The onlookers had already thought Madam Wen’s punishment was nonsensical. After hearing Qi Junmu’s words, they felt he was crude but reasonable. Most striking of all, the man had audacity – he dared to use the emperor as an example.
He must be one of those outspoken, principled scholars. Still, even such people should be criticized when wrong. How could he suggest the new emperor should follow Emperor Jing to the afterlife?
So some said Qi Junmu was guilty of great disrespect, but more said that Shen Nian’s mother, Madam Wen, had gone too far.
When Madam Wen heard the gatekeeper’s report and sent a servant to check on things, that servant happened to overhear these remarks.
This servant was usually in Madam Wen’s good graces, arrogant by nature, and accustomed to bullying others. He didn’t think much of Shen Nian either. Walking down the steps, he looked at the crowd disdainfully. "What nonsense are you spouting? This is the Marquis Zhenbei’s household business. Who do you think you are to meddle in the marquis’s affairs? Do you want to keep your lives?"
Qi Junmu thought this was a wonderfully hateful thing to say. The servant was very good at making enemies for the Shen family. When the Marquis Zhenbei’s residence eventually fell, there would be no shortage of people happy to dance on its grave.
Seeing that many people had fallen silent, the servant felt pleased. Then he turned his fierce gaze on Qi Junmu, who looked thoroughly unimpressed. "And who are you? How dare you slander our marquis’s lady? Outrageous!"
Before Qi Junmu could respond, Shen Nian stepped forward and kicked the servant to the ground. The kick was heavy. The servant sprawled on the ground, howling, and couldn’t get up for a long time.
He glared at Shen Nian, then scrambled off to report this.
Shen Nian didn’t even glance at him. Speaking respectfully to Qi Junmu, he said, "Third Master, forgive me. That man has a foul mouth. I’ll deal with him later so he doesn’t foul your ears."
Qi Junmu narrowed his eyes and offered sincere advice. "Young Marquis Shen, since the day I was born, this is the first time a servant has lectured me. Your family has excellent discipline. I had thought that since our meeting was fated, I might visit your residence. But now it seems unnecessary. I suggest you go back and straighten out your family, before it offends my eyes and fouls my ears."
Shen Nian became even more respectful. "Yes, sir."
Qi Junmu turned and got back onto the carriage.
Only after his carriage had driven away did Shen Nian turn and re-enter the marquis’s residence.
As he walked in, a servant said Madam Wen wanted to see him. Shen Nian sneered inwardly and headed toward her courtyard.
When he arrived, the servant he had kicked was kneeling on the ground, crying miserably with a face full of snot and tears. Before Shen Nian could speak, Madam Wen, seated on a soft, comfortable couch, picked up a teacup filled with scalding hot tea and hurled it at his head.
Without a moment’s thought, Shen Nian sidestepped. The cup and water fell to the ground together with a loud crack, white steam rising from the floor.
Madam Wen was dressed in light-colored clothes. The furrows between her brows were deep, her face full of malice. Shen Nian’s act of dodging made her flush red with anger.
Then she clutched her chest as if she couldn’t breathe and wailed tearfully, "How did I give birth to such an unfilial son who dares to defy his mother? I told you to kneel and atone for your father’s death, I didn’t give you permission to get up! And you dare come back inside? Get back out there and kneel!"
Shen Nian looked at his mother’s twisted face. In all his few memories of her, this was the same look she always gave him – undisguised disgust.
After watching for a moment, Shen Nian suddenly laughed. In his mother’s eyes, there had never been anyone but his younger brother, Shen Qing.
When he was six, Shen Qing pushed him into a pond, and his mother still blamed him, saying he shouldn’t have quarreled with his brother.
When his grandmother learned of this, she called Madam Wen insane, placed her under house arrest, and wrote to Shen Yi at the frontier.
When Shen Yi returned to the capital to report on his duties, he took Shen Nian away with him.
Back then, Shen Nian had always thought that if only he were better, his mother would like him.
Later, Shen Yi told him that it was never his fault. If Madam Wen didn’t like him, even if he plucked the stars from the sky and laid them at her feet, she still wouldn’t like him. After thinking it over, he decided this was very true.
Today, he had obeyed and knelt before the gate – partly because he still cared, just a little, but mostly to see how everyone in the capital would react.
And also to prepare for any future conflicts between mother and son.
Now that the emperor was deliberately backing him, there was no need to humble himself.
The emperor was the highest authority under heaven. If the emperor was willing to let him borrow that authority, he would accept the favor.
Of course, if the emperor ever asked him to do something truly outrageous, he simply wouldn’t do it.
So when Madam Wen tried to make more trouble, Shen Nian raised his eyes and sneered. "Mother wasn’t there just now, so you probably don’t know what happened. Do you know who told me to get up and come back inside?"
Madam Wen frowned and snarled, "I don’t care who he was. Can he meddle in another family’s private affairs? You are unfilial. Even if the emperor himself came, you would still be unfilial."
Shen Nian said calmly, "Others can’t meddle, but he can." With that, he clasped his hands toward the palace and said, "But you were right about one thing – that man was the reigning emperor. Mother, His Majesty has declared that our marquis’s residence has no discipline and told me to straighten it out. You’d best start thinking about how to answer for His Majesty’s thunderous wrath – and how to deal with all the rumors that will soon spread through the capital about this household."
With that, he turned and left without even a glance at Madam Wen.
Madam Wen's head spun at the words "the emperor." Seeing Shen Nian about to walk away, she panicked and shouted for him to stop.
Shen Nian paused but didn't look back. He said quietly, "His Majesty has ordered me to straighten out the marquis's residence. I'm afraid I can't obey Mother."
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