Chapter 225: Cannon Folder (1)
Translator: Iris
Qiuniang went back to House of Cardamon Fragrance, eyes completely red. Rong was sleeping in the inner room now. The moment Qiuniang saw Hongxiao, she couldn’t help shedding tears. After all, the two of them had stuck together in difficulties over these years. Then they held each other’s hands and went to the side room to chat.
“Sister, excuse my poor look,” Qiuniang wiped her tears, looking very sad, “It’s all my fault. Even Master was gossiped by others because of me.”
Hongxiao sneered at her inwardly, ‘You are the only one who were ridiculed.’ while saying intimately, “Don’t blame yourself, Master and you are close to each other since his childhood! Master always treats you differently over others, our new Madam wouldn’t understand that. Sister, don’t take it personally. Hasn’t Madam said that Master always praised you in front of her! Think how honored that is!”
Qiuniang sighed with tears in her eyes. After a long while, she said, “I am already an aged woman, how could I fight for Master’s favor with Madam? I just wanted to see if Master was well. Madam is a young girl anyway. I’m afraid that she’s not able to take good care of Master...”
“You are right. We have waited for so many years, how’s it possible for us to have second thoughts? Madam is a bit too oversensitive.” Hongxiao also sighed. After she talked with Qiuniang tearfully, they both went back to their own rooms.
“She’s gone?” A maid whose hair was anchored in two buns stood up to welcome Hongxiao. This girl looked quite adorable with a pretty face. After Hongxiao entered the room, she lied on the bed straightly and said, “She went back to transcribe the Buddha Book. Where’s Wu’er?”
Jinxi poured a cup of tea for Hongxiao while saying smilingly, “Where else could she be? I guess she must be chatting with others.”
“... This Qiuniang, really is a funny woman.” Hongxiao squinted her eyes and held the tea cup up with a meaningful look on her face, saying, “She is extremely stupid indeed. How can she not tell that Master is not the one he used to be? She even asked Mama Lai which road Master would pass the moment she arrived at this mansion. However, she is not a dull person. She’s good at playing dumb and always looks honest and kind. After all these years, she still manages to live a peaceful life.”
Jinxi whispered, “Right. Otherwise, our lady wouldn’t dislike her so much.”
Hongxiao showed a sarcastic look and said, “Back in the old days, Master wasn’t that fond of her either. Master only treated her nicely before for old time sake, after all she had served Master when he was a boy. But after so many years, everything has changed. If she’s clever enough, she should curry favor with Madam now! The past is the past.”
Qiuniang hadn’t done paperwork before, nor did she dare to transcribe the book carelessly. As a result, the rate of her writing progress was rather slow. Even though she wrote very swiftly, it still took her two days to finish the task. The third day, she came to give obeisance to Minglan with the papers. Minglan advised Qiuniang to mind about her behavior. However, at last Minglan also got tired of instructing Qiuniang, so the affair finally came to an end.
The second day, Minglan finally knew why she had been whiny these days. It turned out that her period started.
Danju decocted the herbal tea with brown sugar on a stove for Minglan to drink as usual. Xiaotao fried a bag of hot salt in Mama Ge’s kitchen. After that, she wrapped the salt with a few layers of oil paper and cloth bag. After covering the salt bag with thick satin, Xiaotao gave it to Minglan to let her warm her belly.
For two days, Minglan laid on the bed weakly. She looked at the beautiful scenery through the window, with a sad look in her eyes. Right now she was like the reed by the lake, gainly and delicate... Eh, if only she was holding a book of poems instead of an account book.
Since she was out of sorts today, she wasn’t in the mood of checking the account anymore. Suddenly she reminded of something important. Liao Yong’s wife had indicated that after the rumors of Qiuniang had been spread, the boys and girls in the mansion seemed to desire for love too. This situation was not good for the family unity.
According to the evil indenture system in the ancient times, all the servants in the Cheng Manor, having parents and siblings or not, could only get married with their master and madam’s permission. Minglan then gave the order: Any servant who had parents or siblings only needed to report their family arrangement of their marriages. As for the remaining ones who had no families, Minglan started to act as their matchmaker according to the resource superiority principle after comparing their posts and characters. Thanks to Danju who had brought the servant’s personal files and Liao Yong’s wife’s comments about everyone.
After they had talked about a few words about marriage, Danju blushed and ran out. Xiaotao, on the contrary, wanted to hear more in high spirits. Cuiwei rolled her eyes to Xiaotao and pushed the latter out.
“Little girl! She’s just like a child.” Cuiwei watched Xiaotao leaving and shook her head, sighing. Then she turned her head and said to Minglan, “Madam, others can wait. Do you have any plans for the maids in your room?”
Minglan propped up her body and refreshed a bit, “I have already did some inquiries for them. Sir Gongsun knows a few decent and promising young men from poor families. There were also some capable solders in Master’s troops. Also, I haven’t received the reports from the old stewards in our mansion about their sons engagements. Those are all my candidates for our girls’ future husbands.”
Cuiwei found Minglan’s words quite funny, then she chuckled and said, “Madam, you really are a different person now. Gosh, these girls are so lucky...” On these words, something suddenly occurred to her mind, she then changed the subject and said in a low voice, “Madam, you have to pay attention to Ruomei.”
“What about her?” Minglan asked wonderingly. Ruomei was always an aloof girl who didn’t like to play with other maids. What’s more, in order to avoid arousing any suspicion, she didn’t even show herself every time Gu Tingye was in the room.
Cuiwei hesitated for a second and then decided to tell the truth, “Come to think of it, Ruomei is the oldest one among the girls. I have seen her go to the front yard a few times. Also, these days she seems to be on good terms with the maids and page boys in the outer study. I guess... she might have fallen in love with someone.”
Minglan was startled, “With a scholar who often visits our outer study?”
Cuiwei said dejectedly, “Madam, you know that Ruomei always likes the literacy things. The boys in our mansion... are not up to her taste.” Seeing Minglan being in a daze, Cuiwei added immediately, “I don’t know if a man who’s not from our mansion would want a maid as his wife, but you are the only one who could decide whom she could marry to, Madam. Before you give any permission, we cannot let them get engaged secretly. That will be bad for the reputation of all the other girls in the room and you, Madam!”
Minglan wanted to make some jokes about it. However, seeing the anxious look on Cuiwei’s face, she nodded instantly, saying, “I always feel the girls in my room are the best, but marrying to a decent family is more important. Anyway, it’s still a few years until they get married, take it slowly. When you go back, just instruct Ruomei, and Danju. Danju is too softhearted. She lives next door to Ruomei, so she must know about what you just told me. But she still chose to hide this thing from me for Ruomei considering their sisterhood. I’ll criticize Danju afterwards.”
Cuiwei put on an awkward look and gave out a wry smile, “Madam, I’m glad that you are clear about this, well...”
As they were talking, a voice came through, “Master is back!”