Thus, on the second day, Yunyang City sent people to escort Ren Yaoqi back. Ren Yaoqi’s coming-of-age ceremony was just a few days away, and both Princess Consort Yanbei and the Princess had sent gifts. It was said that the Princess had personally delivered them, and she had also sent an invitation asking the Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua sisters to go out for a spring outing.
Old Madam Ren had originally intended to confine Ren Yaohua in Baihezhen, but since the Princess had personally extended an invitation, the Ren family dared not refuse this courtesy. Moreover, the Ren family had been dealing with too many matters recently, and Old Madam Ren didn’t have the time to discipline Ren Yaohua, so she finally allowed them to leave. Old Madam Ren felt that since Ren Yaohua was her granddaughter, couldn’t she summon her back whenever she wanted?
So Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua returned to Yunyang City, while Ren Yaoying remained behind. Where would Ren Yaoying dare to go to Ren Yaohua’s territory now?
Regarding the Ren family’s decision to have Ren Yaoying accompany the marriage, Li Shi was shocked and harbored resentment. She could endure the Ren family’s poor treatment of her over the years, but she couldn’t bear to see her daughter wronged. Instead, it was Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua who comforted Li Shi.
Nanny Zhou frowned and asked: “What about the dowry maids? Are we going to follow the Ren family’s arrangements?” As Li Shi’s chief steward of the inner quarters, Nanny Zhou understood better than anyone the importance of connections when first arriving at one’s husband’s family. Li Shi had suffered greatly in this regard back then. So when she heard that Old Madam Ren planned to hand over the indenture contracts of several maids to Ren Yaoying, Nanny Zhou angrily spat.
Ren Yaoqi smiled: “Didn’t Nanny Zhou already select several maids before? Just prepare the personnel for Third Sister first.”
Li Shi and Nanny Zhou had long considered the issue of Ren Yaohua’s dowry maids. Nanny Zhou’s idea was that Xiangqin and Wujing were still not too old and could serve as dowry maids. Additionally, they needed to select a few younger ones to train properly. After Ren Yaohua became familiar with the environment at her husband’s family, Xiangqin and Wujing could be matched with capable young stewards to manage the inner quarters, and then the younger ones could be promoted.
Nanny Zhou couldn’t help but ask: “Then how should the maids prepared by the Ren family be dealt with?”
Ren Yaoqi looked puzzled: “Weren’t the ones Grandmother selected meant for Ninth Sister? The indenture contracts are still with her. They’ll naturally follow Ninth Sister.”
Nanny Zhou was stunned, then smiled with satisfaction: “Fifth Miss is right. This servant will continue selecting maids for the Third Miss.”
“About Yaoying…” Li Shi frowned.
Hearing this, Ren Yaoqi glanced at Ren Yaohua and smiled: “When the boat reaches the bridge, it will naturally straighten. Mother needn’t worry about these matters now. Just prepare Third Sister’s wedding as before. Someone will resolve Ren Yaoying’s affairs.”
The Ren family elders wanted to randomly place people with Lei Ting, but they had to see whether he was willing to accept them. Did they think the Lei family was marrying a Ren family daughter?
Ren Yaohua seemed to understand something upon hearing this.
Then Li Shi brought up Ren Yaoqi’s coming-of-age ceremony.
Now both the Ren family and Prince Xian’s manor were in troubled times, so Ren Yaoqi’s coming-of-age banquet naturally couldn’t be held on a grand scale. Ren Yaoqi didn’t care about such things anyway and didn’t advocate inviting guests, planning only to have the family celebrate quietly.
However, Princess Consort Yanbei had sent a phoenix-and-peony white jade hairpin and an exquisitely crafted bright red formal robe with wide sleeves as congratulatory gifts early this morning. Xiao Jinglin had sent a full box of pearls and gemstones, saying they were for Ren Yaoqi to make jewelry. Li Shi and Nanny Zhou were startled by Princess Xiao’s generosity upon receiving these gifts. After looking them over, Ren Yaoqi knew they should all be congratulatory gifts Xiao Jinglin had received from others during her coming-of-age ceremony. Ren Yaoqi even wrote a letter teasing Xiao Jinglin, saying she was taking shortcuts by regifting and lacked sincerity.
Xiao Jinglin quickly replied with righteous indignation, denouncing Ren Yaoqi at length. She had responded to Ren Yaoqi’s hint, bringing things to the rescue. Princess Xiao had even specifically had Hongying ask Xiangqin, who had stayed in Yunyang City to deliver messages for Ren Yaoqi, about the most direct and effective approach.
As a result, that girl Xiangqin had misled her with passionate eloquence: “What is the Princess here to do? To intimidate! To intimidate! I heard that hitting people with silver and such is most satisfying!”
Although Hongying didn’t understand the connection between intimidating people and hitting them with silver, she dutifully conveyed maid Xiangqin’s words to the Princess, directly resulting in Princess Xiao’s nouveau riche behavior of arriving with a box full of gemstones.
Ren Yaoqi shook with laughter after reading the letter.
Another day passed, and Ren Yaoqi was sitting in the study reading when Pingguo came in to report that someone from Prince Xian’s manor had come and brought a person. After hearing this, Ren Yaoqi put down her book, got up, and went to Li Shi’s quarters, instructing Pingguo to invite Ren Yaohua as well.
When Ren Yaoqi reached Li Shi’s main room, she saw Chuchu from beside Rong Shi leading a young maid, standing in the middle of the room, talking with Li Shi. Seeing Ren Yaoqi arrive, both quickly bowed and greeted her.
Ren Yaoqi smiled and nodded, then beckoned to the pretty-looking maid beside Chuchu, having her stand beside her.
Li Shi found this strange: “Who is this girl?”
Just then, Ren Yaohua also entered.
Ren Yaoqi gently patted the young maid’s hand and said, “Tell Madam your name and age.”
The young maid wasn’t timid at all. She curtsied gracefully and said crisply: “This servant is Shui Ai, thirteen years old this year.”
Ren Yaoqi was very satisfied and asked Li Shi and Ren Yaohua with a smile: “What do Mother and Third Sister think of this maid?”
Li Shi and Ren Yaohua examined Shui Ai carefully. Her appearance wasn’t particularly beautiful, but she was pretty and proper, with long limbs. Standing there, she looked very calm and submissive, with clear eyes, trained by a wealthy household. However, aside from this, nothing particularly special could be seen. With a few years of effort, Nanny Zhou could train such a maid, too.
Ren Yaoqi thought for a moment and instructed Xi’er: “Call four or five rough servant women.”
Xi’er immediately responded and left. Soon, she brought four or five burly servant women to wait outside.
Ren Yaoqi invited Li Shi and the others to the courtyard, then pointed at Shui Ai and instructed those servant women: “Capture this young maid for me.”
Everyone was startled by these words.
Shui Ai looked up at Ren Yaoqi, immediately understanding her meaning, and then turned and rushed outside. Although those servant women didn’t know what offense Shui Ai had committed, hearing Ren Yaoqi’s instruction, they immediately surrounded Shui Ai, quickly encircling her.
What happened next left everyone present dumbfounded. Though Shui Ai wasn’t tall, she was extremely agile. Despite being surrounded by five people, none could catch her. When one woman tried to grab her shoulders from behind, Shui Ai seemed to have eyes in the back of her head. She grabbed and twisted with her backhand, then executed an over-the-shoulder throw, sending the much larger woman to the ground. Then, in a dazzling display, she successively brought down the other four women.
Under everyone’s shocked gazes, Shui Ai knelt toward Ren Yaoqi and the others, bowing her head: “This servant was reckless. Please punish me, Master.”
Li Shi came to her senses and looked questioningly at Ren Yaoqi, who smiled: “She’s learned martial arts for several years and has quite good aptitude. Third Sister, would you like her to follow you?”
When Ren Yaoqi first sent Shui Ai to Prince Xian’s manor, she hadn’t expected her to learn martial arts. After all, not everyone had the talent for martial arts, and not everyone could endure that hardship. She just hadn’t expected Shui Ai’s aptitude to be no worse than Leshan and Leshui’s. Moreover, because she had worked the fields with Granny Luo since childhood, she had considerable strength. Combined with her intelligence and ability to draw inferences, Xia Sheng found that teaching two was teaching, and teaching three was also teaching, so he eventually took Shui Ai as a disciple too.
After several years of training, though Shui Ai might suffer against masters, several ordinary people were no match for her.
This gave Ren Yaoqi an unexpected joy, so she wanted to give Shui Ai to Ren Yaohua as a dowry maid. With Shui Ai, who knew martial arts, serving beside her at the Lei family, Ren Yaohua’s actions would be much more convenient.
Ren Yaohua was stunned and looked at Shui Ai several more times. Getting Ren Yaoqi’s hint, Shui Ai immediately stepped forward to greet Ren Yaohua.
Although Ren Yaohua quite liked this martial arts-knowing maid, after thinking it over, she still shook her head: “I already have enough people around me. Let her follow you instead.”
Only after everyone returned to the room did Ren Yaoqi joke with Ren Yaohua: “Does Third Sister still look down on her? Don’t underestimate Shui Ai—though young, she knows quite a lot. Please accept her, Third Sister.” Ren Yaoqi had placed her at Prince Xian’s manor to cultivate a trusted aide. Besides martial arts, Shui Ai and the Leshan-Leshui sisters also learned medicine, accounting, and social relations—all in preparation for serving their master usefully in the future.
Seeing Ren Yaoqi’s persistence, Ren Yaohua accepted her kindness.
Thus, Shui Ai became Ren Yaohua’s dowry maid.
Before leaving, Chuchu said that Rong Shi had already invited Madam Xu (née Ouyang) to be the principal guest at Ren Yaoqi’s coming-of-age ceremony, while the Princess would serve as Ren Yaoqi’s sponsor. Both Madam Xu and Princess Xiao had readily agreed.
Rong Shi felt that it was fine for Ren Yaoqi’s coming-of-age ceremony to be quiet and low-key, but proper etiquette absolutely couldn’t be lacking. It shouldn’t be ostentatious, but neither should it allow others to look down on her.
Knowing that Rong Shi was planning for her future, Ren Yaoqi was grateful and naturally couldn’t refuse her kindness, so she arranged things according to Rong Shi’s wishes.
Thus, in just a few days, Ren Yaoqi welcomed her fifteenth birthday.
Following the principle of keeping it low-key, Ren Yaoqi’s coming-of-age ceremony only invited a few relatives and friends. However, being able to invite the wife of Yunyang Academy’s director as principal guest and Princess Xiao as sponsor, looking throughout all of Yanbei, few young ladies could match Ren Yaoqi’s ceremony in grandeur.