Chapter Thirty-Six: Is It Truly Fate?
The rain finally ceased.
At this moment, Wu Ning sat beneath the eaves with Wu Li and Wu Qi, watching the water pooling on the thatched roof drip down in a steady rhythm.
Huzi was there as well, but he had already slumped against the earthen wall, half asleep, drooling in his dreams.
“You really fancy Qin Miaoniang now?” Wu Qi eyed Wu Ning. “That’s not fair of you. She’s supposed to be my woman!”
“Give it a rest!” Wu Li shot him a glare before Wu Ning could even open his mouth. “We all know you—every time you see a pretty face, you fall for her. If we left it all to you, Old Nine and I would be lifelong bachelors.”
“Don’t you still have Li Sinang?”
“Exactly!” Wu Qi replied, as if perfectly reasonable. “Li Sinang can be my wife, Qin Miaoniang my concubine.”
“Get lost!” Wu Li gave the short stool under Wu Qi a hard kick. If Huzi hadn’t blocked him, Wu Qi would have landed on the ground.
“What’s going on? What happened?” Huzi woke with a start, still half in a daze, and blurted, “Where are they? Let me chase them down!”
The three rolled their eyes—such bravado after the fact. When they’d just knocked Sun Bo’an to the ground, where had this hero been?
In fact, when Sun Bo’an had realized he was no match and made his escape, Wu Sanhu had scooped up a handful of mud and thrown it after him, shouting, “Touch my brother and I’ll end you!”
...
“Let’s be serious for a moment,” Wu Li said, putting on a stern face and glaring at Wu Qi. “This time, you’re not fighting Old Nine for her!”
Wu Qi grinned sheepishly. “Come on, Eighth Brother, you’re taking this too seriously.”
“I’ve thought it over,” he continued, “and someone like Qin Miaoniang—cool and distant—she’s really not my type after all. Li Sinang is better. She’s lively, always smiling, and those two little dimples—now that’s enchanting.”
“Hmph!” Wu Li snorted. “Huzi’s lively too, why don’t you marry him?”
“No way.” Wu Qi shot Huzi a disdainful glance. “He’s ugly, lazy, and eats like a horse—he’ll never find a wife in this lifetime.”
Huzi protested, “My mother says a good appetite is a blessing.”
“Go on, get out of here!”
...
—
Noticing Wu Ning staring blankly down the mountain, Wu Qi nudged him.
“Still thinking about it? Listen, it’s fine to think, but what Ancestor and my father said isn’t without reason. You’d better be careful. After all, she’s from a merchant family—it’ll bring trouble in the future.”
Wu Ning withdrew his gaze. “I’m a runaway peasant—I’m even lower than a merchant.”
“That’s different,” Wu Li interjected. “You can read and write, you’re quick-witted, and you’ve got Fourth Uncle’s connections behind you. Maybe one day, if the Emperor is in a good mood and grants a general amnesty, you’ll not only regain your legal status, you might even sit for the civil service exam and become an official!”
...
Wu Ning fell silent.
The issue of birth and family was inescapable in this era. Yet fate, that strange thing—when it arrives, who can say what’s truly possible? Could mere social status be an insurmountable barrier?
Truthfully, was there any such “fate” at all?
What Wu Qi and the others said was far from the mark, because even Wu Ning himself couldn’t understand why he’d blurted out those words to Sun Bo’an just now.
Was it fate? Something so elusive, so intangible—perhaps he’d simply seen someone beautiful, felt a stir of desire, and in a few days it would pass.
Was it guilt, seeing Qin Miaoniang looking so pitiful after being wronged by him? Not really—Wu Ning hardly considered himself so saintly.
Yet just the thought of Sun Bo’an, that dullard, coveting Qin Miaoniang, made Wu Ning seethe with anger.
He didn’t know how he’d set himself up for such a challenge.
The trouble was, this was a hellish ordeal.
Never mind whether he could get past the Ancestor, the ugly uncle, and Fourth Uncle—would someone as wealthy as Qin Wenyuan even look at a poor fellow from the backwoods like him?
Worse still, if Qin Miaoniang ever discovered he was only pretending to be blind—and shamelessly lingered in her house—she might want to kill him.
...
“Ah, the restless pangs of youth—the sorrows of Young Werther!” Wu Ning sighed.
“Huh?” His three companions stared at him in confusion. “Old Nine, what did you say? Who’s Werther?”
Wu Ning, irritated, replied offhandedly, “A fool who died for love.”
...
—
Elsewhere.
Since the rain began, Qin Wenyuan’s heart had been in turmoil. He cursed himself for choosing such a miserable day to let his daughter leave the city.
He ordered Qin Fu to prepare the covered sedan chair and go out in the rain to meet her.
Seeing that Qin Fu was long overdue and the rain had eased, Qin Wenyuan set out himself to greet them.
He’d barely gone two miles beyond the city before he saw Qin Fu and two servants carrying the sedan chair back.
Qin Wenyuan rushed forward, his words sharp: “I told you to ride in the chair, but you wouldn’t listen. Well? Will you remember next time?”
Qin Miaoniang sat in the sedan, dazed. When she looked up and saw her father, for some reason, tears began to fall.
“Father…”
Qin Wenyuan’s heart clenched. “Why are you crying? All right, all right, I won’t scold you anymore.”
He called to Qin Fu, “Let’s go, quickly!”
He walked beside the sedan the whole way.
“It’s my fault—I should have thought that it might rain today.”
Qin Miaoniang said nothing, huddling inside the sedan with a blank expression.
Qin Wenyuan was mystified. Could this be the result of Daoist Xiao’s bad fortune-telling? Or had she really been caught in the rain and become this way?
...
“Miaoniang, did Daoist Xiao say something?” he asked.
Qin Miaoniang shook her head in confusion. “Daoist Xiao wasn’t at the temple?”
“Hm? You didn’t see him?”
“No,” Xianglan added, “To tell Master the truth, not only did we not see him, we got stuck out in the wild because of the rain!”
“What?” Qin Wenyuan was alarmed. He hurriedly lifted the sedan curtain. “Daughter, you didn’t catch a chill, did you?”
When Qin Miaoniang left Wu Ning’s house, the rain hadn’t stopped. Her clothes were damp, and she did feel a little cold. But seeing her father’s concern, she didn’t want him to worry, so she smiled lightly. “Don’t worry, Father. It’s not as bad as Xianglan made it sound. A kind lady at Xuncui Residence took us in—we didn’t get rained on.”
...
But instead of reassuring her father, her honesty only made him more anxious.
“What? You went to Xuncui Residence?”
“Yes,” Qin Miaoniang nodded gently. Her father had warned her to stay away from that place, but given the circumstances, there was nothing to hide.
Now Qin Wenyuan was beside himself.
The more he wanted to avoid something, the more it happened!
He slapped his thigh in frustration. “I told you not to go, and yet you went yourself! Don’t you know that Wu Ning at Xuncui Residence is no ordinary character? You didn’t suffer any loss, did you?”
Qin Miaoniang frowned deeply. “I don’t know who Wu Ning is,” she replied. “While we were sheltering from the rain, there was only a woman and a blind youth. I don’t know which was Wu Ning.”
As for what happened with that blind boy in the house, Qin Miaoniang didn’t say a word—she couldn’t bring herself to tell her father of today’s humiliations.
And Qin Wenyuan had no interest in hearing more. “A blind youth? Then it wasn’t him… That’s good. As long as it wasn’t Wu Ning, the rest doesn’t matter.”
...
There will only be one chapter today. My head is splitting.