Against the Current - Chapter 310
Chapter 310 - Past Days
Lin Jinlou furrowed his brows. He naturally remembered Su Meiru. That woman possessed quite a bit of grace, a bright moon-like countenance, a natural flair for romantic charm, and a talent for dressing up. She was also quite skilled at playing musical instruments and singing. Originally the beloved concubine of a salt merchant in Yangzhou, she had come to seek him out after her husband passed away. He had rented a residence outside to keep her for a time, but later his interest waned. Furthermore, because Xianglan entered the estate, he completely cast her aside, sending the woman a sum of silver and helping her secure a shop in the city while arranging for others to look after her, which he felt was fulfilling his obligations to the utmost. Today, this old history was being dug up again by Lin Jinting. Lin Jinlou glanced at him and said, "I remember. Why?"
Lin Jinting let out a sigh, placed the medicine bowl on the foreign-lacquered small table, and said listlessly, "That woman is truly a disaster. Tsk, somehow or another, she ended up getting tangled up with my father." He lifted his eyelids to steal a glance and, seeing that Lin Jinlou's expression remained calm, continued, "My father lost his mind. Because the woman became pregnant, he wanted to elevate her to a concubine. Fearing the Old Master wouldn't consent, he married her in secret. Who would have thought that a few days later, rumors and gossip would start spreading outside, saying that the Lin family lacked all human decency and propriety, with an uncle and a nephew sharing the same woman... Now that woman is already pregnant..." As he watched Lin Jinlou's face, his voice grew softer and softer.
As it turned out, back when Lin Jinlou was still involved with Su Meiru, he had once hosted a banquet at that external residence to treat several of his military colleagues to wine. Because his uncle, Lin Zhangmin, also held a mediocre mid-to-lower fifth-rank post in the military, he had invited him along to the gathering. On that day, Lin Zhangmin had arrived extremely early. Lin Jinlou was not yet there, but he saw Su Meiru wearing a silver bun-pin adorned with emerald and plum-blossom floral ornaments, a pair of inch-long jadeite drops hanging from her ears, a lotus-silk gauze tunic, a white embroidered-line skirt, and a pair of red cherry-topped pointed shoes peeking out from beneath the hem of her skirt. Clutching a gold-inlaid silk handkerchief, she stood upon the stone platform inside the second gate. Lin Zhangmin had long heard rumors that his eldest nephew was a romantic rake with an exceptionally dazzling and beautiful external mistress. Meeting her face-to-face today, he saw a woman with a jade-like, alluring countenance, a willow-slender waist, and an air naturally pregnant with romantic charm. Her skin was slightly dark—a "dark beauty"—which instead added a touch of piquancy and charm. With her melon-shaped face and delicately curved eyebrows, Lin Zhangmin was struck dumb the moment he laid eyes on her, and he could not help but offer a deep bow. Su Meiru did not display the timid shyness of ordinary women; she looked Lin Zhangmin up and down, gave a proper greeting, covered her mouth with a suppressed chuckle, flicked her handkerchief, and withdrew into the inner quarters.
From that moment on, Lin Zhangmin kept her in his thoughts. Later, during the banquet, Lin Jinlou had called for Su Meiru to come out, holding a pipa to strum and sing a set of the tune "Thirty Melodies," delivered with melodious softness and a myriad of seductive postures. This only made Lin Zhangmin yearn for her all the more, restrained solely by the fact that she was Lin Jinlou's former mistress, leaving him no opening to make a move. From then on, he occasionally sent people under the pretext of helping Lin Jinlou look after her, delivering various items such as food, face powder, or hair oil. Su Meiru was a woman of exceptional cleverness; she understood seven or eight parts of what was happening in her heart, simply accepted the gifts, and rewarded the delivery boy handsomely without sending anything in return, while never uttering a word of it to Lin Jinlou. After Lin Zhangmin sent things four or five times and saw that Su Meiru gave no response, he temporarily let the matter drop.
Until the time when Lin Jinlou completely ceased visiting Su Meiru's place and instead sent Jixiang over with three thousand taels of silver and a box of jewelry to make a final settlement. Su Meiru had also wept bitterly for a few days, but after wiping away her tears, she still had to live her life. Hardening her heart, she thought to herself, "If a woman wants to live well, she still has to rely on herself. Not a single man can be depended upon; rather than trusting a man, it is better to trust silver! When I remarry in the future, I must marry into a wealthy, powerful, and prominent aristocratic family, or else how could I ever justify the hardships I've suffered?" Because of her beauty and considerable wealth, many men sought to take her as a principal wife or bring her in as a concubine, and matchmakers came and went all day long. Yet none of their family backgrounds could hold a candle to the Lin family. Whenever she found a family whose standing seemed somewhat decent, the prospective groom was invariably old and ugly, falling far short of someone like Lin Jinlou. One day, someone knocked on the door, and a page boy standing at the entrance claimed to be sent by Second Master Lin to deliver facial fragrance. The gate-keeping matron hurried to the back to show the two bottles of facial fragrance to Su Meiru. This time, Su Meiru acted entirely unlike before; she personally called the page boy inside to ask him all sorts of questions, and before he left, she even used her own customary handkerchief to wrap up a package of freshly steamed jujube-paste pastries, claiming she had made them with her own hands, and told him to take them back for Lin Zhangmin to taste.
A few days later, Lin Zhangmin came in person. Su Meiru was dressed entirely anew, wearing dark gemstone earrings, a lotus-colored gauze tunic, a silver-red padded vest, and a gold-threaded skirt, and she kept Lin Zhangmin to share some wine. Su Meiru diligently urged him to drink, her sweet words lingering in the air. Lin Zhangmin could not help feeling his heart flutter. Thinking that Su Meiru was a wealthy widow, he grew even more lavish with his sweet words, asking Su Meiru to sing a tune and attempting to get hands-on. Su Meiru chatted and laughed with him in intimate familiarity, yet kept her hands and feet strictly guarded, merely saying, "Though my origins are humble, ever since I was a child I was raised like a precious treasure in the palms of a matchmaker, and I am not willing to sing casually for just anyone."
Lin Zhangmin chuckled and said, "Oh? Previously, when my nephew asked you to sing, you sang for him. Am I less important than him?"
Su Meiru traced the ribbons of her skirt with her finger and replied, "When I followed him back then, he was my man. What relation is Second Master Lin to me?" Her bright eyes were watery and alluring; no matter how many beautiful women Lin Zhangmin had seen in his life, he still found himself itching with desire. Before he could speak, however, he saw Su Meiru stand up and say, "It is getting too late today, Second Master Lin, please go back. Come again another day." Having said this, she rose on her own accord and walked away.
Lin Zhangmin was left staring in a daze, and after sitting alone in vain for a long while, realizing Su Meiru would not come back out, he had no choice but to leave a five-tael silver ingot with a little maidservant, saying, "This silver is left behind for your young mistress to buy rouge and powder. When I come again another day, I will bring a couple of bolts of satin." With that, he got up and left.
When he came back a few days later, he was met with a closed door. The gate-keeping matron told him that Su Meiru had gone up the mountain to burn incense. When he went yet again, he was told that Su Meiru had gone to visit relatives. This was precisely Su Meiru's tactic. If previously Lin Zhangmin had valued her at seven parts, now that she was within reach yet stubbornly out of grasp, he valued her at a full twelve parts, desiring her all the more because she was hard to attain. Patiently waiting until the third visit, he finally gained entry. Lin Zhangmin brought along a bolt of plain white Songjiang wide-loom raw silk weighing thirty-eight taels, two sets of clothing, and an envelope containing fifty taels of silver. Su Meiru looked at him with tender affection, this time holding a pipa, lightly resting her silk sleeves, and singing a tune called "Falling Plum Wind." Once she finished singing, she poured a cup of wine for Lin Zhangmin. Lin Zhangmin was overjoyed beyond measure and immediately moved to grow intimate, only to be pushed away gently by Su Meiru. "I am deeply grateful for Second Master's high regard," she said, "yet although I am a drifting duckweed of a person, I still possess a shred of backbone. There are two paths before us as we are together with Second Master today—one long and one short. I wonder how the Master chooses?"
Lin Zhangmin asked, "What are the two paths? What is the long one, and what is the short one?"
Su Meiru replied, "As for the short one, you and I will have a night of pleasure, and I will repay Second Master for this kindness of yours. It will be a dew-bound romance; tomorrow you will take your bride and I will take my groom, and we will have nothing more to do with each other. Magistrate Han's son, Han Guangye, has already sent a matchmaker to ask for my hand as his secondary wife. Though he is merely a low-ranking eighth-grade official, the Han family is still considered a solid and respectable household."
Lin Zhangmin asked, "And what about the long one?"
Su Meiru stood up, took Lin Zhangmin by the hand to lead him over to a chest in the room, and pulled it open. Inside lay half a chest of antique treasures and various kinds of damasks and silks. Su Meiru said, "I have even more things like this, and not just these—I also own a separate shop. The furniture filling this room is mine as well, and this single black-lacquered, gold-traced carved bed alone cost twenty-six taels of silver. If you, Master, are willing to genuinely and properly marry me, husband and wife as one, then all of these things will belong to both you and me. To stay together for a long time and raise children—wouldn't that be just like a pair of divine immortals?"
This chest full of wealth truly made Lin Zhangmin's heart race and his eyes burn with greed. Their branch of the family had never matched the Eldest branch, and Lin Zhaoxiang held little regard for them. Though silver was not entirely lacking, Lin Zhangmin happened to have a weakness for gambling, which meant his money was never quite enough. He could no longer squeeze any silver out of his wife, Lady Wang, and was still running up debts outside, maintaining a grand facade of spending thousands of cash like dirt only when facing outsiders, while feeling a sharp pinch of reluctance for every single copper he spent. Now, with Su Meiru's great wealth, he was genuinely tempted. Furthermore, his wife Lady Wang was of merely mediocre appearance and had grown older, looking far worse than before. Besides, Lady Wang was somewhat dim-witted when dealing with people and affairs, entirely incapable of reading expressions or showing understanding, whereas Su Meiru was graceful, clever, and gentle. Yet, hesitating for a moment, he muttered, "The Old Master places the utmost importance on reputation. After all, you are 'starting afresh' and are not of untainted origin, and furthermore you were previously with my eldest nephew... If this were to spread... I am not afraid of anything else, but I fear my father... Tsk..."
Su Meiru said, "What is the Master afraid of? We can simply keep every trace of color and sound completely hidden. We will openly repair the plank road while secretly crossing Chencang, managing the affair quietly and imperceptibly so that no one will ever know. In a year or half a year, once I carry your flesh and blood, how could the Old Master not love his own grandson? Besides, since you and I are already in this state, his old lordship can at most scold you once—what more could he possibly do? I hear your principal wife is also a soft-tempered soul; how could she not have room for someone else?"
Sensual desire befuddles the mind, and as the saying goes, wealth stirs the human heart. These words made Lin Zhangmin's heart leap with excitement. Casting aside the stern father above him, the fierce nephew below him, and all concerns for family reputation to the back of his mind, he made solemn oaths of eternal love with Su Meiru on the spot and threw himself entirely into plotting the affair. Little did he know what Su Meiru's true intentions were. This woman was exceptionally proud; ever since she had been with Lin Jinlou, her horizons had grown increasingly lofty, and she had looked down upon every single suitor who came asking for her hand, fixating single-mindedly on marrying into a grand and powerful aristocratic family. Yet the men who came with genuine intentions all fell short of her standards. Only Lin Zhangmin—who was merely forty-three or forty-four years old, slightly plump, of medium build, with dark skin and narrow eyes, an ordinary man in every respect—possessed a certain dash of romantic flair, held a lower fifth-rank official post, spoke with gentle, softening words, and handled everything with consummate care. Moreover, Lin Jinlou had once inadvertently let slip that Lady Wang seemed somewhat incompetent in managing the inner quarters, possessing a personality as soft as tofu, and that such a primary wife would be easy to manipulate in the future. Pondering over it, she could find no man better suited than him, and secretly harboring a desire to spite Lin Jinlou, she actually threw her lot in with Lin Zhangmin.
Thus, the two of them eagerly colluded together. Su Meiru used her own silver to secure the rental of this residence, while Lin Zhangmin spent money to commission jewelry, make new clothes, and purchase bedding, bed curtains, and other newlywed necessities. On the chosen auspicious day, Lin Zhangmin invited only two close friends and a few individuals from the clan with whom he was on good terms, set out a banquet, and formally took Su Meiru as his concubine.