“Ah!” Cheng Jia pointed at Li Jing with delighted surprise. “I remember now… You’re Cousin Li! Didn’t you leave? How are you still in Jinling City?”
Seeing that she recognized him, a gleam of light flashed in Li Jing’s eyes. He smiled and said: “I had originally prepared to leave, but when I was packing my things at the inn, the innkeeper told me that today is the Ghost Festival, and many people would be releasing flower lanterns by Lake Mochou and the Qinhuai River—it’s supposed to be very auspicious. I thought that since I’d come all the way to Jinling City and hadn’t yet been to Lake Mochou, I’d bring a servant and come over… I never imagined I’d encounter guards from Duke Chengguo Mansion. Hearing people nearby say they were escorting several young misses from Duke Chengguo Mansion and the Cheng family who had come out together to release river lanterns, I asked… and actually ran into you, cousin!”
Cheng Jia giggled.
Li Jing then asked: “When are you heading home, cousin? I brought several guards—would you like us to escort you back?”
“No need, no need.” Cheng Jia smiled. “The guards from Duke Chengguo Mansion are sufficient. If cousin has nothing else to do, feel free to tour on your own. Besides Victory Chess Tower which displays Emperor Taizu’s handwritten inscription, both Moon-Embracing Pavilion and Lake Heart Pavilion at Lake Mochou are worth visiting. Cousin might as well go see them.”
Li Jing smiled and agreed. After hesitating slightly, he clasped his hands in farewell.
Cheng Jia let out a long sigh of relief as if a weight had been lifted.
Zhou Shaojin asked in confusion: “Why are you sighing?”
Cheng Jia said strangely: “Don’t you feel it?”
“Feel what?” Zhou Shaojin asked.
“Don’t you think his gaze when looking at people is extremely sharp?” Cheng Jia said. “I don’t know why, but when I saw him looking at me, my heart grew very tense, as if afraid of doing something wrong. I couldn’t wait for him to leave quickly.”
How could this be?
Zhou Shaojin was speechless, wondering whether Li Jing had truly wanted to tour Lake Mochou as he said, or whether he had suddenly decided not to leave after seeing Cheng Jia.
Cheng Jia was already exclaiming: “Let’s stop talking about him. Today is the fifteenth of the seventh month… At midnight the ghost gates open… We’d better return home early.”
Ah Zhu nodded repeatedly. The group agreed to gather again in September and each returned to their respective mansions.
Needless to say, Cheng Jia was pulled aside by Madam Jiang to describe the lake excursion. On Zhou Shaojin’s end, while she was pondering how to find an opportunity to tell Cheng Chi about Eunuch Yang, Cheng Chi sent someone to see her.
The woman appeared to be twenty-three or twenty-four years old. Though clearly a young maiden, she had her hair styled like a married woman’s. She wore a moon-white lake silk standing-collar blouse with pearl buttons the size of lotus seeds, with a lotus-root-colored sleeveless jacket trimmed with precious flower bud borders over it. She had an oval face and willow-leaf eyebrows, and when she smiled, a dimple appeared at the left corner of her mouth. Though she had some beauty, she was far inferior to Ji Ying. But compared to Ji Ying, she had more warmth and charm.
She introduced herself as Nan Ping.
Zhou Shaojin was greatly startled. “Nan Ping? The Nan Ping responsible for needlework in Uncle Chi’s quarters?”
Nan Ping smiled and nodded.
Zhou Shaojin couldn’t help studying her carefully.
She stood there with a smile, allowing Zhou Shaojin to scrutinize her, not only composed but magnanimous in manner.
She hardly seemed like a maid—even young misses from ordinary families didn’t have such bearing.
Zhou Shaojin muttered to herself internally and asked Nan Ping: “I wonder what Uncle Chi wants with me?”
Nan Ping glanced at Shi Xiang, who was serving at Zhou Shaojin’s side.
Understanding the hint, Zhou Shaojin made an excuse to have Shi Xiang go wash some grapes, dismissing her. She invited Nan Ping to sit down and talk.
“This servant wouldn’t dare!” Nan Ping smiled, firmly refusing and standing respectfully before Zhou Shaojin with hands lowered. She said deferentially: “Our Fourth Master asked me to come inquire of Second Miss—yesterday when you toured the lake with First Miss Zhu from Duke Chengguo Mansion, besides your elder sister and Seventeenth Miss Gu, was First Miss Jia from the third branch also there?”
“Yes!” Zhou Shaojin, not knowing whether Cheng Jia had caused some trouble, quickly said: “She was with me the whole time and didn’t go anywhere… Even if she did go somewhere, I would know very quickly… at most within twenty breaths.”
Nan Ping nodded with a smile. “Second Miss, please don’t misunderstand—Fourth Master has no other meaning.” Then she pondered. “It’s like this, Second Miss. Yesterday Fourth Master was touring the lake with the heir apparent of Duke Chengguo Mansion. Later, hearing from the guards that they had encountered the eldest miss of Duke Chengguo Mansion, the heir apparent went after her. But after the heir apparent brought the eldest miss back, he instructed Eunuch Yang to buy four jade pendants, saying they were courtesy gifts for four young misses. At first, Fourth Master didn’t pay attention, but after Eunuch Yang whispered to the heir apparent for a while, the heir apparent suddenly became very attentive to Fourth Master and started asking about the Cheng family… Fourth Master couldn’t very well investigate what had happened at that moment, but thinking that Second Miss was present, he had this servant come ask.”
If it were only this, Cheng Chi wouldn’t have specially sent someone to question her.
Zhou Shaojin couldn’t help saying: “Is this all Uncle Chi said? Were there no other words for me?”
Hearing this, Nan Ping looked deeply at Zhou Shaojin and smiled. “Fourth Master only asked me to come inquire whether it was indeed Miss Jia who accompanied First Miss and Second Miss that day. He said nothing else.”
Zhou Shaojin felt that Nan Ping wasn’t telling the whole truth, but she couldn’t force it out of her. After exchanging pleasantries, Zhou Shaojin told Nan Ping about Cheng Jia studying Eunuch Yang, adding: “I don’t know if it will be a problem. Please ask Uncle Chi to help mediate.”
“Second Miss is too considerate.” Nan Ping smiled, curtsied in salute, and took her leave of Zhou Shaojin.
Zhou Shaojin had Shi Xiang escort Nan Ping out.
As Nan Ping left, she noticed a half-embroidered border lying on the arhat bed in the main room. Her gaze grew slightly focused, and she paused before following Shi Xiang out the door.
The more Zhou Shaojin thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
If Uncle Chi only wanted to know who had gone with her to Duke Chengguo Mansion, he need only ask the gatekeeper. Why specially send Nan Ping to question her?
Could there be some other deeper meaning to this?
Why did Uncle Chi want to know who had accompanied her?
What exactly had happened?
Unable to puzzle it out despite much thought, she had to set the matter aside and turn her attention to Li Jing’s affairs.
Zhou Shaojin asked Cheng Jia: “Has your Cousin Li left?”
Cheng Jia’s confinement had been lifted, but Madam Jiang hadn’t sent her to classes—Tranquil Peace Studio remained on holiday.
“Who knows.” Cheng Jia lay lazily on the bed, moaning: “My shoulders are killing me, my legs are about to break off—I don’t want to learn etiquette anymore.”
Madam Jiang had found an instructress from somewhere who had served in the palace to teach Cheng Jia proper comportment. After only one morning of lessons, Cheng Jia looked as if she’d lost half her life.
Zhou Shaojin frowned slightly.
Madam Jiang must have seen that Cheng Jia had become friends with Ah Zhu and felt that the range of choices for Cheng Jia’s marriage prospects would be broader, which was why she was urgently engaging someone to teach Cheng Jia etiquette.
This being the case, it would be even more impossible for Li Jing to successfully seek Cheng Jia’s hand in marriage.
But if she hadn’t used this method, Cheng Jia wouldn’t have been released from confinement!
At least now Li Jing had taken a liking to Cheng Jia as in her previous life. As for whether Cheng Jia liked Li Jing… In any case, whoever liked the other more would have to suffer a bit more. In the matter of Cheng Jia and Li Jing, it was better for Li Jing to suffer than for Cheng Jia to suffer…
She consoled herself thus, when Old Madam Guan summoned her and her sister to speak with her.
Zhou Shaojin, not knowing what had happened, went to Splendid Tree Hall with her sister somewhat anxiously.
Cheng Mian and Madam Mian were also there, everyone’s faces full of joy.
Zhou Shaojin and Zhou Chujin were bewildered and at a loss.
Old Madam Guan, holding Zhou Chujin’s hand, said to Zhou Shaojin: “Your father has written a letter saying he has received a transfer order from the Ministry of Personnel to serve as Prefect of Baoding. The handover will be at the end of the seventh month. He must assume his post in late August. If time permits, he wants to return to Jinling to offer incense to the ancestors.”
In her previous life, she had learned this news when her father had already taken up the position of Prefect of Baoding. In this life, she learned the news when her father received the transfer order.
Did her grandmother now feel that she, like her sister, was a prudent and trustworthy girl?
Zhou Shaojin was extremely happy.
Madam Mian, fearing she didn’t understand, explained to the sisters: “Only presented scholars may enter the Hanlin Academy, and only Hanlin scholars may enter the Grand Secretariat. But to remain in the Hanlin Academy, one must pass the examination to become a Compiler. When your father was posted outside the capital years ago, if he wanted to return to the capital as a metropolitan official, he would need to be recommended by the court. But to receive such a recommendation, he needs qualifications. To gain the appropriate qualifications, he must serve as prefect in places like Baoding and Jinling. And once he enters the capital as a metropolitan official, with your father’s abilities, he could at least work his way up to one of the Nine Minor Ministers. Chujin, Shaojin—though your father hasn’t been promoted in rank, serving in different places means different fortunes in the future.”
Zhou Chujin beamed with joy, too moved to speak.
But Zhou Shaojin knew that in her previous life, her father had not entered the capital as an official. Instead, he had gone to Guangdong to serve as Provincial Administration Commissioner… and had never returned to Jinling City.
Was it because he felt her affairs had brought him too much shame, and he couldn’t face his former colleagues and examination classmates as if nothing had happened? Or did he harbor resentment and was unwilling to accept the Cheng family’s support… For her, it would forever remain a mystery.
But in this life, her father wouldn’t walk the same old path again, would he?
Zhou Shaojin couldn’t help tearing up.
Madam Mian smiled and patted her shoulder, chiding: “Silly child, this is a happy occasion! What are you crying for?”
Zhou Shaojin smiled and wiped the corners of her eyes with her handkerchief, choking out: “When can Father return?”
“So Shaojin misses her father!” Old Madam Guan chuckled. “He said he would hand over duties to the new Prefect of Nanchang as soon as possible. If he can make it back to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, that would be even better.”
Zhou Shaojin nodded repeatedly.
That evening, she slept in her sister’s room and asked Zhou Chujin: “Do you still remember what Father looks like?”
She could no longer recall her father’s features, only remembering that he kept a very handsome beard.
“I remember.” Zhou Chujin couldn’t sleep. Her eyes opened wide, staring at the canopy overhead as she recalled: “As tall as Uncle Mian… fair-skinned, dressed very plainly… very serious… The maidservants at home feared him… But when he saw us, he would smile… When teaching me to write, he liked to hold you on his lap while watching me practice and playing with you… He would also buy kites and take us to fly them by Lake Mochou… He would point out the shop signs on the street for me to recognize… He would buy pine nut candy for me to eat…”
Zhou Shaojin buried her face in her pillow and wept!
Zhou Chujin’s tears also streamed down her face.
This life would certainly be very different from the previous one.
Zhou Shaojin silently vowed in her heart.
Though the fourth branch didn’t publicize it, each branch had its own channels. Soon, the news of Zhou Zhen’s transfer to Prefect of Baoding spread throughout Jiuru Lane.