Ch. 28: Home

Inside the small buggy, the tension is thick enough to cut, mostly from Lady Ning and Cui Lan. Lan Xiao stared at Shen Meifeng in an almost dazed manner, prompting a small smile to grace her lips like a cherry blossom tumbling onto the snow below.

"What is the matter, Lin Xiao?" Shen Meifeng inquired, patting the girl's hand.

A blush flashed across Lin Xiao's cheeks. "Sorry, you- you look very lovely today."

Shen Meifeng did indeed appear more lovely, although everyone in the cramped buggy assumed it was due to eating something better than the scraps tossed to her in Yonghe Temple.

System tsked. "If only they knew the truth!" It mused about the poor porter at one of the rest stops, a dimwitted lad who had fallen so hard at first sight that Meifeng hadn't had to put in any further work in securing his heart before cutting it cleanly in two.

With two tails secured, Shen Meifeng could very easily become a well-known beauty within the capital after attending a few flower-viewing banquets. Thinking of her new daughter's beauty, Lady Ning's lip tightened into a hard line, her mind inevitably fluttering back to her days of youth. Time had shown her how the most beautiful women suffered the most.

Entering the city was far easier this time around for both Shen Meifeng and Lin Xiao. There was no mistaking Luoyang for anywhere other than the imperial capital. The hefty stone gate was tall enough to inspire awe in the eyes of the ancient people, let alone the four women. A throng of visitors, travelers, and merchants waited in a roughly organized line, the sudden hubbub a surprise of after the silent, dusty roads they had long traveled on.

"Who are you?" asked the guard sternly when their little buggy finally emerged at the front of the line. "What business do you have in the capital? Show me your papers."

Cui Lan, Lady Ning's maid who had served faithfully and obediently like a culled dog now flashed her teeth.

"Daring! Do you know whose household's daughter you are speaking to right now?" there was an authoritativeness in her voice, long cultivated in the rear yards of two families. Although Cui Lan was a little rusty, the arrogant tilt of her brow and her imposing bearing despite the rags was unmistakable. From a sleeve, a jade pendant was produced and slapped into the palm of the guard.

Perhaps he was new, or too common to intersect with a great house, but the superior that strode over recognized it in an instant.

"Greetings, Madam Ning," he said as he dropped into a bow and kicked his subordinate to bow as well. He misnamed Lady Ning, referring to her as a woman who had married into the Ning family as opposed to one who was born into it. But it wasn't an unusual mistake. The prominent Young Miss Ning who had been beloved into the capital almost two decades ago would have been long forgotten and she was clearly too old to be an unmarried daughter.

Cui Lan looked back at Lady Ning for approval, before nodding, tacitly allowing the men to rise. The appearance was too strange, however. A woman from a prominent family, riding in a small buggy in common clothes. Word spread like wildfire, first reaching the superior's superiors, their wives, their servants, and a few days after, the entire capital.

Lady Ning did have a pendant for the Shen family, one that would've allowed her entrance to the capital albeit without such awe and gossip. But knowing her brother, if she appeared so discreetly after so many years, he would no doubt send her back just as quietly. Thus, the need for the preemptive letter to her mother and the use of her old pendant that she had been forced to hide for many years once the Shen family were exiled to prevent her husband from selling it.

The family name that had been first her blessing and then, in marriage, her bane. Sliding the cool stone over her palm over and over, it took her a while to realize that someone was calling her name.

"Mother," Shen Meifeng called affectionately, placing her hand over Lady Ning's.

Clearly, this was a scourge wrapped up in the package of a disarming girl, yet Lady Ning felt the turmoil in her heart slow down.

"I've taught you about the members of my family I know about. I've taught you etiquette. We'll see if you survive," Lady Ning instead replied sternly.

Cui Lan cast a suspicious glance at her mistress, hearing a thread of concern underlying her harsh warnings. But with a side-eye from Lady Ning, she didn't say anything, having long understood her mistress' cues.

"En," Shen Meifeng replied obediently.

The ride was both too long and too short. It was apparent when they had cleared from the busier roads, Lin Xiao's head ducking back inside with abashment. Street vendors and passerby's voices were replaced by quiet until the buggy came to a halt. Lin Xiao let out a long exhale, remembering Cui Lan's stern tutelage of not gaping like an idiot at the grandeur. Yet as she exited the buggy and turn saw the great painted doors of the Ning family compound, a gasp escaped inadvertently.

She had thought she had seen great homes. This one eclipsed them all.

Lin Xiao had heard that the sign above the mansion was personally painted by the previous emperor. With the help of their personal maids although the awe-struck Lin Xiao was a beat slow, Shen Meifeng and Lady Ning exited from the carriage, Cui Lan quickly turning to pay the buggy driver. In the wealthy suburbs of official homes, the common garments all of them wore stood out like a sore thumb in the clean streets and high walls. But Lady Ning, who'd been bred in such an environment, still carried a dignified air around her that couldn't be dispelled.

But underneath, she was fuming. Furious, even. For, the front gates were empty, without a guard in sight. It was as if the Duke of Gao Mansion was not expecting any guests. Yet, Lady Ning well knew that even if she were a low-born cousin of the family, there would at least be a few guards and maids to greet her at the door. To treat her like this, perhaps was her brother's poignant way of reminding her that she was not part of the family any longer.

A quarter of a shichen was spent waiting. It took Lin Xiao and Shen Meifeng a few minutes to realize that something was wrong, Lin Xiao's face pulling into her famous smirk while Shen Meifeng smiled merrily as if nothing were wrong.

In fact, for Shen Meifeng, nothing could be better. With each breath, she could practically feel the ruthlessness, sorrow, hatred, desperation, and ambition thrumming throughout the capital like a heartbeat. She could hardly wait to play around.

As the doors to the Duke of Gao Mansion finally cracked opened and a servant's head popped out, a frantic minister in the Department of Astrology not too far away in the imperial palace gravely shook his head once, the color draining from his face as he managed to pick up his dark-colored robes and head for the imperial study.

"You see, Lin Xiao," Shen Meifeng murmured quietly as a silent maidservant began to lead them through outdoor corridors weaving through the colossal home. "I told you I would bring us somewhere good. If you wait, you shall see how much better it will be for us."

"Young Miss, we won't have to chew hay anymore when we are hungry!" Lin Xiao hissed in excitement, clutching Shen Meifeng's arm securely as they descended a set of stone steps. The architecture was impeccable, the outdoor moon doors were made of fine wood and made the path far more scenic. Soon, the gate to the inner courtyard was reached, an older maidservant guarding the front evidently recognizing Lady Ning as her eyes widened.

"Young Miss!" she said with sudden excitement, the wrinkles on her face tugging into a wide smile.

"I'm not so young anymore, momo," Lady Ning said warmly. Underneath the sleeves of her robe, clenched fists were hidden. She was back, back where it all had started. The place she had considered to be paradise until she realized it was simply a cage to raise obedient beasts.

"Who's living in Wanyan Courtyard now?" she asked casually as they moved into the quiet rear court, chock full of women and children but appearing quite empty at the moment.

The friendly momo went to the other side of Lady Ning assisting her over a pale blue bridge suspended over a short pond. Koi fish swum below, unperturbed by the chilly temperatures.

"Lady Ning, please care for your step. In Wanyan Courtyard, First Young Miss lives alone," the momo said, her voice sounding timid as she tried to gauge Lady Ning's reaction.

But Lady Ning was an old veteran at concealing her feelings, maintaining her serene mask from Yonghe Temple with ease.

"That's good. It is best suited for a young woman's temperament," Lady Ning sighed, her smile pleasant like the current spring breeze.

Both the guiding maidservant and the momo could not pick up on any irritation or annoyance, peeking through their lashes to try to understand the long gone Lady Ning. Lady Ning offhandedly wondered who those maids reported to. Time in her husband's home away from the protective shelter of her powerful mother had taught her that just how many of the inconsequential figures she had ignored in her maiden home were firmly within the pockets of a hidden master within the backyard.

Disoriented by Lady Ning's lack of reaction, the momo went for another direction, an overly pleasing expression on her face. "Lady Ning, you must be excited to see Old Madam soon, surely."

"Naturally. It has been many years since I saw her last, my heart grows fond with memories," Lady Ning replied calmly. Yet the first sight of excitement, a hint of warmth in her eyes, glimmered underneath.

The sight of others in the massive mansion were rare, just like the elaborate decorations and plants. Lin Xiao, who had been mute beside Shen Meifeng, marveled as she saw a maidservant rush around in the distance, her steps uniform and head tucked down. It had been one thing to learn such from Cui Lan, but another to witness it herself.

Carving through the uncharted depths of the homes Lin Xiao had only ever seen from the outside, the powdered faces and brightly colored robes of her childhood memories became menacing. The cleanliness of the paths and walkways frightening as if one wayward step would smear dirt on the floor. The differences between the poorly constructed house of mud and straw Lin Xiao had lived in and Duke of Gao Mansion were like heaven and earth. Sweat lay slick in her palms, although they didn't slip from Shen Meifeng's arm as she felt sudden fear for herself and her benefactor.

As a common-born girl, she could immediately sense the difference of this kind of place. Even the maidservant leading them from the outer gate to Old Madam's yard, a shy-looking girl in her later teen years, was pretty enough to have been sold as a concubine for an extremely generous price in the town neighboring her home village. The unembroidered forest green skirt that every servant girl wore was cut from a long swath of what appeared to be expensive fabric in Lin Xiao's eyes. Curbing the dazzle in her eyes was an arduous task as at last they arrived at Yixin Pavilion. Lovely bushes of begonia lined the entryway, with two maids standing guard in front.

The guiding maidservant approached both, her short steps hardly making a sound. "Madam Shen is here to see Old Madam," she reported dutifully.