The MC forgot the plot

- TWENTY-NINE -

二十九 A proposal of marriage in success and failure

There was news brewing in the capital, maybe it was Matriarch Meng's furious pray to the heavens for her clan to be relieved of the rumors that will soon stain their clan when reports on the village on the Southern border being plundered by the Mongols arrived. It struck terror to the people, the capital was far from the Southern border where the boundary between the Fu dynasty and the Mongols were just hundreds of miles away from each other, it still frightened them to the bones.

It was the war that would always make their souls tremble in fear; deaths of hundreds of people as they rot into the pillaged streets; soldiers leaving their hometowns to be deployed to the warzone only for a single letter to come back signifying their passing.

War was imminent yet it feels so far away from those affluent nobles but not those who are at the lowest level of the social hierarchy.

"Your father is busy, don't make trouble for now" Ban Rushi advised her children, afraid that they would make trouble and be further punished in the midst of a brewing war.

"We understand concubine-mother" the two say in unison, she watched in a content smile as her daughter taught her brother how to make this paper folding in different sizes and shapes 'origami' she describes.

For now, the scholar that she chose for her daughter was someone that lives in the capital and is not affiliated by any of the three power factions contending for the crown. He was an aspiring writer and owns a bookstore, when mentioned to her daughter her eyes lit up like those night pearls she heard when she was a maiden.

There was a wist of nostalgia in her brows as she remembers her past; the markets where she used to travel to see how their stores are being managed; learning accountancy from her old but wise father and being pampered and spoilt by him till she reached the age of fifteen.

That is when she was seen by her now current husband, who broke past through her innocence and made her fall in love like one of those foolish maidens stated in the scholars' stories.

It was then she knew that life isn't just like the stories she used to dream of having before.

"I did it! Look concubine-mother!" She was tugged out of her memories by Meng Jia Rui where he placed the flower blooming on his small hands.

"That's beautiful, this is an exquisite work, A'Rui" she patted his head softly in encouragement.

"Thank you concubine-mother" his plump doughy like skin blushed in pink as he pointed to his sister. "Jia Yi Jie's work is much beautiful than mine, she taught me how to make a flower out of paper. Isn't Jia Yi Jie also great?"

Ban Rushi let out a pleasing laugh and turned to her daughter with a teasing gaze. It was as if her Ari was back to her childhood self who was always seeking compliments and wanting to be acknowledged for her talent.

"Of course, our family's A'Yi and A'Rui both showed artistic talents! Even more so to all of the craftsmen from ten towns and eight villages!"

The two children laughed at her blatant exaggeration of their work but nonetheless accepted it.

Lunch began and they dine together, lush greens and no hint of red meat were placed in the small circular mahogany table. Since her daughter was banned to leave her yard they can only come to visit her once a week and get lunch at her yard then she has to be alone then for the rest of the week.

It was heartbreaking, to see he daughter being punished for someone's fault and being pushed into a scheme she knew nothing about. Maybe this weakness and tolerance of hers were also inherited by her daughter; even though she wanted for A'Yi to live a life free of worries she knew she was being delusional.