Chapter 32 Friendship among classmates
Jinling wasn't a small place, but it wasn't a big one either. Otherwise, how could Zheng Sirui's return visit to the academy have reached such irrelevant ears? Most of the girls from her class were preparing for marriage, a few had dropped out to help manage their families' businesses, and only a handful were taking the imperial examinations—no more than four or five, in all. A closer look meant they hadn't seen each other for at least half a year. Gan Yao and Mengqi used this as an excuse to forcefully invite the rest of the class to a banquet at Qiushui Academy on the occasion of Zheng Sirui's visit to the Master, under the pretext of "Classmates Gathering, Reminiscing About the Past."
Teacher Lu Tianwen was very enthusiastic about the spectacle of "disciples all over the world." He put aside his teacher's airs and personally wrote visiting cards to his students. Yanru was naturally on the invitation list. When she received the card from Meng Qi's servant, she instinctively refused, throwing it on the table, not wanting to even glance at it. That night, Pei Lan noticed it and urged Yanru to go: "They have all returned from the capital, and now they are the girls who have never seen the world. Are you afraid of being laughed at by others?"
That made sense. Yanru swayed for a moment, then rose early the next morning to dress and prepare for her appointment. She put on the jacket Liu Xiang had just given her, paired with a light ochre pleated skirt, and examined her attire in a bronze mirror: like a newly born lotus, graceful and refreshing. Yanru felt a little dissatisfied, remembering Meng Qi's perpetual hair covered in pearls and the gossip of her former classmates at Qiushui Academy. She gritted her teeth, took off her jacket, and found the one with gold and silver thread that Xue Jia had given her.
Zheng Sirui had originally disliked the idea of a large group of people huddled together, with friends and strangers sitting side by side. It was difficult to eat or chat, like chewing half-cooked rice with a delicious meal. But she had to comply to her teacher's request, so she left early to meet the teacher and his wife before anyone else arrived, sharing some intimate details that might be inconvenient for others to hear. After presenting her gifts and drinking tea, and waiting for the students to start their meal, Zheng Sirui, bored, wandered the academy alone. The early summer sun shone, cut by the angles of the buildings and trees, shattering the surface of her body. She wandered into the small rose garden, where the roses, red and yellow, bloomed in clusters, inviting her to stop and sit on the stone bench, staring at the flowers, lost in thought, her vision blurring into circles of color. In these circles of color, past joys and sorrows returned to her.
"Those who abandoned me, yesterday's day cannot be kept. It's bustling downstairs, and if you, Lord Zheng, are just sitting here idly by the flowers, won't others miss this rare opportunity to flatter you?" A carefree figure, respectfully addressing "Lord, Lord" with a warm tone and gesture, sat down next to Zheng Sirui and placed his hand on her shoulder. Zheng Sirui knew who this person was, but was surprised to see him there. "You actually came to Jinling?!"
Yi Bin had changed her hairstyle to a woman's, her dress neatly ironed, her flower-shaped silver hairpin new, and small beads dangling from her ears. While respectable, it wasn't as extravagant as before. She didn't care. The dimples at the corners of her mouth were filled with the sweet joy of a newlywed couple. With no one around, she picked a small rose-pink flower from her hand and tucked it into her bun, then turned her head and asked, "Does it look good?"
Zheng Sirui said "beautiful", Yi Bin asked about Caiyuan's whereabouts, and when he heard that Caiyuan was following Sirui, he felt relieved, and then he happily answered all her curiosity: "I ran away while there were more people at home, and came to Jinling. Let's start, I want to open a small clinic, it's not because I don't have enough money, and I'm afraid that relatives in Jinling will come to make trouble. Now I have set up a small stall on the street, a stall, to sell the herbs we have dried. He also checks the illnesses of the poor people who buy medicine, and charges a few copper coins. It was not that day that I met the teacher and his wife on the street. The teacher said that he was angry all day because of teaching students, and he was sulking. He was angry and asked me to dry more herbs for clearing heat and relieving coughs and send them to the academy. He also paid me more than the market price. Hey! Look at this hairpin of mine. Liang Qiang said that Qiu Shui had old acquaintances, so she wanted me to wear something nice. She bought it for me specially to help someone write a prescription. And these earrings, they made them for me yesterday. Don’t they look good? As for me, I just came here to deliver medicine today, but the teacher insisted that I stay for the banquet. I said that those classmates are so powerful. If they heard about my story, they would smash me like garlic, roast me over the fire, and chew me with rice.
Zheng Sirui chuckled. "On the first day of school, the teacher said that we shouldn't let worldly things determine our own status. If you say that to the teacher, he will definitely scold you."
"Of course not!" Yi Bin frowned. "I told him why I eloped, but he didn't scold me. After I finished, he scolded me so much that his spit was almost all over my face. Okay, okay, let's have the feast. You, Lord Zheng, are so imposing and powerful."
Zheng Sirui forced a bitter face not much different from Yi Bin's. "Please stop talking, it's so annoying. Yanru used to say to me, 'In life, there's no need to make friends or relatives. There's no need to look for them! As long as you do well, relatives and friends will naturally come to you.' I understand, she said it very well. In the past year, no one was willing to step into my house for fear that it would be tainted with poverty and affect their luck. These past few days, our house has been so crowded. Even the threshold of my house, the one you asked your coachman to help me fix, was kicked in yesterday. My dear, I didn't know my parents had so many relatives. They are like leeks, picking up one batch after another. Luckily, they brought their own wine and food. I don't like it if I spend money to entertain them."
Yi Bin was so excited that he swayed backwards and forwards. "How can you be like this? You have such a big house in the capital, but you still worry about the money for wine and food. Then I have to make money quickly and return the few taels of silver you stuffed in my hand with a knife that day to Master Zheng."
"People used to call me a scoundrel and a pauper, but now you look even more like one." Zheng Sirui poked Yi Bin's head. "However, my mood is definitely different now. Let's just talk about Qiushui Academy. I used to be busy helping in the kitchen every morning and going back to the dormitory to do homework at night, always with my head down and rushing to finish the work. Today, I was strolling around leisurely and realized how beautiful and wonderful our academy is. It turns out that with wealth and status, I look at the garden here and only remember how beautiful the flowers are in bloom. I don't think about what would happen if the gardener went in to fertilize the flowers and weed them and got pricked by the thorns."
"Yes, it is true. However, no matter whether I was there or today, I only love to see how beautiful the flowers are. No matter whether I was there or today, I dare to steal the flower plugs from Master's wife." Yi Bin brushed the dust off Zheng Sirui's skirt. "Don't be sad about the passing of time. Let's go down quickly. Since we are here for the feast, we have to eat the hottest ones no matter what."
Zheng and Yi chatted and laughed as they walked down the stairs to the small courtyard for the reception. The banquet was set up in the spacious hall, which was well ventilated. The fragrance of flowers and food complemented each other. Yanru also arrived. She fanned the flowers with the fan given by Xue Jia and sat in the corridor, watching Meng Qi bossing the servants around. Her dress was no longer dazzling with bright colors. Several classmates were attracted by her unique dress and the jacket she wore. They quickly forgot their previous disdain for Yanru and took the initiative to chat with her. Yanru was proud for a moment, and her sadness disappeared. She compared the garden of Bu Yibo in the capital with the layout of Qiushui Academy, praising the former and secretly disparaging the latter. Those classmates thought she had been reborn and gained more knowledge after going to the capital, and their conversation became more intimate.
"Si Rui is here!" Gan Yao shouted enthusiastically, and the classmates put down their snacks and conversations and rushed to Zheng Si Rui. Meng Qi had grown a lot stronger, with a hairpin sticking out of her head. It made people wonder if her powerful father had found a giant spider in western Yunnan, plated it with gold, and pinned it on her head. Otherwise, how could such a hairpin look so aggressive? She relied on her arrogant figure and accessories to forcefully push Yi Bin aside and took Zheng Si Rui's arm: "Si Rui is too busy, right? You came so late and made the classmates wait so long."
Zheng Sirui laughed awkwardly, winking at Yi Bin and Yanru for help. Yi Bin and Yanru put aside their old prejudices, smiled at each other, and did not move. Gan Yao greeted Zheng Sirui and pulled her to the secondary host seat: "Come, Sirui, come here and sit next to the teacher. I'll sit next to you so we can catch up."
This is too much, too much! Zheng Sirui froze in her place. She was tall and thin, and with great effort she resisted the push and pull of Gan Yao and Meng Qi, and got into the back seat, inserting herself between Yi Bin and Yan Ru. "It's okay, I just came here early to talk to the teacher. Yan Ru, Yi Bin and I are good friends, the three of us can sit together."
The other students raised their fans to hide their smug delight. There was no time for embarrassment. Someone from the master's wife's room came to tell them that the junior student currently studying at the academy was busy, and that the master and his wife would be delayed for a while. Everyone should just sit down and eat; there was no need to be formal. The group chattered and sat down in a haphazard manner, picking up a topic for small talk.
The conversation also focused on Zheng Sirui, with everyone praising her beauty, her good fortune, and her happiness after suffering. While her classmates, no matter how good they were, could only become court ladies in Jinling, she, on the other hand, had found a path to high-ranking officialdom in the capital. Yanru was puzzled. Two years ago, when they had discussed Zheng Sirui, there had been no fawning smiles on their faces. She quietly cleaned her ears with a handkerchief to make sure they weren't blocked, mishearing a word or mistaking sarcasm for flattery.
Zheng Sirui didn't respond, only smiling faintly as she picked up some cold dishes that Yanru couldn't reach. Everyone felt a bit bored and moved on to other things. One classmate asked another, "Hey, the day before yesterday was your wedding day, right? I haven't asked you yet, which family of good husband is yours?"
The student being questioned had a face filled with shyness, uncertainty, and panic. "Well, it's the Song family in the west of the city. I'm engaged to Erlang from their family. What kind of boy is that? I haven't even met him yet, so how can I know if he's any good?"
Meng Qi continued, "Oh, we are daughters of a good family. We can't do this, talking about our husband's family in front of everyone. It's normal that we haven't seen each other before. From ancient times to the present, marriages are all decided by parents and matchmakers. It's normal that we haven't seen our husbands before getting married. But those low-class, rude women, after reading those nonsense books, become naughty too. They act like they've never seen a man before. They pick one they think is good and throw themselves at him without caring about the reputation of their family. Don't you think these people are funny?"
Yanru immediately sensed something was wrong: This woman had gone mad. She'd always been polite to Yi Bin because of his father's official position and his grandfather's status in Jinling. Now, just because Yi Bin married a poor, retired monk, she'd gone crazy! Yanru wasn't familiar with Meng Qi, so how could she have known that Yi Bin had spoken up for Zheng Sirui and despised Meng Qi for being mean, earning her a grudge. Now that Yi Bin was down and out, she had to seize the opportunity to vent her pent-up anger. After all, a person's magnanimity and respectability were not directly proportional to the size of the gems on their heads and fingers.
One of my classmates said, "Speaking of this, it reminds me. My aunt's family wanted to marry a maid to my cousin as a concubine. But the maid was already in love with another boy, but she refused. My aunt wouldn't allow it and forced her to go. She got so angry that she secretly ran off with the boy, and my aunt was so angry that she reported it to the police. And now the matter has not been resolved."
"Tell me, tell me." Meng Qi laughed and pointedly cursed, "These girls are just cheap at heart. No matter how much our family gives them, they still think they are not as good as a wild man's finger. However, it's okay for the maids to have never seen the world, but those young ladies also do the same thing. It's really, hey - what can I say, they are just cheap."
Zheng Sirui was displeased and wanted to stand up and brag. Yi Bin pressed her hand, his expression calm and steady as he said, "Indeed, they are bastards, such bastards. Servants are uneducated, so it's understandable that they do such bastard things. I'm afraid that their masters, after years of schooling, can only yell and babble, saying this and that, and can't even think of any other words or phrases to form a sentence, making them even worse than servants. I wonder why these people love to wear pearls and jade so much? I guess they're afraid that people will find out that their mouths stink, so they want to wear something conspicuous so that people will only focus on the good things on them and forget to smell the bad breath."
The entire table erupted in joy, seemingly siding with Yi Bin in mocking Meng Qi. But when Meng Qi retorted, they joined him in mocking him. You called him a "wild man," I called him "tattered clothes," and she retorted, "A monk who returns to secular life to become a beggar, is that still begging or alms?" Yanru was stunned by the viciousness. No matter how much she hated Yi Bin, no matter how jealous she was of him, she had to admit that two years ago, Yi Bin had been a warm-hearted and approachable person. Even if his elopement was embarrassing, it wouldn't have been a disgrace to his classmates.
How did they do it? Just by changing their clothes, they could completely change the way they were treated?
Yanru glanced at Yi Bin secretly. She didn't continue talking, her face showing no concern. She smiled slightly as she picked up some food and toasted with Zheng Sirui, as if the unbearable ridicule had nothing to do with her. Yanru took a sip of the wine, and the spicy liquid slid down her throat and went straight to her heart, watering the seeds that had been hidden in her heart for a long time, prompting an omen to take root and sprout -
If I marry Liu Lang and Liu Lang fails to make anything of himself, I am afraid that Yi Bin of today will be the same as I was in the past?
She stole another glance at Yi Bin, and suddenly, Yi Bin's face seemed to have become her own face. Those words seemed to be directed at her, hitting her head with every word, making her feel nauseous and dizzy.
No, no, it was too horrible. Yanru was terrified. She was afraid of what others would say, afraid of becoming a laughing stock. She wanted the attention of others, the envy and jealousy of others, and she wanted others to flatter her like they respected and flattered Zheng Sirui, not like Yi Bin. Yi Bin could listen calmly, but she couldn't. She couldn't. This was simply asking for her death.
She no longer remembered what happened at the banquet. It seemed the Master had arrived, and everyone pretended to ignore what had happened, finishing their meal politely and respectfully. Yanru's brow furrowed, her mind a mess, and she couldn't enjoy her meal. Zheng Sirui assumed she was unwell, so she dismissed the banquet and hurriedly sent her home in her carriage. She and Yi Bin chatted about the world and the mountains.
The alley was crowded and difficult to turn, so Yanru asked the driver to drop her off at the intersection. She then slowly made her way home, kicking the gravel on the ground. You Yanbao wasn't in the yard. The gate was ajar, slightly ajar. Under the door to the inner room, the stove, which usually heated water and made tea, was burning. Yanru sensed that there seemed to be guests visiting the house today.
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