After that, Ling Jingshu did not say another word.
Once the morning respects were done, the members of each branch all withdrew. Only Lady Ling remained behind with the brothers Lu Hong and Lu Qian, staying to keep the Old Madam company.
Ling Jingshu took Ling Xiao by the hand, and together they made their way to Hexiang Courtyard.
In the years when Yao Shi had still been alive, Ling Jingshu and Ling Xiao had lived with their mother in Hexiang Courtyard. The place was naturally very familiar to them. After Yao Shi passed away, Hexiang Courtyard quickly welcomed a new mistress. When Li Shi entered the household, it became inconvenient for Ling Jingshu and her brother to remain in Hexiang Courtyard, so the two of them moved together to Qiushui Pavilion. Later, when Ling Xiao’s accident left him blind, the Old Madam took pity on him and brought him into Yonghe Hall to care for him personally.
Ling Jingshu had been coming to pay her respects to the Old Madam every day and taking the opportunity to greet Li Shi as well; she came to Hexiang Courtyard less and less often. Since her rebirth, this was her first time setting foot here.
Li Shi was always impeccable in maintaining outward appearances, and with Ling Wuye present today as well, she took Ling Jingshu’s hand and fussed over her warmly, performing every gesture of a doting mother: “…These past days I’ve been thinking of you constantly, unable to eat or sleep properly. Now that you’ve finally fully recovered, I can finally put my mind at ease…”
Looking at Li Shi — so skilled at putting on appearances, so venomous at heart — Ling Jingshu felt a revulsion she could not put into words.
Ling Jingshu suddenly lost her patience for this hollow exchange, and withdrew her hand. With the barest trace of a smile, she replied: “I’m not a young child anymore — I can look after myself. There’s no need for Mother to trouble herself on my account.”
Li Shi: “…”
Li Shi had been hoping to show Ling Wuye what a gracious and devoted stepmother she was, and had not remotely expected to be deflected so bluntly by Ling Jingshu. Losing face and swallowing her frustration both at once, she went from red to white and back again.
Ling Ting, observing this scene, wore a curiously indecipherable expression.
Ling Wuye’s brow arched in surprise as well, though he said nothing.
Ling Fou, only six years old, did not understand what had just happened and only found everyone’s sudden silence rather odd: “Mama, why did everyone stop talking all of a sudden?”
Li Shi squeezed out a smile with great effort. “Nothing at all.” Then she turned as though nothing were amiss to address Ling Wuye, smiling: “It’s rare for my lord to be in the residence today — the whole family is gathered here in Hexiang Courtyard. I’ll go to the kitchen and give word.”
Ling Wuye murmured his assent.
Something as minor as giving word to the kitchen needed no personal errand from Li Shi — she could just as easily send a maidservant. But Li Shi was making a show of warmth and attentiveness for her husband, and at the same time, she needed a brief retreat from the room to collect herself after being so thoroughly put down by Ling Jingshu.
She had spent so many years playing the part of the virtuous, generous stepmother. She absolutely could not let that performance slip in front of her husband.
The composed smile Li Shi had been forcing slid off her face the moment she stepped out of the main hall and there were no more eyes upon her. Her expression darkened. A chill flashed through her eyes, sharp enough to unsettle the beholder.
“A’Shu, come here.” Ling Wuye’s brow was furrowed; he summoned her with a firm voice.
Ling Jingshu walked forward without any change in her composure.
Without much thought, she could already guess what Ling Wuye was about to say. Nothing more than the usual words about how “a woman ought to be gentle and compliant, and must not be disrespectful toward her elders.” She had heard them so many times, from the time she was small until now…
“A woman ought to be gentle and compliant. She must not speak out of turn to her elders, and certainly must not be disobedient and unfilial.” Ling Wuye’s expression was one of distinct displeasure as he rebuked her: “You have always been sensible and well-behaved. Why did you use that tone when speaking to your mother just now?”
Gentle and compliant. Sensible and well-behaved.
Those eight characters had ruined her entire previous life. Now that she had been fortunate enough to be reborn, how could she be willing to go on as she had — yielding and acquiescing as before?
“Since Mother entered the household, I have lived in Qiushui Pavilion. At that time, I was only six years old.”
Ling Jingshu met Ling Wuye’s gaze directly, her expression calm and impassive. “Over these eight years, I have been fortunate to have Grandmother’s compassion and watchful care. But Grandmother has been occupied with the affairs of the entire household and cannot give her attention to every matter where I am concerned. For the greater part of this time, I have cared for myself. Father, was anything I just said incorrect?”
Ling Wuye had not anticipated in the slightest that Ling Jingshu would talk back to him — and with such uncompromising resolve. His anger surged: “Ling Jingshu! What have your lessons in proper conduct amounted to? Is this how you speak to your own parents?”
Ling Wuye was thirty-two this year — handsome in appearance, with a bearing that was distinguished and refined. He cultivated an air of elegance and self-possession in all things; occasions where he became genuinely angry were quite rare.
His eruption of fury startled everyone present.
Ling Ting said nothing. Even the youngest, Ling Fou, was frightened into silence.
Ling Xiao’s lovely face went pale. He moved forward by the sound, stepping urgently toward Ling Jingshu and seizing her arm: “A’Shu, what has come over you — how can you talk back to Father like this! Apologize to Father at once!”
Filial piety was paramount in these times. That single character of “filial duty” could be said to weigh more than gold. To be branded as unfilial and disobedient — that would be no small matter for Ling Jingshu.
Ling Xiao in his urgency had gripped harder than he intended.
Ling Jingshu gave him a reassuring look — then, remembering he could not see it, softened her voice instead: “A’Xiao, I wasn’t talking back to Father. I was simply stating facts to him. Father has always been fond of us and the most reasonable of men — he won’t blame me for it.”
Two neatly placed flattering words, and the irritation on Ling Wuye’s face already noticeably ebbed.
Ling Jingshu had pacified Ling Xiao; now she turned to face Ling Wuye again, and where there had been cold composure, her expression now held something earnest and sincere: “Father, in all the days I lay ill, Mother did come once to look in on me. As a stepmother, to go so far as that — I already feel grateful. What I said to Mother just now, I did not mean as a slight against her.”
A flicker of discomfort crossed Ling Wuye’s face as he absorbed those words.
Ling Jingshu had been ill for all those days, and Li Shi had visited once — yet he, her own birth father, had not set foot in Qiushui Pavilion a single time…
Once a man’s conscience pricked him, his conviction tended to falter. Ling Wuye’s tone softened: “This time, we’ll let it go. Mind your manner of speaking in the future.”
Ling Jingshu dipped her head slightly and answered in a gentle, deferential voice: “Your daughter will take your words to heart.”
Still the same soft, respectful tone as always — exactly as before.
The sharp, composed Ling Jingshu of a moment ago seemed as though she had been nothing but everyone’s imagination.
With his anger fully spent, Ling Wuye naturally turned to ask a few considerate questions.
Ling Jingshu answered each one, while inwardly she was laughing with cold contempt.
When their mother Yao Shi had still been alive, Ling Wuye and Yao Shi had maintained a reasonably affectionate marriage, and he had been quite fond of the twin children born of that union. But Yao Shi was not fated for long life, and had left the two of them behind early. After Li Shi entered the household, she quickly won Ling Wuye’s heart. With Ling Jingshu and her brother moved out of Hexiang Courtyard, their daily contact with their father gradually dwindled. Once Ling Fou was born, Ling Wuye’s attention was directed largely toward his youngest son, and his regard for Ling Jingshu and Ling Xiao grew thinner by the year.
If Ling Jingshu had not exerted herself to win the Old Madam’s special affection and protection, the two siblings would not have the position they had today.
In Ling Wuye’s heart, reputation and advancement came first above all things. When the Lu family had placed her under house arrest, they had — in order to stop Ling Wuye’s mouth — deliberately arranged for him to be appointed as the Vice Administrator of Zhengzhou. After weighing the matter, Ling Wuye had accepted the Lu family’s “good will,” and happily set out to take up his post, taking his wife and children with him.
Leaving behind his daughter in the Lu family, enduring unimaginable humiliation, utterly without a thought for her.
To have a father like this — truly pitiable, truly lamentable.
The memories rose up, and Ling Jingshu felt the resentment surge and swell within her.
But this was absolutely not the time to break things open. To deal with Li Shi, she would need to work through Ling Wuye. And even for Ling Xiao’s sake alone, she had no choice but to endure for now.
“The reason A’Xiao and I came specially today — there is something important we would like to ask Father.” Ling Jingshu began the opening, then stepped back: “A’Xiao, you tell Father yourself.”
Ling Xiao steadied himself, mustered his courage, and spoke: “Father, I have been idle in the household all these days, wasting my time, and I feel deeply ashamed. I wish to continue studying!”
Ling Wuye looked mildly surprised, and his reply came instinctively: “Your eyes cannot see — how would you study?”
The offhand indifference in his voice hit the already anxious Ling Xiao like cold water; the smile on his face froze in place. The words he had been about to say caught in his throat.
“The eyes cannot see, but the ears can hear.” Ling Jingshu stepped in swiftly to continue: “A’Xiao already has a literate page boy at his side who reads to him regularly. But the page boy’s learning is limited — he can read the words, but cannot explain what they mean. If we could select a bright and able boy who could go to the family school in A’Xiao’s place each day — learning what is taught, then returning to relay it all to A’Xiao carefully — with A’Xiao’s intelligence, the benefit to him would be considerable.”
The Ling family school in Dingzhou was well regarded. The tutors engaged to teach there were mostly eminent and learned scholars, brought in at considerable expense. The students at the school were sons of the Ling clan’s extended family, along with a few from families connected by marriage or distant relation who had managed to petition their way in.
To arrange for a page boy to enter the family school would naturally pose no difficulty to Ling Wuye.
After a moment’s brief consideration, Ling Wuye agreed: “A’Xiao wanting to study is a good thing. Even if he cannot sit the examinations one day, more reading is always of benefit. I’ll have word sent over later — you can choose a page boy to go to the family school starting tomorrow.”
No one had expected the matter to be resolved so easily.
Ling Xiao was overjoyed, and at once gave his thanks: “Thank you, Father.”
Seeing how happy Ling Xiao was, Ling Jingshu felt a quiet warmth in her heart too.
Ling Wuye praised Ling Xiao for a few words, then turned to Ling Ting: “A’Ting, you are sitting for the Childhood Scholar Examination this year. These days you must apply yourself with even greater diligence. Look at Lu Hong — only a year older than you, yet he has already passed the county and prefectural examinations and earned his Cultivated Talent rank. You must redouble your efforts.”
Ling Ting responded with respectful deference.
Ling Fou was only six and had only begun his studies the previous year. There was nothing for Ling Wuye to reprove there, so he simply tested him on a few things. Li Shi had gone to the kitchen and returned in short order, arriving just as Ling Wuye was examining Ling Fou.
Ling Fou answered neatly and competently; Ling Wuye was quite pleased.
Li Shi also felt that her face was radiant, and the frustration and ill mood from earlier evaporated completely in an instant of quiet satisfaction.
After all — Ling Ting was just a son born of a concubine, and Ling Xiao was blind and useless. In the years to come, the Fifth Branch would depend on Ling Fou to hold it together — wouldn’t it?