Jiang Xinde seemed not to have heard the bold declaration his son had just made. He stroked his beard and sank into thought.

He oversaw the Court of State Ceremonial, while the Hua Family’s domain lay in the Hanlin Academy. They shared the camaraderie of serving at court together without any entanglement of conflicting interests — yet if one were to trace a connection, there was indeed one to be found. The Hua Family’s patriarch — Hua Yizheng’s own father — had been his mentor.

The Hua Family had disciples and students spread across the land. Among the civil officials filling the court, how many could truly claim they had no connection to the Hua Family whatsoever? Yet when critical moments came, people were far more skilled at keeping their own heads down. Still, there was something worth noting: in nearly a year’s time, not a single person had moved to kick the Hua Family while they were down. That alone spoke to how deep the Hua Family’s goodwill ran throughout the years.

It seemed almost innate — Hua Family members simply excelled at scholarship more than anyone else. Gifted prodigies looked unremarkable by comparison. Yet that the Hua Family knew martial arts was something he had never heard before. Just as the whole of the capital had never known there was such a person as the Hua Family’s eldest daughter.

Jiang Xinde couldn’t help but wonder — could it be that Hua Yizheng had foreseen this calamity from the start? How else had he raised such a daughter? She was practically a god of wealth herself. Though she had gone about it without fanfare, everyone in their circles knew that the new business ventures that had recently emerged all belonged to the Hua Family. And not a single one was losing money — all of them were turning a profit. Enormous profits. There were plenty of people green with envy, watching and waiting, only biding their time before making a move.

As for his own youngest son — he knew his character better than anyone. Reckless he may be, but he had the discernment that came with being born into a prominent family. For someone like that to be won over so thoroughly, and to voluntarily come forward asking to marry after turning down so many matches before — that said everything.

And yet…

“Father, at least give me an answer. When will you go and propose on my behalf?”

Jiang Xinde dismissed the attendants in the room with a gesture. “Do you understand what the Hua Family’s situation is right now?”

“Weren’t they just punished by His Majesty?”

Jiang Xinde smiled. “Just punished by His Majesty, you say? Go on then — name me one thing worse than being punished by His Majesty.”

The moment Jiang Huanran heard that, he knew his father was refusing, and his mood soured immediately. “So what? Father, you and the others can’t do this. When the Hua Family was at the height of their power, everyone praised them to the heavens. Now that they’ve fallen from that pedestal, has the Hua Family stopped being the Hua Family?”

His son’s blunt words drew no anger from Jiang Xinde. On the contrary, he felt rather pleased. People like them were not short of scheming, calculating types — Huanran’s kind of straightforwardness was rare. Because of him, the household had been considerably more harmonious. For the sake of that rare quality alone, he could not nod his head in agreement.

“I believe Hua Zhi is genuinely a fine young woman. She has kept the Hua Family’s dignity intact and preserved its line of succession. But son, a woman like that cannot marry into our family.”

“Why not?!”

“Because above you there are two elder brothers, both already married. Their wives combined could not match Hua Zhi in capability. If you were to marry her, the balance within this household would collapse. Hua Zhi has the ability to run an entire household. Marrying her to you — the youngest son who bears no responsibility for the family — would only be a disservice to her.”

Jiang Xinde did not raise his voice. He spoke slowly, gently, and yet the words seemed to detonate right beside Jiang Huanran’s ears and inside his chest. He knew his father was not trying to deceive him or looking for some argument to talk him out of it — he was stating facts. A household feared nothing more than losing its balance. If he truly brought Hua Zhi home, his two sisters-in-law above her would be utterly overshadowed. How were they then to coexist? And how could his brothers be without resentment?

His father was absolutely right, completely right — and yet, the person he had finally set his heart on after all this time…

“I’ll move out and live separately…”

“Crack!” The teacup struck the floor beside Jiang Huanran’s feet. Jiang Xinde’s smile was gone. “Are you talking about dividing the family?”

“Even if I set up my own household, am I no longer your son? Would this stop being my home? I would still come back to look after you and Mother, to look after Grandmother… Father, I’ve lived my whole life and this is the first time I’ve ever felt this way about anyone — this feeling that I want to spend my life with her. Can’t you grant me this one thing?”

“You enjoy the wealth and status of the Jiang Family, and so you must consider the larger picture. The Hua Family has fallen out of favor with the Emperor. If you go and marry a daughter of the Hua Family, that is tantamount to declaring openly that the Jiang Family is taking a stand against His Majesty.”

“Marrying into the Hua Family means standing against His Majesty? If His Majesty truly bore no old sentiment for the Hua Family at all, do you think the Empress Dowager could have shielded the Hua women?”

“Stop thinking about it. This is out of the question!” Jiang Xinde’s expression hardened further. Where family and clan were concerned, he would not allow his son to act recklessly.

As the youngest son of the family, Jiang Huanran had grown up enveloped in boundless affection. He had dutifully played the part of a carefree young nobleman — because only by doing so would his brothers dote on him, would they feel at ease with him. He had once wanted to make something of himself too, had once wanted to carve out his own place among the rising generation. But the Jiang Family could not have a youngest son who was both favored and ambitious.

Seeing his son in this state, Jiang Xinde felt the ache of it. He had just softened his expression and was about to offer a few concessions to placate him when he heard his youngest son say: “Father — have I been an obedient son?”

Jiang Xinde was slightly startled. He answered honestly, “Yes. More obedient than most families’ sons.”

“Have I ever competed or fought for anything, content to take only what you all give me?”

“……Yes.”

“Did I sabotage every marriage arrangement Grandmother set for me — the ones where the girl’s family outranked my eldest sister-in-law? Was that not enough love for my brothers?”

“……Yes.”

“I distanced myself from a friend I’d grown up with since childhood, simply because our families were no longer in the same camp. Was that not considering the larger picture?”

“……Yes.”

“If I’ve been that well-behaved all this time, then why can’t I have even one person I care about?” Jiang Huanran smiled in a way that looked like crying. “She isn’t of higher birth than my eldest sister-in-law. She doesn’t have a powerful family behind her like my second sister-in-law. She doesn’t stand in anyone’s way. She is simply remarkable in her own right — and that isn’t her fault. The Hua Zhi I’ve fallen for is exactly this person. One glance from her can make me happy for a long time. Father — I just want someone like that. That’s all.”

Jiang Xinde felt a deep, aching grief. Compared to the scions of other prominent families who regularly stirred up trouble and left their families to clean up after them, Huanran was indeed obedient. Even when he acted up, there was always a limit to it. He had drawn a circle for himself and stayed within it — playing, carousing, never crossing the line, never doing anything that harmed the family’s interests.

The harmony between the brothers existed precisely because he understood what he should and should not do. As he himself had said — he took only what was given, and never competed for more. And now, the one thing he had done was to fall in love with someone and wish to marry her. And even that, as his father, he had to block.

He had no choice but to block it. It was not that he thought poorly of Hua Zhi — on the contrary, he thought very highly of her. A woman that capable would be a stroke of fortune for whatever family she married into. But she could only serve as a principal wife, and if she came in above others, those above her would feel threatened. The inner household would fall into chaos.

On top of that, without a clear signal from the Emperor, he could not afford to take this risk. If His Majesty’s displeasure with the Hua Family still simmered, then the Jiang Family needed to keep its distance. As the head of the Jiang clan, this was what he owed the family — even if it meant causing his youngest son pain.

“Huanran, Father will find you another good match…”

Jiang Huanran shook his head with a bitter smile. He rubbed his face hard, stood up. “However good, it won’t be Hua Zhi. I don’t want it.”

Jiang Xinde quickly rose as well. “Where are you going?”

“The Hua Family.”

“Jiang Huanran!”

Jiang Huanran stepped over the threshold and turned back to face him. “I’m going to the Hua Family. The eldest daughter was injured. I want to go check on her.”

“You should go pay your respects to your mother. Someone — escort the young master to see Madam.”

Mentioning his mother made it impossible for Jiang Huanran to keep resisting. He had been away for over a month, and it was right and proper to go see her upon returning.

Jiang Xinde watched his son suddenly become so agreeable and felt even more uneasy. When this boy was being difficult, at least that was something to hold onto. The Hua Family… Jiang Xinde heaved a long sigh. “Keep a close watch on the young master. Do not let him leave the house.”

“Yes, sir.”

Author’s note: Wrote a chapter from a side character’s perspective — it felt rather good. The heat is terrible and my head is a fog, so any inspiration at all is hard to come by. And somehow I ended up crying while writing it. Everyone has their own helplessness. No one gets to live life like a crab, scuttling along sideways without a care.