Riding the Long WInd – Chapter 20, Part 1

Chapter 20

Everyone rushed to him, calling his name. Gu Jiusi floated in a dazed and tragic fog.

What had happened to him?

He was going to die.

First place. Provincial first place. And then Ye Shi’an would go on to the metropolitan examinations, probably first place. And then the palace examinations, probably first place again. First, first, always first.

There was not a version of this where he caught up.

Jiang Rou and Gu Langhua came hurrying over. They saw Gu Jiusi looking noticeably thinner than he had a few weeks ago and were both distressed.

Jiang Rou found Liu Yuru and said carefully: “Yuru, you cannot rush these things. This child of mine has never been put through hardship. If you push him this hard all at once, something will go wrong.”

Liu Yuru sighed. She had known Gu Jiusi was unused to difficulty, but had not expected him to faint quite so dramatically. She said: “Mother-in-law is right. I was too hasty.”

Seeing Liu Yuru concede, Jiang Rou felt she could not press further. But she watched Liu Yuru’s face and knew perfectly well that this was not over. She looked at her son lying in the bed and said gently: “Yuru, there are many paths a person can take in life. Not everyone has to go through books. If Jiusi is not suited to it, do not force him…”

“Then what is he suited to?” Liu Yuru looked up quietly.

Jiang Rou faltered. Liu Yuru repeated it: “What does mother-in-law feel my lord is suited to?”

Jiang Rou fell silent. Liu Yuru said, testing gently: “He is an excellent martial artist. Perhaps the military…”

“Absolutely not.” Jiang Rou said at once. “Jiusi is our only child. The battlefield is dangerous. If anything were to happen…”

“Mother-in-law.” Liu Yuru sighed. “In my mind you have always been a woman of great intelligence. Why, when it comes to my lord, can you not see past this?”

“The military path is closed. That leaves the civil path. Whether it is commerce or officialdom, where does either lead without some form of study? And if you are going to study, you should aim for the best outcome. Look around Yangzhou. Is there a single wealthy merchant family that does not have at least one member in an official post? My lord has no brothers. If he does not earn a position himself, he will have to rely on cousins and uncles who are based in the capital, far from here. By the time those two of you grow old and my lord has to carry the Gu family on his own, do you think those relatives will still defer to him?”

This made Jiang Rou go quiet. Liu Yuru continued: “Even if they do, my lord as a merchant sits a level below them. Your household is Yangzhou’s wealthiest, and still your own brother-in-law can come from the capital and simply take my lord away and there is nothing you can do. Better to build something that stands on its own than to depend on others. And you have to think about what my lord’s future will look like. The reason he has to go through this difficulty now is precisely because he had too easy a time of it when he was young. What a person has to endure in life is distributed fairly. Hardship avoided early comes back double later. Would you not agree?”

After a long silence, Jiang Rou let out a breath and nodded. “You are right.”

“And,” Liu Yuru added, “my lord is genuinely very capable. These past weeks, watching him, I have not seen anything that suggests otherwise. I hope mother-in-law and father-in-law will stop telling him what he cannot do. In my honest opinion, if my lord put his full effort into the examinations, a top scholar’s placement would not surprise me in the least.”

Jiang Rou looked at her steadily. Liu Yuru lowered her eyes. “I spoke out of turn just now. Please forgive me.”

“Not at all,” Jiang Rou said, letting out a breath that seemed to carry something heavy with it. “You are right. Langhua and I have been blind to this. Take good care of him.”

She stood, put a hand briefly on Liu Yuru’s shoulder, and said warmly: “You are a good child. Jiusi is lucky to have you. I feel much better about him now.”

Something moved in Liu Yuru’s chest.

She kept her face composed, but she was fifteen years old, and having a parent figure speak well of her was, despite everything, enough to make her feel quietly, unexpectedly pleased.

She saw Jiang Rou to the door with full courtesy, and as they reached the gate Jiang Rou paused and said: “Once Jiusi is feeling better, after your homecoming visit, come with me to look in on a few of the shops.”

Liu Yuru stopped. The Gu family’s holdings were large enough that Gu Langhua could not manage all of them alone, and a portion of their business had always been managed by Jiang Rou herself. In most households this would have been extraordinary. For the Gu family it was simply how things worked.

Going to “look in on a few shops” was Jiang Rou’s way of beginning to hand over the business to her.

Jiang Rou was going to teach her to manage commerce the way she did?

Liu Yuru’s heart beat faster.

She kept her face steady, said yes with full composure, and saw Jiang Rou out.

She pressed down the excitement inside her and went back to the inner room to find Gu Jiusi awake, lying on his back staring at the ceiling.

Liu Yuru went to sit at the edge of the bed and fanned herself gently. “Is my lord feeling better?”

Gu Jiusi answered, then sighed. “I am fine. Is it time to study again?”

“Rest today,” Liu Yuru said. She smiled. “I will sit with you for a while.”

“Oh.” He looked at the ceiling. “I do not feel like talking.”

“Then you can keep me company while I talk.”

He looked at her from where he lay, and then the absurdity of it made him laugh. “You have a lot of nerve.”

“Your mother says she will take me to the shops.”

Liu Yuru could not keep the smile off her face. Gu Jiusi felt her happiness and turned to look at her. “Looking at a few shops. Why are you this excited?”

“I think she wants me to help her run the business.” Liu Yuru added an explanation in case Gu Jiusi had not quite followed. He waved a hand. “Running the business, so? That exciting?”

Then he thought about Liu Yuru’s position in the Liu household, and it clicked. He considered it a moment. “When my mother takes you to look at the shops, she is probably testing whether you have what it takes. You want me studying for an official post. Someone still has to run the Gu family’s business, and she is thinking that once I am an official, the whole operation gets handed over to you.”

Liu Yuru’s eyes went wide. “You mean…”

“The Gu family’s business. All of it. Yours to run.” He watched her expression go through several stages of shock, and it seemed to cheer him up considerably. He shifted to make room, lay on his side with his head propped on his hand, and grinned. “What? So pleased you have gone stupid?”

Liu Yuru said nothing. She took a few slow breaths, then said, with a small, unsteady edge to her voice: “Do you think I can do it?”

Gu Jiusi blinked. It was the first time he had seen Liu Yuru look genuinely uncertain about anything. He laughed out loud.

Liu Yuru stared at him, annoyed. She pushed him. “What is so funny?”

“Liu Yuru,” he said, delighted, “you have this too?”

So other people also felt this way about things they had never done before. It was not only him.

Liu Yuru reached over and pinched him. Gu Jiusi scrambled back toward the wall, yelping: “Ow, ow, mercy, I give up, you are the most terrifying person alive…”

Liu Yuru was laughing now too, still pinching him. Gu Jiusi retreated as far as he could go, then grabbed her hand to stop her. “All right, all right, I surrender.”

“Let go.”

She tried to look stern. He peered at her. “Only if you promise not to pinch me anymore.”

He released her hand. Liu Yuru made a small, dignified sound, got up, and said: “Rest a little. Find a day soon to come with me to visit my family.”

The one-month homecoming visit was due around now by Yangzhou’s custom.

Gu Jiusi answered lazily, then lay watching her sit down at the bronze mirror. He propped his head on his hand, and said idly: “You worry too much.”

Liu Yuru’s hand paused on a hairpin. Gu Jiusi yawned. “Relax. You are that capable and you managed me. A few small shops, you can handle.”

She understood then that he was talking about taking over the business.

She was quiet for a moment. Then she said, softly: “Yes.”

Gu Jiusi slept properly for the first time in weeks. The next day, when Liu Yuru saw that he looked rested and well, she sent word to the Liu household, and the two of them set off for the homecoming visit.

On the way over, Liu Yuru kept briefing him: “When we get to my family’s house, keep quiet and just act like you care about me.”

Gu Jiusi nodded earnestly. “Leave it to me. I will make you look good.”

“There is also one thing…” Liu Yuru frowned slightly. Gu Jiusi looked at her. She was thinking it through. “I want to have Concubine Zhang’s youngest child adopted into my mother’s name. Would you…”

She stopped. “Never mind.”

She had been about to ask, but decided a matter this complicated was more than Gu Jiusi could navigate.

Gu Jiusi glanced at her. He had already understood exactly what she was trying to do. He turned his head away without a word.

When they arrived at the Liu household, Liu Yuru saw Liu Xuan and Su Wan standing at the gate, with Zhang Yue’er and Yunyun behind them. After all these years, Su Wan was standing in the front position again. The moment Liu Yuru saw it, she knew her mother had been having better days. Her eyes went slightly red. She lowered her head for just a moment, and then felt Gu Jiusi take her hand. In front of everyone, with a face full of devoted concern, he said: “Why is my wife crying? Is something wrong?”

Liu Yuru thought: I did not ask for this extremely theatrical version of care.

But she could not embarrass him, so she smiled and said gently: “Seeing my parents again after all this time. Happy tears.”

She then led Gu Jiusi forward and gave a proper bow to both Su Wan and Liu Xuan. Gu Jiusi’s bow was correctly performed, which surprised Liu Xuan considerably. He had heard so many stories about Gu Jiusi’s wild ways that he had been privately dreading a scene, and this composed and courteous young man in front of him was not what he had prepared for. He relaxed at once and ushered his son-in-law inside with considerable warmth.

So Gu Jiusi went off with Liu Xuan, and Liu Yuru took Su Wan’s arm, and the four of them went in together.

Gu Jiusi, determined to make Liu Yuru look good in front of her family, spent the entire meal attending to her with fervent dedication, filling her bowl, asking after her comfort at every turn, and generally behaving in a way that left everyone at the table exchanging bewildered glances. Liu Yuru’s face went thoroughly red. Gu Jiusi did not notice at all. Nearby servants pressed their lips together. Zhang Yue’er found it lacking in propriety, but could not quite suppress a twinge of envy. And Su Wan, watching her daughter apparently being cherished, quietly lowered her head so no one would see her eyes fill.

After the meal, Gu Jiusi was pulled aside to drink with Liu Xuan.

Since everyone had expected so little of Gu Jiusi to begin with, the smallest effort on his part had made an excellent impression. Liu Yuru was taken to Su Wan’s room, where Su Wan told her about the past weeks. “Zhang Yue’er has been entirely focused on Yunyun, and she and your father have been quarreling badly over it. He finds the noise wearing, so he comes to my rooms much more often now.”

“I do not especially mind either way, whether he comes or not, I am past caring. But now that people see him paying me attention, they are considerably kinder to me.”

“But what about you?” Su Wan looked at her daughter with worry. “That Gu young master. How does he treat you?”

“Very well.” Liu Yuru smiled warmly. “Mother, Jiusi is much better than the rumors. He treats me very well.”

“Is he like that…” Su Wan said, a little shy, nodding toward the main hall, “when you are at home too?”

Liu Yuru’s face turned pink. She nodded and said quietly: “You do not need to worry. He genuinely looks after me.”

“That is good.” Su Wan let out a long breath and nodded. “When a woman has a husband who loves her like that, she has nothing to worry about for the rest of her life.”

Liu Yuru smiled and said nothing.

Once she would have agreed without hesitation. Now she was not sure she did, though she also knew that Su Wan had lived by this belief for her whole life and was too old to change it now. So she only sat and kept her company.

After they had talked for a while, Liu Yuru remembered her purpose in coming, and said: “Now that you and Father are on better terms, this would be a good time to think about the future. I have been thinking about what my mother-in-law said when she came to call. You have no children in your name, and it might be worth adopting one. If we took one of Yunyun’s children, it might make her feel threatened. But Concubine Zhang’s youngest is not yet two years old. What if I raised it with Father today? What do you think?”

“It might not go well if you are the one to raise it,” Su Wan said, worried.

Liu Yuru sighed. “It certainly cannot come from you. The reason Father has been coming to your rooms is that he finds your manner calm and undemanding. If you brought this up yourself, it would change that impression immediately.”

Su Wan was quiet. Liu Yuru said: “Do not worry. Jiusi is here. Even if Father is displeased, he will not say so.”

Mother and daughter talked through the afternoon, and when the evening meal came and everyone was gathered, Liu Yuru looked over at Zhang Yue’er holding her small son and said pleasantly: “Little Rong must be nearly two now.”

The mention of her son put Zhang Yue’er in better spirits. “He is,” she said with a smile. “Nearly two.”

“Is he talking yet?”

“Not much yet, but he can call out for his mother.” Zhang Yue’er turned to the child and coaxed him: “Rong’er, come, say Mama for everyone.”

The child babbled at some length without producing anything recognizable. Gu Jiusi laughed out loud. Zhang Yue’er looked over, and he immediately said: “Forgive me, the child is just too funny. I could not help it.”

Everyone in the room: “…”

Liu Yuru gave Gu Jiusi a flat look. He sat up straight at once. It was just one small thing, but it was enough for Su Wan to finally relax completely. Zhang Yue’er’s expression darkened a little. Liu Yuru said quickly: “Auntie, do not mind him. He is just like a child himself.”

“Young Master Gu is simply very genuine,” Zhang Yue’er said, managing a smile. “There is nothing to mind.”

“Auntie has two sons now, which Yuru has always admired. And now that Yuru has married out, there ought to be someone at home to look after Mother. Father, do you not think so?”

She turned to look at Liu Xuan. Zhang Yue’er’s arms tightened almost imperceptibly around her son. Liu Xuan listened, nodded, and then, to everyone’s surprise, said directly: “You are right. Your mother ought to have a child with her.”

He said it without preamble: “Yue’er, let Rong’er be raised by the Madam.”

“My lord!” Zhang Yue’er cried out, shaken. “He is still so young, he cannot be apart from me, it is not possible…”

“I find that an interesting argument,” Gu Jiusi said, in his most bored tone. “What well-born young man cannot live without his mother? He is not made of glass. Auntie, the child will do better raised properly. Better for everyone.”

Zhang Yue’er understood perfectly that Gu Jiusi was implying she would not give the boy a proper upbringing. She could have bitten through her teeth. She bitterly reflected that she should never have treated Su Wan and Liu Yuru as well as she had over the years, because it had given them the standing to do this today.

She should have found a way to ruin Su Wan long ago, or married Liu Yuru off to some decrepit old man as a lesser wife and made sure neither of them could ever get back up.

But it was too late for those thoughts now. All she could do was cry and make a scene. Liu Xuan, embarrassed to have her carry on like this in front of Gu Jiusi, had someone take her away, and then settled down to discuss the adoption with Su Wan. He stayed for another round of drinks with Gu Jiusi afterward before sending the young couple home.