Chapter 021
Chapter 21: Not a Good Match
Lin Hong snatched the letter, glanced once, and his face changed: “Mother, Ye Lan is hurt.”
“Injured?” Grand Madam Lin’s heart skipped. She grabbed the letter.
It said that during a raid on bandits, Lin Ye Lan stepped into a trap and injured his leg. The army physician was helpless. Huo Ying Zi would escort him back to the Capital to heal.
Grand Madam Lin’s voice trembled: “He’s a general. How did he end up chasing bandits himself?” She had assumed that with the Huo Family’s shelter, Lin Ye Lan’s path would be smooth, so she had not stopped him from seeing Huo Ying Zi. She had not expected things to turn this way.
Lin Hong steadied her and said: “Mother, please hold on. It’s only an injury. Once he recovers, he can still win merit.”
“Yes, yes, you’re right,” she said, forcing herself to think straight. She told herself, setting her jaw: [Ye Lan hurt his leg fighting bandits. That is honor for Ping An Marquis Manor. When people in the Capital hear, they will look up to us.]
She calmed her breath and, regaining her usual poise, said: “Why is Huo Ying Zi coming too? The rumors in the Capital have already reached Ye Lan. If the two of them show up together, people will talk.” She turned to her eldest son, steady again: “Eldest, what do you think?”
Lin Hong spoke carefully though his heart was unsettled: “The Huo Family is not what it used to be. If Ye Lan keeps seeing Huo Ying Zi, I’m afraid His Majesty will dislike it.”
Grand Madam Lin nodded: “His Majesty sent people to the Frontier Garrison to audit accounts. It looks fair, but it’s aimed at Northern Fortress Pass. Ye Lan was promoted by Marshal Huo. In His Majesty’s eyes, he belongs to the Huo Family. And now, because of Huo Ying Zi, he divorced. That only makes the emperor more certain that our Ping An Marquis Manor harbors disloyalty.”
Lin Hong frowned: “Mother has thought this through, but Ye Lan may not agree. He has liked Huo Ying Zi for a long time. He won’t give up so easily.”
Grand Madam Lin’s eyes flashed with a cold insight: “It’s not about him refusing to give up. It’s that she may no longer want him.”
Lin Hong looked puzzled.
Grand Madam Lin, confident in her read of power, explained: “The Huo clan was driven out of the Capital, and the Huo army is under suspicion. If they want to turn things around, the fastest way is a marriage alliance.” She gave a thin, scornful smile and added: “So much for a centuries-old noble house. In the end, it’s held up by in-law ties.”
Lin Hong slowly nodded: “So Mother means Huo Ying Zi is only using Ye Lan’s case to reenter the Capital, but she has another aim.”
Grand Madam Lin smiled, pleased with her own judgment: “Our Lin Family isn’t weak, but we don’t have the pull to lift the Huo Family’s great ship. In the Capital, the number of people who can make the emperor relax his guard is small. The Eldest Princess is one of them.”
Lin Hong’s eyes sharpened: “Mother is saying the Huo Family wants a marriage with Marquis Xuan Ping’s household.”
“Exactly,” Grand Madam Lin said. She sipped her tea and, now that Xia Meng Yan was gone, even felt the tea taste better. “Duan Yi Chen is of marriage age. Before, the Huo Family stood too high; if they allied with Marquis Xuan Ping, court officials would be suspicious. Now it’s different. Marquis Xuan Ping has been semi-retired for years and His Majesty has lowered his guard toward him. A match between the two houses might get approval.”
“Duan Yi Chen and Huo Ying Zi?” Lin Hong shook his head. “Impossible. Duan Yi Chen spends all day with Xia Meng Yan. How would he marry Huo Ying Zi?”
Grand Madam Lin gave a cold, mocking huff: “Marriages are decided by parents. How many in the Capital are like Xia Ping Yuan, that foolish father who shields his daughter? If things are as I think, Marshal Huo will show real sincerity. By then, whether Duan Yi Chen likes it won’t matter.”
She concluded briskly: “Ye Lan will be back soon. Once his leg mends, we’ll arrange a marriage for him at once. Best if he weds before he returns to the front.”
“Still marry? With what money?” Lin Hong said bluntly, good at counting coins if nothing else. “Xia Meng Yan took everything. We can’t even afford food. Mother, forget the Huo Family. Filling our stomachs comes first.”
“Useless thing, when has this manor ever relied on your silver?” Grand Madam Lin snapped. Even if her eldest had not passed the exam, he was still a scholar; yet all he talked about was money. Shameful.
Madam Jiang hurried to smooth things over: “We don’t want to bother you over silver, but last month’s stipends still haven’t been paid. The maids and old women are whispering that our manor is going to…” She trailed off.
“To what?” Grand Madam Lin’s gaze turned sharp. “If tongues wag, sell them off.”
“But there are only fifty taels on the books. That doesn’t cover the household,” Madam Jiang said, more and more bitter. In the Old Madam’s courtyard nothing was lacking, so of course she didn’t understand how the rest of them were living. She fumed inside: [Xia Meng Yan was here only half a year, and she raised everyone’s tastes.] Grand Madam Lin had bird’s nest and deer antler to eat, tailors came to fit her each season, and the latest jewelry from the Capital’s trends was brought for her to pick. Now there were only fifty taels. That wouldn’t even buy one of her hairpins.
“Useless, all of you,” Grand Madam Lin snapped. “This manor has farmland and shops. There’s income every month. How can there be only fifty taels?”
Madam Jiang and Lin Hong exchanged a glance and kept silent.
Grand Madam Lin turned to the steward: “You say it.”
The steward lowered his head and answered: “The manor did have several shops, but they were in remote places. After the marchioness—no, after Xia Meng Yan—entered the manor, Old Madam sold them to her at a high price. As for farmland, there are only two plots left. It isn’t harvest season, so there’s no income yet.”
Grand Madam Lin paused and remembered: not long after Xia Meng Yan had married in, a shopkeeper reported that the shops were too far and losing money. Even if sold cheap, no one wanted them. So she had made up a reason and transferred them to Xia Meng Yan at a high price.
She waved at last and said crisply: “Enough. I still have some silver here to cover things for now.” She took out five hundred taels and handed them to the steward.
Lin Hong reached for it, but Madam Jiang tugged his sleeve and gave him a quick look. He understood at once.
He said aloud, dutiful on the surface: “Mother, I’ll go out in the next few days to find good medicine for external injuries. Ye Lan will be home soon. We should prepare the physician’s salves in advance.”
Grand Madam Lin brightened and felt comforted. Blood was blood; a family was still a family. She said: “You’re thoughtful. Good medicine is expensive. Take this hundred taels and be sure to heal Ye Lan’s leg.”
Lin Hong’s eyes lit up. He bowed and said: “Rest assured. I’ll get the best for him.”
Grand Madam Lin dismissed them with a wave. The couple turned and left.
Back in their rooms, Madam Jiang said in a low, sour voice: “Master, I’m not stirring up trouble, but if Mother has so much silver, why didn’t she take it out earlier? We’ve been eating gruel and sleeping on boards. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since that bed was taken.”
“Mother has her reasons,” Lin Hong answered.
“What reasons? I call it favoritism. She saves everything for your brother,” Madam Jiang said, flicking her handkerchief and pouting. “Ye Lan eats for one, but we have a whole household to feed. If we go hungry, what about the children in the back courtyard?”
“All right, all right,” Lin Hong soothed. “When Mother sleeps, I’ll take a few pieces of jewelry. You can sell them quietly.”
Madam Jiang’s smile bloomed at once. She hooked his arm and said with playful sweetness: “If Mother asks, we’ll say the servants were clumsy.”
Lin Hong nodded.
The next morning, Madam Jiang woke and saw a box on the table. Perking up, she washed quickly, took the box, and went straight to a pawnshop.
Later, resting at a teahouse, she heard voices from the next private room. A woman said in a gossiping whisper: “Have you heard? The Huo Family’s legitimate daughter and the Marquis of Ping An just returned to the Capital. They rode in the same carriage, and in the carriage they even… well, you know.”