The Fourth Day of Picking Up a Wife

In any case, that was the plan for now. Once the beauty woke up, they could ask about her background and make arrangements accordingly; maybe she already had a skill she was good at.

There was no need for Lu Ling to teach her from scratch. After all, she was from Kyoto, even if she was only the concubine of a disgraced official. That was what Lu Ling thought.

“Later, move her to a side room in the rear courtyard to rest. Come tell me once she wakes up,” Lu Ling instructed.

Then she suddenly remembered there was another matter she had to handle: she needed to send someone a letter to confirm whether there had been a Ministry of Revenue assistant director in Kyoto who had been exiled to Lingnan and died of illness.

If that was true, then the beauty’s identity should already be settled.

And the risk would naturally be lower as well.

Lu Ling never did anything where the risks outweighed the gains.

“Yes, Miss,” He Chou agreed. So she really had been overthinking.

How could the young miss possibly let herself take a loss? It was just a pity that such a beautiful person had fallen from grace, her family reduced to ruin and her life thrown into the abyss. Fate really was unpredictable.

Even Lu Ling felt it shouldn’t have come to this, but things like fate had always been rather mysterious.

“I’m heading back first,” she said. After all that commotion, Lu Ling was starting to feel tired.

It was just past noon, and her father and the others should be home soon.

Maybe they would even have a reunion dinner tonight.

She should go back first.

Before leaving, she looked once more at the woman on the couch. The exquisite color in her face had already begun to fade; only those sword-sharp brows were still tightly furrowed, as if she were trapped in a dream, her whole body wrapped in pain.

Was she having a nightmare? Before leaving, Lu Ling reached out toward the beauty, but just as her hand was about to touch her, that strange sensation from before happened again.

The beauty, with her eyes still shut, suddenly lifted a hand and caught her index finger, biting hard on her lip, looking terribly uncomfortable.

This time it wasn’t an attack. It was more like, in the helplessness of a dream, she had seized her hand.

Lu Ling tried to pull her finger free; by accident, the agate ring was slipped off by the beauty and clutched tightly in her palm.

“Uh, my ring.”

“I’ll pry her hand open.” Seeing this, He Chou rolled up her sleeves and was about to help.

Lu Ling thought it over, then stopped her. “Forget it. Let her keep it; it won’t get lost anyway.”

“I’m going back to the residence.”

“I’ll see you out, Miss.” He Chou had no choice but to go back and tidy up her medicine box.

Lu Ling left the private room. Although her right hand felt oddly empty and a little uncomfortable, it was only a ring, even if it had cost her three thousand taels to have it custom-made at Meifang Pavilion.

She got into the carriage and headed home.

By then, carriages and horses were arriving one after another at the gate of the Lu residence. Tao Hong and Master Tao were bustling about, welcoming the family’s masters.

First came the eldest young master. Because he had spent years out in the wind and rain, his skin was dark and he looked rather honest and straightforward; there was even a toothpick hanging from the corner of his mouth.

Then came the second young master, who looked like a refined gentleman. Unfortunately, because his legs were short, he had married a wife taller than himself. But today he hadn’t brought her back to pay respects.

As for the third young master, he looked as if he had just woken up. His face was very dark, not the kind of tan the eldest had, but grime that had never been washed off, as if he had just crawled out from under some stove somewhere.

When the three young masters entered the gate, Tao Hong could not help reminding them, “If the young lady sees you coming back like this...”

The three of them, who had been lounging around as if nothing were wrong, instantly shuddered and hurried to straighten themselves up.

Especially the third young master; he casually found a lotus pond in the residence and washed his face there. The second young master then explained why his wife had not come back with him.

The eldest still looked completely bewildered.

It made Tao Hong feel that the men of the Lu family were truly a headache.

Soon after, a jade-green sedan chair returned from the county yamen and stopped at the gate. Master Tao hurried forward to greet it. “Master, you’re back.”

The attendant yamen runners quietly reminded him, “Sir had too much to drink.”

“What?” Master Tao immediately called for servants to help carry the master back into the residence.

To their surprise, the man inside suddenly cleared his throat and asked, “Where’s my youngest?”

That was the county magistrate’s nickname for his daughter.

Master Tao said, “The young lady went out this morning and should be back soon.”

“Good. When she gets back, have her come straight to the main hall so the family can have a proper meal together,” the county magistrate said.

Tao Hong came over and said, “Master, the meal is already ready.”

“Good, good. It’s a shame Madam won’t be back for a few more days. Otherwise, otherwise I...” The county magistrate was clearly still somewhat drunk, his speech a tangled mess.

From all this, one could hear that his mood was poor.

The three sons exchanged glances and all chose to behave like good little quails. Their father was not someone ordinary people could handle.

They still needed their little sister.

When Lu Ling came back, she saw that her three brothers, whom she had not seen for several months, were standing at the gate and still had not gone in. There was no sign of her second sister-in-law either.

She immediately understood that her second sister-in-law had probably gone with their mother to the island.

It was likely because her second brother, Lu Yong, had done something else to anger her.

As for her eldest brother, Lu He, she was not too worried. The eldest was the least good at using his brain, but he was strong in execution and wouldn’t go around causing trouble or tarnishing the family’s reputation.

That left only Third Brother, Lu Jing. Ever since she had blown up his room with a homemade double-bang firecracker, he had somehow become obsessed with them, burying himself in making so-called triple-bang and quadruple-bang firecrackers, determined to compete with her. By now, no family in Haicheng with a daughter was willing to marry their child to him.

And so, at twenty-five, he was still unmarried.

Though in Lu Ling’s eyes, twenty-five was still young, people in ancient times married early. It was normal to be a father at sixteen or seventeen; twenty-five was already approaching middle age, and many people already had three or four children under their roof.

The moment she returned, her three brothers crowded over with stools. “Youngest, you’re finally back.”

“Father’s been in a bad mood ever since he got back from the prefectural office.”

“He even drank.”

The three brothers worked together, trying to steer Lu Ling’s attention toward their father.

Lu Ling had no energy to deal with them, so she followed Tao Hong straight into the main hall.

A handsome middle-aged man with a beard was drowning his sorrows in wine, still remembering to remind the steward, “Old Tao, make sure all the fish meat is picked out. Our youngest will want to eat it later.”

“Father, drinking in broad daylight is not good. If Mother sees you, it’ll be a disaster,” Lu Ling said at a glance. She could tell her father’s hopes for promotion had been dashed again.

As soon as she sat down, Tao Hong brought over a basin of water for her to wash her hands. After wiping them clean, she sat down beside her father.

Her father, Gao Yun, had passed the imperial examination in the seventeenth year of the Chengxiao reign of Da Chong. He had once seemed destined for a brilliant future, but as a young man with a passionate heart, he had wanted to speak for the people and offended the younger brother-in-law of some marquis. As a result, he had been sent to this remote place called Haicheng to serve as county magistrate.

And he had stayed there for fifteen years.

In all that time, he had merely rotated between Haicheng’s six counties.

So locally, he was known as Haicheng’s father-and-mother official.

Still, under his governance, Haicheng did at least look, barely and grudgingly, as though it had a government office; it was much better than under the previous magistrate.

In recent years, as the Lu family’s sea-island transport business had become smoother and smoother, her father had also become the wealthiest county magistrate in Haicheng.

“Youngest, do you think Father really has no ability?” Gao Yun said self-mockingly. “Your grandfather named me Gao Yun, Gao Yun, but in forty-five years of living, I’ve never been promoted, and I don’t even have good luck.”

“I think I should change my name to Gao Yun.”

At that, the second son, already sensitive to the word “short,” had only just sat down when he grew a little wary. “No way. Then my daughter would be called Short Zi. What if she can’t get married later?”

“Father, spit and say that again.”

“You little bastard!” Gao Yun couldn’t help cursing.

The eldest son looked worriedly at his father, not knowing what to say, so he silently stared at the chicken leg on the dining table. It looked delicious; there were two of them, one for him and one for his little sister.

As for the third son, he didn’t care at all. “Father, what’s so bad about being a county magistrate? Who doesn’t know our Lu family is basically the local king in Haicheng?”

Seeing that not a single one of his sons cared about him, Gao Yun angrily turned his gaze back to his little cotton-padded jacket. “Youngest, do you really think your father can’t compare to those young jinshi?”

Lu Ling thought, here we go again.

Still, she comforted him. “Father, when it comes to governing a region, even those ministers in court can’t compare to you.”

“In this area, you should pound your chest a little and be more confident.”

Gao Yun reluctantly nodded in agreement. “That’s right, that’s right. Father is good at exactly that.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he slammed the table. “It’s precisely because of that that I’m unwilling to accept this. The Emperor is dim and muddled. Earlier, the old prefect had already tipped me off that I’d be promoted soon; I’d even spent the money.”

“Then the new prefect turns out to be the maternal uncle of Prince Xu’s concubine; every one of them is a sitting official who does nothing, unable to handle even the smallest matter, relying entirely on the people below them to do the work.”

“What makes me even angrier is that the court changed regent, and the Emperor stepped down to become the retired emperor. That was six months ago, and I only found out now!”

“Now I don’t even know who the Emperor is?”

The more he spoke, the more agitated he became. He had already raised the wine jar and was pouring it into his mouth, venting as he drank. “What’s wrong with our Lu family? We handle such a huge business, and just because we’re merchants, they look down on us.”

“My daughter is still the renowned little madam of Haicheng, someone who’s helped tens of thousands of people. Who doesn’t know my daughter’s fine reputation?”

“Even if it’s about being recommended for filial piety or popular standing, it should be my turn to be promoted. Those noble clans just look down on us little merchants and minor officials. Only when it’s time to collect money do they have eyes for us.”

“And my daughter is so good! She doesn’t even have the qualification to enter the palace for the selection of consorts.”

“Those people are short-sighted. Sooner or later, they’ll bring Great Chong to ruin!”

“Oh, right. Great Chong is going to have a woman as emperor now. What a strange thing in all history. A woman can do it too; at the very least she should be as sharp and capable as your mother. Then I wouldn’t mind.”

After a round of complaints, Gao Yun slumped onto the dining table and fell asleep drunk.

Lu Ling listened with a headache and had Master Tao send him back to his room.

Though her father had been spouting nonsense, she still managed to glean some news from the court.

Great Chong had replaced its emperor with a female sovereign?

Indeed, that was rare.

Still, she remained pessimistic about the Great Chong court; it had too many rotten problems.

Since coming to this world, as a family tied to both officialdom and commerce, they had faced discrimination and suppression from the system on one side, with many policies issued that were unfavorable to the people’s livelihoods. In particular, for the coastal fishermen, in order to forbid sea access, they had actually raised the per-capita tax by thirty percent, making the fishermen’s burden even heavier.

On the other side, the coastal fishing and transport economy was being heavily exploited. Clearly the business environment could have been improved and revenue increased, but they insisted on taking the worst possible approach, and seventy percent of the profits had to be remitted upward.

As a result, there were more and more sea bandits. When the court sent troops to suppress them, five out of ten campaigns involved murdering innocent people to claim military merit, which left the people of the southeast with the impression that the court’s army were nothing but soldier-bandits, with absolutely no good reputation.

And once the sea was invaded by foreign enemies, they not only refused to send troops, they even cut off grain transport.

That destroyed the naval forces that were the only ones still able to contend with the sea pirates.

But that had been ten years ago.

Her maternal grandparents had retired from the navy and stopped serving the court.

Her mother, however, had integrated the old folks’ resources and built a three-hundred-man escort force, which had successfully maintained the safety of the near seas.

Still, right now she was more curious about something else.

Namely: “Second Brother, do you have any information about Prince Xu?”

“Did the court recently exile a batch of officials to Lingnan?”

At that, the second son finally put down his chopsticks. “Youngest, your second sister-in-law went to Kyoto some days ago. She happened to pass by Prince Xu’s residence, but it isn’t called Prince Xu’s residence anymore.”

Lu Ling said, “Hm?”

“Prince Xu died of illness last month,” the second son said. “They say that when the new Emperor was acting as regent, she deposed Prince Xu and intended to confine him to his residence for three years. Who would have thought Prince Xu would become so enraged that he fell gravely ill and passed away last month.”

“But I heard the new Emperor didn’t let this Prince Xu off. Not only was the prince’s son exiled, but his concubines and subordinate officials were also exiled to Lingnan together.”

As Lu Ling listened, she filtered the information through her mind. “Are there any lists of those officials? And... the family members who accompanied the convicted officials?”

“Have your second sister-in-law send people to ask around. It shouldn’t be hard,” the second son said, taking the initiative to handle the matter.

Still, he couldn’t help reminding her, “Youngest, Great Chong may be about to change skies.”

“Maybe, from now on, it’ll be the women’s world.”