The road outside the Ouyang family estate was packed with carriages carrying the many noble guests that had been invited to the old matriarch's eightieth birthday celebrations. Minister Ouyang was known to be an extremely filial son—of course, whether that was the actual truth was anybody's guess. It was also common knowledge that the minister wasn't the old matriarch's son, but the son of one of the old master's concubines who had passed away at childbirth.
There were rumours that the old matriarch had been responsible for the concubine's death, but all these had been quashed by the minister himself, who insisted that the matriarch had nothing to do with his birth mother's demise. After a while, people stopped caring about the truth. Such things were more than common in these noble households, so much so that people became numb to these cruel realities.
Zi-ning stepped out of her carriage and turned to help her grandmother alight. Lady Min, Meiyan and Meisi followed suit from the carriage behind, walking up to join them. Although Lady Min and Meiyan showed no signs of being bothered by the old madam only asking for Zi-ning to ride with her, the jealousy was showing all over Meisi's face.
Ignoring her stepsister's dagger-like stares, Zi-ning gently supported her grandmother's arm, leading her towards the entrance.
Today, Zi-ning had chosen to wear one of the new dresses that the tailor had made for her, again in the shade of midnight blue except with exquisite embroidery in gold and maroon, painting the images of lilies along the hem of her skirt. Her hair had been secured elegantly at the back of her head with the silver hairpin with the cascading pearls that Hana had picked out for her yesterday, and she had light powder dusting her cheeks, highlighting her fair complexion. Her grandmother had remarked that she was dressing far too simply for a girl her age, but she had simply laughed off the old lady's comments. If only her grandmother knew that she had been born again, perhaps she might not treat her like a mere eighteen-year-old.
"Old Madam Sun, welcome, welcome!" Lady Ouyang came waltzing up to them dressed in rich silks the colour of honey, her red lips curled upwards in a smile.
"Lady Ouyang," the old lady greeted with a smile, accepting the younger woman's curtsey. Even though Lady Ouyang was the mistress of this house, the necessary respect still needed to be accorded to elders.
After briefly bobbing her head towards Lady Min, not disguising her disdain for the latter, Lady Ouyang ushered them indoors. "Mother will be most pleased to know that you have come. She always tells me about the old days when the both of you would meet to play chess by the Jolla Lake. It's a fond memory of hers."
"Madam Ouyang is a sentimental person," the old lady replied, the corners of her eyes crinkling up as she smiled.
They were led all the way to the inner quarters of the Ouyang estate, which was reserved for the female guests. The men would be entertained at the outer quarters where the manor's main hall was, keeping the male-female divide that was customary in these times. The only time the men would be allowed into the inner quarters was when they came over to deliver their birthday greetings to the old matriarch, and that would only be for a brief moment.
The inner hall was already milling with people. Ladies dressed to the nines in their expensive garments and accessories were laughing and chatting with one another as they waited for more guests to arrive. Old Madam Ouyang was seated at the front of the hall on her ornate wooden chair, her wrinkled face wearing a warm smile as she accepted the well wishes and gifts from the constant stream of people coming in. When she saw Old Madam Sun approach, her smile broadened even further.
"Miaoling, what a pleasant surprise!" the lady said as she greeted her old friend. "You shouldn't have taken the trouble to come all the way!'
"Nonsense." Zi-ning's grandmother patted her old friend affectionately on the hand. "It's your eightieth birthday, how could I not come." She gestured to the servant who had accompanied them and the girl stepped forward with a box lined with opulent green silk brocade. "I brought you a little something. It's not much."
The old madam was only being humble, because the gift prepared was an incredibly rare jade statue of the goddess of longevity and the moment the box was opened, the Ouyang matriarch's eyes lit up with delight.
"You are too kind, Miaoling," the old lady said, as her maidservant took the box from the other girl and kept it safely together with the other pile of presents that had arrived. The old lady looked towards Zi-ning, who had been standing quietly beside her grandmother. "Is this your granddaughter? I don't recall seeing her before. I would remember if I had seen such a beautiful young flower."
"This is Zi-ning, my second granddaughter," Old Lady Sun replied proudly. "Yihua's daughter," she added as an afterthought.
Behind her, Lady Min's smile faltered. If the old lady had just stopped at introducing Zi-ning as her second granddaughter then it would have been fine because she was still acknowledging that Meiyan the older grandchild, but she just had to add the last part, as if to highlight that only Zi-ning was of noble birth and that Meiyan was a rank lower.
To add salt to the injury, the Ouyang family matriarch said, "Ah, that explains where she inherited her beauty and grace from. Yihua was the jewel of the capital. I wanted her as my daughter-in-law too, but you got there first. It's a pity she had to leave so soon..."
Out of the corners of her eyes, Zi-ning could see Lady Min clenching her fists by her side, crumpling the red silk of her skirt. She smiled, curtseying politely to the old lady. "Thank you for your kind words, Madam," she said.
"Such a sweet girl," Old Madam Ouyang remarked, taking Zi-ning by the hand and patting it affectionately.
After most of the guests had arrived, the entire congregation adjourned to the manor gardens where the main celebrations would be held. A stage had been set up in front of the small, artificial lake, along with round tables surrounded by chairs, from which the ladies would be able to watch the song and dance performances that had been arranged. Zi-ning was seated at a table with some of the other young ladies present, including her two half-sisters. She kept her mouth firmly shut, listening politely to the conversation that was taking place between the other girls.
"Did you see all those soldiers as they were marching in through the city gates? It was frightening. A sea of black," Huang Minjing quipped, recalling the day when the Shadow Lord had returned to the capital. It was the hottest topic among the girls and everyone had something to say about the mysterious young man who rode at the front of his army.
"There's a reason why the Shadow Army is so revered. I wouldn't have expected any less," another girl added.
"But did you see the Shadow Lord? What a brilliant example of a man! The way he was riding upon that horse with his black cape blowing in the wind." This comment belonged to Song Lanfang, who was speaking with stars in her eyes.
Meiyan laughed. "Lanfang, are you sure you should be saying something like that? What about Prince Ru-an then?"
Lanfang flushed bright red, pouting in annoyance. "Of course Cousin Ru-an is still the best, but the Shadow Lord is not too bad either. After all he's been fighting out on the battlefield. All that experience must count for something."
"The Shadow Lord looked so incredibly dashing that day," Meisi piped up, eager to contribute to the conversation. She was sitting beside Meiyan but the other girls had been ignoring her because of her low birth, something that she had always been extremely sour about. "He even stopped to look up at the window where we were at."
"I don't think a man like the Shadow Lord is someone you should even be thinking about," Ouyang Sangya said, glancing condescendingly at Meisi. "We all know that he's almost certainly going to marry Yu Zixi. Father says they'll be announcing their engagement soon, once things at the border have settled."
Yu Zixi was the eldest daughter of Official Yu, who was now serving as the mayor of the Anyang county, and also the niece of Lady Yu, General Du's wife and Zhenghuan's mother. That made her first cousins with the Shadow Lord, but it was not uncommon for cousins to marry. Yu Zixi was fairly well known among the elite circles and was often compared to the likes of Sangya and Meiyan, but because she lived away from the capital in Anyang, people tended to overlook her from time to time. Now that her name was mentioned, looks of envy started appearing on the faces of many of the young ladies present.
Meisi looked utterly shamed by Sangya's comment, bowing her head and keeping silent after that.
Zi-ning glanced at her half-sister, shaking her head sympathetically. Meisi never learned her lesson, no matter how many times she encountered similar situations. Her desire to be accepted by these girls drove her to making the same mistakes over and over again, despite the way they always looked down upon her and trampled over her ego. A long time ago she had been exactly the same, always trying to say or do things to earn the approval of Meiyan and her peers. Only now did she realise what a laughing stock she had been, nothing more than a clown who was jumping around and providing entertainment for the rest of the girls.