[I’ve decided that from now on, I’ll italicize the p.r.o.nouns used to refer to ZLL when I’m switching between them. This is… probably the least confusing way?]
Just as Rong Jiahui and Yu Yixiang were at loggerheads, Zhongli Luo was having some problems over yonder.
As clan studies are clan studies, the students are naturally people who have connections to the Rong family, and as Rong Jiaze is the eldest son of the Marquis and his primary wife, he is the successor to the t.i.tle and very much respected. He has always been the target of much sucking-up to, with countless cronies at his side.
Today, everyone witnessed this tiny tyrant actually following after a refined, elegant, tall, and lean bamboo stalk of a young man, and are endlessly amazed.
After taking his seat, Rong Ping, who was seated behind Rong Jiaze, couldn’t help but ask, “Who was that pretty boy who came with you today? He looks like he needs a real good beating.”
Jiaze’s lip curls. “An insignificant speck. Don’t mention him, my mood gets bad when he is.”
And though his mood is bad, he’s much better than his big sister who’s been bewitched by that guy.
Seeing that Jiaze loathed him, Rong Ping’s eyes went shifty as he tried to brush up his favor. “If you don’t like him, wouldn’t it be good to teach him a lesson directly?”
Jiaze turned his head to give him a blank glance. “If I could, I would have already, and how wouldn’t word of that get back to you? But my parents and sister support him! If they found out I’m bullying him, I’d have to answer to all of them, for sure.”
Rong Ping went and winked at him, pledging this, “You can count on me to manage that for you!”
Following that, Rong Ping saw the teacher come in, and hurried to shut his mouth and open his book.
Jiaze didn’t want him to meddle, but when he thought about the sight of his sister defending Zhongli Luo, his heart got stopped up. Hmph, if they go on like that, it’d be better to straight-up kill him! Then he’d avoid that eye-sore!
At the same time, Zhongli Luo wasn’t having much peace where she was. For a new person to suddenly come to clan studies is a rare thing, and it was someone without the Rong surname or a connection to the Rong family. Everyone was looking at her as if she were a rare object.
Zhongli Luo doesn’t adapt very well to places full of strangers like this. Her face stiffening, she goes to find an empty seat. Just as she was about to sit down, someone suddenly pulled the seat out from under her; a very common dominance display. Thankfully, she had been following in her dad’s footsteps since childhood and had martial arts training, so she steadies herself, preventing a shameful scene.
After she stood firm, she turned and saw a beaming, round-faced fatty who s.n.a.t.c.hed her stool from someone else’s hands and pa.s.sed it back to her. “This brainless boy isn’t usually too bright. Here you go.”
She stares, then takes the stool. “Thank you.”
The fatty claps her on the back. “No problem, no problem. We’re all going to be good brothers later on!”
Zhongli Luo successfully took a seat. Seeing they weren’t making any other movements, she sighed in relief. If they can coexist in peace, that’s fine. So long as others don’t come provoke her, she’ll be disinclined to make a move on them.
But, the looks everyone is giving her… why are they so peculiar? Is she mistaken? It didn’t matter, she thus thought, and thereafter opened up her book, becoming engrossed in it.
Noon arrived with great difficulty. She had just walked out the door when she heard the sound of mocking laughter behind her, seeing a group looking like they were pointing at her. Her brow furrowed. These Rong family members are really unreasonable.
Rong Jiaze sloppily strolled out, saw his back, and immediately burst into laughter. What a real moron! Someone had secretly stuck the word ‘tortoise’ and he had no idea.
He also has a childish nature where just seeing a little prank like this is enough to have him rocking back and forth in amus.e.m.e.nt.
From the piling-up laughter, the only voice Zhongli Luo was familiar with was that of Rong Jiaze’s. Turning around, she found that face was that was similar to Rong Jiahui’s, and quickly stepped over to ask him, “What are you laughing at?”
For others to ridicule her is something she could overlook, but for Jiaze to inexplicably join in means there’s something amiss.
Jiaze had his hands over his stomach as he laughed. “You’re an idiot!”
Zhongli Luo pointed at herself. “You’re talking about me?”
“Who else could be the idiot?!”
Saying that, Jiaze had more or less laughed enough. He looked at the dumb appearance of Zhongli Luo before him, and felt for the first time that this guy didn’t seem so unpleasant, and better yet, could be a good person now.
Just as he was about to tell him about the tortoise-note, he suddenly felt light, with Zhongli Luo’s pretty face dangerously close. He looked down… oi, he’s a chi off the ground now! What! His neck hurts a bit, too.
Zhongli Luo had lifted him by the collar, staring at him seriously. “The only idiot here is you.”
His hand loosened, letting Rong Jiaze’s soft legs fall to the ground, then turning around and leaving to go eat after.
Jiaze sat on the ground, feeling waves of pain throughout his delicate b.u.t.tocks, and felt inordinately mistreated. He shook off others who tried to help him, the loud sounds of his wailing starting up.
He cried so tragically, it was as if Lady Meng Jiang had been reincarnated and he was about to take the whole academy down. For their little ancestor to weep like this had everyone immobile from worry, taking turns to console him to no avail.
Jiaze cursed as he cried, “You’re a son of a wh.o.r.e, Zhongli! [1] b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Dimwit! I’m going to tell my sister! I’m gonna make her beat you up, tie you up, and strangle you!”
He yelled and yelled, his voice nearly cracking. The teacher heard the racket at this time and rushed over.
Seeing the teacher’s silhouette in the distance, Dong Zhi and Xia Zhi were frightened and quickly poked Jiaze’s back, whispering in warning. “Young Master, Mister Liang is coming! Mister Liang!”
Wha?
Jiaze stopped his crying and cursing in a flash.
This teacher’s arrival is, in regards to him, better at scaring him than an imperial edict would be. His parents love his sister dearly, so whenever she’s going to study, they’ll invite a woman of top-tier talent to come privately tutor her at home while he has to run out of it every day. His sister is as cherished as gold and jade, getting to stay at home with a gentle and beautiful teacher with a divine temperament, and he gets this pedantic old scholar who’s stubborn and boring and has a few tricks he pulls with his ferule. This Mister Liang in particular will hold it with the might of a tiger, all students who see that faraway image begin to tremble.
Hearing Mister Liang’s name, he had no other option but to obediently get up and sneak away beforehand. All the crying he’d done earlier really was too fierce, as he had sobbed all the way until the non-delayed afternoon cla.s.s came. He secretly decided that from that point on, he and that Zhongli guy cannot exist in the same place! Humph!
Meanwhile, Rong Jiahui finally saw her older cousin again when it came time to eat lunch. As the girls are juniors, they are naturally seated together, and as Jiahui is a visitor, she sits at the head with Yu Yixiang.
Just as Yixiang was about to sit down, Jiahui pulled at her clothes and whispered an apology into her ear. “Okay, I was wrong, but I really didn’t know. You mustn’t blame me, alright?”
Yu Yixiang was startled after hearing Jiahui apologize for the first time in the many years of knowing her. Giving her a suspicious look, she turned her head away to speak to her two younger sisters. She’s also really regretting it, supposing that her own brains had been mush at the time, resulting in a bout of spoken gibberish, the absolute below-rock-bottom of which was personally admitting that she liked the other girl’s fiancé. How could she have the call to talk to Rong Jiahui? That she dared to come and eat at the table is already very bold.
Seeing Yu Yixiang ignore her, Jiahui was fairly mad. This girl is really… her personality can be so warm and soft, yet she loves to put up this pattern of not paying attention to her. Forget it, forget it, she’s probably caused a huge offense to her! Just ignore her right back!
The adults didn’t notice the little girls and the little calculations between them. After Old Madam Yu beaed and told the head maid to give her darling granddaughter Rong Jiahui her food, she suddenly seemed to remember something, and asked Lady Yu, “Xiaohe, I heard a few days ago that you have a guest in your home.”
Lady Yu says, “He’s the child of Ah-Chen’s old friend. Both his parents have pa.s.sed and he has no one else in the world to rely on, Heaven pity him. My husband felt truly sorry for him, so he recognized him as a sworn son. [2] He’s a very obedient and intelligent child, and quite a bit introverted, not liking to talk much and being kind of naive.”
Hearing from Lady Yu that he was all alone, Madam Yu can’t help but close her eyes and say a prayer, sighing. “Poor thing. He may have a strange character, but it would be hard for him not to. As you’ve both taken him in, be sure to treat him well. Don’t forget to put those minions in your estate in their place.”
Lady Yu nodded. “Your daughter will do so.”
Listening to what their grandmother and aunt are saying, the three Yu sisters’ heads were shrouded in a fog of confusion. What dead parents? What sworn son? Did they… all of a sudden get another older or younger brother?
Yu Yixiang is the closest in proximity to Rong Jiahui, so under the pushing of her two little sisters, she thickens her face and tugs at Jiahui’s sleeve. “Does your family have another member?”
Jiahui’s lips tweak. “Mn, a big brother.”
Teenage girls are always curious about boys. Hearing this, Yu Yimei sticks out her head from behind her older sister’s and asks, “Cousin, how does he look?”
Yu Yilian, the little bean, also speak out softly and curiously from behind her. “Cousin, I want to know too.”
How does he look? He’s got two eyes, a nose, and a mouth! Jiahui doesn’t dare to say anything in front of so many elders, only able to whisper mysteriously to the three, “I’ll say it in the garden later.”
After strenuously waiting for the meal to be finished, Jiahui was grabbed by the curious sisters to the pavilion in the middle of the river.
The four of them sat in a circle, their maids being left outside the pavilion. Seven-year-old Yu Yilian is the first to ask her, “Cousin, is your big brother handsome? Is he as handsome as my big brothers? Or my boy cousins?”
Rong Jiahui shakes her head.
The three speak out in chorus. “He’s not?”
“He’s more handsome than any cousin,” Jiahui says with no lack of pride.
Better than their brothers? The three of them can’t help but be stunned.
It can be seen from the appearances of the Yu family’s three young ladies that the family’s several sons could not be bad at all. Besides, these daughters are kept in the lady’s chambers and don’t see many men, and their brothers are quite a bit better-looking than all the men they’d seen before, so they think their brothers are the most handsome men in all the land. It’s for this reason that Yu Yixiang made the lifelong mistake of setting her sights on the outstandingly charming Liu Qianchen.
Upon hearing that Zhongli Luo was more handsome than all their brothers, their curiosity was immediately roused.
Yu Yimei also asked, “How old is this brother? What’s his name? Cousin, I know I shouldn’t ask about this, but this is so to avoid not even knowing his name when I go to visit Aunt and Uncle’s house someday.”
She gave a big smile and said, “His double-surname is Zhongli and single-name is Luo (络), as in ‘a never-ending stream’ (络绎不绝). He’ll be fifteen in the ninth month.”
Yu Yilian then asked feebly, “Cousin, what does ‘a never-ending stream’ mean?”
Rong Jiahui patted her head. “You, ah…go back and ask your teacher.”
Really now, she didn’t come over here specifically to give her little sister lessons.
[1] Being called a “tortoise” is the equivalent of being called a loose woman/b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Jiaze calls him a “tortoise egg” here.
[2] The term used here is 义子 (yizi) – lit. “righteous child”. In a nutsh.e.l.l, it’s an antiquated term for an adopted child – I thought ‘sworn’ was rightfully old-sounding enough.