Chapter 458 — A Quiet Demotion

Hu Zi had come to see Jiang Yan without Chen Jia's permission, and when he caught sight of her, his eyes couldn't help but shift nervously.

He stammered, "Miss Jiang, my lord received word yesterday—he's been promoted to Vice Commissioner of the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

"That's wonderful!" Jiang Yan's face lit up with delight. "To be transferred from the Zhenfu Division to the Embroidered Uniform Guard headquarters—no more dealing with all those prisoners. Amitabha, the Bodhisattva truly looks after us!"

Hu Zi looked as though he wanted to weep but had no tears.

Jiang Yan blinked. "Is there something amiss in all this?"

Hu Zi's face immediately collapsed into a mournful mask. "Miss Jiang, think about it—which office in the Embroidered Uniform Guard matters most? The Zhenfu Division, of course. And yet my lord was doing perfectly well there, and then without a word he was transferred away. Tell me, how could there not be something amiss?"

Jiang Yan's face paled as a possibility occurred to her.

She hesitated, the words dying on her lips.

Hu Zi was, after all, Chen Jia's attendant. How could she speak ill of her own brother in front of him?

After a long silence, Jiang Yan said, "Then... is there anything I can do to help Lord Chen?"

Her voice was as thin as a thread, and she seemed very frail.

Hu Zi shifted his feet uneasily and muttered, "I just hoped Miss Jiang might put in a word with the Heir, so that my lord won't be squeezed out by his colleagues the way he was before... Those days were truly unbearable."

"I understand," Jiang Yan said with a nod, though her heart was filled with bewilderment.

If Chen Jia really had been dragged down because of her, and her brother learned that Chen Jia had sent someone to plead with her, would he not grow even more furious?

But she could not simply stand by and watch Chen Jia suffer an undeserved injustice!

She sat and fretted, turning the matter over in her mind at home for a long while, until she thought of Jiang Ling.

Twelfth Sister was so clever—she would surely know what to do!

She hurried off to Dou Yan and said she wished to pay a call at Jiang Ling's home.

Since Dou Yan had been keeping an eye on Jiang Yan and Chen Jia, how could Hu Zi's visit have escaped her notice?

She was somewhat disappointed in Chen Jia. Seeing that Jiang Yan looked as though she wanted to unburden her heart to Jiang Ling, and reflecting that Jiang Ling was steady and generous in a crisis, careful and considerate, she thought it a good thing for Jiang Yan to have someone to confide in. So she asked nothing, and with a smile told the matrons to prepare for Jiang Yan's outing.

The Wu family received the card and, to give Jiang Ling face, treated it as a matter of great importance. When Jiang Yan arrived, not only did the Jiang family's Grandmother bestow a gold hairpin on her, but the whole affair left Jiang Yan blushing to the ears, and she looked at Jiang Ling with eyes full of apology.

Jiang Ling comforted her. "If you feel uneasy about it, then in the future, whenever the Wu family has some occasion, just remember to send a gift."

That, Jiang Yan could certainly manage.

"Of course, of course!" She breathed a sigh of relief, and the two of them hid away in a room to talk about Chen Jia.

Jiang Ling was astonished.

She had not expected Dou Yan to say nothing at all to Jiang Yan about Chen Jia—and to have given him a nominal promotion while quietly demoting him. Clearly, Song Yan and Dou Yan did not approve of this match.

Jiang Ling sighed inwardly. First she praised Jiang Yan: "It's a good thing you didn't rush off to beg Cousin. With Cousin's temper, he would certainly have assumed that Chen Jia was unwilling to accept it and had put you up to pleading on his behalf. And then Chen Jia would not have gotten off with a mere transfer to the Embroidered Uniform Guard as Vice Commissioner—he might well have been packed off to some garrison below as a Centurion or a Chiliarch." Then she added, "Cousin and Cousin's wife are not petty people. Since they have already disciplined Chen Jia, as long as he does not err again, they will not keep maneuvering against him. Set your mind at ease! Lord Chen is a capable man. In a few years, once this squall has blown over, his career will clear up again."

Jiang Yan listened, tears falling. "After all, it was I who dragged him into this! I've heard it said that officialdom values seniority above all. He has been left to cool his heels for these past years, so his seniority cannot compare with others', and his future promotions will likely suffer for it... Had I known it would come to this, I never should have asked about my uncle's affairs. I set my own heart at ease, but I ruined Lord Chen!"

Jiang Ling quickly produced a handkerchief to wipe her tears and urged, "Just don't see Lord Chen again from now on."

Jiang Yan nodded again and again, but in her heart a thorn seemed to have lodged itself, and she could not get comfortable.

She endured half a day at the Wu household and then took her leave.

Everyone in the Embroidered Uniform Guard assumed that Chen Jia was being made to vacate his seat for Liu Yu, and they privately speculated that Chen Jia had somehow offended Song Yan. Their attitude toward him shifted from the former fawning and flattery to watchful probing, which vexed Chen Jia no end. Liu Yu, however, had some inkling of the true circumstances and treated Chen Jia with great respect. The two completed the handover smoothly, and Liu Yu even hosted a farewell banquet for Chen Jia at the Zui Xian Lou. Shi Chuan then sent a trusted aide to personally escort Chen Jia to take up his post at the Embroidered Uniform Guard headquarters. When the men there saw this, they realized that Chen Jia still had someone backing him, and they vied to welcome him. The rounds of hospitality and socializing went on for four or five days before things quieted down. Only then did Chen Jia belatedly discover that Hu Zi had gone to see Jiang Yan.

He broke out in a cold sweat of fright.

Jiang Yan could never hold her tongue. With Hu Zi stirring things up, would she not go running to Song Yan to plead for him? And if Song Yan saw that Chen Jia could order Jiang Yan about, he would flay him alive!

He snatched up a plank and gave Hu Zi a sound beating. "Since when is it your place to make decisions for me? You dared to go behind my back to see Miss Jiang! Is the Yingzhenguo Estate a place you can come and go from as you please? If I don't teach you a lesson, heaven knows what disastrous thing you'll do next!"

Hu Zi clenched his teeth and did not beg for mercy. "If not for Miss Jiang, would my lord have fallen so far as to be driven out of the Zhenfu Division?"

"Still talking back!" Chen Jia gave Hu Zi twenty more strokes of the plank. "Without the Heir, could I ever have entered the Zhenfu Division? And now, at the first little grievance, you can't bear it and go shouting it to all and sundry—is that how a man who aims to do great things behaves? Do you want me to sit in the Vice Commissioner's chair of the Embroidered Uniform Guard until the day I die?"

Only then did Hu Zi feel regret.

Chen Jia resolved to rein in Hu Zi's temper. He left the man in the courtyard without a further word, changed his clothes, and went out—to the Yingzhenguo Estate.

He could not very well call on Jiang Yan directly, so on the pretext of discussing a matter concerning Li Liang with her, he asked Duan Bing to carry a message for him.

Jiang Yan, having taken Jiang Ling's words to heart and finding them very sensible, had been looking for an opportunity to advise Chen Jia to settle down and do his duty at the office. When she heard that Chen Jia wished to see her, she received him at once in the small parlor.

The moment Chen Jia saw her, he asked urgently, "My situation—did you plead with the Heir on my behalf?"

Jiang Yan was somewhat embarrassed and answered guiltily, "N-not yet..."