TTTQF Chapter 52

Three People Make a Tiger

Everything goes smoothly with obtaining the birth date. When Jiang Miao arrives home, his second uncle isn’t there. His second aunt asks when taking his birth date if he has found his ideal partner in the city. 

Feeling a bit embarrassed, Jiang Miao mumbles a few vague words and quickly diverts the topic. It isn’t that he wants to hide it, but time is tight. If he reveals his intention to marry a man, his second aunt will probably rush to call his cousin back from the fields. It’s better to wait until everything settles down. Who knows what unexpected changes might arise in the meantime?

After getting his birth date, he hurries out. The carriage is waiting at the village entrance, with Pei Che sitting inside, drawing back the curtain to survey the scenery outside. When he last passed through this place, he never imagined that one day he would have any connection with it.

“I’m exhausted. Here, take this,” Jiang Miao gets onto the carriage, and Pei Che hands him a cup of warm tea, which goes down smoothly. Jiang Miao then reaches into his pocket and pulls out a yellowed piece of paper with his birth date written on it.

Pei Che takes the paper, unfolds it, memorizes the information inside, and then carefully folds it back up and stores it away. 

By now, it is afternoon, and the two hurry along the road. They have only eaten pastries on the carriage on the way here, and now their stomachs are growling. Unfortunately, there are no tea houses or wine shops along the way, so they have to endure.

After entering the city gate, Pei Che suggests finding a restaurant to eat. Jiang Miao thinks it is getting late and declines, saying the younger ones at home haven’t eaten yet. He gets off the carriage and buys some ingredients by the roadside, planning to cook something himself when he gets back.

Pei Che’s carriage has never carried food before. He watches the chickens with bound feet fluttering in the corner and can’t help but feel a sense of novelty. Before meeting Jiang Miao, he never imagined he would one day share a ride with chickens.

Seeing him staring at the chickens, Jiang Miao remembers that Pei Che seems very particular about cleanliness. “Don’t worry, the chicken won’t soil the carriage. I’ve put a cloth bag underneath it.”

He hadn’t said anything before, but now that he has, Pei Che’s complexion turns pale, as if he can faintly smell something unpleasant. Suddenly, he seems to have difficulty breathing.

“Ah Miao, can you put it outside?” Pei Che forces himself to speak. He really doesn’t want to ride with the chicken. But the chicken belongs to Jiang Miao, so he can’t just throw it out directly.

Jiang Miao holds back his laughter and moves the chicken outside. He asks the coachman to keep an eye on it. 

Pei Che finally breathes a sigh of relief, thinking to himself, should he prepare another carriage for future outings?

The carriage speeds along, and before nightfall, they return to Yifeng Street. Jiang Miao walks in with his things and sees Pei Che about to get off as well. He says, “You stay in the carriage. Let me fetch your younger brother. It’s getting late.”

Pei Che replies, “It’s alright. Just light a couple of lamps in front of the carriage when the time comes.”

Seeing that he doesn’t understand what he means, Jiang Miao says again, “I mean if you don’t leave soon, you’ll be caught out after curfew, and it won’t look good if the guards detain you.”

“It doesn’t matter, the guards in the city recognize the insignias of the various mansions. They won’t stop my carriage,” Pei Che says confidently as he gracefully steps down from the carriage.

Jiang Miao is speechless. So, curfew only applies to ordinary folks, not these privileged classes? This corrupt old society! Will ordinary people still be allowed to live?

Xiao Shitou hears the voices and runs out of the house to greet them. There is still some light outside, but the candles have already been lit in the house.

“Brother, you’re back!” Xiao Shitou runs over and stretches out his hand to help Jiang Miao carry things.

“No need. And what about Mu Er? Where did he go?” Jiang Miao notices only Xiao Shitou has come out and casually asks.

“He’s in the study, writing. I’ve finished practicing,” Xiao Shitou innocently replies, unaware of the impact his words have on.

Pei Che turns and walks into Xiao Shitou’s study. In the dim candlelight, Pei Mu is sitting upright at the desk, his fingers stiffly gripping a pen, staring expressionlessly at the immaculate white paper spread out before him. Xiao Shitou has thoughtfully placed a piece of his own writing beside him for reference.

When Pei Che approaches, he finds that Pei Mu’s clothes and hair are a little messy. He doesn’t know what he and Xiao Shitou did together in the afternoon to make it like this. But compared to his usual appearance, he looks more lively this way.

“Mu Er, do you want to learn how to write?” Pei Che walks up behind him and holds his small hand that holds the pen. “Big brother will teach you.”

Adding ink strokes to the pristine paper, Pei Che reads aloud as he writes, “Pei… Mu…, Mu Er, this is your name.” Pei Che carefully guides his hand, tracing each stroke, wanting him to remember the movement of these two characters.

Initially calm, Pei Mu’s eyes show signs of restlessness after writing the characters. He begins to struggle against Pei Che’s grip on his hand.

“Mu’er, what’s wrong?” Pei Che doesn’t understand and quickly lets go of his hand, thinking he might have hurt him. He doesn’t understand why his younger brother suddenly becomes angry.

Once released, Pei Mu’s hand stops moving, but his eyes remain fixed on the paper beside him, where Xiao Shitou’s large, novice-like characters are written.

After observing for a while, Pei Che figures out his thoughts. Mu’er must have taken Xiao Shitou’s writing as a model and gotten upset because his own writing doesn’t resemble it. This realization strikes Pei Che as somewhat amusing.

Carefully, he says, “Mu’er, don’t be upset. Brother will teach you properly this time, okay?”

Pei Mu pauses and doesn’t speak, but when Pei Che gently holds his hand again, he doesn’t resist.

Pei Che begins imitating Xiao Shitou’s writing on the paper. Despite his years of practice in calligraphy, habits are hard to change in an instant. Despite his best efforts to mimic, the result is only about seventy to eighty percent similar. Pei Mu frowns slightly, somewhat dissatisfied, but he reluctantly accepts it.

The atmosphere in the house gradually becomes warm, but the kitchen is lively. Xiao Shitou sits in front of the stove, chattering incessantly about the afternoon he spent with Pei Mu.

After each story, he sighs as if he is very tired. He thinks Pei Mu is very disobedient; when petting the cat, he keeps petting it, and when it runs away, he chases after it. During meals, he just sits there waiting to be fed. During handwriting practice, he just stares without moving his hands. It takes a long time for him to start writing. Xiao Shitou finally understands why Master sighs when dealing with Yang Hua, a classmate who doesn’t like to study.

Jiang Miao can’t help but smile at the sight of Xiao Shitou’s adult-like behavior. He says, “You’ve worked hard today. Brother will make you something delicious later, alright?”

“Yeah! I love Brother’s cooking the most!”

Facing this little flatterer, Jiang Miao can’t help but feel pleased with himself. He deftly handles the tasks at hand—boiling water, slaughtering the chicken, and plucking its feathers. In less than half an hour, he has prepared a table full of sumptuous dishes.

After setting the table with the dishes, Jiang Miao enters the study to call the two inside. By the candlelight, he clearly sees the characters on the paper and bursts into laughter.

“I didn’t expect your writing to be just as ugly as Xiao Shitou’s. It’s even worse than mine!” Jiang Miao has only seen Pei Che’s paintings before, thinking it’s no wonder he always paints—now he knows it’s because his handwriting is ugly.

Pei Che chuckles upon hearing this, recalling Jiang Miao’s handwriting from the last time they discussed chess. “How about we have a handwriting competition next time?” he suggests. The few words he wrote before are covered below.

“Let’s talk about that next time. Dinner’s ready, let’s eat,” Jiang Miao invites, mindful that their guests need to be well-fed.

After Pei Che and Pei Mu wash up and take their seats, they find four dishes on the table. While not as delicately arranged as those in the mansion, they smell delicious. The steam from the dishes, illuminated by candlelight, envelops everything around, making the small hall feel especially warm.

“This dish tastes excellent. What is it made of?” Pei Che points to one of the dishes, curious. Despite his years in the mansion, he has never tasted this particular dish before.

Jiang Miao looks at the stir-fried chicken offals with pickled vegetables, hesitates for a moment, and then kindly lies, “I just bought this and stir-fried it with some pickled vegetables. I’m not sure either.” Just one chicken has caused his complexion to change drastically; could he even say it was made of chicken offals? The Duke’s mansion probably never dares to use chicken offals in their meals.

Pei Che knows nothing about kitchen affairs. Believing Jiang Miao’s words, he effortlessly picks up his chopsticks and reaches for the dish, eating most of the plate by himself.

The chicken offals are tasty, and the chicken itself is good too. It’s a free-range chicken of over three months, weighing less than two catties. It’s perfect for making boiled chicken. Dipped in Jiang Miao’s sauce, it tastes delicious and is very suitable for children to eat. He gives two chicken legs to Xiao Shitou and Pei Mu. Xiao Shitou can’t use his chopsticks to pick up the chicken legs, so he grabs them and bites directly into them. Pei Mu watches him and turns his head to reject the dish that Pei Che has put next to his mouth with his chopsticks.

With the previous example in the study, Pei Che quickly understands what he means. He picks up a chicken leg and tentatively places it next to Pei Mu’s hand. Pei Mu reaches out, takes the chicken leg, and eats it, imitating Xiao Shitou.

After the meal, Jiang Miao brings warm water for the two children to wash their hands, then takes out a clean cloth to wipe their hands.

“Last time I was here, you said there was nothing to dry hands with,” Pei Che remembers the time Jiang Miao asked him to shake his hands dry. Before dinner, he and Mu-er had air-dried before the meal.

“I remember clearly that there wasn’t any. Later on, I made sure there was one. Is that not acceptable?” Jiang Miao retorts unhappily. How can a grown man hold a grudge like this?

“Cough, I just mentioned it casually,” Pei Che pretends to cough to cover his embarrassment. He isn’t accusing Jiang Miao of treating them differently; it just popped into his mind.

“Alright, you’ve eaten, so you should go back quickly. It’s dark and not easy to travel at night. Hang this lantern on your carriage later for some light. Oh, and tell the carriage driver not to rush,” Jiang Miao advises. Without modern street lights everywhere, traveling at night is quite inconvenient.

Initially, Pei Che thinks Jiang Miao is chasing away the guests, but he realizes that Jiang Miao is worried about them traveling at night.

“We’ll head back now then. Goodbye,” Pei Che says as he leads Pei Mu outside. Jiang Miao sees them off at the door before turning back into the courtyard.

“Brother Jiang, has that handsome young gentleman been coming here often lately?” Aunt Liu asks hurriedly when she sees Jiang Miao coming just as she’s out to fetch water.

“Yes, he’s been here several times recently.”

“Do you think he has his eyes on someone in the alley?” Aunt Liu whispers eagerly, her face full of curiosity.

Jiang Miao chuckles, “Who told you that? There’s nothing like that.” He has kept the imperial decree a secret, and news of the arranged marriage has only spread in the upper city; the locals shouldn’t know about it yet.

“Everyone’s talking about it.” They even analyze which girl in the alley he might fancy the most.

“Please help clarify tomorrow. He comes to discuss business with me, not to court any girl.”

“Ah, such a handsome young gentleman!” Aunt Liu feels a little regretful. If he really becomes a son-in-law of Tianshui Alley, she might see him more often in the future. After getting the details, she begins to share another piece of news with Jiang Miao.

“Brother Jiang, you might not know, but there’s a notorious thief on Ping’an Street who targets young girls from wealthy families. They say he dares to come knocking even in broad daylight! Families with daughters are discussing whether to invite officials to investigate.”

“So audacious?” Jiang Miao is surprised. “Even here in the capital city, isn’t he afraid of being caught?”

“Exactly! I heard that yesterday, this flower thief, dressed in blue, was seen standing on the wall of Lord Huang’s residence, peering inside. Luckily, Miss Huang wasn’t in the backyard at the time, only the steward’s wife was there. She yelled and threw something over, and the man fled in a hurry…”

As Aunt Liu continues talking, Jiang Miao freezes. Blue clothes, on the wall, throwing something… these three phrases together sound so familiar.

After a long while, Jiang Miao silently apologizes to Pei Che in his heart. Finally, he understands what the saying ‘Three people make a tiger’ means!

(TN Notes: The phrase “三人成虎” (sān rén chéng hǔ) literally translates to “three people make a tiger.” It originates from a Chinese proverb and means that if enough people repeat a rumor or false information, it can eventually be believed as true by others, even though it might be entirely unfounded or based on a misunderstanding.

The origin story of this phrase goes that during the Warring States period in ancient China, a man claimed to have seen a tiger in a marketplace. When questioned by others who did not see the tiger themselves, the man insisted that even though only he saw it, the fact that three people had heard his claim meant it should be taken seriously. This led to the proverbial expression “three people make a tiger,” illustrating how a groundless rumor or false belief can gain credibility through repetition and consensus.)

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