Since that painting “Fishing in Seclusion by Pine Creek” fell into the Yu family’s hands, it had been half a year. One matter after another—the entire Yu household had been trapped in an anxious mood throughout. Now they could finally throw off this burden. Whether it was Yu Wen or Yu Yuan, both felt as if a weight had been lifted, feeling that the long-lost peaceful and leisurely life would soon return to them.
“For the map matter, we just need to listen to Third Master Pei.” Yu Wen said happily to Yu Yuan. “The family can start preparing for New Year matters.”
Yu Yuan’s face flushed red.
He and Miss Xiang were already engaged. During New Year, he would need to send New Year gifts to the Xiang family and discuss the wedding date. Moreover, the shop on Changxing Street also needed to open.
Yu Wen instructed him, “Miss Xiang’s situation is special. I’ll have your aunt go to the Wei family later to ask whether Miss Xiang will spend New Year at the Wei family or return to the Xiang family. If Miss Xiang stays at the Wei family for New Year, I’m afraid you’ll have to send two identical sets of New Year gifts.”
One side was the debt of raising, the other the debt of birth—neither could be neglected.
Yu Yuan nodded repeatedly.
Yu Wen asked Chen Shi to visit the Wei family.
Chen Shi had always rarely socialized with others. Household matters were mostly managed by Yu Wen. Although she felt Madam Wei was very nice and they got along well, she had no confidence about such matters. Especially since Yu Tang had been performing exceptionally well recently—even Yu Wen had started listening to her opinions—psychologically, she had gradually begun to rely on her daughter. Seeing Yu Wen say this, she pulled Yu Tang along: “Come with me. You can pay your respects to your Aunt Wei at the same time.”
Since parting with the Pei family, Yu Tang had been busy with the map matter and hadn’t seen anyone from the Wei family for some time. She felt this was a good time to pay her respects to Madam Wei and the others, so she happily agreed.
Seeing this, Chen Shi simply pulled her to the Pei family’s jewelry shop and had several pieces of gold and silver jewelry made suitable for a young lady to wear, saying, “I estimate that after the fifteenth day of the first month, we’ll be able to set your brother’s and Miss Xiang’s wedding date. During New Year, there will definitely be many guests at home, and you’ll need to dress up beautifully.”
This was also the time to have all the madams get to know Yu Tang, and a good opportunity to ask them to help arrange marriages for Yu Tang.
Yu Tang didn’t think much of it. These past few days she’d been pondering Pei Yan’s affairs.
That person dressed so meticulously himself, yet insisted on presenting a plain appearance—truly a sanctimonious fellow. He also liked young ladies to dress elaborately, which completely contradicted the impression he gave people.
This person definitely had many tricks up his sleeve in private.
New Year was approaching, and there was still no news about the auction. Afterward, they would need his help deciding which family to cooperate with and introducing partners to their family. The Yu family should at least send a New Year gift that suited his tastes.
If it couldn’t be bought in Lin’an, she’d have her brother make a trip to Hangzhou.
Then there was the Gu family.
Gu Xi and her elder brother Gu Chang had the best relationship. Li Duan’s family had caused such a fuss that they’d split from the Li clan. She needed to probe how the Gu family would view this matter.
She also needed to find out clearly why the Li clan’s main branch wanted to split from Li Duan’s family. Perhaps it could be useful later…
Yu Tang felt there was a whole pile of matters to attend to.
But now without the threat to her life, her mood was no longer as urgent as before. Feeling that everything still had hope, she no longer found it troublesome. After settling on the jewelry designs, she urged Chen Shi to visit antique shops: “We need to select something suitable as a New Year gift for Third Master Pei.”
Chen Shi touched her purse and said, “Why don’t you browse with your father?”
Yu Tang smiled and said, “What doesn’t Third Master Pei have? Sending him New Year gifts requires careful selection—things easily bought with silver, he may not necessarily like. Being expensive is secondary; what’s important is that it’s interesting.”
Chen Shi thought this made sense and said, “Then also tell your brother. When he’s out, he might come across something suitable.”
Yu Tang nodded with a smile and entered a nearby antique shop with Chen Shi.
Chen Shi saw a lotus pond brush washer and, thinking of the newly ordered jewelry, couldn’t help saying, “Didn’t you used to prefer those simple, clean designs? Why are you choosing all these flowery things now?”
Yu Tang smiled and said, “Don’t they look good?”
“They look good.” Chen Shi smiled at her daughter, saying sincerely, “Our girl has bright eyes and white teeth. Those flowery things suit you beautifully. It’s just that you were stubborn before and found them troublesome. Are you growing up now?”
No.
It was because she feared next time Pei Yan would again tell her to dress “properly.”
But she couldn’t say this to her mother. Smiling, she pointed to a Ru kiln plum vase nearby: “Mother, look! Isn’t it beautiful?”
Chen Shi said, “Of course it’s beautiful. But this plum vase?”
Even if they didn’t set Yu Yuan’s wedding date, their family couldn’t afford it.
Yu Tang pursed her lips in a smile and said, “I’m just letting you see it.”
Someday, she would be able to buy whatever she wanted.
Chen Shi breathed a sigh of relief.
Yu Tang saw a bronze beast-shaped door knocker beside it. She couldn’t tell what divine beast was cast, but the beast’s appearance looked simple and bold, with a sense of weight.
She couldn’t help smiling at the accompanying young clerk: “Your shop also sells this?”
The young clerk knew his shop’s inventory like the back of his hand. Hearing this, he smiled and said, “Miss, you don’t know—these door knockers are very particular. Can you recognize what divine beast this is? It’s a pixiu. You didn’t expect that, did you? But this isn’t the most miraculous part.” As he spoke, the young clerk took out the beast-shaped door knocker, then pulled down the ring, and a small beast identical to the divine beast emerged from the beast’s mouth.
Both Yu Tang and Chen Shi found it rather interesting.
Seeing this, the young clerk pulled again at the newly emerged small beast’s ring.
An even smaller beast emerged from the small beast’s mouth.
“Interesting, interesting!” Yu Tang said. After the young clerk stuffed all the newly emerged small beasts back in, she pulled them out again herself.
Seeing her interest, the young clerk hurried to introduce the door knocker’s history: “This is the door beast from the secret chamber of the Grand Princess of Jinyang from the previous dynasty, guarding wealth. Originally there was a pair, but the other one was lost…”
These things without verifiable provenance were mostly tall tales.
Yu Tang said, “How about I take it to show Manager Tong?”
The young clerk shut his mouth.
Yu Tang asked him, “How much silver for this door knocker?”
The young clerk hesitated for a moment and said, “Ten taels of silver.”
Yu Tang haggled with him: “Go ask your manager—will you sell it for two taels of silver?”
The young clerk, his face turning red from holding back, went to fetch the manager. The transaction was completed for two taels of silver.
Chen Shi hadn’t spoken all along. Only after leaving the antique shop did she say quietly, “You—are you planning to give this to Third Master Pei?”
“Yes!” Yu Tang smiled and said, “Consider it a testing stone. If he keeps it, we’ll know what to send in the future.”
Chen Shi made no comment. Yu Wen also found it interesting and played with it at home for quite a while before finding a brocade box to put it in, preparing to send it along with the New Year gifts to the Pei family.
As for the Wei family, Miss Xiang would marry out next spring. Although she usually spent New Year at the Wei family, this year Old Madam Xiang personally sent someone to fetch her, saying that Miss Xiang not marrying out from the Xiang family was already wrong—if she didn’t even return home for New Year, they wouldn’t let her live.
Madam Wei didn’t dare keep Miss Xiang any longer. She said to Chen Shi with a bitter smile, “This child—who knows how she’ll be tormented after going back?”
Chen Shi comforted Madam Wei: “At most it’s just this one Spring Festival. Endure it—consider it a tribulation the Bodhisattva has her pass through. After this, it will all be good days.”
Madam Wei shook her head, not wanting to speak of these matters with them. She pulled Yu Tang to discuss New Year visiting matters: “Come over with your mother on the fourth day. Your sister-in-law will be back then too. I’ll have her play mahjong with you.”
Miss Xiang laughed and said, “Auntie, viewing peach blossoms, eating fruit, playing pitch-pot—any of these are fun. Why play mahjong?”
Everyone laughed.
Yu Tang really liked Miss Xiang’s straightforwardness and suddenly felt much closer to her.
After returning from the Wei family, she began helping her mother prepare New Year gifts. At this time, Yu Bo also returned from Jiangxi. Travel-worn, he not only brought back a boatload of goods but had also recruited two lacquerware masters from Jiangxi. Settling the masters, rebuilding the workshop, arranging merchandise, drafting the list of people to invite for the reopening—her eldest uncle was overwhelmed with busyness. The matter of sending gifts to the Xiang and Wei families was left to Chen Shi.
Yu Tang also became busy.
Pei Yan was also somewhat busy.
But his busyness was better than Yu Tang’s. Everything at home followed established practices. He only needed to make decisions on matters exceeding usual practice. Plus, with everyone preparing for New Year and Zhou Zijing also gone home, he was actually more leisurely than usual and could do things he wanted to do.
He focused his energy on the map auction matter.
When the Yu father and daughter left, they had left the map with him. At first, he wanted to try reproducing it himself, but later found it too troublesome—it would be faster to draw one himself. So he wrote a letter to his senior fellow apprentice Tao An, whose family did maritime business, asking him to send someone to reproduce the map and telling Tao An it was a nautical map from Guangzhou to Dashi.
Tao An didn’t write back. After the Laba Festival, the Tao family’s head steward and one of Tao An’s advisors directly brought two masters who could reproduce maps and rushed to Lin’an, bringing along two large chests of gold.
“Our master said that the Pei family is also an aristocratic clan with scholarly traditions, and Third Master is especially noble and upright. These trifling worldly goods are merely our compensation for lodging at the Pei residence. Please don’t take it to heart, Third Master.” The Tao family’s head steward was very humble. “Our master was afraid of delaying Third Master’s matters. As soon as he received Third Master’s letter, he had us rush directly from Guangzhou. Whatever requirements you have, just give orders.”
Pei Yan drew in a breath inwardly.
This senior fellow apprentice of his had always been known among their peers as “Lord Mengchang” and was usually very generous, but generous to this extent… He pursed his lips. If not for helping the Yu family, he would have played deaf and dumb and pretended not to know.
“Does your master have any other instructions?” he said directly. “If not, after you’ve eaten, start helping me reproduce the map!”
“Yes, yes.” Steward Tao, remembering his master had instructed him in the letter to speak directly, hurriedly said, “Our master also said, if it’s convenient, could I bring the two masters back with me when we’re finished?”
Masters who could reproduce things usually carried great risk.
Just like those masters who could locate burial sites and build tombs—when encountering secret matters, they might very well not make it back.
The Tao family wanting to take the two masters back was naturally not simply to preserve their lives, but to ask Pei Yan through this—could the Tao family get a share of this benefit!