A Crane Cries in Huating

The flowing water below the hill, driven out of the mountain;

Reminds me of my lonely self, floating past the wilderness.[1]

By the time the Crown Prince and his entourage walked away, Senior Maid Li was so frightened that she immediately collapsed onto the ground. After gasping for breath for a long time, she finally managed to get up and support A-Bao, asking, “Are you okay?” 

When A-Bao nodded. 

The Senior Maid Li slapped A-Bao right across the face and snarled, “What on earth happened?” 

A-Bao covered her cheek and remained silent for a long time before replying, “I was just quietly walking around the empty courtyard when I suddenly bumped into him.”

She explained that so vaguely that it made Senior Maid Li naturally suspicious. However, even after repeatedly prying on that issue, A-Bao spoke no more than two or three sentences. The Senior Maid couldn’t help but feel that she was being stubborn and immature at first, due to which she went on to scold her even more so that she would open up. Then looking at her for a while again, as if realising something, she shook her head and continued, “Come on, come on, everyone has their own fate. I’ll let you off the hook for today since you have had too much to go through already. Fortunately, your affairs are no longer under my jurisdiction. But still, you should keep abiding by the law of the land. 

If you keep being like this even when you arrive at the main palace hall in the future, you’ll only have the gods and Buddha to protect you after that.” Without waiting for her reply, she retrieved Guo Fengyi’s clothes with a sigh and went to deliver them alone.

As A-Bao dragged herself back to her quarters, little did she know that the people from the Laundry House were already aware of the news from God knows where. They had been steadily guarding the courtyard gate; when they saw her coming, they all surrounded her and asked about it on top of each other. A-Bao still answered them the same as she did once before — in two or three sentences. However, the crowd wasn’t appeased, so they decided to settle for the next best thing and asked, “Then how did His Highness look? You must have seen him clearly, right?” 

A-Bao shook her head in denial and said, “I didn’t dare to look up. So, I couldn’t see him at all.” 

Seeing that indifferent expression of her, everyone started assuming that she was an unambitious person and felt exasperated and bored instead. Some even started making audible sarcastic remarks like “Tsk, riding on coattails” and “Forgot her origins”, after which they started dispersing in twos and threes. 

In response, A-Bao could only whisper, “I could only see a beautiful woman standing beside His Highness. She had dressed differently from others…”

To which a usually quarrelsome maid turned towards her and laughed, “That must be Chen Kouzhu.” Then, after taking a few steps, she laughed again, this time rather loudly with words saying, “You’re just parroting someone; why are you trying to pretend to be smart?” 

Another person casually replied, “Probably to pick up things for her future. But if she is willing to be kind enough to enlighten others, perhaps she might even gain something.” 

The previous person snorted, “She’d still be just a lonely ghost. She hasn’t even cultivated enough, what can she even pass on to others?”

Although the maids talked badly about her, they still couldn’t disregard the matter quite readily given its magnitude. They couldn’t help but discuss over and over again whenever they got together: 

“I don’t think she was always this quiet, she must be hiding something up her sleeves.” 

“At least that Chen lady is a court lady from a noble background. I heard that she is very beautiful herself, not to mention that she was still serving His Highness the Crown Prince ever since he was of age. Well yeah, I can understand all that, but what does His Highness even like about her?” 

“That’s why I say you can’t judge a book by its cover alone…”

The washer maid crowd brooded over the issue for a long time, but they came to no conclusion. Some bold ones even suggested inciting the entire washer maid crowd and collectively asking Senior Maid Li about this matter. 

On the other hand, Senior Maid Li was boiling in anger, and as she finally got a chance to vent it out, “Just because I’ve been humble and didn’t mind rankings, why am I losing my face as a reward?! You all can ask for your own death, but don’t drag me down with you, damn it.” 

Hearing that everyone was dumbstruck. They looked at each other in dismay before she ordered again, “In the future, those who are under the age of 20 are not allowed to serve outsiders.”

The next day, an errand boy brought the order of Zhou Wu, the Director of West Garden, to the Laundry House with the notice mentioning the transfer. A number of maids, because of their displeasure, did not even want to be seen associated with her in the slightest bit, and so, no one came to see her off.

TN Notes↲1From The Songs of Longtou (陇头歌辞三首) by an unknown author.