Chapter 128

The fourth year of Yong'an was a delicate lull. Officials all over were coming to the end of their terms, and all wanted to stir about and jostle for a move.

Tao Jizong's father, by his own name Zhou Xingfa, had been the youngest son of a small, undistinguished household in a small county, nothing much to him, and when his family fell poor he'd gone to the Tao house as a live-in son-in-law.

Old Madam Tao's father was a rogue among rogues, a slippery, pilfering yamen runner in the official offices, and even he had taken a liking to this Zhou Xingfa.

One can only think the Zhou Xingfa of those days must have had qualities that pleased his father-in-law well.

By the eye of the ordinary father-in-law, no, of a father-in-law seeking a live-in son-in-law, the first merit of such a son-in-law was that he had to be an honest man, obedient. Second, he had to be handsome, or the daughter wouldn't agree. Third, he had to be able to hold a conversation with the daughter, which meant at the least he could read a few characters, for his daughter could write and reckon.

And what was Zhou Xingfa's character now? A base, shameless, money-grubbing, lecherous low pilferer of the bureaucracy, every fault in the world that people can't abide he had the whole set of. The strange thing was, his superior didn't dislike him, and even wrote him several letters in his own hand to send him to Yanjing to chase a post.

Never mind Old Madam Tao's wrongs, Zhou Xingfa having turned out as he had, let no one call anyone else clean, so shameless that with his former wife just dead he dared come to the door with the one he'd married after to seize the children's property.

There must, then, have been things in his life that others didn't know.

In truth he'd come to Yanjing long ago, and long ago found ways to learn the old Tao house's affairs through and through. Never mind that in the old days he'd had the eldest son in hand as a hostage, he wasn't afraid of Old Madam Tao, and now she was dead he'd fear her even less.

From the moment he reached Yanjing, Zhou Xingfa found out one thing: the fortune he'd saved up by squeezing grease everywhere, pinching to the last degree, grudging even a few strings to save his own son from a charge of embezzlement, was not enough to chase a post with.

One or two thousand strings was the greatest sum Zhou Xingfa had seen in his life, yet in Yanjing that money couldn't buy even a cramped three-bay one-court house in some odd corner.

Yanjing's houses had shot up these few years.

Besides, Zhou Xingfa wanted into the Board of War's Bureau of Military Selection, which in the Board of War had charge of appointments, promotions and transfers, hereditary succession, merit-rewards and such. Only get in, and without much enduring, a dozen years would raise a house of real power, wealth flowing to the whole gate as water finds its channel.

Nursing a huge ambition, reckoning he'd brought a sky-high fortune into the capital, he came paving the road with money and feeling out the way with favors, and turning about here and there made the acquaintance of a real kinsman of the unreachable Tan house, a young lord named Wu Xiu, the younger brother-in-law of Tan Weitong, this generation's head of the Tan house, a young lord of true old-family birth, whose company was all either rich or noble.

On his first time in the capital he saw Wu Xiu hand out whole basketfuls of cash to the flower-street girls, and have them pour it in baskets off the upper floor to scatter all over the street for sport, and he was deeply shaken, and then and there swore a dire oath that he must get a hold of this golden thigh, and to live even one day of such a life would be not to have lived in vain.

Later he did worm his way in, and followed at Young Lord Wu's side like a dog, and after settling the man's flower-tower bills two months running, he could no longer keep up.

In fact, out-of-town dogs like him around Young Lord Wu came in packs.

He had sincerity, and served with a hundred times the patience he'd once served his old father-in-law, and in those two months Young Lord Wu came to notice him, had him called along wherever he went, and was willing to keep him at his side to wait on him.

He had an eye for a situation and a ready tongue, and looked plain, sincere, and honest. But Zhou Xingfa could no longer afford to serve. He'd no money left, and so could only find a way to get some.

Not driven to the wall, the man would never think of so ruthless a method.

Asking about here and asking about there, he learned those two wretched sons had gone to Zuoliang Pass, which was no matter to him. Girls didn't count, and of his first brood he had four whelps, and the one he'd married after had borne him two more. Children he had no lack of. What he lacked was that thieving woman's three-court mansion on Quanhou Street.

And this was where Qingfeng prefecture's officials clustered thick, Quanhou Street!

He'd asked around, and even if the thieving woman wouldn't sell, only let him live in one court and the greatest expense of clothing, food, housing, travel would be spared. He was to be a capital official hereafter, and surely couldn't go on renting?

And second, the neighbors round about were all capital officials, which was a fine thing. If some matter came up later and he wanted to scoop up a bit of easy grease, then, as the books put it, make a few bosom friends here, bring a pot of good wine to the door, and with a laugh and a word in passing the thing was done.

Now the woman was dead, the house should be his, and even if it wasn't given him, he'd put on a put-upon, forbearing air and give a little ground, and make the two daughters married into high houses see the good in him as a father. It was very hard for him, and was not his clawing after this fortune for the sake of his descendants?

Zhou Xingfa truly thought this, and came quite openly, but he'd never have dreamed he'd be beaten about the face by a crowd of Guard Lane women and driven off in the end.

Most of Quanhou Street's first batch of women asked nothing of anyone and so held nothing taboo, and with Guard Lane's protection besides, there wasn't a soul they feared.

Never mind Guard Lane, Great Liang had an emperor who remembered the old days, and many of the women's men had died in the army.

To bully one widow might pass, but a whole crowd? Even the Emperor wouldn't care for that reputation.

Beaten as he was, Zhou Xingfa didn't dare lodge a complaint. Losing face was a small thing, but that he truly couldn't afford to provoke them was real. That thieving woman had done no little talking him down, and wasn't it all nonsense? How would these people know the abuses he'd suffered, how would they know how unfilial these undutiful children were.

He was one who bullied the weak and feared the strong, and since they dared beat him, he magnanimously gave way once more.

As for the fiercest old lady, she said, my son is a reigning prince! Set foot in Quanhou Street again and foul our ground, and tomorrow I'll tell my son to throw you in prison!

And so Zhou Xingfa went off covered in bruises, and everyone knew the wretch would surely come back for another round.

And so that night the old lady got back to the old homestead very late, while the sleep-heavy Qi Qian'er had already napped twice and eaten four times there.

The old lady took off her shoes and climbed onto the kang on First-Moon's arm, and her bones failing her, began frankly to groan.

Qi Qian'er set down her work and poured the old lady water, but the old lady wouldn't drink, and asked what that heap of little cloth squares in her hands was for.

Qi Qian'er turned to look at the heap of little squares sewn of three single layers of cloth. "These are the nappies I've cut for the baby? What of it?"

And she stroked her belly sweetly.

At this the old lady began to grumble. "Aiyo, ancestors, aren't you afraid of being struck by lightning, you spendthrift thing! And here I thought you'd brought a bolt of fine cloth over to make the baby underclothes. Not even the Emperor's house wastes like you!

"Do you know how to run a house at all? Your sisters-in-law's nappies all came down in the seventh and eighth month, never mind the heaps they've got over there, I've even kept Lanting's and Xique's for you to use! Several bundles of them!"

Qi Qian'er would never let An'er use others' leavings, but she couldn't cross the old lady either, so she said with a smile, "It's Granny who's so thoughtful, doting on me alone, saving the good things all for me... but this cloth is no waste, Granny, and you now, arranging things without even asking, why, are my sisters-in-law only going to have one each? Just the one eldest girl apiece? We get on so well, and you mustn't make things hard for them. One word from you, and fine, I save the cloth, and tomorrow when they've another they'll have to make more, and they'll say nothing, but what if it sits sore with them against me?"

The old lady, thrifty-minded, said, "They won't! Make more? You think the house keeps a palace shop? Just use them in turn. A thing to catch shit and pad piss, a dozen-odd's enough. I tell you, the piss-pads your father-in-law used back then were the old Chen house's heirlooms, several generations handed down..."

Pfft...

The old lady talked so, but half her heat had gone out of it. She truly lived by her own notions, and that couldn't be called her being hard on you.

Qi Qian'er nodded obediently. "Granny's right, Xique's and the rest would do fine too, but even that's not enough, didn't you hear your grandson say he'll have eight sons! So let's grit our teeth and bleed a little. It's a first child anyway, and no harm in readying extra, don't you think, Granny?"

The old lady's heat was all gone now, and gums showing she scolded fondly, "Eight! You'd still have eight, not suffering enough? A woman shouldn't listen to a man's loose prattle, they know not a damn thing and yet want this and that every day. Three or five would be enough to work you to death, and you without even a mother-in-law.

"Eight? Even two close together won't do. Can you compare yourself with others? They all have a mother-in-law, and come the time you'd be so run off your feet alone you'd weep yourself to death, not get a hot meal to your mouth, and splat, there's a mess flung in your face from over there!

"You've never raised so many, never taken that loss, so don't you go listening to Scabby's loose talk. Oh, and you'll do nothing your whole life but drop young?"

The old lady had plainly forgotten the house kept a great crowd of servants. She was used to suffering everything alone.

Qi Qian'er helped the old lady off with her heavy lined jacket, settled her half-reclining, and only then asked, "We'll see when the time comes. If he's coming, can we not take him in?"

The old lady did love this child of Qi Qian'er's, and reached out and stroked her belly, aching with love. "Not that I'm saying, but a person has to be content. The whole old Chen house up and down has only this bean-sized bit of nerve, and you'd still pray for eight Star-Lords? Don't dream of such fine things! The lot of them, ahem, this is likely the one bit of worth they'll show this life. Aiyo, Great-Granny's little pig's-bladder... did you give your mother any trouble today?"

Qi Qian'er had been feeling fine, and at the name wished she were dead. Granny said the grandfather had had a hard time stealing a Star-Lord, and for fear the upper immortals would call him back, had given An'er a milk-name of Pig's-Bladder... truly the lowliest name in all the world.

She could never agree to it, not if they beat Chen Scabby to death, and so she changed the subject. "Ahem! Granny! What's the old Tao house's meaning, then?"

Only then did the old lady recall the matter, and she said with a smile, "That Jizong's man enough, and a decent child too, wanting to set the household in order as soon as he can, to spare himself that conscienceless one coming back to make trouble. He's asked us to arbitrate, hasn't he! So we talked it over with him, and split his household for him."

Qi Qian'er was taken aback. "Split the household? And the second branch would agree to that?"

The old lady laughed softly. "She didn't agree, and would we let her have her way? Tao Jizong's the man of the house, and if he says split, split it is. You don't know, Guanyin arranged it all long ago, everything has its fixed measure. She thinks herself clever, playing the good soul all day, I spit!

"Her house's affairs aren't so simple. Zhang-shi thought only of the good part. When Tao Lamei was cast off back then, didn't Zhou Xingfa leave with three sons? Those whelps took after their father then, the conscienceless things! They all handed over writs of divorce when they left."

Qi Qian'er was greatly surprised. This hadn't happened in the last life, where they were a close family all along, and Old Madam Tao had been the matriarch who ran the house her whole life.

"There was such a thing?"

"Yes! It happened long ago, back in the old dynasty's hardest days. You don't know, when Huang-shi hanged herself, it was your Auntie Wan who cut the rope, a step later and she'd have been stiff. Huang-shi was timid, and didn't dare go home then, and told your Auntie Wan everything, and that mouth of your Auntie Wan's... could she hold it in? That's how we learned Tao Lamei had been cast off. And she thought scabies covered up wouldn't stink!"

Qi Qian'er gathered up the nappies and swore she'd not come over to do needlework again tomorrow.

The old lady dragged two more big bundles out of the kang-cabinet, and opening them they were all old clothes she'd put away, some Xique's, some Lanting's, some picked up on the road, and even an old skirt of Dingxiang's.

Making herself agreeable, she handed Qi Qian'er the skirt. "Feel it, isn't this cloth soft?"

Qi Qian'er felt it, helpless, and nodded.

The old lady happily drew back her hand, tore the skirt into eight pieces, and began making nappies. "At reading and writing Granny's no match for you, but at raising children, who knows it like me! New cloth looks fine, hmph! But it's all got sizing in it, and even after you've washed it through several waters it's not as soft as this, and how it clings to the skin, eh?"

Qi Qian'er nodded woodenly. "That's... right."

She'd seen this skirt before. In the last life An'er had used this very one... Not that it was bad, but a person goes where fate takes them. We, we're a Star-Lord now, aren't we?

All right, we're not a Star-Lord, but we're not short of money either, so why use the old ones.

The old lady, not knowing her thoughts, said as she cut, "The Tao house deeds are all written plain. They were just living in company, each looking to her own, and long since not one family! This house counts as held by five households together, Tao Lamei included. The second branch wants to fight for it, but can only fight over Old Madam Tao's share, and Tao Lamei's share has to be split among four. Tao Jizong's an elder and a Tao by surname, so he gets as much as Top-Scholar. And besides that, what, aren't the girls Taos too? Aren't they people? You give no more, but at least a few dozen strings' dowry's parted out to the girls, eh. Even if Zhang-shi took it all the way up to the Celestial Court, this is how it'd be split."

Qi Qian'er, much surprised, nodded again. "You're right, the girls suffered so much, they're Tao children too, by what right should they get nothing."

Seeing her amazed, the old lady then laid out the relations for her in detail.

When Old Madam Tao parted from her husband, the one took sons away, and the other took the second son and the fourth branch's wife, with several granddaughters.

Later Zhou Xingfa remarried, and the three sons he'd taken away each found a woman to pair up with. Huang-shi was the first to receive a writ of divorce. Tao Jiye and the others could be counted men with a conscience, who each found a woman but gave their first wives no writ, and being unlucky early besides, the women who'd gone with them ran off one after another...

The old saying has it well: better a begging mother than an official father. One who's not jolted about never grows up. Back when that bolt of brocade of Qi Qian'er's saved the third and fourth sons, from then on those two gave up their father and grew close to their mother again.

The situation now was that back then Old Madam Tao, afraid she couldn't get a hold on this three-court house, and meeting with a good moment, had worked a little trick.

At that time, the war just over and widows many, to make sure women could live, in the first and second years of Yong'an the household registers had been opened for a spell, and a woman could set up her own household.

With no backer, Old Madam Tao split the one three-court house into five shares, counted as five households in one dwelling, and so secured the house.

The eldest branch's Huang-shi, and Old Madam Tao, were counted as female households, the second branch was put under Top-Scholar's registration, and the third and fourth branches under Zhou Jiye's and Zhou Jizong's names.

Which is why they say a mother is soft. However wronged, however sore her heart, to her death she gave her two undutiful sons a home they could come back to.

Now Qi Qian'er understood too why, back then, she'd deliberately gone round Madam Qiao and Old Madam Tao and sheltered only Wan-shi and the rest.

With no backer the woman was yet not without resource. Bad as she was, scheming as she was, she'd looked after every child of her own brood.

Qi Qian'er now pitied her, all a loving mother's heart, and a person dead is a lamp blown out, and the dust of the past was done with from today.

By a roundabout way, Old Madam Tao had gotten this three-court house into her hands after all, only she'd schemed a whole life, and when she died, her juniors had learned to scheme too, and the first one they cast off was her.

The old lady, little scissors in hand, trimmed the candle-wick and sighed. "Heh! That Tao Lamei schemed a whole life, thought she'd kept her several daughters-in-law in meek order, and one kick of her legs and the house over there falls apart."

Qi Qian'er drew a breath, not knowing herself what she felt.

Hate she truly couldn't, pity she didn't want to, and there was nothing but a sigh. "Ai, fallen apart..."

The old lady nodded. "Fallen apart! That Zhang-shi of the second branch means to hang herself before the coffin tonight, saying the house is her Top-Scholar's? Pah! Conscienceless, and she's forgotten how that mother and her lot supported them before? Huang-shi, and the third branch's Guo-shi, said tonight too they'll keep no widowhood, and they're not old, just past thirty, can still bear children, and when the mourning's done they'll take their daughters and remarry... There's no end of men who can't find a wife these days, as if your Tao house were ever so good to anyone, I ask you, Qian'er?"

"Mm?"

The old lady asked in earnest, "Tell me, the old Tao house's three-court place now, how much could it sell for? I heard from your Auntie Wan and the rest tonight that, though it can't match Yanjing, Qingfeng houses have shot up these years too, and we've a water-source here, and that three-court place has a garden besides, worth some eight thousand strings at the least, wouldn't you say?"

Qi Qian'er thought, then said, "Seven or eight thousand, and more, Granny. It's different now. This is a Quanhou Street house, and who lives here? The Six-Board lanes that even the capital couldn't gather together, all lord officials. Auntie Wan was quoting the new house-prices across the way on Quanqian Street, but a three-court place on our side is worth upward of ten thousand strings at the least, the place being what it is, and her house's is no small one."

Qi Qian'er had said a round number, and the old lady could reckon, and counting on her fingers sighed, "Put that way, split five ways, each branch gets two thousand strings at the least, and that's no little. Go a bit farther out, buy a corner plot in some little manor near the charity-pavilion for a few hundred strings, not far from the city. Spend a few hundred more for a five-bay one-court house, set up a shop besides, and Guanyin bless them, that's a made life! Don't you think?"

Qi Qian'er nodded. "Near enough, but Old Madam Tao just died in it, and to get a good price you'd wait three years and it'd fetch a bit more, only you fear meeting an impatient buyer."

The old lady blinked and snorted a laugh. "Ai! Tao Lamei, oh Tao Lamei, never mind, she's gone now... You don't know, there's a whole heap of impatient buyers, the old Tang house's second branch came asking today, said if it's to sell, let his house have first... I'd say the Tao house in our Quanhou Street has but ten days or a fortnight left..."

Qi Qian'er finished bundling the nappies and paid the matter no mind. But who'd have thought, the next day before light Tao Jizong came to the door to repay the money.

The old lady got up hastily, took the money, and said with a face full of surprise, "This, it's sold already? For how much? Your mother's still laid in there, aren't you a bit too hasty?"

Tao Jizong smiled bitterly. "I'll not hide it from you, sold for eleven thousand strings! The Tang house's second branch bought it. Old Madam, come over by and by, my mother, my mother's to be buried today, we've taken the Tang money, and once I've gone the sisters-in-law will tidy up and move out..."

The words were urgent, and the old lady grew a little angry. "You child, go ask around, even the most unfilial, for the look of the thing, lay the old one out three days. Your mother raised you for nothing, how are you so without sense?"

Tao Jizong shook his head helplessly. "I'd like to, but loyalty and filial duty can't both be served. The court's vanguard army sets out tomorrow, and you know, I fought my way out of Zuoliang Pass alive... my superiors' meaning is that, since I know the lay of things over there, I'm to go with the army as a guide..."

At these words the old lady fell silent, and even let out a long breath, pressed her palms together and bowed round every way. "Aiyo, Guanyin bless us, Great Liang's sent out its troops at last... all these days of hearts in a flutter, Guanyin bless us, bless our Great Liang army to go smoothly and come home in great victory... bless us, bless us..."

When she'd done bowing, she took Tao Jizong's hand to comfort him. "Child, it's a great matter you're about! Your mother won't blame you, just go, and keep yourself safe, your mother's watching you from heaven, and all will surely be well! Don't you take it to heart as an illness... From tomorrow I'll go up to Qingque Nunnery with your aunties and hold a fifteen-day service for your mother!

"We'll keep the incense burning strong for your mother, and wait on the bodhisattvas comfortably, so rest easy! Leave this to us... Whatever heaven she'd rise to, she'll go to, the incense being enough, and whatever immortal she'd ascend to, that she'll be..."

Tao Jizong had thought he'd made his peace with everything, but never thought Old Granny Chen would help to this degree, and not knowing how to repay it, knocked three more bleeding kowtows.

But they did not know this was all only the court putting on the show of a great army setting out, to steady the people's hearts and to overawe and lull the Tan.

Tao Jizong buried his mother hastily, lodged his wife and daughter for the time in Wan-shi's court, and his heart set on return like a flying arrow, longing to go avenge Zuoliang Pass, but the great army was so slow, a few thousand men leaving Yanjing with a grand show of force.

From leaving Qingfeng, every few dozen li they'd find an empty spot to set up the pots and cook, and drill the troops besides... and by the time he'd ground his way at last to Xiaonan Mountain, Quanhou Street broke out with a great piece of news.

Zhang-shi had taken Top-Scholar and remarried, and not far off either, to a widower who taught at the ancestral-hall school ahead, a Master surnamed Feng, a man of great talent, a juren of the old dynasty, the only one of his family left after the war's deaths, past sixty now, with no hope of marrying and begetting again, who'd taken a liking to Top-Scholar's gifts and the family's incense.

From then on, Tao Wentong, milk-named Top-Scholar, changed his name to Feng Wentong, and went on living in Quanhou Street all the same.