Character Count: 3,038
Date: March 19, 2023, 08:32:41
The male protagonist had actually coughed up blood and fainted?
Yu Zhou couldn't remember anything like that happening in the book. The protagonist had been described as so healthy he could run eight kilometers without trouble. Now he was coughing up blood and fainting? Something was off.
Remembering that he had just smashed an object meant to provide the protagonist with a valuable opportunity, Yu Zhou felt a little guilty.
Surely the two incidents weren't connected… right?
With that thought in mind,
Yu Zhou hurried after the crowd toward the Zhao house, wanting to find out what had happened.
Because the Zhaos had produced a scholar and were about to marry the son of a wealthy county family into their household, they had recently become the most talked-about family in the village. Whenever something happened there, almost every idle villager came to watch.
Before Yu Zhou could ask anyone for details, he heard Mother Zhao wailing.
"Oh, my son! Didn't we already discuss this? Why are you coughing up blood again? Qiao Nan is beautiful, yes, but he can't give you children. If you marry him, what will happen to the family line? Your mother only wants what's best for you! Why can't you understand?"
"A wife should be chosen for virtue. Someone that beautiful must be a seducer! Look what he's done to you now! He's truly a walking curse…"
"Oh, my son! Don't leave your mother! Fine, I promise! We'll marry both of them. You can bring Qiao Nan and Qiao Xu home together. We won't cancel the engagement after all! We won't cancel it… Doctor! Doctor, hurry and save my son!"
In the Zhao courtyard,
Mother Zhao held the unconscious, blood-spitting Zhao Lixuan in her arms and wept as she urged the physician beside her to save him.
Dongping Village was some distance from the county town, and a properly trained physician couldn't arrive immediately. For now, they could only rely on the village's barefoot doctor to perform basic emergency treatment and acupuncture to stabilize him.
The watching villagers sighed and shook their heads, discussing the affair.
"What happened? Why did the Zhao boy suddenly cough up blood?"
"What else could it be? It's the Zhao family's broken engagement and exchange of fiancés with the merchant Qiaos in town. Mother Zhao didn't want the original Qiao son anymore because he can't bear children, so she canceled the engagement to marry another Qiao son instead. But Zhao Lixuan was fond of the first one, and it's upset him…"
"Really? But when Mother Zhao sent the matchmaker to cancel the marriage, didn't the Zhao boy go along with it? Why is he coughing up blood now?"
"Well… who knows? Anyway, he started coughing blood right after the Qiao family's matchmaker came to finalize the broken engagement."
The villagers continued chattering.
Yu Zhou, however, grew increasingly shocked as he listened.
Unless he had misunderstood, they were saying that the male protagonist had broken off his engagement to the protagonist's spouse?!
The official couple of this fictional world had actually split up?
What on earth had happened? All he'd done was smash a piece of jade. Surely it couldn't have caused such an enormous butterfly effect!
Full of questions, Yu Zhou quickly began asking the villagers for more information.
The original body had been shut away studying lately and knew nothing about recent events, so Yu Zhou couldn't find the answers in his memories.
Luckily, nothing about the affair was secret. The villagers eagerly filled in one another's accounts and soon told him everything about the Zhaos and the Qiaos.
Yu Zhou was stunned all over again.
"Are you saying Qiao Nan fell into the river at the poetry gathering and injured himself, Zhao Lixuan rescued the wrong person and compromised the other Qiao son's reputation, and then Mother Zhao decided Qiao Nan was infertile and broke the engagement so Lixuan could marry the other young man, Qiao Xu?"
"Exactly. Everyone's been talking about the broken engagement and the new match for days. The Qiao family finally agreed today, and the matchmaker came to exchange the papers and settle the new arrangement."
Yu Zhou: "…"
He could hardly believe it.
Wasn't the novel's destined couple supposed to share an unbreakable bond? How had one tumble into a river been enough to destroy it?
Even if their relationship wasn't as deep now as it became later, they'd been engaged for two years. Surely they'd developed some affection for each other.
How could Zhao Lixuan have agreed to abandon the engagement so easily?!
He'd been fine when he agreed to cancel it, but once the agreement was final, he'd coughed up blood from anger…
Perhaps it wasn't anger at all. Perhaps losing his extraordinarily clever and capable future husband would have such a devastating impact on the protagonist's career that this was some legendary warning from the halo of good fortune surrounding him?
Yu Zhou didn't think he was speculating without reason.
He had evidence for his conclusion.
Having read the entire novel, he knew the protagonist was talented, certainly. But without his spouse's assistance, Yu Zhou doubted a man born to an ordinary commoner family could have become chief minister so young.
Did people really think talent alone was enough to rise through the ranks of an ancient imperial bureaucracy?
Court politics were far more complicated than most imagined. Without connections, wealth, ability, and opportunity, even an astonishing genius might never get ahead.
He remembered the novel's story.
It was because the protagonist's spouse was a gifted merchant that the protagonist had enough money to carry out the achievements that advanced his official career.
It was because the spouse befriended the families of influential officials that the protagonist encountered so few obstacles in government.
It was because the spouse saved the emperor's life that the emperor noticed the protagonist and gave him chances to prove his abilities.
And there were so many other things…
In short, the protagonist certainly had ability, but his spouse had built much of the stage upon which he displayed it.
Now Zhao Lixuan had rejected that marriage. Unless he found another partner just as capable, whether he could still achieve everything described in the novel was a very serious question.
[But how could things have turned out like this? There was no scene in the book where the protagonist's spouse fell into a river and got hurt…]
Yu Zhou frowned and pondered the matter.
While he was delayed there, a physician from the county finally arrived in an ox cart.
After examining the patient,
The physician declared that Zhao Lixuan's collapse had looked serious but was actually nothing dangerous. He had probably been overcome by a sudden emotional shock. Some calming medicine and a few days' rest should set him right.
The Zhao family relaxed, and the watching villagers breathed sighs of relief.
Zhao Lixuan might belong to the Zhao family, but he was also a member of Dongping Village. In an era that emphasized clan ties, everyone in the village benefited at least a little from his scholar's status. Naturally, they cared about his health.
With the physician's acupuncture treatment, Zhao Lixuan regained consciousness.
Seeing this,
Yu Zhou decided to go and ask him a few questions.
He was still terribly curious about how the novel's destined couple could have split up so suddenly. It was all too strange.
…
Since they were classmates and Yu Zhou held a scholar's rank himself, he had no trouble obtaining permission to visit Zhao Lixuan.
Inside the Zhao house,
Zhao Lixuan leaned against the head of his bed, pale and forcing a smile. "Brother Yu, I'm afraid I've made a spectacle of myself."
He certainly had. The entire county was gossiping about the affairs of the Zhao and Qiao families, and now he'd coughed up blood over the broken engagement. Who knew what people would say once the news spread? He would probably be a favorite topic among his classmates for a long time.
Yu Zhou felt awkward, too. Coming to ask questions when the man was in such a state was rather like poking at an open wound.
Yet his curiosity was too powerful. He tried to restrain himself, but in the end he couldn't help asking,
"Brother Zhao, we've been classmates for years, and no one else is here, so please forgive me for speaking plainly. What do you really think about your marriage arrangement with the Qiao family? First canceling an engagement and then exchanging fiancés may damage your reputation. Why would you…?"
He let the question trail off, but any sensible person could understand the rest.
Of course the Zhaos might wish to cancel the engagement after Qiao Nan was injured, but it was still a dishonorable thing to do, and people would look down on them for it.
Under the customs of this era, the Zhao family could have married both third-gender sons, preserved both families' dignity, and even won praise for their loyalty and compassion. Why had they chosen the more outrageous route of canceling the engagement?
Besides, these were the two protagonists, a couple supposedly destined for each other. Zhao Lixuan might abandon anyone else, but he absolutely shouldn't abandon his own future spouse!
Yu Zhou simply couldn't understand it.
Zhao Lixuan gave a bitter smile. "Brother Yu, this isn't what I wanted either. But it was my mother's wish, and I… I've wronged Nan."
Yu Zhou: …
How had he read the entire novel without realizing the male protagonist was such a mama's boy?!
No.
Perhaps there had been warning signs.
He'd always thought Zhao Lixuan was too indecisive, particularly where family was concerned. He was often overly softhearted. Whenever his parents, brothers, sisters, or other Zhao relatives quarreled with his spouse, Zhao Lixuan seemed to prefer smoothing things over rather than taking a stand.
The book hadn't described those incidents in much detail, so Yu Zhou hadn't thought too deeply about them. He'd simply felt that something was odd.
But now…
Yu Zhou took a deep breath. "Brother Zhao, is there truly no other solution? The Qiao young man was already injured. If you abandon the engagement too, what will become of him?"
In this world, third-gender men occupied a position comparable to women's. It wasn't difficult to imagine what happened to an ancient woman who was infertile and then abandoned by her fiancé.
This wasn't the modern world, where a breakup or divorce might lead to a better life tomorrow. Even Yu Zhou, a modern man, understood these ancient conventions! What was the protagonist thinking?
Zhao Lixuan smiled bitterly again. "I know this isn't the conduct of a gentleman, but my mother threatened to kill herself. How could I, as her son, stand by and watch her die? Brother Yu, nothing in this world is perfect. Sometimes one cannot fulfill both duty and righteousness."
So you can stand by and watch that poor young man die instead?
You know your mother is wrong, yet you won't persuade her. And after helping her commit such a cruel act, you still have the nerve to sigh about the impossibility of doing the right thing?
Yu Zhou: …
What an absolute idiot.
He felt abruptly furious and cheated. He'd never imagined the novel's protagonist could be this sort of person.
Watching Zhao Lixuan sit there looking bitter and tormented, as though he were the most miserable victim in the entire world, left Yu Zhou utterly speechless.
"Very well. Brother Zhao, rest and recover. I'll take my leave. We can meet again another day."
Shaking his head inwardly, Yu Zhou rose, bowed with clasped hands, and departed.
There would be no 'another day.' Zhao Lixuan was simply not someone worth befriending.
* * *
Author's Note:
–
Yu Zhou now: Damn it! I want to send the author razor blades! My favorite couple has broken up! The protagonist I admired turned out to be a mama's boy! What a catastrophe of historic proportions!
Yu Zhou later: My deepest thanks, brother, for graciously giving up your husband!
