MBSB C6

Chapter 6 — A-Li Goes to the Restaurant Too

Lu Li kept his head down and said nothing. The rims of his eyes were red. Years of being pressed down and bullied had made fear and flight instinct. If there had been a hole in the ground he would have crawled into it and hidden in his shell forever, hunting a scrap of safety.

Looking at this closed gourd made Lu Yan angry and anxious. He could not help pacing the back courtyard. “What a good bargain this is. If you stand firm, our Lu house can rise, and your days can be easier. Give some response! A dead wooden post, dull and timid, that meek dead look—who would like someone like you? You are not worth half a finger of Xiao Guo. If Xiao Guo had married over, he would have used every means he had!”

Belittling, cursing… from childhood Lu Li had heard too much. He had long gone numb. But… but why did he have to be bullied like this? When Mother was alive he had been the treasure in her palm. Was it because Mother was gone? Mother being gone was no reason to be bullied.

Du Siqing’s figure rose suddenly in his mind. The one who had stood out when he was misunderstood. The one who had given him warmth when he could not eat his fill or dress against the cold. Everyone had their own hardship. He had not given up. Why could Lu Li not?

Lu Li jerked his head up and looked at Lu Yan, stubborn. Lu Yan was startled. The boy who had always been weak was looking at him like this. “What are you glaring at? Did I say wrong? You have such a resource. You should use it. Young Master Du’s body is poor. How long does he have? You have to fight for yourself!”

But I am so drab. Young Master Du will not like me. Lu Li touched his face, his hair, tugged his clothes. I have nothing. Hairpins, ornaments, rouge, powder, pretty clothes—nothing.

It took Lu Yan half a while to understand. He stared at Lu Li and could not help thinking of the boy’s mother.

Lu Li looked like his birth mother. When those soft, watery eyes turned on him they had always held love, a sharp contrast to Liu Jinhua’s present temper. Even his manner toward Lu Li improved a good deal. “It is Father who did not think it through. I did not prepare any dowry for you. Wait.”

He went to the room he shared with Liu Jinhua and brought out a copper-brown wooden box. “This jade hairpin is one your mother wore. Take it as a little of Father’s regard.”

It was the pin Mother had loved most, worn in her hair every day while she lived. In truth there had been many ornaments in her dowry. These years Liu Jinhua had sold them nearly all.

Lu Li wept without sound, gripping the pin tight, as if Mother were still beside him.

“Remember what Father said. You don’t want the clinic your mother left to be run into the ground, do you?” Lu Yan patted Lu Li’s shoulder, satisfied.

How disgusting. So a person could be shameless to this degree—take Mother’s clinic as his own and still speak these fine words.

Being alone in a space with Lu Yan made his whole body uneasy. Lu Li shuddered twice in distaste. To get away from wherever Lu Yan was, he could only nod at random.

Liu Jinhua had already set out a table of food. It had been thrown together in haste. The dishes were not fine, the kinds not many. Only one meat.

Du Siqing all but piled the whole plate of red-braised ribs into Lu Li’s bowl and did not stop until it would hold no more. Liu Jinhua itched at the roots of her teeth and dared not say much. She only gritted out, “Mu—A-Li, eat more vegetables. Greens are good too.”

“A-Li is too thin. Only meat will raise him white and plump.” Du Siqing heard nothing. He even picked the eggs out of the luffa and left no one else a bite.

Lu Li stared at Liu Jinhua and stuffed a piece of rib into his mouth. Liu Jinhua saw stars.

After they were full, Du Siqing and Lu Li sat in the carriage again. “Why were you crying just now?”

Lu Li shook his head and grinned at Du Siqing. The little dimples were mischievous and cute, as if nothing were wrong.

This time there truly was nothing wrong. The first time he had stiffened his own spine, and he had unexpectedly gotten back Mother’s jade pin. That was something to be glad of.

Du Siqing was nearly bewitched by the cute little look. He coughed lightly. “Then why are your eyes all red?”

Lu Li took out the pin, eager to share it, and even rubbed it treasure-like against his cheek. This is Mother’s. Now I have one thing she left. When I miss her I can take it out and look.

But as he stroked it he grew melancholy again, hating his own uselessness, his own timidity, that he could not even keep Mother’s things. His throat caught.

“Why… why are you crying again? Lu Yan didn’t truly bully you, did he!” Du Siqing was at a loss. He hurried to pull out a brocade handkerchief and wipe the tears, anger putting spirit into him. “Mo Qi, turn around!”

Lu Li caught Du Siqing’s hand at once and shook his head hard, then smiled at him. There was no strain in the smile. It was real.

A child raised in deep courtyards was used to reading faces. Of course he could easily understand simple Lu Li. This pin must mean a great deal. Perhaps it was a relic of the dead mother.

A mother was a sacred and great thing. That needed no saying.

Du Siqing brushed Lu Li’s little nose tip and smiled. “Crying and laughing. Little fool.”

The intimate gesture made Lu Li stiffen. He shrank and drew back.

Du Siqing realized the small motion had been too rude. He snatched his hand away and took out instead a nanmu box carved with gold-thread flowers. “This is your betrothal money.”

Lu Li opened it in a fog. A hundred taels in notes. He shoved it back at once, head shaking like a rattle-drum.

“Take it. It is yours by right. Your father and stepmother broke the pact with the Du house when they made the switch. For them to keep the betrothal money is no longer proper. You may. Do with it as you like.”

Lu Li had never heard of a married girl or boy still receiving betrothal money. He had not even had a proper dowry. How could he take this.

The honest, muddled, simple boy would not accept it no matter what was said, head shaking like a rattle-drum. Du Siqing thought, then changed tack. “Then keep it for me first. This body of mine is inconvenient. I don’t trust hiding it anywhere. I only trust A-Li.”

Lu Li was coaxed into a daze. He nodded blankly, and as if entrusted with a great charge he truly held the nanmu box to his chest, like some rare treasure, and from time to time opened it uneasily to see that the notes were still there.

They passed the market. Hawkers and porters cried their wares with force. Du Siqing lifted the curtain and looked out. His gaze fell on candied haws, each round fruit glazed thick with sugar frost, looking delicious.

Lu Li, clutching the notes, looked terribly tense. Du Siqing meant to soothe him, so he had Mo Qi buy a skewer and hold it out.

Lu Li was overwhelmed. He stared at Du Siqing and tilted his head. For me?

Du Siqing put it into his hand and signed for him to eat quickly.

Lu Li had never eaten candied haws, though he had seen Lu Guo eat them. The bright red fruit made the mouth water. If he looked two glances more he would meet Lu Guo’s curses, Liu Jinhua’s beatings, Lu Yan’s coldness and white eyes.

Today he not only had them. He had a whole skewer. All his.

Lu Li’s eyes shone. He treated the candied haws as the best thing under heaven, looked at them with piety, then set the wooden box carefully beside him and carefully bit half a fruit.

First the sweet frost, then, melted, the sour haw. Sweet and sour opened on the tongue, a marvelous taste, better even than the white-cloud cakes. The little dimples showed and hid, full of sweet water, honeyed.

Du Siqing could not help poking a round cheek. Lu Li thought Du Siqing wanted some too. Reluctantly he held out the skewer he had only just started, looking at him with hope.

“I won’t eat. You eat. It’s all yours.” Du Siqing pushed Lu Li’s hand and rubbed his own itching fingers. “You like it that much?”

Lu Li nodded like a chick pecking grain, shyly holding the stick in his mouth so both hands were free to sign. I have never eaten it. I am very happy.

Du Siqing more or less understood that Lu Li liked it, and said, “A-Li, today let’s eat at Zhenxiu Tower.”

Zhenxiu Tower was the largest restaurant in Rong’an County. People who were not both rich and noble did not dare set foot there. Even the lowest table was said to cost a tael of silver, and a tael would feed an ordinary farming family half a year. A restaurant so lavish—never mind thinking of it, one dared not even look.

Lu Guo had eaten there once, invited by some friend in the county. He came back blowing it to the skies, saying only immortals could eat such delicacies, and scorned Lu Li’s cooking as pig slop. It had hurt Lu Li for a long time. That had been lettuce he himself could hardly bear to use.

“Why so blank?” Du Siqing waved a hand before Lu Li’s face.

Lu Li came back to himself and shook his head in dread. That is very expensive. I… I can’t afford it…

Du Siqing smiled. “A-Li truly knows how to keep house. Married only a few days and already thinking of saving money for your husband. It is a Du property. Eat as much as you like.”

Lu Li’s face went red. He chewed the candied haw, tasting sour-sweet until it stuck to his teeth.

Zhenxiu Tower was a Du property, but it was now managed by Wang Yingmei’s son—Du Siqing’s stepbrother, Du Siyuan.

Du Siqing spared no effort and ordered the costly dishes through: steamed river puffer, red-braised perch, stir-fried red whelk… As the famous dishes came up they drew many side-glances. People guessed what great personage had arrived.

Lu Li stared, dumbstruck, at a table nearly half buried in dishes. He had never seen such things. He had not even heard the names. Chopsticks in hand, he did not know where to start.

Du Siqing picked out fish bones one by one, took out bones, and with the eight crab tools dismantled a crab in unhurried order, as if making a craft. When he was done, the shell could have been put back together.

“Eat.” He pushed the little saucer to Lu Li.

Lu Li often went to the river for small fish, shrimp, and crabs to improve the meals, but most river crabs were small, only fit to coat in flour and fry. He had never had the chance to taste them. Now it was all novelty. He picked up some leg meat and put it in his mouth.

The crab was fresh and sweet, delicious beyond measure. The puffer flesh was tender too. Stewed with rice-seedling greens, even the broth was good.

Lu Li smacked his lips, satisfied. When his eyes met Du Siqing’s they held a smile. Then he dropped his head as if shy, little face red, afraid Du Siqing would think him a glutton.