Chapter 201

Chapter 201: Tang Gang Faints from Rage

As dusk settled, Tang Mo hurried back. The first thing he said upon seeing Xin An was: “Someone else has made a move.”

He explained that he had heard it from his colleagues, and it sounded utterly exaggerated: “They are saying the two even met secretly at midnight, right in the Tao family residence.”

He frowned and asked bluntly: “Are the messengers simply exaggerating, or is my information wrong?” He was thoroughly bewildered.

Xin An offered the version she had heard and said with dry humor: “If this keeps spreading, the two of them will be said to have started in the morning and fought until night, a full day of vigorous combat.”

Pfft. Startled into a spray of tea, Tang Mo stared at her in disbelief and said: “Do you hear what you are saying?” [What a bold woman.]

Xin An arched a brow. She might be timid in action, but that did not stop her from being a giant when it came to words. Giving him a look full of disdain, she said: “You look like someone who has never seen the world.” That look successfully made Tang Mo roll his eyes, and he dutifully steered the conversation back, saying with emphasis: “Those rumors outside were not spread by me. I did not exaggerate.”

Xin An said candidly: “Before you came back, I was thinking that the underhanded means we used this time are rather contemptible. It feels as though the two of us are not fit for polite company. But then I thought about what we suffered in the past. Even if their reputations are ruined, what of it?”

She asked herself aloud, then answered with a grave face: “What was my reputation before? Spiteful and vicious; coarse in behavior and shallow in vision. Compared to that Tao Yi Ran I did not even reach her knees. Carrying that reputation, I could hardly make any connections no matter what I tried. At any banquet people looked down on me, and I endured countless cold looks. At home I was slighted and mocked; outside I was ridiculed. Thinking of all that, I feel that what those two are facing now hardly counts as suffering.”

Tang Mo took it more lightly, since he himself had worn a green hat and could hardly be expected to endure. He said with a crooked smile: “Do you think in our previous lives we were Green Armored Ghosts, to be able to endure so much?”

He added ruefully: “I was all right; I was gone early. You, on the other hand, endured it for years.” The thought sounded odd, yet it was true.

Xin An laughed coldly and said: “We were just being pathetic.” If they had not been pathetic, how could they have lived like that, as if bewitched by Tang Rong.

Tongue-tied, Tang Mo decided not to dwell on the past to avoid shaming his present self. He only reminded her with solemnity: “Do not show womanly compassion. If they come for us, they will not show mercy.”

She answered simply: “I know.”

Tang Mo proposed going out for a meal, but Xin An objected, saying: “Father will return in a rage, and if he learns we went out to eat he will overthink it. Have someone buy something good and bring it back. We will drink two cups tonight.”

Tang Mo laughed and said: “That is indeed worth celebrating.”

Just then a maid called from outside, breathless: “Second Young Master, Second Young Madam.” Nan Feng ran in without pausing to salute and said: “The Marquis has fainted.”

Tang Mo leaped to his feet and pressed urgently: “What did you say? How did he faint, when did he faint, and where?”

Nan Feng reported with haste: “He fainted while speaking with Madam. The household physician has already gone.”

Xin An felt a jolt in her heart and said briskly: “Let us go see.” [Heaven forbid he cannot bear the shock and dies.]

Anxious, Tang Mo broke into a run. When the two arrived in haste, the physician was already inserting needles, explaining that sudden fury had struck the heart and closed the orifices.

Madam Wang blamed herself. She had not expected Tang Gang to be so fragile; she had barely begun to speak when he collapsed. If anything truly happened… After all, they had been husband and wife for decades, and her heart had not gone so cold as to hope for his death. Besides, if he died now, what would become of her son?

She asked with tight control: “How is the Marquis?”

The physician said Tang Gang had a good constitution and had simply been too angry this time, advising gravely: “The Marquis has reached a certain age. He must avoid great rages.”

After the physician went off to brew the medicine, Madam Wang finally exhaled. She turned to Tang Mo and said: “He will wake very soon. Let us wait here.”

Tang Mo nodded, then helped Madam Wang to the outer room to sit and asked in detail about the cause of the faint. Madam Wang recounted it slowly and said: “I expected him to be angry, but not that his anger would surge so violently.”

[Tang Mo thought that if this little matter has made him collapse, then should anything more outrageous occur later, will he not die on the spot.]

Once she had calmed down, Madam Wang saw the opening and urged Tang Mo to seize the moment, saying: “When your father wakes, be sure to play the dutiful son in front of him.”

Tang Mo was reluctant. To him, no matter how well he behaved or how moved his father might be in the moment, the favoring of Tang Rong would not budge. He no longer wished to waste his efforts there.

He was just about to refuse when a maid reported that Tang Gang had awakened. Tang Mo strode straight into the room, hurried to kneel at the bedside, took Tang Gang’s hand, and asked with heartfelt concern: “Father, are you awake?”

Tang Gang had only just opened his eyes and had not yet recovered his wits when Tang Mo began to speak, saying with anxious sincerity: “Father, Elder Brother’s matter is not so serious. You must not be angry. What happened just now was truly dangerous, and your son is still unsettled.”

As Tang Gang slowly came to, anger gathered in his eyes. Tang Mo grew more anxious and said: “Father, you absolutely must not get angry again. Your health is what matters.”

Tang Gang drew a deep breath and asked bluntly: “Has your elder brother, that scoundrel, come back yet?”

Tang Mo answered: “Not yet,” then went on to advise him gently: “Elder Brother has been absent from the Ministry of Rites for some time, and right now is when the Ministry of Rites is busiest. Perhaps he is occupied with official business.”

He added carefully: “I have also heard the rumors outside. Hearsay is the most unreliable. Perhaps things are not like that at all. Please do not fret, Father. We will know everything once Elder Brother returns.”

Seeing this son’s concern moved Tang Gang somewhat. Yet when he remembered that, after just one visit to the Tao family, Tang Rong had done such a ludicrous thing, the anger he had just pushed down surged up again.

Madam Wang came forward to soothe him, and he finally improved. After getting out of bed he drank a bowl of porridge. He had scarcely put down the bowl when Tang Rong arrived. He had rushed back in a hurry, and when Qing Mo had told him the rumors outside, his head had spun. He hated the Tao family for failing to keep even the servants’ mouths in check.

He called out respectfully: “Father.” He had planned to kneel at once and beg forgiveness, but when he saw Tang Mo there he felt embarrassed and said: “Second Brother is here too?”

Tang Mo ignored him and said to Tang Gang with a bow: “Elder Brother is back. Please speak calmly and do not get angry. I will take my leave.”

Tang Gang nodded. Once Tang Mo and Madam Wang had left, he turned to Tang Rong and asked, face darkening: “How do you intend to justify yourself?”

Tang Rong dropped to his knees and said: “Father, your son was foolish.” He continued in a measured tone: “After discussing matters with my father-in-law, I was preparing to leave when the maid by Yi’er came to invite me. Thinking that we are husband and wife, I felt I ought to see her. After entering the room, I do not know how it happened, but I felt drowsy and did something foolish. When I came to my senses it was too late for regrets. All the fault is mine. Please punish me.”

His words were deliberately vague, leaving ample room for Tang Gang to imagine that Tao Yi Ran had used underhanded means. The anger that had been suppressed gushed forth again, and he shouted: “Utterly outrageous.”

He added coldly: “This has already spread outside. Do you know how vile the talk is? You have always been a cautious person. Why have you kept making mistakes lately?” Several disappointments, piling one upon another, led Tang Gang to begin doubting Tang Rong’s competence.

Tang Rong kowtowed and said: “From the day I married until now, my circumstances have declined by the day. No matter what I do, nothing goes smoothly. I suspect someone is setting me up on purpose.”

[It must be Tang Mo.]