Simply Trading

Nor was he the only one that everybody was worried about.

As he discovered that evening, when they split up after their evening meal, and Qin Feng lingered next to the campfire. Only to be accosted by a tall, burly fellow the moment that he was alone.

Du Yan grunted as he sat down beside Qin Feng. And gave the younger, slimmer man a nod. "I take it that Brother Changhai has already spoken to you about the matter?" he asked, with a jerk of his chin in the direction of Lin Liushui, who was drinking with the rest of the soldiers. And drinking heavily too.

"I know now, to keep my mouth shut, regarding certain matters. Like the Sect. And my former Sword School. Yes. He has told me what I need to know."

The big, brawny fellow sighed and let his shoulders sag at that. His lips curled in a weak smile, as he nodded again. "It seems both of us have our own problems. No. That is not entirely correct. I should have said the three of us. Sanlang has been receiving hints that he should be thinking about his marriage. After all, his older brother had been engaged for close to ten years, to a girl that is more than twelve years younger than himself.

"Fortunately, Brother Changhai has not been pressured into doing anything similar. And his mother"s reputation at the Capital has prevented most of the matchmakers from approaching her too blatantly, to try to fix a marriage for him."

His mother"s reputation? That was something new. Qin Feng could not recall if he had ever heard anything regarding the d.u.c.h.ess. What sort of reputation did she have, that could make everyone so wary of her?

Then he remembered. Lady Xie Nianxue was her mother, so it was only to be expected. Perhaps she wasn"t as mild-mannered as she had appeared, when he visited the City of Yanyun. Still, that was nothing to be too worried about.

"So, you are the only one who has a wife waiting for you? One that has been properly approved and all that?"
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Du Yan sputtered then, and his face went a glaring red as he coughed, and tried to recover. All the while, his eyes flashed at Qin Feng, as though he was promising revenge for that little poke. The younger man quickly held up his hands, and grinned, to show that he was just teasing.

He thought that he was ent.i.tled to do that, at least. After all, he had been putting in a great deal of effort, to help the big fellow reach his woman.

Du Yan made a rude noise in his throat, and patted his chest, before looking up at Qin Feng. And chuckling again. Which made it clear that he had already pushed that little joke about his impending marriage aside. "You are right about that. So I suppose I should be the one to tell you all about it. After all, I am in a similar situation myself. Not that there is much to tell. It is just one of those bothersome love stories between a much older man and a younger woman."

He paused for a moment then, making Qin Feng wonder if Du Yan was caught up in some strong emotion by the task ahead of him. But the wry grin that had appeared on his face told him otherwise.

"Well, it all started some ten years after the Duke had buried his wife. His first wife, I mean. She had perished during a particular virulent outbreak of the Red Sores Disease in the Westlands. The First Ducal Prince was only five years old at the time, I think. In any case, the Duke was far too busy handling the outbreak and its consequences to think about remarrying, and sent anyone who mentioned such a matter running from the Westlands with his lips awry.

"Or bleeding from a few fresh wounds.

"Honestly, I think it was just the double impact of the disease ravaging his fief and the death of his first wife that distracted him from caring for his children. In any case, they were largely ignored while they were young. Which probably resulted in the Ducal Princess ending up the way that she did," he added with a shrug of his broad shoulders.

Qin Feng naturally disagreed with that. He had been largely left alone when he was a young child. In fact, he had been torn from his village, hadn"t he? And everyone that he had known. Didn"t he turn out fine?

But Du Yan was still speaking, so he didn"t try to interrupt:

"In any case, it was a good ten, eleven years after that, when the Duke had to visit the Shu Capital for one reason or another, that he stumbled upon a dispute. I cannot remember exactly where it happened though. The stories are a bit mixed up there. Some say it was in a garden, and there are others that cited other locations, like at a restaurant or at the Royal Court itself. In any case, the Duke saw Brother Changhai"s mother then, for the first time.

"Of course, the Old Marquis was a longtime friend of the Duke and he might have been the one to introduce them. She was still a student at the Royal Academy, and only fifteen, sixteen years old at the time. Yet, for some reason, they somehow fell for one another. And they were married after a whirlwind courtship. There were a few jokes regarding the arguments between the Duke and the Old Marquis because of that. But Lady Xie, the Marquis" wife, apparently supported her daughter"s choice."

Qin Feng felt no surprise to hear that. Lady Xie was protective of her children, true. But from what he had seen, he did not doubt that she would stand behind them, whatever they chose.

"Well, to cut a long story short, the eldest of the Duke"s children, whom you have already met, was not particularly fond of her stepmother. There were a few incidents after Changhai"s mother arrived at the Westlands, but the Duke soon set her in her place. The First Ducal Prince, on the other hand, did not remember his own mother too clearly, and was so neutral with regards to his father"s remarriage. Or if he wasn"t, he didn"t really show any opposition to it at the time.

"And a year later, Changhai was born. That was when things got really heated, between the d.u.c.h.ess and her stepchildren. And the Duke was caught in the middle."

"That was why he married off his daughter then?"

Du Yan gave out a soft laugh, as soon as he heard that. "No, not immediately. He sent them both to the Capital. To broaden their horizons, he said. Well, Li Changtian made a good number of friends while he was there, which satisfied his father entirely. His daughter, on the other hand, ended up pledging herself to that Zhao fellow. And immediately started pressuring her father to marry her off."

He paused, to give out a quick bark of laughter. "Something that Brother Changhai"s mother might have manipulated him in agreeing to, come to think of it. In any case, she was married off by the following year. To a worthless, landless, Court Official whose only gift was his ability to curry favor with the powerful. Oh, and seducing young, innocent women.

"Unfortunately, he is rather active at the Capital, and has a good bit of influence thereabouts. And that is exactly where we are headed," warned the burly fellow.

"So we shall need to be very careful, once we get there."

* * *