He Danggui was shocked. She rubbed her handkerchief and bit her lower lip for a long time. Then she hesitated and said, “No one of Luo’s Family tells me about this. I dare not deceive you, Mammy Tang. I saw that in my dream. But I wish it was just a dream!”
“In a dream? It’s impossible!” Mammy Tang wondered.
He Danggui nodded and said, “I can’t believe it even when I’m dreaming. I feel that I’m confused and can’t take it seriously. So, I didn’t dare to mention my nightmare of last night to you at first. But I couldn’t help asking about my nephews to prove that the immortal in my dream was wrong...”
“Nightmare?” Mammy Tang gained the key words. She asked, squinting at He Danggui, “What kind of nightmare?”
He Danggui paused and said, “Danggui isn’t timid, but I dare not say these words, for fear of offending my Elder Cousin and his wife. Please don’t tell others that it’s me who tells you the words. Otherwise, others may think that I
He Danggui wiped tears and shook her head, “Well, I don’t know. I just heard Su Mei Yard belonged to the first wife of Third Uncle. After she passed away, Third Uncle planned to lock it. Because it would be Second Brother’s study when he grows up. However, the whole family of Third Uncle went to the north for business, so Su Mei Yard was empty. I don’t know when Second Sister settled into Su Mei Yard. I just heard from my maids that almost 10 maids and mammies coming from West Lateral court went to Su Mei Yard to work. And they also said Second Sister is fond of the flowers in Su Mei Yard, so she begged Second Aunt for the key of the Yard.”Mammy Tang said nothing but signed, “Alas, Second Miss is doted on by her mother! But I believe Second Mistress Luo can distinctly keep separate between public and private. She knows it fairly well that what she can touch and what she can’t. It’s impossible for her to settle into Su Mei Yard without saying a word to the Third Brunch.
Liao Zhiyuan was leaning against the window frame with astonishment, looking at Gao Jue, who was “more annoying than usual”. He didn’t understand his grumpy look of “someone owes me 10,000 liang silver”. But, but, it seemed that he really owed him 100 liang silver for wine last time... Liao Zhiyuan rolled his lynx-like eyes and glanced at Gao Jue guiltily. “Oh, no. Is he here to ask for money? Gao, we are friends that could almost be sworn to live or die together. We don’t have to make the account so clear, do we?” He thought.Before Liao Zhiyuan could come up with any result, the empty wine jar in Gao Jue’s hand flied past and grazed Liao Zhiyuan’s auricle closely, finally landing on the top of the last pile of debris in the yard.Liao Zhiyuan rubbed his painful auricle and shouted angrily, “Fuck! Did the donkey kick your head? Does it take that much effort to throw a wine jar? Do you have so much Zhenqi that you got nowhere to use it?” Then he thought, “E
Liao Zhiyuan thought it over and enjoined uneasily, “Gao, my sister is clever and lively. Although she doesn’t know Kungfu, she has a lot of spooky ideas, speaks strangely and behaves very differently from all women. I can’t tell you her situation clearly in a few words. But after you find her, you must seal her Daxue acupoint and mute acupoint first. She won’t be able to escape in this way! Sometimes she will talk nonsense. Don’t believe a word of hers; sometimes she will say that she is not my sister. Don’t buy that, either. I saw her born with my own eyes, and she is my sib sister indeed!”Gao Jue frowned and reluctantly nodded. He thought, “What a troublesome woman. Given this situation, I’ll bring a burlap, and then knock her out and put her in it when I find her.”Liao Zhiyuan continued, “My sister is 16-year-old. So, when you…hold her into the carriage, you must be careful… The only way you can hold her to the carriage is on her arms, like this.” Lia
Gao Jue lay there. His eyes were half closed, but there were constant snores under his nose. Liao Zhiyuan didn’t know whether he was asleep or awake.“So what? People who lied to you were your father and father-in-law, so you couldn’t hack them. The woman who married you was passionately devoted to you over the years, and you watched her growing up like a sister. You couldn’t hit or scold her. Moreover, Lord Ling said clearly that everything was his arrangement, and his second daughter just obeyed him. He wanted you to be kind to her.”Liao Zhiyuan stretched on the wide couch, and his whole body spread-eagled. He squeezed Gao Jue to the end of the couch, and the laughter came from deep inside his chest, “And Lord Ling also said what he did is for your own good, because you were a man of love and loyalty. If you had known the death of your fiancée before marriage, you wouldn’t have married any other women, perhaps you would have stubbornly mourned for his el
Lu Jiangbei also looked back at Gao Jue, telling him firmly, “I went back to Yingtian Prefecture of the capital yesterday, and went to Changye Tower to find the informant who provided information. It had been confirmed that the news is true. Gao Jue, do you remember what we have learned from the subordinates who pried into information in the Taoist temple? He said He Danggui’s mother, Luo Chuanxiong, was the legitimate daughter of Luo’s Mansion in Yangzhou City, but Ms. He’s father, He Fu, was just a man of a depressed family in Yangzhou City. This year he just made an Eighth-Grade Guarding Commander of the Capital. The year they got married, everyone thought it was inconceivable, even suspected some possibilities like that ‘The two elope first and then get married’, ‘the man board first and then buy the ticket’ or ‘the woman looks ugly or has unmentionable disease’, and these made Master Duan very angry.”Gao Jue loosened Lu Jiangbei’s plain brocade collar and recalled
Gan Cao was arguing with Mammy Tang, advising that even if she had something urgent to tell, she’d better wait until Madam Luo woke up the next morning. But she was scared when the door bounced open all of a sudden.Mammy Tang’s expression changed from anxiety to comfort, and she hastened to help Madam Luo into the room. Although Mammy Tang was 4 years older than Madam Luo, she could not change the habit over the years. Once she saw Madam Luo standing alone, she could not help rushing forward to support her.“Madam, don’t worry, the Taoist temple is very good, and Third Miss lives there well. I come back by myself to tell you something.” Mammy Tang helped Madam Luo into the room and turned to enjoin the maid, “Gan Cao, light the lamps quickly, half open the window of the outside room, and serve Madam Luo a bowl of fresh coix seed congee with two teaspoons of honey.” Gan Cao agreed.Madam Luo’s heart still hung in the air. She asked anxiously, “
Mammy Tang understood how Madam Luo felt, so she said sadly, “I know that among all the ladies in the family, in addition to First Miss, Fourth Miss is closest with you. Now not her parents but you feel sorry for her the most. In my opinion, Fourth Miss is only 9 years old. How could she distinguish between good and bad? It must be some of the servants around her who urged her to do so! Madam, you know, Second Mistress Luo is the busiest person in our family. Even in her spare time, she cares about Second Miss’s things first. With time goes by, she neglected her instructions for Fourth Miss and let those servants around Fourth Miss exploit the loopholes. Fourth Miss is now like a piece of noun-shaped nephrite, i.e. she would become the kind of person that people around her say what she should be.”Seeing that Madam Luo couldn’t accept the fact, Mammy Tang thought for a moment and said, “Just now when I went back to the mansion, the first thing I did was to ask someone t
“Oh, my god, you are back! I have been waiting here all day. Where have you been, master? Why didn’t you take me with you?”The manservant Xiong Huang came out from the stone lion in the East Yard of Luo’s Mansion, raised his head to lift up the window of the carriage, and said in a low voice, “Come inside the mansion quickly, Master! Something big happened in our family. First Younger Mistress is going crazy looking for you! I’ve tried everywhere as well. But there was no trace of you in the Academy, the medicine shop, the other homes, or Master Ding’s Mansion. Everywhere! First Younger Mistress was so worried and determined that she would go to the government tomorrow morning to report your missing!”Luo Baiqian seemed to have drunk a lot of wine before. When he lifted the curtain, there was a strong smell of wine surrounding the carriage. He refused to let the coachman help him. Instead, he pushed the coachman’s arm impatiently, and jumped out of the car