Against the Current - Chapter 147

Chapter 147 -  The Blowup

Lin Dongxiu said, "What's the rush? We brothers and sisters haven't sat together like this for a long time."

A burst of irritation flared up in Lin Ting's heart, and he sneered, "She really has quite a set of means. Although Yifei passed both rounds of the imperial examinations, his family estate has mostly withered away—how can he compare to Eldest Brother, whose official career is smooth-sailing and whose future is boundless? Tsk, with such scheming, it's a pity she grew up with such a fine appearance." As he spoke, he glanced sideways at Lin Jinlou. "How can you dare keep a woman like that by your side?"

Lin Dongling let out a huff and said, "Third Brother is right. Does Eldest Brother really want to keep someone like that by his side? Her looks are only ordinary; in my opinion, she's not even as good as Luan'er." With that, she glanced at Shuran and asked, "Would you say so?"

Shuran wished she could clamp her hand over Lin Dongling's mouth. Glancing at Lin Jinlou, she forced a smile and said, "She's just a clueless little hussy, how could she be any sort of beauty?" Using an excuse to pick up the teacups, she retreated.

Xianglan's expression was lifeless, her head lowered as she stood like a vase placed in the corner of the room.

Acting as though he hadn't heard a thing, Lin Jinlou beckoned to Xianglan and said, "Little Xianglan, come here."

Lowering her head, Xianglan walked over. Lin Jinlou picked up a piece of osmanthus cake and handed it to her, saying, "This tastes good. To have osmanthus cake in the middle of summer is no easy feat already."

Xianglan murmured quietly, "I want to go inside."

Lin Dongqi immediately stood up and said, "What a coincidence, I'm feeling rather tired at the moment too, and I'd like to find somewhere to rest. Let Xianglan show me the way and let me lie down on the bed in here." With that, she stepped forward, took Xianglan by the hand, and nudged her toward the eastern inner chamber.

Lin Dongqi knew Xianglan's name. Back when she had been framed by Cao Lihuan, it was entirely thanks to Xianglan's testimony, for which she felt deeply grateful. Today, seeing Xianglan being ganged up on and squeezed out, her heart ached with sympathy. She lowered her voice and said to Xianglan, "They've always had no filter on their mouths; don't take to heart whatever nonsense they spouted."

Xianglan raised her head to look at Lin Dongqi, shook her head gently, and finally let fall the tears that had been swirling in her large eyes for ages. She hastily wiped them away with her hand, forcing a smile at Lin Dongqi as she said, "I'll make the bed for the Second Young Miss."

Lin Dongqi couldn't help but freeze for a moment. Seeing this pitiful, forlorn little demeanor of hers, she knew there must be more to the story between Xianglan and Lin Jinlou. She moved her lips, but found herself at a loss for what to say.

Out in the hall, Lin Jinlou slammed his teacup down onto the kang table with a loud clatter, his face sinking as he demanded, "What is the meaning of this? Did you all take the wrong medicine and come running over to my place to throw howling fits?"

Everyone was startled. They saw that Lin Jinlou's complexion was as dark as the bottom of a cooking pot, radiating an aura of lethal fury. Lin Dongling hurriedly lowered her teacup, Lin Dongxiu craned her neck to swallow the candied fruit stuck in her mouth, and Lin Ting instinctively straightened his posture. One by one, they held their breath in absolute concentration, not daring to let out a single loud sigh.

Lin Jinlou sneered, "Speak! Weren't you all shouting and chattering away with such gusto just a moment ago? Why have you all turned mute?"

Ting, Ling, and Xiu kept their heads bowed, looking at one another without daring to make a peep.

Clearing his throat, Lin Ting ventured, "Eldest Brother, that Xianglan..."

Lin Jinlou cast a freezing glare in his direction. A chilling dread gripped Lin Ting's heart, and he slowly snapped his mouth shut. Lin Jinlou's formidable reputation preceded him far and wide, and no one in the household dared provoke him. Ever since they were small, his brothers and sisters had been utterly terrified of him. It was only as they grew older, and Lin Jinlou became engrossed in official duties and rarely stayed at home—greeting them with the warmth of a spring breeze and doting on his younger siblings whenever they met—that they had grown forgetful of his terrifying side and let their tongues run wild again.

With a face as stern as still water, Lin Jinlou demanded, "Which are the maidservants serving the Third Young Miss and Fourth Young Miss?"

Everyone in the room fell as silent as cicadas in winter; no one dared to answer.

With a sharp slap of his hand on the table, Lin Jinlou shouted, "I said, speak! Whose are they?"

Ling and Xiu's personal head maids, Nangong and Hanzhi, were waiting in the small parlor. Hearing Lin Jinlou ask in this manner, they knew trouble had struck, but having no escape, they had no choice but to step out, drop to their knees, and kowtow as they cried, "It is this slave."

Lin Jinlou sneered, "Splendid. My sisters are supposed to be distinguished young ladies, yet they've managed to learn a mouthful of shameless, gutter-snipe vulgarities. I knew right away it had to be the mangy house-slaves by your sides whispering filth and instigating this. Someone, drag them out and beat them!"

Nangong and Hanzhi instantly lost all the color from their faces. They kowtowed frantically with loud thuds, pleading, "Eldest Master, spare our lives! Eldest Master, spare our lives! This slave will never dare do it again! Never again!"

Lin Dongling and Lin Dongxiu's expressions shifted drastically as well. Lin Dongling sprang up with a sharp whoosh and shouted, "The words were spoken by me! What does it have to do with them?"

Lin Dongxiu, however, burst into tears, crying, "Is Eldest Brother going to create a rift between us siblings over some woman?"

Lin Jinlou fixed his gaze on Lin Dongling and Lin Dongxiu for a moment. Half of Lin Dongling's bravado deflated, and she slowly sat back down. Lin Dongxiu likewise did not dare to cry any further, reduced to continuous, muffled sobs.

Right then, two maidservants entered, dragged Nangong and Hanzhi out, and began the beating right there in the courtyard. Hearing the miserable shrieks of those two, Dongling and Dongxiu turned pale as sheets, their bodies trembling uncontrollably.

Back when Zhao Yuechan resided in the Zhichun Pavilion, administering beatings with wooden paddles and punishing little maids had been a daily routine, to the point where the maids of the Zhichun Pavilion remained completely unfazed. Although Madam Qin was strict with rewards and punishments, she governed the household with benevolence and generosity, rarely resorting to corporal punishment. Madam Wang was even softer-hearted and completely devoid of a temper. Consequently, neither of the two young misses had ever witnessed such a ruthless method of punishment, nor had they anticipated that Lin Jinlou would flip his script so utterly, pinning down and beating their most trusted personal maids without granting them even a shred of face—a textbook demonstration of "killing the chicken to scare the monkey."

Lin Jinlou said coldly, "My sisters are growing up, and the troublemaking slaves around you are multiplying as well. It won't do to have your character led astray. As your elder brother, I am simply helping you manage the people around you. If anyone has objections, let them speak up."

By this point, Lin Dongxiu no longer dared to cry, sitting in silence with her head bowed. Lin Dongling sat as though on pins and needles, while Lin Ting hovered in a state of wanting to speak but holding back.

Lin Jinlou sneered, "So you've all grown quite capable, haven't you? You claimed you came to see the new sister-in-law, but in reality, you came to slap my face and throw a tantrum right here in the Zhichun Pavilion. If I didn't step in to manage this, you lot would practically revolt!"

Inside the eastern inner chamber, Lin Dongqi heard every word crystal clear. If the elders of the household wanted to enforce discipline, they at least reasoned with people. But when someone provoked Lin Jinlou, he couldn't be bothered with reasoning; his heavy hand came down directly until you yielded and begged for mercy. Years ago, Lin Zhangzheng's favored concubine, Concubine Yin, had tried to make things difficult for Madam Qin behind her scenes, angering Madam Qin into a massive shouting match with Lin Zhangzheng. At the time, Lin Jinlou was merely nine years old. Hearing of the incident, he had stormed into Concubine Yin's quarters and begun raining heavy blows directly onto her head and face. Even though he was still a child, he was tall and robust, having practiced martial arts since the age of three like a sturdy little calf. Before anyone could rush in to stop him, Concubine Yin's nose was already gushing with fresh blood, her eyes bruised black and her face looking like a shattered palette of cosmetics. The maids and hags were entirely powerless to hold him back, so Lin Jinlou snatched up the ward-of-evil sword hanging on the wall and began shouting about executing Concubine Yin on the spot. When Concubine Yin's maid rushed forward to block him, her finger was instantly sliced clean off by the blade, sending her shrieking in agony amid a pool of blood. Having had a chunk of her hair hacked off by Lin Jinlou, Concubine Yin finally realized he was genuinely intent on taking her life. Terrified out of her wits, she turned tail and fled, while Lin Jinlou chased her with the sword in hand, cursing, "Wretched whore, get back here and accept your execution! If anyone dares try to stop me today, one by one, I'll hack every last one of you to pieces!" He chased Concubine Yin across half the garden before Madam Qin, alerted by the commotion, finally managed to intercept and stop him.

Furious beyond measure, Lin Zhangzheng had ordered Lin Jinlou to kneel on the ground and grabbed a disciplinary ruler to beat him. Stiffening his neck, Lin Jinlou had shot back, "She's nothing more than a cheap, lowly slave-concubine who actually had the audacity to bully my mother. It's letting her off easy that I didn't gut her today! If she ever sprays more filth from that mouth of hers again, this young lord will chop her into mincemeat and throw her into the fishpond! Let that be a lesson to all these long-tongued gossips who love to stir up trouble!"

Lin Zhangzheng's hand shook with rage as he pointed at him and spluttered, "Rebellious! Utterly rebellious! She is your secondary mother!"

Rolling his eyes, Lin Jinlou had retorted, "The children she bore are my flesh and blood, but a lowly slave-concubine like her has to bow respectfully and call me 'Eldest Master' when she sees me. How on earth does she become my secondary mother? Is she even worthy? A high-and-mighty slave daring to ride on top of my head, on top of my mother's head—if I don't deal with her, who am I supposed to deal with? If Father is going to vent your anger on me over such a cheap slave and disregard our father-son bond, then you aren't worthy of being my father either!"

Always a stern and dignified man, Lin Zhangzheng had never expected to encounter such an unprincipled, brazen son, and had nearly fainted on the spot from sheer fury, raising his ruler to strike again. Right at that moment, Lin Zhaoxiang arrived. Lin Jinlou instantly scrambled up from the floor, bolted over to Lin Zhaoxiang in a flash of movement, threw his arms around Lin Zhaoxiang's waist, and wailed, "Grandfather, grandfather, save me! Father wants to divorce my mother over that cheap woman, and he's going to beat me to death!"

Hearing Lin Jinlou turn facts completely upside down, Lin Zhangzheng nearly passed out from anger. Lin Zhaoxiang put on a stern face, lecturing them on the proper distinctions between wives and concubines. But upon seeing the bloody welts left by the ruler on Lin Jinlou's body, a pang of heartache struck him, and he scolded, "How old is Lou'er! Can he withstand you using lethal force on him? The Lin family has always been thin on descendants, and he is the eldest grandson of the house—what would you have done if you had crippled him? To let marital harmony dissolve over the instigation of a cheap concubine and fail to even govern your household—how can you expect to serve as an official out in the world?"

Lin Zhangzheng could only lower his hands and listen to the lecture, but out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Lin Jinlou standing right behind Lin Zhaoxiang, pulling faces and making goofy grimaces at him. That sight nearly triggered a heart attack.

The next day, Lin Jinlou obediently went to offer an apology to Concubine Yin—though right before leaving, making sure no one was looking, he cast a vicious, bone-chilling glare at her and whispered, "Wretched bitch! Try it one more time and I really will kill you!" The threat terrified Concubine Yin into a severe illness, making her desperate to detour around Lin Jinlou whenever she caught sight of him. If it came to playing the subtle, underhanded games of inner-chamber women, Concubine Yin would have had nothing to fear; but Lin Jinlou's approach was straight-up lethal violence. He was the favored eldest grandson and heir of the Lin family—even if he actually killed her, the family wouldn't be able to do much to him, whereas she would throw away her own precious life. Why bother? Subsequently, subjected to several more thunderous tactics by Madam Qin, Concubine Yin became completely docile, purging every last ambitious thought from her mind.

Because of this incident, Lin Zhaoxiang had valued Lin Jinlou even more highly, taking him under his wing to personally mentor him.

Lin Dongqi had heard Madam Qin recount this story on several occasions, each time concluding with: "Your eldest brother has this innate disposition. How old was he at nine? He already had the audacity to commit murder. Fortunately, your grandfather disciplined and reined in his temper later on so he wouldn't stray down a crooked path. I'm not boasting, but Lou'er is bound to accomplish great things sooner or later. As his younger sister, you'll inevitably have to lean on him for support."

Now that the unruly trio outside had grown the guts of a leopard and provoked this tyrant, Lin Dongqi massaged her temples, realizing she had no choice but to play peacemaker. Stepping out into the hall, she said, "Our younger brother and sisters know they were wrong and are willing to accept punishment. They'll never dare do it again." Then, turning to the younger ones, she prompted, "Isn't that right?"

Lin Dongxiu hurriedly took the lead, chiming in, "Yes, yes, we know we were wrong, we know we were wrong..." As she spoke, she tugged at Lin Dongling, who also muttered a sullen, reluctant acknowledgment of her fault, while Lin Ting kept his head lowered in silence.