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Shielding his daddy behind his tall frame, Zhou Jinian lowered his eyes halfway, concealing their sharpness. "Eldest Uncle just wants to preserve Wenshu's reputation, doesn't he? Fine."

"Jinian!" Lin Jin tugged at his son's sleeve, trying to stop him.

Zhou Jinian turned his head and patted his daddy's hand reassuringly. He wanted to smile, but after so many years of solemnity, he found he had forgotten how, and could only give up.

"But if we take Xie Ning in as a study attendant, we'll have to pay him wages. As for that...?" Zhou Jinian began laying his trap.

Grandmother Zhou replied, "Your eldest uncle's household will pay his wages."

"You've arranged things well, Grandmother. But how could taking him in as a study attendant silence all those wagging tongues? I'm afraid the villagers will say that our Zhou family not only broke off the engagement but also enslaved and humiliated the Xie family. We might lose more than we gain, Grandmother."

Grandmother Zhou frowned, finding for the first time that talking to a scholar was exhausting. "Can we control everything other people say? We'll deal with that when the time comes. Take him in first."

Zhou Jinian had expected this from his grandmother. Whenever anything went wrong, she always found a way to make her children and grandchildren shoulder the blame. If her third son could not bear it, she still had her fourth son.

Grandmother Zhou had borne seven children. Aside from her second child, a daughter, her fifth and seventh were both ger, and all three had already married out.

Helping his daddy over to sit at the table, Zhou Jinian sat with his back straight, upright as a pine. He merely gestured to his grandmother to take a seat. "Please sit, Grandmother."

Since Grandmother Zhou had the strength to slap people, she surely needed no one to help her walk.

"I have a plan. Eldest Uncle's family only needs to pay Xie Ning's wages in full, all at once, and Xie Ning can choose another worthy husband. If he marries first, no one can blame Cousin Wenshu." With that, Zhou Jinian picked up the teapot and poured some tea.

Lin Jin stared at his eldest son, a little dazed. He kept feeling that his son had changed a great deal over the past few days.

"Really?" Grandmother Zhou asked curiously, unconsciously drawing her legs up to sit cross-legged on the chair.

Zhou Jinian nodded.

Grandmother Zhou asked again, "But who would dare take Ning-ge'er of the Xie family?"

Lin Jin also looked at his son curiously.

"I will." Zhou Jinian's tone was resolute.

Lin Jin was the first to react. He slammed a hand on the table. "Nonsense! Jinian!"

Zhou Jinian restrained his daddy, then addressed Grandmother Zhou again. "As long as Eldest Uncle pays the wages in one lump sum, I'll choose a day to visit the Xie family and propose marriage. Grandmother, you can go discuss it with Eldest Uncle."

It was a good idea. It would both accommodate her eldest grandson Wenshu and preserve the Zhou family's reputation. When the time came, they could tell everyone that Zhou Jinian had stolen another man's love, while Wenshu had yielded to his younger cousin. Wenshu could even gain a reputation for kindness.

Having thought it through, Grandmother Zhou nimbly climbed down from her chair. "You asked for this yourself. I'll go get you the money right now." With that, she hurried out of her third son's home.

She ran into Zhou Sanfeng coming toward her. Zhou Sanfeng walked with a slight limp, and his mother hurried out without even returning his greeting. Puzzled, Zhou Sanfeng hurried inside, his limp growing more pronounced.

"Jin, why was Mother here?" Zhou Sanfeng asked as soon as he entered. Seeing his eldest son sitting in the little courtyard too, he asked in surprise, "Jinian? Have you finished reviewing your lessons?"

Zhou Jinian quickly stood and approached his father. His father was only thirty-five this year. Working beneath the sun all day had tanned him dark, but life's hardships had not crushed him. He remained gentle, his smiles toward his family sincere.

"Father." Zhou Jinian helped his father sit down.

Zhou Sanfeng was easygoing. He merely felt that his eldest son had grown much steadier over the past three days, but he did not think deeply about why.

Zhou Jinian unhurriedly poured tea for his father and daddy.

"Jinian, explain yourself properly. What are you trying to do?" Lin Jin asked anxiously.

"I intend to go to the Xie family to propose marriage and settle an engagement with Ning-ge'er." Zhou Jinian handed tea to his parents.

Lin Jin's face was full of disapproval, while Zhou Sanfeng was still bewildered.

"I've already bound up my hair, and in another two years I'll reach twenty. It's time I married." Zhou Jinian had only just broached the subject.

Feeling that he had let his son down, Zhou Sanfeng cut in. "Our household is poor. It's my fault for being an incapable father..."

Although the Zhou family was wealthy by village standards, everyone near and far knew that the third Zhou son's household was poor. Anyone marrying into it would not only have to serve a lame father-in-law but also take on all the Zhou clan's household chores, large and small. Moreover, Zhou Jinian was at least a tongsheng, and Grandmother Zhou looked down on humble households. She only wanted the men of the Zhou family to marry above their station.

Another reason was that Zhou Jinian himself had found no one he liked. In his previous life, after he passed the provincial examination, the court appointed him magistrate of a remote, impoverished county. But Zhou Jinian, impatient for success and advantage, married the legitimate daughter of a vice director of the Central Secretariat and remained in the capital as an official.

The vice director of the Central Secretariat had a sickly legitimate daughter. He also considered himself highborn, and his requirement for a son-in-law was that he take no concubines.

As it happened, Zhou Jinian's household had been poor since his childhood. It would have been one thing if only outsiders looked down on them, but even the Zhou family's matriarch, his own grandmother, treated his father and daddy with disdain. Zhou Jinian gritted his teeth and swore to rise above the rest, so his father and daddy could enjoy boundless glory in their old age.

Thus, the vice director of the Central Secretariat found a worthy son-in-law, and Zhou Jinian gained a shortcut in his official career.

Unfortunately, her illness was congenital after all. On the eve of the wedding, the vice director's legitimate daughter passed away. Zhou Jinian gave her a lavish burial as his principal wife and never took a concubine afterward.

Zhou Jinian, however, entered the Central Secretariat at a young age. Afterward, his career rose steadily, like sesame flowers blooming higher with every joint, until he became director of the Central Secretariat, also known as the right chancellor.

In his previous life, Zhou Jinian never married anyone else for the rest of his days, even earning a reputation as a devoted man.

So when Zhou Jinian heard his father say this, a turmoil of feelings filled his heart. As their son, how could he possibly disdain the parents who had brought him into the world and raised him?

Zhou Jinian said, "Father's kindness is my example. But I want to settle this engagement because I must marry Ning-ge'er."

"Why?" Both his parents were full of questions.

Because he owed Xie Ning his life. Zhou Jinian lowered his eyes, with no intention of saying it aloud.

In his previous life, after Zhou Wenshu broke off his engagement with Xie Ning, no one ever came to propose marriage again. Not only did Xie Ning become the laughingstock of the whole village, but Father Xie, with his feudal thinking, believed that "raising a son to adulthood only makes an enemy." Afraid that keeping Xie Ning at home would make him hate his own father in the future, he hurriedly sent Xie Ning to Zhou Jinian's home to become his study attendant.