The Wu Family always came to Lady Mei Hua"s birthday parties. Wu TengFei had been the person who"d suggested throwing a grand party to honor Lady Mei Hua. He"d not envisioned such a huge undertaking when he"d originally suggested it, and had been surprised when Lord Jin had started asking him to fetch this and that for the party. In the end, the Wu Family became the primary contact for everything outside the mountains, and so naturally ended up attending the parties as honored guests. It helped that they were always rewarded handsomely by Lord Jin before they returned home for their work, to the envy of every nearby Merchant.Some years ago, Wu TengFei married and had his own little children. When the Lady inquired earnestly about his wife and children, Mr Wu decided to bring them along, and so he did. Thus, Lady Mei Hua was introduced to Mrs Pei Zhi and her children.
Pei Zhi was not a Scholar"s daughter, or even a merchant"s daughter, she was the granddaughter of the Wu Family"s Personal Chef. She"d grown up with TengFei and was one of the only people who dared talk to him when the Wu Family had a string of "bad luck". Her appearance was ordinary, but she had a s.p.u.n.ky straight forward personality that meshed well with Lady Mei Hua. They became instant friends and sent letter"s to each other through out the rest of the year.
There were three Wu Children, with two boys just a little older than the twins and this year a new addition: a baby daughter. Mei Hua loved Pei Zhi"s little girl, having wanted her own, and spoiled her rotten during the party. Mei Hua"s own sons often huddled around to look at the baby girl with curious expressions on their faces. None of them had seen a baby girl before and so they found her an oddity, like an exotic animal.
Through Pei Zhi, other women were also invited. From the West side, Pei Zhi personally selected what women would be invited, but from the East side she had to depend on her husband"s dubious connections. After all, once the Western merchants brought their wives, the Eastern merchants would want to do the same. Keeping one"s business connections happy was the life blood of a merchant"s life. All the women brought by Pei Zhi were the good sorts, more likely to laugh than gossip. But some of the Eastern women were not nearly so well tempered.
"Lady Mei Hua, this one wishes you every happiness on this special day." A young woman greeted, while bowing elegantly.
Mei Hua, who"d been talking to Pei Zhi while snuggling her baby daughter, glanced at the younger girl when she"d introduced herself out of no where.
"No need to be so formal." Lady Mei Hua replied lightly. She was likely the only Lady of her rank in history to say that and mean it.
Pei Zhi cleared her throat to cover her laugh, and wondered who"d thought inviting someone so young and inexperienced was a good idea. Typically people new to the party waited for Pei Zhi to introduce them. Since there were a lot of people coming to the party now, it took Pei Zhi time to get to everyone. This girl had "cut in line", so to speak.
"You must be the Daughter from the Gong Family on the East side? I think I heard you completed your hair pinning ceremony recently?" Pei Zhi inquired politely. Since she"d b.u.t.t in already, Pei Zhi figured she might as well introduce her.
The young woman gave a small but lovely smile, eyes radiating happiness at having been acknowledged by two of the most powerful women at the party.
"This one is indeed the Eldest Daughter of the First Wife of Gong Niu and goes by Young Miss Qing Ge. This one did, indeed, have her hair pinning ceremony two weeks ago."
At Qing Ge"s proud mention of being the "first" wife"s daughter, both of Mei Hua"s eyebrows went up. That implied Gong Niu had a Second Wife. Considering his greedy reputation, he likely didn"t stop there and had concubines too. But he was such an ugly unpleasant man, there was no way he got that many woman because of his charming personalty. He probably used his connections, essentially "buying" his wife (or wives). Basically, there was nothing to be proud about by being Gong Niu"s daughter, even if from "the first wife".
Pei Zhi understood Mei Hua"s line of thought, more or less, by the expression she was making. Even though her friend understood the basics of married life outside the mountain, that didn"t mean she accepted or approved of it.
Wealthy men on both the West and East typically had a concubine or two. But it was only on the East side that they"d made it a common practice to have second or third wives. In fact, in some countries over there, the more wives and concubines a man had, the greater his reputation. Pei Zhi"s husband was an oddity on both sides of the mountain for only having one wife and no concubine or lovers. (Not that Pei Zhi minded.)
"Then may you find a suitable husband and bear many sons in the future, Young Miss Qing Ge." Pei Zhi congratulated, and gave Mei Hua a meaningful glance. Since this young woman had only just turned fifteen, it was common courtesy to say some encouraging words.
"Oh! Ah, yes! May your Mother rejoice in your beauty and grace, and your Father delight in your tender spirit." Mei Hua quickly followed up, though Pei Zhi heard her mutter under her breath: "Though with a Father like that, unlikely..."
Fortunately Qing Ge didn"t hear the last part and still continued smiling sweetly, unmoving.
Pei Zhi"s lips twitched. There were other people for Mei Hua to talk to, why wasn"t this girl scramming? Did she think she was actually important or something?
"Is this your first time here?" Mei Hua asked her, since the younger woman wasn"t moving.
"Indeed Lady Mei, this one is humbled and honored to have been invited. This one has never seen so many wonders! Truly, Lord and Lady are as amazing as they say!"
"Y-you, uh, really don"t need to be so formal." Mei Hua said again, looking a bit fl.u.s.tered.
Even though she"d dressed up today to the point of looking like a n.o.ble, that didn"t make her one. She"d still been raised on the mountain like a monkey. She was better acquainted with hunting than she was at the finer points of socializing. It"s why she kept Pei Zhi close by, because she so frequently forgot what to say. Being treated like some kind of royalty always gave her the gooseb.u.mps.
Pei Zhi added: "Young Miss Qing Ge, since you"re new, it"s fine that you don"t know. Mrs Mei Hua really doesn"t like the use of formal speech. It"s fine for Lord Jin and his son, even more so with Master Shan Hui actually. But for the Mrs Mei Hua, there really is no need. She is a kind Lady and would never ever use informality as a reason to speak or do you ill."
For some reason this startled the Young Miss Qing Ge, to the point that her face froze. Then a complicated series of expressions fluttered across Young Miss"s face. The older woman instantly realized Qing Ge was faking everything she was doing and, right then, her mask had slipped in surprise.
Pei Zhi frowned slightly, alarmed. This girl had been rude from the beginning, forcing her way into their conversation, and now it was clear she was plotting something. She opened her mouth to politely shoo her away, when the younger woman suddenly fell to her knees and kowtowed.
"My sincerest apologies, La— Mrs Mei Hua! Thi—I hope I"ve not caused any offense!"
Everyone nearby, including Pei Zhi and Mei Hua, were startled. This party wasn"t a stiff affair and such reverential behavior was highly unusual.
Pei Zhi"s mouth went flat. This girl was causing a scene on purpose! She took a step forward, ready to act, only to have Mei Hua suddenly hand back her baby girl and rush over to the kowtowing younger woman.
"Goodness, ah!" Mei Hua exclaimed anxiously. "What did I say? There"s no reason for this kind of behavior!"
With a gentle but firm hand, she held Young Miss Qing Ge by the side of her arms and lifted. She"d only intended to help the girl back on her feet, but had misjudged the girl"s weight and almost threw her straight up into the air instead. Trying to rectify her mistake, Mei Hua pulled down, but once again miscalculated. The Young Miss landed hard on the ground and began to stagger as if to fall.
"Sorry! I didn"t mean—-" Mei Hua began helplessly, reaching out again to help the girl balance. She was extra EXTRA gentle this time but the Young Miss didn"t seem to notice and squealed out in alarm at her touch.
Qing Ge started weeping. Big beautiful shining tears.
"Lady Mei Hua, this one"s arm hurts!"
Mei Hua immediately let go in a worry. Why had everything gone so horribly wrong?
"Let me check and see if you"ve—" Mei Hua attempted to lift the girl"s long sleeve up to see if she"d somehow bruised her, only to upset Qing Ge even further. The younger woman jerked away so hastily that she fell to the ground. Along the way down, a loud ripping sound could be heard.
Monkey Mei stood there with her mouth open, staring at the sleeve in her hand.
She turned to Pei Zhi in a panic, her face saying: "Ay, ay! I did it but it wasn"t my fault! Pei Pei save me, save me!"
Pei Zhi was mentally putting a palm to her forehead. It"d all happened too quick for her to stop it. She glanced at the teenager on the floor, her snow white arm was red from where Mei had grabbed and her face covered in crystal-like tears.
"Ah… people who cry and still look that good are a plague against the rest of us." Pei Zhi couldn"t help thinking in exasperation, knowing the girl was just fine and putting on an act. Aloud she suggested,"Let"s call some servants to take her to a side room and have the Doctor look her over just in case."
Mei Hua nodded so fast her head looked like it was going to fly off. A fairy servant was there before Mei Hua opened her mouth to call for one. The servants were paying extra careful attention to the "birthday girl" and had been observing her carefully to antic.i.p.ate her needs.
Before Qing Ge could have any say or thought in the matter, the fairy servant walked directly over to the young woman and scooped her up. Qing Ge was too astonished to even continue crying. This was a Wen servant, a general servant, and they looked not even fourteen years old and delicately boned.
This particular one didn"t bother with flashy illusions as it got in the way of work, so their appearance was almost exactly as they naturally looked. The weak looking Wen servant had lifted her as if she weighed no more than a cat.
The young girl opened her mouth to say something, so the Wen servant immediately sped up his trot. He could tell something wasn"t quite right about this young woman and didn"t want her mischief to cause her Ladyship any more trouble for the night. That would upset the Lord, or worse, Shan Hui.