Chapter 119

At the Chang house's housewarming, most of the guests were young gentlemen, but a few seldom-seen old lords came to the door too. Their aim wasn't the Chang house, but Prince Rui'an.

She Qingling had no love of crowds, and got to the Chang house only after the noon meal. Marquis Chang went to Guard Lane in person to wait for him, and only after eating at home did She Qingling stroll over in a light fur, carrying under his arm a scroll painted that morning, the ink not yet dry, a winter-mist scene of Baiquan Mountain, for a housewarming gift.

That was handsome enough.

He thought well enough of Zheng Aman, Li Jinggui, and Chang Lianfang. These boys were always about near the Emperor, their roots were known, and there was nothing wrong with their characters.

When he arrived and came in and saw that crowd of old lords with faces like tree-bark, he was pleased. Nothing to it, they were all connections he'd made in his Board of Revenue days, and it really had been a long time.

So this crowd of old lords took the best spot in the chessboard court to chat, and the hot-blooded Marquis Chang, Chang Mianshen, didn't dare say much, only watched from one side, marveling.

These were civil ministers of real power, with nothing much to say to him, and yet they'd all come.

Marquis though he was, some people you simply couldn't reach. Between civil and military there had always been a clear line.

The old saying had it right, good is repaid with good, evil with evil. Three years ago, what state was the Chen house in? The man of the house a contract-slave, the mistress who ran the hall counting out every single cash, selling old clothes for grain.

If he himself hadn't seen through that young woman at a glance, felt there was something there worth befriending, and ordered his household to treat her well, where would his youngest have found such a good life now?

Their good conscience counted for a great deal. Marquis though he was, he could never have put together such a house for his son.

Not that he hadn't the money. He hadn't the nerve.

At this, Marquis Chang thought of the windfall from the war that his two daughters-in-law had split between them on the sly, and felt worse than ever.

He raised his eyes and glared at his eldest son Chang Lianqi and second son Chang Lianxu, who were helping entertain the guests, and the two, guilty, bowed their heads and looked at the ground.

In truth a glare was all he could manage. Marquis Chang knew well enough that the Chang house had long since split, and what a person had hugged into his own arms would never be spat back out. Palm and back of the hand were both his flesh. What wanted to be fair was the law, the court's surface. What was he to do now?

Only muddle through, that was all.

The youngest son was sore, and for a house-move and a housewarming and a great feast of guests wouldn't so much as ask the family for help, which showed how deep the hurt ran. The old marquis felt the guilt of it.

Who'd have thought the boy's sworn brother would turn round and raise so grand a show of face for his sworn younger brother. And look who'd come.

A commandery-prince of rank above the nine grades, the hidden chancellor, and several old lords of real power besides. The youngest knew how to carry himself. Three years away from the capital, and still every guest was a young lord of the first rank.

Zheng Aman, Li Jinggui, and Chen Dasheng stood at the gate to greet the guests for the youngest.

And what great face that was.

Ai, by the look of it, the youngest would only drift further from the family from here on...

The old lords gathered together made a lively scene too, mocking each other, you're a grandson, he's a monkey, and after a while of laughing an old lord of the Board of Revenue, one Zhang So-and-so, proposed they all write some hanging scrolls, square pieces, and couplets as housewarming gifts.

This lot had always looked down their noses at everyone, and a single character of theirs was worth a thousand in gold. And now they'd write, just like that, for his own youngest?

Chang Mianshen was overjoyed, and had just made to spring up and have someone ready the brush and ink and paper and stone, when he heard Prince Rui'an say with a smile, "Old marquis, don't you fall for their trick. If you take my word, go buy it for a few hundred cash at the bookshops and antique stores on the street. This bunch does no losing trade. They, oh! They've heard you brought back sixty-year-old yellow wine from the south, and these days never mind sixty years, even ten-year yellow wine is hard to find..."

Marquis Chang was a frank-tempered man, and said with a laugh, "My prince, it's only wine! There's plenty! We fought three years at the front, and thanks to you, sir, and all you old lords for the many ways you found us supplies, truth be told, of all the campaigns I've fought at His Majesty's side since the old dynasty, this putting-down of the revolt was the one fought to my heart's content. The grain and fodder kept up, and we suffered not a hardship...

"As for sixty-year-old wine, that's pure talk of theirs, but thirty-year-old yellow wine I did haul back a few cartloads, for Chang here has a weakness for the stuff, and fearing I'd get drunk and botch some matter of war, I didn't dare drink it at the front, and so saved it till now. Write whatever you please today, my lords, we've nothing else, but of this wine there's plenty!"

When he'd finished, the several old men were especially pleased, and took up brush and ink and paper of their own accord, writing off whatever came, "The way to pass on a house is honesty alone," "There's no trick to conduct but plain sincerity," and the like... face enough.

When they'd done writing, Chang Mianshen went up himself to gather the pieces, and with the utmost gravity ordered that a master from a Yanjing mounting-shop of a hundred years and more be fetched to the house at once. These things would be his youngest son's family treasures hereafter.

Whether or not he knew anything of painting and calligraphy, the marquis's attitude could never go wrong. He raised the old lords high, and everyone roared with laughter, and all were pleased.

The old folk made their merriment here, the young their merriment in the outer court. Chang Lianfang's chessboard court was truly vast, and today's hundred or two guests, with their families too, could all be fitted in.

They were all in the various courts, those who liked storytelling listening to stories, those who liked opera watching opera, those who liked dominoes playing dominoes, and Chen Dasheng even called a few of the capital's famous wrestling champions to the house for the fun of it, to put on a show for his sworn brother.

In his worst years Chang Lianfang had owned him and helped him, and that friendship he could not forget.

Men watching wrestling can't help their blood running hot, and they shouted themselves hoarse. The noise couldn't be kept down, and carried two courtyards over into the back quarters.

Qi Qian'er was distracted today and twice handed out the wrong tally. In the end she couldn't keep at the work in her hands, and left the Chang house and slipped off to the old homestead.

At the old homestead the old lady was playing dominoes with two maids over a few strings of cash, and Xique, old enough now to know what was what, hid behind the old lady and by guessing and swapping pieced her a winning pair, and swept thirty-odd cash off the maids.

The old lady slapped the dominoes down with a bang, every inch an old gambler. Having won, she waved a grand hand at Xique. "We won! Xique, go string up Granny's money."

Xique sat up, flung her arms wide with a grin, snatched the cash from the wailing maids into a heap, and strung it one coin at a time on a red thread.

Watching them, Qi Qian'er, flustered as she'd been, laughed out loud.

"Oh, how is it you're back?"

The old lady saw her come and smilingly called her to sit.

Qi Qian'er sat and looked about her, then asked, "Where's little Ting? Usually, when you're not looking for him, he's all over the place dragging a stick and chasing the cats and dogs. It's so lively over there today, and I haven't seen him once."

The old lady's hands, shuffling the dominoes, paused, but she said with a smile to First-Moon and Second-Moon, "Hai, what do you want him for? Naughty as that, isn't he enough to vex you? You two carry the girl off to the chessboard court to watch the opera."

When she'd said it, she turned and coaxed patiently, "Precious, go over to your Little Flower brother's and watch the big opera, all right?"

Xique nodded and smilingly reached out her arms to Second-Moon.

Watching Second-Moon carry Xique off, Qi Qian'er then heard the old lady say behind her, "First thing this morning the steward from the fourth branch came to fetch the child. Said Madam Qiao's with child again, poorly and pining for the boy, and gone a bit to pieces over it."

Qi Qian'er turned back and asked the old lady, "They only fetched the boy again?"

The old lady, helpless, took up the box and said as she packed the dominoes, "Mm, only fetched Lanting. From what I gather over there, they had someone cast a lot, and this one's likely to be a girl again, and so our Lanting's gone up in value."

These few years Chen Siniu had drifted about Yanjing like a lost ghost. He came back too, only he never crossed paths with Qi Qian'er and the rest.

That year, over the business with Xique, the Yang house finally paid out fifty thousand taels of compensation, about sixty thousand strings, and Chen Siniu, by making a scene and rolling on the floor, took half of it away.

He was Xique's natural father, the wronged party by birth, and even at law the old lady couldn't have kept a hold on that money. Half left over was as good as could be hoped.

The Yang house settled the matter and then, through who knew what connections, got a posting out of the capital. After that, Chen Dazhong and his brothers held their fury in and pressed their fourth uncle into meek obedience.

Chen Siniu spent big money striving on every side, and was still only a petty clerk recording tree-species. Full of pent-up gloom, he took two local Yanjing concubines to cheer himself up.

And in this stretch of time the two concubines bore him two more daughters, so little Lanting went up in value.

Clever-minded as Madam Qiao was, every so often she'd send to fetch Lanting. Only the girl Xique the couple would not see.

The old lady said it was guilt, that they'd no face to see her. But Qi Qian'er knew: Xique had grown old enough to understand, had seen too many of her parents' ugly faces, and so they turned the child away and acted as if nothing had happened.

For fear the old lady would grieve, Qi Qian'er soothed her, "Not worth your anger. What's your life, and what's his? We'll just set a bit more aside for Xique from now on, and she'll not want."

The old lady had no wish to speak of those two vexing things, so she put away the box and asked Qi Qian'er, "Aren't you busy just now? How is it you've come over?"

At this Qi Qian'er's cheeks went red at once. She couldn't very well say that the consummation rite, set for the sixth of the twelfth month, now likely couldn't be held.

Your grandson's in no hurry, but I am.

How was that to be said?

With no help for it, she could only make some household small talk, then rose and went back to the chessboard court.

For all the young wife had something on her mind, she ran the whole housewarming through the day with not a single error in the main accounts, and the guests enjoyed themselves thoroughly, all saying the Chang house's feast was handsome and well-ordered, and that the Chen house's managing mistress was every bit as capable as rumor had it.

At nightfall, with the accounts settled, Qi Qian'er stretched her limbs and said to those about her, "Ai, what a day. Come, call your master, and our old lord too, we're going home."

But Jixiang's wife came in and said, "Mistress, let's go back on our own. The old lord and the eldest master are at the back watching the wrestling, and I reckon they'll be up all night."

Qi Qian'er paused a moment, then asked, "Are there many?"

Jixiang's wife answered, "Many. I quietly had my husband count, there are forty or fifty of them."

"Have the kitchen stoves been kept lit, then?"

"Three of them kept lit, and the night-watch arranged, a change of shift every two hours. Rest easy, mistress, nothing will go wrong."

So Qi Qian'er took her crowd of women and maids and left the chessboard court, only halfway along she sent them all back, and with Fourth-Moon alone went off down the street.

Quanhou Street was all officials' houses, and every one had hung a row of lanterns along the outer wall for the convenience of passers-by.

The night road was not dark, bright on every side.

Qingfeng kept no curfew, but there were few people abroad all the same.

Along the way she met now and then a monk beating the night-watch, who, seeing a woman coming from afar, turned to face the wall and murmured his sutras.

Qi Qian'er walked here and there, and wherever there was a trace of An'er she would stop a while and look a while.

She could see that thin little child again, a shabby little book-bag on his back, coming and going along this old street.

The child hadn't lived many years, and because of his good-for-nothing mother had suffered no end in this world.

Those house-gates, those temple-gates, were all as they'd been, but now there was Guard Lane too, now a whole houseful of Chen kin. Two lifetimes of things changed and people gone, and she'd struggled through at last to good days, and now another slip?

If Chen Dasheng weren't there on the sixth of the twelfth month, what was to become of her An'er?

She walked slowly to the big willows, and seemed to see again, beneath them, a stout cub of a boy sitting astride a thin child and laughing loud, the thin child pale-faced and cold with sweat, crawling slowly on the ground, and whenever he paused, the sturdy boy gave him a good lashing with a little whip...

A pang wrung her heart, and Qi Qian'er leaned on the trunk and thought, An'er, is it that you resent your mother for not shielding you then, and won't be my child anymore?

But things are different now. The Yang house spent all it had just to get a petty frontier-town clerkship at the Board of Revenue, and moved the whole family away.

And Wen-shi was sent off to a nunnery in Yanjing. She'd had her just deserts.

Madam Qiao now had eyes and heart for only one road, open and hidden war with the two concubines. She couldn't get free of the back quarters, and her end could only be a concubine whose name was never in the ancestral register.

My child, do you see, your mother has paved every road ahead for you...

Ill at ease, Qi Qian'er gripped the willow trunk hard, and forgot what strength she had now. One grip, and she tore a great piece of the good bark clean off.

"Wife?"

Chen Dasheng's voice came from behind, and Qi Qian'er started. She quickly whipped her hands behind her back as she turned, and dropped the great fistful of bark and wood to the ground.

Chen Dasheng had drunk a few cups more tonight, and had been keeping his father company watching the wrestling, when a servant told him the mistress was out of sorts and wandering all over Quanhou Street.

In all his time with Qi Qian'er he'd never seen his wife behave so. When his wife was in a flurry, Chen Dasheng naturally was too, and so he gave up brothers and father alike, threw on a coat, and came to find her.

The young couple looked at each other in silence, and at last Chen Dasheng asked again, "Today, has someone put you out of sorts?"

Was it Little Flower's pair of hateful sisters-in-law, or some low creature come down the street looking to take advantage, or something else?

If he learned who had angered his young wife, he'd surely never let it rest.

But Qi Qian'er shook her head. "No one, how could there be, who'd dare anger me? It's only that with all the coming and going, the smoke and fug, I've finally gotten free of it." She pointed at the bright moon overhead and smiled. "The moon's good tonight, and I just wanted a walk to clear my head."

Chen Dasheng's heart eased, and he went to steady her. "A walk's a walk, but why only Fourth-Moon with you? If something happened in the pitch dark, or you met some blind ruffian, lucky Jixiang's wife is steady and had someone quietly following you all along. Don't do so again."

Long an official now, he was unaccountably steady in his speech, no joy or anger to be heard in it, his mind no longer easy to guess.

Qi Qian'er thought to herself, ruffian indeed, it's well enough if I don't go making trouble for others.

But in Chen Dasheng's eyes she was a young wife all hard words and soft heart, without the strength to truss a chicken, and he worried over her and held her dear.

To be cared for and cherished was always a good thing. Qi Qian'er knew its worth, and nodded with a smile. "I understand. I'll be careful from now on."

When she'd said it she tipped her head back to look at the sky, thinking, Mother's An'er, do you see, your father's not as he was either.

He's right here at Mother's side now, a great official, and he's found you a prince for a grandfather to back you. He'll guard you from now on, give you the best days in the world, set you on his shoulders like other children's fathers, carry you up onto a little colt you'd never have dared dream of, carve you the little wooden saber you want. My child, don't be afraid, come. Mother misses you... You've a granny to love you now, and a grandfather too... An'er, it's all different!

Chen Dasheng's eyes followed his wife's to the sky, and for fear she'd fall to brooding he said, "Then I'll walk with you a while."

Qi Qian'er nodded. "All right."

So the young couple walked slowly along the old street toward the back mountain. Their shadows were long, and only after a good while did the maids fall into line behind, light of foot.

On the way they met the night-watch monk again, and this time, there being a man present, the monk stopped and chanted. Chen Dasheng stood, and tipped only seven or eight coppers out of the pouch at his waist, meanly enough, into the monk's bronze bowl.

The monk was dumbstruck on the spot.

The monk was from a nearby temple. By night they beat the watch for the old quarter, by day they begged alms about here.

So great a lord, and he gave a few coppers?

Where was this? This was Quanhou Street!

Qi Qian'er, ashamed, pulled Chen Dasheng along, and only when they'd walked far enough that the monk was out of sight did the two of them laugh.

"Lost money?"

Qi Qian'er asked Chen Dasheng, raising a brow.

At this Chen Dasheng's body went stiff, and Qi Qian'er laughed again.

In truth the rules she'd laid down long ago were long gone. The man before her was an eagle soaring in the sky, and how would those shabby rules dare bind him.

"It's nothing, lost is lost. From next month I, I'll, I'll raise you to a whole string of cash!!"

As if Chen Dasheng were short of those few coins, but he put on a look of delighted surprise right on cue. "Really?!"

Qi Qian'er nodded firmly. "Mm. From now on, if you truly can't get out of it, a little play is all right, but not to excess."

Chen Dasheng scratched the back of his head with a smile, and at last took Qi Qian'er's hand and promised, "Rest easy, wife, I don't care for these games, it's only to please Father, he likes to beat me..."

Qi Qian'er nodded, then suddenly asked him, "When do you set out?"

Chen Dasheng was taken aback, and understood at last why his wife had been out of sorts today.

Married three years, and they'd struggled through at last to his wife coming out of mourning, with a heap of things stored up to hold a grand consummation rite, and here he was, ordered into the mountains to drill troops.

These three years, as he climbed higher and higher, the strain on his wife could not be called small. Chen Dasheng hadn't asked closely, but he knew well enough what was said outside. Nothing but that he rose step by step while his wife was of humble birth, and in looks and family and all else no match for him.

Only when Father rebuilt his mansion on a grand scale, and his own wife ran the whole thing, everything thorough and in order, were those rumors put down.

Now that he thought of it... besides all the surface talk, his brothers' households kept adding children, and his wife was likely... likely uneasy too.

At this he said apologetically, "There's no help for it. The Emperor thinks the new men have no soldier's look to them, and I've taken on new recruits besides, this pack of scoun, ahem, aiya, these fellows, they've never known hardship. The Emperor trusts me, and so he's set me to take them up to the old camp in the mountains, to knock the restlessness out of them..."

At last they reached the foot of Baiquan Mountain, and not meaning to go up, turned back together.

Qi Qian'er asked again, "There's an old camp up in the mountains, then?"

There was nothing that couldn't be told, so Chen Dasheng said, "There is. The ground there is steep and hard, best for drilling troops. The old dynasty built a camp there, in fact, only a pity, the idea was good but they never made use of it, so it fell to us cheap."

Qi Qian'er stopped, fixed her eyes hard on Chen Dasheng's, and asked, "Then, can family come along?"

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

Chen Dasheng wanted to laugh, but choked it hard back down.

In the moonlight the young wife's eyes were clear and bright, gazing up at him in eager longing.

Truly a thing to cherish!

Chen Dasheng drew a breath, saw the maids in the distance with their backs to them, and suddenly reached out and held Qi Qian'er. "Little fool, up there's a run-down camp with nothing to its name, not even a proper kitchen to cook in. What would you want to go there for?

"Ahem, you, we, don't you fret... that is, come the last month I'll be home, I've settled it with Father, we'll get the nuns of Qingque Nunnery to pick us a lucky day, and we, we've good days ahead."

Hearing his tone, Qi Qian'er knew people weren't barred from going up the mountain, and was wholly set at ease. The world brightened in an instant, flowers bloomed in her heart, everything turned lovely... As for the rest, she hadn't heard a word of it, nor wanted to.

Chen Dasheng did not know his wife had already laid her little plan. Little Flower's housewarming ran three days, and for three days he dutifully played host, giving his brother all the face he could.

But once it was over, he took his father and his brothers back to the capital to receive their orders, and dragging their baggage led the troops off in a great straggle into the old camp in the deep mountains...

Time hurried on, and in the blink of an eye the first snow had passed. At first light on the sixth of the twelfth month, the old lady was still sleeping snug under the covers, a sweet smile on her face, dreaming of pulling up radishes. That boundless radish field, every bit of it, belonged to the Chen house.

Then she heard someone calling her, "Granny, wake up! Granny, wake up?"

The old lady woke with a start, opened her eyes, and saw Qi Qian'er standing by the kang. She turned and looked at the window-lattice, and outside it was pitch black.

She sat up in fright. "Eh? Eh? What is it, what is it?"

Qian'er was so steady a soul, and here she'd come in the dark before dawn. Had something big happened?

Seeing the old lady tremble a little, Qi Qian'er quickly caught hold of her and leaned in, all mystery. "Granny, guess who I dreamed of last night?"

The old lady was frightened, and asked, trembling, "Who?"

Qi Qian'er nodded firmly. "An ancestor!"

The old lady was startled. "What?"

Qi Qian'er's face came a step closer, and the old lady drew back, and Qi Qian'er's look grew more mysterious still. "A white-bearded old man. He said he was an ancestor of the Chen house."

The old lady was frightened into a coughing fit, and when she'd coughed a while said with some resentment, "You, you've been ridden by a nightmare, haven't you?"

But Qi Qian'er shook her head. "How could it be, I, in all my life I've never had so clear a dream. Granny, listen to me..."

She pressed in close, and the old lady shrank back step by step into the corner by the kang-cabinet.

"Granny, the dream was so clear, a white-bearded old man, and he told me he was my ancestor, and I wasn't having it, I said, you say you're my ancestor, and that makes it so?"

The old lady said indignantly, loud, "Just so! Whose old devil is this, roaming about with nothing better to do?"

But Qi Qian'er said, "But the old man held up both his palms at me and said, go ask Mayezi who I am. And I looked, and both the old man's hands had the single broken crease across the palm, Granny..."

The moment Qi Qian'er said it, the old lady gave a jump.

No wonder, for her own full name was Maye, "hemp-leaf," a wild vegetable of her home country, and she and her sisters were all named for wild vegetables. And her own late father-in-law had the single broken crease on both hands.

Cold sweat could be seen running down the old lady's brow. Qi Qian'er had learned these things only little by little, from idle chats with the old lady in her last life.

Now, of course, she could not possibly know them, and so the old lady was afraid.

She kept up the act, clutching the old lady and saying indignantly, "You tell me whose old man this is, getting into my dream, it's vexed me to death, Granny..."

Before she'd finished, Qi Qian'er took a slap. The old lady was up in arms, and cursed, "You child, are you so blind as that? Who else could it be? That's your great-grandfather, aiya, it's an ancestor come indeed. What did he say? Is it that they're short of something down below?"

At this she wanted to slap herself twice. These few years she'd burned great heaps of things for her husband, her sons, her grandsons, her daughters-in-law, but the offerings to the ancestors had been poor indeed.

Good heavens, it had come knocking at the door to ask for things now. Unfilial of her!

Seeing the old lady take the bait, Qi Qian'er said, all bewilderment, "Oh, so it really was an ancestor?"

The old lady nodded firmly, a prickle running over her skin, and feeling cold threw on a coat and asked, "An ancestor, surely. Your great-grandfather had the broken crease on both hands, and back then, when he struck your grandfather, that one slap, your grandfather... never mind, let's not speak of it. What did the old man say to you?"

Qi Qian'er played along obligingly. "Hai, I hadn't even time to speak, my great-grandfather was so hasty of tongue, I couldn't get a word in."

The old lady nodded again and again. "Yes, yes, your great-grandfather stammered a little, one meaning he'd rush and fumble at for half the day, who could get a word in on him?"

The maids lit the lamps, and Qi Qian'er, seeing the light made it less frightening, sent them out, held on to the old lady and said quietly, "You say it's the ancestor-great-grandfather, then great-grandfather it is. Our great-grandfather gave me no chance to speak either, he only said he'd reckoned out a lucky day and slipped away in secret, that he'd stolen a good thing to give me!"

The old lady's face filled with surprise. "Your, your great-grandfather, steal something? But he was an honest lump of a man!"

What a muddle this all was.

But Qi Qian'er nodded firmly. "Yes, that's just what the ancestor-great-grandfather said, Granny. Before I could even ask, my great-grandfather took a star out of his sleeve..." She made a huge, glowing gesture. "This big, and shining bright, and great-grandfather blew on it, and the star went right into my belly..."

The old lady's eyes went so wide they stretched her triangle-eyes open, and she looked Qi Qian'er up and down, and in the end stared fixed at Qi Qian'er's belly, and said, still doubtful, "That flood-drowned stock of the Chen house, and, and it's become an immortal?"

Qi Qian'er stroked her own belly. "I'm sure I don't know, that's why I'm asking you, isn't it? My ancestor-great-grandfather said our house had been down on its luck too long, and something had to be done about it, so he stole a star from the east or some such, and then there seemed to be pursuers after him, and the ancestor-great-grandfather had to run, and before he went he kept telling me, the sixth of the twelfth month, the sixth of the twelfth month! Be sure to remember, be sure to remember..."

And then he gave me a push, and I woke up.

When she'd finished, Qi Qian'er watched the old lady, now wholly dazed, and waited. She'd said all there was to say, and now it was for the old lady to take her meaning...

After another good while, a flower of a smile came up on the old lady's face, slowly, slowly spreading.

Old Madam Chen, overjoyed, caught Qi Qian'er, took her head in her hands, and with a night's stale breath, her mouth all foul, planted a loud smack on her.

When she'd kissed her, the old lady sprang up laughing. "What did I say? What did I say? The old Chen ancestral graves lie drowned under water, and I never believed they wouldn't fret over it. See, they've fretted, they've fretted!"

She turned two circles on the floor in her stockings, then came back and stroked Qi Qian'er's face fondly. "My heart's own precious treasure, the ancestors have shown their power, they've sent a Star-Lord to our house..."

She laughed helplessly, past all holding in her joy, and even clapped her hands.

Qi Qian'er felt sorry inside, but had to put on a face of knowing nothing, and asked, "Granny, what are you saying? I can't follow you. That ancestor-great-grandfather's something about the sixth of the twelfth month, I don't know what it means either. Isn't today the sixth?"

The old lady checked her joy at last, and looked at Qi Qian'er a little awkwardly, and after a good while said, "Qian'er..."

"Yes?"

"Will, will, will you do as Granny says?"

"Of course I will."

Hearing this, the old lady stepped forward, as if she bore on her back the ten thousand souls of the Chen house, took her hand and said earnestly, "My heart's own, you've met with a great piece of fortune. You're not to speak of this outside from now on, or you'll chase our house's luck away. If you trust your Granny, if you're a dutiful child, now go to the little hall at the back, gather our ancestral tablets together, and have them, have them pack you a set of bedding, ahem, and today... go up the mountain and find Scabby..."