Deep into the night, the study of Old Master Min Yu still had its lamps burning bright.
“Elder Brother, back when your fifth son left so suddenly, do you remember what you said when I asked you about it?” The old matters from fifteen years ago were wounds the main family could never reopen. Min Yu knew that even after all these years, his elder brother’s heart still could not find peace.
Min Wu—Min Jue’s most beloved son. The Min clan had always selected the most outstanding among their descendants to inherit the family business, and so there were always those who felt resentment, believing themselves superior to the chosen one. However, Min Wu’s talent had earned universal recognition from everyone, who even believed his achievements would certainly surpass their great-grandfather Min Zhen. Besides possessing the same extraordinarily flexible left hand and sense of touch as Min Zhen, he had mastered all eight arts by the age of twenty—before him, even the earliest had only achieved this at thirty-five. Not only did he learn quickly, but his creativity and imagination were unparalleled, with the gold and silver treasures he crafted containing such ingenious mechanisms that they drew endless praise. He himself had once laughed and said that while great-grandfather had taken ten years to craft ten Water-Purifying Pearls, he would strive to do it in just five. That was the kind of spirited young man he was!
Right after his twentieth birthday, Min Wu had planned to spend a year traveling abroad, then return to enter seclusion to practice the ninth technique of pearl carving. At that time, Min Jue had already arranged a marriage for him, and they had been about to hold the wedding ceremony, which now had to be postponed. Min Jue, who had always strictly disciplined his sons, showed favoritism toward Min Wu—partly because he might be the only candidate who could master the ninth technique, and partly because once he entered seclusion, he likely wouldn’t be able to leave home for three or four years, so an exception was made. However, Min Jue never imagined that this journey would change Min Wu’s entire life.
Half a year later, Min Wu sent a letter saying he had fallen for a woman and wanted the family to help him break off his previous engagement. Naturally Min Jue disagreed and immediately demanded that Min Wu return home to marry his betrothed. But Min Wu adamantly refused. In the end, he simply married that woman while still away from home. Min Jue was furious. As the saying goes, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. The old master had the highest expectations for this son, yet unexpectedly this son also dealt him the greatest blow. So he ordered that Min Wu be forcibly brought back, disregarding that woman, and forced him to hold the wedding ceremony with his fiancée. As a result, the day before the auspicious date, Min Wu escaped from the Min family and eloped with that woman. From then on, he never returned.
“Elder Brother, you said then that you were severing the father-son relationship with Fifth Young Master, and from then on, no one in the family was allowed to mention him,” Old Master Min Yu recalled. “Just like how the Wang family treated their third son Wang Lang. Actually, that method doesn’t work. I opposed it at the time. When young people are mutually attracted, elders shouldn’t interfere too much, otherwise you’ll just make three people miserable. The woman Fifth Young Master liked—not only was she breathtakingly beautiful, but her temperament was truly exceptional. You could tell at a glance she came from a good family of high standing…” He suddenly realized he had let something slip. At that time, Min Jue had firmly refused to see that woman and wouldn’t let anyone else meet her either.
Seeing him cover his mouth, Min Jue said, “The matter is past. Am I going to hold you accountable? If you saw her, you saw her. I… also have regrets.” If he had met her, he would have liked this daughter-in-law. If Fifth Son and his wife had lived at home, the later tragedy wouldn’t have occurred, resulting in his two granddaughters being lost without a trace.
“Fifth Son was a man who looked down on everyone. The one he chose for himself—could she be an ordinary woman? I still don’t know what you were objecting to.” Though the matter that had been forbidden to speak of could now be discussed, people gone are like extinguished lamps. Min Yu sighed.
“Do you think I was the first to object?” His most beloved son—everyone said he showed favoritism, yet he created endless obstacles to a joyous occasion that should have been blessed. Naturally there were hidden circumstances, not what others thought about him valuing the family’s reputation. “That woman was also betrothed, and moreover, her family background was incomparable to our Min clan. Her father had someone deliver a letter to my bedside in the dead of night, saying his daughter could absolutely never marry a craftsman or merchant. He told me I must prevent this marriage, or else they would retaliate against our Min clan.”
“What family’s daughter could our Min clan not be worthy of? Unless she was from a princely house—” Min Yu’s eyes widened. “Elder Brother, it couldn’t be, could it? Although Fifth Young Master was so handsome that young ladies couldn’t take their eyes off him—definitely took after Sister-in-law, not you—but a princess from a princely house couldn’t possibly have taken a liking to him, and there wouldn’t have been an opportunity to see him either.”
“That I don’t know.” How Fifth Son and his fifth daughter-in-law met—this old man hadn’t cared to know. He only knew that when he saw that letter at the time, his rage knew no bounds. The Min clan’s ancestral teaching was to be content as commoners. Therefore the Min clan didn’t serve as court officials, only as craftsmen and merchants. But because of this, the Min clan’s prosperity was only the prosperity of an ordinary wealthy family. Even if wealthy to the extreme, in the eyes of truly high-ranking noble families, they were just common people who had nothing but money.
“Then whose daughter was it exactly? Could her surname even be Wu?” The imperial family’s surname. “A princess? A commandery princess?”
“No.” If it had been the Wu surname, the matter would likely have been enormous. “Regardless of whose daughter she was, she and Fifth Son are both no longer in this world. As far as I know, that family also sealed the information, only saying she married far away.”
“Enough, let’s not speak of these things. Third Girl Mo—I mean Mo Zi. Elder Brother, you only met her once, but I’ve become quite familiar with her. The first time I saw her, I found her very pleasing to the eye. At that time she was disguised as a man, and so handsome—” Min Yu slapped the table. “Now thinking back on it, she really was the spitting image of Fifth Son. Elder Brother, can I ask now? How did Fifth Son and his wife pass away?”
“Fifth Son was let go by Sixth Son.” The story had to be told from the beginning. “You know those two brothers were always the closest, and Sixth Son was soft-hearted. Fifth Son and his wife went to Yuling to live anonymously, bought a garden estate to settle down, and wrote one letter to Sixth Son. Later, whether because they feared I would discover them or for some other reason, they stopped corresponding with Sixth Son. It wasn’t until two years later when their eldest daughter was born that they resumed correspondence with Sixth Son, but even then it wasn’t frequent—one letter a year to report their safety. Later, the correspondence stopped again. Sixth Son and his wife concealed it from me and made a trip to Yuling, only to learn that Fifth Son’s household had suffered a devastating fire. Aside from the two children whose bodies were not found, there were no other survivors in the entire estate. They searched locally for several months before returning to tell me of this matter. Your sister-in-law fainted from crying at the time and for a long while refused to forgive me, feeling that Fifth Son had been driven to his death by me. Naturally I too was filled with painful regret. Thinking of the two granddaughters I’d never met and whose whereabouts were unknown, I lost my appetite. I also sent people to search, but nothing could be discovered. However, we did find that the fire had hidden circumstances—it wasn’t a natural fire but man-made. After giving the coroner a thousand taels of silver, we learned that Fifth Son and his wife and their household servants hadn’t died in the fire—they had multiple knife wounds on their bodies, clearly the work of criminals. However, the prefect was an incompetent official. With the court conducting evaluations, he feared that bandits in the area would affect his promotion, so he reported it as an ordinary fire to muddle through.”
“What?!” Min Yu was shocked.
“When Fifth Son left home, he took two Water-Purifying Pearls with him. This matter, I haven’t told anyone to this day.” The Min clan had actually already redeemed six pearls—what was circulated outside wasn’t true.
Min Yu’s mouth fell open. “That boy was getting revenge on his father. Only he would dare do such a thing. But Elder Brother, you tacitly allowed it?”
“Verbally I couldn’t soften, but in my heart I hoped the young couple could live well.” The resolute attitude was performed for the woman’s parents to see. They indeed later stopped troubling the Min family because he had severed relations with Fifth Son.
“Could it be that someone knew Fifth Son’s household had pearls, so they murdered them for the pearls?” Min Yu immediately thought of this.
“Other than that, I can’t think of a second reason, and moreover the pearls were also missing.” But Min Jue would have been willing to exchange all the Water-Purifying Pearls for his son and daughter-in-law’s lives.
“Fifth Son and his wife were extremely charitable locally. They might have inadvertently caught the eye of bandits, or there might have been an inside accomplice. At this point it’s very difficult to investigate clearly. I only hope that Mo Zi truly is my granddaughter—then I could still make amends for the mistakes of the past. I’m afraid these two children also suffered greatly—otherwise why would she disguise herself as a man to manage affairs for others?” Thinking of this made his heart ache. She should have been a Min family daughter of privilege, yet instead she was ordered about by others.
“Elder Brother, don’t think too much. I see she seems quite cheerful, and now she’s even become the First Female Official. However, her father and brothers are dead—how can we confirm she’s Fifth Son’s child? We can’t rely solely on appearance and being left-handed.” People could resemble each other, though there were indeed too many coincidental similarities.
“It would be best if we could ask her more, and also meet her younger sister Dou Lu.” Min Jue didn’t know that Dou Lu had been captured—otherwise he’d be even more anxious.
“How about I send an invitation for her to come celebrate the Lantern Festival tomorrow?” Strike while the iron is hot.
“That would be best.” In such matters, waiting even a moment was agonizing.
But Mo Zi couldn’t go.
On the day of the Lantern Festival, she first had to have lunch with her colleagues from the Shipping Bureau, and dinner she had already agreed to have at Qiu Sanniang’s new home. Of course, when she sent her reply declining Old Master Min Yu’s invitation, she had absolutely no idea the other party suspected she was a Min family granddaughter.
Last night, she hadn’t had another opportunity to speak privately with Yuan Cheng. Early the next morning, the Emperor sent her to take up her post at the Shipping Bureau. She didn’t see Yuan Cheng, but she did see Nanny Jiao and Qiu Shuang leading the maids past the corridor. Coming face to face, Nanny Jiao showed no expression. Qiu Shuang smiled, saying it was the Lantern Festival and told Mo Zi to return early to eat sweet dumplings—she would personally cook for everyone.
At the gate she ran into Ming Nian, who was heading back. He was quite put out with her, then turned around and said something about how the master was spending the festival at the Grand Councilor’s house today, so she needn’t worry about the new guest causing trouble. After walking a few more steps, he turned back again to ask if she really didn’t know how to embroider anything—should he go outside to buy something ready-made to temporarily pass as a heartfelt gift, to deceive the master before making other plans?
This young fellow was adorable beyond words, making Mo Zi grin from ear to ear. She thought that rather than buying a sachet for Yuan Cheng, she should buy something for this young man to thank him for being so anxious on her behalf. However, she needn’t rack her brains over Nanny Jiao and the Beauty Qiu Shuang—unless Yuan Cheng’s tearful confession last night had been made with an addled mind, otherwise he should have plans. Though she wasn’t one to reap without sowing, it also wouldn’t do to rush headlong into targeting his Yuan family elders and a guest who hadn’t yet made a move.
That evening, entering Xiao San Mansion with a spring in her step, she casually asked Qiu Sanniang, who was busy organizing trunks—
“What good fortune today?”
“Nothing much.” Mo Zi casually picked up a book. “Wasn’t I treating colleagues to drinks? Out of a dozen or so people, only two came. Today on my first day taking office, they collectively didn’t show up. Isn’t that amusing?”
The book’s title was also amusing—it was called *The Legend of the Flower Goddess*.
The opening line read: In Yuling there was a woman of incomparable beauty who could command a hundred flowers to bloom, especially peonies in abundance. Kind-hearted and spiritually gifted, she helped people and healed the world. The people joyfully called her the Flower Goddess.