The Fish Seller and the Prodigal Lord - Chapter 4

With no other choice, I sold my fish stall cheaply, gathered my few clothes, and moved into Rong Ruo’s Purple Bamboo Court. My companions there were a maid named Chunjing and a servant boy called A-Niu.

Rong Ruo usually went out early, dressed like a gaudy peacock, and returned at night, swaying and singing little tunes.

From the side room where I lived, I could see him and hear every note through my window.

Chunjing treated me as her mistress, but I wasn’t made to sit about being waited on. Whatever work she did, I helped.

As we grew more familiar, she began telling me about Rong the Second.

Apparently, he spent thirty taels on a single cricket and flung away fortunes on each visit to the House of Ten Thousand Flowers.

“Wretched man.”

At first, my cursing frightened Chunjing. Later, she began to giggle in secret. Eventually, she only shook her head and told me regretfully, “Mistress, you don’t understand. Our second master is a pitiful man too.”

I thought I’d heard a joke. “Pitiful? If he’s pitiful, no one in Jincheng has a decent life.”

But she didn’t smile. “Mistress, have you ever seen a mother who won’t let her own son study for the examinations? Ours is like that. Second Master was very clever as a boy and loved his books. Madam wouldn’t allow it. She had every book taken out of his room and gave him great heaps of money. All he was allowed to do was amuse himself.”

“Is Madam Rong his real mother?”

“Of course she is. He’s her only son, the apple of her eye. Perhaps she thought studying was too hard on him. Our family is so rich that he doesn’t need to pass the examinations. He can inherit the marquisate anyway.”

“Then why do you think he’s pitiful?”

“Because he isn’t happy. Madam may treat him wonderfully, but none of it is what he wants. Of course that’s pitiful.”

“What does he want, then? All I see is your second master roaming about, enjoying himself and throwing his weight around. He seems perfectly content. I doubt he remembers a word of those sages’ books he read.”

“He wants…”

Chunjing stopped short. I was hardly the sort to be satisfied with half a story. I pestered her, tickling her until she couldn’t bear it and finally told me.

“He used to love a girl. But Madam thought a concubine’s daughter was beneath him and broke them apart. That girl married someone else, while our second master remains unwed. It truly broke his heart.” She watched my face cautiously. “Since then, he’s refused several marriages Madam arranged. His Lordship was furious, and Madam finally grew anxious. One day, she said he could choose someone he liked himself. So…”

“So… that’s how I came into it?”

She nodded.

I gave two embarrassed laughs.

A few days later, Madam Rong sent an older servant to teach me manners.

I learned how to walk, bow, receive guests, and attend to a husband.

After a few days, every part of me ached. When Rong the Second came home, Nanny Wang was supervising my walking practice.

According to her, a woman must take tiny steps, never walk ahead of her husband, and keep her hands by her waist with her thumbs and forefingers joined in circles.

Chunjing and A-Niu covered their mouths and giggled whenever they saw me practicing. I knew the moment Rong the Second entered the courtyard because he laughed too.

“What opera are you rehearsing? Stop that. If Madam blames you, say it was my idea.”

One sentence, and my torture was over.

Tiger stood on his left arm, watching me with its head tilted. After several meetings, it was more familiar with me and had stopped glaring at me so fiercely.

Rong the Second favored vivid colors. His clothes were often embroidered with the Four Noble Plants in gold and silver thread, and wherever a gem or pearl could be sewn onto a collar, belt, or cuff, one had been. It ought to have looked vulgar. But he was so extraordinarily beautiful that even all those gaudy trinkets gave him an air of exquisite, almost unearthly nobility.

He glanced at me. “Come out with me.”