This year’s Dragon Boat Festival in the palace was more lively than in previous years. Not only were imperial clan members, relatives, and ministers’ families invited to attend the banquet “paindang,” but dragon boat races were also held in the West Lake of the rear garden, imitating folk customs. The Emperor had the palace servants and female officials dress in common folk clothing, disguising themselves as ordinary people to sell Dragon Boat Festival goods such as five-colored threads, longevity threads, wormwood tigers, hairpin charms, and sachets along the lakeside and in small boats on the lake, conveying the meaning of sharing joy with the people. After the arrangements for the banquet were prepared but before the feast began, the idle Royal Kitchen female officials brought various prepared zongzi, rice flour dumplings, apricots, crabapples, and preserved fruits and candied treats to the rear garden to participate in this rare palace market.
Zhenzhen, Feng Xian, and Ying Ge each brought some Dragon Boat Festival treats to the lakeside, strolling about while frequently craning their necks to look toward the lake. Finally, they saw a lotus-picking boat with a blue cloth canopy raised in the middle drifting toward them. The young ladies looked at each other in pairs, all showing expressions of delight.
After the boat reached shore, a young woman emerged from the cabin—it was Feng Jing. The person who had been poling the boat for her was a youth who appeared not yet twenty years old. He now walked slowly to her side, covering his hand with his sleeve, then extended his arm for Feng Jing to grasp, courteously helping her ashore.
After disembarking, Feng Jing smiled at Zhenzhen and the others, saying, “I promised to find you a small boat, but I didn’t expect so many people today. All the lake boats had already been borrowed. I inquired everywhere, and fortunately met this young man. When I explained our situation, he immediately agreed to let us use his boat.”
Zhenzhen and the others then thanked the youth. He wore the ordinary blue robe of a scholar, with a soft-footed cap on his head. His features were refined, and his skin, apparently not often exposed to sunlight, was pale as ice and jade, displaying an unusual pallor. Seeing the women express their gratitude, he appeared quite shy, lowering his eyelashes and smiling bashfully, his face finally showing a trace of color.
Zhenzhen made a judgment in her heart, thinking he was a young eunuch disguised as a scholar. She first shared much of the food in her hands with him, then asked how much money was needed to rent this boat. He shook his head, saying, “These Dragon Boat Festival treats are enough payment; there’s no need to pay more money.”
He invited Zhenzhen and the others aboard. The lotus-picking boat was small and could accommodate only four people besides the youth holding the pole. Inside the blue cloth canopy, however, the decorations were exquisite, with small tables and seating arrangements, all very elegant and clean. Incense from Hainan agarwood with a floral honey fragrance was burning on the table.
Feng Jing had the three women enter while she herself did not board again. The youth poled away from shore and, following Zhenzhen’s instructions, drifted along the shoreline.
Zhenzhen stood at the bow, looking around in all directions. At this moment, the small West Lake also resembled the scene of scholars and commoners enjoying lake excursions, with dozens of boats of various sizes floating about. Each boat had female officials calling out their food and drink wares for sale. Besides zongzi and white rice balls, they offered soups, seasonal fruits, jellyfish, conch, freshly cooked wine, sugar lions, and sugar children—everything one could imagine.
Shen Rouran and her mother were strolling along the lakeside when an elaborately carved pleasure boat approached them. A female official on the boat called out to them, “We have freshly cooked ‘Azure Jade Fragrance,’ ‘Longing for Spring,’ ‘Imperial Bestowment,’ and ‘Little Longing’ wines on our boat—wines that even Consort Li loves to drink. Why don’t Madam and the young lady come aboard to taste them?”
The Shen mother and daughter, seeing the boat’s exquisite carvings and hearing the mention of Consort Li whom they had recently encountered, smiled at each other and were about to board when they heard Zhenzhen’s clear voice from a nearby lotus-picking boat: “We have candied plums on our boat—candied plums that Princess Imperial Zhuang Xiaoming Yi loves most.”
Candied plums were also one of the Dragon Boat Festival treats. Calamus, ginger, apricots, plums, Chinese plums, and perilla were soaked in salt water, dried and cut into fine strips, then preserved in honey before being placed inside plum skins, creating sweet and fragrant candied plums. Though Shen Rouran was about to marry, she still had a young girl’s nature and loved sweet things. Upon hearing Zhenzhen’s words, she looked over with a smile, quite interested.
The female official on the pleasure boat, seeing this, added, “Not only do we have fine wines, teas, and fruits on our boat, but we also have entertainers from the Imperial Music Academy to provide song and dance performances. While drinking wine and tasting tea, you can also play drinking games and listen to music. Our boat is large enough and most suitable for distinguished guests to enjoy.”
Hearing this, Zhenzhen calmly said to the Shen mother and daughter, “They have song and dance on their boat, but we tell ‘Silver Pipe’ stories on ours—ancient and modern tales, supernatural legends, everything that young ladies love to hear, we can tell.”
What she referred to was a popular form of storytelling where the storyteller narrated while musicians played silver pipes for accompaniment, hence the name “Silver Pipe.”
The silver pipe, also called silver reed pipe, could produce sounds both high and clear or deep and mournful. Just as Zhenzhen finished speaking, Ying Ge in the boat had already raised the reed pipe vertically and began to play with her red lips lightly parted. The music flowed melodiously, winding and lingering, as if telling a poignant and touching story.
Shen Rouran’s heart stirred, and she asked Zhenzhen, “Can you tell the story of Princess Imperial Zhuang Xiaoming Yi?”
Zhenzhen replied confidently, “Yes, otherwise how would I know she loves candied plums?”
Shen Rouran then took her mother’s hand, about to board the boat, but Zhenzhen smiled apologetically and pointed to the cabin, saying, “Our boat is small and can only accommodate one distinguished guest inside.”
Shen Rouran stopped but still peered into the boat with reluctance. Her mother then smiled and said, “If you want to hear the Silver Pipe stories, go ahead. I’ll board the pleasure boat nearby. We’ll meet here again later.”
Shen Rouran happily agreed, bid farewell to her mother, and gracefully boarded the boat with Zhenzhen’s assistance.
After Shen Rouran sat down in the boat, Feng Xian served her tea and offered candied plums. Zhenzhen held a Korean folding fan, opening and closing it to match her expressions of sorrow or joy. Accompanied by Ying Ge’s silver pipe music, she began telling the young lady of the Shen family the story of Princess Imperial Zhuang Xiaoming Yi: how she encountered an unsuitable marriage, found it difficult to share interests with her prince consort, and under public criticism was forced to separate from the palace servant who had accompanied her since childhood, finally dying of melancholy.
Shen Rouran sighed repeatedly as she listened. When Zhenzhen finished, she said, “I’ve heard my father mention this princess, saying she was willful and headstrong, quarreling with her husband’s family, and in anger returned to the palace in the middle of the night to file complaints, causing the palace gates to open at night and drawing criticism from court officials. I was curious and asked father about her detailed deeds, but he refused to say more. Today, hearing your Silver Pipe story, I finally understand the full circumstances. You truly are a palace female official to know even such imperial family secrets.”
Zhenzhen said, “Actually, I haven’t been in the palace long and only know this one story about palace affairs. The matter of the palace gates opening at night was mentioned when the Food Service director was explaining palace rules. I couldn’t help being curious and asked the elder sisters about it, thus learning the full story. I come from among the common people, so I’ve heard far more stories from humble households than from noble families, many of which are quite intricate and thought-provoking, and make for good listening when told.”
Shen Rouran eagerly asked her to continue, and Zhenzhen nodded, signaling to Ying Ge. When Ying Ge’s silver reed pipe music began again, she opened her folding fan and said loudly, “It is said that in the previous dynasty, the government was well-ordered and the people lived in harmony, with the nation at peace. The Liangzhe region was prosperous, and craftsmen and merchants often became wealthy through diligence. In Mingzhou, there was a young man surnamed Yu who, due to his family’s poverty, had worked in a perfume shop since childhood. He was honest in his work, always hardworking and patient, and sincere in his treatment of others, earning the appreciation of both the shop owner and customers. Gradually, he accumulated some wealth, later opened his own perfume shop named ‘Yu Yisuo,’ and married a childhood sweetheart. The couple lived in harmony and love, and soon gave birth to a daughter nicknamed Ying’er…”
She told Ying Ge’s story under the assumed name of the Yu family, describing in detail Ying’er’s beauty and kindness, and vividly portraying the Yu couple’s feelings of inferiority due to their origins and their hopes that their daughter could escape her artisan class status through marriage. When she reached the part where the poor scholar they had sponsored passed the provincial examination but wanted to break the engagement, and Ying’er’s father angrily removed his shoe to beat the scholar in his desperate fury, Shen Rouran felt deeply empathetic and sighed profoundly. Zhenzhen continued the story, telling how the scholar lured Ying’er to a bridge under the pretense of dying together but actually tricked her into jumping into the water. Shen Rouran couldn’t help but frown and exclaimed, “This man has read so many sage books in vain yet cannot change his wolf-like nature!”
Ying Ge’s musical accompaniment became increasingly mournful and plaintive, the sound growing weaker, like weeping and lamenting.
The subsequent Silver Pipe story told how Ying Ge fell into the water, saw the scholar swim away, and was rescued by a passing boatman when her life hung by a thread. After returning home, her father searched everywhere for the scholar but found no trace of him. Ying’er severed her emotional ties, was selected to enter the palace, and became a female official. Unexpectedly, she encountered the scholar, who had become the third-place graduate in the imperial examination, at a banquet. The scholar’s other identity at that time was the son-in-law of the Prime Minister… Zhenzhen stopped her narration here, closing her folding fan, and Ying Ge’s music also came to an abrupt halt.
Shen Rouran had been listening intently, her expressions of anger, confusion, and astonishment appearing and disappearing in succession. Afterward, she remained silent throughout, lowering her head without further comment. Only when she saw Zhenzhen stop did she calmly raise her eyes to look at her and ask, “Why don’t you continue?”
Zhenzhen bowed to her respectfully and said, “This story is not yet finished, and I don’t know how to continue it for now.”
Shen Rouran’s bright eyes gleamed as she looked at each of the women in the boat one by one, then said calmly, “Tell me, which of you is Ying’er?”
Ying Ge glanced timidly at Zhenzhen, and only after Zhenzhen nodded did she gather courage to admit, “I am Ying’er from the story. My real name is Yun Ying Ge.”
Shen Rouran looked her up and down, then asked after a long while, “You accuse Scholar Fu of being fickle and faithless—do you have evidence?”
Ying Ge produced the engagement documents she had prepared long ago—the preliminary and formal agreements listing the three generations of names from both families, as well as multiple letters written personally by Fu Junyi—and presented them all before Shen Rouran.
Shen Rouran slowly unfolded them, carefully reading each page. When she finally saw the love letters Fu Junyi had originally written to Ying Ge, she couldn’t help but smile coldly, “Indeed, these are written by Fu Junyi. Not only is the handwriting identical, but even these phrases describing feelings of longing are exactly the same as those he wrote to me.”
She then questioned Ying Ge in detail about matters concerning Fu Junyi’s family, and Ying Ge answered every question without any discrepancy from the facts. Shen Rouran was already seventy or eighty percent convinced. After pondering for a moment, she said to Ying Ge, “Currently, these documents and letters can only prove that Fu Junyi once had a marriage agreement with you. As for your falling into the water, there’s insufficient evidence to determine whether he intentionally tried to harm your life. I do have a method that could reveal the truth of the matter, but it requires your cooperation. I wonder if you’re willing?”
Ying Ge expressed her willingness to cooperate, so Shen Rouran had Ying Ge lean close to her ear and whispered instructions on how to proceed. When finished, seeing Ying Ge’s grave expression, she said sternly, “This matter is of great importance. If you have spoken even half a lie, this plan cannot be carried out, or it will surely backfire and lead to eternal damnation.”
Ying Ge solemnly bowed to her, saying, “I guarantee that every word I’ve spoken is true, and I’m willing to act according to your instructions.”
Shen Rouran nodded and said to Zhenzhen, “Well, the Silver Pipe story is finished. Please take me back to shore.”
Returning to shore, Shen Rouran found her mother already waiting at the original spot. With her usual composure, she walked toward her mother, making no mention of what had transpired on the lotus-picking boat. As they were about to leave, Shen Rouran turned back to Zhenzhen and the others, smiling as she bowed, saying, “Until we meet again.”
The youth holding the pole still covered his hand with his sleeve, allowing the three young ladies to steady themselves as they disembarked. Zhenzhen noticed that he had been quietly poling the boat throughout the journey without speaking much, and now displayed quite gentlemanly behavior, which created a favorable impression. She thought that having received this favor from him today, she would surely need to repay it in the future. He appeared to have a gentle nature and would likely be bullied by stronger-willed palace servants. If she became acquainted with him, she might be able to help him in the future. So she asked, “Where do you work?”
The youth lowered his head and smiled but didn’t answer.
Zhenzhen asked again, “Can you tell me your name?”
The youth showed slight hesitation but finally said, “My surname is Yin, given name Qi.”
“Yinqi?” Zhenzhen felt this name seemed familiar, as if she had heard it somewhere before. She was still thinking and trying to remember when Feng Xian, standing behind her, had already turned pale, staring at Yinqi with a look of shock and amazement.