Chapter 7
The Third Wife's skill in making trouble was extraordinary. She blew her nose hard with a handkerchief and said confidently, "I just didn't choose well the first time, so I have to be more careful the second time."
Seeing that the atmosphere was not good, Yuyan hurriedly brought a cup of tea and handed it to Mrs. Yin with both hands: "Madam, please have some tea first!"
Mrs. Yin waved her hand and sneered at the Third Madam, "It's not even a possibility yet. You keep saying, 'I want to marry Yuyan to Lan Yingde,' and 'I want to send Yuyan to be Yueming's stepmother.' What are you dreaming of? Do you really think Lan Yingde will agree? He has all the famous ladies in Kunming he can marry, but he has to choose Yuyan. It's too early for you to cry."
The Third Wife was relieved at first, but then realized that Lan Yingde also disagreed with this marriage, and she jumped up in displeasure again: "What? He dares to dislike my Yuyan?"
"Why should he be afraid? He's been abroad and seen the world. Our opium can only be sold at a good price thanks to him. Now he's hooked up with the third son of Commander Long. No matter how good our daughters are, in his eyes they are just a few country girls."
The Third Wife was dissatisfied and wanted to argue again, but Mrs. Yin waved her hand to stop her: "Yuyan is your daughter, and of course you have the final say on her marriage. I came here just to tell you that if you dare to do something so rude next time, I will use the family law.
The family rule of the Tusi Mansion was to take off one's shirt and beat him with bamboo sticks, and neither the master nor the servants were exempted. The Third Wife turned pale when she heard this and nodded in agreement, "Yes."
After Yin Tai got up and left, the third wife returned to her old ways, sitting on the Luohan bed with her legs crossed, grabbing a handful of melon seeds and starting to eat them.
Seeing her mother's reckless attitude, Yuyan didn't know what to say. It would be useless anyway. She led the maid back to her room.
Tonglin, the personal maid, helped Yin Tai down the corridor stairs and said to her, "The Third Madam is so ungrateful and doesn't act like a lady at all."
Mrs. Yin sighed and said, "She wasn't like this when she was young. She loved to laugh, and her laughter was as crisp as wind chimes on the eaves. The master brought her back because he liked to hear her laugh. When she was young, she was busy vying for favor, and now she's busy fighting for food and clothes, so she rarely laughs."
Tonglin continued, "The Third Madam doesn't even look down on a talent like Mr. Lan. Are you going to find a Zhao Shutun (1) for the Third Miss?"
"For women in wealthy families, the longest journey they've ever taken is to get married. What kind of experience can they have? In their eyes, ability is far less important than status."
"But you are not like that. Back then, you rejected the Gengma chieftain's proposal for the eldest daughter, married her to Siam, and sent the second young master to study abroad."
Yin Tai smiled bitterly, "You also said that it's the eldest young lady and the second young master, one is a girl and the other is unable to inherit the chieftain's position, so I can make plans for them. Do I have any say in the eldest young master's opinion? My Li Yang will be trapped in this place for the rest of his life, without the chance to see the world in the distance, without the chance to experience a different life."
Yintai stopped and looked at a pear tree at the corner of the wall. It was in bloom these two days, and its branches, adorned with fragrant flowers, extended obliquely out of the wall.
Yin Tai murmured, "The women in the mansion are all pitiful. As the saying goes, a house flower blooming as big as a bowl is not as fragrant as half a wild flower. No matter how prosperous the flowers in the house are, it won't stop the men from bringing pots of flowers home. What's the use of your branches growing taller? Your roots are buried in the soil and you can't go anywhere. You can only look at the outside world through this wall forever."
Yueming followed Han Yunkai in a carriage to the elephant farm on Banzhang Mountain. On the way, Yueming remembered her girlish reserve and lifted the curtain to look at the scenery outside. Although she obviously didn't look at Han Yunkai, she secretly glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.
Yunkai had taken off the turban he'd worn during the celebrations before leaving the house. His hair was parted in the now-fashionable 3:7 split, and he wore a double-breasted jacket, a coffee-colored plaid tunic, and polished leather shoes. Bao Dai thought he looked out of place with Yun Xiang at first glance, but a closer look revealed Yun Xiang's distinct aura. He was a man of contradictions.
Han Yunkai had no idea what the girl was thinking. He only realized that they were out of town, the streets were deserted, the bright red azaleas on the hills had mostly withered, and only a few wildflowers were blooming sparsely by the roadside. There were only trees and hills, and the little girl across from him craned her head to gaze intently, not knowing what she was looking at. The atmosphere was so awkward that he wanted to call Feng Xiaosai, who was sitting with the driver, in.
The elephant farm was at least an hour's walk away, so it would be inappropriate not to chat a little. Besides, her father was going to marry his second sister, so he would be her uncle in name only. He should still show some concern for his niece.
He asked aloud, "Did Miss Lan attend a girls' school in Kunming?"
Yueming heard him talking, lowered the curtain and said, "Yes, it's a girls' school run by the government."
"What do they teach in school?"
"Chinese, math, art, English, quite a lot."
There's even English? Han Yunkai asked with interest, "Is it taught by Chinese teachers, or are they foreign teachers?"
"She's a Chinese teacher, but she studied abroad in England."
"So what's your favorite class?"
"Art. I really like painting."
"Don't you like English?"
"It's not that I don't like it, it's that I can't learn it well."
"So what do you usually do for fun?"
"Watching movies, listening to records, and occasionally playing tennis."
"Oh." Han Yunkai nodded. He thought to himself: This hobby is quite compatible with his. This niece is easy to take care of. Then he said regretfully: "We can't watch movies here, but we can listen to hand-cranked records. Tennis is easy to solve. We can just put up a net in the open space in front of the government office. Did you bring your rackets?"
On the way, Yueming overheard Lan Yingde and Feng Er talking about how the second young master had also studied abroad in England and lived in Siam for many years. She had never been to Siam, but seeing that he couldn't stay at home and kept running around, he must have electricity.
They were both wanderers in the world, having fallen from civilized society to a place where they had to sleep as soon as it got dark. Yueming immediately felt a sense of sympathy for him.
"I brought it with me. I'll wait for you, Second Young Master Han, to have a fight someday when you're free."
Although Yunkai was just making small talk, the exchange brought them closer, and Yueming stopped staring at the scenery outside. They talked freely about their respective hobbies and arrived at the elephant farm in a cheerful atmosphere.
Han Yunkai got out of the car first and then helped Yueming jump out by the hand. Yueming got out of the car and looked around. The wall of the elephant farm was made of stone. It was not very high. You could see a few Ma Sangpo (2) and Ma Lang (3) trees planted inside. Ming thought that with a little effort, she could climb over it. Even she couldn't protect it, let alone thieves. What was the point of building it?
The cries of elephants came from the wall one after another. Yueming was excited when she heard it. She was about to see an elephant, and it was alive.
Yan Wang, who was in charge of the elephant farm, was very surprised to hear that the Second Young Master had arrived. Why didn't the Second Young Master stay in the city to celebrate during the holidays and come to the elephant farm to interfere? Although it was strange, he straightened his clothes and hurried out to greet him.
Although Yanwang was in charge of the entire elephant farm, he was still a servant of the Tusi Mansion and had to kneel down to greet Han Yunkai. Yueming stood aside calmly as he knelt. Han Yunkai glanced at her, realizing she wasn't used to this. He waved Yanwang up and said, "I'm bringing Miss Lan to see the elephant cubs. Didn't she give birth last month? Take us to the elephant enclosure to have a look."
The famous young lady and the second young master of the Lan family came together. Yanwang didn't dare to neglect them. He asked the elephant slave to quickly prepare a bathtub and water for the baby elephant. He led Yunkai and Yueming to the elephant house.
The elephant farm was large and spacious, with several elephant slaves training elephants in the yard. When an elephant disobeyed, a slave swung a long knife at it. Mingyue was so frightened that she covered her eyes. Yunkai, noticing her fear, pulled her hand away and said, "Don't be afraid. Elephants have very thick hides. Hitting them with any thick stick won't work. A knife will only scratch the hide a little. Look, it's not bleeding."
Is the elephant still shameless? Yueming hunched her neck, squinted her eyes, and looked at the elephant's wound with trepidation. Sure enough, it was just a scratch on the skin, no more serious than a scrape she had gotten from a fall. She immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
Feng Xiaosai, who was standing behind Yunkai, found Yueming's fear particularly amusing and smiled quietly behind his sleeve. Yunkai glared at him, and he quickly lowered his hand and stared straight ahead.
Yueming's attention was quickly drawn to a cow-sized baby elephant sitting under a tree. It was shaking a laden sangpo tree near the fence with its trunk, trying to wring the fruit down. Perhaps it was so greedy that it paid no attention to the sticks thrown by the nearby elephant slaves.
Han Yunkai put his hands around his mouth and shouted to the struggling little elephant, "Master Zhao."
The baby elephant stopped shaking the tree at his voice and turned to look in the direction of the sound. After a moment's observation, it tucked in its trunk and ran happily towards Yunkai. Yanwang panicked. What if the elephant went mad and hurt the young master or young lady? He quickly called the elephant servant to come and restrain it.
Yueming was very nervous seeing such a huge creature running towards her, and subconsciously wanted to run away, but the way it shook its head and flapped its big ears was so cute that she forgot her fear and waited for it to run over with Yunkai.
Before the baby elephant could run to Yunkai and the others, it was caught by the elephant slave, tied with a big iron chain, and dragged back to its elephant house.
The baby elephant was reluctant to leave, wagging its trunk and howling at Han Yunkai. Han Yunkai shouted to the elephant slave who was pulling it back, walked up to the baby elephant named Zhao Chang, touched its ear and said with a smile, "Little naughty boy, why did you come out to pick fruit by yourself? Don't they give you food?"
The elephant slave who was dragging the chief was the one who was specifically responsible for raising it. Upon hearing this, he quickly explained, "No, no, Second Young Master, I feed it fresh fruits and leaves every day. I feed it a whole cart of them for one meal! It's just that it recently learned to use its trunk and likes to use it to roll things."
Han Yunkai was delighted to hear this and patted its head: "Our Zhao Chang has learned to use his nose. That's really amazing."
Yueming, who hadn't seen the past, envied him as he chatted happily with the baby elephant. She wanted to touch its trunk and ears like Han Yunkai, experiencing the feeling of a blind man touching an elephant. But this elephant, while still tuskless, was in good shape, and she was afraid the chief would kick her if she didn't touch the right thing. That would be too much fun.
She felt that the aristocracy had different hobbies. Common people like her mostly kept cats and dogs, and the richer ones kept horses. Uncle Charles had told her about Indian aristocrats who liked to keep tigers and snakes, but now she had seen with her own eyes Dai aristocrats keeping elephants. These aristocrats kept nothing but birds of prey!
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