Chapter 192

Chapter 192: Are You Truly Willing to Accompany Me Back to Huaijiang

Xin An treated Cui Ping generously; when you take someone’s pay you owe them your loyalty, so even if Xin An said nothing, Cui Ping would still think three steps ahead for her.

All afternoon, Xin An drilled court etiquette. Under Cui Ping’s guidance she repeated bow after bow; some rules had baffled her in her previous life, so this time she had to cram and make them right.

At dusk, when Tang Mo came back, the myna in the cage let out a loud call: “Kneel.”

Startled, he almost wanted to get rid of the damned bird, grumbling as he glared at it: “If you’re not calling me a thief, you’re ordering me to kneel. Watch yourself or I’ll pluck every last feather off you.” The myna only repeated: “Kneel.” Tang Mo poked it; the bird shrieked, which set Furball to barking, and the courtyard burst into noisy life.

He stepped inside and found Xin An sprawled on the beauty couch, looking utterly drained, so he sat beside her and asked with concern: “What happened?”

Xin An lifted her eyelids and said she had spent the entire afternoon learning rules: “Kneeling this way and that again and again, my knees are one thing, but then sitting upright for a stick of incense by the book made my waist ache and even my tailbone hurt. Who invented these rules? Did he hate the human race?”

Tang Mo now understood why the myna outside was chanting that word and laughed: “Where does it hurt? I’ll rub it for you.”

“Legs,” said Xin An without ceremony. She let out a long breath and mused that high-born ladies looked especially graceful when they saluted: “I wonder how much effort they suffer in private. Luckily this is the kind of thing you learn once and you’re done, otherwise how could anyone bear it?”

Tang Mo’s own etiquette was decent. As the marquisate’s legitimate son, even if he had not been favored as a boy, he had never been allowed to slack off in such training. Hearing Xin An sigh, he told a childhood tale: “I even nodded off while kowtowing.”

Xin An pictured it and burst into laughter. When she had recovered her spirits, she handed Tang Mo her father’s letter. After reading it, Tang Mo’s gaze turned complicated: “Father-in-law does not hold fast very strictly.”

The letter from Xin Kuan made it clear: as long as the choice brought real benefit to the Xin family, and the patron did not intend to suck them dry, they could try it. It meant that whether it was the Crown Prince or the Second Prince, as long as he could shelter the Xin family and raise them another step, Xin Kuan would put up his silver.

Xin An said calmly: “It isn’t that he lacks principles. Merchants pursue profit. The marquisate gives too little and asks too much. After all these years, tally how many benefits the marquisate has taken from the Xin family.”

“I remember that years ago my father wanted to open the northwest salt route and wrote to the capital asking your father for help. Not only did he not help, he wrote back scolding my father for being impatient. Father missed the chance for nothing and could only watch our competitors make a killing.”

They missed the window, and once the competitors opened the northwest salt route, even their existing trade took a heavy blow, at one point sinking into losses. It was only then that her father took the plunge to search for sugar sources and seek another path.

“If not for Grandfather, your father alone could never have made my father agree to deliver money to the marquisate every year. He wanted something for nothing, and my father is not a fool.”

Tang Mo could not refute her. His own father had treated the Xin family like the Tang family’s property, to be taken from at will. But nothing in the world is truly free, and the Xin family’s wealth had grown year by year; by now they were hardly dependent on the marquisate.

“Are you planning to go to the Second Prince’s residence?” he asked.

Xin An nodded: “We owe them a reply. But I do not intend to throw in our lot. We have to go step by step and see as we go. If anything looks wrong, we pull back at once. Safety first.”

“This time is just a simple transaction.”

Tang Mo agreed wholeheartedly. Even if they knew how things would unfold, they still had to guard against the unexpected; bargaining with a tiger required utmost caution.

They lowered their voices and discussed for a long while, turning over every angle until they had a clear plan. Only then did Xin An bring up sending a birthday gift to Xin Huan and adding a bit to his betrothal presents.

Tang Mo laughed: “Sixteen is not so young. Tomorrow I’ll arrange to buy some fashionable and amusing items from the capital and deliver them together.” He added with a smile: “As for the betrothal gifts, handle them as you see fit. Since you are now married into the marquisate, your status is different. You should help the boy gain some face.”

“Open my storeroom and choose a few items that can hold the stage. When is the wedding? We should go together.”

Her father had treated him well; of course he would reciprocate. Xin An treated him even better. He had neither power nor money, so when a chance came along to let her shine, he would seize it with enthusiasm.

“You are truly willing to accompany me back to Huaijiang?” Xin An’s delight overflowed onto her face. Seeing the hope bright in her eyes, Tang Mo suddenly remembered that, counting her previous life, she had not returned to Huaijiang for more than ten years. At least before he died in that previous life, Tang Rong had never gone back with her.

“Yes,” he said. “I meant what I said. I heard Huaijiang is prosperous and splendid, so you will have to take me everywhere.”

Xin An clasped his hand: “Then it’s settled, no going back on it.”

“I won’t go back on it,” said Tang Mo, joking as he met her gaze: “If I do, aren’t you afraid you’ll beat me to death?”

Thrilled, almost giddy, Xin An wanted to start packing right then and there. Suddenly life seemed full of bright expectation.

Huaijiang. She had not set foot there in over ten years.

Somehow, smiling turned into tears. Her heart ached, and she did not even know why; she just wanted to cry.

This time it was Tang Mo’s turn to panic: “Why are you dropping golden beans now?” The fierce woman suddenly weeping so aggrievedly scared him witless. He crouched before her, unsure whether to wipe her tears or fetch water, and coaxed her with a half-laughing plea: “My good lady, what is the matter now?”

“Say the word and I will seek justice for you.”

Xin An cried freely. She did not want to; the tears simply would not obey. “Thank you,” she managed.

“Just over the trip to Huaijiang?” Tang Mo said, half amused, half helpless: “It really isn’t to that degree.”

Auntie Wang heard the commotion and, thinking they were quarreling, hurried in. Before she could speak, Xin An lifted her head and announced through tears and laughter: “Auntie, Tang Mo says he will accompany me back to Huaijiang next year to attend Huan’s wedding.”

Auntie Wang blinked, then broke into a broad smile: “What wonderful news. When the master and madam hear it, they will be overjoyed. Why the tears then?”

Chun Yang and Chun Lv chimed in with smiles: “The son-in-law is truly a good man.”

Xin An smiled through her tears: “I’m just happy.”

It is not easy for a married woman to visit her parents, and for one who married far away, it is even harder. Yet that is the place that raised you, where your father and mother are. Unless she had been driven out with a broken heart, who would not want to go back and look?

Xin An was very happy, perhaps the first time she had been so light-hearted since her return. She was so delighted she forgot her age for a moment and took on a girl’s delicate air. Watching her, Tang Mo felt a pang of sorrow and in his heart cursed Tang Rong as a bastard: [Such a simple thing, at most three months there and back. How could he not take her home once?] Married into a family was not the same as being sold to the marquisate. Even a servant sometimes received a special favor to go home for a visit. [Bastard.]