Shiyiniang listened in confusion — she did not know who this “Xiaolan” was, or how the Fifth Master had come to put this woman with child… But thinking of the children still in the room, she could not help raising her eyes to look at them.
Xu Siqin and the others, who had been all smiles just a moment before, now had their faces drawn taut, and had retreated to the corner of the wall.
This kind of thing was best not discussed in front of the children. And besides, Xu Siqin was no longer young.
She made a gesture to Xu Siqin and the others: “Qin Ge, Zhen Jie’er — let us go and see whether the nannies have set the table yet.”
Xu Siqin and the others started, and then all eyes fell on Xu Lingyi.
Hearing Shiyiniang speak, Xu Lingyi came to himself.
This was not the kind of matter to be spoken of in front of the children. Moreover, it touched on the Fifth Brother’s reputation. Whatever the circumstances, he was still their elder.
He nodded at once: “Off you go.”
The children all breathed a great sigh of relief and followed Shiyiniang out of the inner room.
Only Zhun Ge’er was still in a state of bewildered incomprehension, being tugged along by Zhen Jie’er’s hand, turning back to look as he walked: “Sister, Grandmother is about to have another grandchild — why isn’t she happy?”
Zhen Jie’er looked at Shiyiniang in considerable embarrassment, her face flushed, and said in a low voice: “Stop asking.”
Zhun Ge heard this and pouted, looking very aggrieved.
Shiyiniang watched them and could not help smiling faintly.
The children still regarded her as an outsider, which was why they felt the need to preserve their dignity in her presence.
Not knowing how long those inside would speak, and aware that at the usual hour the meal would already have been served, she asked the children: “Are you hungry?” Her eyes rested on Zhun Ge.
Before Xu Siqin and the others could answer, Zhun Ge was already nodding: “Hungry!”
Xu Siqin and the others heard this and were a little embarrassed.
Shiyiniang gathered everyone to the eastern side room.
“First eat a few apple slices to put something in your stomach. When the Third Master and Third Madam arrive, we can have the meal.” She instructed the maids to serve each of them a few apple slices on small gilded dishes. “And besides, eating fruit before meals is good for you.”
The children’s expressions were varied — Xu Siqin was full of curiosity, Zhen Jie’er somewhat startled, Xu Sijian grinned wide, Xu Siyu’s eyes showed a flicker of something unusual, and only Zhun Ge spoke aloud at full voice: “You have it wrong. You eat your meal first, then you eat fruit.”
Shiyiniang smiled and crouched down beside him so their eyes were level, and smiled at him: “The flavors of the meal are strong, and the flavor of fruit is mild. If you eat your meal first and then eat fruit, the taste of the meal covers the taste of the fruit — how is your stomach to know there is still fruit to eat?”
Zhun Ge was left gaping, his lips moving, and try as he might he could not find a single word to say in rebuttal.
Shiyiniang then gave his head a gentle pat: “So you see, fruit should be eaten before the meal. First give your stomach a greeting, tell it that you are about to eat — let it prepare itself.”
Zhun Ge seemed to have been thoroughly muddled by Shiyiniang’s reasoning, and stared at her blankly, letting her pat his head without resistance.
Xu Sijian laughed so hard he had to clutch himself: “Fourth Aunt, you — you are very good at talking nonsense!”
Xu Siqin laughed too: “Fourth Aunt, Zhun Ge has been completely confused by you!”
Zhen Jie’er watched with amusement and pressed her lips together, smiling quietly.
Only Xu Siyu said nothing — his gaze rested on Shiyiniang with an unreadable flicker in his eyes.
Shiyiniang knew well enough that everyone’s understanding was that fruit came after meals. To speak of things like science to these children would not necessarily be comprehensible, and might even make her seem eccentric. She had no intention of telling others how they ought to live their lives.
She smiled and moved smoothly past the topic, asking them: “It is already past the twentieth of the eleventh month — you have not been let out of school for the New Year yet?”
Shiyiniang recalled that the private tutor hired by the Luo Mansion in the past would always dismiss classes before the Winter Solstice, going home to return again the following spring.
The laughter died away and the mood in the room lightened.
Xu Sijian sank back casually in the grand chair beside him and heaved a sigh: “We go all the way until the eighth day of the twelfth month — after we have eaten the Laba porridge and dismissed the teacher, then school is closed. Everyone else goes up to the Winter Solstice. We go even longer.”
Shiyiniang nodded, lifting Zhun Ge up onto the large kang by the window: “Our household was the same. The teacher dismissed at the Winter Solstice, and reopened at the Start of Spring.” As she spoke, she helped him take off his shoes.
Zhun Ge wriggled slightly in protest, then submitted, settling onto the kang.
Zhen Jie’er, seeing this, went quickly forward to help take off Zhun Ge’s other shoe.
“Fourth Aunt!” Xu Sijian perked up: “Why don’t you ask Fourth Uncle to let our school close at the Winter Solstice and reopen at the Start of Spring too?”
Every pair of eyes in the room settled on her.
Shiyiniang, catching Xu Siyu’s serious, attentive gaze resting on her, smiled slightly and said: “This is a matter for you men — how can a woman go putting herself forward on it? If you want to say something, go and say it to the Marquis yourself, in a straightforward manner.”
Xu Sijian let out a comical wail and collapsed back into the grand chair: “Fourth Aunt is brushing me off.”
But Shiyiniang’s eyes had already moved to Xu Siyu and Xu Siqin.
She saw both of them give a small nod, their expressions showing approval.
Shiyiniang was quite surprised.
She had not expected Xu Siyu — who had always kept a cool and somewhat distant manner toward her — to show agreement. This child was neither swayed one way nor the other, and truly had fine character.
Shiyiniang gave an inward nod.
Zhen Jie’er, hearing Xu Sijian’s words, let a look of faint anxiety cross her face, and quickly said: “Mother, shall we help set out the chopsticks?”
She was changing the subject — seemingly afraid that Shiyiniang would take offense at Xu Sijian’s behavior.
Sensing Zhen Jie’er’s intent, Shiyiniang felt a wave of warmth, and a twinge of something like longing — the children were all so close to one another and took care of each other.
She naturally wanted Zhen Jie’er to feel at ease, and smiled: “Of course! Leave the others here — you and I will go help Nanny Yao and the others lay out the chopsticks.”
But Zhun Ge tugged at her sleeve: “M— Mother, if you eat the apple first, will your stomach really know?”
He had called her “Mother” of his own accord.
Shiyiniang felt a breath of relief pass through her, and her smile bloomed into full warmth: “Only if you eat fruit before every meal for a long time will your stomach learn. If you eat it today and not tomorrow, your stomach is not as clever as Zhun Ge — how will it know?”
Zhun Ge laughed.
Shiyiniang looked at him and was momentarily arrested.
When Zhun Ge laughed, his gaze was clear and limpid — a kind of utterly unspoiled innocence. The first time she had ever seen Yuan Niang, Yuan Niang had given this very same smile.
For reasons she could not quite name, her eyes grew damp.
Fearing others would notice, she tilted her head back and blinked rapidly: “All right, Zhun Ge sit here nicely and play with your brothers. When the Third Master and Third Madam come, we can eat.” And she turned quickly toward the table on the other side of the room.
And so she did not see that Xu Siyu’s gaze had been following her the entire time.
…
Speaking of setting out the chopsticks — in practice the maids had long since made everything ready. She and Zhen Jie’er only had to take what the maids handed them and set it on the table.
Zhen Jie’er kept her head down, wrapped the chopsticks handed to her in a small handkerchief, then placed them down slowly and carefully — looking left, looking right, adjusting their position a little… Very slowly, yet somehow giving an impression of graceful nimbleness.
She knows that setting the chopsticks is just a pretext, so she is deliberately going slowly on purpose.
Looking at the quietly understanding Zhen Jie’er — who had long been living beside the Grand Dowager with only a baffled little Zhun Ge for company — Shiyiniang suddenly felt that this child was very lonely.
Shiyiniang thought of the Second Madam, who had taught Zhen Jie’er to play the zither… She wondered what plans the Second Madam had made after receiving Qin Yiniang’s letter.
“With the Second Madam gone from the household, and the Fifth Madam having moved into the rear garden,” Shiyiniang asked her, “have you stopped practicing the zither?”
Since the day she heard her playing in the Shaohwa Courtyard, Shiyiniang had never heard her play again.
“I stopped.” Zhen Jie’er smiled. “The Second Madam said that poetry, chess, calligraphy, and painting are all only things to cultivate one’s temperament — one must not become obsessed.”
How had the subject come around to obsession so suddenly?
Shiyiniang looked at Zhen Jie’er’s hands.
Holding the chopsticks — perfectly steady.
“Aside from the zither, what else have you studied?” She was puzzled.
“I have studied a bit of everything.” Zhen Jie’er smiled, a little self-consciously. “I am only rather better at the zither than the rest.”
Shiyiniang heard this, and something stirred within her: “You love playing the zither.”
Zhen Jie’er kept her head lowered and did not answer.
From the large kang by the window came the bright, carefree laughter of Xu Sijian and Zhun Ge.
Shiyiniang could not help letting out a quiet sigh.
Some were carefree and guileless; some were precociously grave; some were cold and remote… And yet none of them should have to suppress their true nature.
“Does Grandmother enjoy hearing you play?”
Zhen Jie’er smiled: “Grandmother cannot sleep at night, but needs her afternoon rest during the day. I was afraid of disturbing her.”
Shiyiniang heard this and felt an ache of tenderness for her.
Looking at the Third Master’s two children — Xu Siqin clever, Xu Sijian straightforward and good-natured — and then at Xu Lingyi’s three — one who bore her loneliness in silence, one cryptic and changeable, and only Zhun Ge who seemed truly at ease — she could not help thinking: governing a country and bringing peace under heaven — Xu Lingyi perhaps had only the first of those to his name.
She was still musing when a young maid lifted the curtain from the main hall: “The Third Master and the Third Madam have arrived!”
Fearing they might walk straight into the western side room, Shiyiniang hurried to greet them: “Third Brother, Third Sister-in-law — please come this way.”
The Third Master wore a sapphire blue straight-collar robe in pongee silk bearing a pattern of five bats surrounding a longevity medallion, and the Third Madam following behind him wore a bright red jacket of gold-threaded brocade with five-colored embroidery running all the way across the sleeves. Both wore smiling faces and walked in with a spirited and lively air.
“What has happened here?” The Third Madam looked toward the curtain hanging across the western side, then toward the cluster of animated children on the eastern side, with a look of thorough bewilderment.
The Third Master looked equally at a loss.
Shiyiniang was still considering how to open the subject when Xu Sijian, having heard the movement, had already come bounding out: “Father! Mother! What took you so long?”
The Third Madam caught the boy flinging himself forward and enveloped him: “Can you not be a bit more composed, like your brother?” Her mouth reproached while her smiling face was full of indulgence.
Xu Siqin and Xu Siyu had already stepped forward to greet the Third Master and Third Madam. Zhen Jie’er helped Zhun Ge put on his shoes and brought him along to offer his greetings to the two of them as well.
“You are all here already!” The Third Master looked at the children with warm good humor. Xu Siqin gave his father a quick, meaningful look: “Father, Mother — Grandmother is presently speaking with Fourth Uncle and Fifth Uncle inside. Let us sit over here.”
A flash of surprise passed through the Third Master’s eyes, but he recovered his composure at once, smiled his assent, and followed Xu Siqin to the eastern side room.
The Third Madam, however, had a flickering look in her eyes. She caught Shiyiniang’s arm: “What is this all about? How did it come to you bringing the children out here?”
This was the sort of thing that could not be hidden even if one wished to.
Shiyiniang smiled: “They say Xiaolan is with child. I saw that it was not convenient to have the children there, so I brought them all out.”
A look of unconcealed disdain crossed the Third Madam’s face: “If you have taken a chamber consort, you ought to teach her what is and is not done. Carrying on like this without any sense of propriety — she makes a show of being virtuous, but from where I stand it is nothing more than pretending.”
It seemed the Third Madam knew who Xiaolan was.
This was the Fifth household’s business. Shiyiniang offered no opinion, and with a smile accompanied her toward the eastern side room.