Feng Xing: Chapter 97
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Translation: marchmallow
These few days, Feng Sheng had been busy grappling with the academy’s affairs.
Prince Wei ran the Jinjiang Academy to a nominal extent, but it wasn’t apt for a man of his status to sort out its trifles. The position of headmaster remained irresolute up until present, so Feng Sheng had to shoulder everything. Regardless of how busy she was or how late her day ended, Prince Wei never failed to personally pick her up.
It was already dark after they crossed the Zuo’an Gate, and the carriage drove forward along the smooth bluestone road. Feng Sheng recounted to Prince Wei what she had encountered today.
“Who knew that your heart would actually be this soft? If you find them that pitiful, it’s fine to raise them.”
Prince Wei uttered these words with utmost nonchalance, as though fostering twenty young girls was akin to raising a group of chicks. As a matter of fact, such was actually the case. Over a thousand people resided within the manor of an esteemed Prince of the First Rank, and this was merely at face value. On the sly, there were still private guards and others tasked to handle Prince Wei’s outside affairs. The exact number of people was unknown to anyone.
Furthermore, prior to its transformation, the academy had been an estate with over a hundred tenant farmers, servants, and estate keepers. As such, to Prince Wei, raising a few more people was not unlike raising a group of chicks.
Feng Sheng shot him a glance and teased, “His Highness Prince Wei is indeed impressive.”
Such a her made Prince Wei laugh. He rubbed her waist and said, “You have no conscience. In truth, you don’t feel sorry for them at all. It’s not like this prince’s manor has so much food that there’s no place to spill it.”
“From what I heard, it sounds precisely like the prince manor has so much food that there’s no place to spill it,” she quipped, then veered to a more serious tone of voice, “All jests aside, it wasn’t simply because I thought them pitiful. I’ve always felt that my previous convictions somewhat led me to take things for granted.”
Prince Wei raised his eyebrows, leaned back, and struck a pose conveying his willingness to hear the specifics.
Feng Sheng lifted the carriage curtain and surveyed the outside. Seeing that they had not yet entered the inner city and still had at least a quarter of an hour to arrive home, Feng Sheng gave him a rough explanation of the events that had earlier stirred her.
Initially, when Prince Wei heard Feng Sheng’s ardency to establish a Women’s Hall, he had surmised that it was merely for her own self-fulfillment. He never would have thought that beneath her intent lingered Fan Jin Chuan’s shadow.1 The emotion in his eyes immediately changed.
“Never would’ve expected Princess Consort Wei to be so considerate. You are a married woman and the other has a wife, yet it still concerns you whether or not that husband and wife pair have things to talk about.”
“What are you talking about?!” Feng Sheng raised her head. When her eyes met Prince Wei’s, she sensed that this was a recurrence of one of his old issues.
The two had been married for quite some time now, so Feng Sheng esteemed herself to be very well versed in Prince Wei’s temperament. This person was usually saying one thing and meaning another. If something troubled his heart, he would still force a smile on the surface. To have him express himself so clearly like this was because the two could now be considered to be ‘two hearts beating as one’, just that he was still a complete vinegar jar.2 If this matter wasn’t thoroughly clarified, she would definitely suffer a calamity tonight.
“What are you thinking? I just find Man’er a bit pitiful.”
“What use is your pity to them? What you don’t know is that a man’s belt usually controls his brain. So long as a woman can get a man to untie his belt, who cares if they have nothing to talk about?”
Upon hearing this, Feng Sheng was so bewildered that her eyes almost fell out. Her mind then drifted to Prince Wei’s experiences in his youth. He had traversed the jianghu for a stretch of time, mingling with people from all walks of life, be it from the jianghu or from the three religions and nine schools of thought. She recollected the moment he had infiltrated the salt gang’s base, invulnerable in his disguise as Gou Qing, and no longer thought it baffling that such vulgar words could escape his mouth.
On one hand, she was slightly embarrassed, and on the other, she felt that this statement seemed reasonable. She was rendered a little discomfited. As she gazed at him once more, his handsome face unconsciously grew rigid, appearing as though he slightly regretted the words he had just uttered. She smiled in her heart and feigned an uncouth bravado, similar to how she did in those days she inserted herself in crass conversations with yamen runners.
“It seems that His Highness Prince Wei is very experienced. Are you saying that as long as your belt is untied, whether or not you like a woman is insignificant?” After saying this, Feng Sheng was overcome with instant regret. How come it sounded like she was jealous?
Sure enough, Prince Wei misunderstood. A hint of mirth flashed through his eyes. He embraced her, tilted her chin up with one hand, and put on a cold face.
“This prince studied Buddhism for many years and, unless bewitched by a demoness, has long been immune to feminine wiles. The way this prince sees it, your delicate countenance, as if made by the heavens, is exceeded only by your seductive charm. Tell me honestly, whose poor girl’s skin have you stolen?”3
Feng Sheng couldn’t hold back her desire to laugh, but before she even could, she heard the sound of stifled laughter.
Prince Wei’s expression was still as before: the visage of an eminent monk who had achieved immortality. She didn’t laugh, so who could it have been? She shifted her sight toward the carriage door. Could it be?
Right this moment, the carriage came to an abrupt halt.
“His Highness, Princess Consort, we have arrived.”
Prince Wei alighted first and glanced at De Wang, whose head was slumped down. Feng Sheng followed thereafter. He disliked being inconvenienced, so he directly carried her down.
When she stood on her feet, the two went inside.
During this period, Prince Wei said nothing. De Wang quietly tailed behind all the while, a considerable distance away from the two, with sullen brows and ears hanging down, resembling a frosted eggplant. If those outside the manor didn’t know him, they would have thought he was an assassin.
When they entered the room, Feng Sheng couldn’t help but laugh to an extent where her waist could hardly straighten up. Though curious, Zhi Qiu didn’t dare to ask. After Prince Wei pulled her down for a seat and brought her water to drink, her laughter finally ceased. She cast Zhi Qiu a meaningful glance and bid her to check on that person, De Wang.
Puzzled as she was, Zhi Qiu still stalked out to check. After a while, she returned to report that De Wang was squatting under the wall of the courtyard gate, prohibiting everyone to ask him what he was doing.
Feng Sheng smiled again, then laughed and coughed. She held a kerchief to cover her mouth, yet her eyes were on Prince Wei.
“That worthless thing!” cursed Prince Wei with a smile. He also couldn’t help but laugh a little.
*
Because of this joke, Feng Sheng ate an extra half bowl of rice at dinnertime, allowing De Wang to elude punishment. This, however, wouldn’t be told in detail.
Later, while in bed, they discussed once more, setting aside their earlier banter. Feng Sheng roughly laid out her thoughts.
“Your ideas aren’t bad, but they have low feasibility.”
Feng Sheng was also aware. In all honesty, it was much too arduous of a feat for a woman to eat off her own strength and to adequately provide for herself. She had outlined in her head what kind of work a woman could do, and after considering it carefully and at length, she couldn’t conjure that many.
Becoming a maid or a servant was not usually of a woman’s own volition. Furthermore, there were ‘three kinds of nuns and six kinds of old women’——the connotation of which was not at all in the negative, but rather, it denoted certain classifications of people. The three nuns referred to Buddhist nuns, Daoist nuns, and fortune tellers. Among them, fortune tellers had a very extensive scope, and often they exploited married women by using fortune telling to gull, hoax, and beguile them. The six old women were the human traffickers, matchmakers, sorceresses, procuresses, female doctors, and female midwives. A sorceress was the likes of a shaman, also the type to swagger and swindle impressionable people. A procuress was similar to a female brothel keeper.
Then, there were women serving in brothels. This wasn’t the correct means to earn a living, nor did it follow the proper path.
Of course, there was also the proper path: to be an embroideress, an expert in embroidery. Another thing, what Feng Sheng saw and heard while in Jiangnan was that Suzhou was home to several weaving households, and its local commerce was flourishing. Almost every family raised silkworms, and every household had looms. There were few men doing weaving work, but majority were women. Some women were manually adroit, but many relied on looms. Their husbands didn’t earn as much as them, so the women were the masters of the family and in charge of the household.
Feng Sheng relayed this information to Prince Wei.
Prince Wei raised his eyebrows and asked, “Does Princess Consort Wei plan to switch professions and become a weaver?”
Feng Sheng’s eyes brightened, and she sat up. “I think this is a good approach. Uncle Yu is producing salt in Yangzhou. Official salt shops are now spread all over the north and south of Yangtze River and have already reached their peak, so we won’t be losing money. We can first try to test the depth of the waters.”
Prince Wei pulled her to lie down and replied, “You can sure find things for others to do. Well, such an approach also isn’t impossible.”
Feng Sheng hence fired out her reasoning, “I honestly think women are trapped in the rear court. Most of you men look down on women, but women are scrupulous and skillful. In fact, women are adept at several tasks. Zhi Qiu, for instance. I only guided her for a while, yet her abacus skills have surpassed mine. Now, she would aid me whenever Uncle Yu and the others send over the account books. Her work already looks proper. She would observe what I’m doing, imitate my ways, and then easily identify her own mistakes. What’s more, maids and female cooks do all the cooking, snack-making, and kitchen work at home, yet when I explore restaurants or snack shops, men are the ones doing this line of work.”
“There are three principles and five virtues in the secular world.4 In this reality, it is inherent knowledge that women who don’t step out of the gate can’t pass the second. If you want to shatter this notion, it will be too onerous. And don’t you think it’s too early for you to consider such things? A group of only eight or nine-year-old girls, even if you teach them skills in wielding eighteen kinds of weapons and allow them to undertake all sorts of tasks alone, the results will manifest only some years later. Furthermore, a woman will marry at fifteen or sixteen. Even if she has learned everything, she may not be able to support herself the way you imagine it.”
Without a doubt, such words struck Feng Sheng. It seemed like she either didn’t understand the truth, or that she was somewhat naive for trivializing the reality.
Of course, this kind of naïveté did not insinuate that she was stupid. Were she the Feng Sheng from years ago, she definitely wouldn’t have summoned up these witless thoughts. Now, she had such ideas probably because the weight of reversing her father’s case no longer burdened her. There was no one telling her that ‘women are inferior to men’, and Prince Wei had been indulging her by letting her do almost everything she wished to do.
She knew how to make concessions. Cognizant of Prince Wei’s position, she had occupied herself with things that interested her to give her a sense of freedom. As a result, she devoted a lot of time to think and reflect more deeply, consistent with her unwillingness to accept the common belief that ‘women are inferior to men’.
Hers was the type of unwillingness that was absolute; the unwillingness to solidify the common customs of the social class; the unwillingness to shackle a woman’s identity to the constraints of heirarchy in human relationships. Perhaps, as Prince Wei had said, she was thinking way too far ahead, and achieving her goal was still too onerous as of present. However, many things in the world were realized because of a single sprout of idea.
Perhaps this sprout would grow into a towering plant a few years later. Who would know?
“Right, Mao Shan recommended someone suitable to be the deputy headmaster. Do you want to meet him tomorrow?”
“Naturally.”
With her and Prince Wei’s identity, it was truly inappropriate for them to handle the academy’s daily work. Feng Sheng barely had enough time to attend to it, so she attached great importance to the position of deputy headmaster. She naturally wanted to meet that prospect.
1 In Chapter 87, Feng Sheng had thought that Man’er was quite intelligent, just that she wasn’t very learned. Man’er wanted Fan Jin Chuan’s affections, but they couldn’t connect with each other mentally or spiritually.
2 醋桶: vinegar jar, a metaphor for jealousy
3 There are some ancient stories where fox spirits/demons don’t transform into beautiful women, but they instead steal women’s skins to become beautiful.
4 三纲五常: three principles and five virtues (idiom); the three rules (ruler guides subject, father guides son, and husband guides wife) and five constant virtues of Confucianism (benevolence 仁, righteousness 義|义, propriety 禮|礼, wisdom 智 and fidelity 信)
