act11mini

No.

I'll watch another while.

Miss Ning, watch another while.

Okay, come on, Dad! Stop looking at it!

Why? What's even the point? It's just a travel itinerary! Me and the guys already hashed it out! We're leaving once everything's packed!

And I have a whole ROOM of stuff that still needs packing, so!

What's the rush? Let me look over it again...

You're a group of young people. You rush your decisions. That's a recipe for disaster.

What's wrong with young people? You were all young once, right? Didn't you go all over when you were young, Dad?

Is that a fair comparison?

Without anyone to accompany you, will you be sure of which ways you can go, and which you can't?

For this long a journey in this season, do you even know what you should bring, and what you shouldn't?

Dad!

Times have changed! Stop lecturing me about your old days!

Yaoye! Listen, there's not much your dad can tell you, so...

If you're sure you're going to Yumen, then go. I couldn't stop you all anyway. Avoiding the path we laid out for you might just be for the better...

Dad, suppose, um, and I'm just picturing...

Suppose we don't run our inn here, you've still got a couple cousins. Have you considered going with us to Yumen?

Yaoye, ah...

Ugh, dad, I'm just wondering out loud, I know it's not gonna happen! You can just listen or something...

Yaoye.

...*sigh*.

This inn was meant to be left to you. If you're not taking it, we may as well close up shop sooner rather than later.

If you want to set up your own business, I won't stop you. I trust you to have thought it through. But I still need to tell you a thing or two, and I don't want you to think I'm prattling.

Dad...

You're leading all those youths. They trust you, follow you. You say times have changed... You're right, times have changed, but this sort of thing doesn't change no matter what the times are.

You step forward, and they're there all at once, so no matter how difficult it gets in future, you can't back down. No matter how tough, how exhausting, you have to bear it. Do you hear me?

I know.

I... I know, Dad.

...*sigh*. Alright, take the itinerary. I've kept you off of some of the tougher roads. If you can stick to the highways, do so. Never revisit those same muddy paths we waded through.

No need to worry.

It's hard, not worrying.

I have a worry, right this moment.

Go on.

Yaoye, you're not young anymore. When you go to Yumen, can you possibly try and bring back a decent young man...?

Stop, stop!

Dad! That is SO stupid to worry about!!

How is it stupid?

It just is!

Ugh, jeez, I'm not talking to you anymore. I need to go to Mr. Liang's place anyway.

What do you want Mr. Liang for?

I'm not the one looking for him, it's that stupid Lee guy!

If Lee can't find him, Mr. Liang's not likely to be at the estate. What use would you have for going?

That makes sense. Yeah, okay! He's just using the same trick again to dupe me! I'm gonna go find him and GET MINE!

*sigh*...

You proud little girl. When will you finally settle down...?

Do not pry into others' domestics.

Your concern is unnecessary.

Lin Qingyan, what do you mean by this?

Eat your food.

You know I'm not referring to that.

You were waiting here from sun-up, so you could hold me from visiting those three. You have to have some reason for me.

I told you, I'll go with you.

Lin Qingyan!

You're making a scene. Look at yourself.

I did not make this trip in my capacity with the Central Judicial Office. Disregarding our positions, what should you be calling me?

Are you forgetting the rule?

...Auntie.

Good.

Why do you always bring this out to stifle me? It's not as if you're an honest relative. You're just relying on the friendship between the Lins and my dad, and being a generation older.

Just why did the Tianshi Bureaus have you make this trip?

For the common people, naturally.

How nice for the common people.

If that's the case, will you really just ignore... will you really just carry on like this?

The Grand Tutor has made his judgment. I may simply await orders.

But you, Zuo Le.

Within the Sui Regulator, you're still green. What is concealed behind this trip to Shangshu is not simple, and as it seems now, you have no awareness of the inside details.

Dispatched yet barely cognizant. Ridiculous! Who called you here?

No one sent me. I volunteered myself.

What? Don't you believe me?

I do.

I believe you volunteered yourself, but I also believe there are strange actors behind this.

This is my first time hearing that the impartial, incorruptible, honest, forthright Lin Qingyan of the Central Judicial Office has learned to speculate on the bureaucracy's murky secrets.

Don't rumors say you're sick of giving those sorts of shameless busybodies the time of day? That if anyone tries to wag on at you, you shock their brain numb?

This, right now, is far from your style.

You have no need to point fingers at my style of affairs.

I'm entrusted with your care. When things concern you, it's only natural I exercise some caution.

...Tch.

Did you click your tongue at me?

I did not. You misheard, Auntie.

Once this matter is through, you should return with me to the capital as well.

But...

General Zuo desires it.

Understood. I will accompany you back.

Assistant Minister of Rites... 'tis not a post that participates too much in government affairs.

Did you ever hear, my Lord, how this position of mine came to be?

I'd like to.

You rose upon your own excellence; this I cannot compare to.

The Ning family... 'tis major in a sense. Sordid that its ancestors were, its descendants did progress. Generations accumulated propriety, connections and assets, and so things passed down.

My father's father was an official, first rank, assiduous for quite some decades. You should know him even if I did not tell you his name.

I would only be ready to say so to you, my Lord, lest it seem I was flaunting.

Hardly.

Miss Ning... you are a fine one.

I knew you would not think so.

I have told you, too, that I rank seventh within my own generation.

Good.

My father's generation sought otherwise, as did the one below. My oldest cousin is on my father's side, ten or so years my senior, and has long settled himself down.

As my grandfather prepared to retire from officialdom, so I was at junior vigor's peak, and became drawn into a smuggling and embezzlement case. By a fluke I caught a string of thieves, and the documents landed on my grandfather's desk the following day.

Your ability excels, Miss Ning.

Pleasantry.