Chapter 31 – Strange
Only then did Yu Tang realize that Third Master Pei was also present.
She looked towards Pei Yan.
He wore a pale white fine cloth straight jacket, except for his green bamboo hairpin, there wasn’t any other accessories. His expression was indifferent and his gaze was bone-chillingly cold. He appeared to be in a worse mood than the previous times she saw him.
Yu Tang was perplexed.
Wasn’t he the ultimate victor in the Pei family’s power struggle? Why isn’t he happy?
Yu Tang was confused, and felt some warmth returning to her body, and her limbs, which had become numb because after seeing Li Duan, were gradually able to move again.
She thought she had already overcame her feelings regarding some things.
Evidently, she hadn’t!
Seeing Li Duan, she would still be filled with anger, hate and deep resentment.
She had to forcefully hold herself back from cursing him.
At this time, Li Duan had to put all thoughts of Yu Tang aside.
His purpose today was to bring Li Jun and have an amicable chat with them to deepen their friendships. He had only just met with Pei Yan and others, and didn’t even have time to converse for long and Pei Yan already intends to leave …… how can this happen!
Li Duan quickly took a few steps forward and said to Pei Yan. “Uncle1 , it’s so rare for Mr. Zhou came all the way here. I brought with me some good Mao Jian Tea, teacher here also has a set of azure Ruyao teaware, and the hundred-year-old Sweet osmanthus tree located in the local school’s back courtyard is also about to bloom. Instead of rushing back, why not go to the back courtyard to have some tea and leisurely enjoy the day and the fragrance of Sweet osmanthus.”
Pei Yan’s mentor was the former Minister of Civil Appointments, Zhang Ying. The Minister of Public Works and Grand Secretary of the East Court, Jiang Hua and the Deputy Minister of Civil Appointments, Fei Qiwen were his senior brothers. Therefore, if Li Yi (TL: Li Duan’s father) wanted to advance further or just continue to enjoy his comfortable career, no one could be better choice than Pei Yan who came from the same hometown.
However, Pei Yan is a little eccentric. Putting aside the conflicts between him and the eldest branch, Pei Yan also isn’t close to the second branch either.
Therefore, even though Li Yi and Pei family’s second master Pei Xuan were fellow scholars in the same year and after Pei Xuan came back, Li Duan also often goes to the Pei family’s residence to consult Pei Xuan, but he has yet to find an opportune time to have a good chat wth Pei Yan.
Li Duan had no choice but resort to asking his mentor Shen Shanyan for help.
Shen Shanyan held high hopes for this disciple, so when Pei Yan accompanied Zhou Zi Jin to come and visit him, he took this opportunity to call Li Duan over for him make friends with Pei Yan.
At this time he naturally had to speak up for Li Duan, saying. “Xia Guang, Zi Chun is right, you rarely come to this school, why not stay and have a cup of tea before leaving.”
Li Duan’s Zi Name was Zi Chun.
Pei Yan didn’t say a word, he only expressionlessly glanced at Li Duan, and then glanced towards Yu Tang.
The crowd froze.
Li Duan thought of his impolite behavior just now, and his face suddenly turned red and he feebly offered an explanation to Pei Yan, saying “Lady Yu, almost had a marriage arrangement with our family.”
Yu Tang’s almond eyes grew round with fury and glared daggers at Li Duan.
What did Li Duan mean by this?
What do he mean by almost having a marriage arrangement with their family?
Yu Tang was so furious that she was about to explode.
However, Pei Yan nonchalantly replied “Oh” in a matter-of-fact way.
Yu Tang didn’t understand.
Zhou Zijin’s eyes fell occasionally on Yu Tang and then on Li Duan.
As if struck by a bolt of lightning, she came to a sudden realization.
Pei Yan can’t be suspecting her and Li Duan ……
How is that possible?
What was Pei Yan thinking?
But as soon as she thought of this possibility, blood rushed to her head.
Yu Tang called out “Third Master Pei.”
Pei Yan didn’t respond to her but instead turned to Shen Shanyan and said “Let’s go to the courtyard to drink tea then.”
Shen ShanYan’s was secretly happy. However, he was afraid that Pei Yan would change his mind so he pulled him and walked towards the back courtyard, “Actually, I have something to ask you. Since you became the Pei family’s patriarch, I haven’t had a good chat with you. Grand Elder Pei took care of our local school when he was alive, so now that he’s gone, many of the students in the school under his care got uneasy. So if you didn’t come, I was intending to find you in a couple of days ……”
The two people walked further and further away from them.
Yu Tang was so infuriated at being ignored that she shouted, “Third Master Pei, I have something to say to you!”
This was something she absolutely had to clarify with him.
The previous two times they met, she was clearly in the wrong, but this time, it was he who made wrong assumptions about her.
The people looked back.
However, Pei Yan acted as if he hadn’t heard, and walked straight ahead.
Shen Shanyan looked at Yu Tang, thought for a while before following behind Pei Yan.
Zhou Zi Jin became interested.
The corners of his mouth lifted as he swished opened his fan. However, even before he had time to speak, it was like Pei Yan had eyes on the the back of his head as he pulled on his collar and dragged him forward, saying. “You don’t want to drink tea? If you don’t, then return back to the capital!”
Zhou Zijin immediately shut his mouth.
Li Duan was stunned at the scene in front of him, and dragged Li Jun along and went after Pei Yan.
Li Jun did not dare to say anything and stared dumbfoundedly at Yu Tang.
Yu Tang was so mad she could die, however, just then she heard a few bells ringing.
School was dismissed and the young students came out in groups of twos and threes.
Yu Tang stomped her feet in frustration. She quickly put this matter of Li Duan and Li Jun behind her and went home in a fit of rage. However, she was afraid that her mother would spot something amiss, so she instructed Ah Cam not to tell anyone about today’s events.
Ah cam nodded repeatedly.
That was the third master of the Pei family!
How would he have the guts to say anything.
Yu Wen came back from Hangzhou City and he brought back with him Lu Xin’s coffin.
“This time it really costed a lot of money.” Yu Wen said with a bitter smile, “Not mentioning the coffin, when others heard that I was bringing a coffin back home, they refused to accept me aboard their boat, so I had to specially hire a boat. I arranged for his coffin to be placed in the temple, and had to pay a large sum of money for the burning of incense.” He felt apologetic towards his wife and daughter and reassured Madam Chen and Yutang, “This is the last time. This won’t happen again.”
Madam Chen was a magnanimous person. As the matter had already come to a close, so if she scolded him it will only ruin their husband and wife relationship. As such, not only did she not blame Yu Wen, but she also comforted him. “We only need to be at peace with our conscience. We did right by Mr. Lu.”
Yu Wen sighed weakly. “There’s more. We still have to find a way to negotiate with the Lu family to allow him to be buried on their family’s ancestral grave, or else we still have to help him buy a burial place and arrange for people to pay their respects to him.”
Madam Chen answered, “That can’t be helped. Tomorrow I’ll ask Old Aunty Chen to prepare some refreshments for you, and you can make a trip to the Lu family. I believe that the Lu family will not be unreasonable.”
“I hope so.” Yu Wen replied.
Yu Wen went to the Lu family with some trepidation.
The Lu family saw that Yu Wen had helped Lu Xin collect his body and brought back his coffin, and so was willing to take a step back and agree to let Lu Xin be buried in the family’s ancestral grave.
Yu Wen breathed a sigh of relief and went to the temple the next day and prepared to ask the temple monks to perform three days of funeral rites, and then choose a good day for burial.
During this time, the Yu family’s house was burgled again.
This time, the burglars were discovered by Little Yellow when it went into Yu Wen’s study.
After all, Little Yellow was still small, so it could only bark loudly at the thief as it bit the thief’s trouser leg. The thief kicked it away and cowered in pain.
Although Ah Cam rushed over in the nick of time, but he did not dare to fight the thief head-on, so he frightened and chased the thief away.
Yutang held Little Yellow tenderly and gently smoothed its fur.
Madam Chen also felt scared and took five taels of silver to Ah Cam, asking him to find Yu Wen, saying “This silver is for the magistrates for them to buy some wine. Even if they can’t catch the thief, ask them to make a few rounds in front of our house and deter the thieves.”
Ah Cam obeyed.
Yu Tang recalled how her father was constantly out and about these days and so she went to clean up Yu Wen’s study, and also help her father take inventory of things to see if anything was missing.
The study was still neat and tidy. She didn’t know if it was because the thief was too late or was just being cautious and was so light-handed that no one could tell.
Yu Tong slowly helped her father organize his things. The thief actually stole only half a roll of her father’s Xuan paper, the family’s ancestral ink stone was overturned, but it was not taken.
Was it that the thief didn’t know how to recognise valuable goods?
Yu Tong looked at the ink stone and felt that this matter was a little strange.
If a person want to steal silver, they should have gone to her parents’ inner room instead. To steal something from the study, they must first have a discerning eye; otherwise how will they know which things are valuable and which things aren’t?
Old Aunty Chen was so furious that she cursed loudly in the courtyard. “They are just bullying us because master isn’t around! Otherwise, how would they dare to come and steal a second time.”
1. 世叔 Shi shu – Uncle : Actually the meaning is more than just uncle. It is a polite way of addressing someone who is an elder, but also younger than his/her father. In this case, although Pei Yan is only a few years older than Li Duan, but as Pei Yan is the head and decision-maker of the family, while Li Duan is still the son/heir of the Li family, he had to address him as such.
Chapter 31 – Strange
Only then did Yu Tang realize that Third Master Pei was also present.
She looked towards Pei Yan.
He wore a pale white fine cloth straight jacket, except for his green bamboo hairpin, there wasn’t any other accessories. His expression was indifferent and his gaze was bone-chillingly cold. He appeared to be in a worse mood than the previous times she saw him.
Yu Tang was perplexed.
Wasn’t he the ultimate victor in the Pei family’s power struggle? Why isn’t he happy?
Yu Tang was confused, and felt some warmth returning to her body, and her limbs, which had become numb because after seeing Li Duan, were gradually able to move again.
She thought she had already overcame her feelings regarding some things.
Evidently, she hadn’t!
Seeing Li Duan, she would still be filled with anger, hate and deep resentment.
She had to forcefully hold herself back from cursing him.
At this time, Li Duan had to put all thoughts of Yu Tang aside.
His purpose today was to bring Li Jun and have an amicable chat with them to deepen their friendships. He had only just met with Pei Yan and others, and didn’t even have time to converse for long and Pei Yan already intends to leave …… how can this happen!
Li Duan quickly took a few steps forward and said to Pei Yan. “Uncle1 , it’s so rare for Mr. Zhou came all the way here. I brought with me some good Mao Jian Tea, teacher here also has a set of azure Ruyao teaware, and the hundred-year-old Sweet osmanthus tree located in the local school’s back courtyard is also about to bloom. Instead of rushing back, why not go to the back courtyard to have some tea and leisurely enjoy the day and the fragrance of Sweet osmanthus.”
Pei Yan’s mentor was the former Minister of Civil Appointments, Zhang Ying. The Minister of Public Works and Grand Secretary of the East Court, Jiang Hua and the Deputy Minister of Civil Appointments, Fei Qiwen were his senior brothers. Therefore, if Li Yi (TL: Li Duan’s father) wanted to advance further or just continue to enjoy his comfortable career, no one could be better choice than Pei Yan who came from the same hometown.
However, Pei Yan is a little eccentric. Putting aside the conflicts between him and the eldest branch, Pei Yan also isn’t close to the second branch either.
Therefore, even though Li Yi and Pei family’s second master Pei Xuan were fellow scholars in the same year and after Pei Xuan came back, Li Duan also often goes to the Pei family’s residence to consult Pei Xuan, but he has yet to find an opportune time to have a good chat wth Pei Yan.
Li Duan had no choice but resort to asking his mentor Shen Shanyan for help.
Shen Shanyan held high hopes for this disciple, so when Pei Yan accompanied Zhou Zi Jin to come and visit him, he took this opportunity to call Li Duan over for him make friends with Pei Yan.
At this time he naturally had to speak up for Li Duan, saying. “Xia Guang, Zi Chun is right, you rarely come to this school, why not stay and have a cup of tea before leaving.”
Li Duan’s Zi Name was Zi Chun.
Pei Yan didn’t say a word, he only expressionlessly glanced at Li Duan, and then glanced towards Yu Tang.
The crowd froze.
Li Duan thought of his impolite behavior just now, and his face suddenly turned red and he feebly offered an explanation to Pei Yan, saying “Lady Yu, almost had a marriage arrangement with our family.”
Yu Tang’s almond eyes grew round with fury and glared daggers at Li Duan.
What did Li Duan mean by this?
What do he mean by almost having a marriage arrangement with their family?
Yu Tang was so furious that she was about to explode.
However, Pei Yan nonchalantly replied “Oh” in a matter-of-fact way.
Yu Tang didn’t understand.
Zhou Zijin’s eyes fell occasionally on Yu Tang and then on Li Duan.
As if struck by a bolt of lightning, she came to a sudden realization.
Pei Yan can’t be suspecting her and Li Duan ……
How is that possible?
What was Pei Yan thinking?
But as soon as she thought of this possibility, blood rushed to her head.
Yu Tang called out “Third Master Pei.”
Pei Yan didn’t respond to her but instead turned to Shen Shanyan and said “Let’s go to the courtyard to drink tea then.”
Shen ShanYan’s was secretly happy. However, he was afraid that Pei Yan would change his mind so he pulled him and walked towards the back courtyard, “Actually, I have something to ask you. Since you became the Pei family’s patriarch, I haven’t had a good chat with you. Grand Elder Pei took care of our local school when he was alive, so now that he’s gone, many of the students in the school under his care got uneasy. So if you didn’t come, I was intending to find you in a couple of days ……”
The two people walked further and further away from them.
Yu Tang was so infuriated at being ignored that she shouted, “Third Master Pei, I have something to say to you!”
This was something she absolutely had to clarify with him.
The previous two times they met, she was clearly in the wrong, but this time, it was he who made wrong assumptions about her.
The people looked back.
However, Pei Yan acted as if he hadn’t heard, and walked straight ahead.
Shen Shanyan looked at Yu Tang, thought for a while before following behind Pei Yan.
Zhou Zi Jin became interested.
The corners of his mouth lifted as he swished opened his fan. However, even before he had time to speak, it was like Pei Yan had eyes on the the back of his head as he pulled on his collar and dragged him forward, saying. “You don’t want to drink tea? If you don’t, then return back to the capital!”
Zhou Zijin immediately shut his mouth.
Li Duan was stunned at the scene in front of him, and dragged Li Jun along and went after Pei Yan.
Li Jun did not dare to say anything and stared dumbfoundedly at Yu Tang.
Yu Tang was so mad she could die, however, just then she heard a few bells ringing.
School was dismissed and the young students came out in groups of twos and threes.
Yu Tang stomped her feet in frustration. She quickly put this matter of Li Duan and Li Jun behind her and went home in a fit of rage. However, she was afraid that her mother would spot something amiss, so she instructed Ah Cam not to tell anyone about today’s events.
Ah cam nodded repeatedly.
That was the third master of the Pei family!
How would he have the guts to say anything.
Yu Wen came back from Hangzhou City and he brought back with him Lu Xin’s coffin.
“This time it really costed a lot of money.” Yu Wen said with a bitter smile, “Not mentioning the coffin, when others heard that I was bringing a coffin back home, they refused to accept me aboard their boat, so I had to specially hire a boat. I arranged for his coffin to be placed in the temple, and had to pay a large sum of money for the burning of incense.” He felt apologetic towards his wife and daughter and reassured Madam Chen and Yutang, “This is the last time. This won’t happen again.”
Madam Chen was a magnanimous person. As the matter had already come to a close, so if she scolded him it will only ruin their husband and wife relationship. As such, not only did she not blame Yu Wen, but she also comforted him. “We only need to be at peace with our conscience. We did right by Mr. Lu.”
Yu Wen sighed weakly. “There’s more. We still have to find a way to negotiate with the Lu family to allow him to be buried on their family’s ancestral grave, or else we still have to help him buy a burial place and arrange for people to pay their respects to him.”
Madam Chen answered, “That can’t be helped. Tomorrow I’ll ask Old Aunty Chen to prepare some refreshments for you, and you can make a trip to the Lu family. I believe that the Lu family will not be unreasonable.”
“I hope so.” Yu Wen replied.
Yu Wen went to the Lu family with some trepidation.
The Lu family saw that Yu Wen had helped Lu Xin collect his body and brought back his coffin, and so was willing to take a step back and agree to let Lu Xin be buried in the family’s ancestral grave.
Yu Wen breathed a sigh of relief and went to the temple the next day and prepared to ask the temple monks to perform three days of funeral rites, and then choose a good day for burial.
During this time, the Yu family’s house was burgled again.
This time, the burglars were discovered by Little Yellow when it went into Yu Wen’s study.
After all, Little Yellow was still small, so it could only bark loudly at the thief as it bit the thief’s trouser leg. The thief kicked it away and cowered in pain.
Although Ah Cam rushed over in the nick of time, but he did not dare to fight the thief head-on, so he frightened and chased the thief away.
Yutang held Little Yellow tenderly and gently smoothed its fur.
Madam Chen also felt scared and took five taels of silver to Ah Cam, asking him to find Yu Wen, saying “This silver is for the magistrates for them to buy some wine. Even if they can’t catch the thief, ask them to make a few rounds in front of our house and deter the thieves.”
Ah Cam obeyed.
Yu Tang recalled how her father was constantly out and about these days and so she went to clean up Yu Wen’s study, and also help her father take inventory of things to see if anything was missing.
The study was still neat and tidy. She didn’t know if it was because the thief was too late or was just being cautious and was so light-handed that no one could tell.
Yu Tong slowly helped her father organize his things. The thief actually stole only half a roll of her father’s Xuan paper, the family’s ancestral ink stone was overturned, but it was not taken.
Was it that the thief didn’t know how to recognise valuable goods?
Yu Tong looked at the ink stone and felt that this matter was a little strange.
If a person want to steal silver, they should have gone to her parents’ inner room instead. To steal something from the study, they must first have a discerning eye; otherwise how will they know which things are valuable and which things aren’t?
Old Aunty Chen was so furious that she cursed loudly in the courtyard. “They are just bullying us because master isn’t around! Otherwise, how would they dare to come and steal a second time.”
1. 世叔 Shi shu – Uncle : Actually the meaning is more than just uncle. It is a polite way of addressing someone who is an elder, but also younger than his/her father. In this case, although Pei Yan is only a few years older than Li Duan, but as Pei Yan is the head and decision-maker of the family, while Li Duan is still the son/heir of the Li family, he had to address him as such.
