# Song Ruyi
The Lin family was a first-rate clan of Wangjiang City. Unlike Fenglin City, where the Wang, Fang, and Zhang families stood as rivals, in Wangjiang City the Lin family stood alone and preeminent, laughing in pride over the rest.
Especially after Lin Zhengren swept to the top spot among the five-year students in the Three-City Discourse — then this momentum reached its very peak.
To be sure, Zhu Weiwo's lone spear had since pressed the city to heel, but that humiliation had shamed not merely the Lin family but all of Wangjiang City. And so the Lins' might suffered little for it.
Where some bask in splendor, others fall low.
The more glorious those people grew, the lower he sank.
The Lin family medicinal-herb trade, which had lain within easy reach, was lost. Lin Zhenglun tumbled in a single night from the clouds down into the dust.
As a member of the Lin family, he never lacked for food or clothing. But where he had once called on friends and companions to Wangjiang Tower, he now could only buy cheap wine on the street and chase dreams in a shabby tavern.
He nursed a deep hatred, yet was powerless to do anything about it.
Lin Zhengli was the legitimate heir of the Lin main line, an elite of the Wangjiang City Dao Academy. His father was the lord of the Lin family, and his brother was none other than Lin Zhengren!
With what could he possibly contend against such a man?
Some things were fixed at birth. He had not believed it before; now he had no choice but to.
...
"Fill it to the brim!" Lin Zhenglun lurched into the wine shop like a walking corpse and tossed a fat, bulky gourd onto the counter.
The shopkeeper took up the gourd, his face awkward. "Young... Master Lin, the wine you fetched the last two times hasn't..."
"What's that?" Lin Zhenglun straightened abruptly, staring stone-faced at the shopkeeper. "Afraid I, old here, can't scrape up the coin for the wine? Settle it all at month's end!"
"Eh, fine, fine, fine." After all, the man was a Lin clansman; however rundown his shop, the owner dared not offend him, and so bowed his head and dipped the wine.
Suddenly a voice cut into the shop. "Isn't this Brother Zhenglun?"
Lin Zhenglun turned his head and saw Lin Zhengli, surrounded by a gaggle of people — apparently on his way past to attend to some matter, having overheard the quarrel between Lin Zhenglun and the shopkeeper.
"Zhengli... Young Master Lin." Lin Zhenglun struggled to get the words out. The scene before him was mortifying beyond measure — all the worse for being witnessed by Lin Zhengli.
Lin Zhengli glanced up at the sky, then at the dejected, down-at-the-mouth Lin Zhenglun, and smiled. "Broad daylight, and already a fine thirst for wine I see."
"Forgive me, you must have seen me at a poor moment." Lin Zhenglun forced a thin smile, took up his wine gourd, and left.
He fled nearly openly, like a stray dog running for its life.
"It just occurs to me," Lin Zhengli said from behind him, in a seemingly idle tone, "that an overseer recently left the medicine business. A spot has come open, and it needs filling!"
Lin Zhenglun's steps froze.
He turned around and squeezed out a smile that was only somewhat less unnatural than before: "Does Young Master Lin think... I could manage it?"
"Brother Zhenglun's abilities pose no problem at all, naturally." Lin Zhengli, still smiling, pressed himself close before the deliberately hunched Lin Zhenglun, and lowered his voice. "I hear that widow you married — she's quite pretty... isn't she?"
"Ruyi?" Lin Zhenglun took two abrupt steps back. "No, no!"
He shook his head violently, as though only so could he resist the terrible struggle within his heart. "This won't do!"
Lin Zhengli straightened up, still keeping his composed smile. "No pressure."
He turned, and pointing at Lin Zhenglun, said loudly to the shopkeeper who was busy smiling ingratiatingly nearby: "This man here — he's a man of my Lin family! Mind you don't look down on him! From now on, whatever wine he asks for, you just pour it. At month's end, come collect the sum from my Lin household."
The shopkeeper answered in a carrying voice: "Very well! Young Master Lin has spoken, so how dare this humble one show any neglect!"
Lin Zhenglun forced a smile. "Thank you, Young Master Lin."
"Think nothing of it." Lin Zhengli waved a hand and went straight on his way.
The gaggle of people swarmed around him and receded into the distance.
From time to time, phrases of flattery drifted back.
"Young Master Lin is most generous and upright!"
"Call him Young Master Lin? Have you no eyes! You ought to say Young Clan Head!"
...
Lin Zhenglun clutched his wine gourd and wobbled his way home.
Today's wine seemed especially potent; he had only drunk two mouthfuls on the road, but he already felt drunk.
It was a two-courtyard compound, kept spotless clean. The front yard in particular grew a few flowers and plants, tended with great care — pleasing to the eye at every turn.
Lin Zhenglun's footing was unsteady. He stumbled, knocking over a flowerpot. Irritation mounting, he simply stamped the shard to pieces with his foot!
Crash!
Song Ruyi darted out of the inner rooms, unable to hold back her reproach: "Lin Zhenglun! What madness has seized you again?"
"None of your business!" Lin Zhenglun shot her a sideways glance, stumbling onward into the house.
Song Ruyi shifted a step sideways to block his path, holding back her grievance with difficulty. "You soak yourself in wine jars all day long — just what do you mean by it? Do you not want this marriage anymore?"
"Ha! Interesting." Lin Zhenglun, hoisting his wine gourd, laughed. "What, you mean to divorce me?"
"Divorce, then!"
"Ha, I did not hear you. What did you say?"
Song Ruyi squeezed her eyes shut, forcing back the tears. When she opened them again, they were cold. "I said, let us divorce."
"Ha! Ha!"
Lin Zhenglun laughed twice, then suddenly hurled the wine gourd in his hand to the ground!
The gourd bounced on the earth twice, then tumbled down the steps. It did not itself crack — but the gourd's stopper was knocked loose, and the wine gushed out in a stream. In an instant the whole courtyard reeked of liquor.
"Look at yourself!" Lin Zhenglun roared. "A widow, now content to become a discarded wife besides! Do you think you can still marry into any decent family?"
Song Ruyi ground her teeth in fury. "Better that than trailing a useless man!"
"What did you say? Say that once more!" Lin Zhenglun stormed forward, seized her by the throat, and pinned her against the wall, his eyes bloodshot. "Say it once more!"
Song Ruyi's face flushed crimson as she struggled: "Then... choke me to death! Either way, these days are worse... worse than death!"
Lin Zhenglun released her, staggering back two steps.
"Still aggrieved, are you? Still aggrieved, isn't that so?" He pointed at her. "You send silver to Fenglin City! You send jade! Don't you? You take my money to support your previous husband's child! Do you know what sort of straits we're in now? I can barely afford even my wine!"
Song Ruyi bent over, coughing for a good long while before she got her breath back. She looked at the man before her, and found it all so utterly strange.
"Setting aside whether I should send things to An'an — my dowry alone is enough to send her gifts for ten years without repetition!"
"Your dowry?" Lin Zhenglun drawled the words out, then abruptly burst into a shout. "Where is it?"
He cried out loudly: "Why, damn it all, do I have nothing to my name!?"
"Your own lack of ability got things stolen from you — how is that my fault?"
"I lack ability? I lack ability!" Lin Zhenglun's face was red, his neck swollen; not a trace of his old dignity remained. "I simply don't have a good father! That short-lived dead one, besides the surname 'Lin,' left nothing at all for me!"
He stared viciously at Song Ruyi. "Otherwise, could I have married you? Could I let people make a fool of me — laugh at me for taking a widow as a wife?"
"Now you're looking down on me for being a widow?"
Song Ruyi's voice was trembling. "You said you were a Lin clansman, born to a lofty household. Afraid people would look down on you, make a joke of you. I even cast aside An'an to come to Wangjiang City with you!
I had her brother look after her — and he was barely seventeen! Not even of an age to be capped! And I took away all of his family property besides!
How ruthless my heart has become, and even so, is it wrong of me to send her a little silver? Eh? My Lin clansman!"
She stepped close, looking Lin Zhenglun straight in the eye, questioning him in a fury: "A Lin clansman who has no food to eat, no clothes to wear, who lives in a two-courtyard compound?!"
Slap!
Lin Zhenglun sent her sprawling to the ground with one blow.
"Absurd! Ridiculous!"
He turned and went out, only to plant his foot in that pool of spilled wine and slip flat on his back.
In an instant he scrambled to his feet and went stumbling out. "Utterly absurd! Beyond ridiculous!"
"Lin Zhenglun!" Song Ruyi, prostrate on the ground, covering her face with her hands, weeping, grinding her teeth: "Now that it has come to this, I ask you only one thing. When you first said you loved me — was it true?"
"A-ha, a-ha! Love?"
Lin Zhenglun kicked over yet another flowerpot.
"Damn you! What airy, phantom thing is that?"
He burst out of the courtyard as though fleeing.
He did not know where he wanted to go, or where he could go. But it seemed he could no longer hold up his head to stay.
He had to leave. He had to run.
A stray dog that had truly lost its home.