Old Master Chen laughed heartily.
“True or false, false or true, why bother being so rigid? Go on, go on,” he said with a wave of his hand, still chuckling.
Chen Shi’ba-niang asked no further questions. She smiled, bowed, and left.
Outside, the other sisters were waiting for her. They strolled slowly along the path.
Chen Dan-niang, her wrinkled face full of curiosity, tugged on her sleeve.
“Should I copy it too?” she asked timidly.
“You don’t need to. Focus on improving your handwriting first,” Chen Shi’ba-niang replied with a smile.
“Right, right, I need to practice writing—writing as beautifully as Lady Cheng!” Chen Dan-niang nodded repeatedly, her voice suddenly loud with excitement.
Chen Shi’ba-niang, however, paused slightly, her expression faintly startled.
“Dan-niang, are you saying that Lady Cheng writes well?” she asked softly.
“Yes, we even wrote on the wall at the Qieting Temple. Father brought it back to show Grandfather. I said the poem was mine, but the writing was done by Lady Cheng. They didn’t believe me and laughed at me,” Chen Dan-niang replied.
Chen Shi’ba-niang felt her heart race and suddenly stopped in her tracks.
“Dan-niang, was that the time we went together?” she asked.
Chen Dan-niang nodded.
“Did you write ‘Mountain temple awaits the plum blossoms’?” Chen Shi’ba-niang looked at her and whispered the line.
Chen Dan-niang furrowed her brow. She was young and it had been some time since then. Aside from remembering the event, she couldn’t recall the rest of the writing.
“Anyway, it’s the writing that Father kept in the study,” she said vaguely.
“Really?” Chen Shi’ba-niang asked again.
“You don’t believe me, yet you still ask! And you talk about them—aren’t you the same, trusting yourself and not believing what I say?” Chen Dan-niang stomped her foot, pouting.
Chen Shi’ba-niang smiled.
“I believe you, I believe you,” she quickly replied, bending down to look at Chen Dan-niang, her voice tinged with barely concealed excitement. “Then, Dan-niang, next time you go to see Lady Cheng, can you take me along too? Please?”
“Sure!” Chen Dan-niang readily agreed.
At that moment, Chen Dan-niang’s nursemaid came to take her away.
“Miss, you need to take your afternoon rest,” she said.
Chen Dan-niang bid farewell to her sisters, holding her nursemaid’s hand as they left.
Chen Shi’ba-niang stood in place, lost in thought.
“I—I should prepare,” she murmured to herself, her face flushed with excitement, unconsciously clenching her hands in front of her.
“Shi’ba-niang, prepare for what?” the sisters ahead heard and turned to ask.
Chen Shi’ba-niang snapped back to reality and smiled.
“To copy the book,” she laughed. “My handwriting isn’t good. I need to start early, or the teacher will punish me again.”
“Then hurry up!” the sisters laughed.
The story of the 20,000 taels of silver being refused for treatment spread quickly in a day. Apart from Old Master Chen using it as a lesson for the younger generation, most people were just there to enjoy the spectacle.
Some said it was because last time they had angered the King of Hell, causing a rift, and the immortal had taken back the magical prescription. Others said it was because it was by the rules—that person’s life wasn’t meant to end, so she didn’t treat them. Some claimed the payment was still too little, while others said the person’s status was low, and the Zhou family looked down on them…
Other explanations didn’t matter much, but the fact that all the good things were attributed to that lady and all the bad things were pinned on the Zhou family made Master Zhou and his wife absolutely intolerable.
“What does this have to do with us?” Madam Zhou cried in frustration at home, her recently healed cough flaring up again.
Naturally, the servants were also gossiping amongst themselves.
“Do you think the young lady refused to treat them just to spite the master and madam, or was it truly beyond her ability?”
“Of course, it was to spite the master and mistress.”
“She can bring people back from the brink of death—how could there possibly be an illness she can’t cure?”
Several maids were chattering away, their voices lively, when someone nearby suddenly raised their voice.
“That’s not true.”
The group paused in surprise and turned to look. They saw a young maid hanging up laundry, her sleeves rolled up despite the bitter winter. Her hands and arms were red and purple from the cold.
Seeing everyone looking her way, she lowered her head nervously, avoiding their gazes.
“What do you know?” one of the older women sneered.
“It’s not true. There’s a reason for what she did,” Ban Qin said softly.
“A reason? It’s clearly just to upset the master and madam,” another retorted.
“No, no. Miss has always been like this,” Ban Qin said quickly. “It’s not just because of the master and madam.”
“Always?”
The group sized up the maid curiously.
“Oh, you’re that maid,” someone suddenly remembered, pointing a finger at her. “Ah yes, you used to serve that fool—”
“She wasn’t a fool! She was smarter than anyone! You just don’t understand!” Ban Qin shouted suddenly, her voice sharp as she glared at them.
The unexpected outburst left the women momentarily stunned.
After yelling, Ban Qin seemed flustered and quickly turned to run off.
“What a weirdo.”
“No wonder no one wants her.”
Laughter echoed from behind.
Ban Qin ran out of the courtyard in one breath and stopped under a tree, raising her hand to wipe away her tears.
They don’t understand, none of them understand.
“Miss, you should take more time to recover. There’s no need to rush.”
“This time, because of the lady next door’s illness, we’ve already stayed here longer than usual… Staying longer might not be good.”
Why was it not good? She didn’t understand back then either. But being with her mistress meant she didn’t have to think about anything. Later, when she no longer had her mistress, those past memories became her only solace.
She thought about them over and over again, recited them again and again.
And then, she started to understand. Many things she hadn’t grasped before, many cryptic words her mistress had spoken, gradually began to make sense to her.
“Because you have something they don’t, and you refuse to let them use it. And that, is your sin.”
“And, I am a fool.”
“If you think about it here,” she tapped her head, “you’ll understand.”
“Because some things are easier done than said.”
“For now, we need to aim small—it’s better that way.”
“First, let them believe in you. The rest can come slowly.”
“Ban Qin, Young Master Han said that a simple gesture, one anyone can manage, shouldn’t be counted as a great favor.”
“Ban Qin, opportunities to meet someone like Young Master Han don’t come often.”
Every time Ban Qin recalled this, her tears would fall uncontrollably.
This was the last lesson, the last words her mistress had ever taught her.
It was a pity that, at the time, she hadn’t understood.
She reached up to wipe her tears and turned to look in the direction of Cheng Jiao-niang.
Back then, she had been ignorant and naive. Thinking back now, how perilous it had been for two lone ladies traveling together.
“To possess a treasured gem is to invite trouble.” When someone is too good, it inevitably attracts calamity. That’s why one must take a step back, sidestep the dangers, yield a little—not out of fear, but for the sake of moving forward more securely.
Mistress’s reputation had soared with just one treatment; that was already more than enough. Retreating now was the wiser choice.
Everything her mistress did had always followed this principle. From the moment she left Bing-zhou, she had never wavered. It had nothing to do with who she was facing—she steadily did what she believed she should. Whatever others said, did, shouted, or fussed about never once affected her heart.
“What fault does our family have? Whether to treat or not treat, it’s all her decision—what does it have to do with us?” Zhou Liu-lang slammed his hand heavily on the table, speaking with both anger and frustration.
“Because, in the end, she is just a lone lady, and your family is her blood relative on her maternal side. When a child makes a mistake, naturally the blame falls on the adults,” Young Master Qin replied with a smile.
Zhou Liu-lang let out a cold laugh.
“So, when things turn out well, it’s all thanks to her natural brilliance, is it?” he said.
“Or perhaps thanks to the Cheng family,” Young Master Qin replied with another smile, watching with satisfaction as Zhou Liu-lang’s eyes widened and his face grew taut.
“She planned all of this on purpose,” Zhou Liu-lang said. “Step by step, piece by piece, whether to treat or not, whether the outcome is good or bad—it’s all up to her to decide.”
Young Master Qin let out a mocking laugh.
“Did you really think she needed your approval for anything?” he said, shaking his head. “Liu-lang, tell me—who’s the fool here? Is she the fool, or are you? Isn’t it obvious? Why are you still so hung up on it?”
Zhou Liu-lang didn’t reply. The hands resting on his knees clenched tightly into fists.
“Where has she gone?” he suddenly turned and asked sharply.
The maid kneeling by the door immediately lowered her head.
“Lady Cheng only said she was going out, but didn’t say where,” she replied in a low voice.
Claiming she was too ill to treat others, yet still able to ride out in a carriage—did she take everyone for blind fools?
Zhou Liu-lang took a deep breath and gazed out the door.
Perhaps, from the very beginning, when they thought they had coerced her into returning home, it had all been nothing more than a joke in her eyes—or worse, it had gone exactly as she had intended.
Who had truly taken control of whom? And who could truly triumph over the other?
