Chapter 21
Chapter 21
True Self (1)
[ The second floor of the marble boat.]
Zheng Wan looked at the handkerchief presented to her in amazement; it was hard to tell what went through her mind as her delicate face turned from red to white.
“This does indeed belong to me. I wonder where… the gentleman found it?”
“Xiaofang Hall’s lakeside.”
Cui Wang was such a miser with words that Zheng Wan had to take the initiative.
“And how did you know that… this zan belongs to me?”
The bloodstone on the tortoiseshell zan had been shattered into countless pieces; it was utterly impossible to make out its original form. Only one character, “Cui”, was still intact.
“Outside the Plum Garden.”
Zheng Wan observed Cui Wang’s unwavering expression—neither flushing nor flinching as he lied calmly. It turns out that books can also be deceiving; what “the Sword Sovereign was clear in heart and spirit, completely untainted by mundane affairs”? He was as good as her father when it came to telling lies.
“Could it be that the gentleman… was paying attention to me at that time?”
Zheng Wan opened her mouth slightly, and a pair of watery peach blossom eyes1 opened wide and round.
Cui Wang shook his head. “No.”
“But——”
“I harbour no intentions towards the young lady.”
In Zheng Wan’s embarrassment, Cui Wang glanced at her wrist; a gold flower chain dangled loosely around her wrist. The artisan had twisted and moulded thin threads of gold into a chain of delicate golden filigree peonies—even the leaves of the flowers were intricate and distinct. A dozen or so droplets of bloodstone dangled from the leaves, and one could tell at a glance that it was worth a lot of money.
“My mother also likes to collect accessories made of bloodstone.”
“I see,” said Zheng Wan, realisation dawning upon her face. “Father knows that I like them, so whenever there are new goods in the jewellery store, he always buys some for me.”
Actually, that wasn’t true.
Zheng Wan liked mutton fat jade2, liked gold, silver, and jade accessories, but didn’t like this stone that had little value.
“So, was that zan also a gift from your father?”
“No, actually.” Zheng Wan gently stroked the bloodstone fragments, her eyes full of light. “This was a gift from an old friend.”
“It seems that this old friend was not just an ordinary person to the young lady.”
“Indeed…” Zheng Wan’s mouth bore traces of a smile, and when he looked closely, there was also a hint of bitterness, “Not ordinary at all.”
“Oh, is that so.”
Cui Wang seemed to have lost interest and did not ask any further. He just picked up his cup and took a small sip of berry juice.
Zheng Wan couldn’t understand what he meant, but she knew that she could no longer continue the conversation. While she was hesitating, a sudden commotion could be heard coming from outside the door; there seemed to be a few female voices in the mix. She turned her head and asked:
“What’s going on?”
At the same time, the Crown Prince also asked loudly, with an agitated expression:
“Who is making a ruckus here?”
Shortly after, a young lady wearing a wide-brimmed, veiled mili3 entered with her maid. She was dressed in white, and her figure looked so delicate and frail that one couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. Even her cries sounded like the mournful wails of a dove.
“The humble one is the third lady of the Liu family, Liu Si.”
The lady in white kowtowed as she paid her respects.
“Second Sister Liu, is this your concubine-born younger sister? The one with red rash?”
Rong Qin arched her eyebrows. “Why did you come here without any reason?”
Even though the Shanglin Banquet was one where the officials came together in celebration, no one would bring concubine-born daughters to attend the event. It was even more unthinkable that one would turn up wailing at the entrance of the marble boat, causing such a ruckus.
Second Lady Liu looked ashamed.
“My third sister is young and ignorant, please forgive her, Your Highness.”
She then turned to look at her half-sister, who was still kneeling, and asked, “Third Sister, is there an urgent matter for you to have barged in so unexpectedly?”
The young lady was still crying; through her sobs, she begged Second Lady Liu to call for an imperial physician to save her mother. Seated at the back of the boat, Zheng Wan broke out in cold sweat, and her heart pounded so hard that it was about to jump out of her throat.
Why was Third Lady Liu here?
She had clearly asked someone to keep an eye on her.
Even though she had made meticulous plans, at a time like this, she couldn’t help but panic. She looked up and out of the cabin, and saw the maidservant who she had installed in advance shake her head almost imperceptibly. Clearly, something had happened, and she had been unable to hold Third Lady Liu back.
Footnotes:
1 peach blossom eyes: 桃花眼 taohua yan; A kind of eye shape, named because it resembles a peach blossom. The long and slender eye is in a wavy shape (tails slightly tilted upwards) that resembles a peach flower petal and typically looks lovely. There’s a watery look and the eyes are slightly flushed at the edges. If a woman has a pair of peach blossom eyes, her eyes look like drunk and pitiful, like a springtime peach blossom in the rain; if a man has a pair of peach blossom eyes, his eyes are full of affection.
2 mutton fat jade: A term in China referring to a kind of nephrite that ranges from a translucent white to very light yellow. (As an aside, an opaque white to very light brown or gray nephrite is known as chicken bone jade.)
3 mili: 幂蓠; A wide-brimmed hat with a body-long veil that originated from the foreign cultures of the northwest. The mili became popular during the Sui dynasty (581-618), especially among ladies of the nobility who rode horses on public roads. They were viewed as a conservative statement of nobility and modesty. The fancier veils were adorned with jade and kingfisher feathers. Eventually, the mili’s long veil was shortened toward the end of the Sui, and by the Tang the new wide-brimmed hat with shoulder-lengthed veil became known as the weimao.