The days of childhood are the most pure and carefree. And such days are not so plentiful.

Shiyiniang smiled and stroked Xu Sijie’s head. “If you both go, who will help me look after Jin Ge’er?”

Ten-month-old Jin Ge’er was lively and restless — if one did not watch him closely he would crawl to the edge of the couch table, put whatever he got his hands on straight into his mouth for a chew, and if held in one’s arms he would quickly grow impatient, kick his little legs against whoever was holding him, and practically launch himself clear — anyone who held him had to be fully on guard at all times. He could not speak yet, but babbled cheerfully at everyone he saw. Shiyiniang worried about this, though the old Madam felt she was making much of nothing: “The Fourth Master did not say his first words until he was a year and a half — this one is barely ten months!”

Shiyiniang was not certain herself when a ten-month-old child ought to start talking, so in her free moments she would hold him up and introduce him to things around the house.

Xu Sijie’s eyes lit up when he heard this, and he smiled. “Then I will stay home and play with Jin Ge’er.”

Xu Sizhun looked a little disappointed. “Well then… I will bring back something good to eat for you!”

“Wonderful!” Shiyiniang said warmly. “When you come back, tell me all about what happened on the hike as well — I have never been to climb a mountain!”

She meant in this world, of course. What she was thinking of was that image of one person walking ahead while countless others followed behind carrying stools, fans, and even chamber pots.

Xu Sizhun cheerfully agreed.

Shiyiniang saw the brothers out the door.

Nanny Song came up. “Qin Yiniang’s mourning period is almost at an end…”

“Handle it according to custom,” Shiyiniang said with a nod.

Nanny Song went to see to it.

When that day arrived, Daoist priests and nuns were called in to perform seven days of rites. Xu Siyu changed into fresh clothes and came to pay his respects to Xu Lingyi, the old Madam, and Shiyiniang.

Xu Lingyi asked about his studies, and the old Madam inquired after his health. When he reached Shiyiniang’s quarters, he found Jin Ge’er’s wet nurse Nanny Gu and Jin Ge’er’s room attendant Wan San’s wife standing in the open breezeway under the eaves — and was somewhat surprised.

Wenzhu quickly murmured: “The Fourth Madam tends to the Sixth Young Master personally. I am told she plans to wean him after his first birthday.”

If she is so fond of the child, why not let Jin Ge’er nurse a few days longer?

Xu Siyu found it rather puzzling, but said nothing, gave no attention to the maids and matrons who half-curtsied before him, and followed Qiuyu into the west room.

Shiyiniang and Jin Ge’er were both seated on the large couch by the window in the west room. The couch table had been moved aside. Shiyiniang sat at the edge of the couch while Jin Ge’er sat in the middle, holding a mallet used for striking a wooden fish. Around him were several bowls and dishes of varying sizes, along with a wooden fish, a small drum, and the like — Jin Ge’er was busily banging away with the mallet.

Noticing Xu Siyu enter, he looked up and gave him a smile, showing two front teeth.

That pure, uncontaminated smile struck something deep in Xu Siyu.

“Sixth Brother has grown so much already!” He stared at Jin Ge’er a moment before these words came to him.

Shiyiniang lifted Jin Ge’er into her arms and smiled. “You are back. Was the journey all right?”

Only then did Xu Siyu remember to pay his respects to Shiyiniang.

“I would not have Mother worried — I am quite well.”

With only these few brief words exchanged, Jin Ge’er was already bouncing and twisting in Shiyiniang’s arms, craning to get back to banging the bowls and dishes.

Not wanting to interrupt the child’s enjoyment, Shiyiniang gave Xu Siyu an apologetic smile. “He is a bit spirited!” She set Jin Ge’er back down on the couch.

Jin Ge’er immediately crawled toward the small drum — only to find the mallet gone from his hand. He looked around for a while, then crawled back and retrieved it, then headed toward the small drum again — and lost the mallet once more. He looked distressed, glanced at Shiyiniang, then at Xu Siyu, and seeing that neither moved to help him, let out a wail.

Xu Siyu found him thoroughly entertaining and, without much thought, went over and picked up the mallet and handed it to Jin Ge’er.

Jin Ge’er stopped crying at once. Tears still on his face, he beamed at Xu Siyu.

Xu Siyu could not help reaching out and patting his head.

Jin Ge’er ignored him, bowed his head, and set to beating the small drum. The room filled with the uneven “thud-thud-thud” of a single-note rhythm — monotonous and just a little noisy.

Only then did Xu Siyu notice that the red mallet in Jin Ge’er’s hand had been worn smooth and rounded from use, with a lotus motif carved at the top.

He looked toward Shiyiniang in some surprise.

Shiyiniang gave him an apologetic smile. “It is a bit noisy.” Then she explained: “If you do not let him bang, he cries — and that is even noisier!”

“Perhaps because I seldom hear it, I do not find it noisy at all.” Xu Siyu smiled, casting a glance at the happily engrossed Jin Ge’er.

His manner was warm, his tone gentle — the picture of a refined and cultivated young gentleman.

Shiyiniang smiled, and turned the conversation to Xu Siqin’s approaching wedding. “Our family is not large in number — now that you are back, you can take the senior stewards to Tongzhou to help receive Qin Ge’er’s bridal dowry!”

Xu Siyu smiled and agreed. “He mentioned it to me a couple of days ago when we went to Fallen Leaf Hill.”

So Xu Siqin had attended Qin Yiniang’s mourning ceremony as well!

Shiyiniang said meaningfully: “Since the two of you have already discussed it, I will not say more. A wedding is a joyous affair — three days of no strict hierarchy between elders and juniors. Relax and enjoy yourselves for a few days.”

Xu Siyu smiled and acknowledged this. Looking over, he noticed that Jin Ge’er — finding that Shiyiniang, as usual, was not playing with him — had dropped the mallet and crawled into Shiyiniang’s arms, whimpering.

Shiyiniang, realizing he was clamoring to be held, was about to call for Nanny Gu, when Xu Siyu rose to his feet. “If Mother has matters to attend to, I will go first to pay my respects to Second Aunt.”

“Come to the old Madam’s quarters for dinner later,” Shiyiniang said with a smile, as there was nothing more to say. She had Qiuyu see him out.

Xu Siyu rose and bowed, his gaze pausing for just a moment on the red mallet that Jin Ge’er had casually tossed into the corner of the couch — then he turned and went out the door.

Shiyiniang could not help picking up the mallet.

What a perceptive young man!

Even Xu Sizhun had not noticed.

This mallet was one the old Madam regularly used. One day Jin Ge’er had grabbed hold of it and refused to let go, and the old Madam, not wanting him to cry, had simply given it to him…

Smiling, she had the items put away, just as the Fifth Madam arrived.

“A child truly needs no worry once it is born and growing.” She laughed, took Jin Ge’er’s hand and walked him around the room in a token gesture, then handed the child to Nanny Gu and settled beside Shiyiniang on the large couch. “Those years of waiting day after day, and now he can already toddle about. In another few days he will be saying ‘Father’ and ‘Mother.'”

Shiyiniang smiled and sat with her. “I heard from Nanny Shi that little Shen Ge’er can hold his head up now?”

Speaking of her son, the Fifth Madam’s face was all smiles. “He can only manage it now and then, and not for long — I dare not make him hold it too long…” She then came to her reason for visiting. “What are your plans for Qin Ge’er’s side of things?”

“I am following the Marquis’s lead,” Shiyiniang said with a smile.

The Fifth Madam’s gaze shifted slightly. “That is what you say for appearances. What I mean is — what gift are you planning to give the new bride when we meet her the day after tomorrow?”

“That depends on Mother’s wishes.”

She and the Fifth Madam could not give more extravagant gifts than the old Madam.

“Mother is an elder,” the Fifth Madam said. “Naturally she need not sit in the reception hall to await the new bride the way we do — the couple will go to Mother’s quarters to pay their respects.” She glanced meaningfully at Shiyiniang. “But our situation is different. Not only do we meet the new bride in the main hall, but when we give the greeting gifts, the entire contingent of Third Sister-in-law’s maternal relatives will be watching. You know how these things go, Fourth Sister-in-law — give too little, and who knows what the Gan family will say about us behind our backs. That is why I came to discuss it with you.”

Shiyiniang caught the hint of something more. She smiled. “So Fifth Sister-in-law’s idea is…?”

The Fifth Madam leaned close and whispered in Shiyiniang’s ear.

Shiyiniang could not suppress a laugh.

The Fifth Madam kept urging: “Then it is settled — when the moment comes, you must not make any mistakes…”

Shiyiniang nodded repeatedly.

On the fifteenth day of the ninth month, Shiyiniang and the others dressed in their finest and received the incoming dowry.

All of it was fine black-lacquered furniture, the surfaces smooth and gleaming. The porcelain and pewter ware were all in matching sets; the bed-hangings and bedding included both time-honored traditional patterns and the latest fashions of recent days; and the storage trunks were so stuffed that one could not even slip a hand in. It was evident that the eldest young lady of the Fang family’s trousseau was not merely lavish, but practical through and through.

The ladies all exclaimed in admiring praise.

The Third Madam glowed, her face radiant, calling out greetings to guests in a loud, cheerful voice.

Shiyiniang observed that the two matrons who had come with the Fang family to escort the dowry were dressed simply yet festively, their manner warm yet composed, and she could not help giving a quiet nod of approval.

Someone came up to pay respects to Shiyiniang. “You must be the Fourth Aunt of the young master of the house? I am the eldest sister-in-law of your soon-to-be niece-in-law on her father’s side!”

Shiyiniang turned at the voice: a woman of middling height, in the full bloom of youth, was smiling brightly at her.

“So you are the auspicious married lady who will make Qin Ge’er’s bed.” Shiyiniang smiled in greeting. “This is our first meeting — I am afraid I may have seemed a stranger. Please forgive any lack of courtesy.”

To open by addressing her as the “Fourth Aunt of the young master of the house” — that eldest sister-in-law of the Fang family was sharp indeed, Shiyiniang thought to herself.

The eldest sister-in-law hurried to say: “You are an elder — it should be I who came to pay my respects to you. By saying that, you have made me the one who is lacking in courtesy.” She then turned her smile toward the Fifth Madam. “And this must be the Fifth Aunt?” She curtseyed to both of them. “Our eldest young lady will be counting on both of your Ladyships to guide her in the days ahead!”

She had made straight for Shiyiniang first, then for herself…

The Fifth Madam glanced at Shiyiniang and smiled: “You speak too generously. The Fang family is a distinguished household, with generations of scholarly tradition. It is not like our family — we came from rougher origins. If there is anything wanting in our reception, I hope the eldest sister-in-law will put in a kind word for us with the Fang family.”

“I dare not accept such praise from the Fifth Madam,” the eldest sister-in-law replied. “We younger generations are only trying not to disgrace the name our ancestors built for us…”

She did not contradict the Fifth Madam’s self-deprecating words.

The Fifth Madam glanced at Shiyiniang again.

She saw that Shiyiniang stood to one side, smiling, restraining herself from stepping in.

Over in the crowd someone was running a hand over the crimson satin quilt with its pattern of phoenixes facing the sun and remarked: “Twenty-four layers for cover, twenty-four for underneath — by my reckoning, even the grandchildren’s bedding has been prepared.”

The eldest sister-in-law laughed and replied: “In the great households of our Jiangnan region, this is how every family sends their daughters off. The old tradition of the ten-li wedding procession says it all — though a daughter marries into another’s household, her food, clothing, and livelihood for a lifetime come from her own family. And in times of need, she can even bring something out to help her husband’s kin. That is how a woman earns her footing in her husband’s home, how she holds her head high and conducts herself with dignity!”

Her words left the whole courtyard in momentary silence.

The Fifth Madam looked toward Shiyiniang again.

This time their gazes met squarely in the air, and each saw in the other’s eyes a flicker of startled surprise.

The eldest sister-in-law was already chuckling. “Which is why I have begun setting aside a dowry for my own daughter even now.”

Several of the ladies present laughed along with her.

The subdued atmosphere broke open once more into warm, lively chatter.

—