Chapter 254: Reason
Author: White Pear Flower
Raws: https://book.qidian.com/info/2386994/
Translated by Gumihou
Edited by Gumihou: Major reconstruction for… everything. Because we are coming to the end soon and things would only get worse before they get… worser? Worst? More worse?
After a while, Jin Zhenyi said, “This is too hard, why do we have to talk about this? I’m not smart enough for this kind of thing. If I was really smart I would have been a better help to Mother.”
It was only after the words had left his mouth that he realised that he brought up the conflict that had driven Concubine Xu out of the estate the last time. He squirmed awkwardly in place for a moment before proceeding to stuff his mouth with more porridge.
Fu Qiuning regarded him amusedly before saying, “Eat your porridge slowly.” She turned to the children and said, “We may be at Quanzhou now, but you must still keep up with your studies. In three to five days, new tutors will be appointed, so make sure to study well. The girls will receive a female tutor well versed in the female arts.”
The children all saluted her, respectfully accepting her order.
After breakfast, someone came to report Jiang Wanying’s condition. Several local physicians had been invited to take a look at her and fortunately, it was really nothing serious. All she had to do was rest for a couple more days to recover.
Fu Qiuning nodded her understanding.
Not long after that, a maid came in to say that some guests had arrived.
Fu Qiuning thought: These must be the wives of the officials around Quanzhou Prefecture mentioned by Jin Fengju. [1]
Having no other choice, she sighed and followed the maid to the small Flower Hall. She found that despite there being many women in the hall, only two were ‘wives of officials’. The rest were daughters, maids and even a couple of concubines.
[2] Fu Qiuning had no idea whether this was normal or not, but since it was her duty to sit and entertain these people, she proceeded to do just that. After a while, she had her maids give out some gifts of money to the daughters. After a while, the two women left, taking their troupe of daughters, concubines, maids etc with them. [2a] Once the last of the women had left, Jian Feng huffed angrily, saying, “Madam, those people are too despicable! No matter what, the master is a high-born official, but those women did not even bother to come and pay their respects. Although Madam had some… some incidents in the past, how could it be compared to Madam’s current situation now? Surely they should have inquired into the matter more closely and realised just who is the most favoured person in the estate? I fear that these ignorant people still believe that Second Madam Wan is in power and refused to come to visit when they heard that she had fallen ill.” [2b] Fu Qiuning shrugged and said, “That’s fine with me. If they wish to see Second Madam Wan, they can come in a couple more days.”That made Jian Feng feel even more aggrieved for Fu Qiuning. Fortunately, much to her gratification, the afternoon saw a large group of wives of supposedly Jin Fengju’s superiors come to pay a visit. Technically, as the ‘subordinate’s wife’ Fu Qiuning should be the one to go out and greet them. This was something that she would have to do no matter what along with Jiang Wanying once her health had improved. Unexpectedly, they were the ones who came rushing in to pay a visit instead.
It turned out that these people were the pro-Rong faction. They were probably all here to see Jin Fengju, anxious for news [3] and to curry favour with her just in case Prince Rong managed to topple the Crown Prince and become the emperor instead. In short, she was not particularly impressed by them, nor was she annoyed by their presence. It was just tiring to have to sit around and talk in circles and laugh on cue.
Even so, there was no way to kick them out. Fu Qiuning ended up entertaining them until it was almost evening before they finally left. [2] Her exhausted spirit was bolstered a little by the laughter of children and Fu Qiuning entered a room to find all the children had gathered in one room. [4] [4] The youngest girl came forward to greet her first, cautious and still a little anxious about interacting with her. Fu Qiuning nodded her acknowledgement. Seeing his sisters make their greetings, Jin Changfeng came over to give his greetings as well, prompting the rest to do the same.
[4] Fu Qiuning smiled down at the children. Her eyes lingered a little longer over Jin Changfeng and Jin Changjiao. She had named them thus, back when their father did not even bother to bestow even a nickname for them. He did not even have the courtesy to add a random character after the ‘Zhen’ or ‘Xiu’ for the twins even though he already had four (or was it six?) other children by then. [4] Later, he showed similar callous behaviour with Concubine Xu, simply moving his children about as though they were chess pieces from a disadvantageous location to a more advantageous one. As for Jin Xiuzhen and Jin Zhenxuan… [4a] Jin Fengju had literally carried them over to her place, making it clear that if the children wanted to see him, they would have to frequent her place.What could two desperate children do?
[4] “Honoured Mother,” said Jin Changfeng. “Where is Father?” [4] It was clear that he was asking out of courtesy, therefore Fu Qiuning answered in the same courteous manner by saying, “He must be out inspecting the defences against those vile Japanese pirates. Perhaps he may even have to take his dinner at the guard post.” [4] “Ah,” Jin Changfeng nodded calmly. “I see. We shall go and study now.” [4] “We will go and practice our embroidery,” said Jin Xiuzhen with an elegant smile on her face. Jin Changjiao and Jin Xiunan exchanged a look, but said nothing as they followed after Jin Xiuzhen to the boudoir to ‘practice their embroidery’. Who knows what the girls were really doing, but that’s beside the point. At least they also took care of the youngest girl.“Very well, do as you were,” said Fu Qiuning. “I shall go for a walk now.”
Fu Qiuning’s love of gardens was quite well known, and the children left after a final salute.
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Naturally, the inner court of a prefectorial government office was nothing like a Duke’s residence. Although there were many small courtyards and houses, the gardens were more spartan. At least, they were nothing like the sprawling beasts that could swallow a person whole for days. Therefore, Fu Qiuning confidently strolled through the garden without fearing that she would get lost in it.
Soon, she came upon a smoking building and guessed that she must be near the kitchen from the smells wafting from it. Rows of bamboo had been planted around the building, probably to obscure the sight of such a workhouse from the rest of the family. Still, she smiled at the maid beside her and said, “I had not expected the kitchen to be such an elegant place. These bamboo clumps are clearly very bright and well taken care of.”
The maid, Qiu Yu, smiled and said, “What elegance? This maid heard that these bamboo are planted here so that the family could easily harvest bamboo shoots during spring. How lucky that we have a bit of a breeze here! Madam, why not sit on this rock under the bamboo grove for a spell?” [5] Qiu Yu hurriedly spread out a conveniently large piece of cloth onto the rock.
[5] Fu Qiuning looked at the cloth-covered rock, then at the beaming Qiu Yu. She turned her gaze to the bamboo groves and thought: I brought up the bamboo groves because I thought that was one of the main attractions in the garden, because what ‘noble’ person would want to look at the kitchens? Especially since I’m not one of those female characters with a special golden finger skill in cooking. Just what-Before Fu Qiuning could question Qiu Yu, a loud voice said, “Just how did the blame fall on our heads? When we arrived yesterday, the entire place was already empty. Not even a single master was left behind. The Master and Madam were exhausted when they arrived yesterday, so what could they know? It’s possible that those officials are trying to curry favour, but are now blaming us. How is this justified?”
[5] “… …” Fu Qiuning turned her eyes to Qiu Yu, whose smile had shrunk a little.A second voice, equally strident and loud said, “That’s exactly what I said! The poor Master and Madam are still in the dark. I wanted to say something, but since we just moved in, with so many things to take care of I decided not to bother with the. Who would have thought that by letting the matter rest, those people started tarnishing the estate’s reputation.”
[5] The two maids have conveniently stopped right behind a particularly lush bit of bamboo where Fu Qiuning was supposed to be sitting and happened to ‘overhear’ their conversation. The two continue to talk, going round and round the same topic as Qiu Yu sweated under Fu Qiuning’s even stare. [5a] Finally, Fu Qiuning said, “Go and call them over.” [5a] Qiu Yu quickly scampered around the bamboo grove. After a deliberately loud command and some furtive whispers, she scampered back with two plain-looking maids who looked like they had nothing to do with kitchen work, but had baskets of vegetables in their hands. Fu Qiuning had to commend these maids for attempting to blend into their roles with props, even though both of them had silk shoes and shiny hair pieces that revealed their positions as ‘take care of rooms’ maids instead of ‘hanging around in a smoky kitchen all day’ look of kitchen workers.The maids looked frightened and excited at the same time. Fu Qiuning, still sitting upon the cloth-covered rock said, “Well? You have some complaints. Speak it.” [5a] She had no intention of wasting words, pretending that this was all a ‘coincidence’ and wow, what a coincidence I just happened to hear you guys.
As expected, the more vocal one stepped forward angrily and said, “Originally, these trivial matters should not have reached the Madam’s ears. It would do nothing but add to her worries. But since the madam has heard about it now, we might as well speak out. We, the two sisters, are in charge of making purchases for the kitchen. This time, we were fortunate enough to come out with the master and madam to see the outside world. When we moved in yesterday, although we were exhausted, we were also happy in our hearts.
Because someone sent a lot of wild game yesterday, the two of us did not go to the market and rested for the night. Today, we thought ‘how could the madam and the young master and miss not eat some vegetables?’ So we asked the two maids who were left here for directions, but they insisted on going to the market themselves. I laughed and said that they don’t understand our master and madam’s taste, not to mention the dishes that the young masters and young misses like, so we must personally select the ingredients.
Those two maids said that we could just give them a list, but as maids, we can’t even read large characters, so what kind of list could we write? This maid was so angry that I scolded them a few times. Madam, the Madam must know that we, the people from the Duke’s estate are gentle and polite people who would never act arrogant or domineering to others. However, those two maids are just too suspicious.
After finally getting the directions, this maid went to the market with my elder sister. There, we did not manage to buy many vegetables. Instead, we heard much gossip. Those people, who must not know from which house we are from spoke arrogantly before us. They talk about how the Marquis was such a domineering person that he had the government property cleared out even before his arrival. How a lot of people have been made homeless and, and, in short, there are many complaints. This maid wanted to shout and scold them, but Elder Sister held me back. In fact, Elder Sister not only dragged me all the way back here, but she also refused to let me speak frankly before the Madam-”
“… …” aren’t you speaking very well now?
[Gumihou: The entire chapter is super awkward. That’s what happens when you try to force your characters into doing things without properly developing them first.]
[1] Deleted every single freaking non-narrative mention of ‘wow, FQN is like, so modest~’ [2] The author tried so very hard to make this an intriguing schemey thing, but…
In her heart, Fu Qiuning was taken aback. She thought that there would be at least a dozen officials from Quanzhou Prefecture. Since Jin Fengju was the prefect and held a title, there should have been more people coming, right? However, she didn’t show any signs of surprise on her face. She sat down and chatted with the two women for a while, then had someone bring a purse filled with gold and silver ingots as a reward for the children, showing genuine warmth.
The two women didn’t expect the wife of the Marquis to be so approachable. They gradually opened up, but they didn’t mention anything about the other officials’ families. Fu Qiuning noticed their expressions but didn’t press them further. Instead, she shared some observations she made along the way. By noon, the two women took their leave. As soon as they left, Fu Qiuning furrowed her brows tightly.
Uh, my eyes glazed over from this. Aside from ‘tried very hard’, it all just smacks of making mountains out of molehills.
DELETE
[2a] Looks like it was all to have Jian Feng reiterate how ‘Madam is so wonderfully loved, kyaa~’ but hey, you can shove that in even without Note [2] [2b] Have FQN to not care rather than give a long-winded TED talk explaining why she is such a good person to everyone and their dog [3] Actual brain matter related reason rather than ‘kyaa~ hubby is great’ reason [4] Instead of using the children to shove the Jiang Wanying!Bad message, let them be children and allow the story to flow naturally. Also, put the concubine-born girl back in, you know, Miss Jin Xiuwho [4a] Reduce Jiang Wanying!Bad hints. After all, it was JFJ who first moved them to Fu Qiuning’s place. Please don’t forget this crucial fact that you have written White Pear Flower [5] Since the scene is so forced, made it actually ‘forced’ by exaggerating maid Qiu Yu’s actions [5a] Fu Qiuning playing along with the farce instead of ‘uwu, Justice Ning is here!’
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