Chapter 311

Chapter 312: Tang Rong Incites Madam Zhang

Madam Zhang bore a grudge against Madam Wang and was always plotting to make her unhappy. Madam Wang, disdaining to cheapen herself by arguing, continued forward with Xin An without the least intention of engaging.

Unable to accept being ignored, Madam Zhang burned with anger and shouted: “Madam Wang, is this your way of treating guests?”

Madam Wang stopped and said: “You said it yourself, hospitality; do you look like a guest? Which guest spends the whole day picking fights with the host? What, no one outside will invite you anymore, so you wander around our manor to prove you exist?”

Xin An silently gave Madam Wang a thumbs?up, thinking: [A soft tongue does not work on a rogue like Madam Zhang; you have to slap her with words. It may change nothing, but it is satisfying.] She then said mildly: “Maternal Aunt, on such a bitterly cold day it is best to stay inside by the brazier. Coming out like this not only freezes you, it also wastes my elder brother’s charcoal.”

Squeezed by the mother?in?law and daughter?in?law together, Madam Zhang ground her teeth in fury. Fortunately for her, the two disliked standing in the cold, turned, and walked on.

In Chun Hua Courtyard, Tang Rong quickly received the news. His eyes brimmed with disgust; [inviting the Wei family had been his worst mistake]. He thought again of the five thousand taels they had extorted; now that the Wei family was here, he had to subsidize their daily vegetables and their charcoal for heating. Worse, his father’s quiet personal supplements had ceased. Resentment toward the Wei family rose in him. They knew only how to sponge off others; their man was a regional official, yet they had never thought to subsidize him in return. Thinking of how Xin An and Tang Mo were rising by the day, and how bold and cutting Madam Zhang was, an idea took shape in his mind.

He said to a servant: “Go invite Maternal Aunt here and tell her I have something to say to her.”

Qing Mo thought he meant to warn Madam Zhang not to make trouble and hurried to fetch her. She arrived with some apprehension, only for Tang Rong to greet her with gentle courtesy and say: “I heard what happened just now. Maternal Aunt, you were wronged.”

Madam Zhang had been waiting a long time to hear that. Indeed she had suffered a great grievance: she was the blood aunt of the marquisate’s Heir Apparent, yet after traveling all this way she had been treated as if she were no kin at all. How could she not feel aggrieved?

She rattled off a storm of complaints. This time Tang Rong not only showed no impatience, he listened carefully, echoed her from time to time, and stated outright that Madam Wang had gone too far. He added that Tang Gang did not oversee the inner court and the Grand Matron was elderly; in truth, everyone in the manor lived by watching the faces of Madam Wang and Xin An, and he was no exception. The talk of shared injustices resonated with Madam Zhang.

Tang Rong continued: “Maternal Aunt does not know: Mother and my second sister?in?law have an excellent reputation among the great clans of the capital. People say they are tolerant and kind. Especially Second Sister?in?law; coming from a merchant family, she excels at socializing and maneuvering. In a short time she has made the rounds with many ladies. Under her hand, even Yiran has to give way, and she seldom steps beyond the gates of Chun Hua Courtyard.”

Madam Zhang spat and said: “Bah!” Her spittle flecked Tang Rong’s face. Nausea surged in him, yet he maintained the look of a frail, troubled man. Speaking fast, Madam Zhang sprayed spittle as if it were jetting out.

She ranted: “Madam Wang is all about putting on a show, enough to fool men and your grandmother. I saw her true colors long ago; she is no good thing. If she truly protected you, she would not have given stewardship to the second branch. In whose house does the eldest not keep the keys? How does a stepson dare to covet good fortune? That little wretch of the Xin family is no easy one either; together with Madam Wang she throws her weight around. A merchant girl who turned into a marquisate’s young madam overnight, her tail is up to the sky. Because she did not become the Heir Apparent’s wife, who knows how much she hates you. If you ask me, your setbacks are her doing, or else the two of them working in concert. If anything happens to you, will the Heir Apparent’s position not fall to that whelp?”

She added: “Your wife is not much use and did not help you, but rest assured, since Maternal Aunt is here, I will not watch them bully you.”

With his face full of spittle, Tang Rong felt filthy and sick at heart; under the table his fist clenched tight. He said weakly: “I am useless. Mother died early, and from childhood I had no one to rely on. When I was wronged, I wanted to ask Uncle and Maternal Aunt to stand up for me, but the mountains are high and the road is far, so I could only give up.”

He went on: “Fortunately, all things pass if one endures. I only wish for harmony at home. If Second Brother covets the Heir Apparent’s position, it is not impossible for me to yield it to him. In the matter of the betrothal swap, in the end I wronged him.”

He said with concern: “Maternal Aunt, please do not go and offend them on my behalf. If you suffer for it, how could I live with myself?”

“You are simply too good?natured, just like your birth mother,” Madam Zhang said. She made it clear she would take charge: “You are the Heir Apparent of a marquisate; show your stature. What can Madam Wang do to you? Do you take our Wei family for a house with no one?”

When Tang Rong said he feared implicating Uncle, Madam Zhang snorted and said: “Your uncle only thinks too much and fears your father at every turn. Does he not think your father is the Marquis and you are the Heir Apparent? How can that be the same? Do not worry. I will talk sense into your uncle. If a man will not help his own nephew, who would he help?”

Tang Rong made a token effort to dissuade her, but the more he urged caution, the hotter Madam Zhang grew, itching to pin Madam Wang and her daughter?in?law to the ground and give them a beating. [Good.]

Seeing his objective achieved, Tang Rong offered several names, all young men from respectable capital families who had not yet married, and said: “Maternal Aunt can inquire discreetly. If you are satisfied, come and tell me. With this body I cannot do much else, but I can introduce people.”

He reassured her: “There is no need to worry. So long as I am in the marquisate and remain the Heir Apparent, I cannot ignore my cousin’s affairs. Marriage is no trifling matter. A girl of the Wei family, a cousin of the marquisate’s Heir Apparent, should naturally be matched with a gentleman of excellent family and character.”

Madam Zhang was delighted and thought: [This is what a true nephew is; he speaks of good households and good sons, a hundred times better than that brat Tang Mo.]

After sending Madam Zhang off, Tang Rong rose at once, strode to the washing basin, and splashed water over his face. The water ran down his forehead and across his lips; thin threads trickled into his mouth, and in an instant he felt that rank spittle had gone inside. He gagged dryly again.

Qing Mo did not know what had happened. He knew that when Tang Rong spoke he always sent the attendants away, and that recently he had been bathing every day, half an hour at a time, using half a cake of fragrant soap, as if he wished to shed a layer of skin. So he assumed Tang Rong wanted another bath. He hurried to have water heated and changed the basin for clean water.

At that time, having received the news, Xin An was in the storeroom choosing fabrics. Three delicate young ladies had arrived; as their cousin?in?law, she had to show some consideration. She allotted each two fashionable bolts of fabric and two pieces of jewelry, then instructed: “Go at once and buy five sets of the most fashionable Diexie belts, and size them to the five young gentlemen who came today.”

She had first thought of gifting brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, but then considered that nothing pleases noble young gentlemen like Diexie belts; gifts should delight the recipients. She said: “Choose the styles favored by the capital’s wellborn youths.”