When Jin Ge’er returned to his room, Shiyi Niang saw that he was drenched in sweat and quickly wiped him down, helped him change his clothes, and asked with a smile: “Is the master good?”
“Good!” Jin Ge’er declared loudly, his eyes bright with admiration. “He can shoot an arrow through the hole of a copper coin and have it stick in a great tree. And he can smash three bricks stacked on top of one another with a single palm strike. He is very impressive!”
Admiration is the finest teacher of all.
Shiyi Niang smiled and kissed her son’s cheek: “Do you feel any discomfort anywhere?”
Jin Ge’er shook his head and said cheerfully: “I held the horse stance for three incense sticks’ time. Seventh Brother only held it for two.” He looked very proud of himself — but said nothing about how long Chang’an and Huang Xiaomao and Liu Erwu had held theirs.
Shiyi Niang could not help but laugh.
Thinking back, when she had arrived, the boys had all been resting. That meant Jin Ge’er’s three incense sticks had likely been accumulated across three separate rounds.
It seemed Master Pang’s approach was a gradual and measured one.
Shiyi Niang’s first impression of Master Pang was very favorable.
She praised her son at just the right moment: “Jin Ge’er, you are truly something!” Then said softly: “Shen Ge is younger than you — naturally he cannot hold it as long.” All the while leading him to the large kang by the window in the western side room and sitting him down, peeling an orange for him to eat.
Jin Ge’er’s mood dipped slightly at those words, but seeing his mother smiling as she fed him orange segments, he brightened again: “Mother, the master said we should each make ourselves a small bow and arrow, and later he will teach us archery as well. We are also to have short training garments made, so it is easier to practice punches and hold stances. He has also had plum blossom posts set up in the courtyard — not just one, two of them!” He gestured animatedly. “Taller than me. Side by side. He says when our horse stances are solid, we will be able to walk across the plum blossom posts…”
In the middle of all this, Xu Lingyi came home.
“Back so early?” Shiyi Niang said with some surprise.
Jin Ge’er had already slipped off the kang and launched himself into Xu Lingyi’s arms: “Father, Father, I held the horse stance today — three incense sticks’ time! The master said I held it better than Seventh Brother!”
Today was Jin Ge’er’s first day at the training hall, and though Xu Lingyi said nothing, he had been thinking about it all day. Seeing Jin Ge’er so full of high spirits, a glimmer of pride came into his eyes.
“Very good, very good!” Xu Lingyi set Jin Ge’er on the kang. “Keep training hard under Master Pang, and when you can walk the plum blossom posts…” He considered for a moment. “Father will give you a sword as your reward!”
“That will not do!” Shiyi Niang took the tea cup offered by a little handmaid and set it down before Xu Lingyi, and said firmly: “Of all the things you could give, you choose a sword!”
“Yes! Yes!” Jin Ge’er was thrilled, completely ignoring his mother’s objection, his eyes curving into crescents as he smiled like a little fox. “I want the sword with the eight-treasure glazed sword tassel that hangs in Father’s study!”
Xu Lingyi was caught off guard, and then burst out laughing.
“You said it yourself!” His eyes shone as he looked at his son and said magnanimously: “As long as you can stand on the plum blossom posts, I will give you that sword.”
Jin Ge’er sensed instinctively that something was not quite right: “I — I…” He glanced at his mother, whose brow was furrowed, then at his father, who was laughing with great relish. He hesitated for a long moment, then a look of firm resolve came over him: “Mother said no swords. I — I don’t want the sword anymore!”
Husband and wife were both taken aback, and Xu Lingyi said: “Why have you changed your mind? Then what do you want?”
“Father clearly has that look of waiting to laugh at me!” Jin Ge’er muttered. “I’m not falling for it.” He tilted his head to think and said: “I — I want a bow and arrow. A beautiful bow and arrow.”
Xu Lingyi laughed heartily, and turning to Shiyi Niang said: “Our son is remarkable — he has learned to read people’s expressions.” Then he asked his son with genuine curiosity: “Why did you want Father’s sword in the first place?”
“Because it looks beautiful!” Jin Ge’er answered without a second thought. “The scabbard is gold-inlaid with jade, and it has three rubies set in it, even bigger than the ones on Mother’s hairpin!”
Xu Lingyi’s smile gradually faded. He straightened up and called for a handmaid to bring the sword in.
Shiyi Niang watched Xu Lingyi’s face shift from laughter to a calm and naturally commanding gravity, and a faint smile touched her lips.
The handmaid returned with the sword.
Xu Lingyi held it out to Jin Ge’er: “Draw it!”
Jin Ge’er took it with some puzzlement, steadied the scabbard, and pulled the blade out with all his might.
The blade was bright and gleaming.
Xu Lingyi pointed to the kang table: “Try it!”
But this was his mother’s table.
Jin Ge’er could not help glancing at Shiyi Niang.
Shiyi Niang sat to the side with an expression that held a hint of encouragement.
Jin Ge’er hesitated no longer. Gripping the hilt with both hands, he brought the sword down hard on the kang table.
The black lacquer kang table was not even scratched.
He stared at his father in astonishment.
Xu Lingyi rubbed his son’s head: “Beautiful, magnificent things are not always good things.”
Jin Ge’er seemed to ponder that deeply.
Xu Lingyi turned to smile at Shiyi Niang — a smile full of contentment.
Watching a child grow like this, day by day, gave one a sense of fulfillment that nothing else could match.
Shiyi Niang’s smile grew warmer still, and she gently drew her son into her arms.
Jin Ge’er gave Xu Lingyi a somewhat abashed grin.
“All right then!” Xu Lingyi had a handmaid return the sword to the study, then with an air of magnanimity, smiled and said to Jin Ge’er: “So it is settled — once you can walk the plum blossom posts, Father will give you a bow and arrow as your reward.”
“Just you wait, Father — I will be walking those posts before you know it,” Jin Ge’er declared, puffing out his little chest.
Both Xu Lingyi and Shiyi Niang laughed.
Then Jin Ge’er launched into tales of Master Pang — how formidable he was, how he had taught them the horse stance — and even climbed down from the kang to demonstrate for Xu Lingyi, dragging both Shiyi Niang and Xu Lingyi along to try it with him. Shiyi Niang humored her son and attempted the stance, with predictably awkward results, sending Xu Lingyi into peals of laughter. Shiyi Niang then pulled Xu Lingyi in to join them. Jin Ge’er cheered that “Father’s horse stance is better looking than Master Pang’s.” Xu Lingyi frowned and said “do not talk about what looks good, talk about what is useful” — and before he had finished the sentence, he too broke into laughter. The room rang with laughter and cheer, even livelier than during the New Year. This mood carried all the way through the evening meal, after which Xu Sizhun and Xu Sijie came to pay their respects to Shiyi Niang and Xu Lingyi.
Not knowing what had happened, the two were rather at a loss to see Xu Lingyi unable to conceal the happiness on his face.
Jin Ge’er then gave them a vivid and animated account of everything that had happened.
Xu Sizhun and Xu Sijie were both quite surprised. After following Xu Lingyi and Shiyi Niang to pay their respects to the Grand Madam, the two of them made their way out of the inner courtyard along the stone-paved path.
The spring evening was bright with moonlight and sparse stars, the breeze brushing their faces with a gentle warmth, and the willow trees stood soft and supple in the stillness, suffused with the tender yielding beauty of all things newly come to life.
Xu Sijie’s mind suddenly conjured the image he had just witnessed — Jin Ge’er nestled in Shiyi Niang’s arms, acting spoiled.
His mother’s gaze had been wholly focused on Sixth Brother — a quiet, serene gaze with a faint smile lifting the corners of her lips, tender and still as the bright moonlight above…
Had the one who brought him into this world ever held him that way?
The thought flashed through him and vanished, as though he had glimpsed something he had no right to see. He looked up in alarm, and met a pair of eyes filled with concern.
“What is it?” Xu Sizhun said with a smile. “Your face has gone pale.” He put on a teasing expression. “Don’t tell me you’ve seen a ghost.” He even made a clawing, menacing gesture.
They had been out in the courtyard the night before, telling ghost stories with the handmaids.
“No!” Xu Sijie’s tone came out far sharper than usual, stripped of his typical composure and carrying an edge to it. “I was not thinking of anything!”
Xu Sizhun stopped walking and looked at him with confusion: “You…”
What was wrong with him?
Xu Sijie drew in a deep breath, trying to calm himself, not realizing how that very attempt looked to Xu Sizhun — only making it more apparent that there was something being kept from him.
“Then why?” Xu Sizhun looked at Xu Sijie with worry.
In the face of a brother who was as close to him as a friend, Xu Sijie could not bring himself to lie. His lips parted, but for a long moment no words came.
It was Xu Sizhun’s little handmaid Eorui, always lively and spirited by nature, who stepped in with a laugh: “Fourth Young Master, please don’t press the Fifth Young Master. Is the Fifth Young Master really obliged to tell you every little thing that frightens him?”
Fair point!
Xu Sizhun smiled a little sheepishly, his expression somewhat embarrassed.
A breath of spring wind passed through — soft and warm as a mother’s hand.
Xu Sizhun’s apologetic look made Xu Sijie feel utterly exposed.
“No!” Xu Sijie denied it. “I was just thinking — about the way Mother was holding Sixth Brother just now, so tenderly… and I wondered whether when I was small, she might have… held me like that too…” As if compelled by some force beyond him, the words from the bottom of his heart simply came out.
In that instant, he felt so ashamed he wanted the ground to swallow him up.
Xu Sizhun was still for a moment, and then suddenly laughed: “So Fifth Brother is jealous of Sixth Brother!” He threw an arm around Xu Sijie’s shoulder. “When you were small, Mother held you that same way.” Then he lowered his voice and said: “At that time, I felt a little jealous myself.” He laughed his full, open laugh. “But you were younger than me, so I gave way to you. And since Sixth Brother is younger than us, we must give way to him too!”
“I know!” Xu Sijie was not really listening to what Xu Sizhun was saying — he just wanted to get away from here as quickly as possible, as though doing so might somehow leave that unworthy thought behind him. “Let us go back quickly — the teacher is testing us on our coursework first thing in the morning!”
“Terrible!” Xu Sizhun panicked too. “I nearly forgot all about that—” He grabbed Xu Sijie’s arm. “Come on, hurry.”
The moon hung like a silver plate, high in the sky, casting its gaze down upon two somewhat flustered figures below.
Jin Ge’er’s happiness lasted only two days. On the morning of the third day, just as Xu Lingyi and Shiyi Niang had risen, A Jin came rushing in in a panic: “Marquis, Madam — please go and look — the Sixth Young Master — the Sixth Young Master cannot get out of bed!”
The color drained from both their faces.
Shiyi Niang was out the door and running toward the western side room before another word was spoken.
Xu Lingyi, being a man, was far steadier than Shiyi Niang. He composed himself and asked A Jin with a dark expression: “What exactly happened?”
A Jin’s eyes brimmed with tears: “This servant does not know… Last night he was perfectly fine… We were helping the Sixth Young Master dress this morning… the Sixth Young Master suddenly cried out, grabbed his leg, and collapsed onto the bed sobbing…” She could not hold back her tears any longer.
Even the ever-steady Xu Lingyi showed a flash of fear.
He strode from the main room with swift, determined steps.
—