Chapter 012
Chapter 12: First Madam’s Enchanting Night
Lin De Fang’s handsome face was filled with a wild kind of joy as he spun twice in place; he was so excited his hands had nowhere to go, and he mumbled nonsense, his voice warping with excitement.
On the floor, a delicate brocade pouch lay alone; the twin-lotus embroidery was fine and pretty, now dusted with gray.
Madam Wang looked at her husband acting like he had no family at all and felt a breath jam in her chest, stuck neither up nor down. [How badly was I frightened at Green Briar Court? How hard was my afternoon? And the result? The result is that he is not worried or angry at all. He acts like he won the top prize and goes crazy right here!]
Her face turned from white to green, then from green to dark; at last, biting her back teeth, she squeezed out words, her voice as cold as ice in the dead of winter: “You’re very happy?”
She glared, thinking of his son, and said, the words sharp as knives: “Your precious son has finally figured things out and wants to go bother a Miss; you’re pleased, aren’t you?”
His frenzy broke under her chill tone; Lin De Fang finally stopped and stared at his wife, a little dazed: “Madam, what are you saying? Qing Xuan is facing a tribulation. That’s a good thing.”
“A good thing?” Madam Wang gave a laugh full of ice and fire, then spoke as if announcing a decree: “Then let me give you even better news.”
She leaned in, every word clipped and hard: “Mother, who is your birth mother, gave an order this afternoon: she wants me to take a concubine for you.”
She stressed the last four words like a hammer on iron and added, with a bitter twist: “Mother says my belly has failed, that I only gave you one treasure named Qing Xuan. She plans to find a young and pretty one for you to spread branches and leaves, so the Lin Clan can have heirs.”
She shot him a look, her voice rising into a shout as all the fear, anger, and hurt burst like a flood: “This news, does it make you thrilled?”
The smile on Lin De Fang’s face froze in an instant. “What?” He stared, stunned and unbelieving as he muttered, “Take a concubine? What is this nonsense?”
He frowned hard, hurried to her, and reached for her hand, but Madam Wang flung him off. He lowered his voice and spoke fast, no trace of his earlier wildness left: “Madam, listen to me.”
He bent to pick up the brocade pouch, gently patted away the dust, and offered it back to her with a soft, careful voice that held a note of pleading: “I only have you in my heart, and I have, from the day we married.”
He looked at her with ringing sincerity: “Other women? Don’t say bring one into our home; even looking an extra second would dirty my eyes. Mother is just eager to hold a great-grandson. Don’t stoop to her level, and don’t let her words live in your heart. Tomorrow I’ll go talk to her and make it clear.”
His voice was true, his gaze steady, as if the whole world held no one but her. If it had been the usual day, Madam Wang would already have softened. Staring into her husband’s eyes, her heart softened for a moment; her eyes reddened, and the roaring fire in her chest felt doused by a handful of cool water, leaving only faint curls of smoke.
Looking at his anxious face, she felt wronged and sore all at once. This man sometimes made her want to smack him dead with one slap, yet sometimes he was so tender it warmed her heart. She sniffed, stopped pushing him away, turned her face aside, and spoke in a muffled voice: “Your precious son has set his eyes on a little maid in Mother’s courtyard.”
She added, almost amused without noticing it herself: “But Mother says that girl probably does not like our Qing Xuan.”
In her heart, a small, mean cheer leaped up: [You ungrateful boy, chanting every day just to annoy your own mother. Now look at you, rejected. Serves you right.]
Who knew that after hearing this, Lin De Fang would not worry at all but would instead burst out laughing. At that laugh, the anger Madam Wang had just pressed down shot up three stories high: “You’re laughing? What is so funny? My son gets disliked, and you still laugh. Are you even his real father?”
“Oh my good Madam,” Lin De Fang said, grinning and waving for mercy, “I am certainly his real father. It’s exactly because I am his real father that I’m happy.”
He sat her down on the couch and explained, eyebrows dancing: “Think about what the Great Master said: Love Tribulation.”
He spread his hands, taking on a scheming air: “What is a tribulation? What is a test? It has to be a hard hurdle to count as a real trial, right? If something is easy, how can it be growth?”
He chuckled: “If that little girl threw herself at Qing Xuan at first sight, what kind of Love Tribulation would that be? That would be a peach blossom falling from the sky. Our son might as well return to secular life on the spot. What would there be to practice?”
He slapped his thigh, delighted: “But now he likes her and she doesn’t like him. Now that’s interesting, very interesting. I want to see how my son passes his first Love Tribulation.”
Madam Wang blinked at his twisted logic and, thinking it over, found that it kind of made sense. Seeing the wavering on her face, Lin De Fang slid an arm around her shoulders and lowered his voice: “Madam, don’t overthink it. Whether she is a little maid or a grand Young Lady, as long as our son likes her, that’s enough.”
He curled his lip, casual and bold: “As for family rank, come on. Do people still care about that now? If it can make Qing Xuan return to secular life, even if she is a maid, even if she is a beggar, I will accept it.”
He sighed, sounding as if he felt it in his bones: “As for Mother, don’t you know her? Every time she says she’ll help bring in a concubine, when has she ever truly done it? She only wants to scare you so she can hurry to hold a great-grandchild. And don’t say it’s only her who is in a rush. You and I are anxious too.”
His words poked right at Madam Wang’s sore spot. Yes, who wouldn’t worry? Qing Xuan was their only son. If he truly took vows, their branch would be cut off for good.
Seeing the clouds of worry gather on her face, Lin De Fang’s eyes turned, and a “brilliant” idea popped up. He lowered his voice and spoke like he was sharing a huge secret: “Madam, I do have an idea.”
He lifted his chin with confidence: “Guaranteed cure, one move to settle it.”
His smile grew sly: “That little girl does not agree? Simple.”
He showed a greasy grin: “We find a chance to secretly give her a little something that makes the whole body go weak and the tongue fail.”
He kept going, every word nastier than the last: “Then we strip her and throw her onto Qing Xuan’s bed. The next morning, once it’s a done deal, she can have all the complaints in the world and still be forced to accept it. Then you and I can wait calmly to hold a grandson.”
The room went dead quiet. Madam Wang’s face shifted from blank to shocked to horrified, and finally to iron-blue. She lifted a shaking finger at Lin De Fang; her hand trembled like a leaf in autumn, and she could not get out a single word. [Truly, the Heir Apparent and the Old Madam are a mother and son. For the sake of grandchildren, their minds and tricks are cut from the same mold.]
At last she caught a breath and shouted each word like a strike of a drum: “Lin! De! Fang!”
She sprang up; the pounding in her chest grew tight, and she had to press hard against her heart: “You shameless old thing.”
She trembled with fury as she scolded him: “Rules. Where are our rules? Manners. Where are our manners? You have thrown away all the face of our Marquis Manor.”
Lin De Fang watched her shaking with anger and only laughed harder. He rose, smoothed his robe slow and neat, and tossed her a teasing look, the meaning clear: “Oh? Madam is here to speak to me about rules?”
He walked forward step by step until he had pressed her to the wall; then he bent and breathed lightly in her ear: “Then please wait a moment.”
He murmured, the words low and tempting: “I will go to the side room to bathe and wash off this road dust.”
He dragged out the end on purpose, his voice deep and hoarse: “Then I will come back and let you truly see what a ‘shameless old man’ means.”
With that, he straightened, flipped his sleeve with flair, and turned toward the bathing room. Left alone by the wall, Madam Wang felt her legs go weak. The angry flush on her face had, at some point, turned into a hot blush filled with shyness.
Outside, the night had grown thick without anyone noticing. It looked like tonight would again be an enchanting, very long night that made sleep hard to find.