Chapter 118

In the early winter of the third year of Yong'an, Qi Qian'er quietly came out of mourning, and Chang Lianfang formally moved into Guard Lane.

His new house was to have its housewarming, so Chen Dasheng, as his sworn elder brother, and Old Madam Chen, as his adoptive grandmother, both came back to Guard Lane early to lend Little Flower a hand.

With Qi Qian'er and the rest going back, Father naturally wouldn't stay on alone in the prince's mansion, and so the whole great crowd of the family trooped back together to Guard Lane.

In Qi Qian'er's own unambitious words, only back here was it a life fit for people.

And she wasn't the only one who thought so. Even She Qingling himself thought so. He loved his son's two-court house, the ordinary bustle of people coming and going, everything he looked at warm and full of savor.

On the morning of the housewarming Qi Qian'er rose very early, out the door before it was light. A sworn sister-in-law doing a true sister-in-law's work, and once it fell to her there was no dodging it.

The Chang house had sent over twenty thousand strings of cash beforehand, and she thought it a real waste. Twenty thousand strings for one housewarming? Money to burn, truly.

Little Flower had always had his grievances against his own sisters-in-law. Men didn't like to carry household matters on their lips, but this house his sworn brother, his adoptive grandmother, and his sister-in-law had hauled back for him, and Bao-shi and Xia-shi could keep their hands out of it. From now on he'd have no more of their ways.

The Chang house was at war these few days.

For the old lord had been off at war three years and had sent a good deal home on the quiet, but when the four men came back and checked the accounts there was another fit of fury. Barely a small share of it was left, not even a large one.

This was what drove Little Flower to move into Guard Lane ahead of time. He found his own family a bit sickening.

The newly minted Marquis Chang had grown a temper these past years. Before he'd never squabbled with his daughters-in-law, but this time he meant to squabble for once. Well, then, with not a shred of ceremony he packed Bao-shi and Xia-shi off back to their mothers' houses.

Qi Qian'er didn't meddle in the Chang family's petty affairs. She got to the place early, had the gates of each court opened, had everything breakable or valuable gathered up and put away, and in the bustle the household's helpers arrived one by one.

A Chen family matter was a matter for all of Guard Lane. Lu-shi, Ding Yuniang, Zhang Wanru, Pan Baqiao, and Chai-shi all gathered in the courtyard with their own maids and servants. As for how it was to be done?

That had long been settled between them without a word.

For all they were a pack of household mistresses who didn't like to go out, every one of them was sharp as a tack.

So Qi Qian'er oversaw the whole, Zhang Wanru, who knew many people, took charge of receiving guests, Lu-shi ran the kitchen, and Ding Yuniang, with her eldest girl, helped Pan Baqiao with the gift-accounts...

By the time Chang Lianfang was woken by the clamor of voices in the courtyard, it was the end of the chen hour.

Quanhou Street lay against Baiquan Mountain, the climate here was good, and there was none of Yanjing's noise, so he'd slept well. In the new house everything was new, the bed, the bedding, and that scent of family you could lean on.

After a couple of comfortable rolls on the bed, he shuffled to the door in his slippers, pushed it open, and saw to his surprise that his neat, dry courtyard had sprouted more than thirty six-tier food-racks.

The chen hour was not yet out, but the stoves were lit and the oil hot, and fried meatballs, stuffed pastries, seven or eight kinds of fried things were already being carried in, steaming.

Early winter though it was, flies still bred somewhere or other, and a couple of young girls, not very old, were going along the racks with whisks, shooing them off.

Seeing their master come out, Chang Lianfang's personal man, one Changqing, smilingly directed the servants to bring a basin-stand and cloth, waited on him as he washed, bound up his hair, and helped him into the clothes laid ready for the day.

People came and went across the courtyard, everyone too busy to so much as make their bows to the master. Just as he was being dressed, dozens of fried fish, fragrant, were carried out and set on the racks.

Chang Lianfang was thoroughly puzzled, and asked Aqing, "Say, why's it all being hauled into my courtyard?"

Aqing said, binding his hair, "Listen to you. Where should it go if not your courtyard, left outside? For every idler to grab a fistful here and break off a hunk there?"

Chang Lianfang said carelessly, "How much can they eat?"

Aqing knew how his master's mind worked, and explained with great patience, "Ai-hei, master, count your blessings. Look at you, you sleep to whatever hour you please, and the mistresses of Guard Lane have long since seen to all of it, not a thing for you to trouble over... How much can they eat? Let them loose and they'd clean you out before the feast even started, would you believe it..."

Before he'd finished, his mother Chai-shi's voice came from outside the courtyard. "Your young master's a fool, what would he know of such things!"

Chai-shi had come late, and walked a round of the courtyard on arriving, meaning to find somewhere to help, but there was no need of her at all, so she went happily on to the back court.

Chang Lianfang, having his hair bound and unable to move, said with a smile, "Mother, how is it you're here so early?"

Helped to a seat, Chai-shi said, in fine spirits, "Aiyo, daughter-in-law of the Chang house these several decades, and this is the first time I've had so little to worry over! And this is counting early. If your sister-in-law Qian'er hadn't been here, I'd have moved in last night. Heh! You stinking boy, you're a lucky one, far better than that blind old thing your father. Look at the people you keep, then look at the ones he keeps."

On this point Chang Lianfang was truly proud. He gave an "mm," and unable to nod said, "That's so. Sister-in-law Qian'er has always been capable, and she dotes on me, just like my own."

Chai-shi spared Bao-shi and the rest no face at all, and jeered, "Like your own? And what are those two of your own worth, eh. Ai... it's your mother's own fault too, no good with these housekeeping matters, so I lose out every day of my life. The storehouse has been shaken so bare it's breeding mice. Son, you've no idea. And it's not only your sister-in-law Qian'er. Just now I went and looked round the kitchen and saw that Lu-shi of your brother Quanzi's house. That woman, tsk, tsk, she's the real thing!"

Chai-shi stuck up her thumb in heartfelt admiration.

Seeing his mother's exaggerated look, Chang Lianfang laughed and asked, "As good as all that?"

Chai-shi nodded firmly. "Mm, any female alive is a hundred times better than those two of ours! Downright formidable. Son, you've no idea, and your mother only found out today, there's no end of tricks to a kitchen. A while back I thought the great houses' mistresses were just making trouble for themselves, training up their stewardesses. Now I know the learning in it runs deep!"

His cap on, Chang Lianfang walked his mother round the wooden racks in the courtyard, now and then snatching a still-scalding meatball into his mouth. He did it, and Chai-shi did it too, eating the whole way along.

This was a mother and son who stood on no ceremony.

Chai-shi said as they walked, "Your mother learned a thing today too. Your sister-in-law Lu told me, never mind a little kitchen, take a ten-jin bundle of greens for trimming. With your own people watching the work they'll pick you out eight jin of it, enough leaf-garnish for ten tables. Or take these meatballs. A conscientious cook gets you two racks of meatballs out of fifty jin of mince, but a slack one, just by letting the balls roll a little longer in the pot, costs you two extra liang of oil a basketful..."

Chang Lianfang didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and said helplessly, "Mother, is our house so short of two liang of oil?"

Chai-shi cursed him the way you curse iron that won't make steel. "What do you know, you fool. Our house gets through more than fifty thousand strings a year on food and drink alone. Put that in your sister-in-law Qian'er's hands, or Lu's and the rest, and believe me, give her twenty thousand strings and she'd spend half at most, and with the other half still buy you a few hundred mu of land, and double your housewarming money over by next year!

"Ai, all these fine wives ending up in Guard Lane. If only our house had even one of them. Ai, we got two house-thieves instead, and your father near died of rage this time... Never mind. Lucky you've gotten out, life's good over here, you'll see once you've lived it a while. And it's not just your mother talking. With this crowd of sisters-in-law of yours, whatever kind of wife you take later, so long as she marries in and spends a few years among these good people, they'll polish her up fragrant for you..."

As she spoke, more than twenty servant-lads carried huge baskets into the courtyard. Chang Lianfang drew Chai-shi aside, looked down, and saw the baskets were all melons and fruit, pears and peaches.

He reached for a pear and took a bite, and a chill shot into the roots of his teeth. He asked, "Which fruit-shop's fruit is this? Just dug out of the cellar, isn't it? This time of year these things are dear."

Fruit prices had already risen in early winter, and ten baskets bought like this would cost a fair bit.

As it happened, the one escorting this heap of fruit was the Chen household's needlewoman, old Yin. Hearing Chang Lianfang ask, she came over smiling and made her bow. "Sixth Master, these are fruit our house laid in the cellar in early autumn, and we stored a good deal then. We'll just settle the fruit-money with the main accounts at autumn's price later. Local fruit runs a few cash a jin at most, it's not dear."

Chang Lianfang's rank-order followed the old lady's reckoning, and among themselves the servants called him the Sixth Master of the chessboard court.

Chang Lianfang was startled. "Our cellar?"

Old Yin smiled. "That's right, who hasn't a couple of deep cellars these days? Your own mistress here had cellars dug too, only nothing was stored in them this year. This fruit is from the Third Master Tong's cellar, the vegetables we're using this time are all in the Eldest Master's court, the ice-cellar's at the Second Master Yu's. With so many cellars among us, the work comes cheap."

Even the great houses of Yanjing hadn't as many deep cellars as Guard Lane.

For fear of holding things up, old Yin made her bow and left when she'd finished. At the racks stood Yu Shoutian's Dagu and Xiaogu, one with a big steelyard, one with a ledger, writing down as many jin of fruit as were taken in. Whatever the feast needed later had to pass through their hands too. How much went out, who took it, where it was put, there were rules for all of it.

Chai-shi watched and clicked her tongue, and thought again, now these are careful folk. When the mistresses of Guard Lane ran a thing, truly they'd not waste you so much as a single needle.

She envied them all the more.

Sourly she took her son off to the main court, and before they'd even entered she heard Old Madam Chen's voice, very loud, near a roar, giving someone a dressing-down. "What do you mean by this, eh? You're afraid your little brother-in-law's house will do better than yours, is that it?"

In all her life Bao-shi had never been snubbed before, and her face burned. Pinching her handkerchief, she argued back, "What a thing to say, old Madam. Our little brother-in-law's to live over here from now on, so surely we ought to call door to door and say hello! I, I'm only doing it for Little Third's good, aren't I."

Old Madam Chen, spoiled past all bounds by the whole family, stood on no ceremony with anyone now, and sparing Bao-shi no face went on scolding, "I can't see the good in you two, go ask the whole street! I never heard of such waste. Plenty of folk hold functions over in the Six-Board lanes, so how is it that when their houses hold a function and turn out fried food, they never think to send our house a bowl of it?

"But you, oh fine. You come in the door and start finding fault all over, no use to the real work. You think this is your house? This is Guard Lane, this is my adopted grandson's home!

"Never mind your family's split and each looks to his own. You'd send six dishes to every door down the row, what, your little brother-in-law runs a mountain of gold? You don't mind spending his money, but it kills me, it does. How many households are there on Quanhou Street? Do you owe them something? Have you got some weakness someone's got a grip on, that you'd go calling to curry favor? And don't bother telling me whose daughter-in-law you are, I'll have none of this way of doing things..."

Chai-shi looked up and saw her two good-for-nothing daughters-in-law, and felt the shame of it.

There was no knowing what the two of them had in mind. Perhaps they'd truly come to please today, meaning to put in some work too, and come early for it, but the moment they entered the courtyard they wanted to seize the reins, to run the little brother-in-law's affair their own way, so as to show off what they could do.

But the two weren't very shrewd at anything, and minded spending the little brother-in-law's money even less. Seeing every court and every post already manned, with no way to get a hand in, they put forward a little suggestion, that after all this was a marquis's son's housewarming, so of course it should be done handsomely, and sending a little something to every door was the grand way.

Oh my, now they'd poked the hornet's nest.

Before they'd even finished, before anyone could fetch Qi Qian'er out to snub them, the old lady came in the gate and heard it.

She knew nothing of ceremony. Whosever sister-in-law you were, waste and she'd sort you out.

Behind Bao-shi and Xia-shi came their own trusted women and maids, a whole crowd of them, and being told off in public truly displeased them. They were about to answer back when they heard their mother-in-law say coldly from one side, "What are you two doing here?"

At once the pair went pale.

Bao-shi and Xia-shi had planned it well — come early today, do things up bright and handsome, and their husband's family would surely see their worth... Who'd have thought their mother-in-law would come too, and come so early.

Before others, Chai-shi had to leave her daughters-in-law some face too, so she told them to stand aside, then went over all warmth and took the old lady's arm fondly. "Aiyo, my old treasure, a junior's housewarming, and it's troubled you to come?"

Old Madam Chen liked Chai-shi. Their tempers matched, and besides, the woman never fell short in her gifts at festival and New Year.

They went together to the main hall and sat, and then the old lady said, "Aiyo, my fellow-in-law, how could I not come? A great day for my adopted grandson. Those two are only fierce with their mouths. As for this household work, it's not that I'm too proud, but there's not one of them I think fit for it!

"You've only two big spenders in your house, but mine, oh fine, all the way up and down a full eleven of them, and truly each worse than the last at making a thing last. Take your eyes off them a moment and a few hundred cash go flying out the window. Fellow-in-law, you're a bold one too, letting them do as they like? And, twenty thousand strings? You're mad! A thing like this, if this old woman ran it, heh, a few hundred cash a table, chicken, duck, fish, meat, everything handsome and complete, I could keep an open feast seven days running and not spend a thousand strings, and here you've twenty thousand!"

The old lady bared her teeth. "Your Chang menfolk are blind!"

The three Chang women, mother-in-law and daughters-in-law, drew a cold breath at the old lady's figure of a few hundred cash.

Chang Lianfang watched and chuckled, and when he'd done laughing trotted off to the main accounts-room to find his sister-in-law. In he went to a room full of women lined up drawing tallies, some coming, some going, and not a whit of disorder in it...

Seeing Chang Lianfang come in, Qi Qian'er asked, smiling, "Oh, our young master's up? Have you eaten?"

Chang Lianfang said no, and Qi Qian'er sent someone to cook him meatballs and hot soup, with a couple of fried things to line his stomach.

Now this was a true elder sister-in-law.

Chang Lianfang stood on no ceremony either, but sat down sideways beside his sister-in-law to watch her work and wait for his breakfast. Warm inside, happy to have nothing to fret or labor over, he said, "Sister-in-law, you know, those two of mine came, and before they even got to you the old lady snubbed them. And I'm thinking, once my own old lady gets here she'll not spare them either, so they'll get snubbed again."

Qi Qian'er laughed. "Call it their bad luck. Of all people to run into, our old lady, and wanting to send things to the whole street besides? It's only them. The old lady doesn't care to school other people's daughters-in-law, she's only talking.

"Those two of yours, if you call them bad, set them beside what our Little Seven went through and the whole world's full of bodhisattvas.

"Those two of yours are just dim, and the dim that can't tell inside from out, spending the little brother-in-law's stock without a qualm. But never mind them, let's drop it. I hear from your brother the family's looking out a wife for you now. Whose daughter have they settled on?"

An elder sister-in-law teasing the little brother-in-law, it was only idle teasing, and the little brother-in-law needn't be embarrassed.

But Chang Lianfang's face went red in a flash, and he changed the subject. "Where's my brother?"

Qi Qian'er raised a hand to take a tally and tossed it on the tray beside her, and without looking up ran on, "First thing this morning he slung on a bow with Father and took a crowd of them up the mountain to hunt, said he'd at least bag you some game to add a dish today. If you ask me, don't count on it. That's an unreliable lot, and if you wait on their bit of game, today's feast won't get laid at all.

"The old lord set out with no end of things packed, a writing-table, a low couch, brush and ink and paper and stone, braised meat and a little wine. Heh heh, if a touch of winter mist comes up over the top of Ertou Mountain today, Father will splash out ten paintings at the least. Your brother just knows how to indulge him, lets him do whatever he pleases, hauled a whole load of pigments up the mountain for him today. Keep waiting, then. Game? How about wild grass, will that do?"

Chang Lianfang laughed out loud at this.

A woman brought hot soup, a few freshly dressed small dishes, and crisp fried dough-twists just out of the oil.

Chang Lianfang sat up and said as he ate, "Sister-in-law, let my brother play a few days. From next month my brother and the rest have to go into the deep mountains to train as scouts, and won't be back before the year's out..."

Before Chang Lianfang had finished, the stack of tallies in Qi Qian'er's hand spilled all over the table.

Her face full of alarm, Qi Qian'er looked at Chang Lianfang. "What did you say?!"

Chang Lianfang jumped, set down his chopsticks, and said uncertainly, "My brother, next month he's going into the mountains to drill the troops... what is it, sister-in-law, you didn't know? Has something happened?"

Had something happened? Something enormous!

Her An'er had been conceived on the sixth of the twelfth month. That date Qi Qian'er could never get wrong. If Scabby buried himself in the old forest, where was her An'er to come from?