Chapter 3 A Day in the Lanxin Pavilion of the Deep Mansion.
May, Chen Residence.
Before the plum rains arrive, the wind is already thick and warm, and the humid air is unbearably heavy, making you want to cover your nose if it's damp.
Li Yang sat upright in the main hall of Lanxin Pavilion, her back ramrod straight. Her hair was pulled back, revealing a section of her delicate neck. Her soft hands held a handkerchief and rested quietly on her knees. She remained motionless as fine beads of sweat seeped from her forehead and the back of her neck. A drop of sweat slid from her forehead down her damp hair to her chin.
The maidservants busied themselves setting out the meal, announcing, "Braised dried bean curd strips, steamed ribbonfish, salted pork with broad beans, and garlic amaranth. Young mistress, the dishes are ready." With each dish name called out, she would take a plate from the black lacquered food basket.
This awful weather, so congested it's hard to breathe, is actually the prime time for all sorts of fresh seasonal ingredients to hit the market.
Li Yang nodded with a smile, his bright eyes following the servant's hands as she prepared the meal, revealing an irrepressible cleverness.
Once the three dishes and soup were laid out on the table, the servant woman brought over the rice bowls, chopsticks, and spoons, took a half-step back with her hands at her sides, and added in a flat voice the same sentence she always said at every meal: "Today's dishes are the same as those at Baomotang."
Upon hearing this, Li Yang glanced back at the side, wondering to himself: What was this mother's last name again?
I can't remember, never mind.
She nodded slightly and replied in a light voice, "Thank you, Mom."
Then, her gaze swept over the table full of fresh seafood again, and she sincerely commented: "The shredded dried tofu soup is milky white, the knife fish is silvery and shiny, and the broad beans are emerald green. Chef Wang's skills have improved again."
On her first day after marrying into the Chen family, Chen Junbai praised the chef in this way during their meal. Presumably, this was a customary practice in the Chen household, which she secretly learned. As for "Chef Wang," she naturally heard it from Chen Junbai that day.
The steward said the Chen family was small, with only three people including the master, which was true. But there were so many servants and maids, how could anyone remember them all?
In this grand mansion, as a newcomer, she had to learn to read the room. The background of the new bride of the Chen family was never a secret in this house.
Without the favor of Young Master Chen or the support of a respectable and noble family, the young mistress is truly inferior to the mothers in these grand mansions.
She really didn't know how to praise the remaining dish of amaranth. She couldn't very well say, "This rouge-colored vegetable soup is so beautiful." So she could only smile brightly, revealing two small dimples that were like pearls dusted with dust, shimmering with precious light. Her whole face instantly became bright and lively, and her eyes were even more dazzling, suddenly so bright that people dared not look directly at them.
This face no longer bears any trace of the aloof and demure beauty of a young lady; it is clearly that of a charming young woman in spring, lovely and full of vibrant life.
After the maid finished sang the dishes, she handed over her task and waited expressionlessly for Li Yang to finish speaking. She nodded slightly, deftly hoisted the black lacquered food basket onto her arm, and turned to leave.
Watching the mother walk out of the hanging flower gate, Li Yang suddenly stopped smiling, relieved the strain on his back, rubbed his aching shoulders and neck with one hand, and wiped the sweat from his head with a thick handkerchief in the other.
It's so difficult to be 'knowledgeable and reasonable'.
However, when she went to pay her respects the other day, her mother-in-law scolded her for being "uncouth" and told her to learn the proper manners of a wealthy lady. Now that all the servants in the mansion were her mother-in-law's people, she naturally had to be polite in front of them.
The new leaves of the banana trees outside the window are just beginning to unfurl, bringing a cool breeze to the room.
She picked up her chopsticks, removed a piece of tender meat from the knife fish, put it in her mouth, and spat it out with her tongue. "Ugh, ugh, ugh, how can it be so fishy? It's not as delicious as the perch from the river."
Her mother-in-law, Chen Zhangshi, loved these dishes the most. Every day, she followed her mother-in-law's tastes. Whatever her mother-in-law ate in Baomo Hall, she ate in Lanxin Pavilion. However, she could never get used to this kind of dish that required steaming a fish and using five old hens to make a rich broth.
As the young mistress of the main family, she naturally had the kitchen prepare meals separately, but the extra money would be deducted from Lanxin Pavilion's account.
She was now just a newcomer trying to survive in the Chen family mansion, and she would never do something so complicated.
Having eaten most of the dried bean curd strips, along with some amaranth and broad beans, Li Yang barely touched her rice. She came out of the main room with a burp, and as she turned around, she bumped into someone, startling her so much that she slammed on the brakes, yelling, "Ahhhhhh!"
She stopped in her tracks and saw a maidservant standing steadily in front of her, a wooden basin with a rag draped over it almost touching her waist.
The basin was filled with sewage, with broken hair, dust and unknown insects floating in it... A musty smell wafted out as the water rippled, and a few drops splashed out, staining her pale yellow coat with a few specks of grayish-yellow water.
The maidservant showed no fear and spoke calmly, "Young Madam."
Li Yang patted his chest and let out a long sigh. He turned to face the maid, looked her up and down. She had a round face with furrowed brows and narrow eyes. He couldn't remember her name, so he asked, "Who are you?"
Upon hearing this, the maid stood up and replied, but her answer was irrelevant: "Reporting to the young mistress, the young master's study has been prepared."
It's no wonder that Chen Junbo, despite his young age, was already the leading salt merchant in Lianghuai. He was always out early and back late, and the two had barely seen each other in the few months since their marriage.
Two maids were responsible for cleaning and tidying the study during the day, but now only the round-faced maid was visible; the other one had disappeared.
Li Yang turned around and glanced at the table in the main room, where the bowls and chopsticks she had just used were still lying on the table.
She hesitated whether to ask the maid to clean it up as well, but then decided against it. Anyway, someone would come to deliver dinner and take away the lunch plates when the lamps were changed in the evening. It was better to avoid trouble. She waved her hand and let her go: "Then go ahead and get busy."
The weather isn't too hot yet, so it's not a big deal. But if it's another month and summer arrives, who knows how many mosquitoes and flies this pile of meat and fish will breed.
The round-faced maid agreed and walked past her.
Ah! "Your name is Mo Lian." She finally remembered the girl's name, muttered it to herself, but when she looked back, the girl was already far away.
After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, they need to find something to do to pass the time. Otherwise, a young mistress who only knows how to sell wontons and doesn't know anything about music, chess, calligraphy, or painting, would become bored and sick from sitting idle in this house every day.
She had considered continuing to run the wonton stall, but on the first day of her visit, she had asked Chen's mother to order it so that she wouldn't do anything that would damage the Chen family's reputation.
The Chen family are just merchants. Her going to the street corner to buy wontons is also a business transaction. How could it damage the Chen family's reputation?
She ran a few steps to the door of Chen Junbai's study, only to find that the girl had locked the door!
Chen Junbai had one set of keys to his study, one set for the butler, and one set for the cleaning maid. Li Yang did not have any of them.
The door was locked today, and she tried to brace it with her foot, but the crack was so narrow that she couldn't even fit her hand through.
"It's locked pretty tightly," Li Yang muttered under his breath, somewhat deflated.
The study contained a vast collection of books. Occasionally, when the study was unlocked, she would sneak in and secretly take a couple of storybooks back to her room, which could keep her occupied for several days. She would then quietly put them back the next time, and she was never discovered.
Unfortunately, luck isn't on my side today, so I can't find a storybook to pass the time. A long day like this needs something to keep me occupied...
A thought flashed through her mind, and she turned and walked back into the courtyard.
The courtyard was small, originally named Songtaozhai, located in the seventh courtyard of the salt merchant Chen's residence. After Liyang married into the family, the place was renamed Lanxinge, and was used exclusively for the couple's living quarters.
Quickly passing through the landscaped area, Li Yang walked straight to the south-facing hanging flower gate.
The two wooden doors were wide open to the sides. She stuck out her bottom, took several steps back, and finally managed to close the doors with all her might.
She exhaled a soft breath, rubbed the sawdust in her palm, picked up a stick from the wall, and used it to prop the door shut before trying to push and pull it. The wooden door creaked a few times, but remained firmly in place. Li Yang covered one eye and peered through the crack in the door, but couldn't see anything.
“Very good, very good! You have a copper lock to lock the door, so I can use a wooden stick to block the yard!” She looked at her masterpiece with pride, a grin revealing a row of small white teeth.
She quickly returned to the north side, turned past the dusty little kitchen, and clattered up to the second floor in a few steps, her back bent and her steps swift, reaching the main house door in one breath.
Standing before the door, she felt her breath quicken. After calming herself down slightly, Li Yang reached out and pushed the door open to enter. Immediately, her head peeked out from the crack in the door, her bright, lychee-like eyes scanning the courtyard one by one.
Right now, there was no one inside or outside Lanxin Pavilion. Since that was the case... she chuckled, revealing her teeth, slowly pulled her head back, gently closed the door, and then tiptoed to the edge of the bed and opened the bedside cabinet door.
A bamboo basket was brought out, and her eyes lit up with an alarming gleam. Her gaze was already fixed on the basket, and she couldn't help but smile, her dimples overflowing with joy.
It was just an ordinary bamboo basket, completely covered by a red silk cloth, obscuring its contents. With each movement, a soft metallic clanging could be heard from inside. Ignoring the open cabinet door, she carefully carried the basket and slowly moved it out from behind the screen. Even after the basket was placed on the round table in the center, the burning intensity in her eyes had not faded.
Quiet, soft light seeped into the room through the door, outlining her profile as she focused almost devoutly.
He yanked the red cloth away, and Li Yang finally couldn't contain his joy and cried out.
"Hehehehe, my little coins, I'm back again!"
"One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven..."
As copper coins were threaded through the red string, they jingled and jingled, and her joyful singing echoed throughout the main house. Feeling tired, she leaned back and hooked her toes over the wooden stool to sit down.
Li Yang pinched a copper coin from the bamboo basket with two fingers, blew on it, and then quickly put his ear close to it.
'Buzzing'
Once one hundred copper coins were inserted into the rope, she tied a knot at both ends of the rope, thus creating a string.
Immediately afterwards, she started counting again, "Hehe, one, two, three..."
They counted up to thirty-three strings of coins, and fifteen remained.
She happily calculated, "Two ounces and two mace and one li, this number is correct."
I counted them six times today, two more than yesterday.
"Closing up!" she hummed contentedly, shrugged her shoulders, shook her head, and flicked the old silver hairpin in her hair, making it trace a few arcs.
A sense of smugness welled up inside him, like boiling water bubbling away. As his gaze shifted, he spotted the silver ingots in the basket.
A single silver ingot is worth a full fifty taels!
Her eyes immediately filled with deep affection, and she almost snatched him away, stretching out her hands to pull him forward along his back, calling out repeatedly, "My darling, my little darling!"
Li Yang grabbed Yuanbao and jumped onto the stool in a flash. "Little baby, how can you be so cute!" After playing around for a while, he jumped off the stool, picked up Yuanbao, and spun around in front of him before heading to the next cubicle.
Kneeling on the long bench, he leaned forward out the window and looked out. His gaze fell upon a pond, behind which a rockery of moderate height blocked the view from the hexagonal pavilion with its helmet-shaped roof. He could make out several figures, some green and some yellow, flitting about, but they were indistinct. Li Yang thought to himself: "It must be my mother-in-law's courtyard that's thriving."
With a sigh, she turned around, touched the ground with her right foot, and sat down on her left leg, twitching one toe back and forth. She thought to herself: This house is so deep, it must have cost sixty or seventy thousand taels of silver to build.
After the bridal sedan chair entered the house that day, she never left the Chen residence.
At first, she wandered around the house every day, but later someone reported her to Chen's mother.
On that day, Chen's mother said, "Li, now that you have married into the Chen family, you should naturally abide by your duties. This restlessness makes you seem like a hooligan on the street. The Chen family has a prominent position in this town. As a new bride, you should be quiet and dignified."
Okay, anyway, I've been to this house a few times, and it's just so-so.
Li Yang quickly calculated in his mind, "Sixty or seventy thousand taels is more than a thousand silver ingots." He glanced at the lone ingot in his hand. More than a thousand, huh? It would pile up into a small, glittering silver mountain. He wondered if it would fit on the table; it might have to be piled on the ground, as high as the table.
She chuckled twice, then tilted her head to look at the furniture in the room. She guessed that the furniture in the wealthy family's home was made of nanmu wood, as she had heard that nanmu wood furniture was valuable.
Several tables were decorated with vases, and the walls were covered with calligraphy and paintings. She couldn't understand them, but she had heard people say that the town was full of famous people, and their calligraphy and paintings were very valuable.
Looking down at the stool beneath her, she thought, "Tsk, this stool is probably more expensive than me." Filled with respect, she quickly stood up, wiped the stool with her sleeve, and then sat down properly.
Looking around, Li Yang cursed silently in his heart: What did Bi Fang say back then that the Chen family only had a mother-in-law, no wife, and no rule restricting people from going out?
Why don't you finish what you're saying? Her father-in-law didn't take a concubine, but instead moved to a side room in the back alley and never returned to the mansion. Her mother-in-law constantly reminded her of the rules, so she had to be careful not to leave the house, let alone go out, or even leave the courtyard.
Good heavens, we still have to live like this for another year and nine months...
A note from the author:
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