With the new couple returned from the bride’s family visit, the men on the groom’s side began taking down the ceremonial tents, dismantling the guest seating, and removing the outdoor kitchens. The stewards and servants in the outer courtyard were rushing about in circles, and the head matrons of the inner courtyard were no less occupied — sweeping the courtyards, returning borrowed furnishings, taking stock of all the items, tallying up the quantities of tea, refreshments, and wine and food consumed. Every single thing had to be reported back to Eleventh. Even so, Eleventh set all of it aside and first called for Hong Wen to ask about Jin Ge’er: “What has he been up to these past two days?”
Knowing her son as she did, Jin Ge’er would ask the maids and matrons when he was hungry, and ask them when he was cold. Her one worry was that he had gotten into mischief and everyone was covering it up for him.
Fortunately, Hong Wen had her own worries in the same direction. This time things had come to nothing, but who could say the next time would be equally lucky? The Marquis cherished Sixth Young Master as though he were made of gold — every New Year’s Eve he would give each of those serving Sixth Young Master fifty taels of silver, as much as an outer courtyard steward earned. It was on this account that Matron Gu had never wanted to leave her post, and even now that she had gone, she was still finding ways to get her younger sister placed in service with Sixth Young Master. If anything happened to Sixth Young Master on their watch, given that they were already earning fifty taels more than other maids and matrons… the thought of it made her blood run cold.
She had been circling near Eleventh for several days now, but unfortunately there had been no opening to get a word in.
Now that Eleventh had brought it up herself, how could she hesitate? She reported the whole incident to Eleventh without leaving anything out.
“…The two young masters were moving back and forth between the inner and outer courtyard, and there were places we couldn’t properly follow, so we entrusted Huang Xiaomao and Liu Erwu to keep an eye on them. Things were fine at first. On the day when the dowry procession arrived, Old Marquis Sun specifically had someone summon Sixth Young Master and Seventh Young Master to speak with him. Huang Xiaomao and Liu Erwu didn’t dare go inside, so they waited at the door. But they waited all the way until Fifth Master had seen Old Marquis Sun out of the house, and Sixth Young Master and Seventh Young Master still hadn’t come out. The two of them went into the flower hall to look, and found that every servant maid there was covering her mouth trying not to laugh, but none of them would say where the young masters had gone. The two of them had to beg and plead before one little maid quietly pointed toward the warm alcove, and added that these were Sixth Young Master’s orders — they were not to be told.
“The two of them hurried inside to look, but there was no one. That threw the whole room into a panic. Huang Xiaomao searched around the flower hall area while Liu Erwu came to the inner courtyard to report. By the time I found Sixth Young Master, he and Seventh Young Master were holding lit incense sticks and setting off firecrackers. Seeing that some of the young servants were behaving rudely toward Fifth Young Master, I went over and gave them a sharp scolding… the disciplining of servants is the province of the matrons; I am only one of the maids in Sixth Young Master’s quarters. I relied on Sixth Young Master’s reflected authority — I didn’t dare damage Sixth Young Master’s reputation. I only frightened those people off. And fearing that Sixth Young Master might rush off to find a steward on his own and end up with one who only knew how to flatter and curry favor with the masters — which would be like chasing out the wolf only to let in the tiger — I stayed with Sixth Young Master and accompanied him to Steward Bai’s office. Afterwards, Sixth Young Master went to find the Marquis. Only then did I have a free moment to send word to Huang Xiaomao and Liu Erwu that the young masters had been found. But I didn’t dare leave — I stayed with Sixth Young Master all along…”
Whatever else one might say, Xu Sijie was a master of the household too — and yet for the sake of currying favor with Jin Ge’er, those people had shown not even the slightest respect for Xu Sijie. One could see just how presumptuous they were becoming.
Eleventh despised above all else those who, for their own selfish gain, encouraged and enticed unsuspecting children to run wild and indulge their every impulse. In her previous life, she had seen countless such examples. Children who had been perfectly fine ended up becoming dangers to society.
Fury swept through her; her palm came down on the low platform table with a sharp crack. The teacups on the table rattled and clattered, startling Hong Wen so badly that her face went white and sweat broke out on her forehead.
“Which two matrons were on duty that day?” Eleventh called sharply for Zhuxiang. “Bring them to me at once!”
Eleventh had never shown her anger so openly before; even Zhuxiang’s face tensed with unease. She answered quietly, “Yes,” and shortly led in two women who appeared to be matrons.
“Which servants were the ones flattering and fawning over Sixth Young Master that day?” Eleventh said coldly, looking down at the matrons kneeling at her feet — and unlike her usual practice, she did not gently invite them to rise. “I kept you on duty here, and yet you stood by without a word of objection while those people came in. I don’t know when Marquis Yongping’s inner chambers became a thoroughfare for anyone to come and go at will. You have one quarter of an hour to summon every last one of those servants to the gate of the inner courtyard — not one is to be missing. I want to see for myself exactly whose subordinates they are, who taught them to be so brazen they’ve lost all sense of where they stand.”
Marquis Yongping’s household had stood for over a century, and the web of relationships among its people was tangled and complex. Some of those servants had parents who were close acquaintances of these matrons. They had only wanted to give them a chance to show their faces before Sixth Young Master, to be set on more secure footing. The two of them had turned a blind eye. When Hong Wen told them to go and have a steward bind the offenders, they panicked inwardly and dragged their feet, watching to see how things would unfold. When they saw Hong Wen accompany Jin Ge’er to Steward Bai’s office and the whole affair was dropped without further consequence, they had only just breathed a sigh of relief — and now Eleventh had summoned them in for a dressing-down.
They were old hands in this household; they had seen enough of the world. This matter could be framed as a small thing — merely some young servants being immature and overeager, acting undignified in the company of their masters. Or it could be framed as a grave thing — knowing full well they were endangering their masters, yet going along with it and even stirring up trouble and tempting their masters into frivolous pursuits, in which case a flogging that left them raw and bleeding wouldn’t warrant a word of sympathy from anyone. And from the look of things, Eleventh was clearly inclined to frame it as a grave thing, to make a harsh example of those servants.
The two exchanged a glance.
Madam had only asked them to fetch the people — she hadn’t held them to account for themselves yet. Surely all this anger would be directed at the servants.
Their hearts grasped at this hope. They could only pray that after Eleventh’s temper had run its course, they would be dealt with leniently.
But if the errand was handled poorly, there was no telling where this fire might spread.
The two of them answered hurriedly and scurried out in a fluster.
Eleventh instructed Zhuxiang: “Go with Hong Wen to the inner gate. Once you see that everyone has arrived, come and tell me.”
Zhuxiang and Hong Wen answered carefully and went to the inner gate.
Eleventh paced twice around the room as her anger burned, then at last forced herself to be still. Having thought it through, she went to Jin Ge’er’s room.
Autumn sunlight streamed in, golden and warm, filling the room with brightness.
Dressed in a deep red damask jacket embroidered with lotus flowers and leaping carp, Jin Ge’er was bent over the low platform table with a brush in hand, his expression earnest and focused, writing something on a sheet of snowy-white Chengxin paper weighted down by a carved white jade recumbent-deer paperweight. The maid A’Jin stood smiling at the edge of the platform bed, grinding ink for Jin Ge’er.
At the sound of movement, both looked over.
A’Jin quickly curtseyed. Jin Ge’er’s face broke into a brilliant smile.
“Mama, Mama!” He set his brush in the sweet white porcelain brush rest, arms outstretched, bouncing on the platform bed.
Eleventh smiled and stepped forward to hold her son. “What are you up to?” Her voice was gentle as a March breeze.
Jin Ge’er snuggled into his mother’s arms, his smile growing even more brilliant.
“I’m making a painting!” he said, picking up the Chengxin paper from the platform table. “Look.”
The paper was covered with sweeping, varying brushstrokes of ink, and it was impossible to tell what had been depicted.
Without waiting for Eleventh to ask, Jin Ge’er announced, “This is my bamboo painting.”
“But which part is the bamboo stalk? Which part is the bamboo leaves?” Eleventh sat down at the edge of the platform bed and asked her son.
Jin Ge’er pointed to a few thicker vertical ink marks: “These are the stalks.” Then he pointed to several shorter, more randomly arranged marks: “These are the leaves!”
Eleventh looked carefully and said, “No wonder I couldn’t tell which was which. Jin Ge’er’s bamboo stalks have no joints.” She took up the brush and drew a few strokes on another sheet of Chengxin paper, sketching the form of bamboo immediately.
Jin Ge’er tilted his head and studied it for a long moment. “Mama’s drawing isn’t right. I went to look at Second Aunt’s courtyard, and Second Aunt’s bamboo all grows in big clusters together.”
That is realism; this is impressionism.
But to a five-year-old child, explaining that would be entirely useless.
Eleventh smiled helplessly and patted Jin Ge’er’s head: “But Jin Ge’er’s drawing isn’t right either. Why don’t you go and ask the teacher of Fourth Brother and Fifth Brother how bamboo should be painted?”
Jin Ge’er nodded and immediately wanted to put his shoes on and go.
A’Jin quickly stopped him: “Sixth Young Master, at this hour Teacher Zhao is probably still in the middle of his lesson. We can go in the afternoon — it’s not too late.”
“So Teacher Zhao won’t be teaching in the afternoon?” The question left A’Jin momentarily stumped.
Eleventh actually encouraged the child’s get-up-and-go, and smiled, gesturing to A’Jin to help Jin Ge’er put his shoes on.
Zhuxiang came in: “Madam, those servants have all been gathered at the inner gate.”
“Have them wait there,” Eleventh said. “Go and call Steward Bai in.”
Zhuxiang went to do so.
Jin Ge’er looked at his mother with curious eyes.
Eleventh, her expression unchanged, said mildly: “Mama is going to give those servants who picked up firecrackers for you a proper punishment.”
“But,” Jin Ge’er said, puzzled, “it was me who told them to pick up the firecrackers. Aren’t they supposed to do what I say?”
“Mama once taught you that there are three ways to be unfilial. Do you still remember what they are?” Eleventh asked her son gently.
Jin Ge’er thought hard, then tilted his head back, pursed his lips, and looked up at his mother with a smile: “The greatest is having no sons to carry on the family name!”
Eleventh couldn’t help laughing.
For a child his age, committing all three to memory was genuinely difficult.
“The first is to comply with one’s parents’ every whim even in wrong, to be so agreeable that one leads one’s parents into unrighteous conduct — that is the first way to be unfilial. The second is to fail, in the face of a poor family and aged parents, to serve as an official and earn a stipend — that is the second way to be unfilial. The third is to refuse to marry and have no sons to continue the ancestral rites — that is the third way to be unfilial.” Eleventh explained carefully. “…You see, even when a father or mother is wrong, pointing it out is considered part of filial duty. How much more so for servants like these? Knowing full well you were in the wrong, and yet picking up firecrackers for you just to make you happy — and what’s more, when Fifth Brother tried to stop you, those servants showed no regard for seniority and actually talked back to him. A person’s true character,” Eleventh said, “can be told from a single moment like this.”
Jin Ge’er nodded with an air of enlightenment.
Only then did Eleventh feel her heart ease a little, and she smiled: “Come, let’s go to the main hall and wait for Steward Bai.”
Jin Ge’er bounced and hopped as he followed his mother to the main hall.
Shortly, Steward Bai arrived.
“Go and find out who is responsible for managing these servants. They had the audacity to talk back to Fifth Young Master and stir Sixth Young Master into mischief.” Eleventh said sternly. “Have them bound along with those servants. The responsible stewards are to receive ten strokes of the board each and have one month’s wages docked. The servants are to receive thirty strokes each, then be collected by their parents and taken home.” She added, “Give it to them slowly — and make sure everyone in the household from top to bottom knows exactly why they are receiving this beating.”
In this way, those servants would have to think twice before doing anything like this again.
Steward Bai, being who he was, had already found out before seeing Eleventh the reason for her summons. But hearing that Eleventh intended to include the stewards responsible for those servants in the binding and beating, he was genuinely startled. “Bind the stewards as well… this, this… is that not a bit too…”
Not going through the Marquis, and directly disciplining the stewards of the outer courtyard — this was something that had simply never happened in the Xu household before.
—