For several days running, Jin Ge’er went out every day. Ying Niang, with nothing to do and no companion, felt deeply bored, and seized a moment to ask him: “The new year is nearly here — the streets are packed shoulder to shoulder with people buying new year goods. What could possibly be fun about that? Didn’t you say these past few days you wanted to practice your kickball seriously? Why have you stopped? Are you not going into the palace on the fourth?”

“Who said I’m not going on the fourth?” Jin Ge’er said. “I have things to take care of these past two days. Stop minding my business.”

“What things? More important than entering the palace?” Ying Niang widened her eyes, looking extremely curious.

“None of your concern,” Jin Ge’er said with a grin, and ran off.

Ever since that palace servant came looking for him, he had not been the same!

Ying Niang thought it over, feeling curious.

Why was a palace servant looking for him? What matter would require seeking out Jin Ge’er rather than going through his father? And from the look of it, he was hiding it from his mother-in-law too.

She could not puzzle it out, so she told Xu Sijie: “…even if he just needed to borrow some silver from Jin Ge’er, there’d be no reason to go out every day…”

“Stop guessing wildly,” Xu Sijie said with a smile. “He’s old enough to conduct himself. If you’re truly worried, I’ll ask around at the stables and see where he’s been going these past few days.”

Ying Niang nodded eagerly. “Let’s hope he’s simply out enjoying himself.”

Xu Sijie laughed. “I think you’re the one with nothing better to do!”

“You’re the one with nothing better to do!” Ying Niang retorted, then asked him about affairs in the outer courtyard. “Do you really have that many letters to write? Isn’t there a correspondence office for that?”

“I’ll tell you, but don’t let it go further!” Xu Sijie said with a laugh. “Some of the letters Father specifically asked Fourth Elder Brother to write. Those two days things were so busy, Fourth Elder Brother called me over to help write a few in imitation of his handwriting. Trusting a stranger, he feared they might let something slip. I finished those in two days. But seeing how swamped Fourth Elder Brother was, and us being idle, I helped him take care of a few other miscellaneous things.”

Ying Niang had followed along with the First Young Madam of the Luo household to learn household management before her marriage, and the First Young Madam had sometimes been too busy to write letters and asked her to help.

“That sort of thing really isn’t suitable to pass to others,” she said with a smile. “If those stewards were allowed to imitate Fourth Elder Brother’s handwriting, one day they might use it to throw their weight around, pay lip service while acting otherwise, and do something irreparable. The household is so busy right now — it wouldn’t do for you to stand by with folded sleeves while I’m only excused because of my pregnancy.”

“I think the same!” The couple exchanged a few more words before the conversation drifted to their unborn child. “What do you think of the character ‘Qing’? It means joy and celebration. Or perhaps ‘Zhuang’ — ‘When approached with dignity, there is reverence.'”

Both were names suited for a boy.

“What if it’s a girl?” Ying Niang pouted.

“A girl would be even better,” Xu Sijie smiled. “Mother is particularly fond of daughters.” Then he said, “If it’s a girl, then ‘Yun’ — the bright blossoming of spring, a fragrant herb.”

“What about my name then?” Ying Niang pressed her lips together and smiled.

Ying Niang and her younger sister both had names with the “grass” radical.

Xu Sijie hadn’t considered this at all.

He reached up to scratch his head. “That does make it tricky. We can hardly choose a completely separate name while setting aside Ying Ying.”

Ying Niang ignored him, turned, and went to the outer room to instruct a young maid to paste window lattice flowers, leaving Xu Sijie alone to trouble over the matter.

The next day, Xu Sijie specifically sent his personal manservant to report back to Ying Niang: “The Sixth Young Master has been spending these past few days in teahouses drinking tea and listening to performances.”

Out of the house out of boredom, and yet once out, just sitting in a teahouse.

Ying Niang was skeptical. “He really went nowhere else?”

“No,” the manservant said. “The stable hands said he went nowhere else at all.”

Ying Niang still didn’t believe it. That evening when she went to pay her respects to Shiyiniang, she saw Jin Ge’er dash out ahead of them, and immediately gave chase, calling out to him. “What are you up to? You’ve even managed to rope in the stable hands. If you don’t tell me the truth right now, I’ll go straight to Mother and tell her!”

“There’s really nothing to it,” Jin Ge’er grinned shamelessly. “You just keep a close eye on your Fifth Elder Brother — why are you always watching me? Careful he doesn’t take a maid into his chambers behind your back.”

He did not deny having bribed the stable hands.

“My Fifth Elder Brother is not that sort of man,” Ying Niang said, though her face went crimson. She did not let Jin Ge’er off the hook. “And don’t try to misdirect me.”

“I didn’t realize Fifth Sister-in-law even knew the term ‘misdirect,'” Jin Ge’er rambled on nonsensically. “No wonder Fifth Elder Brother doesn’t have a single attendant in his chambers to this day.”

When Ying Niang had first married into the household she had found this strange too. She had quietly asked Hupo, who covered her mouth and laughed: “Madam asked Fifth Young Master about it, and he said he had no need.”

At the time her face had gone scarlet.

Later, when she was with child and suggested arranging someone to attend to Xu Sijie, he refused that too, and told her somewhat bashfully: “Let the two of us simply live well together!”

Ying Niang felt all the more tenderness toward Shiyiniang for that, believing she had found her a fine husband.

“Where did you learn to talk like this!” Ying Niang was equal parts exasperated and amused, and gave Jin Ge’er’s ear a light pinch. “When did you become such a rogue? Saying whatever you like!”

“Ow!” Jin Ge’er refused to take her bait, clutched his ear dramatically, and bellowed, “Fifth Elder Brother, come save me — Fifth Sister-in-law is hitting me!” hoping to redirect attention.

Xu Sijie was in the middle of talking with Xu Sizhun about affairs in the outer courtyard, so his steps were naturally slow, and Jiang Shi was following behind Xu Sizhun — Xu Sizhun being as slow as he was, she certainly wasn’t going to outpace him. All three had not yet emerged from the hall. Hearing Jin Ge’er’s cry for help, all three were startled — Xu Sijie especially, knowing Ying Niang and Jin Ge’er were never very formal with each other, and that Ying Niang had a spirited temperament… surely the joke hadn’t gone too far?

The thought flashed through his mind, and he threw aside the curtain in two strides, only to see Ying Niang indeed pinching Jin Ge’er’s ear.

“What are the two of you doing?” Xu Sijie stepped forward to mediate. “You’re his sister-in-law — he’s still young. If something’s wrong, talk to him properly. What sort of thing is it to grab his ear like that?”

Ying Niang looked at Jin Ge’er, who was considerably taller than she was, and felt utterly at a loss for words. “You’re the one who spoils him rotten. It’s precisely because you’ve all indulged him that he’s become like this!” Even as she said it, she released him.

Jin Ge’er promptly jumped to the side, clutching his ear, not only feigning a grimace of exaggerated agony but also shrinking behind Xu Sijie with a performance of exaggerated cowardice: “Fifth Elder Brother, you really must manage Fifth Sister-in-law better. She’s made my ear absolutely agonizing!”

Ying Niang heard this and went to pinch his ear again.

Xu Sijie hurried to intercept Ying Niang.

Jin Ge’er seized the opportunity to sprint away: “No wonder Confucius said: women and petty men are the most difficult to deal with!”

Jiang Shi, who had just come out and caught sight of this scene, felt something dim in her eyes.

They were, after all, cousins — Jin Ge’er treated Ying Niang with far more warmth and familiarity than he showed toward her or Xiang Shi.

She couldn’t help looking toward Ying Niang.

Ying Niang, one hand on her rounded belly, was laughing helplessly.

Her face, not especially beautiful, was radiant as sunlight — seeing her, one couldn’t help but feel one’s spirits lift.

Xu Sijie smiled and draped his arm around Ying Niang’s shoulders. “You’re with child — be careful.” His voice was very gentle.

The more Jin Ge’er carried on like this, the more Ying Niang felt certain he was hiding something important from the household. She tried several times to ask him again, but the moment he caught sight of her, he fled. Ying Niang grew quietly worried. She went over to Qingyin Residence several times on the pretext of looking for embroidery patterns, but found nothing out of the ordinary. She also sent her personal maid to quietly inquire at the laundry room, and was told that Jin Ge’er’s clothes and shoes had no unusual tears, stains, or anything out of the ordinary.

After several days had passed, Xu Sizhun and his wife brought little Ying Ying back from Le’an to spend the new year.

Xu Sizhun, as soon as he walked through the door, asked after Jin Ge’er: “How is it I haven’t seen him? He’s been bestowed that Commander post — he should be home.”

Neither Xu Lingyi nor Shiyiniang were in. Xu Sizhun and Xu Sijie came out to receive him.

“He says it’s dull at home, and has been going out every day these past few days!” Xu Sizhun said with a laugh, and asked Xu Siyu, “Second Elder Brother, why didn’t you send word ahead that you were returning? The family could have sent someone to meet you.”

“I decided at the last minute,” Xu Siyu said, somewhat ill at ease, and asked after Xu Lingyi and Shiyiniang. Hearing they had both gone out to deliver new year gifts, he turned to ask Xu Sijie about his studies. “…Didn’t do well on the prefectural examination, and planning to try again next year.”

He had passed the county examination and the prefectural examination in sequence, but failed to clear the final qualifying examination.

“There’s no need to rush,” Xu Siyu reassured Xu Sijie. “Good things take time. Not many pass on their first attempt.”

As the two conversed, Xu Sizhun noticed Xiang Shi standing to one side, her complexion sallow and worn, looking quite haggard, and little Ying Ying asleep on the wet nurse’s shoulder. He laughed and cut in between the two: “Second Elder Brother has had a long journey, and Second Sister-in-law and Ying Ying are exhausted too. Why not go freshen up first, pay your respects to Grandmother, and then we brothers can have a proper talk later — there’s no hurry.”

“Look at me, so caught up in talking!” Xu Siyu laughed sheepishly. Xu Sizhun called for a green-curtained small oil carriage to send them back to their rooms, then sent word to Jiang Shi: “Second Sister-in-law is back — go and look in on her in a moment.”

Jiang Shi smiled and assented, estimated that Xu Siyu’s household should have settled in by now, and made her way over. Along the way she ran into Ying Niang, and the two walked in together, chatting and laughing.

The sisters-in-law’s reunion brought its own round of warm greetings, and then came the formalities of paying respects to the Grand Matriarch — another flurry of lively commotion.

Then everyone learned: Xiang Shi was with child!

“She wanted to stay here in the household to await the birth,” Xu Siyu said, his face slightly flushed, “and so we came back from Le’an.”

“Coming back is good, coming back is good!” The Grand Matriarch nodded repeatedly. “Everything is at hand here. Le’an is after all a small place.” She then instructed Second Madam, “Go tell Shiyiniang to arrange a few experienced hands to attend to Xu Siyu’s wife Ruo Ne.”

Le’an was Jiang Shi’s hometown.

Jiang Shi lowered her eyes.

Xu Sijie and the others shifted with slight unease.

The Grand Matriarch had already turned to speak with Xu Sizhun of her own accord: “Why are your father and mother not back yet? Quickly send someone to urge them — we’re all waiting to eat!”

And yet they had only just finished the midday meal.

Everyone couldn’t help but glance toward the windows.

Xiang Shi noticed one of Jin Ge’er’s young manservants loitering beneath a tree, speaking to a young maid. As they spoke, he kept glancing anxiously toward the main room.

Ying Niang’s heart stirred.

Seeing that no one else was paying attention, she found an opportunity and slipped out quietly. The manservant had already gone, but she beckoned the young maid over. “What was the Sixth Young Master’s manservant just saying to you?”

“Replying to Fifth Young Madam — the Sixth Young Master’s manservant was asking whether the Fourth Madam was in the Grand Matriarch’s quarters.”

Ying Niang thought a moment, then quickened her steps to give chase, and just managed to catch sight of the manservant’s retreating figure.

She breathed a quiet sigh of relief, had a maid at her side call the manservant over, and asked, “Has something happened to the Sixth Young Master?”

The manservant, hearing this, immediately burst into tears. “The Sixth Young Master got into a fight — I, I came back to report it.”

—