The matter was settled just like that.
Naturally, Madam Guo was delighted to have her grandchildren around her, but Zhou Shaojin was run off her feet—sending out invitations, finalizing the menu, dispatching people to clean the water pavilion, opening the storeroom to retrieve the bowls, plates, and chopsticks for entertaining guests, and since they would be boating at the water pavilion, she also had to arrange for maids and servants who could swim to come serve.
Cheng Chi quietly said to Zhou Shaojin, “Let me help you with the invitations and menu.” He couldn’t easily assist with the other matters that required instructing the stewardesses.
“How could that be appropriate?” Zhou Shaojin’s face flushed. “I’ve watched Mother do this before, so I know how it’s done.”
“I know you’re capable,” Cheng Chi said with a smile, stroking Zhou Shaojin’s head. “It’s just that this was decided so suddenly, so time is rather tight.” As he spoke, he picked up a brush and wrote a few characters on rice paper, asking, “How does my handwriting look?”
Soft as drooping willows, elegant and graceful.
Zhou Shaojin was astonished.
This was clearly her handwriting!
Cheng Chi smiled. “Now do you believe I can help you write the invitations?”
“Uncle Chi!” Zhou Shaojin threw herself into Cheng Chi’s embrace.
Cheng Chi nibbled on her ear and asked, “Do you miss me?”
Perhaps because in Zhou Shaojin’s heart, Cheng Chi would always be that Uncle Chi who protected her, cared for her, and kept her in his thoughts, she would occasionally call him “Uncle Chi” instinctively as she had before, especially during their intimate moments when her mind was hazy and she would tenderly speak such endearments.
Zhou Shaojin’s face turned completely red as she fled in embarrassment.
Cheng Chi laughed heartily. Using Zhou Shaojin’s handwriting, he helped her send out the invitations and finalize the menu, then went to see Madam Guo.
Madam Guo was playing with Yun Ge’er. Seeing Cheng Chi enter, she quickly said, “Look, look! Our Yun Ge’er can hold his head up now.”
Cheng Chi looked over in the direction she indicated.
Yun Ge’er was lying on his stomach on a velvet cushion embroidered with blooming peonies on the heated platform by the window. Madam Guo held a rattle drum in front of him, shaking it, and he struggled to lift his head and reach for the rattle drum with his hands.
Cheng Chi had only returned when the child was over two months old. At that time, Yun Ge’er could already be held upright on someone’s shoulder with his neck supported as they walked around. He couldn’t tell what the difference was.
Madam Guo said reproachfully, “A child can only lift his head when he’s a hundred days old, and even then, he can barely manage it. Look at our Yun Ge’er—he could already lift his head at two months. Now that he’s a hundred days old, he can hold his head completely upright. He even knows to grab for the rattle drum. This child is being raised so well.” Then thinking of Zhou Shaojin who had carried Yun Ge’er, she sighed. “I was worried before that the child she gave birth to would be as difficult to raise as a kitten, but who knew that although she’s small, the child she bore wasn’t small at all and has been raised so robustly. It’s clear she suffered during the pregnancy. You must treat her well from now on.”
“Alright!” Cheng Chi agreed with a smile. Without saying more, he took the rattle drum from Madam Guo and played with Yun Ge’er.
Who would have thought that after trying to grab the rattle drum for so long without success, Yun Ge’er actually got angry. He stopped lifting his head and stopped reaching for the rattle drum. Instead, with his little face pressed against the velvet cushion, he used his soft, tender little hands to pick at the red flowers embroidered on it.
Cheng Chi tried to engage him for quite a while, but the child simply ignored him. At first, he thought Yun Ge’er was tired. Later, seeing that Yun Ge’er was lying there quietly without moving, he wanted to pick him up. When he put down the rattle drum, he discovered that Yun Ge’er was playing by picking at the little flowers.
He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He picked up Yun Ge’er and held him upright on his shoulder in the position Yun Ge’er usually liked best, but the child burst into tears with a wail.
Cheng Chi was completely baffled.
Madam Guo became anxious and immediately demanded of Cheng Chi, “What did you do to him? He was just fine a moment ago, playing happily. What did you do?”
Cheng Chi was truly breaking out in a cold sweat.
In all his years, this was the first time Madam Guo had questioned him so indiscriminately without asking for the facts.
Cheng Chi thought for a moment and said, “He’s probably upset that I picked him up.” He then told Madam Guo about how Yun Ge’er had just been picking at the little flowers.
But before he could finish speaking, Madam Guo had already snatched Yun Ge’er from his arms and cooed indulgently to the child, “It’s all your father’s fault. Our Yun Ge’er was playing so nicely, but he just had to come and disturb you. We won’t pay attention to him. Does our Yun Ge’er want to pick the little flowers? It’s alright, it’s alright. Grandmother will let our Yun Ge’er pick the little flowers right now.” As she spoke, she placed Yun Ge’er back on the velvet cushion in the same position as before.
But Yun Ge’er no longer had the same interest as before.
He cried even when placed on the velvet cushion.
Madam Guo carried Yun Ge’er and walked back and forth across the room. As she walked, she said, “Our Yun Ge’er, don’t cry anymore. If you keep crying, you’ll hurt your eyes. What does Yun Ge’er want? Do you want flowers?” As she spoke, she opened the mirror case on the dressing table and looked inside, but seeing nothing suitable, she glanced around at the maids and servants in the room and pointed at Chenxiang, saying, “Go find some silk flowers that you girls haven’t worn yet.”
Cheng Chi immediately realized what Madam Guo was planning to do and couldn’t help calling out “Mother.” But before he could say anything else, Madam Guo said with displeasure, “Which of you wasn’t raised by me when you were small? Three sons, three successful scholars. Did any of you grow up wrong? Besides, he’s still young and doesn’t understand things yet. You have to teach him until he does understand. Just constantly keeping a stern face and scolding him, making him frightened and tearful—is that how you raise a child?”
As she was speaking, Chenxiang hurried out of the inner room in just a few steps and returned with several new silk flowers that hadn’t been worn yet.
Madam Guo selected a bright red pomegranate flower and waved it in front of Yun Ge’er. “Yun Ge’er, look—a pomegranate flower. Isn’t it pretty? Shall our Yun Ge’er keep it to give to his wife when he grows up?”
Yun Ge’er widened his eyes and stared at the pomegranate flower in Madam Guo’s hand, as if trying to see clearly what the flower really was. After a long moment, he reached out and poked at the petals, then extended his little hand and grasped the flower.
Madam Guo chuckled and took out a pale yellow rose.
Yun Ge’er reached out with his other hand and clutched it in his palm.
Finding this amusing, Madam Guo took out a purple lilac flower.
Yun Ge’er looked at his little hands but paid it no attention.
“Oh my!” Madam Guo was thoroughly delighted and said to Cheng Chi, “He even knows which flowers he likes!”
It’s probably just anything with bright colors, right?
Cheng Chi grumbled to himself. Seeing his mother’s excited expression, the words that had reached his lips were wisely swallowed back down. He decided not to have any conflict with his mother over matters concerning the child—ever since he had been designated as the Hall Master of the Seven Stars Hall, his mother had rarely been this happy.
He had originally planned to take care of Yun Ge’er himself. That way, with his mother having nothing else to do, she would surely inquire about tomorrow’s banquet preparations and could help Shaojin. But now it seemed he should go check on how the banquet preparations were coming along instead!
After chatting with Madam Guo for a few moments, she shooed Cheng Chi away. “Go help Shaojin! Yun Ge’er will sleep with me tonight. He’s not that young anymore. He can’t always be with his mother—growing up like that will make him timid and weak…”
One moment his mother was saying Yun Ge’er was too young, the next moment the child was grown and needed to learn to live apart from his mother.
For the first time in his life, Cheng Chi found himself at a loss for words.
Once the child turns three, I’ll start his education and keep him by my side personally. I can’t let Yun Ge’er be raised solely by women!
Cheng Chi resolved this once again and went to the side pavilion where Zhou Shaojin was staying.
Zhou Shaojin was wearing a pink jacket with a subtle interlocking squares pattern made of Hangzhou silk. Below she wore a pale yellow horse-face skirt. Her jet-black hair was simply done up in a bun adorned with two kingfisher-feather lilac flowers. In this increasingly cold autumn weather, she looked as delicate and tender as spring flowers. Her gentle and compliant face also carried a sense of serenity, without any of the imposing air of a mistress of the household. Yet her gentle demeanor made people feel at ease approaching her. The voices and expressions of the stewardesses and nannies speaking with her were three parts softer.
Cheng Chi smiled faintly.
Different grains of rice nourish different kinds of people. Though Shaojin was gentle, that didn’t necessarily mean she was timid. It was just that different people had different ways of doing things.
He contentedly left the side pavilion.
Zhou Shaojin returned rather late. After washing up and getting into bed, she burrowed into the arms of Cheng Chi, who was reading. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face against his chest, listening to his strong, steady heartbeat going “thump thump thump.” She felt her whole body relax.
“Silang,” she called Cheng Chi softly. “After I dismissed the stewardesses and servants, Chun Wan told me the invitations had already been sent out and the menu was prepared… Thank you! I’m so happy.”
“Really!” Cheng Chi loved it when she clung to him so softly and boneless like this. He put down his book and, while chatting absentmindedly with Zhou Shaojin, untied her hair ribbon and loosened her hair. “My household management skills aren’t bad either, are they?”
Zhou Shaojin knew he liked to see her with her hair down. It was just that wearing her hair loose meant she had to wash it more frequently, and in the morning she would have to completely re-style it, which wasted time… But since Cheng Chi liked it, she indulged his preference and let him loosen her hair as she held him.
“Mm!” she said softly. “You’re so capable—you can do everything!”
Cheng Chi laughed quietly, nibbled on Zhou Shaojin’s ear, and his hand traced down along her graceful curves…
Zhou Shaojin hesitated a little.
They were having guests tomorrow, and she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to get up…
Cheng Chi whispered in her ear, “Just once tonight.”
Zhou Shaojin blushed and nestled into his embrace.
***
The next day, Cheng Sheng was the first to arrive.
After paying her respects to Madam Guo, Cheng Sheng’s husband Peng Zao went with Cheng Chi to the flower hall, while Rui Ge’er stayed with Madam Guo. He crawled back and forth on the heated platform, occasionally picking up one of Yun Ge’er’s toys and handing it to Yun Ge’er, who was being held in a sitting position on the platform by his wet nurse. They played together merrily.
Madam Guo’s eyes curved with laughter as she watched.
Cheng Sheng pulled Zhou Shaojin aside and said in a low voice, “How is it that after giving birth, you’ve grown even more beautiful, while I’ve become a haggard old woman? Quickly share your secret remedy, or when Second Sister and Eldest Sister arrive later, watch out—we’ll all criticize you together!”
“How have I grown more beautiful?” Zhou Shaojin said bashfully. She thought carefully about her daily routine. “Does drinking a small cup of bird’s nest every day count?”
“Who doesn’t drink bird’s nest?” Cheng Sheng persisted. “Besides that, what else?”
Zhou Shaojin shook her head and smiled. “Apart from that, I don’t eat anything else special. Before, I could go to bed early and rise early, but now that I have Yun Ge’er, I follow his schedule—whenever he sleeps, I sleep; whenever he wakes, I wake…”
Cheng Sheng didn’t believe her at all.
As they were talking, the people from Apricot Grove Lane arrived.