A Wuxia Tale: Union

A Little Something

(JIANG)

My people came back without any solid information about that rumor Mei heard from a woman who approached my lover yesterday at Jiang Estate.

It's like it's all a make believe by that woman.

Or that woman purposefully approached Mei to tell him that rumor about the master of Jiang Estate.

And if that is the theory I will follow, I know that woman was just a front. Someone sent her to Mei's way and I have a feeling I know who that someone is. That someone who is willing to move the strings of her puppets to push her will.

I went to our ancestral home to seek my grandmother. I found her in the garden's hothouse, her private domain. Together with her flourishing baby plants and precious collections of little bonzai trees she ordered to be shipped from different provinces, and some even came from the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

"Did you pay someone to approach Mei yesterday?" I asked that question with what I only assume as a grim look on my face. I am surely not pleased about this.

And my grandmother is like me, she is not pleased as well.

"That fast? Your lover surely didn't take his time to let that rumor sink in. He confronted you fast enough," Grandmother snipped a portion on her little bonzai tree she is pruning. If I am correct, this particular plant was a gift from my father a few decades ago. It's still alive, proof of my grandmother's talent in nurturing things. Including grudge...

Stubborn old witch.

"I told you to stay away from Mei, didn't I?" I said while gritting my teeth.

"Yes, but I gave that order about a week ago. I didn't realize my people are too lazy to move fast that the order was only followed yesterday. I hope your lover is not too shaken with that rumor he heard?" Grandmother gave me a questioning look from under her eyelashes. "Is he well? Mei?"

I inhaled deeply to hold on to my temper. "Don't bother about Mei. In fact, you will be doing me a great favor if you will erase him from your mind. Just think that Mei didn't exist. Leave him be."

"Impossible. He is with you. You are building an estate for him. He will bask in our fortune. He will live a luxurious life just because he lets you use him like a common trollop in bed..."

I swept away all the potted plants on the counter to my right. Everything fell to the ground, most of the clay pots shattered when they hit the floor of the hothouse.

"WuBao!" Grandmother was shocked at my action. I calmly arched an eyebrow and smile at her. "You are living in luxury because of the hard work of the men in this family. You just contributed money when Grandfather married you, but that money has been multipled a hundred times already by my father, my uncles, my brother and I. And we surely had spent more than enough on all your clothes and capriciousness, like these plants. Don't start talking about Mei having an advantage because he is with me. I worship the ground he walks on."

Grandmother's face was set stubbornly, "I would never understand your fascination for another man..."

"Love. It's love, grandmother. But I won't also expect you to understand that word."

"And don't try to make me understand. It will be a wasted effort on your part." Grandmother snickered delicately before going back to her pruning.