Her Imperfection for Wifehood - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

After receiving her assignment, An Xi was busy for days, leaving early and returning late—even busier than An Jing. An Jing didn’t press him about what he was doing or if he had achieved anything.

Several days quickly passed, and it was the Mid-Autumn Festival (August 15th).

For the long-awaited family dinner that evening, An Jing and An Xi agreed that neither of them was allowed to be absent; they would eat together and admire the moon.

The habitually lazy An Xi was so overwhelmed by his work that he simply postponed everything and slept soundly at home. An Jing, however, had a prior engagement at noon and left the house at 11:00 AM.

It was the refreshing season of autumn. Even in the bright afternoon sun, the weather wasn’t hot.

On the wide, tree-lined avenue, a black car drove steadily. Lu Cheng always drove smoothly, and the woman in the back seat seemed to have drifted off to sleep.

As they approached the gate, another black car caught Lu Cheng’s eye. He recognized the license plate.

“Miss, the Wei family’s car is parked at the gate.”

An Jing opened her eyes and saw there was a passenger in addition to the driver.

She closed her eyes and instructed: “Stop the car.”

Lu Cheng stopped the car a short distance in front of the Wei family’s vehicle. An Jing usually got out in the courtyard, but today she was acting strangely… He had also seen that the passenger who hadn’t gotten out of the other car was the Second Miss Wei.

The two cars were parked one after the other. An Jing gave no instructions, and Lu Cheng couldn’t guess her intention, so he dared not act on his own.

Five minutes later, Wanyun saw Xuer out through the gate, noticed the family car stopped outside, and came over.

Lu Cheng rolled down the front window. Wanyun leaned in: “Miss, why aren’t you coming inside? Did you drink again? Are you feeling unwell? Shall I help you in?”

In the car behind, Xuer opened the door: “Second Miss, Boss Jing’s car is parked right in front. Have you greeted her yet?”

Wei Yinxia shook her head, sighed softly, and stepped out of the car.

She had a premonition that the person in the car would be An Jing when she first heard the horn. The fact that the car stopped in front and remained motionless for a long time confirmed her guess.

The last time they met, they had parted on bad terms.

Not just the last time, but every time, they had parted on bad terms.

To carve out a hope and a future for herself, she summoned her courage, approaching her time and again, only to be rebuffed again and again. Yet, she repeatedly rallied, ready to fight despite repeated failure.

“Second Miss Wei, so you came too. Why didn’t you go in just now? Young Master Xi is home.”

Wanyun bowed to Wei Yinxia, then leaned in again to An Jing: “Miss, Second Miss Wei brought homemade mooncakes. She’s so clever and talented.”

An Jing opened the car door, and a scent of alcohol wafted out.

“Boss Jing,” Wei Yinxia called softly.

“I wonder, Second Miss Wei, would it be convenient for you to help me?”

“Of course.” Wei Yinxia reached out, taking An Jing’s right arm as they walked toward the house. “Why do you have social engagements even on the Mid-Autumn Festival?”

Xuer rushed to catch up: “Second Miss, Second Miss, we don’t have enough time! If we return late, the guests at home…”

“Silence.”

“If it’s inconvenient for Second Miss Wei, you can say so directly.”

“It’s not inconvenient. The family dinner is tonight; it’s still early.” After explaining to An Jing, Wei Yinxia turned to her maid: “Xuer, wait for me here.”

Since the mistress had spoken, Xuer could only fret anxiously.

When the group entered the main hall, An Xi was enjoying a mooncake.

He was truly startled to see his sister, whom he knew to despise the Second Miss Wei, walking in with her, acting so intimately.

He hurriedly swallowed the mooncake in his mouth, patting his chest as he went to meet them: “Sis, cough, cough… Why did you come back with, with little sister Yinxia?”

An Jing’s gaze, however, fell on the coffee table. The hexagonal gift box containing the mooncakes was open, and only five out of six mooncakes remained. She said nothing and continued walking upstairs.

Wanyun had served her closely for years and was intimately familiar with her subtle actions and expressions: “Second Miss Wei’s box has an equal mix of sweet and savory mooncakes. Boss Jing’s box is all lightly salted savory ones.”

An Jing: “How did Second Miss know I don’t like sweets?”

“It was…”

“I told her!” An Xi raised his hand and interjected: “Sis, didn’t you ask me to visit little sister Yinxia a few days ago? We talked about it casually.”

“Noisy!” An Jing pulled her arm out of Wei Yinxia’s grasp and walked away.

An Xi winked at Wei Yinxia, muttering softly: “See? I told you my sister is thin-skinned. Please, little sister Yinxia, go coax her for me.”

“This…” Wei Yinxia hesitated, unsure whether to go up or leave.

“The Miss gets headaches when she drinks. I’ll go brew some hangover tea. Would Second Miss mind looking after the Miss for me for a bit?” Wanyun chimed in, supporting the suggestion.

“Alright, then.”

An Jing didn’t close the door after entering her room and lay down on the sofa.

With less than two months until the Board of Directors meeting, she inevitably had to attend various recurring drinking and dinner engagements to maintain friendly relations and secure the support of neutral parties.

As a company boss, winning the hearts of or outright buying off workers, clients, and even competitors were unavoidable necessities.

Whether it was from excessive drinking or a physical reaction from overwork, An Jing’s stomach turned, and she vomited.

“Boss Jing.” Wei Yinxia, who was still hesitating at the door, rushed in, one hand patting An Jing’s back, the other using a handkerchief to wipe her mouth.

“Who told you to come in?” An Jing made to push Wei Yinxia away, but her wrist was caught.

“Boss Jing is drunk, or you wouldn’t forget who asked me to help her just outside the gate.”

Wei Yinxia wasn’t gripping tightly. With An Jing’s physique, she could have easily broken free with a little effort, but she didn’t.

Instead, Wei Yinxia quickly let go and fetched a cup of plain water: “Rinse your mouth.”

She got two cups. She handed the one with water to An Jing, who spit the rinse water into the empty cup in Wei Yinxia’s hand.

“Does your stomach still hurt?”

An Jing didn’t answer.

Wei Yinxia put the two cups down and reached to help her: “The floor is dirty. Don’t sit here. Let’s get you to bed.”

Unexpectedly, An Jing exerted force. Completely unprepared, Wei Yinxia was pulled into the embrace, ending up half-lying on An Jing’s body, her chin hitting An Jing’s right shoulder.

A warm breath drifted into her ear, causing her body to tremble.

She heard An Jing say: “Between a woman and family, An Xi will only ever have one choice. If I don’t nod my head, no one will be the Young Madam of the An family. So, have you changed tactics and started trying to curry favor with me instead, is that it?”

Wei Yinxia bit her lower lip, tears welling up before she could speak.

An Jing’s head was splitting. Seeing Wei Yinxia cry made an unnamed fury surge up in her heart.

“Get out.”

An Xi, who was sitting in the living room finishing his second mooncake, didn’t know what his sister had said or done to the young girl, only that when Wei Yinxia left, her eyes were visibly red.

He shrugged. He couldn’t help her.

He sighed, closed the mooncake box, and mentally distributed the remaining four to Mama Zhang, Uncle Li, Lu Cheng, and Wanyun. That was fair.

In the evening, the family set the dinner table in the courtyard.

Before the meal began, Wanyun and Lu Cheng brought out six pre-prepared Kongming lanterns (sky lanterns): “Miss, Young Master, let’s set off the lanterns first. This year, the blessing on the Young Master’s lantern finally has meaning again.”

Setting off Kongming lanterns on the Mid-Autumn Festival was an An family tradition. The first year An Jing came to the An family, the first lantern she set off in this house read: “I wish them long life and a hundred years.”

At that time, she hadn’t yet changed to calling them “Dad and Mom.”

And they, ultimately, did not live a hundred years.

Later, An Jing only ever wrote “I wish myself long life and a hundred years” on her own lantern each year. In the years she set off the lantern for An Xi, she never wrote anything.

An Xi had heard from Wanyun how the past few Mid-Autumn Festivals were spent. He picked up the brush and grandly wrote: “We wish ourselves a life of happiness, longevity, and peace.” He brought the lantern close to An Jing: “Sis, don’t you think my calligraphy has greatly improved?”

An Jing didn’t have much schooling but had mastered excellent calligraphy.

She smiled, picked up the brush, and wrote the same words on her own lantern.

“A life of happiness, longevity, and peace,” Wanyun read the key phrase out loud. “Young Master, your characters are indeed much better than before, but I still think our Miss’s handwriting is the most beautiful. Lu Cheng, Mama Zhang, Uncle Li, you all agree, don’t you?”

“They’re all beautiful, all beautiful.” Mama Zhang played no favorites and joyfully dipped her brush in ink: “Old Li, let’s write the same thing as the Miss and Young Master this year. Come here and teach me how to write it…”

“Alright, we’ll all write the same thing, though those characters have some tricky strokes.” Wanyun looked at Lu Cheng and teased: “Lu Cheng, let’s see who writes better and faster…”

In the large courtyard, in the years An Xi was absent, such laughter and joy were rare.

An Jing launched her Kongming lantern first, and An Xi’s followed immediately after.

Lantern after lantern flew into the sky, adorning the night, becoming bright and brilliant stars merging into the Milky Way.

“Mom and Dad are watching over us from heaven, and they’re protecting us. Sis, you don’t owe the An family anything—not Mom and Dad, and not me.” An Xi’s tone abruptly changed: “You are completely free to do what you want, to fully flex your muscles. And ideally, you should display your wolfish ambition and claim the An family business for yourself…”

Predictably, he was chastised with a tap on the head by An Jing. He howled: “Ouch! You hit me again! I’m speaking from the heart, don’t ignore me!”

He immediately handed a piece of mooncake to An Jing’s mouth, trying to please her: “Quick, try it. It looks great and tastes genuinely good. If you don’t want the Second Miss Wei’s kind gesture, we’ll divide the rest up and eat them.”

An Jing raised her hand to take it: “One is enough. You all eat the rest.”

This was from the box in her room, which she had asked Wanyun to bring down before dinner.

“It’s good to be home.”

“If it’s good to be home, then stay here honestly.” Her hopes for An Xi were mostly driven by a desire not to let down his parents’ expectations for him.

The ten years she lived under the same roof with them, her adoptive parents’ love for her was as heavy as a mountain and as gentle as water. It left her with no selfish reason to betray their trust.

“Sis, are you thinking about Mom and Dad again?”

“No. Let’s eat.”

The moon is fullest on the sixteenth of August (Lunar Calendar). Every year on the sixteenth, An Jing would go out alone, usually returning in the early hours of the morning.

At the earliest, around 1 or 2 AM; at the latest, as late as 5 or 6 AM.

Having just experienced Wang Man’s suicidal act, Lu Cheng dared not let down his guard, yet he could not disobey An Jing’s command not to follow her.

So, he quietly tailed An Jing as she left. When he saw her heading towards the Xianle Gate, he diverted to the Lu Gang to “inform” and petition Lord Qiang for help. The only person of the opposite sex who could be called a friend of the Miss, whose relationship was strong and who couldn’t be chased away or defeated, was Xu Weiqiang.

An Jing was in the corner private room on the second floor.

And the person playing the qin and singing on the stage below was, once again, Hongying.

Xu Weiqiang arrived at Xianle Gate with his men. He only brought Bai Yang upstairs to find An Jing, while the rest were dispersed downstairs to stand guard and wait.

“Why are you drinking alone in gloom?” Xu Weiqiang pushed the door open, took the wine glass directly from An Jing’s hand, and drank the remaining half. “First time I’ve tasted sweetness in wine. Let me see, did you put on lipstick?”

An Jing ignored Xu Weiqiang’s teasing, picked up another glass, and poured wine: “Why are you here?”

“To blow off steam, what else?” He held out the glass for An Jing to pour. “The steam I’ve been holding in since last time has lasted until today. If I don’t let it out, it’ll kill me.”

Having said that, he turned and spoke loudly toward the door: “Bai Yang, go tell Boss Yu to send up a few young, pretty girls to drink with me and Boss Jing and help us blow off some steam.”

As his voice fell, Hongying’s performance on stage stopped abruptly. No one in the audience dared to make a sound, and the performer stood frozen for a long time.

The string was broken, once again.

It was then that the sound of a shattering bottle and foul curses erupted from a quiet private room on the first floor: “Damn it, this is fucking annoying! Boss Yu, your dance hall singers are rubbish!”

A drunken middle-aged man walked out of the room, a liquor bottle in his right hand, arrogantly waving it: “Let the master see which little bitch ruined the master’s fun. Go, bring her here. Let the master teach her the rules of being a courtesan.”

Boss Yu hurried to apologize: “Mr. Xue, please calm down. It was a problem with the qin. I’ll have them swap the performer and the instrument immediately.”

Hongying was under the protection of Lord Qiang and Boss Jing, and he dared not send her to anyone.

The man continued his aggressive rant: “Don’t waste my time with bullshit! I told you to bring the person here, are you deaf?!”

“It’s really not…”

“Crash!” Another bottle in the man’s hand shattered.

He staggered toward the stage, pointed to his face, and then to Boss Yu: “Boss Yu, you look closely at who I am. Look closely, then think about what the most correct action is.”

Hongying regained her composure and tried to leave the stage, but the troublemaker called out to her: “Stop right there! Hongying, is it? I know you! I ask you, are you Xu Weiqiang’s woman?”

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