Author: Yue Xia Die Ying

NOTES:

  1. Guanshi – Steward/ Purchase or Procurement Manager (In this context, the senior servant in charge of purchasing items needed for the household)
  2. Jùn jūn – Title given to female members of the imperial clan; 2 ranks above Xiangjun; Translated as “Lady of a Commandery” or “Lady of the First Rank” (I will be using the term Jun Princess for this rank)
  3. Qín qí shū huà – The four arts (zither, Go, calligraphy, painting); the accomplishments of a well-educated person
  4. Fó kǒu shé xīn – words of a Buddha, heart of a snake (idiom); two-faced; malicious and duplicitous
  5. fā – hair
  6. guān – crown/crest (A hat or hair ornament used to hold hair buns in place by noblemen)
  7. bù yáo – dangling hair ornament worn by women

Chapter 10 (Part 2) – The Minds of Men

“Sister, why are you collecting so many white fox furs? Do you want to build a nest or something?” Ban Heng had watched people delivering white fox furs every day for the past few days. It’s just that some of these skins are complete and others have flaws and the prices differ accordingly.

“I’m buying furs to make clothes, a mantle, gloves and hair ornaments, and I am still worried that this much fur won’t be enough,” Ban Hua said, flipping through the booklet in her hand which recorded the various objects stored in her small warehouse. “If there is any surplus, I’ll make you a scarf with it.”

“After spending so much money, you finally thought of making a scarf for me. You are really generous,” Ban Heng reached out to grab a pastry from the table. “His Majesty is going to the western suburbs to hunt in a few days. Will you be going too?”

“Of course I’m going.” Ban Hua said excitedly, “For this autumn hunt, I’ve specially prepared several sets of clothes.”

For example, among these sets, a few embroiderers had spent almost a month to make just one set of riding clothes, specifically so she could shine at this autumn hunt. If she didn’t go, wouldn’t it waste the efforts of the embroiderers who had specially prepared those riding clothes?

Ban Heng looked at Ban Hua with sympathetic eyes. With his sister’s ability, the four arts* were all not to be spoken of. Only when hunting, could she compete with other noble girls.

“Hua Hua,” Yin Shi walked in, seeing that both sister and brother were there, and put the box in her hand in front of Ban Hua, “This hairpin was left to me by your maternal grandmother but I haven’t worn it all these years. When you were young, you saw it and asked me for it. At that time, I was worried that you wouldn’t take care of it well and break it. So I didn’t give it to you.”

Yin Shi opened the box and took out a hairpin, clear and transparent at the root turning into a gorgeous red at the head of the hairpin. Somehow, it was like a few gorgeous vermilion fruits atop an icicle, at the same time clear as crystal yet red like fire.

“I think that when winter comes, if you wear this vermilion hairpin with the white fox fur coat, it will look really good.” Yin Shi clapped her hands in satisfaction after giving the vermilion hairpin to Ban Hua.

“My daughter is really the most beautiful in the whole capital!”

Although a mother looking at her child always feels that they are naturally the best, but this hairpin truly suited the flower-like appearance of Ban Hua.

“Thank you mother.” Banyu took Yin Shi’s arm and rocked it softly back and forth, leaning coquettishly on Yin Shi’s shoulder.

“You,” Yinshi tapped her forehead and couldn’t help laughing. “If it weren’t for your maternal grandmother’s premature death, how could I have been married to your father?”

“What’s wrong with being married to me?” Ban Huai, who had just come to the door, heard his lady speaking such words and walked moodily to sit down beside Ban Hua, with his entire face showing that he was aggrieved, “We have two children and you still dislike me.”

Yin Shi, without even looking at his wronged appearance, said “Whether I dislike you or not, don’t you know for yourself?”

In those days, Ban Huai was a famous wastrel in Beijing. Of the households with appropriate social status, who would wish to marry their daughter to him to seek benefits? Only she, whose birth mother had died prematurely, a weak and fickle father and a stepmother who was a woman with the words of a Buddha, heart of a snake*, was finally married to Ban Huai. The days after marriage were not as difficult as she had imagined. Although Ban Huai was a wastrel, he did not have bad habits like lustfulness or gambling. In fact, he was just lazy and liked to play a little bit. In other respects, he really didn’t seem to be a wastrel.

“Will you have some?” Ban Heng picked up a piece of red date cake from the plate and handed it to Ban Hua. Ignoring his parents who were in the middle of deciding “were you wronged or was I wronged”, he said lazily, “I specifically inquired and there a lot of young, talented men who will be going to the autumn hunt. You look at them carefully and see if there are any worth seeing.” 

Ban Hua felt that the red date cake was a bit greasy and threw it back to Ban Heng: “You usually spend a lot of time playing around outside. Have you ever met a man in the capital who has a straight posture, outstanding temperament, good-looking hands, and also likes to wear black clothes?” 

The man in her dreams always seemed to wear black coloured, dark patterned clothes which looked very luxurious at a single glance.

“Black clothes?” Ban Heng didn’t think twice that the red date cake had been nibbled by Ban Hua before she threw it back and tossed it into his mouth. After eating it in two or three bites, he said, “There are some with straight posture, some with outstanding temperament and there ought to be some with good hands, but I haven’t really paid attention to that aspect. However, there’s really noone I’ve met who meets these three criteria who also likes to wear black clothing.” How could he pay attention to other men’s hands to see whether they were good looking or not?

“Is there really noone?” Ban Hua cupped her face in her hands, “You think about it carefully.”

“In the capital, which nobleman who is said to be good looking doesn’t dress head to toe in light coloured clothes? If one wears black or gray, then how can one pretend to be a man of noble character?” Ban Heng said disdainfully, “This is the same as how those talented women and beautiful ladies of the capital don’t dress us as gorgeously as you do, do you understand?”

Ban Hua rolled her eyes: “ What’s wrong with me dressing up gorgeously? I look beautiful!” 

Ban Heng glanced at Ban Hua, and had to admit that his sister was indeed beautiful. But as for those sons of noble families who are good at pretending, even if they really did have a little inclination toward his sister in their hearts, they would only pretend to be more upright and wouldn’t even look at his sister in order to show that they are not addicted to beauty, but instead are upright men of noble character who only value ​​the temperament and inner beauty of women,

But how many times they covertly peeked at her, only they themselves knew in their hearts.

He is a man himself, although he is not a so-called man of noble character, but he still understands the deeply rooted, innate bad qualities of men. But Ban Heng would never let his sister know about this kind of dirty thing. His elder sister was a silly, simple and uncomplicated Jun Princess. Those messy things were not suitable for her to know.

“Very, very, very beautiful! You are the most beautiful in the entire country.” Ban Heng said with a perfunctory attitude, “No matter what others wear, they can’t be compared to you.”

“Good boy.” Ban tranquil patted his head and smilingly said, “You should have said that earlier.”

Recently, she hadn’t spoken about her dreams very much to her family and her family too had not mentioned the subject much. It seemed that they just wanted to forget about what may happen five years later and had chosen to live happily in the moment.

Anyway, she knew that her family would live well in the future and she was content.

At the end of September, in the season when the leaves fell and the grass withered, Emperor Yun Qing began the annual autumn hunting activity. Although the Jingting Houfu did not have much real power, their family status was high and they were intimate with the royal family. So they would not lack a place at this kind of occasion.

On that day, Ban Hua deliberately rose early in the morning to dress. She washed her face, applied cosmetics and delicately painted on her makeup in front of the mirror. Although her hair was pulled up into a man style bun, her hair crest (fā guān*)  was a woman’s style gold leaf bù yáo* which swayed gently back and forth with each step.

Ban Heng had done several circuits around the door of Ban Hua’s courtyard before he heard the sound of Ban Hua’s footsteps coming from behind him. He turned around happily and said, “You’ve finally come out. We will reach there late if we don’t leave soon.” 

When he saw Ban Hua’s dressed up appearance clearly, he froze and stared blankly for a moment.

“Oh my dear sister! You are … this is …”

Seeing you, those men may not have the mood to hunt!

You can click the author’s name at the top of the chapter to see a list of her works in the original Chinese. If you’ve found this translation interesting, please do support the author if you can.

T/L’s meanderings:

I was wondering if you guys would like pictures of some of the stuff in the story like bu yao or fa guan. Let me know in the comments.