Chapter 31: Hide and Seek

Ran Yan had kept silent[1], but once she spoke, she drove Qi Yuxiu to a dead end, those words of hers, it would be wrong to retort, but it would also be wrong not to retort.

Qi Yuxiu’s charming face was completely red from holding in her anger, glared unwaveringly at Ran Yan, if a person gaze could turn into actual substance, Ran Yan would probably become a sieve[2].

The atmosphere in the cool air pavilion was a little awkward, Yan Fangfei and Yin Miao-miao both smiled and drew the conversation topic away, and talked about some interesting issues in the city, as they talked, for some reason they mentioned Han Shan, after that they could not take back their words, thus talked about the murder case in the city.

“Yang Pansi also passed away yesterday.” A girl wearing a pink half-sleeved ruqun sighed, her warm voice had a sort of helpless sadness.

This girl was delicate, her body thin and tall, especially her neck and collarbone, was graceful and quietly beautiful like a crane, her skin on her face was fair and exquisite, slightly wan looking, her dark eyebrows dropped down at the ends, complemented with a pair of large, round eyes, making her look innocent and frail, eliciting tender affection from others.

Just now Yin Miao-miao introduced her before, she was called Du Xiaoqiao, she was Suzhou’s former provincial governor Du Yanheng’s legitimate daughter, Du Yanheng had been transferred to the capital as an official, but because Du Xiaoqiao’s body was unwell, she was temporarily left behind in Suzhou to recover.

Du Yanheng was a direct descendent from the capital city’s Du clan, Du Xiaoqiao naturally was a daughter from the direct line of descent as well, in the clan she was the twenty-first in line, and was of noble birth, unfortunately her body was extremely delicate, all year round she was plagued with sickness, in private there were many rumours that said that the imperial physician from the capital asserted that she would not live past twenty-five years.

“Yang Pansi passed away? He was only thirty this year, he was in the prime of life, how could he have passed away?” Yin Miao-miao exclaimed in shock.

Pansi and Shangzuo (Qin Musheng’s father) were both officials under the provincial governor, he was in charge of work concerning the province’s exams, etiquette, taxations, storehouses, prison sentences etc, a counterpart to Shangzuo’s duties, it can be said that in the province he held true authority. At thirty years old, he was able take up this official position, he should have been young and promising, with an unlimited future before him.

Du Xiaoqiao slightly knitted her brows, softly said, “The coroner could not investigate the cause of death, he said it was a sudden onset of an unmentionable illness[3], but I am close to the eldest Miss of the Yang family, and have met Yang Pansi a few times, he seemed well, I have not heard anything about an unmentionable illness. Ai, this is life…”

The atmosphere was little heavy, Yan Fangfei quickly spoke out to comfort Du Xiaoqiao, the others also chimed in simultaneously along with her.

Something vaguely surfaced in Ran Yan’s sea of consciousness, but for the moment she could not recall it.

At this moment, a servant outside the door said, “Ladies, the tea party has started, the madam has instructed me to lead you to the garden.”

“Alright.” Yin Miao-miao replied, and turned to invite the others to depart together.

As the tea party was held in two batches, the madams and the noble ladies were at the back garden, the men were gathered at the front hall, each group not in contact with one another. Thus no one was wearing a veil, Ran Yan also left her veil in the cool air pavilion.

The Yin residence was large and quiet, it seemed filled with walkways, meandering through the flowerbeds and rocks, even though it was clearly a distance of a hundred steps, but they had to walk in a large circle, fortunately the journey was filled unceasingly with beautiful scenery, so the journey did not feel dry and dull.

Turning around a protective screen of rocks, going through flowers and willow trees, the road went past a lush garden of Chinese peonies, going in between tall frames for Banks’ roses[4], the white roses were in full bloom, the whole path was filled with flowers, its sweet scent permeating everywhere, everyone’s head and clothes came into contact with it, they played around merrily with each other, the whole journey was windy and circuitous, hidden from view beyond the flowers, the sound of rushing water could suddenly be heard, as they walked forward, the sound became even clearer.

Yin Miao-miao smiled and pulled at Qi Yuxiu who was plucking flowers, laughingly said in displeased manner, “Quickly stop playing around, the madams are probably waiting impatiently!”

Past the wooden frames supporting the Banks’ roses, turning a corner, they were suddenly met with a wide clearing, in front of them was a fifty to sixty metres tall mountain wall, in between was a small waterfall, creeping figs drooped downwards, fallen petals floated on the small pond below, a large pinewood water-pavilion[5] was built on the pond, tables and seats were set up on it, a group of richly dressed noble women were talking and laughing there.

Ran Yan sighed, people in ancient times knew how to enjoy themselves more than modern day people, just this beautiful scenery that was close to nature, it was rare to see in modern times.

The noble women saw that that a group of pretty young ladies were walking towards them, one after another they turned their heads to look. In one look, many people stared in surprise, Sixth Miss Qi upheld the reputation of Suzhou’s number one beauty, and was extremely eye-catching within the crowd, but Ran Yan dressed in purple was also hard to ignore.

Their group casually selected places to sit, Ran Yan chose a place that was not close to the middle or the side.

“Mother, guess who this is?” Yin Miao-miao sat beside a madam that was wearing a blue outer garment.

Ran Yan’s memory was not too familiar with this madam, but she knew that Yin Miao-miao’s mother’s surname was Ling, thus bowed her neck in greeting, saying, “Ran clan’s Ah’Ran greets Madam Ling, hope that madam is well.”

“You’re Seventeeth Miss Ran?” Madam Ling looked Ran Yan up and down in surprise, then got up and supported herself weakly[6], she pulled at Ran Yan’s hand for her to stand up, “Quickly let Aunt[7] look at you, two years without seeing you, Seventeeth Miss actually looks so good, it really causes one to be unable to shift their gazes away.”

Madam Ling was still quite young, she was only about thirty-five, and she took care of her appearance well, her facial features were also small and delicate, within her features there hid shrewdness, and did not resemble Yin Miao-miao’s pure gentleness.

“Aunt over-praises.” Ran Yan also followed her words, and changed to calling her Aunt.

“It looks like Sixth Miss’s position as the number one beauty is not stable!” Someone said half jokingly.

Madam Ling knew that Sixth Miss Qi’s mother Madam Ping[8] all along was proud of her daughter’s looks, and was also not an easy person to get along with[9], today’s tea party was hosted by the Yin residence, so even though she really did not like Madam Ping, she still had to smooth things over, “How is it not stable? It’s merely that Seventeenth Miss looks good, Sixth Miss’s appearance has not deteriorated even a little.”

Without waiting for a reply, she immediately changed the topic, saying, “This year, there are many young talented youths that came, today we are going to clink our glasses together with them there, unmarried ladies should make use of this opportunity!”

Once Madam Ling said those words, it immediately stirred up the passions of the noble madams and ladies, which young lady did not yearn for love? Which mother-in-law did not want to pick a talented, powerful, rich and good-looking son-in-law? Thus at the moment they did not bother about discussing the issue of Ran Yan and Sixth Miss Qi’s beauty, turned around to enquire about news of talented, handsome men.

Ran Yan lacked interest, on the contrary, she was more curious about the tea set before her, in her memory the original owner of her body knew how to make tea, she was taught by Miss Xing, but Ran Yan did not know what her standard was, as she was looking at the tea set, she suddenly felt someone’s gaze on her.

Ran Yan lifted her head, and saw that opposite her was a madam wearing a dark-red outer garment, she seemed like she did not expect Ran Yan to be so alert, and was faintly startled for a little while, shortly after she indifferently turned her head away. Ran Yan did not know her, but from her estimation, this madam should be Sixth Miss Qi’s mother, Madam Ping. Because the other madams at her side had all gone to enquire about news of young men, she had felt that it was beneath her dignity. It was probably that she was maintaining that her daughter’s looks were outstanding, and could definitely find a good son-in-law.

“Madam.” A servant walked to the side of Madam Ling, softly spoke in her ear a few sentences.

Madam Ling deliberated for a little while, before raising her voice to say, “Those over there request to move from the front hall to the garden’s pavilion, it is only separated from here by a canopy of Banks’ roses, what does everyone think?”

The crowd remained silent, but it was obvious that they did not object, a few unmarried ladies were already blushing with thumping hearts.

“They can come if they want to, but we cannot agree so easily.” Qi Yuxiu smiled craftily.

The young ladies urged her, “Quickly speak, what fun idea do you have?”

Qi Yuxiu seemed to enjoy the feeling of being looked at by a crowd, but there were many noble ladies here, she also knew how to behave well, thus said, “How can I think of a fun idea on my own, why don’t everyone think about it together?”

“Exchanging poetry?” Yan Fangfeu suggested.

“Exchanging poetry is too boring, furthermore they have all intensively read poetry books, and are better than us by a hundred thousand eight thousand li[10], there is no difficulty at all.” Qi Yuxiu immediately objected.

This was true, which of those people were not filled with ink, if they did that, it would be better to just agree directly.

Exchanging poetry did not work out, then making tea, playing chess, painting, those were all also boring.

“Ah’Ran do you have any good ideas?” Yin Miao-miao asked.

Ideas? Ran Yan thought to herself, playing at dissecting a corpse? Other than that, she could not think of another idea, thus said, “I’ve lived alone for so long, how would I know about all these, Miao-miao shouldn’t make things difficult for me.”

“I thought of an interesting idea.” Yin Miao-miao said gracefully, “I will ask six servants next to me to each hid themselves, and ask them to look for them, after they have found the six people, then only can they enter the garden, how is that?”

Ran Yan glanced at Yin Miao-miao, and thought in her heart, you really cannot judge a book by its cover, a girl that appears so gentle and virtuous, actually could be so mischievous and childish.

“How is this appropriate.” Madam Ling was the first to object, glared at Yin Miao-miao, softly reproved, “Unreasonable.”

Yan Fangfei said smiling, “Don’t be angry madam, Fangfei feels that it’s not impossible, we can write out poems to give directions, and only let those unmarried gentlemen to search, this would be fun, and it won’t seem shallow.”

Once this suggestion was given, it won approval from everyone.

With these amusing antics, it actually was just guessing riddles added to hide and seek, Ran Yan also felt that it was interesting, when she was little her parents had their own careers, Ran Yan was raised by her grandparents, her grandfather was a lecturer at a medical university, at the age where others would play hide and seek, she was already practiced at dissecting frogs and little white rats.

Unfortunately, they were the party that issued the riddles, and did not need to hide, additionally they also had to toil at poetry, a person like Ran Yan who was unaccomplished at literature absolutely did not have the right to participate, fortunately the original owner of this body still had some talent, so it was not to the extent where she could not understand ancient poetry.

Yin Miao-miao gave a few instructions to the servants at her side, and the hide and seek game officially began.

After giving out the riddles, the group of madams started to discuss the gentlemen that came today.

As Ran Yan was admiring the scenery, Yan Fangfei took initiative to sit beside her and asked, “Why don’t you go over and chat?”

“I’ve not chatted with others for a long time, I don’t know what to talk about.” Ran Yan replied and smiled indifferently.

Yan Fanfei stared blankly for awhile, before turning and saying with a smile, “You appear a little cold, originally I thought that you were of the same personality that that person, now I feel that you’re a lot better to get along with.”

Yan Fangfei lifted her brows to indicate a direction, without looking Ran Yan knew that Sixth Miss Qi sat in that direction, “It seems like you don’t like her much.”

“How is it just to the extent of dislike, even looking at her once makes my whole body feel uncomfortable.” Yan Fangfei said with a huff.

Yan Fangfei gave the impression of an unmarried daughter from a noble house that was educated and well rounded, unexpectedly she was actually so forthright, hardly avoiding taboos, however did not have any ill feelings towards her.

“Just now Miao-miao said that she ordered two servants to hide in the garden, they’ve all went to sneak a peak, why don’t we go look as well?” Yan Fangfei said.

Ran Yan also felt that staying here was uninteresting, thus accepted her invitation.

Since Wan Lu entered the Yin residence, she was also like the other servants, and did not speak much, she only closely followed Ran Yan.

[1]不言则已: a part of 不言则已，言必有中 – which is kind of like ‘it never rains but it pours’ but in context of speaking (as in, a person that is normally silent, but once they speak they hit where it hurts)

[2] I’m not sure if this was clear or not, but it basically means that if a person’s gaze can turn into material substance, Yuxiu’s gaze would pierce through Ran Yan and Ran Yan would be riddled with holes like a sieve.

[3]隐疾: hidden illness, might be a euphemism for venereal disease

[4]木香: Rosa banksiae, common names Lady Banks’ rose, or just Banks’ rose (it can also refer to the root of costus plants that is used in medicine) see below for pictures

[5]水榭: see picture below

[6]虚扶: not sure if I understood this correctly. It might mean she pretended to support herself up?

[7]伯母: in Chinese culture, it’s normal to address older people as Aunt/Uncle or Grandma/grandpa (depending on age) even though they are not related to you.

[8]平氏: Ping is her maiden name

[9]也不是个好相与的: sigh I really need someone proficient in Chinese to tell me if I’m understanding these sentences correctly or not..

[10]里: ancient measure of length, approx. 500 m