The Exquisite Tower was left temporarily in Tongtiange’s keeping. To untangle the karmic debt between its master and Sheng Huai’an, they would have to wait until the remnant soul had recovered his strength — Tongtiange would watch over it in the meantime.
Also staying behind was Fuqi, who intended to apprentice himself in the art of ghost cultivation.
The moment Lang Jiuchuan left, Fuqi and A’Piao found themselves staring at each other in silence. After a long moment, Fuqi clasped his hands together in a formal bow. “I respectfully request that Master Piao impart his teachings.” He paused, then added, “And I would also ask Master to teach me how to swear foul enough to be truly effective.”
That way he could deal with unreasonable customers who came to extort them.
A’Piao: “!”
Staring into Fuqi’s earnest, sincere eyes, he had the distinct and unsettling feeling that he had gotten the worse end of some deal — he was doing all the work, while a certain young miss was getting to enjoy her leisure. Was that not entirely too comfortable for her?
Lang Jiuchuan carried her block of camphor wood back to the Marquis’s residence. The moment she entered the courtyard, Old Nanny Gu and Jian Lan surrounded her, both wearing expressions of barely contained anxiety.
“Take it to my study.” She handed the timber to Jian Lan and asked, “If you have something to say, say it plainly. What is it?”
Jian Lan glanced at Old Nanny Gu, who stepped forward. “Madam has fainted.”
Lang Jiuchuan paused. “Has the heart pang condition acted up again?”
Old Nanny Gu shook her head. “The Cui family has sent word. That is to say, your maternal grandfather’s family — Cui Daren has been promoted to Deputy Minister of Revenue and has returned to the capital to take up his post. The Cui family will be on their way and should arrive in the capital by the second month.”
Lang Jiuchuan said a noncommittal “oh.”
Her relationship with Cui Shi was not a close one, and she had even less feeling for the Cui family itself.
“Please bring water — I will wash and change, then go to pay my respects at Madam’s courtyard.”
Old Nanny Gu brightened, gave Jian Lan a nod, then hesitated before asking tentatively, “Would the young miss care to hear a little about the Cui family?”
Lang Jiuchuan nodded, indifferently.
Cui Shi was of the illustrious Qinghe Cui lineage. Her father, Cui Hongzhe, was likewise of the main Cui branch — not the eldest line, but born of the same mother as the eldest son of that line, and holding a position of considerable standing. He thus commanded great status within the Cui clan.
Cui Hongzhe was a rigid, stern man — unsmiling, bound by ritual and propriety in all things. His marriage to his first wife, Madam Qin, the mother of Cui Shi, had been a formal alliance between families. The union could not be called a deeply harmonious one, though mutual respect was maintained. After the wedding, a son had come fairly quickly.
Lang Jiuchuan paused. “Was Madam not the eldest daughter?”
Old Nanny Gu’s expression grew sorrowful. “Yes — but before Madam, there was a son. His childhood name was Yuange. He died young in the same year Madam was born.”
When Madam Qin was pregnant with Cui Shi, she had taken little Yuange — only three years old — back to her own family to attend a celebration. Along the way, Yuange had made a fuss to ride a horse, and she had allowed it, letting a guard run alongside holding him. No one could have anticipated an ambush by assassins. The guards fought to the last to protect them, but Yuange was thrown from the horse and struck in the chest by a hoof.
A chill moved through Lang Jiuchuan’s chest.
Old Nanny Gu pressed a hand to the corner of her eye. “Those assassins had been sent by the old master’s political enemies. After the boy was lost, the old mistress — already in grief-induced shock — went into early labor. Our Madam was a child of eight months. Between the premature birth and the loss of her son, the old mistress became consumed by grief, never recovering from illness, and passed away when Madam was only five years old.”
She drew a slow breath. “After the boy’s death, the old mistress harbored a deep resentment toward the old master — blaming him, and blaming herself for allowing Yuange to ride the horse. Though they never quarreled openly, they became a couple bound together by old grievances. Then, a year after the old mistress passed, the old master married the current Lady Wen. After that, two more sons and a daughter were born.”
“Were there any concubines?”
Old Nanny Gu shook her head. “None at all. There had been an old bonded maidservant from before, but after the first Madam Qin passed, she remained to serve our Madam as she grew up, and then she too died of illness after our Madam was wed.”
“And Lady Wen — what was she like in temperament?”
“The Cui family holds reputation above all else. She did not mistreat Madam outwardly. But of course, a stepmother is a stepmother — her own children will always come first.” Old Nanny Gu’s expression carried a note of thinly veiled contempt. “Every new year and festival, Madam — motherless as she was — would watch that family celebrate together, while she stood apart like an outsider, belonging nowhere.”
At this, Old Nanny Gu glanced at Lang Jiuchuan and, finding no change in her expression, gave a quiet sigh.
“The Cui family, with that kind of standing — they would not ordinarily arrange marriage alliances with noble military families. So how did Madam come to marry into the Lang Family?” Lang Jiuchuan found this puzzling. A family that valued its scholarly purity so highly would generally seek matches with other scholarly households, rarely tying itself to nobility.
Old Nanny Gu gave a cold smile. “Before your father, Madam had been engaged once before — to the eldest son of the Xue family, a family of scholars. That would be the current Shuntian Prefecture Deputy Administrator Xue Wenrui. But the engagement was dissolved, because that Xue Daren had a childhood sweetheart, and the two of them were spotted together in a rather compromising moment.”
She did not elaborate further. But Lang Jiuchuan already understood the rest — the same tiresome, overwrought drama one could drown in from beginning to end.
“Meeting your father came later — Madam had gone to light incense and lamps at a memorial for her late mother Madam Qin, when a sudden storm struck and overturned her carriage, and that was where fate intervened. In truth, the old master was not satisfied with your father. It was Madam who insisted on marrying him. Everyone assumed she was acting out of spite — but that wasn’t it.” Old Nanny Gu seemed to fall into a kind of nostalgia. “Old Nanny has served Madam for over thirty years. You may not believe this, but the time I saw her truly and freely happy — the happiest she ever was — came after she married your father, in those days when she was expecting you. She was at her most carefree then, more so than even in her own childhood home. It’s a pity that…”
Lang Jiuchuan frowned slightly. “From what you’ve said, Madam’s grievances against the Cui family, while real, were not deep enough to form a true rift. She still exchanged seasonal gifts with them, maintaining a surface civility. The Cui family returning to the capital should not have been enough to cause her to faint.”
“It is because of the dispute over the legitimate eldest son’s standing.” Old Nanny Gu said. “In the Cui family, to guard against infants dying young, children were only entered into the clan registry once they had survived to three years of age. Yuange had just turned three — the plan had been to enter his name into the registry at the new year — but then tragedy struck, and it was never done. Later, the old master had Lady Wen’s eldest son registered as the legitimate eldest. Madam fought the matter with all the reason she had, and got nowhere. She then told the old master to his face that he was unworthy of being called a father. For that, he struck her across the face and made her kneel in the ancestral hall. She was only ten years old at the time, kneeling in that cold and dark hall through the night — and when the doors were opened the next morning, she had already fallen into a high fever. From that point on, a deep rift formed between Madam and the old master, and she grew even more distant from Lady Wen and her half-siblings.”
“After she was married, Madam used the distance of the road as her reason and never once returned to her parental home. After your father’s passing, she cited the taboo of a widow bringing misfortune, and rarely even left her own gates. She carries a great deal of resentment — at some level she has always treated the Cui family as simply the place she came from, nothing more. Sending seasonal gifts was merely a way of keeping the formalities. Now, with the news that the Cui family is returning to the capital and contact will be unavoidable, it is natural she cannot feel at ease — all those old memories rising up, and in the sudden agitation, she fainted.”
Old Nanny Gu stole a glance at Lang Jiuchuan’s expression and continued, “Old Nanny is not trying to make excuses for Madam — but, young miss, Madam was genuinely happy in her marriage to your father. She held this little household as her true home. After having you, she was happier still, hoping for a life of warmth and peace from that point on. It was simply that heaven was unkind — your father was taken too, and then… Madam has not had it easy either.”
Lang Jiuchuan looked up, her voice quiet and even. “Nanny, she has not had it easy. And yet — has her daughter been any less wronged? Perhaps Madam believes I was not born of her blood, that I have taken the place of her true ninth daughter. But what did I know, just born into this world? She may suspect. She may resent. But she should not have let it fall on me. Especially not without knowing the truth. From the very beginning, she directed her hatred at the wrong person — and in doing so, she did wrong.”
Old Nanny Gu’s face paled slightly.