[PART 2. CONTINUES]
This grating voice roused both their attention as it continued to say.
“Here, here. Lord Wei has finally secured a WORTHY successor, people.” A peal of laughter came from a group following the man. Huang Dan proudly bowed to accept their amusement, and then raised a toast to the host of the banquet. “you laugh, but it’s no laughing matter here in Weijia. But fortunately, as late as it might be, at last - we can all say that the fruit hasn’t fallen too far from its grove.”
Another person joined the ensemble, this time a close companion of Master Wei, an ill looking, pale faced master Fu Anan. He looked at the seated men, and then the strange tone of voice of the speaker.
Taking in the present dilemma of the host, he tried to assuage the scene, “No its not a laughing matter indeed. That drought ridden small town near Anshui benefitted greatly from Young Master Wei’s benevolent heart and keen appreciation for his duties to the crown, and from his exemplary behaviors! You cannot persuade me of otherwise. What a sensible young man! Worthy of his grandfather’s high regard in all sense. To such a new addition to our Dajin’s industrious halls of mighty, courageous and well-meaning fellows, let me raise this toast, everyone, so that we reckon his moral superiority, his courage that wanes in us. I will be glad if you will accept it on his behalf Master Wei.”
“Agreed. Although I have complaints of you being an unworthy son to your liege, Master Wei, but I expect that you do cheer on for the general prosperity of your offspring's in the unaltered corners of your heart?” Huang Dan spoke rousing everyone’s attention. This particular style of seeking a fight was no new thing for the people present. Huang Dan, the son of Old Master Huang – a well reputed courtier, would always dirty anyone’s reputation as he deemed fit. He saw no date, no time – for him, a good brawl was good on any occasion. And to scratch healed wounds of his adversary -? How dare he not enjoy such a feast!
Only Old Master Huang could stop him from his death seeking adventures. His crown was fully pulled over his head, his elegant brows curved in the most genial ways, yet his words slipping through his lips didn’t leave much space for a cordial conversation. Many eyes lingered over him, fully expecting a scuffle. A few coughs abruptly interrupted the embarrassing exchange, but couldn’t stop master Huang Dan from saying all his displeasures. His apparent derision couldn’t he hampered by a few interruptions.
Master Wei didn’t seem to expect such a statement, but soon regaining his bearing he didn’t take all that to heart. The truth was, Huang Dan, no one took him seriously. But this wasn’t the case with Master Wei, he had never fallen in the evils of underestimating vile men. Huang Dan to him was never a guileless child. When Master Wei ignored people, he did it all too well - whether they be a commonplace lunatic set loose, or someone pretending to be a child to enrage others into following his plans.
“That is only natural! Whatever my shortcomings may be, a love borne for one’s offspring is a gift of nature – even my failures cannot dampen that spirit. Love as whole remains untainted from my other evils, as it should be. No, I haven’t changed to a brute with a stone for a heart master Huang, as your flights of fancy might take me to be. However,” Master Wei looked up and continued, “I am saddened, my friend at your singling me out like this. Who doesn’t look for some pleasure in their small lives? It is in nature of us base humans to seek pleasure and avert from pain. Just like the time you went against the wishes of your mother and married a courtesan? The love might be there, but propriety was not!” He straightened his sleeves and shared a look of understanding with his friend, who was now keenly engrossed in his goblet of wine.
“I just happen to have a greater appetite for desire and – means at my service. Just like you.” Before anyone could interrupt him, he kept speaking, not taking in the sudden rush of colors on a certain master Huang’s face. “But these have never troubled a soul other than mine own. To have a doubt of this nature, that I don’t feel a fathers love for my son is completely unwarrantable. It is to doubt the very essence of my human part. Am I to take from that, that your opinions of me have degraded to such extent that you don’t even see me, a son of my Lord father, as a compatriot? But I don’t know what I have done to earn such a harsh criticism from your Lordship?”
“They were never above the surface to fall down!” There was another break in between, as a few men chuckled at Master Huang’s charade. “But I am better son, than you could ever be! Just because your father said that. My lord father doesn’t deride me in halls, and palaces, however harsh he may be. You know what, that is kind of heartening to know! I will have to thank you for making me realize this!”
“Many in this hall know too, that such an evil as has been done by me, were but a degree of shade in the larger scale of degrading human principles.” Master Wei started chastising, overriding other voices in the hall. Many eyes were set upon him, to see his faltering expressions, his hastening breath…they found nothing but a careless mask. “Not many can stand straight on your scrutiny master Huang, if you were to apply these same harsh principles as you do over my own actions. Many here will agree, as they share similar experiences as mine, of what constitutes a human failing. If not in front of others, but they will do it in secluded, veiled parts of their hidden selves – where the toughest kind of criticism dwells and assess one’s own worth; yes, I talk of a human conscience, a great teacher. A mirror of self, standing afore which any man of conscience will be ashamed to face their images; but you will not have us all us condemned as no longer human, will you? Just because of our father’s frequent misunderstandings of ourselves? As I am not the only one with such failing, you must forgive us all, or talk no more of me alone. It is all too natural for human nature to find pleasure’s overpowering at times, I don’t accept your one-sided study of my principles. When you mourn my dead reason, you should recall the pain your mother suffered through in all those years owning to your selfishness! When you say of my unfilial self, you should ask of the greying hairs on your father’s head! My mother never said a word against me, nor have I caused her tears. But I don’t hear you speak of that, do I?”
“How dare you bring my mother into this!? Do you know how to speak?” Master Huang Dan reached out for master Wei’s lapels rising him to his eye level, peering into his eyes with deep hatred. If not for the hands pulling him back, he would have succeeded in pulling off Master Wei.
“Master Huang Dan should hold the courage to hear when he speaks so overbearingly. It appears to me, just like all those years, you still might not have heard of those evils spawning in the world, more volatile, and just under your nose. They are far greater from my friends’ frequent visits to brothel. But have I heard a criticism of that? When great sages in the past talked of human nature, they never only talked of promiscuous sons, but also failures of masters in dealing with their servants, of dealings of husbands with their wives and of the kindness that froths from human nature that should be maintained between a slave and a liege. Not many here follow such dealings. Who speaks of kindness to servants? Forget being kind to slaves who of us treat them more than a beast! Are they not all beasts who look alike us, talk like us but never one of us?”
“Well pointed out.” Someone couldn’t help but agree with Master Su RuHui.
“I will see how long you can support that face, Master Wei! You don’t dissuade me. You will always be the same bug crawling in the lowest rungs of society as you were years before, a lunatic on the loose, eating dirt and whatnots. Everyone tells me you have healed, recovered, but look – what does he have in his eyes? Does he look sane? Do sane people talk like this after being insulted? Do you see any change over his face– no color, no blushing. Doesn't that remind of you of stones?” Huang Dan pointed his fingers at Master Wei, then cleverly fell back on his feet. He wrestled his arms away from his captives and straightened his ruffled shirt.
“Literate people do happen to talk like me, Master Huang, if you excuse me. I am a scholar, even a stained one.”
“Unlike an imbecile like you, he does know words. Take my words if not his.” Master Su RuHui said as he took another peeled grape into his mouth.
There was much persuading done on both sides. For a moment it looked like it will end up in an outright brawl, but some sane people held both the parties down, constantly reminding them of the place and time. Finally, under the coercion of having his father angered, one of party conceded a truce.
As soon as the inflamed man had found his way out, persuaded by his company, the others left behind, the spectators all started moving away. “What a character! Didn’t this exchange remind you of the hot days and small fights in the alleys back in our days? He seems to have forgotten to grow…”
“Hmm. Indeed. I haven’t felt this alive since a long time ago. He just rubs people off the wrong way. Even I forgot that I have sired a dozen children, who are now entering the world as adults– ”
“Even I find that incredible of you! Who knows, in a year or two you might even become a grandfather.”
“Don’t curse me. If you envy, marry someone home.”
“And watch her burn herself to death? With a character like mine, I don’t want to be an eternal damnation of a woman.”
“You won’t be the worst.”
“I will be something worse than they held in their imaginations. And it’s too late. You are already a grandfather. In no way am I going to catch up to that!”
At this moment there was bustling outside and then the screens opened to let in a crowd of curious looking young boys. This small episode ended in a round of introductions and calling out, with every gentleman falling back into familiar clique to carry on their conversations.
Young men in their silk apparels and fresh faces sauntered inside the hall. When meeting any acquaintance of their liege, they would stop and greet. These were the same teenagers and children who were a while before running from one place to another, dragging their friends to see the ongoing procession of gifts outside the house. It seems, after all gifts had been welcomed inside and no spectacle to adore or frown at, they had ventured inside the Wei mansion itself. Some of these spectators had separated to organize a competition to pass their time in the manor gardens. But a few had found this hall to look at the grand place of ceremony.
They knew a while later this Hall will welcome all the great men in town to hold the most renowned capping ceremony to ever take place in Jinghai’s history! There was much to talk of at length here! – what about those mighty wooden pillars, those gilded roof with exquisitely painted motifs in bright blues and reds and goldens, all those panels showing Buddhist motifs: there was the banyan tree, the otherworldly apsaras, the lotus blooms and the flying fishes all floating over the roof and the wooden walls, so ingeniously crafted that it made it look like it floated on its own! And that devious looking deity at the north? Of its huge glinting emerald body, its pot belly and huge ruby jewels as eyes – the clan god of Wei was not a common sight, that anyone could glimpse. Only occasions like this opened this hall and its various wonders.
And the music and dance, many eyes settled over the graceful figures of demure looking damsels, showcasing their years of grace and otherworldly sense of rhythm! The galore couldn’t be contained thereof – such was the appetite for the celebration; everything was more enjoyable than the rest.
The arrival of auspicious time had long been announced. The ceremony preparations had long begun behind closed walls, someplace inside young Master Wei’s chamber.
Soon, the voices inside hall jolted a notch higher, abruptly becoming akin to noise – finally all the great faces in Jinghai had appeared on stage! The Old Master Wei walked briskly along with his companions, all looking somber and grave, as they took to their seats at the highest table over the northern part of the hall. For a while there was only silence, till the old men were settled appropriately and then began another round of greetings and congratulations.
Master Wei gracefully sat down once more. His friend had rose up to greet the elders, and another occupant had overtaken a seat on his left. It was Master Huo, the newly arrived Chancellor, appointed to the county's yamen. The Magistrate had been quite smitten with this new addition to the town and had but good things to say about him. Of course! With a father as the Head of the Imperial Academy of Capital, his prospects are anything but successful. In fact, being sent to Jinghai was a sign of his lack of any favor thereof. Or perhaps, there were other intentions. Master Wei squinted his eyes thoughtfully while caressing the ring on his left hand.
"My lord, there should be no doubt about the auspiciousness of this year for your clan! From being promoted to a formal member of imperial consulate, to earning the second prince’s favour for your daughter - Such joyful news!" followed by a well-natured laugh.
"Your son too, I might say. I heard he had been accepted by Master Rong? Head Teacher at Imperial Academy? Congratulations to him. Such bright future you have in your children." Master Wei saluted Master Huo.
"Where, where, he but tries to follow in the precedents of those of his senior brothers, like your son. Yes, my son has just joined the academy, by the recommendation of his grace, his lordship Duke of Weizhou. Hopefully there will be such happy opportunities for him to celebrate further down in life.” There was much silence between them, but looking at his face always ready to say something but refraining, master Wei couldn’t help but finally asked him to confide in him.
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