The girl in front of them was the spitting image of the young “Wise Pan An” in both looks and demeanor. There was no need to investigate anything—she was absolutely Qin Huaiyuan’s daughter. But, if she was Qin Huaiyuan’s daughter, then who was Qin Huining who’d spent 14 years in the eldest Qin son’s household?
Everyone’s gaze unconsciously flitted between Qin Huining and the young girl until Qin Huining’s face turned beet red with indignation. The old dowager made a moue and busied herself with patting Qin Huining’s hand comfortingly on one hand, whilst sizing up the young girl with a dismissive expression on the other.
The girl was dressed decently, but she didn’t even dare lift her eyes. She was the very picture of a country bumpkin with the little airs of someone who’d never been in a big city… apart from looking like her eldest son, there was none of the proper air that the official firstborn of an old and well-known family should have.
My darling Huining is so much better! The old dowager tightened her grasp on Qin Huining’s hand, bringing untold comfort to the girl.
“Greetings to mother (Old Dowager).” Qin Huaiyuan, second elder master Qin Xiuyuan, master Qin Yu, and second master Qin Han all paid their respects to the old dowager.
The old dowager spread out her hands. “You may rise.” She kept her eyes fixed on the young girl.
“Daughter Yi, why haven’t you kowtowed to your grandmother yet?” Qin Huaiyuan asked coldly.
“Daughter Yi?” The old dowager arched an eyebrow.
“Yes mother, she’s only had a nickname in the outside world all these years. Your son has given her a proper name already—Yining.” He glared at the dumbly staring girl with displeasure. She’s someone who grew up in the countryside alright. She knows nothing of the world and has no manners at all. She’s just standing there like a block of wood.
The young girl pursed her lips and mentally ran through the courtesies that her second elder cousin Qin Han had taught her in the inn. She knelt down docilely to go through the proper courtesies.
“This granddaughter greets her grandmother.” Her voice was as if an oriole’s ringing tones out of a valley, quite moving.
The old dowager took in her movements with a sideways glance. She barely manages to pass muster. She snorted softly, “You’re called Yining now? Then what were you called before?”
“In response to grandmother, I was Little Creek before.”
“And why were you called that?”
“Because my foster mother found me by the side of a little creek. That's why she called me Little Creek.”
Everyone had different thoughts when they heard this. Some jeered while others sighed. Qin Huining clenched her fist tightly, but put on a heartbroken expression on her face. Qin Han sighed with pity. He really felt for this younger cousin of his, who’d led such a hard life since youth.
The old dowager however, smiled mockingly. “You were called Little Creek because you were found by a creek? Then wouldn’t you be called Doggy if you were found in a den of dogs? Stupid, ignorant peasants who didn’t even know how to name a child! I think you can forgo being called Yining, you’re not worthy of it either. Just keep your ‘Little Creek’.”
Everyone was gravely silent.
Qin Yining rose her head with surprise to look at the old dowager. It appeared that this family didn’t welcome her in the slightest, and her grandmother even openly disliked her. Well, I suppose that only makes sense.
She’d heard that the concubines of large families in cities would plot and scheme for a long time for just a bit more to make it through the winter. Now that her true father had found her and brought her back just like this, she must have stolen someone’s place or become an eyesore…
And truth be told, she rather preferred being called Little Creek.
But she was a daughter of the Qin family! Why did she have to offer up with both hands what belonged to her? Was it her fault that one of her father’s political enemies had stolen her when she was born? Should she not come home after arduously making it through all these years?
The old dowager somehow felt uncomfortable as the girl’s clear, beautiful almond-shaped eyes gazed into hers.
“I heard you’ve been hiding deep in the mountains all these years by yourself?” The matriarch spoke coldly again.
“Yes.” Qin Yining looked down again.
“Why did you go to the mountains?”
“Because of the war. People are destitute in the cities and there are many who want to take advantage of the nation’s troubles to get rich. So they kidnap people to sell as slaves. I was afraid that would happen to me after my foster mother died, so I went up into the mountains myself.”
The city of Liang where she’d been was on the border of two countries. Fires of war had raged there for more than ten years, and nine out of ten houses were deserted by now.
“Well aren’t you clever, knowing to take shelter in the mountains.” The old dowager snorted.
* * *
Popular in the Ming Dynasty, it’s most similar to a light cloak. It will be referred to as a cloak in the future for the translation.
The second elder master and third elder master
Pan An was a prominent poet in the Western Jin Dynasty and often hailed as one of the “China’s Four Most Handsome Men”
Chapter 2: Mother
It was deathly silent within the side hall. The very air seemed to have frozen in the face of the old dowager’s displeasure. The servants were dead silent as Qin-mama, Jixiang, and the other head maids all took cover in the outer hall. They hardly dared to even breathe loudly.
Qin Yining raised her head from her kneeling position on the carpet of brocade flowers to look at the old dowager. She enunciated carefully, “My foster mother told me to hide with her dying words. She said my life would be ruined if I was sold. It’d be better if wild beasts ate me.”
Those words hid much resignation and hardship. She’d been the treasured flower of the prime minister’s manor, but had been stolen away by villains when she was born and abandoned in a random plot of land.
She’d had the extreme luck to run into a kind foster mother, but her foster mother had been taken away from her early, leaving her orphaned at the tender age of eight.
In the chaos of war, she had no other choice but to hide in the mountains and eke out a chance at survival alone. She’d managed to hang on tenaciously and fully experience the coldness and bitterness of the world and life until her birth father found her at the age of fourteen.
How would such a girl not evoke pity? Would any one of them be able to survive six years in the desolate wilderness from the tender age of eight?
No one present possessed such confidence. They likely wouldn’t have made it through six days.
Setting aside needing to find food and shelter, just living alone wasn’t something that just anyone could withstand. There would be no one to take care of them when they fell sick, nor anyone to look after them in the depths of summer or winter. In fact, there wouldn’t even be someone to talk to!
The human heart was made of flesh and blood after all, and the gazes of many in the room turned tender and warmed with pity.
“You… life has been difficult for you.” The old dowager also sighed inwardly and softened her brittle tone.
Qin Huining clenched her fists tightly when she saw the old dowager moved with compassion. Her nails dug in and formed four ghastly white crescents on her palm, almost to the point of bleeding. However, the pitiful expression on her fair face grew even more obvious as tears leaked out of her swollen, almond-shaped eyes.
She took three quick steps forward and raised Qin Yining up with both hands. She caressed Qin Yining’s coarse and callused hands with her slender, white jade ones. Qin Huining spoke compassionately, “Younger sister Little Creek, you’ve suffered greatly.”
That simple name of Little Creek was a subtle affirmation of the old dowager’s non acceptance of Qin Yining. Everyone in the crowd w
as shrewd and calculating; this flew over no heads. Some of the girls subtly looked down to avert their gazes, while others whispered to each other.
Qin Huining’s hands were clammy and cold, somehow reminding Qin Yining of the cool skin of a snake. She blinked and swiftly withdrew her hand. This person’s enmity towards her had been the most overt ever since she’d set foot through the door. It looked like this person was the unknown foster daughter that had been switched with her. Qin Yining’s return was an usurpation of her position.
Having survived in the wild for so long, Qin Yining had an almost innate perception of hostility. Otherwise, she would’ve long become scraps for wild animals. Although she lived deep in the mountains, it wasn’t as if she’d never ventured forth from them.
She’d plucked herbs and hunted in order to barter for some necessities at the foot of the mountain, so she’d often interact with merchants and hunters. She’d also scrabbled out a living in the city with her foster mother before then, so she understood more of the dark sides of human nature than these highly coiffed, noble personages in front of her.
Those had been troubled times, and she’d seen the dirtiest and darkest things that people would resort to in order to survive. Thus, she was genuinely repulsed by Qin Huining’s hypocritical tenderness, pursing her lips.
Second master Qin Han frowned disapprovingly and walked up to make a bow. “Old Dowager, it’s fine if Yining’s nickname stays Little Creek. This is a show of our gratitude for her foster mother raising her for eight years. But the current generation of Qin daughters all have the character ‘Ning’ in their names, whether it be Jianing, Huining, Shuangning, Anning, and Baoning. There are no exceptions. Not to mention that senior uncle has already bestowed upon Little Creek the name of Yining. If Old Dowager…”
“When was it time for juniors to debate my words? Am I so old that I have no authority over this family anymore?! Or are you in charge to issue the orders in the Qin family?!”
Although Qin Han was the son of the official wife from the third branch of the family, his father [1] was concubine-born. The old dowager disliked children from concubines and naturally didn’t like Qin Han much either. She would show him some face in ordinary circumstances, but with her temper provoked, all that was flung out the window.
Second wife née Meng [2] walked up to pluck Qin Han’s sleeve, reminding her husband to not openly defy the old dowager. However, Qin Han had a heroic heart and his stubborn temper flared to match the old dowager’s unreasonable exhortations.
“Although Yining grew up in the wild countryside, she’s senior uncle’s daughter after all! Anyone who isn’t blind can tell that with just one glance. No one’s doubting her identity, so why does Old Dowager speak in such a manner?”
The old dowager pursed her lips and fired back wrathfully, “There are many in this world who look similar to each other! Is everyone who looks like your senior uncle a child of the Qin family?!”
“Old Dowager, you know full well in your heart of hearts that Yining is the child who was stolen away by senior uncle’s political enemies! None of us are saying that anything should happen to Huining now that Yining is back, so what are you nervous about? You can lovingly raise a girl with an unknown background, why can’t you love your own granddaughter?!”
Qin Huining flushed beet red at the words “unknown background”. Two streaks of tears immediately started to flow down her fair, delicate cheeks. She flung herself into the old dowager’s embrace with a sob, “Grandmother, it’s all granddaughter’s fault, it’s all granddaughter’s fault!”
The old dowager felt her nose twinge and cried as well, patting Qin Huining’s back, “Don’t cry my darling Hui, no one will dare do anything to you with grandmother around!”
It was as if the others wanted to chase Qin Huining away. However, everyone knew that this was just how the old dowager was, so they were resigned to this spectacle.
Eldest wife née Yao walked up to speak some pacifying words, “Younger brother-in-law, think of the old dowager and speak a few words less.”
The second wife[3] tugged on Qin Han’s sleeve again, hinting at him to speak less for fear he would cause the others to dislike him. However, Qin Han summarily dismissed it all.
He spoke up again, this time in a carrying voice, “It’s simply too unfair to not call Cousin Yi by her name, Yining! Cousin Hui, you reside in the prime minister’s manor without worry for food and clothing thanks to Cousin Yi! You should be speaking up on her behalf right now, not attacking her with spears and clubs.”
Qin Huining lifted her teary eyes to look at Qin Han with an ashen face.
“The fires of war now burn everywhere as the nation sits in peril,” he continued. “Nine houses out of ten are empty in the city of Liang—the sight makes me heart stricken! If you all had seen the sights for yourself, all of you would understand Cousin Yi’s difficulties and struggles!
“I feel that half of my heart has frozen over after this trip, and I quite admire Cousin Yi’s bravery in being able to survive. To speak of nothing else, if it’d been any of you who’d lived her life, the grass on your graves would be three feet tall by now! We should just happily acknowledge that one of our own has been found. The very nation might burn in two days, but at least we’ll die together as a family!”
Qin Huining choked out with a reddened face, “It’s I who stole younger sister Little Creek’s life. It’s all my fault!”
Qin Han rolled his eyes and curled his lip when he heard this.
“Enough, younger brother, you always speak too much.” Qin Yu waited until Qin Han was done before noncommittally speaking.
Old Dowager had wrapped her arm around Qin Huining and was now so enraged that she was pointing at Qin Han with the finger adorned with the emerald ring. “You vile spawn! I only said one word, but you unleashed this flood to cause me such distress!”
“I know Old Dowager is distressed whenever you see me, so I’ll take my leave from your line of sight then!”
“You better stay as far away as possible!”
Qin Han snorted and turned to pull his wife away with him as he stalked off.
The old dowager was so incensed that she slammed her hand on the low tea-table next to her, yelling towards the outside with a hotly flushed face. “Vile spawn! Vile spawn! Leave and don’t come see me again!”
“Please calm yourself, grandmother,” Qin Huining counseled with a choked up voice. “Second cousin’s always been a direct and straightforward person. He didn’t say anything wrong either, it’s me who’s unworthy.”
The old dowager couldn’t keep her emotions controlled after Qin Huining’s words. The two grasped each other tightly and sobbed loudly, as the other girls started to cry as well. The room descended into a chaotic mess for a long moment.
Qin Yining watched from off to the side, the light in her eyes slowly fading away. These people wearing rich clothes of new red and pale green, adorned with gold and jade, seemed to be living in another world compared to her.
They were right in front of her, but made her feel like they were so very far away. If it’d been an age of peace and prosperity outside, she really would’ve just left. She would rather spend her life in spartan conditions—she’d at least be free then.
But Qin Yining didn’t want to accept that! This was her home! She finally had a family, so did she now have to give up with her own hands what belonged to her? Her second elder cousin had said that her mother was alive.
Mothers always loved their children. Her foster mother had loved her with all her strength, even though her foster mother hadn’t given birth to Yining. If a foster mother could have been so loving, then her real mother must be even more so. Qin Yining grew a bit anxious and looked back to the heavily frowning Qin Huaiyuan. She asked apprehensively, “Father, where is my mother? Why haven’t I seen her?”
Qin Huining whipped her head around to look at Qin Yining at those words. Qin Huaiyuan made a faint sound of assent and waved his ha
nd to summon Jixiang, “Go ask Senior Madame to come.”
Jixiang backed away after acknowledging the order. Qin Yining no longer watched the reactions of Old Dowager and the others; she peered hopefully at the door instead. She’d known since young that she’d been picked up off the streets. She daydreamed and wondered everyday what her mother looked like.
Now that they were about to meet, her hands turned clammy with sweat, even with her steady personality that had been tempered by many years of hardship.
Scattered footsteps sounded outside at that very moment. A young maid immediately reported from outside, “Old Dowager. Senior Madame, Second Madame, and Third Wife have arrived.”
The heavy curtains were lifted to reveal a beautiful middle-aged woman wearing a light purple, cinched waist brocade dress and a plain cloak. A golden phoenix hairpin with a multi-hued dangle of precious gems swayed as she charged into the room. She stood by the round curio shelf as her eyes, swollen from crying, immediately snapped towards Qin Yining.
Qin Yining’s hands were clenched tightly as she instinctively took two steps forward, her eyes also fixed on this woman.
Their eyes met. No one had to tell her anything, she knew this woman was her mother.
“You…” Née Sun walked slowly towards Qin Yining, her body seeming to weigh a thousand tons. She lifted a trembling hand and reached for Qin Yining’s face.
Tears finally welled up in Qin Yining’s almond-shaped eyes as she murmured, “Mother.” She raised both arms and unconsciously took another two steps forward.
As if slapped awake, née Sun immediately covered her mouth and began crying, backing up while shaking her head, “Impossible, impossible! The child I’ve raised all these years isn’t my child, how can this be?!”
Qin Huining immediately flung herself into née Sun’s embrace with reddened eyes. She began to bawl loudly, “Mother, your daughter has let you down! Your daughter is unworthy of your love! Your daughter has taken younger sister Little Creek’s position, but I didn’t mean to! I really didn’t mean to!”
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