Xu Lingyi thought of Eleventh’s exhaustion a moment ago and held her close with tender care, kissing the top of her head. In a low voice he said, “Go to sleep.”
Eleventh had too much on her mind to sleep after being woken. She tucked her face into Xu Lingyi’s chest, hesitating over whether to tell him about Xu Sijie.
Seeing that sleep had left her, Xu Lingyi assumed it was because she was too worn out. Just as he had in those years when her health was poor, he stroked her back gently to coax her to sleep. “It’ll be better once these two days are over. Bear with it a little longer. After that, we’ll take Jin Ge’er to the Western Hills villa and stay a few days. You can get some proper rest.”
And who would manage the household while they were gone? Who would attend on the Grand Madam? Could she really leave that to the newly arrived daughter-in-law? As a concubine-born eldest son’s wife, Xu Siyu’s wife’s position would already invite all manner of speculation. Eleventh had never longed so keenly as she did in this moment for the ninth miss of the Jiang family to enter the household soon, so she could hand all of these matters over to Xu Sizhun’s wife.
She let out a soft laugh. “Your wife has done nothing more than sit in the flower hall and move her lips. It’s nowhere near as tiring as the Marquis makes it sound.” Then she hesitated. “My lord, something happened today…”
The words had barely left Xu Lingyi’s mouth when he paused himself.
How had he just said something like that?
He had put his mother completely out of his mind…
He felt a flush of embarrassment.
Then he thought about it carefully.
Whatever silver Eleventh needed, whatever rare things she wanted — none of that was difficult for him to manage; he could arrange for things to be quietly sent in. But simply taking her and Jin Ge’er out to enjoy themselves like this — that was harder than climbing to heaven.
Was it precisely because of this that the words had slipped out whenever he saw she was unwell?
His thoughts were in a muddle, and Eleventh, hesitating and halting, told him that something had happened with Xu Sijie.
Xu Lingyi felt his chest tighten.
This was the first time Eleventh had presided over an event of this scale…
His hand passed through her dark hair and gently cradled her head. “What happened?” The smile left his face; his expression, neither angry nor severe, held a quiet gravity.
Eleventh hesitated all the more.
Xu Lingyi was a strict father. If he learned of this, would he reprimand Xu Sijie harshly? Xu Sijie’s circumstances were already difficult enough — if he were to lose Xu Lingyi’s protection on top of that…
Eleventh was usually candid and direct; it was rare for her to be this uncertain.
Xu Lingyi watched her anxiously but dared not let a trace of it show. Instead he laughed lightly: “Whatever it is, there are still two hours until daylight. In two hours, even if you had smashed the bronze ceremonial vessel on display in our main hall, Steward Bai could find a way to make do with a similar one in the meantime.”
He thinks I made a mistake.
Eleventh’s heart softened, and she felt a sudden calm settle over her — as though her previous worries had been entirely unnecessary.
“It’s Jie Ge’er.” She said gently, and told him the whole story from beginning to end.
Xu Lingyi listened, and was silent in thought for a moment.
That Eleventh had shown no signs in all the years since joining the household — he had long suspected the First Madam had done something to interfere… even now, he still harbored some doubts. Otherwise, with all the effort he had put into Eleventh over these past years, why had she only had Jin Ge’er?
So when he saw Eleventh treating Xu Sijie as if he were her own child, he had his reservations — it was not ideal for a concubine-born son raised under Tong Shi’s name. But knowing that Eleventh’s side of the bed was empty, and thinking that if the worst came to pass, the child you raise is the one who stays close to you, and at least Eleventh would have someone to rely on in her old age… he had let it go. After Jin Ge’er came along, and he saw that Eleventh’s manner toward Xu Sijie remained unchanged, it was clear she had come to genuinely care for the boy. He had thought that if the child overstepped his place, once he turned ten and moved to the outer courtyard, they could find a stricter teacher and take his education in hand — there was still time. But now it seemed the problem was not with the child’s upbringing at all. The child had been raised quite well. The problem lay with Eleventh herself.
She had never treated this child as a concubine-born son!
And yet the world judges men by their birth, holding concubine-born sons to a stricter standard than legitimate sons — all the more so with someone of Xu Sijie’s uncertain origins. If he were to gain a reputation for being presumptuous, it would be very hard for him to hold his head up in the world again.
Then again, women are always like this. Even cats and dogs, kept long enough, become dear to you — let alone a child.
He let out a quiet sigh and pulled Eleventh close.
“It’s nothing, nothing — this is easy to manage.” Xu Lingyi rested his chin against her head. “The new year is almost here, isn’t it? I’ll have Jie Ge’er kneel and offer incense to Tong Shi. Once that’s done, some things will be understood without needing to be said.”
Eleventh was a little surprised.
Things had never been done that way before.
Seeing that she had not responded, Xu Lingyi assumed she was troubled. He said softly, “In the past, it was because you were alone and he was too young to understand. Now that something like this has come up, you can’t go on shielding him the way you have. It’s better that he know sooner.”
Eleventh thought of that time when Xu Sizhun had hosted guests.
All those children came from prominent families and had long since learned from their fathers and elder brothers how to be polite and make small talk — and still, when Xu Sijie had occasionally been less than tactful, they had not spared their contempt and snubbing. That was among the privileged elite. With ordinary people, it would be worse.
She felt a twinge of regret. She should have told him sooner about the world’s coldness.
Children grow up, after all — they go to distant places you can never follow. If, while he was still small and still under her protection, she had given him as much warmth as she could — would that warmth, when he faced the frosts and storms ahead, make him a little stronger?
Then again, she felt she had not done wrong.
Her thoughts tangled hopelessly, and into Eleventh’s ear came Xu Lingyi’s mellow voice: “What’s done is done — worrying about it now won’t change anything. The important thing is that everyone knows he is my son. Even in the case of the Fifth, he is Jie Ge’er’s uncle. That’s not so terrible. You women always like to overthink things and worry needlessly.”
To be brought home and raised by his father — that was to be accepted by the family. With that, even a child born outside of wedlock was considered fortunate in the eyes of the world.
Eleventh laughed softly.
Perhaps she really had been overthinking it.
Opera was not a daily occurrence in the household, and Xu Sijie would not be bored and at loose ends every day like today…
She let out a long breath, and the tension eased somewhat from her face.
Xu Lingyi smiled lightly. “Sleep now. Tomorrow you have to receive your daughter-in-law’s tea. At other families’ weddings you always outshine their real brides — you surely can’t look haggard at your own son’s wedding.”
Perhaps it was because Xu Lingyi had helped her through a great difficulty and her heart felt lighter — she found herself no longer sleepy. Eleventh said with a charming pout, “When have I ever competed with someone’s bride?” Then she pressed him: “My lord, who has been filling your ears with such nonsense?”
“Shizhen told me,” Xu Lingyi replied, seeing the lively brightness come back to her eyes, and was glad of it. Teasing her, he continued, “He said Madam Zhou told him when she got home. Said that at someone’s wedding, the bride wore red and you also wore red, only you had woven deep ink-green threads through yours, and the guests couldn’t take their eyes off you instead of the bride. Then at the new year, Tang Fourth Madam had a dress made in exactly the same style.”
“What! ” Eleventh exclaimed softly. “I wore that because I was too thin to carry solid crimson, so I came up with the idea of embroidering a few horizontal rows of green watergrass pattern…”
“And what are you planning to wear tomorrow?” Xu Lingyi asked with a smile, then gently rubbed her earlobe between his fingers. “Wear that pair of pure gold ear studs I gave you.”
Eleventh’s earlobes were round and full, and small pure gold ear studs only made them look fairer and more charming. Elders said this was the mark of a blessed life, and at the Mid-Autumn Festival he had made a point of having a pair crafted — tiny double-blessings-with-peach designs in pure gold.
The ear studs were no bigger than a grain of rice, yet they were carved with a pair of luck characters and five tiny peaches — one could only imagine the exquisite workmanship involved. Eleventh had adored them from the moment she saw them, and knowing she would need to wear the auspicious red ceremonial robe for the tea-receiving ceremony, she had saved them, intending to wear them for the welcoming of the new daughter-in-law. Xu Lingyi’s suggestion aligned perfectly with her own thinking, and she smiled and agreed — but her body gave a slight tremble at his caressing touch.
She quickly turned her face away, pulling back from his hand.
Xu Lingyi was taken aback.
But he understood quickly enough.
He chuckled softly in her ear and pressed his lips to her neck, then thinking of her tea ceremony in the morning, trailed further down to the delicate hollow of her collarbone.
“My lord!” Eleventh was both flustered and indignant. She reminded him, “It’s nearly daylight—” Feeling that lacked force, she added, “My time of the month has come!”
“I know.” Xu Lingyi’s warm hand lingered unhurriedly, and he murmured, “You sleep. I just want to hold you.”
How was she supposed to sleep like this?
Eleventh felt her body begin to tremble softly.
She sat up in exasperation: “I’m going to sleep on the platform bed!” With that, she threw back the blanket and moved to get down.
Xu Lingyi pulled her back from behind. “We’ll sleep on the platform bed together!”
What difference would that make!
Eleventh’s resistance crumbled.
Xu Lingyi seized the moment and tucked her back under the blankets.
They settled back down to sleep. But this time he did not tease her again. He only asked softly, “Are you feeling better now?” then rested his hand over her wide-open eyes with a quiet laugh. “Go to sleep quickly, or your daughter-in-law will be laughing at you tomorrow.”
Was he trying to exhaust her into sleep?
Eleventh held the large hand covering her eyes, and after a long, quiet moment, let out a gentle hum. She closed her eyes, and sure enough, drifted off quite quickly.
The next morning, Eleventh leaned close to the dressing table mirror for a careful look — her face bore not the slightest trace.
She let out a sigh and let Zhuxiang help her dress.
Jin Ge’er and Shen Ge’er came tumbling in.
“Mama, Mama, look!” He held out several small silver ingots in the shape of yuanbao, perhaps four or five fen in weight. “I served tea to Second Sister-in-Law, and Second Sister-in-Law gave them to me!”
She had come back late the night before, and Jin Ge’er had gone to sleep without seeing her.
Shen Ge’er also produced his silver ingots like precious treasures: “Fourth Auntie, Fourth Auntie, look — these are mine!”
Eleventh kissed Jin Ge’er and patted Shen Ge’er’s head. “My goodness, you’re both rich now!”
Jin Ge’er beamed with delight. Shen Ge’er, however, pouted: “Fourth Auntie, why did you kiss Sixth Brother but not me?” He looked quite aggrieved.
Eleventh was startled, then burst out laughing.
“That was Fourth Auntie’s fault!” She kissed Shen Ge’er loudly on both cheeks, just as she had done for Jin Ge’er. “I forgot to kiss our Shen Ge’er!”
Shen Ge’er grinned from ear to ear and announced to Jin Ge’er with great satisfaction: “Fourth Auntie kissed me too!”
Anyone who woke up to this on a morning would have their spirits lifted.
The whole room broke into laughter.
Eleventh took Jin Ge’er’s right hand and Shen Ge’er’s left, and walked with a smile to the small hall.
It was still a little early. Maids and matrons were arranging the tea sets and setting out flowers and plants in orderly fashion; two figures who looked like stewards accompanied Steward Bai in making his inspection. When Eleventh entered, the maids and matrons all curtseyed, Steward Bai stepped forward to bow, and the two stewards immediately lowered their heads and withdrew to outside the small hall.
“You’ve worked hard these past two days,” Eleventh said pleasantly to Steward Bai.
“It is my duty,” Steward Bai replied with a smile, then bowed to Jin Ge’er and Shen Ge’er and said warmly, “Sixth Young Master and Seventh Young Master — up so early!”
Jin Ge’er said dutifully, leaning close to Eleventh: “Mama said that Second Sister-in-Law is serving tea to the elders today, so we should get up early.”
Shen Ge’er added, “Sixth Brother said if we come early, we’ll get more red packets!”
Steward Bai paused, then laughed: “Sixth Young Master makes a sound point.”
Eleventh said nothing; a faint restraint came into her smile.
The older Jin Ge’er grew, the more crooked his reasoning became. And yet everyone thought it was just childish prattle, either finding it amusing and laughing it off, or indulging him without a second thought. What they didn’t realize was that every kind of character trait takes root from small things. With so many people in the household all spoiling him from top to bottom, she could hardly go to each one individually and explain her views — she could shout herself hoarse and they might still think she was making a mountain out of a molehill.
It was better for her to keep Jin Ge’er close by her side. That way, whenever she noticed something was off or a wrong idea was forming, she could correct it in time. Little by little, at least he wouldn’t go too far astray.
Lost in thought, she glanced over to see her son give Shen Ge’er a pointed look.
Shen Ge’er immediately clapped a hand over his own mouth, then couldn’t help announcing loudly to Steward Bai: “We’re not here for the silver — we’re here to pay our respects to our aunties and uncles!”
There was rather a flavour of protesting too much about that.
Steward Bai struggled to contain himself but still let out a laugh — then saw that Eleventh’s expression held only the faintest of smiles, and quickly schooled his own face. He said, “Seventh Young Master is absolutely right,” then straightened, and asked respectfully: “Madam, are there any adjustments you’d like to the room’s arrangement? I can have the stewards see to it.”
Arranging a wedding hall properly was a matter of considerable convention; even Steward Bai could not claim to know all the rules, let alone Eleventh. Such things were handled by the ancestral hall stewards who were versed in ritual propriety.
Eleventh could see he was changing the subject, and was glad of it. She looked the small hall over and exchanged some pleasantries with Steward Bai. Then Nanny Song came to report: “Fifth Madam is escorting three young mistresses from the Nanjing branch this way.”
Eleventh went out to welcome them, had barely exchanged a few words, when Third Madam arrived with her son and daughter-in-law.
Everyone exchanged greetings, and they all went into the small hall amid laughter and conversation.
Madam Huang, Fifth Miss, Seventh Miss, and others arrived one after another.
Some greeted Eleventh, some exchanged pleasantries with old acquaintances, some played with the children.
The small hall was lively with cheerful voices.
The Xu brothers accompanied Zhou Shizhen, the heir of Marquis Yongchang Huang Ziqi, Luo Zhenheng, Yu Yiqing, Zhu Anping, Shao Zhongran, and others in, whereupon the ladies took the children and withdrew to the west side. The ritual master of ceremonies came to invite everyone to be seated by order of seniority and rank, and Xu Siyu brought his bride in to offer tea and kowtow to the assembled company.
The full-blessings matron Huang Third Young Mistress led the new couple before Xu Lingyi and his wife.
When the couple had bowed to heaven and earth, the bride had worn the red head-covering veil; when she entered the bridal chamber, it was not proper for Eleventh, as mother-in-law, to be present at the unveiling. Now, at last, Eleventh was able to look at Xiang Shi carefully.
She had grown into a proper young woman — tall and willowy, dressed in a great red Zhusi silk robe embroidered with a hundred birds facing the phoenix, slender yet full of graceful curves. Her round, fair face had at its corners and brow edges a shyness she couldn’t quite hide.
Eleventh smiled, accepted her cup of tea, and gave a pure gold head ornament worth ninety-nine taels as a meeting gift, followed by a red packet containing a bank note for nine hundred and ninety-nine taels of silver.
Xiang Shi’s face went red as she kowtowed.
Madam Zhou beside her let out a sudden laugh she quickly covered with her hand.
Everyone’s eyes turned to her.
She hurried to explain: “Nothing, nothing. I was just thinking — here is the Fourth Madam welcoming her daughter-in-law already, and I still have no idea where my daughter-in-law might be!”
She might have said nothing — but having said this, everyone couldn’t help looking Eleventh over carefully.
Perhaps because she was receiving a daughter-in-law today, her dress was different from her usual regal elegance with its distinctive personal touches — she wore a great red damask brocade robe embroidered with double-happiness motifs, her hair coiled in a neat bun, adorned with pure gold ornaments, looking entirely proper and decorous. Yet her eyes were brilliant and vivid, like the finishing stroke on a painted dragon, making her whole person luminous with a touch of crystalline, ethereal beauty. She appeared two or three years younger than Xiang Shi, who stood before her with a look of respectful composure. Smiles involuntarily stirred in the onlookers.
But this was hardly the occasion for anyone to tease this particular pair of mother and daughter-in-law, so though they tried to hold their smiles in check, a certain strangeness crept into their expressions.
Eleventh found it quietly puzzling and could not think what had come over everyone.
Xiang Shi, for her part, was quietly going over every move she had made from the moment she crossed the threshold, searching for where she might have given offense.
Both were absorbed in their own thoughts, yet the required proprieties were observed to the last detail without omission.
After Huang Third Young Mistress had led the new couple through a round of greetings with the male guests on the east side, they came over to the west.
At a wedding, the bride’s brothers-in-law and the groom’s maternal cousins held the places of honor. The order of greeting also began with the groom’s sisters and the wives of his maternal cousins.
As the Eldest Young Mistress Luo and Fourth Young Mistress Luo were both absent from Yanjing, the new couple first kowtowed to Third Young Mistress Luo. And since the female member of the Xu family of this generation was the Empress — not an ordinary sister-in-law — the imperial gifts had been sent in advance. The new couple kowtowed three times facing east, and Eleventh presented them with a pair of jade ruyi scepters bestowed by the Empress.
The room grew lively.
Madam Hong gripped Third Madam’s hand and said she wanted to see what Third Madam had brought; Third Madam nudged Madam Hong back and said distant guests went first. Madam Hong took Xiang Shi’s hand and teased her: “Take a good look — that one, the one who won’t give an inch, is your Third Aunt by marriage.” Then she produced a pair of twisted pure gold bracelets and a pure gold hair ornament set with tourmaline as meeting gifts, and laughed at Third Madam: “Now we’re all looking to you!”
As a more distant relation, the gifts were rather lavish. Even Eleventh, who had guessed that Fifth Madam intended to put Third Madam on the spot, was a little surprised, to say nothing of the newly arrived Xiang Shi — and even more so Third Madam, whose smile stiffened slightly.
Xiang Shi stole a glance at Eleventh’s expression, and seeing Eleventh sitting there composed and smiling, she stepped forward and accepted the meeting gift, handing it to the maid beside her, then stepped forward to kowtow to Madam Hong.
Fang Shi, standing to one side, quietly sighed inside.
She had told her husband early on to gently let his mother know. Although Xu Siyu was a concubine-born son, he was the eldest — and it was Xu Lingyi’s first time welcoming a daughter-in-law. Given Xu Lingyi’s gracious, magnanimous nature, there would be many who had received his kindness in the past and would take this occasion to repay it. The occasion might not be as grand as the wedding later hosted for Xu Sizhun as heir, but it would not be modest either. She had asked her mother-in-law to prepare more meeting gifts, lest the other sisters-in-law make it a game and leave her underprepared, inviting ridicule.
But from the look of things, her mother-in-law had not paid it the slightest attention.
She quietly beckoned to Jin Shi and whispered her concern, then had Jin Shi quietly remove the pair of South Sea pearl flower hairpins from her own head: “Just slip these to Mother-in-Law quietly. It’ll do for now.”
Jin Shi looked at those South Sea pearls — every one the size of a fingernail, luminous and iridescent — and felt a pang on Fang Shi’s behalf: “Sister-in-Law, how much did these cost? What if we each cover half?”
“No need.” Fang Shi’s mother-in-law clashed with her constantly; the most she hoped for was that Jin Shi would stay out of it. She laughed it off: “Next time something like this comes up, I’ll take yours instead.”
Jin Shi laughed.
She couldn’t help thinking that if there truly was a next time, she definitely couldn’t let Fang Shi fill the gap for their mother-in-law again. But her own jewelry had all been specially made by her mother who feared she was coming into the marriage with too little dowry and didn’t want her to be looked down upon. Giving it away like this — how could she bear to part with it?
Thinking this, she felt a flicker of resentment toward her mother-in-law.
Always so stingy and small-minded, and in the end wasn’t it always the daughters-in-law who had to patch things over? And then her mother-in-law never bothered to compensate them. When you thought about it, what was the difference between that and using the daughters-in-law’s own dowries?
When she saw that her mother-in-law really did use Fang Shi’s pearl hairpins to make do, her heart grew even more disgruntled.
When she went back to her family for the new year visit, she couldn’t help complaining to her mother.
Jin Tai-tai was herself the daughter of a military household — she had grown up in the garrison fort as a child, and from a young age had ridden horses and shot arrows alongside her brothers, developing a temper more like a man’s. Later, her husband managed affairs at the marketplace, and she dealt constantly with all manner of common women, which had made her ways even more forthright. When she heard what her daughter had to say, her brows shot straight up. “You keep your own things safe. If your sister-in-law wants to be the virtuous one, let her. If your mother-in-law dares set her sights on your things, don’t confront her directly — go straight to the Grand Madam and report it. Don’t forget, it was the Grand Madam who arranged your marriage.”
Jin Shi was a little hesitant. “Sister-in-Law has always treated me well. Just a few days ago, when Mother-in-Law asked why I still showed no signs, Sister-in-Law even spoke up for me. If I turn around and do this, it’s so ungrateful…”
Jin Tai-tai was struck by a old grievance at these words. “Why haven’t you conceived yet? Does your husband treat you well?”
“Very well!” Jin Shi blushed. “Mother-in-Law wanted to send a maid from her side to my husband’s room, and my husband refused. Mother-in-Law even slapped him a few times for it.” Her expression was pained as she said this.
Jin Tai-tai, on hearing this, was furious for entirely different reasons. “What kind of mother-in-law is this, poking her nose into what goes on in her daughter-in-law’s chamber?” She grumbled, then gathered her wits and cupped her younger daughter’s face in her hands. “You’re the clever one — you know to make common cause with your sister-in-law. I can see that. Here’s what you do: from now on, whenever something comes up, you follow your sister-in-law’s lead. As for the hairpins, you pay your sister-in-law back in silver.” Then she asked carefully about what the hairpins had looked like.
Jin Shi, emboldened by her mother’s support and not suspecting anything, described the pins with some exaggeration, telling her mother how fine their quality was. She spent the rest of the day at home enjoying herself, then returned happily to the Sangjing Hutong house, weighed out some silver, and went to Fang Shi’s room to settle the matter — though no more need be said of that.
Jin Tai-tai saw her daughter off, then changed her clothes and went to all the major silver shops in Yanjing to leave word, asking the proprietors to make an identical pair of hairpins. But it was the new year season, not the time of year for new pearls to come to market, and Jin Tai-tai had further exaggerated the quality of the hairpins in her telling, so for the moment there were none to be found. Inquiries had to be made, and Jin Tai-tai gave an embellished account of Third Madam — how she had done this, how she had done that. By the time spring came, the wives of various officials in Yanjing had heard the story. The tale of how Third Madam had schemed to short-change her daughter-in-law’s dowry began to spread. By the time Third Madam heard it from her own sister-in-law’s lips, she was grinding her teeth in rage, convinced Fang Shi had played the saint that day with the hairpins purely to set her up — and she filed the grudge away against Fang Shi, developing a preemptive irritation toward her from then on. And yet Fang Shi’s conduct was always proper and correct; no matter how Third Madam provoked her, she never made a single error. This only made Third Madam more convinced that Fang Shi was a Buddha-faced snake, and within a few days the vexation sent her to bed with an illness.
But all that came later.
The new couple performed the temple-worship ceremony the very next morning, ate the ceremonial grain meal sent by Xiang Yijia, and then went to the Xiang family home.
Only then did Eleventh have the leisure to sit down and sort through the affairs of these recent days.
—