Elder Sister Zhao, having selected the workers herself, made a point of giving them a proper briefing even though they were only temporary help: “Keep your heads down and don’t look around! The Madam despises people who don’t follow the rules!”

Whatever she said, they took to heart. Elder Sister Zhao, satisfied by their quick understanding, led them to meet the prefect’s madam and offered one last reminder: “Short-term workers aren’t worth the Madam’s personal attention. It’s only because the Madam keeps such a strict eye on the household that she bothers to take a look at you. You two look clean — mind your behavior.”

They arrived at the main room of the inner courtyard. Elder Sister Zhao went in first to announce them, then came back out to call them in.

While she was inside, Zhù Ying said quietly to Zhang Xiangu: “Mother, this is the prefectural yamen. Mr. Huang and the others have seen us. We must be careful — speak as little as possible, keep out of sight, and find a chance to leave in a day or two.”

Zhang Xiangu said: “You think I need to be told?”

Elder Sister Zhao came back out very quickly and called them in. Neither mother nor daughter had ever seen a room so fine, furnishings so elegant — even Yu Miaomiao’s home looked cramped and shabby by comparison. Elder Sister Zhao cleared her throat: “What are you standing there gaping for? This is the Madam!”

Zhù Ying almost bowed with her hands clasped — fortunately Zhang Xiangu tugged at her hem and pulled her into a proper kneel. The madam said: “Lift your heads.” Zhù Ying looked up. This madam was decked in gold and silver, her features regular and proper, though she wore an expression of anxious severity — she looked a little like how Yu Miaomiao had appeared recently.

After seeing the appearance of the two of them clearly, the madam’s expression only grew more taut. She shot Elder Sister Zhao a sharp look. Elder Sister Zhao leaned in and said: “The servants in our household can’t be too beneath notice, can they? As for what you have them do, that’s a single word from you, Madam. I’ll arrange for them to help in the kitchen — what do you think?”

The madam nodded, with only the faintest smile: “Very well. What are your names?”

Zhang Xiangu blurted out: “We are of the Yu household.”

The madam said: “Go then.”

Elder Sister Zhao led them to the kitchen and talked as she walked: “I’ll tell you now — there’s someone ill upstairs, and one of the maids was reassigned to care for her, so there’s a gap here. Once she recovers, she’ll come back. If you serve well, the Madam may be gracious and keep you on. If you don’t serve well, you’ll be let go after three days. The kitchen has only the cook and you two. Follow the cook’s instructions.”

The cook was not one person but two — a mother and daughter. They were dressed no worse than Zhang Xiangu and her daughter, and could even wear gold hairpins and silver bracelets, which made Zhang Xiangu inwardly marvel. Elder Sister Zhao called the mother Nanny Xu and the daughter Elder Sister: “These two are new short-term workers — also a mother and daughter. They’re of the Yu household.”

Elder Sister smiled: “You’re making things hard for us again — we had just trained two seasoned helpers, and now they’ve been moved to the front to wait on people.”

Elder Sister Zhao laughed: “What a sharp tongue you have! Careful no one wants you as a wife! Look how quietly mannered this young miss is!”

Elder Sister said: “All right, I’ll take our quietly-mannered person to get settled.”

Zhang Xiangu glanced at Nanny Xu. Nanny Xu smiled and said: “You two hurry off and hurry back — it’s nearly time for the evening meal. Put your things down and get straight to work. You can’t be dressed like that — go find yourselves some aprons!”

Elder Sister brought them to a room next to the kitchen. She pointed to a more spacious room on the other side and said: “We live there. This room used to be theirs, but now they’ve moved to the front quarters — so you live here.”

Zhang Xiangu saw she was young and took the opportunity to ask a few questions: “What will we be required to do? Is it just the few of us in the kitchen — will we manage?” and things of that sort. Elder Sister said: “The people in the front official quarters are none of our concern — don’t ask about them. In our household, there’s the master, the madam, and a young gentleman all living here on assignment. Including you two, the household servants come to fourteen in total.”

She brought them to the room — along one wall was a large bed, a table, a washstand frame, and two stools. Elder Sister asked: “Do you have a dressing case?”

That they did not!

Elder Sister cobbled things together, bringing one of her own old cases, while Zhang Xiangu had her own comb and a hand towel, and then a basin was also found — that was about enough. A final slap to the forehead: “And bedding.” In the end, two old sets were found for them.

Zhang Xiangu and her daughter didn’t care whether the bedding was new or old — seeing that it was tolerably clean, they took it out to air, set down their bundles, locked the door, and went to the kitchen to tend the fire and wash vegetables. Once they were busy, there was no time for talking.

Zhù Ying and Zhang Xiangu could only manage rougher work like tending the fire. This was the first time Zhù Ying learned that in some households, eggplant was eaten with the skin entirely removed. In her own family, they would not have wasted even the eggplant stem. And watching Nanny Xu and her daughter move with the fluid ease of long practice — stripping the flesh from large fish to make fish balls, even mixing in lard and the like — even cooking rice, they used polished white rice. It was truly… even well-off people like Yu Miaomiao could not have afforded such things.

At the prefect’s house it was considered ordinary.

Four women had to prepare meals for more than a dozen people, and the main household’s food had to be finely made. Zhù Ying sweated through her clothes. The servants’ meals were much simpler — one bowl of rice, one dish, one soup, all from a large communal pot.

That evening, the four of them gathered at one table. In addition to the servants’ portions, Nanny Xu smiled and brought out some reserved good dishes from the cupboard: “Come, let me welcome you two.”

Having spent the whole time preparing dinner, Nanny Xu had been watching the newcomers with an appraising eye. Seeing that their hands and feet moved nimbly, that they had the manner of people accustomed to working hard, she was somewhat warmer toward them. Both Zhù Ying and Zhang Xiangu were ravenously hungry and ate very quickly. The prefect’s kitchen was fragrant and delicious. Zhang Xiangu praised: “What wonderful skill.”

Nanny Xu gave nothing away, but quietly shifted her bowl and chopsticks to one side, then smiled: “Slow down, slow down — no one’s fighting you for it. Here you must be a little more refined.” Elder Sister, seeing that Zhù Ying wasn’t talking, asked: “Does the food suit you?” Zhù Ying nodded. Elder Sister smiled.

Zhang Xiangu’s face went slightly red; she also slowed down and swallowed her food more carefully, then cautiously inquired: “The household — are they hard to wait on? If they’re easy to manage, I’ll stay a few extra days. If not, collect three days’ wages and go.”

Nanny Xu said: “As long as you stay in the back and don’t venture to the front, there’s nothing difficult about them. I handle the cooking.”

“Yes~”

Separated now from Yu Miaomiao and the others, and with her daughter saying nothing, Zhang Xiangu felt it her responsibility to take the lead. She went on: “Passing through here, I noticed something strange about the people in the streets — everyone rushing about as if something were happening.”

Elder Sister said: “It’s all because of the imperial envoy! He comes along and leaves us shorthanded.”

Zhang Xiangu said: “Whatever’s going on with the officials — what has that got to do with women?”

Nanny Xu scolded her daughter: “Can’t even eating shut that mouth of yours!”

Zhang Xiangu laughed awkwardly. Nanny Xu said: “Alas — don’t go asking about things you shouldn’t. It’s nothing much. Our master assigned a capable maid of his to wait on the imperial envoy — and wouldn’t you know it, this maid wasn’t keeping to her proper role, and so she was given twenty lashes and sent back. Then another person had to be assigned to take care of her! That left the master short of attendants, so everyone moved up one step — the two kitchen maids went to the front courtyard to sweep, and you two came down here to the kitchen to help out.”

Nanny Xu sighed: “Ah, poor souls everywhere. I’m telling you this so you won’t go pushing your way to the front — you’d only be harming yourselves.”

Zhang Xiangu agreed repeatedly.

Elder Sister said: “Mother, here you go again with your sermon without even a drop of wine. Let’s hurry up and eat so we can rest — we’ve got to be up early tomorrow morning to prepare breakfast.”

The four of them finished eating quickly. Zhang Xiangu and Zhù Ying washed all the household’s pots, bowls, ladles, and basins, while Elder Sister also instructed them: “For bowls that had meat in them — heat some water and scald them first, that’s how you get them clean.” In Zhang Xiangu’s household, any hint of meat was something you’d want to lick the bowl clean over — this kind of skill was beyond imagining. There was nothing to do but learn it all step by step.

——

It had been an intensely fraught day. When they finally lay down on the bed, Zhang Xiangu said: “Who could have imagined that we’d now be inside the prefectural yamen?”

Zhù Ying was truly exhausted from the day, and murmured: “Indeed!”

Zhang Xiangu turned over so they were face to face: “But you really do need to learn how to carry yourself as a girl — no more of that wide-striding lurch! And also…”

From “the proper way for a girl” Zhang Xiangu gradually talked her way to Zhū Shenhan: “That wretch — if it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have had to come here! Living here is expensive too, the room rentals are costly and the food is expensive — the county town is much better…”

She rambled on, but Zhù Ying was turning over her own thoughts. She was thinking: since we’ve already come to the prefecture, why would I want to go back to the county town?

Though first, she had to get her own father out. Wait — the imperial envoy was still investigating, which meant the case was not yet closed. So if she could just get the case sorted out clearly, wouldn’t that be enough? Yu Ping and his like were the sort of minor clerks the imperial envoy was relying on to investigate, but it would take until the year of the monkey and the month of the horse before that lot got anything done.

Find a way to go near the Chen family’s residence and see what could be gathered from the neighbors.

She made this decision with cheerful resolution.

Zhù Ying said: “Right now we don’t pay for food or lodging, and we haven’t been caught — this is called being in the shadow directly beneath the lamp. I think it’s quite good.”

Zhang Xiangu laughed: “True enough.” Having chattered at length, she was exhausted and sank into deep sleep.

The next day, before dawn had even fully broken, people in the household were already stirring. Nanny Xu and her daughter woke even earlier than Zhù Ying and Zhang Xiangu. Zhù Ying, who had trained in the mornings before, had never had to rise this early even then — it seemed like the moment her eyes closed, Elder Sister was already knocking on the door to wake them.

Zhang Xiangu quickly apologized: “Having found a place to stay, I was too happy last night — I lay awake half the night. I won’t be late again tomorrow.”

Elder Sister said: “Hurry along — get the water boiling first. The Madam will want to wash her face when she rises.”

Another full rush of activity began. Zhù Ying was thoroughly alert and kept her head down to work, making no attempt to hover near Nanny Xu or observe her cooking techniques — she just set to it without speaking. Zhang Xiangu also stayed in the kitchen chatting with Nanny Xu, bringing out her palm-reading-and-bluffing abilities, and the two of them became friends of the passing-acquaintance sort. Both mother and daughter stayed tensely in the kitchen without daring to take a single step outside, terrified that they might accidentally run into Mr. Huang or his sort — in which case all three of their family would be imprisoned together, with not a soul outside to collect their bodies.

After two days in the back kitchen, mother and daughter had come to understand the hierarchy of the household: the front official quarters were entirely off-limits to back-courtyard people. Mr. Huang and his sort, whom they’d been so worried about, would never enter the inner quarters at all! Not only outsiders, but even the household’s own family members did not wander into the kitchen. The prefect himself certainly had no time to wonder whether the kitchen had added staff — he only needed properly flavored meals to arrive at mealtimes.

For mother and daughter, the entire back kitchen was completely safe.

Three days passed. Elder Sister Zhao came again and said: “The Madam says to have you two stay on in the kitchen a few more days — will you?”

Zhang Xiangu thought three days was still too short and worried the search outside might still be ongoing, so she said: “We will!”

Elder Sister Zhao smiled: “That’s more like it. Keep on the same way — don’t go asking about things that aren’t your business, and don’t go wandering about the compound trying to get in front of the master or the young gentleman. As for whether you’ll be kept on permanently, that’s still uncertain. The weather’s getting a bit cold — I’ll report back to the Madam and have her send you two padded jackets.”

Zhang Xiangu thanked her profusely. Mother and daughter had thus settled themselves tentatively inside the prefectural yamen. Whoever was out there searching for them would never in a hundred years imagine they had run straight here.

There was just one thing: the back quarters were safe, but actually going out to take care of their own affairs was nearly impossible.

For one thing, the work kept them constantly occupied, as new helpers had a great many tasks to do. For another, Nanny Xu had taken Zhù Ying firmly under her wing and started having her practice knife skills.

In Nanny Xu’s estimation, she needed a skilled hand to assist — cutting vegetables, for instance. Zhù Ying was young, diligent, and unassuming. There was no need to teach her any specialized culinary secrets — just put her to work cutting and prepping vegetables. Cut well, and those went into the main household’s meals; cut unevenly and it didn’t matter, just toss them all into the big pot to boil, and that was the servants’ meal.

It saved Nanny Xu considerable effort.

Zhù Ying learned with exceptional speed and never spoke unnecessarily — precisely the kind of student any teacher most cherishes.

Nanny Xu was genuinely pleased with her, and wanting to encourage her to settle in and keep helping, she said to Zhang Xiangu: “As a mother, you ought to think ahead for your daughter. Don’t look down on kitchen work — learning a proper skill is a person’s lifelong support. A skill is more reliable than any man! Once she has a few good techniques down, even if she looked plain as could be, some wealthy household might take her on to manage the kitchen — and she’d want for nothing in food and clothing. Do you think I’d have my own Elder Sister learn this if the work wasn’t good? Look at the others — relying on their looks to push their way in front of the master, and all of them were sent away by the Madam! Pitiful things!”

Zhang Xiangu found herself genuinely tempted: It’s true — this is surely better than following me and her father around in the spirit-calling business! While we’re here, learning more can’t hurt! She quickly said: “Then we must beg you to teach her.”

Nanny Xu smiled contentedly: “Very well.”

From that point on, Nanny Xu and Zhang Xiangu each had their own private agenda, yet they coexisted in great harmony. Only Zhù Ying was privately pondering how she might slip out of the yamen without drawing attention and make her way near the Chen family’s residence to gather intelligence.