Chapter 31: Aromatic Herbs
Translated by Gumihou
Edited by Pill Bug
“For Madam to come to my place, is there anything you wish to instruct?” Feeling suspicious, Fu Qiuning planted herself firmly in front of the unwanted visitors, clearly indicating that she had no intention of inviting these women into her house. If they had something to say, they had better just say it there.
However, Jiang Wanying had no intention of complying. She stared right at Fu Qiuning and with a little smile said, “Elder sister, aren’t you going to invite me in to sit for a little while? It’s been years since our last meeting. Just two days ago, Lord Husband even bragged about elder sister’s virtuous nature and how well you have brought up those children. Is their special way of greeting guests your doing too?”
Now that she had directly indicated her intention, Fu Qiuning had no choice but to play along. Moreover, it was not like she could not guess the reason for their sudden appearance on her doorstep. While cursing Jin Fengju colourfully in her heart, she stepped aside with a smile, “If sister does not disdain this place for being crude, please, come in.” She turned to Yu Jie, “Serve tea.”
Since Fu Qiuning said [1] ‘serve tea’ instead of ‘serve the good tea’, Yu Jie understood the unspoken hint and accepted the order with a quiet word before hurrying away. Fu Qiuning led Jiang Wanying to the living room and Jiang Wanying introduced all the concubines one by one to Fu Qiuning. Fu Qiuning played along and accepted their greetings before inviting them to sit.
The concubines all sat down. However, their attention was mostly on the two children beside her. Seeing their attention on the children, [1] she amended her theory and cursed Jin Fengju some more. Outwardly, she smiled, “Perhaps the Madams might have forgotten. A few years ago, these two children were sent to my place to be raised under my name. When Lord Husband came the other day, he found that they looked similar to him when he was a child, took a liking to them and thus spoke to them a little longer. He has not been back since.”
[1] Look! She wanted to scream at these women, please rest assured that this is all a misunderstanding, okay? He’s only been here twice, also please don’t forget that I’ve been thrown in here to survive or die on my own for years now. Even if your husband suddenly comes to see me, what are two visits compared to his favour on you guys?!While she was busy cursing a certain person’s harem, Yu Jie arrived with the tea. However, when she finally registered just how many people were in the living room, she became a little flustered. Finally, she set the tea things down and served Fu Qiuning and Jiang Wanying first.
How could Jiang Wanying miss this opportunity to reprimand Fu Qiuning’s staff? Raising a delicate eyebrow, she said, “The rest of the people here are all Lord Husband’s concubines and lesser concubine, do not be neglectful. Bring in more tea.”
[1] Yu Jie sweated a little but could only answer in a small voice, “Madam, we don’t have enough teacups. There are only these two. One for the guest, and one for Madam. Now that there are so many people here, if they do not mind, the kitchen still has a few crude porcelain bowls.”“No need to trouble yourself,” Xu’shi waved her fan slowly, her eyes flashing over to the content of Jiang Wanying’s cup. Her smile filled with schadenfreude as she snickered to herself: Just what is that strange smell? How could there be such an odd smelling tea? Humph, I’d like to see how you drink it.
Jiang Wanying looked into her teacup but could not identify the Green Plum Herb leaves as any kind of tea she had ever seen. She managed a couple of sips before her hands wavered, trying to decide between holding the cup and keeping up the pretence of appreciating the tea or putting it away from herself. In the end, she lowered the cup and cleared her throat with a little smile, “There’s no particular reason for our visit. We’re only here to sit for a little while and exchange some gossip. Your place is so far away that it is too easily overlooked. I fear, I have been so busy that I had quite forgotten that anyone was living in Night Breeze Pavilion. I really can’t think why Lord Husband would suddenly think of coming here. Can you think of a reason for him to be here?”
Fu Qiuning thought: Well, looks like none of them has any respect for me, ah, to deal such a difficult hand as the opening move. She took a sip of her tea first before smiling back, “I appreciate the visit. Although Night Breeze Pavilion is far away, we have already lived here for many years. I have long since treated this quiet and tranquil place like a ‘Peach Garden in a Foreign Land [2]’. Usually, we don’t even bother to open the door to this courtyard but, one day the Lord Marquis suddenly appeared and called for the children to open the door!
He came in and sat for a while, had some tea and left without saying much. Oh, he also asked to see the children write a few words for him. Two days later, papers, brushes and inkstones were sent to our place. I expect he must have pitied the children and wanted to encourage their education. It is truly nothing much.”
When Jiang Wanying and the others heard this, they all breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Privately, they thought: So it’s like this. Lord Husband must have come here by chance and entered Night Breeze Pavilion for some reason and was impressed by the children. The second visit was just to bestow papers to them. If we had not angered him, he might not even have come here personally to do so. This is good. However, there is still a chance that this woman is lying.
At this, they all narrowed their eyes and began to study Fu Qiuning more closely. With her average pretty face, lack of make up and dressed from head to toe in old clothing as well as those two cringing by her side children, the women in the room suddenly felt a little idiotic for thinking these people a threat. Jiang Wanying said a few more words, but once she determined that she could get no useful information out of these people, she prepared herself to leave.
As she stood up, her eyes fell upon the pots of herbs and flowers rustling gently on the window sill. Mint, jasmine, vanilla, dill and more, scented the room with their unique fragrance without the cloying sensation of incense. The tender greens looked very sweet, cute and full of life. For a moment she paused and thought: The Old Madam has always liked these kinds of plants. Though this room is filled with fragrance, it does not contain the vulgar heaviness of incense. As she continued to study the plants, she thought: apologies for letting you suffer disgrace and neglect but these flowers are perfect as gifts for the Old Madam to decorate her rooms for the Dragon Boat Festival. To prevent myself from suffering any losses, why don’t I ‘Borrow Flowers to offer Buddha [3]’?
Pleased with herself, she smiled at Fu Qiuning, “Elder sister, these pots of aromatic plants look very good and refreshing. [a] Unlike myself who have to scent my rooms with incense, it’s better to scent the rooms with these things during summer and autumn. They are very pleasing to the eye too. Unfortunately, I have no talent for raising them.”
As soon as she opened her mouth, Fu Qiuning knew what this person was aiming for. However, when she thought about it a bit more: Weren’t these just some regular flowers and plants? None of them was particularly rare or expensive but why should she bow her head and let this Jiang Wanying, who clearly looked down on her, have them?
In the end, she decided to feign ignorance and disregard the hint, “It’s not like I have any special talent for pants. It’s fine to just water them once a day. When it’s all said and done, these are not some precious plants or flowers. There’s no need to exert so much effort over them. There must be lots of these plants outside that are a hundred times better looking than mine. If Madam likes it, I’m sure you can easily buy one or two pots to raise.”
Fu Qiuning’s message to Jiang Wanying was clear to anyone with half a brain. Wei, just how poor are you to covet my cheap plants? Just get someone to buy a couple of pots back for you.
For Jiang Wanying who had always held herself high above others, even when she fought those concubines secretly and openly, all she had ever lost was a little face over a battle of words. In reality, her birth status was beyond theirs, so what is a little loss of face to earn the title of ‘virtuousness’?
Nevertheless, to maintain this virtuous face, she had to endure not taking whatever she wanted from these lowly concubines even though it was within her right to do so. It was painful having to ‘Resign Herself to Part with a Treasure’ [4] for the sake of maintaining a virtuous face. In retaliation, she made sure to grab hold of the family’s financial power. To date, [b] she had never suffered such obvious disrespect as the pointed retort from Fu Qiuning. Therefore, how could she swallow it? Especially when those other concubines were clearly delighting over her injury and secretly applauding this Fu woman’s guts?
Well, the more you wish to hold on, the more I want to grab, thought Jiang Wanying arrogantly. With a pleasant smile on her face, she strode over to stroke the plants on the window sill and said, “How could anything outside be compared to what elder sister has? I especially like these lively little pots of plants here. Elder sister, are you saying you can’t bear to part with them?”
She flashed a meaningful glance at Fu Qiuning and added lightly, “I see that sister’s place is rather poor, if sister could bear to forsake these plants, perhaps this little sister could remember this place a little better. Surely there’s no need to keep living a life so austere where you cannot even afford a sip of good tea.”
The more she spoke, the more disgusted Fu Qiuning became. Her reply was cold, “My children and I are used to such austere lives. We are also used to this kind of tea. I’m afraid we cannot afford to live a life of luxury. These plants are raised according to our coarse and simple lifestyle, so, how could they enter Madam’s eyes? What’s more, I only have these few pots of plants here. Once I give them to Madam, what should I do? We aren’t used to the smell of incense here. Only a noble daughter born of a great house could afford such incense.”
[Gumihou: Bet someone is incensed by all this talk of incense, lol]
[1] Some added details for dramatic purpose [2] Peach Garden in a Foreign Land – Home away from home [3] Borrow Flowers to Offer Buddha – Regifting or taking something of others to gift to someone else pretending that it came from you [4] Resigned Herself to Part with her Treasure – Resign Oneself to Parting with One’s Treasure – Jiang Wanying is treating other people’s things as her own and is wallowing in a private drama where she could not take what was ‘owed to her’.
Also, readjusted the sentence around this thought to properly appreciate Jiang Wanying’s position in life
Pill Bug TL Notes:
[a] Is she commenting that cheap incense smells bad, or that all incense smells too heavy?
For ‘heaviness of vulgar incense’ or
For ‘vulgar heaviness of incense’
I think the second, according to the original text, although I do find it odd since they seem to like lighting it…
Was there a ‘must’ for women to use perfume or incense in their rooms back in ancient China? She words this like she is being forced to burn incense when she doesn’t want to…
Gumihou: I think it’s one of those things one does to show off wealth. Like eating peacock or capon instead of pork. Birds are considered an expensive and precious animal, plus they fly in the sky whereas pigs eat… trash, lol
[b] JWY, talking about rights based on rank now? Then won’t FQN be in the right to grab everything of yours according to that logic? >:(
Gumihou: Yes, except she probably considered herself above FQN since she’s the legitimate granddaughter of a duke whereas FQN is a shu born daughter. Therefore, in her eyes she is more human and FQN closer to an animal…
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Wow, the Drama
The DRAMA