After seeing Xu Lingyi off, Shiyiniang re-pinned her slightly disheveled hair into a neat coil and went to the warm inner chamber.

Jin Ge’er lay on his soft padded bedding, merrily kicking his little legs up toward the ceiling as he played.

In her past life, Shiyiniang had heard people say that parents should help infants with appropriate physical exercises to aid the child’s physical development. She simply had no idea how to go about it — in that life she had never married, and had always assumed that parenting books were everywhere and she could just buy one and follow the instructions when the time came.

Now she was learning the hard way: books are most sorely missed when the moment to use them has arrived.

She could only improvise as best she could — coaxing Jin Ge’er to grasp her fingers and pull himself up to a sitting position, or rolling him gently from side to side.

Jin Ge’er was having a wonderful time, giggling with delight.

Shiyiniang kissed his left cheek, then his right.

A small maidservant came in to announce, “The eldest young miss and the Fourth Young Master and Fifth Young Master have arrived!”

“Show them in quickly!” The joy from playing with Jin Ge’er was still shining on Shiyiniang’s face.

The small maidservant hurried to lift the door curtain.

“Mother.” Zhen Jie’er smiled and was the first to enter.

Xu Sizhun and Xu Sijie darted out from behind her and ran to the side of the kang, calling out “Mother” with a laugh and both pressing forward to lean over the edge. “Sixth Brother, Sixth Brother!”

Jin Ge’er had been playing contentedly. Hearing their voices, he turned his head and broke into a smile at Xu Sizhun and Xu Sijie.

The two brothers were overjoyed. “Mother, Mother, look — Sixth Brother is smiling!”

Shiyiniang laughed and picked Jin Ge’er up.

Jin Ge’er looked out at the roomful of people and smiled even more broadly, babbling with a stream of happy sounds as he stuffed his hand toward his mouth.

Zhen Jie’er caught hold of Jin Ge’er’s little hand. “Eating your hand again — careful Mother doesn’t give you a smack on the bottom.”

Jin Ge’er lifted his plump, rosy little face to look at Zhen Jie’er, and let out two soft “mmmm” sounds, as though he were talking to her or disputing her claim. It startled and delighted Zhen Jie’er so much that she called out repeatedly to Shiyiniang, “Mother — do you think Sixth Brother is about to start talking?”

“It is probably still too early,” Shiyiniang said, uncertain herself. “I have heard Nanny Tian say he won’t speak until after his first birthday.” In her memory, she had a colleague whose child had begun speaking before the age of one…

“Oh!” Zhen Jie’er could not help feeling a little disappointed. She took hold of Jin Ge’er’s hand. “You need to start talking soon. Then if you want anything, you can just tell Nanny Gu — wouldn’t that be so much easier?”

“These things can’t be hurried,” Shiyiniang smiled, patting her son on the head. She put a small hand-kerchief cap on his head, then said, “None of you have eaten yet, surely? The hour is getting on. I will have the small kitchen prepare some food.”

Xu Sizhun immediately said, “Mother, Mother, I want chicken and mushroom broth!”

“All right!” Shiyiniang laughed, and asked Xu Sijie, “What would you like?”

Xu Sijie tilted his head, looking slightly puzzled. “Nanny Nan said you eat what the adults give you and are not allowed to be particular.”

Shiyiniang felt somewhat sheepish, and quickly explained, “Nanny Nan is right. But Teacher Zhao will be coming back soon, and after that you will start your lessons again just as before. This is the last meal all together before school resumes, so this once, everyone may choose one dish.”

Xu Sijie heard this and sprang to his feet. “I want braised meat buns!”

Shiyiniang could barely contain her laughter. The sound of Xu Sizhun’s voice reached her ear: “But Grandmother said, you can eat whatever you like — there’s no need to hold back…” His tone was uncertain.

Xu Sizhun had been weak and sickly from birth, and the desire to eat something — to be able to eat — signified good health. The Grand Madam of course hoped he would eat more and eat well. His words were perfectly understandable. And Nanny Nan Yong’s strict expectations of Xu Sijie were no less correct.

Thinking of Xu Lingyi’s words — “Zhun Ge’er cannot go on forever looking like a boy who refuses to grow up” — Shiyiniang considered the matter, then smiled and conveyed to him what the Grand Madam hoped for him.

“Then, then is it what Nanny Nan said that is right after all?” Xu Sizhun lowered his head, looking somewhat crestfallen.

“It isn’t as simple as saying one is right and the other wrong,” Shiyiniang smiled. “I recall your father once telling me that when you have passed your tenth birthday, you will be moving to the outer courtyard to live in your own separate quarters. Which means you are growing up. And naturally, you cannot go on doing as you please the way you do now.” She teased him, “When the time comes, don’t let me find you crying because you think the tutor is too strict!”

It was also a way of giving Xu Sizhun advance warning of what was to come.

Xu Sizhun listened and laughed. “I would never cry!”

Shiyiniang nodded with a smile. Glancing at Zhen Jie’er, Xu Sijie, and Jin Ge’er — who understood nothing of any of it but was watching them with wide eyes — she had a thought and said, “Today, let us all have a day off as well. Do as you please!” She turned to Zhen Jie’er. “What would you like to eat?”

Zhen Jie’er was a sensitive child by nature and knew that Shiyiniang was trying to steer the conversation elsewhere. Playing along with a laugh, she said, “Mother, the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall stew you made last time we ate here was so good. Mother, please ask the small kitchen to make it again!”

“Of course!” Shiyiniang smiled. She asked Jin Ge’er playfully, “And what does our Sixth Young Master want to eat?”

Jin Ge’er responded to Shiyiniang with a stream of happy babble. Shiyiniang smiled and kissed her son, then told Qiu Yu to instruct the small kitchen to add dishes, asked Zhuxiang to go and invite Third Madam Huang to stay for the midday meal, and then set Jin Ge’er down on the thick scarlet brocade cushion embroidered with five bats amid cloud patterns, and took a rattle drum to coax him into rolling over.

His little arms and legs were surprisingly strong. With a few vigorous kicks, he had turned to his side. With the gentlest of nudges from Shiyiniang, he rolled all the way over. This made Xu Sizhun watch with eager, envious eyes. He snatched up the rattle drum. “Mother, let me, let me!”

Whether out of fatigue or sheer whim, once the rattle drum passed into Xu Sizhun’s hands, Jin Ge’er simply lay there and refused to move — lazily reaching up to suck his own fingers. This drove Xu Sizhun to a frantic sweat. “Why won’t Sixth Brother roll over?”

Shiyiniang quickly caught hold of Jin Ge’er’s hand and said with a laugh, “He had already been rolling for quite a while before you all arrived.” She added, “It looks like we really will have to follow Nanny Tian’s suggestion — smear a little chili on his hand. Otherwise he is always going to keep sucking his fingers!”

Zhen Jie’er was alarmed. “Do, do you really have to put chili on it?”

Shiyiniang was also still undecided about this, and her expression showed some hesitation. Just then Zhuxiang came back with a report, neatly derailing the subject: “Third Madam has kept Third Madam Huang to share the midday meal over there!”

“Then we won’t wait for Third Madam Huang.” Shiyiniang smiled and instructed Zhuxiang, “Tell the matrons to set out the meal.”

Zhuxiang acknowledged this with a smile and withdrew. Shiyiniang took the children to the eastern side chamber.

Xu Sijie’s senior maidservant Shuang Yu exchanged a few words with Si Xi, and then returned to her room herself.

Since Xu Sijie had gone to the main chamber, Nanny Nan Yong was not in attendance beside him; she was in his room with the junior maidservants sorting through chests and trunks. Now that even the wind on one’s face carried no trace of cold, in a few days it would be time to change to spring garments, and she wanted to have everything prepared in advance.

Nan Yong’s daughter, Niu’er, was seven years old this year. She had grown up from infancy in Xu Sijie’s rooms, following her mother, and knew this place better than her own home. She was sitting on a small stool nearby, folding Xu Sijie’s stockings.

“Nanny Nan, I have something to tell you!” Shuang Yu burst in like a gust of wind, pulled Nanny Nan Yong into the inner warm room, and told her what Xu Sijie had said — “eat what the adults give you and are not allowed to be particular.” “I was standing outside and heard every word clearly. What if Madam blames us for it — what are we to do?”

Nanny Nan Yong pursed her lips and said nothing.

Shuang Yu could not help stamping her foot.

This Nanny Nan Yong — fine in every other way, but you couldn’t get three words out of her with a stick; sometimes it was simply maddening.

“Whatever happens, those were your words. And you are the one running things in this room.” This year Shuang Yu was eighteen, and her family was in the process of finding her a match for marriage. When people heard she was a second-rank maidservant by the side of the Yongping Marquis’s wife, they were very favorably impressed, and several prosperous households had put forward proposals. She had no intention of letting this business affect her marriage prospects in any way. “If Madam lays blame, I will simply tell the truth.”

The words were indeed her own. The matter was indeed her doing.

Nanny Nan Yong nodded without a second thought.

Shuang Yu looked at her, anger rising from she knew not where. Thinking that the Fourth Young Master would likely come to take his afternoon nap in their room as he usually did after lunch, she needed to get the hand warmers burning, the incense lit, and the warm tea and refreshments ready… There was no shortage of things to attend to. She snapped her handkerchief and turned to march away.

Niu’er, who had been listening with her ears pricked up, crept quietly inside. “Mama, will Madam really dismiss you from your duties?”

She took after her mother in looks — delicate and neat — and her face had scrunched up with worry.

Nanny Nan Yong reached out and patted her daughter’s head. “Since Madam has entrusted the Fifth Young Master to me, I must both honor him as a master and cherish him as a child… What I am doing is for the Fifth Young Master’s own good.”

Niu’er did not quite understand.

Nanny Nan Yong let out a quiet sigh. She raised her eyes and, through the glass window, saw Shuang Yu standing under the eaves with her hands on her hips, directing the junior maidservants to fetch coal and water. Her gaze dimmed. “The Fifth Young Master is different from the other young masters… He is still small now, and the Second Young Master, Fourth Young Master, and Sixth Young Master are all still small too… When they are grown, they will understand this difference themselves… Some people are born with the natural right to ask for things, and some are born without the standing to pick and choose… If he learns this from a young age, when he is grown it will not trouble his heart.” She finished speaking, and then could not help reaching out to pat her daughter’s hair once more — as though the one standing before her were Xu Sijie himself, and she were doing her best to offer him comfort.

Niu’er listened with half-understanding and said, “Is it like me — just passing through here following Mother? The Fifth Young Master’s mosquito-net canopy is beautiful, but it belongs to the Fifth Young Master. I may look, but that is all. No matter how much I like it, I can only keep it in my heart. The pastries Nanny Wu from the small kitchen makes are delicious, but those are made for the Marquis, Madam, and the young masters. Even if I am drooling for them, I can only swallow silently, and I cannot let anyone notice, and when they give some to me I have to say my stomach is already full!”

Nanny Nan Yong smiled. She bent down and stroked her daughter’s fair little face with tender affection. “Exactly so!”

“But, but the Fifth Young Master is a young master!” Niu’er tilted her head and gazed up at her mother.

Nanny Nan Yong said nothing.

After the meal, seeing the children off, Shiyiniang immediately sent Zhuxiang to the outer courtyard. “Go and see if the Marquis has returned.”

Zhuxiang acknowledged and left.

Shiyiniang coaxed the well-fed Jin Ge’er to sleep for his afternoon nap.

Perhaps because he had been too excited at play earlier, he was squirming restlessly on the bed and simply would not settle down to sleep.

Third Madam Huang came to take her leave.

—