After all, this salt-trader’s girl had flown onto a higher branch and become a proper official’s wife. If she truly had not recognized his young master, then there was no need to create unnecessary complications — they could keep to their own waters, and everyone would be left in peace.
It was only that thinking of the arrogant and bullying manner in which she had treated his young master when he was young, Guanqi still felt a certain indignation that would not settle.
Knowing the young master’s temperament, he most likely had not forgotten either — it was just unclear whether this wretched girl would ever land herself in the young master’s hands again…
But having both already left, Situ Sheng was in no hurry to depart. He needed to go to a neighboring county shortly and had to wait for his carriage to come around, so he stood at the street corner for a moment.
After a little while, Madam Chu came down from the restaurant leading a small girl with double-looped braids.
Watching Chu Linlang gently wiping the corner of the little girl’s mouth, it was truly difficult to imagine what rough and unruly behavior she might have exhibited in the past. It showed that if a woman became a mother, she was indeed transformed — as though reborn, like an entirely different person.
Guanqi couldn’t help murmuring to himself: “Is that her daughter? She does look quite a bit like her… though who knows what kind of upbringing the child will get? That Lord Zhou who sought her as his wife certainly wasn’t very particular — isn’t it said that men of letters care most about a woman’s virtue and conduct? Then again — with looks like that, she really does dazzle the eye.”
Situ Sheng seemed to find Guanqi’s chatter irritating, and cast him a cold sideways glance. Then, seeing his carriage had pulled up at the corner of another street, he turned and strode away.
Guanqi looked back and realized Situ Sheng had already gone, and rushed in haste after his young master…
Back to Chu Linlang — she had been wiping cold sweat from her brow the whole time, and then turned and made her way back to the restaurant next door.
Going upstairs, she found only her maid Dongxue sitting with Yuan’er eating their meal — while Miss Yin, who had been weeping tears of pear-blossom sorrow just moments before, had apparently already paid the bill and left.
It turned out that Miss Yin had been sobbing in misery when Chu Linlang excused herself on the pretext of needing the facilities and walked out. She had waited a while and no one returned, so she sent the maid to check, only to find the washroom was completely empty. Miss Yin guessed that her earlier words had offended Chu Linlang, and that she had deliberately abandoned her — without even taking her daughter along.
Deeply humiliated, Miss Yin lost all appetite, and with her maid in tow, paid and hurried out.
So after Yuan’er finished eating, she brought the child back with her.
Then when Chu Linlang returned home, her mother-in-law Zhao Shi slammed the table and scolded: “One would think that after seven years of marriage into our Zhou family, you might have absorbed some of the refinement of poetry and propriety. That Fang’er child has such a gentle and sweet nature — and you took her out and somehow reduced her to coming home alone with two eyes swollen like peaches. Is this how you treat your guests?”
Chu Linlang knew that if she tried to explain in detail, it would inevitably drag in a great deal of unnecessary trouble.
Since she was already cast as the woman who couldn’t tolerate others, she was too tired to explain, and simply kept her head lowered and listened to Zhao Shi’s lecture without a word.
This rolling-with-the-punches manner of Chu Linlang’s only left Zhao Shi with no outlet for her fury.
In the end she made her decision: “Madam Liu and I have already settled it — in a few days I will have that Fang girl enter the household. Now that she has entered my Zhou family, I naturally must look out for her. You will also need to change that disposition of yours — she is the junior and you are the senior, so why go to such petty lengths out of jealousy?”
Hearing this, Chu Linlang kept her head respectfully lowered and said: “When I married into the Zhou family, Mother entrusted me with managing the household affairs. At that time, the most valuable things in this house were perhaps the two padded quilts we slept under. It was I who put in my own private savings to buy a full courtyard of chickens and ducks, and then arranged several acres of modest farmland, and through that managed to keep the household going from one day to the next. Later, when the land price rose and was converted, we exchanged it for a shop — and so over the course of several years we at last arrived at the family circumstances we have today… In all the great and small matters of the household, Mother has always trusted me to decide. So how is it that now, without even a word of notice, you would bypass me entirely to take a concubine for Sui’an?”
Chu Linlang did not exaggerate in the slightest. The Zhou household in those early days had indeed been in such dire straits.
Fortunately, while Chu Linlang had been helping her father with the family business in the Chu household, she had quietly and privately set aside a modest bank note. When she had climbed out the window and fled the Chu family home on the day of her marriage, she had sewn that bank note into the lining of her clothing. With that, she was able to purchase maids and set up a household — allowing Zhou Sui’an to focus quietly on his studies and sit the examinations.
Though Zhao Shi was formidable enough when scolding her daughter-in-law, when it came to managing household finances she could not compare to this sharp-minded merchant’s daughter. Watching the dinner table transform from plain and sparse fare to proper meals, she had naturally allowed Chu Linlang to do as she saw fit.
Now that Chu Linlang was asking her why she had not consulted the daughter-in-law who ran the household, Zhao Shi could not actually produce any compelling response.
Yet these words stirred up Zhao Shi’s fury all the same, as she suspected Chu Linlang was putting on a show of wealth, implying that the Zhou family survived on her support. Her expression darkened: “What — am I not yet in my coffin, and already no longer able to make decisions in the Zhou household? You’ve gone all these years without being able to bear a child — what good is all your money-making? Can I just stand by and watch the Zhou family line die out?”
Chu Linlang lowered her eyes slightly and said: “The matter of the family line has indeed caused Mother to worry on my account. But as for that Miss Yin from the Yin family… I think it best we let that go.”
Zhao Shi heard this and was so angry she slammed the table again: “Listen to yourself — do you think these words make any sense? Believe me, with that jealous disposition of yours alone, I could have Sui’an put you aside!”
Chu Linlang rose and walked to her mother-in-law’s side, reached out, and gently patted her back to help the air move, speaking in a soft and coaxing voice: “Mother, please hear me out. I naturally trust Mother’s judgment, and that Miss Yin is genuinely a fine young woman. But the very problem lies in the fact that she has a maternal uncle who holds office in the capital…”
Zhao Shi’s eyes went wide: “Having such a high-ranking official as a maternal uncle is not a disadvantage — a connection like that would be of great benefit to Sui’an!”
Chu Linlang laughed inwardly, but kept her face composed and amiable as she explained: “Mother does not live in the capital, so she naturally does not know the workings of those offices there. That Yin family connection is a brother-in-law who serves under Prince Kang in the Military Affairs department — and he is a capable man there. But this time, His Majesty has sent the Sixth Prince to inspect the frontier garrison towns and root out corruption in military supply management — which is plainly aimed at the Military Affairs department that Prince Kang has built up. You have also heard what has been happening in the neighboring county — heads falling like ripe persimmons being shaken from an autumn tree. Who can say what storms are brewing in the capital right now? At a moment like this — how could you dare let Sui’an attach himself to a connection as dangerous as this?”
What Chu Linlang said was the truth. These words were things the Prefect’s wife had quietly warned her about when they parted earlier that day.
Yesterday things had unfolded too suddenly, and she had been so infuriated she had quarreled fiercely with Zhou Sui’an.
But once she calmed down, she had finally identified the crux of the problem, and had drawn out the details from Yin Xuefang’s own mouth to learn about that Yin family connection’s position and situation.
In the carefully worded hints the Prefect’s wife had dropped, she had dimly grasped the current state of that Yin family connection’s circumstances — so what she said now was well-reasoned and grounded in fact, not baseless bluster.
All of this — Linlang had once recounted as amusing gossip to Zhou Sui’an.
She was truly envious of Zhou Sui’an sometimes — he had been able to devote himself to reading and learning, and did not have to be confined to the inner household like her, managing everything like an old nanny, watching over her husband’s every step so he could advance in the world. If she had been born a man, the things she could have done were truly so many more…
In an instant, the thunderclouds gathered all over Zhao Shi’s face — yet no thunder or rain could follow. Lost in her own tumbling thoughts, she dismissed Chu Linlang.
Zhou Sui’an felt somewhat guilty and asked: “What are you looking at?”
Chu Linlang was tying Yuan’er’s small braid. On hearing that her mother-in-law was laying all the blame entirely at her doorstep, she was not surprised — only said to Dongxue: “Go pass a message to the master — tell him that our honored guest is likely soon to take her leave, and ask if he would like to come back and see her off.”
Having said this, Chu Linlang suddenly thought of something, and from the hidden compartment at the head of the bed, took out several pages of paper — and these were most certainly not the ones she had carved a white radish stamp and fabricated herself.
Zhao Shi, who still had nightmares about the bitter days of the past and would wake in the middle of the night from them, heard Linlang say all this and broke out in a cold sweat. She leaned forward urgently and asked: “What you are saying… is all true?”
Only Madam Liu was somewhat deflated. With a dark expression, she scolded her tearful daughter for making a disgraceful scene, and told her to go back to the carriage quickly.
Chu Linlang shifted her gaze, twisting the thread around her finger, not bothering to expose her husband’s chagrin, and simply had Xia He go to the kitchen and bring back a large bowl of cool fruit broth for the master to drink to cool the heat from his chest.
Their old acquaintance was departing, and he as the male host of the house ought indeed to see her off for a stretch of the road.
Chu Linlang gave a light laugh: “If I were a man, I would not be the scholarly type either — I’m afraid I would find it difficult to enter officialdom!”
Chu Linlang had always held to the marital principle that it was best to maintain a certain pleasant ignorance. Now that Miss Yin had already left and returned home, there was no need for her to press Zhou Sui’an for a full account of right and wrong.
Zhou Sui’an drank a cup, set down the teacup, and then suddenly noticed that his wife, who had been sitting cross-legged on the bed doing needlework, had at some point set down her sewing and was now watching him with half-narrowed almond eyes — a look like a small knife, as if slowly carving open whatever private feelings he was concealing.
Dongxue stared wide-eyed, feeling that her own mistress was being far too generous — actually letting Zhou Sui’an go in person to see off his childhood sweetheart!
Dongxue listened outside the window of the main hall for a few sentences, then hurried back to report to Chu Linlang.
So she shifted the subject: “If you want me to learn from the Prefect’s wife, you had better first get yourself a seat at the Prefect’s position. Right now the Sixth Prince is overseeing the rectification of military affairs, and you as Vice Prefect are responsible for coordinating and inspecting the checkpoints — that is a moment with your head dangling at your waist. I urge you to put more of your mind on official business — if you continue to know nothing when questioned, I’m afraid your career in officialdom will truly have run its course.”
The next day, when Zhao Shi returned from the Prefect’s inner residence, her attitude toward Madam Yin and her daughter had completely changed. She only lamented with sighs that her household had been unfortunate in producing a jealous wife, that Chu Linlang had said absolutely everything to prevent Miss Yin from entering the door. If that Fang girl were made to enter under those conditions and suffer mistreatment, neither she nor her son would feel at ease, and so it must simply be that the two young people were not fated — even if they could not become family, they ought to keep in close contact.
Zhou Sui’an, having been indirectly scolded by Madam Liu’s pointed remarks, felt rather mortified and returned home in a disgruntled mood.
Zhou Sui’an had not expected Chu Linlang to be so well-informed — she had somehow even learned the details of him being stumped by the Sixth Prince’s questions.
Over the past several months, Chu Linlang had put in painstaking effort on all sides, building acquaintances, and had cultivated a connection with one of the former Vice Prefect’s old retainers. With a substantial outlay of money, she had drawn from him the names of various past personnel, as well as a great many details about incomplete handovers during the transition of duties.
If over these coming days Zhou Sui’an could visit some of these former officials, learn about what had been left unresolved during the transition of duties, and then compose a memorial laying out military affairs in detail — he could have Zhang Xian carry it back to the capital and present it to the Emperor as a record of local officials’ performance evaluations.
Chu Linlang had held this back before because she had not yet found a way to pass it to Zhou Sui’an — her husband had a proud and solitary nature, and if she simply gave it to him directly, it would seem like an implication that he was incompetent as an official, and he would certainly make a scene and go sleep in the study.
Chu Linlang also kept her voice low: “Tomorrow there is Madam Prefect’s tea gathering, isn’t there? Mother could ask about it in a seemingly offhand way, and she would know the truth soon enough…”
Zhao Shi, though she never put her daughter-in-law in her eyes, cared above all else about her son’s career and prospects. Even if that Yin Xuefang were perfect in every way, she could not outweigh the importance of Zhou Sui’an’s bright official future.
But Chu Linlang was too impatient to explain further, only urged: “Quickly go — otherwise the master will be nesting like a mouse in the government office, unable to come back!”
The Prefect was fond of young and tender concubines, and his household was always full of new additions — so naturally the Prefect’s wife had all manner of methods to keep the various canaries and warblers in check.
Zhou Sui’an had never imagined his mother would, after just a few rounds with Chu Linlang, shift her position so neatly and efficiently.
With these materials in hand, Zhou Sui’an would not have to blunder about like a headless fly in front of the Sixth Prince.
Chu Linlang later heard that at the farewell Long Pavilion, the hot tears Miss Yin shed in parting had moved Lord Zhou greatly, and he had been stirred to poetic inspiration, putting brush to paper and composing a long parting verse.
This aside, Zhou Sui’an found her words quite gratifying — for when it came to scholarly learning, Chu Linlang had always held him in genuine admiration.
It is said that the scribe’s wife who fed her husband lard had learned the trick from none other than the Prefect’s wife herself.
She ran an oil and grain shop that did business with the household managers and stewards of many families in the prefecture, always offering them favorable prices, and through this had come to know a great many of them.
Coming through the door to find Chu Linlang sitting there with her needlework, he felt a smoldering irritation, and simply sat at the table without a word and drank his tea in silence.
He couldn’t help frowning and reprimanding her: “Since these are matters of official business, you must not inquire too deeply into them. A woman of the household, always preoccupied with affairs of the official world — if you were a man, you would be an even more calculating and ambitious schemer than Zhang Xian!”
In her late husband’s case — hadn’t he been brought down precisely by being dragged into entanglement with a close associate? Though Old Master Zhou had escaped any criminal charge, he had lost his official post and his family’s wealth, and died in bitterness and depression, full of grievances.
Zhou Sui’an drank a bowlful, yet his despondency would not lift. He raised an eyebrow and said: “I only just learned from Mother that you have recently built quite a close friendship with Madam Prefect He. It is all well and good to exchange social courtesies, but whatever you do, do not learn her twisting, scheming ways.”