Chapter 126

By the time Zheng San went to deliver the thank-you gift to the Duke of Fuguo's residence, Fu Tingjun included Zhao Ling's name card with the gift. However, the Duke of Fuguo's household did not take it seriously at all. They politely expressed their thanks and told Fu Tingjun there was no need for her to come and pay her respects in person, as one of the imperial concubines in the palace was celebrating her birthday, and all the women of the Duke's household had gone into the palace to offer their congratulations.

Fu Tingjun breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that this was for the best. They clearly looked down on her anyway, and going there would only have made her uncomfortable.

Master Lyu had also found a residence and invited Fu Tingjun to come take a look: "Thanks to Guard Jian's help—a friend of his, the head of a household, is retiring and returning to his hometown, and wants to sell his house. It's on Shi Family Lane, Huanghua Ward, in the eastern part of the city. I went to see it—the lane is perfectly straight, wide enough for both carriages and sedan chairs. The neighbors are all Jiangnan natives who've come to the capital to serve as officials, and the servants coming and going all look proper and respectable. The house has three courtyards, square in layout, with twenty-eight rooms. Last autumn, when the head of the household celebrated his birthday, they renovated everything from the roof to the floor tiles—it won't need any work for at least ten years. The owner asked for twelve thousand taels of silver, which was a bit high. I said I'd pay with Baoding Bank notes and asked them to leave the furnishings, and negotiated it down to ten thousand taels. If you're satisfied with what you see, I'll haggle with them a bit more and see if we can get it even lower."

The money was available, but buying the house would leave them with little liquid cash. She feared that even the funds for Zhao Ling's social expenses in the capital would become tight.

Fu Tingjun hesitated.

Master Lyu knew this as well and discussed it with her: "I think that house is truly impressive. Perhaps we could use some pawnshop loans to tide us over? I'll sell those seven hundred mu of land as soon as I get back. Ninth Master's box of antiques is also worth a fortune in gold." There was one thing he didn't say—if they ever ran into financial trouble, once Zhao Ling and Fu Tingjun were married, they could sell this house and trade it for a smaller one. He gathered from Zheng San's tone that this house was meant to save face for Zhao Ling in front of Fu Tingjun's relatives.

Having been a steward for so long, he had a merchant's cunning.

"Let's go take a look first!" Fu Tingjun still preferred buying a smaller house, but since Master Lyu spoke so highly of it, there was no harm in looking.

Unexpectedly, after seeing it, she found herself reluctant to let it go.

Flanking the Ruyi Gate stood a pair of monkey-shaped mounting stones for horseback. Inside the entrance was a gray brick screen wall with a large "fortune" character in the center, carved with seven or eight children either sitting, lying, or laughing—novel and amusing. In front of the southern rooms grew a locust tree as thick as an arm's embrace, seemingly a century old, its crown spreading like an umbrella over the entire courtyard. One could imagine the lush green shade in summer. Before the main hall, a pomegranate tree stood on the right and a crabapple tree on the left. Beneath the wisteria trellis in the courtyard sat a large celadon jar decorated with lotus patterns. Behind the main hall were two date trees of uneven height.

Inside, the furnishings were uniformly of chicken-wing wood, and the inner chamber even had a large glass mirror with intricate openwork carving and inlaid trim. These alone were worth two to three thousand taels of silver, not to mention the snow-scene winter forest painting hanging in the main hall's central position—an authentic work by Fan Kuan, worth at least three to four hundred taels.

Fu Tingjun couldn't help asking, "Are they giving all of these away?"

"Yes!" Master Lyu said in a low voice. "When I came to see the house last time, the doors had red silk tapestry curtains with wooden panels—and the panels were made of fine ebony..."

Fu Tingjun was astonished: "Whose house is this? Why are they selling it?"

Master Lyu chuckled: "It belongs to a Vice Minister of Justice, only around forty years old. He served in Jiangnan for many years, specializing in criminal law. This time, for reasons unknown, he offended Shen Shichong, the Grand Secretary, and was forced into retirement. He's in a hurry to raise money for bribes, and everyone knows it, so they're squeezing his price down. He had no choice but to throw in the contents of the house..."

Fu Tingjun couldn't help but caution him: "This house is indeed a great bargain, but make sure you investigate thoroughly, so we don't spend money only to bring trouble upon ourselves."

Offending the Grand Secretary—well, the Grand Secretary was at least a scholar, and scholars have their own code of conduct. What was most frightening was offending eunuchs or the Tengji Guard. The former were unpredictable—who could say what schemes they might hatch next, or whether buying a house might drag one into their affairs? The latter were ruthless and merciless—once you fell into their hands, they'd pluck feathers from a flying goose and wouldn't stop until they'd stripped you of everything and left you ruined. Buying such a house was like snatching food from a tiger's mouth—courting death.

"Rest assured, miss. I'll investigate carefully. I'd rather not buy it at all than invite trouble." Master Lyu promised.

Fu Tingjun hummed in acknowledgment.

In the end, the house on Shi Family Lane in Huanghua Ward was purchased for ten thousand taels of silver, though the owner also threw in a pair of Ru kiln flower vases, and left all the pots, pans, bowls, and dishes behind.

Fu Tingjun had Zheng Sanniang go tidy up the house and instructed her: "We won't be living here long-term. Just clean up the gatekeeper's quarters and the main hall."

Zheng Sanniang returned in a state of great excitement: "That family is truly wealthy. In the ear room to the west of the main hall, they'd left behind fifteen bolts of green summer cloth, two bolts of red summer cloth, over ten catties of fine Longjing tea, and all sorts of odds and ends."

Fu Tingjun shook her head and laughed: "Then put everything away. When the time comes, we'll use them to make summer clothes for Zheng San, Linchun, and the others."

Zheng Sanniang nodded repeatedly.

At the evening meal, Yuwei returned.

She also brought Fu Tingjun good news: "The master leaves the house at the beginning of the Yin hour every morning and returns at the beginning of the Shen hour. He rests one day every ten days. The fourth young master leaves at the Zheng hour and returns at the beginning of the You hour, and he also rests one day every ten days. I've counted the days—in two more days, it will be their rest day."

Fu Tingjun thought for a moment, then said: "Tomorrow, you'll come with me to Sixi Hutong."

Yuwei acknowledged with a "yes" and said: "Shall I hire a carriage early tomorrow morning? Sixi Hutong is on Zhengyangmen Avenue in the outer city—it would take over two hours to walk there!"

Only officials of the fourth rank and above attended the morning court audience. Her father was of the fifth rank, and living so far away—no wonder he had to leave at the Yin hour.

Fu Tingjun hadn't expected them to be so far apart. She said: "I don't think we need to hire a carriage. Tomorrow, we'll just have Zheng San drive us there."

She still harbored a faint unease, feeling it was safer to have someone as strong and capable as Zheng San by her side.

Yuwei acknowledged the order and went to inform Zheng San that the carriage would be needed early the next morning. After the evening meal, she recounted the gifts to be delivered the next day, arranging them neatly in place.

Zheng Sanniang couldn't stop praising her for being meticulous and even asked whether she was betrothed, hinting subtly at a desire to play matchmaker.

Yuwei was stunned for a long moment, then shook her head. Thinking of her own status as someone awaiting punishment, how could she have the face to marry? She made an excuse to decline Zheng Sanniang: "Since I am the young lady's maidservant, I naturally must follow the young lady."

Zheng Sanniang was taken aback and said: "You're a clever and quick-witted girl—why would you have such thoughts? I can see that Ninth Master treats Miss Fu very well, and since they aren't married yet, he wouldn't necessarily take someone into his household."

Being a country woman, she felt that since Zhao Ling already had heirs, taking a concubine would simply be a waste of food—hardly worth it.

Yuwei had previously feared that Fu Tingjun had been abducted by refugees and suffered some misfortune, becoming someone's concubine or kept woman. Though she didn't dare ask Fu Tingjun directly about what had happened, she had observed Fu Tingjun's and her companions' actions closely. She knew that Fu Tingjun had been rescued by a man called Ninth Master, and the two had pledged themselves to each other in private. Though that Ninth Master was only a lowly centurion, he treated Fu Tingjun extremely well—not only did he entrust all his household affairs to her, but even for this trip to the capital to visit relatives, he had gone to great lengths to borrow the name cards of the Duke of Fuguo and the Marquis of Yingchuan... Hearing Zheng Sanniang say this, the curiosity hidden at the bottom of her heart could no longer be suppressed. She put on a disapproving air to probe Zheng Sanniang, hoping to learn about what had happened back then: "Whether to take someone into the household—that's for the young lady to decide, isn't it?"

"Then it's even more impossible." Zheng Sanniang laughed, feeling a bit of contempt for Yuwei. Here she was, with a perfectly good family to marry into, yet she wanted to become a concubine. Zheng Sanniang deliberately told her about Fu Tingjun's time in Nianbo Station: "I think you'd best give up that idea while you still can!"

Yuwei was left speechless.

Rushing to a place run by men to make a scene? Was that the Ninth Miss she knew?

She tossed and turned all night without sleeping. The next morning, she forced herself to attend to Fu Tingjun's morning meal, then rode together with her in the carriage toward Sixi Hutong.

Zheng San wasn't familiar with the route and had to stop at every intersection to ask Yuwei for directions. Stopping and starting, they finally managed to reach Sixi Hutong around noon.

The mouth of the alley was rather narrow, and the carriage couldn't enter. Zheng San waited by the carriage while Yuwei carried the gifts and accompanied Fu Tingjun inside.

But within the alley, there was a hidden world.

In the middle of the alley stood a large locust tree, and around it were four households arranged like a small courtyard.

Yuwei pointed to one of the courtyard homes facing west: "Young lady, it's that one!"

Fu Tingjun felt a surge of excitement.

She was about to see her mother. What would her mother ask her?

And her sister-in-law—she had only met her once when she was young. She remembered she had a round face, smiled before speaking, and always seemed cheerful. Would she recognize her?

Her brother's two children she had never met. This year, they should be eight and five years old. Were they mischievous? Whom did they take after?

Her thoughts raced as she stood before the closed gate, her hand feeling as heavy as a thousand pounds.

Suddenly, the door creaked open.

Fu Tingjun was startled.

Could it be that Mother knew I was coming?

She looked up and saw a woman in her early thirties emerge. She was a stranger, ordinary in appearance but neatly dressed, with a composed and reserved air about her brow.

Seeing Fu Tingjun, she too was greatly surprised and said: "Young lady, whom are you looking for?" Her gaze fell suspiciously on Yuwei.

Fu Tingjun steadied herself and said with a smile, "This is the residence of Fifth Master Fu of Huayin, is it not? May I ask how you are to be addressed, good mother? I am a relative of the lady of the house, come from Weinan. I would trouble you to announce my arrival." With that, she slipped the silver bangle from her wrist and handed it to the woman. "This was given to me by the lady herself in years past. I would ask you to take it in and show it to her—she will know at once who I am."

"Come from Weinan?" the woman asked, a flicker of wariness passing through her eyes.

Fu Tingjun felt a pang of unease, but she kept her smile and replied, "Yes, I have come from Weinan. I am connected to the lady's natal family. When I last passed through Huayin, I heard from Grand Madame that the lady was unwell, and since I was heading to the capital, I made a point of stopping by to pay a visit." She glanced at Yuwei before adding, "I have brought some local gifts from home. I would ask you to deliver them to the lady on my behalf."

The woman hesitated for a long moment before finally accepting the bangle. "I will go and inform the lady of your arrival. Please wait a moment, miss." She then turned and entered the residence, closing the door with a sharp bang , leaving Fu Tingjun and Yuwei standing outside.