Chapter 112

Chen Dasheng was a diligent man, and even as the days grew better and better, he never let a single day slacken at the skills he lived by.

Autumn brought much rain and the drill-ground was all mud, but he still led his brothers in hard saber practice.

People who've known hardship come to one clear understanding, and the old sabers all knew one thing: that they were prized by the Emperor and respected by their fellows only because they were useful, and the skill they held was a thing others couldn't learn in a lifetime.

So they dared slacken the less, and following their lead-saber, soaked in sweat, they hacked and thrust and flicked and cut and swept with their waist-sabers in the yard, over and over. However good the days were, the same movements, at least five hundred times every day.

Saber-work, for all its thousand changes, never strays from its root, and whatever the school or style, these few strokes are the base of all of it. And move by move, stroke by stroke, the seven of them worked up the force of a great wind come down from the north, of a hundred thousand troops in full cry.

The air split all round the drill-ground, and they were sweating in full flow, when all at once, from the courtyard wall beside them, came a cheer hard to put a word to.

"Fine saber-work!"

Chen Dasheng stumbled, and all but beheaded the culprit in front of him on the spot.

Hu Yougui rolled aside, let out a long breath, stood up and put away his saber, flinging it toward the scabbard hung at the side, and the saber slid home of itself. And a still more awkward bit of praise came after it.

"Fine aim!"

Hu Yougui opened his mouth, helpless, wiped the sweat off, and walked to the foot of the wall with his hands on his hips, and said in a tone half fierce and half helpless, "Oho, General Yuwen, at leisure, are we?"

Yuwen Xiaoqiao, clinging to the top of the wall, told Hu Yougui most earnestly, "Yougui, I'm not at leisure today. I can only watch you a little while. I've been given a post. His Majesty has set me to train the cavalry."

And with that she sprang down off the wall and bowed earnestly to the old sabers. "You're all here, hard at it, hard at it! And the weather's bad too! Ai, has my Yougui been any trouble to you?"

Hu Yougui cocked his head and drew a cold breath, looked left and right, and seeing how she stood there in the right of it, he dearly wanted to hit her.

Yuwen Xiaoqiao wore hard-wearing black fighting-dress today, with small plates of arm-armor and breast-armor, and a waist-token hanging below her sash.

The woman seemed born short a wit, and couldn't see that Hu Yougui was about to lose his temper, any moment now. Or perhaps she was pretending, who could tell? At any rate her face was all earnestness, exactly as if she'd raised Hu Yougui with her own hands.

Kindly as a wet-nurse.

She untied from behind her waist a parcel of food bound with straw rope and wrapped in a lotus leaf, and handed it to Hu Yougui. "Yougui, eat it quick while it's hot. It's the best dried duck from the corner of our street. I won't be coming over these few days. Ai, I'll suffer for it."

Hu Yougui didn't take it, but stood with his hands on his hips looking at her.

But Yuwen Xiaoqiao, all magnanimity, chided him. "Take it. What's there to be shy about? These are all like your own brothers, so why be shy? Do you know, I waited a good while for this first duck..."

Forcing the lotus-leaf parcel into Hu Yougui's hands, she untied a wine-gourd from her waist too and hung it on his. "This is good wine I stole from our big brother. You must drink it sparing, and I can't take much, we have to steal it a bit at a time. Next time we'll steal from third brother..."

Helpless, Hu Yougui ground the back of his head against the wall, gooseflesh crawling all over him. Past his awkwardness, he looked at Yuwen Xiaoqiao, and every time he opened his mouth to say something, she'd conjure out one more new thing from about her person.

"Yougui, don't scorn it now, my mother says I have to learn some needlework too, this, this is a kerchief I embroidered... you mustn't let anyone see it, how embarrassing."

"Yougui, when you're tired of the duck, have some of the pickles, they're my kitchen's best thing. When I used to campaign far off, this was what I liked best to take along..."

"Yougui, so while I'm not here these few days, you hold that little temper of yours in, tss, like a hot coal. If anyone rubs you the wrong way, just note it down, and when I'm back I'll settle it for you, mm..."

Past all bearing, Hu Yougui roared out, "Yuwen Xiaoqiao!"

The truth was, from the moment she sprang down off the wall and started talking nonsense, Yuwen Xiaoqiao's eyes went darting this way and that, anywhere but at Hu Yougui, and what she'd said, perhaps even she didn't know.

Seeing Hu Yougui angry, she looked up at the sky all at once and sighed. "Aiya, Yougui, it's getting late, I, I'm busy too, busy! The Emperor's command is on me!"

She climbed the Long Saber garrison's wall again, and before she got up her foot slipped and she scrabbled at the ground a few times. When at last she'd made it up, she crouched on the wall-top and cupped her hands gravely to Chen Dasheng. "Marquis Chen, my Yougui, he's young! Sometimes he does things amiss..."

Hu Yougui broke down entirely, and standing at the foot of the wall roared out again, while she, springing down off the far side, didn't forget to report back, "Yougui, while I'm not here these days, buy yourself whatever you want to eat, our house has money..."

A packet of small silver was tossed in over the wall, and the quick, stumbling patter of her feet went off into the distance.

Everyone knew it: not come? Not a chance. Tomorrow she'd be at it with some new trick, she'd come again, and come unbroken, forever trying out ploys learned who knew where.

Hu Yougui carried the things to under the eaves, and not wanting to talk, slid down a pillar and slumped.

Chen Dasheng went over, amused, opened the lotus leaf, and shared the dried duck with the brothers. Gnawing at it, he said in real admiration, "Brother, she's a remarkable one too. Just tell me, today's whole act, where did she find a strategist for it?"

Hu Yougui said feebly, "Devil knows!"

This girl Yuwen Xiaoqiao, never mind she was a woman, her skill, in the old sabers' eyes, was truly of the first rank.

However high the Long Saber garrison's walls, however large and grand the prince's mansion, there was no place she couldn't find.

Hu Yougui smacked his lips, and held up a big kerchief, embroidered to the last degree of fineness and covered with great peony blooms. "Tell me, where did she buy this thing?"

The brothers crowded round, and the big brother, sharp-eyed, pointed at the corner. "Su Xizi, on the old street by the east gate. See the mark, big as that." And he sighed. "Not cheap, for certain, a dozen strings' worth. That girl's face is of the first rank for thickness too."

By now Hu Yougui's room was piled with no end of new clothes, new shoes, new sashes, and every time she'd say the same one thing, smiling, "Yougui!

"I just made it for you, my needlework's only so-so, wear it for now and I'll make you more..."

Hu Yougui felt his wits a little astray, and didn't want to talk, but Chen Dasheng took his two cheeks in one hand, worked them side to side, and sighed, "Say what you will, there are advantages to a pretty little face."

His mouth forced shut, Hu Yougui mumbled, "Big brother, just pinch me to death!"

The lotus-leaf of dried duck went down fast, and by the time Hu Yougui came to himself, the brothers in their deep brotherly love had left him just one piece to taste.

Guan Si'er, feeling for his brother, pushed it into his mouth and helped him close his jaw.

Chewing feebly a while, and thinking who knew what, Hu Yougui suddenly held up the kerchief, looked it over this way and that, and bent his head in a smothered laugh.

Chen Dasheng stood up and shook his head, helpless. "Ai, Yougui's gone mad! Off work, off work, all of you home. Tomorrow's a rest day, so none of you come scrounging a meal at my place. It's not as if your own houses have no kitchens? Sponging at my place day after day, what sort of thing is that!"

At that the brothers all stood, and most of them had homes, so they scattered in a rush, hearts flying homeward.

The Laodao Camp near the six-markets crossing was where the Long Saber garrison's office stood.

As for why it was called the Laodao Camp, the "Old Daoist Camp," it seemed that under some emperor or other of the old dynasty, one who wanted to become an immortal, a pack of Daoist priests had been kept to brew elixirs for him to eat. To be housed so close to the Great Liang palace, the old Daoists' elixirs must have come out none too crooked back then, or they'd never have earned a four-court great compound with a garden.

When Great Liang was newly founded and the various boards were all grabbing ground in Yanjing, this place had been taken by the Board of Works. Later the Emperor went over the map of Yanjing place by place, and gave the old lord of the Board of Works a scolding, for the old fellow was a field-mouse, digging burrows all over the ground.

Only, a pity, the field-mouse lord had no imperial backing, and Chen Dasheng's bones were hard, so he got a big office off the Board of Works.

Look all over Yanjing, and of the fifth-rank offices Chen Dasheng's was the biggest.

Back when the Board of Works was here, the neighbors of the Laodao Camp thought nothing much of it, and no wonder: the Board of Works had many craftsmen, and however high the official, cooped up a dozen days in the workshops, he came out grubby and no pleasant sight. And that crowd of Board of Works lords didn't like to bathe, and dropped lice as they walked.

Coming and going, their smell had made the whole Laodao Camp what it was.

But from the day the Long Saber garrison's lords came, then, then spring came. Never mind their official airs, at the least they were easy on the eye.

At the Long Saber garrison, whether the chief officers or the petty clerks of the office, youth was the first thing, and the second, under the chiefs' influence they were all clean, and they let the stalls be set up as they pleased, and paid for their food.

And the evening before a rest day was the finest sight in the Laodao Camp. The office gate swung wide and out came a crowd of fine young lords.

Today as usual Chen Dasheng led. The moment he was out the gate, Jixiang's wife met him with a round of greetings, and then, precious as gold and jade, he was borne off to the carriage by seven or eight servants guarding him like a great treasure.

Yu Qingguan came out second. This one loved to take on disciples. He was charged with training the outer-road scouts, and every time he went home he took seven or eight disciples along, and the disciples had rank too, and guards of their own, so he went off splendid as the moon ringed by its stars.

Tong Jintai came out third, and looked round with a smile, and saw his father-in-law's old steward driving the carriage over himself.

The old steward got down with a smile, slowly set the footstool for Tong Jintai, and helped him up into the carriage.

Getting up, Tong Jintai asked, "Heh! No going home, then. Whose house are we eating at today?"

The old steward said, grinning, "The old great-aunt's house in Sitong Lane, of course. How many times she's asked us. The young madam doesn't like to go running about, but there's no help for it, they're old kin! You don't know, son-in-law, yesterday our eldest young lady was carried over, and heh, no one who saw her didn't praise her, we took home whole chests of first-meeting gifts already."

Tong Jintai let down the curtain and sat there very pleased with himself. "That's right, my daughter! So small and already earning her own dowry, not raised for nothing..."

The old Zhang family were ministers of the old dynasty, and never mind they'd been out of luck two years, they were a tiger on their own ground, and had no lack of kin, of course.

Ever since Zhang Wanru had her daughter, who Tong Jintai was no longer mattered, he'd been kicked clean to the ends of the earth, and she went round all Yanjing from gathering to gathering, showing off, these few months, the big fat baby girl who was nimble as a monkey and laughed at a tickle.

Today wine at a great-aunt's, tomorrow a few days' stay at a grandaunt's.

No sooner had Tong Jintai left than Ma Ergu came out smiling to fetch his horse, in brand-new clothes inside and out. Never mind no one came to meet him, he was a lucky man with a whole flock of sisters-in-law, and ever since he married Baqiao, the things on him were the finest, and before they even needed a second wash, new stitched clothes arrived.

And his father-in-law of merchant stock, and his elder brother-in-law the censor, prized him most of all, and whatever good food the house had, they'd keep him a share.

Sometimes when Ma Ergu stood watch before the Emperor, his elder brother-in-law, seeing him, would always slip him from his sleeve a bit of melon or fruit or pear or peach, candied fruit and pastries...

A few days apart and they missed each other sorely, so before going home he'd first cadge a rich meal at his father-in-law's and brother-in-law's, and only then, half-drunk, head for Guard Lane.

Once Ma Ergu had gone, the remarkable Cui Erdian came out.

Of the old sabers' wives, for family standing the Chai was highest, her family had the most ways and airs, and prized this life-saving son-in-law most.

Truly all the Chai house's glory and dignity were to be won back by this son-in-law of prospects, Cui Erdian.

As much as his father-in-law hated the Earl of Chang, so much did he prize this son-in-law, and so the moment he came out, the Chai servants carried up an open sedan, crowded round calling greetings to the son-in-law all at once, and helped this son-in-law into the sedan as they would a darling daughter.

The old Chai family's open sedan was made very large, carried by eight men, and three could sit in it without crowding.

Cui Erdian sat down, took a peeled fruit, and gnawing it, leaned out to ask Hu Yougui and Guan Si'er, "Well? Come back with me today, why don't you. There's an opera-and-wine party at my father-in-law's tomorrow, a troupe from the south, and tonight we could take a scented bath together after?"

But Hu Yougui and Guan Si'er shook their heads together. The two of them had changed into scholars' robes today, done up ever so refined.

Guan Si'er opened a folding fan, flapped it a few times in put-on reserve, and said with a smile, "We won't! The Emperor's given Master Ruian a new house and he's holding a wine-party for it, and my brother and I are off to drink at Scholar's Lane."

And so the brothers took their leave of one another, and the bustling gate of the Long Saber office fell quiet again.

Chen Dasheng rode back to the prince's mansion, and coming in, asked first, of course, where his wife was, and the gatekeeper said the family had fetched the old lady over, and the old lady had brought a great flock of chicks and ducklings besides, and was out back now with the prince in the Jingxin Garden.

The Jingxin Garden was the place where the former Prince Hui had cultivated himself, played the qin, and sat in Chan meditation.

The moment Chen Dasheng went in he heard Granny, in her own sure, high tone, scolding Father. "What did I say? You all keep saying it's nothing, nothing? Is this nothing? Take your eye off it a moment and it's all ruined! You're no good at keeping house, and now you've got her like this too. You don't run your own life, and would you spoil Qian'er as well?"

And having said it, the old lady looked furtively left and right and lowered her voice. "Before, you ate and drank for free, and that was off other folk. Now you eat your own, so how is it you don't know how to manage?"

She Qingling squatted, all smiles, cupping a goose-yellow chick in his hands, the chick cheeping softly, while the old lady scolded him till the spittle flew.

"Just tell me, a yard as big as this, what good thing couldn't you do with it? Keep some chickens and ducks and you'd at least get an egg. You, grow vegetables? You're the master of a house, grow this much and could it all be eaten? And who'd dare eat your vegetables? And over there, yard after yard of wretched tree-seedlings, you can't eat them, can't drink them, just a bit of green to look at, have you gone mad?"

Prince She dared not say a word, and with a smile set down the chick and took up a duckling, thinking, how pretty, tomorrow I'll have them get things ready, I want to paint.

Qi Qian'er sat on a couch not far off making shoes, and drawing the thread she said with a smile, "Granny, it has to be you to tell him, me telling him does no good! I've said it, a yard as big as this, better to open up a few mu of land. The soil's so rich, the ground so deep, just set it in order and next year our whole house, top to bottom, would have its food, no need to buy outside at all!"

Could the old lady not catch her meaning? She shot back with a curse. "You wretched girl, are you mocking me?"

Qi Qian'er wasn't afraid of her, and held up the shoe-upper in her hand. "What, am I not even allowed a jab? Just look at the life I lead! Waiting on the old and the young, and I've to make shoes for the palace besides. Who did I owe in my last life for this?"

At that the air in the yard went tense.

You couldn't blame Qi Qian'er for being angry. The thing was, the Empress Dowager Zheng in the palace, from the time She Qingling wouldn't stay and meant to come out, had suddenly changed her ways, and sent word that at her birthday last year, didn't the clan-wives of close kin all have to send a few kinds of needlework in filial respect?

Qi Qian'er's needlework was only so-so, and at first she hadn't meant to send any, but a matron was sent to the house to go on at her, the gist of it all being that the Dowager was well on in years, had few blood-kin left, wanted for nothing, and that as a great-aunt she only wished to wear a pair of shoes made by her grand-nephew's wife.

When the shoes were barely finished and sent to the palace, the Dowager put them on at once, with no heed at all that Qi Qian'er was in mourning, and even praised them before the Empress, the consorts, and the ministers' womenfolk, saying outright that in all the world only the shoes Qingling's daughter-in-law made her were the most comfortable, and no one else's needlework was her equal.

From then on that old lady would wear no shoes but the ones Qi Qian'er made.

What was Qi Qian'er to do? However sick She Qingling was of the Dowager Zheng's little schemes, the woman asked for little, made no trouble for you, kept the Zheng from being hateful to you, and what was so wrong in wearing a pair of shoes from a grandson's wife?

After all, this was the great Dowager, mother of all under heaven.

The old lady stood up on She Qingling's arm, waved a hand, and dozens of little fowl rushed out and pecked the prince's new-grown vegetable seedlings clean away.

The old lady, needing no one's arm, walked straight over and sat down by Qi Qian'er. "Hai, don't you complain either. It's just your lot."

At that Qi Qian'er grew cross, and threw the shoe into the basket, and pointing imperiously at the plate of pastries said to Prince She, "Father!"

She Qingling was ever one to read a face, and neatly carried the pastries over to his daughter-in-law. Qi Qian'er picked the best-looking piece and stuffed it in her mouth, and eating, took up the needlework again and, resigned, plied the flying needle.

The old lady poked her forehead and scolded, "Never satisfied, are you. Where's your father ever owed you? Making a pair of shoes and you squawk about it. I'm old now too, and let's speak with a conscience: she's a pitiful soul, do you know that?"

Qi Qian'er, stubborn for once too, pursed her lips and gave a snort.

She Qingling, having found a backer, hid beside the old lady eating beans, and with his foot nudged aside the chicks and ducklings messing all round the low couch, not finding it the least bit disgusting.

The old lady took a shoe-sole from the basket and plied the needle, sewing as she talked. "Put yourself in her place. All her life she's had no child of her own blood. For good fortune or ill, she's really worse off than me. At least I have you few. What has she? The son she raised is another's, friendship only on the surface, and in her heart she must be lonely to death. Who hasn't a time in life they can't get past, a place they sink into and won't come out of?"

A man in guard's dress hurried along the mansion's covered walk, and seeing him from afar, Chen Dasheng quietly stood, went to the courtyard gate, took the sheaf of files the man carried, and sat under the eaves to look them over slowly.

The old lady was still talking over there. "...She's no fool, a fool couldn't have raised a son like the Emperor, now could she?"

She Qingling, his cheeks stuffed full, nodded. "Mm!"

"A person who has nothing will grab hold of one thing and never let it go, not to her dying day, right? She's nothing left but her natal family, and now, even if the old Zheng house is a heap of dung, she has to keep it perfumed with incense all year round, and let no one say a word against it, right?"

At this Chen Dasheng raised his face and put in, "Granny, my father is my father, not some thing in her hand."

She Qingling only smiled and tossed beans into his mouth, saying nothing.

These two cubs of his were both headstrong, and when their tempers rose they turned wild indeed, and would allow no one outside to say one bad word of him.

He'd heard a thing from his subordinates.

Some days back, when the house was putting the yard in order, Qian'er, whose eye didn't reach so far, trusted no merchant's price at all, and even for a single nail she'd go to the court's iron-market held on the first and fifteenth, and ask house to house, how much for one nail?

That time too, Qian'er had gone to ask iron prices, and heard a few out-of-town merchants talking of him, saying a eunuch had the face to come out and be a commandery-prince...

Such idle talk, in truth, never stopped a single day, and if he'd minded it, he'd have been dead past dying long ago.

But who'd have thought, this girl heard the whole thing out without a sound, bought her goods smiling, and walked off as if nothing were the matter.

And when the iron-market broke up that evening, this girl quietly followed them with her servants, threw a sack over them, dragged them off to a deserted spot, and set her big, burly women on them with the wooden mallets for beating laundry, a good incense-stick's worth of hard beating.

And not just once, either. The day before every first and fifteenth, before the iron-market opened, these men were sure to get a beating.

And sure enough, the few loose-mouthed ones knew they'd given offense, and were now selling their shops and houses, meaning to go make a living out of town.

In all his life She Qingling had never been so carefully protected, and his heart was very sweet. Since Qian'er acted as if it had never happened, he was secretly delighted, and privately ordered her a good deal of head-ornaments and jewelry for when her mourning was over.

The old lady was still talking. "...Her having you make shoes is only to get a tie with you, to draw a thread of acquaintance between you, like your Fourth Uncle. Ai! He's a heap of dung too!"

Bringing up the word pained the old lady, and she brushed a bit of down off herself and sighed. "I know he's no man, I know he's a beast, and what can I do? Stuff him back in my belly and pass him out again...?"

"...cough, cough, cough, cough..."

Poor She Qingling: a famous man of his age, descendant of a whole loyal and valiant house, the hidden chancellor of the court, the Emperor's cousin, the Dowager's sister's son, the newly made Prince Rui'an, in all his years, for the first time had someone say such a coarse word right out before him.

A bean went down his windpipe, and Chen Dasheng threw aside the files and bounded over to pound his back, and everyone else crowded round to pound it together.

The old lady had no idea how great a force her words had, and still grumbled, "You child, a grown man, see how little you amount to, choking on a mere bean. Quick, get yourself watered."

And at that he choked again.

In Yanjing, to water the beasts, people would say, "Give that donkey a drink, it's worked all day."

The whole family spun round She Qingling, and once he'd got his breath back, the old lady was not one to ape the Emperor's way and cry out, "Quick, call the court physician!"

She just set to with her hands, pounded hard a few times till his breath came, and then said fiercely, "Are those eyes on your head, or blind holes? Can't you even watch where your food goes? Tell me, what are you good for?"

And with that she crossed her legs, sat on the couch, and went on muttering, "Your Fourth Uncle, beast as he is, what can I do? I've thought it through. When I die one day, I'll have to tell you all: your Fourth Uncle will come to begging sooner or later, and you few, for the monk's sake if not the Buddha's, if you pass him, at least give him a bun so he doesn't starve, and Granny can close her eyes in peace."

Chen Dasheng drew a breath. "Granny! Why speak of him?"

The old lady turned her face aside, sure of her ground. "If I hadn't borne him I wouldn't bring him up, oh, pah! What I mean is, the one in the palace has the same thought as me, she's thinking... at least she treated you like her own kin once, just for these shoes. If her family comes to grief, you mustn't go trampling them, so that she can stretch her legs and close her eyes in peace..."

Qi Qian'er threw aside the basket and reached to cover Granny's mouth. "Ah, ah, ah, Granny, Granny! My ancestor, let it be me who stretches my legs tomorrow, won't that do? Walls have ears..."

She Qingling, at the side, was laughing past all helping, and really couldn't listen any longer, so, holding in his laughter, he stood and sidled over to his son, picked up the old file, and asked, "What's this?"

Chen Dasheng stood up and drew a breath. "Hai, it's that trouble of the Seventh's lately, his heart aching at every turn. The Emperor's asked after it a few times, and he's seen a good many doctors, and not one of them finds anything wrong, but his aching on and on is no good thing..."

She Qingling tossed aside the old dynasty's Essential Compilations of the Board of Rites and raised a brow. "What has the Seventh's trouble to do with these old-dynasty records of the exam men?"

Chen Dasheng picked up the book he'd tossed aside, pointed at a name in it, and said in earnest, "The Seventh told me a few days ago, this is his birth father."

She Qingling's eyes went round in an instant, and it was a good while before he asked low, "The Hezhao Academy? Zhao Dongjin is the Seventh's birth father?"

And then, as if something had struck him, he cocked his head and looked at Chen Dasheng in disbelief. "No, surely not? Could there be such a thing in this world?"

Chen Dasheng nodded, then shook his head and sighed. "Father, I'm afraid it's not so simple. It's only a guess of mine, and the Seventh and the rest don't know I'm looking into it. Tss! It came to me in a flash. The other day when he took ill in the night, I sent a man with the token to fetch the court physician. Erdian came back and told me the head of the Imperial College had sent a card too, saying Master Gong had come down with the very same trouble, his heart aching for no reason..."

She Qingling was more startled still, and backed away a few steps, while Chen Dasheng, watching the goose-yellow chicks running about on the ground, said, "It's too uncanny a thing, but I believe it. You don't know, the day my own elder brother died, I didn't know what was wrong with me, I was uneasy the whole day, couldn't put my heart into anything... and afterward they told me, your brother died yesterday."

The day his own father died, too, his heart had been choked with a weight for no reason he knew.