When Yuchen and Yuxi returned to the State Residence, Song Guifei's bestowed rewards arrived soon after. The number of gifts given to Yuchen was twice that of Yuxi. When everyone heard the different rewards between the two, they realised that Song Guifei was very pleased with Third Miss. As for Fourth Miss, she just followed Yuchen along to join the fun.
Yuxi was rewarded with a pair of tribute silks, a couple of green jade auspicious clouds gilded with gold beads, a phoenix tail hairpin and a pair of sapphire blue jadeite pearl beads hairpins. In addition, there were also a pair of round fans and a pair of scented bead bracelets.
Green jade auspicious clouds gilded with gold beads phoenix tail hairpin probably looks like this. However, there's only one auspicious cloud in this picture. Phoenix tail hairpin means the curved shape of the bottom part of the hairpin attached to one's hair.
Image Credit | As stated in the image
Image Credit | As stated in the image
Sapphire blue jadeite pearl beads hairpin probably looked like this. Maybe the one Song Guifei gave to Yuxi has more gems or pearl beads?
Image Credit | As stated in the image via 宝蓝点翠珠钗 (第3页) at QQ.com
Image Credit | As stated in the image via 宝蓝点翠珠钗 (第3页) at QQ.com
Yuxi noticed the ugly look on Zisu's face. She smilingly said, "The 10th Prince has taken fancy of San Jie, and it is human nature for Guifei to reward her with more favourable gifts than mine. Furthermore, the rewards from Guifei are not to be looked down upon." To Yuxi, these pieces of jewellery were worth a lot of money. [+]
Zisu was so taken aback that she had to ask, "Did Miss see the 10th Prince? I heard that he inherited Guifei Niangniang's appearance, which must have made him look extraordinarily outstanding."
Yuxi gently nodded her head, "Yes. The 9th Prince's look is also not bad, but he is so imposing that no one dares to look him squarely in the eye."
Zisu hurriedly asked, "What is Miss' impression on Guifei Niangniang?" The10th Prince had taken a fancy on Third Miss. While, based on her self-knowledge, the 9th Prince would have surely turned up his nose at her Miss. It was not that she was unduly humble, but what kind of beauty hadn't the 9th Prince seen? Besides, her Miss was still young, and she hadn't properly bloomed yet!
Yuxi shook her head and answered, "I don't know. Guifei Niangniang didn't talk to me. But that's okay. That place, the Imperial Palace, try your best not to go if you can! That place has too many rules that need to be followed." One had to be on one’s knees at every turn. Moreover, one was not allowed to rise on one’s feet until one had been told to do so! Even now, her knees were still hurting from doing all the kneelings!
Zisu felt that it was a great pity for her Miss to have this kind of thinking.
Two days later, Qinxin Gongzhu sent someone to pick up Yuchen to the palace. Zisu felt awfully sorry for her Miss over this matter. Yuxi, however, was unconcerned about it. She just went into her study to read once more.
When Yuxi got tired of reading in the study, she went out. It was scorching at this time, and only her second-class maid, Caidie, was standing alone with folding arms in the corridor while the others were shrinking in the room. But Caidie was looking like she was extremely at a loss.
Yuxi laughed as she stepped forward and asked, "What made you look this awkward?" Yuxi never made things difficult for her lower-level maids. Although Zisu was rather stern towards them, as long as they did their jobs well and didn't stir up trouble, she wouldn't casually scold them. Therefore, the maids who worked with Yuxi had a very good life.
When Caidie saw Yuxi, her face turned pale with fright, and she started to stutter, "Mi, Miss….."
How could Yuxi not understand after looking at Caidie's current appearance and then combining it with how Caidie acted before. "Come to my study," she immediately said. The matter which had made Caidie looking so at a loss perhaps had something to do with her. Otherwise, Caidie wouldn't have looked so scared when she saw her.
When Yuxi entered the study, she stood in the middle of the room and asked, "Tell me, what has been bothering you so much?"
Now that Caidie had reached this point, she didn't hesitate anymore. She explained, "Miss, it's regarding Maidong Jiejie's family."
Yuxi was somewhat puzzled. "What happened to Maidong's family?" Since her last warning, Maidong's family didn't have any more wicked ideas.
Caidie made up her mind and told Yuxi, "Maidong's mother and dasao celebrated Maidong's grandmother's birthday two days ago. My mother noticed that Maidong's mother was wearing gold earrings, gold rings, and there were also four to five gold bracelets on her wrist. While Maidong's dasao wore a jade bracelet." The things that the two women wore together would cost more than hundreds taels of silver.
Yuxi asked calmly, "What's wrong with that?"
Caidie answered in a meagre voice. "Not to mention Maidong's mother's gold bracelet, my mother said the jade bracelet worn by Maidong's dasao worth more than ten taels of silver. She also said that Maidong's family had never been this well-off. In the past two years, although Maidong Jiejie had helped support her family financially with ample amounts of money, nevertheless her dage and er ge had spent a lot of them just by marrying their wives in succession. Thus, her family could not have any savings. My mother thought there was something odd with this, so she wanted me to tell Miss about it."
Yuxi asked, "What's so odd about it?"
Caidie lowered her head even further, “My mother said that Maidong's father and her two elder brothers are loyal and honest people, and they also haven't done any shady business. Hence, such a large amount of silver couldn’t drop down on her family out of thin air. I began to think that they were rewards given by Miss to Maidong Jiejie, so I specifically asked Zisu Jiejie. I found out that Miss had never rewarded Maidong Jiejie with any gold bracelets and a jade bracelet, so I thought this matter was not right."
When Yuxi's personal maids Moju, Motao and Hongshan had gotten married, she had rewarded them with gold and silver jewellery, but that was naturally for their dignity, which belonged to special circumstances. No matter how generous Yuxi usually was, it was impossible for her to merely give gold bracelets and a jade bracelet worth more than dozens of taels to her personal maids. If she did this, she would not be called generous but relatively mindless.
Yuxi nodded her head and said, "I know, and you must not tell anyone else about this." Caidie's mother must have reckoned that the money used for Maidong's family jewellery must have come from an improper source, so she had asked Caidie to tell her about it. Yuxi already knew something wrong with it as soon as she heard it.
Caidie felt grateful, "Thank you, Miss." Before, she was hesitant to let Miss know about this matter. It was because, once she let this matter out, no matter if there was any problem with Maidong's family or not, she would not end well. If there was no problem with Maidong's family, then she was the one who had intentionally stirred up troubles. If there were any problems, Maidong would be implicated, and several Jiejie who had good relationships with Maidong would have bad opinions on Caidie. If she were excluded, she would have a hard time working in Taoran House. Now that Miss wouldn't let her tell anyone else, this meant that Miss was asking her to keep this matter a secret. No matter what the result would be, it wouldn't affect her. [+]
Yuxi gave Caidie a little nudge and instructed, "Grind the ink! I want to practice my calligraphy."
Usually, the work of grinding ink was done by Yuxi's personal maids. So when Zisu brought over a bowl of lotus seed soup, she was startled to see Caidie grinding the ink.
Yuxi waved her hand toward Caidie and said, "You should withdraw first."
After Caidie withdrew, Zisu asked strangely, "Miss, why did you ask Caidie to grind ink for you."
Yuxi said, "I just happened to want to practise my calligraphy, and when I went out, I saw her standing in the corridor, so I called her in. What's wrong? Is there any problem?"
Zisu shook her head and said, "No, it's just a bit strange. Speaking of which, this maid, Caidie, has been acting weird these past two days. Last night, she asked me whether Miss had ever rewarded Maidong with gold bracelets. I don't even know why she was asking about it." Everything Yuxi rewarded had to be registered into the account book, which Zisu managed, so just asking her would be the most effective way to inquire.
In addition to her four personal maids, Yuxi didn't have much contact with second-class and third-class maids, but she knew their basic situations. "I remember that her mother works in the teahouse, and she has a brother who seems to have trouble with his legs and feet."
Zisu smiled and elaborated, "Even though her mother works in a teahouse, she is a good person and has a good relationship with people. His brother is still unmarried because of his bad leg! Caidie is a good-natured person, quick in her work and has a flexible mind, but not very talkative." The teahouse was just like a nonprofit organisation, where it didn't pay much attention to how much profit was earned.
Yuxi didn't continue with this topic any longer but took and ate the lotus seed soup. After she finished eating, she resumed her calligraphy practice. Zisu didn't see any difference in her.
Yuxi was a very calm person, that was, until after dinner that she took Zisu to the Master Courtyard to look for Qiu Shi.
When Qiu Shi saw Yuxi, she smiled and asked, "What made you thought of coming here today?" Since Yuxi got those books from Han Jianye, she didn't have much free time, and her visits to the Master Courtyard had decreased a lot.
Yuxi smiled and talked with Qiu Shi for a while before she turned to Zisu and instructed, "I have something to tell Eldest Aunt. You should go and wait for me outside."
Zisu was a little surprised, but she didn't ask much and just walked out of the room.
With Yuxi acting like this, how could Qiu Shi still didn't understand? She also asked the other maids in the room to go out, and then she asked Yuxi, "What's the matter?" With such an incident with Heshou Xianzhu, Qiu Shi had almost become like a bird startled by the mere twang of a bow.
Yuxi brought up what Caidie had told her to Qiu Shi, "That doesn't sound right to me either, but it is not good for me to check it out with great fanfare. It's okay if I managed to find out a problem, but if I couldn't find any problem, at that time, it would make those who served around me always feel uneasy." A personal maid should not be suspected casually, nor could she check it with great fanfare, or it would make everyone nervous.
It was impossible to do it quietly with Yuxi's current ability. Therefore, this matter could only be investigated by Qiu Shi.
Qiu Shi said, "In all likelihood, this matter is indeed problematic, but it depends on the size of the problem." Qiu Shi was a Lady who managed their household. Thus she exactly knew what was going on here. If it were the outer courtyard steward or the stewardess of the inner courtyard, these people would have some money left over, especially from places like the kitchen, where profits were abundant. This made their financial condition could be considered well-off in residence. But for Maidong's family, except Maidong, who had a pretty good job, her other family members' jobs were only mediocre. Thus, how could they have the ability to get gold bracelets and buy a jade bracelet?
Yuxi requested, "Eldest Aunt, please check it for me!"
Qiu Shi nodded her head and said, "No matter what we find out, this Maidong can't stay there any longer." If there was trouble in one's personal maid's family, that personal maid was likely to bring future problems.
Yuxi smiled and said, "I'll have to wait for the result first." If it had nothing to do with Maidong, she would not drive Maidong out. But if there was...she didn't know what was wrong, but her intuition told her that this matter might not be related to Maidong.
After talking about Maidong, Qiu Shi then talked about Yuchen, "You went to the palace with Yuchen, but why did Qinxin Gongzhu only invite Yuchen alone to the palace?"
Yuxi smiled and said, "This is because Yuchen and Qinxin are brought together by fate, and I can't force myself to be between them."
Qiu Shi just felt it was a bit of a pity. "If you can also win Qinxin Gongzhu's favour, there will be more opportunities for your future appearances, and you'll have more room to choose your marriage partner."
Yuxi smiled and said, "This kind of thing can't be forced. Besides, the palace has a lot of rules, and I'm not comfortable with them. I prefer to be at home, free and unconstrained."
Qiu Shi smilingly said, "Look at you. You just know how to guard your own acre of land. Only when you are still a young miss at home will you have some days of easy living. Once you get married, there are a lot of tedious things to do, and you won't be able to be as relaxed as before."
Yuxi cheerfully responded, "It's still too early for me to get married!"
Qiu Shi didn't think it was still too early. "You will be thirteen years old after the new year, and then after a few more years, you won't be able to stay at home anymore."
PS (Author) : (*^__^*) hee hee...who do you think Yuru will choose?
Translator: Boss, are you talking about Yuxi or Yuru? (・_・ヾ
Noob Translator's Musing
What do you think Maidong's family had done?
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The Rebirth of Han Yuxi