When Xu Siqin and Xu Sijian arrived at Fallen Leaves Mountain, Xu Siyu was in the midst of reading.

Seeing the two of them, he came out happily to welcome them.

Xu Siqin looked at the books piled on Xu Siyu’s writing desk and the brush resting across the inkstone, and felt rather unsettled inside.

Ever since Xu Siyu had come to Fallen Leaves Mountain, Xu Siqin had visited several times. Each time, Xu Siyu was either reading or practicing calligraphy. Compared to the relaxed ease of their own five-days-on, ten-days-off holiday schedule, he worked much harder. Yet it also gave people a sense of steady assurance — the feeling of slowly drawing closer to a goal. And as for himself, the distance between him and this younger brother who had grown up alongside him was growing ever wider.

He could not help saying: “Second Brother, are there any conditions to become a student of Teacher Jiang?”

Xu Siyu was slightly taken aback, thought for a moment, and said: “I don’t think there are any particular conditions — as long as you can pay the tuition fee and follow the rules of the academy.” Then he felt that wasn’t quite right either. “Some who can’t afford the tuition fee, Teacher Jiang lets them owe it.” That didn’t sound right either. “There are also some who owe it and never paid — Teacher Jiang had someone burn the account book recording the debts.” He thought about why Xu Siqin was asking this and said quietly: “Does Elder Brother also want to go to the academy to study?”

Xu Siqin nodded and said quietly: “You are so diligent and driven — if I continue to muddle along like this, I truly do not deserve to be called your elder brother.”

Xu Sijian, listening, quickly said: “Elder Brother is very good to us and always looks after us. How can you say you don’t deserve to be our elder brother?” Then he turned to Xu Siyu: “Second Brother, why don’t we all go study at Jinxi Academy together? Perhaps we could even pass the examination for licentiate, and advance to become provincial examination graduates!”

“Bringing honor to the family name stands as the highest form of filial piety,” Xu Siyu nodded slightly. “If Elder Brother and Third Brother are willing to go, I will have companions — that could not be better. However, it would be best to quietly ask Third Uncle about this matter first!”

Xu Siqin nodded, feeling as though every moment he sat there was wasted time. He borrowed Xu Siyu’s brush and ink and wrote a letter to Third Master, then on returning to the mansion had it sent off to Shanyang.

Back on Shiyiniang’s side, Madam Zhou came calling.

“If I am not mistaken, the anniversary memorial for your late mother will be held next month?”

Shiyiniang instructed the small maid to bring out some of the persimmons recently bestowed from the palace and said: “The mourning rites will be observed in the middle of next month.”

Madam Zhou showed a faint look of awkwardness, held her teacup, and said quietly: “I know too that I have come a little early. But Wang Ze’s mother has been ailing since contracting a chill before the new year, and has been sickly ever since. Originally the coming-of-age ceremony was agreed upon…”

Shiyiniang understood immediately.

Although the First Madam’s mourning period would not end until next month, the journey from Yuhang to Yanjing was over a thousand li; to send off a bride would take at least a month or more, so if they did not begin discussing the matter early, the wedding could not happen any earlier than the following summer or autumn.

“Is Wang Gongzi’s mother seriously ill?”

Wang Ze was five years older than Twelfth Miss — this year he was already nineteen, which was considered rather old for a young man. If there were also a mourning period to contend with, pushing things back another two years… and moreover, at that time the post-burial memorial rites and the great memorial service would need to be conducted, and all the relatives would come to burn incense. The Wang family being a great clan, if they had no one to manage the inner household affairs, would it not be chaos?

“She simply hasn’t been getting any better,” Madam Zhou’s expression dimmed slightly. “My sister-in-law has been wearing herself out greatly these past few years!”

The Wang family was precisely in need of someone right now. It would be a little unreasonable to keep insisting on the original agreements.

“Madam Zhou, put your mind at ease — I will send someone with a message to Yuhang right away.”

This matter was, after all, somewhat discourteous to bring up.

Madam Zhou exhaled with relief upon hearing this, went to the Elder Madam’s rooms to pay her respects, exchanged a few casual words, and rose to take her leave.

Shiyiniang had Nanny Song bring some tonics to see Wang Ze’s mother, then picked up her brush and wrote two letters to Yuhang — one to Luo Zhensheng, explaining the matter of Twelfth Miss; and one to the grand mistress of the Luo mansion, asking her to find a way to teach Twelfth Miss some household management skills, even if it was a last-minute effort. She also had Zhuxiang prepare a bank note of one thousand taels of silver: “Add this to Twelfth Miss’s trousseau gifts when the time comes. A little here, a little there — it should last her a few years.”

Zhuxiang smiled and agreed, and was just about to go and make the preparations when Yang Shi arrived.

“Today when I went to the hothouse, I saw this golden ruyi chrysanthemum growing so splendidly that I cut two sprigs to bring over,” she said, holding a vermilion deep-glaze flower vessel with a yellow chrysanthemum arranged inside, the color combination vivid and striking — it matched well with Shiyiniang’s preference for bright and lively small decorative arrangements, showing that care had been put into it. “I thought it would be just right for Madam to have placed on the low table by the sleeping platform to admire.”

Shiyiniang had Qiuyu set both flower and vessel on the daybed in the eastern side room: “I still have two sprigs of jade ring chrysanthemum on my windowsill.” Then she had a small maid bring a low stool for Yang Shi to sit on.

Yang Shi sat down with a smile and began asking about the embroidery shop: “With all the rush day and night these past weeks finishing the swaddling clothes for the little young master, I haven’t had much time to ask — with Mid-Autumn past and then the Double Ninth Festival coming, I wonder if the shop can keep up with the work.”

Shiyiniang’s embroidery shop had now contracted all the rank-badge embroidery work for the Imperial Household Department. Not only that, but word of its reputation had spread far and wide — officials being posted to the provinces and newly arrived in the capital all went to her shop to commission rank badges, and the business for ceremonial hangings had grown as well. In spring and autumn ten embroidery women had been added; by summer, twelve more; and just two days prior, Head Embroideress Jian had come to discuss the idea of adding fifteen more. Counting it all up, not including the wives and daughters-in-law of Marquis Yongping’s mansion who took work home to be consigned for sale, the shop alone had over fifty embroidery women. At the mid-year reckoning, they had earned over two thousand taels of silver, which had given Elder Madam Gan such a fright that she immediately clamored to take back the adjoining shop and turn it into an embroidery shop as well. Head Embroideress Jian, however, had her eye on buying a house not far from the current shop, to properly house the embroidery women who had come up from the south. This would require further outlay of funds. Both Shiyiniang and Elder Madam Gan were of the same mind; each had put in five thousand taels, and Head Embroideress Jian was now busy with the broker looking at houses.

“I haven’t been over there myself for some time,” Shiyiniang said with a smile. “Head Embroideress Jian manages it all. From what I hear, the shop’s business is quite good.”

Yang Shi produced several embroidery pattern designs: “I drew these in my spare time these past few days — Madam, please see whether they are of use.”

One set was the ‘full pond of lotus blossoms’ pattern, one set the ‘joyous encounter’ pattern, and one set the ‘ten-variety brocade’ pattern — all quite festive.

Shiyiniang smiled and accepted them. Just then, Xu Lingyi returned.

Yang Shi quickly rose to pay her respects.

Xu Lingyi gave a brief nod, and seeing the embroidery pattern designs laid out on the table, said: “Did you not say you would not be doing needlework these days? Why have you started again?”

“These are merely pattern designs,” Shiyiniang stepped forward to take Xu Lingyi’s official robe and hand it to the maid at the side, and had the small maid bring in chilled mung bean soup. She was about to ask what the Empress had called him into the palace for, but seeing Yang Shi humbly assisting the maid in carrying water, she swallowed the question she had been about to ask.

Xu Lingyi went to the washroom to rinse his face, changed into a plain casual Taoist-style house robe of fine kudzu cloth, came back, and sat on the sleeping platform by the window where a bamboo mat had been spread. He took the mung bean soup brought by the small maid, had a sip, and then — quite of his own initiative — said: “Can you guess why the Empress called me to the palace?”

Shiyiniang glanced at Yang Shi and said nothing.

Xu Lingyi then seemed to notice something amiss. He looked at Yang Shi and said: “You all go out.”

Hearing the Marquis mention the Empress, the maids assumed it must be a matter of some urgency, and quickly curtsied with a “yes” and filed out of the inner chamber one by one.

Yang Shi pressed her lips together; she had no choice but to follow at the rear and withdraw.

Only then did Shiyiniang smile: “What instructions does Her Majesty the Empress have?”

Xu Lingyi looked at her and chuckled: “She had me summoned to the palace especially to escort back two midwives and one medical matron.”

Was it that Medical Matron Peng mentioned before?

Shiyiniang hurriedly said upon hearing this: “Have the women been brought into the mansion?”

Xu Lingyi replied: “They still need to go to the Imperial Household Department to collect their identification tokens — they should arrive shortly.”

Shiyiniang called Nanny Song in and had her arrange the women in the eastern wing rooms of the front courtyard: “…their meals and daily needs are to be on a par with Nanny Du from the Elder Madam’s side.”

Nanny Song, upon hearing that the Empress had bestowed people, was beaming with joy. On her way out, she saw Yang Shi standing outside talking with the two newly arrived junior maids, Xiulian and Yumei. Her eyes shifted, and she stepped forward with a smile and a greeting: “The Empress has sent two midwives and one medical matron to the mansion to serve Madam. We are a little short-handed here for sweeping out the rooms…”

Yang Shi was slightly taken aback but quickly smiled: “If Nanny doesn’t mind how slow I am, I’ll come and help as well!”

Nanny Song smiled: “I was hoping to borrow Yang Yiniang’s strength!” Then she instructed Xiulian: “You go and call Donghong from Wen Yiniang’s room and Xiuyuan from Qiao Yiniang’s room to come. Women who come from the palace are not like ordinary folk — clumsy little maids are unreliable, so we will have to borrow these capable ones from the Yiniang ladies’ rooms to lead the rest of you.”

Xiulian, thinking of herself as also a newly arrived junior maid, flushed red and curtsied with a “yes,” and went off quickly to the eastern small courtyard.

Nanny Song smiled warmly at Yang Shi: “Yang Yiniang, let us go to the eastern wing rooms of the front courtyard!”

Yang Shi gave a cold inward sniff.

She knew perfectly well that this talk of clumsy little maids being unreliable was simply an excuse to show off the Empress’s favor toward Madam in front of all the Yiniang ladies.

But she kept her composure without showing a trace of it, and with a smile, hooked her arm through Nanny Song’s: “Our Madam is truly the Empress’s favorite — not only has Her Majesty sent people to attend on her, but what’s more, with midwives and a medical matron, the Empress has thought of everything for Madam.”

When to be modest and when to hold one’s head high — Nanny Song was full of delight: “That goes without saying. And not only that — the Empress also said that once the child is born, Madam may choose a wet nurse from the Milk Nurse Bureau. The Milk Nurse Bureau — do you know what kind of place that is? It is where wet nurses are prepared for the consorts and imperial princes of the palace…”

Yang Shi listened with a smile while her mind raced at lightning speed.

Meanwhile, over in the Elder Madam’s quarters, upon hearing the news, the Elder Madam personally came over to meet the three women who had arrived from the palace.

Both midwives were plump and round, and appeared very experienced. Medical Matron Peng had the face of a shoe-form, and was both dark and thin; she happened to be wearing a dark eggplant-purple gown, which gave her a very rustic air.

The Elder Madam privately warned Shiyiniang: “That woman surnamed Peng either has extraordinary good fortune, or is extraordinarily capable. Whichever it is, the fact that she has come to our mansion is fated. You must show her due respect.”

In truth, the Elder Madam had also found two midwives for Shiyiniang on her own.

Shiyiniang smiled: “Mother, rest assured — since she was bestowed by the Empress, I will instruct the maids and serving women to treat her with courtesy.”

The Elder Madam nodded: “I think the birthing chamber had best be set up in the side ear room.”

In ancient times, childbirth was considered an impure matter, and those with means would set aside a dedicated room for it.

Xu Lingyi knew Shiyiniang’s habit of attending to every fine detail, and so asked her: “What do you think?”

Shiyiniang felt the ear room was a little plain, but it could be dressed up: “Mother has experience in these matters — following Mother’s guidance is sure to be right.”

Xu Lingyi nodded, but the next day discovered that Shiyiniang had opened the storeroom and was furnishing the ear room — and after a moment’s startled pause, he burst out laughing helplessly.

* * *