Looking at the girl's radiant, youthful face, she was really only about the age of a child just entering middle school in his previous world.
Jia Heng fell silent for a moment, then asked, "How much was your monthly allowance at the Jia Family estate?"
A trace of surprise appeared on Qingwen's bright, delicate, oval face. "Master Heng, you're going to give me a monthly allowance?"
Jia Heng picked up the teapot and poured himself a cup. "A young girl like you still needs an allowance to have clothes made or buy a new pair of shoes."
"Master Heng concerns himself with such things too?" Qingwen collected herself. Some of her dejection faded, though her words still carried a sharp edge.
"Family affairs, state affairs, affairs under heaven-which of them doesn't deserve concern?" Jia Heng chuckled and set down his teacup. Though still a youth, an air of handling weighty matters with effortless ease revealed itself silently in his every movement.
Such a bearing, at once resolute and gentle, could never have been cultivated without his military experience in his previous life and his reading of the Daoist Canon and ancient texts. When fierce, he struck like thunder; when gentle, he was like a spring breeze bringing nourishing rain.
Qingwen pressed her cherry-red lips together, her almond eyes flickering. Those words... really were rather hard to answer. Yet she could feel the care in the youth's quiet words, and somehow her urge to snap back at him weakened considerably. She said softly, "I'd only just entered Old Madam's service. My monthly allowance was only half a string of cash. If you're giving me an allowance, Master Heng, the same as before will do."
Monthly allowances were recorded in the original Dream of the Red Chamber. Lady Jia received the most, twenty taels of silver a month; concubines received two taels, and the young masters and ladies roughly the same. Even Jinchuan, one of Madam Wang's senior maids, received only one tael.
This also indirectly confirmed that, although the bookseller had taken a hefty cut, the thirty taels Jia Heng had received for one volume of his manuscript could hardly be called a giveaway. Well, it was enough to pay Lady Jia's allowance for a month and a half.
"Master Heng, I've only just arrived at your house, and already someone is being sent to buy a maid. If others hear of it, they'll think I'm an insolent girl putting on a mistress's airs." Qingwen raised her oval face, with its faintly foxlike charm, and suddenly spoke as her almond eyes studied the youth opposite her.
The little maid's voice was clear and crisp, rising and falling distinctly. Had her manner not still been amiable, she would have sounded quite sharp-tongued and cutting.
You certainly know yourself well, Qingwen, Jia Heng thought.
But he left it at that. Trading barbs with a girl of middle-school age would hardly be wise. Picking up his teacup, he said, "It isn't entirely for your sake. You heard what I said to Hetu just now. I'll be getting married before long, and it won't do to have no one at home to handle the heavy chores."
Qingwen lifted her eyes to the youth opposite her and fell silent.
"Aunt Cai already explained things to you. Your daily duties will simply be serving tea and water. There are no earth-shattering rules about waiting on me, and Aunt Cai is kindhearted too. You'll see in time."
Jia Heng set down his cup after speaking. "All right, go and get yourself settled."
With that, he rose, lifted the curtain, and entered the inner room.
Qingwen stared absently at the blue-patterned white teacup on the little table, turning over the words still ringing in her ears. For a moment, she could not say quite what she felt.
Why did the disappointment and resentment she had felt at being sent here seem to have faded a little?
Jia Heng returned to his study, took up his paper, and sent his brush racing like dragons and serpents as he continued the second chapter of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which he had left unfinished the day before yesterday. Judging by the money he had just spent, he really would have to take copying books seriously if he wanted to maintain a reasonably respectable standard of living.
Given this book's quality, once it's published, even if it doesn't send the price of paper soaring in Chang'an, it will quickly make a name for itself in the capital. Fame and fortune have always followed each other like a body and its shadow. Not only will bargaining over my other manuscripts become much easier, but scholars I associate with will also regard me more highly.
That was the true reason he had chosen the Ink and Brush Studio despite being willing to accept a loss. Such calculations fell short of a gentleman's open and upright bearing and were hardly something to discuss with outsiders.
Besides, this bookshop was famous in the Divine Capital. Many literary officials of the Hanlin Academy were said to buy books there regularly. Before entering official service through the imperial examinations, writing vernacular works filled with lush, erotic verse would ruin his prospects. Writing a historical romance about the overthrow of the old order and the founding of a new one, about order and chaos, rise and decline, would instead demonstrate his broad understanding of history.
As Jia Heng pondered this, he heard a voice in the courtyard. It belonged to Aunt Cai's husband, Li Dazhu.
"Brother Heng, are you inside?"
They had agreed yesterday that they would go to the Qin Family today to present the betrothal gifts.
Jia Heng answered, put away the betrothal letter, and tucked it into his sleeve. Then he left the room and said to Qingwen, who was handing over clothes, "Qingwen, when Aunt Cai gets back, tell her I've gone to the Qin Family."
Aunt Cai was going to the Child Broker's to buy a maid. Given her cautious nature, it would probably take most of the day, since choosing a maid required careful consideration.
"Yes," Qingwen answered softly. After a moment's thought, she leaned against the doorway and watched the youth, who had already reached the flower-draped wall. "Master, will you be back for lunch?"
Jia Heng waved a hand. "No. If you're hungry, there's rice, flour, fish, and meat in the kitchen. Make yourself something..."
Suddenly, the youth stopped. He slowly turned, lifted his eyes to Qingwen, and drew his brows together. "You can cook, can't you?" he asked hesitantly.
Could Qingwen cook?
Presumably she could?
After all, she was charming and deft-handed. But perhaps not-that might refer to her needlework.
Seeing the youth looking at her with knitted brows, Qingwen replied, "Go without worrying, Master. I can cook."
Jia Heng nodded, glanced at Qingwen, and left through the gatehouse without saying anything more.
Watching his figure disappear, Qingwen stood in a daze for a long while before withdrawing her gaze. The autumn sun shone beneath the corridor eaves, its scattered, bright rays falling on her delicate oval face beneath her furrowed, misty willow-leaf brows. Her thin lips, tinted rose-red with rouge, pressed together slightly.
In all her life, she had never met a man like him. Was this what people meant when they spoke of a gentleman's gentle, jade-like warmth?
Although she had never met Baoyu at the estate, she had heard in private that Second Master Bao also cherished girls. Still, Second Master Bao was said to often eat the rouge from girls' lips, whereas this Master Heng was more like a father or an elder brother...
Had Jia Heng known Qingwen thought of him this way, he would surely have been caught between laughter and tears. He merely regarded her as a middle-school girl. How had he suddenly become like a father or elder brother?
Qin Residence · Rear courtyard
In her boudoir, Qin Keqing wore a pale-red gauze skirt, her dark hair gathered into a flying-immortal bun with a phoenix-headed hairpin. A gold dangling ornament nestled at her temple, and silver jeweled strands hung down, lending her an air of graceful splendor.
This beauty, who combined the charms of Baoyu and Daiyu, did not have the conventional willow-leaf brows and oval face. Her face was like a little moon, with a fine nose and rosy lips, as radiant and captivating as the heart of a peony, her presence possessing the heavenly fragrance of a beauty without peer. At that moment, she sat quietly beside a small table, holding a tiny, adorable Orange Cat in her arms.
The kitten was still young, its head fluffy and its two bright eyes rolling about as it looked around curiously. Nanny Wu of the Qin Mansion had found it elsewhere, worried that Qin Keqing would grow bored.
"Miss, I just learned something else about that Master Heng," Baozhu said, stepping forward.
Qin Keqing's slender, fair hand stroked the orange kitten's silky fur. At these words, she lifted her face, its skin whiter than snow and flushed with pink, and knitted her dark brows. "What is it now?"
Over the past few days, the more information they gathered about Jia Heng, the more troubled Qin Keqing became. Her heart sank straight toward the bottom of a valley.
She did not dare dream that her ideal husband would become a general or a chief minister, or even hold official office, but he could not be some street thug who knew only how to fight, bully the weak, and fawn on the powerful.
She had been meaning these past two days to speak to her father and see whether they could break off the engagement.
Baozhu said softly, "Master Heng beat up Master Zhen of the Jia Family's Eastern Mansion at the Green and Red Pavilion yesterday. I heard it from a nanny who delivers vegetables to the Eastern Mansion. It seems it was because of you, Miss..."
"Ah?" Qin Keqing's expression froze, her rosy lips parting as she involuntarily cried out.
"Meow~" Feeling the soothing strokes on her body stop, the Orange Cat opened her mouth and gave a cry.
Before you continue