The stranger bowed again and then left.
“He showed up while you were gone, and I thought it would be rude to make him wait outside.”Shanlin sounded defensive.
“You did well.We can’t afford to be rude to anyone, and servants will report on our behavior.”Leander opened the trunk to find layers of cloth.He lifted a subtle reddish-brown cloth and found it was a robe.It was sleeveless, to be worn over a shirt and loose trousers, and there were vines and embroidered flowers woven into the fabric.
“Wow, that’s beautiful.What is it?”
“A robe for me,” Leander said.“I think Heng is trying to tell me that my clothes are unacceptable.”He draped the robe over a dining room chair and picked up a shirt done in rich brown.The long sleeves featured the same flowers.
“Are you really going to wear a dress?”
“It’s a robe, and we will both wear them,” Leander said firmly.“This is a working robe, which is why the fabric is rougher and it ends at my knees.”He held the embroidered robe up to his chest to show the length.It seemed ridiculous to decorate the historical equivalent of jeans, but he was no stranger to idiots who thought fashion mattered.Soft-brained morons wasted their money to make themselves pretty, like that mattered.But Leander's money hadn’t gone to this ridiculousness, and politeness required him to avoid calling Heng to accuse him of being a vainglorious, excessive, ridiculous fool.
“The shirt feels nice,” Shanlin said.
“The shirt is silk, so that will be soft against the skin.”Silk.Leander contained a snort.He had expected more common sense than a silk work shirt.
Leander found four robes and seven shirts for himself.The most ornate and elaborate robe fell to the floor.Then Leander lifted out the first small robe.“Apparently your clothing is inappropriate as well,” Leander said as he held the blue robe out for Shanlin.All Leander’s clothing came in earth colors–deep greens, browns, and reddish brown.But Shanlin’s clothing was more colorful with tiny embroidered turtles, cranes, rabbits, deer, or roosters on the trim.At the bottom were shoes for both of them.
Shanlin studied the stack of clothing as if it were a snake that might bite him.At least none of his clothing had the ridiculously long sleeves of two of Leander’s shirts, and his stack didn’t include the ten-foot sashes Leander needed to learn to wind around himself.
“I thought you said people were super polite here, but you said this means he’s insulting our clothes.”Shanlin looked spectacularly unimpressed.
“They are polite, which is why Heng will insult us by sending clothing instead of telling us we look ridiculous.”
“So, he’s being rude, but quietly?”
Leander gave Shanlin all his attention.“This culture is about status and politeness and tradition.We don’t have the status to challenge anyone, so we will be polite without fail.Leave insults, subtle or not to people who have status.”
“Like Auntie Daiyu?”
“Exactly like Auntie Daiyu or like your new teacher, Luo Zheng, who you will always call Teacher Luo.If they insult us, we thank them for the helpful advice.”
“So we let them bully us?”Shanlin wrinkled his nose.
Shanlin had too much child in him for Leander to know how he was supposed to handle him.All he could do was be honest and hope Shanlin could control his immaturity.He sat and invited Shanlin to sit in the chair next to him.“We need to find our place in the village.Eventually, if we work hard, they will respect us for what we can offer the village.Auntie Daiyu helped us find work and helped you get into Teacher Luo’s school, and that shows she respects us.But that is because we are family to Heng.If we get angry or are rude, they will never respect us, and Heng’s status will fall because of us.And no bully buys such fine clothing.”Leander struggled to find the right explanation because so far, Shanlin wasn’t buying it.
“A young child might choose a green polka-dot shirt to go with purple pants and pink shoes, and a parent would tell them to change and might insult them.It’s not meant to bully the child.We came dressed strangely, and Heng has sent clothing.”
“So, it’s like when Father bought an orange-striped shirt and Mother told him he looked like an idiot and burned the shirt with the iron?”
Leander cleared his throat and imagined the puppy-dog eyes Finn would have turned on his wife after losing one of his atrocious shirts.
“Exactly like that,” Leander said.“As his wife, his family, she had to make sure he didn’t look like a fool.But remember, we tell everyone I am your father.Even here.”
Shanlin pushed his pile of clothing away.“It still feels like letting other people insult us.”
“Auntie Daiyu insulted us by suggesting we were unemployed and helpless without her intervention.Heng insulted us by sending us beautiful clothes we can wear tomorrow.It’s not a bad way to be insulted.”
“We’ll look funny in dresses,” Shanlin said, wrinkling his nose.
God save him from children.Leander had to plumb the depths of his soul to find the patience to avoid becoming a raging harridan, or whatever the male equivalent would be.“They’re robes.Actually, I’m sure there are more specific names for them in English, but all I know is the generic word robe.We will look normal in robes, but you can wear the simplest ones.
Shanlin fingered the trim of the sea-green robe with attached sleeves.Turtles and fish swam along the trim, and the fabric had a subtle ombre with the green growing darker on the bottom.“It’s going to be really strange,” he whispered.
“Yes,” Leander said, “it will be.When I was here before, I had been sent to study.I knew there would be an end, and I looked forward to leaving.I wanted to get back to my home and friends.”
“Like my parents,” Shanlin said softly.
