Riding the Long Wind – Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Zhang Yue’er was the one who held authority over the inner quarters now, so Liu Yuru needed her approval before going anywhere.

Yin Hong did not understand why her mistress gave the instruction that way, and could not help gently pointing out: “Should you not tell the Madam first? About the marriage proposal?”

Liu Yuru paused, then let out a quiet sigh. “You are right. I should tell Mother first.”

She went to Su Wan’s room. It always smelled faintly of medicine. Su Wan was lying on her daybed, reading a storybook.

Liu Yuru came in, looked carefully around the room to make sure the servants had not been neglecting her mother, and then sat down beside her. “Mother, did you hear that Old Madam Ye came by today?”

“I heard,” Su Wan said, with a soft cough and a smile. “Your father sent someone to ask me to come, but I was not feeling well and did not want to receive guests, so I let Concubine Zhang go in my place.”

Liu Yuru did not call out the lie in what she had just heard. She knew her mother had stayed away to spare her feelings. If the person presiding over her own daughter’s marriage proposal was not the mother but a concubine, that was a humiliation too sharp to name.

A small ache rose in her chest, but she kept her face easy and warm. She poured tea for Su Wan and, cup by cup, told her what had happened in the front hall.

“The Ye family’s betrothal gifts should be generous, which is why Concubine Zhang and Father are anxious to get everything settled before anything can go wrong,” she said lightly. “Mother, you need not worry. I will not be made to suffer when I marry into that family.”

But Su Wan’s brow drew together at those words.

She seemed to want to say something. In the end she only sighed and said, with a kind of helpless weariness: “Your father is being careless about this. It will make people think less of you.”

Liu Yuru knew it too. Of course she did. But she could not speak of it in front of her mother, because Su Wan could do nothing to change it, and saying so out loud would only add to her grief. So Liu Yuru played at not understanding, and smiled: “Mother, you are overthinking it. Old Madam Ye is very fond of me.”

Seeing her daughter looking so cheerfully oblivious, Su Wan did not know whether to worry or to feel relieved. In the end she could only sigh again, told Liu Yuru firmly to conduct herself properly in all things, and then, worn out, lay back and closed her eyes.

Liu Yuru stepped out of her mother’s room and stood for a moment in the courtyard, looking up at the square of sky framed by the surrounding walls. She found herself wondering whether, after she married into the Ye family, she would be able to come back often to see her mother. She thought about it for a little while, then shook it off, went to ask Concubine Zhang’s permission, and hurried out to the Liu household.

She had sent word ahead, so Liu Siyu was already waiting for her. But the moment Liu Yuru walked through the door, she could see that Liu Siyu had been crying recently, and not long ago.

She went forward and pretended not to notice, pulling Liu Siyu toward her with a smile. “What is all this, greeting me with eyes all swollen?”

At those words, Liu Siyu’s eyes went red all over again. Liu Yuru caught the eye of the nearby maidservant and tilted her head toward the door. The servant quietly withdrew. Then Liu Yuru took Liu Siyu by the hand and steered her into the garden. “Go on and cry if you need to. We can walk while you do. When you feel a little better, you can tell me what happened.”

Liu Siyu sniffled, as if she might almost smile. But the smile would not come. After a few failed attempts to lift the corners of her mouth, she gave up and said: “All right. I will not pretend with you.”

“Then tell me. What happened?”

“Master Gu came to our house.”

Liu Siyu got the words out with some effort. “It was two days ago. Master Gu and his wife came together. They had me called to the main hall, looked me over for a few moments, said some kind things, gave me a jade bracelet, and then sent me away.”

Liu Yuru’s brow furrowed. “What did they mean by that?”

“I do not know. But my parents think…” Liu Siyu’s voice caught again. “They think the Gu family may have come to propose a match with Gu Jiusi.”

It was the answer she had already feared. Liu Yuru let out a quiet breath. Gu Jiusi’s eyes flashed through her mind, just as they had appeared in the dream. Whatever that dream was, real or not, this was a match that could not happen.

While Liu Yuru and Liu Siyu were talking in the garden on one side of the estate, three young men were making their way through it on the other side, dressed in the plain clothing of household servants, their heads lowered. Two of them were of ordinary height. The one in the middle stood noticeably taller, so that together the three of them formed a neat mountain shape.

They were dressed like servants, but they moved nothing like servants. There was no timidity in the way they carried themselves. The one in the middle, in particular, walked along for a moment and then pulled a folding fan out of his sleeve, tapping the shoulder of the man in front of him with it. “Chen Xun. What exactly are we here for?”

“You’ll see in a moment,” Chen Xun said, without looking back. “Jiusi. Be patient.”

“You’ve been saying that for the better part of an hour,” Gu Jiusi said, with clear impatience. “You told me you’d explain once we were inside the Liu estate. We are inside the Liu estate. Start talking, or do you want a beating?”

“Let me explain,” said Yang Wenchang from the back, unable to contain himself any longer. He sounded rather pleased about the whole thing. “We brought you to see your future bride!”

“My future bride?”

Gu Jiusi stopped dead. Yang Wenchang nearly walked into him. He looked at Gu Jiusi’s expression and felt a flicker of alarm. “Well, yes.”

“Since when do I have a future bride?” Gu Jiusi’s brow creased. “Why do I not know about this?”

“Your parents visited the Liu household two days ago,” Yang Wenchang said carefully. “You did not know?”

Gu Jiusi drew a long breath, turned the fan over in his hand, and made to leave. Yang Wenchang and Chen Xun grabbed him at once, keeping their voices low. “Wait, wait, we have come all this way, at least have a look first, see what she looks like.”

“She could look like a celestial being and it would not matter!”

Gu Jiusi hissed under his breath. Chen Xun was about to argue back when Yang Wenchang shoved them both behind the nearest artificial rockery, whispering in a rapid urgent rush: “Someone’s coming!”

The three of them scrambled into the small cave inside the rockery, stumbling over each other in the cramped space. Once they were wedged in, Gu Jiusi immediately started poking Chen Xun with the fan. Chen Xun clenched his jaw and grabbed the fan, and the two of them stood there in the dark staring at each other, waging a silent war with their eyes. Then footsteps and voices reached them from outside. Two young women were talking.

They listened for a while and pieced it together. The one who had been crying was Liu Siyu. And she had no desire whatsoever to marry Gu Jiusi. She was in fact heartbroken about the prospect.

The other one, based on how she was addressed, was the legitimate daughter of the cloth merchant Liu family, the one known all over Yangzhou for how badly her father treated his proper wife. Her name was Liu Yuru.

The three of them stopped their squabbling and listened properly. Then Liu Siyu, at some particularly affecting point in her own story, began to cry again, and said through her tears: “Yuru, the Gu family is so powerful. I am so afraid my father will say yes just for the money. If I truly had to marry him, how would I go on living?”

Liu Yuru sighed softly and took Liu Siyu’s hands in her own. “I understand. I know your suffering completely. If it were me who had to marry him, I would be ready to throw myself into that lake on the spot.”

Inside the rockery, Gu Jiusi’s expression soured considerably. Both of his companions turned to look at him. He opened his fan with deliberate calm, as if he had heard nothing at all, and began waving it with great composure. Yang Wenchang silently reached over and pressed it down.

Then the three of them listened with full attention as Liu Yuru began to offer advice. “How about this: we find out exactly what he is like, then do everything possible to go against his preferences and force him to be the one to call it off.”

“Force him to call it off?” Liu Siyu blinked. Liu Yuru nodded and went on. “For instance, I have heard that Gu Jiusi has never married because his standards for a wife are extremely particular. He cannot stand proper well-bred ladies who go by the book, and he especially detests women who quote the classical sages at him. Go home tonight and read through the Four Books and Five Classics carefully, especially the parts about moral conduct and proper behavior. Memorize as much as you can. Then whenever you see him, make a point of lecturing him with it.”

Chen Xun and Yang Wenchang both looked at Gu Jiusi and gave him a thumbs up with their expressions alone. The wordless message was clear: this girl is something else.

Gu Jiusi said nothing. His eyes held a quiet measure of contempt.

Then he heard Liu Yuru continue: “I have also heard that he despises women who put on airs, and especially those who approach him on their own initiative. So when you see him, speak in a pinched, whining voice. If he says one harsh word to you, cry. Never say anything clearly or make sense when you speak. Act like you cannot get anything done without help, and keep asking him for money.”

“That seems…” Liu Siyu hesitated. “Is that not a little much?”

“Do not make it too obvious.” Liu Yuru smiled slightly. “There is no need for direct confrontations in public. Just happen to cross his path a few times in private, make him uncomfortable each time, and leave it at that. His reputation being what it is, if he says anything bad about you, people will assume he is the one being unreasonable.”

“All right.” Liu Siyu made up her mind. “You are right. If I do not make his life unpleasant, he will make mine unpleasant.”

“There is one more thing,” Liu Yuru said, thinking carefully. “He never attends the Spring Blossom Banquet. But one time at a gathering hosted by the Ye family, a serving girl got too close to him and he sneezed twice in a row. Her sachet was one of those overpowering ones made from pressed flower petals, the cheapest kind. He might be sensitive to strong floral scents, or simply dislike flowers altogether. I will find you a particularly pungent sachet. When you see him, make sure the smell gets onto your handkerchief, then fan it in his direction.”

Yang Wenchang and Chen Xun felt a fresh wave of sympathy for Gu Jiusi.

The fact that strong floral scents made him sneeze and sometimes broke him out in a rash was not common knowledge. This girl had noticed it on her own. If she ever decided to investigate Gu Jiusi properly and in earnest, he would be in for a very unpleasant time.

Gu Jiusi stood there in the rockery listening to two young women plot out exactly how to make his life miserable until he retreated from the match, and felt his temper rising steadily.

Then Liu Siyu said, with a note of real worry: “But what if after all that, he still wants to marry me?”

That was as much as Gu Jiusi could stand.

He had endured enough. He felt he had been thoroughly and profoundly insulted, and before Chen Xun or Yang Wenchang could react, he burst out of the rockery and raised his voice: “Do not worry. I would never marry you!”

Liu Yuru and Liu Siyu both spun around. Liu Yuru came face to face with the face she had only just seen that morning in her dream, and stood completely still. Liu Siyu, meanwhile, frowned in confusion. “What? Who are you? How did you get in here? You…”

Liu Siyu could not quite put it together, asking her scattered questions one after another. But Liu Yuru had already watched Gu Jiusi lift his chin, seen that particular look in his eye, and knew exactly what was coming: he was about to announce his name.

If he did, and his identity came out here in the inner quarters of the Liu estate, the Liu family would not dare lay a finger on him. But the story would travel. And when it did, the ones who would suffer for it were her and Liu Siyu.

Liu Yuru did not stop to think. She stepped forward and called out in a sharp, commanding tone: “What sort of servant dares intrude in the inner quarters? Someone come at once, drag him out and throw him off the grounds!”

With that, Liu Yuru grabbed Liu Siyu by the hand and the two of them turned and ran.

Gu Jiusi stood there for a moment, genuinely stunned by her shout. By the time he came back to himself, he and Yang Wenchang and Chen Xun, who had just tumbled out of the rockery behind him, were already surrounded on all sides by Liu family guards who had no idea what was going on.

It was the first time in their lives the Liu household guards had dealt with intruders of this kind. They could not tell who these men were, but they were clearly nothing good, and so the guards threw themselves into the task with everything they had, surging forward to seize all three.

What they had not counted on was that all three men were seasoned brawlers, and Gu Jiusi in particular had trained in martial arts since childhood. He ducked and weaved through the press of bodies, grabbing one guard and spinning him into another, and the three of them led the household on a chase before vaulting over the outer wall and dropping down onto the street outside.

By the time they had shaken off their pursuers and stood against the wall catching their breath, clothes disheveled and hair askew, Chen Xun finally said: “That girl has no spine at all. She screamed for help without so much as a word, and nearly ran me to death.”

“No spine?” Gu Jiusi laughed, sharp and scornful. “She knew exactly what she was doing. She was protecting their reputations, playing dumb on purpose. That Liu Yuru is a black lotus if I have ever seen one. All purity on the outside, but inside there is nothing but twisting corridors and deep mud. She has ten times the scheming mind Liu Siyu has.”

“No wonder,” Yang Wenchang murmured thoughtfully. “I always thought, looking at her, how could someone like that end up marrying Shi’an.”

“She is marrying who?” Gu Jiusi turned his head without thinking. Yang Wenchang looked at him strangely. “You know, the top student at the White Egret Academy. Ye Shi’an. Apparently the Ye family’s old grandmother announced ages ago that the only girl good enough for her grandson was Liu Yuru. You did not know?”

Gu Jiusi stared blankly. The girl’s face flickered through his mind.

Ordinary looking, from an ordinary family, with an ordinary face and a perfectly conventional personality. The only thing that stood out about her was that she thought too much. And she was supposed to be a match for Ye Shi’an, the man who had already been taken on as the closing disciple of Grand Scholar Su Wen, whose future everyone agreed was limitless, and whom Gu Jiusi had always found deeply insufferable?

Gu Jiusi thought it over.

He was fine with it, actually. He approved of this match entirely.