Chapter 72: Gold Gourd Earrings

Xiang Hui had been making a fuss for half the night, her face powder and rouge smeared into a mess.

Her sunken cheeks were deathly pale, with two blotches of rouge on her cheekbones, and her lips were pursed in a garish red.

She looked like a monkey spirit performing with a stick on a stage.

Pear Moon watched her quietly, finding it rather amusing.

Just from those few words earlier, it was clear her mind wasn’t sharp.

If anyone knew someone else’s secrets, who would blurt them out in a fit of anger?

Even a biting dog knows not to bark recklessly.

Arguing with such a muddle-headed fool was truly pointless, so Pear Moon simply remained silent.

Granny Fan, however, was not so patient. She stepped forward, kicked Xiang Hui to the ground, and grabbed a rolling pin, beating her indiscriminately.

“You filthy-hearted little wretch, who do you think you are! A mere third-rank maid who can’t even enter the Main Chamber—does the mistress even know who you are? How dare you scold me? I, Granny Fan, stand tall and proud. If I’ve taken any benefits, I’ve never taken them from your bowl. Who are you to act like the master?”

Two large bumps had already formed on Xiang Hui’s forehead by the time Pear Moon and Autumn Abundance managed to persuade Granny Fan to leave.

“These days, it’s chaos where the strong rule, and nine-tailed fox spirits emerge, with all sorts of riffraff jumping out! What kind of thing is Xiang Hui, daring to stomp her feet and bully me?”

Granny Fan returned to her room and sat on the kang, her face still flushed with anger.

“Let Xiao Yue speak fairly—since I took charge of the kitchen courtyard, have I ever mistreated those below? When Mama Hu managed the kitchen, even pickled vegetables were scarce, and she didn’t dare utter a word. Now that I’m in charge, the servants’ meals have meat every day, and she dares to say we’ve grown fat from eating? That little wretch deserves to starve!”

This showed Granny Fan’s true nature.

Xiang Hui had cursed both Pear Moon and her, but Granny Fan had stepped forward first.

These past few days, Autumn Abundance had received many favors from Granny Fan regarding food and meals, so she hurriedly tried to calm her: “It’s all because Granny Fan treated her too well! A year or two ago, when you were making steamed pastries, she came to the kitchen begging for food, and you even gave her two pieces! Granny Fan is the kindest—who doesn’t come to you for sweets? She can curse others, but cursing you is truly forgetting her roots! Good Granny, don’t be angry. We stand upright and fear no crooked shadows!”

As soon as Autumn Abundance finished, Pear Moon chimed in.

“Xiang Hui lost a lot of money buying pepper. I heard from others that she’s angry about the pepper price dropping and that Granny Fan didn’t warn her, causing her to lose a good deal of silver. She still owes dozens of taels to others, so she’s probably desperate from poverty and came to vent her anger on me and Granny Fan.”

These words reminded Granny Fan, who slapped the kang in frustration and said, “I knew it! That filthy-hearted wretch—I didn’t provoke her, yet she came to provoke me! That pepper business was entirely her own choice. Who told her to buy it? Starting tomorrow, I’ll keep my eyes wide open and watch what kind of end she meets!”

It was already the first watch, and after calming Granny Fan, Pear Moon and Autumn Abundance returned to their room to sleep.

Seeing no one around, Autumn Abundance grinned and said, “You’ve learned to be sly now, stirring up trouble? I thought you’d be a turtle hiding in its shell!”

In the past, Pear Moon had always been more inclined to endure such situations.

But since taking charge of the Small Tea Room, she had come to understand that one couldn’t always retreat from everything.

If you suffered bullying without speaking up, others would only bully you more.

Especially with mad dogs like Xiang Hui—if you didn’t hit them hard enough, they wouldn’t know their place.

Xiang Hui was a dowry maid. If Pear Moon confronted her directly, it would seem too deliberate.

Pear Moon’s plan was to use the Shen family’s accompanying servants to let Shen Shi deal with her personally.

“Xiang Hui falsely accused me of coveting the tea room’s snacks. Though the charge is baseless, with the mistress’s temper, she’s bound to find fault. Better we strike first and get rid of that wench Xiang Hui, to stop her from stirring up trouble and barking like a mad dog.”

Pear Moon snorted coldly and pulled Autumn Abundance back to their small room to sleep.

Tomorrow, Shen Shi would be visiting the Qin family, so she still had to get up early to make pastries.

Everyone had retired, leaving only Xiang Hui in the kitchen courtyard.

She had howled half the night, only to earn herself two beatings. With her pent-up anger finding no outlet, she sat in the courtyard pounding the ground.

Late at night, she wanted to find someone to fetch water, but who in the courtyard would help her?

She had no choice but to carry the hot water buckets herself, making two trips to the west wing.

Inside, Shen Si Jier had long since undressed, waiting left and right with no one coming.

With no other maids in the room, she dared not go out to search herself.

Instead, she hid behind the screen, waiting anxiously for a full hour.

Finally, she saw Xiang Hui return, disheveled and covered in bruises, muttering curses under her breath.

The water had long gone cold, but Shen Si Jier dared not ask, so she hurriedly washed herself.

She had arrived with nothing but the clothes on her back, wearing only an old gauze robe. If she wore it again tomorrow, it would be unbecoming.

Granny Zhao had someone bring a set of clothes for her to change into, along with a few hair ornaments and jewelry.

After the bathwater was taken away, Xiang Hui led Shen Si Jier into the Warm Pavilion to see the new clothes.

A blue-green woven gold jacket with a matching front opening, a water-green trailing skirt, and a bright red brocade vest, all glittering with gold and jade.

The undershirt, petticoat, and embroidered knee-length trousers were all made of Hangzhou silk, along with a water-blue silk sash inlaid with eight treasures and gold thread.

In the gilded and painted phoenix dressing case were three pairs of insect-and-grass gold hairpins of varying sizes, a plum blossom gold hair ornament for the front, a pair of ruby earrings, and two gold rings, all dazzlingly bright.

Shen Si Jier stared in a daze, her eyes growing moist.

She had grown up in the Shen family until fifteen, always wearing cotton clothes and skirts.

It wasn’t until her coming-of-age ceremony that her stepmother gave her an old silk skirt and jacket.

She wore it for half a day on her birthday before her concubine mother put it away, and today was only the second time she had worn it.

As for jewelry, it went without saying—not to mention gold, pearls, or gemstones, she didn’t even have a single piece of mixed silver.

The gold gourd earrings she wore today were taken from her concubine mother’s own ears and given to her.

In all her years in the Shen family, her concubine mother had only this one decent piece of jewelry.

It was made with Master Shen’s private savings when he took her in, and she had never taken it off for years.

Shen Si Jier hadn’t wanted to accept it, but her concubine mother doted on her.

How could she go to Ningguo Mansion with tea stems stuffed in her earlobes?

“Sister Xiang Hui, I’ll trouble you tomorrow morning to wake me up early.”

Xiang Hui was two years younger than her, but as the eldest sister’s maid, Shen Si Jier dared not be impolite.

“Our Phoenix Ripple Courtyard has many rules. Dressing, grooming, eating, and bathing all have set times. If you’re even slightly off, not only will the mistress scold you for being ignorant, but even the lower maids will curse you.”

“Just now, when you wanted to bathe, over a few buckets of hot water, the tea room pushed it to the kitchen, the maids pushed it to the servants—what a commotion! It nearly wore me out! Tomorrow, I have my own duties and no spare time to attend to Fourth Miss.”

Xiang Hui was Shen Shi’s personal maid and had always been domineering. When had she ever looked properly at a concubine-born girl?

Shen Si Jier understood her meaning but truly had no reward money to give. Her face flushed red with helpless anxiety.

Having bathed, her hair was loose, and the pair of gold gourd earrings lay on the bedside.

Xiang Hui glanced sideways at them, her lips twisted in silence.

The hair ornaments and jewelry in her elder sister’s dressing case were naturally finer, but Shen Si Jier dared not take them to reward others.

The only thing she had in her hand was this pair of gold earrings.

“Sister Xiang Hui, these earrings belong to the concubine, and they’re a bit old-fashioned…”

Shen Si Jier couldn’t bear to part with them herself, let alone on behalf of the concubine.

She and her mother hadn’t seen Father Shen for years, and these gold gourd earrings were the concubine’s only keepsake.

“Thank you, Fourth Miss, for the reward! It doesn’t matter if the earrings are old—I’ll take them out to be melted down and have a new hairpin made instead!”

Xiang Hui didn’t hold back, snatching them and tucking them into her sleeve.

They weighed about seven or eight qian, which could be exchanged for eight or nine taels of silver. It would be good to pay off some debts—better than nothing at all.

Xiang Hui slammed the door and left, leaving Shen Si Jier behind. Covering her mouth, she dared not cry, but tears fell like broken strings of pearls.