The rain continued to drizzle softly, but outside the Lù residence, the atmosphere seemed to freeze. Apart from Lù Wénhàn’s clear voice saying “daughter” and “father,” everyone else fell silent as if struck dumb. Mrs. Sūn from the Sòng family sat in the rain, forgetting even to stand up, clutching her chest in disbelief at who Lù Wénhàn truly was.
Finally, it dawned on her. Who else in Bianjing did not know Lù Wénhàn? As the Minister of Personnel, he might not match the Duke in title, but he wielded real power. With the Emperor’s favor, he was poised for promotion to Prime Minister. This alone made every noble in Bianjing eager to curry favor with him, whether from within the palace or outside it, regardless of their status as imperial relatives or nobility. Anyone who met Lù Wénhàn had to respectfully call him “Lord Lù,” even the old Duke had to treat him as an equal.
Lù Wénhàn’s daughter could easily marry a prince and become a princess. Sòng Qīngzhǎo, as the second son of the Duke’s family, was of lower status in comparison.
But… how could Míngshū, a widow from the countryside who had just entered Bianjing, suddenly become Lù Wénhàn’s daughter? Mrs. Sūn couldn’t answer this question, but she knew she had caused a major blunder. Without another word, she knelt, kowtowed twice, and hastily retreated with her maidservants.
Lù Wénhàn no longer concerned himself with petty servants. Sensing Míngshū’s confusion and fearing she was intimidated, his expression softened further with kindness.
“Míngshū, don’t be afraid. Your father is here to support you in everything.”
Míngshū wasn’t frightened at all. She was simply bewildered and hadn’t yet grasped the situation. If even Mrs. Sūn couldn’t explain it, she certainly couldn’t. Turning to her mother, she asked, “Mother, who is this person?”
Even Lù Wénhàn stopped using the title.
Mrs. Zēng caught off guard, had a quiet conversation with Lù Wénhàn behind closed doors. They had agreed that Lù Wénhàn would find an opportunity to tell the children about this matter. Lù Wénhàn hadn’t forced her, only asking about events from the past eighteen years. They were calm until Lù Wénhàn was about to leave and unexpectedly heard Míngshū being harassed by someone from the Sòng family.
Lù Wénhàn exploded with anger on the spot, tearing away the facade of gentleness and returning to his demeanor from eighteen years ago.
Facing Míngshū’s confusion, Mrs. Zēng was momentarily at a loss. Whether it was her father’s mistake or not was hard to say.
“I am your father.” Lù Wénhàn looked at Míngshū, who was full of doubts, and couldn’t help but say kindly, “Tell Father, do you want to marry that young Sòng?”
“She doesn’t want to.”
Before Míngshū could speak, another voice interrupted.
In the drizzling spring rain, Lù Wányù held an umbrella as he walked slowly from the other end of the long alley. He walked slowly, with a few raindrops hanging from his hair, his face expressionless, his eyes calm and clear. Like this spring rain, he was cool, lucid.
“Elder Brother!” Míngshū breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Lù Wányù, as if granted a reprieve, disregarding the rain outside and rushing under Lù Wányù’s umbrella.
Lù Wányù tilted the umbrella towards her and pulled her closer, the umbrella not large enough to shield her completely from the rain even when he leaned towards her, some rain still landing on her.
“But isn’t Father just a tablet?” Míngshū muttered to him.
The muttering voice was neither loud nor small, just enough for Mrs. Zēng and Lù Wénhàn to hear.
Lù Wénhàn’s expression became uneasy.
“I don’t know either.” Lù Wányù said as he walked with Míngshū under their eaves, pulling Mrs. Zēng and Míngshū into the house, and picking up the umbrella on the ground, shaking it hard.
The splashing water droplets splashed onto Lù Wénhàn.
Lù Wányù didn’t apologize either, just saying lightly, “The student still has important matters to attend to at home, so I won’t entertain Lord Lù. Please take care, Lord Lù.”
With that, he turned around and walked into the house, slamming the door in front of Lù Wénhàn’s face, and locking it.
Lù Wénhàn narrowly avoided being hit on the nose by the door.
The tearful reunion between father and son and father and daughter did not happen as expected. His son was too calm, and his daughter was speaking coldly, not even scolding him.
This pair of children did not give him, the Minister of Personnel, any face.
Who did they resemble?
They resembled him when he was young.
Outside, rain fell steadily, casting a dim light inside the tightly closed house. The atmosphere was tense, with silence hanging heavy. Ming Shu and Madame Zeng watched as Lu Chang carefully set down his umbrella and wiped the water from his shoes at the doorway. Madame Zeng seemed at a loss, observing her son’s silent demeanor. She had kept a secret from him for eighteen years, never expecting it to explode today without any warning.
Ming Shu glanced at the two of them, then gently guided Madame Zeng to sit in a chair, saying, “Please, Mother, have a seat.” She then approached Lu Chang and tiptoed to shake the raindrops from his hair, remarking softly, “Your hair is all wet, Brother.”
Her voice was gentle and soothing, injecting some much-needed ease into the tense atmosphere.
“Thank you,” Lu Chang responded quietly, his tone betraying no emotion.
“Both of you, please sit down. I’ll go make some tea for you,” Ming Shu said, already tidying up the table where Lu Wenhao had finished his tea.
Lu Chang stopped her with a hand on her arm. “I’ll do it. Please, sit,” he insisted.
With that, he took the remaining tea cups and headed to the kitchen. Ming Shu pulled up a chair next to Madame Zeng and asked in a low voice, “Mother, what Lu Daren just said… is it true?”
Madame Zeng silently nodded.
“Are you worried about how Brother will react?” Ming Shu continued, gently placing her hand on Madame Zeng’s clenched fist.
Madame Zeng nodded again.
“Brother is a sensible and filial person. Mother, please don’t worry. Besides, you have me,” Ming Shu reassured her.
Madame Zeng looked at Ming Shu with a soft smile. “Ming Shu, you are so kind. You’re like Mother’s comforting little cushion.”
Ming Shu smiled back.
Soon, Lu Chang returned with three bowls of tea, each prepared differently for their conversation ahead. Ming Shu looked at her bowl, made with salted plum and a touch of honey—a sweet and sour flavor with a hint of saltiness, her favorite taste for everyday tea.
“Mother, what exactly is our relationship with the Minister Lu Wenhao?” Lu Chang asked as he sat down opposite them, holding a plain bowl of water in his hands.
Madame Zeng held her usual bowl of Eight Treasures Tea.
“Lu Wenhao is your father,” Madame Zeng replied calmly, taking a sip of tea, and steadying herself to confront the past.
Speaking of the tragic fate between Zeng Shi and Lu Hanwen, one must trace back more than twenty years.
Zeng Shi was not from Wuhu, originally hailing from Xuanzhou. She was the daughter of an ordinary family there, known throughout Jiangnan for her skilled embroidery and exceptional beauty. Shortly after coming of age, she was pushed into a marriage arranged by a matchmaker, despite her mother having passed away and her father being bedridden, leaving her fate in the hands of her greedy brother and sister-in-law. They intended to sell her off to a wealthy elder in the city, nearly sixty years of age, as a concubine.
“At that time, I was about the same age as Ming Shu, how could I ever submit? So, I escaped from home. My brother and sister-in-law chased me to the riverside. I thought, even if I jumped into the river and died, I wouldn’t go back with them. But unexpectedly, instead of jumping into the river, I encountered the bane of my life.”
Zeng Shi was rescued by a young man passing by on horseback at the riverside.
Even after twenty years, the scene when Lu Wenhan rescued her remained vivid in her memory, like a miraculous intervention.
At that time, a handsome young man and a beautiful young woman met under such circumstances, and love at first sight was inevitable. Lu Wenhan gave her a considerable sum of money, rescuing her from her brother and sister-in-law.
“He brought me to his residence. At that time, all I could think of was repaying that money to him. But he didn’t take that money seriously. Instead, he sheltered me and asked me to focus on embroidery to earn a living. He told me his name was Lu Yuanchuan, orphaned at a young age, managing several rice mills in his family, a young man with modest wealth. He treated me well, with tenderness and care, unlike other men I had known, so I trusted him.”
Zeng Shi recounted, lost in her memories.
In his youth, Lu Wenhan bore a striking resemblance to Lu Chang, but with a smiling countenance. Zeng Shi, barely in her teens, couldn’t resist his charm and quickly fell for him. Lu Wenhan also admired her gentle manner and the strength hidden beneath her apparent fragility, and he too fell for her.
“Though we were deeply in love, we never crossed the line. He said he was deeply committed to me, so I insisted on a proper marriage. He agreed.”
Marriage contracts, betrothal gifts, matchmakers, and wedding ceremonies were all conducted according to the customs of a legal wife, without exception except for his parents.
“I thought I was his lawfully wedded wife, no, I was his lawfully wedded wife! But I didn’t know, Yuan Chuan was just his name, his full name was Lu Wenhan, the youngest son of the Lu family! He deceived me!”
The Lu family was the most famous official family in Xuanzhou, having served in office for three generations and moved to Bianjing long ago. Although they shared the same surname, Zeng Shi never imagined that Lu Wenhan would be the youngest son of the Lu family. She was even more unaware that this youngest son of the Lu family was notorious in the capital city, intelligent but unruly and troublesome from childhood to adulthood.
The year Zeng met Lu Wenhao, he had stirred up trouble again in the capital, offending the wrong people. To quell the turmoil, his elders decided to send him back to his ancestral home in Xuanzhou. This was both a punishment and a way to abandon their youngest son.
“It was perhaps his most disheartened moment when his family exiled him. All his aspirations and ambitions vanished like fleeting clouds. His discontent was palpable, even to me,” Zeng added.
Lu Wenhao was rebellious by nature. Displeased with his family, he lived separately and never crossed the threshold of the Lu ancestral home. He kept a low profile in Xuanzhou, and even his marriage plans were kept secret from his family elders.
“Though he was unruly outside, he was good to me,” Zeng continued after taking another sip of tea.
After their marriage, they enjoyed a blissful period together, but soon Zeng became pregnant and gave birth to Lu Chang.
In the second year of Lu Chang’s birth, messengers from Bianjing arrived looking for Lu Wenhao. His elder brother had tragically died in a horse riding accident, leaving their parents without an heir. They remembered their youngest son and wanted to bring him back to Bianjing.
“That’s when I found out he was the youngest son of the Lu family, not just any outsider. He came from a prestigious lineage, a pride of the heavens, someone far beyond a commoner like me,” Zeng recalled what the Lu family had said to her.
“Just a concubine, and yet you call yourself a wife?”
“If I had known how this marriage would end up, I would have preferred to jump into the river and die rather than let him save me. I never sought wealth or status, but he made me less than a concubine!” Zeng’s eyes reddened, her hands trembling slightly.
From that day on, they argued incessantly. Despite Lu Wenhao’s assurances that she was his wife and not a concubine, he remained silent whenever she asked about his family’s intentions.
Lu’s family would not acknowledge her.
“He had ambitions; surely he would return to Bianjing. What was I to him then? He couldn’t give me any guarantees. He said he would fight for me, but I no longer believed his words. We argued day and night,” Zeng said.
Such conflicts eroded their relationship, depleting any remaining affection. Exhausted, they finally parted ways.
“I told him, let’s divorce,” Zeng said.
By then, Lu Wenhao was also weary of their endless arguments. When he heard her decisive words, he agreed to the divorce in anger.
“I asked for nothing but our child. He didn’t argue with me. After leaving the divorce letter, he went back to Bianjing with his family, leaving his house to me. But soon after he left, Lu’s family sent people to take Lu Chang from me. If I stayed in Xuanzhou, I wouldn’t be able to keep Lu Chang and would be restricted by my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. So, I decided to leave quietly at night and escaped to Wuhu. I only told people that my husband had passed away and didn’t inquire further about Lu’s family and him.”
Lu Chang knew the rest of the story. Zeng settled in Wuhu with him until he was nine years old. They faced floods in Wuhu, and Zeng was forced to flee again with him. The official records of Wuhu were soaked, burying their past completely.
He still vividly remembered those days of fleeing. They had little to wear, and their shoes wore out, forcing them to walk barefoot. They begged passersby for food and endured spit and beatings. They walked thousands of miles until they reached Jiangning, where they encountered Ming Shu’s birth mother, who offered them a lifeline.
He was skinny and dark at that time, and Ming Shu seemed like the moon in the sky to him.
“Mother,” Ming Shu approached Zeng and gently wiped away her tears with a handkerchief.
“Good.” Zeng didn’t know when she had started crying. Perhaps recalling those difficult days made her teary. She wiped her tears away and spoke softly, “You don’t have to blame him either. Although he has many flaws, he never broke his promise to me. He said he wouldn’t take away our child, and he didn’t. It’s just that the elders of the Lu family would never allow their descendants to wander outside. Those people must have been sent by his parents. When he came to me today, he said that the divorce was just a momentary impulse. He planned to settle everything in Bianjing before coming back to take me with him. Little did he know I was so angry that I left with our child without a word.”
She apologized guiltily, “Blame me. If I hadn’t argued with him back then and let you go back to Lu’s house, you wouldn’t have had such a hard time in these years.”
“Mother, there’s no need for self-blame. Even if I had returned to Lu’s house, I would still be seen as an illegitimate child in the eyes of Lu’s family, unlike how I live freely now.” Lu Chang spoke up.
“Lu Chang!” Zeng exclaimed anxiously. “I’m telling you this so that you understand you are not an illegitimate child of an outsider. He welcomed me with three letters and six rituals, and all the letters of engagement, marriage, and divorce were in my hands. If anyone dares to accuse you, throw those letters of engagement and divorce in their face!”
“Mother, brother didn’t mean that.” Ming Shu hurriedly stood up and pressed Zeng, “Brother means he thinks it’s more comfortable to live with Mom than to go back to Lu’s house. I think so too.”
Only then did Zeng sit down slowly and say, “In any case, between me and Lu Wenhao, I have passed, and my love and hatred with him have been settled. You are different from them. Whether to recognize this father or not, you should make your own decision, and I will not interfere.”
Lu Chang looked at Zeng and suddenly said, “Ming Shu, help Mom prepare hot water.”
Ming Shu only thought to clean Zeng’s face and said as he went. After she left, Lu Chang said, “I am Lu Wenhao’s son, but Ming Shu … …”
“When he divorced me, I was just pregnant with my second child. You should have had a younger brother or sister, but a few days after he left, I lost my child. Maybe he thought Ming Shu was the child,” Zeng said, her eyes turning red again.
She thought of Ming Shu as her daughter, not only because of the kindness of Ming Shu’s birth mother in her early years and her character, but also because of her child. If that pregnancy was a daughter, she would be the same age as Ming Shu now. Sometimes she even thought that Ming Shu was a comfort from God …
Lu Chang knows this well. No wonder Lu Wenhao didn’t doubt that he had a sister, and he even misunderstood.
———
That night, Zeng was tired of God’s injury during the day and went to bed early at night.
After Ming Shu’s sleep, she quietly left the room to find Lu Chang. Lu Chang had not yet slept, and the candlelight in the room made a faint light through the door seam. Ming Shu knocked on the door heard Lu Chang’s voice, and then pushed the door in.
Lu Chang stood back in front of the window, the window open, the wind blowing in, and the rain silk also poured into the room without any courtesy.
“The window is so open that the rain is pouring on you, be careful not to catch a cold.” Ming Shu walked two steps and reached out to close the window.
Lu Chang’s hand was pressed on the window sill, and this window could not be closed. Ming Shu wanted to pull down his hand, but just touched it hand, found that his hand was tightly held, and the bones stretched white.
Ming Shu was shocked in her heart, and then looked at his face, he was extraordinarily calm.
Calm until there was no joy, anger, no …
It hurts.
Ming Shu’s chest suddenly tightened, and her heart was wrapped in silk threads, and the more tight.
“Brother …” she murmured.
Ming Shu did not have much feelings for this father who appeared out of thin air, maybe because of amnesia, she couldn’t recall the past, neither excited nor angry with Lu Wenhao, but Lu Chang was different.
He has been in too much pain since he was young, and he has endured too much pain, and each time he has bitten his teeth and blood, those injuries, one by one, are carved into the bone blood. Therefore, for him, Lu Wenhao’s appearance is nothing but a storm.
But he did not show any signs of it, if not for Ming Shu’s current sense of alarm, even she would have ignored him.
He was painful, and that pain couldn’t speak.
He was only twenty years old, and it was the best time for young people from other families to grow up.
“Brother, I am Ming Shu, you are in front of me, no need to always be strong.” Ming Shu said in his ear, and the hand gently covered his fist, and wanted to make the fist loose.
Lu Chang turned his head and looked at Ming Shu for a moment, suddenly stretched out his hand to hold her waist, and brought her into his arms, and his head fell heavily on her side neck.
The low and hoarse voice sounded in her ear, “Ming Shu, I am sad.”
Ming Shu didn’t say anything, just reversed his hand on his back, and comforted him up and down.
After this quiet comfort for a moment, Lu Chang released his hand and returned to the past.
“I’m better?” Ming Shu asked.
“I’m okay.” Lu Chang fainted, and people relaxed, only staring at Ming Shu and asking, “I heard you talking about marrying Song Qingdi outside the door during the day?”
“…” Ming Shu hesitated.