This time?
Could there have been a “last time”?
Zhou Shaojin said, “Just walking away like this—is Uncle Chi going to be all right?”
“What does it matter?” Ji Ying was somewhat unhappy and said, “Isn’t he Cheng Zichuan? How could such a small matter trouble him?” Then she pulled Zhou Shaojin. “Let’s go, let’s go! What are we standing here for?”
Zhou Shaojin still hesitated somewhat.
Ji Ying said, “Do you know what happened last time? Old Madam Guo suddenly decided to attend a wedding banquet at the home of a colleague of the old master who had been dead for who knows how many years and lived in Lai’an. She said something about the journey being long and inconvenient, and insisted that your Uncle Chi must escort her. Your Uncle Chi readily agreed, but just before leaving, he suddenly said he wanted to bring me along. At that time, I didn’t understand your Uncle Chi as well as I do now. I thought your Uncle Chi had changed his nature—seeing me confined at home until I was practically growing moss, his heart softened and he decided to take me out for a walk. I was so excited I even made several new outfits and happily went with him to Lai’an…”
At this point, her chest heaved with anger.
Zhou Shaojin quickly said, “What happened after? Did someone bully you?”
“Who would dare bully me!” Ji Ying spat and cursed, then said through gritted teeth, “Everyone took me for your Uncle Chi’s concubine!”
Aren’t you?
Zhou Shaojin almost blurted it out.
She quickly covered her mouth.
Thinking of her previous suspicions about Ji Ying, she couldn’t help but feel ashamed.
Ji Ying thought Zhou Shaojin was simply too shocked and didn’t suspect anything at all. She continued, “Tell me, why did Old Madam Guo insist on calling your Uncle Chi to Lai’an? It turned out to be for a matchmaking meeting. Your Uncle Chi knew perfectly well but kept only me in the dark. I was like a fool, running around at his beck and call. Even knowing others misunderstood, he didn’t explain. I really have the worst luck in eight lifetimes to have become Cheng Zichuan’s maid…”
Zhou Shaojin felt awkward.
Ji Ying looked somewhat embarrassed.
Speaking this way about Zhou Shaojin’s uncle in front of her was indeed inappropriate.
She quickly changed the subject, saying, “Let’s go to the tea room. Let’s go to the tea room.”
Zhou Shaojin didn’t want to stay here either. She smiled and said, “I’ll go tell my companions. Otherwise when they don’t see me, they’ll look for me everywhere.”
Ji Ying nodded.
From the opera stage came “clang clang clang”—the opera had begun again.
Fortunately, Zhou Shaojin had become familiar with the maids and pozis of the Hanbei Mountain Lodge these past days. She turned and found someone to help pass a message to Cheng Jia and Gu Shiqi, then went to the tea room with Ji Ying.
Two pozis were tending the stove in the tea room. Though the two pozis didn’t recognize Ji Ying, they recognized Zhou Shaojin and eagerly came forward to greet her.
Zhou Shaojin rewarded the two pozis with several hundred wen and had them brew tea for herself and Ji Ying.
The two pozis were skilled at reading situations. Knowing that many young ladies had come to the house today, and seeing that Ji Ying’s dress and bearing were not ordinary, they assumed Zhou Shaojin and Ji Ying wanted to avoid others and find a place to talk. They smiled and thanked her, brewed two cups of tea, brought out two plates of small pastries, and excused themselves saying they needed to go to the opera viewing area to see if anyone needed hot water. They left carrying two large copper kettles.
Once inside the tea room, the sound of drums and gongs suddenly diminished considerably. Zhou Shaojin’s ears found peace, and her heart felt lighter.
She sat down to drink tea.
But Ji Ying couldn’t sit still. She walked back and forth around the tea room, looking here and there, and somehow found a small bowl of broad beans.
She said with great interest, “Miss Er, shall we roast broad beans to eat?”
Zhou Shaojin saw that the broad beans had been cooked with five spices. She asked curiously, “Can these beans be roasted?”
“Why not?” Ji Ying smiled. “When we were little, Father would often roast five-spice broad beans in the brazier for us to eat. They were better than ordinary broad beans. But each time the beans were buried in the brazier, when they were done they would pop and crackle, bursting out and scattering charcoal ash all over the room. It took great effort to clean up. My mother was so angry she wouldn’t let us roast things in the brazier. Each time, Father had to do it behind Mother’s back.”
She wanted to recapture that feeling, not just eat roasted five-spice broad beans, right?
Zhou Shaojin smiled faintly.
Ji Ying removed the copper kettle from the stove, used tongs to take out some charcoal, then buried the beans in the charcoal ash. Patting the ash from her hands, she smiled and said, “Done. Soon we’ll have beans to eat.”
Zhou Shaojin, thinking of what Ji Ying had said earlier, asked, “Since Old Madam Guo specifically took Uncle Chi to meet a potential match, why didn’t it work out?”
In her view, Cheng Chi was tall, handsome, gentle in temperament, and had scholarly credentials. If he wanted to marry, it shouldn’t be difficult at all.
Ji Ying curled her lip disdainfully and said, “At that time, your Uncle Chi was already of advanced age and still just a xiucai. Others also saw that he had someone like me, a ‘concubine,’ at his side. Would parents who cherish their daughters still marry their daughter to your Uncle Chi?”
Zhou Shaojin laughed awkwardly.
“So your Uncle Chi is an extremely cunning person,” Ji Ying said. Her expression gradually became somewhat distant and wistful as she said, “But that time, I happened to run into Jiao Ziyang…”
Jiao Ziyang—that sounded like a boy’s name.
Zhou Shaojin’s gossipy heart blazed. She quickly said, “Who is Jiao Ziyang? Did you know him when you were at home?”
Ji Ying was silent for quite a while before gently nodding.
There’s a story here!
Zhou Shaojin probed, “Could he be your fiancé?”
Ji Ying remained silent.
Zhou Shaojin immediately grew anxious and said, “Didn’t you explain to him?”
“How could I explain?” Ji Ying said, her eyes suddenly reddening. “When he saw me, he ran away. I chased him for two streets but couldn’t catch him.” She suddenly began to cry. “That bastard Cheng Zichuan—I asked him to help me explain, but he didn’t say a word… I’ll remember his ‘kindness’ for the rest of my life…”
Zhou Shaojin didn’t believe Uncle Chi was that kind of person.
He even protected a stranger like her—how could he intentionally hurt Ji Ying’s feelings?
Zhou Shaojin thought of Cheng Lu.