Chapter 7

“Father, you’ll support me, right?” Xixi rolled her eyes and tugged his sleeve. “Mother disagreed yesterday—said I was rash. But I’m grown. I know what I’m doing.”
Ding: “……”
He did not want to nod. This daughter he had waited years for—body stiff a long while—then helpless assent: “If you’re happy.”
As long as she was happy, let it be folly. He would catch her if she fell.
“Yes! Father’s the best!” Xixi hugged the old man.
“Only—that man may not agree?” Ding added. “If you truly like him, spend time together first—feelings—then talk marriage—”
“Then everything we prepared goes to waste?”
Xixi was thrifty. Supplies were scarce. For her wedding her parents had prepared months ahead. Much could not keep—feast food, wine. Use it today or waste it.
Red silk and paper cutouts had taken effort too. Take down and reuse later—more trouble.
She shook her head—marry today. No more jokes that no one wanted her. And the bet with Pang Yuejiao—sure win.
Ding looked stern but was a daughter-slave, more indulgent than Feng Yunxiang. Seeing her iron will, he said no more.
Fine. They would treat the boy in the house well hereafter.
**
Father won, Xixi ran to the Ge house and seized Ge Qingsong’s unworn wedding robes.
A wedding needed wedding dress. The stockade sold none; buying below the mountain took too long. Ge’s robes were meant for her anyway—another man could wear them.
Early still—the Ge couple slept. Xixi knew the house well from old visits. She climbed the wall into Ge Qingsong’s room and woke him.
Ge had come home feverish that day. Lin Suyan was frantic; second son sent for Lu Dongsheng—but at Lu’s house Xixi’s eldest aunt Xiao Xiumei turned him away with words.
Lin had to fetch another wandering doctor in the stockade.
Skill mediocre—but post-injury fever was common. He knew the cure; his decoction was bitter as gall. Ge drank, vomited, was forced again—until past midnight fever broke and he slept fitfully.
Barely asleep—someone pinched his philtrum and pain woke him.
“No more—I won’t drink, Mother spare me—Xixi?!” Red swollen eyes—Ge was startled by Xixi at the bed. “Why are you here?”
Remembering this girl could kill an ox with one punch, he went pale and crawled inward: “D-don’t— I know I wronged you—I was wrong—”
Xixi had thought she would rage and beat him. With someone better in hand she was calm. His craven look disgusted her. She straightened: “Where’s your wedding robe?”
Panicked, Ge did not understand.
Xixi glared: “Answer or I hit you.”
He jerked up a weak hand: “Robe? That cabinet—over there!”
She ignored him, found the folded bright red robe, shook it out.
“Short—but will do.”
Holding his robe, muttering as she left, Ge was lost: “Wait—you’re not here to beat me?”
Xixi glanced with disdain: “No time for that.”
His head spun worse: “Then the robe—what for?”
Xixi: “None of your business.”
Tear it in spite? She was angry but still loved him—could not bear to touch him?
Ge felt moved and guilty. Gritting through wound pain he sat and apologized low: “Sorry, Xixi. I shouldn’t have fled the wedding in impulse. I understand now—I only feel sisterly toward you. Toward Suyan—toward Suyan it’s love between man and woman. Stop loving me. Forget me. Find someone who treats you well.”
Years of knowing each other—he was not without feeling. He had not wanted to hurt her. His father was stubborn; he could not give up cousin Suyan—only this desperate path.
“??? Love you my foot. After what you did you expect I still like you? Do I look like trash?” Xixi found it absurd. “I’m busy with my wedding—no time for you. Later I’ll settle accounts.”
“Wedding?” Ge blanked—then panic: “You’re not forcing me—no! Let me go! I promised Suyan—I’ll care for her all my life, never fail her!”
Xixi: “……”
Not marrying this one was blessing. Who knew the usually gentle refined man had such a broken brain—devoted to Lin Suyan.
Devoted my foot.
Truly devoted—elope on the eve of wedding? Not think the scandal would make her the laughingstock and Suyan the fox spirit, hated by his father, pointed at by all?
Just selfish and weak.
Xixi would not speak more. She rolled her eyes and climbed out the window.
**
A few steps out she met Lin Suyan in the yard with a basin of water.
**
Suyan was pale and haggard—no better than Ge. Ge Jinchai blamed her for urging the elopement. After beating Ge he still raged—wanted her driven from the stockade to die alone.
Lin Suyan wept and threatened death—only then could she stay. But Ge’s father despised her; she knelt a day and a night.
Aunt Lin truly loved this niece—but niece could not outweigh son. Suyan knew it. Though knees swollen and body thin, once she could rise she came to nurse Ge at once.
Seeing Xixi, Suyan’s heart was tangled.
Remembering Xixi could have harmed her that day in the woods but did not, Suyan set aside her usual fragility. Legs aching, she walked to Xixi and bowed truly: “I’m sorry.”
She had always known loving Ge wronged Xixi.
But an orphan girl with nothing—if she wanted peace, no more fear—she could only cling to Aunt Lin who was kind enough, and cousin Ge with decent looks and temper.
Remembering parents dead, following brother’s wife through chaos—meals uncertain, death always near—Suyan gripped the basin, dared not meet Xixi’s eyes, whispered again: “Sorry—but I don’t regret it. I had no better choice.”
No better choice so hurt an innocent?
Xixi disagreed but would not argue. One glance—she walked around Suyan.
Suyan could not help following: “Believe it or not, eloping wasn’t my idea. I wanted him to persuade his father to break the betrothal and marry me properly. Father wouldn’t bend… Seeing him lose, someone said you were good-natured and forgiving—I suggested he speak to you plainly. Maybe you’d yield. He said you were domineering—you’d never agree… Days passed until that rotten plan—”
She had wanted Ge—not to make Xixi a wedding laughingstock. That was never her intent.
Xixi stopped: “Why tell me? Want me to say it’s fine?”
Suyan blanked—sourness in her chest: “No. I just… envy you.”
Parents and brothers alive, protected and loved—no need for guilty deeds. Skill everywhere—fear no bully. Free as wind, proud as sun—enviable, jealousy she could not hide.
Xixi had entered the mountains before chaos worsened but had seen the world below. Hearing Suyan—remembering before rescue, brother’s family slaughtered in war, she nearly raped in the street by soldiers—Xixi paused. She only said: “That man can’t bear weight. He may not be the support you want.”
Suyan startled—truth slipped out: “I know. He’s weak, soft-eared. Aunt is good to me; his heart isn’t bad. Not clever—but a clever man I couldn’t handle as easily as now.”
Xixi: “……”
Also true.
Ge was the joke—she never loved him, only used him as a tool.
Xixi turned gleeful: “Your business. Nothing to do with me now.”
She left in fine mood.
Suyan watched her stride into bright morning light like a free bird—stood long.
Until Ge’s cry from inside—a cup overturned—Suyan steadied herself, put on meek pitiable manner again, and entered with graceful steps.
“Cousin—you’re awake.”