Chapter 40 — Striking the Mountain

Wang Yu's eyelids twitched. She said, "The Third Madam came over today precisely to discuss this matter with you?"

Ji shi was silent for a long while, then gave a slight nod.

Wang Yu drew a sharp breath. "Could we not simply stay out of this business..." When Cailan arrived, Old Mother Yu was at her wits' end.

Qixia Court was in an uproar like a pot of boiling porridge. The Ji family had come pressing over, demanding the betrothal be broken; the Pang family, borrowing the tiger's might, ordered this one about and directed that one, and to make matters worse, neither the Old Master nor the Seventh Master was anywhere to be found. She was nothing but a serving woman—which single matter, which single affair, was hers to decide? The stewards and stewardesses hid when they could and shifted blame when they could, pushing her to the fore, and she was burdened with the Seventh Master's trust. She could not evade it even had she wished to, and so she had no choice but to steel herself and step forward, soothing this one and placating that one until at last nothing untoward had happened. Only after much difficulty did the Old Master return to the mansion, and then the Sixth Madam of the East Mansion sent someone to summon her.

When others summoned her, she could decline. But the Fourth Young Lady was now in the Sixth Branch of the East Mansion, and when the Sixth Madam called, she could not delay a single moment.

She pressed her forehead and asked the little maid who had come to report, "Did she say what it was about?"

The little maid shook her head. "She only said for you to come quickly."

Old Mother Yu had no choice but to give a few instructions to Mama Huo, then took two little maids and went to the East Mansion.

Wang Yu came out to receive her.

Wang Yu did not lead her straight to the main rooms but invited her to sit in a side chamber.

"Old sister," she said, taking Old Mother Yu's hand, "I know you have been run off your feet these days, and if the matter were not urgent, our madam would never have sent for you." She told Old Mother Yu about the Yuzan affair. "...It was only a matter of something broken; at worst our madam would have given her a scolding. But she shifted the blame onto the Fourth Young Lady—you can see how insolent she has been all along. If not for the reputation of the people in the front***, our madam would have dealt with her on the spot..."

Before Old Mother Yu had even finished listening, her head began to buzz.

She knew something was bound to happen!

The maids and old women in the household had seen that Daqing's wife did not take the Fourth Young Lady seriously, and so they followed suit and grew insolent, especially shallow creatures like Yuzan, who had all but lost all sense of propriety.

In the end, it was all a calamity brought about by her son.

But a grown son will not heed his mother.

She managed the household within, and her son managed affairs without; by the time some matters came to her knowledge, the rice was already cooked. She had reprimanded her son several times, and at first he had merely listened, but later he simply talked back to her: "We are people of the front***; whoever becomes the Seventh Master's second wife will never tolerate us. Better to leave ourselves a way out while we still can."

She knew her son's words had some truth to them, but she had served the Zhao and Dou families all her life—where else could she go if she left them?

Her son said, "Rest easy, I will not touch the Fourth Young Lady's things. I will merely use the names of the Zhao and Dou families, and the Fourth Young Lady's silver, to do a few deals. Once we have accumulated some capital and some reputation, you need only plead old age, and we will beg a favor of the new madam to let us return to our native place. The new madam will likely be so delighted she will laugh aloud—why would she stand in our way?"

Now that the Sixth Madam was displeased with her, this matter would likely not be so easy.

Old Mother Yu seized Wang Yu's hand in some alarm. "The ten fingers are not all of one length. No sooner do I press this one down than that one floats up—my head is spinning. Please, sister, tell me what I should do!"

"You too are an old servant at the mistress's side; think it over carefully, and surely you will find a way." Though she said this, Wang Yu smiled and added, "I have seen many maids like Yuzan—restless creatures, and a curse to keep about one." Then she took her to see Ji shi.

※