“Ah, my lady, your husband has something he cannot understand and requests his lady to dispel his confusion!” After seeing Li Tai off, Yun Ye cupped his hands toward Xinyue, who was tending to their child, speaking very politely.
“My husband is too courteous. This humble wife will certainly speak without reservation and answer all questions. May I ask what the doubt is?” Xinyue placed their son on the bed to play by himself, sat up straight, and prepared to answer Yun Ye’s question.
“According to your husband’s knowledge, young ladies have their menarche at thirteen years of age and gradually mature. I wonder if my lady experienced this as well?”
“Shameless! Bah!” Xinyue’s expression changed drastically in anger. She picked up their son and hurriedly left the room, her pretty face flushed red.
Yun Ye shook his head, expressing his bewilderment. Two years ago when Xiao Wu had her menarche, she had come to consult him. How had he suddenly become a shameless scoundrel in the blink of an eye? Hipatia was not a normal person. Having suffered the trauma of female circumcision during her early years as a priestess, she still wasn’t a normal woman, which had led to defects in her personality. Her menarche celebration should originally have been organized by her father and brothers to prove the family had a mature woman who could accept marriage proposals. Now without relatives or friends, she was handling it herself. It seemed Hipatia took this matter very seriously. However, shouldn’t she have invited Xinyue, Na Rimu, and Lingdang to participate in this kind of thing? Why call himself and Li Tai? For a grown man to attend such a reception would be laughed to death.
“Go? Of course I’ll go. As a physician, I naturally understand Hipatia’s pain. It was only after coming to Lingnan that she spoke to me about this matter. I employed both acupuncture and medicine, supplemented with medicinal fumigation, to restore her body to health. A lonely woman carrying this burden in her heart for over ten years has finally obtained release—how could she not rejoice? Naturally I must go.”
Sun Simiao still preferred living in a thatched cottage. He had gathered medicinal herbs all the way from the Central Plains to Lingnan. Li Anlan immediately had a cottage built for him using golden silk grass, which was far better than living in a wooden house. He planned to categorize and organize all the medicinal materials he had collected along the way while in Lingnan and compile them into a pharmacopoeia, so he currently never left his dwelling.
Although it was somewhat embarrassing for grown men to attend a woman’s menarche celebration, as one of Hipatia’s few good friends, Yun Ye still prepared generous gifts and planned to attend. Since she hadn’t invited Xinyue, he naturally wouldn’t bring her along.
“Husband, I’m so sorry. At noon I thought you were going to do that, so this humble wife spoke inappropriately. Hipatia is really something—holding a banquet for such an unclean matter, and inviting only men! What is she trying to do? With so many men in Yongzhou City, does she want everyone to know? How shameless!”
Only after making inquiries did Xinyue run over to apologize to Yun Ye, but in the blink of an eye she was gnashing her teeth and cursing Hipatia, believing this matter was extremely inauspicious. Her husband had better not go. In Guanzhong, menstruating women weren’t even allowed to enter the house.
“Fine, fine. Just now you said I was shameless, and now you’re calling her shameless. When you have menstrual cramps, who rubs your belly for you? Why didn’t you say it was shameless then? Now you’re being particular.”
Hipatia had many headdresses—enough to open a museum. Her greatest hobby was collecting these things. If Yun Ye gave her a set of exquisite gold jewelry, she would definitely be delighted. However, it was better not to make her too happy—making her moderately happy would suffice. A dressing box made of red sandalwood would be good. The nested boxes were very exquisite. With an abundance of good timber, the Yun family carpenters had racked their brains to create several masterpieces, and this dressing box was one of them. It had a palm-sized glass mirror inlaid inside—very high-class.
At sunset, a light rain began to fall. Yun Ye, bringing Liu Jinbao and holding an umbrella, walked to the residence where Hipatia lived. This was a very elegant bamboo building, built not long ago. The outer skin of the bamboo was still verdant. Hipatia’s servants, speaking awkward and peculiar Great Tang dialect, welcomed Yun Ye. They took the umbrella from his hand, and immediately a maid dressed in red invited Yun Ye upstairs. As for Liu Jinbao, he was invited into an outside shelter.
He had arrived early. The hostess was still applying makeup. According to the maid, their saint was so beautiful right now that she was unrecognizable, so she planned to make herself even more beautiful. Marquis Yun would need to wait patiently.
Sitting alone in the empty hall was rather eerie. Every step made creaking sounds—this was the worst aspect of bamboo buildings. What Yun Ye hated most was sleeping on bamboo beds. If one got interested at night, the bamboo bed’s wailing could be heard throughout all of Chang’an. Bamboo buildings had the same effect. Yun Ye leaned against the window, watching the distant mountains gradually blur in the curtain of rain, and couldn’t help but laugh secretly to himself. His appearance was very much like a patron waiting for a beauty to finish her makeup before their meeting.
Fanning himself and quietly chuckling, before his smile had faded, he heard the bamboo building begin to creak again. Li Tai, dressed in moon-white robes and wearing a golden crown, fanning a folding fan and swaying with every third step, ascended the bamboo building while reciting poetry as he walked: “The new wife rises to dress carefully. I put on my embroidered layered skirt, doing everything four or five times. Below my feet I tread silk slippers, upon my head tortoiseshell gleams. My waist is like flowing silk, in my ears bright moon pendants. My fingers like carved scallion roots, my mouth like containing vermillion. With delicate tiny steps, exquisite beyond compare in the world.”
“Oh my! Brother Yun, your younger brother thought only he was eager to see the beauty and hurried here, but I didn’t expect my brother to be even more impatient than this younger brother. I wonder if the poem I just recited complements our beauty?”
“You’re just wicked. You can actually recite verses from ‘Southeast the Peacock Flies’ at someone else’s celebration. It’s only because Hipatia doesn’t understand these things. Try it with Xinyue and the others—shoes would fly into your face.”
Li Tai rattled his folding fan and said unconvincingly: “When your younger brother was a young child, he already admired Jiao Zhongqing’s wife. Such a beauty not knowing how to cherish her—he deserved to eventually hang himself on the southeast branch.”
The two sat by the window chatting and laughing, occasionally sipping grape wine. This woman’s ability to appreciate grape wine was not bad—the taste was excellent. Being able to drink authentic grape wine in the sweltering south was truly not easy.
Ice cubes clinked against the glass cups. The refreshing coolness was indeed invigorating. Just for this, Yun Ye and Li Tai felt their trip had not been in vain. However, the maids had already begun lighting candles, yet the guests remained only the two of them.
“Qing Que, you were the one who delivered my invitation. The guests won’t be just us two brothers, will they? If she’s looking for a bedmate, that would be disastrous. You go—your older brother will retreat first.”
Yun Ye was becoming somewhat restless. Hipatia still hadn’t come down, and the situation was very wrong. He didn’t mind having something happen with other beauties, but Hipatia was absolutely not among those people. Getting involved with her might cause his already troublesome inner chambers to reenact ancient Spring and Autumn period scandals.
A maid struck a golden bell, and a woman dressed in red gauze descended from the third floor, her steps graceful. First appeared a pair of goose-yellow soft shoes, followed by a floor-length red gauze skirt. When the entire person stood in the candlelight, Yun Ye and Li Tai simultaneously gasped.
“Hands like soft reeds, skin like congealed fat, neck like the larva of longhorn beetles, teeth like melon seeds, a cicada-like forehead and moth-like eyebrows. Cleverly she smiles, her beautiful eyes glance. The ancients truly did not deceive me.” Li Tai tapped his palm with his fan and spoke in praise.
Indeed it was so. At this moment, Hipatia was like a blooming peony. Her entire countenance radiated incomparable charm. The leaping candlelight highlighted her allure to the extreme. The blood-red gauze skirt wrapped a fair, voluptuous, and exquisite body. At this moment, even Yun Ye had to admit that Hipatia’s reputation for beauty was truly not false. The sharply defined features of Westerners gave Yun Ye a momentary sense of being spellbound.
Not knowing from whom she had learned to laugh lightly while covering her teeth, she also displayed a touch of bashfulness and a touch of shyness, standing prettily in the candlelight and asking softly: “Brother Yun, Qing Que, am I beautiful?”
Upon these words, Yun Ye and Li Tai immediately sat upright and proper, looking neither left nor right. Especially Li Tai—eyes observing his nose, nose observing his heart, as if an old monk entering meditation. Seeing that he could not avoid it, Yun Ye could only smile and say: “Truly an incomparable beauty in the mortal world.”
“Thank you for Brother Yun’s praise. This younger sister also feels that only today does she seem like a woman. Great Tang has not only given me a place to shelter but also given me a second life. This younger sister is alone in Great Tang with no relatives, having only two or three good friends. Now that Hipatia has reached adulthood, it is entirely due to the help of you two good friends. Please accept Hipatia’s bow.”
Yun Ye knocked the monk-playing Li Tai once, sat up straight, and solemnly accepted Hipatia’s bow, also cupping his hands in return. This was formal etiquette and could not be declined.
Li Tai produced a very beautiful pair of earrings and said with a smile: “I have bright moon pendants to enhance the beauty’s appearance.” Yun Ye also opened the bundle he carried with him, took out the dressing box, and pushed it before Hipatia’s knees, saying: “A small gift, hardly worthy of respect.”
Hipatia held the dressing box and asked Li Tai to put the bright moon pendants through her ears. With tears in her eyes, she said to Yun Ye and Li Tai: “Thank you, thank you both. These are the most precious gifts I have received.”
Having said this, she held the dressing box and ran up the stairs. With the beauty gone, Li Tai gazed wistfully at the staircase, very much hoping to see that beauty in red again. The wine in his cup spilled on his knee without him even noticing.
“If you like her, go pursue her. Your father emperor doesn’t seem to reject foreigners. There are also beauties presented as tribute from the Western Regions in the palace. One more Hipatia wouldn’t be unusual.” Yun Ye watched the hesitant Li Tai and egged him on from the side. If Hipatia hoped to marry, Li Tai should be her best destination. As for himself—forget it. These few he already had were enough to worry about.
The staircase creaked again. Hipatia came down—it really was Hipatia. That Hipatia who casually tied her hair behind her head and hugged a book in her arms had come down. Her eyes no longer held pitiful tenderness but rather sharp brilliance. Her few steps were taken with vigorous strides—where was even half a trace of the beauty from just now?
Li Tai looked fiercely at Yun Ye and said: “No!” His answer was extremely resolute.
“Brother Yun, Qing Que, the menarche celebration is over. Now is the time for discussing scholarly matters. I believe that Qing Que’s idea is foolish and laughable. No matter how large a copper basin is, it cannot possibly fly. This younger sister has already measured the weight of air per unit area. Although this measurement is not very accurate, it can point us toward a direction for research. This younger sister believes that anything heavier than air cannot possibly fly.”
“Utter nonsense!” Li Tai jumped up in shame and anger.