A Willing Mistake, My Lady – Chapter 48
by Little PandaInvestigating the Cause of Illness
Zhuangzi’s Butterfly Dream
In a side room in a quiet corner of Jiang Manor, Jiang Chenyu sat across from an elderly sweeping maid.
“Nanny Zhao, there is no need for constraint,” Jiang Chenyu said, her tone warm and gentle, as though they were merely chatting about household matters. “I heard that your youngest son is getting married soon. Has the date been set?”
“The date was set for the sixth of next month,” Nanny Zhao replied. She had not intended to speak of this, but her heart was so heavy with grievance that once the floodgates opened, there was no stopping her words. “But the girl’s family suddenly demanded more betrothal gifts—another twenty taels! Where are we supposed to get that kind of money? Sigh… my second son has been so worried he hasn’t eaten in three days. As his mother, I just don’t know what to do.”
“Why is their daughter so expensive?” Jiang Chenyu asked. “Does she possess some extraordinary quality?”
For an ordinary family, seven or eight taels of silver was enough to secure a virtuous wife. Twenty taels was indeed exceptionally steep.
“The girl is quite pretty and delicate,” Nanny Zhao said, her brow furrowed with deep sorrow. She looked as though she had aged several years in a matter of days. “A while ago, the eldest son of the Qian family took a liking to her and wanted to make her his concubine. He was willing to offer fifty taels as a betrothal gift. Her parents only care about money, but the girl refused to be someone’s concubine. So, they proposed a compromise: if our family could add twenty taels to our betrothal gift, she could go ahead and marry my son.”
“Ten taels of silver is no small sum,” Jiang Chenyu remarked, closely observing the older woman’s expressions. “If it cannot be resolved, why not simply choose another girl?”
“I thought so too!” Nanny Zhao exclaimed, visibly furious. “But my second son said that if he can’t marry this girl, he will throw himself into the Qingyuan River! The wretched boy… I raised him for nothing!”
“Anger harms the body, Nanny. You had best not let yourself get worked up,” Jiang Chenyu said calmly, raising her teacup to take a slow sip. “It is only a matter of twenty taels of silver. A trivial thing.”
“Miss, do you mean…?” Nanny Zhao looked up, her eyes filled with hope as she gazed at the young woman sitting gracefully on the guifei daybed1.
With her delicate features, voluptuous form, and elegant poise, Jiang Chenyu had only grown more breathtakingly beautiful since her marriage. Even an old woman like Nanny Zhao found herself dazed by her beauty, to say nothing of young men. It was truly a pity that such a woman had been born in a small place like this; otherwise, she could have even become an imperial consort.
“Nanny Zhao, we have been mistress and servant for several years now, so I will not beat around the bush,” Jiang Chenyu said. “I can cover the extra betrothal gift your son is lacking.”
She turned, picked up a small mahogany box, and opened it. Inside lay ten small silver ingots worth five taels each, along with a gold hairpin.
“Miss, what is the meaning of this?” Nanny Zhao’s voice trembled. Fifty taels of silver and a gold hairpin! Heavens… her monthly wage was only five hundred copper cash2. Fifty taels was enough to take her more than ten years to earn. Combined with that glittering gold hairpin, she felt as if she were dreaming.
“These are all yours,” Jiang Chenyu said, her sharp gaze concealed seamlessly beneath her expressive peach-blossom eyes. “Of course, meat pies do not simply fall from the sky. I have a matter I need you to look into for me, Nanny Zhao. What do you say?”
“This old slave understands,” Nanny Zhao replied eagerly. “Whatever your instructions are, Miss, please speak. This old slave will do anything.”
Now that she desperately needed the money, there was nothing she wouldn’t do, as long as it did not involve murder.
“Do not worry, Nanny, it is nothing grave. It is like this…” Jiang Chenyu leaned in close and whispered her instructions.
Hearing them, Nanny Zhao let out a sigh of relief. She had thought it would be some terrifying task, but Jiang Chenyu only wanted her to recall the daily menus and room decorations of Li Qingmei’s mother ever since she had entered the manor. This silver was simply too easy to earn. With a face full of assurance, she promised she would handle the matter properly.
Once the business was finished, Jiang Chenyu did not keep her any longer. Investigating the food was only the beginning. Gradually, she would come to know every single move made within Wu Manor.
Having finished her bath, Shen Hetang had intended to go straight to rest. But after searching the rooms and finding no sign of Jiang Chenyu, she headed toward the study.
Under the bright lamplight sat Jiang Chenyu. She wore a peach-blossom-colored, side-buttoned silk shirt paired with a cream-white pleated skirt. A single pearl buyao3 was tucked loosely into her hair, giving her an ethereal, almost immortal beauty.
Yet this immortal maiden was rather busy, flipping through one book and marking another, seemingly checking accounts.
“Why are you still going through accounts so late?” Shen Hetang asked, leaning down to drape herself over Jiang Chenyu’s shoulder like a boneless creature, watching her write and draw.
“I simply had the inclination just now,” Jiang Chenyu replied.
Naturally, she was not calculating the profits of her own shops. She was taking inventory of Wu Daoyuan’s entire net worth.
“Then I will keep you company for a while. You carry on,” she said.
She lay down on the daybed behind Jiang Chenyu on her own, holding onto her waist as she fell asleep; she was likely a bit tired today.
Jiang Chenyu turned and, seeing her asleep, reached out to cover her with a thin blanket nearby. Then, she turned back to continue calculating the remaining properties and shops in Wu Daoyuan’s possession.
The flickering lampwick, the faint fragrance of flowers, and the two lovers leaning on one another merged into a quiet, peaceful painting of a spring night.
Inside a spacious stable, a two-year-old black colt was enjoying a rise in status along with his master. Yet he was a horse of distinct personality; he would not forget the past provocations of other horses simply because of the flattery of other people or other horses.
When the young black horse had first arrived in this strange place, he turned in excited circles upon seeing so many of his own kind. However, he soon discovered that when this group of his own kind saw he was still just a baby, they began to bully him. Fortunately, he had a backer. To put it simply, those adult horses could neither stand the arrogant little horse nor get rid of him.
Upon learning that his colt had been bullied, Second Young Master Shen refused to let it slide. He made a special trip to buy radishes, corn, and apples, then dragged the young black horse to stand right across from the stables to eat them. As the young colt munched happily on the crisp, juicy fruits, dozens of adult horses in the stable could only watch with dry mouths. This brazen display left the grown horses completely dumbfounded.
Second Young Master Shen felt that things could not go on like this, so he trained it every day as if he were training a dog. The battlefield was a perilous place; he did not expect the black horse to be extraordinarily fierce—it was far more important that the beast be clever enough to save its own life.
Thus, as the sun dipped below the horizon, one could always spot a youth and a young horse practicing their drills.
“Come on, do do it one more time. One more time and you get some fruit.” the youth coaxed, waving a green apple right in front of the black colt’s nose.
The black horse, which had already grown quite handsome, very reluctantly prepared to obey the command.
“Lie down, get up, roll over, play dead… Oh, wait, no, you shouldn’t play dead. If you play dead on the battlefield, you’ll probably end up dead for real. Running is much more practical. Let’s do a lap!”
Ignoring the horse’s long, thoroughly disgruntled face, the youth slipped the apple into his pouch, swung himself onto the saddle, and gripped the reins, urging the horse toward the distant meadows.
Skeins of sunset clouds rolled across the edge of the sky like a raging fire, spreading out to illuminate half the heavens.
Across a grassy plain that stretched out like a green carpet, the youth in red rode his glossy, jet-black steed, flying faster and with more freedom than the wild winds of the open wilderness.
The scene shifted abruptly. It was still the same youth, a bundle stolen from the enemy camp slung across his chest. Horse and rider were fleeing for their lives at breakneck speed. Fortunately, the steed was exceptionally swift, leaving their pursuers far behind.
Seeing that they could not catch up, the enemy had their archers aim at the horse and rider ahead and □□ toward them.
“Bu Bai4, get down!” the youth barked into the horse’s ear. He could dodge the arrows from behind, but what about this silly horse?
The black horse instinctively dropped to the ground. But because they had been running so fast, his limbs slid a great distance across the dirt. The youth on his back was thrown forward, flipping three times through the air. The moment the youth hit the ground, he swiftly drew the bow from his back and shot three arrows at once back at the pursuers, buying them a brief moment to breathe. The black horse had taken a nasty fall, but he scrambled back to his feet, carrying the youth away once more.
Man and horse grew together through one battle after another.
The dreamscape shifted again. Shen Hetang knew she was dreaming—or rather, retrieving her lost memories. She seemed to have become an onlooker, capable of seeing everything with perfect clarity.
Nestled between two towering canyon walls was a mysterious stockade. Two rows of houses had been built directly into the sheer stone cliffs, yet no outsider could ever hope to reach this Hongying Stockade.
The highest peak in the center stood over three hundred meters tall. The dense woods and steep cliffs formed a natural screen, with layered pines, cypresses, and tangled vines everywhere. It was a terrain where a force of several hundred men could vanish into thin air in the blink of an eye.
Hongying Stockade lay hidden at the very top of the dense forest. From afar, the buildings looked as though they were floating in mid-air, with only their sides clinging to the mountain face. If they wished to cross Tianxian Peak, they would have to climb over the steepest central section, but that area consisted of bare rock without a single handhold. If so many of them attempted it, they would end up slipping and falling off the edge like dumplings plopping into boiling water.
“A’tang, these cliffs are so treacherous. A single slip and one’s body will be dashed to pieces with nothing left to bury,” Ye Huaiqing said, looking at the steep path above and the abyss below with deep worry. “How are we to cross?”
“Has the Chief of Hongying Stockade replied?” the Little General asked.
“Master, the Chief of this stockade is very strange,” replied Vice-General Zhao Chenlan. “She says their people have lived here for generations, neither governed nor protected by the imperial court, and they will not interfere in conflicts between two nations. She told us to find our own way across Tianxian Peak.”
“If we could cross on our own, would we even need to ask them?” General Shen grumbled, looking helplessly at the stockade right before them.
The army had been stranded here for three or four days, entirely unable to find a path over the cliffs. The enemy forces blocked the road ahead. If they could not slip through this treacherous peak, they would be squeezed between two armies. Surrounded on both sides, all the rigorous training of these over five thousand elite soldiers would go to waste.
“Why don’t I personally go and meet with the Chief of Hongying Stockade?” Ye Huaiqing suggested, studying General Shen for a moment. “Remaining trapped here is no solution, and our provisions are depleting day by day.”
“Why should you go?” General Shen replied, frowning as he looked at his scholarly, delicate cousin. “You cannot carry a load with your shoulders or lift a weight with your hands. What if something happens to you? I should be the one to go.”
“I am only not as strong as you, but how does that make me unable to carry or lift a thing?” Ye Huaiqing insisted. “Besides, you are the pillar of this army. How can you put yourself at risk? I will go. No more arguments.”
“Very well. Have Chen Lan accompany you, and I will await your good news.” General Shen sighed. When it came to negotiations, Ye Huaiqing was bound to be far more skilled than he was.
“Mm, rest assured.”
With that, the two men made their way toward the broken bridge of Hongying Stockade, where two low-ranking bandits stood guard.
A long while passed. Standing in place, General Shen looked up at the sky. The midday sun was intense enough to melt a person, yet the two had not returned. Could they have been invited to stay for lunch?
After waiting for another two hours, he finally saw the pair trudging back, their heads hanging low in defeat.
“What is it? Did you not get fed? Why the miserable faces?” General Shen asked, looking at them. They resembled a wolf and its bèi partner5 after receiving a sound thrashing.
“Master, the Chief of Hongying Stockade, Xiang Hongyu, says she does not make deals that bring no benefits,” Zhao Chenlan reported, recounting the conversation in detail while the cousin beside him had a rather sour look on his face. “She fears that if she assists us, her people will face harassment from foreign tribes in the future. If we insist on her help, we must become grasshoppers on the same rope6.”
“What is so difficult about that?” General Shen said, failing to understand their dejection. “It was always them who refused to submit to the court, not us refusing to accept them. That is not a problem at all.”
“But the Chief said, she… she said…”
“Why are you stuttering too?” General Shen asked, reaching for his waterskin. “What did she say? It’s not as if she can eat people.”
He was about to take a soothing sip of water when Chen Lan blurted out the Chief’s condition. The water sprayed right out of his mouth.
“What did you say? She wants Huaiqing as her husband of the stockade7?” General Shen exclaimed, astonishment quickly giving way to immense amusement. “She certainly dares to dream! Though she has a rather sharp eye.”
“Are you just standing there enjoying the show?” Huaiqing said gloomily, rubbing his forehead with both hands. “Do you truly intend to leave me behind in this place?”
“Trading just one of you to save all of us is a highly lucrative bargain,” General Shen teased with a grin, mock-considering the feasibility of the arrangement. “Why don’t you make a small sacrifice for the greater good?”
His cousin ignored him, giving him a glare before turning away.
“I was only joking, do not take it to heart. I will go meet her myself and see if there is any room for negotiation,” he said, turning and walking away without looking back.
“Be careful!” Ye Huaiqing shouted after him.
General Shen merely waved a hand over his shoulder.
Upon hearing that the visitor was the Little General of the Shen family, the guards at the bridge became significantly more polite. They ushered him onto a sliding cableway that was pulled back and forth by men on the opposite side. It took about a quarter of an hour8 to cross. When he reached the main hall of Hongying Stockade, he was received by a spirited, large-eyed beauty.
“So, you are General Shen? I have heard much of your great name,” she said.
The girl was not yet twenty years old. She wore simple attire adorned with chains of various colorful gemstones draped across her chest. Her hair was pulled into a high ponytail interwoven with several small braids, exuding the crisp, unburdened charm of a wanderer of the rivers and lakes. She was indeed an eye-catching young woman.
“I assume you are the Chief of Hongying Stockade?” General Shen replied. “As honest folk, let us not mince words. I will get straight to the point: the man you have set your eyes on cannot be left with you. You are a clever woman; aiding the imperial court now is aiding yourself in the future. If you can help this Shen9 overcome this hurdle, your stockade may voice any request you wish. When the time comes, I will certainly advocate for you before His Majesty.”
General Shen kept up his persuasion.
Yet the young woman did not seem to absorb a single word of his pitch. Instead, she lazily picked her ear with a finger.
“General Shen, our stockade is currently lacking nothing—except the next Chief,” Xiang Hongyu said. “There is no need to stand there drawing a large flatbread10 for me. If the imperial court were truly so well-off, why would your army be in such a pitiful state, lacking both men and provisions?”
She had long known that they only had about five thousand men, which was not even as many as her own subordinates.
“No matter how difficult the court’s situation is, it is still a bright, righteous path,” General Shen countered. “In the future, the people in this stockade can go out to study and become officials, all on their own merits. You must take the long view, Chief.”
This lobbying business is truly not meant for just anyone, General Shen thought to himself. Whether I’m telling truths or lies is completely out of my control.
“Cut the useless talk,” she declared, resting one leg casually atop the table with an air of absolute finality. “I only want a man to give me a child. That polite, refined scholar looks perfect, and this chief11 has set her heart on him. Anything else is out of the question.”
General Shen traded verbal barbs with her back and forth for several rounds. Yet the Chief proved utterly stubborn, impervious to both gentle persuasion and subtle threats, leaving him thoroughly exasperated.
Scratching his head in frustration, the Little General looked up, meeting the Chief’s formidable gaze. He offered a tentative proposal: “What about me?”
Footnotes
- A guīfēitā (贵妃榻, lit. 'imperial concubine's daybed') is an elegant, upholstered traditional Chinese daybed or chaise longue featuring a raised armrest on one end, designed for reclining.
- Wén (文), or copper cash, was the basic currency unit in ancient China. One thousand copper cash typically equaled one tael of silver.
- A bùyáo (步摇, lit. 'step-sway') is an elegant traditional Chinese hair ornament featuring hanging pearls or beads that sway gracefully with the wearer's movements.
- Bu Bai (不白, lit. 'not white') is a humorous, ironic name given by Shen Hetang to her pitch-black stallion, playing on his dark coat color.
- The bèi (狈) is a legendary Chinese wolf-like beast with short front legs that must ride on the back of a wolf to run. The idiom 'like a wolf and its bei' (狼狈) describes a pair of schemers, or here, two people in a pathetic, bedraggled state of mutual dependence.
- Yī gēn shéngzi shàng de màzha (一根绳子上的蚂蚱, lit. 'grasshoppers on the same rope') is a Chinese proverb meaning that several parties are bound to the same fate, sharing both risks and consequences.
- Yāzhài fūjūn (压寨夫君, lit. 'husband to secure the stockade') is a historical romance trope where a bandit chief (often female) kidnaps or demands a handsome man to be her husband and co-leader of the stronghold.
- A kè (刻) is a traditional Chinese unit of time measurement. During this era, one day was divided into one hundred ke, making one ke equal to fourteen point four minutes, commonly rounded to fifteen minutes.
- Shěn mǒu (沈某) is a humble, self-referring phrase used by the speaker to refer to themselves as 'this Shen' or 'myself, surnamed Shen.'
- Huà dàbǐng (画大饼, lit. 'drawing a flatbread') is a Chinese slang term meaning to make empty promises or paint an appealing but unrealistic future scenario.
- Bèn zhàizhǔ (本寨主, lit. 'this stockade chief') is a proud, authoritative self-referent used by the leader of a bandit camp.
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