JavaScript is off/unavailable on your browser. You will not be able to experience this website as it was intended without JavaScript enabled.
Lu Su sipped tea from his dish and said, “You’re not suggesting that we
have another morbid conversation about ‘worst case scenarios’, are you…?”
“Bofu entrusts his legacy to his brothers, Lü Fan and me,” Gongjin
explained. “He knows that stray arrows and missteps are a fact of life, and
even a hero such as he is not infallible.”
“…It would be a shame, what with him having a little family now,” Lu Su
sighed.
“Sun Jian lived and died, and so will Bofu,” Gongjin said. “My own wife
will soon be blessing me with a child, but I know that I might not see them
grow to adulthood and have planned for it. Now, Zijing, let us discuss the
various alternatives that-”
“Forgive me for asking, Gongjin, but why…?” Lu Su asked. “I am
unpopular. Lord Sun’s mother dislikes me, Lord Sun dislikes me, and most of the
lord’s vassals, inherited and earned, have little to say to me.”
“I’m always fighting to change that,” Gongjin promised. “Now, please,
let us talk of our options…”
While Gongjin and Lu Su had their conversation, the banquet ended and
Bofu began his own discussions with his family regarding Cao Cao’s letter.
“Being a son-in-law to the brother of the Han’s Excellency of Works
might be a good thing,” the sickly Sun Kuang suggested. “I’m sure that Lady Cao
will be pretty, since the Caos are marrying most of the most beautiful women in
the land.”
“You sound like you don’t mind going ahead, ‘Little Marquis’,” Bofu
noted. “Boyang, I know that you’re not sure, but-”
“It wasn’t the case that I was - or am - against it,” Sun Ben insisted.
“You’ve made it my choice, which you didn’t have to do as the head of our
clan.”
“Is that a slight?” Xu Kun asked. “If it is, Ben, then-!”
“It wasn’t, I assure you,” Sun Ben replied. “I yielded the chieftainship
willingly, and I have never openly or privately contested Bofu as our lord. I
truly gave way to a worthier man.”
Sun Quan looked at Sun Ben and studied his expression for signs of
dishonesty.
“…I don’t think that you’re somehow ‘less worthy’ than I am,” Bofu said.
“Your father and my father were twins, you’re older than me… you’d be right to
wonder why, given what a great job you did as clan chieftain, that you-”
“I am not unhappy,” Sun Ben insisted. “Now, returning to the matter of
my daughter marrying Cao Zhang: what word is there about his nature…?”
“Is he a pig?” Shangxiang asked.
“…You shouldn’t even be here!” Bofu complained. “Go and-!”
“I do have a right to be here,” Shangxiang retorted. “If Mother can be
here, and Lady Chen, then why not me…?”
“It’s more about age, sister,
and experience,” Sun Yi suggested.
“You’re twelve, and never leave the confines of the estate, so what do you know
about the world…?”
“Whose fault’s that, though?” Shangxiang retorted. “I want to go out and
talk to people!”
“…And after the one time you did, I’m not keen for you to do so again,”
Bofu admitted. “Honestly, that market trader didn’t know what to do after you
had a go at him.”
Lady Wu smiled and said, “Shangxiang, please retire. This is a
discussion between people that understand all of the politics. I’ll be sure and
tell you all about it when we’re done.”