Against the Current - Chapter 236

Chapter 236 - Eavesdropping (Part 1)

Xianglan was a meticulous person. Realizing that a table of proper masters would be dining together, she knew her staying here lacked proper standing. She intended simply to watch them take their seats and then find an excuse to withdraw. Seeing everyone seated, with several matrons and young maids carrying basins of warm water forward to invite everyone to wash their hands, she stepped forward to take Master Hui's hand, saying, "I'll take the young master to find his wet nurse for lunch." With that, she prepared to leave.

Lin Dongqi was sharp-witted and already understood Xianglan's intention. She hurriedly stood up to pull her arm, smiling as she said, "Do just sit down and eat with us. There are maids to lead Master Hui away."

Xianglan hesitated and said, "This..."

Lin Dongwan also stood up. While dispatching an old matron to take Master Hui away, she smiled and said, "Indeed, indeed, come quickly and sit down. We are all family here, why be so overly formal?" Together with Lin Dongqi, pulling from both sides, they drew Xianglan back to her seat.

Lin Dongqi smiled and teased, "You spend all day eating at the same table with the Eldest Brother, raising your standards so high. Could it be that you look down on us sisters?"

Knowing that Lin Dongqi was smoothing the way for her, Xianglan felt a warmth in her heart and smiled, saying, "How could that be?"

Lin Dongwan personally poured a cup of fruit punch for Xianglan, pushed it toward her, and smiled, saying, "Have a cup first to whet your appetite." She then bustled about urging the young maids to bring basins of warm water for Xianglan to wash her hands. Lingqing stepped forward to remove the bracelets from Xianglan's wrists, holding them on a handkerchief, and helped put them back on after Xianglan finished washing her hands. Lin Dongwan showered praise upon praise on Xianglan's bracelets: "This jade has such a clear luster, and the pattern on the gold bracelet is exquisite. I wonder where they were custom-made? Was it at the Wanbao Pavilion or the Cuizhu Studio? Tomorrow I must have a set made in this exact style."

Lady Tan sat to one side with a smile on her face, leisurely wiping her hands clean while secretly feeling astonished. Having just married into the Lin family, she naturally walked on eggshells to please everyone. Since the elders were not present, the sisters Lin Dongwan and Lin Dongqi were the ones she strove hardest to befriend on a daily basis. The former was married into the Lu family; although the Lu family's influence was gradually waning, "a centipede dies but never truly falls apart," and a certain foundation still remained. Not to mention that Lin Dongwan was born of the same mother as Lin Jinxuan, and whenever she occasionally returned to visit Lady Yin, Lin Jinxuan treated her with the utmost affection. The latter, as the legitimate daughter of an illustrious official family, was married to the immensely promising second young master of the Duke of Zhenguo's estate, and held a sterling reputation among the noble matrons and young ladies of the capital. With such a lofty background, exquisite beauty, widespread virtuous reputation, and a noble husband, she was quite simply the embodiment of the life Lady Tan yearned for most in her heart. Because she admired her so deeply, she was all the more eager to be on good terms with Lin Dongqi.

Yet both Dongwan and Dongqi had treated her with polite indifference, leading Lady Tan to assume it was simply because she was a newcomer and unfamiliar with things. Never had she imagined that today, upon meeting Xianglan for the very first time, Lin Dongwan would show her such boundless warmth, her every word and gesture reeking of eager flattery.

After everyone had washed their hands, three or four maids walked in carrying large lacquered food boxes. Xiaojuan and Xuening took the dishes out of the boxes and arranged them on the table. Before long, the table was densely lined with bowls and plates of various descriptions, most of them light and vegetarian.

Silence reigned at the table, broken only by the clinking of bowls and chopsticks.

After the meal, the maids and serving women cleared away the remaining dishes and served fragrant tea for rinsing the mouth. Everyone moved to the eastern room, where the maids rearranged pastries and dried fruits. As they chatted and laughed, the conversation remained mostly idle chatter. Lin Dongwan possessed a clever tongue, accounting for seventy percent of everyone's talk: whose garden was built the best, which theatrical troupe sang the finest, which couple was discordant, which family had taken in a new concubine, and which second or third branch sister-in-law was feuding with another. Such trivial, petty matters were ordinarily uninteresting, but she recounted them with such vivid color and dramatic twists.

As Xianglan listened to Lin Dongwan, she occasionally caught the names of a few familiar families, but a dozen vicissitudes of life having passed, she felt a profound sense of how things had changed. Seeing Lin Dongwan speak with such radiant animation, she thought that if she were only provided with a wooden gavel to strike sharply on a desk with a loud clack, she would truly make an exceptional professional storyteller.

While the room was lively with conversation, Lin Jinlou walked in from outside, only to find the room completely quiet upon entering. As it turned out, the mistresses were amusing themselves with conversation while the maids had dispersed—some going to eat, some to take a midday nap, and others chatting and laughing in the servants' quarters. Only Huashan sat by the door on a small folding stool keeping watch, steadily plying her needlework.

Seeing no one in the main room, Lin Jinlou turned around, but hearing the sound of talking and laughing coming from the eastern room, he walked over toward it. He had been drinking wine in the front quarters and had stained his outer garment, so he had returned to change clothes. He originally intended to call for Xianglan, but upon reaching the door and hearing the laughter, he changed his mind. He mused that Xianglan was usually lonely, and since it was hard to come by a few people of similar age to talk with her, if he went in, the people in the room would inevitably feel constrained and have their spirits dampened. When Huashan saw Lin Jinlou arrive, she hurriedly stood up and reached out to lift the curtain, but seeing Lin Jinlou wave his hand, she obediently closed her mouth and shrank back to stand aside.

Lin Jinlou cocked his ear and listened in toward the room.

At that moment, Lin Dongwan was recounting an affair concerning the Dai family. In earlier years, the ancestors of the Dai family had served as high-ranking second-grade officials in the imperial court, and later generations had also produced several talented individuals. However, implicated in the crown prince's affair, the family's vitality had been severely wounded, and they had lain low for over a decade until three years ago, when the Emperor once again cast a favorable eye upon them, promoting Master Dai, Dai Qing, into the Hanlin Academy, where he won the deep esteem of Grand Secretary Zhao Jin of the Grand Secretariat. As the saying goes, "Promoted to high office, growing wealthy, and losing one's wife," no sooner had Dai Qing's fortunes turned than his primary wife passed away. A year later, he remarried a new mistress, and the household began to flourish once more.

Xianglan sipped her tea, raised her eyes slightly, and swept a glance across the room. She saw Lin Dongqi listening with rapt attention as Lin Dongwan continued: "... But that pregnancy began right during the mourning period for the Dai family's mistress. It was already over five months along. Third Master Dai had stolen the maid right under the very eyes of the Dai family's third young mistress. That maid was also clever; she first made up an excuse to go home and hid herself for several months. Her belly was far larger than anyone else's—it might even be twins—and seeing that she could no longer conceal it, her mother brought her back to the Dai family. The Dai third young mistress wanted to reward her with a bowl of abortion medicine. Who would have thought that the maid, relying on her status as a favorite by the Old Lady's side, would thrust out her belly and demand that the Old Lady make the decision for her? You all know the temper and disposition of the Dai third young mistress. She was practically fit to burst with fury, hiked up her skirts, chased her all the way to the Old Lady's rooms, and right in front of the Old Lady, scratched the maid's face until it was a complete mess—oh dear, oh my! There are even rumors that she gouged the girl's eyeballs out. Tsk, tsk, tsk, it's enough to make your skin crawl with goosebumps."

Lin Dongqi gave a start, stroked her arm, and said, "Eldest Sister, please stop talking, it's terrifying. What happened after that?"

"What happened? What else could happen? The Dai family's Old Lady fainted on the spot, and the maid was so frightened she collapsed on the floor and suffered a miscarriage. Master Dai declared he was going to severely punish his third daughter-in-law. Tsk, you have to hand it to the Dai third young mistress—she really knows what she's doing. Knowing that her father-in-law had newly remarried and was currently in the high spirits of his honeymoon, she turned around and curried favor with the new mother-in-law. With a few sweet words blown into his ear, the matter was let off lightly. In just a couple of days, she was strutting around in all her glory again, and by now those maids in the Dai family have been completely cowed by her." Lin Dongwan paused, lifted a cup of tea to moisten her throat, and continued, "That maid was sent off to a country estate. I hear that such a neat and pretty girl is now utterly disfigured, and who knows what will become of her in the future. Third Master Dai merely had people send over forty taels of silver and never bothered with her again."

Lady Tan snorted and said, "Amitabha, serves her right! That girl brought it on herself as retribution. The Dai family is in the wrong too—who goes around stealing maids during their mother's mourning period? If word gets out, the Dai family's reputation for refinement is utterly dragged through the mud. Even if the Dai third young mistress was out of line, it was still enabled by the Dai family's indulgence. Could a maid by the Old Lady's side just casually climb into her master's bed and steal the master of the house away from the mistress?"

Lin Jinlou listened, finding it to be nothing more than petty women's gossip, and felt thoroughly impatient. He turned around, intending to leave, but unexpectedly heard Xianglan say, "Third Master Dai is no good thing, but that girl was, after all, a slave and a servant. If the master insisted on forcing her, what could she do? It's a pity that girl's life was ruined and two children died, while that man remains free and happy."

Hearing these words, Lin Jinlou put down the foot he had raised.

Lady Tan sneered coldly and said, "As the saying goes, 'flies do not bite uncracked eggs.' In this world, it takes two hands to clap. If that girl hadn't had those thoughts, how could Third Master Dai have succeeded? Besides, she was the Old Lady's maid, much more favored than ordinary maids. Could Third Master Dai have possibly forced her? I hear that Third Master Dai is a romantic figure as handsome as Pan An. It was precisely because he had both wealth and looks that he made the girl's heart turn dirty."

Xianglan also sneered coldly and retorted, "By that logic, anyone with wealth and looks should expect maids to throw themselves at them and try to climb into their masters' beds?"

Lady Tan raised her voice and said loudly, "If that girl had really been forced, with true chastity and such hundredfold reluctance, she should have slit her throat right then and there! Once she had the seed, she should have used a bowl of medicine to clear it away. Why sneak around and hide herself, only to pop back with a bulging belly to disgust people! Such a cowardly yet pretentious little slut—the Dai third young mistress gave her a truly well-deserved beating."

Xianglan said slowly, "If she was forced by her master, losing her virtue was already pitiful enough, and she could no longer hope for a respectable marriage. This matter was never her fault to begin with; why must outsiders hound her to death? If she didn't die, perhaps she had parents to support. Is she guilty of all sorts of wickedness simply because she clung to life? Once she was pregnant, the child in her belly shared her own flesh and blood—how could she bear to abort it? She must have struggled for a long time, ultimately unable to harden her heart, and when her family discovered it, she had no choice but to return to the Dai family."

Lin Dongwan did not know the inside story, but Lin Dongqi was somewhat aware of the affairs between Xianglan and Lin Jinlou. Knowing that those words had struck a raw nerve in Xianglan's heart, and seeing Lady Tan flushed red and still eager to argue, she smiled to bridge the gap and intervened, "Alright, alright, these are all outsiders' affairs, why must we dwell on it?" She took Xianglan's hand and said, "I remember you used to be the best at drawing floral patterns. Do you have any fresh ones recently? Hurry and draw a landscape for me; I want to make a cloak and have it embroidered on the back."

Xianglan went along with the flow, taking the stepping stone offered to her, and smiled. "Having just arrived in the capital yesterday, all my finished drawings are still in Jinling. Tomorrow I will sketch a few for the Second Grand-Aunt. Just tell me what kind you want."

Lin Dongwan chimed in playfully, "And me, and me! I never knew you had this talent. From now on, I've found the right place to look for flower patterns. I want one with a hundred butterflies and peonies; help me draw two."

Lin Dongqi smiled again and said, "Take your time drawing, don't rush, there's no hurry."

Xianglan smiled and agreed, casting a sidelong glance out of the corner of her eye at Lady Tan.