The Lucky Farmgirl

On the desk in front of Mr. Zhuang lay three sheets of paper, and Manbao and the other two quietly poked their heads in from the doorway to take a look.

Mr. Zhuang, who had been spacing out, noticed them and said, without even lifting an eyelid, "Come in."

The three hurried inside. Manbao asked with a grin, "Sir, what did you call us for?"

Mr. Zhuang smiled and beckoned to them. "Come closer."

The three of them stepped forward and obediently stood in a row in front of the desk.

After looking them over carefully, Mr. Zhuang smiled and said, "You’ve all grown up. Erlang will reach adulthood next second month, and Bai Shan in the twelfth month. Originally your courtesy names were to be given after your adulthood ceremonies, but since you’re all about to be married, to start families and careers, and you can be said to have already achieved some success, I’ve decided to give you your courtesy names now."

Their eyes lit up. Manbao asked directly, "Sir, do I get one too?"

Mr. Zhuang laughed. "Of course."

Manbao immediately brightened up, waiting in excitement.

Mr. Zhuang said to Bai Erlang, "I discussed this with your father. Your elder brother’s courtesy name is Zhengjian, and your given name is Cheng, so your courtesy name should be Zhunxin."

He said unhurriedly, "Zhunxin—faithful in admonition and clear in meaning, honoring virtue and repaying merit."

Bai Erlang nodded hard. "I understand, sir. In the future I’ll surely value trust and reason."

Mr. Zhuang nodded in approval. "Good child."

Mr. Zhuang looked at Bai Shan. "I always thought your ’Shan’ was the ’shan’ of auspiciousness, but later I learned that your ’Shan’ comes from the first line of The Great Learning. Since that’s so, we should follow your father’s original intention and give you the courtesy name Zhishan. The Way of The Great Learning lies in three things: manifesting bright virtue, renewing the people, and resting in the highest good. Self-cultivation is a lifelong task. You’re a very clever child; may you in the future be ashamed before neither your own heart nor Heaven and Earth."

Bai Shan answered solemnly.

Only then did Mr. Zhuang turn to Manbao and smile. "Speaking of given names, the name your father gave you is actually not very good."

Manbao: ...She thought it was great; "Man" sounded so nice, full and complete at first hearing.

By habit she tacked on this line in her heart, then started thinking seriously. Mm, by scholars’ rules, this name really wasn’t well chosen.

Mr. Zhuang said, "When something is full, it overflows; that’s why very few people use ’Man’ in a name."

Bai Shan couldn’t help quietly defending his future father-in-law. "Sir, the ’Man’ in Manbao’s name is from ’granaries brimming with surplus grain.’"

Mm, taken to follow after the names Zhou SiLang, Zhou Wulang, and Zhou Liulang; this way it no longer had a bad connotation.

Mr. Zhuang couldn’t help letting out a brief laugh before saying, "Exactly so, which is why I’ve given you the character ’Qian’—’modesty’—to make up for that ’Man’ in your name. It also serves as a reminder: ’Fullness invites loss, modesty receives benefit; such is the Heavenly Dao.’ Don’t forget this in the future."

Manbao asked, "Just one character? Then if people address me by my courtesy name, won’t they be calling me Zhou Qian? That doesn’t sound very nice. Sir, please add one more character for me."

Mr. Zhuang couldn’t help laughing as soon as he heard this. After pondering a moment, he said, "You’re a good child. I hope you won’t grow arrogant, yet what you’ve done truly commands respect. Though it’s only been a few short years, your achievements this year already far surpass those of the vast majority in this world, including me, your teacher."

He said, "Such achievements ought to be honored, so let’s add the character ’Zi’ before ’Qian.’ Zi Qian, Ziqian—ha ha ha ha, an excellent name. We’ll settle on that."

With that, he wrote a "Zi" on the first sheet of paper to his left, joining it with the "Qian" after it.

Though it sounded like a boy’s courtesy name, Manbao was still very happy because the meaning was wonderful.

Mr. Zhuang handed the three sheets of paper to them and smiled. "You can tell your relatives and friends now. From now on you may address each other by courtesy name. When you reach adulthood and perform your adulthood ceremonies, the world will have many more people who know them."

Mr. Zhuang paused here and asked, "You will be holding adulthood ceremonies, won’t you?"

Zhou Man hadn’t held an adulthood ceremony; at the time they had only eaten a bowl of noodles at home and that was that, wasting the hairpin Ms.Zheng had prepared for her—though it had still ended up being pinned in her hair.

Bai Shan and Bai Erlang weren’t very sure. They glanced at each other and, under Mr. Zhuang’s penetrating gaze, nodded. "We will, I guess?"

Mr. Zhuang simply took this as a yes and nodded. "Good. If the timing happens not to work out, then ask for leave. You’re entitled to adulthood ceremony leave when you reach adulthood."

That’s right, Great Jin was just that humane; it even had adulthood ceremony leave. Officials reaching adulthood could request one to three days off, and Bai Shan decided to strike a balance and ask for two days.

"All right, you may withdraw." After speaking, Mr. Zhuang fixed his gaze on Bai Shan and said, "You two are getting married the day after tomorrow. You only just finished delivering the betrothal gifts today. By rights, you shouldn’t be seeing each other again..."

He didn’t finish the sentence, but the meaning was perfectly clear: aren’t you leaving yet?

Bai Shan could only bow and take his leave. Once outside, he couldn’t help muttering under his breath, "Why is sir shooing me away too?"

Manbao escorted them to the gate and waved at the two. "See you."

After today, they weren’t allowed to meet again before the wedding. Of course, it wasn’t long—just two days. No, one and a half days, really.

Manbao gathered up her own things, and anything that could serve as a showpiece she listed on the dowry inventory. Copying over the betrothal gifts the Bai Family had sent alone made for a long, folded list.

Ms.Qian called her over to try on the altered wedding dress.

The sleeves had been a bit long before. Times were different now; wedding robes no longer needed to be let down for future wear. Manbao’s wedding dress was very elaborate, so it couldn’t be worn as everyday clothing like in the countryside; it would only be worn once. So Ms.Qian had very high standards for it—it had to fit perfectly. This wedding dress had already been altered twice.

The last time was because she’d come out of the Daming Palace thinner, so the waist needed to be taken in a bit. This time they found the cuffs were a little long.

When Manbao put it on, even though Ms.Qian had already seen it twice, she still couldn’t help showing a face full of amazement and gratification. Taking her hand, she said, "Beautiful."

Zhou Lijun, sitting to the side, also thought it looked beautiful and couldn’t help saying, "Little Aunt is getting prettier and prettier."

It was just that she usually wore official robes, rarely sumptuous clothes, and hardly ever put on rouge and powder, so they hadn’t noticed.

Manbao started to feel pleased with herself, but thinking of the courtesy name Mr. Zhuang had given her, she curbed her pride and said with composure, "It’s all right, just average. Mainly it’s because my parents look good."

Ms.Qian couldn’t help tapping her on the forehead with a laugh. "What nonsense is that?"

She smiled and said, "You have a lot of friends. Tomorrow I’ll have your nephews and nieces, and your Fourth Brother and the others, escort you over. When they come to tease you in the bridal chamber, they mustn’t go too far or horse around outrageously, understand?"

Manbao nodded and said to her, "Don’t worry. I’ve invited Madam Tang and her cousin, and also Second Sister Fu, to back me up. And with Bai Er and Yin Huo and Liu Huan keeping watch, they won’t be able to bully me."

And what was there to be afraid of? Hmph, they would all get married sooner or later; even those already married were no exception. In the future they’d sit the examinations, get promotions, hold banquets, wouldn’t they? Who’s afraid of whom?