Chapter 184: Testing Intentions in the Garden, Clarifying Hearts in the Boudoir.

“Lord previously bestowed the grace of teaching upon Waner, and later guided Diminutive for Jiang Xuan, leading him onto the right path. Today, we have prepared some humble wine to express our family’s gratitude.”

Lin Fuyao adopted an extremely humble posture.

This was likely the effect of being ‘ennobled’.

In the eyes of Prince Yinyang, Ding Suian, a fifth-rank Lord of the twelfth grade, was nothing, but for the disgraced Lin Fuyao, having an ennobled son-in-law would allow her family to truly hold their heads high in Central Heaven.

Not to mention, he was only twenty years old, and now that he had caught the eye of Princess Xingguo, his future was boundless.

“Madam, there is no need for this. I previously served at the Princess’s estate, and now I am on good terms with Brother Xuan. Madam, just calling me Suian or Ding Suians courtesy name would suffice. Calling me Lord this and Lord that only makes us seem distant.”

“Hehe, very well. Then I shall presume upon my seniority and call you Ding Suians courtesy name.”

Lin Fuyao smiled kindly, feeling overjoyed in her heart.

The prefix to his remark about ‘making us seem distant’ was’serving at the Princess’s estate’.

But what Lin Fuyao heard was ‘on good terms with Brother Xuan’.

Lord was clearly positioning himself as a Junior.

As they were speaking, a slender figure with a composed gait slowly approached from outside the hall.

Lin Fuyao turned her head to look, her smile stiffening slightly. This morning, she had clearly helped her daughter choose a peach-pink robe with large sleeves and had even specially given her own Phoenix-head gold hairpin to Jiang Yuan.

Who knew her daughter would be so stubborn, insisting on wearing this plain, unremarkable goose-yellow skirt, with only a simple, almost shabby, green jade hairpin in her hair.

Lin Fuyao could not help but feel a sense of frustration, wishing her daughter would live up to her expectations.

Just as she was about to speak, she felt her sleeve being tugged. Turning around, she saw Jiang Xuan gesturing for her to be quiet while nodding towards Ding Suian.

Over there, Ding Suian was staring intently at Jiang Yuan without blinking.

The Jiang Yuan before him had gradually shed her childishness, and the late spring midday sun shining on her porcelain-white skin made it glow brilliantly.

Those Phoenix eyes looked exactly like someone else’s.

From her, Ding Suian caught a glimpse of what Lin Hansu looked like at eighteen or nineteen—pure and youthful.

Lin Fuyao’s gaze shifted between her daughter and Ding Suian, and she said with a gentle smile: “Waner, you often mention that if not for Lord’s teaching earlier, you might not have been able to break through your realm so smoothly. Today, as Lord is visiting, why don’t you hurry and thank him?”

“Thank you.” Jiang Yuan curtsied in greeting, but she did not use her mother’s term ‘Lord’, instead saying: “Waner thanks Brother for the grace of teaching back then.”

After saying this, she slowly raised her head, daring to meet Ding Suian’s gaze for a few moments.

She wanted to see if he could notice the outfit she had put so much thought into.

“Waner, there is no need for formalities.”

Unfortunately, Ding Suian did not show any particular reaction.

During the meal, Lin Fuyao did not continue to show excessive enthusiasm; after all, this was Ding Suian’s first time attending a family banquet, and creating an opportunity to meet had already achieved her goal.

After the meal, she left the table early, letting the siblings Jiang Xuan and Jiang Yuan accompany Ding Suian for a stroll and chat in the garden.

Jiang Xuan was very clear about his mother’s intentions. Not long after the three of them entered the garden, he ran off and disappeared.

The spring garden scenery was filled with clusters of flowers, and bees and butterflies were dancing.

However, Ding Suian and Jiang Yuan, strolling through it, were silent for most of the time.

“Waner, about how often does Prince Yinyang come to Central Heaven?”

In the end, it was Ding Suian who found a topic. Jiang Yuan looked straight ahead and replied: “In the early years, he would return to the capital once every year or two. In recent years… it’s probably once every three or four years.”

After saying this, as if to explain that her father was not neglecting their family of three, she added: “Father is busy with official duties and rarely finds the leisure to return to the capital.”

After this exchange, there was silence again.

Jiang Yuan walked quietly beside Ding Suian with ladylike steps, each stride the same distance apart.

By this time, he naturally saw some clues. Lin Fuyao being so enthusiastic suddenly, very likely meant she wanted to set him up with Jiang Yuan.

Given Jiang Yuan’s nature of considering her family in everything, she would most likely follow her mother’s wishes.

Speaking with a clear conscience, Jiang Yuan was very good, gentle and elegant.

However, with the relationship between her and Lin Hansu, this matter was not possible.

Ding Suian didn’t mind, but Lin Hansu would surely mind.

Being with an aunt and niece might be fun, but it wouldn’t sound good.

Ding Suian thought for a moment and suddenly said: “Waner, do you remember that before you left Lanyang last year, you and I had a long talk?”

“Brother, are you referring to the profound discussion about the difference between the zither and the zheng, and pleasing oneself versus pleasing others?”

“Yes. You said at the time: My preferences are not worth mentioning; as long as it makes my mother happy and is beneficial to my cultivation, then it is good.”

“Correct.”

“But in my view, if everything is done with others’ joy as the priority, without any personal likes or dislikes, it is not conducive to cultivation.”

Ding Suian stopped walking and deliberated: “If one ignores self-reflection and suppresses one’s true nature just to obey parents’ orders or conform to worldly eyes, it is like forcing plants to go against the four seasons. Not only can it not last, but it also goes against one’s true nature. True filial piety and propriety are not about blind obedience, but about first clarifying one’s mind and seeing one’s nature, establishing the Foundation of oneself, only then can one attain freedom.”

Ding Suian wanted to advise Jiang Yuan to first think clearly about what she wanted, and not listen to all of Lin Fuyao’s arrangements.

But when Jiang Yuan heard this, she first thought of the scene over half a year ago when Ding Suian went to the Law Academy to find her, and she had nervously and implicitly indicated that her mother would not agree, thus rejecting him.

Therefore, the only consensus the two reached in this conversation was ‘don’t listen to Lin Fuyao’.

However, their understandings were worlds apart.

“My mother is different now than before.”

When Jiang Yuan said this, she subconsciously wanted to lower her head due to shyness, but halfway through, she straightened her slender neck and looked sideways at Ding Suian.

Just then, a breeze carrying the fragrance of flowers blew gently, causing a few strands of dark hair to flutter.

In Jiang Yuan’s mind, the action of Maternal Aunt lifting her finger to tuck her hair behind her ear suddenly popped up, so she instinctively imitated Maternal Aunt’s appearance, lightly lifting her jade finger and slowly tucking the hair beside her cheek behind her ear.

Although it did not have the highly seductive, mature, and alluring quality of Lin Hansu, it had its own unique charm due to her slight shyness and youthful imitation.

That night, the sky was full of stars.

Jiang Yuan tossed and turned on her boudoir bed.

The conversation in the garden during the day, Ding Suian’s expression, and even the details when the breeze blew past, all appeared repeatedly in her mind.

‘Knock knock~’

Around the Hai hour, the room door was suddenly knocked.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me, Mother.”

Hearing the voice, Jiang Yuan slipped on her soft shoes and opened the door, only to see her mother standing outside holding a brocade quilt.

“Mother, what are you doing?”

“Mother will sleep with you~”

Lin Fuyao didn’t wait for a reply and squeezed past Jiang Yuan into the boudoir.

“…”

Ever since her younger brother was born, Jiang Yuan had never slept in the same bed as her mother again.

After lying down on the inside of the bed covers, her body couldn’t help but feel a bit stiff, and even her breathing subconsciously softened.

“Waner, what did you and he talk about in the garden this afternoon?”

Lin Fuyao was unusually energetic, lying on her side with her head on her arm, looking at her daughter with eager eyes.

“Nothing… nothing important.”

Jiang Yuan replied softly.

Indeed, they hadn’t talked about anything important in the afternoon. In her understanding, that exchange of words in the afternoon was merely a tacit, shallow probing between the two amidst the breeze and flower shadows.

Probing each other’s intentions.

But when Lin Fuyao heard this, she became anxious and said earnestly: “Waner, Mother has been worried sick about your affairs! Lord is valued by Princess Xingguo and has a bright future. If you two can successfully get together, in the future you will rise with him and can also build a bond of sharing weal and woe. In the future, you won’t necessarily be any worse than those legitimate daughters from high-ranking families.”

“Mother!”

Jiang Yuan felt uncomfortable being stared at by her mother’s burning gaze, so she simply turned over, facing the wall, and said: “With my background, what qualifications do I have to be picky? You said it yourself, he has a bright future and might not look upon me favorably.”

“Tsk! What kind of talk is that!”

Lin Fuyao, who had been praising Ding Suian to the skies just a few moments ago, immediately changed her tone: “He is just a twelfth-grade founding Lord, and your father is a first-rank Prince of our Great Wu! Why would he not look upon my Waner favorably?”

“…”

Jiang Yuan really disliked her mother’s deep-rooted behavior of fawning over the powerful and looking down on the humble. She wanted to retort, ‘Has Father’s first-rank princely honor ever let us mother and daughter enjoy any benefit?’ but she worried that this would pierce her mother’s heart, so she kept her mouth shut.

Lin Fuyao, however, raised her hand to turn her daughter’s body back, leaned closer, and whispered in Jiang Yuan’s ear: “Mother tells you, a man pursuing a woman is separated by a mountain; a woman pursuing a man is separated by a layer of gauze. Back then, your father was the noble Heir of Prince Yinyang. Your grandfather invited him to a banquet at home, and he got drunk and stayed overnight. That night, Mother brought soup to serve him, and half-reluctantly, half-willingly, I captured your father, and that one night, I conceived you.”

“Mother! Stop talking!”

Lin Fuyao was sharing her own experience, but it made Jiang Yuan’s face flush red with shame, and her ears burned hot.

She could understand that the reason her mother was saying these things was to imply that when necessary, one should not hesitate to use some extraordinary means.

This left Jiang Yuan not only ashamed and embarrassed but also added a hint of annoyance.

Lin Fuyao didn’t care and continued: “Tsk! It’s just us mother and daughter here, what can’t be said? Mother wants to tell you that there are definitely more than one or two people in Central Heaven eyeing him now. At critical moments, you have to be willing to go all out.”

“Mother! It’s been twenty years. Is the life you exchanged with such means truly comfortable? Did you and Grandfather value Father’s title as Heir back then, or did you value the person himself?”

Jiang Yuan ultimately couldn’t hold back.

As soon as these words were spoken, Lin Fuyao fell silent instantly.

Yeah, has these twenty years really been comfortable?

With the Lin family’s financial resources, even if they hadn’t climbed up to Prince Yinyang back then, if they had chosen an honest and steady scholar or a low-ranking official to live a stable life, would they have lived with more confidence?

At least they wouldn’t be looked down upon everywhere, right?

A moment later, Lin Fuyao’s soft sobbing sounded in the boudoir.

Well, the mother she made cry, she had to coax herself.

“Mother, don’t cry anymore. Daughter spoke inappropriately, Daughter was wrong.”

Jiang Yuan apologized against her will, but Lin Fuyao, like a sulking child, suddenly turned over and gave her daughter her back.

“…”

After pondering for a moment, Jiang Yuan gently moved closer, lifted her arm to wrap around Lin Fuyao, pressed her cheek against her back, and murmured: “Mother, Daughter knows that Mother’s planning for me is all for my own good. Daughter will not hide it from Mother, I do like him, but precisely because of this, I do not want to let these feelings become a calculation, only to invite contempt. I respect him, and so I also want to win his respect.”