43 Volume 2: sAccidentss (1/2)
The Wu Family always came to Lady Mei Hua's birthday parties. Wu TengFei had been the person who'd suggested throwing a grand party to honor Lady Mei Hua. He'd not envisioned such a huge undertaking when he'd originally suggested it, and had been surprised when Lord Jin had started asking him to fetch this and that for the party. In the end, the Wu Family became the primary contact for everything outside the mountains, and so naturally ended up attending the parties as honored guests. It helped that they were always rewarded handsomely by Lord Jin before they returned home for their work, to the envy of every nearby Merchant.
Some years ago, Wu TengFei married and had his own little children. When the Lady inquired earnestly about his wife and children, Mr Wu decided to bring them along, and so he did. Thus, Lady Mei Hua was introduced to Mrs Pei Zhi and her children.
Pei Zhi was not a Scholar's daughter, or even a merchant's daughter, she was the granddaughter of the Wu Family's Personal Chef. She'd grown up with TengFei and was one of the only people who dared talk to him when the Wu Family had a string of ”bad luck”. Her appearance was ordinary, but she had a spunky straight forward personality that meshed well with Lady Mei Hua. They became instant friends and sent letter's to each other through out the rest of the year.
There were three Wu Children, with two boys just a little older than the twins and this year a new addition: a baby daughter. Mei Hua loved Pei Zhi's little girl, having wanted her own, and spoiled her rotten during the party. Mei Hua's own sons often huddled around to look at the baby girl with curious expressions on their faces. None of them had seen a baby girl before and so they found her an oddity, like an exotic animal.
Through Pei Zhi, other women were also invited. From the West side, Pei Zhi personally selected what women would be invited, but from the East side she had to depend on her husband's dubious connections. After all, once the Western merchants brought their wives, the Eastern merchants would want to do the same. Keeping one's business connections happy was the life blood of a merchant's life. All the women brought by Pei Zhi were the good sorts, more likely to laugh than gossip. But some of the Eastern women were not nearly so well tempered.
”Lady Mei Hua, this one wishes you every happiness on this special day.” A young woman greeted, while bowing elegantly.
Mei Hua, who'd been talking to Pei Zhi while snuggling her baby daughter, glanced at the younger girl when she'd introduced herself out of no where.
”No need to be so formal.” Lady Mei Hua replied lightly. She was likely the only Lady of her rank in history to say that and mean it.
Pei Zhi cleared her throat to cover her laugh, and wondered who'd thought inviting someone so young and inexperienced was a good idea. Typically people new to the party waited for Pei Zhi to introduce them. Since there were a lot of people coming to the party now, it took Pei Zhi time to get to everyone. This girl had ”cut in line”, so to speak.
”You must be the Daughter from the Gong Family on the East side? I think I heard you completed your hair pinning ceremony recently?” Pei Zhi inquired politely. Since she'd butt in already, Pei Zhi figured she might as well introduce her.
The young woman gave a small but lovely smile, eyes radiating happiness at having been acknowledged by two of the most powerful women at the party.
”This one is indeed the Eldest Daughter of the First Wife of Gong Niu and goes by Young Miss Qing Ge. This one did, indeed, have her hair pinning ceremony two weeks ago.”
At Qing Ge's proud mention of being the ”first” wife's daughter, both of Mei Hua's eyebrows went up. That implied Gong Niu had a Second Wife. Considering his greedy reputation, he likely didn't stop there and had concubines too. But he was such an ugly unpleasant man, there was no way he got that many woman because of his charming personalty. He probably used his connections, essentially ”buying” his wife (or wives). Basically, there was nothing to be proud about by being Gong Niu's daughter, even if from ”the first wife”.
Pei Zhi understood Mei Hua's line of thought, more or less, by the expression she was making. Even though her friend understood the basics of married life outside the mountain, that didn't mean she accepted or approved of it.
Wealthy men on both the West and East typically had a concubine or two. But it was only on the East side that they'd made it a common practice to have second or third wives. In fact, in some countries over there, the more wives and concubines a man had, the greater his reputation. Pei Zhi's husband was an oddity on both sides of the mountain for only having one wife and no concubine or lovers. (Not that Pei Zhi minded.)
”Then may you find a suitable husband and bear many sons in the future, Young Miss Qing Ge.” Pei Zhi congratulated, and gave Mei Hua a meaningful glance. Since this young woman had only just turned fifteen, it was common courtesy to say some encouraging words.
”Oh! Ah, yes! May your Mother rejoice in your beauty and grace, and your Father delight in your tender spirit.” Mei Hua quickly followed up, though Pei Zhi heard her mutter under her breath: ”Though with a Father like that, unlikely...”
Fortunately Qing Ge didn't hear the last part and still continued smiling sweetly, unmoving.
Pei Zhi's lips twitched. There were other people for Mei Hua to talk to, why wasn't this girl scramming? Did she think she was actually important or something?
”Is this your first time here?” Mei Hua asked her, since the younger woman wasn't moving.
”Indeed Lady Mei, this one is humbled and honored to have been invited. This one has never seen so many wonders! Truly, Lord and Lady are as amazing as they say!”
”Y-you, uh, really don't need to be so formal.” Mei Hua said again, looking a bit flustered.