Chapter 4: CH 4

“Rong Xia?” Ban Hua had previously heard of the illustrious name of Count Rong, who was matchless in Beijing. Lord Rong Xia was said to be a master of both painting and calligraphy with an appearance surpassing Pan An. This kind of man must be chased by women every time he leaves the house.

“Why? Are you not interested in him?” Princess Anle looked at her with a smile.

“He’s a handsome gentleman who is unparalleled in his lifetime that even a talented lady like Shi Feixian has praised personally. As far as I’m concerned, it would be strange if he were to be interested in me.” Ban Hua thought very well. “Such a person, by nature, should prefer someone like an immortal fairy. I don’t want to join in this party. ”

In her memory, she has seen Rong Xia multiple times. But every time she saw that person, she felt that he didn’t seem human. Rather, he was like a snow lotus on Tianshan Mountain or the bright moon in the night sky. So, the two of them didn’t have any intersection at all.

Seeing that Ban Hua had no affection for Count Cheng An, Princess Anle was relieved: “Fortunately, you are not like some women who act crazy for Rong Xia’s sake. I am actually relieved.”

Ban Hua had no mood to think about men at this time. As long as she remembered that she would no longer be a Xiangjun after five years, she felt that the whole world was bleak.

At noon, a crab feast was served. Ban Hua sat on the right side of Princess An Le and on the left, sat Kangning Junzhu, the daughter of the Emperor’s younger brother. The relationship between her and Ban Hua could only be considered somewhat forced and usually, they were not very intimate. Ban Hua knew that she had a cold temperament and didn’t want to interact with her. So she bent her head to eat the fat crab diligently.

“Ban Xiangjun recently looks like she’s lost some weight. You must pay attention to your health.” one of the noble ladies looked at Ban Hua and said in a peculiar tone, “Do not hold anything in your heart and hurt your body.”

“Clothes look better when worn on a thinner body. I never restrain the emotions in my heart and usually retaliate on the spot. ”Ban Hua put down her chopsticks, wiped the corners of her mouth and looked up at the noble lady who had spoken. “Which family are you from? Why haven’t I seen you before? “

“Hua Hua, she is Master Li’s daughter, Li Xiaoru, and she usually spends time with us,” Kangning Junzhu who heard her words, smiled and explained softly, “How come you haven’t seen her before?”

Ban Hua raised her eyebrows and lazily said, “I’ve never even noticed her before.” Seeing someone wanting to jeer at her broken engagement with Shen Yu while still acting pretentious, Ban Hua had no respect for this kind of person. ” Miss Li is dressed so inconspicuously and I only notice lively people. I don’t remember those who are not very eye-catching. “

” You … ” Li Xiaoru’s eye rims turned red and tears gathered in her eyes seeming about to fall, making her seem like a flower bud caught in a wild gale, very pitiful and pathetic, inducing others to protect her.

“Ban Xiangjun,” Seeing this, Shi Feixian knit her brows fleetingly and then smiled towards Ban Hua, “Why should you say such things?”

The table was silent.

Ban Hua bowed her head and seemed to concentrate on tapping on a crab claw. Leaning her head towards Princess Anle, she said, “This crab is quite good. Its meat is fresh and tender.”

Princess Anle knew that she was deliberately ignoring Shi Feixian and smiled helplessly. “If you like it, take a basket back home with you later.”

The whole table knew that Ban Hua was deliberately pretending not to hear Shi Feixian’s words and felt even more disgusted with Ban Hua. Wasn’t it just depending on her grandmother being the Eldest Princess that she could put on airs and act so arrogant? Shi Feixian was the granddaughter of the Right Prime Minister who was much more powerful than Ban Hua’s father who had only a title but no real power.

In front of so many people, she didn’t give Shi Feixian any respect. This was practically treading the Prime Minister Household’s face on the ground. Was she crazy?

They didn’t know if Ban Hua was crazy or not, but now no one dared to provoke her. Who knew how she would react? People with normal brains had a predictable way of doing things while this kind of brainless person would act unpredictably, completely based on their emotions. For a refined person to quarrel with her is humiliating. So it is best not to provoke her and aggrieve oneself.

Both Xie Wanyu and Shi Feixian had lost their faces in front of her. Why should they bother asking for embarrassment again?

They didn’t know if it were just their illusion but it seemed like, formerly, although Ban Hua had been somewhat unrestrained, she still wasn’t likely to go as far as today’s actions in disrespecting people. What was wrong with her today? Could it be that the broken engagement with Shen Yu has really upset her so much that she’s decided that “a cracked pot might as well be smashed to pieces” and gone crazy with despair at the setback?

Many people present thought so and some began to sympathize with her softly while others began to gloat secretly.

With the examples of Shi Feixian and Xie Wanyu in front of them, no one went to provoke Ban Hua. Soon, the chrysanthemum feast ended and no one said more than a few words to Ban Hua.

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.

TL’s Meanderings:

One thing which I’ve taken away from C-Novels is that the story changes depending on who is the narrator. Even in real life, I now try to remember that I only see parts of someone else’s story and I shouldn’t draw conclusions based on that.

Later in the story, the author shows us a little bit about other characters’ perspectives. It’s interesting to see how each step they made seemed right to them but in the larger scheme it was interpreted differently based on how the narrator feels about that character at that point in the story.

I wonder how this story would look fromm SFX’s or XWY’s perspectives.

“You just don’t want to change your temperament.” Princess Anle sighed as  she was seeing Ban Hua off. “Now your state of mind is becoming more unrestrained than ever. If you go on like this, what if you bring misfortune upon yourself?”

“Good days may not last forever and it’s better to live everyday like it’s the last. “, Ban Hua said carelessly. “Those women originally didn’t like me. Even if I spoke to them gently and politely, they would still gossip about me when I am down and out. Since they can’t wait to mock me, why should I give them any respect?”

“What’s all this talk about down and out? Why are you thinking this way without rhyme or reason?” Princess Ai broke into laughter,”Be careful not to let these words reach you grandmother’s ears or she’ll sort you out well. What use are these kinds of thoughts?”

Ban Hua smiled and said nothing more. After saying goodbye to Princess Anle, she got on the sedan chair.

In one of Beijing’s famous antique shops, Ban Huai looked at the jade pendant held by the shopkeeper and shook his head: “This is not good. Is there anything else?”

“Hou Ye, how could I dare to deceive you? This is already the best thing we have in this shop.” said the shopkeeper with a smile, ” Would you like to look at something else? “

“No.” Ban Huai turned away ” If you have something good here later, I’ll come again and see it. “

“Very well, then Hou Ye please take care on your way.” The shopkeeper breathed a sigh of relief. Although Jingting Hou was a bit picky, he was generous and if he could not find something he liked, he would not be angry with them. He was a good customer. So although outsiders say that he is a wastrel, those who are businessmen really liked Jingting Hou.

“Hou Ye, there seems to be some mishap ahead of us.” Xiao Zhu’er, the servant who had been serving beside Ban Huai for a long time, approached the sedan that Ban Huai was riding on and whispered, “The road seems to be obstructed.”

“What’s the matter?” Ban Huai lifted the curtain of the sedan and heard the sound of weeping coming from ahead. Many people were gathered around someone on the road ahead and making a lot of noise.

“You go and ask what happened.” Ban Huai was in a hurry to return home and felt disinclined to take a long detour. Hearing the crying and cacophony ahead, he asked one of his lackies to go find out what was happening.

After a while, Xiao Zhu’er ran back: “Hou Ye, this servant went and inquired about the matter. It appears that an old couple who came to the city to sell mountain products unexpectedly met a cheater. All the money that he gave them was actually fake and the old man fainted from the shock.”

In the past, Ban Huai would not have cared about such a trivial matter, but today, the silver he had in his pocket had not been spent. So in a relaxed frame of mind he fished out a small piece of silver money from his pocket and said “Give them this silver. “

Problems that can be solved with silver were not really problems.

“Yes.” Xiao Zhu’er took the silver,  trotted back into the crowd and put the silver money into the hands of the old lady who was crying: “Old lady, you take this silver and take the old man to a doctor. “

“How is this possible?!” The old lady looked at the silver in her hand and her face changed in fright. The person who gave her the silver was wearing clothes made of first rate cotton that no ordinary family could afford and she did not dare to take the money.

“This old lady, please accept our lord’s good intentions. It is just a little money and I hope the old lady won’t reject it. Take it with ease, this is from our Hou Ye. ” Xiao Zhu’er sighed when he saw the old man lying on the ground looking sallow. After stuffing the silver money into the old lady’s hand, he turned around and quickly walked back.

“A good man!” The elderly lady, holding back her tears, knelt down on the ground and genuflected several times in the direction of Ban Huai’s sedan chair.

A young and strong person pitied her and helped her call a doctor. After a short time, the old man woke up. The old lady was so happy that she was laughing and crying at the same time. She finally remembered to ask the people who had been around at the time about who was the gentleman who had helped her just now.

“I know that person. His paternal aunt is a distant relative of our family,” a cleanly dressed middle-aged man said slowly and meaningfully under the gaze of all the people gathered there. “I heard that his family is part of the Hou Fu’s staff. They wear clothes of first rate cotton and have meat to eat on the table everyday. He manages many people in Hou fu. “

“It turned out to be the people of Hou fu mansion” the people around him suddenly realized. But the capital had a superfluity of Hou Ye and so they asked him “Do you know which Hou fu he belongs to?”

“Their background is quite big. Do you know the Eldest Princess? The Hou Ye that the man serves is Jing Tinghou, the son of the Eldest Princess. The one who gave this elderly lady that money must have been Jing Tinghou. ”

The son of the Eldest Princess! That is the cousin of His Majesty, the Emperor. He must indeed be a very powerful person.

“This Hou Ye is really a kindhearted person.” In the end, ordinary people who had no knowledge of the aristocratic circles in Beijing simply came to this conclusion.

Not far away, a man sitting in a sedan watched this scene quietly. Once the crowd began to disperse, he put down the sedan curtain and said, “Return to our house.”

“Lord, aren’t you going to Count Zhongping’s House?”

“Not any more.” the man’s calm and serious voice came out of the sedan chair. “Tomorrow I will go again.”

” Yes.” The  sedan chair turned around and hadn’t travelled far before coming across a red roofed, satin draped, sweet scented sedan chair moving in the opposite direction. At a glance, one could tell that it was the sedan chair belonging to a noble family’s daughter.

The man lifted the curtain of the car window and saw that the curtain of the sedan passing by was embroidered with complicated peonies, studded with precious gems and pearls in between, looking very luxurious. His gaze swept over the ruby ​​embedded above the sedan and he slowly lowered the curtain.

Fortunately, the road is spacious and it doesn’t require that one of them gives way to the other. The red roofed, satin draped, sweet scented sedan brushed past the blue roofed sedan and moved away into the distance but the echo of its jingling bells could still be heard.

Although Ban Huai had to take a long detour before returning home, when he thought that he had done a good deed today, he suddenly felt that the jade pendant hanging around his waist was brighter. Even when his son came to ask him for money, he couldn’t help but give him a hundred silver coins.

“Father, other families’ wastrels spend thousands and tens of thousands of silver in one go. How can our family’s wastrel lose to them?” Ban Heng tossed the hundred silver coins up and down in his hand. “Doesn’t this small amount lose our Hou Fu’s face? “

“When did our family even have any face? Anyway, we don’t have any shame.” Ban Huai straightened his chest righteously, “Don’t go out and loaf around. Just go back to your room and read.”

Ban Heng: …

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.

TL’s Meanderings:

I love the author’s imagery in this chapter. While I was reading I could almost hear the silvery jingling of the bells and smell the fragrance of Hua Hua’s sedan as it passes Rong Xia.

We also start seeing the small changes that Ban Hua’s dream creates with Ban Huai helping someone when he normally wouldn’t. And these tiny pebbles tossed into the waters of fate, ripple away changing the future.

“Rong Xia?” Ban Hua had previously heard of the illustrious name of Count Rong, who was matchless in Beijing. Lord Rong Xia was said to be a master of both painting and calligraphy with an appearance surpassing Pan An. This kind of man must be chased by women every time he leaves the house.

“Why? Are you not interested in him?” Princess Anle looked at her with a smile.

“He’s a handsome gentleman who is unparalleled in his lifetime that even a talented lady like Shi Feixian has praised personally. As far as I’m concerned, it would be strange if he were to be interested in me.” Ban Hua thought very well. “Such a person, by nature, should prefer someone like an immortal fairy. I don’t want to join in this party. ”

In her memory, she has seen Rong Xia multiple times. But every time she saw that person, she felt that he didn’t seem human. Rather, he was like a snow lotus on Tianshan Mountain or the bright moon in the night sky. So, the two of them didn’t have any intersection at all.

Seeing that Ban Hua had no affection for Count Cheng An, Princess Anle was relieved: “Fortunately, you are not like some women who act crazy for Rong Xia’s sake. I am actually relieved.”

Ban Hua had no mood to think about men at this time. As long as she remembered that she would no longer be a Xiangjun after five years, she felt that the whole world was bleak.

At noon, a crab feast was served. Ban Hua sat on the right side of Princess An Le and on the left, sat Kangning Junzhu, the daughter of the Emperor’s younger brother. The relationship between her and Ban Hua could only be considered somewhat forced and usually, they were not very intimate. Ban Hua knew that she had a cold temperament and didn’t want to interact with her. So she bent her head to eat the fat crab diligently.

“Ban Xiangjun recently looks like she’s lost some weight. You must pay attention to your health.” one of the noble ladies looked at Ban Hua and said in a peculiar tone, “Do not hold anything in your heart and hurt your body.”

“Clothes look better when worn on a thinner body. I never restrain the emotions in my heart and usually retaliate on the spot. ”Ban Hua put down her chopsticks, wiped the corners of her mouth and looked up at the noble lady who had spoken. “Which family are you from? Why haven’t I seen you before? “

“Hua Hua, she is Master Li’s daughter, Li Xiaoru, and she usually spends time with us,” Kangning Junzhu who heard her words, smiled and explained softly, “How come you haven’t seen her before?”

Ban Hua raised her eyebrows and lazily said, “I’ve never even noticed her before.” Seeing someone wanting to jeer at her broken engagement with Shen Yu while still acting pretentious, Ban Hua had no respect for this kind of person. ” Miss Li is dressed so inconspicuously and I only notice lively people. I don’t remember those who are not very eye-catching. “

” You … ” Li Xiaoru’s eye rims turned red and tears gathered in her eyes seeming about to fall, making her seem like a flower bud caught in a wild gale, very pitiful and pathetic, inducing others to protect her.

“Ban Xiangjun,” Seeing this, Shi Feixian knit her brows fleetingly and then smiled towards Ban Hua, “Why should you say such things?”

The table was silent.

Ban Hua bowed her head and seemed to concentrate on tapping on a crab claw. Leaning her head towards Princess Anle, she said, “This crab is quite good. Its meat is fresh and tender.”

Princess Anle knew that she was deliberately ignoring Shi Feixian and smiled helplessly. “If you like it, take a basket back home with you later.”

The whole table knew that Ban Hua was deliberately pretending not to hear Shi Feixian’s words and felt even more disgusted with Ban Hua. Wasn’t it just depending on her grandmother being the Eldest Princess that she could put on airs and act so arrogant? Shi Feixian was the granddaughter of the Right Prime Minister who was much more powerful than Ban Hua’s father who had only a title but no real power.

In front of so many people, she didn’t give Shi Feixian any respect. This was practically treading the Prime Minister Household’s face on the ground. Was she crazy?

They didn’t know if Ban Hua was crazy or not, but now no one dared to provoke her. Who knew how she would react? People with normal brains had a predictable way of doing things while this kind of brainless person would act unpredictably, completely based on their emotions. For a refined person to quarrel with her is humiliating. So it is best not to provoke her and aggrieve oneself.

Both Xie Wanyu and Shi Feixian had lost their faces in front of her. Why should they bother asking for embarrassment again?

They didn’t know if it were just their illusion but it seemed like, formerly, although Ban Hua had been somewhat unrestrained, she still wasn’t likely to go as far as today’s actions in disrespecting people. What was wrong with her today? Could it be that the broken engagement with Shen Yu has really upset her so much that she’s decided that “a cracked pot might as well be smashed to pieces” and gone crazy with despair at the setback?

Many people present thought so and some began to sympathize with her softly while others began to gloat secretly.

With the examples of Shi Feixian and Xie Wanyu in front of them, no one went to provoke Ban Hua. Soon, the chrysanthemum feast ended and no one said more than a few words to Ban Hua.

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.

TL’s Meanderings:

One thing which I’ve taken away from C-Novels is that the story changes depending on who is the narrator. Even in real life, I now try to remember that I only see parts of someone else’s story and I shouldn’t draw conclusions based on that.

Later in the story, the author shows us a little bit about other characters’ perspectives. It’s interesting to see how each step they made seemed right to them but in the larger scheme it was interpreted differently based on how the narrator feels about that character at that point in the story.

I wonder how this story would look fromm SFX’s or XWY’s perspectives.

“You just don’t want to change your temperament.” Princess Anle sighed as  she was seeing Ban Hua off. “Now your state of mind is becoming more unrestrained than ever. If you go on like this, what if you bring misfortune upon yourself?”

“Good days may not last forever and it’s better to live everyday like it’s the last. “, Ban Hua said carelessly. “Those women originally didn’t like me. Even if I spoke to them gently and politely, they would still gossip about me when I am down and out. Since they can’t wait to mock me, why should I give them any respect?”

“What’s all this talk about down and out? Why are you thinking this way without rhyme or reason?” Princess Ai broke into laughter,”Be careful not to let these words reach you grandmother’s ears or she’ll sort you out well. What use are these kinds of thoughts?”

Ban Hua smiled and said nothing more. After saying goodbye to Princess Anle, she got on the sedan chair.

In one of Beijing’s famous antique shops, Ban Huai looked at the jade pendant held by the shopkeeper and shook his head: “This is not good. Is there anything else?”

“Hou Ye, how could I dare to deceive you? This is already the best thing we have in this shop.” said the shopkeeper with a smile, ” Would you like to look at something else? “

“No.” Ban Huai turned away ” If you have something good here later, I’ll come again and see it. “

“Very well, then Hou Ye please take care on your way.” The shopkeeper breathed a sigh of relief. Although Jingting Hou was a bit picky, he was generous and if he could not find something he liked, he would not be angry with them. He was a good customer. So although outsiders say that he is a wastrel, those who are businessmen really liked Jingting Hou.

“Hou Ye, there seems to be some mishap ahead of us.” Xiao Zhu’er, the servant who had been serving beside Ban Huai for a long time, approached the sedan that Ban Huai was riding on and whispered, “The road seems to be obstructed.”

“What’s the matter?” Ban Huai lifted the curtain of the sedan and heard the sound of weeping coming from ahead. Many people were gathered around someone on the road ahead and making a lot of noise.

“You go and ask what happened.” Ban Huai was in a hurry to return home and felt disinclined to take a long detour. Hearing the crying and cacophony ahead, he asked one of his lackies to go find out what was happening.

After a while, Xiao Zhu’er ran back: “Hou Ye, this servant went and inquired about the matter. It appears that an old couple who came to the city to sell mountain products unexpectedly met a cheater. All the money that he gave them was actually fake and the old man fainted from the shock.”

In the past, Ban Huai would not have cared about such a trivial matter, but today, the silver he had in his pocket had not been spent. So in a relaxed frame of mind he fished out a small piece of silver money from his pocket and said “Give them this silver. “

Problems that can be solved with silver were not really problems.

“Yes.” Xiao Zhu’er took the silver,  trotted back into the crowd and put the silver money into the hands of the old lady who was crying: “Old lady, you take this silver and take the old man to a doctor. “

“How is this possible?!” The old lady looked at the silver in her hand and her face changed in fright. The person who gave her the silver was wearing clothes made of first rate cotton that no ordinary family could afford and she did not dare to take the money.

“This old lady, please accept our lord’s good intentions. It is just a little money and I hope the old lady won’t reject it. Take it with ease, this is from our Hou Ye. ” Xiao Zhu’er sighed when he saw the old man lying on the ground looking sallow. After stuffing the silver money into the old lady’s hand, he turned around and quickly walked back.

“A good man!” The elderly lady, holding back her tears, knelt down on the ground and genuflected several times in the direction of Ban Huai’s sedan chair.

A young and strong person pitied her and helped her call a doctor. After a short time, the old man woke up. The old lady was so happy that she was laughing and crying at the same time. She finally remembered to ask the people who had been around at the time about who was the gentleman who had helped her just now.

“I know that person. His paternal aunt is a distant relative of our family,” a cleanly dressed middle-aged man said slowly and meaningfully under the gaze of all the people gathered there. “I heard that his family is part of the Hou Fu’s staff. They wear clothes of first rate cotton and have meat to eat on the table everyday. He manages many people in Hou fu. “

“It turned out to be the people of Hou fu mansion” the people around him suddenly realized. But the capital had a superfluity of Hou Ye and so they asked him “Do you know which Hou fu he belongs to?”

“Their background is quite big. Do you know the Eldest Princess? The Hou Ye that the man serves is Jing Tinghou, the son of the Eldest Princess. The one who gave this elderly lady that money must have been Jing Tinghou. ”

The son of the Eldest Princess! That is the cousin of His Majesty, the Emperor. He must indeed be a very powerful person.

“This Hou Ye is really a kindhearted person.” In the end, ordinary people who had no knowledge of the aristocratic circles in Beijing simply came to this conclusion.

Not far away, a man sitting in a sedan watched this scene quietly. Once the crowd began to disperse, he put down the sedan curtain and said, “Return to our house.”

“Lord, aren’t you going to Count Zhongping’s House?”

“Not any more.” the man’s calm and serious voice came out of the sedan chair. “Tomorrow I will go again.”

” Yes.” The  sedan chair turned around and hadn’t travelled far before coming across a red roofed, satin draped, sweet scented sedan chair moving in the opposite direction. At a glance, one could tell that it was the sedan chair belonging to a noble family’s daughter.

The man lifted the curtain of the car window and saw that the curtain of the sedan passing by was embroidered with complicated peonies, studded with precious gems and pearls in between, looking very luxurious. His gaze swept over the ruby ​​embedded above the sedan and he slowly lowered the curtain.

Fortunately, the road is spacious and it doesn’t require that one of them gives way to the other. The red roofed, satin draped, sweet scented sedan brushed past the blue roofed sedan and moved away into the distance but the echo of its jingling bells could still be heard.

Although Ban Huai had to take a long detour before returning home, when he thought that he had done a good deed today, he suddenly felt that the jade pendant hanging around his waist was brighter. Even when his son came to ask him for money, he couldn’t help but give him a hundred silver coins.

“Father, other families’ wastrels spend thousands and tens of thousands of silver in one go. How can our family’s wastrel lose to them?” Ban Heng tossed the hundred silver coins up and down in his hand. “Doesn’t this small amount lose our Hou Fu’s face? “

“When did our family even have any face? Anyway, we don’t have any shame.” Ban Huai straightened his chest righteously, “Don’t go out and loaf around. Just go back to your room and read.”

Ban Heng: …

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.

TL’s Meanderings:

I love the author’s imagery in this chapter. While I was reading I could almost hear the silvery jingling of the bells and smell the fragrance of Hua Hua’s sedan as it passes Rong Xia.

We also start seeing the small changes that Ban Hua’s dream creates with Ban Huai helping someone when he normally wouldn’t. And these tiny pebbles tossed into the waters of fate, ripple away changing the future.