TCN: Mei Gongqing

Chapter 131: Seeing Jiankang's Scenery and Her Family

The carriages changed direction and went toward Luo Lane.

Chen Rong lifted her curtain and pondered as she looked at the scenery. Rivers and lakes were abundant in Jiankang. There is a saying that purports people near water are honest (1). Chen Rong didn't know how honest these Jiankang people were, but she could see that the girls in the city, although not as tall as those in Ping and Nan'yang, were exceptionally beautiful and fair. Men and women here wore very complicated outfits, with their sachets being the most prominent accessory. As she looked around, her sight was filled with smartly dressed people and her nose was filled with their perfumes.

The saying should actually be 近山者仁，近水者智 (people on the mountains are honest, people near water are clever). This saying implies geographical environments can influence character traits. Mountainous people have little contact with the outside world and are therefore thought to be honest while coastal people have more trade activities and are thought to be more cunning.

Moreover, Jiankang people especially loved music. Instruments could be heard playing wherever they went. Commoners were seen outside the wealthy homes humming to the playing music, yet the guards merely ignored these commoners and let them be.

The servants from the north had never seen this kind of comfort and pleasure. They watched in rapture, from time to time even letting escape an exclamation which made the smartly dressed aristocrats roll their eyes in disdain.

This translation belongs to hamster428.

Nurse Ping watched a young lady who wore a purple silk robe with peacock and flower patterns until she went far in the distance, and murmured to Chen Rong, "Miss, what a beautiful dress. If you wear that, none of the girls in Jiankang can compare to you."

She turned to Chen Rong and cheerfully squinted her small eyes in a smile. "Miss, after we settle down I will help you make one."

Chen Rong smiled, she lowered her eyes. "The young ladies here are different from other places. They come from extraordinary families so they are very proud and like to be unique. Nurse, unless the same outfit comes into fashion in the city, we can't imitate it."

The nurse gaped in surprise. At length she murmured, "Is that so? Good thing you know."

At this time, Old Shang's laughter was heard outside. "Elder, which way is Luo Lane?"

Old Shang was asking a portly steward in his forties or fifties. These people often came into contact with the folks on the streets so they had seen more broadly compared to the others.

Hearing Old Shang's question, the man turned around and cast a glance at the carriages. After a contemptuous look, he pointed toward the east. "Go that way, Luo Lane is at the very end." His tone and expression were rather disdainful and dismissive.

Old shang was still staring at the man swaggering away when an unhappy servant remarked, "Golly, we were only asking for directions. Did he have to act like that?"

"Never mind him, let's go," Chen Rong said.

She was well aware, even if her servants were not, that the alleys in Jiankang were typically named. Aristocrats and commoners alike lived in clusters among their own. In other words, when one had been in Jiankang long enough, one would know others' identity by the street they lived on. And, apparently, those who lived on Luo Lane were not at the ranks the fat man found necessary to befriend.

The team continued on. Nurse Ping suddenly cried, "Hey, what are those people discarding?"

The servants followed her gaze.

From the side door of a large mansion, a servant had driven out in a carriage before stopping at a small slope. He next took five bamboo baskets from the carriage and threw them down.