Chapter 074

Chapter 74: Addicted to Playing the Ingenue

Today Xin An chose the path of wide?eyed innocence; she had practiced her expressions before the mirror many times, determined to look every inch the unschooled girl.

As expected, when they saw her openhearted and guileless manner, with not the slightest hint of inferiority about her birth and not a tear shed over having her good match switched, the women all laughed, and the previously silent Li Yu Yan smiled as she said: “Younger Sister Xin really is a genuine, forthright soul. What surprises me is Second Young Master Tang. Is he truly as good as you say?”

Xin An answered, laughing at herself: “Of course. He has that look that begs to be taken in hand, easy to bully.”

She laughed and the others joined her. Just then drum and pipe music rose from below. At some point the warm?up performers had left the stage, and today’s opera was about to begin.

Qiu Wen Yuan began talking about the opera again, offering her critique of the two performers appearing today; only then did she notice the baskets set to the side, and she said: “Each basket costs ten taels. Younger Sister Xin, you are truly rich.” [Salt merchants really are loaded.]

Do not be fooled into thinking they were so grand; the amount of silver they received each month was fixed, and they often spent more than they took in. With many brothers and sisters at home and dowries allocated in set amounts, even when a dowry was larger it was often filled with display pieces, while ready silver remained limited.

Xin An quipped: “This is about the only thing worth showing off.”

Jesting at herself, she added: “I am the only daughter at home, so the dowry happens to be heavier. Pity that while my purse is full my head is empty; Sister Qiu will have to look after me.”

Qiu Wen Yuan started to say: “That is fine, my head is…” [She had wanted to proclaim her own brilliance but thought better of it,] and she pivoted with a smile: “Sister Yan is the one brimming with wit, the true, proper first talented lady of the capital.”

Today’s opera told of a scholar who, on his way to sit the examinations, saved a fox. Later, before the scholar died of illness, he could not let go of his wife, children, and old mother. The fox transformed into the scholar’s likeness to care for his wife, children, and mother, but in the end encountered a Daoist master who specialized in Exorcising Demons and Slaying Monsters. When the fox was about to be killed, the scholar’s old mother threw herself over her, weeping that she had in fact known all along…

The players sang and acted superbly. In particular, the passage before the scholar’s last breath, where he sang of his reluctance to part from wife, children, and mother, moved them all to tears. Qiu Wen Yuan wept most unrestrainedly, but even Xin An was drawn wholly into the play; it dredged up those unhappy memories from her previous life, especially the moment she learned that her father and mother, who had come to the capital to look for her, met disaster. Her tears could not be stopped, and in the end she cried even harder than Qiu Wen Yuan.

Qiu Wen Yuan dabbed at her tears and gave an order: “Reward them. Chun Yang, hurry and tip them. Fill those two performers’ hair with silver paper blossoms. If it is not enough, go buy more.” Then she turned, half laughing and half crying: “Younger Sister Xin, how do you cry even more than I do?”

With eyes red from crying, Xin An said: “I miss my father and mother. They are so far away, and I do not know when I can see them again.”

They all sighed. They themselves had married close by; returning to their parents’ homes was an easy matter. Thinking of how far Xin An had married, only to be maneuvered against, they felt a little sorry for her. What they did not say was that none of them would ever believe a tale of a bridegroom entering the bridal chamber drunk and mistaking the person. In high houses, and even among ordinary folk, several stout drinkers are invited on the wedding day to help block wine for the groom. However much guests might cajole, they do not go too far, knowing the groom must still spend the bridal night. How could a marquis’s household not have made arrangements?

Taking a step back, even if Tang Rong truly were drunk, could Tao Yi Ran also be drunk?

Tao Yi Ran had appeared at every banquet; how could she not recognize Tang Rong?

It was nothing more than a man unwilling to marry a merchant’s daughter and a woman willing to marry the Marquis’s Heir Apparent.

Only pity that Tang Mo and the Xin family younger sister were forcibly pushed together, made to fulfill those two.

Yan Wen Hui poured her a cup of tea and said: “Drink some water quickly. If you are already crying like this at the beginning, how will you watch what comes later?”

“I have heard the latter part is even sadder,” Xin An said as she wiped her tears, took several steadying breaths, and drank, then added: “I am crying now so I will not cry later.”

She was pretty to begin with, and now with eyes glistening with tears she was very fetching to look at. Yan Wen Hui teased her, laughing: “No wonder you say Second Younger Brother Tang is playful, takes you out, and treats you well. If I were a man, would I not hold you in the palm of my hand?”

“Ah?” Xin An looked up with a hint of dazed foolishness. Qiu Wen Yuan laughed again and said: “Her, yes. It must be exactly this look that stole Second Young Master Tang’s soul. Look, she is trying to bewitch me too.”

Xin An felt that this was the moment her ears ought to redden. [At a moment like this she really ought to blush.] Sadly she could control her expression but not her ears. She could only turn her head with playful shyness and say: “You are terrible. I am crying like this and you still tease me.” [Playing the ingenue is addictive.]

After a good cry her chest felt unburdened. The stage was still delightful to watch, but the emotion had ebbed. Qiu Wen Yuan, by contrast, kept pressing a handkerchief to her eyes.

In the final scene, when the old mother flung herself over the fox and told the Daoist master she had long known the truth, a fresh harvest of tears swept the house. Upstairs and down, men and women alike wiped their eyes, and even Li Yu Yan’s rims were red.

“This opera is truly excellent. The script is good and the players are good. Only my makeup has been cried away. How am I supposed to go out afterward?”

Xin An let out a long breath, and had barely spoken when Qiu Wen Yuan’s maid stepped forward with a cosmetic case to repair her face. The maids of Yan Wen Hui and Li Yu Yan also busied themselves. The three had only to sit as the tear tracks vanished. Only the unprepared Xin An sat there awkwardly, but as she opened her mouth Nan Feng arrived with a cosmetic case and gently helped her freshen up.

Yan Wen Hui smiled and said: “This girl of yours is very clever.”

It turned out that when Nan Feng saw how hard Xin An was crying, she worried the makeup would be ruined. She had quietly asked advice from Yan Wen Hui’s maid, then borrowed money from Chun Yang and hurried out of the theater to buy what was needed, returning just in time.

“This girl was placed by my mother?in?law at our side, and she can read and write as well,” Xin An explained. Madam Wang had given her to Tang Mo, but Tang Mo did not want her, so Xin An picked her up; [rounding it out, that meant she had been given to Xin An.]

With light and practiced hands, Nan Feng soon restored Xin An to a dignified young madam. Holding the little bronze mirror Nan Feng had bought, Xin An turned her face left and right. Qiu Wen Yuan joked: “Have you swooned at your own beauty?”

Playing along, Xin An said: “How am I so beautiful?”

They all burst out laughing, then rose together to leave. It was just time for the midday meal. Xin An asked whether a place had been arranged, and Yan Wen Hui said with a smile: “It was arranged early. We will not let your stomach go hungry. Come.”

The sunlight was a little harsh, but they climbed into their carriage the moment they stepped outside. Soon they were in a private room at a restaurant. Without the theater’s clamor, their conversation grew more intimate. Xin An ate while listening. The husbands of these women were all paragons, each one outstanding, and in learning alone they left Tang Mo many streets behind.

Qiu Wen Yuan was lively by temperament. She had been married just over a year. With kind parents?in?law and a considerate husband, she lived cheerfully and carefree. [In Xin An’s memory from her previous life, she had not been like this. After so many years the only impression left of Qiu Wen Yuan was the word mean.]

The Han family’s eldest master had wives and concubines in flocks, and many sons and daughters by concubines. The inner courtyard was far from peaceful.