Early morning, Ji Yingying went to the main hall to pay her respects. In the courtyard, several servant women were carrying furniture and trunks to the east wing. The wife of Ji Gui, the dye house manager, and Wet Nurse Wu who had nursed Ji Yingying, stood at the wing’s entrance supervising.
“Nurse!” Ji Yingying called out affectionately as she walked over to peek inside.
Seeing Ji Yingying, Wet Nurse Wu’s face broke into a smile. She curtsied and said gently, “Did we startle Second Miss last night?”
Wet Nurse Wu managed the maids and servants in the back courtyard, serving as Madam Ji’s most useful pair of eyes. She already knew about Ling’er inquiring at the second gate last night.
Ji Yingying nodded, “I don’t know who it is. Preparing the east wing—are they staying long?”
Wet Nurse Wu stood on tiptoes to glance toward the main hall, then pulled Ji Yingying behind the moon gate of the wing, whispering, “Second Miss, it’s your Third Aunt.”
Every young lady has a passionate heart for gossip. Madam Ji never mentioned her family in Chang’an. After marriage, women lost their surnames, taking their husbands instead. Like Madam Zhao née Shen, or Madam Yang née Shi. Madam Ji should be called Madam Ji née Xu. She avoided mentioning her background, and outsiders simply called her Madam Ji, until eventually, people forgot her maiden name.
Ji Yingying vaguely knew that her maternal grandmother’s sisters had schemed over her mother’s marriage, causing her to marry far away. Fortunately, her father was a good man, allowing her mother to live a good life. When her father passed away, Ji Yingying was already five and remembered some things. She remembered her mother sending messages to Chang’an, but her maternal family showed no response. Her mother then gave up the thought of relying on her natal family.
Wet Nurse Wu had come as part of the dowry and knew the details. Worried that Ji Yingying might not understand the situation and offend Madam Ji, she warned, “Don’t be too warm toward your aunt. But don’t be disrespectful either.”
Neither disrespectful nor too warm. Ji Yingying’s imagination ran wild as she nodded in agreement. Wet Nurse Wu smiled with relief: “Hurry along now, don’t be late.”
Ji Yingying suddenly asked, “My aunt and mother didn’t get along well before, right?”
Wet Nurse Wu answered reflexively, “She has some nerve coming to see Madam, such thick skin!” Realizing her slip, she grabbed Ji Yingying in alarm, “Young Miss, please don’t repeat this. Pretend you don’t know. I beg you.”
“I understand,” Ji Yingying patted her hand, reassuring her repeatedly before Wet Nurse Wu would let her go.
So this Third Aunt was the sister who had schemed over her mother’s marriage. Wet Nurse Wu was right—she truly had thick skin to come to stay here. Ji Yingying pondered Wet Nurse Wu’s words and understood. Being too warm toward this aunt would displease her mother. Being disrespectful would shame her mother. After twenty years without contact, why had she come from Chang’an?
Entering the main hall, Ji Yingying paid her respects to Madam Ji and saw a beautiful woman sitting in the armchair to the right. Her features were unlike her mother’s, but there was some similarity in their bearing. Her eyelids were slightly swollen, her expression somewhat haggard. She wore a cyan silk jacket with small floral patterns, a ginger-yellow half-sleeve, and two silver-inlaid combs with two small gold ornaments in her hair. On her wrists were a pair of thin gold bracelets. She didn’t appear wealthy.
“Yingying, this is your Third Aunt,” Madam Ji’s expression was relaxed, somewhat like clear skies after rain.
Ji Yingying thought to herself that this aunt must have fallen on hard times and encountered misfortune, living less well than her mother.
Human nature is generally thus. Having previously schemed for a good marriage and caused her to marry far away, now living worse than herself—naturally, Madam Ji would be pleased.
She stepped forward to pay her respects. Madam Li née Xu took out a purse from her sleeve: “I came in haste, Second Miss please don’t mind your aunt’s modest gift.”
Weighing and feeling the purse, she knew it contained only two small silver ingots. Using silver as a gift showed she hadn’t prepared in advance. Ji Yingying wasn’t one to despise the poor and love the rich, and she needed silver for personal expenses, so her eyes curved in a smile: “Every stitch represents aunt’s thoughtfulness. Yingying can only be delighted.”
Just then, Ji Yaoting arrived. He similarly received a purse containing silver ingots.
Breakfast was served in the main hall. After paying respects, Ji Yingying and Ji Yaoting simultaneously moved to support Madam Ji, one on each side. The siblings exchanged glances, then lowered their heads and continued their filial duties.
Madam Ji wasn’t yet forty and hardly needed her children’s support. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Seeing Madam Li alone with only one maid attending her, she felt satisfied again and allowed her children to help her to her seat.
Cook Madam Tian, who had accompanied Madam Ji in her distant marriage, probably hadn’t prepared such a sumptuous breakfast in twenty years. Eight dishes and four types of pastries filled the small round table.
Madam Tian came personally to pay her respects. Madam Li rewarded her with a hundred copper coins.
Ji Yingying noticed her mother slightly pursing her lips when her aunt gave the reward. Given the Ji family’s circumstances, a hundred coins was not a small amount. Perhaps her aunt had been very generous with rewards before. Now only able to afford to give servants a hundred coins, her mother was secretly pleased.
After quietly finishing breakfast, Ji Yaoting left to tend to the shop front. Ji Yingying was very curious about her aunt’s arrival and stayed without waiting for Madam Ji’s instructions.
Ji Yingying noticed Wet Nurse Wu bringing out a set of tea-brewing implements. She was somewhat surprised. For years the family had used roasted tea for steeping. Yesterday she had seen Sang Shisi brew tea with elegant gestures. She wondered anxiously whether her mother also possessed such tea artistry.
“How many years has it been since I’ve had tea with my sister?” Madam Ji took a small silver knife and cut a piece from the compressed tea cake.
Madam Li’s eyes reddened again: “Sister’s tea ceremony skills even Master Yan praised endlessly. I never thought I’d have the chance to drink sister’s brewed tea again.”
With Ji Yingying present, Madam Li swallowed back words of apology.
Last night, Madam Li had already knelt before Madam Ji crying for half the night. Though Madam Ji had married far below her station, she lived contentedly. Time had diluted her resentment. Madam Li lived less well and had humbled herself to admit her wrongs. After twenty years of suppression, Madam Ji had finally vented her feelings, finding great satisfaction.
“After Yingying’s father passed, I was a widow supporting the dye house and raising the children. I never brought out this tea set again. My skills have grown rusty,” Madam Ji ground the tea with a white jade mortar, recalling days when she and her sisters studied tea ceremony and literature together, feeling quite emotional.
When the water in the pot bubbled like pearls, simmering slightly, Madam Ji lifted the pot to steep the tea. Snow-white tea foam surged endlessly in the celadon cup, the tea patterns are dreamlike and lasting.
Ji Yingying was both curious and shocked. Just from her mother’s gestures and the dreamlike patterns in the teacup, though she didn’t understand, she could tell her mother’s skill far surpassed Sang Shisi’s.
Watching her mother and aunt’s tea-drinking postures, they were as elegant as spring orchids. That kind of innate grace could not be formed in a day or two.
After two rounds of tea, her aunt could no longer hold back her tears and began weeping behind her sleeve.
Madam Ji gave Ji Yingying a look. Ji Yingying pouted, reluctantly withdrawing from the main room. Unwilling to leave, she hid by the door to eavesdrop.
The three elderly maids had already dismissed the servants, also wanting to listen.
This was the first time they had huddled by the door with Ji Yingying to eavesdrop, and they felt somewhat awkward. Yet their hearts burned with curiosity. Ji Yingying made a gesture, and the three elderly maids shamelessly stayed.
“The principal wife borrowed five hundred taels of silver, the household is already emptied. I sold possessions for travel expenses, now having only eight hundred taels in total. Suzhou and Hangzhou are too far, and Sichuan silk is too cheap—we need two thousand bolts of fine silk to save my husband from prison. Sister, please help me!”
Having dismissed even the serving maids from the hall, Madam Li left her seat and knelt before Madam Ji, crying loudly.
Fine Sichuan silk costs four to five taels per bolt in Chang’an. Fine plain silk was two taels per bolt, and dyeing two thousand bolts of plain silk would cost three hundred taels, totaling 4,300 taels. Buying and dyeing plain silk was much cheaper. Madam Li only had eight hundred taels. If the Ji family helped, they would need to contribute over three thousand taels.
Ji Yingying and the three elderly maids were shocked.