Chapter 254: The Guideline of Giving Birth to a Child: Live and Get Pregnant (2)
Translator: Iris
As for the ones who accepted the gifts and didn’t return anything, they were either great friends or superiors of the givers. There might be other reasons for that, but all in all, people sent gifts to each other only to help meet each other’s needs.
After Minglan had sent her guest off, she was quite satisfied with herself, feeling that she had learned many things after getting married.
Then, she ignored the sarcastic words of Second Madam Bing and asked Zhu shi to taste the snacks warmly, “This was made by the crisp cheese which was sent from the north. I heard the people in northern area ate the cheese directly. But I feel that the flavor is too strong and has a slight smell of mutton. So I asked them to make snacks with it.”
Zhu shi, face turning stiff, picked a snack and tasted it reluctantly. Second Madam Bing bit her lips and said, “Sister-in-law, you really are in a carefree mood now. Your uncle and brothers-in-law are about to suicide in anxiety, but you are still unconcerned. What is your heart made of?”
“What a nice speech. My heart is just like the ones of all the other women.” Minglan turned around slowly and said with a slight smile, “Second Sister-in-law, since you have already been so blunt, I’d like to speak my mind too.”
As Minglan smoothed out the wrinkles on her dress, she looked at Second Madam Bing and said,
“I am just a woman who can not interfere with the official business. I’ve said everything I could say and done everything I could do. If my husband disagrees with me, do you think I can force him to listen to me?”
Seeing that Second Madam Bing was still in anger, Minglan said sternly, “After all, I have already got married and should obey my husband. Even if my parents’ family is in conflict with my husband, I have to take my husband’s side. Second Sister-In-Law, you can ask any married woman whether they would fight against their husbands for others. I know my words don’t sound nice, but the truth is always not pleasing to the ear.”
Second Madam Bing who knew that Minglan was right couldn’t make any argument. After she had opened and closed her mouth for several times, she finally wanted to say something. However, Minglan interrupted her smilingly, “Perhaps you have the guts to do that, Second Sister-In-Law, but I have been just married to my husband for less than half a year and not given birth to a child yet. I can only behave cautiously and dare not cross the line. So please forgive me for not being able to help, Second Sister-In-Law.” After saying that, Minglan gave a wry smile to show how helpless she was.
The key to avoid offending others when rejecting them was: Having a nice attitude, keeping a firm principle and speaking things clearly. In this way, Minglan could make it clear that what they had requested was truly out of her reach and that they could only blame their own fate. Since those women were still Minglan’s sisters-in-law and there was no way she wouldn’t meet them in the future, Minglan didn’t want to make the relations too tense between them.
Minglan had already spoken so straightly, so there was no need to say anything else. She believed that those women had done enough and wouldn’t come again after a few days when they realized that they wouldn’t get what they wanted.
Then, Minglan continued to invite them to drink tea and eat snacks with a beaming smile on her face. If there was something she needed to deal with, she would handle the matter. If she got nothing to do, she would hold a blanket in her arms and do the needlework to show how virtuous she was. Since those women couldn’t beat her, she just pretended that she hadn’t heard anything they said.
“What nice needlework!” Zhu shi, as sensible as she was, approached Minglan and picked up a small piece of chest covering while praising, “Well, well, look at the color, the needlework. Well done!”
Minglan, face slightly turning red, twiddled the thread while saying, “My Eldest Sister sent someone here to tell me that she wanted to chat with me. I prepare to go to her home tomorrow morning. This work is about to be finished. After I’ve done the needlework, I’ll bring this to her.”
Zhu shi was a bit surprised to hear that. But she still recovered the look on her face and teased, “Well, sisters are always so close. I don’t know if my Xian would be so lucky to wear something with such perfect needlework.” Then, with a meaningful look in her eyes, she stared at Minglan and said on purpose, “Making clothes for others’ kids is not better than making for your own kids. When will you give birth to a child?”
Minglan blushed with a smile on her face right away and pushed Zhu shi slightly with a bashful look, “Hey! Stop! You, you, you, how can you say this...”
Zhu shi who was totally unguarded staggered and almost fell down from the chair, her mind whirling due to the pain on her arms.
...
The next day, when Minglan was in Marquis Zhongqin’s mansion, she told Hualan what had happened, which made the latter bend over with laughter. Hualan lay on the brick bed and tapped Minglan’s forehead with her slender finger, saying, “You! Still like a child! Did it make you happy to play tricks on them?”
Minglan shook her head lightheartedly and replied, “I have been tortured by them for days. Why couldn’t I take revenge on them a bit? They should be grateful. If they did this to Fifth Sister, they might even be beaten!”
Hualan covered her mouth with her handkerchief and laughed wildly.
Minglan measured Hualan with her eyes carefully. Although Hualan still seemed a bit slender, she clearly was more spirited. With a joyful look on her face, she looked composed at ease as if she was still the noble and cheerful First Lady of the Sheng family.
After a long while, they both stopped laughing. Hualan asked someone to bring a large plate of snacks and said, “Here, have a taste of this. Cuichan hasn’t made those things for a while.”
There were the red sweet cakes made with beans, the golden sweet dew made with honey and fruit, the chewy black sugar rice with root of lotus as well as the white chubby dried milk cake. After Minglan had a taste of all those tasty snacks the flavor of which she was very familiar with, she sighed and said, “Eldest Sister, grandma surely adores you most, otherwise she wouldn’t have sent Cuichan, Mama Fang’s best apprentice, to you. It has been a long time that I didn’t have a chance to taste this unique flavor.”
Cuiwei pretended to be displeased and said, “My lady, were you suggesting that we were not good enough? All right, Sister Cuichan, why don’t we change ladies with each other, in case our ladies would be tired of us!”
Hearing that, Cuichan covered her mouth and chuckled while Hualan pointed to Cuiwei and said with a smile, “Little girl, everyone knows that your lady treats her servants very nicely. We surely know that you are just showing off now!”
“Sister Cuichan!” Xiaotao who was also attracted by the snacks approached Cuichan and said, “Since our lady is so nice, why don’t you come to our place?”
Cuichan was a tender woman who didn’t like to argue with others. Hearing that, she said in a soft voice beside Hualan, “I’ve grown up with my lady. Since I’ve said that I would serve her for my whole life, I’ll never leave her even if she abuses me, beats me or drives me away.”
Minglan expressed how jealous she was by smacking her lips for a long while. Although Hualan didn’t say anything, she felt quite complacent inwardly. After they chatted for a while, Hualan asked Cuichan to bring Cuiwei and Xiaotao to eat other snacks outside.
“Eldest Sister, you’ve been doing well lately!” Minglan put a snack in her mouth and said with a meaningful smile, “The procedure of making these snacks is rather complicated and the ingredients are hard to find, not to mention all the pots and pans you need to prepare. So, I guess you have already had your own kitchen now, right?”
Hualan, eyes rounded adorably, chuckled and wiped the crumbs around Minglan’s mouth and said, “Mama Fang is aged, I know you don’t want to bother her. If you want to eat snacks, just tell someone to send the message to me. I’ll ask Cuichan to make those snacks and send them to you.”