Surviving in the General's Mansion - Chapter 57

“Young Master asked me to escort Miss Xiao here. He also gave orders that none of you are allowed to drink again.”

Xia Heng kept her head lowered throughout Mo Bai’s frosty announcement and nodded repeatedly.

Mo Bai looked at the three women in the room. They were all behaving themselves now, heads bowed to their chests like a row of quails.

Not a trace remained of yesterday’s boldness when they had ordered male attendants at Fengyue Pavilion!

The thought made him cast Xiao Yaqing another displeased glance. How could she take his Chuqing to such a filthy place?

Then again, considering the state they had been in yesterday, they probably had not even realized what those men deboning their mutton normally did for a living.

He wanted to say more, but in the end, all he did was sigh and rub Chuqing’s head before returning to Cang Chuli to report.

Once Mo Bai left, the three women silently raised their heads and looked at one another.

Xia Heng said irritably, “A thousand cups without falling?”

Xiao Yaqing’s newly raised head drooped again.

“Never been drunk?”

Xia Heng’s gaze shifted to the top of Chuqing’s head. Chuqing had already lowered it of her own accord when Xia Heng started on Xiao Yaqing.

“I really could drink a thousand cups without getting drunk when I drank at home…

“But we used tiny wine cups then. I didn’t know drinking from big bowls would hit this hard,” Xiao Yaqing defended herself quietly.

“That’s right! I never got drunk when I drank during New Year celebrations either!” Chuqing chimed in.

“Could you even call that alcohol? Mo Bai told me everything! What you drank most often was sweet fermented rice—and it had been cooked!”

“It wasn’t sweet fermented rice! It was rice wine!” Chuqing protested.

Xia Heng slumped down dispiritedly.

“Does either of you remember what happened?”

The other two looked at one another, then shook their heads in unison.

“No… But when I told Mingxu just now that I was coming here to study mathematics, why did he call me ‘Xiao Eldest’…?”

“Now that you mention it, Qiulin called me ‘Chu Fourth’ when she saw me today…”

Xia Heng clutched her aching head.

“Forget it. I don’t want to know… Don’t tell me.”

Chuqing and Xiao Yaqing fell silent too. Neither of them even knew how they had returned to the mansion yesterday.

Still, getting so drunk outside that someone had to bring them home was humiliating enough on its own.

“You two had it easy. My parents lectured me all morning.” Xiao Yaqing looked miserable at the memory.

“Mo Bai lectured me for ages too…” Chuqing added, then turned an envious gaze toward Xia Heng.

Xia Heng wore the detached expression of someone who had transcended worldly concerns.

“No one lectured me. Qiulin merely sat there with one arm in a sling and stared at me all morning…”

All three sighed in unison.

Xia Heng pulled herself together and took out paper and brushes.

“Forget it. Let’s stop thinking about it and get down to business. Time to begin our literacy campaign…”

Xiao Yaqing nodded. Naturally, she already knew mathematics, but since she was here and Chuqing was present, she had to keep up appearances.

Chuqing did not understand what a “literacy campaign” meant. Presumably, it meant teaching people like them who did not know these things.

She volunteered, “I’ll go call Zhao Die and the others over.”

Mo Bai had said he had lost a great deal of hair while studying mathematics. At a moment like this, how could she be the only one going bald?

Before long, Chuqing returned with Zhao Die.

The moment Zhao Die saw Xiao Yaqing, she hurriedly curtsied.

“Greetings, Miss Xiao!”

Xiao Yaqing quickly waved her hands.

“There’s no need for ceremony. I’m a student today too!”

Xia Heng glanced behind Zhao Die in confusion.

“Where’s your younger sister?”

“She went to the Washing Workshop to help Aunt Chen today. Isn’t Qiulin coming?”

“The general sent Qiulin out,” Chuqing answered.

“She already knows most of this. I taught her last time,” Xia Heng added.

“Oh, right. We received our monthly allowance. Here’s the money we owe you.”

As Zhao Die spoke, she took out two pieces of silver.

“We got paid? Then I’ll collect mine later!”

Xia Heng brightened but did not take the other piece of silver.

“I don’t need it urgently. Pay Qiulin back first.”

“I have hers too. My sister and I received four taels altogether. I’ll give Qiulin hers when she returns.”

“Then you two will only have one tael left. Didn’t the mansion physician say you still needed several more doses of medicine? Winter is almost here, and both of you need warmer clothes too.

“I don’t need the money right now, and you know it. Pay the other two back first. You can repay me afterward.”

Zhao Die tightened her fingers around the silver. After a long pause, she said, “All right. I won’t stand on ceremony with you, then. Siyan is frail, so she needs to continue taking her medicine. She really does need another padded jacket to change into as well.

“I’ll save up the money, and once I have enough, I’ll repay you all at once!”

Xia Heng nodded and urged them to sit down.

Looking at the two pairs of eyes before her, both eager for knowledge, Xia Heng smiled with ominous kindness.

Xiao Yaqing pretended to study earnestly, but her thoughts had already drifted to what her mother had told her that morning.

“With your tolerance, how could you get that drunk outside? If Guangji hadn’t brought you home, you would have slept in the street!”

Why had he been outside the palace yesterday? Had he recognized her?

The more she thought about it, the redder her face grew. They had not seen each other in more than ten years, and the first time he saw her after her return to the capital, she had been blind drunk. Could anything be more mortifying?

She had not said anything strange, had she?

She had just asked Cang Chuli, but the man had refused to tell her. He had merely looked at her with an infuriating half smile!

Now she could not stop worrying…

She behaved herself rather well when drunk… probably?

Xiao Yaqing pondered uncertainly.

Chuqing and Zhao Die picked up charcoal sticks and traced the numbers Xia Heng had written.

Xia Heng glanced at Xiao Yaqing and suddenly grew curious.

“I never asked. What was your major?” she whispered.

Xiao Yaqing snapped back to herself.

“International Economics and Trade!”

The corner of Xia Heng’s eye twitched. Had she really come here to teach elementary mathematics to a top student in a quantitative field?

“What about you?” Xiao Yaqing asked with interest.

“Heh. English.”

Xiao Yaqing leaned strategically backward and looked from Xia Heng to Chuqing and Zhao Die, who were bent over their work.

“Impressive.”

What twisted fate had brought an English major from the humanities here to teach mathematics?

* * *

Dongfang Wei reviewed memorials, but his mind kept wandering.

The person he had longed to see day and night had appeared before him just like that.

The memory of yesterday amused him. Yaqing had been mischievous as a child, sometimes even livelier than he was. She had climbed trees and splashed through rivers every day, earning endless scoldings from Aunt Xiao.

He had never expected her to be even worse as an adult. How had a meal somehow inspired her to become sworn sisters with the others?

She had even mistaken him for the Jade Emperor…

But when he remembered the men sitting behind the three women when they went upstairs, Dongfang Wei frowned again.

She had only been in the capital for a few days. How had she learned about a place like that?

Eating there was one thing, but they had even hired male attendants to accompany them.

Fengyue Pavilion was one of the few places in the capital where women went in search of pleasure. Yet the three of them had paid male attendants to debone their mutton…

In a sense, they had certainly found a novel use for the staff.

Heaven knew his heart had nearly stopped when he saw her downstairs.

“Your Majesty, the Tujue envoys have arrived and are now at the posthouse. How would you like them received?”

After hearing the report from outside, Sixi had no choice but to interrupt his emperor’s reverie.

He wondered what His Majesty had been thinking about. One moment, he was smiling; the next, he was frowning.

Dongfang Wei finally returned to the present.

“It is already afternoon, so let them rest at the posthouse today. Arrange for them to attend court tomorrow, and hold a banquet at the Hall of Preserving Harmony tomorrow evening.”

After another moment’s thought, he added, “Officials may bring their families.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Sixi replied.

* * *

“Brother! The capital of Huaxia really is different. But why is everyone dressed so unattractively?”

Pasang stood at the posthouse window, looking down at the crowded street below. She raised her brows and spoke excitedly to her brother.

“Enough, Pasang. We will meet Huaxia’s ruler tomorrow. Are you prepared?” Huyan Lie asked as he closed the window.

“At tomorrow night’s banquet, we must make them understand the strength of Tujue. The Khagan is waiting for us to return with good news.”

“Brother, the women of Huaxia all look so plain. They had better not compare me to them.

“Don’t they have an old saying? How can the light of a firefly compete with the radiance of the moon?”

Pasang smiled confidently at her brother.

“You should worry about yourself instead. I hear the young ladies of the capital prefer delicate scholarly men.

“Heavens! I truly hope their emperor isn’t some frail, scholarly sort. If he is, I won’t want him!”