“Father!” Jin Ge’er’s eyes lit up.

“What are you doing out here?” Xu Lingyi pretended not to know. “It’s raining so heavily — what if you fall ill? Come inside quickly.”

Jin Ge’er skipped over and took his father’s hand, but then his expression dimmed, and he said in a quiet voice: “I — I don’t want to go in… Mother said that if I don’t go and apologize to Master Pang, she won’t see me.” He let go of Xu Lingyi’s hand, and said loudly: “I won’t go. I’ve already been confined to my room — why should I have to apologize to Master Pang on top of that? I won’t go!”

He had already heard the whole account of what had happened. Though he did not fully agree with Eleventh Lady’s approach, Eleventh Lady had already made her decision — and if he came out in opposition to her, whose lead was the child supposed to follow?

Yet even so, Jin Ge’er’s sheer stubbornness still caught him off guard.

A gust of wind swept through. The rain fell at a slant, wetting the hems of everyone’s clothing.

“Tell me, from the beginning, exactly what happened.” Xu Lingyi spoke as he moved toward the shelter of the eaves.

“Mother wants me to go apologize to Master Pang.” Jin Ge’er followed his father’s steps as he poured out his grievances, his feet moving along with him without his even noticing. “…I’m not going, no matter what.” His mouth was pressed tight, his manner resolute — yet here he was, standing beneath the eaves.

“But your mother is right, you know!” Xu Lingyi used his sleeve to wipe the rain from his son’s face, and said easily. “You did something wrong — how can you not make it right with the person you wronged? Listen to your father, and go and apologize to your mother. Do this, and your mother won’t know how heartbroken she is.”

He only said that defying his mother was wrong — but said nothing about him needing to go with her to apologize to Master Pang!

Jin Ge’er felt a surge of joy.

Clearly Father also thought there was no need to go and apologize to Master Pang.

He was quietly a little pleased with himself. He called out “All right!” in a bright voice, and cheerfully took Xu Lingyi’s hand.

Xu Lingyi reached out and affectionately tousled his son’s head.

His hand was warm and steady, and made Jin Ge’er feel very safe. He could not help but look up and smile at his father.

Seeing his son’s small face grow radiant as sunlight again, Xu Lingyi smiled in return — a smile warmer and more content than usual.

The door let out a creak and swung open, shattering the tender scene.

Father and son looked up at the same moment to see Eleventh Lady standing in the doorway, her face cold.

“The Marquis is home!” She did not spare Jin Ge’er a single glance, and instructed a little maidservant: “With this much rain falling… have water brought for the Marquis to wash his face.”

Since the Marquis had come forward on the Sixth Young Master’s behalf, Madam would naturally have to give the Marquis some face. If Madam let it go, the Sixth Young Master would have his way out, and the matter would naturally dissolve into nothing.

The little maidservant replied in a bright, clear voice, a hint of delight evident in her tone.

Xu Lingyi had thought the same thing.

He smiled and led Jin Ge’er inside the hall.

“Marquis, one moment!” Eleventh Lady’s voice was neither high nor low, even carrying a slight coolness. “Just now I asked Jin Ge’er to go with me and offer an apology to Master Pang…” And just like that, standing in the doorway, she told Xu Lingyi her decision.

Xu Lingyi maintained the appearance of listening attentively, but under cover of that, he quietly gave the small, chubby hand in his palm a gentle squeeze.

Jin Ge’er instantly understood.

“Mother!” He looked up at Eleventh Lady, his large phoenix-shaped eyes as clear as water. Eleventh Lady felt she could almost see her own reflection in them. “I’ll listen to Mother. I’ll never make Mother angry again.”

Just now he was snapping at Zhuxiang — and three words from Xu Lingyi had made him recognize his mistake… Or perhaps because the person speaking was different, the effect was different?

Eleventh Lady felt it had come a little suddenly, but seeing that Jin Ge’er had acknowledged his fault, the faintest trace of a smile still touched the corners of her eyes and brows. “Good — come with me to offer our apology to Master Pang.”

The smile froze on Jin Ge’er’s face.

He tilted his head and looked toward Xu Lingyi. In his gaze, barely concealed, was a trace of hope.

Xu Lingyi watched, then let out a deliberate, unhurried cough, and said slowly, “Such heavy rain…”

The meaning behind his words could not have been more obvious.

Eleventh Lady’s anger rose from a direction she could not name.

No wonder Jin Ge’er had changed his stance so quickly — it was because he had Xu Lingyi’s support all along.

“Does the Marquis mean to say the rain is too heavy — to wait until it stops before going? Or does he feel there is no need to apologize at all?” She fixed Xu Lingyi with a steady gaze, her tone pressing and pointed.

Xu Lingyi’s expression grew slightly uncomfortable. He sent Jin Ge’er off: “Get back to your room and change your clothes — you’re soaked through!”

The implication behind his father’s words was not lost on Jin Ge’er.

His face broke into a smile. He quickly paid his respects to his parents, and turned to dart away happily.

“Halt!” Eleventh Lady’s voice was stern. “Have you thought through why Mother wants you to go apologize to Master Pang? Since you have not thought through anything, you will stay here and reflect properly. You may return to your room when you have thought it through!”

Jin Ge’er’s body went rigid. His head, lifted high moments before, drooped.

He turned slowly, and looked toward Xu Lingyi in sullen despair.

Xu Lingyi appeared genuinely stunned.

In all the years they had been married, this was the first time Eleventh Lady had ever opposed him so directly.

He could not help but let his brow furrow slightly, and his gaze swept around. It was only now that he noticed that Hupo, Zhuxiang, and the others who had been attending nearby had long since vanished. The courtyard was perfectly still, not a human voice to be heard.

They must have withdrawn when they saw the two of them at odds, he supposed.

Xu Lingyi turned it over in his mind, and said in a quiet voice: “Whatever there is to discuss, let us speak of it later. Let Jin Ge’er go back inside and change his clothes first…”

Eleventh Lady raised an eyebrow.

Xu Lingyi had perhaps not yet grasped what she was trying to do.

There were things that ought not to be said in front of the child. But thinking back to Jin Ge’er’s barely concealed elation just now, Eleventh Lady felt that if she let Jin Ge’er walk away just like that, Jin Ge’er would only grow more and more emboldened in the future.

Weighing one against the other, she resolved to share her thinking with Xu Lingyi.

“Marquis, do you not feel that, as a proper young lord of the Marquis’s household, Jin Ge’er has already been reprimanded and punished for his misbehavior — and it would be beneath him to go and apologize to a teacher who teaches nothing more than fists and footwork?” Looking at Fifth Madam’s attitude and then at how Xu Lingyi had handled Jin Ge’er, Eleventh Lady felt she had come to understand Xu Lingyi’s thinking well enough. “But have you ever thought carefully about why I am insisting that Jin Ge’er go and apologize?”

Xu Lingyi faltered slightly.

Eleventh Lady was gentle with people, and his own thinking about this matter had been in the same vein. Surely there was no misunderstanding here?

His expression became attentive.

“At first, I only wanted to tell Jin Ge’er how to handle his own mistakes properly. But gradually, I realized this had ceased to be a simple matter of whether or not to apologize.” Having lived two lives, there was no one who understood the rigid hierarchies of this world more deeply than Eleventh Lady. She had never had any desire to challenge the structures of this society, nor did she want her child to grow into someone different from all the rest, isolated and cast out by the world around him. She laid out everything Jin Ge’er had said and done for Xu Lingyi. “…When Jin Ge’er was born, his brothers and sisters were already grown. You happened to be at leisure at home, and his grandmother was at the age of delighting in grandchildren. He grew up with everyone’s love and indulgence heaped upon him — all he has ever heard are pleasing words, and all he has ever known are things going as he wished. And precisely because of that, his temper has grown worse and worse. Look — he is only six years old this year, and even I, his own mother, cannot speak a word he dislikes without him refusing to listen. When he is older and the ones speaking to him are no longer family, what then? I told him he was not allowed inside and he stood in the wind and rain without flinching, unmoved!”

Eleventh Lady rattled off this long torrent of words, and as she did, her own state of mind gradually calmed.

“Marquis, within this household, Jin Ge’er is a young lord of the Marquis’s estate. But outside these walls, he is the son of Marquis Yongping. At home, if he makes a mistake, we as his parents will be mindful that he is the youngest, that he does not bear the same duties as the eldest son, and we will forgive him for things that do not truly matter. His brothers will be indulgent because he is family, and not trouble themselves over it. Even when he is punished for doing wrong, they will feel a particular tenderness toward him. But what about out in the world? Why would others forgive him? Why would others yield to him, or feel any tenderness toward him?” She paused and called out softly, “Marquis,” then said with pointed meaning: “Jin Ge’er’s nature is far too unbending. One must know that under all of heaven, every inch of earth belongs to the Emperor; among all those who dwell within the four seas, none are but his subjects.”

Before Eleventh Lady had even finished speaking, Xu Lingyi’s expression had already sharpened and gone still.

In his own mind, his son was clever and bright, lively and open-natured, generous and upright — occasionally naughty or obstinate, but that was only the expression of an energetic child with his own mind and ideas.

Yet now…

His gaze fell upon his son.

The dampness in his hair, the soaked hem of his clothing — all of it was a reminder of the boy’s stubbornness.

Eleventh Lady was right.

Jin Ge’er’s nature was too unyielding.

Even if he himself felt it was unreasonable to still have to apologize to Master Pang after already being punished, his own mother had said these words — and still he would not relent even slightly, even going so far as to stand face-to-face in confrontation with her… Even an imperial prince could not simply do as he pleased at will, could he? Let alone a child who was merely the son of a marquis.

There were times when one who was too rigid would easily snap; one who was too strong would easily face humiliation.

Though Jin Ge’er had not fully understood all of what his mother had said in her torrent of words, he could see that she was truly angry this time. And his father’s silence made him feel all the more that the tide had turned against him.

He called out “Father” in a helpless appeal, and the gaze he turned on Xu Lingyi was faintly pleading.

Xu Lingyi was not a man who wavered.

After a quiet inward sigh, his decision was made. “Jin Ge’er, listen to your mother and go apologize to Master Pang.”

Jin Ge’er stared at his father open-mouthed and speechless, his eyes full of sheer disbelief.

A commotion at the entrance broke the silence between them.

All three looked toward the sound at the same moment.

Yupan held an umbrella, and Nanny Du supported the Grand Madam as they walked in.

“What is the meaning of all this?” The Grand Madam’s brow carried a sharp, pressing edge, and her gaze cut keenly toward Eleventh Lady. “Was Jin Ge’er not said to be confined to his room? In this much rain, instead of staying inside, why is everyone standing out here? And Jin Ge’er — how is it he is soaked through with no one to attend him and change his clothes? What if he falls ill?” She turned to Nanny Du at her side. “Why has no one taken the Sixth Young Master inside to change? What is wrong with everyone — have they no sense?”

“Grandmother!”

Jin Ge’er leaped up, his face breaking into a look of pure delight.

Nanny Du quickly replied “Yes,” and, not daring to take the covered winding corridor along the side, ran straight across through the rain.

—