Against the Current - Chapter 93

Chapter 93 - Restlessness 

Now, as Song Ke returned, the young misses scattered like birds and beasts, making their way back to the inner courtyard together. Zheng Jingxian, however, slowed her pace and asked Yueer, "How did the Lin family's young misses end up quarreling with that maid in the study?"

Yueer cast a glance around, and seeing that the people ahead had walked far out of hearing distance, she curled her lip and said, "Those two Lin girls have lost their minds. Hearing Fangsi say that Eldest Young Master Song bought a new maid whom he intends to elevate, and seeing how much store he sets by her, they got anxious. With Xiu urging her on, Ling grabbed a flimsy excuse and went to make trouble for the girl. Who would have thought that maid is sharp as a tack? Ling and Xiu together couldn't best her on her own."

Zheng Jingxian pressed further, "Just how sharp is she?"

Yueer then recounted in vivid, colorful detail how Xianglan had sparred with both Ling and Xiu, laughing as she added, "It was truly a sight to behold. Every single thing she said was completely reasonable; hearing it was endlessly satisfying."

Zheng Jingxian arched her brows high. "Oh? She certainly puts on quite the airs of a mistress, not even avoiding the spotlight when faced with proper young ladies."

Yueer said with total indifference, "Young Miss would understand if you saw the way Eldest Young Master Song dotes on her. With someone backing her up and holding her dear, naturally she has courage. Besides, if Eldest Young Master Song elevates her down the road, she'll become a secondary mistress, so she won't need to swallow her pride quite so much."

Zheng Jingxian paused, saying nothing. Seeming lost in thought, she plucked a handful of leaves and slowly walked back while turning them over and over in her hands.

To make a long story short, after the young misses had chatted and laughed to their hearts' content in the Song household, partaken of a midday meal, and composed some poetry, they each boarded their carriages and headed home.

Juanhua supported Song Tanchai as she saw the guests off at the entrance. Upon returning, the maidservants cleared away the leftover banquet, wiped down the tables and chairs, and tidied everything neatly. Juanhua burned a pellet of dark sinking-incense in a large jade lotus-leaf censer and brewed a fresh cup of Longjing tea. Seeing Song Tanchai leaning against the bed with one hand supporting her brow, Juanhua walked over with light, cautious steps, placed the tea on the small side table by the head of the bed, and said softly, "If Young Miss is fatigued, you ought to at least change your clothes before resting."

Song Tanchai waved a hand dismissively. "It's nothing." She sat up and asked, "This morning when I went to the kitchen to check on the dishes, why was everyone gone from the room when I came back? I heard there was a commotion in the front quarters—did you find out what happened?"

Juanhua sighed, "Hah, what else could it be? Young Miss Ling heard that the Young Master has taken a fancy to a maid, and swallowed up in jealousy, she rushed over to the study to stir up trouble. Who would have known that Xianglan, for all her delicate looks, is quite the fiery rose? Her barbs left Young Miss Ling with nothing to say. In her frustration, Young Miss Ling nearly wrecked the Young Master's study—it was an absolute spectacle. That little minx Junxi has quick legs and ran up front to gawk for ages; I can call her in to tell Young Miss all about it." With that, she summoned Junxi into the room.

Junxi possessed a playful, mischievous child-like temperament. Although she had been serving in the inner courtyard earlier, hearing the commotion from the outer yard, she had eagerly rushed over to watch the fun. Though she had only caught the tail end of it, with Song Tanchai now asking after it, she embellished the tale tenfold, exaggerating the misdeeds of the two Lin girls even further. Hearing this, Song Tanchai knitted her brows repeatedly. At the end, she waved her hand, and Juanhua grabbed a handful of copper coins to reward Junxi and dismissed her.

With a face as pale as paper, Song Tanchai sighed and said, "Truly, the good-natured are always taken advantage of. What is so great about the Lin family? As the saying goes, 'If you don't give face to the monk, give face to the Buddha.' We are all a family of relatives, yet they disregard our dignity so utterly. If my father were still alive, they wouldn't dare throw such a tantrum here." The more she spoke, the more aggrieved she felt, until hot tears rolled down her cheeks.

Juanhua patted Song Tanchai's back to comfort her. "Young Miss has been wronged, but fortunately Xianglan has a sharp tongue and didn't suffer much of a loss."

Wiping her tears, Song Tanchai choked out, "You call that not suffering a loss? My brother's study was practically smashed to pieces!"

Juanhua knew that Song Tanchai was intensely proud and strived to make everything she did flawless, unable to bear hearing a single negative word from anyone else. Because of her striking beauty, cleverness, and sensible demeanor, she was exceptionally well-praised. Often, aristocratic matrons in the capital would tell their daughters, "Look at the Song family's Tan girl—that is the very model of a young lady of a noble house. You should learn from her more often when you have free time!"

Ever since Uncle Song passed away, their branch of the family had been on a downward trajectory. Especially after the households split and started living separately, some of the more snobbish young misses who used to play with Song Tanchai grew distant and indifferent, often tossing acidic remarks her way: "Some noble young lady she is—nowadays she's just part of a fallen, broken household!" Whenever Song Tanchai heard such words, she would go off to some secluded spot to cry her eyes out, and it was entirely thanks to Juanhua's soothing words by her side that she pulled through.

Now, this uproar caused by Ling and Xiu had struck right at Song Tanchai's most sensitive pain point, triggering another bout of tears. Juanhua consoled her, "From now on, we simply won't invite those two sisters to our home anymore. The summer heat is oppressive, Young Miss mustn't cry her eyes out and harm her health."

Even as she spoke, the door curtain lifted and Song Ke walked in. Seeing Song Tanchai sitting on the bed sobbing, he was momentarily taken aback and asked, "What is the matter?"

Juanhua answered, "The two Lin misses smashed the Young Master's study, and Young Miss is heartbroken. She's been saying, 'Today they were guests I invited, yet it's as if I slapped my own face and dragged my brother down into the disaster as well—it was truly improper.' She's been shedding golden beans as if they cost nothing. Eldest Young Master, please help me persuade her a bit."

Song Ke urged gently, "Sister, please stop this. You and I both know what kind of temperament the Lin Third Young Miss has. It is not your fault, so why take the blame onto yourself?"

After he gently comforted her for a while, she finally calmed down. Looking at Song Tanchai's reddened eyes, Song Ke sighed inwardly. To be overly strong often brings ultimate humiliation; his younger sister's excessive pride in her reputation might not necessarily be a good thing. His thoughts drifted back to the first time he had seen Xianglan, when Cao Lihuan had dealt her two merciless slaps across the face without rhyme or reason, accompanied by harsh scoldings and abuse, yet Xianglan had endured every bit of it. Later, when she casually spoke to him about her past days in the Lin household, he realized that her previous endurance was all to bide her time for a single, decisive blow that would allow her to escape that fire pit forever. A quiet sense of respect welled up in his heart—if his own sister had been the one subjected to such beatings and abuse, she probably would have taken her own life on the spot.

Yet after today's chaotic episode, although the Lin girls were clearly in the wrong in the first place, external ghosts never come knocking unless there are traitors within. It was high time to thoroughly clean house and restore order. Pondering for a moment, he said, "I have a favor to ask of Sister; I want to ask you for someone." After discussing the matter with Song Tanchai for a while, we will leave that aside for the moment.

Meanwhile, when Fangsi instigated Lin Dongling and Lin Dongxiu to go make trouble for Xianglan, her original intention was to use a borrowed knife to kill—to knock down Xianglan's growing prestige and vent the pent-up spleen in her own chest. Never had she expected the matter to spiral completely out of control and grow to such proportions. Not only had Lin Dongling caused a massive scene in the outer study and smashed a whole table full of items, but she had even run right into Song Ke's line of sight.

Terrified that Song Ke would discover her hand in it, she had scurried away in a panic. When she made inquiries afterward, hearing that Song Ke had brushed the matter aside lightly, she had harbored a glimmer of hope, praying the whole affair would just rest there. But moments ago, when she used an excuse to deliver items to the front study, Song Ke hadn't even spared her a single glance. His expression had been cold and stern—a look she had never seen from him before. Her heart sank. Song Ke always treated others with the warmth of a spring breeze; his present reaction meant he was undoubtedly furious with her...

Fangsi recalled how, shortly after the master of the house had passed away, Song Ke was nothing more than an unworldly youth. Everyone had bullied him for his youth and his handsome face, and some of the bolder, insolent servants had stolen household goods to sell, or allowed themselves to be bought off by the other branches of the Song family to spy on the household's situation and report on its properties. Upon discovering this, Song Ke had dragged a rather prominent older servant who had gone spying straight out into the yard, taking a rattan whip and flogging him until his body was drenched in blood.

Later on, a few hereditary family servants, relying on their seniority and deliberately seeking to crush the young master's sharp spirit, had been instigated to crowd in a dense, weeping mass outside the main courtyard's doors. Wailing to the heavens, they cried out things like, "Since you care nothing for the dignity of us old servants, we beg to leave of our own accord!" and even dragged out the master's spirit in heaven, claiming he couldn't rest in peace either.

Everyone had crowded tightly around the doorways, waiting to watch the spectacle. To their astonishment, Song Ke simply left those people kneeling there from morning until night, until several of them grew physically exhausted and passed out cold. Early the next morning, he brought a roster of the troublemakers along with a human trafficker, and with lightning speed, had those rebellious servants dragged straight out of the courtyard and sold off, severely punishing the whole lot. Nobody had expected that an un-girded young scholar not yet twenty years of age possessed such ruthless methods; they were utterly dumbfounded, and all sorts of discussions buzzed about. Yet from that day forward, the Song family's branch household finally grew quiet. The serving domestics either quietly requested transfers to other households or begged to be sold off in exchange for silver, and Song Ke didn't try to keep them. Two months later, people had trickled away or scattered until almost nobody was left. Yet Song Ke went ahead and doubled the monthly stipends of the remaining servants and maids. Aunt Song had once advised him to buy a couple more people to help around the house, but Song Ke had simply replied calmly, "It's better to have fewer people. A simpler household makes for a more peaceful life." Not long after that, Song Ke suddenly announced that from then on, their branch would live independently, and it was only then that she realized Song Ke had quietly managed such a monumental change all by himself.

Her mother had pinched her ear and warned her, "Our young master is destined for greatness; he will surely make something of himself in the future. If you have any fortune, serve him for a lifetime, and in days to come you'll enjoy a life of brocade, jade, and superiority over others."

In truth, she had harbored deep romantic feelings for him for a long time. Song Ke constantly wandered into her dreams, and she felt that as long as she could follow him, even without brocade and jade dishes, she would be content eating chaff and greens every single day. She knew the eldest young master would eventually take a primary wife into the household, and she had long since prepared herself to lower her gaze and humbly serve the mistress of the house in the future. But who could have predicted that Chen Xianglan would suddenly burst in halfway and usurp her rightful place? How could she not hate her?

As Fangsi sat restlessly in her room doing needlework, someone suddenly bumped heavily against her arm, driving her needle straight into her fingertip. With a sharp cry of pain, she quickly thrust her finger into her mouth to suck on it. Mother Guo chided her reproachfully, "What on earth are you daydreaming for? I called you several times and you didn't hear a peep. The mistress is about to wake from her afternoon nap—go cut up some fresh fruit and bring it over."

Seeing that Fangsi remained seated and motionless, still wearing that absent-minded, haunted expression, Mother Guo questioned, "What is wrong with you? You look as though you've lost your soul."

Making sure there was no one else in the room, Fangsi grabbed Mother Guo and whispered urgently, "Ma... I've done something wrong..." and proceeded to recount the entire sequence of events from beginning to end.

Mother Guo was struck with immediate terror. Furious, she repeatedly poked Fangsi on the forehead, gritting her teeth while keeping her voice to a harsh whisper, "You muddled wretch! How could you go and stir up such a catastrophe? And since you caused it, why didn't you speak up sooner!"

Shrinking her neck back, Fangsi muttered in a small voice, "M-maybe the young master hasn't figured out that it was me who spilled the words... Besides, there's no proof for this matter anyway."

Mother Guo raged, "Do you take the young master for some muddle-headed fool?! This is retribution right at our doorstep! Hurry up and come with me—we're going to kneel before the young master and beg for mercy. You're going to ruin all the face and standing I've built up over a lifetime!"