Teaching

"Madam, the two young masters have come to pay their respects. They're already at the courtyard gate."

It was early in the morning, and Lin Yunwan had only just finished washing and dressing. She had not yet had time to put a hairpin in her hair.

Tao Ye was attending to her in front of the dressing mirror. She turned and said to Ping Ye, "When the two young masters arrive, tell them to wait. Madam will need a little longer."

Ping Ye let down the curtain and went out.

Lin Yunwan heard what seemed to be some unusual commotion outside and raised a hand to stop Tao Ye from putting in her hairpin.

She went to the window and turned sideways to keep herself hidden as she looked into the distance.

Lu Chang'gong had fallen at the entrance to Drooping Silk Hall. He got up by himself and brushed the dirt from his knees.

Qing watched him with a grin, finding his bedraggled appearance very funny. The servant who attended Qing was also a young boy, or he would not have been allowed into the inner courtyard, and he offered a pretended apology from the side.

It looked as though Qing's page had deliberately tripped Lu Chang'gong.

Tao Ye came over and said in a low voice, "Madam, I heard from people in the outer courtyard long ago that some of the servants bully the eldest young master. The old madam dotes on Young Master Qing."

Lin Yunwan's tone was perfectly calm. "Leave it alone."

She had given instructions to simply pretend not to know.

"Yes," Tao Ye said.

But she could not understand why. Young Master Chang Gong was the stepson Madam had chosen herself, and Madam had clearly intended to look after him. So why did she act as if she had seen nothing when she saw him being bullied?

Ping Ye had received her orders too. She watched from under the covered walkway, and though she was somewhat angry at Young Master Qing for being so naughty, she held herself back and merely told them to stand there and await instructions.

A quarter of an hour later.

Once Lin Yunwan had finished getting ready and a meal had been laid out in the small hall of Drooping Silk Hall, she called the two of them in. "Come in."

Lu Chang'gong and Qing entered side by side, no longer fooling around. They bowed in unison and called out, "Mother."

During their time in the outer courtyard, both had received some instruction. They performed the etiquette of greeting an elder very nicely.

The two children, richly dressed and standing together before the table, were a very pleasing sight.

Lin Yunwan did not hurry to pick up her chopsticks. Instead, she asked them, "Have you both had breakfast?"

Qing looked up and said with a grin, "In answer to Mother, I have."

His eyes had not yet fully developed, and they were bright and dark, as a child's were, with a touch of winning liveliness and cheer.

The old madam was very fond of him like this.

Lin Yunwan was different, however. Her manner was distant and cold. After asking him, she turned to Lu Chang'gong.

Qing did not understand.

Why was Madam so cold to him?

He could not help recalling the day they had been chosen, and he grew nervous.

Lu Chang'gong kept his head lowered, not daring to look an elder in the eye. He said respectfully, "In answer to Mother, I have eaten."

His stomach rumbled several times...

Ping Ye could not help laughing. And he called that having eaten?

Lu Chang'gong flushed.

Lin Yunwan asked him again, "Did you really eat?"

Lu Chang'gong's fair, handsome face grew even redder.

He had not eaten.

He and his younger brother lived in the same courtyard and shared a small hall. The kitchen sent their meals together, and the servants always attended to his younger brother first, so his brother always ate first, and he ate afterward.

His younger brother had risen late today and eaten late as well, so he could only wait.

He waited and waited until it was past time, and he had no choice but to come on an empty stomach.

Lu Chang'gong did not want to complain, so he merely said in a low voice, "In answer to Mother, I ate... I just didn't eat my fill."

Lin Yunwan said, "Since you didn't eat your fill, come and sit down."

Lu Chang'gong's eyes lit up.

This was the first time he would eat with Mother!

Qing was eager to join them too. Seeing that Lu Chang'gong was already about to approach Lin Yunwan, he stepped forward, tugged at her sleeve, and said in a sweet, wheedling voice, "Mother, I didn't eat my fill either."

Lin Yunwan pulled her sleeve free.

Ping Ye immediately scolded him. "How ill-mannered! Did Madam ask you to come over?"

Qing was dumbfounded.

Who among his birth mother and the old madam did not fall for this? Why was it only his legal mother who did not?

He pouted and looked at Lin Yunwan with an aggrieved expression. "Mother..."

Lin Yunwan felt no pity for him, nor did her heart soften in the slightest.

She knew all too well that this was the trick the child knew best.

Perhaps because she had been a living widow and had been so lonely in her previous life, she had thought it would be nice to have a lively child at her knee, and so she had always fallen for it. She had never imagined that Qing acted close to her on the surface while, in his heart, he had long hated her to death.

Remembering the resentment in the child's eyes before she died, Lin Yunwan asked him, "Did your instructing nanny never tell you that you must be respectful and obedient before your legal mother?"

Qing lowered his head.

Ping Ye said sternly, "Madam asked you a question. Answer her at once! Either she did or she didn't."

Qing nearly burst into tears. "...She did."

But he had never had to follow such rules before the old madam and his birth father.

Only Lu Chang'gong had to be well-behaved and obedient!

Why did he have to follow rules too, now that he was with his legal mother?

Lin Yunwan said, "Both of you sit down and eat."

How could Qing eat now? Once seated, he was reduced to a mere bystander.

Lin Yunwan and Lu Chang'gong, on the other hand, ate with relish. They finished nearly all the spotted fish soup, stuffed melon, and salted almonds on the table.

After breakfast, Lin Yunwan did not keep them any longer and sent them away.

"Madam, I'll follow them and have a look."

Since Ping Ye wished to go, Lin Yunwan gave her tacit permission.

Before long, Ping Ye returned and indignantly recounted how Qing had bullied Lu Chang'gong. She also asked Lin Yunwan, "Madam, are you really not going to do anything?"

Lin Yunwan put down the book in her hand and said, "For his family to be willing to send him to the Marquis's Residence, they must be very poor. Since I chose to bring this child into the residence, I will certainly fulfill my duties as his legal mother. I'll make sure he lacks neither food nor clothing here, and that he has a chance to study, make a name for himself, establish his own household, and live better than he did before. I will not have wronged him."

"Naturally," Ping Ye said. "Madam has given Young Master Chang Gong a new lease on life."

She smiled. "If Madam could help Young Master Chang Gong just a little more, he would respect and love you even more. Wouldn't that be better?"

Lin Yunwan did not go into the matter too deeply with her maid.

Given Qing's character, the more she favored and helped Lu Chang'gong, the more Qing would bully him.

It would be better to endure it for a while, until Qing found it dull and stopped.

Besides, she did not much want to treat Lu Chang'gong too well in an obvious way.

Once bitten by a snake, one feared a well rope for ten years. Qing had hurt her far too deeply!

In dealing with the Lu family, it was better to fulfill her duties, expect nothing in return, and have no feelings involved.

In the end, Lin Yunwan merely said, "Have the Stewardesses go to the meeting hall."

"Yes."

Ping Ye still felt sorry for Lu Chang'gong.

Later, one day when Lu Chang'gong and Qing came to pay their respects, Lin Yunwan took up her brush and wrote a piece of calligraphy. She handed it to Ping Ye and said, "Once the ink is dry, have it mounted and hung on the eastern wall of the small hall."

That way, they would see it every day when they came to pay their respects.

Ping Ye read aloud, "A wise person's aspirations reach the boundless skies; wherever they are, they can set aside worldly cares [note]. What does that mean?"

Lin Yunwan was washing her hands.

Tao Ye explained gently, "It means that if you have lofty ambitions, you shouldn't take insignificant trifles too much to heart."

Lu Chang'gong stood to one side, listening intently, and silently repeated the words to himself.

"Fine calligraphy," Ping Ye said with a smile. "I'll go and see to it."

Lin Yunwan finished washing her hands and came over, then dismissed the two boys.

Qing bowed and fled.

Before Lu Chang'gong left, he said shyly, "Thank you for your teaching, Mother." Only then did he go.

Lin Yunwan looked at him in surprise. As the child turned away, his lips were pressed tightly together, and his handsome face wore its usual quiet, reserved expression.

Watching the little figure disappear into the distance, she felt wistful.

Fine bamboo shoots really could spring from bad bamboo. The Lu family actually had such a clever child.