Chapter 1 001 The betrothal in the Marquis's mansion more than twenty years ago...
The capital city, the residence of the Marquis of Zhongyi.
In early August, the autumn winds in the mornings and evenings grew colder, causing some yellowing leaves to fall from the branches and carpet the paths throughout the garden.
Steward Zhao, who was always lazy and slept in, appeared in front of the main gate of the Marquis's mansion at the crack of dawn today. Seeing that the two servants responsible for cleaning this area were still whispering to each other with their hands in their sleeves, he stepped forward and gave them a low scolding: "Get to work! Can't you see the pile of fallen leaves by the wall?"
Just then, another leaf swirled down from the sky and landed right on Steward Zhao's face, making the young servant laugh out loud. He joked, "Don't worry, we're just waiting for the wind to die down so we can sweep them all up in one go."
Steward Zhao kicked him, saying, "Stop trying to be clever! Hurry up and clean up! Who knows when the Third Young Master will come back? If he sees the mansion in this mess, you'll be in big trouble!"
He spoke in a rather stern tone, and the two servants grabbed brooms and went to get busy.
After Steward Zhao returned to the Marquis's residence, the young servant who had been recruited into the residence last year approached his companion with a curious look: "Is the Third Young Master very particular? In the chilly autumn season, the Marquis doesn't care about a few more leaves in front of the door."
His companion was a servant born into the household. After a moment of recollection, he looked the newcomer up and down and pointed at her crooked hair bun, saying, "You're particular. As long as it belongs to our Marquis's mansion, whether it's a person or an object, the Third Young Master won't tolerate the slightest sloppiness. So, you should take a good look in the mirror before you go out in the future, lest you fall into the Third Young Master's hands."
New servant: "...If I fall, how will the Third Young Master punish me?"
Old servant: "...The Third Young Master will frown, remind you how to change, and make you feel like you're just a lump of stinking mud in front of him."
After the courtyard in front of the Marquis's mansion was thoroughly cleaned and the Marquis's wife, Madam Deng, had also dressed herself neatly, she walked along the covered walkway to the main hall in the front courtyard. There she saw her husband, Xiao Rong, sitting with his head half-lowered in a grand chair on the north side, holding a letter in his hand. Upon seeing her, the fifty-year-old Marquis sighed softly, placed the letter on the table beside him, closed his eyes, leaned back in his chair, and looked deeply troubled.
Madam Deng walked over, glanced at the letter, and then looked away. As she sat down in the main seat on the other side, she sighed, "You're really good with your mouth. If it weren't for what happened to the eldest son, I would still be kept in the dark by you. I didn't know that you had arranged a marriage for the eldest son behind my back."
Xiao Rong remained silent.
Deng curled her lips, touched her no-longer-young face, and said sarcastically, "Luckily we got married early. If I had met you after you became successful, how could a dignified marquis like you have any interest in a country bumpkin like me?"
Xiao Rong then opened his eyes, glared at his wife, and said, "I'm already annoyed enough, so please don't make things worse."
Madam Deng wanted to say a few more angry words to her husband, but suddenly someone from the gatehouse came to report that the Third Young Master had returned to the mansion!
Deng stood up excitedly and rushed to the door of the main room. Not hearing her husband's footsteps, she looked back and saw her husband clenching his fists, looking like he wanted to go and catch the third son but was unwilling. Deng laughed and scoffed, "Since you have to rely on the third son to help you clean up the mess, why don't you be more enthusiastic?"
Xiao Rong gritted his teeth: "I'm afraid the more enthusiastic I am, the more he'll despise me. Otherwise, you should talk to him directly..."
Deng said, "Keep dreaming. You'll have to pay for the sins you've committed."
After saying that, he went ahead alone.
Xiao Rong stared at his wife's back, but didn't move an inch.
Not long after, Deng returned with another figure by her side. Xiao Rong deliberately avoided looking at his son's face and first examined his son's figure. He saw that his only scholar was wearing a bamboo-green round-necked robe. The jade belt around his waist was not too tight, but it still clearly outlined his narrow waist, making him look tall, slender, and handsome.
It was quite a pleasing sight. Xiao Rong thought to himself, without the wealth he had earned from the Marquis's mansion, how could he have raised such a handsome young man who looked like a god? But his third son read too much and even looked down on his martial father!
Upon entering the room, Xiao Yu seemed oblivious to his father's cold glare. He first helped his mother to sit down, then took three steps back, lifted his robe, knelt down, and respectfully kowtowed to his parents, saying, "It has been nearly three years since we parted. Please forgive your unfilial son for not being able to serve you both closely."
The solid kowtow made Xiao Rong's heart ache. Deng Shi rushed over with tears in her eyes to help her son up, choking back sobs as she said, "Why are you being so formal with us? You were all alone when your father sent you to Songshan Academy, and you've been gone for more than two years. I'm heartbroken for you, how could I blame you? Get up, get up!"
Upon hearing this, Xiao Rong, who had already shown a kind expression, remembered the reason he had sent his son away from home and immediately put on a stern face again.
Having fulfilled his formalities, Xiao Yu had no time for pleasantries with his father, and disregarding his father's expression, he went straight to his mother and said, "I'm going to see my elder brother."
His father wrote only seven words in the letter: Your eldest brother is seriously injured, return immediately!
Deeply affectionate, Deng personally led her third son to the courtyard of her eldest son's family.
The mother and son arrived and left quickly, neither of them paying any attention to the head of the household, the Marquis.
Xiao Rong clenched his fist and instructed the servant waiting outside: "When the Third Young Master returns, have him come to my study to see me."
.
In the spring of this year, Prince Xiao Hu was ordered to suppress bandits in Jizhou. The bandits were quite powerful, and although the imperial army won, it was a hard-fought victory. As the deputy general, Xiao Hu was shot in the right leg with an arrow. After returning to his residence, he consulted famous doctors in the capital and imperial physicians in the palace, but they could not determine whether his leg could be fully healed. He needed to rest for three months before he could walk again.
For a dignified military general, losing a leg is tantamount to ending his career.
Fortunately, Xiao Hu was a rough and easygoing man. Whether faced with the tears of his parents, wife, and children or his younger brother's visit, he always had the same attitude: What's the rush? Maybe he'll recover in three months!
The implication is that it's okay to cry and worry when he really becomes lame in three months.
The injured son was magnanimous, but the father, Xiao Rong, could not be. After seeking medical help to no avail, Xiao Rong changed into plain clothes and secretly went to the most famous temple in the capital to burn incense. He donated a large sum of money for incense oil and then drew a fortune stick, asking the renowned abbot to interpret it for him.
Xiao Rong only intended to inform two people about this: his wife and his third son, Xiao Yu.
Therefore, after Xiao Yu was led to the study by his father's attendant, he saw two sentences on the Xuan paper handed to him by his father: "The affairs of the world are impermanent and will eventually be rewarded; quickly seek repentance in the hidden places."
Xiao Yu put down the letter and looked at his father.
Xiao Rong sighed, "This is the fortune slip I drew when I went to the temple to pray for your elder brother. Can you tell what it means?"
Xiao Yu: "...On the battlefield, swords and spears have no eyes. Father, as a military general, how can you believe in the idea of retribution? Besides, my elder brother is an upright man. When has he ever wronged anyone?"
Xiao Rong's not-too-old face flushed and paled in turns, and after a long while, he glared at his son as if he had nothing to lose and said, "It's not that your elder brother has done anything wrong, it's that more than twenty years ago, when I was just a minor centurion, I made a promise to a good brother about our childhood betrothal. But not long after the promise was made, he was injured and returned to his hometown. I, on the other hand, made military achievements, was ennobled, and went to the capital. Once I gained power, I felt that his daughter was not good enough for my eldest son, so I simply cut off all contact with him! Now your elder brother's injury is exactly the same as the injury my brother suffered back then. Don't you think this is retribution?!"
This long speech was filled with the embarrassment of revealing his own moral failings and the regret of causing his son's injury. However, Xiao Yu remained calm throughout. After his father's flushed face returned to normal and his father slumped back into his chair, Xiao Yu said indifferently, "If there is such a thing as cause and effect, then the retribution should fall on Father. My elder brother's injury was just a coincidence."
Xiao Rong: "..."
Perhaps it was because of his age, or perhaps he was more concerned about his eldest son's leg injury, but Xiao Rong swallowed his anger and discussed serious matters with his son: "No matter who should suffer the consequences, I feel sorry for that brother, right?"
Xiao Yu acquiesced.
Xiao Rong: "Since I made a mistake, shouldn't I make amends?"
Xiao Yu continued to acquiesce.
Xiao Rong: "I sent someone to investigate. My old brother has two daughters and one son. The eldest daughter is the one who was betrothed to your brother when they were children. She is twenty-four years old this year and married a handsome scholar with some family wealth. Like you, she is waiting for the imperial examination next spring. She has a son and a daughter. The couple is loving and living a happy life. I don't think she would want to abandon her husband and children to remarry your brother."
Xiao Yu understood and frowned, saying, "You want me to marry his youngest daughter?"
Xiao Rong said matter-of-factly, "Yes, the sins of the father must be paid by the son. Your eldest and second brothers are both married with children, and you're still single. Who else but you should be single? Unless you don't acknowledge me as your father. Besides, his youngest daughter is only sixteen years old. She's beautiful, well-educated, gentle, and virtuous. I betrayed my promise and was greedy for the poor back then. You, a scholar, wouldn't have the same problem as me, would you?"
Xiao Yu had refuted many of her father's fallacies before, but this time she found it difficult to refute them because her father had indeed broken the betrothal agreement with the other party.
Xiao Yu is twenty-two years old this year. Although he has not thought about getting married, he knows that he has reached the age to settle down and will have to listen to his parents' matchmaking sooner or later. And he is indeed as his father said, unable to do anything that would make him look down on the poor and love the rich.
After a moment of silence, Xiao Yu said, "Father is willing to make amends for his mistakes, but the other party may not be willing to marry into your Marquis's family. If they refuse this marriage contract that has already been tacitly declared null and void, what will Father do?"
Xiao Rong painstakingly retrieved his old brother's honest face from the depths of his memory and sighed, "Then it depends on his wishes. Whatever his request, I will do my best to fulfill it."
He didn't usually believe in karma, but when it came to the possibility that his most valued eldest son might be lame, Xiao Rong had no choice but to believe it was true. Whether it was having his third son marry his old brother's youngest daughter or compensating his old brother with a huge sum of money, Xiao Rong was willing to do anything to bring back even the slightest possibility of his eldest son recovering.
"His family is in Yangzhou. Spend the day with your mother, pack a couple more sets of clothes tonight, and leave with me tomorrow morning. We'll settle the compensation matters as soon as possible to prove my sincere repentance, and then your eldest brother's leg will have a better chance of a full recovery." Xiao Rong was not an indecisive person; all the arrangements were made, and all that was needed was for his third brother to be in place.
Xiao Yu glanced at his father's dark circles and stopped arguing about the connection between this trip and his elder brother's injuries. He then reminded him, "Have you asked the Emperor for leave?"
Xiao Rong: "Of course."
Without the emperor's permission, no civil or military official could leave the capital without authorization; at most, they could take a short trip to the outskirts of the capital during their days off or official holidays.
The next morning, Xiao Yu, accompanied by his servant, came to the main courtyard to bid farewell to his mother. Upon learning that his father was already waiting outside the gate, he did not want to say much to his mother and hurriedly took his leave.
The capital city is hundreds of miles away from Yangzhou. Xiao Yu thought his father would ride in a carriage or take the river, but when they arrived at the gate, they only saw four fine horses.
Xiao Rong, dressed in casual clothes, sat high on horseback. Seeing the third brother, who looked like a fairy, looking for a carriage, Xiao Rong finally smiled. He held the reins in one hand and flicked the whip with the other: "Taking a carriage is too time-consuming. We can reach Yangzhou in half a month at most by riding horses. What, are you a delicate scholar and not used to riding horses?"
The leave he could ask the emperor for was limited, and he really couldn't afford to spend too much time on the road.
Xiao Yu pursed his lips slightly, ignoring his father's gloating smile, and gracefully mounted the dark steed his father had given him many years ago.
With a gentle autumn breeze blowing, the father and son, each accompanied by a strong guard, set off.
A note from the author:
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It's here! New character design, new story, same warm and sweet everyday vibe. Hope you like it!
P.S.: There should be a second update tonight, since we're going to have our female lead make an appearance.
100 little red envelopes, see you tonight! [Cat emoji]
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