In a small sitting room, Su Jixin poured two cups of strong wine before passing one to Wu Ling and gesturing for the young man to take a seat. Several moments passed while the older man stared into his cup, his brows furrowed and his thin lips pursed.
Three decades. For three decades, Zou Suyin and Su Yao had been the center of his world. Staring into his cup of wine, he couldn't help but recall when he'd sat in a position similar to Wu Ling, alone in a room with Suyin's father Zou Ruiyan while the stern-looking Warrior stared at him with eyes that tracked every movement.
"It isn't that I doubt your sincerity, Young Su," the veteran hunter said bluntly. "It's that I'm troubled by your occupation. You're an Architect, aren't you? That's a very noble profession in a city as vast as ours, but it does little to reassure me that you'll be able to keep my Yin'er safe. If it were your older brother sitting here, we'd be having a very different conversation."
"The Su family isn't without resources," the young Su Jixin had protested. "While I'm not one of the members of the family that follows the Martial path, as you know, my brother is just one of the exceptional Soldiers in my family. He may soon be a Warrior. I'm close to becoming a Novice myself. Once I break through, I'm certain that I can call on the resources of the family if we're ever threatened."
"You don't understand, Young Su," the older man said, drinking deeply directly from a small jug of wine. "Some threats, you can't borrow power to fight. You have to use your own power to protect your loved ones."
"Then I'll use my own power," he insisted. "I'm not dedicated to formations, but I'm capable of using several in tandem with my architecture. If you need proof that I can keep Suyin safe, let me show you with my own hands the palace I will build for her. Nothing will breach the walls of our home to threaten her or our children."
"I suppose even Scholars have their ways of fighting," Zou Ruiyan said, scratching at his dark stubble. "But the kind of formations you speak of are often expensive to construct. I doubt your family will fund the construction of such a fortress."
"Then I will do it myself," Su Jixin insisted. "A Novice Architect can be valuable to many different enterprises. If needed, I can sell my services to material suppliers or whoever else I need to in exchange for resources. All I'm asking you for is the time to court your daughter and prove that I'll be a worthy husband. We have feelings for each other. I'm not naive enough to believe that feelings between two people are enough, but if I can make her happy and keep her safe, will you approve of our marriage?"
"I have no doubt you can make her happy," the older man admitted. "Prove to me that a scholar can keep her safe and you'll have my blessing."
In the end, he'd spent close to a decade courting Zou Suyin. He hadn't built her a palace, but the Su family manor he established in the Lapis Lake Ward still boasted more defensive formations than almost any home of similar stature in the entire Ward. Perhaps the Fang family wouldn't think much of it but his efforts had won over Suyin's mother.
"Husband, if he will do this much for our daughter, I have no doubt that her life means more to him than even his own," she'd told Zou Ruiyan. "A woman can't ask much more than that. Besides, it's been long enough since Yiner's Awakening, if something were going to happen to her, it would have happened by now. You can trust in Novice Su to do his best for her and their children so hurry up and tell him that you approve so we can pick an auspicious date for the wedding."
Twenty years ago, he celebrated the greatest joy he'd ever known when they married and he brought her home to the manor he'd built for her. Four years later, they celebrated again when they welcomed Little Yao into the world.
Having a daughter changed many things for Novice Su. He'd thrown himself into work to create opportunities for his darling daughter. Bouncing from client to client was no longer sufficient so he took a position in the office of the City Lord. Public works wasn't glamorous but as he came to be responsible for a growing number of pieces of the City's infrastructure, his profile in the community continued to rise.
He'd even gained a few promises from prominent cultivators that they would sponsor Su Yao's cultivation with the occasional elixir or a high-grade instrument if she managed to awaken. Several times, he put aside opportunities to advance his own cultivation to secure opportunities for the daughter that meant more to him than his own life.
Now, not only was his daughter turning away from her own family to join a sect, but she was doing it because he couldn't protect her from some curse that he'd never known about. It didn't take a scholar to combine his father-in-law's concerns, Suyin's reaction, and his daughter's curse to realize that what Zou Ruiyan wanted him to protect Suyin from wasn't random violence from a hostile world.
Rather, he'd wanted to know that Su Jixin could protect her from the specific consequences of a curse that drew the ire of the Heavens themselves. In the end, his father-in-law had relented, not because Jixin had proved himself, but because they'd determined that Suyin wasn't cursed.
But now? Now that his daughter was cursed, what was he supposed to do? In the twenty years they'd been married, and the sixteen years since Yao'er's birth, Suyin had never once mentioned that their family carried a curse. Even if it only affected people every few generations, he would have thought she'd at least tell him about it. If he knew, he could research and prepare for it. Now, however, the moment was upon him and it took him completely by surprise.
His mind couldn't help but wonder what else Suyin might not have told him if she kept this kind of secret for so long. Was she really the woman he thought she was? She wasn't the only one who had never mentioned it. His father-in-law never said anything either. Perhaps the curse was retribution for some unspeakable crime the Zou family had committed generations past? He didn't know and in the absence of facts, his only conjectures were darker than a crow's wing.
Eventually, he took a deep swallow of the pungent wine before looking directly at Wu Ling. His sapphire eyes flashed as though trying to see through the depths of the young Artist's secrets but clearly, whatever he saw or didn't see gave him no satisfaction.
"I suppose you know what that was all about," the Scholar said pointedly.
"I do," Wu Ling answered gently, placing his cup of wine to the side, untouched. "It isn't my matter to explain though. I'm sure that Madame Zou will tell you everything when she's ready to."
"At least tell me this, young man," Su Jixin said, his eyes becoming cold. "Today, I find that my wife and her family have concealed a secret about their heritage from me for nearly thirty years. Rather than something harmless, the secret has manifested in a curse that threatens my only daughter's life."
"If they kept something like this from me, just how much more do you think I should suspect her of lying to me about? Since you seem to be privy to their secrets, maybe you know her better than I do," he spat bitterly.