He parked the cart under the low shed at the side of the little house, then helped carry a few things inside. As he stepped into the hall, Ning Yi couldn't help thinking of a phrase: through the hall and into the inner chamber. That sounds rather wicked. He smiled to himself.
The two of them chatted for a while every morning, but as for the inside of this little house, this was the first time Ning Yi had ever set foot in it.
The little house stood by the river with only a few trees around it—quiet and elegant, with no other buildings close by. It was probably cool in summer, but in winter it felt rather cold.
Thick outer walls had been added for the season and the drafty spots sealed off with heavy curtains, yet the mistress of the house had been out for over half the day, and stepping in fresh from outside felt colder still. There wasn't much in the parlor, but it was tastefully arranged.
As for receiving a guest, Nie Yunzhu seemed rather flustered, running to and fro looking for things, but the tea itself was cold and there was nothing to eat; in the end she simply asked Ning Yi to sit, carried a small charcoal brazier outside, and moved the fire from the stove on the cart into it.
She set the little brazier in the middle of the room, not far from Ning Yi, and put a teapot on it. "Uh... this will only take a moment."
Ning Yi laughed, amused, and the laugh left Nie Yunzhu a little embarrassed. Then she remembered. "Those salted duck eggs..." She ran into the inner room and carried out two jars, setting them on the table in front of Ning Yi. "Anyway... I did them the way Master Ning said. Whether they can be eaten, I couldn't tell you."
When she had been getting ready to open the pancake stall, she had planned to sell tea eggs and salted eggs on the side as well; when she mentioned it to Ning Yi, it put an idea in his head, and he had asked her to make the things now sitting in front of him.
Ning Yi had put up the money. The method was much the same as for salted eggs, only it used limewater, camphor-wood ash and the like, with less salt than salted eggs. He had called it an experiment and made her follow the proportions strictly.
More than twenty days had passed, so the results should be visible by now.
Nie Yunzhu had some interest of her own in these oddly cured duck eggs, but what interested her far more at the moment was the music Ning Yi had spoken of on the road. She loathed the business of pleasing men with her looks, but she had nothing against the arts themselves.
What sort of songs did a man who could write something like Shui Diao Ge Tou hum to himself and enjoy? She had never asked, but she was curious all the same.
Now she brought Ning Yi a basin of clean water and a porcelain bowl, then carried over the family's qin, fetched brush, ink, paper and inkstone, and sat down across the round table without a word.
Ning Yi took a duck egg from the jar and dropped it in the water to wash it; seeing her expression, he couldn't help laughing. He nodded. "All right, I'll sing it for you and you write down the lyrics. But no laughing if it sounds bad. The song is called 'Jialan Rain'... yes, that jialan..."
Snowflakes swirled down, and line by line, the singing drifted faintly out of the little house.
"The sound of prosperity, slipped through the empty gate, has worn the world's people thin; the dream runs cold, a whole life tossed and turned, and how many ledgers of love's debt. As if you gave your silent consent, waiting out life and death, waiting out ring after ring of the years...
The stupa, how many tiers broken away, whose soul broke with them; pain runs straight to a lone guttering lamp, the mountain gate caved in. Let me wait a little longer, for history to turn, for the wine to mellow, for you to pluck one tune on the guzheng..."
A note of the strings sounded, softly, quietly...
At the Su residence, the examination in the library had already ended, and Ning Yi had not appeared. After a brief talk with Old Master Su and the others, Song Mao returned to the courtyard the Su family had set aside for him and told Song Kai, the steward who had come along with him, to prepare the things and gifts he would need for going out.
As far as he was concerned, this trip to Jiangning was perhaps a little tight on schedule, especially the first few days; the order in which to call on people was a matter of some nicety. While he was turning certain things over in his mind, Song Kai came in again. "Master, Master Wenxing asks to see you."
Song Mao nodded. "Let him in."
Su Wenxing was Su Zhongkan's son, ranked fifth among the males of the Su family's third generation—a ranking that naturally took in not only the three branches of the Su family but all their many cousins. But Su Wenxing was the true-born son of Su Zhongkan's principal wife, and Song Mao was his cousin-uncle, who had doted on him since he was small. That he would come now was something Song Mao had already expected.
The saying that there was no one of any use in the Su family's third generation was widespread, but judging by appearance alone, Su Wenxing, twenty-three this year, could still be called personable and dignified. He came in and first made his bows and greetings to Song Mao. Song Mao smiled and got his words in first. "Wenxing, the man you called a fame-seeking fraud this morning—is it really this Ning Yi, Ning Liheng?"
"Cousin-uncle, it's him all right. We looked into his background long ago. For twenty years he's been a nobody, a bookworm who knows nothing. If he hadn't run his family into four bare walls, why would he ever have married into our Su family as a live-in son-in-law..."
Song Mao laughed. "I don't think he looks like one."
"That Shui Diao Ge Tou at Mid-Autumn—in front of Grandfather and Father and the rest, he claimed a Daoist priest had recited it. But Grandfather spoke harshly and told everyone not to spread it around, so we couldn't very well talk about it openly outside..."
Su Wenxing was feeling glum, and in front of this cousin-uncle who doted on him he spoke freely, pouring it all out. Song Mao smiled and pressed a hand down, then pressed twice in the air. "Whether it's true is still up in the air. If he really is a fame-seeker who stole another man's poem, your cousin-uncle will test him himself..."
"But cousin-uncle, today in the library you praised him like that, so if..."
Su Wenxing had told Song Mao about Ning Yi that very morning. A while ago in the library, it had been all very well when Song Mao did not know Ning Yi was the teacher of those children, but once he knew, he had still praised him without pause, and Su Wenxing felt rather glum about it, afraid it would simply add to the man's reputation. Ning Yi might be nothing but a live-in son-in-law, but his fame would after all be turned into bargaining chips that weighed on Su Tan'er's side.
Watching his nephew bring this up, Song Mao shook his head inwardly, then patted him on the shoulder.
"Wenxing, you're the one taking over your father's business. Your cousin-uncle told you long ago to take the long view—don't get all resentful just because someone else has a bit of a name. In the Su family now, your cousin Tan'er's husband may be a live-in son-in-law, but your grandfather won't let anyone touch him.
If he truly has learning, then for the moment you can't do anything about him—so why not borrow a few flowers to offer the Buddha and get on good terms with him, the better to find out just where his weaknesses are? And if he is a fame-seeking fraud, then one day he'll fall.
The higher you raise him, the harder he falls. So before he falls, why not go and praise him a few more times?"
Song Mao's face was broad and square, the sort that looked upright and guileless; having said all this earnestly, he paused. "I still have business to go out for now. Think over what I've said, Wenxing, and weigh it yourself. Later tonight, go and see your father and mother... mm. I'm off."
"I—I understand..." Su Wenxing bowed respectfully. "Your nephew was thinking crookedly just now..."
Song Mao smiled and pushed the door open and went out.
As Song Mao came out from among the courtyards, another figure was walking along a path at the other end of the Su residence toward the side gate.
Xi Junyu, who had come with Steward Luo, had not left with him; after the news from the library had come through, he had chatted with several people a while longer before taking his leave alone. The Su residence was large, and this was not his first visit—he knew it well. He had taken a turn around the area, and from this angle he could just see the two small buildings where Su Tan'er and Ning Yi lived.
The snow was falling thick and fast. He stood there a while, eyes grave as he thought, then turned and left, passing through several courtyards buried in snow. Only when he was nearly at the side gate did a voice come from somewhere nearby. "Steward Xi! What a coincidence!"
In fact this sort of "coincidence" was hardly the first. Xi Junyu's mood today was irritable; he frowned slightly, but still cupped his hands toward that side in salute. "Seventh Young Master. What a coincidence."
The one coming over was a young gentleman in splendid clothes, a folding fan in his hand; he was young, with a somewhat babyish, likable face. Su Wenji of the Su family's third branch came up smiling. "Steward Xi, you've worked hard. Since we've met by such a coincidence, it happens that my father is hosting a banquet at the Yinchun Pavilion today—would Steward Xi perhaps..."
"Heh, thank you, Seventh Young Master, and thank Third Master for his kindness, but Junyu still has important business on hand. I'm afraid I'll have no time to attend the banquet."
"Steward Xi, don't say that every single time..."
"And doesn't Seventh Young Master say the same thing every single time?"
"Fine, then." Su Wenji straightened his expression. "Steward Xi, I know you're fond of Second Sister."
Xi Junyu paused a beat, then smiled faintly. "Now that's a bit of a novelty."
"Steward Xi, why not just admit it? Anyone in the family with eyes could see a thing like that... Honestly, back then we all thought Second Sister would choose you. That day Father even said, 'If she picks Xi Junyu, then the whole business gets troublesome.' There's no need to hide it from you now. Everyone knows your ability—half the business under Second Sister is held up by you. And yet in the end, Second Sister, Uncle, Grandfather, none of them chose you."
Now that he had opened his mouth, Su Wenji waved the still-unopened fan in his hand and poured it all out. "Nobody knows why they picked that Ning Yi. Don't say I'm being crude—I'm stirring up trouble, right to your face. But you'd think it even if I didn't. And just now up front, that Ning Yi stole the whole show without even being there. Did you know? Grandfather will value him more and more, and he's nothing but a live-in son-in-law..."
Xi Junyu listened him out, then smiled faintly. "Seventh Young Master, I know they haven't consummated the marriage yet. To this day they sleep in separate rooms—they look like husband and wife but they're strangers. As long as they haven't consummated it, this live-in son-in-law is a joke."
"They'll consummate it sooner or later! You and I both know Second Sister's character. Since she's already begun to keep company with that Ning Yi, she'll come around sooner or later. She was well brought up from childhood—she would never do anything to dishonor her womanly duties. Since she's already accepted it..."
"Ha. Seventh Young Master, so you talk about your own sister so freely..."
Xi Junyu shook his head and walked on. Behind him, Su Wenji gritted his teeth. "Talk about it however you like, it's still the same! Xi Junyu, you know perfectly well—Second Sister will accept him sooner or later. With you carrying on like this, there's no chance at all..."
Before he had finished, Xi Junyu abruptly turned his head and came striding back. He was tall and lean and had always cut an imposing figure; after several years of fighting in the business world, walking over quickly with a dark face through the whirling snow, his presence was genuinely a little frightening. He stared at Su Wenji for a moment, then smiled coldly and shook his head. "Seventh Young Master, don't be naive..."
Xi Junyu often came into the residence to discuss business, and Su Wenji often came over to wait for him; at their several "coincidental meetings" everyone had always been amiable and exchanged pleasantries. When had Su Wenji ever seen such a look on the face of Xi Junyu, who was always calm and composed, with everything well in hand?
At that he was slightly taken aback, then spoke.
"Steward—Steward Xi, if you come over to our side, you'd be chief steward over the whole Su establishment at once; all the resources of the Su family's third branch would be yours to command. However many demands you have, as long as we can meet them, we'll agree to them all.
And if you can manage those resources well—Second Sister is only a woman, after all, and in the future she may well fail to take over the first branch. If you want to have her, there will be plenty of ways... My father says you're a smart man, and everyone knows you're a smart man.
We're sincere on our side, so there's no need to say more. Just think it over yourself..."