Sharing a Pavilion With You
Chapter 76: The Caning

Chapter 76: The Caning

"Meili!" Mei Meili knelt before her mother.

"I just don’t understand what you were thinking?" her mother cried angrily at her.

"I’m sorry, mother," Meili was contrite, but there was nothing she could do now, it was split milk wasn’t it.

"But why would you bare your stomach like that. And in front of strangers! Men! Not just men, the Second Prince, Prince Nur and Commander Bai!" her mother put her face in her hands, wailing. "Meili. Where have I gone wrong? What aspect of my teachings have you not understood?"

"I’m sorry, mother," Meili repeated uselessly. "I understand your teachings. I was caught between two teachings, modesty and politeness to guests."

"Caught between, caught between! There’s no caught between! Politeness to your guests would have been to be modest, not to flaunt your bare flesh at them while they sat down to a meal! Oh, what to do, what to do?" her mother cried, wringing her hands. "If word of this spreads around the capital, your reputation will be ruined, and you’ll have no hope of making a good match. Oh, I have no idea how to face Madam Bing at our next visit!"

Madam Bing was Bai Li’s mother and Meili thought that was probably the least of their worries...

"But mother, Princess Sofya and Prince Nur gave me that outfit for the dance as a birthday gift. It was made especially for me. How could I refuse to wear it?"

"If Princess Sofya gave you a man’s robes and headdress to wear, would you wear that and walk around the capital in it?" her mother scolded her. "Oh dear, you probably would, wouldn’t you?" she wailed, "where did I go wrong?" she covered her eyes with her hands.

Madam Yu’s longtime maidservant and childhood nanny tried to calm her mistress.

"Madam, Madam, sit down and I will serve you tea. Please calm yourself Madam, you must look after your health."

"Yes, mother, please calm yourself," repeated Meili, "it’s not worth losing your temper and harming your health".

"It’s not worth losing my temper!" she cried angrily. "If my only daughter flaunting her body in front of men is not worth losing my temper, I have no idea what is? Oh, what to do, what to do?" she wailed.

Meili flinched at the sound of her mother’s sad wails.

"How could any of those men agree to marry you now?" she snapped at her daughter. "They will each be thinking that their future wife has been seen unclad by other men. They cannot agree to that!" an angry tear slid down her mother’s cheek.

Meili felt even worse, if that was possible. Her mother so rarely cried, and she had somehow made her cry...

"Mother, none of those men want to marry me anyway," she ventured softly, trying to help, "they just want to secure alliances with the Mei family. You told me you would find me a good man who loves me the way I am."

"Oh! Now you’re going to throw that at me, are you? Just want to secure alliances with the Mei family?" she muttered with disgust. "Next, you’ll be telling me this whole thing is my fault for preserving your innocence and making you too naïve, is that it? Oh, have I been too soft on her Nanny?" she wailed. "I’ve done my best! How many mothers have protected their daughters the way I’ve protected Meili? Why must you go an undo all my good work, naughty child?" she flashed angrily, her moods as mercurial as the late-summer weather.

"Mother, is it really as bad as you say it is? None of those men are truly marriage partners for me, anyway, are they?" she coaxed hopefully.

"Hmmph!" her mother growled at her. "Rubbing salt in the wound now, are you? How sharper than a serpent’s tooth are the words of an ungrateful child. Nanny, bring the stick!"

Meili’s eyes widened. She hadn’t been hit with the stick since she was a young girl and she had climbed the wall with Third and Fourth Brothers to run away outside.

"Mother?" she said uncertainly.

Nanny bustled off and returned with the thin cane used for whippings.

Meili was lifted to her feet by two of the servants and hustled out to the bench where only her brothers were ever punished. Her eyes widened with fear.

"M... mother," her voice cracked with tears.

"Now you cry you wicked thing! Only when you’re about to be whipped. You should be crying for the loss of your reputation!"

Meili was placed face down on the bench.

Her father and her five brothers stood together just out of sight around the corner of the courtyard.

"Do something father?" hissed First Brother.

He shook his head sorrowfully. "She’ll be lucky if this is the end of it," he whispered to his eldest son.

Third tried to peep around to see what was going on, and his father pulled him back.

"There’s nothing you can do son, don’t try and intervene between your mother and your sister."

"But father..."

"No buts," he raised his finger at his son and Third scowled angrily, withdrawing.

The horrible sound of the cane whipping flesh rang out, and each of her brothers and her father flinched with every strike of the bamboo on their delicate sister.

There was deadly silence between the hits, until, as they all counted, strike number nine, where a pained sob escaped her, which had all of the men clenching their hands and looking helplessly at one another.

Strike number ten, and soft sobbing could now be heard from Meili.

"Take her to her room!" her mother growled. "And that’s not it Meili. You can kneel in the ancestral temple for the next two nights. Take her there at sundown," she instructed the servants.

Manni rushed over to help her young mistress away, dashing the tears from her own face with the back of her hand.

Yu Yan stalked around the corner to confront her husband and sons.

"Yes, I know you’re all cowering here!" she said angrily. "I’ve a good mind to put each of you boys onto that bench who was silly enough not to call a stop to that dance before it began!"

They all took a step back from their enraged little mother.

"Don’t even think about trying to lessen her punishment," she warned them, "or you can join her kneeling in the temple!"

"Yes, dear," her husband soothed, "you were quite right to punish her, I’m sure your sons all agree, don’t you children?"

They all looked at the ground, scuffing their feet, making half-hearted affirmative murmurs.

"See dear? Everyone agrees. You’ve done right; you’ve done right. Come along and sit down to rest now. I know punishing her has been hard on you."