Love Like the Galaxy

Chapter Eighteen:
The Writing Desk Disturbance (Part 1)

On the day after New Year’s, everything was suitable, including arguments.

During the time of the incident, Cheng Shaoshang was writing. She glanced at her copybook, wrote down the character, then looked at it again, her tired forehead sweating faintly. She noticed the characters were closer to hieroglyphs, each character like a stick figure. ‘Water’ was a few curved lines, like water flowing, ‘river’ looked like there were houses and mountains next to the water, and ‘eat’ looked like there was a small bowl in front of the line in the shape of the lip and throat.

She put down her pen and flipped through the wooden slips next to the desk. It was an interesting folk story that Cheng Song had brought to her a few days ago. Each piece was about three inches wide and four or five inches long, with uneven surfaces and small burrs on the edges. The bamboo slips used by ordinary people in the market were not as smooth as the bamboo slips used in the house. Cheng Shaoshang liked it the more she looked at it, since she was able to read about 95% of the words written down.

She felt a little numb.

Copybooks, classics, genealogies, and even among scholars, doctors, and Confucians, most of them still used the former picture-like text; but in the folk circulation, and even when small officials took things down, was something she was able to read. This kind of font, even if it was separated by time and space, was something that people around the whole country could automatically convert without much hassle. She still had to study the former text carefully. After all, she needed to be able to read the relevant materials and literature.

Cheng Shaoshang sighed, raised her pen, and continued to draw on the bamboo slips. A’Zhu looked at her lovingly while at the same time was roasting the bamboo slips one by one on the stove. The common writing carriers of this era included cloth, silk, brocade, and even bronzeware, but the most common ones were wood and bamboo. Madam Xiao ran the family thriftily, and forbade her children to be extravagant and wasteful. Therefore, the wooden and bamboo slips used by Cheng Shaoshang to practice calligraphy were all written and washed, then dried and baked, then worn with hemp rope for continued use. For the convenience of cleaning, the ink used for calligraphy practice was made of soot resin mixed with bran pulp, which was naturally bright and fragrant. Cheng Shaoshang cherished the ink that Cheng Yong gave her even more after discovering this.

Madam Xiao was the type of boss who only asked about performance and not ask about the number of working hours put in, so the defense of “Do you know how hard she works” was purely a joke.

The day began early. After swinging his sword one hundred times in Madam Xiao’s newly arranged front courtyard, Cheng Shi dragged his two younger brothers who were still sleeping soundly out of their warm beds, and said they would go together to find Madam Sang’s older brother, Sang Yu, to catch up. Cheng Cheng decided to go along with it, but Cheng Zhi was unhappy. He often saw his brother-in-law over the years and there was nothing old to tell. Not to mention, he wanted to paint his wife the most popular eyebrows in the capital today. Only after being stared at by Cheng Shi did he react, and he had to accompany him when he saw how excited his Second Brother was in front of him.

Old Madam Cheng had a hangover and didn’t wake up. Even if she did wake up, she probably would have been in a daze for the whole day. Madam Xiao led Cheng Yang to arrange the day’s affairs for her servants. Being a housewife didn’t usually require personal attention but she did it specifically to teach Cheng Yang.

Madam Sang personally made a few snacks, gathered her three young children, along with Cheng Zhu and Cheng Ou, and leisurely told them short stories, and led them to play games and recite nursery rhymes together.

Cheng Yong wanted to visit his master’s classmates, but Cheng Song said that the Confucian students wouldn’t have been released by the emperor yet. It was better to go to Uncle Wan to ask for some wine. The two brothers couldn’t decide what to do, so they went to their Third Younger Brother to divine. As soon as Cheng Shaogong took out the turtle shell’s divination money, before he could calculate the position with his fingers, a maid came to report that they were to go to Madam Xiao’s main hall. The three brothers felt foolish.

“What did you two do wrong again?” Cheng Yong sighed.

“I knew that no matter where I go today it would be better than staying home!” Cheng Song was furious. “I don’t need divination to tell me that!”

“Go and ask Third Aunt to come over as well,” Cheng Shaogong said to the maid. The holiday was over and Madam Xiao just had to begin lecturing again. Obviously, this was not a small matter. It was safer to find and bring Third Aunt.

The three brothers lived the farthest away from Madam Xiao’s Nine Zhui Hall, and arrived last. As they approached from a distance, through the spacious porch, they saw their mother standing high in the center of the upper hall. Beside them, sitting on the left and right, was their Third Aunt, who had arrived early, and the worried Qing Cong. Cheng Yang had her head lowered and she knelt down to the side with Nanny Fu. What even more surprising was that Cheng Shaoshang was kneeling alone on the middle of the floor. Wasn’t today’s protagonist their little brother?

Madam Xiao’s voice carried outside, and she was angrily questioning Cheng Shaoshang. “…what a good deed you have done! I thought you were just ignorant, but I didn’t expect you to be narrow-minded and greedy for others’ things!”

Cheng Shaoshang was really confused. “Mother, why don’t you make it clear? I have been studying calligraphy since this morning and I haven’t even taken a step out the door. What did I do?”

Madam Sang smiled. “Yes, I don’t know what is going on. I wanted to ask you to taste the candy I made, but I didn’t want to…” She cursed Cheng Shaogong in her belly, why didn’t he make it clear what was going on when the message was passed to her?

“How can you steal your cousin’s things?” Madam Xiao asked Cheng Shaoshang. She then turned to Madam Sang. “You don’t know, but today I finished talking to Yang Yang about general affairs and she asked me to go to her residence to rest. Who knew that I would see this evil servant fighting and hurting the people in Yang Yang’s place, and wanted to snatch a red sandalwood desk!”

Both Cheng Yong outside, and Cheng Shaoshang inside were both surprised – the desk?!

As she spoke, Qing Cong brought back five or six servants with swollen noses and faces from the back hall to them. The frontmost was Lian Fang; her makeup smeared, hair messy, and a piece of her dress was torn. Her face was filled with tears and snot.

“I just asked you to bring the writing desk Eldest Brother gave me this morning,” Cheng Shaoshang said. “And I sent people with you. How did this happen? Did you go out to rob a money shop?”

Madam Sang looked at her with great interest. Few people could handle Madam Xiao when she was this angry, but the little girl was calm.

Madam Xiao was surprised when she heard this. “Eldest Son gave it to you?”

Without waiting for Cheng Shaoshang to open her mouth, Nanny Fu beside Cheng Yang was already speaking. “Maybe the Eldest Son gave the Fourth Young Lady a writing desk, but that red sandalwood desk is not necessarily it.”

“But it is!” Lian Fang cried. “That’s the desk!”

“Since Eldest Young Master gave it to Fourth Young Lady, how did it end up at my Mistress’s place?” Nanny Fu asked with a smile. This was not going to end well.

Cheng Yang flushed anxiously. “Nanny Fu,” she whispered, “stop talking, stop talking.”

“It was Chang Pu who asked me to bring it!” Lian Fang said quickly.

“Nonsense!” Nanny Fu glared. “Chang Pu was beaten and fainted and has not yet woken up. You’re blaming her for this!”

Cheng Shaoshang saw that Lian Fang had also been beaten severely. Her left eye was red and swollen, her cheeks high and swollen, and her speech was slurred. “This is easy to fix,” Cheng Shaoshang said. “Let Cousin see if the writing desk belongs to her, and everything will be clear.”

“Fourth Young Lady doesn’t know,” Nanny Fu said with a smile, “but when we moved from the Ge house, we brought a lot of things with us, many of which were not even recognized by our Young Mistress.”

Cheng Yong, who was outside the door, couldn’t bear it anymore and exclaimed, “Then move over and let me see if it’s my desk!” He strode into the hall. “I will know if it is mine or not!”

Nanny Fu was surprised. She didn’t expect that Madam Xiao would call her three sons to join in the dispute between the two cousins. She wasn’t aware that Madam Xiao had been used to reprimanding one child and having the others there to listen. One person made a mistake and the others were not allowed to make it again without good reason. Madam Xiao had already put away her anger at this time, and waved her hands to tell her sons to sit down in order to her right.

As soon as Cheng Yong sat down, he cupped his hands and said, “Mother, I did give Sister a writing desk as a gift. It’s the red sandalwood one with the carving of a Qilin that Master Shangguan gave to his son. You’ve seen it before. Why don’t you bring it here? Just look at it and you will know right from wrong.”

Madam Xiao’s expression was somewhat hesitant, while Qing Cong paused for a moment before getting up and quietly leaving.

Seeing that the situation was not right, Nanny Fu quickly smiled and said, “It has a Qilin head? Aiyo, I deserve to be punished. I was flustered and didn’t look carefully. If a Qilin is carved on it, it’s undoubtedly the Eldest Young Master’s. But why did it come to our residence? Isn’t it…?” She glanced at Lian Fang. “Could it be this lowly maid intentionally carried a writing desk to show off to my Young Mistress?”

Cheng Yong thought to himself that this Nanny Fu was really cunning.

“No! I was told by Chang Pu to bring it there!” Lian Fang cried. “It’s not my fault! I have a flaunting heart, but I was deceived!”

“Is it showing off or deceiving?” Cheng Yong asked coldly. “Just ask that servant Chang Pu and you’ll know.”

“Young Master,” Nanny Fu apologized, “Chang Pu has fainted and hasn’t woken up yet.”

“I can’t touch a lowly maid?” Cheng Song was furious and began to shout. “Splash her with water, burn with fire, chop two of her fingers and see if she’s still dizzy!”

“What are you yelling for?” Madam Xiao scolded, slapping the table. “Are you telling me what to do?” Although she scolded fiercely, she already knew that there was something else going on here. She glanced at Cheng Yang, who was kneeling on the lower left and feeling uneasy. She felt sorry for her and thought that she couldn’t let this honest child suffer.

Qing Cong returned, carrying behind her a maid with a wet skirt. This was Chang Pu.

She had a dignified appearance, with a kind and bewildered expression. Lian Fang was born with a delicate and intelligent face, but was disguised as a pig and ate a tiger. Chang Pu knelt down with a plop and quickly confessed – with interjections from Lian Fang – and everyone finally comprehended what happened.

Early that morning, Lian Fang commanded four or five maidservants to go to the Cheng Yong’s front yard to carry the writing desk. On the way back, she met Chang Pu. With a flattering face, she said, “My Young Mistress also wants a new writing desk. I wonder if I can ask you to show her the style.”

When they arrived at Cheng Yang’s residence, they didn’t see the owner. Lian Fang wanted to go back but Chang Pu called a dozen maidservants to surround them. “It’s better to leave the table first,” she said with a smile. “We’ll wait for Young Mistress to come look at it and then send it back to you.” How could Lian Fang agree to that? So, the two sides began to fight when there was a disagreement.

“So, it’s not that Niao Niao wants to grab Yang Yang’s things, but Yang Yang wants to grab Niao Niao’s things?” Cheng Shaogong said coldly.

“What are you talking about?” Madam Xiao immediately asked.

Cheng Yang burst into tears. “It’s all my fault. I really don’t know why this happened. I apologize to my brothers and to Shaoshang.” As she spoke, she repeatedly bowed her head to them.

“You have been with me since this morning,” Madam Xiao said. “What do you have to do with this?”

This made Cheng Song angry. “Niao Niao has been practicing calligraphy since this morning, why is Mother –” Cheng Yong pushed his head down before he could say anything else, signaling with his eyes to shut up.

Madam Xiao froze for a moment and then exhaled. “The maidservants from both residences have made mistakes, they both made their own decisions!” she said. “Chang Pu, Yang Yang can decide if she wants this writing desk on her own, you want to make the call for her?! Lian Fang, move the desk where you are told to move it, what are you doing running around with it? You are the cause of all this trouble now, and you should be punished!”

Nanny Fu was very alert, and quickly came out of her kowtow. “What Madam said is that we are not strict in discipline. We will teach her when we go back.”

She glanced at Cheng Yang, who hurriedly said, “Aunt, forgive me. I didn’t properly manage them.”

Madam Xiao comforted her with a few words of warmth. Cheng Yang cried and apologized, and as the tense atmosphere gradually became harmonious, she looked over at her daughter. Cheng Shaoshang bowed her head and still knelt in the center of the room, without saying a word. She couldn’t tell what her daughter was thinking.

Madam Xiao was displeased and snorted coldly. The three Cheng brothers hurriedly motioned to their sister, trying to get her to cry and say something about the situation. Unfortunately, people who bow their heads couldn’t see. Cheng Shaogong was in a hurry and hissed in a low voice, “Shaoshang!”

Cheng Shaoshang snapped out of her stupor and looked up at everyone in a daze. They didn’t know that she wasn’t really in a daze, but was considering a serious problem…

Should she silently endure the poisonous arrows of fate’s tyranny, or stand up against the endless suffering of the world? Should she cry and beg for mercy, report her mistakes like Cheng Yang, and erase everything just to satisfy Madam Xiao? Or, should she never bow her head and seek justice for herself?

She chose the third option.

…

Y’all okay?

On jjwxc, the author had this to say about Madam Xiao: she is the type of person who is just and steady in her beliefs. She focusses not on blood, but upbringing. Because Shaoshang was raised by Madam Ge (who in her eyes was despicable) and Cheng Yang was raised by Aunt Ge (who was noble), she naturally believed that there was a problem with the character of her daughter and needed to be corrected while Cheng Yang was credible and amiable.

Next Chapter: The Writing Desk Disturbance (Part 2)