Chapter 226: Three Generations of the Lin Family, Nine Deaths Without Regret

“Lord Lin, I’m hosting tonight. Would you care to join us at Zhangtai Willow for a few drinks later? I wonder if you would do us the honor?”

At 5:45 PM, as the end of the shift approached, the officials of the Dianqian Division were visiting each other, having already arranged their evening entertainment.

Among them, the one invited most frequently was the grain-supervising official, Lord Lin.

When he first arrived last year, the situation was not like this.

Ultimately, it was a case of a father gaining status through his daughter. The third daughter of the Lin family was currently a favorite of Princess Xingguo. With the Princess’s Residence nearly monopolizing the government, saying the Lin family was comparable to the Prime Minister might be an exaggeration, but her casual words could influence Your Highness, and subsequently affect the state affairs, which was highly likely.

Lin Dafu lowered his head to brush nonexistent dust off his vermilion official robes, slowly sipped the remaining tea in his cup, and then said: “The rouge goose breast at Zhangtai Willow is indeed tender.”

He felt quite pleased.

Just then, an attendant hurried in, presenting an antique jade pendant with both hands. “Lord Lin, someone outside the office wishes to see you.”

Lin Dafu, who controlled the allocation of rations and the verification of weapons for the Imperial Guard, was definitely one of the hardest officials to see in the Dianqian Division. The many colleagues crowded into his office were long accustomed to this.

They assumed he would, as always, casually dismiss the visitor.

But the moment Lin Dafu caught sight of the jade pendant, his pupils constricted, and his hand holding the teacup trembled slightly. He quickly lowered his eyelids to hide some intense emotion, then stood up, bowed to his colleagues, and said with a smile: “Please, everyone, make yourselves at home. I’ll go take a look.”

After saying this, he gave a general bow and walked out.

His colleagues were slightly puzzled. Even if he wanted to see the visitor, he could have invited them into the office; why did he go out to meet them personally?

Presumably, some noble must have come to find him personally, right?

“Times change and fate shifts. Who could have imagined that Lord Lin would now become a popular figure sought after by the noble houses?”

A colleague watched Lin Dafu’s fat back as he walked away and sighed in a low voice.

Everyone was a colleague, so they naturally understood each other’s backgrounds. The reason they were especially moved by Lin Dafu’s life experiences was largely due to his status as a descendant of the former dynasty’s imperial merchants.

For such a person not to have been purged in the new dynasty was already very rare.

But Old Lin not only managed to keep most of his family wealth, but even because of his daughter, the Jiangbei Lin family showed signs of resurgence. Old Lin, perhaps, was not as foolish as he appeared on the surface.

Another colleague teased with a slightly sour but envious tone: “Who told us not to have such a capable daughter?”

At the end of the 5:00-7:00 PM period.

A carriage hurried out of the south gate of Central Heaven.

The driver found it very strange. As the head of the Lin family, his master was actually sitting on the carriage shaft, as if worried about offending the peasant woman inside the carriage.

After driving on the official road for a while, Lin Dafu wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, looked ahead for a moment, then turned back and asked respectfully through the carriage curtain: “Miss, how much further is it?”

“Five miles outside the city, the Old Man is waiting under an old willow tree.”

Zhao Ning’s voice, not loud but naturally cold, rang out from inside the carriage.

“Faster,” Lin Dafu urged the driver.

A quarter of an hour later.

He saw from afar that, by the side of the official road in the twilight, a thin, gaunt figure was sitting on the ground, leaning against the old willow tree.

Before the carriage had fully stopped, Lin Dafu jumped down. His round, fat body stumbled due to inertia, but as soon as he steadied himself, he trotted over.

When he ran close, he seemed to want to bow, but his hands were shaking uncontrollably. Before he could speak, his eyes turned red.

Only then did the Old Man slowly stand up and stretch his old arms and legs. “Do you have an Estate outside the city?”

“Yes.”

Lin Dafu’s voice trembled as he continued: “You… why have you come to Central Heaven?”

“Can I not come?”

Despite the concern hidden in his greeting, the Old Man bristled with anger and added: “Take me to your Estate to stay for a few days. Pick a nice house; my little granddaughter has been pampered since childhood and cannot live in a small house.”

“…”

Zhao Ning did not think she had been pampered.

She was extremely puzzled at this moment. Although she knew the Old Man was unfathomable, he usually lived in Great Zhao, so how could he order an official of the State of Wu around like that? And it seemed that Lord Lin even felt it was only natural.

A short while later, the Old Man and Zhao Ning got into the carriage, and the carriage rattled along, turning west outside the south gate of Central Heaven.

Traveling another six miles west along the official road, they turned into a private path lined with peach and apricot trees.

A five-courtyard mansion built against a gentle slope sat at the end of the private path, with a plaque reading ‘Estate’ hanging under the eaves.

Seasonal fruits and vegetables were planted in front of and behind the mansion, exclusively for the daily fresh food supply of the Lin residence in the city.

In the deep night, farm servants could be seen carrying lanterns, picking vegetables for tomorrow in the fields.

Lin Dafu personally called over the manager of the place, arranged for Zhao Ning to stay in the East Garden, which only the mistress of the house was qualified to use, and then led the Old Man into the secluded fourth-courtyard back hall.

The Old Man sat down in the main seat at the head of the room. Lin Dafu closed the door, turned and walked to a spot ten feet in front of him, suddenly straightened his robes, clasped his hands together, raised them above his head, and then dropped to his knees with a thud.

“Your subject Lin Dafu pays respects to Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

The first word he spoke trembled slightly, but by the time he said the last word, the sound of sobbing was already very obvious.

The Old Man withdrew his gaze from scanning the surroundings, frowned when looking at Lin Dafu, and said: “Sniveling and crying like a woman!”

“Your subject—”

Lin Dafu touched his forehead to the ground, his hands flat, wanting to say something, but he was choked with sobs and unable to speak.

After a long time, he sobbed and said intermittently: “Your… Your Highness the Crown Prince, His Majesty’s great vengeance has not yet been avenged. You, you must take care of your health.”

Perhaps because it had been many years, and seeing the Old Man had aged so much, Lin Dafu revealed his true feelings, his mountain-like, fat body trembling uncontrollably as he lay on the ground crying.

“I’m not dead yet.”

The Old Man’s expression gradually softened. “Dafu, what year were you born?”

“Replying to Your Highness, your subject was born in the 18th year of the Reform, 59 years old. Five years younger than you.”

“You are also approaching sixty.”

The Old Man, who rarely showed emotion, seemed to be lamenting the passage of time when he said this. “Get up and sit down. You’re at that age now, too.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

Lin Dafu walked to the guest seat below the Old Man, sat on the edge of the chair, and asked cautiously: “Why has Your Highness suddenly come to Central Heaven?”

“My little granddaughter misses her husband, so I’m letting the young couple sleep together.”

“…”

The information between the two was extremely asymmetrical. Lin Dafu didn’t even know the Crown Prince had descendants, but he didn’t dare ask more.

He only felt it was a great pity that the Crown Prince’s descendant was a granddaughter, not a grandson.

“How have you been these past few years?”

“Replying to Your Highness—”

Lin Dafu hurriedly stood up and, with the respectful attitude of reporting official business, said: “Over these years, your subject has been following your early instructions, sending my eldest daughter to Prince Yinyang, and my younger daughter… my younger daughter married the Prince of Lanyang. Now, my eldest daughter has given birth to a son and a daughter for Prince Yinyang, and my younger daughter is a widow.”

The Old Man waved his hand, signaling that he already knew all this and there was no need to say more.

Perhaps hearing the hidden bitterness in Lin Dafu’s answer, he rarely showed a touch of human warmth and asked: “With such arrangements, they didn’t blame you, did they?”

Lin Dafu’s eyes suddenly turned red, and tears welled up again. “Replying to Your Highness, my younger daughter has a stubborn temperament, and to this day, our relationship is not good.”

Speaking of this, he stole a glance at the Old Man, his heart full of conflict. His daughter’s life was almost ruined, but fortunately, she met Ding Suian. Old Lin could tell just from Lin Hansu’s glowing complexion and the frequency of her laughter in recent years that his younger daughter was truly happy.

He wanted to tell the truth, that the grand plan of restoring the nation should not involve the younger generation anymore; he wanted to secure a peaceful and happy second half of life for his daughter.

But he was worried that saying it would have the opposite effect. What if the Crown Prince did not agree, or took action to kill Ding Suian? What then?

While he was hesitating, he heard the Old Man sigh softly: “These years, it has been hard for you.”

This one sentence caused Old Lin, who had been holding back tears all along, to break down on the spot.

How many years had it been? Enduring humiliation, outsiders saw him as a clown, and his daughter saw him as an enemy.

At this moment, because of the Crown Prince’s affirmation, it all seemed worth it.

He saw him drop to his knees again with a thud, his round, chubby face covered in tears and snot, but there was a kind of firmness that had never appeared on his face before. “Your Highness! If the late Emperor had not selected my father from the wilderness back then, there would be no Jiangbei Lin family! The late Emperor’s words, ‘Manage finances for the state, benefit the world; bless the common people, so there is no more hunger or cold,’ still ring in my ears. For this legacy, three generations of the Lin family have nine deaths and no regrets!”