Chapter 35

The yellow wax burned bright. The old lady trusted no one else with the job, so she ladled out the mutton soup herself.

She'd run a whole household in her time, and she knew how to lay out a meal. First she took the dry cakes she'd made earlier, mixed coarse and fine grain with wild greens, and heaped a big basketful onto the kang.

These were the flesh and bone that shielded her grandson from blade and spear. Whatever else, they had to eat their fill.

As for the mutton, she ladled it with real art.

A coarse bowl worked like this. At the bottom, most of a ladle of offal. Then two big lengths of stripped backbone to fill out the space. On the bones, seven or eight even chunks of mutton, and the last three had to stand higher than the rim to look handsome. Last, a hard ladle of broth on top. That made a full bowl. Carry it out, and the Emperor's own house ate no better.

Even the Empress wouldn't dare serve him this every day!!

There was salt in the house, and before ladling, the old lady threw three good fistfuls of it into each pot.

She didn't hold with Qi Qian'er's way of seasoning. What did "just right" mean? Just right by whose measure? What a know-nothing! Back home the whole family ate from one stew-pot. At harvest, when they took on a few hands, it was still one stew-pot. A clever wife's whole art with food came down to the salt. Hmph. The little chit couldn't even work salt yet. She had a lot to learn.

The old lady carried in the mutton soup, all smiles, and greeted everyone: "There now, there now! Today's a New Year's feast! Look at that fat, smell that salt! So good! Quick, take it, eat, all of you! Eat!"

Chen Dasheng jumped down to help, but the old lady sternly refused him. Dividing the meat was a thing that meant holding the household. Whoever put a hand to it had designs on it, some scheme in mind.

Qi Qian'er didn't bother fighting over it. The old lady loved to watch the grain-jar and the kang-cabinet, so they were set right by her bed. By doing this, Qi Qian'er made herself the one the old lady loved best in all the world.

Common folk had never had the custom of sitting up to a table. So everyone relaxed, crossed their legs, and ate on the kang.

When it came to the old lady and Qi Qian'er at last, Qi Qian'er refused her bowl. Without lifting her head she said: "Granny, I'll do their accounts. I'll eat last."

The old lady looked at her brush and her writing as if at a holy thing, proud past bearing. She nodded, cherishing her, her voice all honey: "Ai! Good child, my hea... you keep at it. Granny's keeping yours warm on the fire! Eat up, all of you, there's more in the pot... ha! Slow down, it's hot! You'll scald yourself, slow now... ah, tsk!"

The old lady had meant to say "my heart's darling," but it made her skin crawl, so in the end she held it back.

The men didn't stand much on ceremony. Hearing her, they thanked her, took up their bowls, and dug in. In a moment the room filled with smacking, chewing, swallowing, and the slurp of soup round the bowl-rims.

The old lady had thrown in three whole fistfuls of salt, and still they ate it down with relish.

What was a little salt? On the march their greatest luxury was a few pieces of pickle. One small bite of that went with a whole meal. So good.

Chen Dasheng downed a bowl of meat fast, held it up to his granny, and said: "Granny! More!"

His was a real bowl of meat, nothing else in it.

The old lady's face twitched. But she answered, still smiling: "Ai, yes, yes, yes! Coming, coming, my eldest grandson, wait!"

She'd taken the bowl and not gone two steps when three more empty bowls thrust at her from the kang, all calling together: "Granny! Heh-heh...!"

The old lady took the empty bowls, looked down, and her heart went cold. She'd meant to eat, that night, the bones these men had gnawed clean. Crushed up with a little soup and some dry cake, bones were tasty too. But the wretches ate like thieves. Not a bone left.

Were they all dogs? What kind of teeth were these? At least leave a few bone-scraps!

Qi Qian'er smiled without looking up. She didn't need to go to the pot to know: the old lady would be throwing in two more fistfuls of salt.

She wrote on the eight ledgers before her, one great character on each: Betrothal, Clothing, Food, Housing, Travel, Visiting, Raising, Saving.

That done, she looked up to do Yu Qingguan's accounts in earnest. Then she remembered he was a dozen years older than Scabby. To call him "uncle" every other word wasn't right.

So she called: "Brother Yu?"

Yu Qingguan was eating happily, head down, and had no idea she meant him. Then Qi Qian'er poked him with the butt of her brush, and he looked up, blank.

Qi Qian'er smiled at him: "You're a good deal older than Scabby. It'd be rude to call you uncle. However you rank yourselves behind my back, from today, when I call, will you answer?"

Yu Qingguan nodded without a thought: "Ai, ai! As you like, sister-in-law. Call me what you please."

Qi Qian'er smiled: "Good. Now let me tell you how we'll do the accounts."

She held up the ledgers, pointed at the characters, and read them out to the room: "This is Betrothal, the bride-price you pay to marry a wife.

"Clothing! Clothes, shoes, socks. All four seasons, to cover the body and keep out the cold. That's all clothing.

"Food! Food is grain. It stands for eating.

"Housing! That's your house, your home.

"Travel! That's mule and horse and cart, coming and going.

"Visiting! That's back and forth, kin and courtesies.

"Raising! That's children and grandchildren, teaching them, carrying on the line.

"Saving! That's laying by money and grain, blessings passed to your descendants."

Much as they loved eating, they let the meat go for this. Like children, they mouthed the words after her without a sound, murmuring along.

Chen Dasheng stared hard at the characters, pride shining on his face.

Once she'd taught them, Qi Qian'er said to Yu Qingguan: "I have some notion you left family back home, Brother Yu?"

Yu Qingguan's plain, square face was usually flat and watchful, but now it took on a real expression. His eyes were full of longing. He seemed to be thinking of who knew what, and he smiled and said:

"Yes! Of course I've a family. My house was poor, and I married late, not till I was twenty. Your sister-in-law, she's half deaf. She took a fever at eight or nine, no one saw to it, and her hearing went. Everyone knew it. But she was a good woman. They wouldn't have given her to me otherwise, would they? She's a fine woman, and dutiful. She bore me sons and daughters, and served my old mother, near as good as you, sister-in-law."

Qi Qian'er nodded and asked again: "Ai, I see. And how many children have you, Brother Yu?"

At that Yu Qingguan smiled wider, easier: "Four! Two boys, two girls. My eldest girl..."

He stopped a long while, set down his bowl, and counted on his fingers. He reckoned a good while, then said to Qi Qian'er, startled:

"Oh! My eldest girl's of age to marry? By my count she's about your age, sister-in-law, fifteen this year. The eldest boy'd be thirteen. The third, my girl, she'd be eight this year. And the littlest boy was just a month old when I left. If it hadn't been for bearing him, I couldn't have come away. His mother held on and nearly died of it. She took a lot of medicine, and we ran up a grain-debt. Ai. In all this war and chaos, no knowing if they've come through..."

Qi Qian'er nodded, reached out, opened the paper, and added four names in order: Yu's eldest girl, second girl, eldest boy, littlest boy.

This wife of Yu Qingguan's was able, truly able. She'd cared for his old mother and his children both, and ruined her own health doing it. They said in the past life she was brought to the frontier and died within a few months.

Once she'd written it down, Qi Qian'er didn't use an abacus. She only put out her hand, tapped along her fingers like a fortune-teller, drew a breath, and said: "With this many mouths, Brother Yu, your savings will be tight."

The words were barely out before the whole room was stunned.

Yu Qingguan more than any: "Surely not! Count it again, sister-in-law. That's over five hundred taels! Back home, a mu of good field costs two strings."

In their home country, a family with fifty mu of spare field was a leading household.

Qi Qian'er smiled: "You likely don't understand, Brother Yu. Let me set it out. I don't know the new dynasty's land laws, so we'll reckon by the old. Back home your field was two strings a mu. But out at the frontier, a mu of tilled, grain-bearing land is only two hundred cash. And that same land, in the two-rivers country, in the four southern commanderies, in a good year, top field can sell for forty strings a mu."

The room drew breath as one. Forty strings? A number unheard of.

Qi Qian'er saw how frightened they were and pressed her lips in a smile: "But you needn't fear now. This is the first year of the reign. The new land laws aren't out yet, and half the realm's people are dead. Everywhere you look are heirless fields gone to waste. So I reckon the Emperor is nursing the people. At the very most, an heirless waste field near Yanjing goes for five hundred cash a mu, and that's top field."

The old lady blurted out: "Gave me a fright!!"

The others, still shaken, nodded along.

Qi Qian'er smiled: "Ha. So while we've the chance, let's settle your hereditary land. I've already picked the spot. At the foot of the hill in front of Quanqian Manor is the Plague God's temple, and all round it is heirless land. Top field! Tomorrow, when you're back in Yanjing, go find the officer in charge of land and say: our hereditary land, we want a thousand mu right there."

She looked at Chen Dasheng: "If you don't know who the land officer is, go find little Hua'er. Or find Lord Zeng. Granny and I will be nearby, so it's easy for me to see to it. When Brother Yu's children come tomorrow, I'll have hands to send about. I'll set the eldest nephew running errands for me, and teach them a bit of how to manage a farm."

Yu Qingguan, overjoyed, made to scramble up and kowtow to Qi Qian'er. But she glared at him: "Break that habit, now! You're a Gate Marquis! A man of rank who eats from the cauldron and tureen! Who'd dare take your kowtow lightly now? Do that and I'll wash my hands of it!"

Yu Qingguan hurried to apologize.

But Qi Qian'er went on scolding: "Brother Yu's a seventh-grade officer besides. To bow to me, a back-court woman, loses you your standing. Never again. You and I are all one family. We're no blood kin, but I hope our children and grandchildren will be close as brothers by blood. That's what's truly good."

The words moved them. They looked at one another and nodded, smiling. All but Chen Dasheng.

This man had been on countless battlefields, cut off countless heads. Men's heads, horses' heads, he feared none. But pull strings? What was he to do about that?

Still, once his wife had arranged it, he mustn't flinch. He set his teeth, nodded at Qi Qian'er, and said, grim as a man leaping down a well: "I... I'll go! Go! Go and ask a favor!"

Qi Qian'er looked at him a good while before she moved her eyes back to the ledger.

"I mean, too, to shave a hundred taels off each of you brothers' and uncles' totals. Someday you'll all marry and raise families, and the mouths will grow. From now on, every household needs at least three hundred mu of field for a base. Only that will cover the cost of eating and spending at Yanjing or Qingfeng. Land right around Qingfeng we're too low-ranked to dare buy. But a manor three hundred li out, that we can."

At this they all nodded, delight on their faces: as you say, all as you say.

Qi Qian'er saw them agree, and she made up a master ledger, setting out eleven accounts on it by head-count.

She and the old lady kept their own separate accounts, not mixed with the family's.

All had agreed to it: her money was hers, Chen Dasheng's was Chen Dasheng's, and the old lady's, of course, was the old lady's own.

So the ones who could count knew there was cunning in it. The ones who couldn't truly didn't, and they praised her besides for how sharp and neat she was.

Once she'd finished writing, Qi Qian'er clapped her hands: "Mm. By the old reckoning: five chi make a pace, a hundred paces a mu, a hundred mu a qing, nine qing a jing. But five qing already makes a manor. So this one family counts as a great house with at least five manors."

Five manors. The room went silent. The old lady leaned at the door, quietly wiping tears. The men only half believed it. People like them, landed manor-folk now?

When the family had settled again, Qi Qian'er's fingers began to fly, and the numbers off her lips left them all in a daze:

"Brother Yu, let's start with the land yield for your income. Say you have three hundred mu: a hundred mu hereditary and tax-free, two hundred mu of taxable top field. A mu yields two to three hundred jin of grain. Reckon it rough, and three hundred mu of top field brings in about seventy-five thousand jin of grain a year."

Seventy-five thousand was a vast number. For a moment the whole room could barely breathe.

The old lady was ready to die again.

Qi Qian'er saw them shaken and laughed: "What are you dreaming of? You think you buy a bit of land and haul seventy thousand jin of grain straight home? Out of this grain you take the tenants' share, the court's tax, the cost of seed and the rest, and the waterworks. By the court's rule we must dig drought-wells too.

"A big well like that runs thirty strings at the least. And that's before natural disasters and man-made ones, and the year in three you leave the land fallow. This is only the rough of it. I say it so you'll all have it clear in your heads."

Yu Qingguan didn't care about any of that. He was already brimming: "That's enough already! Sister-in-law, when I first left, I knelt before the earth-god and swore I'd throw my life away if I had to, so my children wouldn't go hungry. And now, it's enough already."

Qi Qian'er nodded. But she paid no mind to how glad they were, all of them already dreaming of grain in heaps, rolling in it like mice.

She kept counting on her fingers as she said: "Split the difference for losses. Call it thirty-seven thousand jin of grain a year. And from that you carve out seven thousand jin for the household's own eating, the livestock, and social calls. So, Brother Yu, you've a fixed grain income of thirty thousand jin a year, plus the hundred dan of salary grain of your seventh-grade Registrar's post. Together, you take in three hundred forty-three dan of grain a year."

The old lady cut in from the side: "Seven thousand jin's more than they can eat, girl. Your figures are wrong!"

Qi Qian'er wouldn't squabble, and went on as if she hadn't heard: "A seventh-grade Registrar draws salary silver as well as stipend grain each year. You're a guard, and a Yanjing officer, and capital officers have drawn double salary since ancient times. So call your yearly income about two hundred strings.

"We can't reckon grain by today's famine price, in hard times you reckon by a normal year. So in a normal year, three hundred forty-three dan sold well brings you, Brother Yu, one thousand and eighty-three strings a year, or one thousand and eighty-three taels of silver. Add the four hundred thirty-two here with me, and if all goes smoothly, this time the year after next you'll have fifteen hundred taels to your name, and a big house at Quanhou Manor besides."

Qi Qian'er's accounts came out clear as clear. She rattled it off, thousands and tens of thousands, and the room hung on it, thrilled as at a grand opera.

They sat quiet a long while. Then Yu Qingguan said, his voice dry: "I... I've got that much money?"

Qi Qian'er smiled: "That much? That's for later! The five hundred thirty-two taels you've laid here now, I'm about to start spending for you. First, the hundred taels for the land goes out. That leaves you four hundred thirty-two."

Spend it? Why spend it? Not on their lives. Save it all, put it away. What was there to spend on?

Yu Qingguan struggled up out of his sweet dream of riches and asked, uncertain: "Sister-in-law? Why must I spend? I'm all right now. The Emperor keeps me in food, clothes, and everything. I don't spend money."

But Qi Qian'er upended the cloth silver-sack, poured the silver into a heap on the chest, and began to sort it into piles, asking as she went: "Who else is in your family, Brother Yu? Are your parents well?"

Yu Qingguan said: "My father died long ago. When I left, my old mother was still hale. And there's an elder brother and an elder sister."

"Do you know how far your home is from Yanjing, Brother Yu?"

"I asked once. They told me if I went home it'd be more than two thousand li there and back. My home's in the south, and part of the way is by water."

Qi Qian'er looked up at him. She reached into the five piles of silver cakes and pushed out ten: "So! When spring warms next year and the city's escort agencies open for business, this hundred taels is the escort fee. You can't leave your post, so you'll have to trust someone else to fetch your wife and children."

Her hand swept again, and five more cakes came out: "On the road the escort agency must hire servant-women to see to your old mother and wife, and feed and keep four children. Two thousand li, six people. Call it fifty taels. Not too much?"

Yu Qingguan watched, heartsick, and said, voice trembling: "No! Not too much. It should be spent. Spend it, spend it."

Qi Qian'er put out her hand again, pushed out another ten cakes, but didn't move them toward the spending side. She only looked at Yu Qingguan: "You've been gone seven years. Were your old mother and your wife and children left entirely to your brother and sister to care for?"

At that Yu Qingguan's face went white, and his fists clenched.

If his brother and sister had helped even a little, he'd not have had to sell his field, leave his wife and children, and come out to eat this hardship.

Qi Qian'er understood. She nodded: "Mm. Then you'd best keep your wits about you, Brother Yu. Tell the escort chief: when he fetches them, first ask around among the neighbors. If your brother and sister looked after them these seven years, even a little, we can't pretend it never happened.

"You're an officer now. When they fetch your family, put fifty taels of silver in that household's hands. That's the way of kin and courtesy... If they didn't lift a finger, then of course you give nothing."

This time Yu Qingguan didn't look at Qi Qian'er. He reached out and pushed the silver cakes over himself, and said heavily: "I only fear that without this ransom money, my brother and his wife won't let them go."

Every house has its troubles. Qi Qian'er smiled, reached into the heap, pushed seven cakes back, pointed at the three, and said: "Tell the escort chief: go in at midnight, steal the whole family away, five taels a head!"

Yu Qingguan's eyes lit up. He looked up and asked loudly: "That... can we do that?"

"It's ten mu of top field. Why wouldn't he? Men of the martial world have plenty of nerve."

"And if... if my brother and his wife find them gone and report it to the yamen?"

"The court's only just getting itself in order. Two thousand li off, it'll take time before things are tidy. Still, does your family have land or house, Brother Yu?"

"My wife fell ill, so the few mu my forebears left were sold to my brother. There's three earthen rooms still, tile-roofed."

Qi Qian'er smiled: "Then rest easy. For those three tile-roofed rooms, your brother and his wife will hold their tongues. And besides, you're not a juren who just passed his exams, the kind the local yamen comes beating gongs and drums for.

"For one, they don't know you were sold to the Tan army. For another, you're a military officer. The guard alone has twenty-odd garrisons, tens of thousands of men. Your brother and his wife are country folk. The yamen won't so much as issue them a travel-pass. And even if they did, once the family's stolen out and brought to you, what of it if they come? Just don't own them, and drive them off! Kin, are they? They should have thought of that before!!"

At these words, every man in the room thought privately: from now on, even if we take a fierce beating, even with a foot of saber-scar down our backs, we'll not cross her. She's a fearsome one, this.

The family was settled now, and seventy taels saved. Qi Qian'er had a little room to spare. She smiled and pushed out fifty taels: "This fifty goes to next spring. There's a house, but you can't get fine furniture. Still, you need one set of plain mixed-wood furniture, and new bedding, and kitchen gear. Pinch here and there, and it'll do."

The old lady stood to say something, then remembered Qi Qian'er's ruthless streak, the kind that could cut off a man's road to riches, and swallowed it and sat back down.

She dragged her stool over, her backside never leaving the seat, edged up to her grandson's side, and pinched him.

Chen Dasheng's face didn't change. He sat like a rock.

Fifty whole taels on furniture and bedding. Was she mad?

The old lady thought it dear. Yu Qingguan thought it dear too. He opened his mouth to say something, but Qi Qian'er said: "Seventh grade is nothing much in Yanjing, but yours is an official's house now. Never mind that you eat from the cauldron besides. From now on there'll be visits, people coming and going. Are they all to sit on the floor at your house?"

Yu Qingguan heard her stern tone, swallowed, and said: "Yes, yes! Spend, spend it... use it as you see fit, sister-in-law."

Once he'd said it, there was no reining her in. They heard Qi Qian'er start laying out accounts again: "When your wife and children come, they'll be an official's young ladies and young masters. You can't have them suffering anymore. So the house needs at least one bondservant to wait on them..."

The words weren't out before the whole family cried out, aghast, together: "Buy a person?"

Qi Qian'er drew a breath and nodded, helpless: "Yes. There's no getting round it. Once everything's settled, you'll find you can never go back to these thrifty days.

"The girls will go about with their little friends from now on, and those are all officials' families. Today an outing, tomorrow a tea party. Low officers' children they may be, but young ladies and young masters they truly are. Each must have at least a rough-work woman at her side. Are they to go out in the old coarse narrow clothes, a thorn-twig in their hair, on foot?

"The house must have a mule-cart, whatever it takes. And a cart means a driver. The young masters will be coming home to study, so even if two share one, they need a study-boy too. And officials' children have their set places from small. Off to a good Yanjing school! I heard once that a good teacher's school costs two thousand cash a month at the least..."

From then, the room watched Qi Qian'er's hand sweep back and forth across the heap of silver cakes without stopping.

"When they come, each gets two decent sets of clothes a season, and everyday jewelry and headpieces. Silk and satin costs three strings seven hundred a bolt, and four bolts are needed. Good cloth at eight hundred a bolt, ten bolts needed. For the servants' own wear, cut at home, coarse cloth at three hundred a bolt, five bolts needed. Straw sandals at twelve cash, lay in thirty pairs. Wooden clogs at three hundred, twenty pairs. Yanjing's cold, and a good boot-shop in the city sells leather boots at three strings five a pair, six pairs needed... And the young masters' school-chests, the primers, brush and ink and paper and stone, the school meal-fees..."

Yu Qingguan had long since gone limp against Tong Jintai. They watched until Qi Qian'er's hand stopped sweeping the chest, until there was nothing left to sweep. Then, as if saved from drowning, they all let out a breath together.

Yanjing was terrifying! Being an official was terrifying! Eating from the bronze cauldron was more terrifying still!!

Qi Qian'er's hand came up empty. She pursed her lips: "Ahem. Mm. Two grown girls' dowries, two young masters' bride-prices, those are two great items. A thousand strings at the least to lay by..."

Yu Qingguan stared blankly at the roof-beam and murmured: "Sister-in-law. You... you may as well kill me."

Qi Qian'er briskly swept the silver cakes and broken silver into the sack, and said with a light laugh: "If killing you turned into money, I'd kill you."

She tidied the sack, then took a string of copper cash from at her feet, undid the hemp cord, counted out five hundred, and said to Yu Qingguan: "Hold out your hands. Both."

Yu Qingguan put out his hands, trembling. Qi Qian'er dropped the five hundred cash into them with a clatter, like alms: "Brother Yu, from now on you've a family, a household. Whether your old mother, wife, and children live well or ill hangs on your one thought. Yanjing has every kind of rich man. There are plenty who'll pay ten thousand strings for an ordinary horse-whip.

"But you're different. You're a gate-officer keeping the Emperor's door. You've no knack for raking in money, no cleverness for flattering superiors. So don't pick up others' crooked ways. You can't play that game, and they're far too good at it.

"Here. From this month, hand your salary to me and I'll keep the books for you. And you, five hundred cash a month, not a copper more! Spend it as you like. Save it and you've gained. Spend it and you go without."

Qi Qian'er waved a hand: "Next!"

Yu Qingguan cradled the five hundred cash that kept spilling from his hands, and shrank gratefully into the corner of the kang.

Tong Jintai drew a breath and hitched up his cloth belt. This one kept to himself and rarely spoke. He was the third saber. Now he screwed up the greatest courage of his life, dumped a somewhat bigger silver-pouch down before Qi Qian'er with a clunk, and cried:

"Sister-in-law! This is a much bigger pile than Second Brother Yu's! I've no father, no mother! No brother, no sister, no home to go back to, no kin to visit! In all the world there's just me! I ask nothing else, only one thing, I want to find a wife like you! I'm putting in this whole big pile, more than Second Brother's! You find me one exactly like you, even uglier than you, I don't mind... AH!!!"

Chen Dasheng slowly drew back his foot, knelt down beside his wife, and, for no clear reason, nuzzled up to her and said, low: "You're pretty!"

Qi Qian'er watched the griddle-cake slide slowly down the wall. She blew on her palm, glared round at the room, and saw the whole family duck their heads in fear.

Then she gave a snort: "Carry this one out and hang him on the tree. Next!!"