Ink Burns

Chapter 227 The Crabapple Blossoms Wither
Cui Yulang was kicked to the ground, his luxurious and elaborate gold-embroidered robe scattering like spilled tea leaves. Without the slightest hesitation, he sprang up and returned to his original position, kneeling with his hands on the ground as before.

After kicking Cui Yulang to the ground, Cui Bainian seemed somewhat remorseful. He leaned forward, gritted his teeth, and said, "Don't always make such a disdainful face—I've told you so many times, why don't you listen?"

Cui Yulang buried his head.

The noble young master of the capital, a man of exceptional talent and elegance, was cramped in the narrow carriage, like a half-dead fish on a chopping board, his eyes bulging, bubbles coming out of his mouth, humbly praying for mercy.

When your father gets angry, the best way to calm him down is to stay silent.

Cui Bainian withdrew his hand: "You think it's shameful to please a woman?"

Cui Yulang shook his head.

Cui Bainian completely abandoned his refined demeanor, his expression solemn: "Don't even mention pleasing women. For the sake of the Cui family and the revitalization of the Cui clan, it would be only right for you to please men!"

Cui Bainian shouted sternly: "Recite the family genealogy!"

Cui Yulang immediately recited in a low voice: "The Cui family of Qinghe flourished during the Tang Dynasty, and later during the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Their members were virtuous and respected, and their family genealogy records their distinguished lineage. Their patriarch, Mu Zhi, served as Minister of Works; their elder brother, Song Zhi, served as Grand Commandant. One hundred and seventy-two members of the clan grew up in privileged circumstances, many holding high positions. Later, they became a prominent clan in the prefecture, leaving behind a million in wealth for their nephews. The children were known as 'Holy Child'—"

The songs they sang were all about the prosperous times of a hundred years ago.

It was a spectacle that Cui Bainian had only heard about but never witnessed firsthand.

Upon hearing this, Cui Bainian felt as if he were in a sweet and warm dream, enveloped in silk smoother than a young girl's skin. He was held high above the mundane world, his clan's dreamlike absolute power making him instantly forget the poverty of his childhood, when he would survive on a single steamed bun and a mouthful of pickled vegetables. He forgot the louse with its swollen belly from sucking blood on his father's tattered undergarment, and he forgot his mother's dying words, her eyes wide open, telling him that she used human colostrum mixed with pearl powder to cleanse her hands as a child, the yellowish milk making her hands as white as snow and as tender as tofu.
Cui Bainian closed his eyes, took a deep breath, as if sucking the intoxicating colostrum from his mother's mouth in his dream.

Before the Great Wei, the Southern Liang Dynasty still adhered to the "Nine-Rank System," where powerful clans held absolute power, their words carrying the weight of the law, and even the imperial family could not shake the foundations of these powerful clans.

Emperor Ma Fu of the Great Wei Dynasty emerged out of nowhere, occupying the southeast, recovering the islands occupied by the Japanese, and taking a different approach by launching a strong attack from the sea. He gradually shattered the dreams of the powerful clans. He weakened the power of the aristocratic clans step by step by granting titles, reducing their military strength, confiscating their land, and levying taxes. He further strengthened the centralization and authority of the imperial power by opening the imperial examination system, promoting those from humble backgrounds, adding princely relatives to the imperial family, and widely selecting sons from good families. He spent forty years completing a bloodless war. The powerful clans were isolated from the center of power, holding only the titles "bestowed" by Emperor Taizu. They could not lower their proud heads, nor could they shed the old robes of the aristocracy that were infested with lice. They could only watch helplessly as they slowly sank into the sands of time.

He was unwilling to accept it, he was unwilling to accept it!
He did not enjoy the glory of the aristocratic clans, but the humiliation of the victor and the vanquished was engraved in his bones!
If he had been born a hundred years earlier, he could have groveled on the body of a lowly person and controlled the mountains and rivers of the world!
He wasn't born a loser!

Thank goodness
Fortunately, he encountered Emperor Zhaode and the Jing'an siblings, one foolish and the other sentimental, neither possessing a trace of the spirit and courage of that groom-emperor—doesn't this perfectly prove the saying that aristocratic lineage is innate?! Emperor Taizu was merely an anomaly among the common people, while Emperor Zhaode and Jing'an represented the norm for the common people!
"Yulang—" Cui Bainian gritted his teeth: "Yulang!"

Cui Bainian looked at his only son with a complicated expression.

Cui Yu's birth mother was merely a female official serving Jing An. Jing An used the act of "rewarding" someone as a sign of friendship, and at the beginning of the alliance, he "bestowed" the female official upon him. After giving birth to Cui Yu, the female official passed away. Cui Yu's apparent birth mother was his carefully chosen second wife, who also came from the aristocratic Langya Wang clan—no one knew that Cui Yu had half the blood of the Cui family and half the blood of a commoner.

Bastard.

Cui Yu is a bastard.

But he had no choice; he had no other sons. He could only elevate this bastard—or rather, he had other sons. When Cui Yu was five, his second wife, Lady Wang, gave birth to a son, who died before reaching 100 days old. His concubines also had children one after another; some were born but did not live long, and some even died in the womb.
He only has one bastard.

The complex emotions in Cui Bainian's eyes were like a tangled ball of thread, densely wrapped around Cui Yu. His pupils suddenly dilated, and the ball of thread tightened as if to strangle Cui Yu!
“Fu Mingjiang can bring us closer to Jing’an. Fu Mingbo is a fat man who only knows how to eat; his arm is broken and he can't hold a pen anymore, he's long been a cripple. Jing’an’s fingernails are already turning blue at the base—”

Cui Bainian pointed to the back of his hand and bowed forward: "Her heart disease means she won't live for more than a few days! Jing'an wants to pass 'Qingfeng' to Fu Mingjiang, so you have to control Fu Mingjiang. Jing'an is a tiger, and Fu Mingjiang is a cat. Is it harder to ride a tiger or to lift a cat?"

Cui Yulang remained bent over, his straight back resembling a pine tree struck by lightning and falling to the ground.

"Send Lin Shi away from your room." Cui Bainian's eyebrows furrowed, his eyes filled with impatience. "It's your ability that Fu Mingjiang is interested in you, but keeping Lin Shi in your house is already very inappropriate. If you want to paint, Lin Shi will accompany you to paint, play the zither, and play the flute. What do you expect Fu Mingjiang to think? What do you expect Jing'an to think? If you don't make Fu Mingjiang comfortable, how can Jing'an wholeheartedly help me?"

Cui Yulang continued to bow and replied obediently, "Yes, I will send Lin away as soon as I get back."

“Not just send them away.” Cui Bainian flicked his tourmaline thumb ring: “Sell them to brothels, or send them back to the northern frontier to be used as military prostitutes.”

Cui Yulang's back stiffened.

"The more you humiliate her, the happier Fu Mingjiang will be. You've already sent her away, why not make things more elegant?"

Cui Bainian's voice was low, muffled by the sound of cart tracks rolling over the blue brick and stone pavement: "You must remember, in the past, you weren't even qualified to have the surname 'Cui.' You could only be a steward in the Cui family or the owner of a shop. The fact that you can kneel here properly now, listening to millions of people in the capital praising you as 'Jade Boy,' is because your father is kind and compassionate, giving you a veneer of shame! Your mother, the woman who gave birth to you, was a lowly commoner, the lowest of women, without titles, without family background, without money, without power."

"It is your father! It is your father who loves you, cherishes you, and pities you, and even went so far as to secretly switch you with the precious blood of both the Cui and Wang families!"

Cui Yulang pressed his knees against the car frame covered with a thin cashmere blanket. His beautiful, slightly upturned phoenix eyes held countless emotions, and his lips were deathly pale, like a begonia that had withered at midnight.

(End of this chapter)