Chapter 2: Renamed Li Yu

Shen Dakui gently comforted his mother. After all, she was only twenty-three years old this year—twenty years younger than Inspector Li.

Of course, if their ages had been closer, Inspector Li would surely have had better choices.

Zhang Sanniang shook her head softly. “So what if he’s in his forties? Even if he were sixty or seventy, I would still be willing to marry him and serve him with all my heart.”

Just because he had said he would send her son to school, she was willing!

Shen Dakui said nothing more.

The inspector’s name was Li Gang, courtesy name Boqun. The matchmaker said that although he had only passed the county-level examination and become a licentiate, he was renowned throughout the county for his uprightness and kindness.

His first wife had died five years earlier of dysentery.

Inspector Li and his first wife had no sons, only a daughter who had just turned eight. At the time, Dakui had asked the matchmaker why the inspector had fathered his first daughter so late in life.

The matchmaker explained that his former wife had been in poor health and had spent years taking medicine, which had delayed everything.

She also said that Li Gang wished to marry Zhang Sanniang for three reasons. First, he had heard that she had observed three years of mourning for her husband and refused to abandon her children by remarrying. That showed she was a woman of loyalty and feeling, and such a woman would surely treat the daughter left behind by his late wife with kindness.

Second, he had heard that Zhang Sanniang had borne two sons in succession. He considered her a fertile woman, and although he was already over forty, he hoped to make another effort.

In modern times, people might purse their lips and shake their heads at a woman bringing two sons into a marriage. In ancient times, however, a woman who had given birth to two boys was highly sought after, because it proved she was capable of bearing sons.

Dakui had heard that a wealthy man in a neighboring county, Master Chen, specifically sought out widows who had borne three sons, marrying them as secondary wives and raising all three boys as his own.

The Northern Song scholar Fan Zhongyan had likewise been taken by his mother into her second marriage and had initially changed his name to Zhu Shuo.

As for why he later returned to the surname Fan, it was because, although his stepfather had treated him exceptionally well, his stepfather’s two sons had deeply resented him, fearing that he would compete with them for the Zhu family fortune. There was also the traditional desire to return to one’s ancestral clan.

Shen Dakui had no such traditional attachment. In modern times, after all, his surname had been Li, not Shen.

Third, among men of letters, the character of a wife’s female elders was often taken into consideration when arranging marriages. Li Gang could not allow his daughter’s future prospects to suffer simply because she lacked a woman to guide and raise her.

Thus, in the final analysis, Inspector Li had chosen his mother primarily for the sake of his daughter, and secondarily because he hoped to have another son to carry on the family line.

In short, one should always be courteous toward a young lady, regardless of how difficult she might be to get along with.

Inspector Li’s house stood in Sixing Lane on the eastern street of the county town. Since both bride and groom were remarrying, they made no grand spectacle of the wedding. Only members of the Li clan and a few close friends gathered, filling four or five tables.

He truly was just as the matchmaker had described. His entire person radiated the refinement of a scholar and the air of an upright man. Even when he helped his bride down from the sedan chair, his every movement displayed grace.

After the couple had bowed to Heaven and Earth and paid their respects before the ancestral tablets, Li Gang finally looked toward Dakui, who was standing beside his wife.

Though the boy’s clothes bore no patches, he was thin enough to look little more than skin stretched over bones. When Li Gang took his hand, he found it covered in calluses.

The fine garment he wore also appeared to have been made from cloth Li Gang himself had sent over.

The stitching was close and neat, and a magnolia blossom had been embroidered upon it. This showed that his wife was not only young, beautiful, and capable of bearing sons, but also skilled at needlework.

That was an unexpected delight.

Feeling a measure of pity for the child, Li Gang reached out and gently rubbed Shen Dakui’s head.

“Dakui is a fine name, but it does not quite suit your future identity as a scholar. Why don’t I give you a courtesy name?

“Yu means a beautiful piece of jade—flawless jade, treasured jade held close in one’s hands.

“Your household registration has already been processed at the yamen. From this day forward, you will bear my surname, Li.

“Would Li Yu suit you?”

Shen Dakui looked at his mother, visibly moved. He had long been dissatisfied with his own name, thinking it crude and rustic.

It was even worse than the name he had used in modern times—Li Jun.

Scholars really knew how to speak. They could turn an unpleasant name into one that merely did not suit a scholar. How tactful, and how high in emotional intelligence.

Though Zhang Sanniang could neither read nor understand anything about brocade or jade, she was happy so long as her son liked it. She also thought Li Yu sounded better. Her husband was an educated man, so surely everything he said was right.

“I shall do as my husband wishes. It is only natural for a father to name his own son.”

The man was going to help raise her son, after all. What harm was there in changing his name?

Shen Dakui—or rather, Li Yu—understood at once. He immediately knelt before Li Gang and performed a formal kowtow.

“Your son, Li Yu, pays his respects to Father.”

A great-hearted man willing to raise another man’s son deserved this kowtow, and Li Yu called him Father with complete sincerity.

“Ah, good boy. Get up, get up. Ying’er, come here.”

Li Gang had initially worried that his stepson might be difficult to get along with. He had not expected the boy to be so well-mannered.

The heavy stone in his heart finally fell away. He hurriedly called forward his daughter, who had been standing properly despite the curiosity written across her face.

“Pay your respects to your mother and your younger brother.”

If he could have a son of his own, that would naturally be best. But if he could not, and his daughter developed a good relationship with her stepson, then she would at least not be left without family to rely upon in the future.

“Your daughter pays her respects to Mother.”

Li Ying first bent her knees in a graceful curtsy before Zhang Sanniang, presenting the handkerchief she had embroidered herself as a gift. Then she nodded toward Shen Yu and took out a new writing brush purchased with her New Year’s money.

“Hello, little brother. I’m giving this brush to you. I hope that when you write in the future, brilliance will flow from your pen, your words will bloom like flowers, your brush will move like a dragon and snake, and you will pass the examinations with flying colors.”

She thought that although her new little brother was thin and looked rather pitiful, he was not unpleasant to look at and seemed quite well-mannered.

“Thank you, Sister Ying.”

He had expected her to be a spoiled, ill-tempered little darling. Instead, she was a refined and courteous young girl. After accepting the brush, Li Yu took out the gift he had prepared.

“I don’t have anything valuable to offer. I hope you won’t dislike this little carving.”

He had no silver and had never even visited the county town, so all he could do was carve a small cat from wood.

Most girls liked cats and dogs. Surely that could not go wrong.

Fortunately, Li Ying really did like it. She even praised his craftsmanship before running back to her room, declaring that she would place it on her writing desk.

Seeing that he had remembered to bring a meeting gift for his daughter, Li Gang’s impression of his stepson improved further.

No one wished to raise a child who knew no manners and was not even related to them by blood.

At mealtime, the table was laden with pork, mutton, fish, bowls of gleaming white rice, and egg soup. Everything had been stir-fried in lard, filling the air with a rich, mouthwatering fragrance. Li Yu stared at the dishes with such longing that stars nearly appeared in his eyes.

During the three years he had spent in the Shen household, he had never once eaten white rice.

He had barely tasted a few eggs, and as for meat, that was even more out of the question.

He could only sample it during the New Year.

In modern times, his family had considered lard unhealthy and cooked everything with vegetable oil. But dishes fried in vegetable oil simply could not compare with those cooked in lard.

Li Yu did not dare eat too quickly, much less eat too much.

He stopped after eating only until he was seventy percent full, afraid that overeating and making a fool of himself would embarrass his mother.

Yet his eyes remained fixed on the dishes, as though they were the most exquisite delicacies in the world.

Seeing the boy lower his chopsticks while still staring at the food, Li Gang was even more pleased.

At such a young age, with temptation placed directly before him, he could still control himself and refrain from greed.

That was an excellent quality. The only question was whether he possessed any talent for study.

The Li household had seven rooms, and even employed an old servant woman named Granny Chen to handle the rough work.

The embroidery room with its loft belonged to Li Ying. The main room naturally belonged to Li Gang and his new wife.

Li Yu was assigned the room on the eastern side. Granny Chen said Inspector Li had chosen it because it received the best light and would be suitable for his studies in the future.

Several sets of clothes had been prepared for him, along with brand-new cloth shoes, a new quilt, primers, and two complete sets of the four treasures of the study.

Granny Chen picked up the ragged clothes he had brought and laughed.

“I thought both you and your younger brother would be coming, so Inspector Li prepared two sets.”

“Who would have guessed only you would come? We’ll have to wait for an opportunity to send the other set back to your brother. Young master, you should turn in early. I’ll take these clothes away and throw them out.”

Clothes that had been patched and repatched were hardly suitable for the body of a scholar.

With reddened eyes, Li Yu nodded. “Rest early, Granny Chen.”

Was this stepfather perhaps a little too good to be true?

As he gazed at the two immaculate sets of writing implements, Li Yu thought of the younger brother who had sat on the floor bawling his eyes out, and a great deal of resentment rose within him.

Both he and his brother could have had bright futures.

He swore that even if he eventually achieved fame and success, he would never allow anyone in that family—apart from his younger brother—to take the slightest advantage of him.