Ch. 33: Story

"Young Miss, would you like to hear a story?" Lin Xiao hesitantly inquired.

The evenings in the Duke of Gao Mansion were just as quiet as those on the road, but that was where the similarity ended. Besides settling in the discreet Ningwu Garden that came with an ordinary flower garden and had smaller rooms than other courtyards, the first week in Lady Ning's maiden home was uneventful only on the surface. In such a noble, distinguished household full of many wives and concubines, Shen Meifeng had carefully watched the intricate interactions within the rear yard.

"A story? Sounds interesting," Shen Meifeng replied, rinsing her mouth after finishing her dinner. All the food had been cold, having been delivered carelessly from the distant main kitchen by the same unsmiling maid who delivered all their meals. The irony however was that both Lin Xiao and Shen Meifeng were well accustomed to a rougher lifestyle. How could something so small disturb them? But it didn't mean Shen Meifeng was entirely unaware of the slight.

"It's about a scholar and a mouse," Lin Xiao giggled. "Once, there was a scholar studying far from home who carelessly clipped his fingernails and toenails by a river. A mouse crawled along and when it happened upon the clippings, it quickly ate them. Chomp, chomp!"

Both girls laughed at Lin Xiao's silly actions. "After eating, the mouse transformed into the very same scholar. Same height, same voice, everything was the same! And he was a clever mouse, one who quickly adopted the mannerisms of the scholar whose appearance he had stolen and returned to his home. He won over his entire family and married the scholar's bride. When the poor scholar passed his exams and returned home, he was called a fraud! Because he had been gone for so long, the mouse knew his own family members better than he, so the scholar couldn't even answer the questions his family asked him as well as the clever mouse did. He was chased out by his own mother with a broom."

"Hmmmm," Shen Meifeng lightly mused, her eyes sparkling in the weak candlelight. "How does this story end?"

"The scholar was advised by a wise, old man to bring a cat to his home. Upon returning, the cat recognized the mouse, for no matter its appearance, a mouse is a mouse. When the cat attacked it, it transformed back to its original appearance and ran away!"

"What did you learn from the story, Young Miss?" Lin Xiao's eyes were wide and eager for praise.

"The mouse should've killed the cat first?" Shen Meifeng answered in what Lin Xiao perceived to be a naive manner.

"No, Young Miss," Lin Xiao scolded playfully. "Be careful where you leave your personal effects, lest they are used against you."

"Oh," Shen Meifeng replied dumbly, her cute appearance making Lin Xiao wish to squeeze her cheeks. "But if the scholar were foolish enough to get tricked by a mouse, then the problem was not in leaving his clippings outside, but being a fool."

"No, no Young Miss. People can do terrible things with things from your body. They can curse you or do witchcraft." Lin Xiao's rural roots shined through as she narrated to Shen Meifeng the dangers of witchcraft with great seriousness.

Lin Xiao leaned in conspiratorially. "I've even heard that such dirty things happen often in big households. I don't know if we'll be lucky enough to see it while we are here."

"You feel it too?" Shen Meifeng murmured in agreement. "This place is not at all peaceful, much like Yonghe Temple."

Lin Xiao nodded vigorously, following Shen Meifeng into the small bedroom adjacent to where she had just eaten. There was a modest vanity table and the color of the bed covers were tired and out of season, faults that no one save for Lady Ning and Cui Lan had noticed when they would visit for a few minutes every afternoon. Since it was currently the evening, the small number of maids Shen Meifeng had been assigned had all left their post for the night save for one or two, hidden away and watching just like hungry mice. Shen Meifeng did not care.

"How do you think Mother likes this place?" Whether in person or alone, Shen Meifeng still addressed Lady Ning by the novel name, enjoying the way the moniker slipped over her tongue.

"Who's your mother? Clearly, you were born in the wilderness, clawing your way out of the mountain like a ghost," System snidely inserted. It was promptly ignored, pouting away in the corner as Shen Meifeng and Lin Xiao carried on speaking.

"Lady Ning seems to like being home very much! She goes every day to spend time with Old Madam, but still comes by to visit you for a bit. It seems she will remain true to her promise," Lin Xiao answered optimistically.

It was difficult for Lin Xiao not to be happy. As Shen Meifeng's personal maid, she would receive a stipend of 5 taels a month, she ate 3 meals a day along with tea, did light work, and the fabric of her uniform did not irritate or scratch her skin. For a poor commoner such as herself, it was all a luxury she could only dream of.

"Is that what you saw?" Shen Meifeng inquired in a bemused manner.

"What is it, Young Miss? What do you see?" Lin Xiao's exuberance faded at Shen Meifeng's cryptic answer, although her hands never slowed in combing Shen Meifeng's hair.

"Me? I see a mother who hates her daughter." In the bronze, poorly illuminated mirror, Shen Meifeng met Lin Xiao's eyes with an unreadable grin. Her words punched at Lin Xiao's chest, striking wounds from the girl's past that still hadn't fully healed.

Lin Xiao's methodically brushing paused for a heartbeat. Then two.

"Why do you say that? From the maids' gossip, I've heard that when Lady Ning hadn't left the boudoir, she was Old Madam's little padded jacket. She was very beloved and given the best of everything." Lin Xiao desperately asked, a rawness in her voice that hadn't been there before.

"I don't know," Shen Meifeng shrugged casually. "But from what I understand, Old Madam is someone who calculates deeply. With the way she is acting, I'd wager a guess that somehow the Shen family's persecution and exile involves her."

"What?! Young Miss, don't speak so loudly. Cui Lan told me that in the backyard, private words can become public if one isn't careful." Lin Xiao was startled by Shen Meifeng's outrageous guess before rushing to cover Shen Meifeng's mouth. She had been born humbly, but even she knew that what her benefactor had just uttered could get her in huge trouble.

"How would you feel if your past actions came to confront you? If every day and night, you are reminded about the terrible thing you did? Any normal person would wish to get such an eyesore out of their sight." In Lin Xiao's mind, she saw the little things she had always missed about her own hateful mother.

She could now recall her mother's snide glance when she had asked for a little more food. How her mother was always quick to shift the blame for her theft on herself alone, even though she had only started stealing at her mother's cleverly worded suggestions that they were running low on certain goods.

"You're right," she muttered, flabbergasted. "My mother did rush to get me out of the house when she could stand me no longer."

"En," Shen Meifeng hummed in agreement. "So now the question is, what will Old Madam do to get rid of us, her biggest eyesore, and preserve her reputation without courting Lady Ning's hatred?"

Shen Meifeng had gone to bed after she said that, leaving Lin Xiao to tussle with the question on her own. However, Lin Xiao's rough life experience had made her slightly wiser to human hearts. Sometime during the long night when she guarded outside of Shen Meifeng's room, Lin Xiao gasped out loud and startled the other maid on duty.

Old Madam's wish could be easily fulfilled if she targeted the weaker of the mother-daughter duo, Shen Meifeng.

Lin Xiao was somber as if someone had died when she dressed Shen Meifeng the following morning.

"What is it?" Shen Meifeng asked. Lin Xiao's anxious words spilled out in a hurry.

"Young Miss, I understand what you said last night. Don't you mean that Old Madam will harm you in order to get both you and Lady Ning to leave? Are you not afraid? Although the First Madam controls the household affairs, I can tell Old Madam is a stubborn old rider who hasn't completely let go of the reigns. Also, it was her who directly sent to you the maids in your yard! We... We should tell Lady Ning immediately!" Lin Xiao cautioned.

"No."

"But-" Lin Xiao stammered.

"Lin Xiao, do you trust me?" Shen Meifeng had asked Lin Xiao that question before. And every time, Shen Meifeng had never failed her goals.

In the past few days, Lin Xiao had seen more luxury than she had ever seen in her life. Wood polished until it glistened. Colorful bead curtains. Expensive and vividly colored fabrics, embroidered with intricate patterns. There were ceramic plates and cups as opposed to crudely cut wood utensils that could leave splinters in one's lips. Bright jade bracelets were casually given away as meeting gifts to Shen Meifeng. It was all dazzling. But now, She was realizing that under that glamour, was an abyss waiting to swallow the unsuspecting. And it terrified her to bits.

"I-I do." Shen Meifeng grinned at Lin Xiao's fear and trust, carrying a buoyant expression as she made the arduous walk to First Madam's courtyard, her nominal aunt who was the most honorable woman in the entire rear court.

There was a quiet within the sprawling mansion that could feel ominous to some, and peaceful for others like Shen Meifeng who enjoyed the hidden chaos. The pathway had long been swept clean by servants, preserving the impressive dignity of the Duke of Gao Mansion. It had been but a few hours since dawn, the dew still clinging to the hibiscus outside of Huiyun Courtyard as Shen Meifeng finally arrived.

"Greetings Maternal Aunt," Shen Meifeng said respectfully as she stepped into the reception hall. She was instantly buffeted by the toasty smell of incense as a large, enamel burner in the center burped out plumes of white smoke.

Quickly going through greetings for everyone in the room, Shen Meifeng settled down in a seat beside the sickly 6th Young Miss, Ning Caiyue. If Shen Meifeng had a heart, she would pity the girl sitting beside her, who was clearly born from the First Madam but nearly as unfavored as the other shu children. Just from sitting nearby, the faint scent of medicine blended in with incense.

Near the front, Ning Cailing clutched her mother's arm like a beloved junior as they spoke about their own matters and left the rest of the room in an awkward state. But rather than pity, Shen Meifeng was instead curious about the sickly girl, as there wasn't an ounce of longing or sadness in Ning Caiyue's eyes when she looked at the touching scene between mother and daughter.

When Ning Caiyue turned around and saw Shen Meifeng's bright eyes staring intensely at her, she startled a little in her seat before righting herself. She was a girl who'd just turned 14 and raised somewhat carelessly in the deep boudoir, but the glint in her eye as she immediately fell back into her image of a delicate, sickly beauty only made Shen Meifeng smile brighter.

"Younger Cousin," Shen Meifeng greeted Ning Caiyue, having properly established herself as a girl around 14 years old. Whether in actuality Shen Meifeng was older than all the unmarried girls in the household or younger, she still didn't know nor care.

"Older Cousin, how are you adjusting to our manor? Is your courtyard comfortable? Are your maids obedient?" Ning Caiyue asked with fake concern. Her words, however, cleverly did many things at once, on one hand reminding Shen Meifeng that she would never be one of the members of the elite family, and on the other making her feel like a peasant who had difficulty adjusting to a noble lifestyle.

Indeed Shen Meifeng's curiosity was well-placed in the otherwise innocuous girl. For System suddenly gasped and said the first useful bit of information she had heard from it in months.

"Master! This girl is not Ning Caiyue, but a traveler wearing her skin!"