Seven days later, the servants’ rooms of the northern yard on the East Yard of Luo’s Mansion.
Originally, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. was supposed to be the drowsiest period for the servants in a day. The servants showed little interest and yawned all the time whatever they did. But today was different. It was obvious that today was a day-off, but they refused to have a rest in their rooms. Instead, they gathered as a crowd with eight to ten people and talked excitedly about the breaking news which had happened recently.
First, the current news they cared about the most-- Wang Qi’s wife, the administrator of the kitchen, fell from the power and her gambling house were also shut down! The “gambling case” only involved a small group of people who had invested or had managed it, but to those servants, who had used board wages to pay their debts to suffer from hungry, finally could eat the delicious foods. The move was welcomed by most servants of Luo’s Mansion. T
He Danggui was bored to fiddle with a box of jade beads that Mammy Tang sent and she said helplessly, “Chan Yi, don’t take these things in front of me, OK? It makes me feel dizzy!”“Third Miss, I’ll tell you what. I can sleep tight at night since I put on those sets of ghost-fighting things!” With a monster-revealing mirror on her chest, Chan Yi tied a circle of garlic around her neck. What’s more, her maid uniform was sewed several dozens of bright yellow ghost-fighting hierogram runes for luck. Every time she came to serve tea, the acrid smell came along. Chan Yi said with a smile, “Since you told me in Tu’er Town that Luo’s Family is dangerous, I have prepared those things for exorcism. I was skeptical about it originally, but since I met ‘you-know-who’ that day, I fully believed what you said.”He Danggui and Chan Yi made a covenant that they would use “you-know-who” to describe that monster when they mentioned that, for fear that it might be heard by o
“Big villain?” He Danggui raised her eyebrow.“Yeah,” Feng Yu lied with sweat on his forehead. “Don’t be cheated by her appearance. In fact, besides telling lies, she usually likes fighting, abusing, and even killing. So, you must leave her without a word as soon as meeting her. And remember not to tell her the thing that our Childe ever lived with Childe Ning in Luo’s Mansion, please!”After thinking for a while, He Danggui asked, “According to her accent, she comes from the capital… Ling Miaoyi knows Childe Feng and Childe Ning, doesn’t she? Where are they from?”Feng Yu regretted what he just said. He said immediately with his hands shaking, “No, no, no. Our Childe has never been to the capital with Childe Ning. Particularly Childe Feng is from Yangzhou. He has been to nowhere except Wudang Mountain in his all life… Though he has met Ling Miaoyi, he’s not familiar with her. They have never ever met in the capital because we hardly went out.”
He Danggui remembered that Earl Baoding Meng Shan had eleven sons. The Seventh Childe Meng Xuan should be his legitimate son, who was a Young General of the Earl Mansion. But why he was chased by imperial guards?As far as she knew, Meng Shan was brave and battle-wise. He was not only a trusted follower of the Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, but also was one of the scarce founding fathers commanding a large number of troops. Liu Bowen, Lu Zhongheng, Chen Huan and others, who were labeled at the same time, were all demoted, whereas Meng Shan always kept his position in the field. Since he followed Zhu Yuanzhang, who was over-suspicious, for 30 years and was always trusted, it could be described as a marvel. It was obvious that Meng Shan was not a simple person and different from other lead soldiers.Meng Shan was a man with a full forehead, a round chin, long eyelashes and deep eyes. He must be a handsome man when he was young. It was no wonder that his son Meng Xuan
On the Go board in Xin Rong Hall, He Danggui played Go with Meng Xuan three times. In the first round, both of them experienced inadvertence, attention, solemnity, hesitation, and anxiety. Finally, the game ended in a draw.It ended in a draw? He Danggui stared at the man in front of her angrily and thought that there was really a child prodigy in the world who could combat with her on the Go board and draw a match in his teens, wasn’t there? Playing Go was one of her best skills. How could she be defeated! He Danggui thought about the match. She was perfunctory to a child in the first half of match, then she was in stalemate gradually. If she took it seriously in the beginning, she believed she could win in thirty steps!However, Meng Xuan also stared at He Danggui angrily. He actually lost the game, didn’t he? Even if he started first, he lost the game by one step! How ironic! He had lived for nineteen years in the previous life, and eleven years in this
Luo Baiqiong’s smile froze on her face and opened her eyes widely. She looked around, finding that everyone, besides Peng Jian, was spitting the tea out into their mugs. And the cousin called Peng Jian spayed the tea on Peng Shi’s face, which irritated Peng Shi.Luo Baiqiong was confused. Then she drank the tea and spat it out on the fine carpet immediately. “Bah, what’s wrong with it? Mammy, you said this tea was...” Her voice became higher and was quite different from her gentle voice just now. She was scared and looked at Mammy Tang. Then she looked at Madam Luo who sat in the main seat. And finally, she turned her head and stared at He Danggui.He Danggui was puzzled about their response. For ten years, no one had responded like this to her Hawthorn tea. But why did eight persons spit out her tea today? Therefore, she picked up her cup and tasted the tea with doubt. Then she was stunned.Madam Luo was extremely angry to see the tea show bei
Peng Jian curled his lips and said, “Come on! Could a childe who likes drinking juice take a sword?”Peng Shi also chatted with Meng Xuan, “Master Xuan, which academy are you in?”“Yinghui Academy at the capital. What about you two?” Meng Xuan answered while looked at He Danggui who was on the opposite side of the passage. That little girl tilted her head and showed a thoughtful look. Meng Xuan wondered what she was thinking about.“Well.” Peng Jian smiled, “We were schoolmates. My brother and I attended at Yinghui Academy before, but now we’ve transferred at Chengxu Academy.”“The learning atmosphere of Chengxu Academy is not as good as Yinghui Academy. I can tell by your accents. You come from the capital. But why did you leave to study at Chengxu Academy in Yangzhou City?” Meng Xuan looked at that little girl again and found that she smiled as if she figured out something. It seemed that opening a casket which held a legendary l
“Riding and archery? We can’t choose that!” Madam Luo was vexed, “Music? Yi can play the instrument, but she needs to read books when having music class, right? In fact, Yi was busy learning instrument, go, dance and music in childhood, so she had no time to learn how to read. I plan to let her learn needlework, virtue and etiquette in the academy first, then she can learn some words. Anyway, the classes in women’s academy are relaxing, whatever the educational background of a girl is, she will not lag behind. By the way, Qiong will have music classes and she can play the instrument very well.” She pointed at Luo Baiqiong who was sitting in front of the instrument at the center of the hall and smiled, “Shizi, please listen.”He Danggui carefully looked at Duan Xiaolou’s profile, full of confusion. He didn’t know Meng Xuan, the one he had chased before, and even her. Hadn’t he lost his memory? Or he just pretended not to know her? But why? It wasn’t a secret that they ha
“Don’t bother.” A hoarse voice came from the door, “It’s me.” Along with this voice, a young woman in blue stepped into the palace slowly. It was Luo Baiying. She glanced at Luo Baiqiong coldly and scolded, “You are nervous and shouting when you encounter something unexpected. You are not calm at all. Is this how Luo’s Family’s daughter should be? Don’t make yourself a joke.”Luo Baiqiong pointed to He Danggui and said aggressively, “Why do you blame me? She started this. She said that someone was eavesdropping on the roof. It was going to be dark, and there were officers and soldiers outside to search the mansion and confiscate our possessions. I was scared at the moment.”Luo Baiying didn’t look at He Danggui. She still squinted Luo Baiqiong and said, “I’m talking about being the daughter of Luo’s Family. Since you are a family, listen to me carefully and bear what I said in your mind. Why bother to care about others? Haven’t you heard of the story that t