Jin Ge’er looked at his mother, his expression growing stubborn. “Master Pang already knows I’ve been punished — he naturally knows I admitted my mistake. I’m not going!”

“If you were punished, Master Pang naturally knows you’ve acknowledged your fault. But if you go to him in person, would that not show far greater sincerity?” Eleventh Lady was seething inwardly, yet still kept her tone as gentle as she could. “Being bold enough to pluck a peacock feather is courage. Being daring enough to climb to the edge of a cliff to pick a tangerine is courage. Practicing your horse stance better than anyone else is courage. And if we have made a mistake — not covering it up, not shying away, but stepping forward to own it — that too is a form of courage. Indeed, that is true courage…”

“I won’t go, I won’t go…” Jin Ge’er had no desire to hear any more. He covered his ears, slid off the kang, and bolted for the door.

Eleventh Lady stood in stunned silence.

Though her son was mischievous and boisterous, and occasionally threw his weight around a little, he had always listened to her counsel… She had never imagined that now even her words meant nothing to him. Not a single maidservant or nanny dared manage him; Xu Lingyi and the Grand Madam treated his naughtiness as cleverness — if things continued this way, who would ever be able to keep him in check?

The fire in her heart could no longer be suppressed and burst forth.

Eleventh Lady shoved her feet into her shoes and chased after him.

“Stop right there!” she cried out in a loud, furious voice.

Everyone in the courtyard was hearing Eleventh Lady speak in such an angry tone for the very first time. They exchanged bewildered glances and, filled with trepidation, shrank back against the walls.

“You do something wrong, you refuse to admit it, and then you run!” In life, no matter what difficult circumstances arose, Eleventh Lady had never shied away. She believed that as long as one thought carefully, acted with sincerity, and had the courage to accept the consequences, any obstacle could be overcome. And so she had the deepest disdain for those who ran from hardship when they met it. To think that the son she had put so much effort into raising would behave the same way — her reason crumbled like a collapsing riverbank. “Running away won’t erase what you did. Running away won’t spare you from having to apologize to Master Pang. Xu Sijin, I am telling you — if you quietly go and apologize to Master Pang, that is the end of it. If you refuse, when these three days of confinement are up, you will kneel before the ancestral shrine. You will stay there until you’ve thought it through, and only then go to the Xiumu Courtyard for your lessons!”

His mother had never been anything but gentle breezes and soft rain with him. She had never once sent him to kneel before the ancestral shrine, let alone raised her voice at him like this.

Jin Ge’er froze on the spot.

To think that his mother was rebuking him this harshly on account of Master Pang.

“It wasn’t only me who put the laxative in Master Pang’s tea — why am I the only one confined to my room and made to apologize besides…” he said, full of indignation. And beneath all of that was heartbreak.

“Silence!” Eleventh Lady looked at Jin Ge’er’s face, flushed with defiance, her own face flushing crimson with fury as she cut him off with a sharp shout. “You did something wrong, and you have the audacity to drag someone else into it.” She felt as though something were pressing on her chest with a dull, hidden ache. How had her son come to be like this? “You are the elder brother. Shen Ge’er is the younger brother. Rather than setting a good example for your younger brother, you actually want to compare yourself to him. Never mind that he is younger than you and followed your lead. Even if he had not been following your lead — when you knew your brother had done something wrong as an elder brother, if you were aware and did not stop it, or if you were unaware and did not help him correct it afterward, you are already at fault. And now you are actually saying something like this. Do you have any idea how an elder brother ought to conduct himself? Is this how Mother has taught you to behave and treat others?” Her anger was so complete she could not even find the words.

A rolling thunder boomed and tumbled in from the horizon, and the sky, bright moments before, suddenly darkened.

Tears welled and turned in Jin Ge’er’s eyes, and his mother’s face blurred before him.

“I won’t go, I won’t go…” he lifted his chin. “I’m not going regardless — and it’s not as if I dragged anyone into it either…”

This still wasn’t dragging someone else into it?

“You won’t go!” Eleventh Lady’s own temper flared in full force. “Then stand right here and think it through properly — think about why Mother is asking you to go apologize to Master Pang. Whenever you’ve thought it through, come and find me, and I will go with you to Master Pang’s to offer our apology. If you cannot think it through, then there is naturally no need to go apologize, and of course no need to come and find me either!”

Jin Ge’er listened and turned his face away, making a disdainful expression.

To be this arrogant in front of his own parents — how would he behave in front of others!

Eleventh Lady was incensed. She turned and walked back to the main room, instructing Hupo as she went: “Close the door. Only open it for the Sixth Young Master when he has thought it through — there is no rush.”

For the consistently obedient Sixth Young Master to suddenly become this stubborn, and the consistently gentle-tempered Madam to suddenly become this forceful — it was nothing Hupo had ever anticipated. She dared not say a single word extra. She softly replied “Yes,” signaled Qiuyu with her eyes to go quickly and inform Xu Lingyi, then followed behind Eleventh Lady and shut the main hall door.

Qiuyu ran in a panic out of the courtyard.

Everyone else held their breath, afraid that one careless move might provoke Eleventh Lady’s anger, or invite Jin Ge’er’s wrath by association.

For a time, the courtyard fell completely silent. All that could be heard was the wind rushing through the treetops with a rustling sweep, adding to the air of oppression.

Jin Ge’er stared at the green ice-crackle-latticed glass panel doors of the main room, firmly shut before him. His mouth was pressed tight. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the maids and matrons huddled and shrinking against the wall. He straightened his back even further.

Hupo helped Eleventh Lady settle onto the large kang by the window in the inner chamber.

A little maidservant, hands trembling slightly, presented hot tea.

Hupo took the teacup, gestured for the maidservant to withdraw, and tiptoed the cup onto the table in front of Eleventh Lady. Seeing there was no one else in the room, she lowered her voice and said: “Drink a little hot tea and calm yourself.”

Eleventh Lady was in no state to drink. She picked up the lid and brushed the tea leaves floating on the surface, then set the teacup back down.

“Madam!” Hupo studied her expression with care. “In the blink of an eye, so many years have passed. I remember when I first came to serve by Madam’s side, I did not know anything at all. Madam taught me step by step with her own hands. And now I am able to handle things on my own. When people speak of me, they say I am capable and clever. I can’t help feeling a little unnerved when I hear it. I always think — if it had not been for Madam’s careful guidance back then, I would not be where I am today…”

Eleventh Lady understood what she was trying to say, and waved her hand gently.

“All the years he has been growing up — when have you ever seen me lose my temper with him? Does that mean I have never once been angry?” she said, and then the thought of Jin Ge’er’s defiant expression made her tone harden further. “I always told myself he was still young and I needed to be patient with him. No matter how naughty he was, I always tried to think the best of him. When I was angry, I swallowed it back down. I told myself he would be better when he was a little older. But look at him today…”

“Madam!” Hupo saw that Eleventh Lady had been truly roused to genuine anger, and quickly said, “Since you already know…”

“Enough!” Eleventh Lady cut Hupo off, and leaned back against the large crimson pillow embroidered with ink-green bamboo. “Go and rest. I will handle this matter myself.” Her resolve was absolute.

Hupo dared not say another word. She softly acknowledged and withdrew.

The room fell so silent a dropping pin could be heard. In the east side room, the standing Western clock ticked and tocked in steady rhythm.

Gradually, Eleventh Lady’s heart began to settle.

She had been so caught up in her anger just now that she had not thought to check whether any maidservant or matron had gone to report to Xu Lingyi or the Grand Madam… But even had she thought of it, in that situation she could not very well have stopped them. Otherwise, sharp-witted Jin Ge’er might conclude that she feared Xu Lingyi and the Grand Madam, and who knew but that he might use that as a chance to run to one of them and act the spoiled child…

Thinking this, Eleventh Lady could not help but glance out the window.

In the courtyard, the magnolia blossoms were white as jade, the pomegranate flowers blazed crimson as fire, and the cannas burst in every color, brilliant as brocade.

Jin Ge’er stood there motionless, his slight figure looking both stubborn and fragile.

Her heart suddenly went so soft it might have melted to water.

Into her mind floated the image of her son toddling forward with a face full of smiles, climbing onto her back to help her pin flowers in her hair; his small chubby hands stuffing his most beloved peach shortbread insistently into her mouth; the way he chattered and chirped around her with boundless delight… She suddenly felt a little uneasy.

This child — surely he would not be stubborn all the way to the end?

With that thought, Eleventh Lady grew restless where she sat.

After pacing back and forth in the room a few times trying to keep her composure, she looked out the window again, only to find Jin Ge’er still standing in place, his chin tipped slightly upward, declaring his resolve.

Eleventh Lady let out a quiet sigh.

It had come to this. It was either the east wind yielding to the west wind, or the west wind yielding to the east.

She thought for a moment, then moved the embroidery frame out, forced herself not to think about the small figure standing in the center of the courtyard, stilled her heart, and set to work on her embroidery.

With great difficulty she had separated the silk thread, threaded the needle, and stitched half a leaf — when suddenly there was a brilliant flash of lightning followed by a great crack of thunder.

Eleventh Lady was startled out of her seat, and rushed straight to the window.

Outside, a fierce wind had risen. Branches whipped and tossed, and the sky had turned dark with dense, rolling clouds.

Jin Ge’er, still standing in the center of the courtyard, turned his back and raised his arm to shield his face from the blowing dust and sand.

“Hupo!” Eleventh Lady quickly pushed her feet into her shoes and stepped off the kang.

Hupo had been waiting just outside the curtain all along, and the moment she heard movement, she lifted the curtain and entered.

“Go quickly and check on the Sixth Young Master…” The words were barely out of her mouth before Eleventh Lady’s expression stalled.

If she reversed her decision right now, would Jin Ge’er ever take her word seriously again in the future?

Eleventh Lady slowly straightened up, and called back Hupo, who was already looking delighted and moving quickly toward the door. “…Never mind!”

“Madam!” Hupo stared at her, bewildered. “Outside it’s thundering and the wind is blowing — it looks like rain is coming…”

Yes, it was.

Eleventh Lady hesitated for a moment. “But it is summer right now…”

“Madam, what if, by chance…”

Yes, if by chance he fell ill from it… she would regret it before it was too late!

The thought flashed through her, and Eleventh Lady’s expression became unsettled, shifting with indecision.

“Boom!” — A crack of lightning followed by rolling thunder, and then the rain came pouring down in sheets.

Eleventh Lady ran back into the inner chamber, scrambled up onto the kang, and pressed herself against the window to look.

Fat raindrops fell from the sky, striking the bluestone bricks and splashing up tiny bursts of water.

Jin Ge’er jogged a couple of steps forward, then stopped, as though remembering something, and stared blankly toward the inner chamber window.

Eleventh Lady quickly drew back, afraid he might see her worry and render all her resolve utterly wasted.

Flash after flash of lightning, crash after crash of thunder, and the sound of rain growing louder and louder.

Eleventh Lady’s heart clenched tight. She pressed herself to the side of the window frame and peeked out.

Zhuxiang rushed over with an umbrella and crouched down beside Jin Ge’er, saying something to him.

Jin Ge’er’s gaze settled on the inner chamber window. His mouth pressed into a thin, tight line, and he shook his head like a rattle-drum.

Zhuxiang spoke for quite some time. Jin Ge’er showed not an inch of give.

Left with no choice, she stood up, and held the umbrella over Jin Ge’er.

But Jin Ge’er snatched it away from her and flung it to the ground.

Zhuxiang stood there frozen, not knowing what to do, and let the wind and rain lash her where she stood.

“Go tell Zhuxiang — no, tell all the maids, matrons, and nannies,” Eleventh Lady’s expression went cold. She turned around and issued instructions to Hupo with a look of stern composure. “No one is to tend to the Sixth Young Master. Anyone who does will be sent to Steward Bai for handling.”

Hupo gave a shudder, not daring to delay. She curtsied, then walked briskly out of the inner chamber.

A burst of noise broke out from outside.

Eleventh Lady turned around — and through the glass window, she saw Xu Lingyi striding in with large steps.

—