Chapter 2 #3
For Ming-ming, anger was a better study supplement than walnuts or ginseng.
Meilin was only mildly surprised that her sister plowed through several sections of the Spring and Autumn Annals without complaint.
At least, without complaints toward the text.
Ming-ming muttered plenty under her breath about Fan Fulan, gentle insults like, “Our father was a Hanlin Academy scholar when hers was cleaning silkworm poop. She wouldn’t know prestige if it farted in her face. ”
As the morning passed and the sun warmed the garden, Meilin almost forgot about Fan Fulan’s warning, but then voices drifted over from the adjacent courtyard. One of them belonged to a child, their nephew Duan Heli, and the other belonged to an unfamiliar man. They were talking about a kite.
“Do you think it’s Fulan’s brother?” Ming-ming whispered.
“Only one way to find out,” Meilin whispered back.
She made her way to the wall that divided the courtyards, knowing that Ming-ming would follow. Concealing most of her body behind the white plastered wall, she peeked through the octagonal window to catch a glimpse of the people on the other side.
As she predicted, little Heli was there. At six suì, with chubby cheeks and half his milk teeth missing, Heli was as adorable as a rabbit. Meilin didn’t begrudge him for the fact that his parents were difficult.
Currently, Heli was dragging a twenty-something man into the courtyard by the hand. The man’s beleaguered attitude and the ease with which he was bossed around by a child indicated that he was an uncle, a doting one too. He must be Fan Enze.
“Are you sure it’s all right to play here, Heli?
I heard that your grandmother isn’t feeling well.
Won’t we disturb her if we fly a kite this close to her room?
” The young man’s conscientiousness was striking.
But if they wanted to fly kites, the yard Heli had selected was the only possible site in Nuolan Garden open enough to get the necessary running start.
Heli grinned as he spoke. “Grandma says I never bother her. She always smiles when I visit. Plus, she gives me sweets and toys.”
Meilin and Ming-ming shared a knowing glance. Mama had a glaring soft spot for Heli, even if he wasn’t her grandchild by blood. His arrival at Nuolan Garden was probably the only bright point in her life since Father’s passing.
“What about your aunties? Are they as easygoing as your grandmother?”
“Hmm . . .” Heli tapped his foot on the pebbled ground.
Why the hesitation? Meilin wondered.
“My aunties are nice, too, I guess. Auntie Ming-ming never lets me win at games, though, and Auntie Meilin and Auntie Ailin are boring because they’re too big to play with me.
If you ask them, though, maybe they’ll play with you.
Especially Auntie Ailin. She’s the one who likes the boringest books, just like you.
But be careful; Mama says she is picky about men. ”
Meilin widened her eyes. Ming-ming clapped her hand over her mouth as if to keep from laughing.
“Duan Heli, that is not an appropriate way to talk about your aunt.” The man did not seem to find Heli’s answer humorous.
Or does knowing that Ailin has standards intimidate him?
“But you’re the one who asked,” Heli whined. “I’m just telling you what the other grown-ups say, so it’s not fair if you get mad at me.”
Fan Enze clicked his tongue as he unraveled the string of the koi-shaped kite he held. “I’m sorry. Let’s focus on getting this into the sky instead.”
Heli followed him as he walked. “But why is it bad to talk like that? Mama does it all the time. She says if Auntie Ailin had married Master Huang, then she would be rich and I would have a rich uncle. Is it important to marry a rich person?”
Fan Enze stopped and stood as straight as a stalk of bamboo. “I think that’s a question you don’t have to worry about. I’m sure your aunts have their own criteria for choosing someone to marry, and your father and grand-mother will select someone appropriate for them when the time comes.”
“How about you, Uncle Enze? Who will find a lady for you to marry?”
“That’s not your business either, little one.”
Heli puffed his cheeks out, looking more like a rabbit than ever. “No fair! I told you everything! Why do you keep secrets?”
Fan Enze laughed as he handed Heli the spool of string. “Take this and run. I’ll hold the kite until it’s ready to fly.”
Meilin turned away and let herself rest against the garden wall. So that is the man with the umbrella.
Fan Enze seemed refined enough, but far from memorable.
He was tall, but his looks were average and his personality was mild.
Meilin could not understand how someone like him had made such a strong impression on Ailin in a single encounter.
Even if getting closer to him would irritate Fan Fulan, was he himself worth it?
Heli’s giggles filtered through the octagonal opening in the wall. The kite was probably flying well. “Do you see it, Uncle Enze? Isn’t it amazing?”
Meilin caught a glimpse of the koi kite soaring above the wall. The crimson paper body bobbed in the air like a real fish with gold-painted wings instead of fins and billowing streamers instead of a tail. The azure sky was bigger than any pond a real koi could dream of.
A brisk wind suddenly swept through the courtyard, and the kite floundered. It fluttered chaotically in midair for a moment before tumbling down and snagging on a tree, judging by the sound of rustling leaves.
Heli wailed. “Uncle Enze, what do we do now?”
The overgrown persimmon tree in the yard was one that Meilin had lost many a kite to when she was young. Since then, the tree had only grown taller and its boughs had multiplied. Poor Heli couldn’t have anticipated such a kite trap.
“I can get it down.” Fan Enze’s voice came from the far side of the yard near the persimmon tree.
“How? Can you climb the tree?” Heli asked.
“I don’t need to climb. I can reach it if I get a stool.”
Meilin and Ming-ming raised their eyebrows at the same time. The only stools in the courtyard were carved of stone. They were heavy things not meant to be easily moved.
“Are you sure you can lift that?” Even Heli sounded skeptical.
“I used to carry loads of firewood heavier than this when I lived at my teacher’s house in Suzhou.”
To Meilin’s surprise, there was a grunt and the sound of stone dragging across gravel.
Did Fan Enze even go to a proper school for young gentlemen?
What kind of teacher made his pupils carry things like a porter until they were strong enough to move stone stools?
Meilin realized how little she actually knew about the Fan family beyond the basics.
Fan Fulan never shared her family’s struggles, and Meilin never asked.
“It’s still too high,” Heli said. “Maybe I should find Auntie Ming-ming. She’s good at climbing trees.”
Fan Enze’s voice was strained, as if he was stretching for something out of reach as he spoke. The sound of rustling leaves separated his words. “Let’s—not—bother—your aunts.”
“What are you two doing?”
Meilin almost jumped at Ailin’s voice. She took a quick breath and squared her shoulders before turning to face her older sister. She had nothing to be afraid of. After all, she was only spying on Fan Enze for Ailin’s good.
“We’re taking a look at Fulan’s brother,” Ming-ming replied for them both.
Panic flashed across Ailin’s face. “Why is he here?”
“Heli dragged him to the persimmon courtyard to fly kites,” Ming-ming explained. “Fulan warned us to stay away from him because she thinks you and Meilin might seduce him before he marries the rich girl he’s supposed to.”
The frown forming on Ailin’s lips looked suspiciously like disappointment, but it vanished when she spoke. “If Fulan asked us to give her guest space, then we should. Especially if he is betrothed. That is not a joke. Come away from the wall, both of you.”
“Do we really have to hide like mice in our own house because of something Fulan said?” Ming-ming asked.
Meilin sympathized with her frustration. They were always surrendering to their sister-in-law’s pressure. It wasn’t right.
Their conversation was interrupted by the thud of a fall onto gravel.
“Uncle, you’re hurt!” Heli shrieked. “I’m getting Grandma!”
The moments flew by faster than Meilin could react.
Even as Fan Enze was shouting for Heli to stop, Ailin was already scurrying toward the other courtyard as quickly as her small feet could carry her.
It was as if she could not resist the pull of Fan Enze in trouble, regardless of what she declared was proper or smart.
Kǒu shì xīn fēi. Ailin’s words did not match her heart.