Stepping out of the Imperial Prison, Jia Huan felt deeply satisfied.
[Criminal Guilt Value -- Grade 9 Upper]
[Participation -- 30%]
[Reward -- Cloud Ladder Vertical Leap Lightness Skill, Proficiency -- Peak of Perfection]
[Experience Points -- 10/10]
His experience points were full, and a profound, mystical power flowed through his regular and extraordinary meridians, filling every acupoint. Jia Huan instantly felt refreshed and brimming with qi and blood.
The sickly, oppressive chest congestion and occasional pain that he used to have were now completely gone.
This was what martial artists often called inner force!
Only with inner force could one be considered a Jianghu martial artist!
"This is just my first day on the job, and life couldn't possibly be any more exhilarating."
Humming a traditional opera tune, Jia Huan spurred his horse into a gallop.
Three quarters of an hour later, before he even reached home, he ran head-on into a carriage on Ningrong Street.
"You unfilial wretch, strip off that uniform this instant!"
The carriage stopped, and accompanied by a loud roar, a refined and solemn-looking middle-aged man stepped out.
It was none other than Jia Zheng.
"Father." Jia Huan dismounted and offered a gentle bow.
Jia Zheng's face was livid. Because his emotions were too furious, the veins on his forehead bulged and throbbed as he sternly rebuked:
"I have no shameful concubine-born son like you! If the Embroidered Uniform Guard Office hadn't sent an official warrant to the mansion, I would still have been kept in the dark by you, a wretched wretch who acts first and reports later. You've certainly learned that trick inside and out! Good, come with me to the office to resign from your post right now!"
"I won't go." Jia Huan's attitude was resolute.
Jia Zheng was so angry that his face turned red and breathless, and stepping forward step by step, he roared:
"Ignorant and stupid creature, the Embroidered Uniform Guard is such a filthy and despicable place-are you trying to ruin my reputation or what?"
Among the upright scholars and gentlemen of the imperial court, which of them did not loathe the Embroidered Uniform Guard? He never expected this worthless concubine-born son to eagerly rush right up to them. Wasn't this intentionally making a laughingstock of him?!
Jia Huan did not say a word. Pedantic Confucians didn't get any more typical than this.
"Are you going or not?" Jia Zheng demanded.
Jia Huan looked him straight in the eye and said in a deep voice:
"If I stay idle and do nothing, I get beaten and scolded by you. If I focus on my studies, I violate the distinctions between primary and secondary wives. Now that I've finally managed to secure a job, you point fingers and give orders again. Are you really trying to drive your son into a dead end?"
"Impudent!" Jia Zheng flew into a rage, his hair bristling. "What kind of tone is this unfilial son using to speak to me?"
Jia Huan wore a placid expression.
He had not yet grown his wings and was temporarily powerless to contend with the feudal ethics and moral codes of this world; otherwise, he would meet setbacks at every turn and be unable to take a single step.
Once he grew strong enough, possessing the power and qualifications to say no to the rules, there would naturally be great scholars to debate the classics for him. Should this pedantic Confucian before him dare to nag again, he would directly slap him across the face!
He had transmigrated here in the first place, so his so-called family affection was very thin; moreover, Jia Zheng's attitude toward the original owner had been utterly abysmal.
"Master, what are you shouting about?"
An exquisite carriage drove out from the Rongguo Mansion, carrying none other than Madam Wang, who had hurried over upon hearing the news.
"Master, what wrong did Huan'er do by seeking self-improvement and joining the Embroidered Uniform Guard? How can you try to stop him?"
Madam Wang wore a smile, the few wrinkles at the corners of her eyes smoothing out, and looked benevolent and kind.
She was none other than Jia Zheng's wife and Jia Baoyu's legitimate mother. Because children born of concubines were all required to regard the primary wife as their mother, she was also Jia Huan's nominal mother.
"A woman of the inner quarters, what do you know?" Jia Zheng was so angry he was seeing red.
"Huan'er, go back into the mansion first." Madam Wang cast a glance his way. "I will get the master to calm down."
To her, if the concubine-born son's path to the imperial examinations was severed, then he would pose not the slightest threat to Baoyu.
Having joined the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he would be disqualified from taking the imperial examinations for the rest of his life!
Besides, seeing the concubine-born son in the estate on ordinary days always irritated her. Now that he left early and returned late, it would also put her in a pleasant mood.
This concubine-born son was useless to begin with, and once he entered the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he could only mingle at the very bottom. Why bother cutting off this little ambition of his? The longer he stayed in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the more disgusted the master would become with him.
Jia Huan turned and left. He was naturally well aware of Madam Wang's petty calculations, but these calculations happened to work to his advantage.
"Huan'er, my Huan'er!"
Just as he returned home and before he could even take a sip of hot tea, a beautiful woman in her thirties rushed in clutching a handkerchief.
"Such a big matter, why didn't you discuss it with your mother!" Concubine Zhao looked at her son's imposing Flying Fish Uniform, touching the fabric here, then reaching down to the Embroidered Spring Saber at his waist, only to pull her hand back in fright:
"Huan'er, the Embroidered Uniform Guard is too dangerous! Your mother is worried sick and scared to death. Let's just honestly and prudently stay at home."
Looking at his jumpy mother, Jia Huan said firmly:
"My mind is made up. When your son rises step by step, I'll make you an Imperially Invested Lady, too!"
What?
Concubine Zhao was overjoyed to hear this and pulled Jia Huan into a tight embrace.
"Huan'er, your sweet tongue makes your mother's heart flutter, but since when has a concubine ever been granted an imperial title? People will laugh at us if word gets out."
"Don't try to be a hero at the office. Back down when things happen, or simply resign if it really comes to that. We might live a bit frugally, but we have food to eat and clothes to wear..."
"Your son knows." Jia Huan hurriedly gave a perfunctory reply, cutting short his mother's nagging. "I'm tired for the day. I'm going back to my room to rest."
Just as he was about to return to his room, light footsteps came from the corridor. A woman dressed in a light pink long dress walked over; she had a tall figure, sloping shoulders, a slender waist, and a cold, breathtakingly beautiful face.
"Tanchun, you've heard about it too?" Concubine Zhao pointed at her son's Flying Fish Uniform. "Look, how imposing Huan'er is!"
"Imposing?" Jia Tanchun's expression was icy:
"Incompetent and cowardly, and now he thinks he's imposing just because he puts on a uniform? Born a man in the Jia family, instead of pursuing the imperial examinations to enter officialdom, you join the filthy and dark Embroidered Uniform Guard instead-you are a complete disgrace!"
Jia Huan turned a deaf ear.
This was his biological elder sister, Jia Tanchun.
She had been raised by Madam Wang since she was little, excelled in poetry and calligraphy, and was proud and haughty. Although they were siblings, their treatment was poles apart. Tanchun usually lived in Autumn Fresh Studio in the Grand View Garden.
"I'll have a job and a salary from now on. Does that make me a disgrace to you?" Jia Huan stared fixedly at her and said in a deep voice:
"Don't think that just because you've read a few battered books, you can stand on some moral high ground and act all loftily arrogant. You climbed up to their noble branches and gave our mother-son pair the cold shoulder. I have no complaints right now; this is your choice, and I cannot harbor resentment just because I wasn't chosen. However, if you're angry because your own brother engaging with the Embroidered Uniform Guard implicates the Jia family's reputation, then get the hell out right now!"
"You..." Tanchun was momentarily at a loss for words. She never imagined that the brother who had always been incompetent and foolish would actually dare to talk back to her.
She said chillingly:
"Jia Huan, do you think you're something special just because you're a mere Embroidered Uniform Guard Strongman? If I were a man, I could place high in the imperial metropolitan examination and serve as a minister at court!"
Jia Huan sneered, pointing straight at her:
"If you were a man and posed a threat to the Wang family, you'd probably have it even worse than me. You always assume that our mother-son pair brought this on ourselves, but if my mother hadn't played the fool, could she have raised the two of us under the Wang woman's very nose? I've been suppressed, overlooked, and mocked ever since I was a child. How could my personality not be inferior and cowardly?"
Concubine Zhao started, turning her face away with slightly red eyes. Huan'er really had a major illness and suddenly wised up and understood so much!
The chill on Tanchun's fair cheeks grew even more pronounced:
"Absurd! Blaming your own incompetence on others-Jia Huan, you really have disappointed me to the core!"
"If you still listen to me, resign from your post immediately, or else don't ever ask anything of me again!"
Jia Huan, however, smiled, and said word for word:
"As long as you don't ask anything of me, everything will be just fine!"
"Ask you?" Tanchun acted as if she had heard the greatest joke in the world, and said decisively:
"Just how much capability do you have, I wonder? What could I, Jia Tanchun, possibly need to ask of you? If I ever had such a thought, I'd rather smash my head against a wall and die!"
"It's a deal, then." Jia Huan couldn't be bothered to talk nonsense and walked straight back to his room.
"Young mistress, stay for dinner." Concubine Zhao wanted to ease the relationship.
Tanchun flung her sleeve and left:
"Just looking at him makes me full!"
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