[JXSY] Chapter 4: Jiaoyuan

March 10, 2021AwkwarDerp

The 5th Lady, 11th Lady and Wu Xiao followed each other out the door. 

Everyone stood at the door, the mood had become relaxed, their faces showing quite a bit of gentleness.

Wu Xiao immediately smiled and said to the two sisters, “I will find our house servants to bring the measurements of the embroidered screen over. However, how will I find you two ladies later?”

To make an embroidered screen, the first thing is to determine the appearance and dimensions of it. After that, the 5th Lady would write the characters to fit the dimensions of the embroidered screen. The 11th Lady would use the front on the embroidered screen, choose the type of thread, and after that, finally start sewing according to the direction of the fabric, warp and weft of the 5th Lady’s character, 

Therefore, this is Wu Xiao and the 5th Lady’s responsibility. 

Naturally, it was not convenient for the 11th Lady to get involved.

She looked at the 5th Lady with a smile.

The 5th Lady also knew that she had promised Luo Madame that she would be able to finish it in two days. If two days later, there was nothing to be given to the 11th Lady and the embroidering process could not start, all the responsibility would be hers.

At this moment, it was not the time to be polite.

“If little sister does not mind, please sit with me!” She smiled, looked at the 11th Lady, “My place is close to Mother’s. It’s more convenient because then later, Nanny Wu can quickly go back and report to mother.” 

The 5th Lady lived at Jiaoyuan to the west of the main house and it takes less than a cup of tea to get there.

*[cup of tea = an expression of time you will see quite often, indicating it will be 10-15 minutes, TN]

“It is still Sister who is considerate.” The 11th Lady smiled as she said, “Then, I apologize first for intruding!”

“We’re sisters, don’t be so polite, it makes us feel distant.” The 5th Lady smiled, “Everyday you’re inside your room doing embroidering. Other than going over to Mother, you don’t go anywhere. I would love to have you come and bother me everyday.”

The 11th Lady listened and laughed: “Then, I won’t be polite!”

Wu Xiao completely agreed with the 5th Lady’s decision: “In that case, I will come to Jiaoyuan to find you two.”

The 5th and 11th Lady nodded: “It’s so cold. We’ve troubled you.”

“My ladies, what are you saying? This is my duty!” Wu Xiao said politely and then turned to look for her servant. 

The 11th Lady immediately distributed tasks to Binju standing on the side, “Let Dongqing know that Amber, Mother’s servant, will be in charge of our household duties from now on. Tell her to assign a place for Amber to rest and see if she needs anything else. I have to wait here with 5th Sister and wait for Nanny Wu to come back and take a look at the embroidered screen. After finishing everything, you can come here to find me!”

Since the news of Luo Madame letting Amber come and serve the 11th Lady, Binju’s guts was on fire. She just wants to quickly go back and tell Dongqing everything. Right now, the 11th Lady told her to deliver a message to Dongqing, fulfilling her desire. She respectfully responded with a ‘Yes’ and immediately left.

The 5th Lady observed Binju’s flashing gaze, she laughingly said, “Little sister is truly polite to everyone!”

“After all, she is still a servant that has served Mother.” The 11th Lady smiled quietly and continued, “Not sure if Amber would feel at loss for coming to my place, hopefully I’m not wasting Luo Madame’s goodwill.”

The 5th Lady stared deeply at her, smiled and took her to Jiaoyuan.

Jiaoyuan (娇园) is on the west of Zhiyun Main Hall, there are three rooms and two entrances. There are several banana trees that are higher than the building, that’s why it was originally called Jiaoyuan (蕉园). At first, this place was lived by Luo Yuanniang but Luo Madame was not too fond of the word ‘Jiao’ (蕉), therefore it was changed to Jiaoyuan (娇园). After Yuanniang married, Luo Madame placed the 5th Lady in this building. In respect of Yuanniang, the 5th Lady left the name as it is and lived in the second building but day and night, she still let people come clean the place as usual, as if Yuanniang was home. The 5th Lady uses the lower floor in the middle of the building for resting and studying, the West of the place is used for the side maids. Zi Yuan and Zi Wei, the main maids are on the second floor. 

*[This building was originally called, 蕉园 [Jiaoyuan], but Luo Madame doesn’t like the character ‘蕉’ (Jiao) meaning burnt, anxiousness, so she changed to ‘娇’ (Jiao), which mean pamper, delicate, lovely, TN]

When they entered the building, Zi Wei greeted them, along with two other maids. 

After greeting each other, the 5th Lady sat down first, then it was the 11th Lady. The maids started serving tea and Zi Wei filled the clear crystal plate with oranges: “These were given by Luo Madame, 11th Miss, please give it a try.” 

“Silly girl,” The 5th Lady glanced at the 11th Lady, “Mother gave them to me, so naturally she would’ve given them to 11th Sister too, no need for your courtesy.” 

Zi Wei closed her mouth and smiled: “I know she has it too but this is the polite gesture.” 

The 11th Lady let out a big smile, she took one orange and started to peel them: “At my place, there are a lot of people. In a blink of an eye, these fruits would be gone. I’ve been craving for it, Zi Wei, please bring out more. It’s like ‘a hungry person meets a vendor’, this kindness is well offered!”

Her fingers were long and slender. The orange peel moved between her fingers, there was a radiant of beauty. 

The 5th Lady’s eyes couldn’t help but fall on the 11th Lady’s face. 

Her hair was silk smooth, skin was white as snow, eyes were brown as the colour of fall, lips were crimson red… When did 11th Sister grow up to be so beautiful! 

She was in a trance. 

The 11th Lady’s gentle and soothing voice rose next to her ears: “One hundred ‘Longevity’ words, Sister, are you able to write them? Do you want to write a big ‘Longevity’ in the middle and write ninety-nine small ones? Or are you planning to line them up, vertically or horizontally? I have thought about it, I think both patterns are good. Which one do you think is better? Do you have any other good ideas?”

The 5th Lady finally regained her senses. 

So what if you are beautiful? If you can’t marry a good family, time will change you. It’s shocking just thinking about it. If you want to marry well, you will have to get Luo Madame to agree…

She smiled and got up, “Sister, come with me.”

The 5th Lady’s study room is very spacious but there are only two pieces of furniture in this big room, one being the large black painting near the window. On the table was a pile of stacked rolls of paper, there were about four or five inkstones and various brushes. The second painting was placed next to the chair, against the wall, it was filled with autumn-colours and cloud patterns. This place seems very deserted and cold. 

The 11th Lady rubbed her hands and said: “Sister, is there no fireplace here? What do you do when you’re practicing calligraphy here? I can’t do it without it, whenever I embroider, there will be a fireplace next to me.” After finished speaking, she let out a loud laugh, “My room is almost as big as Sister’s room, often I let the maids and servants help me with the embroidery, so then we won’t need a fireplace but still feel warm when working.”

The 5th Lady knows that the 11th Lady is very good at embroidering and all the maids at home likes to learn after her or find something to help her so then she would guide them to learn her skill. Upon hearing her words, she teased, “My place is no match for your place!”

The 11th Lady smiled with embarrassment. She pointed at the thick brush, “Since when did you start learning to write big letters? I remember you like to write small and lower-case letters the most.”

The 5th Lady smiled and said: “Sister and I were thinking the same thing – I want to write a big and cursive ‘Longevity’ and rest as small letters….”

The 11th Lady couldn’t help but be surprised. 

What the 5th Lady said is equivalent to suggesting that she already knew about Luo Madame’s idea, wanting to make an embroidery screen as a gift for The Great Madame of Marquis Yongping….How did she find out? Maybe Luo Madame said it before or someone beside Luo Madame tipped her off. If it’s the first scenario, then that proves that the 5th Lady is more favoured than the 11th Lady, letting her prepare in advance so she wouldn’t be embarrassed by others. If it is the second scenario, then it means that the 5th Lady has close connections with other maids or a nanny with power. The 11th Lady definitely couldn’t do the same!

It doesn’t matter which scenarios, this is a clear set up!

As the 5th Lady finished speaking, she realized something and put on a regretful expression, as if she just realized what she just said: “You know me, I really like calligraphy and I like to ponder on different ideas… When I have nothing to do.”

It’s a little like ‘hiding the head but forgot the tail’. 

*[Indicating that the more you try to hide/lies, you will mostly like mess up and slip out something, TN]

Upon hearing her explanation, the 11th Lady smiled, “Sister has always been smart, I can’t catch up.”

There was no bitterness or sadness in her reply. 

It seems that there is no doubt about the fact that the 5th Lady ‘likes to ponder on different ideas when she has nothing to do.”

The 5th Lady couldn’t help but feel angry. 

It’s always like this whenever she talks to the 11th Lady, as if it’s a slap on her face, no sense of achievement. Unlike the 11th Lady, full of anger but will never flare up….

She decided to ignore everything, took out a few of the drafts she had previously written and showed it to the 11th Lady, “This one is what we’ve mentioned, a big word of ‘longevity’ and ninety-nine small words. This one is written in the shape of a diamond, this place is for the small letters and the main part will be on this side of the diamond. This one is written in a circle shape, all in small letters….”

As the two of them were talking, Zi Yuan brought in a stool for the 11th Lady. 

The 11th Lady just sat down and Wu Xiao entered. 

Zi Wei and Zi Yuan are busy preparing snacks and drinks, bringing them out one by one, along with another stool. It took a while for the three of them to finally sit down and talk. 

“This was drawn earlier according to Luo Madame’s request.” Wu Xiao took out the paper and showed it to the 5th Lady, “The base is made of boxwood, which is eight hundred years old and the frame is made of wenge….”

“Why don’t we use yellow pear wood?” The 5th Lady interrupted Wu Xiao, “Since the base is made of boxwood but the frame is made of wenge wood… I’m afraid it’s not good to use wenge wood for the frame.”

Boxwood has a yellowish colour, whereas the wenge wood displayed a dark red colour. 

“How can that be?” Wu Xiao originally served by Luo Madame’s side, she has very basic knowledge in writing and reading, “I have tried other ideas. One is to change the base colour to be the same as the wenge wood or sandalwood but yellow pear wood is very difficult to find, let alone wanting to use sandalwood, therefore, this method is not possible. The second choice was to replace the base with wenge wood, so that the frame and the base are of the same material; which is the best idea so far, best to use what we already have. When I went to collect the materials, I learned that last time, when celebrating the birthday of Lord Huang’s mother, they already carved a statue to use as a birthday gift, because of its urgency, there is no marketplace that could provide us more materials than what we have.”

The 5th Lady couldn’t help but frowned upon these decisions: “If we do this, it would be impolite. Does Mother know about this?”