Chapter 65

Yu Qingguan sat under the window listening, intent. Inside the room, Doctor Cheng was taking Ding Yuniang's pulse.

Through all the sorrows and joys of parting and reunion, Qi Qian'er always thought further ahead than the rest of them. And first thing this morning she'd gone herself to invite Doctor Cheng, to come to the house and feel the pulses of the whole Yu family, high and low.

And one look, and it was no small matter: from the Yu granny down to the smallest, Yu Youtian, there was something the matter with every one of them, in greater degree or less.

The gravest of all was Ding Yuniang. She had a heavy consumption on her, and a heavy woman's-ailment besides. This plain, honest woman, who couldn't so much as get a whole sentence out, had, from the day her husband left, borne up the whole family's burden on her own, on nothing but one stubborn streak of will.

Seven years. Dried firewood at five cash a load. And Ding Yuniang made the round trip up the hill to the town twice a day, and, the firewood sold, must go on to the rented fields to labor without pause, and come home and wait on her mother-in-law and see to her children besides. And yet, having seen her husband again, there was a contented smile on her face the whole time, and not the least trace of a complaint showed in it.

No one knew how she had borne it. Had the old Ma-chief not gone, Ding Yuniang would not have lasted out to next year. In Doctor Cheng's words, there was nothing left of the whole woman but a shell.

Doctor Cheng first wrote out the Ten-Whole Nurture-the-True Decoction. And this one prescription alone came to a good ten strings and more a month.

Yu Qingguan sat under the window with his head in his hands, silently shedding his tears. While Ding Yuniang, as if some weight had been lifted from her heart, smiled all the while, sure and settled.

Now and again Yu Dani would look uneasily at her mother. And Ding Yuniang, just as of old, comforted her daughter one word at a time: "Ma's. All. Right!"

In an instant the whole room was near to tears.

"It's you that thinks of everything, after all."

Chen Dasheng looked at his wife, all gratitude. But for her, no one else would ever have had such a thought. Who, well and whole, would go looking for trouble and call in a physician, and spend good money on medicine besides?

Even Granny said that physicians were all frighteners of people, that let them alone and you'd nothing wrong with you, but go to one and he'd be sure to conjure you up a whole body of ailments.

But this was Doctor Cheng. If you'd not trust anyone, could you still not trust Doctor Cheng?

Hearing Chen Dasheng's gratitude, Qi Qian'er said, as one setting down a load from her heart: "Don't talk so. It's only a matter of spending a little money, when all's said. Nurse them well, and Dani's and their good days are all still ahead of them." She lifted her face and looked at Chen Dasheng, earnest, and said it over once more, to be sure of it: "We were in time after all, and I'm very glad of it!"

There had been a day when she too looked on every soul in this world with a heart full of ill will, and thought: I live so wretchedly, then by what right do those wicked people go to their graves in jade-thread burial-suits, with children and grandchildren thick about them?

Old Heaven, are you blind?

But looking at it now, how blameless Old Heaven was.

For even the man of wealth had once had his days of striving. And even if the man of wealth strove no longer now, why, his forebears had striven once.

From the day she came back she'd been on the run without a stop, and dared not give herself half a chance to sit and catch her breath. For she'd meant to try, meant, with these two thin hands of hers, this body without four liang of flesh on it, to set herself against that nameless thing up in the void...

And now, by the look of it, this first step at least she'd won.

Look! The ones who should have gone, who should have vanished, who should have been forgotten, they were every one of them here... Leaning against the door, Qi Qian'er watched Ding Yuniang, quiet. And Chen Dasheng came over from one side and quietly took her hand.

Qi Qian'er rolled a great white eye at him.

As if she'd felt something, Ding Yuniang turned her face and looked at Qi Qian'er, and then broke into a broad smile.

Qi Qian'er smiled too, and quietly worked her hand free of Chen Dasheng's, and held up a thumb to her to say all was well.

Ding Yuniang's eyes lit, and in that instant a weight went off her. She cocked her head and winked at her daughter: "See, all's. Well!"

Everyone could hear how grave it was. And yet before her they must all smile as though there were nothing the matter at all.

The man under the window gave a sob. And Qi Qian'er signed to Chen Dasheng with her eyes to go and comfort him a little.

Chen Dasheng, all helplessness, went over and sat down, and clapped Yu Qingguan on the shoulder: "There now! Didn't you hear Doctor Cheng say it, slow and steady, set it right a bit at a time, and sooner or later it'll all come right! Look at you, and this fine show you make of yourself, it's only that you can do no more heavy work from now on, isn't it? Oh, unless it's the money you're grudging? Can't bear to part with it, eh!"

Yu Qingguan gave another sob, lifted his face and wiped his nose, and choked out: "Chief, what are you saying! Beggar the whole house, and Yuniang would still have to be seen to! It's only, it's only that I feel I've so wronged her. Tell me, Chief, what did she ever owe me? I brought her home, and she was fine when she came to me, a good-looking woman! And a hardworking one! She'd go a dozen li and more and come back hopping and skipping. And well, a few short years, and I've dragged her down to this... I just feel I've done her such a wrong..."

Chen Dasheng patted Yu Qingguan, but turned his face and glanced at Qi Qian'er.

Qi Qian'er hooked up the corner of her mouth. Her good opinion of Yu Qingguan rose a notch further, it was a rare thing, indeed. How many women of Quanhou Street had come through the toil and torment of the war. And which of them had not toiled a whole life long, and who among them ever got so much as this one word, I've wronged you?

Granny, and Wan-shi, and Gao-shi... even the scheming old Madam Tao, which of them had not come into this world sound and whole, and then, by the rule of things, found herself a man, and borne him sons and daughters, and kept his house...? And yet, to the very grave, who ever gave you a you've had it hard? Every one of them took it for no more than their due, and all because every other woman lived just so.

She'd hated it once, and hated it to the grinding of her teeth. But now she'd seen it, and heard it, that people were, in the end, not all the same. There were some with a heart. Some who were not blind.

A man with a conscience such as Yu Qingguan's, he deserved his good days!

She was deep in the thought of it when Second-Moon came smiling into the courtyard, and said a few soft words at Qi Qian'er's ear. And Qi Qian'er heard her and smiled, and waved a hand at Chen Dasheng.

"Come here."

Chen Dasheng got up, all bewilderment, and followed Qi Qian'er out of the courtyard before he asked: "What is it?"

Qi Qian'er looked left and right, then said at his ear: "Madam Zhang of the Board of Personnel lane, the eldest Miss Zhang I told you of has come too! Quick, now, go tidy Jintai up, and get him looking a bit smart! Oh~ and don't tell the lad the truth of it. He's one who can't carry off a scene, and it'll only save him the awkwardness... Just find some pretext or other, and send him round to Granny's courtyard for a turn, so she can have a good look at him..."

Chen Dasheng's whole face filled with astonishment to hear it, and he lowered his voice to make sure of it too: "So soon as this?"

For it was only last night he'd so much as mentioned it, the once.

Qi Qian'er gave him a slap: "Do you call this soon? You mustn't reckon yourselves so cheap! Every last one in our house, which of you isn't the very son-in-law a mother-in-law would love best? Quick, now, send someone!"

That said, Qi Qian'er took First-Moon and went off as though borne on the wind. This little wife always walked so, quick as a person chasing after something.

Chen Dasheng stood where he was and watched until his wife had gone into Granny's old courtyard. And then he laughed a low heh-heh to himself, and turned and called his brothers, and went off to find Tong Jintai.

Dong-shi of the Board of Personnel lane had brought her daughter, Zhang Wanru, to sit at the Chen house. And to this moment Dong-shi was still in a daze. Had old Madam Xu's household not come by first thing that morning to say it, she'd never in the world have dared dream that so fine a thing could fall to her house.

At the thought of it, Dong-shi reached out and smoothed a lock at the eldest Miss Zhang's temple once more. And the eldest Miss Zhang, helpless, could only think, silent, to herself.

The luck of the ground here truly was good, then. So short a while lived in it, and one morning the magpie cries, and her house has such a good thing come to its very door?

Restless where she sat, she twisted the handkerchief in her hands. There were fifteen old cats in her heart, clawing at it. And it was no wonder she was uneasy. These years, her days had never once gone smooth.

For never mind that Dong-shi's husband, Zhang Zhengci, was in the Board of Personnel. Who were the men holding the real power in the Board of Personnel now? All of the Shaoshang line, only men the Emperor trusted would be sent to the Board of Personnel, to hold the weighty offices of choosing and appointing the officials of the realm, of ennobling, of the merit-reviews. And what was her husband, Zhang Zhengci? An old official of the fallen dynasty.

It was for the very fret of it, that ill-at-ease, leaning-on-nothing wretchedness, that her house had sold its Yanjing dwelling, and moved to the more restful Quanhou Street to live.

Now, Dong-shi comforted herself every day: not so bad! Not so bad! At the least the whole family was here, and not one of them wanting! Her husband might be a dogsbody in the Board of Personnel, but she was content with it. For how many once-unclimbable great houses had come, now, to what ends?

This last half-year, sitting at home, what she'd heard most of was: how such-and-such a house had come out. How so-and-so up in the north had fared. How that one down in the south had risen in revolt, and now the whole family was under guard, and could not, like as not, even save its three degrees of kin...

Only listen, and was it not a fright!

To have carried the whole family safe across into the new dynasty was owed to nothing but her husband's shrewd sense, that he'd seen the wrongness of things early, and set himself in a safe place, and so kept the whole family whole.

Dong-shi was well content, and dared not breathe one word of complaint, lest she anger Old Heaven and be scorned for not knowing when she was well off. Even that her eldest girl had had her match delayed, she could only burn incense over it day by day, and beg Old Heaven for a clear road, and dared covet nothing beyond.

And she'd never in the world thought that, first thing this morning, old Madam Xu from the Board of Works lane next door would come herself, to say that the young Madam of Guard Lane had taken a fancy to her eldest girl, and would have her stand as go-between, and draw a line between the two sides?

All this long while, how many noble madams of the Six Boards' lanes had had their eyes on the few unwed gentlemen of Guard Lane. Honorary marquises they might only be. But the match those seventh-grade gentlemen offered was fine, fine past all bettering.

First of all: these gentlemen had the Sagely favor! Even the true-born daughter of a minister of the third or fifth rank would have been a fit match. They were, besides, the Emperor's own inner line, old men of Shaoshang, so that their prospects were beyond all reckoning. And more: with no father-in-law or mother-in-law above, and no encumbrance on either side, and a band of thriving brothers to help one another along! Whoever's daughter came in at that gate would be the mistress of her house on the instant. Leave aside the one gentleman short an arm, and the other five, standing there, dazzled the very hearts and livers of all those madams, till they were quite carried away with the longing of it.

To make such a match was no marrying-off of a daughter at all. It was, in plain fact, to gain a son for the house.

So fine a marriage, any house that had a good daughter of the right age might well be turning it over and over in its mind.

But~ Dong-shi had not dared turn it over, and only because her true-born daughter, Zhang Wanru, was already four-and-twenty this year, and had no match yet at all.

Speak of this daughter and Dong-shi's heart ached. It was not that the family had meant to delay the child. It was only ill luck! Early on, when the girl was of just the right age, an elder of the house had died. And mourning barely out, the old lady of the old home had cut up rough, and made a great fuss, and would by no means be denied but she must have the girl brought back to the old home to stay a spell. And who could have known the realm would fall into chaos so of a sudden! The two armies at war, the old home and Yanjing one to the south and one to the north. And the poor girl, in the old home, to keep herself safe, had been forced to enter a Daoist convent and become a priestess, to shelter from the troubles.

It was five long years before the realm came at last to a great peace, and they sent men to fetch the daughter home. And this time... she was well and truly left on their hands, the child four-and-twenty now.

One dared not call it ill. At the least the whole family lived, and not one wanting. But this while, for their eldest daughter's sake, Dong-shi and Master Zhang had tossed and turned, night after night with no rest to be had. To be an old official of the fallen dynasty was luck ill enough of itself. And this over-age daughter of their own, what manner of son-in-law was to be found to match her?

Four-and-twenty already! Other people's four-and-twenties could hold three or four children in their arms.

From the courtyard came a maid's voice: "...The young Madam is here!"

Dong-shi got hastily to her feet. And seeing the young Madam of Guard Lane come into the room, she made haste to draw her daughter forward to meet her, calling her "Madam" and making their courtesy together.

Qi Qian'er fixed her gaze on Zhang Wanru, and in her heart said one word: good.

Qi Qian'er, secretly glad, stepped up and steadied Dong-shi with a hand, and pressed her back into her seat before she said: "You stand on far too much ceremony. If our two houses become kin, why, you'll be a full generation my senior. It's you~ who ought to take a courtesy from me..."

That said, this young Madam truly did make Dong-shi a junior's bow, in all earnest, and called her "aunt."

Dong-shi sprang up in a fright, and said over and over that she could never bear it. But Qi Qian'er turned and caught the low-bowed Zhang Wanru by the hand, and said, warm and familiar: "Eldest Miss, I'll say it plainly first: if our two houses do become one, then it must all go by the rule of our Guard Lane! And I'm to be the little sister-in-law!"

The ever-lowered head of Zhang Wanru came up at that. Her two cheeks flushed crimson in an instant, and she stole one glance at Qi Qian'er and lowered her head again.

Old Madam Dong, sitting to one side, was so moved she near wept, and said, over and over: "It's all as Madam says, all as you say..."

Only, a pity, her daughter would not play up to her mother's game, but worked her hand free of Qi Qian'er's, and stood and made Qi Qian'er a courtesy again: "Let Madam not take it amiss! It's not that I don't know a good thing. It's only, the great matter of a whole life! I would at least hear something of the where and the how of it, and know what manner of man it is I'm to marry. My mother and my father are at their wits' end now, and would sooner it were tomorrow than, "

Zhang Wanru had not done speaking when Dong-shi shot to her feet and put out a hand to stop her daughter's mouth, but just then, from out in the courtyard, there came a man's voice, ringing and clear: "Granny! Sister-in-law! I've hauled this stone bar over for you! Where's it to go?"

Qi Qian'er's eyes lit. She caught Zhang Wanru by the hand and made for the outer room. And Zhang Wanru, astonishment on her face, went stumbling along after this powerful woman, willy-nilly.

Coming behind the bamboo blind of the hall, Qi Qian'er didn't lift the blind, but only drew it a crack, and beckoned Zhang Wanru to look out along with her.

And, so looking, Zhang Wanru gave one "Ai, !" and turned and went back into the room.

Qi Qian'er stuck her head out for a look, and she was struck dumb too.

There in the courtyard stood Tong Jintai, the corded muscle of his upper body bare, hoisting a great bar of green stone, and waiting with a face full of puzzlement for his orders.

Qi Qian'er was fit to burst with rage. She'd have liked nothing better than to go out and pin her own fool down and pound him into a proper meat-paste...

And Tong Jintai, hoisting a green-stone bar of a good two hundred jin and more, was thoroughly put out. He felt his brothers were none of them right in the head today. He'd been at home minding his own business, tracing his copybook, when a few of the brothers had come whooping into his house and stripped off his clothes, and found him a new pair of trousers to put on besides? And on the way out the chief had taken up a bowl of water and given him a good hard spraying, before and behind.

And at the last they'd hoisted up a stone bar and had him carry it round to the old courtyard, and what was the meaning of that?

Tong Jintai felt there were people within, dimly looking at him. His bare upper body was cold, and shame stirred in his heart. So he called again: "Granny? Sister-in-law! Where's it to go?"

And then the little sister-in-law said within, in high dudgeon: "Don't want it! Take it back!"

And so the wholly-bewildered Tong Jintai hoisted the stone bar and went off.

Within, old and young alike said not a word. Every one of them ready to die of the awkwardness of it!

It was a good while before Qi Qian'er could squeeze out a smile, and pointed outside: "Ahem~ well, you saw him? He's not short of an arm nor a leg! And that... his looks are decent and proper too, aren't they?"

Dong-shi had been well content long since. Hearing it, she nodded away in a string: "Yes, yes, yes! That, that truly is decent and proper. Not a wit wanting either, really! Not short of an arm nor a leg..."

But her daughter would still not play up to her, and only lifted her face and said to Qi Qian'er: "Now this I don't understand. If, as Madam says, all's fine about him at every point, then why is it me? Does Madam know how things stand with my house? Does she know why I'm still without a match at such an age..."

At that Qi Qian'er laughed, frank and open, and, not waiting for her to finish, caught her by the hand and said, smiling: "I know all about you..."

There was no one in the world who knew it more clearly. I know your temper is tough and enduring, and your heart open and forgiving. I know you're full of learning and can eat bitterness besides. You have virtues past counting. But the one I bow to most in you is that you won't bend the knee to your fate, you always find a way to make your own life better, and however much this world of men heaps its hardships on you, you'll find the better road, and get your own self at ease first.

I know, too, that it was only at seven-and-twenty that you gave way at last to your parents' pleading, and left the convent, and made a family with that no-account widower across the street, and became stepmother to three children.

I know your qin and your chess, your calligraphy and your painting, are each of them consummate, and that, so as not to wound your husband, you let not the least trace of any of it show for a dozen years and more, and gave him at every turn the best of your encouragement.

You bore him children, and kept a poor house in perfect order. And you raised two children born of another mother's womb as though they were of one flesh with your own, and made them able and virtuous, upright and above-board.

And yet your luck was bad. For your house's beast of a man had no sooner glimpsed a little wealth than he began to fling himself into dissipation and bring women home... And I watched, with my own eyes, as you set the whole house in order, and then, the moment your own daughter was married off, drew yourself out of it without a hair's hesitation... Zhang Wanru, you were once a half-teacher to me!

I'll not boast. But of every good girl in all Quanqian Street and Quanhou Street, there's not one that I, Huo Qi Qian'er, don't know of. And of every one I know of, I'll let not a single one slip. I'll rake them all home to my own house...

Zhang Wanru looked at Qi Qian'er, a little startled, and said her words over: "And what does the young Madam know of me?"

Dong-shi, hearing it, near spat blood. But to her surprise the young Madam showed not the least anger. She drew her daughter to sit at one side and said, warm and close: "We live but a few steps apart. Who doesn't know whom? Idle talk I've heard no little of. But I'm not of that mind, and, more than that, in my house from the highest to the lowest there's not one soul that believes such talk!

"The truth is, the killing and the cutting of this world are not the worst evil of all. The most poisonous thing is a mouth that talks wild, and the most venomous is a heart that envies another... And I'll tell you this, if they didn't envy you, they'd not trouble themselves to chew your name over at all..."

Zhang Wanru's eyes lit at that. And she lifted her face, and looked at Qi Qian'er now in earnest: "Does the young Madam truly think so?"

Qi Qian'er was just making ready to press her case in good earnest when, from the courtyard, there came another loud hail: "Granny! Sister-in-law! Where's the millstone to go for you?"

That said, she drew Zhang Wanru to the hall again, pulled the blind a crack, and pointed at the Tong Jintai in the courtyard, who was now shouldering half a millstone: "It's this fellow, Tong Jintai, His Honor Tong, Registrar of the Long Saber Garrison of our Great Liang's Imperial Guard! And of blockheads like him, my house has another five!"

That said, she called out: "Tong Jintai! You get that wretched thing out of here this minute, I never asked for it! And you tell your chief: if he goes making this kind of mad muddle again today, then every last one of you, off with the whole lot of you to bide in Yanjing, and don't come back at all, trouble's the one thing I can count on you for, and not a lick of help in a real matter!"

Berated head and face, Tong Jintai helplessly shouldered the half-millstone and went out.

Zhang Wanru kept her head down, her shoulders shaking like a sieve.

Qi Qian'er, helpless, took her by the hand and led her back to the east room, and said to the old lady on the kang, whose own face was all worry now: "Granny, you say it, of the lot of them, every one, who else have the two of us to look to?"

The old lady had long since seen how things stood. And hearing it she said, indignant: "Isn't it just so? For all the time he's spent at the Emperor's side, how has he never come on a bit..." And here, fearing Dong-shi might scorn Tong Jintai, she sat up a little, and said, somewhat abashed: "Mistress, he's not all bad, though. The thing is~ at the least, he's honest... honest as can be!"

How content Dong-shi was. And hearing it she hastened to say: "Honest is good! Ai! Honest is good indeed!"

And as she spoke, the mother stole a look at her hard-boned daughter, on tenterhooks for fear she'd let fall something that would jar.

Qi Qian'er invited Zhang Wanru to sit, and poured her a cup of tea with her own hand: "Our Jintai is four-and-twenty too this year. But I don't know, what month was Miss Zhang born in?"

Hearing it, Dong-shi put in with a glad, flustered haste: "Aiya! It's too fitting, too fitting! Why, the very same age, and Wanru falls just at the middle of the year, born on the third of the sixth month. And I don't know, in what month was your honored house's His Honor Tong born?"

Old Madam Xu, the go-between, sat there saying not a word, picking at beans and eating them. And she thought: well! Look at the eldest Miss Zhang's mother, all in a fret, she'd like nothing better than to go up in person and haul His Honor Tong home into her own house.

How content Dong-shi was, so content her heart and liver were near to leaping out of her breast into her very throat.

For if her daughter married into the lane next door, how many steps was it from her mother's home? She'd taken a peep just now, pressed to the window, aiyo! and her heart was quite carried away with the love of it. A son-in-law you couldn't turn up with a lantern to search for, only look at those looks, look at that honest air of him!

How fine! This was the very son-in-law Old Heaven had made ready for her Wanru, no wonder he'd been so late in coming. The old folk had the right of it after all: the late meal is the good meal!

She'd made up her mind: she'd give up half her daughter's dowry to draw such a son-in-law into the house. Nay, give up half her own life, and she'd bring this thing off all the same, for what was there to choose between such a son-in-law and a son fetched home outright? And if Zhang Wanru dared kick up any more of her nonsense today, she'd have it out with her to the death!

At the thought, Dong-shi glared savagely at her daughter, but that mule of a daughter had gone and dropped her head and fallen silent?

Qi Qian'er held her handkerchief to her mouth and snorted a laugh: "Our Jintai's the younger of the two, though, he's an eleventh-month child."

The old lady doted on the eldest Miss Zhang too. Any girl who knew her letters and could reckon her figures she was fond of, and had it not been for the letter from Dingxiang's house, saying a bride had been settled on over there for Stinky Melon and the rest, she'd have shamelessly made the offer herself.

The old lady said, all smiles: "Older's good, older's good. The older one knows warm from cold, and knows how to cherish a person..."

Dong-shi said, before she could stop herself: "Isn't it just, isn't it just so!", and then flushed red in the face.

The room was grown oddly awkward. And it was a good while before Qi Qian'er drew Zhang Wanru to her and said: "Eldest Miss, I'll not hide it from you: our Jintai suffered his share of great hardship in the old days too, and it was only by struggling through it that he's come to what he is today. I know that in your heart you must be wondering, why don't we find some new-risen noble of a high house, and make a finer match..."

The eldest Miss Zhang lifted her face, and there was puzzlement in her eyes too. She was thinking: just so, you new-risen of Shaoshang want for no good match. Why come turning up an old maid out of us old-dynasty stock, and haul her home?

Qi Qian'er said, smiling: "It's a simple thing to say. Whatever new-risen house it be, whatever high-born young lady of whatever great gate, let her come into our Guard Lane: can she shoulder the days of this house, or can she not? That's a thing much in doubt!

"Keeping a home isn't the like of that! It's no simple matter to be settled by having a little silver. Take me: you all see me and think me well off, but how do any of you know my hard case? I keep seven doors alone. No father- or mother-in-law above me to point the way, no sisters-in-law on either side to lend a hand. And step outside this lane, and my house hasn't so much as a relative to go visiting.

"Their menfolk think that so long as they've handed over all the silver they earn to you, all's well and done! But keeping a home isn't so. Keeping a home is, you set one foot out the door, and where's the other foot, the foot of your sons and grandsons after you, to come down? All of it must be reckoned clear. Tell me, is it hard or not?

"Let one of those high-born young ladies come into our Guard Lane, and which of them could endure the loneliness, endure the wearing-down of it, and shoulder a whole household's days all on her own?"

The eldest Miss Zhang blinked, and looked at Qi Qian'er with something like amusement, and asked: "And can it be~ the young Madam reckons that I could shoulder these days?"

"What are you saying!" Dong-shi exploded on the instant. And then, having roared it out, felt it ill-judged, and said, halting and half-pleading: "There's, there's still your mother, isn't there? Wanru, don't you be afraid. Your mother's here~ ah!"

Seeing her mother so, Zhang Wanru felt a soreness in her heart.

Qi Qian'er reached out and took her hand: "I believe in you. Last month, at the Tang house's birthday feast, I saw the young lady go along with your honored old lady. And however they wagged their tongues behind her, I saw the young lady stand unmoved as a mountain, and for that steadiness and sureness alone, our house has fixed on the young lady! And now, our mansion's got, and everything within and without the house is made ready. We've only to wait for, "

But poor Qi Qian'er hadn't done speaking when there came another bellow from the courtyard: "Sister-in-law! Where's this tree to go for you?"

Qi Qian'er could bear no more, and this time didn't try. She put out a hand, snatched up the broom from the kang, and charged out.

And so the Zhang mother and daughter looked on, dumbstruck, as this house's old lady leaned out of the window and shouted after her: "Thrash them dead! Thrash the silly boys good and hard! How is it, day after day, they never grow a brain in their heads..."

That night, Chen Dasheng lay alone at his end of the kang chuckling heh-heh to himself. And when he'd done chuckling he said to Qi Qian'er: "I'll say this, that eldest Miss Zhang really does suit our Jintai."

Qi Qian'er cared nothing for what he thought. She only asked Chen Dasheng, curious: "Chen Dasheng? Is there some matter you're keeping from me?"

A flicker of alarm crossed Chen Dasheng's eyes. But he gathered his thoughts up quick, and, smiling with a face all candor, looked at Qi Qian'er: "No? Why does the wife say so?"

Only, Qi Qian'er couldn't shake the feeling that something was off somewhere.

She'd have gone on to ask why Chen Dasheng had settled it so fixed in his mind, that if his brothers were to marry, the first choice must be the daughters of the ordinary officials of the Board of Personnel, the Office of Transmission, the Censorate, the Hanlin Academy...

But from the other end of the kang there came, by then, a thunderous snoring.