Chapter 14

Note: The names are retained in traditional Chinese characters as the RAWs I’m translating from are in traditional Chinese and it also makes it easier for me when I’m translating. The new vocabulary terms on the other hand are in simplified Chinese.Characters Shown / Mentioned in this Chapter:

葉璃璃兒 – Ye LiLi er – Main Female Protagonist – first di daughter of the Ye family, but the third child in the family.

定王定國王墨修堯 – Ding w.a.n.gDing guow.a.n.g Mo Xiu Yao – Imperial Prince Ding of the highest rank

黎王 墨景黎 – Li w.a.n.g  Mo Jing Li – Imperial Prince LiYe Family Members:

葉尚書尚書大人 葉老爺 – Ye Shangshu Shangshu daren Ye laoye – Ye Li‘s father who has the t.i.tle or position of official in charge of presenting memorials to the emperor and official correspondence

徐氏 – Xu shi – Ye Li‘s mother

(葉夫人 – Ye furen – can refer to either Xu shi or w.a.n.g shi)

葉瑩瑩兒 – Ye Ying Ying er – 4th daughter in the familyXu Family Members:

徐御史御史大人 二舅舅 – Xu YushiYushi daren Second jiujiu – Ye Li‘s second jiujiu who is the current dynasty’s imperial censor

徐清鋒清鋒 – Xu Qing Feng Qing Feng – Ye Li‘s cousinson of Xu YushiThe Imperial Family Members + Subjects:

賢昭太妃 – Xian Zhao taifei – An imperial concubine of the previous emperor who is also the current zhumu of the Li w.a.n.g residence.Bold - Names of people, placesItalic - Chinese terms in pinyinUnderline - Unknown

Fu Imperial CapitalChapter 14: Second Jiujiu Who Covers Up Shortcomings

Yushi[1] fu‘s[2] Study

The interior of the simple and unadorned yet refined study was filled with the faint flavour of a literary reputation. Behind the writing desk, the current dynasty’s Yushi daren[3] who normally had a refined and elegant expression was unusually somewhat gloomy as he stared fixedly at the letter on the writing desk, contemplating.

“Qing Feng, say, what do you think this Xian Zhao taifei‘s[4] meaning is?” After a long time, only then did Yushi daren lift his head and asked.

Not far from the writing desk, a handsome and relaxed young man respectfully standing upright frowned and pondered for a moment and only then said, “This son is dull, is it possible that it was for the entire Ding guow.a.n.g[5] fu‘s face, and so only….”

Xu Yushi shook his head and said, “This move of the imperial family in this father’s point of view was to strike at the Ding guow.a.n.g fu‘s face (honour / reputation). Giving a slap and giving a sweet date (means going both hard and soft)? This kind of method towards chenzi[6] in general can perhaps be useful, but toward Ding guow.a.n.g fu, it’s useless.”

Xu Qing Feng‘s sword-like eyebrows creased, a lot of indignation within his expression as he said, “Whatever the imperial family does towards the Ding guow.a.n.g fu, they should not however sacrifice biaomei[7] to become a raft (finding errors in order to punish).” Several generations of the Xu family had always had more men and few women; in the last generation, there was still Ye Li‘s mother as a daughter. When it reached this generation of Xu Qing Feng‘s, the Xu family’s two directly related households unexpectedly only had sons. Xu Qing Feng, who had always resided in the capital, utterly cherished Ye Li this biaomei who he had frequently met when they were little.

Xu Yushi softly sighed and said, “In the eyes of the imperial household, other than themselves, is there still any person who can’t be sacrificed? Not to mention, ever since your gumu[8] pa.s.sed away, Li er[9] didn’t particularly show her face in the capital and her reputation had already been pretty much trampled on by that vicious wife of the Ye family. Li w.a.n.g[10] naturally is unwilling to marry Li er.”

Xu Qing Feng gave a cold humph and said, “The way this son sees it, biaomei not marrying that Li w.a.n.g is right. This not even married yet and already gratuitously took things from his fiancée’s family’s shop; this is also the imperial household’s way of doing things? If biaomei really were to marry him, I only fear that the bit of dowry that we and guma[11] had left behind would have all been used up by him.” Recalling the matter that Qing Shuang mentioned when she had come over, the anger in the bottom of Xu Qing Feng‘s heart was unable to be quelled, his view of Mo Jing Li becoming even more and more bad.

Xu Yushi raised a hand to stroke his beard, nodding as he said, “That Li w.a.n.g is indeed not a suitable match for Li er. Li er is usually the type to have ideas, it may be a.s.sumed the she also didn’t really take an interest in Li w.a.n.g or else she wouldn’t have allowed that kind of conduct from that mother and daughter pair of the Ye family.” Recalling the year his little sister pa.s.sed away, he had originally wanted to bring the seriously ill waishengnu[12] back to the Xu household to be brought up, but was obstructed and wasn’t allowed by that laotaipo[13]  of the Ye family. Li er unexpectedly dragged her sick body and had her own wet nurse and momo[14] sent back to the Yun prefecture, leaving herself all alone as she made a living isolated and without help inside the Ye fu. Although that Ye w.a.n.g shi[15] had wanted to treat her unfavourably several times, she had nevertheless allowed her to escape past it without a hitch. Now it seems, waishengnu not only had little sister’s intelligence but had even more fort.i.tude and astuteness that his little sister lacked; this also made Xu Yushi rather proud in his heart.

“But Ding w.a.n.g…..” Li w.a.n.g doesn’t make one feel satisfied, but he was still at least someone who was robust in four limbs of the body ah. This marriage that the emperor pointed out now–not only was it humiliating the Ding guow.a.n.g fu, but it was also trampling on the Xu clan’s bloodline.

“Hmph! Compared to Li w.a.n.g, I trust Ding guow.a.n.g fu‘s upbringing even more. That Ding w.a.n.g in any case was brought up by the old Ding guow.a.n.gye alone.” In between words, Xu Yushi lit up the candlestick on the desk. Once the letter that was on the desk was burned into ashes, only then did he turn to his son and say, “These days when I had you make inquiries about the Ding guow.a.n.g fu‘s matters, how did it go? After a few days, when your mother goes to the Ye home, have her inform Li er of it altogether.”

Xu Qing Feng somewhat helplessly said, “Ding guow.a.n.g fu in any other matters is easy to handle, it’s just that Ding w.a.n.g has very few dealings with people. These several years, the people who had seen him can be counted distinctly with one hand. I also wasn’t able to find out any useful news. Only one; it had been said that Ding w.a.n.g was someone who is keqi[16]. Before, there were several fiancées who had all died because of his ke‘s[17] influence. There was also one who had been scared to death the very night she crossed the threshold.”

“Nonsense!” Xu Yushi scolded. As the yushi, the Xu family’s laoyezi[18] had a lot of students from all over; he would naturally know somewhat more when compared to ordinary people. For example, that first fiancée of Ding w.a.n.g‘s who had been appointed to him by the elderly w.a.n.g from before he had an accident, it really wasn’t like how outsiders had said that she had died from illness, but that she had entered the palace and was now the current favoured guifei[19] . Another example was that second fiancée who was picked out by the current empress dowager. She was originally a sickly person; not living past the marriageable age (fifteen years old) really wasn’t a wonder.

It was just that one who had died right after getting past the threshold; in Xu Yushi‘s view, the possibility of getting scared to death was also next to nothing. That year at the time when Ding w.a.n.g was injured when returning to court, he had seen it from far away; although the injury on his face was somewhat ferocious, it was far from the point of being able to scare someone to death.((This translation is originally found on: h t t p : / / g u q i n t r a n s l a t i o n s . w o r d p r e s s . c o m))

“Never mind, go see your mother. Later, this father will personally pay a visit to Ding w.a.n.g. Now I have to write a folded booklet.”折子 (zhezi) – folded booklet; often used for keeping accounts, etc.

“Write a folded booklet? Who does father want to impeach?” Xu Qing Feng said in wonder.

Xu Yushi‘s handsome face expressed a trace of a cold smile as he said, “Impeaching Ye Shangshu[20]  for being unable to discipline his daughter, indulging his fourth daughter before Li w.a.n.g had even broke off the engagement rather than privately giving and accepting.”

Da Chu‘s imperial court expressly stipulated the yanguan[21] don’t commit crimes. As long as the yushi‘s accusation of misconduct wasn’t fabricated to slander, no matter what is said, the emperor wouldn’t be able to drop the charges. The matter of Li w.a.n.g and the Ye family’s fourth xiaojie[22]–among the n.o.bles of the entire capital, who didn’t know of it? It was just that the Ye family didn’t care about it at all, so others naturally pretended not to know. Now that there was someone who would brazenly bring it up in a folded booklet, those yushi who had nothing to do and the Qingliu scholars who still somewhat couldn’t bear to see this naturally wouldn’t let go of this opportunity. On the surface the one being accused of misconduct was Ye Shangshu, but the reality was that the ones being pointed at by the matter in the end was definitely Ye Ying and Li w.a.n.g. Only afraid that in the end, even this kind of matter of Li w.a.n.g gratuitously taking his former fiancée’s belongings also wouldn’t be able to stay hidden.

“Wouldn’t doing it like this cause Li er to make enemies?” Xu Qing Feng frowned and said, somewhat worried.

Xu Yushi laughed lightly and said, “If not like this, do you think Li w.a.n.g‘s appearance looks like he harbors any guilt toward Li er? At least, our Xu family’s standpoint needs to be shown to Li w.a.n.g and the emperor.” The Xu family was clearly showing vehicles and horses (means describing the obvious) that they were going to protect their waishengnu. “Since for the time-being we cannot figure out what is Xian Zhao taifei‘s meaning, then we’ll just first find some matters to give Li w.a.n.g fu to do, so as to avoid them from being in the middle of wanting to scheme against your biaomei.” In Xu Yushi‘s mind, he looked horizontally and vertically yet he couldn’t see clearly why Li w.a.n.g would give up his own waishengnu and marry that Ye family’s fourth xiaojie. Apart from one’s appearance, in terms of status, one was a di[23] eldest daughter and the other was born from a jishi[24]. In terms of ability, wisdom and virtue, Ye Ying using that kind of only using their appearance to seize favour–if used in the Xu household, she would’ve already been punished to kneel in the ancestral hall from long ago. Even in terms of dowry, only afraid that the dowry that the Ye family goes all out with their financial ability to come up with would still not necessarily be as lavish as what the Xu family has given Li er. The disparity between a recently emerged upstart and a hundred-year-old large and influential family wasn’t at all little in the slightest.

Hearing his fuqin‘s[25] words, Xu Qing Feng couldn’t help but laugh, smiling as he said, “It’s still fuqin who thinks attentively, this child asks to be excused.”

Seeing his son closing the door and then leaving, Xu Yushi slightly sighed and picked up a writing brush to write the folded booklet. He had a son below his own knee[a], the eldest son Qing Rui followed laofu[26] back to Yun prefecture, respectfully and obediently studying in front of fuqin. The second son Qing Feng from a young age had followed at his side. Although he and his wife both came from families with a literary reputation, Qing Feng really had a gift for studying martial arts since he was little, his literary talent only average. Recalling the previous year when Ye Li had come over to pay a New Year call and her words of persuading him, he couldn’t help but smile bitterly: is it possible that the hundred-year-old Xu clan known for its literary reputation was seriously going to produce a general? Halting the writing brush as he thought for a long time, Xu Yushi finally put down the brush and got up to walk over to the bookshelf at the side and skillfully took out a book from the third shelf, lowering his head to look at the bold writing on the book’s cover–“Great Ancestor Military Code”[b], and raised his voice to say, “Someone come.”

Very quickly, the xiaosi[27] waiting outside the door pushed the door open to come in and respectfully called, “Laoye[28].”

“Have this book sent over to second gongzi[29]. Tell him that I’ve finished reading it all within this year. In addition, send over a record of experience every month.”

The xiaosi received the book and also didn’t ask much as he respectfully withdrew to go out.

In a short while came the sound of Xu Qing Feng‘s clear and bright laughter from a distance; he obviously hadn’t walked far when the xiaosi already caught up with him. “This child thanks father, this child accepts the order!”

“Muddled youngster, not acting according to decorum!” Xu Yushi scolded in a low voice, yet his face couldn’t help but show a relieved smile.Glossary:Yushi (御史 – imperial censor)Fu (府 – official residence / family residence compound / household / term for family and home put together)Daren (大人 – adult / grownup / t.i.tle of respect toward superiors)Taifei (太妃 – imperial concubine of the previous emperor)Guow.a.n.g (国王 – former appellation for '亲王 – qinw.a.n.g' which is the highest rank of a prince, used from Han to Ming dynasty)Chenzi (臣子 – imperial court officials or subjects)Biaomei (表妹 – younger female cousin via female line)Gumu (姑母 – father's sister / paternal aunt)Er (儿 – term of endearment for one’s child / child)w.a.n.g (王 – imperial prince)Guma (姑妈 – father's sister / paternal aunt / another way of saying '姑母 – gumu')Waishengnu (外甥女 – sister’s daughter / wife’s sibling’s daughter)Laotaipo (老太婆 – term for old woman that can also sometimes be used contemptuously or in mockery)Momo (嬤嬤 – old maid / wet nurse)Shi (氏 – clan name / maiden surname)Keqi (克妻 – a man who is said to have factors in his physiognomy or fate that will influence or affect the wife and children)Ke (克 – the forces at work that influence or affect the wife and children of a man with certain factors in his physiognomy or fate)Laoyezi (老爺子 – my (you etc) old father / polite appellation for an elderly male)Guifei (贵妃 – imperial n.o.ble consort / senior concubine)Shangshu (尚書 – t.i.tle or position of official in charge of presenting memorials to the emperor and official correspondence)Yanguan (言官 – supervisors and advisers in charge of supervision and admonition)Xiaojie (小姐 – Young miss / lady)Di (嫡 – legitimate / of the official wife)Jishi (继室 – second wife of a widower)Fuqin (父亲 – respectful or intimate way of addressing father)Laofu (老父 – father / old man / venerable sir)Xiaosi (小廝 – male servant)Laoye (老爺 – master / lord of the household)Gongzi (公子 – son of n.o.bility / young man)More Info