Chapter 104

Chen Dasheng's duties were hard going now. He ran three ways. From the prince's mansion to the Long Saber garrison was halfway across Yanjing. Then he changed into armor at the garrison and went to the palace, another two streets at least. After his night watch at the palace and a look-in on his father, he went back to the garrison to change his clothes. Every day he got home only at curfew.

He was young and ran it gladly, and could bear the hard work, so he never let any part of it slip.

That day the morning court let out early. When he got back to the garrison's old street, the neighbors' stalls were already set up.

It was high summer and hot, so the traders who could afford it had all put up awnings. Looking down the main street from the garrison gate, you saw cloth awnings everywhere, with only a cart-lane left open down the middle.

Anywhere else, a place with a government office stood on its dignity and would never allow this. But the lords and generals of the Long Saber garrison had mostly known hardship and had soft hearts, so they only had someone keep the middle lane clear. The rest they let the neighbors do as they pleased.

When the dozen-odd fine horses came down the street, even if there was a bump now and then, the neighbors dared not take it up. They would even wait till the garrison lords had passed, then crowd round and scold the offender, saying that family was too greedy, that they'd got in the lords' and generals' way and dragged everyone down with them.

The old sabers knew nothing of all this. But just as they turned in at the garrison, Chen Dasheng saw someone huddled behind the stone lion at the gate.

The gatekeepers were slack indeed.

In his armor he swung down off his horse and walked over, his war-boots thudding, and bent to look. The man started too, and the two of them studied each other. Both wore official robes, and at last the man made a bow. "This humble officer is Hu Chunhou, Judge of Nanfeng Prefecture. I greet the lord."

The moment he gave his name, Chen Dasheng knew who he was. He looked the man over carefully now, up and down.

The man was around fifty, in an office official's robe. Perhaps he'd come in haste through the night, for his robe was rumpled, his topknot a wretched tangle, and he wore no cap. His shoes were caked with mud, and his whole face was grimed with dust.

But looking at his features, Chen Dasheng could find little of his brother in them. The ears were another matter. Father and son both had the same ear that stuck out like a hitching-post.

Never mind how the man had treated Hu Yougui, whether he owed him or not. On the surface, things had to be kept decent.

So Chen Dasheng gave him a courteous nod, then turned his face toward his brother, who was taking off his armor across the yard, and called out, "Fifth!"

The court grew grander by the day. Last year you could stand your watch in something light, but now they all had to wear gold armor to stand outside the hall doors. The Long Saber garrison's gold armor was heavier and more lavish than the rest. Never mind the cost of making it. Even the cords that laced the plates were woven of gold thread.

Never mind a grand court day. Even an ordinary morning court left every man of them soaked in sweat in this heat.

Hu Yougui had dismounted, his gold helmet tucked under his arm, and answered, "Brother?"

As he answered he saw the man, and he froze. Plainly he knew this ragged man, knew him down to the bone, and had no idea how to deal with him.

Chen Dasheng went over and patted his shoulder. "Take him to your room first, and get out of that gear, quick. Aren't you hot in it?"

Hu Yougui looked at Hu Chunhou and stood wooden a long moment. At last he nodded with a smile, went over, and said, very politely, to the man, "In all this heat, when did you get here?"

Hu Chunhou was in a great fluster. He kept staring, dazed, at this man who seemed to be his son and seemed not to be. The gold armor the man wore was so dazzling he hardly seemed a man at all, but a god come down.

A long while passed before he stammered out, "Last... last night I got here. The gate... it wasn't, wasn't open."

Hu Yougui nodded with a faint smile and pointed at the side gate of the office. "Come in with me, then. Whatever you've got to say, we'll say it inside."

And so the father and son vanished from sight.

Chen Dasheng watched them go, a little anxious. But there was nothing he could do.

Yu Qingguan saw him uneasy and came over. "Chief, don't fret. If it were Jintai or Erdian you'd have to worry, but this is our Yougui, right?"

He wrenched off the two forearm plates and tossed them to an orderly, then went on, smiling, "The rest of us put together haven't got as much in our heads as he has."

Chen Dasheng felt a little easier. He gave a wry smile and walked in with them, and after a few steps said, with feeling, "He may have eight minds to my one, but I'm still his big brother."

Guan Si'er bounced right out. "That's right! If I died and came back in the next life, you'd still be my big brother!"

Tong Jintai kicked him off with one foot. "Get off, you bootlicker."

Having kicked Guan Si'er aside, he stood at the council-hall door and, careless, knocked his helmet twice against the carved stone pillar.

Never mind how costly that helmet was, Tong Jintai didn't much care. But the orderlies and the low odd-job clerks about the yard were used to the generals' way of summoning them, and they came running out of every corner to stand straight before Tong Jintai.

Tong Jintai cursed them, his whole face the picture of a man let down. "Are you all dead men? Look what the street's come to. Look how every one of them takes a mile for an inch. Stay if you can do the work. If you can't, back to the Jinwu Guard with you tomorrow. There's no rice bowl for you here."

Chen Dasheng's room was next to the council hall. He changed quickly, and in the end carried out a basin of water himself. He sat under the eaves eating the melon the kitchen had sent, washing his feet, and watching his brother throw his official weight about on the side.

Tong Jintai stood on the steps and went on lecturing, enjoying himself hugely. "Now then, every one of you listen well. Before this, we lords couldn't be bothered with you, because you treated this place as a stepping-stone and wouldn't stay long. A little slacking day to day was no great matter. Hot as it is, nobody likes to work, and the truth is I don't like to work either..."

Cui Erdian came clanking over in his heavy armor, propped himself down beside Chen Dasheng, and put his mouth to his chief's ear. "Chief, egg him on a bit. See that? What a grand show of office."

Chen Dasheng had gnawed the melon rind thin as a cicada's wing. He ate and pushed him off at once. "I'm worried enough as it is. Handing over from the old office to the new is nothing but this kind of bother. Go get out of that gear, quick. Isn't it heavy?"

This place of theirs had once been a big workshop yard of the Board of Works. Now the Guard garrison had come and taken it over, and of course the Board of Works was unwilling, so there was wrangling over it.

Cui Erdian didn't want to go, and grumbled. "I'd like to go, all right. My third brother's wife has an uncle who runs a gold shop, and I've only five hundred cash a month. Ordering a thing for the wife at full price, isn't that dear? I tell you, Chief, it's been years now. Can't the sister-in-law raise our allowance a little? I'm a grown man, and it won't do for a sixth-rank lord to go out with nothing on him but a jingle of odds and ends worth five hundred cash all told. It's not enough to live on, truly. I've half a mind to pry the gold plates off this armor and sell them..."

The melon in his hand went sweet no longer. Chen Dasheng sighed, helpless. "Dreaming, are you? Whoever mentions money to her just now becomes an enemy she'll hate for eight lives over. You bring it up if you like. Me, I don't dare..."

From the side, Tong Jintai's lordly ordering went on without a pause. "Today's the key moment for our Fifth Lord, so dig out your best clothes, every one of you, and put them on! You Board of Works men, why does each of you look like a blacksmith at his forge? No care for how you look at all. No, no, this won't do!

"And you there, comb that hair of yours smooth. The ugly ones keep out of sight today... And bring over the Second Lord's set of gold-inlaid tortoiseshell tea bowls, and find those tea jars in my room, and take them all to the Fifth Lord's room. And you, what's-your-name... yes, you, go to the counting-house and draw some silver, and fetch eight or ten boxes of the good tea-pastries from the pastry shop at the street-mouth..."

Chen Dasheng put in, helpless, "Does it have to be such a grand to-do? Get back there, quick. Erdian's waiting on you."

Tong Jintai only tossed his head and explained. "Brother, you don't understand. Our Fifth's a different man now. We're making him a bit of a show, and it has to be all dignified, to show how big and grand our house is. Otherwise that crowd over there will go bullying our little Fifth, won't they?"

"Bullying who?"

Into the still-bustling yard came a voice that shouldn't have been there.

Everyone looked round at the sound. It was Hu Yougui, who shouldn't have been here. He'd changed into a loose robe, and came shuffling in wooden clogs, smiling gently.

Chen Dasheng was a little surprised. "So soon? Why've you come out here? What, something wrong?"

Hu Yougui helped Tong Jintai send the people off, then sat down by Chen Dasheng. "It's nothing. I've sent him away."

They were all surprised, and Erdian asked, "That quick? He's gone already?"

Hu Yougui nodded, and said with a careless smile, "That's right. What else was there to do? Weep our hearts out at each other? The man's got a new wife now, and new children, a whole household and a life of his own. What did you expect of him? To kneel and knock his head three times to me? Then I'd never be able to hold my head up again."

Chen Dasheng handed his brother a piece of melon. Hu Yougui bent and gnawed it down, then took the cloth Little Ding handed him and wiped his mouth. Only then did he say, carelessly, "I was small then, and I always felt a wrong pent up in me. In my dreams I beat him, cursed him, even killed him. But now, what is there to say to him? Tell him all your bitterness, your hard straits, all the shameful things, one by one? And tell him it was all his sin, all his doing? And when you've said it, it's done! And then what?"

He looked at the few men in the yard. No one spoke. They all looked back at him.

Hu Yougui smiled up at the sky, his whole face full of scorn. "And then he begs your pardon, says he was wrong, says he'll treat you well from now on and begs you to forgive him... And then what? Is the thing over? It's not over. I can't get over it!

"In the end you go back to him, or even if you don't, because he's begged your pardon, all the filthy, rotten lot of them come pestering you, telling you your father knows he was wrong, he's begged your pardon too, so what more can you do?

"Kill him, then? Didn't your mother know he was hateful? Your mother never blamed him to her dying day, so what right have you to blame him? They were the married pair, after all. And then what? All your grievance, all your suffering, because he's begged your pardon, is it over and done for him? Never to be spoken of again?"

No one spoke. Hu Yougui flung away the rind, struck the table, and said with feeling, "Better not to say it at all, then. So I'll say nothing, tell him nothing. I'd sooner keep everything I ever met with, everything I ever suffered, shut up in my heart. I won't be understanding! I'll keep this hate to lean on. Whenever I think of it I can be angry again, angry with a clear conscience, and only so do I feel better. I'll not give him one chance to feel easy. I'll leave a knot in his heart for ever and ever, and only then will I be easy. Right?"

He spread his hands and smiled. "And let him keep out of my sight. I've a backer, after all, and sooner or later I'll rise and grow rich. And by then... every hour of his days he'll think of me. He'll get no peace. And even if he's at peace, there'll always be someone at the festivals asking him, that's your son, isn't it? Why don't father and son live together? He's got a weak spot he dare not mention, so from then on he'll be nothing but a mess of knots..."

Chen Dasheng nodded. Seeing him about to run on again, he handed him another piece of melon in the end. "There, there, stop. It's no small thing, you talking so much! Thirsty, aren't you? Eat, eat. This is the first crop of melons from our manor, just at its sweetest. When it came, your sister-in-law kept not one, but sent the whole lot over to us."

Guan Si'er had something on his mind, and asked carefully, "You sent him away..."

Cui Erdian, his face blank, stopped his mouth.

Hu Yougui took the melon, gnawed at it hard, and lifted his face again. "Mm. I changed my clothes, poured him a cup of tea. He did want to ask me something, but I said, I hear there's quite a houseful now? All doing well?... and then he didn't dare speak.

"Didn't dare look at me, either. The man... hah, he's a lucky one, truth be told. There's always someone to coddle him and keep him in hand. Back then he used me and my mother as his stepping-stones, threw us away, and so he learned how to get on in the world, got ahead, got clever. Well, so much the better. Oh, he told me my younger brother's at an academy in the capital. After that there was nothing more to say. I said I had things to do, and he left..."

Tong Jintai snorted a laugh. "Eat your melon."

Chen Dasheng nodded. "Aye..."

A few dragonflies had settled on the green leaves in the summer yard. There were few drops of water on the leaves, so they had to keep searching. Though a big pond lay not far off, these few searched the leaves for dewdrops with all their heart, and who knew what they were thinking.

No one spoke. They watched quietly, watched them come and watched them go. Later Tong Jintai said he wanted to go to the gold shop, so Chen Dasheng changed into a pair of summer clogs too, and pulled Hu Yougui along to go with them.

Whatever others thought, they always had a home. Having one was enough, and they didn't hanker after anyone else's.

But they didn't know that, when they'd gone a good way off, Hu Chunhou came out from around the corner of the garrison gate. He swayed on his feet, in misery, and wept at his son's retreating back. At first the tears fell drop by drop, and then they poured like a spring.

And after that he was done weeping, simply done. Tears were no further use, so he could only turn and leave this place, and go back to where he belonged.

He could say nothing, beg nothing, and could not reach deep into his son's heart. He didn't dare. He who had once dared anything, now he didn't dare. Full of shame, hands and feet all bound up, he climbed into the carriage at the roadside, and only when he'd drawn the curtain did he give himself a brisk slap on the face.

This time no tears came. The hooves clattered on, and all the way he slapped and slapped at his own face, until both cheeks swelled up as if with mumps.

The place where the four streets and six markets met was not far from home. The shop belonging to Tong Jintai's wife's relatives stood right here.

Chen Dasheng had no money on him, and Hu Yougui had no wife, so while the others went in to buy jewelry, the two of them sat under the tree by the shop door and watched the bustle.

Many people came and went at the six-markets crossing, men and women, old and young. The gold shop's keeper came out himself with tea and refreshments to wait on them, and Chen Dasheng asked, "You've chosen a fine spot for your shop, keeper. The trade must be brisk."

The keeper smiled like a Maitreya Buddha, but dared not own that he was doing well. He only smiled humbly and said, "Your kind words, my lords. It may look crowded here, but as you two lords can see, this spot doesn't earn enough to cover the rent. It's only for the name. For real custom, our few shops down south do better, far better than here... Take your ease, my lords."

It was the season for sweet melons, so melon was what they were offered again. Chen Dasheng and the others had eaten plenty at home, but with the deep memory of hunger in them, when they saw food, eat it they would.

Only the melon here wasn't as sweet as the melon at home, so they gnawed it and grumbled at the same time.

Just as they were making the most of a free bite, two fine carriages came down the street, thronged with servants, and stopped at last at the gold shop's door.

As the country settled, the great old families that had fled Yanjing began, from early this year, to come back. The ones tangled up with the fallen dynasty dared not come, and could not. But the rest were bound to return in the end.

Father said these people were good for trade.

And with these people back in Yanjing, the city took on the true air of an imperial capital. Take the horse-trappings in fashion these last months, the chamfron, the bridle, the breast-collar, the crupper and the rest, a full hundred and eighty-five pieces of gold-inlaid gear worked with gold and silver thread.

Chen Dasheng had seen Zheng Aman's set. He had the whole hundred and eighty-five pieces, and gold inlay on every one was not enough for him. He had to have green turquoise and coral and gems of every color set in besides, and on top of it a suit of the fashionable bright clothes, with flowers stuck in his hair.

Chen Dasheng was too embarrassed to say it, but when Zheng Aman walked, he looked like one of the hairy caterpillars on the walnut trees back home, a rippling riot of color, and who knew what he had to be so pleased about.

The two carriages stopped not far from Chen Dasheng were just so. They were only cart-horses, yet the trappings on their fronts alone ran to a few dozen pieces at least, all gold-thread work, with no silver inlay.

A little envious, Chen Dasheng felt at his little purse. He was thrifty, and the fat, stuffed feel of it comforted him still.

The driver was a sturdy, well-dressed man. When the carriage had come to a stop, he hopped down, fetched the footstool from the back, set it in place, and stood aside.

Then a pretty maid in a light silk jacket came forward and helped down first a fine gentleman of forty or fifty, with three strands of long beard below his chin, in wide sleeves and a loose gown.

This gentleman knew how to turn himself out too. He'd even used a touch of fine powder to whiten his face. Once down from the carriage he waited, waving a feather fan with an elegant air, until his old wife and his two daughters had got down, and only then went swaying into the gold shop, his clogs clacking.

Chen Dasheng and Hu Yougui had no genteel roots, so they gnawed their melon like a pair of simpletons and watched the show. They saw the servants follow in, and a middle-aged man with a purse on his back, plainly the one who held his master's money, a steward by his looks, passed by close to Chen Dasheng. And the melon suddenly dropped from Chen Dasheng's hand.

Their chief was not easily stirred like this, and Hu Yougui called out uneasily, "Chief?"

Chen Dasheng sniffed, stood up, looked left and right, and said low, "I've seen an enemy. I'll go in to make sure of him. You go find out where they're from."

Hu Yougui nodded. Once Chen Dasheng had gone into the shop, he gave his hips a little twist, smiled, and called to the two drivers in the blazing sun at the crossing, "Oho, come from out of town, have you? In all this heat, no easy trip!"