Human was a kind of creature that loved to do self-examination. They tended to take the things that they had failed to do or do well to heart.
If God gave Mama Fang a chance to do the time-travel, she would definitely choose to arrive at the time before or right after Old Madam Sheng’s wedding. Then, Mama Fang would either sabotage the wedding or kill those bitches. Every time she thought of that, she wished that Old Master Sheng could climb out of his tomb and marry some evil concubines. Then Mama Fang would be able to fix those concubines as many times as she wanted. However, that was only Mama Fang’s wish. Being depressed by the fact, she then...
“... That Qiuniang left immediately afterwards.” After dinner, Xiaotao told Minglan that Qiuniang had come to the House of Auspiciousness this afternoon while Gu Tingye was in the study.
Minglan, not fully awaken yet, tried her best to blink and said, “So what?”
Qiuniang was only not able to restrain her desire to chat with her master (also her husband) whom she had met again after a long separation. Unfortunately, Gu Tingye was never the person he had used to be.
“This is not that simple!” Danju shouted that, anxious of Minglan’s lack of alertness. Minglan was quite taken back.
“How did she know when Master would return? She arrived at the House of Auspiciousness right after Master came back. What a coincidence! It’s so obvious that she has sent someone to wait at the crossroad. Then she’ll be the first one to know about Master’s arrival!” Danju made a perfect deduction with light flashing in her eyes, “Puff, this is the first day she came to this mansion! Where did she find the person to help her? How did she know which road Master usually takes!”
“So...” Minglan helped Danju to continue.
Danju gritted her teeth secretly, rage on her usually mild face, “After I told Sister Cuiwei about my doubts, she went to look into this right away. After the three of them moved into the House of Cardamon Fragrance, Concubine Gong and Young Lady Rong rested themselves immediately. However, Qiuniang went to talk to Mama Lai secretly! Humph! Why couldn’t they just behave themselves!”
“So what?” Minglan couldn’t help laughing and said, “Mama Lai and Qiuniang both worked for Old Madam Qin before. It’s not a big deal that they want to talk with each other. As for the fact that Qiuniang has nosed for things about Master, which garden or which road she wants to go is none of my business, unless I ground everyone in the House of Cardamon Fragrance. The only thing we should do is guarding the door of my own yard.”
Those women might have already colluded with each other. However, Minglan was not afraid of that.
Xiaotao got worried in a trance, “Isn’t there a way to control them?”
“Sending someone to wait at the crossroad or talking with a Mama in charge is not a mistake.” Minglan shook her head and said, “Being angry for trifles is not only useless but also will let others taunt at me. The outsiders would say that I am a narrow-minded madam. We have our family rules and discipline. As long as they violate the rules, it’ll be easy for me to punish them!”
“But what if they don’t make any violation and only disgust us?” Danju reacted very fast.
Minglan gave a hollow laugh and uttered, “Then... we can only disgust them.” Nearly all the concubines in the ancient times had made their madams feel sick. Some madams with sensitive characters might even spit the blood.
The disgusting thing came right away.
Next day in the morning, while Minglan was still gluing herself to bed, Gong Hongxiao and Qiuniang brought Rong to give obeisance to Minglan. Danju and Xiaotao then helped Minglan get dressed in a great bustle. Thanks to their work, Minglan was able to meet the comers in time.
“Madam.” Hongxiao bowed to Minglan. Today she wore a pink Beizi (A large loosen coat in ancient China) embroidered with entangled pomegranate blossom pattern, looking glamorous. Minglan was in a light blue cotton jacket embroidered with dark flower pattern. Her jade-like gorgeous face looked pretty and elegant and her fine figure looked super charming. Gong Hongxiao stared at Minglan and praised, “I’ve already heard of Madam’s beauty back in Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion. Now I really feel lucky that I have moved to the Cheng Manor. I should learn how to dress myself from Madam in the future and dump my tacky clothes.” As she said those, she even pulled her robe.
Hearing that, Minglan couldn’t help but touch her loosen hair bun. She had been in a hurry to go out and forgotten to put on a hair pin. Then she looked at Hongxiao’s sincere face, feeling quite speechless. After that, Minglan only said in a flat tone, “I like your dressing style, and... I wear clothes in pink color sometimes too.” Hongxiao got a bit embarrassed hearing that and went back to her seat.
Right at this moment, Danju brought a cup of tea into the room. Qiuniang who saw that stood up right away, took over the tea and handed to Minglan reverently, saying, “Madam, please have the tea.” Minglan, having nodded to Qiuniang, took over the cup and took a sip of the tea. Danju pouted with her head lowered. After that, she turned around and went to clean things up with Xiaotao in the inner room.
Minglan glanced at Rong. Seeing the latter lowering her head and shrinking in the corner of the room, Minglan couldn’t help but ask, “Rong, you have just moved into a new room. How was your sleep?”
Rong raised her head blankly while looking at Minglan with hesitation in her eyes. Then she bowed her head again, still saying nothing. Qiuniang got anxious seeing that and said right away, “Madam, we were served well. The bedding is of the best quality and the maids have all done a great job. Last night I slept in the same room with Young Lady Rong and she never woke up during the whole night.”
Minglan smiled to Qiuniang and said, “No wonder Master has always said that you are a thoughtful person.”
Qiuniang raised up her head all of a sudden with tears in her eyes and sobbed, “I hope I won’t fail Master’s expectation.”
Hongxiao seemed to feel a bit awkward. Although the look on her face was still calm, her anxiety was still exposed because she kept fiddling with the silk ribbon around her waist. Minglan drank a mouthful of tea again, trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling caused by getting up too early. Then she smiled casually and said, “You don’t have to give your obeisance so early actually. We don’t have so many people in this mansion, so the rules aren’t that many. You can come here after two quarters after the Chen Hour (Chen Hour was 7 a.m.).” Minglan felt it better to start working after eight o’clock.
Qiuniang, with an eager look in her eyes, said promptly, “How can we do that? Madam, I know you are considerate toward us, but we cannot break the rules. Besides, Master usually goes to work before the daybreak, I know you have to serve Master so you always get up early anyway. How can we violate the rules?”
Minglan was speechless. Since when had she given up sleeping late for serving Gu Tingye? However, there were only a few people knowing about that.
Xiaotao who was in the inner room couldn’t tolerate anymore. She nearly shouted, ‘You are the one who break the rules. All of your families break the rules.’ However, she was held back by Danju. Then the two of them heard Minglan saying in a soft voice, “I never asked you to stop giving obeisance. I just want you to arrive a bit later. That’s something I can decide! And I only made that decision in consideration of Rong. This girl is still growing up, but she’s so skinny now and really needs nourishing.”
Everyone fixed their eyes on Rong, which made Rong nearly bury her head in her knees. This girl looked so clumsy and inelegant. Minglan, with her eyebrows wrinkled a bit, gave a seemingly intentional glance at Hongxiao before saying gently, “She’s already eight years old. We cannot let her manners be inferior to Xiann who’s only five years old. If there are relatives or other guests visiting our mansion, what will they say about Rong?”
Rong’s shoulder shivered, but she still didn’t raise her head.
Human was a kind of creature that loved to do self-examination. They tended to take the things that they had failed to do or do well to heart.
If God gave Mama Fang a chance to do the time-travel, she would definitely choose to arrive at the time before or right after Old Madam Sheng’s wedding. Then, Mama Fang would either sabotage the wedding or kill those bitches. Every time she thought of that, she wished that Old Master Sheng could climb out of his tomb and marry some evil concubines. Then Mama Fang would be able to fix those concubines as many times as she wanted. However, that was only Mama Fang’s wish. Being depressed by the fact, she then...
“... That Qiuniang left immediately afterwards.” After dinner, Xiaotao told Minglan that Qiuniang had come to the House of Auspiciousness this afternoon while Gu Tingye was in the study.
Minglan, not fully awaken yet, tried her best to blink and said, “So what?”
Qiuniang was only not able to restrain her desire to chat with her master (also her husband) whom she had met again after a long separation. Unfortunately, Gu Tingye was never the person he had used to be.
“This is not that simple!” Danju shouted that, anxious of Minglan’s lack of alertness. Minglan was quite taken back.
“How did she know when Master would return? She arrived at the House of Auspiciousness right after Master came back. What a coincidence! It’s so obvious that she has sent someone to wait at the crossroad. Then she’ll be the first one to know about Master’s arrival!” Danju made a perfect deduction with light flashing in her eyes, “Puff, this is the first day she came to this mansion! Where did she find the person to help her? How did she know which road Master usually takes!”
“So...” Minglan helped Danju to continue.
Danju gritted her teeth secretly, rage on her usually mild face, “After I told Sister Cuiwei about my doubts, she went to look into this right away. After the three of them moved into the House of Cardamon Fragrance, Concubine Gong and Young Lady Rong rested themselves immediately. However, Qiuniang went to talk to Mama Lai secretly! Humph! Why couldn’t they just behave themselves!”
“So what?” Minglan couldn’t help laughing and said, “Mama Lai and Qiuniang both worked for Old Madam Qin before. It’s not a big deal that they want to talk with each other. As for the fact that Qiuniang has nosed for things about Master, which garden or which road she wants to go is none of my business, unless I ground everyone in the House of Cardamon Fragrance. The only thing we should do is guarding the door of my own yard.”
Those women might have already colluded with each other. However, Minglan was not afraid of that.
Xiaotao got worried in a trance, “Isn’t there a way to control them?”
“Sending someone to wait at the crossroad or talking with a Mama in charge is not a mistake.” Minglan shook her head and said, “Being angry for trifles is not only useless but also will let others taunt at me. The outsiders would say that I am a narrow-minded madam. We have our family rules and discipline. As long as they violate the rules, it’ll be easy for me to punish them!”
“But what if they don’t make any violation and only disgust us?” Danju reacted very fast.
Minglan gave a hollow laugh and uttered, “Then... we can only disgust them.” Nearly all the concubines in the ancient times had made their madams feel sick. Some madams with sensitive characters might even spit the blood.
The disgusting thing came right away.
Next day in the morning, while Minglan was still gluing herself to bed, Gong Hongxiao and Qiuniang brought Rong to give obeisance to Minglan. Danju and Xiaotao then helped Minglan get dressed in a great bustle. Thanks to their work, Minglan was able to meet the comers in time.
“Madam.” Hongxiao bowed to Minglan. Today she wore a pink Beizi (A large loosen coat in ancient China) embroidered with entangled pomegranate blossom pattern, looking glamorous. Minglan was in a light blue cotton jacket embroidered with dark flower pattern. Her jade-like gorgeous face looked pretty and elegant and her fine figure looked super charming. Gong Hongxiao stared at Minglan and praised, “I’ve already heard of Madam’s beauty back in Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion. Now I really feel lucky that I have moved to the Cheng Manor. I should learn how to dress myself from Madam in the future and dump my tacky clothes.” As she said those, she even pulled her robe.
Hearing that, Minglan couldn’t help but touch her loosen hair bun. She had been in a hurry to go out and forgotten to put on a hair pin. Then she looked at Hongxiao’s sincere face, feeling quite speechless. After that, Minglan only said in a flat tone, “I like your dressing style, and... I wear clothes in pink color sometimes too.” Hongxiao got a bit embarrassed hearing that and went back to her seat.
Right at this moment, Danju brought a cup of tea into the room. Qiuniang who saw that stood up right away, took over the tea and handed to Minglan reverently, saying, “Madam, please have the tea.” Minglan, having nodded to Qiuniang, took over the cup and took a sip of the tea. Danju pouted with her head lowered. After that, she turned around and went to clean things up with Xiaotao in the inner room.
Minglan glanced at Rong. Seeing the latter lowering her head and shrinking in the corner of the room, Minglan couldn’t help but ask, “Rong, you have just moved into a new room. How was your sleep?”
Rong raised her head blankly while looking at Minglan with hesitation in her eyes. Then she bowed her head again, still saying nothing. Qiuniang got anxious seeing that and said right away, “Madam, we were served well. The bedding is of the best quality and the maids have all done a great job. Last night I slept in the same room with Young Lady Rong and she never woke up during the whole night.”
Minglan smiled to Qiuniang and said, “No wonder Master has always said that you are a thoughtful person.”
Qiuniang raised up her head all of a sudden with tears in her eyes and sobbed, “I hope I won’t fail Master’s expectation.”
Hongxiao seemed to feel a bit awkward. Although the look on her face was still calm, her anxiety was still exposed because she kept fiddling with the silk ribbon around her waist. Minglan drank a mouthful of tea again, trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling caused by getting up too early. Then she smiled casually and said, “You don’t have to give your obeisance so early actually. We don’t have so many people in this mansion, so the rules aren’t that many. You can come here after two quarters after the Chen Hour (Chen Hour was 7 a.m.).” Minglan felt it better to start working after eight o’clock.
Qiuniang, with an eager look in her eyes, said promptly, “How can we do that? Madam, I know you are considerate toward us, but we cannot break the rules. Besides, Master usually goes to work before the daybreak, I know you have to serve Master so you always get up early anyway. How can we violate the rules?”
Minglan was speechless. Since when had she given up sleeping late for serving Gu Tingye? However, there were only a few people knowing about that.
Xiaotao who was in the inner room couldn’t tolerate anymore. She nearly shouted, ‘You are the one who break the rules. All of your families break the rules.’ However, she was held back by Danju. Then the two of them heard Minglan saying in a soft voice, “I never asked you to stop giving obeisance. I just want you to arrive a bit later. That’s something I can decide! And I only made that decision in consideration of Rong. This girl is still growing up, but she’s so skinny now and really needs nourishing.”
Everyone fixed their eyes on Rong, which made Rong nearly bury her head in her knees. This girl looked so clumsy and inelegant. Minglan, with her eyebrows wrinkled a bit, gave a seemingly intentional glance at Hongxiao before saying gently, “She’s already eight years old. We cannot let her manners be inferior to Xiann who’s only five years old. If there are relatives or other guests visiting our mansion, what will they say about Rong?”
Rong’s shoulder shivered, but she still didn’t raise her head.
