Feng Xing: Chapter 103
Thank you Maria for the ko-fi!
Please check out the new novel I’m translating, Wishing You Eternal Happiness, if you haven’t already.
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Translation: marchmallow
As the saying goes, ‘turn at three, sit at six, roll at seven, and crawl at eight’. A three-month old child ought to be capable of turning over, but Jin ge’er was an anomaly. It wasn’t that he couldn’t, but it might be that he was too fat and thus rendered it toilsome. He might have succeeded two times out of ten, but the rest were struggles between almost turning over and not turning over.
Just like at present, this child was too obstinate. Even if he couldn’t turn over, he would try again, yet he was still inept. He grasped the hem of Prince Wei’s clothes with one hand and exerted all his strength, but he had been stuck there for a while. Feng Sheng couldn’t bear it and decided to support him.
Scarcely had she reached out her hand when Prince Wei threw his eyes on it, evidently signaling her to stop.
“Look how pitiful he is.”
Feng Sheng pointed at her son, whose face was flushed red through and through. Did his heart not ache as a father?
“A man who has a settled purpose will surely succeed. If he can’t persevere to accomplish such a minor thing, how will he deal with important matters in the future?”
Upon hearing this, Feng Sheng, who had just lifted the teacup for a sip, almost spat out a mouthful.
“How old is he? What important matters do you even want him to do?”
“Perseverance should be exercised from childhood,” returned Prince Wei.
“It turns out that Mother has disciplined you this way. But how come I heard Mother say that you were greedy and slept a lot when you were a child? You were also as big as Jin ge’er, sleeping for over half a day and eating until you were as fat as him.”
Upon hearing her mention how fat he was during his infancy, Prince Wei felt an inexplicable trace of chagrin. He could only feign ignorance and palter, “Jin ge’er is fat? That’s just how most infants are. He’ll look better once he grows older.”
“You see, Little Sixteen isn’t like this. Jin ge’er is so fat that the wet nurse can hardly carry him,” pursued Feng Sheng. She stretched out her hand to pinch Jin ge’er’s exposed plump butt cheek. “Look at this fat little butt. It’s so chubby and fleshy.”
An infant’s skin was delicate, especially the skin on their buttocks. Feng Sheng abandoned herself to the pleasure of pinching while still in conversation with Prince Wei. However, she soon realized that something was amiss. Unable to elicit a response from Prince Wei, she subconsciously raised her head and noticed that he was eyeing her with a faintly meaningful stare.
She scrutinized the tiny fat flesh underneath her fingers once more, reminiscent of the time she had compared Jin ge’er to Prince Wei as a baby. Could it be that Prince Wei’s little butt had been as plump and fleshy then?
Little fatty, Prince Wei!
Feng Sheng’s face exploded into crimson. She assumed a calm manner and retracted her hand, then reached out for tea to drink once more.
Prince Wei bid someone to carry Jin ge’er away, leaving only two people in the room. The implication of which was so obvious that Feng Sheng couldn’t overpass it even if she wanted to. She could only shift sideways and gingerly skulk to the side.
“What are you running away for?”
She didn’t know exactly when, but Prince Wei had actually traversed to her side. Feng Sheng racked her wits trying to decipher how and when he had sped across the kang to transport beside her.
“I’m not running away, ah,” she expelled a hollow laugh and extended her arm to thwart him. “What do you want to do? It’s not yet dark out.”
His countenance was austere and utterly tranquil. “Nothing. You seem to like pinching Jin ge’er very much.”
Feng Sheng could only keep forcing a simper, not forgetting to hide her hands behind her back. “I was just pinching a little.”
“Why do you look so diffident?”
“I’m not. Why would I be?”
He positioned her in front of him and steadied his menacing eyes on her. “You were imagining this prince as a baby while pinching Jin ge’er, weren’t you?”
“How can that be? I just wanted to know how you were as a child,” she defended, righteous and impassioned in her speech. In her head, she mused that this man was so divine to have actually unraveled her inklings.
“You dare say you didn’t? Then why are you blushing?”
“I’m blushing?” Feng Sheng patted her cheek to prove that she wasn’t. “It might be because I drank hot tea just now.”
She still chose to quibble. At any rate, Prince Wei had given up on making her confess. Abandoning leniency, he preferred to be more direct and installed her onto his lap.
Until both their breathing grew unstable, Prince Wei pressed his forehead against hers and said, “In any case, this prince believes that you weren’t thinking of anything good, so you mustn’t quibble.”
*
Ever since Jin ge’er was born, Feng Sheng always had to head home from the academy in haste, unlike before where she would tarry for a day.
While preparing to go to the academy that day, as soon as she crossed the threshold of the prince manor’s main entrance, she ran into Han Ying.
From Han Ying’s expression, she could tell that she was in a hurry, as if something had happened. After some inquiries, she learned that Xiao Yin Zi had gotten into trouble.
Although Xiao Yin Zi now studied at the academy, she had never severed her ties with the beggars she had befriended in the past, and she would always run outside to meet them every time during the break. She violated none of the academy’s rules, and she also didn’t sneak out, so it was difficult for the teachers at the women’s hall to reprimand her.
The hall was on break the day before, and Xiao Yin Zi had not returned since she had ventured outside. At first, Han Ying thought to herself that something must have happened, but she didn’t know which place to search. Who would have thought that, just as she was mulling over it, a young beggar would hasten to the academy to request for help? He revealed that Xiao Yin Zi was apprehended because she had provoked someone no one dared to offend.
The little beggar was young and was incoherent in his diction. A while after asking, Han Ying gleaned that the girl was arrested by a person from the Warden’s Office of the Five Wards. It seemed that Xiao Yin Zi had stolen someone’s jade pendant.
Han Ying was merely someone of the weaker sex, so she was also powerless against such things. She went to look for the deputy headmaster, but she then feared that Guan Qian would end up abhorring Xiao Yin Zi. Such a thing wouldn’t be beneficial for the child’s future stay in the academy, so she sought Feng Sheng.
“So, did they steal others’ things?”
“Princess Consort, I know Xiao Yin Zi. That child isn’t one to steal,” Han Ying explained. She beckoned to the side, and a little beggar came dashing from far away.
His entire body was completely sullied, his besmirched face resembling a small kitten. He was young, similar in stature as Xiao Yin Zi. Feng Sheng gathered from Han Ying’s narrative that this boy was the rumored Xiao Dou Zi. Xiao Yin Zi had often sneaked out of the academy reportedly to meet this Xiao Dou Zi.
Han Ying pressed Xiao Dou Zi to spill everything he knew. Xiao Dou Zi had never before faced a person as noble as the Princess Consort, and he was so terrified that his tongue had failed him. Afterwards, he mustered the courage to conjure a few words, but he lacked the knowledge to apprise them of the exact reason for the incident. From Xiao Dou Zi’s statement, not even one of the beggars had stolen the jade pendant, and they were even incognizant of how the broken jade pendant appeared in the run-down temple where they often stayed.
It was also that, as chance would have it, the moment Xiao Yin Zi returned to the run-down temple, the officials and soldiers arrived to seize them. He had gone out because he thought it was convenient, and thus just happened to evade the arrest. Xiao Dou Zi also deduced that when it came to the local authorities, thinking of means to break free from them would be futile. After remembering Xiao Yin Zi mention that the Jinjiang Academy had excellent teachers, he rashly bolted to the academy to seek assistance.
Was it that someone deliberately framed them? Or perhaps someone had stolen the jade pendant but his companions weren’t aware? But how did the local authorities find out and also immediately seize them?
However, Feng Sheng could discern from this information that Xiao Yin Zi was innocent, so she lent a hand.
It shouldn’t be too late. Feng Sheng ordered someone to head to the front court and called a servant, and then led the group of people along to the Warden’s Office of the Five Wards.
In fact, this so-called Warden’s Office of the Five Wards was a general designation. The proper terms ought to be the North, East, West, South, and Central Warden’s Office, specializing in patrolling the capital, arresting thieves, and shielding the city from fire. Although the Warden’s Office of the Five Wards was in charge of a lot of complicated matters, to utilize the Warden’s Office of the Five Wards to catch a group of beggars was somewhat comparable with putting fine timber to petty use.
In the end, Xiao Dou Zi didn’t know which Warden’s Office had arrested the beggars. He only knew that they were headed to the west of the city. Feng Sheng first made headway to the yamen of the West Warden’s Office. When they reached the place, she didn’t alight the carriage and bid a servant to lead Xiao Dou Zi in to find the person, while she and Han Ying waited outside.
Although a servant, because he represented the Wei Prince Manor, he was not to be slighted. Bound to be welcomed by someone from the office specializing in hospitality, they were entertained as guests from the prince manor and ended up diddling away a lot of time on niceties. Those employed at the Warden’s Office from the Five Wards were clearly some of the capital’s wiliest old foxes. Naturally, this referred to those at the bottom. Those who could secure the position of Commander-in-chief of the Warden’s Office of the Five Wards wielded powerful connections, and thus did not require as much cunning.
After going in, no superfluous words were further uttered. They first informed the guests of the root of the matter and specified that among those they had caught was a female student of the Jinjiang Academy. The Warden’s Office of the Five Wards didn’t just seize thieves during their arrest, they also apprehended a student from the Jinjiang Academy.
Everyone in the yamen of the Warden’s Office were whispering about this. The Jinjiang Academy was renowned in the capital, and the student robes provided were uniform in appearance, which was particularly salient compared to ordinary people’s.
It comprised of a dark blue bottom, a spacious robe with large sleeves, wide black hems on the lapels and cuffs, and a belt of the same color at the waist.
They somewhat matched the clothing of those scholars preparing for the imperial examination.
On the lapels was a lined blue-green embroidery with distinct patterns that Feng Sheng had designed herself. It was a symbol bearing the Jinjiang Academy’s name, which would be considered as some type of identification.
At that time, the bailiff who stepped in hadn’t carefully examined the lot, so he had hauled the person inside. Only when he brought them back did he find out that she was a student of the Jinjiang Academy and was also a girl. Someone suggested to release her after an interrogation, but who would have known that Xiao Yin Zi would refuse to leave and instead insist that it was not that they had caught the wrong person, but that someone had planted the pendant on purpose? Thus, the situation was at a standstill, and she was locked up for a day.
After waiting for almost a quarter of an hour, the servants of the prince manor rushed out in a flurry and reported the matter.
The person was indeed there, but Xiao Yin Zi refused to depart, insisting that they were being framed and the real culprit hadn’t been found. If they left without rhyme or reason, this matter would develop into a case of pendency.
This time, the faces of those present were ridden with disbelief, seeming to find it incomprehensible how impudent this group of beggars were. The Warden’s Office had arrested these people, but an important person from the prince manor had personally appeared, so the former was willing to let them go. The beggars didn’t suffer any losses themselves, but now they didn’t want to leave.
What else did they want? Did they want to wield the prince manor’s influence to pester them endlessly?
Although the bailiff said nothing because of the difference in seniority, Feng Sheng only had to shoot a glimpse at his face to discern what was brewing in his heart. A person guarding the prime minister’s gate was as good as a seventh-rank official.1 Someone carrying the prince manor’s name was naturally an important person. To him, the beggars hadn’t suffered losses, so they naturally didn’t swallow any humiliation. Of course, the bailiff wouldn’t understand the sense of humiliation brought about by having been wrongly accused.
Perhaps he understood, but these people were of lower status than him, so he no longer wanted to brood over it. Having important people from the prince manor to personally step in was akin to green smoke emitting from his ancestral grave.2
“Princess Consort, should I go in and have a look?” asked Han Ying.
“I’m coming with you.” Seeing that Han Ying seemed to want to balk her, she added, “I’m quite curious about what this girl wants to do.”
*
In truth, drums were beating in Xiao Yin Zi’s heart. She knew that people from the prince manor had personally come, so it was certain that the Princess Consort had found out.
In her heart, the Princess Consort was a very good person. The people in the academy treated Xiao Yin Zi very well. She didn’t actually want to inconvenience them, but if trouble and grievance stood side by side, she believed it more necessary to evince the injustice.
Unfortunately, when confronted with Feng Sheng’s sudden presence, such perseverance transformed into inhibition.
“I am a student of Jinjiang Academy. I have an obligation to uphold the academy’s reputation. I didn’t understand what happened just now. I was arrested and released without rhyme or reason. If people outside found out about this, it might harm the academy’s reputation,” she declared with her head hung low, but her resolve was written all over her dainty face.
Feng Sheng chose not to expose her minute calculations and laughed as she asked, “Then what is it that you want to do?”
“I want to prove my own and everyone’s innocence.”
“Xiao Yin Zi, just forget it. It’s good enough that you can be released. What of innocence?” whispered a middle-aged crippled beggar standing behind her.
“Exactly. What a trifling matter.”
“What innocence does the beggar want to prove? It’s not like any of them were beaten.”
Owing to the Princess Consort Wei’s esteemed presence, the atmosphere in this room was especially heavy. The yamen bailiffs all stationed there had their heads lowered, and those beggars spoke with extreme caution and reverence. But because the room was so quiet, everyone naturally heard it.
“What’s wrong with beggars? Are beggars such people that you arrest when you want to arrest, then release if you want to release?” Based on their previous experiences, they could detect that Xiao Yin Zi’s words were rife with indignance.
At this time, a man trod in from the door, dressed in official robes, entering in a hurry wearing a deferential expression. When he caught sight of Feng Sheng, he briskly cupped his hands in greeting.
“Please excuse this lowly one for not welcoming your honored self, unaware that the Princess Consort has come. The commander and deputy commander lords are not present. This lowly one is in charge of the yamen’s affairs for the time being. If your honored self has something to do, please do tell. This lowly one will be at your service.”
Feng Sheng said nothing.
A yamen bailiff scurried next to him and whispered to him for a moment. This official was also a melodramatic person, abruptly exclaiming that they should thoroughly check and strictly investigate to get to the bottom of the matter.
Feng Sheng strode towards Xiao Yin Zi, peered at her, and said, “You’re unsatisfied because of these people’s power and because they bend their waist only to those in power. You’re also unsatisfied because you’ve been wronged, and you want to reclaim your and everyone’s innocence. In that case, I will leave this to you. Do it. Rely on your own ability to give yourself justice.”
Xiao Yin Zi didn’t expect Feng Sheng to say that and looked up at her in surprise.
“What? Are you not confident?”
“I’m only a child.”
Cunning girl. Feng Sheng paid it no mind and laughed. “You’re quite cautious. Have faith in yourself. You can use all these people, relying on your own wisdom to accomplish it. You’re only given one chance. If you fail, behave yourself and return to the academy with Instructor Han.”
“Yes.”
Xiao Yin Zi nodded her head and very solemnly promised Feng Sheng, “I will not disappoint the Princess Consort.”
1 宰相门前七品官: literally, “seventh-rank official in front of the prime minister’s gate”, meaning that those guarding the prime minister’s gate can be compared to seventh-rank officials, speaking about how servants of high-ranking nobles/officials couldn’t be slighted because they represent important people.
2 祖坟上冒青烟: Literally means, “green smoke emitting from the ancestral grave”. This is such an annoying phrase that I find a bit hard to explain completely. It’s from a famous poem in the Han Dynasty that’s sort of used to indirectly mock or curse a person. In this case, he’s just cursing himself for his poor luck.
