Chapter 72

Chapter 72

[The Male Chauvinist’s Victory – 13]

Li Jiangyue’s visit to her husband had saved the Lu Family, but it also placed additional pressure upon her.

However calm and intelligent, she was only sixteen. Now living with her husband in Shouzhou, she seldom saw her mother and was carrying her first child. It was inevitable that she would worry.

A considerate husband would certainly have reassured her that he would love either a son or a daughter. Unfortunately, her husband was the scoundrel Liu Che, who wanted only a son and cared nothing for the pressure upon his wife.

Li Jiangyue felt depressed but showed none of it. Still smiling faintly, she exchanged a few more words with Liu Che before leaving.

Only after returning to her rooms did the smile fall away, revealing a rare trace of worry.

Her matron had not entered the study and did not know what the couple discussed. Seeing her mistress troubled, she assumed the matter of the Lu Family had gone badly.

“Madam said everything possible. If it cannot be done, Concubine Lu cannot blame you.”

“Husband already agreed,” Li Jiangyue said. “I am worried because…”

She looked down at her still-flat belly. “When I spoke to Husband of the child, he said he hoped it was a boy.”

The matron was older and experienced. She laughed. “Oh, this old servant wondered what terrible thing had happened! Madam has always been broad-minded. Why can you not see through this?”

Li Jiangyue looked at her hesitantly.

The matron explained, “In the Yan Family’s generation, His Lordship is the only seedling. The two young masters call him elder brother, but their surname is Guan, not Yan. In His Lordship’s place, wouldn’t Madam also hope for a son at once to continue the family line?”

Li Jiangyue had plainly considered this, and agreement showed on her face.

The matron continued, “But Madam mustn’t frighten yourself. A son at first birth would naturally be best. If it is a young lady, she will still bear the surname Yan. And even if you truly have a daughter, you’re still ahead of the other lady and Concubine Lu. At least you have conceived; neither of them shows any sign. Being able to bear children is better than being unable!”

Li Jiangyue laughed. “That is true.”

“Your heart is unsettled, which is ordinary for a first pregnancy. Shouzhou is not far from Jiankang. Write home and ask your mother’s advice. Listening to her can never be wrong.”

Li Jiangyue had merely trapped herself in a dead end. Once she thought clearly, she recovered. After agreeing, she visited Lady Lu.

“I spoke to His Lordship about your natal family. He agreed. I cannot promise their life will resemble the past, but at least they will survive.”

Lady Lu had chanted scriptures all night, and dark circles showed beneath her eyes. She was overjoyed, then filled with tears. She immediately knelt and kowtowed.

“This concubine will remember Madam’s immense kindness forever!”

Li Jiangyue knew she had always been obedient and caused no trouble, so she offered extra guidance. “Your natal family has fallen and can depend only upon you. You, in turn, can depend only upon Husband. Think carefully about how you must act from now on. Do not do something foolish in a moment and regret it forever.”

Lady Lu was no fool. She froze briefly, then understood. “This concubine understands. Thank you for your instruction, Madam.”

Li Jiangyue nodded and left.

Lady Lu had not slept well for many nights while worrying about her family. Looking into a mirror now, she saw a haggard woman whose damaged beauty could not compare with her former brilliance.

The Lady of the Left possessed an imperial marriage and the status of principal wife. The Lady of the Right was nobly born with a powerful maternal clan. Lady Lu’s natal family had fallen, leaving her without external support. All she possessed was her face.

The woman in the mirror was deathly pale. Lady Lu bit her lip and sent a message telling her family to remain calm and wait patiently. Then she dispatched her personal maid to His Lordship, saying that her family’s crimes left her too ashamed to face him. She wished to eat vegetarian food and chant Buddhist scriptures within her courtyard for a month to purify herself and atone, and begged his permission.

When the maid delivered the message, Liu Che was handling affairs in the study, with Li Jiangxue attentively adding fragrance beside him.

Li Jiangyue had only just spoken of the Lu Family, so Liu Che had not forgotten. Hearing that Lady Lu was so sensible-neither resenting his ruthlessness toward her family nor complaining, but instead blaming herself and volunteering to fast and pray-made him feel still more tender toward her.

“Her intention is enough. There is no need to fast and chant for a month.”

The maid hurriedly knelt. “My lady said that her natal family committed such shameful crimes and damaged His Lordship’s reputation. She feels unbearable shame. Before this servant left, she instructed that if His Lordship softened and forgave her, I must repeatedly dissuade you. Otherwise, even if His Lordship visits, she will have no face to see you.”
Li Jiangxue rolled her eyes. “What an act!”

Liu Che smiled instead and patted her hand reassuringly. Then he told the maid, “I understand your lady’s meaning. Tell her to care for her health. I will visit her after one month.”

The maid acknowledged respectfully and withdrew.

Li Jiangxue curled her lip. “Lady Lu was once the daughter of a respectable family, so letting her enter was one thing. But now her natal family has been convicted and imprisoned. Cousin ought to drive her out. Instead, you still feed and house her. You’re far too softhearted!”

“Enough. She’s pitiful enough already. If I drive her out, where can she go?”

“What do I care?” Li Jiangxue muttered. She hugged his arm and wheedled, “If she wants to fast and pray, let her. Cousin, spend more time with me, all right?”

Jealousy and sour resentment filled her heart. “Jiangyue and I entered the household on the same day. How is she pregnant while I have no news?”

Supporting his chin with one hand, Liu Che smiled. “That is Heaven’s will. What can I do?”

“I don’t care!” Li Jiangxue shook his shoulder. “You must spend more time with me!”

She was still young and brilliantly beautiful, and Liu Che’s sense of novelty had not faded. He was happy to coax and amuse her. “All right.”

Li Jiangxue was delighted. “Cousin, you’re so good to me!”

…

Madam Yu was overjoyed to learn of her daughter’s pregnancy. She reread the letter several times before reluctantly setting it down to write a reply. When sending it to Shouzhou, she also dispatched two experienced matrons who had attended pregnancies.

Li Dongshan was pleased as well. With Madam Wei present, he could not speak publicly, but when he visited Madam Yu that night, he could no longer conceal his joy.

“After Hongguang’s two victories, the Northern Dynasty’s arrogance shrank. In former years, they raided south every autumn and winter, yet last year they remained still! An old saying warns us not to drink water and forget who dug the well. Because of this, His Majesty praised Hongguang several times at court. During this spring’s census, Shouzhou rose from a lower prefecture with fewer than twenty thousand households to a middle prefecture with twenty-five thousand. The whole court praised him. Even His Majesty said, ‘Minister Yan became a fourth-rank high official before reaching twenty. We thought that remarkable enough, but something even more impressive followed. Before We could issue a decree promoting him, he promoted himself by one rank!’ Ha ha ha!”

Shouzhou had been a lower prefecture whose inspector held lower-fourth rank. Now their son-in-law had single-handedly raised it to a middle prefecture whose inspector held full fourth rank. Had he not promoted himself?

As her son-in-law rose, his daughter shared the principal wife’s honor. Now she was pregnant as well. If she bore a son, her position would become unshakable.

Madam Yu was delighted but placed the credit upon her husband. “It was my lord’s keen eye that selected such an excellent son-in-law for our daughter.”

Li Dongshan laughed proudly, praising Yan Hongguang with great appreciation. “I once thought marrying Jiangyue to him wronged our daughter. Now I see we caught this worthy son-in-law only because we acted quickly. You don’t know-the relatives and old friends in Shouzhou wrote recently, praising him with all their strength. They said that although he is young, his conduct is seasoned. Hearing it brought me honor too…”

Madam Yu listened with a smile, though her thoughts had long flown to her distant daughter. Several days later, Li Jiangyue received her mother’s letter. It listed every precaution for pregnancy and ended by saying that whether the child was male or female, it remained good news.

A poorly raised son could bring disaster, while a well-raised daughter could still honor her family. Li Jiangyue was young and could bear more children later. She must never pressure herself, exhaust her mind and body, and harm both herself and the child.

Li Jiangyue smiled as she read, put the letter away, and ordered quarters arranged for the two matrons from Jiankang. At that moment, a servant reported that the Lady of the Right had struck Concubine Lu and that disorder had erupted in Lady Lu’s courtyard.

Lady Lu’s natal family was distantly related to Madam Wei. Because of that connection, Li Jiangxue had felt betrayed when the Lu Family shamelessly sent an illegitimate daughter to become her husband’s concubine. After Lady Lu entered the household, Li Jiangxue repeatedly made matters difficult for her. Now that the Lu Family had fallen and Lady Lu hid in her courtyard fasting and praying, how could Li Jiangxue resist swaggering before her?

Li Jiangyue truly developed a headache. Rubbing her brow, she ordered someone to remove her legitimate elder sister from Lady Lu’s quarters. Once she confirmed that Li Jiangxue had provoked the affair and struck first, she immediately suspended her allowance for half a year, ordered her to apologize to Lady Lu, and confined her to her courtyard for one month of reflection.

Li Jiangxue possessed her own money, so half a year’s allowance was a drop of rain, not enough to lodge between her teeth. She cared nothing for it. As for confinement, she could not go out, but Cousin could visit her.

But apologize to that wretched maid Lady Lu?
Not even in her dreams!

Li Jiangxue stubbornly refused, and the servants could hardly drag her over by force.

Li Jiangyue laughed instead of becoming angry. She ordered Li Jiangxue to copy the Lotus Sutra three times and forbade her to leave until she finished. Then she informed her husband of the incident and sent him a pair of beautiful young women, formally taking them into the household as concubines.

Both beauties were sixteen. One spoke in the soft accent of Wu and was sweetly lovely; the other possessed a graceful figure and excelled at the Green Waist dance. They were truly a pair of jade beauties, extraordinarily lovable.

Liu Che: Wow! Two great beauties! Love them!! My wife understands me!!!

He had heard about the conflict between Li Jiangxue and Lady Lu and knew both women’s tempers. Lady Lu’s natal family had fallen, yet she remained obedient and sensible, uttering no resentment and voluntarily fasting and praying in her courtyard. She had retreated this far, yet Li Jiangxue still went to bully her. Wasn’t that excessive?

Liu Che said, “Madam handled it very properly. Follow her decision. Convey my words to the Lady of the Right as well: until she copies the Lotus Sutra three times, I will not visit her, and she must not leave.”

Relying on Cousin’s favor, Li Jiangxue had intended to show her half sister some color and humiliate her. Instead, Li Jiangyue struck back, not only trapping her in the courtyard but adding two women beside Cousin. She had gained nothing and suffered loss.

No, that phrase was inadequate. She had lost both the lady and the troops!

One copy of the Lotus Sutra contained more than eighty thousand characters. Three copies meant a quarter million. Even writing at flying speed would take a month.

A whole month! Who knew whether the two newcomers would coax Cousin away? Lady Lu would emerge then too. The empty interval Li Jiangxue had fought so hard to create would vanish!

Li Jiangxue was filled with resentment and regret. Then she remembered that Li Jiangyue was pregnant while she did not know when she would conceive, and more women were gradually dividing Cousin’s favor…

Why had she failed to swallow one moment’s anger and insisted upon troubling that wretch Lady Lu?!

Li Jiangyue was also to blame for exaggerating a trivial matter and carrying it before Cousin!

Wretches!

Every one of them was a wretch!

…

Liu Che knew nothing of Li Jiangxue’s fury. He discussed affairs with advisers and prefectural officials every day, rode with his brothers whenever free, and returned at night to embrace his two new beauties. His life was happier than an immortal’s.

The Northern Dynasty had been repelled twice and did not march south the previous autumn and winter. Even so, the Southern Dynasty remained troubled within.

After Liu Che governed Shouzhou for a year, its treasury was full. He had rebuilt waterworks the previous year; now he planned to repair official roads and connect the prefecture’s counties and villages. Whether for marching armies and transporting grain and supplies, or for travelers and merchants, the roads would bring immense convenience.

One day, Liu Che rode out with Qu Guangqi to inspect local conditions. When they returned to the prefectural residence at dusk, a confidant hurried forward with an official dispatch from Jiankang.

Liu Che opened it and uttered a soft sound of surprise. He passed it to Qu Guangqi, whose expression became complicated after reading.

In this world, Southern and Northern Dynasties coexisted, and officials were selected not by civil examinations but through the Nine-Rank System.

The policy had been sound initially. After several generations, however, aristocratic clans completely controlled official selection. No high ranks went to humble families, and no low ranks to the great clans. Talent and virtue no longer mattered; family background measured everything.

Thus, Li Dongshan held high office despite lacking great talent merely because he belonged to the Li Family of Lingnan. How many other useless men occupied positions at court?

Where oppression existed, resistance followed. Many benefited from the system, but many also suffered.

In Yan Hongguang’s previous life, his low birth brought no regard from Jiankang’s clans. He joined the army alone, carved out a realm, and smashed the centuries-old selection system with the military machine. Liu Che instead borrowed strength to strike strength, saving time and effort as he gradually consumed the old order and finally seized power.

It was difficult to say which method was superior, but both could reach the summit.

Liu Che’s path demanded exceptional foundations: military talent on the level of a cheat and support from a patron like the Li Family of Lingnan. Yan Hongguang’s path was simpler for ordinary people.

The dispatch reported that a young man named Chen Xian had appeared in Yongzhou. Because his family rank was low and his clan had declined, evaluators rated him “lower-middle.” Furious, he secretly united others in similar circumstances and launched a rebellion.

Events proved him genuinely capable. His call in Yongzhou received a hundred responses. More than ten thousand joined within days. He swiftly captured Yongzhou and advanced on Shaozhou, throwing the southeast into panic and alarming the court.

The court’s dispatch declared Chen Xian a rebel. If necessary, troops would be transferred from the northern prefectures to suppress his uprising.
None of Liu Che’s followers came from great clans. After reading the dispatch in turn, they inevitably sympathized.

“With the world as it is, achieving merit is a hundred or thousand times harder for us than for aristocratic sons!”

The implication was compassion for Chen Xian’s rebellion.

Liu Che smiled without agreeing or disagreeing. He asked another valued adviser, “What does Master Ji think?”

Still holding the dispatch, Master Ji examined it several more times, then shook his head with emotion.

“This affair is likely less simple than everyone imagines. Chen Xian may not be the suppressed, unrecognized genius the world believes.”

He spread white paper, sketched several lines, and swiftly produced a map of Yongzhou.

“When Chen Xian first rebelled, he killed Qian Lun, Inspector of Yongzhou. Though born to an aristocratic family, Qian Lun consistently opposed clan control over official selection. He advocated local recommendation of talented people and appointment by merit. His position should have matched Chen Xian’s predicament, yet Chen Xian ordered his execution.”

Master Ji touched Yongzhou’s position on the map and sighed.

“Only months ago, seeing severe land concentration and widespread suffering, Qian Lun ordered a new investigation of tenants and servants belonging to local clans. He forced them to release more than ten thousand and earned their deep hatred. When Yongzhou fell to the rebels, Qian Lun remained trapped for three days. The rebels then numbered only several thousand, yet Yongzhou’s garrison moved not one soldier. They watched him die, allowing Yongzhou to fall completely and the situation to escape control…”

The group fell silent. Qu Guangqi sighed too.

After nearly two hundred years, the Southern Dynasty increasingly revealed its flaws. Aristocratic clans grew stronger while common resentment rose. Perceptive men could see it and wished to reform, but the interests involved were too great. One careless move would bring Qian Lun’s fate.

Liu Che followed a circuitous path to save the state, but inwardly he approved Yan Hongguang’s choice: seize military power, straighten one’s spine, violently smash the old order, and open a new world.

There could be no compromise or middle path. Did anyone dream they could speak pleasantly while carving flesh from another with a knife?

Yongzhou lay far from Shouzhou, so no soldiers were needed from here yet. After discussing the matter, everyone returned to the road repairs. Only Qu Guangqi speculated before leaving, “If circumstances change, the court may still send my lord south to suppress the uprising.”

Liu Che was unafraid but surprised. “Yongzhou lies far from Shouzhou. Why use me? Does the court truly lack capable men?”

“Capable men…”

Qu Guangqi sneered. “Has my lord not witnessed the flourishing pure-conversation fashion at court, and how Jiankang’s great clans devoutly pursue Daoism and immerse themselves in empty absurdities?”

Liu Che fell silent, then smiled. “If that happens, it would actually benefit me.”

They separated. Qu Guangqi bowed and departed, while Liu Che walked with his hands behind his back toward the rear residence.

The moon was bright, and its light pooled transparently in the courtyard. Liu Che felt equally content. After rounding a covered corridor, he heard faint whispers in the garden. Following the sound, he found a graceful woman kneeling on a cushion and worshiping the moon.

“My first wish is for His Lordship’s health. My second for Madam’s peace…”

Liu Che knew the encounter might not be coincidence. Yet a layer of ash had accumulated in the burner, showing she had waited long. His heart softened. He stepped closer and called warmly, “Xiaochan.”

Lady Lu seemed not to expect him. She cried softly and turned, covering her face with a sleeve so that only clear eyes like autumn dew remained.

“This concubine lacks virtue and is ashamed to see His Lordship again…”

Tenderness stirred in Liu Che. “Since you entered the Yan Family, how could the Lu Family’s affair implicate you? If you speak like that again, I will be angry.”

Tears filled Lady Lu’s eyes. “My lord.”

Her sleeve lowered, and astonished admiration flashed through Liu Che’s eyes.

After several days apart, Lady Lu had grown thinner, yet her beauty had not diminished. She appeared even more graceful and vulnerable. Because she was worshiping the moon, she wore no jeweled ornaments. Brilliant moonlight fell upon her simple face, making her resemble Chang’e amid immortal mist.

Liu Che: “…”

Ah, my beloved concubine seems even more beautiful!

I want to sleep with her!

I know she used a small scheme, but that doesn’t matter at all!

I’m still delighted that she spent thought on me!

Fragrant, soft beauties are adorable!