The atmosphere in the main receiving hall was warm and harmonious.
The elder Madam Zhu had made up her mind to stand behind her granddaughter and give her every support. She wasn’t worried about Zhi’er’s ability to manage things; what she worried about was people mistaking her for a fat sheep ripe for the shearing.
“Wasn’t it just yesterday she came back? I’m always a bit muddled about things — when you sent word asking me to fetch someone, I just went and fetched her. But I still don’t actually know what this is all about.”
Hua Zhi deliberately hung back a step. Just as she’d anticipated, Fourth Great-Aunt stepped in and took over the explanation, her face full of shame. “It’s a matter too disgraceful to easily speak of. I don’t know how or when Hua Yan got herself acquainted with that Feng Family young man, but she’s gone and decided she’s willing to enter their household as a concubine. When has the Hua Family ever had anything like this happen? I was beside myself with panic. If the eldest young miss hadn’t returned just in time and handled it all with such clarity and composure, I truly would not have known what to do.”
Candid enough. The elder Madam Zhu felt somewhat mollified. Living as they all did in the same circles of aristocratic families in the capital, and with Feng Changyü himself having made no small effort to spread the story, how could she not have heard? It had become fodder for gossip over tea in every household. She had been anxious for her granddaughter but helpless to intervene — even though the Hua Family had fallen on hard times, this was still the Hua Family’s own affair, and there was no room for an outsider to insert herself.
She hadn’t expected that first thing in the morning, Zhi’er would send someone to ask for her help. Now that there was something she could do, she naturally intended to do it well and properly. Still, she worried that the whole business would leave Zhi’er tainted — she too was a daughter of the Hua Family, and one who was out in the public eye besides.
She glanced over at her granddaughter, then arranged her expression into a look of well-placed surprise. “So as things stand now…”
The old matriarch of the Fourth Branch looked to Hua Zhi. Hua Zhi took up the thread. “For the sake of the Hua Family’s reputation, I would like to ask Nanny Li to use her standing in the capital to conduct a formal verification of Hua Yan’s purity. I looked earlier — her birthmark is still intact. Even if she is entering as a concubine, she goes as a woman of unblemished honor. The improper claims the Feng Family has been circulating have no basis whatsoever.”
Hua Zhi rose from her seat and dipped into a bow toward Nanny Li. “I ask for Nanny’s assistance.”
Nanny Li stepped back, unwilling to receive the bow. She smiled and said, “If your family’s young miss is truly pure, then all old Nanny would be doing is speaking the truth. I could not accept a bow for that.”
“Even so, asking you to be touched by such a matter is the Hua Family’s fault.” After that brief courtesy, Hua Zhi settled back into her seat and continued, “The Feng Family’s sedan chair will be here shortly. If there is anything to be prepared for her, it should be seen to now.”
Hua Yan’s mother, though brokenhearted, could not bring herself to send off the flesh of her own flesh in such a bare and desolate way. No matter how deeply hurt and disappointed she felt, she bowed low to the room and retreated, pressing her hand over her mouth, to go and make the preparations.
The old matriarch looked around the room. “I’ll send the young ladies back to their rooms.”
“There’s no need for that. I won’t be permitting Feng Changyü to enter.” Hua Zhi looked toward the doorway. Baoxia appeared there, Hua Yan beside her.
With so many eyes on her — some resentful, some furious — Hua Yan only stood with her head bowed, silent.
“Hua Yan. If you don’t want to arrive at his door carrying the name of a woman who met a man in secret, then go with Nanny Li to be verified.”
Hua Yan clutched the fabric of her skirt, her face scarlet with humiliation. For any unmarried woman, submitting to such an examination was a profound indignity. But she knew what mattered more. She could not arrive at the Feng household trailing that sort of reputation behind her.
“I’ll do as Elder Cousin says.”
Hua Zhi’s lips curved without warmth. She said nothing more. Nanny Li rose, a maid came forward to lead them, and the two withdrew together to the room next door.
The mood in the hall was poor, and Hua Zhi made no attempt to offer comfort — she had no real comfort to offer. Truthfully, she was the one who needed comforting. Her body felt as though it had been filled with lead, and what she wanted more than anything was to go home and rest properly — instead she had been forced to come and deal with this wretched business.
“Grandmother, I’ll need to trouble you to serve as witness and press your fingerprint here.”
The elder Madam Zhu read the document carefully, then looked at the fingerprint already on it and her expression shifted. “She actually agreed?”
“I gave her a way out. She chose to walk straight into the dead end.” Had Hua Yan hesitated even for a moment upon seeing that contract — which was, in every practical sense, a severing of family ties — Hua Zhi could have found a way to quietly smooth the whole matter over. But Hua Yan had agreed without a flicker of hesitation, and it was that which had finally turned Hua Zhi’s heart to stone.
The elder Madam Zhu sighed quietly and rolled back her sleeve to press her fingerprint to the page. Hua Yan didn’t understand — a woman without a maternal home was no better than duckweed with no root to anchor it. Her husband’s household could twist and flatten her however they liked, and she would have nothing to hold onto.
“Eldest young miss — people have come from the Feng Family.”
“Keep the gate closed. Have them wait outside.”
“Yes.” The gatekeeper paused, then added: “Young Master Feng brought quite a number of people with him.”
“A fine spectacle naturally draws an audience. Pay them no mind. Have the household guards keep good watch.”
“Yes.”
In rapid succession, Nanny Li returned, the blushing Hua Yan trailing behind her. The manner of examination had been… it had truly been…
Hua Zhi rose. “Nanny Li.”
“Just as the eldest young miss said — Hua Yan is a woman of unblemished honor. Old Nanny is willing to stand as witness.”
The entire room full of Hua Family women felt the tension ease from their chests all at once. To others this was a simple matter of words exchanged between two lips; to them, it concerned a lifetime.
“Thank you for wading into this murky water on our behalf.”
Nanny Li waved her hand and said nothing more. She had seen too much of the dark and underhanded, and the eldest young miss’s forthright manner was a rare and genuine comfort.
Hua Zhi looked at Hua Yan. Even now, after everything, there was still a trace of anticipation in her eyes. She truly had no idea how much she was overestimating herself.
She glanced at Baoxia. Baoxia understood and came forward, presenting a sheaf of banknotes.
“This is five thousand taels. I said every daughter who leaves the Hua Family would receive her portion — I won’t shortchange you, Hua Yan. I wish you what you’ve wished for yourself.”
The notes were not a single large denomination, but a mixture of large and small amounts mixed together — partly for Hua Yan’s convenience in using them, and partly so that everyone in the room could understand: this money had not fallen from the sky. It had been earned back one tael at a time.
Hua Yan’s eyes reddened. She suddenly felt, in a vague and unsettling way, that she might have made a mistake. But the moment she thought of returning to life as it had been before, the feeling was pushed back down and smothered.
“Go on. The Feng Family’s sedan chair has arrived.”
Outside the Hua Family’s main gate, Feng Changyü stood in a fresh new set of clothes, his expression so bright and eager that he might almost have been mistaken for a bridegroom.
Behind him sat a two-man plain blue sedan chair — no music, no procession mistress, no sweets thrown to the crowd. Nothing at all. This was the treatment given to a concubine. A man of Feng Changyü’s station coming in person was already an exception; typically a concubine was simply carried in through a side gate in a plain blue chair.
“Say, Brother Feng — I hear this house is rented? Is that true?” a voice called out from the crowd gathered to watch. “That eldest young miss is truly something else. She’s actually managed to hold the Hua Family together on her own.”
“True, I hear it’s the eldest young miss paying the rent herself.” Feng Changyü’s eyes gleamed with a particular brightness. Those fools. The eldest young miss almost never went out in public — how could they possibly manage to run into her? But he was clever. By taking a Hua Family girl under his roof, he would have a connection to the Hua Family, and from there, finding opportunities to meet wouldn’t be difficult at all. The nearness of water helps one feel the moon’s cool light first, as the saying went.
The more he thought about it, the more certain he was. A warmth kindled in his chest. He stared at the tightly shut gate as though he could bore straight through it with the force of his gaze.