Governor Sun had lost face once already. His expression had now gone very dark.
“Someone — teach Tian Shi how to start dancing.”
The moment the words fell, a nanny dressed in flowered clothes with vivid painted patterns on her face emerged from among the dancing performers — the very instructing nanny who had led Tian Weiér to her room earlier. Her face wore an exaggerated smile, and if one looked at it too long it became unsettling.
She walked to a spot ten steps from Tian Weiér and stopped, then slowly drew from her sleeve a golden whip.
Xiao Nanhui had never seen a whip of such length — long yet extraordinarily thin, like a supple willow branch in early spring. But seeing the involuntary terror that flashed across the faces of the nearby dancing performers, she knew this whip was nothing like its appearance suggested.
Tian Weiér looked at the nanny before her with confusion, her breathing growing heavier.
Then the golden whip began to move — like a coil of lightning concealed in the air. When the nanny lashed it out, it was like a bolt of lightning striking the earth, erupting with a crack that rang like a thunderclap.
The tip of the whip fell just a few inches from Tian Weiér’s toes, sending her stumbling back a step in fright. Before she could react, the next lash followed immediately, landing just behind her — and she could only scramble forward to dodge.
Lash to the left, lash to the right — Tian Weiér was compelled, almost involuntarily, to jump about across the floor. From a distance, she looked like a clumsy person attempting a dance. She didn’t dare stop — the moment she hesitated, the whip would flick over her ankle like a tongue of fire, and in the wake of the numbness would come a drilling, bone-deep pain. Without noticing, she was moving faster and faster, sweat streaming down her forehead, the carefully arranged coiffure coming loose, hairpins and ornaments scattering across the floor. She nearly tripped on one and almost fell. The mocking laughter of the guests reached a crescendo.
Then, from the center of the hall, there was a sharp crack.
A white jade cup had been thrown to the ground by someone, shattering to powder. The one who had thrown it was breathing hard, his face flushed with anger as he looked around at the guests — the Jia gentleman.
Governor Sun raised an eyebrow. “Master Jia? What is the meaning of this?”
“What kind of head of a household stands by and allows his own new bride to be humiliated in his hall like this? And you — all of you — have you all lost your sense of decency?”
Xiao Nanhui was stunned by this sudden reversal, and began to worry whether this Jia gentleman, who spoke with such pointed directness, was going to be able to walk out of here alive.
As it turned out, the banquet fell silent for a moment before bursting into laughter.
Governor Sun joined in with a few chuckles, though that smile looked more frightening than no smile at all.
“Master Jia is a person of standing, and should know that once a woman has crossed the threshold, she is a member of the Sun household. You are an outsider — not of kin or connection to her. I would advise you not to let a small matter lead you into actions unbefitting your station.”
These words left a third part of room — they were an invitation for the Jia gentleman to take the offered step down with some dignity. But the other party did not accept the gesture at all, and refused to let the matter be put to rest.
“The Sun household is a distinguished family and should know the principle that a woman who has married into a household cannot be lightly exposed in public. To treat her in this manner — how is she any different from a slave-registered dancing girl?”
Governor Sun’s expression turned completely dark. “What exactly do you want?”
“If Governor Sun regards this woman as no more than a common dancer, I am willing to offer gold and silver to purchase her. What does the Governor say?”
This time, Xiao Nanhui had a fairly clear picture of what was happening. And looking at Tian Weiér’s expression as she gazed at the Jia gentleman — eyes brimming with tears, face flushed with both gratitude and humiliation — she was now about eighty percent certain what kind of story this was.
A young gentleman and a beautiful young woman who had pledged their hearts to each other — then one day the sky changed, their fated union was severed, and the young gentleman, unwilling to accept it, had followed her across a thousand li.
She could see it plainly enough, and so could everyone else in the room.
What no one had anticipated, however, was that Governor Sun did not flatly refuse.
“What Master Jia proposes — I still need to consider it. Why not let Master Jia stay a few more days in my estate together with Master Yanzi? A matter of only a few days — think of it as taking in the scenery for a while.”
The Jia gentleman found himself caught — he had no good way to refuse, and could only agree for the time being.
Tian Weiér was led away. The banquet reverted in an instant to its earlier festivity, the guests laughing and talking as before, nothing apparently changed — yet every person sat with a few more private calculations turning in their minds, and none of them knew about the others.
---