Xia Yujin made a difficult decision.
He tossed and turned until dark rings appeared under his eyes, almost unwillingly searching for Ye Zhao’s redeeming qualities as a wife.
For example, she wasn’t a jealous woman; she wouldn’t be like Assistant Minister Xu’s wife, who saw him visit a brothel for a drink and chased him down the street with two rolling pins. As for whether Ye Zhao would herself visit and discuss which company was the best for drinking, or which brothel beauty had the biggest butt, it was best not to linger on it.
Another thing: Consort Dowager An had first disliked her elder daughter-in-law Princess Consort An, who was not of high birth, and pettily nitpicked at everything she did, no matter how uselessly the princess tried to please her. But since Ye Zhao had joined the family and served as a comparison, Consort Dowager An’s attitude toward her elder daughter-in-law had swiftly shifted. Now she only thought of pleasing to the eyes the princess was; she was the most virtuous daughter-in-law in the world. The relationship between mother- and daughter-in-law was now harmonious, to the envy of all. They were a model throughout the whole capital.
As a third example, his brother had always been sullen because of his leg injury, but now he called a servant to his room everyday to tell him the jokes she’d heard, and he smiled so much more…
Ai, life was full of helplessness. He had to sacrifice his own spirit.
As long as he gritted his teeth, thickened his skin, and whistood the rumors. Then, with the divorce letter like a trump card up his sleeve, he would communicate politely with Ye Zhao, educate her well, at least make her understand the basics of how to behave like a woman, so that she didn’t always get on people’s nerves with her manly ways. In that way, maybe it would be fine enough not to divorce.
Xia Yujin did what said he would. He searched all the books close at hand in his study, the Precepts for Women, the Classics for Girls, Biographies of Virtuous Women, the Biographies of Exemplary Women, the Annotations to the Four Books for Women, the Domestic Lessons.[1] Entertaining some sort of delusion of studying late at night, he rushed back to find Ye Zhao.
When he rushed into the bedroom, where he hadn’t set foot in a long time, he was suddenly confronted with: two rows of weapon frames by the door, with various spears, axes, halberds, forks, palladiums, dagger axes, and other long-handled weapons; a wolf-tooth mace, as well as several longbows and heavy crossbows hung on the walls; fine sabers and double-edged swords stuck in red-and-white vases; on the tables lay hatchets, indented bludgeons, long whips, two-handled flails, three-sections staves, and so on. The display cabinets, originally made for curios and antiques, were filled with stealth throwing weapons.
What was this, the armory of the Ministry of War?!
Xia quickly stepped outside, vigorously rubbing his eyes and looking several times at the plaque hanging over the door of the Changfeng Pavilion. After confirming he hadn’t walked into the wrong place, he quietly stepped back inside. He gave a loud cough in the direction of Ye Zhao, who was inelegantly sprawling in a chair, one leg crossed over the other, and intently fiddling with a newly-acquired saber from Fusang.[2]
Because he very seldom came over, Ye Zhao was delighted to see him, and personally stood up to greet him.
Xia Yujin temporarily cast aside the matter of his bedroom’s redecorating, not wishing to argue again. He only placed the pile of books on the desk, explaining the purpose of his visit, and that he would personally teach her about the Lessons for Women.
The two of them first exchanged their own education levels with each other, and made sure of their weaknesses and the gaps in their knowledge.
Xia Yujin had been frail since he was little, and unable to spend too much energy. For every day he studied, he had to spend three resting, but he was naturally talented, clever, and doted upon by the Empress Dowager. The preceptors who had been invited to teach him had all been great scholars with genuine talent. All in all, he had the level of a failed scholar, and it wasn’t difficult for him to teach the Three Character Classic.
Ye Zhao had been taught martial arts early. Books gave her a headache; with her arrogant character and irascible temper thrown in the mix, her school days were resumed in the tale of her teachers’ suffering. From the time her schooling started at age eight, she managed to go through five preceptors a year. In the end, Hu Qing’s father—who was too poor to give his son the prospects and connections he wished for him—yielded to the old General Ye’s pleas and, gritting his teeth and swallowing back his anger, endured the humiliation and stayed. It took him two years and untold hardships but at long last, having exhausted all the ways he could think of, he managed to stuff the contents of the Thousand Character Classic into Ye Zhao’s brain, so that she would not go on blindly. It wasn’t until she went off to war that Ye Zhao finally realized how little ink she had absorbed; helpless, she made Hu Qing carry on his father’s duty in their free time and appointed him her teacher, supplementing her military and history knowledge.
Professor Xia’s teaching methods were completely different from Professor Hu’s witty way of explaining things in simple and easy words. Even with all of his preparations and the serious attitude with which he explained it all, he could only woodenly read the texts word for word without knowing which classics to quote. The topics he chose were also very boring. Ye Zhao already didn’t have the patience to read books, and she was even less interested in topics made for women. She yawned covertly. She stared only at her teacher’s beautiful face. She bit on her brush, keeping her temper in check. She tried hard to appear focused, but she couldn’t help glancing at her newly-acquired Fusang saber, foolishly wondering where she would try it out.
Professor Xia blabbered on and on. He knocked on the table, looking displeased. “Have you understood what ‘the speech, the virtue, the carriage and the work of a wife’ are?[3] Repeat them.”
Student Ye, awoken from her daydreaming and having heard only half of the words, stared blankly at him, dumbstruck, for a long time. She hesitantly asked, “Work? What work? I can’t do embroidery, or… But I can sweep your room every day?”
That damn scoundrel wasn’t listening at all!
Xia Yujin was so incensed that he would have torn off the wolf-tooth mace from the wall and thrown it at her head, had he not been worried about breaking his foot.
“Don’t be angry, I just get easily distracted when I have to study.” Feeling a little guilty, she busied herself pouring him tea. To distract him from his anger, she also took out the Clear Water sword she had personally collected. “Stop thinking about it,” she said, trying to get into his good graces. “You can’t read a whole book in one sitting. This sword, however, is almost impossible to find. So many martial artists would even risk it all to find it. Do you want to take it for a spin?”
Xia Yujin touched it. “Could I hack you to death with it?” he asked dully.
“You?” Ye Zhao shook her head, hardly hesitating.
Desperate, Xia Yujin slumped over the table and didn’t move anymore.
His wife’s obsession with fighting was incurable.
Xia Yujin feared his anger would bring his early demise. In the end, he only made her strictly remember the phrase “bring honor to your husband in public and in private,” and then he shelved his teaching scheme completely.
Over two weeks later, the renovations on the prince of Nanping’s residence were complete, and the familial unit in Prince An’s mansion split.
Although Consort Dowager An loved her younger son dearly, she didn’t want her younger daughter-in-law to stay there mistreating her, so she reluctantly parted with him and stayed at her elder daughter-in-law’s side. She simply picked many capable and loyal aides from the servants’ ranks and sent them to the prince’s residence for her son’s use, lest he be too much in his wife’s grasp.
Xia Yujin wasn’t sure whether he and his wife would divorce, so he didn’t plan on sharing her bed. However, their relationship had recently improved, so they both picked out adjacent courtyards to live in. On one side: weapons galore, the glint of blades in the shadows; on the other side: cricket fights and dice games, the intoxication of a beautiful spring day. It looked very peculiar. Concubine Yang chose a courtyard that was relatively far from the general’s and the prince’s own, and focused on making offerings to the gods. Mei-niang and Xuan’er fought for the Tinghua Courtyard, nearest to the Lingshuang Pavilion where the general lived. Making enough noise to split the heavens, one called the other a vixen, the other called the first big-breasted and empty-brained, until they almost came to blows. Their shouts finally attracted Xia Yujin, who sent them away to the Wuyue Pavilion, the farthest away from the Lingshuang Pavilion…
Pigs would fly before the chaos of war could ever rival this one.
After the move, Xia Yujin’s official robes were also sent over. The palace embroiderers’ craftsmanship was excellent: the brand-new brocade fabric, embroidered with gold thread, made for simple yet elegant and unique robes. When he wore them, they revealed his spirit.
“You look very good in them,” Ye Zhao complimented. “You look like a real lord official.”
“Stop it! How can anyone trust what your eyes see?” said Xia Yujin’s mouth, but his heart warmed a little at the praise. He took a few steps in the courtyard, right as Qiu Hua and Qiu Shui walked past, and asked them what they thought.
On strict orders from the general, Qiu Hua and Qiu Shui didn’t dare to be sarcastic with him anymore and praised him as much as they could.
“You look really different from before, Your Highness,” said Qiu Hua. “You look like a real person! Very good!”
“How about asking the embroiderers to make you a green headpiece?”[4] said Qiu Shui. “You could add that big pearl the general received to it. You’d look so good in a matching set!”
Xia Yujin vowed to himself:
He was a pig if he ever talked to Ye Zhao’s attendants again!
Xia Yujin made a difficult decision.
He tossed and turned until dark rings appeared under his eyes, almost unwillingly searching for Ye Zhao’s redeeming qualities as a wife.
For example, she wasn’t a jealous woman; she wouldn’t be like Assistant Minister Xu’s wife, who saw him visit a brothel for a drink and chased him down the street with two rolling pins. As for whether Ye Zhao would herself visit and discuss which company was the best for drinking, or which brothel beauty had the biggest butt, it was best not to linger on it.
Another thing: Consort Dowager An had first disliked her elder daughter-in-law Princess Consort An, who was not of high birth, and pettily nitpicked at everything she did, no matter how uselessly the princess tried to please her. But since Ye Zhao had joined the family and served as a comparison, Consort Dowager An’s attitude toward her elder daughter-in-law had swiftly shifted. Now she only thought of pleasing to the eyes the princess was; she was the most virtuous daughter-in-law in the world. The relationship between mother- and daughter-in-law was now harmonious, to the envy of all. They were a model throughout the whole capital.
As a third example, his brother had always been sullen because of his leg injury, but now he called a servant to his room everyday to tell him the jokes she’d heard, and he smiled so much more…
Ai, life was full of helplessness. He had to sacrifice his own spirit.
As long as he gritted his teeth, thickened his skin, and whistood the rumors. Then, with the divorce letter like a trump card up his sleeve, he would communicate politely with Ye Zhao, educate her well, at least make her understand the basics of how to behave like a woman, so that she didn’t always get on people’s nerves with her manly ways. In that way, maybe it would be fine enough not to divorce.
Xia Yujin did what said he would. He searched all the books close at hand in his study, the Precepts for Women, the Classics for Girls, Biographies of Virtuous Women, the Biographies of Exemplary Women, the Annotations to the Four Books for Women, the Domestic Lessons.[1] Entertaining some sort of delusion of studying late at night, he rushed back to find Ye Zhao.
When he rushed into the bedroom, where he hadn’t set foot in a long time, he was suddenly confronted with: two rows of weapon frames by the door, with various spears, axes, halberds, forks, palladiums, dagger axes, and other long-handled weapons; a wolf-tooth mace, as well as several longbows and heavy crossbows hung on the walls; fine sabers and double-edged swords stuck in red-and-white vases; on the tables lay hatchets, indented bludgeons, long whips, two-handled flails, three-sections staves, and so on. The display cabinets, originally made for curios and antiques, were filled with stealth throwing weapons.
What was this, the armory of the Ministry of War?!
Xia quickly stepped outside, vigorously rubbing his eyes and looking several times at the plaque hanging over the door of the Changfeng Pavilion. After confirming he hadn’t walked into the wrong place, he quietly stepped back inside. He gave a loud cough in the direction of Ye Zhao, who was inelegantly sprawling in a chair, one leg crossed over the other, and intently fiddling with a newly-acquired saber from Fusang.[2]
Because he very seldom came over, Ye Zhao was delighted to see him, and personally stood up to greet him.
Xia Yujin temporarily cast aside the matter of his bedroom’s redecorating, not wishing to argue again. He only placed the pile of books on the desk, explaining the purpose of his visit, and that he would personally teach her about the Lessons for Women.
The two of them first exchanged their own education levels with each other, and made sure of their weaknesses and the gaps in their knowledge.
Xia Yujin had been frail since he was little, and unable to spend too much energy. For every day he studied, he had to spend three resting, but he was naturally talented, clever, and doted upon by the Empress Dowager. The preceptors who had been invited to teach him had all been great scholars with genuine talent. All in all, he had the level of a failed scholar, and it wasn’t difficult for him to teach the Three Character Classic.
Ye Zhao had been taught martial arts early. Books gave her a headache; with her arrogant character and irascible temper thrown in the mix, her school days were resumed in the tale of her teachers’ suffering. From the time her schooling started at age eight, she managed to go through five preceptors a year. In the end, Hu Qing’s father—who was too poor to give his son the prospects and connections he wished for him—yielded to the old General Ye’s pleas and, gritting his teeth and swallowing back his anger, endured the humiliation and stayed. It took him two years and untold hardships but at long last, having exhausted all the ways he could think of, he managed to stuff the contents of the Thousand Character Classic into Ye Zhao’s brain, so that she would not go on blindly. It wasn’t until she went off to war that Ye Zhao finally realized how little ink she had absorbed; helpless, she made Hu Qing carry on his father’s duty in their free time and appointed him her teacher, supplementing her military and history knowledge.
Professor Xia’s teaching methods were completely different from Professor Hu’s witty way of explaining things in simple and easy words. Even with all of his preparations and the serious attitude with which he explained it all, he could only woodenly read the texts word for word without knowing which classics to quote. The topics he chose were also very boring. Ye Zhao already didn’t have the patience to read books, and she was even less interested in topics made for women. She yawned covertly. She stared only at her teacher’s beautiful face. She bit on her brush, keeping her temper in check. She tried hard to appear focused, but she couldn’t help glancing at her newly-acquired Fusang saber, foolishly wondering where she would try it out.
Professor Xia blabbered on and on. He knocked on the table, looking displeased. “Have you understood what ‘the speech, the virtue, the carriage and the work of a wife’ are?[3] Repeat them.”
Student Ye, awoken from her daydreaming and having heard only half of the words, stared blankly at him, dumbstruck, for a long time. She hesitantly asked, “Work? What work? I can’t do embroidery, or… But I can sweep your room every day?”
That damn scoundrel wasn’t listening at all!
Xia Yujin was so incensed that he would have torn off the wolf-tooth mace from the wall and thrown it at her head, had he not been worried about breaking his foot.
“Don’t be angry, I just get easily distracted when I have to study.” Feeling a little guilty, she busied herself pouring him tea. To distract him from his anger, she also took out the Clear Water sword she had personally collected. “Stop thinking about it,” she said, trying to get into his good graces. “You can’t read a whole book in one sitting. This sword, however, is almost impossible to find. So many martial artists would even risk it all to find it. Do you want to take it for a spin?”
Xia Yujin touched it. “Could I hack you to death with it?” he asked dully.
“You?” Ye Zhao shook her head, hardly hesitating.
Desperate, Xia Yujin slumped over the table and didn’t move anymore.
His wife’s obsession with fighting was incurable.
Xia Yujin feared his anger would bring his early demise. In the end, he only made her strictly remember the phrase “bring honor to your husband in public and in private,” and then he shelved his teaching scheme completely.
Over two weeks later, the renovations on the prince of Nanping’s residence were complete, and the familial unit in Prince An’s mansion split.
Although Consort Dowager An loved her younger son dearly, she didn’t want her younger daughter-in-law to stay there mistreating her, so she reluctantly parted with him and stayed at her elder daughter-in-law’s side. She simply picked many capable and loyal aides from the servants’ ranks and sent them to the prince’s residence for her son’s use, lest he be too much in his wife’s grasp.
Xia Yujin wasn’t sure whether he and his wife would divorce, so he didn’t plan on sharing her bed. However, their relationship had recently improved, so they both picked out adjacent courtyards to live in. On one side: weapons galore, the glint of blades in the shadows; on the other side: cricket fights and dice games, the intoxication of a beautiful spring day. It looked very peculiar. Concubine Yang chose a courtyard that was relatively far from the general’s and the prince’s own, and focused on making offerings to the gods. Mei-niang and Xuan’er fought for the Tinghua Courtyard, nearest to the Lingshuang Pavilion where the general lived. Making enough noise to split the heavens, one called the other a vixen, the other called the first big-breasted and empty-brained, until they almost came to blows. Their shouts finally attracted Xia Yujin, who sent them away to the Wuyue Pavilion, the farthest away from the Lingshuang Pavilion…
Pigs would fly before the chaos of war could ever rival this one.
After the move, Xia Yujin’s official robes were also sent over. The palace embroiderers’ craftsmanship was excellent: the brand-new brocade fabric, embroidered with gold thread, made for simple yet elegant and unique robes. When he wore them, they revealed his spirit.
“You look very good in them,” Ye Zhao complimented. “You look like a real lord official.”
“Stop it! How can anyone trust what your eyes see?” said Xia Yujin’s mouth, but his heart warmed a little at the praise. He took a few steps in the courtyard, right as Qiu Hua and Qiu Shui walked past, and asked them what they thought.
On strict orders from the general, Qiu Hua and Qiu Shui didn’t dare to be sarcastic with him anymore and praised him as much as they could.
“You look really different from before, Your Highness,” said Qiu Hua. “You look like a real person! Very good!”
“How about asking the embroiderers to make you a green headpiece?”[4] said Qiu Shui. “You could add that big pearl the general received to it. You’d look so good in a matching set!”
Xia Yujin vowed to himself:
He was a pig if he ever talked to Ye Zhao’s attendants again!
