The Fish Seller and the Prodigal Lord - Chapter 5

Before long, I was staring helplessly up at the dazzling, imposing entrance of Zhengyang House. “This…”

This was where the rich and powerful went for pleasure. I used to cross the street to avoid it.

“Second Master, I… perhaps I shouldn’t go in.”

“Why?” Arms folded, he gave me a sidelong look. “Would you rather stay home learning those rules?”

Well… no.

The moment I stepped into the private room, the young gentlemen began to jeer.

“Oh, so this is the little bride you bought for a hundred taels. She’s a beauty!”

“I’ll go wait outside the court tomorrow and see if I can find such a bargain myself.”

Seeing my discomfort, Rong Ruo rebuked them with a smile that never reached his eyes. “It’s her first time out with me. Watch your mouths, all of you. Don’t frighten her.”

The gambling dens Father frequented were crowded with every sort of lowlife, and some bets were worth only a few copper coins. Today I learned that young masters like Rong Ruo used gold and silver ingots for counters. When the dice cup lifted, gleaming piles passed between them, enough to buy an entire city.

A hundred taels for me really had been a bargain.

After that, Rong Ruo took me out several more times.

Meals at Yellow Crane House. Tea at Spring’s Abundance Pavilion. Opera at Plum Garden. Jade from Emerald Studio. Clothes from Heavenly Elegance Workshop.

Soon, practically all of Jincheng knew Rong the Second had a bride he hadn’t yet married.

Naturally, my humble origins were no secret either.

I assumed he was trying to anger his mother, so I kept my eyes lowered and played along.

Play too long, and a reckoning follows. Madam Rong finally lost patience and punished me by making me kneel in the ancestral hall for failing to guide my husband and neglecting a woman’s duties.

I’d heard that Rong Ruo’s father, the Marquis of Ning’an, spent most of his time in the capital and seldom came home. Apart from Madam Rong, half the family’s affairs were in her elder brother’s hands. That made his wife a formidable person too. Whatever Madam Rong wished to say often came out of this aunt’s mouth.

“Yu Yu, we overlooked your birth and allowed you into this household only because Second Master chose you himself. We hoped you might persuade him to settle down. Instead, you not only let him run wild, you join him in those places of pleasure and make a public spectacle of it. Do you know how many people in Jincheng are laughing at the Rongs?”

True enough. Jincheng laughed at the Rongs, and the Rongs laughed at Rong the Second.

Still, I thought the blame being laid on me was a little excessive. “Madam, Aunt,” I protested quietly, “you know his temperament better than anyone… How could I possibly control him?”

Madam Rong tapped the table, her voice cold. “You grew up in the marketplace and know nothing of a woman’s virtues, speech, bearing, or accomplishments. I sent Nanny Wang to teach you manners. You used the excuse of visiting friends with Ruo to avoid your lessons. He will inherit a century of family enterprise. His own outrageous behavior is bad enough. How can someone as ignorant and unaccomplished as you deserve to be his wife?”

His aunt laughed beside her. “Wife? I doubt he’s sincere about her. She’s scarcely fit to be a concubine.”

“If only that were so. I’m afraid he’ll actually marry a fish seller just to spite me. He’s quite capable of such foolishness.”

I bristled a little, but relief loosened something in my chest. So Madam Rong had seen through her son’s scheme all along. If she’d send me away now, that might be a very good thing.

With this thought, I looked up at them, eyes bright. “A hundred taels, and I’ll leave him.”

“…”

They exchanged a look. I tried again. “Eighty?”

I could pay back the remaining twenty after another year of selling fish.

At the mention of eighty, their faces turned as unpleasant as if they’d swallowed a fly. Now I wasn’t sure.

“Did I ask too much, or too little?”

“Impudent!”

“Outrageous!”

They spoke together, making me jump even though I was already kneeling.

His aunt helped the furious Madam Rong out. They hadn’t gone far before I heard Madam Rong through the door and windows.

“Go ask if she means it. A hundred taels, and a clean break?”