BERW - Chapter 28
Chapter 28
After a brief midday rest, Shen Yuyao rose, dressed, and changed into lighter clothes, then sat in the room waiting for the guests she had invited to arrive.
Since they were going to play the sand-table game, it naturally could not be just two or three people playing. Though it was a contest of two armies, without spectators, would it not lose much of its pleasure?
Shi Caiwen lived closest and arrived earliest. After she sat down, she had no idea what she was about to face.
"Greetings, Princess. Where is the sand table the Princess spoke of?"
The moment Shi Caiwen entered, she asked Shen Yuyao eagerly. She had played more games in her life than she could count, but had never heard of one called a sand table, and the novelty made her especially curious.
"What is the hurry? Come, have a candied fruit. This is my favorite thing to eat in the palace. When I left the palace this time, I made a point of bringing the cook who makes it. That cook's skill is excellent. You have eaten his cooking before."
Shen Yuyao pushed the candied fruit, which looked to be coated in a layer of sugar, toward Shi Caiwen and gazed at her expectantly.
Hearing this, Shi Caiwen picked one up curiously. "Then your servant will not stand on ceremony. Thank you for the Princess's bounty."
Shi Caiwen had eaten many things and had eaten candied fruit since childhood. To her, there was nothing rare about it. If it was special at all, it was special in that Shen Yuyao liked it.
And she had eaten the dishes made by the cook at Shen Yuyao's side. They were savory and delicious, and suited her appetite well.
The moment the candied fruit touched her tongue, Shi Caiwen frowned.
It was completely different from what she had imagined. It really was sweet.
Shi Caiwen did not know how to describe that sweetness. Some people, when cooking, were apt to dump the salt jar into the dish; this candied fruit must have had the sugar jar dumped into it.
Shi Caiwen truly could not get it down, yet she could not spit it out in front of Shen Yuyao, and for a moment she was caught in a dilemma.
Smiling, Shen Yuyao took a moment to admire Shi Caiwen's face scrunched up like a chrysanthemum, and then, before Shi Caiwen truly could bear no more, showed mercy.
"Zhuxiang, pour Second Lady Shi a cup of bitter tea."
"Yes."
The tea had only just been poured full when Shi Caiwen snatched it up and swallowed it in one gulp.
"Aren't you afraid of scalding yourself? The candied fruit is a bit sweet, but surely not so extreme?"
Seeing Shi Caiwen in such a state, Shen Yuyao felt a little guilty. She had only meant to tease her future playmate; she had not intended to kill the girl with sugar.
Once the cloying sweetness in her mouth had been washed away, Shi Caiwen let out a long breath of relief.
"Forgive me, Princess. Your servant has never much cared for sweet things since childhood. It really is quite tasty, only too sweet."
Perhaps because of the friendship formed in last night's candlelit conversation, Shi Caiwen seemed especially lively in Shen Yuyao's presence today, and such words slipped out with ease.
Had Shen Yuyao been a petty princess, she would likely have been angry by now, thinking Shi Caiwen too rude to her superior.
Fortunately, Shen Yuyao was not only not petty, but generous.
She had long been weary of that style of socializing in which every word was carefully weighed. Shen Yuyao liked exactly this in Shi Caiwen, saying whatever came to mind.
With fewer restraints, it would be all the easier when they later gathered to gossip and spectate on the drama.
"Then it is my fault for making you suffer. How about this: if in a while you do not wish to take part, just say so to me, and I will surely find you an excuse and cover for you."
Hearing this promise, Shi Caiwen answered yes, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
She had been invited here today precisely to play the game. How could she possibly not wish to take part in a while?
Enough, enough. Shen Yuyao was a princess; she could hardly seize on a trifling matter and make a princess apologize to her.
The two were chatting and laughing when Juxiang, who was guarding the door outside, came in.
"Reporting to the Princess, Consort Qin and Eldest Miss Shi have arrived."
"Let them in."
Shen Yuyao rose and was just about to go to the door to welcome them when Shi Caiwen seized her arm.
She turned to look in puzzlement, and saw that her companion, so bright and animated a moment ago, had now wilted like a frostbitten eggplant.
"Princess, who have you invited here?"
Shen Yuyao had in fact long anticipated this reaction from Shi Caiwen.
"Imperial Sister-in-Law has been enjoying herself nearby, and your elder sister is with her. Since there is a novel amusement today, naturally I had to invite Imperial Sister-in-Law to enjoy it. I could hardly invite only her and not your elder sister."
Shi Caiwen bowed her head even lower. "Then, Princess, could your servant... could your servant take her leave first?"
Now even Shi Caiwen's speech had turned halting.
"I can help you avoid your elder sister, but this is not a matter that can be avoided simply by wishing it. Besides, you may dodge the first of the month, but can you dodge the fifteenth?"
Shi Caiwen was swayed by Shen Yuyao's words.
Or perhaps she had simply been thoroughly hoodwinked, forgetting entirely that she had earlier resolved to keep out of Shi Caiwei's way.
It was true that she could not avoid the fifteenth, but to be punished on the first and punished on the fifteenth were entirely different things.
As they spoke, Qin Shujun and Shi Caiwei had already walked slowly in.
When Shi Caiwen caught sight of the familiar figure, even her breathing nearly stopped.
Shen Yuyao leaned close to Shi Caiwen's ear and whispered, "With me and Imperial Sister-in-Law here today, nothing will happen."
Shi Caiwen looked at Shen Yuyao, aggrieved, and very much wanted to ask whether she might sleep at Shen Yuyao's side every day, never parted from her for a moment.
But this was only a thought. Wearing an aggrieved face, she stepped forward and greeted Qin Shujun.
"Shi Caiwen, second daughter of Shi Bingsheng, Minister of Justice, pays her respects to the Crown Prince's Senior Consort. May the Senior Consort be at peace." Shi Caiwen's etiquette was most thorough; when she bowed she was docile and endearing, with no trace of her usual manner of defying heaven and earth outside.
"Imperial Sister-in-Law is here." Shen Yuyao too stepped forward to greet her. Compared with Shi Caiwen's elaborate courtesies, Shen Yuyao's greeting was much simpler; a nod would do.
Shi Caiwei, like Shi Caiwen, lowered her head and bowed to Shen Yuyao, but before she could recite a long string of words, Shen Yuyao cut her off.
"This is but a private meeting of guests, friends gathered together; why stand on such ceremony? Since everyone is here, Zhuxiang, set out the sand table I instructed you to prepare."
Shen Yuyao went straight to the point, taking her companion by the arm and heading into the inner room, which forced Shi Caiwei, who had a bellyful of words she wanted to say, to hold her anger back for the moment.
Was it deliberate, or coincidence?
Watching her sister and the princess, so intimate in manner, as if they were the closest of friends, Shi Caiwei's eyes darkened.
"The young really are full of energy, and quick of mind too, to think up such novel amusements. I have never heard of any sand-table game. Caiwei, it was not easy for you and me to get out of the capital for some pleasure; do not dwell on things that sour the mood."
Qin Shujun's words carried a pointed meaning.
How could Shi Caiwei fail to hear it? She not only caught the implication in Qin Shujun's words, she also understood what Shen Yuyao intended by her intimacy with Shi Caiwen.
Was it not simply to make her suppress the matter of Shi Caiwen's earlier fight with Yang Keqing and say no more of it?
"This matter is not so simple. Caiwen was truly too rash. Even if I let her off today, she will not escape punishment once we return."
Better that she take the girl in hand first and give her a thorough thrashing; then when they returned to the capital and their parents saw how wretched Caiwen looked, perhaps they would soften and let the matter go.
It would also teach Shi Caiwen a lesson. The court was at a critical juncture now; it was one thing if she could not share their father's burdens, but how could she add to the chaos?
Hearing this, Qin Shujun covered her mouth and laughed softly. "I know you are the sort with a knife for a tongue and tofu for a heart, and that your strict demands are all for your sister's good. Only, when something happens, do not scold her blindly. Caiwen has been clever since childhood; if you speak to her kindly, she will understand the reasons for herself."
A trace of bitterness appeared on Shi Caiwei's face. "I would rather she were not so clever."
Would it not be better to live a whole life foolish and carefree?
"What foolish talk is that? Others would beg before the Buddha for a sister so clever and quick-witted, and never get one."
Shi Caiwei smiled and said nothing. Seeing her so, ripples stirred in Qin Shujun's heart.
She remembered the days when she and her good friend had shared every thought. Now that they had grown up, each had her own concerns, and they could no longer be as open as before.
"Imperial Sister-in-Law! What are you two whispering about over there? Come here, come here! The sand table is all set up."
By the hearing of an ordinary person, with that distance between them, Qin Shujun and Shi Caiwei speaking in lowered voices could absolutely not have been heard from where Shen Yuyao stood.
But Shen Yuyao's hearing was extraordinary; the sound of Qin Shujun and the others speaking was like a loudspeaker playing at her ear, perfectly clear.
Fortunately, the two were not discussing any secret, and Shen Yuyao was not forced to overhear what she should not.
Earlier, while investigating the criminal inn, she had been forced to uncover a shocking conspiracy, which had already made Shen Yuyao somewhat regretful. As a lover of chaos and drama, Shen Yuyao had no wish to become a chess piece in another's hand; the feeling of being dragged into the game was not the least bit pleasant.
Rather than being passive, Shen Yuyao preferred to hold the initiative.
The sand-table game was in fact a sort of three-dimensional chess, only with more variations than chess.
It tested a person's overall vision. Chess could reveal a person's temperament and manner of action; on the sand table, all of this could be seen even more clearly.
The terrain was already laid out on the sand table, one side defending and one attacking, with ten cards in all and ten different effects. The defending side had ten thousand troops, the attacking side fifty thousand, but the defenders had one extra card, and the terrain was encircled by mountains on three sides.
It could be called a place easy to hold and hard to take, where one man guarding the pass could keep ten thousand at bay.
The advantages of terrain and cards could offset the disparity in numbers.
A great river flowed on without cease, dividing the two sides.
"How exquisite. Even a frontier battlefield map is likely not so fine as this," Shi Caiwei said after seeing the sand table. Many thoughts flashed through her mind.
In the end, they came to rest in a single exclamation of admiration.
Shi Bingsheng was Minister of Justice, not of War. Though Shi Caiwei's eyes hungered for it, she could not truly have one made to amuse herself with day to day.
Besides, Noble Consort Qu's father was a great general; if Princess Yuyang had such a thing made, how could General Qu not know of it?
In this, Shi Caiwei was quite mistaken. Shen Yuyao had only thought of playing the sand-table game yesterday; apart from the girls themselves, no one had seen it.
The sand and wooden boards were easy to make, and the cards could be drawn quickly; a morning's preparation was about enough.
Fine to look at, but in truth very crude.
"This game is really much like chess. How about you two sisters play a round first?"
Shen Yuyao proposed it. Shi Caiwen's eyes had gone fixed on the sand table, showing how very taken she was with it; at these words, she forgot to be afraid of her elder sister.
Only the proprieties could not be skimped.
"Will the Princess not try it first and set an example for us?"
Hearing her sister's question, which betrayed such familiarity, Shi Caiwei raised her head and rebuked her softly. "Caiwen! Is it your place to question what the Princess wishes to do? Princess, forgive her. Caiwen is young and acts perversely, and has given offense."
Shi Caiwen was scolded until she could not raise her head, all her ardor doused cold.
Seeing this, Shen Yuyao shook her head inwardly. Shi Caiwei meant well, but she had grown up under the rites and teachings, and was rather rigid by nature.
Getting along with her was surely out of the question.
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