Chapter3

Shaoxing: First Encounter (Part Two)

Yu Manyi returned to the residence, pretending she had also gone to the ancestral rites, just happened to return earlier than the others and had fallen on the way. The gatekeeper wouldn’t verify every detail with Third Madam, and since she claimed to have an upset stomach, he lazily let her in.

She went back to her room, changed into clean clothes, and combed her hair again. Not long after, the adults in the household began returning to their respective quarters.

Yu Manyi was very worried that the gatekeeper might accidentally mention her going out, or that her body might bear some trace of it, revealing the truth. She repeatedly wiped at her hair and skin in front of the bronze mirror, trying to get rid of any dirt or sand. Then she noticed four dark purple fingerprints on her wrist. She stared at the marks for a long time, suddenly realizing they had been left by the man who had grabbed her earlier.

His will to live was so strong that he had left imprints on her body. In a panic, Yu Manyi hurriedly wrapped her wrist with a silk ribbon, planning to say, if Third Madam asked, that she had tripped over the doorstep and sprained her wrist. The sleeves of traditional clothing were so wide that as long as she didn’t raise her hand, the bruises could be completely hidden.

After wrapping her wrist, Yu Manyi belatedly felt the aching in her ankle. She bent over and rolled down the loose cloth sock from her ankle, revealing a handprint—completely male in shape and size—around her slender ankle, with the web of the thumb especially red and swollen.

That vivid redness held her gaze tightly, and fear slowly surfaced in her eyes. Just what kind of person was he? She had only seen him twice and heard him speak just two words, and yet he had left so many rebellious traces on her body.

Footsteps sounded outside. A servant came to summon the young ladies on the second floor for dinner. Yu Manyi hastily pulled her sock higher than usual and used her long jacket skirt to cover the top of her foot, then shuffled out of the room in tiny steps.

There were many people eating at the Yu residence. Chairs were arranged around the table according to seniority and rank, seating over ten people. Yu Manyi sat in the seat furthest from Master Yu. The only one younger than her was the youngest child of Second Uncle, but since she was still small and sat on Second Uncle’s lap, it didn’t really count.

So Yu Manyi had to sit in the furthest seat.

Her mind was in turmoil. She stared at her half-empty bowl of rice before realizing the dinner table was noisier than usual. Some of her older brothers and sisters had encountered others from the village during the ancestral rites and were now discussing what they’d heard in front of Master Yu.

First, the eldest son of Second Uncle mentioned that Master Qiao’s only son, who was studying in France, had fallen for a French classmate. Master Qiao flew into a rage. Upon hearing this, Third Madam glanced at Yu Manyi, unwilling to hear more of the topic, and forcefully interrupted the conversation.

After a while, the eldest sister spoke up, mentioning that the head of the Fang family in the south of the city, who dealt in lumber, had fallen ill and passed his business to his daughter-in-law. Third Madam was greatly alarmed and exclaimed, “How can this be? What reason is there for a woman to run a household?”

The eldest sister had long been at odds with Third Madam and sarcastically replied, “Why not? Even the current government has women holding key positions. If it’s acceptable in government, why not in a household? I think you quite fancy the idea yourself.”

At that, Third Madam hurriedly looked toward Master Yu in panic and denied it. “I only want to be a good daughter-in-law and wife. If I ever get the chance, perhaps also a good mother to someone else’s children. I never wished to take charge of anything.”

The youngest child sitting on Second Uncle’s lap suddenly shouted, “Third Madam is already Second Sister’s mother! What other chance do you want?!”And so Third Aunt's expression turned very sour.

The current generation of the Yu family had sparse descendants, and this was a long-standing worry for Master Yu. He couldn’t understand it himself—he clearly had four sons, so how was it that one became a monk, one was gravely ill, one had no children, and one died?

Seeing Third Aunt's darkening expression, the eldest sister deliberately provoked her further, saying, “That Second Master from the Cao family didn’t have children either, so he took a concubine, and the very next year, he had one.” Third Aunt’s face turned deathly pale, and she sternly replied, “The times have changed. The new government doesn’t promote taking concubines.”

The eldest sister burst into laughter, rocking back and forth, and asked her, “How come you only remember the parts of the new government that benefit you?”

The dishes on the table were arranged neatly, but Yu Manyi felt like everything was in chaos. Master Yu remained silent, listening to their chatter, then suddenly let out a long sigh, said he was done eating, and left the table.

A while later, the older siblings and Second Uncle also got up and left.

Yu Manyi wanted to leave too, so she tried hard to finish her meal. But she had always been a slow eater since childhood. At that moment, Second Aunt—who had remained quiet the whole time—rarely spoke up to start a conversation.

“You all still remember that madwoman the You family keeps locked in their attic?” she asked.

“Of course I remember,” Third Aunt was eager to change the topic—none of what had been discussed earlier pleased her. “Fourth Master You redeemed her from the brothel, and the legitimate wife bullied her into madness. Last time I went to the You household to deliver a gift, I happened to witness her going mad. The whole household could hear her crying from the second floor…”

“The You family acts like they can’t hear a thing,” muttered one of Third Aunt’s maidservants. It seemed this topic had some flair—though not everyone spoke, they all pricked up their ears to listen, even Yu Manyi, who had been eager to leave, slowed down chewing her rice.

“She ran away,” said Second Aunt. Her voice was gentle and soft.

“She ran? How did she escape? The attic was locked.”

“Someone must’ve helped her,” Second Aunt replied. “Remember those two students who came a few days ago to ask Master Yu for a donation?”

Yu Manyi suddenly raised her head.Second Aunt continued speaking in her usual unhurried, soft voice:

“They went to the You family to ask for donations and heard that woman crying. The eldest master of the You family told them not to pay it any mind. His family had scholars as ancestors, so he respected intellectuals and treated the two boys with good food and drink, even invited them to stay the night. But the next morning, when the You family woke up, the two boys were gone—and so was the woman.”

“Did they catch them?” Third Aunt’s eyes widened.

“They didn’t,” Second Aunt said. “They left in the middle of the night and took the train from the town. By the time the You family chased after them, the train hadn’t departed yet. One of the boys stayed behind to hold them off while the other took the woman and ran. And once a train departs—who can stop it?”

“I heard they doubled back and tied up the one who couldn’t escape, wanting him to send a telegram to trade for her. But on the way back, he escaped again.”

“That’s not a person, that’s a bird from the heavens,” Third Aunt said, covering her mouth.

“Isn’t it just?” Second Aunt shook her head. “No one knows how they ran, where they ran from, or where they ran to. Maybe they really are birds flying in the sky.”

The moment Second Aunt stood up, Yu Manyi also suddenly got up. Third Aunt gave her a sideways glance and asked, “Not eating anymore?”

“No,” she replied.

“Don’t listen to what your brother said,” Third Aunt reminded her. “Your cousin is busy studying in Europe—that’s why he hasn’t written to us. Just wait a couple more years, he’ll be back.”

Yu Manyi didn’t know why, but it seemed she no longer cared at all. She nodded vaguely and said, “I want to take a pastry upstairs.”

Third Aunt curled her lip but didn’t stop her.

Yu Manyi wrapped the pastry in oiled paper and ran upstairs with it in her arms. She didn’t know what she was so excited or flustered about. Her blood was racing, and the bruises on her wrist looked even darker. With trembling hands, she tied up her loose sleeves with a silk ribbon, undid her hair, and restyled it into a tighter bun.

The Yu family kept to an old rule—rest when the sun goes down. After dinner, nothing else happened. She sat by the window and waited. Waited until night completely fell, until the lights in the mansion were extinguished one by one. Then she quietly walked down the stairs.The courtyard without lights was pitch black; this darkness helped conceal her figure. Yu Manyi tiptoed to the front gate and found the gatekeeper sound asleep, snoring. She suddenly realized that this mansion wasn’t as impenetrable and solid as she had imagined—it was full of loopholes, so fragile that a gentle push might collapse it into a heap of rubble.

Yu Manyi unlatched the gate and escaped.

She ran along the ridge paths between the fields; the mud once again dirtied the soles of her shoes. Yu Manyi fell, then got back up, recalling the route she had taken during the day. There were no lights in the fields either, but the moon was bright. It lit up the ridge paths, casting a luminous trail. The soil was soft; she could clearly see the footprints she had left earlier, even the depression in the earth where someone had been dragged down from the path.

She followed that trench downward and saw, amid the scattered straw, the nearly lifeless bird.

Getting Song Qi back was far more difficult than getting herself out. He was too tall and heavy—dragging him to the gate alone had drained all of Yu Manyi’s strength, let alone pulling him silently over the threshold and into the hiding spot she had chosen for him.

Yu Manyi stood at the base of the tall wall of the Yu family estate for a long time, thinking. In the end, she decided to sneak in first and find someone to create a diversion.

From this, we can see: Comrade Yu Manyi was both brave and clever, skilled in planning, laying the groundwork for responsibilities she might shoulder in the future.

The one she roped in to help was the youngest child, who had only moved to sleep apart from Second Aunt last month. At daybreak, she was woken by Second Sister tapping on her window. Still wrapped in her blanket, she went to find the gatekeeper, sobbing that she had seen a bug the size of a washbasin when she got up to use the toilet.

The half-asleep gatekeeper rushed off to kill the insect, and Yu Manyi pushed open the main gate. Taking advantage of the dim light before dawn, she dragged the unconscious Song Qi into an abandoned cellar on their property.

Inside, she left him a pot of water and the pastries she’d wrapped in oiled paper. Yu Manyi couldn’t find any medicine and decided that in the morning she would deliberately fall down in front of Second Aunt and Third Aunt to get some injury ointment out of them. In the pitch-black cellar, she fed him a few sips of water, then hurried out—she had to change into clean clothes before sunrise. She had already dirtied two sets of clothes in a single day.

As she came out of the cellar, the youngest child was standing under the eaves, still wrapped in her blanket, eyeing Yu Manyi with the wary suspicion only a seven-year-old could muster. She asked what was in the cellar. Yu Manyi said she had picked up a stray dog.

The child immediately perked up and said she wanted to see the dog too. Yu Manyi replied, “This dog only recognizes me, not you. If you open the cellar door, it’ll definitely charge out and bite you.”

The youngest ran off still wrapped in her blanket, and Yu Manyi felt ashamed for deceiving a child.

She didn’t sleep all night. When she returned to her room, she collapsed into bed. Upon waking, her first thought was that she’d had a thrilling dream the night before. Dragging her exhausted body, she went to eat breakfast with the elders of the Yu family. When she returned to her room, she saw the old maid who did the laundry was picking up her dirty clothes.The moment those two mud-stained sets of jacket and skirt appeared before her, Yu Manyi’s scalp suddenly went numb, and the scenes from the previous night vividly surfaced in her mind.

She rushed forward to brush off the old maid, saying the clothes had gotten dirty in the garden and that she’d wash them herself. Only then did the old maid leave. Sitting alone in the now-empty room, Yu Manyi’s heart pounded as she thought about the nameless man in the cellar—realizing she’d gotten herself into serious trouble.

She hoped the elders of the house would have important errands today and leave home, but unfortunately, everyone happened to be in that day, leaving her too afraid to step out of her room, lest someone notice something was off. Her biggest move all day was after lunch, when she asked Third Aunt if she could get more rice because she wasn’t full. Second Aunt smiled at her and said, “Manyi’s appetite is getting really good lately. Eat well, grow fast, and get married soon to bring honor to the Yu family.”

That comment seemed to spark an idea in Third Aunt. She figured that in addition to her own efforts, she could also push this adopted daughter to strive. If her nephew married into the Yu family, then her husband’s claim to the family inheritance would gain even more leverage. So she handed Yu Manyi another bowl and told her to go to the kitchen and eat as much as she liked, especially in the places where it mattered.

With Third Aunt’s approval, Yu Manyi confidently took a lot of food and squirrelled it away in her room like a hamster. She looked forward to nightfall more than any day before. She even feared that if she left that man unattended for one whole day, he might die in the Yu family's cellar. If the You family found out and came looking, she’d be in real trouble.

Whenever Yu Manyi was nervous, she would talk to herself. This was a habit formed because no one in the household ever listened to her. Because of that, she also understood the woman locked in the attic by the You family better than anyone else. She knew that her screaming and crying were because no one would listen to her either. She even understood her Third Aunt—since Third Uncle and Old Master Yu wouldn’t listen to her, she used all her energy and need to talk on Yu Manyi instead.

Yu Manyi often hated how she could understand everyone’s sorrows, yet no one ever pitied her.

She talked to herself in the room all afternoon, finally waiting for the darkness to fall, for all the lights in the Yu residence to go out. In the dark, her eyes gleamed strikingly, like a raccoon in the night.

During dinner, she had overheard more news—such as how they couldn't find the man and were thinking of reporting it to the authorities. But Master You, after considering it carefully, felt it would be too shameful. After all, it was they who had locked him in the attic first, and the You family had always prided themselves on being honorable and virtuous. Besides, taking concubines was no longer encouraged by the new government, which Third Aunt nodded in agreement with. Second Uncle, who rarely voiced opinions, said this would likely end the way most village matters did—left unsettled and forgotten.

Yu Manyi also finally heard the man’s name. Only now did she know he was called Song Qi. Second Uncle specifically pointed out, “Qi, as in qilin,” a good character.

Old Master Yu only hired a private tutor for one year for the girls in the household. Yu Manyi had studied as hard as she could and had learned a few basic characters, but “qilin” was definitely not one of them. She asked Second Uncle if that character was hard to write—was it harder than her own “Yi” (頤)?

Third Aunt cut her off with a displeased look and said, “Why ask such things?”

Yu Manyi, by habit, didn’t argue. But she wasn’t in a hurry. For the first time, she felt a secret sort of confidence—if all else failed, she’d just ask Song Qi himself once he woke up.

However, the man had lain silent in the cellar for an entire day, and Yu Manyi had no idea if he would ever wake. When she opened the cellar door, the damp earthy smell rushed out to meet her, and her heart began pounding again in the silence.That year, she was sixteen, and had lived in this residence, following its routines, for sixteen years. He was the greatest unknown she had ever encountered in her life. Once she fully accepted this fact, she realized that all the reactions in her body did not stem from fear, but from excitement.