“What is it?” The Grand Madam rose to her feet urgently. “Have you managed to find anything out?”
Xu Lingyi glanced at the Eleventh Young Lady: “The matron on night duty says she saw the dark figure enter the main rooms.”
The Eleventh Young Lady was aghast.
The only place within the Xu household that could be called the main rooms was the courtyard where she herself resided.
“I have already sent someone to call Fifth Brother,” Xu Lingyi said, his expression rigid. “To help investigate the matter thoroughly.” He looked toward the Grand Madam, yet the words he spoke were directed at the Eleventh Young Lady as an instruction: “Have your Hupo go give Nanny Song a message — lock all the doors in and out of the main rooms, and wait for Fifth Brother to arrive.”
Was he avoiding her involvement?
A faint flicker crossed the Eleventh Young Lady’s eyes.
But she immediately reasoned with herself: if she were in his position, she would likely think the same.
She straightened her back and calmly gave instructions to Hupo in a quiet voice: “Go give Nanny Song a message. Have her lock all the doors leading in and out. Instruct everyone in the courtyard — regardless of whether they were visiting another room or playing in the yard — to stay exactly where they are. Anyone who dares to move about will receive ten strikes of the board first, before any other accounting.”
Xu Lingyi looked at her with a flash of surprise.
The Eleventh Young Lady lowered her gaze.
A faint, needle-like pain pricked somewhere deep inside her.
Hupo’s expression dimmed, and she answered and left.
The room fell silent. The air was thick with a stifling gravity.
The Grand Madam glanced at the Eleventh Young Lady — her bearing composed and upright as a pine tree — then glanced at Xu Lingyi, who seemed to want to say something but held back, looking somewhat ill at ease. She said softly: “All right, all right — both of you sit down first.” This broke the silence in the room and allowed the atmosphere to ease somewhat.
The Eleventh Young Lady murmured a quiet “yes” and took her seat again. Xu Lingyi thought for a moment, then sat down in the armchair beside her.
The room fell silent again.
Xu Sizhun suddenly murmured in a low voice: “Birth mother… birth mother…” His hands flailed through the air.
The Eleventh Young Lady immediately went to him.
The Grand Madam had already taken Xu Sizhun’s hand, whispering urgently in his ear: “Zhun’er, Zhun’er — it is your grandmother…”
It was as though Xu Sizhun had sunk into a nightmare. The Grand Madam’s voice not only failed to comfort him, but sent him into a sharp, piercing cry as he struggled to free his hand from her grip.
The Grand Madam quickly gathered Xu Sizhun into her arms, pressing her cheek against his, and kept on soothing him: “Zhun’er, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid — your grandmother is right here, no one would dare cause any trouble…”
Xu Lingyi had also rushed over. He stood behind the Eleventh Young Lady, watching his son with anxious eyes.
Xu Sizhun was locked within the Grand Madam’s embrace, his eyes squeezed shut, sweat drenching him, his inky black hair wet and clinging to his pale little face. Now and then the look of terror would pass over his features as he cried out for his birth mother.
The Eleventh Young Lady’s eyes brimmed with tears. She called out “Mother” and gently bent forward over Xu Sizhun: “Shall we light the sleeping incense?”
The Grand Madam’s lips were just parting to respond when Xu Sizhun let out a sharp cry, his whole body arching — and one of his wildly kicking legs landed squarely and without deflection on the Eleventh Young Lady’s abdomen.
“Eleventh Young Lady!”
Both the Grand Madam and Xu Lingyi changed color with alarm.
By instinct, the Eleventh Young Lady swayed backward, stepping down onto Xu Lingyi’s foot.
Xu Lingyi did not move a single inch. One hand steadied the Eleventh Young Lady, the other shielded her belly: “Are you all right? Is anything hurting?” Seeing that the Eleventh Young Lady’s face had gone deathly pale, her lips pressed tightly together without a word, his heart lurched wildly within him — he could no longer concern himself with anything else. He swept her up into his arms. “Eleventh Young Lady, Eleventh Young Lady” — he called her name in a low voice, and in his voice was a trace of alarm that he himself had not anticipated — “are you injured?” Even as he asked, he laid her down carefully on the Grand Madam’s bed, then sat at the bedside and gently stroked her brow. “Is anything hurting?”
The Grand Madam saw that the Eleventh Young Lady had made no sound, and that Xu Lingyi was showing a rare state of agitation — her heart was consumed with anxiety. She wanted to go over and check on her, but she was still holding Xu Sizhun — she could neither go nor stay, and could not help the tears streaming down her face. She snapped at the two maidservants who had been frightened stiff: “What are you standing there gaping for — go over and see to her!”
The two maidservants jolted back to their senses and rushed forward in a flurry to examine her.
Xu Lingyi’s warm large hand, moving with tender concern, gradually steadied the Eleventh Young Lady’s emotions. She drew a long, deep breath, quietly took stock of her body, then moved her limbs carefully in all directions. Feeling nothing out of the ordinary, she said with measured caution: “I think I am all right — once the physician arrives, have him take my pulse as well.”
Xu Lingyi heard this and his whole frame seemed to go slack with relief.
He helped her remove her shoes: “Then close your eyes and rest a moment.”
The Eleventh Young Lady’s sense of smell had grown acutely sensitive during her pregnancy. The Grand Madam’s bedding was permeated with a heavy fragrance of lily, which made her feel quite uncomfortable. She was also turning over in her mind the events of the night, sensing invisible hands hidden in some place she could not see, quietly plucking at the strings of fate — catching one entirely off guard… At the same time she worried whether the lily fragrance might be harmful to the child. Yet with the Grand Madam right there, it was not easy to say anything, so she only said softly to Xu Lingyi: “I find this lily fragrance unpleasant — please do let me get up.”
Xu Lingyi heard this and his expression sharpened at once.
The Eleventh Young Lady thought he was displeased at her finding fault with the Grand Madam’s incense, and was just about to explain herself when Xu Lingyi had already pointed at one of the maidservants: “You — go and tell Hupo, the Eleventh Young Lady’s personal attendant, to bring over one of her usual bedding sets.”
In a fraught situation like this, a maidservant’s only wish was to sprout wings and fly out of the room. She immediately curtsied and answered “yes,” then trotted out of the Grand Madam’s inner chamber.
Xu Lingyi then said to the Grand Madam: “Mother, Eleventh Young Lady cannot bear the lily fragrance…” As he spoke, he looked around for somewhere more suitable to settle the Eleventh Young Lady.
The Grand Madam thought for a moment and said: “Then have the chaise longue from the eastern alcove brought in.” Just as the words fell, Xu Lingkuan lifted the curtain and entered.
“Mother, Fourth Elder Brother, Fourth Elder Sister-in-law,” he said, his expression grave. “I have heard everything. Danyang is now questioning the senior maidservants, the young matrons, and the general-service women in my quarters — as soon as that is done, she will come over to accompany Mother and Fourth Elder Sister-in-law.” He went to the platform bed and examined Xu Sizhun: “How is Zhun’er now?”
Seeing Xu Lingkuan act with such decisiveness, both the Grand Madam and Xu Lingyi showed expressions of gratified approval.
“The imperial physician has already been sent for,” Xu Lingyi said, rising to his feet. “Come with me to the main rooms.”
Xu Lingkuan answered in agreement, then hesitated: “Should we ask Second Elder Sister-in-law to come and help?”
Xu Lingyi heard this and cast an uncertain look toward the Eleventh Young Lady.
The whole household already knew of the commotion tonight — what was there still to be guarded about?
The Eleventh Young Lady let this thought turn in her mind.
“I will go and rest in the eastern alcove,” she said quietly, after reflection. “It is quiet there. Just station a young maidservant to keep watch, and if anything happens, someone can always come and call for me.”
Xu Lingyi nodded thoughtfully, and was silent for a moment before saying in a low voice: “Very well. Once Hupo arrives, you will have someone to attend to you.”
The Eleventh Young Lady gave him a nod, said her farewells to the Grand Madam and Xu Lingkuan, rose, and made her way toward the eastern alcove.
A certain gaze fell upon her shoulder, burning and intent — she felt as though her shoulder were alight.
The Grand Madam’s eastern alcove was a small resting room. On ordinary days, when the wives of the Yongchang Marquis and the Zhongshan Marquis and their like came to call, the Grand Madam would often keep them in the eastern alcove for a game of cards, or invite a few female storytellers to come and perform. The furnishings of the room were arranged with comfort in mind.
Pear-wood furniture, sapphire-blue bed curtains, a chaise longue, a leisure chair, a tea table set with amber-colored millet orchid in a dish of sun-stone — the sight alone lifted one’s spirits.
As it was early summer, the scarlet red mattress normally on the chaise longue had been replaced with a reclining mat of pink jade beads strung in a hibiscus pattern, and the bolster’s cover had been changed to a yellow-toned cover of fine kudzu cloth.
When Hupo entered, the Eleventh Young Lady was lying on the chaise longue lost in thought.
“Madam,” Hupo could not help but frown, and walked over quickly. “It’s barely the start of summer — mind you don’t catch a chill.”
“Oh!” The Eleventh Young Lady smiled and sat up.
Hupo quickly called in the young maidservant standing at the door to help lay out the Eleventh Young Lady’s own bedding, then helped her settle back onto the chaise longue in a half-reclining position.
The young maidservant brought in hot tea, and then obediently slipped back out.
“Madam, as per your instructions, not a single person has moved from their place,” Hupo said at once. “I had Yan Rong check — of the people in our courtyard, two had leave to go home, one was at the night-watch room playing cards; every other person was accounted for and present.”
The Eleventh Young Lady said nothing, lifting her tea bowl and idly flicking the floating leaves on the surface with the bowl’s lid.
Seeing her looking so unconcerned, and then thinking of how she had just walked out and run into Xu Lingyi and Xu Lingkuan going together to the main rooms, Hupo called “Madam” — her lips moved — but she could not think what to say.
The Eleventh Young Lady set a full bowl of tea into Hupo’s hands, then leaned sideways against the arm of the chaise longue.
“I was just thinking about this very matter before you arrived.” She tilted her head back, gazing up at the eight-treasure aquatic grass pattern painted in blue-green pigment on the ceiling canopy. “Whoever had the audacity to set up this trap must certainly have follow-up moves in reserve. Never mind a shadow of a figure darting into the main rooms — it wouldn’t even be strange if a ghost-mask carved with sinister symbols were found hidden somewhere in my quarters…”
“Madam,” Hupo said with rising anxiety, “that won’t happen — there could be no traitor in our rooms!”
“Traitor indeed!” The Eleventh Young Lady laughed at this. “It wasn’t we who did it!”
Hupo realized she had misspoken, and quickly said: “No, no, I didn’t mean it like that…”
The Eleventh Young Lady patted her hand reassuringly: “All right, all right — I know what you meant.” She spoke as the gravity gradually returned to her expression. “I trust every one of you. But don’t forget — our courtyard does not house only our household.”
—
“Does this mean the Fourth Young Master really has met with trouble?” Wen Yiniang’s expression was one of stunned uncertainty.
“Yes,” Dong Hong said quietly. “And not only that — apart from Elder Sister Hupo who is accompanying the Fourth Madam at the Grand Madam’s, all the others have been told to wait in the courtyard.” Her words had barely landed when Yu’er came bursting in: “Yiniang, something terrible — something terrible! The Marquis and the Fifth Master are starting the questioning, and the very first person they’ve summoned is Nanny Xu!”
Wen Yiniang, upon hearing this, went pale. She shot to her feet, her hand pointing at Dong Hong in a trembling gesture: “Quick, go — go and find out more!”
Dong Hong bolted out at a run.
Wen Yiniang paced in circles around the room, all the while murmuring to herself: “Who could have done this — who on earth could it be…”
But before she had gone around twice, Dong Hong came running back.
“Yiniang, Yiniang — the door has been locked! We can’t get out!”
—