Wishing You Eternal Happiness 21
Wishing You Eternal Happiness
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Translation: marchmallow
TL Checker: StackedSnowflake
Chapter 21
The absolute worst
***
Quanzhou had seven city gates, and they had chosen to pass this gate out of the city after thorough and careful deliberation.
After the death of Jiafu’s father, the Zhen family’s external affairs were all run by Zhang Da as he was steadfast and capable. Utilizing resources to his utmost advantage, he was deft at sorting business with the local authorities from top to bottom. People also held him in some esteem that they would use the appellation ‘Master Zhang’ to address him whenever he was outside. He and this Shi Quanyou had always been on amicable terms, but the key factor here was that Shi Quanyou was unfamiliar with Zhen Yaoting and ordinarily had no dealings with him. It was on account of this consideration that Zhang Da had chosen this particular city gate. Ultimately, they weathered through without mishap and were released without any deterrents.
When all was said and done, it only took one quick glimpse at the carriage’s interior to tell that it was impossible to hide a person within. Shi Quanyou could never have thought that the man sitting in the carriage was not the Zhen family’s son, but rather a man of unknown origin who urgently needed to leave the city, and that the woman inside was actually Jiafu, the Zhen family’s daughter.
Jiafu had been with Xiao Yintang for many years. She knew that he was adept at scheming and would resort to every expedient to achieve his desired outcome. He also had a propensity for willfulness and self-aggrandizement akin to that of a gambler.
Just before setting off, he asked to have her travel in the same carriage with him as a cover. Old Madam Hu had initially refused and proposed that she would instead arrange another quick-witted and trustworthy servant girl for him, but he was adamantly insistent on Jiafu. Because her grandson’s life was still under his control, Old Madam Hu was utterly rendered helpless, but she had him swear to Heaven not to harm Jiafu and that he would release her immediately after leaving the city.
Xiao Yintang had promised.
When the carriage was approaching the city gates, he tousled her hair bun and pulled apart her lapels. With one hand, he firmly grasped a part of her waist, pressed his face on her shoulder, and put on a show of intimacy with her.
The moment the carriage door was opened, Jiafu starkly felt the grasp of his hand intensify, its strength so immense that it sufficed to break her waist off, and her whole body instantaneously tensed up like a fully drawn bow.
This was a sign of extreme emotional strain, and her limbs subsequently manifested such overexertion.
Jiafu kept her eyes tightly shut and remained unmoving. As soon as they got out of the city gate, she shoved Xiao Yintang away, who still locked her in his embrace. She endeavored to rise from his lap, only for his two hands to suddenly bear down on her shoulders. Jiafu felt the oppressive weight, and her knees buckled, compelling her entire person to sit back down again.
Xiao Yintang slightly lowered his head, his gaze riveted on Jiafu’s delicate and youthful countenance. Starting from her brows and eyes, his sight unhurriedly wandered down, passing her nose, and finally landing on her lips. He stopped for a moment, then very marginally leaned forward, brought the tip of his nose to her temples, and vaguely caught a whiff of the fragrance emanating from the wisps of her hair. His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat a little imperceptibly, and he then raised his hand, as if to lift up her chin.
Jiafu swiftly averted her face to the side, evading his move, and elevated her hand to snappily knock on the carriage wall, producing two crisp thumping noises. In an instant, Zhang Da’s firm and solemn voice intervened from outside the window, “Young Master, what is your order?”
They had just exited the city gate, and the distance between them was still much too proximate. Xiao Yintang’s hand paused mid-air, putting his action to a halt, and he wholly fixed his attention on Jiafu.
Jiafu broke free and supported herself against the carriage wall, positioning herself to a corner near the door. Turning her back to him, she bowed her head and tidied up her slightly disheveled clothing. Following which, she bound her long hair back in place, never looking back again.
As soon as the carriage galloped out of the city gate, it sped up, with Zhang Da following closely alongside, accelerating for ten miles at one go until finally arriving at the entrance of the estate. After stopping, he dismissed the coachman and everyone nearby to give him some distance. He advanced his step forthwith and informed with a lowered voice, “Young Master, we have arrived.” With that, he pushed the carriage door open and took a peek inside, seeing Jiafu sitting by the door. The man was seated reclined on the back seat of the carriage, his gaze intent on her back. Apart from that, nothing seemed to be awry, so he breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing that the man remained immobile, he said once more, “Young Master, we have arrived. This place is already safe. The horse had been fed before leaving. It has great strength in its legs and can last at least several hundred miles on the road today. From here to the west, there is a shortcut out of Quanzhou, and people rarely travel there during the day. May Young Master leave quickly.”
The corner of Xiao Yintang’s lips hooked up. He retracted his gaze, tied his hair back, and straightened his lapels. He rose to his feet and walked past Jiafu, bent down, and descended from the carriage.
Zhang Da promptly offered him the personal mount he had ridden out of the city, and soon afterward watched the man bestride the steed. Prior to the man’s exit, he turned around and cast an ephemeral look at the closed carriage door. Finally, he advanced towards the direction Zhang Da had just pointed to, and his figure gradually faded at the end of the road. Zhang Da expelled a long exhale and rushed back to the carriage. In hushed tones, he softly consoled, “Young Lady, you have been wronged. Fortunately, that loathsome thief has gone, and no one knows……”
”Uncle Zhang, I am fine. No need to worry about me.”
Through the carriage door, a soft voice floated out, its tone calm.
Jiafu refrained from journeying back to the city that night and instead remained in the country estate. She soaked herself in a bathtub filled with hot water, immersed her whole body in it, and doggedly scrubbed the skin all over her until she flushed red from head to foot. Streaks of blood had formed on the areas she had arduously cleansed, and they stung lightly in contact with the hot water. This finally suppressed the revolting and spine-chilling feeling that arose from the depths of her stomach.
Xiao Yintang had gone, but his attendant, Liu Yi tarried privily at the Zhen family’s to detain Zhen Yaoting. Old Madam Hu strictly kept the matter secret. Everyone in the whole family, apart from Meng-shi, Jiafu, and Zhang Da, had not a single inkling about it. It was not until half a month later, when the local authorities’ investigation of the whole city culminated in fruitlessness and the blockade of the city gates was terminated, that Liu Yi left stealthily very late at night. During this half month, he had Zhen Yaoting tied up in the workshop. Early the next morning, when Jiafu burst into the workshop and laid eyes on her brother, she almost could not recognize him. Zhen Yaoting had sunken cheeks, his appearance wan and sallow, emitting a stench from all over his body. When he heard her call out ‘Brother’ as she threw herself on him, he wept bitter tears as he knelt on the ground, repeatedly slapping his own face without compunction. The next day, he succumbed to illness, and only when the third month began did his health gradually recover.
After his serious illness, Zhen Yaoting seemed to have greatly altered his personality. Never again did he mention boarding the ship and sailing to sea, and no longer did he fraternize with the group of young fops in Quanzhou City. Every day, he left early and returned late with Zhang Da, constantly occupied with work, seeming to have metamorphosed into a respectable lord.
Although the Zhen family started the year with such ineffable and unforeseen troubles, the matter fortunately passed. Zhen Yaoting learned a harsh lesson from this incident, which elicited a great shift in his temperament. Old Madam Hu and Madam Meng noticed it unfold with the tail of their eyes, and it pleased them greatly. On the twenty-third day of the third month, the Mazu1 worship commenced, and residents from all over Quanzhou City were out and about, singing operas and setting off firecrackers. To offer sacrifices and pray for blessings at the Mazu Temple, an assemblage of citizens swarmed the roads from beginning to end. In previous years, the Zhen family and several other influential families in the city led the Mazu worship, and this year was no exception. Old Madam Hu took Madam Meng and the sibling pair, Jiafu and Zhen Yaoting, to the Mazu Temple.
Countless people thronged into the Mazu Temple. After the grand sacrifice, the Old Madam took Zhen Yaoting to pay a visit to the officials of the prefectural yamen who had also dropped by that day. Madam Meng led Jiafu with her to settle in the quiet room especially prepared for womenfolk of great families at the back of Mazu Temple, bringing some servants along with them. As the mother-daughter pair trod out of the front hall, Madam Meng encountered a madam from the family of a petty official she had maintained cordial relations with. That madam pulled her to the side, exchanging banter with her as she repeatedly cast glances at Jiafu with a beaming face. When Jiafu had grown aware that her mother was trying to act as a matchmaker for her own sake, she grew unhappy. She faced about and leaned to the side, waiting for her mother to dismiss the lady. All of a sudden, she heard a clamor in the distance. She raised her eyes and noticed dense smoke billowing from some place, having no idea which family’s ship berthed in the harbor had caught fire. Then, she heard someone shout that the Golden Dragon King had gone ashore to ransack the whole place, kill people, and set things on fire, and that he was heading over to where they were, so they should all quickly run.
Although the Golden Dragon King protected many ships in Quanzhou whenever they set out to sea, this was a matter they could not mention outright. After all, the other party was a pirate. In the official documents of local authorities, the Golden Dragon King was guilty of the most heinous crimes, branding him as something of a sea fiend, and his wanted posters were fully displayed on the gates of various cities. Suddenly hearing that the Golden Dragon King had come ashore to terrorize them, everyone was so terrified that they all turned around to scamper off.
In fact, if only one gave it a bit of thought, one would also fathom that this was highly improbable. Mazu was considered to be a protector of the South seas. Although the Golden Dragon King was a pirate, he also relied on the sea for a living. Even if he truly had the inclination to commit such monstrosities, he would not be so callous as to choose this particular day.
However, things often played out this way. Once someone began fleeing from something, panic and dread would rapidly scatter; as such, who else would have the wits to verify the truth of matter?
Chaos ensued in the Mazu temple, and people began bolting out one after another. Madam Meng bumped against a person scurrying out, almost losing her footing in the process, but she fortunately had Liu mama next to her to support her. Jiafu heard her mother calling anxiously for her. She answered and was just about to run to meet her and leave, but a stream of people rushing out separated her from them. Some unknown person had struck her ankle so precipitously, causing her to stagger and lose her balance. Before she could stand on her feet, her mouth and nose were suddenly covered from behind, and a sweet scent assailed her senses. She wanted to scream, but no word would come out. Soon, she lost consciousness.
……
When Jiafu roused, she found herself bound hand and foot, gagged, and lying inside a carriage. The doors and windows were tightly shut, rendering it almost dusky and grim inside. It urged forward with such haste that the jolting was immensely jarring.
Her mind was still in a whirl, her arms and legs were sore and limp, and she was immobilized there, void of the strength to even move.
When the incident at the beginning of the year passed, Jiafu was once again harrowed with nightmares after a long time. As soon as she fell into slumber, she would dream about a plethora of events in her previous life, and she would then awaken with intense fear and trepidation. As such, she no longer dared to go out alone.
She had already sensed that Xiao Yintang’s departure that day was not the conclusion.
That moment was perhaps the introduction to the nightmare she would encounter in this life.
She had been tormented by such a notion. Uncertainty and fear had so dreadfully afflicted her, and she wanted nothing more but to get rid of it, just that she could not. Additionally, there was not one person she could confide in——not even her mother who loved her most.
On this day, more than two months later, her hidden worries were ultimately confirmed, catching her completely unawares.
Xiao Yintang. He was the only person she could think of who would do this to herself.
It could only be him!
The carriage jerked ceaselessly as it rolled forward. Jiafu resisted the nausea that arose, commanding herself to calm down. With all her strength, she dug all her ten fingernails deep into the flesh of her palm, using the pain to impel her to regain full consciousness as quickly as possible.
The fear and anxiety that had been plaguing her for the past few months suddenly diminished.
It was the absolute worst. Now that the inevitable happened, what else was there to fear?
All she had to do was find a way to solve it.
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Footnotes:
1 Matsu (妈祖), name of a sea goddess still widely worshiped on the SE China coast and in SE Asia. Mazu – Wikipedia
