Chapter 13 - Luring A Snake From Its Nest

Taking advantage of the bright afternoon sun, Lian Qiao brought the blankets out from their residence to air out in the courtyard. As the cotton that lined the worn blankets was sparse, they were just thin layers. They seemed extremely unsightly when placed next to all the thickly-stuffed, bright-colored blankets of the main residence.

Chun Ying commanded a few lower-ranked maids to hang the cotton blanket from Zhang Lan’s room on the clotheslines. Compared to the dull colors in Lian Qiao’s hands, the blanket in front of Chun Ying depicted an exquisite embroidery of peonies. It was so fully stuffed with that year’s new fluffy cotton that it was bulging. It was obvious from a glance that it was an extremely thick blanket as the weight of the cotton blanket made the clothesline sink gradually. Chun Ying roared her orders, “Be more careful. Pay more attention so that you don’t scrape its reverse side. It has top-notch embroidery.”

Lian Qiao did not even bother sparing her a glance and walked to the other side of the courtyard by herself and raised her arms to drape her blankets over the clothesline. The light cotton blankets did not seem to possess any weight so it was easy to hang them in the sun. Upon watching Lian Qiao, Chun Ying laughed, “Goodness, Senior Lian Qiao has also personally come to air out the blankets.” She swept her eyes over the hung blankets, “Everyone, you should learn from her. Can you see how capable Lian Qiao is? She is able to hang the blankets all by herself and it seemed so effortless too. Unlike the few of us that were needed to carry ours and felt tired because of them.”

The few maids sniggered before one of them spoke, “Maybe only the cotton of the highest quality was used in our young lady’s blankets. They do not seem to bear any weight at all. It must be very comfortable being covered by this type of blanket. It is not like our cotton blankets, which are thick and large. They are just too heavy.”

Ignoring their mockery, Lian Qiao smoothed over the creases on the cotton blankets. In response, Chun Ying unrelentingly continued, “Lian Qiao, how can you only air out your lady’s blankets but not yours and Bai Zhi’s too? You should let us see if your blankets are different from ours.”

Another bout of laughter broke out amongst the lower ranked maids. She was implying that as a young mistress, Jiang Ruan’s standards were not even at the level of a servant. It was really too much for Lian Qiao to hear. Her long, shapely eyebrows narrowed. She almost exploded when a maid, who was smiling sweetly, rushed hurriedly to her, “Senior Lian Qiao, the item that you instructed me to find-”

“Lu Zhu,” Lian Qiao interrupted her, “Wait for a moment.” She made sure that the last blanket was hung properly before turning around to pull the young maid away by the hand, “Come here and discuss it.”

The two of them walked to the side and huddled together where no one could figure out what they were speaking about. After a while, Lian Qiao picked up an empty wooden basin and left. After her departure, Chun Ying summoned the maid who was about to leave, “You must be Lu Zhu.”

Lu Zhu eyed Chun Ying timidly, “Yes.”

“Don’t be afraid,” Chun Ying spoke, “What were you and Lian Qiao talking about?”

“No- Nothing,” Lu Zhu shook her lowered head, fixated on her feet.

“What are you afraid of? I won’t eat you,” Chun Ying’s voice became fiercer, “Why did Lian Qiao find you without a good reason? What were you discussing so secretly just now? You should understand who is the decision-maker here. If you cannot provide a clear explanation, you don’t need to stay in this residence any longer.”

“Don’t,” Lu Zhu raised her head suddenly, her pair of helpless eyes reddening, “Senior Chun Ying, please don’t chase me out.”

“As long as you explain this matter clearly, I will definitely not do anything to you,” Chun Ying continued, “I am not someone who is unreasonable. Your face looks extremely new to me so you must be a newly recruited maid. If you perform your duties properly, I won’t let anyone bully you in the future.”

“Really?” Lu Zhu raised her head, her face alight with hope.

“I would not deceive you.” Chun Ying’s tone became progressively gentler. She believed there was something fishy about this matter related to Lian Qiao.

“Actually, Senior Lian Qiao just sought me out for an insignificant matter,” Lu Zhu replied. “She just heard that my embroidery skills were decent and asked me to embroider a water lily on our young mistress’s ripped jacket so that a tear is not visible.”

Chun Ying looked at her suspiciously, “Is that all?”

“Yes,” Lu Zhu nodded.

“But this is really odd. Usually, young mistress would not concern herself over a jacket. Why would she suddenly want a water lily embroidered on it?”

“This-” Lu Zhu hesitated slightly.

“Is there something else?” Chun Ying asked impatiently.

“Is there something else?” Chun Ying asked impatiently.

“I heard that they managed to obtain a pot of Queen of the Night from somewhere. Tonight, our young mistress wants to admire the flower in the pear blossom garden. Thus, she wanted to dress more beautifully for the event, so as to not insult the rare and famous flower.” Lu Zhu spilled everything that she knew. “Additionally, this Queen of the Night is extremely precious and it is a rare sight that only blooms in the winter night.”

“Queen of the Night?” Chun Ying raised her suspicions, “The residence has acquired a pot of Queen of the Night? I did not hear anything about that.” She looked at Lu Zhu, “Okay, there is nothing here that concerns you anymore. You can go and perform your duties.”

Lu Zhu answered affirmatively and turned to leave. Chun Ying stood on her spot and muttered, “Under the current circumstances, how could she be in the mood to admire flowers? And, even if she was in the mood, why would she make an effort to seek out a beautiful piece of clothing? Usually, she does not care about these things at all. Surely, there must be another reason why she is so unusual today. I must investigate properly about what they are planning to do.”

In a room, by the side of the courtyard, Bai Zhi took out several books from a chest to air out under the sun. The chest that had been full of books was completely emptied out in the courtyard. As she carefully pried the pages open, she expressed, “Miss, contrary to what one would expect, this chest is well preserved and the books are in good condition. After the New Year, the house will get very damp so we will have to constantly take them out to dry under the sun.” After she had finished speaking, she recalled something, “In the past, when your mother was alive, she also loved these volumes of books a lot. She would insist on drying them everyday.”

“Mother was born into a military family, and yet she collected this valuable literature just to gain someone’s favor. However, I was the one who benefitted from them.” Looking at the books in the courtyard, Jiang Ruan spoke softly.

The Zhao family lineage consisted of military generals, who were used to bloodthirsty battlefields in the midst of sandstorms. Each and every man in their family was the pride of the army. Yet, the only legitimate daughter Zhao Mei fell in love with Jiang Quan. The entire Zhao family vehemently opposed the relationship but she was determined to marry him. Because of this, the Zhao family had disowned their only daughter.

After Zhao Mei married Jiang Quan, she found out that he adored scholarly ladies with many talents so she searched far and wide, all over the country, for various books to learn from. Alas, who could have known that not long after their marriage, Jiang Quan would marry the capital’s most talented lady, Xia Yan, as his noble concubine.

In the end, Zhao Mei did not live until the day she could finish reading this chest of books. However, Xia Yan was then quickly promoted from being a noble concubine to Jiang furen[1] all of a sudden. Jiang Ruan laughed mockingly at herself. Until her death, her mother was unable to understand that if that man did not really love her, regardless of what she did, she would never be able to win over his affections. From then until now, what Jiang Quan loved was not the talented and educated ladies, but rather the talented and educated Xia Yan.

[1] Jiang furen – Mistress of the house; Main wife.

“Miss, were you reminiscing about your mother?” Bai Zhi observed Jiang Ruan’s expression, “If she were still alive and could witness how intelligent and sharp you are now, she would feel very assured.”

Jiang Ruan smiled noncommittally. Bai Zhi walked to her and was surprised to see the book in Jiang Ruan’s hands, “Miss, why are you reading those military books again? There is no need for you to use the knowledge in battlefields. Why not read some folk stories and poetic verses?”

“Even if we are not at war, our enemies may still approach us,” Jiang Ruan’s gaze fell on the few words in the book of military strategies: ‘luring a snake from its nest’.