/
Chapter 23 - Past Enmities, a Heart’s Obsession
When Su Yi arrived at the Floral Tea House, only the Wen Family matriarch was seated there.
At eighty years of age, she was old and grey, but she was hale and hearty, and she carried herself with the air of one long in power.
“Third Young Master, there is no one here besides you and I, so there’s no need to bow.” She pointed to the chair beside her and said coldly, “Sit down.”
Third Young Master!
When Su Yi heard this title, he looked a bit disoriented.
His current body was the son of the Jade Capital’s Su Family. He was his father’s third child, with an older brother and sister, as well as a younger brother.
However, as he was born of a concubine, and because his mother, Ye Yufei, had died young, he’d been neglected and overlooked from a young age. His status was inferior to even the family stewards.
“Matriarch, might I ask what you’ve called me here for?” Su Yi inwardly shook his head, then sat casually. He seemed perfectly at ease.
Throughout the Wen Family, only he knew that the family matriarch, Liang Wenbi, had once been a servant girl of the Jade Capital’s Su Family. She’d served at Family Head Su Hongli’s side for a full thirty years.
And in this new lifetime, Su Hongli was none other than Su Yi’s father!
“You want to know what I called you for?” said the elderly matriarch coldly. “Third Young Master, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten everything that happened during the birthday feast? Others might assume that Fu Shan, Nie Beihu, and Huang Yunchong came here on account of Lingzhao, but I certainly won’t!
“Now then, Third Young Master, I have only one question. Is there something you ought to explain to me?” Her words were forceful and overbearing; she was stern in both voice and countenance.
If this were the past Su Yi, her powerful presence might very well have intimidated him by now.
But why would the current Su Yi fear an old lady like her?
Still, Su Yi had something he wished to ask her, so he wouldn’t get hung up on that.
“Unless my deductions are mistaken, they indeed came here on my account,” he said, as casually as if he were talking about the weather.
Slam!
The Wen Family matriarch slammed her fists against the armrests in obvious fury. Her wrinkled face was overcast and terrifying.
“Third Young Master,” she said harshly, “Do you remember the message your father had me pass onto you a year ago, upon your marriage into the Wen Family?”
Before Su Yi could respond, she answered her own question, pausing for emphasis between each word. “If you dare use the Su Family’s name to your own ends, immediate execution!’
“‘If you dare take even half a step into the Jade Capital, immediate execution!’”
The atmosphere was instantly incomparably oppressive.
Su Yi’s father, Su Hongli, had indeed said those very murderous, cold, heartless words.
This was why, although it had been a year since his marriage into the Wen Family, only the matriarch knew of his origins. Nevermind the people of Guangling City; even the rest of the family was in the dark.
“Matriarch, it seems you’ve assumed that I used my position as the Su Family’s third young master to convince Fu Shan and the others to make an appearance today?” Su Yi couldn’t help but laugh.
The matriarch’s brows knit together, and her expression grew even frostier. “Are you telling me you didn’t?”
“If you want to know the truth, you’re welcome to go ask Fu Shan and the others yourself. With the power at your disposal, investigating a trivial matter like that shouldn’t be the least bit difficult,” Su Yi said casually. “But what I can tell you is this: I, Su Yi, won’t use the Su Family’s name to my advantage now, nor
 will I ever do so in the future!”
His expression was calm, but there was a hint of contempt in the depths of his gaze.
What need did the illustrious Swordmaster of Abstruse Force have for such empty titles?
The Wen Family matriarch was visibly startled, and she couldn’t help but reevaluate Su Yi. An indescribable sense of unfamiliarity coursed through her.
This seemed like an altogether different person from the Third Young Master she was familiar with.
After a moment’s silence, she said, “I will naturally get to the bottom of this!”
Su Yi smiled, but made no further attempts to explain himself.
“Although I’m as of yet uncertain why Fu Shan and Nie Beihu attach such importance to you, I must remind you that in the eyes of the Jade Capital’s Su Family, figures on their level are no different from ants! The Su Yi family wouldn’t even need to take action themselves; one sentence, and they’d both perish without so much as a proper burial!”
The Wen Family matriarch’s expression was cold and indifferent, but when she spoke of the Jade Capital’s Su Family, she unwittingly revealed a hint of pride.
“With that in mind, I urge you to behave yourself! Or else, you’ll bring calamity upon everyone connected to you!”
Su Yi thought back to his time in the Jade Capital, in the Su Family estate. He had to admit that the Wen Family matriarch wasn’t exaggerating in the least.
Yujing, the Jade Capital, was the imperial capital of the Great Zhou.
And the Su Family was one of the Jade Capital’s four peak-level clans!
By comparison, Guangling City was just one of Cloudriver Prefecture’s nineteen cities. The likes of Fu Shan and Nie Beihu really were beneath the Su Family’s notice.
They were as far removed as heaven and earth!
It was just a pity that, although the Wen Family matriarch didn’t know it, Su Yi had never had any intentions of relying on anyone else’s power to conduct his affairs!
In his eyes, even the Jade Capital’s Su Family was just a paltry little faction of the mundane world. He at least didn’t see much of a difference between them and Fu Shan.
“It’s true that Fu Shan pales in comparison to the Su Family, but at the banquet, we needed him to maintain appearances,” said Su Yi flatly. “Matriarch, it seems that you’re unlikely to receive aid from the Su Family ever again.”
One sentence, and he hit her right where it hurt the most. Her expression instantly turned unsightly.
Seeing this, Su Yi felt no need to elaborate.
The Wen Family matriarch had only been one of the Su Family’s servants. Add that to the fact that she hadn’t served them in a long time, and why would the Su Family concern themselves over someone like her?
She took a deep breath, then sneered. “I never would have guessed that within just one year of marriage, the Third Young Master’s mouth would become so sharp.”
Su Yi could tell that it was her shame that provoked this outburst. He ignored it and smiled, “Matriarch, everyone changes over time. That aside, I came here because I too had something I wished to ask you.”
Her brows furrowed. “Something to do with the Su Family?”
He nodded. “That’s right. I want to know just whose idea it was to have me marry into the Wen Family.”
The Wen Family matriarch fell silent for a moment, then said, “It was the fourth lady of the house who suggested it, but your father who made the final decision.”
“You Qingzhi?” A cold glint flashed through Su Yi’s eyes.
The “fourth lady of the house” the matriarch referred to was his father’s fourth wife. Her name was You Qingzhi.
“That’s right.” The Wen Family matriarch nodded, not surprised that Su Yi would call her by name.
Back then, everyone in the Su Family knew that the fourth lady of the house detested no one more than Su Yi, her husband’s son with a concubine!
“Given her personality, why not just kill and silence me as soon as I lost my cultivation? She ought to know full well the depths of my hatred for her. Unless she kills me, I’ll always be a potential threat.” Su Yi didn’t quite understand.
The matriarch couldn’t help but laugh coldly, but when she looked at Su Yi, her eyes filled with pity. “Third Young Master, your mother died young, and even your father sees you as nothing more than the unworthy son of a concubine. He’s never cared about you. Now, having lost your cultivation on top of that, you’re no different from a cripple. Do you really think yourself worthy of the title ‘a potential threat’?”
She paused, then continued, “But no matter what, the blood of the Su Family flows through your veins. Were the fourth lady of the house to kill you, it would displease your father and turn him against her. The losses outweigh the potential gains. Someone as clever as her would never do something so foolish.”
Su Yi fell silent.
Hearing it spelled out like this, his fate as the son of a concubine in the Su Family had been miserable indeed.
At just four years old, his mother, Ye Yufei, fell gravely ill. In the end, she left this mortal coil.
From that moment on, his plight had only worsened.
His father, Su Hongli, wasn’t the least bit fond of him, and he neither asked about nor took care of him.
Throughout the entire Su Family, not a single person dared get close to him, leaving him isolated and alone.
As he grew up and experienced more of the world, he started suspecting that his mother’s illness wasn’t natural, and moreover, that Su Hongli was behind it!
This thought filled his heart with agony and hatred.
Four years ago, he decided to leave and cultivate at Blueriver Sword Manor. His goal, to pursue the Martial Dao and become strong.
Yet just three years later, reawakening the memories of his past life robbed him of his entire cultivation, and under the Su Family’s forceful arrangements, he’d become the Wen Family’s live-in son-in-law
.
The me of the past seventeen years really lived an overly stifled life, Su Yi lamented to himself.
While combing through his memories, he discovered that his hatred of his father, Su Hongli, as well as his father’s fourth wife, You Qingzhi, had already become his heart’s obsession.
It’s naturally up to my current self to resolve this obsession. Su Yi’s gaze regained its usual calm.
If he didn’t overcome this, it would inevitably interfere with his future efforts to prove his Dao!
“Right, I recently heard news that that shook the entire Jade Capital.” The Wen Family matriarch suddenly spoke up, her gaze playful. “Although your younger brother, Su Boning, is only sixteen, he’s recently become an expert of the Qi Accumulation Realm’s ‘Astral Manifestation’ stage. He’s now considered one of the ‘the Jade Capital’s Eight Geniuses.’
“The Great Zhou’s imperial family as agreed that so long as he steps into the Inner Furnace realm and becomes a Grandmaster by the time he turns eighteen, they’ll send him to the Great Zhou’s number-one Holy Land, ‘The Hidden Dragon Sword Sect’, to continue his cultivation!”
Su Yi froze, and the image of a handsome youth in pristine white robes surfaced in his mind.
Su Boning.
His mother was You Qingzhi, and he was the youngest of Su Hongli’s sons. Furthermore, within the Su Family’s main line of descent, he was regarded as the most peerless genius of the Martial Dao!
Although You Qingzhi was Su Hongli’s fourth wife, she was still a proper wife, which meant Su Boning was part of the Su Family’s main line.
By comparison, Su Yi’s mother, Ye Yufei, was just a concubine. That put him outside the main line of succession.
In summary, although Su Yi was the older brother, his status in the Su Family wasn’t even remotely comparable to Su Boning’s in any way.
An eighteen-year-old Martial Dao Grandmaster? They think that’s an unparalleled genius? Inwardly, Su Yi found it rather funny.
He naturally could tell that the Wen Family matriarch brought this up to provoke him.
But there was no way she’d ever imagine that in his eyes, eighteen-year-old Martial Dao Grandmasters were a dime a dozen. At least in the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, they were nothing to write home about.
“If there’s nothing else, I’ll be on my way.” Su Yi decided to take this leave. He’d confirmed some things already, and had no plans to linger here any longer.
“Wait.” The Wen Family matriarch called him back. “Before you go, there’s something I’d like to show you.”
As she spoke, she pulled a silver jade talisman from her sleeves and raised it for Su Yi to see. “Third Young Master, do you know what this is?”
This jade talisman was about three inches long and silver throughout. Although it looked like jade, it also seemed somehow not quite jade, and it emanated a faint glow.
It immediately attracted Su Yi’s attention.
Seth's Thoughts
This scene was one of the reasons I decided to differentiate between "gongzi" and "shaoye", even though both can be reasonably translated as young master. The matriarch is calling him "young master" specifically, and the difference is significant: it implies that she knows his background. "Shaoye" is not a generic term of respect; for her to use it means that his background is at least somewhat prominent, and that his background/father/status is worthy of her respect (regardless of whether she considers Su Yi worthy of respect).
"Third Young Master" says that he's the third child, much like "Ol' Three" meant that Wen Changtai was the third son in his family.
It's common to number boys and girls separately, but that doesn't seem to be the case here; Su Yi is the third child, but the second son.