After paying her respects to the Buddha, Cheng Danruo returned to her room for dinner.
After the meal, Bai Zhi came to report to her. “I have already spoken with Nanny Hao. She said that going back and forth would be quite inconvenient, and that she should be fine after taking two more doses of medicine. She asked whether it would be all right for you to set off the day after tomorrow.”
The day after tomorrow would be the eighth day. By reason and by sentiment alike, it was time for her to return. Cheng Danruo had no objections. “Very well, then.”
Bai Zhi breathed a sigh of relief.
Cheng Danruo pretended not to notice.
She did not have much time left. Tonight was an opportunity, and she hoped to find out some useful information. Otherwise, once she returned to the Chen household, she would be back inside that square, birdcage-like prison, and it would be even harder to escape.
“It’s still early. I’m going to pay a visit to the old gentleman. You stay here and keep Nanny Hao settled. Don’t let her become suspicious,” Cheng Danruo instructed.
Bai Zhi hurriedly glanced at the sky. “It’s almost nightfall…”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Her tone left no room for argument.
Bai Zhi could only fall silent, watching helplessly as she went alone toward the meditation quarters in another part of the temple.
The evening breeze drifted gently by, while the setting sun bathed the mountains in golden light.
Cheng Danru adjusted the silver hairpin in her hair and stepped into the meditation room. Lamps had already been lit inside. The beautiful young gentleman was attending to Yan Hongzhi, helping him take his medicine after he had finished his meal.
“Doctor Cheng has come. Have you come to make sure I takes my medicine on time?” Yan Hongzhi joked.
Cheng Danru smiled and asked warmly, “Are you feeling any better?”
“Much better.”
“Let me take your pulse again.”
At Yan Hongzhi’s age, there was really no need for any formal modesty, so he smiled and extended his wrist.
Cheng Danru carefully felt his pulse, then examined his wound. It had indeed healed, so she said, “The wound is no longer a concern. But you must be extremely careful from now on. There are plenty of snakes and insects in summer, so don’t go outside at night.”
She then told him about the patients she had seen that day. “When you have nothing particular to do, don’t go near the water. There are all sorts of parasites and harmful creatures in the water, and they can easily infect people. The elderly man who came this morning was about your age. His abdomen was filled with fluid, swollen like that of a pregnant woman. It’s quite difficult to treat.”
Yan Hongzhi had heard something about it as well, but he could not help finding it amusing to be given such earnest instructions by a young woman.
“Yes, yes. I’ll remember everything you have said.”
Only then did Cheng Danru let him off. She took out the middle-school mathematics notes she had transcribed from memory the night before: what a right angle was, what supplementary and complementary angles were, the interior and exterior angles of a triangle, the sum of the interior angles of a polygon…
They were all basic concepts, but each was essential.
Only after mastering these could they move on to geometry.
Of course, she had her own little ulterior motive, too. If she brought out the big guns right from the start, how could she show off her abilities?
Yan Hongzhi took the papers and examined them carefully. Western mathematics was quite different from the mathematical methods used in China. It placed greater emphasis on theory than practical application, and its expressions were highly abstract.
Fortunately, these were all fairly elementary theorems. By comparing them with what he had already learned, he was able to understand most of them.
“They are indeed quite useful,” was Yan Hongzhi’s assessment.
The moment Cheng Danru heard this, she knew she had played too small a card. She pulled out another sheet of paper. “These are problems I came up with myself, using these Western theories.”
The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art contained problems involving the Pythagorean theorem, but they were extremely simple. She had modified one of the original problems, increasing its difficulty.
This time, Yan Hongzhi’s expression became considerably more serious.
“Doctor Cheng, there’s another sheet in your sleeve.” Xie Xuanying suddenly spoke up. “May I see it?”
Cheng Danru hadn’t expected him to have such sharp eyes and notice her trump card. She paused, then smiled. “Of course.”
It was a system of simultaneous linear equations in two variables.
He took one look and immediately recognized it.
“Tianyuan Technique.”
At present, the most complicated method for solving equations was the siyuan shu: setting up four unknowns – the tianyuan, diyuan, renyuan, and wuyuan – in other words, a system of four-variable equations.
But this was exceedingly difficult. To have mastered even tianyuan technique was already an extraordinary achievement.
He was secretly astonished. What he hadn’t expected was that Cheng Danru would be even more shocked than he was.
She had underestimated the ancients. She had thought that pulling out some equations would be enough to bluff them, but as it turned out, they had already seen something similar.
Well, sometimes human calculations simply couldn’t compete with fate.
She had tried to show off, only to have the other side show her up instead.
Awkward.
After a long while, Yan Hongzhi finished reading all three sheets of paper before saying, “Miss Cheng, you are remarkably learned. I have never seen these methods of calculation before. You have certainly opened my eyes today.”
Cheng Danru took this as an attempt to comfort her, and did her best to maintain a calm expression. “You flatter me. I merely worked these out for amusement in my spare time. I hope you’ll forgive my presumptuousness.”
“No, no. You are far too modest.” Yan Hongzhi pondered for a moment before saying, “I have a good friend who is deeply devoted to mathematics and astronomy. If he were able to study these methods, they would surely be of great help to him. Would it be possible to have a copy transcribed? I would, of course, repay you handsomely.”
“Of course.” Cheng Danru agreed at once, though she was also honest enough to add, “It’s just that these are things I wrote down from memory on a whim, so they’re not complete…”
“That doesn’t matter.” Yan Hongzhi waved his hands repeatedly. He would feel terribly guilty about deceiving her into giving away some treasured family knowledge. Even having them copied was already taking a great advantage of her, so he continued, “Knowledge is priceless. You have shown me great kindness, and I cannot take advantage of my age to deceive you into giving me something for nothing.”
He looked at Cheng Danru and stroked his beard. “If there is something troubling you, Miss Cheng, you may as well tell me. Though I am advanced in years, I do have one or two students who may be of some assistance.”
Cheng Danru paused.
She understood that Yan Hongzhi had probably seen through her deliberate – or perhaps half-deliberate – attempts to curry favor with him. He simply had not exposed her out of sympathy.
In front of someone as shrewd and worldly-wise as him, pretending not to understand would only put her at a disadvantage.
She nodded and came straight to the point.
“I would like to ask you, sir, whether you know of anywhere in the Jiangnan region where someone like me might be allowed to enter religious life and devote herself to cultivation?”
Yan Hongzhi was stunned.
He had assumed that what Cheng Danru wanted was either to inquire about the whereabouts of her relatives or to ask about the culprit behind the Cold Dew Rebellion. He never would have imagined that she actually wanted to become a nun.
“Young as you are, and with your best years still ahead of you, why would you wish to enter religious life?” he asked, astonished and perplexed.
Naturally, Cheng Danru was not about to tell an ancient scholar-official, I don’t want to get married. My fate is mine to decide, not my husband’s.
Instead, she tactfully came up with a reason. “It is merely a matter of being unable to fulfill both gratitude and filial duty.”
The conflict between loyalty and filial piety was a dilemma commonly faced by men in ancient times: if they served their ruler, they could not devote themselves to serving their parents. They had plenty of experience with this sort of problem and knew exactly how to choose – of course serving in office was more important.
“Could you elaborate?”
Cheng Danru shook her head.
She could hardly elaborate. A son should not speak of his father’s faults; by the same logic, she could not speak of the faults of someone to whom she owed a debt of gratitude. What she had just said was already as far as she could go. If she said any more, they might instead think her cold-hearted and ungrateful.
As expected, when she refused to say anything more, Yan Hongzhi thought more highly of her. After pondering for a moment, he said, “You may not know this, Miss Cheng, but under the laws of the current dynasty, women from common households who are under forty are not permitted to become Buddhist nuns or Daoist priestesses.”
In those days, if a temple or nunnery housed a young woman, there were generally only two possibilities. Either she was an abandoned infant taken in by the temple and raised there from childhood, or it was an illicit temple, using the guise of religious practice to engage in improper activities. A woman from an ordinary household would only be sent to practice at the family temple if she had committed some serious offense.
Naturally, it would be difficult to explain all of this to Miss Cheng directly.
Cheng Danru had never given any thought to such matters. She was simply stunned.
She had originally considered practicing medicine as a religious woman. That way, she could build a reputation for herself without being trapped in the inner chambers, subject to the control of others. She had never imagined that the current dynasty actually forbade young women from entering religious life.
She let out a sigh, gathered her robes, and gave a formal bow. “I was being presumptuous. Please pretend I never mentioned it.”
“Not at all.” Yan Hongzhi felt apologetic as well. He had genuinely wanted to help her, but matters concerning gratitude and filial duty were family affairs. How could an outsider presume to interfere?
All he could do was offer some vague words of comfort. “A young woman with such a kind heart and such skill in medicine will surely be blessed in return.”
Cheng Danru gave a bitter smile.
Did kindness really bring good fortune?
She had worked so hard to study medicine, wanting nothing more than to save lives and heal the wounded, only to be thrown into ancient times. For five years, she had lived in constant fear while caring for Old Madam Chen, only to end up being expected to share her husband with another woman.
Yet these sufferings could not be spoken of to an outsider. She could only swallow them all down and, on the surface, thank him as though nothing were wrong.
“Then I’ll take your blessing.”
She glanced at the sky and rose to leave. “It’s getting late. I won’t disturb you any longer. Please take good care of yourself.”
“It’s late already. I won’t keep you, Miss Cheng.”
“Please, stay here.”
The candle flame sputtered, sending a little burst of light through the room as the glow flickered.
Xie Xuanying picked up the three sheets of paper she had left behind. “Sir, these…”
“You remember them?”
He nodded.
Yan Hongzhi thought for a moment before saying, “Go and return them to Miss Cheng. They concern a young lady’s private matters, so it is best to be cautious.”
“Yes.”
Xie Xuanying hurried after her.
The moonlight was faint, and shadows of bamboo stretched across the ground. He followed her all the way into the bamboo grove, only to see her hesitate beneath the bamboo shadows for a moment before suddenly sitting down on a nearby stone.
She propped her head up, covered her face with her palm, and remained motionless for a long, long time.
Xie Xuanying was at a loss. Was she crying?
For a moment, he hesitated, pacing back and forth.
But Cheng Danru was not crying.
She bit her lip and reminded herself over and over: There’s nothing to be upset about. Failure is normal. You’re not the heroine of a novel. You can’t expect everything to go exactly the way you want.
Look on the bright side. At least she had ruled out one wrong option today.
She took a deep breath, held it, then slowly exhaled, repeating the deep breathing again and again.
Little by little, she managed to hold back her tears.
Cheng Danru gradually regained her composure and reassured herself that things might not actually be as bad as they seemed.
Old Madam Chen wasn’t stupid. She wouldn’t jeopardize her grandson’s future. At the very least, she would wait until he was formally betrothed before bringing it up. There was still time.
There must be another way. Don’t panic. You can’t panic.
“Miss.” Bai Zhi came to fetch her with a lantern. Seeing her alone, she was alarmed. “Are you all right?”
Cheng Danru had already regained her composure. “I’m fine.”
“Your eyes…” Bai Zhi looked extremely worried. “Did something happen?”
“No.” Afraid that Bai Zhi would keep asking questions, Cheng Danru quickly changed the subject. “I’ll write a letter tomorrow. When we return to the city, you don’t need to come back with me for the time being. Go home first.”
Bai Zhi agreed, but hesitated as though she wanted to say something.
Cheng Danru asked, “If there’s something you want to say, just say it.”
“Miss… the rumors. Are they true?” The maid who had grown up alongside her might not have been particularly clever, but she knew her mistress well enough.
“What rumors?”
“Zi Su told me. Her mother serves in Madam’s quarters, and they’ve all been saying that Old Madam wants you to marry the Second Young Master as his concubine.”
They’ve all been saying it? Whose doing is this? Lady Huang’s, or Old Madam’s?
Cheng Danru had barely begun to think it through when she felt a headache coming on, so she gave an ambiguous answer. “Perhaps.”
Bai Zhi hesitated. “Then, Miss, does that mean…”
Her only subordinate could not be brushed off with a vague answer. That would only break her heart. Cheng Danru rubbed her temples and tried to give the most reasonable explanation she could.
“Bai Zhi, a person must have self-respect. Even if there is no one else left in the Cheng family, I still cannot demean myself and bring shame upon my parents.”
Xie Xuanying, who had been listening in secret, suddenly understood.
The Chen family had shown her kindness by taking care of her, and now they wanted her to become a concubine. Bound by gratitude, she found it difficult to refuse. But if she agreed, she would be betraying her parents’ teachings and bringing dishonor upon her family name. That would be a grave act of filial impiety.
He could not help frowning. Taking a woman of good family background and reducing her to the status of a concubine was against the law. It was merely that unless someone brought the matter before the authorities, the authorities did not pursue it. And since Miss Cheng was all alone, finding herself a place to belong could hardly be considered a bad thing.
But if she was unwilling, and the Chen family was using their past kindness to pressure her, then they were the ones in the wrong.
Besides, with Miss Cheng’s intelligence and talent, becoming a concubine would truly be beneath her.
Lost in thought, he found himself walking back without even realizing it.
“Young master, what took you so long?” Bai Mu caught up with him and asked.
Xie Xuanying suddenly came back to himself. Only then did he remember that once again, he had forgotten to return the writing materials.
But once was an accident; twice made it easier. He immediately slipped the manuscript into his sleeve and said casually, as though nothing had happened, “There’s something I need you to handle personally.”
Bai Mu stood respectfully with his hands lowered. “Please give your orders.”
“When we return to the city, make some inquiries about Vice Commissioner Chen’s household.” He fixed his gaze on his attendant. “Not a word of this is to get out.”
Bai Mu was extremely surprised, but nevertheless nodded. “Yes. I’ll make sure to look into it carefully.”
