Chapter 59

The four had leapt into the river to save people almost without hesitation; the third month was warm, but the river-water carried a light chill. Before the cold could spread through him, Zhuo Siheng had swum behind one of those in the water and, from the back, circled and lifted him; the man plainly couldn't swim, and flailed with all his strength, but only forward and to the sides. Zhuo Siheng smoothly pushed him toward the pole-and-net a nearby passenger boat lowered, then swam off to rescue the rest.

Not all who'd fallen in were passengers; several were boatmen who could swim, and, not rushing ashore, turned in the water to help the passengers who couldn't. Jin Jia and one of the boatmen, with the utmost effort, hauled ashore a passenger near as heavy as the two of them together, while Yu Yong, valiant and quick on land and in water alike, was already rescuing his second.

Ciheng, pushed under and made to swallow several mouthfuls of water by the girl she'd saved, at last dragged and hauled her successfully ashore, then went to bring another girl to safety; this second woman passenger was calm enough, clinging tight to a wooden tub thrown from a boat and floating, neither crying out nor thrashing.

By now the swimmers among the passengers on the surrounding boats had all jumped from the gangplanks, and seeing two or three helpers beside every person in the water, soon all were saved; the sound of thanks was unbroken. The stricken boat had steadied too, and a white-haired old man, supported by two others, came aboard, bowing without cease to all who'd helped in the water — saying his family were merchants of Qingzhou, traveling all together when this disaster struck, and that thanks to everyone's help all were saved; if they didn't disdain it, would they come aboard to change clothes, and the family would surely repay them richly.

Zhuo Siheng and the others of course wanted no reward; Ciheng, hurried along by him, had swum back, and Yu Fu had readied hot water and warm tea and picked out a dress of her own for her to change into. No sooner had Ciheng, unable to refuse the kind offer, come aboard than seven or eight maids wrapped her in thick, soft flannel and pushed her into a cabin.

Jin Jia too invited Zhuo Siheng aboard, saying with a smile that they'd talk over old times once he'd changed; night was near falling, and the Tai River was not the canal — bad for running the water by dark — so better to rest a night and let him fulfill a boat-host's duty. For an old same-year's sake Zhuo Siheng could hardly refuse; and with Yu Fu seeming so attentive to his sister, he could hardly go back to his own boat first either.

The servants Yu Fu arranged led the three each to a cabin with hot water ready; after a quick wash Zhuo Siheng changed into his own everyday clothes brought by Chen Rong, dried his hair and bound it again, and came out to the cabin-hall. Jin Jia had changed too; naturally amiable of face, in an everyday robe of dark-patterned crimson he looked the more kindly and honest.

"This is ginger tea my cousin had brewed, with honey added; drink it while it's hot." Jin Jia took a big gulp himself, and at once a warm glow rose in his face. Zhuo Siheng drank a few mouthfuls too, and before long a warm current ran from his belly out to his limbs.

Seeing him finish, Jin Jia said, a little apologetically and with a smile: "Don't hold it against my cousin. His father, the old Duke, is arranging a match for him; he doesn't like the girl of that house and is sulking at his father, so he wears that debt-collector's sour face at everyone now. My cousin's temper is poor, but he's not a bad man; don't take it amiss, Yunshan, and if he's been improper or ever offended you, I'll apologize for him."

"He and I have scarcely spoken; you needn't, Leshan." Zhuo Siheng said, also smiling.

But what he thought was: whom Yu Yong married was no business of his.

Besides, when the two had clashed in autumn, it had nothing to do with a wife.

But this was Jin Jia: he never liked others to quarrel in his presence, and always wished to smooth away the tangle, heedless even of taking a loss of face himself.

Still, everyone seemed vexed by marriage matters. Uncle Fan had arranged a match for Fan Xiliang too, and the cousin was much alarmed; the report-on-duty for the southern and southwestern prefecture-and-county officials was all held in Jiangnan Prefecture, so he couldn't get home — where a look-over might once have let them meet, now he was to marry without even a meeting; Fan Xiliang's letters to Zhuo Siheng were uneasy between every line.

These two, as elder cousins, both had cousins to worry over. So, with a helpless wry laugh, they looked at each other, and felt a few parts of fellow-sufferers' sympathy.

Yu Yong, changed, entered the hall, and saw Jin Jia and Zhuo Siheng sighing at each other; he said nothing, took up his own ginger tea and drained it in one go, and a long silence began.

Unlike the awkward silence in the boat-hall, in Yu Fu's cabin the two girls were like friends who suited each other by nature; scarcely a few words in, they'd exchanged warmer forms of address.

What Yu Fu gave Ciheng was a peach-crimson everyday ruqun of her own; Ciheng had never worn such a color, but couldn't lightly refuse the kind thought, and had to grit her teeth and change into it and come out — the whole of her like a rabbit dragged back by a snare round its hind leg, worlds apart from the spirited grace of one who, striking the water a moment ago, had yielded nothing to falcon or hawk; she near forgot how to walk.

But just as she stood there mortified, Yu Fu, seeing the outfit, brightened and praised: "This dress brings out a blazing splendor in Sister Ciheng!"

Ciheng's scalp tingled — Yu Fu's maid had gripped too hard redoing her hair, and she was taut all over; she'd meant to feign a proper, well-bred young lady, but Yu Fu didn't seem the sort of daughter of a noble house she'd met before, her every move generous and natural, so Ciheng went by her own nature and laughed: "Sister Fu, this is the first time I've worn this color; I feel like my legs aren't even my own."

Ciheng's water-leaping, wave-riding valor still vivid before her, and now the girl before her dignified and graceful, set off pretty and charming by the dress — Yu Fu felt the Maker's own craft, that one person could hold so many spirits; only, amazed as she'd been earlier, she'd never heard of a girl so fierce and bold. She sent her people out and invited Ciheng to sit, and only when the two faced each other asked: "Sister Ciheng, you jumped into the water then without a moment's thought?"

Ciheng felt her swimming was being doubted, and at once vindicated herself: "As a child, no one in our village could out-swim me — only Elder Brother could keep up." And she didn't forget to add several of her glorious deeds of those years as proof.

Yu Fu listened, her long, limpid eyes bright; in truth her meaning had not been to ask about Ciheng's swimming but to wonder how she could be so greatly, fearlessly bold, heedless of a woman's decorum and maidenly training — but Ciheng had successfully drawn her attention off to village anecdotes, and Yu Fu, less than a year older, in a girl's sudden fancy, tossed her other doubts off who-knew-where.

When the maid brought hot ginger tea again, Ciheng stopped talking and drank a mouthful to wet her throat; Yu Fu, seeing the jade-like-yet-not-jade pendant at her breast familiar in form and spirit, took out her own jade pendant from her bosom, and, as if she'd discovered something remarkable, unfastened it and handed it over for Ciheng to look at up close: "How curious — both our pendants are the Jade Rabbit pounding the elixir!" Raised from childhood in her aunt-once-removed's commandery-princess residence, under the strictest family rules, her voice's leaping delight now would surely, at home, have drawn a governess's eye-blade of warning.

Ciheng looked — sure enough the same — and took off her own to compare.

Zhuo Ciheng's was less jade than a green stone: mottled all over with flecks of stone-lint, green but not translucent, its carved lines without a whit of lively grace, cutting out a jade rabbit pounding medicine plainly and no more, no other ornament; the pendant's one merit was, perhaps, that from long wearing against the skin it had taken on a faint moist gloss.

Yu Fu's was likewise a jade rabbit pounding medicine, but of top-grade pure-white mutton-fat seed-jade, not a speck of impurity, its lustrous color just like the moon at the full, its fine radiance rare and alive; on it were carved not only a lifelike jade rabbit but a blossoming osmanthus, with openwork layer on layer of lunar-sea patterns — three tiers of relief interlaced in so small a piece; to call it exquisite past compare would be no exaggeration at all.

Yu Fu now regretted it — a moment's curious impulse, and a sense of fate — but compared so, it seemed she'd meant to show off; and just as she was at a loss, Ciheng suddenly said: "Your jade rabbit's beautifully carved! More alive than a live rabbit! If Stone-mason Li of the next village, who carved mine, saw it, he'd surely die of shame; back then he told my father not a craftsman in all Shuozhou could carve to his skill, and charged our family a few dozen extra coppers for it!"

Her tone playful and exaggerated, she set Yu Fu laughing a good while; coming to herself, Yu Fu thought: sure enough it was she who'd overthought, forever imagining this and that — what a free, broad-minded person the Zhuo family's third young lady was; how would she mind such petty distinctions of having and not having?

"Did your father give you this jade?" Yu Fu, her own heart opened wider too, took up the earlier thread and asked.

Ciheng's eyes softened with longing, and she murmured: "Say it was from my father and Elder Brother together. The year I sprained my foot gathering herbs in the hills and was resting at home, I wanted to eat fish; my elder brother hurried off to angle, but got so lost in his book on the bank that the fish ate all the bait and he caught not one — in the end he had to go into the river himself to catch me one by hand, caught one smaller than his palm, and on the way picked up a queer, pretty green stone. This stone was the make-up for the fish I never got to eat; my father said it was northern green-jade, only mostly mixed stone, not pure enough — yet there was a fate in it, so he had the stone-mason carve me a jade rabbit pounding medicine, to pray for its protection."

Yu Fu listened, warmed at heart, and generously told the origin of her own jade rabbit: "My mother was sickly from childhood, and passed her first year only with much stumbling; my grandmother, the Dowager Empress Dejing, had this pendant carved from Suzhou tribute jade, and later my mother gave it to me."

"I thought as much — only elders of a house give such things to their children and juniors." Ciheng said, smiling, and hung her jade pendant back on.

But Yu Fu's heart went faint and forlorn; thinking of her father and brother, the many things of her house truly hard to tell another, she could only lower her head and swallow the bitterness behind a smile, bowing her head in assent.

Seeing she seemed to have something on her mind, Ciheng was about to ask, when suddenly from outside the door came a maid's urgent low voice: "Second Miss, someone's come from the boat that had the accident."

The two exchanged a glance, both thinking at once: surely not come specially to give thanks?

Yu Fu had the maid come in; the maid's bearing too was proper, but her brows and eyes showed a trace of anxiety: "The owner of that boat has led a good many people here, all looking far from friendly; right now the heir, the young master, and Master Zhuo are dealing with them."

"Justice? We saved them and now they come for 'justice'?" Ciheng's fine brows shot up, and she stood straight up and strode out; Yu Fu meant to stop her, but, worried for her brother and cousin, followed her out after all.

More than a dozen people had already gathered in the boat-hall; as Zhuo Ciheng entered she heard a voice, cold as ice, say: "The talk is done; there's still the courtesy of seeing you off if you go now. But if you mean to go on talking nonsense, then swim back to your own boats, the lot of you."