Qiang Jin Jiu (Author : Tang Jiuqing 唐酒卿)

Chapter 111 : Mother

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The moment the words left Zhou Gui's mouth, he felt he had been too presumptuous.

Shen Zechuan's birth mother was called Bai Cha, but she was not a lady of the Bai clan from the Qidong Cejun Commandery. She was called by this name because when she was still in the establishment, someone praised her for being "as pure as white jade, as if made out of porcelain; whether her face is heavily or lightly painted, she beats them all in the establishment." At that time, Duanzhou was still a well-known red-light district in Zhongbo, where the world's beauties gathered. The literati vied with each other to organize banquets to critique these "flowers", and came out with a "ranking list" for those in the establishments. Every season, they would deliberate over the commentaries and adjust the ranking of the beauties on the list.

Bai Cha was the "most popular flower" during the reign of Yongyi, and in all of five years, she was never dethroned from her top rank. Each time she listened to the commentary of the courtesans through the screen, everyone in Duanzhou would turn out en masse. When she danced for the Prince of Jianxing, Shen Wei, there would be huge crowds of people thronging the streets of the establishment. Countless people climbed onto the ridges of roofs or stepped on the shoulders of others, all just to catch a glimpse of that faint figure of hers through the layers upon layers of hanging drapes. Her beauty became more and more legendary in those odes of the flowers that others fall over themselves to sing. Even Emperor Guangcheng, who resided deep in the imperial palace, had heard of her. Wanting to take advantage of the emperor's inspection tour to catch a glimpse of this beauty in person, he had repeatedly asked Hai Liangyi, who was still the Grand Secretariat Deputy Grand Secretary back then, "when will the inspection tour be scheduled?"

Zhou Gui had previously seen Bai Cha during the Zhu clan's newborn baby boy's full-month celebration banquet, but he had only sneaked a peek at that legendary beauty through a gap in the screen. Lei Changming's younger sister was initially from the establishment too. Before she was taken as a concubine by the Duanzhou commander, she was an old-hand who could be considered a "mama" when coaching the fledglings. It was on behalf of the girls of the establishment that Bai Cha went to attend the banquet and send congratulations.

This had all happened many years ago, and Zhou Gui's memory of it was already pretty vague. But when he looked at Shen Zechuan earlier, he realized that Shen Zechuan's side profile was rather similar to Bai Cha's, and so in a moment of excitement, he had inadvertently blurted it out.

Without a change in expression, Shen Zechuan said, "Then that's really a coincidence."

He was not intrigued, nor was he worked up. His memory of his birth mother was a blank piece of paper. Even though he had heard hundreds of rumors about her, there was no trace of her in his mind that was worth remembering. The role of "mother" in his life belonged to his shiniang, Hua Pingting, just like the role of the father belonged only to his shifu, Ji Gang. That was why he would go to great lengths to kill and destroy Ji Lei, who had harmed Hua Pingting. The two people who gave him life were never involved in Shen Zechuan's life. Bai Cha died early and never left so much a word for Shen Zechuan, while Shen Wei detested Shen Zechuan. The Princess Consort of Jianxing was in charge of all domestic matters in the residence. Before the age of seven, Shen Zechuan and Shen Wei had only met a grand total of seven times, and all of that had been during the family feast during the Spring Festival celebration. He and Shen Wei never even had an exchange of words that would have been expected between a father and son.

Shen Wei's loathing of him, however, was evident.

They were not like father and son; rather, they were more like mortal enemies born to abhor each other. Shen Zechuan's life in the Prince of Jianxing's residence was confined to a corner of an eave in the inner courtyard; he could not leave his own courtyard arbitrarily. His daily leisure activity was to sit on the veranda and count the white clouds that drifted past that small corner of the blue sky every day. When he was seven years old, he could already recognize a lot of words, and he learned all these on the sly by digging his way out of the dog hole in the courtyard every month to eavesdrop under the windows of the school Shen Zhouji and his other older brothers attended.