何为贤妻 (To Be A Virtuous Wife)

Chapter Two "Ce Fei Is Still Qie"

I hope chapter one wasn’t too overwhelming. It gets much easier from here onwards.

Translator’s note: In the Manchus, it was true that secondary wives received a rank and were “legitimate” rather than a concubine. This carried forward as they established the Qing Dynasty but it was corroded to some degree by the Han culture over time. The dynasty that this novel is set in contains elements from the Ming and from the Qing court but those are cherry-picked. Only the “legitimate wife” or 正妻 (zhengqi) is referred to as a wife in this translation. All others would be qie or concubine.

Chapter Two Ce Fei is Still Qie

The ce fei and shiqie didn’t think that they would see a beautiful play of brute force once they stepped into the zhengyuan. They looked suspiciously at wang fei and then at the servants who were at their limits due to pain but didn’t dare show it in their twisted expressions. What had happened here?

Seeing that wang fei was walking into the room, the four didn’t care whether if it was respectful or not and followed. Only Feng ce fei, when she passed, ordered for the people get carried back. However, when she saw that no servant in the surroundings moved, her expression changed and she didn’t speak further.

At the front, Yin Liu and Jin Zhan lowered their heads as they guided the others along and held the curtains open for the four. From far away, they saw Mu Jin and Yu Zan coming over with meal boxes. They stopped walking and waited for the two to come close. Seeing that those two weren’t clear as to what had happened, the four exchanged glances and looked at the servants who had suddenly become more obedient in the yard before lifting the curtain to enter the rooms.

The rooms had already been cleaned. The smell of meat had been covered by burning fragrance. But Qui Qing Ju didn’t like the smell and couldn’t resist looking at the flying cane and golden beast brazier.

Rui Xiang went forward immediately to extinguish the incense, changing it for a fainter, less fragrant one. Seeing wang fei’s expression relax slightly, she breathed a sigh of relief as well.

“Look at how clever wang fei’s yahuan is. No wonder that even wang ye complimented your yahuan,” Feng ce fei said with a faint smile as she bowed slightly to Qu Qing Ju. She was laughing at the fact that a few days earlier, wang ye had taken one of Qu Qing Ju’s yahuan as a tongfang. [1] She dared to do so because of wang ye’s favour but no one else dared to follow.

Who knew that when she finished, Qu Qing Ju didn’t even spare a look at her, as though she, a living breathing person, didn’t even exist. The room settled into a heavy silence.

Holding Shu Kui’s hand as she sat, Qu Qing Ju saw Mu Jin and Yu Zan entering with the meal boxes. She spoke: “Serve it up.”

The boxes were opened. Various types of porridge were displayed out. A bowl of lotus and lily porridge, a goblet of Eight Treasures chicken soup, a few small vegetable dishes and desserts that were elegant yet light. Steam rose from each dish, just one glance was enough to see how much effort had been put in.

At the front, Yin Liu and Jin Zhan lowered their heads as they guided the others along and held the curtains open for the four. From far away, they saw Mu Jin and Yu Zan coming over with meal boxes. They stopped walking and waited for the two to come close. Seeing that those two weren’t clear as to what had happened, the four exchanged glances and looked at the servants who had suddenly become more obedient in the yard before lifting the curtain to enter the rooms.