The Marquis's Daughter Doesn't Play Nice - Chapter 2

Jiang Baozhu paled and quietly took half a step back, putting more distance between herself and Jiang Yu.

At that, the faint flush on his face vanished, and his expression turned dark again.

The Marquis of Yong’an scowled and snapped, “Watch that loose tongue of yours. Now that you’re home, learn from your sister how a well-bred young lady behaves. Don’t bring those vulgar pleasure-house ways into this family.”

That was nasty. I couldn’t let it pass.

“Our etiquette teachers at Spring Breeze House are retired palace matrons, and our tutors are retired academy scholars. May I ask what distinguished institutions Sister’s teachers come from?”

“If you dislike my manners so much, Father, why didn’t you just find yourself a daughter with all the bearing of a noble lady? What stopped you? Didn’t feel like it?”

“Spring Breeze House is famous far and wide as a house of courtesans who sell their arts, not their bodies. Every year, our ladies win the women’s talent contests at the Flower Festival. Countless scholars and poets have written verses in their praise. How does all that become vulgarity when it reaches your lips?”

“I suppose a filthy mind sees filth everywhere.”

At last, Jiang Baozhu found her voice and gathered the courage to step forward.

“Don’t be angry, Sister. Please don’t upset Father on my account. He works so hard every day.”

I swept a contemptuous glance over her. Tsk. Such a cheap little act, all sweetness and hidden spite.

“Oh, you can speak! Every time I asked you something earlier, you backed away three steps. I thought you were mute and self-conscious about it.”

“Apparently you have a mouth. It’s ears you’re missing.”

“And what makes you think you’re so important? Upsetting Father on your account, indeed.”

Under my verbal barrage, Jiang Baozhu successfully swallowed the tears gathering in her eyes. The fire in the Marquis of Yong’an’s was about to burst out.

A sudden laugh broke the ghastly silence.

Grandmother tossed aside her walking stick, came over, and clapped me firmly on the shoulder.

“Ha! That’s Lin Tianjiao’s own granddaughter! Just like me when I stood on the city wall and cursed thirty thousand enemy soldiers into retreat!”

The words “my granddaughter” forced the marquis to swallow even that towering rage.

Children were scarce in the Jiang family. For three generations, there had been only one son to carry on the line. Only now had things improved a little.

One daughter by the principal wife. One son by a concubine.

I put away the hostile expression I had worn for the marquis and assumed my usual docile look. Taking Grandmother’s arm, I slowly escorted her inside.

“Our literature teacher often uses you as an example, Grandmother. Your brave deeds are required reading for us.”

“Our teacher tells us women should be strong and independent too. We should earn our living through our own abilities, without relying on others. We have no reason to think ourselves lowly…”

By the time we covered the short distance from the gate to the inner hall, I had Grandmother smiling so broadly she couldn’t close her mouth. The wrinkles at the corners of her eyes never had a chance to relax.

The marquis’s gaze remained dark and unreadable as it followed me.

I knew what he thought: I was using cheap tricks to flatter and deceive Grandmother.

What a joke.

Wasn’t knowing how to speak to different people a basic skill every adult had to learn?

If I wanted, I could charm every last person in this household, including him.

But with that long, shoehorn face of his, glaring at his own daughter as if she were his sworn enemy, who would willingly offer him a cheek to slap?

Certainly not me.

Grandmother took a sip of tea and cleared her throat.

“Now that Xueying is home, have the steward prepare to open the ancestral shrine as soon as possible. My darling granddaughter must be entered in the clan genealogy.”

The marquis took a small sip of his own tea and said unhurriedly, “We can open the shrine and enter her name, but she’ll need a new name first.”

“The name you were originally given now belongs to Baozhu. I’ll ask Master Sanzhu of Junshan Academy to choose another for you.”

“No need. I’ve used this name for sixteen years. I’m quite accustomed to it.”

His brows knotted again.

“Must you be so unreasonable?”

“Now that you’re home, you ought to forget the past. Xueying is hardly a respectable name.”

I gave a derisive laugh.

“Not respectable? The characters in Xueying mean ‘snow’ and ‘greet.’ They come from the lines, ‘That October, when first you came, plum blossoms broke through the snow and bloomed to greet you.’ It’s a famous poem passed down through the ages. Surely the Marquis of Yong’an knows it? Every student preparing for the examinations has to study it.”

“Oh! I forgot. Father inherited his title. I suppose you never had to sit the imperial examinations.”

His face flushed red before my eyes. With a sudden blow, he slammed his palm onto the table.