#zufu | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

drwcn · 1 year ago

Text

The Fantastic Mr. Zhang

Premise - Prime Minister Xie Wei is not above sending Zhang Zhe to prison for his "crimes against humanity". His father-in-law Minister Jiang, near retirement but still in full possession of his faculties and impeccable memory, thinks what goes around comes around. Yan Lin thinks he really need to teach his son not to start family drama.

Year eighteen of Zhenghua was a good year. The winter snow had melted away to a mild spring, which eased into a hot but forgiving summer. Devoid of floods, droughts or pests, such a good year delivered a bountiful harvest as the autumn colours dyed the land a beautiful crimson and gold.

Jiang Boyou smiled at the final tax reports on his desk and contemplated that perhaps this year would be a good year to hand in his letter of retirement and resign from his post. After 30 some years of dedicated service in the Ministry of Revenues, a man ought to go out on a high.

Just as he was sure there was nothing that could top his good mood, two sets of hurried footsteps echoed outside his office window. Before he could wonder who his visitors could be, two distressed voices called out -

"Grandfather!"

Now, Jiang Boyou considered himself a lucky man, blessed with many grandchildren. His two amazing girls, Xuehui and Xuening both provided wonderful offsprings - kind of heart and bright of mind, though at times stubborn to a fault. Took after their mothers they did…

Thank the gods for small mercies.

Jiang Boyou could think of no reason why Xuehui's two older boys, both past the age of guan and serving in court, would be gracing his bureau's doorstep today and in such a rush. On the other hand, Xuehui's two girls are not yet fifteen and much too young to even know how to find him during the work day.

The same could not be said for Xuening's twins.

Jiang Boyou pursed his lips to stop himself from grinning too obliviously. He's been expecting this for some time now.

"Come in."

Xie Tian and Xie Yun - the illustrious Prime Minister Xie's beloved heir and heiress, nineteen years of age, elegant and eloquent, the envy of the nation and the land's delight - all but fell through their grandfather's doors.

"You have to speak some sense into Father, wai-zufu!"

"You have to save Mr. Zhang, wai-zufu!"

Let it be known that Jiang Boyou has long come to the conclusion after much contemplation that his second (and favourite) daughter's husband despite his intellect and cunning, is in fact, an unhinged petty son of a bitch.

Not one soul in the capital does not know the depth of love and devotion Prime Minister Xie and Lady Xie of the Jiang clan have for each other. It's been more than twenty years, surely his not-so-one-sided rivalry with Zhang Zhe, honorable and much admired Minister of Justice, would be over by now?

Besides, Zhang Zhe himself has long since moved on. After the Xue rebellion, he married briefly, an act most assumed and many still believed was undertaken out of filiality obligation to his clan more so than love. Nevertheless it did not lessen the pain of his lady wife's passing not two years later, after a long and difficult labour which produced a living daughter, named Ruoyao. Perhaps there really was something misfortunate about his destined life course that ironically proved correct the false allegations spread by his first fiancée all those years ago. Since then, the handsome, righteous, admired Mr Zhang declined all further attempts by well meaning people to lead him into any future matrimonies.

It was only later, through circumstances beyond his control, that Zhang Zhe came into possession the custody of an orphaned son of a distant cousin. The boy was named Zhang Lei, six years older than the Xie twins, well mannered, precocious with a set of earnest bright eyes. Zhi Yi, the Princess Le Yang, had joked upon meeting the boy that he was sure to break hearts in the future.

Zhang Zhe, a good ol' stick-in-the-mud who once told off a murderous Duke Xue that he had no business beheading anyone because his official forms of arrest was filled out incorrectly, was of the adamant opinion that "breaking hearts" was an inappropriate conduct for a proper junzi - a true gentleman - and said his ward will be doing no such thing.

Except of course, Zhang Zhe has never been extremely successful at predicting the course of love: his own, or anyone else's.

Which was how Jiang Boyou found himself in his current predicament.

Xie Tian and Xie Yun bowed to their grandfather, because as anxious and angry and tearful as they were, they were still their father's children. Etiquette was pretty much muscle memory at this point.

Before Xie Tian, as the older brother, could take a breath and properly explain the situation, his sister had rounded the table and flung her armour-clad body around their grandfather, sobbing -

"Father has gone insane! He is going to kill Minister Zhang!"

Jiang Boyou wanted to say that he highly doubted Zhang Zhe was in any real danger, but then again, he also wanted to tell the children that he suspected their father has always been insane.

He still hasn't forgiven Xie Wei for kissing Ningning's forehead in the carriage all those years ago. And instead of apologizing as a gentleman of his station ought to, that crazy man followed up his atrocious action with a shameless "I do what I want" speech right outside the palace gates the next morning on their way to court assembly. The sheer AUDACITY! Jiang Boyou prayed day and night when Ningning was pregnant that the gods saw it their way to give Xie Ju'An a daughter to dote on and love. Because surely...surely one day he would understand Jiang Boyou's pain.

Now it seemed that day has finally come.

"There, there, Yun-er, what is the cause of such talk, hm? Come come, wai-zufu will call for some tea and sweets. Let us discuss this."

"F-father, F-father said -" Hiccupping, Xie Yun wiped her face with the back of her hand, still clutching her riding whip.

Jiang Boyou took in her attire. Clearly she'd just arrived back from training camp. An all female regimen - it was an initiative started by the Grand Princess Le Yang, who never did find any marriage prospects worth her time after she was rescued from Yue, but did find a lifetime dedicated to bettering the lives and rights of girls and women everywhere very much worth her time.

Xie Ju'An couldn't -- for all his silver tongue and cunning ploys -- talk his precious only daughter out of enlisting. Jiang Xuening took one look into the steel of her daughter's determined eyes and knew the argument was lost, and so didn't even try.

"Tian'er, would you care to explain what has your sister so beside herself?" Jiang Boyou asked calmly, as if he doesn't already know. Although he did wish his daughter had not chosen today to pay respect to the Buddhist temple with Princess Zhi Yi, because her family's propensity to make complete shipwrecks of themselves in her absence was unparallelled .

His grandson nodded and spoke plainly. "Father found out."

"About?"

"Everything. Absolutely everything."

---

About half a year ago, Xie Yun was assigned her first out-of-city task, as part of the protection entourage accompanying several officials from the Ministry of Justice in their investigation of a string of murders. The location of interest was a smaller town a day's journey from the capital, and for the first time in nineteen years, she was free and away from her parents' watchful eyes.

Zhang Lei, twenty five years of age and every bit his yifu's protege, was a junior investigator on the team. Four years ago, he had brought home honour for the entire Zhang Clan by achieving first place in the national exams, which occurred once every three years. In doing so, he earned the zhuang-yuan title that admirers and colleagues at court always believed his adoptive father Zhang Zhe would have deserved, should he have had the opportunity to partake in the exams during his youth.

True to his upbringing, Zhang Lei was humble and righteous, and followed his father's footsteps in the Ministry of Justice in lieu of more lucrative positions available to him.

And perhaps it was well and good that he did, for if he didn't, he would have never seen Xie Yun in all her glory that night: her long ebony ponytail whipping in the wind, her armours of red and white, and her sword, reflecting the steely moonlight in her eyes.

"Zhang-daren, are you alright?" Her hand had been warm when she pulled him to his feet.

On his way to catching the killers, Zhang Lei had inadvertently stolen a heart and lost his own.

(The fact that an impeding disaster was enfolding before their very eyes was lost on none of the witnesses present; not the senior investigators nor the senior regimen officers. They could only wince in second-hand anxiety whilst watching the two youngsters gaze into each other's eyes and fall off the proverbial cliff of common sense and into the vast deep sea of sentiment. Not that…anybody was about to tell the Prime Minister that. They all would rather live, thanks.)

This all came to a head when Marquis Yan Lin's twelve-year-old boy - an martial brat through and through - accompanied his father to Xie Manor several hours ago. Yan Lin was there to discuss official court business, but his stinky bratty kid was there to hand in the extra homework his Uncle Xie had assigned him as punishment for driving off his tutors. Yan Lin never did forget what an effective and scary teacher Xie Wei was…and well, his kid could use the discipline that he was apparently too soft hearted to dish out.

After court business was handled and the homework was deemed adequate, Xie Wei invited the Yan father and son to stay for lunch.

While chewing on a stick of cucumber, Little Yan said offhandedly, "Xie-bofu, when Yun'er jiejie and Zhang-dage get married, does that mean she won't be able to spar with me anymore?"

Xie Wei had choked so violently on his tea that Yan Lin legitimately thought he might die.

Smacking his son up the back of the head and eliciting a whiny "ow, Dad!", Yan Lin laughed nervously and said, "Xiongzhang, don't mind xiao-Zhao. He's a just child; he doesn't know what he's talking about."

"I do too!" Argued Little Yan, rubbing his head with a pout. "I saw Yun'er jiejie and that Zhang Lei together two days ago at the night market. They were holding hands and acting all love-y just like Xie-bofu and Ning-bomu, and they were buying lanterns and trinkets, and eating snacks -"

Yan Lin kicked his son under the table lest he gave Xie Wei an aneurysm. "Well what were you doing at the night market, young man? You’re a-niang clearly told you you're grounded. For the month."

Yan Zhao grumbled guiltily, "Well technically I wasn't at the market. I was on top of it."

What Yan Zhao lacked in patience with literature and qin, he made up for with his near-prodigious talent in martial arts. Particularly his qing gong skills -- skipping across rooftops undetected in the bustling night market was practically a joke.

"And they were….alone?" Xie Wei managed to grind out between tightly clenched teeth, once he found his breath again. "Unchaperoned?"

Yan Lin could've sworn the edge of his cousin's eyes were lined red, like a beast provoked.

Head empty no thoughts just honesty and gossip, Yan Zhao shrugged his shoulders and replied as if he couldn't tell what deep graves he was actively digging for all parties involved. "Well no. They weren't alone."

Xie Ju'An relaxed incrementally. Perhaps Ning'er knew about this and had sent a maid along. As sore as Xie Wei was about his wife keeping something of this magnitude from him, at least their precious girl had her mothers' awareness and wit as protection.

Then Yan Zhao kept talking and promptly shattered all his hope.

"Tian-gege and Yaoyao-jiejie were there too."

Yan Lin closed his eyes and cursed himself for not checking the huangli. He should not have left his manor today.

And his idiot son, his sweet, wonderful, but goddamn stupid son, just kept talking - "I suppose it's only natural that Yaoyao-jiejie would like Tian-gege. Tian-gege is the youngest zhuangyuan on record in the last century." - indeed, a year ago, Xie Tian made his father and mother proud by earning the highest rank in the national exam, a day shy of his eighteenth birthday. Turns out he was a great student, just not when his dear ol' dad was his teacher - "And Yaoyao-jiejie is modest and shy, though she is very well liked - even Her Majesty our new Empress likes her -"

Desperate, Yan Lin picked up a roasted chicken thigh and stuck it between his son's teeth. "Please, son, just focus on your lunch."

There could be no mistake to whom the "Yaoyao-jiejie" Yan Zhao was referring. She was Zhang Lei's sister, Zhang Zhe's daughter, the new Empress's favourite lady-in-waiting: Zhang Ruoyao.

There is an old saying: 君子报仇十年不晚. Ten years is not too late for a gentleman's revenge.

Of course, there's no conceivable reason to believe that Zhang Zhe actually instructed his two children to seduce the Xie wonder twins as an act of vengeance for losing out to Xie Wei 20 years ago while they vyed for Ningning's affection, but Yan Lin knew telling Xie Wei that right now would be wasting his breath.

He could only hope Ningning and Zhi Yi came home quickly from the temple before his cousin did something insane. Again.

Fin.

or TBC?

SERIES 《龙凤呈祥》

Premise: Xie Wei's children come of age, which is only the beginning of everyone's problem...

1. The Fantastic Mr. Zhang （Tumblr | AO3)

2. A Silly Thing (Tumblr | AO3)

Note: to be updated, pls check notes for reblogs.

57 notes · View notes