The afternoon was mostly quiet, with her choosing to serve all the customers. And having some time to herself, before being chased out of the restaurant by her own mother. In the sort of way that had her pacing around, unsure of where to go. Before knowing that she could mostly seek out her own friends right now.
Qingshuang was most likely up and free, staying long term at the inn next door. Taking the chance to really provide some interesting changes in the inn, where it was silent at night but rather full of music in the afternoon. Where he took his chance to really practice his instrument and learn more.
Stopping by was easy enough, even as his companion was with him. The woman was also dressed in red, albeit somewhat lighter than the one she wore in the night. Her hair was a little more loose, not in the tight, high bun. She knew for sure that few did it, her mother had to put many many pins into it. That by the end, she resolved to braiding her hair at the end to secure it. Without it, it was simply a lot harder.
While the cook used cloth, and made it easy for her hair to be held up while cooking. She had kept it, because there just wasn’t a need to do so. Young enough that she could easily have her hair worn into something loose, although she watched it from falling into soups. Although it was a lot freer in terms of not having to watch it. And she often worn it tight, with a ribbon in case anything went wrong.
And mostly to ask about what to do when meeting her father. Since he was raised in a family of scholars, but for lack of better word had chosen to run away at this point. Drifting around, but knowing quite a lot of the life in the gentry. And especially the etiquette.
“So, how was last night?”
“I know who my father is now.” She took a seat down.
“I don’t think it was a happy reunion given that you had never heard of him and also never met him for your entire life.”
“That and he had left me with my mother. Well, I found out that my real mother succumbed to childbirth, mostly chance, luck or it was just inevitable. But she was dead within a few days, and he was a scholar who had defied his parents when they married.” And thus explaining most of what they needed know.
“And, he went back grovelling and then eventually marrying the woman of their choice later on.” She nodded.
“Pity, either way are you moving back?” The woman by her side asked. “I’m Feiyu by the way. And if there is anything I learned, daughters were sometimes more useful than sons.”
“Really?”
“When it comes to ensuring alliances, as well as taking power in the imperial family. There is power in daughters, and often they can be bargaining chips. For sons are not so prized in the marriage market, while a daughter of simply good birth would find many families willing to take her. And family alliances are always above all.”
She took her cup of water. “Can you read?” She asked.
“Yes, I can. Philosophy, poetry and the classics. I know all of them.” And a sign that she was telling her of her background.
“I do hope you won’t go back. I’ll sort of miss your company and endless musings in life. And the inspiration you sometimes give me for folk tunes.”
“How do I help you in that?”
“Whenever you talk about some thing in this simple village life, which is a departure from the childhood I experienced. A very large change.”
“My mother never consented until I did. It’s too soon, and he just walked back into my life thinking that as his daughter I’ll be eternally grateful that he exists. And then simply leave the mother who had spent her life raising me.”
“That from what I know happens often, and they tend to be a little bit of confusion. Though many of them also have a lot of desperation mixed in, which is why they are grateful. But in your case, you have a saint in their eyes for an adoptive mother. Or at least a rational caring person who nurtured you.”
“Do you know that first hand or second hand?”
“Second hand, from some of the siblings that my father had with his mistresses. Not even concubines, but mistresses.”
“Oh yeah, that makes sense why you have fifty siblings.” Feiyu looked at him.
“I never told you that, did I?”
“Either way, I am somehow thankful my own father was an ambitious man rather than one who was too interested in the other side.”
“Honestly, I would rather that too. And if there is anything I can tell you about having that many people who have the same father, it’s that being a favorite is incredibly hard work.”
“You don’t even need to tell me at this point.” She didn’t even try to do anything right now. “But I’m meeting him later, and I think I’ll likely be drilled on the manners. Even as my mother ensured that I had good table manners.”
“If there is anything I learned, even in situations like that. Eat like a person, don’t speak up and you’ll be fine. To them, children tend to be more of things they tell stories to, not the other way around.”
“I simply don’t think he had that much of an attention span, but I agree with your reasoning.”
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