chapter 52

Now that Yuxi had bought real estates and land property, it was impossible to hide such a big thing from the people of the residence. Of course, she also did not want to deceive people. It was also a good thing to let them knew that she had money. At least they would not dare to underestimate her anymore. She was fed up with the supercilious look she received from the servants in her past life.

When Yuru knew this matter, both of her eyes spit out green fires, “Impossible! Where did Yuxi get such a large sum of money? Mother must have bought them for her.“

Qingxuan, however, didn’t feel it was like that at all as she said, “Miss, if it were only three hundreds or five hundreds taels, Eldest Madam might have supplement it. But, if we add up all these properties, it will be a few thousands of taels of silver in total. Eldest Madam may likes Fourth Miss dearly, but after all, she is not her own daughter. How can she give that much money to her just to buy the properties?“ Eldest Madam was also a mother with her own sons. It was impossible for her to give all her private money to Fourth Miss.

Yuru gave out a cold snort and said, “Do you mean that this silvers was really left to her by her mother? You may believe it, but I don’t. At that time, Yuxi was so sick that she was nearly died. If there was such a large sum of money, why didn’t Mama Fang take it out at that time?“

Qingxuan felt that her Miss really had penetrated into a bull’s horn (Chinese idiom : waste time on an insoluble or insignificant problem), “Miss, Fourth Miss got smallpox at that time.” No amount of money was going to help a person with smallpox.

Yuru still didn’t want to believe it. She always felt that there was something wrong. In order to find out the truth, she made up an excuse to go to Rose Courtyard.

Yuxi answered Yuru’s probing seriously, without perfunctory or giving people room to think back.

Yuru didn’t find any useful information from Yuxi. She suddenly thought of something and asked Qingxuan, “Did you send someone to ask Mama Fang?”

Qingxuan didn’t know how should she persuade her Miss at this time. “Miss, it takes a lot of money to ask someone to help with this and we don’t have much on hand.“

Yuru was usually very economical. Every month, she would save a portion of her monthly allowance. Now, in order to investigate, she gritted her teeth and prepared to lay down her hard-earned savings, “Take out twenty taels of silver. Then find an old woman who is on friendly term with Mama Fang, and ask her to find out what actually happened from Mama Fang’s own words.”

Unfortunately, twenty taels of silver were spent in vain as nothing could be found out.

When Qingxuan saw that her Master was still full of doubts, she could not help saying, “Miss, Third Miss’s two stores in the northwest alone worth tens of thousands of taels of silver. These industries run by Fourth Miss are not enough to be compared with Third Miss.”

Rather than being a good advice, this statement only added fuel to the fire.

Yuxi soon knew what Yuru was up to and she intentionally asked Mama Shen, “Mama Shen, what is the meaning of Eldest Sister?” Before, Yuru’s probing on her, already irritated her so much. She didn’t expect that Yuru went as far as seeking out Mama Fang.

Mama Shen replied, “Don’t worry, Miss. Eldest Miss is just jealous of you.”

Yuxi’s face revealed a sneer, “I’m afraid it is not just jealousy.” There must be some plot to get to the bottom of her current situation. Though, she really did not understand it. If Yuru wanted to resent someone, shouldn’t she envy Yuchen? Why fix her jealous eyes on her solely?

What Yuxi did not know was that Yuru was extremely jealous of Yuchen, but Yuchen had always been perfect. So, Yuru felt inferior when she faced Yuchen. However, Yuxi was different. Before, Yuxi was the worst out of them four girls and Yuru was several times better than her. Now, Yuxi suddenly appeared better and climbed onto her head. So, Yuru was extremely unwilling to accept this kind of outcome.

Mama Shen thought for a moment and said, “Miss, would you like me to talk to Mama Luo about this?” Speaking to Mother Luo was like telling the Old Madam.

Yuxi nodded in response. Not only did she let the Old Madam knew, she also told Qiu Shi about the incident, “Eldest Aunt, what does Eldest Sister mean?” She disguised a crying face when n the presence of the Old Madam and Qiu Shi using eye drops.

Qiu Shi had always been indifferent towards Yuru. “Just let her toss and turn. You don’t have to pay attention to her.” First, Yuru pretended to be sick to avoid going to classes. Then, she said Qiu Shi was being biased towards Yuchen and Yuxi by providing both of them with a small kitchen. Now, she was making such a move. Qiu Shi used to think that Yuru was clever and sensible, but now she felt more and more that Yuru was short-sighted, clearly showing that she was a person of humble birth.

Yuxi was ready to quit while she was ahead (Chinese idiom : stop before going too far), and she immediately changed the subject, “Eldest Aunt, how is the little maid rules learning progress?” According to her opinion, it was better if she herself trained that little maid. Then she would feel much rest assured.

Qiu Shi smiled and said, “She has complete her rules learning as others. I will send her to you this afternoon.”

Not long after, Rose Courtyard welcomed a newcomer.

Yuxi looked at the little girl kneeling on the ground who was as thin as a bamboo pole. She was very suspicious, thinking if this person was really the strong person that Qiu Shi had mentioned. “Do you really have a lot of strength?”

The little girl who was somewhat scared said, “Miss, I have been stronger than others since I was young.” If Yuxi hadn’t made it clear that she needed a strong little maid, she would not have been able to enter the eyes of the mama of the person in charged of the residence.

Yuxi felt that seeing is believing, “Then, you can show it to me by moving this table.”

Looking at the little girl walking over and lifted the table, Yuxi was convinced that she was indeed strong. The table weighed more than thirty catty. She herself could not lift it nor move it. “Put it down!” Seeing the other party kneeling on the ground again, she asked, “What’s your name? Where is your home? How did you get to our residence?“

The little girl answered, “My name is Sanya. I live in the mountains. I have two sisters and one brother. The family had to chip in to pay for my brother’s education and to buy a farm, so, mother sold both my sisters and me.” As to where her home was, she also did not know.

紫堇 (Zijin) / Corydalis edulis Maxim

Source | Baike Baidu

Yuxi had nothing to say. Many families favoured sons over daughters, and there were countless people sold their daughters for their sons. Sometimes, Yuxi was also very glad that she was born in the state residence. Even if her father did not care about her mother’s premature death, she never had to worry about food and clothing. Just in the morning, she saw some herbs and said, “From today on, your name will be Zijin (corydalis).” The name Sanya was such a poor taste.

Zijin kowtowed three times to Yuxi and said, “Thank you for giving me the name and I will remember it.”

That night, when Yuxi was writing in the study, she asked Zijin to follow her. Seeing Zijin looking at the big characters written by her with her eyes filled with admiration, she smiled and asked, “Do you want to read?”

Zijin hurriedly shook her head and said, “No.” Reading was a very expensive thing. Where did she have the qualification to learn? However, watching Miss wrote characters warmed the heart and delighted the eyes (Chinese idiom : find the scenery pleasing to both the eye and the mind).

Yuxi smiled, “I will teach you to read, but you have to remember one thing. You are my people and you will only listen to me in the future.” She decided to cultivate Zijin as her confidant. The people in the residence were so intertwined that they could do ordinary things, but when it came to secret matters, she was not at ease, so she only dared to let Hongshan be responsible for inquiring news and doing some less important things. Even if Hongshan had decided to be on her side, she only dared to give some secret matters to Moju or Motao. There was nothing could be done about it since Hongshan’s family were in the residence. In case the Old Madam or someone took her family, threatening her, Yuxi didn’t believe that Hongshan would still stay by her side.

Zijin immediately knelt on the ground and said, “Handmaiden is born as Miss’s people, and when in death will be Miss’s ghost.”

Yuxi bowed her head and wrote down the two characters 忠心 (zhōng xīn / loyalty) and handed them to Zijin, as she said, “These two characters means loyalty. You should keep these two words in mind first.” Since Zijin was going to be her confidant, it was necessary for her to learn Chinese characters. However, Yuxi was not in hurry. Learning a little every day was enough for years to come.

Zijin respectfully said, “Yes.”

Yuxi smiled and said, “Don’t be afraid. I won’t treat you badly as long as you don’t have second thoughts. I have instructed Moju, and she will teach you well in the future” As a master, she could not teach a servant girl to do things, so she gave the job to Moju.

The weather was getting hotter and hotter, and you would have sweat every step of the way. During the holiday, Yuchen didn’t go to Marquis Pingqing’s residence, but instead invited Yuxi to Tingyun Pavilion.

Tingyun Pavilion was windy on all sides and it was situated by the lake. So, it was cool even without using any ice.

In the past, after Yuchen had finished playing her qin, she would ask Yuxi to comment. Yuxi would felt embarrassed and said, “Third Sister, you know I don’t have innate skill in music theory. You asked me to comment, but how am I going to explain on why I gave that comment?” If she were told to look at a painting and to tell what in it, she could say one two or three, four and five things. But when it came to qin, she was powerless.

Yuchen smiled and said, “I just want you listen to it. Treat it as your amusement.”

Qin being played on a qin table

Source | Silkqin

Coming here just to listen to the tunes wasn’t something hard for Yuxi to do. Yuchen folded her legs and sat on the qin table. She adjusted her timbre before she started to play. After playing two songs in succession, she asked, “Fourth Sister, what do you think of my qin playing?”

Yuxi was busy eating peaches rather than listening to the songs just now. So she couldn’t say how pleasant the songs really were. She just said “It was pleasant to hear.” But she could not say in details why they were pleasant to hear.

Yuxi thought it was finally over. How could she knows that Yuchen took her to the painting studio next? Looking at the floor of the house covered with paintings, she was somewhat ashamed. She had also studied painting with Teacher Song for so long. Although Teacher Song said she was talented, she had not painted any pictures so far.

After spending two hours in Tingyun Pavilion, Yuxi returned to Rose Courtyard with Hongshan. Once Hongshan left Tingyun Pavilion, she said to Yuxi, “Handmaiden has always heard that Tingyun Pavilion is warm in winter and cool in summer. I didn’t think that the rumors were true.” After saying that, she took a careful look at Yuxi and felt relieved when she saw no reaction. Because of the Old Madam’s special preference for the Third Miss, both the Eldest Miss and Second Miss were feeling dissatisfied. However, her Miss didn’t seem to care.

Yuxi smiled gently. If she cared about this, she would be similar like Yuru, who always tried to penetrate into a bull’s horn (Chinese idiom : to waste time on an insoluble or insignificant problem).

After a short walk, Hongshan suddenly remembered one thing that she forgot to tell Yuxi, “Miss, Concubine Rong is about to give birth. This child doesn’t have an easy journey!“ During Concubine Rong pregnancy, two incidents happened. One time, she ate dirty thing that could lead to abortion. Fortunately, she only ate a little. Another time, she fell down in the garden. Although there was a pregnancy complication, the child was able to be saved. Hongshan had to admire Concubine Rong. If Second Miss had learned a few tricks fron Concubine Rong, she would not have be grounded until now.

Yuxi also knew that Concubine Rong’s delivery period was this month.

Hongshan also said, “Both the midwife and the doctor have confirmed that Concubine Rong’s baby is a son.” Without a son, Concubine Rong managed to get in the way of Eldest Madam by some degrees. Once she had one, she would surely climb onto Madam’s head. So, Hongshan felt that the Eldest Madam might not let the child being born safely.

Yuxi chuckled, “Son or daughter, none is an obstacle to my aunt.” Her aunt’s position as the Madam of the state residence had already became solid. No one could shake it, even the Old Madam. However, when Concubine Rong came, heraaunt had somehow given in to her from time to time.