After Li Qing’s family moved to Yuzhou, they bought a small courtyard house behind the new residence of the Dingxi Marquis’s household, so that Li Ding could conveniently go back and forth to the marquisate. As soon as they returned, Li Qing’s wife, Madam Qian, bustled about cleaning the courtyard, even wiping spotless the guest rooms where no one lived. Li Qing, distressed at his wife’s hard work, told her not to busy herself so much. Madam Qian wiped the sweat from her brow and said with a smile that she wasn’t tired.
“These guest rooms won’t be used for now. Why bother cleaning them so thoroughly?”
“You never know—what if relatives come by to pay New Year’s visits? It’s not yet past the fifteenth, after all.”
Li Qing sat on the kang, shaking one leg. “Here in Yuzhou, what relatives could we possibly have?”
Before his words even fell, Old Madam Qian’s delighted voice came from outside: “Son-in-law, daughter, come out quickly—guests have arrived!”
The couple exchanged a glance. Li Qing clapped his palm. “Ah, listen to my unlucky mouth!”
The husband and wife went out together. Old Man Qian was just taking the New Year gifts from a man in a blue robe, while a woman in a peach-red lined jacket stood by, holding both of Old Madam Qian’s hands. At first glance, Li Qing was startled—he thought it was the Commander’s wife and the Commander himself coming in person. Looking closer, the woman was a bit shorter and fuller than the Madam, and the man, though about the same height as her, was not their tall and imposing Commander.
“And who might these relatives be?” Li Qing whispered quietly to his wife, wanting to know how he should address them.
But Li Qing’s wife was just as puzzled, shaking her head that she didn’t know either. They could only smile and go forward to greet them warmly, calling them brother and sister. Old Man Qian pointed at the woman and scolded: “Tch! Why are you calling blindly? Our family is of higher seniority! Her father calls me uncle, so she ought to call me grandfather. You can’t call them brother and sister—you should call them niece and nephew-in-law!”
As the saying goes, “the grandpa in the cradle, the grandson with the cane.” Because her generation ranked higher, Li Qing’s wife had been called “aunt, aunt” since childhood, and she was long used to it. She just didn’t know where this niece had suddenly appeared from. Once the guests were invited in and they all exchanged polite talk for a while, Li Qing finally pieced it together. They were daughters of a distant branch of the family, seldom in touch. Somehow they had heard that Old Man Qian’s family had moved to Yuzhou, and had come specially with her husband to pay New Year’s respects.
Old Man Qian beamed so wide his mouth couldn’t close. This was face for him! What’s more, the distant granddaughter had married quite well—her husband was surnamed Sun, the son of a wealthy landowner from the south of the city. One could say she had married up. But still, not as well as his own daughter—after all, his son-in-law was the Dingxi Marquis, a hero who fought north and south, and who treated his daughter exceedingly well.
While the men talked in the outer room, Li Qing’s wife and Old Madam Qian pulled the Sun family’s young madam into the inner chamber, fussing over her warmly. Lately, having seen a lot of Qian Jiaoniang, Li Qing’s wife felt this older niece looked a bit similar to her, and couldn’t help but grow suspicious. She asked the niece her name, and learned her given name was Linian. Li Qing’s wife’s eyes lit up—this was only one character different from the Marquis’s wife’s given name. Could there truly be a connection?
Old Madam Qian asked: “Linian, how is your father these days? Life has been hard for everyone in recent years. The family was poor, and we’ve been too ashamed to come visiting.”
Qian Linian replied: “Oh, Grandmother, what are you saying? You’re the elder—our family should have come to honor you. But we’ve been so poor we could hardly keep the pot boiling, we dared not knock on relatives’ doors. Two years ago when I gave birth, I went home once—my father and mother were still well then. I don’t know how they are now.”
Old Madam Qian said: “Your parents not living in the city—that can’t be helped. A daughter married follows her husband’s household.” Once a daughter married, she was like water poured out—spending her life for her husband’s family, seldom returning home. But speaking of marriage, her own daughter truly had married well—her son-in-law was even willing to honor his in-laws, paying to set up a restaurant for them.
Qian Linian forced a smile. “Yes, I know the rule that a married daughter follows her husband, but I can’t help thinking of my family. I miss my father and mother, my older sister, my younger brother… most of all, my poor younger sister.”
Old Madam Qian quickly asked: “What happened to your sister?”
Qian Linian let out a heavy sigh. “My sister Jiaoniang was sold off by my father many years ago. I don’t even know if she’s alive or dead now. Whenever I think of her, I feel unbearably sad.”
“What is your sister’s name?” Li Qing’s wife immediately asked.
Qian Linian looked at her and said: “My sister’s given name is Jiaoniang—Qian Jiaoniang.”
