I Am This Type of Woman

Chapter 1 - Jilted

NOTES:

Hóu Yé – Marquis, second of the five orders of ancient Chinese nobility

Hou Shizi – Viscount; Marquis’ heir

Bó Yé – Count/Earl (Count is a nobleman 1 rank beneath a Marquis)

Fǔ – household; official residence; mansion

Tanhua – Title given to third place ranker in the Imperial Examination System of China

Xiangjun (Country Lord) – Title given to wives or daughters of high ranking noblemen

Red sleeves adding fragrance – Chinese idiom (hóng xiù tiān xiāng) which means that in ancient times, scholars were accompanied by young and beautiful women.

On an autumn’s day in September the world was filled with the joy of a bountiful harvest. But in the Jingting Hou Ye Fu, the sound of breaking porcelain rang out from the Marquis’ study room. Looking more like a street hoodlum than like a dignified marquis, a man yelled epithets continuously.

“In this capital city of Beijing, he dares to offend my Ban Hua! I will kill him!” 

“Father, don’t be angry. I, your son will go out and find someone to beat him up.”

“You tell someone to beat him up and I will find the emperor to clean him up.” 

“Isn’t this enough?” yelled Yin shi, the marquis’ wife, kicking open the study door. She looked at the father and son who were creating a ruckus and scolded sharply, “Or do you think the rumours outside are not bad enough yet?”

Both Jing Ting Marquis and his son abruptly fell silent. The Marquis retracted his leg which had been stepping on a chair arrogantly, as his son, Jingting Hou Shizi, Ban Heng, pulled down his rolled up sleeves.

On that fine September day, Yin shi stared blankly at her fan trying to reign in her anger. She went straight to a chair and sat down ignoring the broken porcelain pieces on the ground. Some maidservants who followed her into the room immediately started picking them up with their hands.

The gentle clinking sound of the porcelain being cleaned up made her feel more angry. Throwing a fierce glance towards the father and son duo, she suddenly slapped down on the table in front of her, making the teacup on it jump.

“It’s just a person taught by a small family. Once he passed the Imperial Examination, he says that he wants to withdraw the marriage acting like he was forced by my Houfu (Marquis’ Household) to marry my daughter. What sort of trick is this?”

“Mother, mother,” Ban Heng leaned in front of Yin Shi and said with an ingratiating smile on his face, “Don’t be angry. A three-legged toad may not be easy to find under the sky but two-legged men are everywhere. If our family wants to take care of him, we just have to speak a few words. Don’t let such things anger you.” 

“I don’t want to be angry, but have you ever seen such a farce?”

Any mother whose precious daughter’s engagement was broken three times couldn’t help her bad mood. Yin shi has only one son and one daughter. Although the marquis was absurd and lazy, he was not a womanizer and there were no concubines in the household.

When her daughter was born, she had set a childhood engagement with a bosom friend’s son but who knew that the son would die at three years old.

At the age of thirteen, her daughter had been betrothed to Xie Qilin, the second son of Zhongping Count’s house (Bo Ye Fu). Who knew that just as she reached the age of marriage, Xie Qilin suddenly found “True Love” in a brothel and eloped with his “True Love”. Rumors spread through the whole capital that her girl was such a fool that she couldn’t compete with even a brothel woman. Otherwise, why would the son of an honorable family prefer to elope with a woman who couldn’t be seen in public rather than getting married to her daughter?