“Do you know about a scholar named Che Yin,” asked the tutor in attempt to reason with the maid. “He was too poor to buy oil for his reading lamp that he put the fireflies into a bag to light up the room for reading. Another poor scholar named Jiang Mi would read even by moonlight.
“Enough,” the maid retorted. “Reading by moonlight hurts eyes and it’s so cruel to put the fireflies into a bag.”
“Years ago, there were people who studied so assiduously and tirelessly that they would tie their hair on the beams of the reading room or prick their thigh with an awl to keep awake.”
“That’s even more outrageous, tying hair on the beams would certainly hurt their hair and pricking thigh with awls would leave scars. This is not something to brag about.”
Their argument was interrupted by the calls of a street vendor selling flowers outside. The maid told Miss Du, you hear the flower peddler’s call on the street? Doesn’t that sound much like more fun than the school work in here?”
“You are misleading the young mistress. Now I really must beat you.” With that he got up, raised the twig and beat her. The maid was hiding behind the young mistress. He missed, raising his arm to try again but the maid grabbed his twig from his hand and threw it to the ground.
The old tutor’s face grew white with anger. Liniang quickly interjected and asked the maid to apologize to the old man.
“You stupid girl. How dare you to offend the tutor like so?” Realizing how angry she had made her mistress, Chunxiang
knelt down on the ground tamely. The young mistress turned to the tutor and begged, “Teacher, this girl is young and foolish. Since this is her first wrongdoing, please give her a chance and spare her physical punishment. She won’t play in that garden again”.
Chunxiang, however, didn’t realize that Liniang was simply trying to calm down her tutor.
“Oh you don’t think I would dare to go back there. Let’s just wait and see”, she talked back to the young mistress.
The young mistress said she would report her maid’s behavior to her mother, the lady of the family for punishment. She winked at her maid who immediately understood what Liniang was up to.
“Please forgive me, Young Mistress and Tutor. I will never do that again”.
Seeing that the young mistress was so persistent, the tutor sighed and said “Forget it. I’ll let it go this time. Now get up.”
Chen gave Liniang her assignment and told her she could only leave when the work was finished. He then left the two girls and went to have chitchat with Liniang’s father.
“He is so pedantic and foolish,” complained the maid once the tutor was gone. “He has no idea how to enjoy life.”
“Don’t act so ignorant and think he can’t punish you,” Liniang scolded her. “Just as the proverb says, he who teaches you for one day becomes your father for life. Now come over and tell me where that garden is.”
The maid glared at the young mistress, and turned her back ignoring her. Liniang smiled. She moved closer and pleaded “Good girl. Please tell me.”
“Just over there,” Chunxiang pointed out the window towards the garden.
All Liniang could see was a thick shadow of trees. “What’s behind those trees?”
“There’s so much to see! At least six or seven pavilions, swings, grotesque rocks from Taihu Lake, a stream surrounded by lots of exotic flowers and grass. It’s beautiful!”
“I never expected there would be such a nice place”, the young mistress muttered to herself. Her heart has long been to the vibrant garden.
