goods between north and south. That’s when the family prospered. Not only did they add a farm of over two hundred mu in Pukou, they also acquired six storefronts on the official street. Two are rented out, two run a lacquerware business, and two are silk shops. They’re all managed by stewards that Master Bai left behind during his lifetime. The annual income from just these few shops is over a thousand taels…”
Zhou Shaojin remembered something.
When her birth mother Zhuang Shi passed away, her maternal great-grandmother and grandfather had already died. The Zhuang family’s calligraphy, paintings, and some ready silver were left to her birth mother, while the properties and land were left to that distant uncle beyond the fifth degree of mourning. At that time, her father Zhou Zhen had not yet passed the imperial examinations. After her birth mother’s death, that uncle had come demanding her mother’s dowry. Her father, unwilling to ruin her mother’s reputation over this, took out two thousand taels of silver and made an official record at the yamen, finally settling the matter with that uncle.
But that uncle of hers was not a peaceful person.
Just two years ago—which adding her previous and current lives together should be seventeen years ago—her aunt had found her through various means, saying that her uncle had gambled away all the ancestral property. Now “even the old lady’s dowry, that small residence two bays wide, has to be sold… It’s such a good location. In winter the whole street smells of plum blossoms. So many scholars want to buy a residence there. If Second Young Lady doesn’t intervene, these things left by our ancestors, things money can’t buy, will all be sold off cheap. Second Young Lady should at least come up with a few hundred taels of silver to help your uncle through this emergency”…
Having lost her mother young, she had no understanding of her maternal grandfather’s family at all, let alone any emotional attachment to the things the Zhuang family left behind. At the time she only felt humiliated that they had fallen so low as to try to deceive even her, a niece dependent on others, out of her silver. She neither wanted to deal with it nor knew what to do, so she left the entire matter to her sister…