A late spring breeze, laden with willow catkins, swept across Zhuque Street, rustling the colorful banners draped beneath the eaves of the Silk Shop. Su Jinli, holding Pan'er's hand, walked along the bluestone pavement. The hem of her apricot-yellow skirt brushed against the newly formed moss in the cracks between the bricks. Suddenly, she felt her sleeve tighten. Her granddaughter tilted her little face upward, her bright dark eyes gazing toward the shadowy corner. "Grandma, look at that old woman," she said.
An old woman huddled against the wall, her graying hair a tangled mass of withered grass. Her coarse shirt, worn to a shine, revealed her dark, withered skin. Clutching half a frozen vegetable bun, she confronted a bony stray dog, her cloudy eyes gleaming with a greed unbecoming of her age. Pan'er pointed with her tiny finger at the bamboo bracelet on her wrist, worn to the bone, and spoke with pity, "Just like the old woman I met at the charity cemetery, starving."
Su Jinli's heart sank. The moment the old woman looked up, the crescent-shaped scar on her forehead reminded her of the broken jade hairpin on the dresser in the prime minister's mansion thirty years ago—the one Liu had deliberately thrown to win favor, and the flying jade had scratched her forehead, leaving a scar now a dark brown streak. She instinctively clenched the brocade handkerchief in her sleeve, her fingertips touching the twin lotus embroidery on the handkerchief, a pattern Jiang Yan had personally chosen.
"It's Liu," she whispered to herself, looking at the other's withered hands. She remembered how those hands had once held the teacup, "For your own good," and gently persuaded her to marry the playboy from the Wang family. The ambergris on their sleeves held a poisonous plot. Later, when Liu's son, accused of embezzling grain, was confiscated and her family was beaten out of the house, she cried out, "Su Jinli shall not die a good death!" She could still vividly remember that scene.
Pan'er tilted her little face up, her eyelashes stained with willow catkins. "Grandma, should we give her some money? Aunt Zhang once said that when you're hungry, you don't even have the energy to cry."
Su Jinli pulled a five-liang ingot of silver from her sleeve. It felt slightly cool to the touch. Pan'er fluttered like a small butterfly, the end of her red silk braid brushing against the back of Liu's withered hand. "Grandma, this is for you."
Liu's cloudy eyes suddenly lit up. With her dry, branch-like fingers, she snatched the silver. Black mud clung to her nails. She bit the corner of the silver with her toothless mouth, a sly grin spreading across her face. "Little girl, your family is so wealthy, give me more!" Pan'er took a frightened step back, bumping into the hem of Su Jinli's skirt, embroidered with lotus flowers.
Su Jinli took a step forward and looked at the once priceless jade bracelet on Liu's wrist, which had been replaced with a bamboo piece. She felt a mixture of emotions: "Liu, are you now making a living by stealing things from children?"
Only then did Liu clearly see Su Jinli's embroidered gold dress. The red-gold and kingfisher hairpins in her hair shone like broken diamonds in the sunlight. She suddenly stuffed the silver into her tattered jacket, her eyes pierced with poison. "Su Jinli! Did you come to see me laugh? Don't think you're so great just because you married the top scholar. Your son is a money-grubbing businessman!"
Pan'er's face flushed with anger, and she clutched Su Jinli's fingers tightly. "Grandma, she's so mean!" Su Jinli gently patted the back of her granddaughter's hand. She watched Liu's hunched back as she slipped into the alley, remembering the bowl of cold porridge she had brought to her bedside in her previous life. Now, she felt a wave of sadness. Just as she turned around, Siyan's housekeeper came running in breathlessly, his black gauze hat tilted to the back of his head. "Madam, the eldest young master wants you back home. He says an old acquaintance has arrived."
As the carriage rolled over the bluestone pavement, Pan'er leaned against the window, counting the candied haws (tanghulu) stalls lining the street. Su Jinli gazed at the eaves passing by outside the window, and thought of Madam Zhang in her youth—after her mother's death, it was Madam Zhang who secretly placed candied cakes under her pillow and wiped her tears with a coarse handkerchief. Back then, when Liu had just arrived at the Prime Minister's residence, she was pushing her into the abyss under the guise of "doing it for your own good," and it was Madam Zhang who secretly left hot soup for her in the kitchen.
As soon as she entered the villa's hanging flower gate, she saw Si Yan supporting an old woman from the warm room. The old woman was wearing a bleached blue cloth shirt, with a withered wild chrysanthemum stuck in her temple. When she saw Su Jinli, she fell to her knees with a plop, turbid tears rolling down her face. "Miss... this old servant, Madam Zhang... kowtows to you..."
"Madam Zhang!" Su Jinli quickly stepped forward to help her up. Touching the rough calluses on the back of her hand, she remembered the gentle strength she had used when she combed her hair when she was a child. "Why are you here?"
Nanny Zhang wiped her tears and choked up: "I heard that the eldest young lady was living well, so I wanted to come over from the country to see her. But I was robbed on the way and all my money was gone... If it weren't for the kindness of the eldest young master, I would have starved to death in the city gate..." The silver bracelet on her wrist swayed gently. It was the one Su Jinli had given her when she got married. The edges had been worn smooth by time.
Si Yan scratched his head, his brocade robe cuffs stained with grass debris: "Mother, I felt sorry for Aunt Zhang, so I took her back first. What do you think... let her stay in the villa?" The abacus beads in his sleeve made a slight sound, but he did not take it out to calculate as usual.
Su Jinli looked at the white hair on Aunt Zhang's temples and recalled the packet of sweet-scented osmanthus candy that Liu had secretly slipped her when she had been sent back home on some pretext. She helped Aunt Zhang sit down and personally handed her a cup of hot tea. "Aunt Zhang, please feel at ease. This is your home." The steam from the tea blurred the old woman's tearful eyes.
"Miss...I failed to protect you back then..." Aunt Zhang held the teacup, her fingers trembling.
"It's all over." Su Jinli patted the back of her hand, glancing over to see Si Yan massaging Nanny Zhang's legs. Pan'er whispered something in the old woman's ear, bringing a long-lost smile to her face. Liu's bitter words were still ringing in her ears, but the heartwarming scene before her warmed her heart.
"Siyan," she suddenly said, "go and give Liu some food and silver."
Siyan dropped the back-pounding stick in his hand to the ground with a thud: "Mom! She just called me a money-minded businessman!"
"I know." Su Jinli looked at her son, remembering how he would use an abacus to check her accounts when she was little, the clatter of beads clear in the quiet night. "But she's the elder after all. If she hadn't pushed her aside, Aunt Zhang wouldn't have been sent back home."
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