Director Sun immediately arranged all matters for transferring Zhenzhen to Prince Yanping’s mansion according to Cheng Yuan’s instructions, and had Zhenzhen depart the next day.
Seeing the travel arrangements made so quickly, Zhenzhen was somewhat surprised. Director Sun, thinking she felt disappointed about being sent away from the palace, specially comforted her: “Although Prince Yanping’s mansion belongs to a minister’s household, it’s different from other places. The honors enjoyed by Prince Yanping are second to none among imperial relatives. Below the Crown Prince, all the princes must perform family courtesies when they see him. The grandeur of his mansion is not inferior to any royal residence, even compared to this Northern Inner Palace… Well, there’s no need to say more—you’ll understand once you enter.”
Zhenzhen had heard about these things since entering the palace. Prince Yanping Yin Ning was nearly ten years younger than the Empress Dowager. He had been beautiful and lovable as a child, and grew up gentle as jade, especially beloved by the Empress Dowager and the late Emperor. The late Emperor had even arranged for him to marry the Lady of Chen, the eldest granddaughter of the once-powerful Prime Minister and Grand Tutor Qi Xing.
The Lady of Chen had also led a fortunate life. Qi Xing’s wife, Lady Wang, was jealous and domineering. Having never given birth herself, she also prevented Qi Xing from taking concubines to have children. Finally, she adopted the illegitimate son of her own brother-in-law and his mistress, renamed him Qi Xi, and raised him as Qi Xing’s legitimate heir. Qi Xi’s eldest daughter became the Lady of Chen. As Grand Tutor Qi’s legitimate eldest granddaughter, she frequently entered the palace courts from a young age. The late Emperor, seeing her charming intelligence and natural, innocent way of speaking, was very fond of her. When she was six or seven years old, he granted her the title of Lady of Chen, so people in the capital often called her “Child Lady.”
Regarding this Child Lady, a story still circulated in Lin’an: When the Child Lady was young, she had kept a lion cat. One day, this cat slipped out of the residence while its caretaker was dozing and disappeared without a trace. Upon learning this, the Child Lady cried bitterly and insisted on finding the cat. Grand Tutor Qi then ordered Lin’an Prefecture to send people to search, arresting over a hundred people suspected of catching or hiding the lion cat. After searching the entire city, they captured more than a hundred cats. The Child Lady examined each one and found none was the one she had lost, leading to another bout of crying and fussing. Grand Tutor Qi then had artists paint hundreds of lion cat portraits based on descriptions, posting them throughout the city’s teahouses and wine shops with substantial rewards for finding it. However, the lion cat remained without news. But the Child Lady’s “ability” to alarm the entire Lin’an Prefecture with a single tear became known throughout the capital from then on.
Qi Xing had wielded the prime minister’s seal for many years, colluding with faction members to dominate the court, which the late Emperor also greatly feared. Later, when Qi Xing became seriously ill and on his deathbed still wanted to help his son Qi Xi succeed as prime minister, the then-Crown Prince, now Emperor Zhao Wei, timely detected this and informed the late Emperor of the Qi family’s schemes. The late Emperor then visited the Qi residence in the name of a courtesy call, bringing several personal imperial guards to monitor the Qi father and son, while simultaneously ordering ministers to draft retirement edicts for the Qi father and son. When Qi Xing died, they announced the simultaneous retirement of both Qi father and son, stripping Qi Xi of all real power and giving him only the empty title of “Junior Tutor” to live as a wealthy idle person.
Within a few years, Qi Xi also died in depression. The Qi faction scattered like birds and beasts, and the late Emperor reclaimed Qi Xing’s extremely luxurious mansion in the capital, renovating and expanding it into the palace garden where he lived in his later years—the current Cifu Palace.
After Qi Xi’s death, the Qi family gradually declined, but this hardly affected the Child Lady who had married Prince Yanping. The late Emperor’s fondness for her was probably based on her apparent lack of scheming and innocent, naive demeanor, which was completely different from her grandfather and father. Because she had frequented the palace since childhood, the current Emperor was also familiar with her, treated her like a sister, and was very kind to her. Two generations of emperors even felt somewhat compensatory toward her, giving her many of the favors that had originally been bestowed upon the Qi family.
When the late Emperor passed away and the current Emperor ascended the throne, he honored and favored the Empress Dowager’s clan. Yin Ning continued to receive promotions and titles. Although these were all powerless honorary positions, the stipends and rewards he received were exceptionally generous, unmatched by any other imperial relative.
Zhenzhen had only heard others mention the wealth and grandeur of Prince Yanping’s mansion before. Only when she personally stepped inside did she feel that all the rumors were mere plain descriptions, and all her empty imaginings couldn’t compare to the vivid reality.
The mansion was large, though not large enough to compare with Cifu Palace and the inner palace. While it had multi-story buildings with flying eaves and pavilions over water, its magnificent atmosphere couldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as palace gardens. However, the flowers and trees in the garden were quite flourishing, and the feeling of intertwining vines and reflected flowers and bamboo had similarities to Lin Hong’s garden. The garden also arranged water and piled rocks for scenery, using magnificent and unusual stones of various forms. They were stacked beside the pool to form a mountain slope higher than the buildings, with cave dwellings faintly visible within the mountain. From the mountain peak, a clear spring flowed down into the pool, sounding like jade ornaments clinking together. Water mist arose, making passersby feel quite cool.
Seeing the very clear water with the pool transparent to the bottom without a single fish, Zhenzhen couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration: “This water is truly clear and bright.”
The maid leading her inside heard this and said, “Of course. This water is mountain spring water brought from Phoenix Mountain—clear and sweet. The mansion often uses it for cooking.”
“Phoenix Mountain?” Zhenzhen asked in surprise. “Although Phoenix Mountain isn’t far from here, bringing water from there would be very difficult. Would it require digging many ditches?”
The maid shook her head: “Not digging ditches. I heard they used many large bamboo pipes… I don’t know the specific details of how it was done.”
At this moment, the melodious sound of a qin drifted over, interrupting Zhenzhen’s thoughts. Zhenzhen had heard Lin Hong discuss this piece and recognized it as “Flowing Water.” Looking around, she saw no qin player and didn’t know where the music was coming from.
Seeing the guiding maid observing her listening to the music, Zhenzhen smiled and said, “What a coincidence to hear ‘Flowing Water’ by the water—very fitting for the scene.”
“This isn’t a coincidence,” the maid explained matter-of-factly. “Our prince’s mansion keeps many musicians who, following the Lady of Chen’s instructions, are usually scattered throughout the garden but can only hide behind flowers, trees, and rocks. When they see people coming, they play music appropriate to the scene for visitors’ entertainment.”
Zhenzhen paid secret attention afterward and discovered it was indeed as the maid said. Wherever they went, the sounds of strings and bamboo changed accordingly, all pieces that complemented the scenery. The instruments used included not only qin, but xiao, flute, sheng, zheng, ruan, and pipa—everything imaginable. The musicians remained completely hidden without showing a trace.
What most amazed Zhenzhen was the prince’s mansion’s arrangement regarding her duties.
The kitchen area of Prince Yanping’s mansion occupied several courtyards covering extensive ground. Based on the maid’s continuous introductions as they passed through the buildings, Zhenzhen roughly understood that this large kitchen was divided into different smaller kitchens, separately managing wine, meat, vegetables, fruits, vinegar and pickled foods, and so on. The layout seemed similar to the Royal Kitchen, but went beyond that.
Zhenzhen finally arrived at the main hall and met Yan Shiyi Niang, who managed the large kitchen. Zhenzhen had thought that according to Cheng Yuan’s explanation, she should be making pastries, as the pastry cook at Prince Yanping’s mansion seemed incompetent. But now she gradually discovered this wasn’t the case.
When Yan Shiyi Niang saw Zhenzhen arrive, she showed no joy but looked at her like a heavy burden. She took out a roster as thick as an account book and flipped through it for a long time before saying with a frown, “All the kitchens are basically fully staffed. Only the dumpling kitchen has an opening—you can go to the dumpling kitchen.”
Zhenzhen agreed and tentatively asked, “So in the future I’ll mainly be responsible for making dumplings?”
“Making dumplings isn’t your turn yet,” Yan Shiyi Niang said disdainfully. “First go cut scallion threads.”
Based on Yan Shiyi Niang’s attitude, Zhenzhen deduced that Cifu Palace hadn’t given any special instructions to Prince Yanping’s mansion regarding her transfer, so Yan Shiyi Niang treated her as a maid who had been demoted here for making mistakes, hence the poor treatment. However, Zhenzhen was adaptable and didn’t consider not being valued in the kitchen as particularly unacceptable. Instead, she quite enjoyed the leisure that came with the position of cutting scallion threads.
Zhenzhen had first encountered the term “cutting scallion threads” in Liu Sishan’s “Jade Food Critique.” She had later imitated it, having Feng Xian and others create the extravagant divorce banquet that shocked Pujiang. Later, learning that Sishan originally served the food of imperial nobility, she understood why the dishes involved were so luxurious. But after entering the palace, she discovered that although imperial food was refined, from what she had seen so far, it didn’t seem as exaggerated as the dishes Liu Sishan had listed. The Royal Kitchen didn’t have people specifically assigned to cut scallion threads, yet she hadn’t expected to encounter this at the prince’s mansion.
Second Sister-in-law Yu, who managed the dumpling kitchen, was a woman in her forties who was easygoing and quite friendly to Zhenzhen. She personally taught Zhenzhen how to separate scallions into threads as fine as hair, and how to carve patterns such as ruyi cloud designs, swastika patterns, auspicious grass patterns, precious flower patterns, and intertwining branch patterns. Zhenzhen couldn’t help asking, “The patterns on scallion threads don’t affect the dumplings’ taste—does anyone really look at them?”
“Yes, they do. When Grand Tutor Qi held grand banquets for guests, he would instruct us to cut scallion threads. The banquet wouldn’t specifically draw guests’ attention to them, but when guests discovered them on their own, they would naturally praise the grand tutor’s mansion’s wealthy atmosphere,” Second Sister-in-law Yu said. “Now Prince Yanping doesn’t value these things, but the lady still insists on having someone cut scallion threads. Although they’re no longer used when entertaining guests, the lady occasionally has people make them for her own viewing.”
Zhenzhen thanked Second Sister-in-law Yu for taking care of her and automatically helped with her work. Seeing that she had the habit of eating late-night snacks, Zhenzhen often asked what she wanted to eat and would make it for her in the kitchen at night.
One night, Second Sister-in-law Yu said she wanted to eat crispy seals, so Zhenzhen went alone to the small kitchen to fry them. The warm, fragrant smell of crispy oil filled the air, tempting Zhenzhen to taste two pieces herself. The flavor was as sweet and fragrant as she had expected, but Zhenzhen later thought that eating this at night might make her thirsty, so she rolled out some thin dumpling wrappers and used the fresh meat left over from making dumplings during the day to wrap several wontons. She put them in soup with dried shrimp and seaweed, sprinkled some scallion threads on top, then went to find a food box to pack everything for Second Sister-in-law Yu. Suddenly she heard some slight sounds behind her. Looking back, she saw a refined-looking man standing at the doorway. Focusing her gaze, Zhenzhen recognized him as Yinqi, whom she had met once in the palace.
Yinqi’s robes were loose and untied, he wasn’t wearing a cap, and his hair was disheveled, as if he had just awakened from a dream. His gaze was unsteady and confused, and he was breathing slightly heavily, as if he had run all the way there.
Yinqi stared at the full plate of crispy seals on the table for a long time, then turned to look at Zhenzhen. When he saw her clearly, his eyes lit up as if seeing an old friend. Zhenzhen thought this young master had quite good eyesight to recognize her after only meeting once. She was about to present him with a slight smile and curtsy while calling him “Young Master,” when Yinqi strode quickly to her, grabbed one of her sleeves with trembling hands, brought it to his face, buried his head deeply, and sniffed the scent from her sleeve.
Zhenzhen was startled and quickly pulled her sleeve from his hands, stepping back.
Yinqi’s gaze was like moonlight, gently sweeping over her. After a moment, his face showed a bright, pure smile like a child’s. “Aunt,” he called her softly.
Zhenzhen was amazed—no one had ever used such a form of address for her—then said awkwardly, “Young Master, there’s no need to be so polite. Everyone in the mansion calls me by my name…”
“Aunt,” Yinqi seemed oblivious to her words and called out again. Then he stepped forward, opened his arms to embrace Zhenzhen’s shoulders, and said in her ear, “You’ve finally come back.”
Having said this, he seemed relieved, gently resting his head on her shoulder with a serene smile and closing his eyes.