Chapter 18

Chapter 18

On the night of my fourteenth birthday, Liang Zhi snuck into the inner courtyard once again. He appeared beneath my windowsill and handed me a wooden lotus hairpin he had carved.

It was already late at night. Having delivered the gift, he turned to leave, but I scrambled onto the windowsill and called him back.

Liang Zhi looked at me, bewildered.

“Come stay and talk with me for a bit,” I said. “I’m feeling incredibly frustrated.”

Liang Zhi never could refuse any of my requests, so he turned back and sat down beneath the window.

My feet dangled right above his head, and I gave him a little kick.

Liang Zhi looked up helplessly. “Ah Yuan, why are you unhappy?”

I huffed. “Because today was my birthday, and my mother invited County Princess Rongjia. I don’t like her.”

“Why?”

“Why else? Ever since my mother helped her down from the city tower during last year’s Lantern Festival, she’s become a frequent guest at the Xie Mansion. One thing led to another, and she and my eldest brother started seeing eye to eye.

“But you know my eldest brother was already married. Even though my sister-in-law was only the daughter of a ninth-rank Xuanyi-lang, he was the one who insisted on marrying her back then. Besides, she is gentle and virtuous; she hasn’t made a single mistake in all the years since she married into the family.

“Yet two months ago, acting on my mother’s authority, the Xie Family divorced her. The reason they gave was that she had stolen family property.

“With such a crime pinned on her, the moment she returned to her parents’ home, her hair was shorn off and she was sent away to a convent to become a nun.”

My feet were resting on Liang Zhi’s head, and in my fury, I kicked him several more times. “It makes me so angry! They’re a bunch of lunatics! Aren’t they afraid of divine retribution?

“What ‘County Princess Rongjia’? She’s the only daughter of Prince Fu! She must be blind. How could she even look at a treacherous, ungrateful man like my brother? She’s like someone who sees a pile of filth in another’s latrine and insists on tasting it to see if it’s salty or bland…”

“Ah Yuan, lower your voice! Stop talking!”

I was in the middle of venting my frustration when Liang Zhi suddenly grabbed my ankle.

The youth’s palm was burning hot, and his grip was as firm as an iron vice.

Even through the fabric of my hosiery, I could clearly feel the heat of Liang Zhi’s palm. My face flushed crimson instantly.

Liang Zhi, however, was like a blockhead and noticed nothing. He looked at me with a serious expression. “You mustn’t say such things ever again. If word gets out, it will be bad for you and invite trouble.”

I grumbled, “I’m just saying it at home. It won’t get out.”

“That’s still not allowed. If the Chief Clerk found out about this, you would certainly suffer for it.”

“Alright, alright, I get it. Let go of my foot.”

Liang Zhi released his grip. I did as he said and stopped expressing my anger, but after a moment, I said sadly, “‘When a gentleman indulges in love, he can still be excused; but when a lady indulges in love, there is no escape.’ I wonder if my sister-in-law regrets marrying my brother. She originally had a good marriage prospect-a scholar who was just waiting to earn his official rank before marrying her.”

“Hmph, the men of this world are all heartless. Marrying a scholar might not have ended well either. In the end, as women, we have to be smarter. Never trust anyone, especially men…”

As I spoke, I started getting worked up again, until Liang Zhi spoke up in dissatisfaction. “What do you mean ‘as women’? Ah Yuan, I am not a woman.”

“Oh, I know. It was a slip of the tongue.”

“And why do you say all the men in the world are heartless? I haven’t done anything to offend you, so why are you lumping me in with your complaints?”

“I wasn’t talking about you.”

“You were.”

“I wasn’t.”

“You were.”