Chapter 113

Chapter 113: Tang Rong Thunderstruck

Tang Gang stared and exclaimed in disbelief after she finished; he paced with his hands clasped behind his back, his first reaction to suspect that Madam Wang had fabricated the story. After all, he could hardly run to the Tao Family to ask; next he wondered if Countess Chang Ning, bearing a grudge, had deliberately smeared them. Madam Wang lifted her gaze and asked coolly as she cut through his scruples: “Tell me, does that woman’s comportment not resemble a concubine’s?”

Once Madam Wang had soothed her own agitation, she recalled matters in detail: Tao Yi Ran’s behavior was instantly explained. She was indeed a legitimate daughter of an official household, yet she had been raised under a senior relative of very low birth and had learned skills for pleasing and manipulating men.

Tang Gang paced to and fro with a tight brow, still unable to believe that the Tao Family’s Grand Matron came from such a background, clinging to a thread of wishful thinking. Madam Wang sat, giving him no room for that wishful thought as she said with pointed clarity: “What well-bred new bride, at the slightest discomfort, would ignore the occasion and send someone to call her husband back. Does calling him back cure the illness, or what?”

She added with dry contempt: “Fainting at every turn, if not a headache then a pain in the chest; are these not classic means of competing for favor? Marquis, this should be no stranger to you.”

Cut by her sarcasm, Tang Gang halted and looked at her; he could not even care that she had mocked him, for at this moment he felt the sky press down upon him: “This…”

He sighed; at this point, even if he found it incredible, he could only believe, because he knew that even if Countess Chang Ning disliked them, she would not fling out such accusations at random. He muttered, still seeking a way to shunt blame: “How did you not discover this earlier? If we had known sooner…”

Madam Wang refused to let him wriggle free, sneering as she asked: “How could a woman like me easily dig out such news? Are you not out in the world every day, Marquis, with countless friends? Was there not a single kind soul to slip you the truth?”

She leaned back and delivered the crueller point: “And another thing: she tried to entice the Second Prince and failed, and the Second Prince’s Consort had to warn her in person. Marquis, you had better think about the future.”

Tang Gang had no answer. Madam Wang went on with biting scorn: “At this stage, knowing it is excrement, we still have to swallow it; disgusted to the point of death, we must even force a smile and say it tastes fine. In hindsight, it would have been better to let her stay ill and spare us the disgrace of going out.”

She tapped her fingers and spoke with chilly amusement: “Countess Chang Ning is very difficult and looks vengeful. I do not know whether she will spread this in secret.”

In her heart there rose a faint, inexplicable pleasure; high-born nobility care most for face, and they are exacting toward the eldest daughter-in-law, who is the future mistress of the household. Those whose natal families are not sufficiently illustrious often meet closed doors when they socialize; the truly powerful do not even put them in their eyes. If Tao Yi Ran’s background were trumpeted, who knew how far she would be ostracized. She very much wanted to see how Tang Gang would manage this for his precious son, for once the story spread widely, Tang Rong would be coated in filth that could never be washed away.

At that moment Tang Gang already felt as if he had swallowed shit, and he began to picture the ridicule of his colleagues once the matter came to light. The Tang Family had no deep foundations to begin with; if it were then said that they had allied themselves by marriage with such a house, where would their face be?

He gave his decision in a low, tight voice: “Tomorrow, send someone to the Tao Family again. Say that you visited Countess Chang Ning today and learned certain inside matters of the Tao Family. In your shock, you are deeply worried. If the news spreads widely, it will harm both families. Ask them to placate Countess Chang Ning.”

After speaking, he hesitated for a moment, then added: “I will have Steward Zhang go in person.”

Why should his marquisate wipe up the Tao Family’s mess? And if the story did leak and the Tao Family could not suppress it, he could simply replace the daughter-in-law. His son’s character was as a rock like jade and a cypress like an emerald; he should marry a young lady from a ducal or ministerial house to be a proper match. This time, there was no old master’s arranged betrothal pressing down on him.

Once that thought appeared, he could hardly suppress it; the anger in his heart suddenly dissipated, and his mind filled with calculations about a new daughter-in-law.

He raised his voice toward the door as he called: “Attend me.”

The maid on night duty pushed the door open, but before she could reply, Tang Gang ordered with suppressed excitement in his brow: “See whether the Heir Apparent has returned; tell him to come to the study.”

Seeing that he seemed animated, Madam Wang asked with curiosity, testing him: “Marquis, have you thought of a countermeasure?”

Tang Gang did not answer; he grabbed a robe and threw it over his shoulders, preparing to go out as he said simply: “Rest, Madam; do not wait up.”

At the threshold he stopped, turned slightly, and added: “Do not let Mother know of this, lest she grow anxious and upset.”

Then he left. Madam Wang, suspicious now, lost all mood for sleep; she called in her confidante, whispered two sentences in her ear, and sent her off.

That night, Tang Rong returned reeking of wine. Entering Chun Hua Courtyard, he went straight to sleep in Concubine Yue’s room. When Tang Gang’s man came to summon him, he was in the midst of intimacy with Concubine Yue and only emerged after a while. His mood had not been good to begin with; upon hearing the inside story from Tang Gang, he felt as if five bolts of thunder crashed upon his head.

He had frequented places of pleasure and was courteous on the surface to the women there, even praising their talents, but no matter how he appreciated them, it was limited to the brothel; bringing such a woman back to the household was absolutely impossible. He was the next Marquis Wei Yuan; his reputation could not suffer the smallest blemish. Now his own father told him that the wife he had worked so hard to obtain had been raised by a senior relative who did that very sort of trade, and that his flawless, jade-like wife had even tried to entangle the Second Prince.

He forced himself to ask, his voice tight: “Father, could the news be wrong?”

[His intestines felt as if they had turned green with regret.]

Tang Gang understood his son’s state of mind all too well, but he said heavily: “Even if your mother does not like you, she would never fabricate such a lie. Countess Chang Ning would not invent it either. Tomorrow I will quietly verify the facts, but whether it is true or not, we can only treat it as true.”

He spoke with iron clarity: “Tongues can melt gold. Once sewage is splashed on a body, it can never be washed clean.”

He looked straight at Tang Rong and pressed him: “Now you must think: how will you handle this?”

At such a time, Tang Rong could hardly think how to handle anything; he only felt the sky collapsing. If this were told, he would become the laughingstock of the capital. No wonder that when they encountered the Second Prince at Duke En’s residence, the prince had looked at her in that way; he must have thought Tang Rong himself a joke. And then there was Tang Mo; if Mother knew, then Tang Mo would certainly know. He…

Tang Gang sighed from deep in his chest as he said what he dared not before: “At this point, the Tao Family’s daughter is a bomb at your side, bound to explode sooner or later. It is a pity…”

It would have been best not to have summoned the imperial physicians or passed on news to the Tao Family; they could have cemented her supposed frailty and let her slip away quietly. Alas, the first chance had been lost and would not return.

He spoke with a patriarch’s gravity: “You are the Heir Apparent of our marquisate and will carry our future prosperity. You must have a wife of eminent family who can help you ascend. Our gate was earned by your grandfather with military merit; it cannot be tarnished. Think carefully about this matter.”

Tang Rong looked up, eyes calm and depthless; then he lowered his gaze, his thoughts unreadable. The study fell into a long silence as father and son sat without a word.

Very soon, Madam Wang learned the contents of their secret talk. She kept her face unchanged, nodded, sent the messenger away, and climbed into bed. After nearly twenty years sharing a pillow with that man, she realized she had not known him: the one who seemed mediocre was, in truth, ruthless. For the sake of his eldest son, he was willing to take risks. Who could say he was not resolute?

Indeed, the love of a father for his son ran deep.