Chapter 16 Chapter 16 I agree to this marriage, but you...
Fang Ying and Yue Qing'e went back to Li's room together. There was also a joyful atmosphere inside. When they saw Fang Ying coming in, they all congratulated her.
Seeing that her mother-in-law was only accompanied by her younger sister-in-law, Yue Qing'e said, "You brothers and sisters-in-law left so early? You must have missed the good news. Quick, go tell everyone one by one."
This was to make up for the lost moment. Li smiled and ordered, "By the way, pass on my message. Each room should add extra dishes tonight as a celebration. When the Duke and Sanlang and Silang return, we can have the formal banquet when the family is reunited."
The maids outside agreed in unison, and the festive atmosphere suddenly became even more festive.
Fang Ying laughed along, but when she glanced at Li, she saw her smile fade, as if she was distracted. She purposely stayed until the end, and after Yue Qing'e and Ji Si Niang had left, she quietly asked Li, "Since father is leaving today as well, are you worried about how hard it must be for them on the journey?"
"No. They've made countless forced marches of hundreds of miles. A short journey back to the capital isn't that much of a struggle." Li said, then realized, "Why are you asking this all of a sudden?"
Fang Ying smiled and said, "I see you seem to have something on your mind. If I think about it carefully, it's probably the fact that my father hasn't come home yet."
When Li heard this, she was stunned for a moment, then she smiled and waved, asking Fang Ying to sit next to her. She put her arm around her and said, "I've finally found out."
Fang Ying waited for her mother-in-law to continue, but Li hesitated for a moment, a rare moment, before saying, "It's nothing, really. It's just that I've been worried for a long time. I heard that Liu Lang is going to lead the cavalry, and I feel uneasy. The south has been pacified, and we only have to fight Northern Zhao. Wouldn't three armies of cavalry be enough? Do we need to form another elite cavalry unit?"
Fang Ying thought for a moment and asked, "Are you worried that after we take down Northern Zhao, the emperor will continue north to recapture the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun?"
Li sighed, "I only hope that this battle can decide the outcome, and that the world will be at peace from now on."
This should be a wish shared by everyone in the world. In troubled times, people are worse than dogs in prosperous times. Who doesn't hope for a speedy return to peace and prosperity? This is why Fang Ying doesn't believe in gods and Buddhas. If gods and Buddhas truly exist, how could they have watched the people suffer for seventy years without a ripple of emotion?
On the way back to the room, Fang Ying wanted to sigh when she remembered what her mother-in-law had just said, that it would probably not be long before she would have to become a vegetarian and worship Buddha again, asking the Buddha to continue to bless her husband and son.
Her mother-in-law was a devout Buddhist, and she had no objection. Life was full of suffering, and having faith could at least bring her some peace. But being a vegetarian all the time wasn't good for her health. If she tried to persuade her, she probably wouldn't listen. She decided to find a chance to talk to Ji Yanlang about it.
Unfortunately, this opportunity is hard to find.
In the evening, Ji Yanlang came back and talked about how the emperor had called him to encourage him after he was rewarded. Everyone was happy again. Li invited Ji Yanshou and his wife to dinner. The two brothers were so happy at the dinner table that they inevitably drank a few glasses of wine.
After dinner, Ji Yanshou said he had long suspected Liu Lang might join the Imperial Guards, and had already sought information about the careers of Ji Yanlang's immediate superiors, the Commander-in-Chief of the Cavalry Division and the Marquis of Yu. Ji Yanlang immediately demanded to hear about it, so the two brothers said goodbye to Li's residence and went to Ji Yanshou's study to discuss the matter. This absence took quite a while, and Fang Ying had already gone to her room and was ready for bed when Ji Yanlang returned.
She thought that this matter was not urgent and there was no need to talk to him so late - it would be unfair if people misunderstood that she had other intentions.
Fang Ying let the matter go and went to bed early. Unexpectedly, the next afternoon, Ji Yanlang returned home and took the initiative to come to her first.
"Who asked you to deliver something to the Deng family?"
As soon as he met the person and before he had time to say hello, Ji Yanlang asked with an attitude as if he was going to accuse him.
"..." Fang Ying endured it for a moment, then decided not to. She smiled faintly and asked, "Why? Do I need your permission before sending something to the Deng family?"
Ji Yanlang took a step closer with a cold face: "You really did it on purpose."
As soon as he entered the room, he started questioning without going inside. Fang Ying went to the door to greet him and naturally stood there. So the maid Xi Liu who was lifting the curtain outside the door heard everything clearly and quickly winked at the little girl at the bottom of the stairs, indicating that there might be a quarrel inside.
The little girl was confused, and Xi Liu was a little anxious, but she heard the woman inside reply, "My dear, I don't understand what you mean by 'intentional'? I heard that they came from the south, and they were worried that the clothes they bought were not warm enough, so they specially found new cotton-padded clothes to send to them. I don't know what's wrong with that, and how can you mean 'intentional'?"
"My lady, what you said is not wrong, but isn't it too impulsive to ask? What if Liu Lang gets angry..." Xi Liu was just getting anxious when Liu Lang sneered inside. Then the footsteps gradually faded away, and the voices were a little vague and inaudible. She quickly slipped down the stairs and sent the little girl to the Madam's courtyard to get help.
Ji Yanlang inside was unaware that someone had already gone to complain to him. He was saying, "If it wasn't intentional, why did you ask Madam Du to take the clothes one by one, saying that they were newly made clothes for 'Liu Lang's wife' and rush them to be delivered before they were even worn? Could it be that Madam Du was acting on her own to gain fame and favor for you?"
"..." The way he asked this question had blocked her from front to back, and she was forced to admit it.
Fang Ying didn't rush to answer. She walked over to the chair below Ji Yanlang and sat down before asking, "Madam Du, holding the clothes one by one and saying these things, was she saying this in front of you?"
"Why would she say that in front of me? Of course she told Aunt Deng and her daughter."
"So, did Aunt Deng teach you this?"
"What do you mean?" Ji Yanlang felt that she was implying that Aunt Deng was exaggerating, and his face suddenly became tense and angry.
Lichun, who was standing by, looked terrified, but Fang Ying remained calm and composed. "Don't be upset, my dear. I just want to say that since I started helping my second sister-in-law manage the household, I've discovered something very interesting. If you don't tell the servants to pass on a message exactly as it is, without adding or subtracting anything, it will definitely be distorted after passing it through three or four people."
"That must be three or four people! Madam Du told Aunt Deng, and Aunt Deng told me that it wouldn't be just..."
"My dear, you forgot one thing. Aunt Deng lives in Jiaozhi, and Madam Du grew up in Shuzhong. There's always a language barrier between them. Even Madam Fu, who often sees outsiders, says she has trouble understanding Aunt Deng's dialect. It's not surprising that Aunt Deng misunderstood Madam Du's words. Of course, this is just my speculation. I don't think Madam Du would behave like this. If you don't believe me, send someone to invite Madam Du over and ask her. You'll know the answer."
Ji Yanlang didn't say anything, staring at Fang Ying for a long while. Seeing that Fang Ying was still looking back at him calmly and without flinching, he suddenly said, "You sent the gift just to let them know that I already have a wife at home. You have to admit this, right?"
Fang Ying pretended to be surprised: "What? Don't they know?"
Ji Yanlang took it as her admission and stood up and said, "Fang Ying, let me make it clear to you today. I have accepted this marriage, but I haven't accepted you yet. From now on, please stay out of my business."
He was about to leave when Fang Ying quickly stood up and blocked his way. "Whether my dear recognizes me or not, I am your legitimate wife. How can a wife not care about her husband and abandon him completely? Are you trying to frame me so you can divorce me?"
"..." Ji Yanlang dodged to the left, trying to bypass her, but Fang Ying was very agile. She took a step forward and stretched out her hands to continue blocking him.
"Didn't my husband say we'd make things clear today? Why are you leaving before we've made things clear?"
The hall was only this big, and there were chairs on both sides. Ji Yanlang couldn't move around, so he had to step back half a step, lowered his head to look at Fang Ying, and asked, "What do you want?"
This question surprised Fang Ying.
Ji Yanlang didn't leave either. He turned around and sat down on the chair, folded his arms over his chest, and asked, "Do you really want to be my wife? Or do you just want the title of my wife?"
Fang Ying's heart skipped a beat at his question—had he found out something? Impossible. Besides herself, there were only two people who truly knew her thoughts. One was standing right beside her, and the other would never betray her.
"My dear, don't you already know what I'm thinking?" Fang Ying calmed down and asked back.
Ji Yanlang looked at her for a moment, then suddenly smiled: "Are you saying that you admire me and really want to be my wife, right?"
Fang Ying nodded slightly.
"Have you forgotten that when we first met, you pointed at my nose and my companions' noses and said, 'Have you ever been on a battlefield and seen thousands of people rushing towards you at the same time? Why are you just bragging here?'"
She knew he would bring this up sooner or later, so she deliberately said, "Why are you still holding a grudge from our childhood?"
"I haven't finished yet." Ji Yanlang remained unmoved. "You also said, 'When the time comes, regardless of whether you can hold on and not run away, as long as you don't wet your pants, I will consider you a hero!'"
"..." Did she say that? Why didn't she remember?
"Is that what I said?"
"Otherwise it's still me?"
Fang Ying looked at him for a moment and shook her head decisively: "You remembered it wrongly, didn't you? When I was a child..."
"Sun Qi and Yu Shiyi can both testify. We were having a drink together a couple of days ago, and they both even teased me about this."
“…”
Fang Ying thought back and realized that with her temper as a child, she could indeed say something as indecent as "wetting my pants." She had to accept it for the time being, "I really don't remember it, but if you all remember it... then maybe I was young and ignorant..."
"Okay, let's just assume you were young and ignorant. But then there was the Dragon Boat Festival one year, when there were dragon boat races on the ocean. That was the year my father personally attended—you weren't really young then, were you?"
The Jiedushi personally attended the Dragon Boat Festival a year before the surrender to Chen, right? That would be five years ago. She didn't seem to have met Ji Yanlang at that time?
"I remember now. I was fourteen that year. You were a year younger than me, right? Thirteen. You can't call me young and ignorant anymore, right?"
Fang Ying asked tentatively, "Did we meet that year?"
Seeing that she was finally no longer so sure of herself, Ji Yanlang smiled: "We didn't meet face to face, but I saw you. You should have seen me too, because when I passed by you, I heard you talking to someone..."
He glanced at Lichun and pointed: "Hey, this is the girl!"
When Fang Ying saw Lichun's face change, she vaguely remembered something.
"I just heard you say to her, 'How could the Madam, such a good person, give birth to such a troublesome playboy? He's neither good at literature nor martial arts, and doesn't even know how the common people live, yet he keeps saying he's determined to save them from disaster.'" Ji Yanlang recited these words in one breath, paused briefly, and asked Fang Ying with a smile, "Do you remember? Did I hear and misinterpret what you said?"
Fang Ying: “…”
An awkward silence fell in the hall. Fang Ying had never expected that the casual words she had said back then would actually be heard by him. It took her a while to come up with something to make amends, "I was certainly not young back then, but I was still ignorant..."
"No, you're actually right. When I heard that back then, I was very dissatisfied and went to see how the common people lived. Thanks to you, I now understand the hardships of life."
Then why bring up this old matter?
As if knowing the doubt in Fang Ying's mind, Ji Yanlang looked at her and said with a half-smile, "That's why I can't understand how you, Fang Ying, with your vision and knowledge, could have such a special liking for a playboy like me who is neither good at literature nor martial arts."
“…” She said she suddenly went blind, did he believe it?
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Fang Ying: I blame myself for being young and hot-tempered and fond of talking...
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