The year passed quickly. Shi’an had several consecutive days of outings where relatives and friends traveled together engaging in activities such as throwing balls, playing card games, stick dancing, ball kicking, and storytelling performances. Father went out with his colleagues, Junior Director Mu from the Chancellery and Junior Minister Zhou from the Court of the Imperial Stud.

The women visited familiar relatives. The Gu family lived in Four Li Hutong, near the Song family of Grand Secretary Song from the Imperial Academy and the Marquis of Yongyang’s family.

Mother was on good terms with the Marchioness of Yongyang, who had specially come to see Mother. Since Mother was too ill to go out, Concubine Song took Gu Jinchao and Gu Lan to visit Duke Feng of Dingguo’s family in Luoxian Hutong. The Feng family was the maternal family of the Father’s birth mother, and they had often taken care of the Father in the past, so the two families were very close.

By the eighth day, it was time to return to the Gu’s ancestral home.

For this visit, Father planned to bring all four of them back and instructed them to prepare well in advance. He also ordered the steward to prepare gifts for the children: gold beans, pearl and jade hairpins, pastries, fruits, cured meats, and pickled goose. The last visit to the ancestral home had been three years ago when Father and Grandmother had not parted on good terms. After some thought, he also had the steward prepare a set of purple auspicious cloud-patterned padded clothes.

When Jinchao came to pay respects to Father and saw these clothes, she said to him: “The purple color doesn’t match the pattern. Grandmother likes to worship Buddha, so sandalwood-colored plain silk would be more dignified. You should also add two strings of agarwood prayer beads blessed at the Great State Temple.”

Father looked at Jinchao with a strange expression; even he didn’t know Grandmother was devoted to Buddhism.

Jinchao explained: “…Last time I visited, I saw Grandmother fingering prayer beads hidden in her sleeve.”

Father nodded and praised her: “…You were only twelve during your last visit. I’m impressed you still remember.” He instructed the steward to follow Jinchao’s suggestions.

Naturally, Jinchao wouldn’t tell Father that in her previous life, she had quite a lot of interaction with Grandmother. When she married into the Chen family, it was an extremely prestigious match, and the Gu ancestral family had all come to curry favor. Grandmother had even given her many gifts.

Concubine Song, who was standing nearby, smiled and said: “I had no idea our Chao’er was so attentive to detail!”

Jinchao remained silent, and Father said: “She is indeed clever, just like her mother in this respect.”

Concubine Song said nothing more, and Jinchao smiled as she withdrew.

When she arrived at Xiexiao Garden, Mother asked if she had prepared anything. Naturally, Jinchao didn’t need to prepare anything. As a younger generation, at most she would prepare gold beans and silver pieces for her younger brothers and sisters—she was the one who would receive gifts from others! Mother was concerned and had Gu Lan bring the gold thread hairpiece she had made for Jinchao. After some thought, she had Madam Xu open the storeroom to find a jewelry box, selecting for her a gold hairpin inlaid with red and blue sapphires in a lotus pattern, a gold hairpin inlaid with yellow beryl in a phoenix cloud pattern, a gilt silver hairpin with a butterfly pattern, and a pair of lustrous black jade bracelets. She also asked the maid Moxue to accompany her.

Looking at the eighteen red and blue sapphires inlaid in the gold hairpin, Jinchao was somewhat amused. She finally understood why she had so many luxurious gold ornaments—Her mother was deeply influenced by her Maternal Grandmother, wanting to give her the most expensive and best things. But she wouldn’t wear these out; they were too ostentatious.

On the eighth day, Jinchao wore a water-blue embroidered skirt and a moon-white brocade jacket with a treasure pattern. Feeling it was too plain, she added an apricot yellow belt and a dark blue sachet. Satisfied with her appearance, she took Qingpu and Moxue and boarded a horse-drawn carriage with a green canopy.

After separating from the Gu family, Father settled in Shi’an. Although the Gu’s ancestral home was also in Shuntian Prefecture like theirs, it wasn’t in Shi’an but in Daxing County at the feet of the Emperor. The green-canopied carriage traveled for an hour before arriving—not too far, and it was along the route Father took when attending morning court.

Jinchao lifted the curtain to look outside. The official roads were lined with thriving businesses, many shops, and restaurants, especially bustling at this time. As they reached the busy market, she could see crowds of people moving about, everyone wearing festive headpieces, creating a very celebratory atmosphere.

Past the market was Taohua Wu. If they didn’t turn but continued straight, they would reach the Imperial Palace…

Jinchao lowered the curtain.

The carriage stopped only when it reached the hanging flower gate of the ancestral home. Several elderly female servants were already waiting for them with small oil-powered sedan chairs for traveling within the inner courtyard. The lead servant bowed to Father: “Fourth Master, please follow this servant this way. The Old Madam is waiting for you.”

Father nodded and had his steward give each servant a small bag of silver.

Jinchao changed to the small sedan chair and began to recall matters about the ancestral home. Father ranked sixth in birth order but had only two full brothers and one half-brother above him, so he was called Fourth Master. However, she remembered that the Gu family’s Eldest Master and Third Master had died early, and now the head of the Gu family should be the Second Master, who currently served as the Right Deputy Censor-in-Chief.

The Gu family had been scholars for generations, with almost every generation producing a jinshi graduate, bringing glory for over a hundred years. The entire Taohua Wu had only one residence—the ancestral home. Compared to the ancestral home, the Father’s separate household was far inferior.

The carriage stopped, and Jinchao was helped down by Qingpu. Looking around, she saw high pink walls on both sides and at the end of the blue brick path was a small courtyard. Although it was deep winter, there were bamboo groves surrounding it, rustling gently. The door lintel was partially obscured by branches of begonia, but the characters “Yan Xiu” (Gorgeous Embroidery) were still visible. Beside it was an artificial hill covered with layers of snow, and in the pond below, brocade carp were still swimming—there must be a hot spring underground…

The elderly servant led them in. Four maids wearing emerald green vine-patterned jackets and skirts stood by the door, bowing to them. Past the entrance hall was the reception area. Before they even entered, they heard a crisp laugh, a voice like an oriole’s call.

“Grandmother, you said you would give me this box of abalone with bones. You can’t go back on your word…”

The servant stood outside the door and announced: “Old Madam, the Third Master has arrived.”

After a moment, a steady elderly female voice came from inside: “Please come in quickly.”

Stepping past an eight-panel rosewood and white jade screen painted with birds greeting spring, Jinchao saw a lacquered mother-of-pearl arhat bed placed near the main bed. A woman of about sixty wearing a dark red auspicious pattern silk padded jacket sat on it, with a gold lotus-shaped Buddha hairpin in her hair. She had kind eyes and a gentle face, full of smiles.

Jinchao recognized her—this was her Grandmother Feng. Jinchao and the others first paid their respects to Madam Feng, who then distributed welcome gifts to the four of them.

Seated around her were all female family members and a girl of fourteen or fifteen was holding her hand, acting coquettishly.

Father saw this and appeared displeased.

Madam Feng said: “Duanxiu, please take Fourth Master’s daughters and concubine to the east side room to sit and have some pastries and rest.”

She kept only Father behind, seemingly wanting to have a private conversation with him. Jinchao glanced at the gift boxes held by the steward, thinking there shouldn’t be any problems.

The one who responded was a lady with a peony bun, wearing a bright red auspicious pattern brocade jacket. She had long phoenix eyes and delicate skin—this was Second Madam. She led them to the east side room to rest and took Concubine Song’s hand, saying: “I’ve never met you before, but you must be the legitimate daughter of the Junior Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, right?”

She didn’t refer to her as a concubine—clearly, everyone here was shrewd.

Concubine Song smiled and said: “That’s right. If I’m not mistaken, you must be Second Madam. You are indeed beautiful and dignified. Let me introduce you—this is our Fourth Master’s eldest legitimate daughter, Chao’er.” Hearing herself mentioned, Jinchao bowed to the Second Madam.

Second Madam looked at her with apparent surprise, though she quickly resumed smiling and gave her a brocade box.

Concubine Song continued: “This is the second daughter, Lan’er.” Second Madam looked at Lan’er with great affection, praised her a few times, and also gave her a gift.

Gu Lan was always pleasing in front of elders. Jinchao thought privately that this skill was something others couldn’t easily learn.

After introducing Gu Xi and Gu Yi, the Second Madam also introduced her own eldest legitimate daughter, Gu Jinhua. She had been married for several years and was back home visiting. According to the Gu family rules, the names of legitimate eldest daughters all followed the generational naming scheme. Since they all had the character “Jin” in their names, Gu Jinhua was more cordial to Gu Jinchao than to Lan’er, pulling her aside to talk and affectionately giving her a pair of white jade cloud-patterned earrings.

The girl who had been acting coquettishly with Madam Feng earlier was Second Madam’s second daughter, Gu Lian, who was fourteen and looked like a pretty little beauty, though she seemed spoiled by everyone. She merely made a sound of acknowledgment and continued joking with the girl beside her.

Concubine Song certainly wouldn’t comment on Gu Lian’s lack of manners, only smiling and praising her: “Miss Lian has such a lively and spirited nature, unlike Lan’er, whom I’ve raised to be too constrained.”

Gu Lan also said: “I like Miss Lian!”

Second Madam’s eyes and brows were full of smiles, and she seemed to like Gu Lan even more. She then introduced two concubine-born daughters of Fifth Master Gu, as well as a concubine-born younger sister from Gu Jinhua’s husband’s family. Jinchao gave each of them a bag of gold beans.

“Fifth Madam is currently at the theater stage. We’ll all go watch a play later, and I’ll introduce her to you then,” Second Madam said to Concubine Song.

Fifth Master Gu had also passed the jinshi examination, but because of Fifth Madam’s connections, he had been appointed as Deputy Commander of the Guards. Concubine Song seemed to have heard of Fifth Madam’s reputation and asked quietly: “Is she the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Changxing…?”

Second Madam nodded slightly.

Concubine Song’s manner became more cautious. Usually, when a woman marries her husband’s family, if the husband’s family is noble, she gains nobility. But the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Changxing was the opposite—Fifth Master Gu was only a concubine-born son, but by marrying the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Changxing, he gained status through his wife and secured a fourth-rank official position!

In recent years, the Marquis of Changxing had campaigned east and west for the Emperor, suppressing many rebellions with military achievements. The Emperor favored him, and even his wife was granted a second-rank title. Compared to the Marquis of Changxing, the Gu ancestral family was far inferior. When Second Master Gu had an audience with the Emperor in the golden hall, he could at most make an appearance, but the Marquis of Changxing could enter the imperial palace directly and engage in riding, archery, and games with the Emperor. Among military officials, the Marquis of Changxing was implicitly the foremost, enjoying unlimited glory.