Perhaps because half the year in the Wei Dynasty brought cold and dreary weather, everyone loved incense. Whether one added a pinch of fragrance to the warming brazier held in one’s hands — whether the scent was light and tranquil or richly floral — it never failed to lift the spirit and gladden the heart.
If one were to ask where the finest incense of the present-day Wei Dynasty came from, the answer was naturally the incense shop in the capital — Shouwei Zhai, the Hall of Guarded Fragrance.
The shop’s firm hold over the capital was owed not only to its rare and precious fragrances, but also to its closely guarded methods of blending scents — secrets never shared with the outside world. By virtue of an aroma that could neither be imitated nor surpassed, the Shu family of Shouwei Zhai had, in recent years, truly been raking in gold by the bushel, wanting for neither food nor clothing.
It has always been said that wealth and nobility dwell under one roof — yet the Shu family, sitting atop their mountain of gold and overflowing with riches, were still counted among the merchant class at the end of the day, separated from the powerful and noble families by a great gulf of hills and rivers.
Ever since Su Hongmeng, the elder master of the Su family, had taken up a post at the capital’s Bureau of Trade and Exchange, the very tips of the family’s toes had at last barely managed to reach the threshold of the official gentry — a cause for unbounded joy.
The Bureau of Trade and Exchange oversaw all of the Wei Dynasty’s overseas commerce and trade, and the elder master served under its Maritime Trade Office, where he was specifically in charge of selecting and purchasing incense.
Though he held only the modest rank of Keeper of the Aromatic Storehouse and drew but a meager salary, to the Su family, this position represented a cloud-ascending ladder by which their children might one day rise to the heavens.
Once the appointment was settled, Master Su decided to take the entire family on a special journey to the ancestral shrine in their hometown of Yinzhou, to bow in gratitude before their forebears for their sheltering grace and virtue.
The whole household prepared to board a boat in the first month of winter, intending to spend the New Year at the ancestral estate in their hometown. Master Su planned to return to the capital after the New Year festivities, so as not to delay his assumption of the new post.
While everyone else packed their luggage with smiling faces, only the second daughter of Master Su’s principal wife — Su Caijian — wore a look of sullen displeasure, her brows drooping and her eyes downcast as she watched the maidservants in her room pack her things on her behalf.
Xique, Su Caijian’s personal maidservant, was a girl who knew how to read the room. One glance at the Second Young Miss’s frost-bitten expression, and she immediately guessed what was weighing on her mistress’s mind.
“Second Young Miss, is it because you don’t want to see ‘her’ that you’re unhappy?”
Su Caijian tore at the embroidery pattern in her hands and cast a languid sidelong glance at Xique. “You and your loose tongue — I really ought to rename you ‘Gourd,’ so you’d keep your mouth sealed tight and spare us the chatter!”
Upon hearing this, Xique knew she had guessed correctly. She immediately offered a placating smile: “If I became mute, wouldn’t you be the one bored to misery, Miss… You’re worrying too much, Second Young Miss. I asked one of the errand boys who’d sent things to the old estate long ago — ‘she’ was indeed sent back to the hometown, but she doesn’t live in the old manor. Apparently, several months of the year she goes up to the mountain temple to discuss scriptures and sutras with the old Buddhist nun. Even if you go back, you may not necessarily run into her!”
Hearing this, Su Caijian’s face took on a complex expression — partly relieved, partly tinged with a faint wistfulness: “…Is she planning to take religious vows? What’s the point? Our Su family is no pauper household. Even if she can’t marry, we can keep her for a lifetime…”
Yet her tone shifted, and she leaned forward to ask: “After I go, I truly won’t often see her?”
Xique, clever as ever, quickly replied: “Rest assured, this servant will speak with the steward at the old estate and make sure all arrangements are to your comfort, so that you won’t have to lay eyes on anyone troublesome. And with Madam there, she will look out for your interests as well. Besides — your betrothal to Master Lu is already set in stone! Both families have exchanged horoscopes and betrothal documents, and they’ve been enshrined in each family’s ancestral hall for over a month now. The Su and Lu families are both sailing with the wind, rising ever higher — this is a match made by Heaven itself. What can anyone else do about it? Pay no mind to others.”
These words swept away every cloud from Su Caijian’s face. Thinking of her betrothed, Lu Shi, and his distinguished bearing, she was filled with delight. In an instant, all the worries that had weighed upon her heart were flung to the farthest corners of the sky.
Yet outside the room, a young maidservant who had been eavesdropping on the conversation inside was left thoroughly bewildered.
She was newly arrived, and naturally had no idea who the “her” that the Second Young Miss seemed so wary of could be. So when she followed Xique to the household steward’s office to collect the monthly wages, she asked with curious innocence.
This newly arrived young maidservant, Mingchan, was a distant relation of Xique’s, so Xique was rather fond of looking after her and answered with patient good humor: “You know as well as anyone that the Second Young Miss has an elder sister above her — though she too was born of the principal wife, she was not born of our Madam Ding.”
Mingchan nodded promptly: “That I know. Before our Madam, there was a former Madam who passed away early — Hu Shi — and that Madam had one son and one daughter… but I heard the First Young Miss met with an accident and lost her sight, and was sent away to the old estate…”
Before she could finish her words, Xique shot her a sharp look: “And you talk too much — you really should be renamed Gourd! Remember: if you want to do your duties properly in the Second Young Miss’s courtyard, speak as little as possible about the First Young Miss!”
With that much said, Mingchan understood somewhat: so the person the Second Young Miss did not wish to see was her elder half-sister from a different mother!
The First Young Miss of the Su family had only lost her sight within the past two years or so. She was said to be quite beautiful in appearance, and the childhood betrothal between the Su and Lu families had originally — by all rights — been meant for that First Young Miss.
Had the First Young Miss not later lost her sight, the Lu family match would never have fallen to the Second Young Miss.
In this light, the Second Young Miss’s tangled feelings as a young woman became plain for all to see. But looking at it now — was that First Young Miss not utterly pitiable?
Such a perfectly fine young lady, no more than eighteen, had already lost her sight. What proper household of standing would want a blind daughter-in-law?
Yet if she were to become someone’s concubine, the present Madam, Ding Pei, would inevitably earn the ill reputation of mistreating her stepchild. By all accounts, that First Young Miss was fiercely proud — when the family had previously tried to betroth her to a poor scholar, the First Young Miss had refused unto death, and father and daughter had quarreled violently.
After weighing matters from every angle, the elder master had sent the First Young Miss back to the old estate. Since she did not wish to marry, he would indulge her in that — treating it as though the household had gained yet another ancestral tablet to maintain, and would keep her fed and clothed until the end of her days.
Now that the Su family was flush with one happy event after another, Master Su had little inclination to remain at odds with his stubborn and eccentric eldest daughter. On this return trip, if the old ancestral manor proved too cold and quiet for her to endure, and she came to her senses and sought him out herself, he as her father would naturally soften a little — find her a suitable match, add extra to the dowry, and send her off in marriage. That would settle the matter.
On the boat homeward, Master Su addressed his three sons: “From this point forward, our Su family may also be counted among the official gentry. All that I have worked to build has been for you, my descendants. Even though we are returning to the old hometown, you three young ones must not slacken in your studies.”
The two sons born of Ding Shi were one year apart in age — Su Jinguan was fourteen, Su Jincheng was thirteen. Both had been born while Ding Shi accompanied Master Su in Chengdu Prefecture, and their names carried within them the meaning of “Jingguan Cheng” — the Brocade-Official City — their birthplace.
The two boys also carried within them the vibrant spirit of that brocade city in full bloom, and had been making fine progress in their studies under their tutor since they first began their schooling. By comparison, Su Guiyan — son of the late Hu Shi — appeared rather slow-witted.
Hearing Guiyan stumble haltingly through the recitation of “The Memorial on the Expedition,” Su Hongmeng was seized with a temper, pointing at his eldest son’s forehead and saying: “To think you’re already sixteen — having started school two full years before your younger brothers — has your brain been stuffed with paste?”
Su Guiyan had inherited the refined and elegant looks of his late mother, Hu Shi, and cut quite a handsome figure — a pity that it was only in appearance.
Poked at repeatedly by his father’s pointing finger, he could not help but stumble backward two steps, and between that and the rocking of the boat, sat down squarely on the floor, eyes reddening with pain.
The two younger ones watched their eldest brother tumble to the ground and dared not help him up. The third son, Su Jincheng, even let slip a quiet snicker.
At just that moment, Ding Shi came walking over with her maidservants. She glanced at Su Guiyan, then smiled at Master Su: “All is well — why lose your temper again and scold people? You only just recovered your health these past few days; the physician said you must not agitate yourself while taking the medicinal broth. Yan’er has always been a slow learner — it’s nothing new these past couple of days. Why exhaust yourself getting angry and blocking up your own chest…”
As she spoke, Ding Shi cast a meaningful glance at the stepson sitting on the floor — Yan’er — signaling him to quickly make himself scarce, lest he continue to provoke his father’s temper.
Su Guiyan pressed his lips together, climbed back to his feet, and limped back into the ship’s cabin, hand pressed to his aching back.
Su Hongmeng’s anger had not yet fully subsided. He said crossly: “You always protect him like this — he grows more and more unruly!”
Ding Shi had taken good care of herself; she was ten years Su Hongmeng’s junior, and though past thirty, her brows and eyes still shone with beauty. She smiled and kneaded Su Hongmeng’s shoulders as she spoke: “Hu Shi’s elder sister passed away so young, leaving behind this pair of children. As their stepmother, how could I not look after them all the more? And now with Luoyun’s eyes… I feel I have failed my elder sister, and cannot sleep soundly each night…”
Su Hongmeng had always been deeply fond of his wife. Seeing Ding Shi once again blaming herself over the eldest daughter’s loss of sight, he sighed: “What happened to her was an accident — no one blames you for it.”
The eldest daughter, Su Luoyun, had suffered a blow to the head, and upon waking had found herself unable to see — how could that be laid at Ding Pei’s feet? Yet Ding Pei did not relax her brow at her husband’s words, and only sighed again: “Luoyun’s temperament is too stubborn — otherwise, why would she need to be sent to live at the old estate?”
Su Hongmeng gazed with fond tenderness at this delicate wife of his, ten years his junior. He understood her nature better than anyone — gentle and soft-hearted by disposition. It had not been easy for her, entering the household as she had, needing to tend to her own children while also caring for the son and daughter left behind by his late wife.
Once he rose to a higher position at court, his Madam would bask in reflected glory without limit — and it would not have been in vain, all the grievances Ding Pei had endured when she entrusted herself to him…
The journey passed without further incident. Traveling by boat, they arrived at their old hometown of Yinzhou.
The Su family’s old estate had been rebuilt by the previous generation’s clan patriarch on the occasion of his eightieth birthday celebration. By now, more than twenty years had passed since then; green vines and blue-grey moss crept along the surrounding walls, and from a distance, the place was lush and verdant.
Old Feng, the steward of the old estate, had brought his people to wait at the riverside dock long before the boat’s arrival, and was now leading the carriage drivers to the hitching post in front of the old estate, preparing to unload the carriages.
After stepping down from his carriage and surveying the surroundings, Su Hongmeng frowned and asked: “Where is the First Young Miss? Throwing another temper tantrum and refusing to show herself?”
Ever since Su Luoyun had lost her sight in both eyes, her temperament had grown even more reclusive. At first she had smashed and flung things about, and had also quarreled with the family over the matter of her marriage.
Even with the full dignity of a father’s authority, Su Hongmeng could not bring himself to be harsh with a daughter who had only just lost her sight, and so had simply driven her back to the old estate to cultivate her temperament and compose herself.
He had not expected that after all this time, she still refused to mend her ways — knowing full well that her father had returned, she still would not come out to greet him!
Before Master Su’s temper could flare, the steward Old Feng spoke up at just the right moment: “Since the start of winter, the rains here have increased rather than lessened. The First Young Miss, having heard that you were coming by boat, has been worried all along about the river waters rising. These past several days she went up to the mountain temple to burn incense and pray for blessings on behalf of the whole family. She was originally supposed to return yesterday, but as luck would have it, another bout of rain came down, making the mountain path too slippery and treacherous to descend. Just now I sent someone to inquire, and word came back that people from the foot of the mountain had carried up furnace ash to spread over the path — she should be able to come back before long.”
Su Hongmeng listened to the steward’s explanation, and the dark cloud on his face eased somewhat.
Ding Shi also smiled gently from beside him: “It seems Yun’er has grown more sensible… Only she still does things without thinking them through from start to finish — not stopping to think that in rainy weather the paths are slippery, and that if she were to be injured again, how it would pain everyone’s hearts…”