Chapter 162 — The Metropolitan Examination

It was not until the lamps were lit that Ji Yong returned to Yuqiao Alley.

Nanny Han did not dare say outright that Han-shi had sent for him, and instead cast a meaningful glance at Zixi, who was walking behind him.

Zixi nodded to show that he understood, and only then did Nanny Han go back to report to Han-shi: "The young master has returned. I spoke to Zixi, and by the look of things he means to come and give an account of himself shortly."

Han-shi was somewhat reassured. Smiling, she kept Ji-shi and his son company through the evening meal, then sent Ji Qi off to the study to read, while she herself sat in the hall, sipping tea and waiting for Zixi.

After about half an hour, Zixi, having finished his errands, came to pay his respects to Han-shi.

Han-shi posted Nanny Han at the door and drew Zixi into the warm room to talk.

"Has the young master any woman he favors outside the house?" Han-shi's voice was pitched rather low.

Zixi was briefly taken aback, and only after a moment did he grasp what Han-shi was asking.

"No, no!" he said hastily. "The young master has never frequented such places."

Han-shi breathed a sigh of relief.

By any reasonable reckoning, her son was no longer young and should long since have been betrothed. Yet back when he had just placed first in the provincial examination, the great families of Jiangnan had stirred at once, and the matchmakers had all but worn down the Ji family's threshold. Her son, however, had given a cold snort, consulted no one, written a first line of a couplet and pasted it on the main gate, and declared: "Whichever family's daughter can match it with a second line to my liking, she shall be the bride of Ji Jianming."

The women of Jiangnan were for the most part well read, and who knows how many of them dreamed of becoming the heroine of such a tale.

The second lines submitted were beyond counting, and some were so fine that even the old master, reading them, could not help stroking his beard and nodding. Yet not one of them found favor in Ji Yong's eyes.

As time went on, everyone began to catch the drift of it.

This was no search for a wife—it was a roundabout refusal of marriage!

The young women who had sent in second lines were of course mortified and went pale with humiliation. But the elder master of the Ji family, once he understood Ji Yong's intent, broke into a cold sweat and with his own hands tore the first line down—for had the matter been allowed to run its course, the Ji family would likely have offended every family of any note in Jiangnan.

The matrons of those houses with unwed daughters both loved and hated Ji Yong, and naturally no one brought up his marriage again.

What Han-shi feared was that her son had been bewitched by some woman of the pleasure quarters.

Given Ji Yong's temperament, even if he did not keep her installed elsewhere, he would bring her home.

And then what were they to do?

Disown him? Would Ji Yong stand for that?

Acknowledge her? Even if they turned a blind eye and said nothing of the woman's origins, those families whose offers Ji Yong had spurned would likely not let the Ji family off. And then where would the Ji family's face be?

The very thought left her unable to sit still.

Now, hearing that her son had kept to the straight path, her face lit with delight.

But the joy lasted only a moment before Han-shi realized something was wrong.

That wooden hairpin—it was plainly meant for a woman!

The Ji family could hardly be called rich enough to rival a kingdom, but emeralds, cat's-eyes, and even diamonds were nothing rare among them. Ji Yong had passed over all such things and gone to the trouble of hiding away a wooden hairpin—and ten to one he had carved it with his own hands. If the one who received that pin was no more than a nodding acquaintance of Ji Yong, then one might sooner believe the iron tree had burst into bloom.

Her smile froze on her face, and she asked Zixi urgently, "Since the young master left Yixing, where has he been? Whom has he seen?"

Ever since Ji Yong had begun carving that wooden hairpin with his own hands, Zixi had felt as though he were roasting over a fire.

The young master treated the Fourth Miss of the Dou family far too well. He had half a mind to drop Han-shi a hint, yet feared she would think nothing of it; but if the young master went on this way, and one day some trouble came of it, then for those who served him closely it would no longer be a question of whether they had been respectful enough to the Ji elders. It would be a matter of poor character, of instigating their master to wickedness—and even with the young master's protection, the Ji family could never keep them.

Now that Han-shi asked, he was both startled and glad, and dropping to his knees before her with a thud, he told her everything from beginning to end: how Ji Yong had conceived the notion of going to Zhending to visit the Ji family, how he had come to know Dou Yan, how Dou Yan had dealt with Pang Kunbai, and how Ji Yong had come to regard Dou Yan with special favor.

Han-shi listened with a pounding heart. It was a long while before she came back to herself: "You mean to say that Jianming carved that wooden hairpin with his own hands for the Fourth Miss of the Dou family?"

Zixi nodded. "The young master drew the design himself and carved it himself. It took him nearly a month."

Han-shi was astonished. "Then why did he not give it to her? If I remember rightly, the Fourth Miss of the Dou family's coming-of-age ceremony was on the tenth of the first month."

Ji Lingze had attended Dou Zhiwei's coming-of-age ceremony.

Zixi looked uneasy. "The young master said that if he could not place on the golden roll this time, by what right would he presume to send the Fourth Miss of the Dou family a congratulatory gift?"

Han-shi's expression changed drastically.

So the Fourth Miss of the Dou family weighed so heavily in her son's heart!

If that was so, why had he not told her, and let her go make the proposal properly?

Could it be that he feared the Fourth Miss Dou would disdain him?

At that thought, Han-shi's heart was a tangle of emotions.

Her son—this paragon of talent, this scholar of vast learning, this darling of heaven whom so many envied, whom so many fawned over and flattered in hopes of a match—should one day stoop to court a girl's favor!

And what was so fine about this Fourth Miss of the Dou family?

She was not only a motherless eldest daughter, but cold and proud by nature, one who would beat a person to death if the mood took her. If he truly married her, when her son was already treading so cautiously to please her, what standing would she have to play the mother-in-law? Would it not be like taking an ancestress into the house?

But if they refused—apart from the old master, there was truly no second person in this household who could control their son.

The old master is advanced in years—surely he cannot manage his son forever?

From what Zixi says, though that Fourth Miss Dou may be ruthless in her methods, at least she is a woman of firm resolve. The only reason our son agreed to sit the examinations this time was that Fourth Miss Dou gave him a good dressing-down.

When taking a wife, one takes virtue. To be able to govern her husband, urge him to better himself, and bring glory to the ancestral name—that is the greatest virtue a woman can possess.

Thinking thus, a subtle change came over Han-shi's heart.

Even if her son did not marry Fourth Miss Dou, would he truly grow any closer to her?

But if her son were to marry Fourth Miss Dou… a woman's domain is the inner quarters; if she could keep the daughter-in-law, then she could keep the son as well…

Han-shi could not help secretly thinking her own plan rather good.