It looked like he’d underestimated his own daughter. Not only was she brave, but intelligent as well. Qin Huaiyuan had been overflowing with anger and thinking of ways to punish Qin Yining, but now he just felt resignation. If only… if only she was a son instead of a daughter…
If he had a son who’d gotten into trouble of this quality, it would’ve been quite an interesting sight to see his son kneeling nervously, begging daddy to bail him out. What a pity…
Qin Huaiyuan pursed his lips and stared wordlessly at Qin Yining as she looked down at the ground, her back ramrod straight. Although her expression was composed, she was so nervous that her hands and feet were clammy.
Those assembled didn’t know what this newfound charade was, so the old dowager couldn’t help but ask, “Meng’er, what’s happened?”
Qin Huaiyuan heaved a sigh, swept the front of his robes to the side and sat down. In but a few words, he summarized the events that led to Qin Yining succesfully rescuing Tang Meng from Prince of Ning, stunning everyone with openmouthed shock!
“How dare you! Granddaughter Yi, how dare you!!” The old dowager pointed at Qin Yining. “A girl not yet of age going to see an outside male by herself?! Were all the rules you learned these days fed to the dogs?!” She then glared fiercely at née Sun. “Eldest daughter-in-law, this is the kind of daughter you’ve raised!”
Née Sun felt utterly bereft of face and leaped forward to viciously slap Qin Yining. She put all her force behind it, so her sharp nails left two trails of of bloody marks on Qin Yining’s face. Her hand stung from the impact while Qin Yining’s face quickly swelled up. A droplet of blood trickled down from the corner of the girl's mouth.
Née Sun still felt quite put out and aggrieved that her mother-in-law had accused her of not raising her daughter well. “I told you to put away those base airs after returning home, but you didn’t listen to me! How could you, a young girl, go meet an outside male by yourself?! My words went in one ear and out the other, haven’t they?! ignorant of what’s right and wrong, and now you’ve dragged down our main branch as well! Unfilial child, see if I don’t beat you to death!” She drew her hand back for another blow.
Qin Huaiyuan had turned a cold eye to the old dowager and née Sun’s yammering. Of all the things to focus on, they’d chosen some unimportant thing like “meeting an outside male”. He suddenly felt a bone deep weariness settle on him. How would they understand matters of the court? And yet, in stark contrast to them, his daughter’s words had neatly exposed the heart of the issue. No, Yining had certainly not earned his dislike, even if she’d gone and done something wrong.
“Enough.” Qin Huaiyuan impatiently blocked the second slap née Sun was about to let loose. He frowned at his wife, “Your own manners aren’t much to sniff at. Using such force in disciplining your daughter? I say you should go brush up on your manners!”
Née Sun’s eyes widened incredulously, two pools of tears quickly gathering as she retorted hotly, “What do you mean by this, my lord? What do you mean my manners aren’t much to sniff at?! Don’t I discipline my daughter for you?? If you can’t bear to see her disciplined, why tell us what happened? Don’t tell us if you don’t want to teach her a lesson!”
“You! You’re impossible to talk to!” Qin Huaiyuan drew his brows together tightly and turned to Qin Yining. “Daughter Yi, come with me.” He didn’t wait for a response, and his tall figure swept out the door.
Qin Yining silently rose and curtsied to the old dowager and the others, then quietly followed her father out into a side hall.
Née Sun burst into angry sobs when she saw Qin Huaiyuan and Qin Yining leave. She pounded on the table in her distress, rattling the porcelain sitting on it. “I see it clearly now! I’m old and no longer catches Qin Meng’s eye! He can no longer bear to look at me and wants me dead!”
The old dowager was no fool, she had been musing over what’d happened and her son’s strange reaction. Her thoughts were a completely jumbled mess as she tried to sort things out. But who would’ve thought that née Sun would throw a tantrum at this precise moment? She couldn’t calm down and carefully consider the reason for her son’s attitude with this wailing, and her impression of née Sun dropped increasingly with the nonsense being voiced.
If Sun Haihan wasn’t the official daughter of the Duke of Ding, I would’ve thrown out this shit stirrer long ago!
“Stop your caterwauling!” The old dowager bursted out angrily. “Meng’er is right about you. Your manners aren’t much either! Don’t cry at my place, go back to your Garden of Tranquility to cry! If you’re too angry, then you can pack your bags for home right now!”
The second and third madame all hastened to speak calming words of peace when they heard that irritated snap. Qin Huining, on the other hand, clung to her mother’s arm in tears. “Mother, hurry and admit your wrongs to grandmother. You can’t go home!”
Née Sun’s temper had a short fuse and she never thought things through in the heat of the moment. She only followed her instincts and bounded to her feet at hearing Qin Huining’s words. She slammed her hand on the table again. “I can’t? Why can’t I?! Have Qin Meng divorce me now if he dares! I can’t give birth to a son and none of his concubines can birth anything! I know that Old Dowager blamed me for this for quite a while and dislikes even the sight of me. If you have someone in mind, then just bring her into the manor so she can bear Qin Meng a son! I wash my hands of this!”
Née Sun whirled around to leave and paused after two steps, tugging Qin Huining after her. “Hui’er, you’re coming with me!” She won’t bear the brunt of things if she doesn’t stay.
Qin Huining’s expression changed drastically and shook her head vigorously. “Mother, don’t go! I’m not going with you!” Are you kidding me? If I go to grandparents’ now, the duchess will hate me!
But Née Sun had made up her mind. She’d lost so much face tonight that she would make Qin Huaiyuan welcome her back with a luxurious sedan chair borne on the backs of eight bearers! At the very least! [This meant this would be a very big, mighty sedan chair.] She’d already felt quite humiliated last time in having to come back herself and apologize first. Was she going to hold it in every time!? Née Sun completely ignored Qin Huining’s protests and dragged the girl away.
The old dowager pounded the table in her anger, almost sending the nearby brass pipe and its accompanying tobacco pouch flying. “Get out, get out! It’s a first even for me to witness such manners! My Meng’er is genteel and educated, well versed and logical. How could I have been so blind as to find him such a harpy of a wife?!”
The second madame rolled her eyes privately. You did it to build a connection with the Duke of Ding! Why didn’t you call sister-in-law a harpy when you were making use of her family’s power to climb up? She didn’t agree with the old dowager’s ingratitude, and so did nothing. Therefore, it was up to the third madame to come forward and calm the old dowager down again.
By now, Qin Yining had followed Qin Huaiyuanto the study in the outer residence. She’d just knelt when a pageboy came to report, “My lord, someone from the inner residence has come to say that the senior madame is going home again. She’s carrying on as we speak. Jin-mama sent people to ask for my lord to come.”
Qin Huaiyuan knitted his brows as his brewing headache intensified. He wordlessly waved the pageboy off and took the head seat in the study, his expression as dark as a storm.
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Chapter 39: Affection
Chapter 39: Affection
Qin Yining immediately inclined her waist when she saw that her father was still angry. She murmured lowly, “I was stupid and fell into the prince’s trap.” She didn’t bother making any other platitudes.
Qin Huaiyuan had been waiting for a long speech that rambled about what she’d did wrong, where she’d gone wrong, and how utterly in the wrong she was. But she wasn’t saying anything else! Does she think that her only mistake was
falling into the trap and not going to save Tang Meng? He was caught between amusement and anger. She’s displaying her own temper to me, huh!
He was about to launch into a lecture when another pageboy timidly spoke up, “My lord, more word’s come that the senior madame is about to exit the inner residence doors. We request your guidance.” Are you going to comfort her or not, my lord! Tell us what you want to do!
Qin Huaiyuan already felt like he was bearing the world on his shoulders alone, and it was compounded by the fact that no one else seemed to understand him or the bigger picture. He finally exploded impatiently when he heard that his wife was acting up again. “Tell her to go the hell away then! The further the better! And don’t come back!”
The pageboy finally realized how big of a rage the lord was in. He hastily bowed before quickly scampering off.
Qin Huaiyuan leaned to the side, cradling his head in one large head. Fully half his weight resed on the square redwood table that bore his elbow. More than anytime before, he looked weary.
Qin Yining felt even more guilty when she saw her father thus.
It’d been father who’d brought her back from Liang.
It’d been father who’d averted her fate of being exiled out to an estate in the countryside.
It’d been father who’d used a word to cement her status as the official daughter.
Her father was immensely talented and capable, making prime minister at the youthful age of forty. All of this added together made Qin Yining admire and love her father even more so. She could tell that her mother didn’t have much in the way of talent and had a haughty temper. It was a source of disappointment for her father that his wife and he didn’t speak the same mental language, and now she’d brought even greater trouble in a moment of softheartedness. She didn’t regret saving Tang Meng, but she hated that she’d fallen into a trap doing so.
“Please don’t be mad, father. I know my wrongs. You expend great effort and energy outside and still have to come home to face a tangled mess, and now also have to right the trouble I created. It really is wrong of me to do this to you. In the beginning, I just couldn’t bear to see innocent families suffer. That was why I tried to do something. When the prince readily released Tang Meng to me as my maid, I immediately realized that I’d fallen into his trap. In the future, I won’t be so brash and will think carefully before acting. Please don’t be angry anymore. What if you harm your own body?” Qin Yining touched her forehead to the ground, quite sincerely penitent.
Qin Huaiyuan sighed softly. He had a clear understanding of his daughter’s thoughts from her words. It looks like she doesn’t think it wrong to save someone. She’s just sorry that she fell into a trap. He wanted to say something about the wisdom of putting one’s own affairs in order before meddling in others, but those self-centered words stuck in his throat. He’d always felt that there was no one in the world who understood him, but who would’ve thought his daughter would be the one to say the words he’d been yearning to hear for so long? Not his mother, not his wife, but his daughter
Forget it. Qin Huaiyuan was someone who always looked forward. He wouldn’t keep dwelling on what had already happened. As opposed to ruing the heavens for what had happened, it’d be better to figure out how to respond. He raised his voice slightly, calling for a servant. A pageboy immediately answered his summons.
“Take Fourth Miss to the ancestral hall.” He kept his eyes trained on the kneeling Qin Yining and spoke slowly. “She is not to emerge until she thoroughly memorizes ‘Lessons for Women’ [1]. None of her usual maids are allowed to serve her. All of them are to be grounded in Snowpear Courtyard for reflection!”
“Understood.”
“Thank you for your teachings, father.” Qin Yining kowtowed again before leaving respectfully.
The news that she’d been confined to the ancestral hall to study books quickly spread throughout the manor. When it reached née Sun, still dithering by the flower-hung gate, she angrily threw away the brass hand warmer she was carrying. The hand warmer skittered across the stone tiles, scattering ashes everywhere. “What a harbinger of disaster! There’s not been a day of peace since she’s returned!”
“Please quell your anger, madame.” Jin-mama sighed. “Let’s not stay here. Let’s return to Garden of Tranquility and make our plans from there.”
“No! Stop trying to persuade me, wet nurse! I’m waiting for a declaration of Qin Meng’s attitude. What point is there in staying if he doesn’t want me here!” Née Sun doubled down in her obstinance. Jin-mama was nursing an incredible headache. This matter had nothing to do with the senior madame to begin with, so wasn’t she creating trouble out of thin air by carrying on like this?
Née Sun happened to glimpse the pageboy that served at Qin Meng’s side sneaking by. She shouted angrily when he poked his head around the flower-hung gate. “What are you dragging your feet for, boy!? What did your lord say?”
How would the pageboy dare repeat “the further the better” and the “don’t come back”?! He pasted a beaming smile on his face and started to speak. “Madame, the lord is very busy at the moment. Why don’t you…”
Née Sun was already striding outside with wracking sobs before the pageboy finished. “Wet nurse, prepare the carriage. I’m going home! What’s the point in staying if he doesn’t ask me to?!”
Jin-mama felt her very soul grow weary, but she pushed herself to run to née Sun’s side, trying to persuade her against leaving. She glanced sideways at Qin Huining, in hopes that the girl would help convince her mother to stay as well. However, Qin Huining was busy drying her tears with a lowered head. She didn’t see what was happening at all.
In the end, the mama was a servant, and even the head maids Cailan and Caiju didn’t dare pull at née Sun too much. They could only revolve around her as they tried to talk some sense into their mistress, who was almost literally hopping with distress.
After a loud hubbub, née Sun finally settled into the carriage. When she got comfortable, she finally recalled that Qin Huining had been with her at the flower-hung gate. “Where’s daughter Hui?”
Jin-mama said. “Miss Huining only sent madame to the second gate. She isn’t with us anymore.”
Surprise blossomed over née Sun’s face. “Didn’t she say she would go home with me just now?”
Jin-mama didn’t respond. She was beginning to think that the duchess was right. Although Qin Huining looked like she’d been calming née Sun down in this matter, nothing she said had made a difference. In fact, most of it had spurred the madame onto new heights instead.
“Madame, don’t, don’t ignore your body so in the future. Great anger harms only yourself.” Jin-mama also wanted to say something about not trusting Qin Huining so much in the future as well, but she swallowed that part. A servant saying this wouldn’t do much good, it’d have to come from the duchess.
Back in Garden of Loving Piety, the old dowager was surprisingly calm, not in the towering rage she would usually have been in. Instead, she dismissed everyone and kept only Qin-mama by her side. “Lujuan, tell me, do you think Meng’er was truly angry at granddaughter Yi today? Why do I feel like there’s something else to this matter? Something I missed?”
No one knew a son better than his own mother. This accomplished firstborn occupied the highest position in the old dowager’s heart. She felt the most affection for and understood her firstborn the most. In her view, in light of Qin Yining’s grave mistake, Qin Huaiyuan would’ve normally just told his mother what had happened and let her discipline the child. Why would he care that née Sun was slapping her, and take her away to personally lecture and punish her?
Does he like Qin Yining or not?
“This servant thinks that the lord is likely treating the fourth miss as a son.”
The old dowager had speculated about that once, but it’d been quickly dismissed. But with the mama’s words, the incongruous behavior immediately made sense. She nodded firmly. “Indeed, these are M
eng’er’s thoughts alright. Why else would he value granddaughter Yi so much? [3] So although she's gotten into great trouble, she’s earned Meng’er’s affections as well.”
“Not only is Fourth Miss smart, but she possesses great courage as well. Although she’s a girl of the inner residence, her actions show a heroism on par with any boy. Old Dowager, don’t you feel that the fourth miss not only looks like the lord when he was young, but even has a similar personality?”
“Quite right.” The old dowager nodded continuously and recalled what her firstborn looked like when he was young. She was transported back to that wonderful time, so filled with joy. “Meng’er has no son and is bound to be happy to meet a girl so similar to him. But granddaughter Yi was too bold this time. She’s committed a great wrong.”
“Aiya, don’t worry, Old Dowager.” Qin-mama offered tea with a smile. “I rather feel that the lord is finding happiness in resolving his daughter’s woes.”
“Happiness in resolving her woes?” The old dowager thought about her son after accepting the teacup and recalled the joy her late husband had secretly felt when he’d disciplined their sons. She nodded understandingly, and burst out laughing. Tears swiftly welled up in her eyes afterwards. “Yingguang just didn’t have greater fortune. How happy he would be to see how accomplished his son and grandchildren are today!”
Qin-mama quickly soothed the old dowager’s mood when she saw her mistress thinking of her late husband. When the old dowager was calm again, the old servant spoke, “The lord has sent Fourth Miss to the ancestral hall to memorize ‘Lessons for Women’ and ‘Internal Lessons’. None of her usual maids are allowed to serve her.”
“Since Meng’er values her, there must be some positives to her.” The old dowager thought for a moment. “Make some arrangements for her in place of her usual maids. We’re more likely to see snow in June if we expect granddaughter Yi’s mother to take care of this!”
“Don’t be too angry, Old Dowager. Your health comes first. As for the senior madame and the lord, it’s just a bedroom spat. They’re quick to fight, but equally quick to reconcile. They’ll be fine in a few days.”
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