Chapter 11: Having a Boy Servant and the Story of That Year

Sun Shi came from a military family, had been trained since childhood, was in excellent health, and possessed considerable strength.

Yet as an adult, she found it difficult to stop her young son’s hands.

“Jing Ge, you’re strong—be careful with your mother.”

The maid Xiao Dan quickly spoke up.

Sun Shi looked at her son, who was smiling and pleading, with a touch of irritation.

“You little rascal, wait—I’ll send Xiao Zhu to fetch your father to make you a little saddle.”

“Mother, my sister and I want one too.”

Sun Shi turned to them. “You two only know how to compete with your brother.”

But she didn’t deny it.

The next morning, behind a screen, the disabled groom was summoned by Sun Shi and spoken to.

Though the Yongyi Marquis House had declined, making a saddle wouldn’t take long.

On the third day, a maid carried a set of small saddles behind Xu Zaijing.

A new eight-year-old boy had joined the stable, always following the disabled groom; his frostbite scars had faded.

He wore a well-fitting new robe.

The groom saw Xu Zaijing enter the stable courtyard and said to the boy beside him:

“Qingyun, this robe was made for you by the Lady herself, through her personal maids.”

“From now on, you’ll follow Third Young Master—it’s a future.”

“Yes, Uncle.”

Seeing Xu Zaijing approach, the groom sent him over.

The small horse already had its bridle on; Qingyun struggled hard to pull the stubborn animal out of the stable.

At first the horse resisted, but once outside, seeing Xu Zaijing walk over, it stopped struggling, jolted Qingyun,

then sprinted forward and yanked him off his feet.

Qingyun took the saddle from the maid and began fastening it onto the small horse’s back.

Xu Zaijing fed the horse fresh grass near its head; the horse nuzzled him affectionately.

“Mother said you’ll be with me from now on—is that right? Your name is Qingyun?”

“Yes, Third Young Master.”

“Good.”

Xu Zaijing patted Qingyun’s arm in a manner unbecoming his age; his shoulders were high, and he couldn’t quite reach.

Several days later, Sun Shi returned to her parents’ home with her five children to celebrate her mother’s birthday.

Unlike previous years, beside the three carriages of the Marquis House, a small horse was tied to the last carriage—fully bridled and saddled, happily trotting along as the convoy stopped and started.

Also following the procession was a clean-dressed boy named Qingyun, who gazed at the distant walls of Wansheng Gate, his eyes filled with memories.

Arriving at the Sun family’s gate near Xishuimen, Sun Shi stepped down from the carriage and stared in surprise at the extravagantly ornate carriages lining the alley, then understood and walked into her parents’ gate.

Maids and boys carrying gifts followed Sun Shi into the inner courtyard.

After greeting her mother and sisters-in-law, she learned that several young men from the Cao family’s third branch had come to the Sun household.

The father of the Sun family’s head had been close friends with the third uncle of the Cao family—bound by life-and-death loyalty.

The Sun family never publicly boasted of this connection, only saying they had old ties.

Though the Cao family had produced an Empress, the Sun family never sought to leverage their power, yet this made the Cao family treasure the bond even more.

In the military and bureaucracy, the Cao family often looked out for the Sun family, granting them numerous practical, if low-ranking, positions.

Such a bond could mean life or death on the battlefield!

The Sun family’s matriarch had become a grandmother and was celebrating a milestone birthday, so the Cao family came to offer congratulations.

The five Xu siblings entered the inner courtyard: the eldest, Xu Zaiduan, Xu Zhaizhang, and Xu Pingmei walked ahead; Xu Zaijing and Xu Anmei followed, kneeling respectfully on the floor and speaking in unison:

“Grandmother, may your birthday be auspicious! May your fortune be as boundless as the Eastern Sea, your life as enduring as the Southern Mountains!”

The Sun family’s matriarch bore the surname Gu, descended from the same ancestor as the Ningyuan Marquis House and Xiangyang Marquis House’s second Gu line, but her branch came from a concubine-born son and had never been wealthy.

She married into the equally matched Sun family, never expecting that a close military family, the Cao clan, would produce an Empress.

Nor did she expect her own daughter would be sought in marriage by the new Marquis of Dai Prefecture from the adopted Xu family.

Looking at her daughter’s five children, the matriarch’s eyes brimmed with affection and pride.

“Good, good, good—dear children, rise.”

Sun Shi was the tenth daughter in her family and was called Shi Niang at home.

Above her was only one older sister, the sixth daughter; all others were brothers.

Two of her brothers had died young from illness before reaching adulthood.

That meant Xu Zaiduan and his siblings had six maternal uncles.

Each of the six uncles had many children of their own, and with additional relatives’ children, the Sun family’s matriarch’s birthday required five or six tables just for the children.

The girls stayed inside to listen to their mothers’ conversations, while the boys, after paying their respects, were taken out to play by their cousins.

Among the boys, some of Xu Zaijing’s age had to call him “cousin-uncle,” because they were the grandsons of his uncles.

Yes, Xu Zaijing’s maternal grandmother was already of the elder matriarch class in the Sun family.

Among the boys, some older ones who studied literature exchanged learning insights; those preparing for military service sparred with each other.

Both the Sun and Cao families were of military origin, so martial training was more common.

Several Cao family young men changed into clothes with Sun family youths of similar age and began wrestling on the open ground.

Others wore leather armor and wielded unsharpened swords and shields in mock combat.

Xu Zaijing walked to a stone weight, saw no one was watching, and lifted it with one hand.

Though Xu Zaijing thought no one had seen him, on the second floor of the courtyard, the Cao family’s third branch’s second son, sipping tea from a cup, was stunned by what he’d just witnessed.

When he called a Sun family cousin to look, Xu Zaijing had already set the stone weight down and gone to play pitch-pot.

Watching the children playing joyfully in the courtyard, one of Xu Zaijing’s uncles said, “Cao Brother, did you missee? How could my nephew lift that stone weight?”

“I—I saw it—I didn’t missee. Let me go down, find him, make him do it again—no, never mind, if he tries again and exhausts himself, it won’t be good.”

The hour of Si (9–11 a.m.)

Most guests had arrived; firecrackers and fireworks burst at the Sun household, and the birthday banquet began.

At the men’s table, the Cao family young man, drunk and in high spirits, spoke of Xu Zaijing to those around him.

As imperial relatives, the Cao family held high status and sat at the main table when visiting the Sun household.

Hearing this, most at the table disbelieved it; only the Sun family’s elder head, seated at the main position, looked astonished.

Though the Cao family young man was drunk, he was not yet unconscious; seeing the elder head’s expression, he asked:

“Uncle, have you remembered something?”

“Si Lang, now that you mention it, I recall an ancestor of the Sun family with extraordinary strength who once served under a general of our Great Zhou’s founding emperor. During the siege of a county under Xinzhou, he fell into an enemy trap.”

The elder head took a sip of wine, meeting the gazes of those at the table and around it.

“This was told by a former comrade: our side was ambushed, but the commanding general leading the vanguard noticed signs of a fake surrender—just as the thousand-pound gate barrier was about to drop.”

The man called Cao Si Lang also looked astonished; the elder head continued:

“The barrier weighed a thousand catties—it crushed a mounted warrior to the ground, killing him instantly, then landed on his horse. My ancestor stood nearby, saw it, and disregarding his own safety, crawled beneath the barrier and held it up for over a dozen breaths. Other soldiers rushed to raise shields and jam them under the barrier, allowing those inside the gate to escape.”

Please readers point out any errors or awkward phrasing.

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(End of Chapter)