Song Jiyun stepped forward and performed a respectful salute, her words veiled with sharpness, "Grandmother, why have you come over so early in the morning? Is there something urgent? In the past, if you had any matters, you would call us to come to you. After father passed away, grandmother indeed seems very different from before."
Madam Zeng's face turned ashen at her words. Yet she was after all seasoned and wily and, uncomfortable as she felt inside, she knew that achieving what she had come for was what mattered most.
She suppressed her annoyance with Song Jiyun and said with a cold face, "I have arranged a match for you, and the betrothal letter has already been passed. They will come to formalize the engagement this afternoon. These next few days, stay at home properly and don't run around. Once your father is buried in the mountains, then you can leave."
Song Jiyun felt as if a thunderbolt had exploded above her head.
She knew they wouldn't rest until they had torn a piece of flesh from her family.
She had envisioned them forcing her to hand over the seal, had thought about them making an issue of their family not having a son, had considered that Song Daliang would join forces with Song Sanliang, had even thought about her grandmother getting personally involved to help her eldest uncle or her third uncle... But what she had never imagined was that they would have no bottom line at all.
They actually wanted her to marry someone while her father had not even been buried!
Was her father really born to Madam Zeng?
Did Madam Zeng ever have even the slightest maternal affection for her father?
Song Jiyun was furious beyond containment.
She stared at Madam Zeng unblinkingly and said word for word, "Don't even think about it!"
Madam Zeng grew furious and said, "I'd like to see what abilities you have to defy your elders!"
"'Elders'? How dare you claim to be an 'elder' in front of me?" Song Jiyun was so angry that her chest hurt.
She grabbed Madam Zeng in one motion and dragged her towards the door, "My father has barely passed the first seven days since his death, and you are arranging my marriage, pushing his daughter to marry! Is this how an elder acts? Is this how a grandmother behaves?"
Madam Zeng had not expected Song Jiyun to lay hands on her, and it wasn't until she had been dragged stumbling into the middle of the hall that she regained her senses.
"Rebellion!" she struggled to shake off Song Jiyun's hand, "You even dare to strike me!"
"Striking you would dirty my hands!" Song Jiyun retorted.
The two nannies that Madam Zeng had brought with her recovered from their shock and hurriedly surrounded Song Jiyun, calling out repeatedly, "Miss!"
Nanny Zheng was especially frantic.
She knew about Song Jiyun's temper, but she didn't expect it to be this fierce.
Song Jiyun held onto Madam Zeng even tighter and scolded Madam Zeng's nannies, "Is it your place to speak?"
Madam Zeng's nannies were at a loss whether to retreat or advance.
Song Jiyun then yanked Madam Zeng forward a few steps, "You want me to marry? Fine, let's go talk in front of my father then. I want to see just how shameless you can be."
As she spoke, sadness welled up in her heart.
Why were she and her father so unlucky? To be related to such rotten relatives.
It was all in vain that her father had been so good to Madam Zeng!
"For so many years, my father treated you with respect and generosity," she said, unable to hold back, "Last year, to celebrate your fiftieth birthday, he even specially invited a troupe from Suzhou and Hangzhou. Were all my father's respect and offerings thrown into a dog's stomach? Are you not afraid of being struck by lightning?"
Song Jiyun was truly heartbroken for her father.
Perhaps having a sore spot poked, Madam Zeng raised her hand to slap Song Jiyun's face, "You disrespectful wretch!"
Song Jiyun quickly caught Madam Zeng's oncoming hand and with a forceful push, she toppled Madam Zeng onto the ground.
Madam Zeng's nannies hurried over to her.
Song Jiyun, seething with rage, said breathlessly, "Do you have the right to talk about 'seniority' in front of me? Just because you have lived longer than me?"
She loudly ordered Nanny Zheng, "Go open the front gate now. I want to see who would be so shameless as to dare bring an engagement gift into our family's mourning hall."
Nanny Zheng tearfully acknowledged with a "Yes," and scurried out of the hall.
Song Jiyun turned to Madam Zeng with a mocking smile, "Rest assured, if they dare come with the engagement, I dare to receive it! I would even dare to don mourning clothes and beat the drum to raise a grievance in the main hall! Let the whole county judge. Who has ever heard of a grandmother busying herself with arranging a grandchild's marriage while her son's mourning period hasn't even ended?"
Madam Zeng didn't dare to take that gamble with her.
However, the pain in her elbow made her eyes dart around.
She said grimly, "Fine! You want to go to the Yamen? I am exactly planning to accuse you of being unfilial, insubordinate, and lacking respect for your elders!"
"Then let's go together!" Song Jiyun moved to pull her again, "Filial piety is the most important of all virtues. I am observing mourning for my father, and by the 'Classic of Filial Piety' and 'Biographies of Exemplary Women', I would merit an entire chapter. Maybe I might even earn a memorial archway for my family. The more people know, the better!"
Madam Zeng shrank back.
Song Jiyun was shamelessly unruly when she made a fuss; her third son had also offended Registrar Wang; going to the Yamen could really mean their own loss!
The two nannies who accompanied Madam Zeng, each more astute than the other, seeing the situation, quickly stepped forward to assist Madam Zeng.
Song Jiyun pointed outside and said, "Go. Let's go right now!"
Madam Zeng fled in a panic, still raging at her, "I refuse to stoop to your level! You will marry whether you like it or not!"
Song Jiyun stood on the steps, "I'll be waiting!"
The courtyard was engulfed in silence.
*
Song Jiyun had not been this angry for many years.
Her mind buzzed fiercely, and by the time she came to her senses, she found herself, just like in her previous life, head bowed, spinning around in the cloakroom.
Only now, in the cloakroom, there was also a strange man besides herself.
She leaned on the camphorwood chest with intricate pine carving and brass corners that had been moved from her father's study.
It seems no one's values have a floor, only a lower level still.
The Song Family was even more shameless than she had imagined.
Since ancient times, marriage has been about the mandate of the parents and the matchmaker's word.
Her mother would definitely not agree to such a union, but the highest authority in their household was her grandmother.
With the vast Song Family property hanging in the balance, anything could happen.
Song Jiyun calmly analyzed the predicament she was in.
Yet, a gaze remained persistently fixed on her.
She looked up and saw the man looking at her with apparent interest.
He was leaning on a large pillow, his legs crossed, the album of paintings on his lap now replaced with a travel journal.
Song Jiyun couldn't help but give him a glare and said with a double entendre, "Oh? The young master has stopped looking at albums and switched to travel journals instead?"
The man's slender, fair fingers gently pressed down on the page as he casually responded, "Travel journals are more interesting than albums."
His schadenfreude infuriated Song Jiyun to the point of wanting to hit someone.
The man, however, seemed indifferent, raising his eyebrows and shifting to a more comfortable position before turning a page in the journal again.
Song Jiyun cursed him silently in her heart and decided to freshen up before going to see her mother.
She wanted to avoid her mother fretting upon hearing the news.
In a daze, she started to remove the filial piety band and mourning clothes out of habit.
From the gauze cupboard, a low scold came: "Disgraceful!"
Song Jiyun snapped back to reality and realized she was undoing the fastenings of her Beizi vest.
She looked at her grey crinkled gauze Beizi with a narrow sleeve and banded collar.
One couldn't even see what color the undergarment was.
And this was disgraceful?
Song Jiyun looked at the man.
His face was dark as storm clouds.
But what does that have to do with me?
Song Jiyun chuckled scornfully, took off the Beizi, revealing her fair, rounded shoulders and delicate collarbone.
"You—" the man glared at her furiously.
Song Jiyun balled up the vest and flung it at him, "Travel journals are more interesting than albums, huh?!"
The Beizi hit his face, the faint scent of jasmine lingering at his nose.
He hastily turned away.
The vest fell like a cloud onto his lap.
The fragrance of jasmine dispersed like smoke.
"Shameless!" the man exclaimed, the red mole above his left ear as if dripping blood.
Song Jiyun curled her lip disdainfully and quickly stepped into the bathroom.
The man brushed the Beizi off his knee as though sweeping away something filthy.
But the softness and lightness of Hangzhou silk seemed to linger on his fingers, impossible to shake off.
*
With a "snap," the door of the gauze cupboard closed, and the sound of Song Jiyun's footsteps faded away.
The man opened his eyes.
A figure leaped down from the eaves and tapped softly on the gauze cupboard, whispering "Master."