The Valued Lady is Truly Dominant

Song Zhiyuan was a man of his word. He accompanied Song Ci through a midday meal, the very picture of a loving mother and filial son. After the meal, he walked with her in the courtyard to aid digestion and kept her company in idle conversation.

Song Ci said, ”You have a filial heart, that your mother understands. You needn’t spend too much time keeping company with this old crone. You have your own affairs to see to.”

Song Zhiyuan personally supported her by the arm and said, ”How much time does it take to share a meal with you and walk off the food? Surely Mother isn’t disdaining her son?”

”How could I? I’m pleased in my heart and don’t have enough of it.” Song Ci pressed her lips in a smile and patted the hand he had placed on her arm with her right hand, saying, ”Don’t worry too much. Your mother hasn’t thought of leaving yet.”

Song Zhiyuan’s throat tightened. He said helplessly, ”Mother, what are you saying.”

Song Ci had no wish to deliver her last instructions too early and unsettle him, so she changed the subject and said, ”These past few years you’ve taught Yu by your own hand and personally opened his schooling. That is as it should be. I saw at Cheng’s full-month banquet that Gu Madam heard a few unpleasant words; in her heart she is likely still resentful over Su’er’s resignation from office. The older she grows, the more she fixates on such things. If you’re willing, persuade her a little more. I fear she may again think of pulling Yu to her side to raise.”

Hearing this, Song Zhiyuan replied in a cool tone, ”Mother, set your mind at ease. As for Yu’s upbringing, your son will not entrust it to another.”

Not even to Gu Madam as grandmother. She had already raised one Song Lingsu poorly; he could not allow her to spoil another legitimate eldest grandson. That child was the future and hope of the main branch.

Therefore, however busy he was, he personally kept control over his eldest grandson’s basic schooling. Those he arranged to be at the boy’s side were selected through layer upon layer of scrutiny, only the most suitable being sent. In this matter, even the boy’s mother, Guan Shuyan, was not permitted to interfere.

It was not that he distrusted Guan Shuyan; he simply refused to let his child repeat his father’s fate.

Song Ci listened and said, ”Gu Madam’s temper runs to the left, but young husband and wife, old-age companion—after all, it is for the sake of Su’er and his brothers and the grandchildren below. You should bear with her a little.”

These years, watching what the principal Madam Gu had done, she could see that the bonds of husband and wife had indeed been worn somewhat thin. Many times, Song Zhiyuan would settle himself in the small study.

Song Zhiyuan gave a brief assent and reminded her to mind the step before them.

Seeing his expression of disapproval, Song Ci did not press further. Toward this eldest daughter-in-law, the principal Madam of the house, she had already done all that duty and kindness demanded. Song Zhiyuan was a man with his own plans; if the ox could no longer be turned back, he would simply see that Niu Rong raised the child in the most proper fashion.

She herself would not be around for that long; she could only say that each has his own destined lot.

After walking off the meal, Song Zhiyuan escorted Song Ci back to her main room for her noon rest. Leaving Chunhui Hall, he went to the small wooden-and-bamboo retreat where Lin Qing lived.

When Lin Qing heard that Song Zhiyuan had come seeking an audience, she was somewhat surprised and hurried out to pay her respects.

For these nine years Lin Qing had remained at Song Ci’s side, serving as her near-exclusive physician, already breaking the vow she had made back then to stay only three years, and instead lingering on for many.

She had also never married. Even when, in recent years, that Imperial Physician Chen from the Imperial Hospital sent an Official Matchmaker from the Prime Minister’s Mansion to seek her hand, she did not consent. Now, dressed in plain garments, her bearing gentle and graceful, she merely lowered her head slightly after saluting Song Zhiyuan.

Song Zhiyuan, mindful of the proprieties between men and women, did not step into her rooms, but stood in the courtyard and had the people around them move off a little, though all remained within sight.

”Doctor Lin, you have tended my mother these many years. Compared to the Imperial Physicians, you know her condition far better.” Song Zhiyuan came directly to the point and asked, ”I won’t beat around the bush. In your view, how much longer can my mother’s body hold out?”

Lin Qing was startled and lifted her head at once.