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A Moonlit Mountain (2)
T/N: Translated by Jen on Broken Jinsei! Please do not repost my translations! All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
Liu Wen returned home and had this matter reported to their mother. Madam Liu naturally was unwilling to let her daughter marry that destitute son of the Shen family, so immediately arranged Liu Ru Yan’s marriage. At present, the Liu, Ji, and Song family were all busy forming marriage ties with one another; therefore, marrying a daughter to the Song family couldn’t be more fitting. Moreover, the three families were all powerful aristocratic families. If her daughter marries over, she can also steadily live out her life.
Madam Liu was thinking, Liu Ru Yan and Shen Ting Yuan’s affair needs to be swiftly cut clean. If the wedding date gets dragged out, who knows what changes there might be. As long as Ru Yan marries, she will immediately give up on being with Shen Ting Yuan.
Thus, just two months after the engagement, the wedding was hastily arranged.
But, Liu Ru Yan was unwilling.
She was never someone that would easily lower her head, also unwilling to obey her family’s wish, marrying a man that she has never met before.
She feigned obedience, pretending to have given up in front of her mother, but secretly bribed the servant woman guarding the gate on the day of the wedding, making all the necessary preparations. On the day of the wedding, she directly knocked out her personal servant girl with a drug, and with a dagger hidden in her sleeve, she secretly escaped.
The entire way was smooth. However, just when she was about to reach the side gate, she got called out by someone.
“Ru Yan?”
Hearing this voice, Liu Ru Yan froze.
She turned around and saw her eldest brother Liu Yu standing in the night. The bright red lanterns for the wedding day weren’t able to strip away sickliness on him. The summer clothes were thin, making his figure appear even more thin and frail. In the dark shadows, he was like a thin pole of bamboo.
“Ru Yan, you’ll be marrying soon, where are you going at this time?” Liu Yu asked in doubt.
“…..I…..” Li Ru Yan bit her lip and bluntly said, “Elder brother, if you want to take me back, then just take me back. I’m going to say this here, if you really have me married to the Song family, then I will directly hang myself.”
Despite saying such horrifying words, Liu Ru Yan was very nervous inside.
This elder brother of hers appeared thin and frail normally, but when really ruthless, he was nevertheless quite scary.
Liu Yu frowned and asked, “You want to leave together with that Shen family’s young master?”
Unknown as to why, Liu Ru Yan relaxed a breath, obediently confessing, “Truthfully speaking, he’s unwilling to leave with me. He also feels that I should marry to the Song family. He said he’s unworthy of me.” After saying this, she wanted to smack her own mouth, hating herself for being excessive, too obedient and honest in front of her elder brother.
The night wind blew past. Liu Yu’s sleeves got filled by the wind. He fell silent for a while, lowering his eyes and calmly saying, “Then go.”
After saying this, he turned and left.
TN: All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
Liu Ru Yan was shocked and wanted to say something to her eldest brother, but her eldest brother had already walked far. Time was pressing. She hurriedly bent down and exited the side gate, escaping from the Liu manor.
Before she’d gone far, she even heard the voice of her eldest brother dismissing the servants.
“The third miss isn’t here, go have a look in the east side.” Liu Yu said.
Unknown as to why, Liu Ru Yan felt the tip of her nose turn sour.
• • •
Liu Ru Yan, dressed as a servant girl, knocked on the Shen family’s door.
The one that came to answer the door was Shen Ting Yuan.
He knew tonight was Liu Ru Yan’s wedding and has been restless the whole time. He kept feeling that someone will come knock on the door.
When he saw Liu Ru Yan appearing to be in a hurry, her face still wearing the wedding makeup, yet shabbily dressed as a servant girl, he was greatly shocked.
“Liu third miss…..” He muttered.
“Are you going to come with me or not?” Liu Ru Yan heavily panted as she asked, “If we leave the city now, we can still make it. Let’s go look for a moonlit mountain, and live out our lives on our own, no longer concerning ourselves with the Liu family, Shen family, and whatnot.”
Liu Ru Yan knew, based on Shen Ting Yuan’s personality, she certainly won’t be able to obtain an answer and will need to continue pressuring him for a while. But, this time, Shen Ting Yuan just sighed and said, “Liu third miss, now that you have tossed aside everything to come find me, if I don’t agree to your request, what will that make me?”
Pausing for a moment, he said, “Wait for me, I will go apologize to my parents and bid them farewell.”
As he spoke, there was determination that has never existed before.
Liu Ru Yan stared as his back figure, feeling slightly astonished inside.
She suddenly recalled, in the past, Shen Ting Yuan had been constrained by the things he hated, dealing with those officials and nobles all day, thus he was always unhappy, also speaking timidly. But, now, he has struggled free from those troublesome matters and only need to spend time with his books and paintings. Perhaps, precisely because of this, his complexion would thus change.
Shen Ting Yuan’s parents very quickly came out together. Seeing Liu Ru Yan at the door, the two of them were both incomparably surprised.
Shen first madam composed herself and said, “Liu third miss, have you made up your mind? If you really want to spend your days with Yuan’er, then it will be desolate mountains and treacherous waters, no more wealth and luxury. If you turn back now, you can still live a stable and prosperous life. Ting Yuan isn’t an insensible person. He certainly won’t continue to bother you.”
Liu Ru Yan nodded and said, “I’ve decided. Leaving the Liu family, that is already severing all my paths of retreat.”
Shen first master has a complicated look, “At present, I’m a convicted criminal, having nothing in my possession, also having no attachments. Ting Yuan staying by my side is also a waste. If you really have someone you love, then go happily live out your days.”
Shen Ting Yuan knelt down before his father and kowtowed, saying: “This son is unfilial, unable to pay back the debt of gratitude for one’s upbringing.”
Shen first master shook his head and said with a sigh, “What ‘unfilial’? It’s all meaningless. Having taken a trip back from the gates of hell, to be alive in this world is already a fortunate thing. As for the other matters, I no longer have the energy to care about. To be able to live is already a good thing. As for the debt of gratitude for raising, don’t forget, your younger sister is the future Zhennan Wangfei. With her taking care of us, madam and I won’t have a hard time.”
Shen Ting Yuan nodded his head before finally getting up.
He took a step and turned back to look at his parents. After walking to the door, he bowed once more before finally going out.
He tightly held Liu Ru Yan’s hand and said, “I’ll go rent a horse carriage. We’ll leave the city right away. Where do you want to go? Which town? Or head south?”
Liu Ru Yan’s eyelashes fluttered as she muttered, “Anywhere is fine, as long as there’s a moonlit mountain. To ask the mountain and search for water[1], won’t it be wonderful?”
To ask the mountain and search for water, won’t it be wonderful?
Wonderful.
• • •
The Liu family’s daughter escaped on the night of her wedding, eloping with that destitute Shen family’s eldest son!
Even though the Liu family tried to hide it in every way possible, with such a grown person going missing, it was impossible to keep the matter concealed.
For the sake of not angering the Song family, the Liu family found another daughter to shove onto the wedding sedan.
The Liu family has two di daughters. Ru Yan had gotten taken away by the Shen family’s eldest son, while the fourth miss Ru Hua had entered the palace to be an imperial concubine. At present, the only ones left that can marry into the Song family were the shu daughters. As such, the person marrying in her place was naturally a shu daughter too.
But, Liu Ru Yan’s reputation was known throughout the capital, practically equal to Shen Lan Chi’s fame back then, so how can she be randomly replaced? As soon as the sedan curtains were lifted, the matter was instantly exposed.
This move increasingly angered the Song family, making the Song family feel that the Liu family was intentionally deceiving them. Furthermore, using the shu in place of the di, this in itself was practically a slap to the Song family’s face.
The Song and Liu family not getting along, this was precisely what Lu Zi Xiang wanted to see the most. He let someone go fan the flames, causing this matter to become known all over the capital.
Great Chu’s customs were open-minded. If encountering ‘a daughter eloping’, this kind of matter, the commoners don’t like criticizing the girl for not abiding by decorum, just liking to denounce the girl’s family for breaking up the lovebirds, forcing her to marry another. For a time, the Liu family had the reputation of ‘selling their daughters for glory’. There were even harsh scholars that relentlessly mocked them during this time, writing out a play, praising that Liu third miss for being true to her feelings and mocking that Liu family for being ignorant.
Admittedly, the Liu family indeed had the intention of selling their daughters for glory——Liu Ru Hua entering the palace and Liu Ru Yan marrying to the Song family were all such cases——but such intentions, how can it be explicitly stated?
Lu Zi Xiang even felt that the flames weren’t big enough, suddenly thinking of the Shen family again.
In the capital city, who didn’t get along with the Liu family the most? Which family absolutely won’t become allies with the Liu family?
Naturally the Shen family.
In merely a month, Lu Zi Xiang, under the pretext of ‘pardoning the world’, exempted the Shen family from their past crimes and returned their family wealth, re-employing Shen Xin Gu. For the sake of displaying his generosity, he even had the An Duke title, which Shen Rui had previously returned to the late emperor, bestowed down too.
Just, Shen Rui at present has already gone to live in seclusion in jianghu, so this ‘An Duke’ title naturally just fell on Shen Xin Gu’s head.
At present, Shen Xin Gu was no longer an imperial in-law, his old faction also having scattered afar. In fact, his family doesn’t even have a successor anymore, practically equivalent to an extinct household. In this way, Shen Xin Gu can only be tightly grasped in Lu Zi Xiang’s hand, becoming that empty titled duke, used to restrict the Liu family.
When the commoners of the capital heard, it was another wave of gasps.
This Shen family, within a year, has experienced falling and rising, and in the end, became a duke family again, moving back to that An Duke Manor in the east district that has been passed down for several generations, so how could it not make others gasp?
The day the An Duke Manor re-hung its horizontal signboard, the commoners all gathered around the front gate to join in on the excitement. However, they just saw Shen Xin Gu lead his madam and a few servants quietly through the gate with a calm look, without the slightest look of joy from regaining wealth and power, seemingly not caring about this inscription board hanging high above the door. Even if moving back to their old residence, the Shen family didn’t purchase anymore servants, their days very simple, completely different from when they were powerful nobles in the past.
For Lu Zi Xiang to do this, there were also some selfish motives.
With the An Duke Manor behind her back, why would Shen Lan Chi need to reside in the Zhennan Wang Manor anymore? That would be too unreasonable.
Sure enough, just as Lu Zi Xiang expected, after Shen first madam returned to the duke manor, worrying for her daughter, she immediately had Shen Lan Chi brought back home. In this way, Shen Lan Chi returned to being that Shen family young lady that was pampered and envied by the entire capital.
Not only so, she was even waiting to be married.
Miss Shen at present was different from the Miss Shen of the past. She was now engaged, just having yet to marry.
As for her future husband, it was the heir of the Zhennan Wang Manor, so they can be considered to be of matching status.
The commoners had a saying———This heir originally should’ve had great future prospects before his Majesty, yet now, for the sake of avoiding his future wife, ran off to the northern pass to seek refuge, scared to the point of abandoning his future prospects. Don’t know how much does the heir not want to get married.
This engaged couple was enthusiastically gossiped about by the commoners.
• • •
Time gradually flew by. In the winter of this year, Shen Lan Chi received Lu Qi Yang’s letter, learning that he was already on his way back to the capital.
If everything goes smoothly, then he can return to the capital before the end of the year.
[1] This phrase is a very poetic phrase. It also ties into Shen Ting Yuan’s pen name, Wenshan, which literally means to ask the mountain. The phrase itself sort of means to ‘seek answers in nature’ or to examine nature. The second part, ‘search for water’, other than literally searching for water source in the mountains, it also means to search for inspiration.
T/N: I can understand why the author set the wedding at night, for the convenience of her escape, but traditionally only one type of wedding takes place at night. Usually before the evening, the bride would’ve already been escorted to the groom’s home. Only for ghost marriage (冥婚), which usually involves marrying the dead, or when encountering ghosts, will the bride be escorted at night. This is because it’s believed that yin energy is heavy at night, when ghosts and spirits are active, thus considered an inauspicious period, usually associating with funerals and such.
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