Against the Current - Chapter 130
Chapter 130 - Scoundrel
Yindie gnashed her teeth and spat, "Curse her blind heart! That enchanting minx, seducing this one and then that one... Cousin-in-law, you might not know this, but Xianglan was originally sold off by the First Mistress. Yet somehow she struck good fortune; not only did her entire family get their household registration freed, but overnight they became wealthy, buying houses and land until they practically became prominent figures. That little vixen was already arrogant enough before, and now look at her! If I don't put her in her place, how will I ever get ahead?"
Cao Lihuan already viewed Xianglan as a mortal enemy. Hearing that she was now living a good life and that Xia Yun was still tripping over himself to beg for her hand made her head spin with fury. Her teeth clicked together as she ground them, consumed by a cocktail of jealousy, bitterness, hatred, and rage. She cursed, "Bah! The heavens are truly blind! A cheap slut like that should be sold to a brothel!"
Yindie instantly felt she had found a kindred spirit, and together with Cao Lihuan, she spent a good while tearing into Xianglan with curses. When Cao Lihuan pressed her with repeated questions, Yindie recounted the entire sequence of events from beginning to end.
After musing in silence for a moment, Cao Lihuan's face suddenly broke into a cold smile. Lowering her voice, she murmured, "It won't be difficult for sister to vent this anger. Just do as I say..." She leaned in close to Yindie's ear and instructed her thoroughly, detailing every single step of the plan.
Yindie was startled and shrank back in fear. "This... will this actually work? I don't dare."
Cao Lihuan took her hand and laughed, "What is there not to be afraid of? With me backing you, I won't keep it from you, sister—right now our master holds great influence before the magistrate. Doing it this way will guarantee success."
Seeing Yindie still hesitant, Cao Lihuan sneered, "Why are you so timid? I took you for someone who wouldn't tolerate a grain of sand in her eye. Your entire family was treated so wretchedly by Xianglan, yet you can just sit back and let her live in luxury and throw her weight around? Can you swallow this anger without turning her world upside down and ruining her family?"
Thinking of her own miserable plight, Yindie bit down hard on her teeth and said, "Of course I can't swallow it!"
Cao Lihuan smiled, "That's more like it. I have a monstrous, sky-high feud with Chen Xianglan as well. You and I will deal with that bitch together. Just do as I tell you, go right ahead, and I guarantee you'll come out completely safe." She reached into her sleeve and drew out a coin of silver. "Take this first, sister, and buy yourself some good food and drink to calm your nerves."
After a few more rounds of coaxing and persuasion, Yindie finally steeled her resolve. The two of them hatched a venomous plot, the details of which can be set aside for the moment.
Meanwhile, after Chen Wanquan carried Xia Yun back home, the Xia family naturally refused to let the matter rest. Chen Wanquan put together a parcel of ten taels of silver as an apology and also sent over some chicken, duck, and meat. Xia Yun himself felt a measure of guilt, so he did not press the issue too hard. Only Madam Xue and Xia's Second Sister-in-law wailed to the heavens and beat their chests, hurling endless curses and clamoring incessantly for the Chen family to pay out more silver.
No sooner had Chen Wanquan stepped back into his own house than a loud, violent pounding echoed against the front door. The moment he opened it, two bailiffs ferocious as wolves grabbed him by the arms, ready to drag him away. Madam Xue and Xianglan both shrieked in horror and rushed out. One of the bailiffs sneered, "Chen Wanquan dares to assault an imperial official! The magistrate has ordered him taken into custody for trial!" With that, they shoved and manhandled Chen Wanquan away.
As it turned out, Cao Lihuan had instigated Yindie to go to the county yamen and accuse Chen Wanquan of assaulting Xia Yun. Initially, Han Yaozu cared little for such a trivial matter. But upon returning to the yamen, Cao Lihuan told him, "Master, you don't understand. Xia Yun has caught the eye of the Lin family—didn't you see the lavish concubine the Lin Eldest Master bestowed upon him? Besides, he serves right under you, and now that he has suffered such an injustice, how can you simply ignore it? At the very least, you should lock the man up and give him a beating to appease the Xia family's resentment."
Thinking it over, Han Yaozu found merit in her words. He nodded and said, "If that's the case, haul the man in, give him a beating, and let him go to settle the matter."
Cao Lihuan hurried to add, "Don't be in such a rush to let him go, Master. I've heard that the Chen family actually has some wealth. He works as the resident manager at a pawnshop and knows how to appraise antiques; in just a year or two, they've made a fortune. They're just commoners without backing or power—against such a fat sheep, the master ought to carve off a slice and bleed him dry... Aren't you recently trying to secure an external appointment, Master? Where would you not need silver?"
Stroke his beard with a laugh, Han Yaozu tapped Cao Lihuan on the bridge of her nose. "You really are a little vixen, thinking of things like this."
With an ingratiating smile, Cao Lihuan cooed, "Naturally, I am entirely devoted to the master's future." She picked up a grape and fed it into Han Yaozu's mouth.
As Han Yaozu chewed the grape, he gazed at Cao Lihuan. Her eyebrows were drawn long and delicate, and due to the summer heat, a rosy flush bloomed across her fair cheeks. With a smiling mouth and flirtatious eyes, she wore a bright blue brocade-patterned jacket that faintly revealed a scarlet inner bodice beneath, contrasting against a streak of snow-white skin. Below, she wore a delicate green skirt that peeked out to reveal a pair of tiny lotus shoes. Even though Cao Lihuan's looks were ordinary and her figure lacked any exceptional grace, her wanton allure and knack for reading men allowed her to eclipse all others and reign supreme. Stirred by lust, Han Yaozu pulled her close and planted a dozen kisses on her lips. "My darling, tomorrow once you leave that spineless husband of mine and I divorce that she-devil at home, you and I shall be lifelong husband and wife."
Casting a sidelong glance, Cao Lihuan giggled coquettishly, "You'd better make sure that tigress of yours at home doesn't hear you say that, or heaven knows how she'd torment me." As she spoke, she slid her hand down to fondle Han Yaozu's lower parts.
Unable to wait any longer, Han Yaozu reached to tear off Cao Lihuan's clothes, and the two of them locked arms and hurried into the inner chamber to make love. Once their passion had subsided, Han Yaozu ordered that Chen Wanquan be given twenty heavy board strokes and locked up in the jail for the time being—but that is a story for later.
The arrest of Chen Wanquan threw Madam Xue and Xianglan into a panic. Consulting together, Xianglan rushed first to the prison, using silver to pull strings and pave the way at every level. Though she heard that Chen Wanquan had already been beaten, she was not even permitted to catch a glimpse of him. Returning home, she told Madam Xue, "The Xia family's lawsuit is clearly just a pretext to extort silver. Our family has no choice but to fork over more money to avert this disaster through a broken fortune, if it means getting the Xia family to withdraw the complaint."
Deeming this reasonable, Madam Xue personally sealed up fifty taels of silver the very next day and accompanied Xianglan to the Xia residence, swallowing her pride to beg for mercy. Madam Xue, Xia's Second Sister-in-law, and Yindie all let loose a barrage of abusive curses, demanding that Xianglan kowtow and apologize. Biting her tongue hard, Xianglan walked straight into Xia Yun's room, knelt before his bed, and knocked her head against the floor three times. "Scholar Xia, I am here to apologize to you. My father injuring you that day was merely an accident, and our family accepts full responsibility for compensation. Why must you insist on having the bailiffs keep my father detained?" With that, she held out the parcel containing the fifty taels of silver.
Xia Yun was utterly stunned, only then learning that Yindie had gone behind his back to file an official complaint. He repeatedly shouted for someone to go and withdraw the lawsuit. The members of the Xia family verbally agreed, but the moment Xianglan departed, Yindie chimed in, "We can't just withdraw this lawsuit for nothing! Don't you see that the master is still bedridden? We must make the Chen family suffer properly!"
Having repeatedly sent matchmakers to the Chen household in recent days only to be rejected each time, Jinshi finally felt a surge of triumphant vindication. She hissed venomously, "That's right! Did they think they could settle this just by forking over a pittance of silver? Not a chance in hell—what do they take us for, beggars?" She then praised Yindie, "You handled this brilliantly. The magistrate holds our third son in high regard, so he's bound to seek justice for him."
Xia's Second Sister-in-law offered a suggestion, "Oh my goodness, did you see? The Chen family sent ten taels yesterday, and another fifty today, without even blinking an eye. We can't let them off so easily. A matter like this shouldn't be settled for anything less than several hundred taels!"
With their minds made up, the group kept Xia Yun completely in the dark, failing to withdraw the complaint. Confined to bed with a head injury, Xia Yun remained entirely ignorant of these developments.
When the Chen mother and daughter returned home and waited half a day without seeing Chen Wanquan released, Xianglan went to the yamen to make inquiries, only to discover that the Xia family had never withdrawn the charges. When the two women went back to the Xia residence to question them, Jinshi and Xia's Second Sister-in-law simply blocked the doorway to scream curses, making it impossible even to catch sight of Xia Yun.
With a face full of sorrow and anxiety, Madam Xue said, "The Xia family clearly wants more silver. We'll just have to scrape together some more and send it over."
Xianglan pondered this and replied, "Sixty taels is already quite a lot. It's blatantly obvious that the Xia family's greed is bottomless. Even if you send another fifty taels, they'll just set their sights on a hundred. Even if we exhaust our entire family fortune, the Xia family still won't drop the charges."
Upon hearing this, Madam Xue fainted on the spot. Horrified, Xianglan cried out in alarm for her mother, fetched a wet towel to wipe her face, and massaged her philtrum. Coming to, Madam Xue clutched Xianglan's hand and wept, "What are we to do? Xia Yun is an official in the yamen, and as the saying goes, officials protect their own. How are we ever going to rescue your father?"
Though burning with equal anxiety and distress, Xianglan forced herself to maintain a calm exterior to comfort her mother. "Don't worry, Mother. I'm going straight to the prison to visit Father, bribe the guards so he can be treated a bit better, and then we can figure out our next move."
Tidying herself up, she changed into a plain, unadorned dress, wearing only two or three simple pieces of jewelry. She tucked away the silver, prepared some of Chen Wanquan's belongings along with medicinal ointments, gave Huashan a few final instructions, and headed straight for the yamen. Bribing her way inside, Xianglan entered the dark and cramped prison cell to find Chen Wanquan sprawled across a bed of rotting straw. His complexion was the color of gold foil, and he lay unconscious. The flesh on his buttocks had been battered to a pulp with blood pooled across the floor, while a swarm of flies buzzed incessantly overhead.
Overwhelmed by grief, Xianglan's lips trembled as she choked out, "Father..." Tears instantly spilled down her cheeks.
Her final moment before execution in her past life had been just as heartbreakingly desolate, when her grandfather and parents had been covered in bloody wounds. Because of the torture, all ten of her grandfather's fingers had been broken as he lay sprawled in the foul, damp prison; her father had worn heavy cangues that prevented him from even straightening his spine, yet he had worn a smile on his face to comfort her and tell her not to cry. Now, that person had been replaced by Chen Wanquan.
Her heart feeling as though it were being torn to pieces, Xianglan called out "Father" several times before Chen Wanquan finally stirred into a hazy semi-consciousness. Opening his eyes to look at Xianglan, he managed only, "My child, why did you come here? Hurry back, this is no place for you..." before passing out once more.
Wiping her eyes, Xianglan forcefully swallowed back her tears, thinking to herself, Chen Xianglan, in your past life your father was a refined literatus of extraordinary elegance, praised by all as a man of noble character. In this life your father is nothing more than a vulgar street scoundrel, venal and spineless, given to heavy drinking and foul language. One taught you the arts of zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting, preaching that a person should be upright and forgiving; the other could only scheme to marry you off to a wealthy household, basking in the glory of being chosen as a concubine by powerful men. Yet the hearts with which they loved you were identical, lacking not a single fraction despite the difference in their worldviews. You could not save your family in your past life, but in this one you will pull your flesh and blood out of this prison no matter what it takes!
With a mind as resolute as iron, she made up her mind and turned to walk out. Just as she reached the prison exit, before she could even speak to the guards, she caught sight of a woman approaching with a swaying gait. Adorned with pearls and kingfisher feathers, she wore a lotus-pink cross-collared tunic with gold-threaded patterned sleeves, a peach-red embroidered-border skirt, and was gracefully waving a fan. Looking closely, Xianglan saw that the newcomer was none other than Cao Lihuan.