Novel Bin Chapter 266: Father and Son (1)
Chapter 266: Father and Son (1)
Translator: Iris
The weather was starting to get hot and dry in June. Luckily, last night it rained heavily. Lots of the flowers on the branches which had just bloomed were knocked down and scattered on the ground. The air after the rain was fresh and fragrant, giving people a pleasant feeling early in the morning.
Qinsang raised her hand to roll the bamboo curtain as high as possible. Then she turned around and said with a gentle smile, “We should let more air into the room before the sun goes higher, in case the room gets too sweltering.”
A young maid stood beside her with a wet bamboo basket in her arms. There were colorful little fruit plates on the table, including the white porcelain ones, the famille-rose porcelain ones, the crystal ones, the octangular ones and the sunflower-shaped ones, which all looked beautiful and delicate.
Xiaotao rolled up her sleeves and then put all kinds of fruits which had water drops on the surface into the plates while grinning with her head raised, “The heavy rain last night really was scary. When I heard the crashing sound, I felt like someone was whipping or spanking the ground with a board. Even my heart was trembling.”
Ruomei had been showing a calm look on her pretty face the whole time. Hearing Xiaotao’s words, she frowned slightly and said, “It’s not scarier than Master. I... I’ve never seen Master fly into a rage like that. It’s terrifying.”
“They deserved it!” Lvzhi stepped into the room while saying that. After she put down the tea tray, she stepped to the table and fetched some water to drink.
Qinsang glanced at her and then said smilingly, “Madam has finished eating? Hey, take it easy, drink slowly, no one is going to grab the water from you.”
Lvzhi put down her cup and still felt thirsty. Then she poured another cup of water, saying, “This morning, the fried quail eggs with spiced salty sauce served to Madam truly was delicious. Madam gave that dish to me, then I couldn’t help but eat a lot. It’s too salty... Eh, only when Sister Cuiwei and Sister Danju arrived did I have the guts to leave.”
“You deserve it.” Xiaotao glared at her and said, “Why don’t you share the dish with us?”
Lvzhi put down the cup and goggled at Xiaotao with her arms on her hips, saying, “This morning Madam asked Young Madam Xian to have breakfast with her. Young Madam Xian ate a lot. Even if I didn’t eat anything, there wouldn’t be anything left for you.”
“All right, all right, it’s not worth fighting for a few quail eggs. Doesn’t Madam provide us with tasty food all the time?” Ruomei waved her hand and then asked in a low voice, “Tell me, last time Madam ordered you two to send a meal to Master. What happened then? When I went there, I only saw Wu’er being dragged away with her body covered with blood. That’s so scary.”
Lvzhi wiped her mouth with her handkerchief and took a glance outside the door and the window. Then, after she walked inside and sat down, she said leisurely, “Nothing special. Last night, when that woman in the House of Cardamon Fragrance learned that Master entered the study straightly without coming to our yard, she got a lousy idea in her mind again. She sent Wu’er to bring food to the study to ‘take care of’ Master. Shunzi stopped Wu’er from going into the study. That girl then raised her coaxing voice on purpose in order to let Master hear her. But she didn’t know that...”
She covered her mouth and chuckled, continuing, “She didn’t know that she would irritate Master by doing that. Master ordered someone to beat her thirty times with a board. Huh, she deserved it!”
“So that’s what it is. She only has herself to blame.” Ruomei showed a disdainful look on her face and said scornfully, “The two pretty maids who work for Concubine Gong always come to our yard after gorgeously dressing themselves up. See how they have shuttled in and out of Madam’s room and craned their heads to peek at us. They just want Master to see them! Those girls have no self-respect at all!”
Qinsang and Lvzhi looked at each other while thinking, ‘Although Ruomei is a bit narcissistic and always speaks sarcastic words which are quite annoying, she doesn’t have any evil thoughts.’ As long as Gu Tingye was here, Ruomei would hide in the back room or stay at other places. In a word, she seldom showed herself in front of her master.
“Master is a bad-tempered guy and only restrains his anger when he is with our Madam. Last night, when he smashed a cup which had hot tea inside, the hot water and the broken porcelain pieces were scattered on the ground, but Shunzi and the guards in the outer yard didn’t dare to move a bit.” Xiaotao chimed in.
After Xiaotao put all the fruits on the plate, she took the green branches and leaves which had just been washed and divided them into a few bunches to decorate the fruits while saying, “Otherwise, why do you think that woman in the House of Ling Ding has stayed so quiet? I heard that she has brought four maids with her. However, due to certain reasons, one was beaten to death on the spot, and one was beaten half-dead and also died after a few days. Lady Feng Xian got sick with fear because of that and it took her a few months to be able to get off bed... All right, Chunya, throw these out and bring me the cage that has been dried outside.” Xiaotao clapped her hand and stood up. After that, she gathered the rest of the leaves and handed them to the little maid who was around ten years old with a round face. The latter followed Xiaotao’s order and left right away.
Although Xiaotao didn’t feel anything when she had told that story, the other maids all felt their heart missing a beat. Everyone couldn’t utter a single word in shock. After a long while, Lvzhi cried out, “Why didn’t you say it earlier? Last night when Master didn’t come back, that stupid girl Caihuan kept saying she wanted to check how Master was doing for Madam.”
Xiaotao replied in a daze, “... You never asked me.” Although she liked to pry into things, she didn’t like to gossip. Normally, Minglan was the only one audience of her.
As a qualified rubberneck, Xiaotao not only had an honest appearance, she also spoke cautiously. Only in this way was she able to guarantee that the words which came out from her mouth wouldn’t be spread out.
As they were chatting with each other, Chunya came back with two cages which were knitted by purple bamboo on her arms. Xiaotao then lifted the lid on the cage and put the fruit plates inside.
“... I should have let Caihuan go last night. It was so hard to stop her.” Lvzhi still felt indignant and said that.
Qinsang couldn’t help but say, “Don’t be meddling. If your lousy idea leads to trouble, Sister Cuiwei will hit you on your palms!”
Lvzhi, having remembered the past, stuck her tongue out and stopped talking.
Ruomei let out a deep sigh and said, “Let’s drop such ideas. Master rose from the ranks, so he’s not kind and tender toward women like those scholars. Luckily, Master likes Madam a lot, otherwise...” While saying this, Ruomei propped her face up with her elbows while showing a sad look on her face, looking quite worried but also very beautiful.
Lvzhi and Qinsang looked at each other again with their mouths curled.
Hearing that, little Chunya raised her head and said innocently, “Master’s temper has got better. I heard that before Madam married him, one maid once entered the outer study by accident. At that time, Master ordered someone to send her out right away without saying anything.”
Everyone was attracted by her story and asked at once, “What happened next?”
“Next... there’s no next.” Chunya put the lid on the cage and answered that in a daze.
Everyone got angry, saying, “How’s that possible? What happened to that maid?!”
Few would tell others a story without telling the ending. Lvzhi almost poked Chunya’s forehead. The latter could only groan while saying, “I really don’t know. That maid has never showed up again ever since then.”
The other maids looked at each other at a loss, feeling extremely scared due to their imagination. They might feel better if they heard that maid had been beaten or sold. The room fell into silence. After a long while, Lvzhi suddenly remembered something and glared at Chunya, saying, “How did you know about this?”
Chunya answered right away with an innocent look on her face, “I heard it from Brother Shunzi, Master Gongsun, Guard Xie and Second Master Tu.”
Lvzhi nearly fainted. Ruomei opened her mouth wide. Qinsang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry and pointed to Xiaotao and Chunya, saying, “He who touches rouge will be stained with red.. Chunya, you follow her every day and become just like her. You gotta leave her as soon as possible and follow me.”
Chunya held Xiaotao’s arm right away and said in a sweet voice, “Thanks, Sister Qinsang. But I can not part with Sister Xiaotao. She’s so good to me. She has saved all the tasty food and pretty clothes, and sent them all to my mother and my sister.”
Xiaotao held Chunya in her arms smilingly, saying, “Little girl, you are so frank. No matter how good a person I am, you don’t need to say it out loud like this. We should always keep a low profile.”
All the other maids wobbled a little, speechless.
The little girl who knew nothing only laughed happily. However, Minglan wasn’t that lucky. Right now, she was having a hard time.
Ever since Gu Tingye returned to their mansion, he had locked himself up in the study without saying anything and not even come out to have dinner. In the meanwhile, he had only called Gongsun Baishi over to discuss something.