Chapter 267: Father and Son (2)
Translator: Iris
Minglan hadn’t gone to the study the whole time and had only ordered someone to send the meal to him to express her concern.
She believed that Gu Tingye was a mature man with strong willpower and must be considering something instead of getting emotional right now. So what he needed now was not comfort but a quiet environment to let him think.
The fact that he had chosen to say in the outer study instead of the inner study already expressed himself implicitly.
Minglan waited in her room quietly. After she sat in front of the candle until midnight, she finally couldn’t bear anymore and fell asleep at last.
However, late at midnight, she suddenly woke up with cold sweats all over her forehead. When she opened her eyes, she found a huge figure sitting by the window in darkness while staring at her with a gloomy look in his eyes.
Minglan was scared awake.
The man didn’t do anything and only stared at her face. It rained heavily outside. Hearing the raindrops slapping against the ground fiercely, she felt as if her heart was being slapped over and over again. Restless, she couldn’t help but curl up.
Gu Tingye knew that he had waken her up. Then he held her whole body into his arms. He didn’t know how to coax her, so he could only rock her like a wet nurse putting a baby to sleep. Although his posture was very unprofessional, the effect was quite good. Minglan asked him something in a daze, but he didn’t reply and only continued to rock her. At last, she was too sleepy and fell asleep again.
She didn’t sleep well that night and remained restless the whole time. When she woke up, she got a headache as expected. Then she found that there was no one beside her. On the small table beside the bed were the clothes he wore yesterday. It was a thin robe the two sides of which were woven by silk. The threads by which the green pines and the rock pattern had been embroidered seemed to be flickering. Such a precious robe had been rolled into a mass by him and thrown on the table randomly.
None of the men in the Sheng family dared to do so. Sheng Hong regarded his family as a scholar’s family, so he always ordered the men in the family to keep good manners and reflect on themselves. Therefore, no matter how tired the men in the Sheng family were, they were still not allowed to throw things randomly. What was more, with Changbai, the role model in the family, the men had to observe the family rules strictly.
On the contrary, Gu Tingye seemed more like a pampered boy. At a young age, he had been an arrogant and wilful boy who lived an extravagant life. After he wandered far from home, he was left totally unattended. After he joined the army, he was served by others carefully again.
Minglan made a decision secretly that she would never let her children learn from their dad. As she realized what she was thinking, she couldn’t help but laugh.
When she applied makeup in front of the mirror, she ordered Cuiwei to send three Buddhist Texts to Gong Hongxiao and told Gong Hongxiao to save the time of giving obeisance and stay in her own room for the next few days to transcribe each of the Buddhist Texts one hundred times as a punishment for her maid’s lack of discipline.
“Do you think we can enter Master’s study as we like?” Cuiwei rebuked Gong Hongxiao as Minglan had ordered with a gloomy look on her face, “There are so many important papers in there. Even beating that maid to death is not an excessive punishment! Concubine Gong, you really should discipline your own maids.”
On the third class of the training course for a madam, the name of which was ‘How to hold the concubines in awe’, Old Madam Sheng had said, “Never show your feelings in front of them. When you want to praise them, give the essentials in simple language. When you want to reproach them, try not to do it by yourself. Send a decent servant to pass the message. The only thing you need to do is sitting upright and keeping strictly the rules for reward and punishment.”
Minglan had made a concise summary and detailed notes at that time.
When Qiuniang brought Rong to give their obeisances, Minglan saw the woman a bit scared. Then she presented Qiuniang with two strings of Red Muscat Beads and a first-class fan which had just been rewarded by the imperial family. The things made in the imperial workshop were extremely delicate and precious even if they were just ordinary objects. Seeing the gifts, Qiuniang gave a beaming smile and bowed to Minglan right away to express her thanks.
Rong was still too young to have an interest in those things. However, when Danju and two maids came into the room to set the table for breakfast, she smelled delicious food and couldn’t help but glimpse at the table. Thus Minglan asked if Rong wanted to have breakfast together. Minglan didn’t expect that Rong would agree to that, though in a low voice. As a result, Qiuniang had to go back to her yard by herself.
The little girl who seemed to have a good appetite today ate two bowls of mung bean porridge with tremella, half a plate of fried quail eggs with salty sauce and a large piece of jujube cake. During the whole while, Minglan could only stare at the girl in a daze with a bowl in her hand.
A lady from a big family shouldn’t goggle at the food like that. However, as Minglan saw the girl being a bag of bones, she decided not to say anything first. At that time, Old Madam Sheng had made great efforts to feed Minglan and make her become a chubby girl with rosy cheeks. Back then, the graceful Old Madam Sheng must have tried her best to tolerate Minglan’s horrible table manners.
After the maids had taken away the table, Minglan felt that Rong had eaten too much. Therefore, she gave a simple dictation to the girl and showed the latter the right way to hold a brush pen. After that, she told Xiaotao to take the girl for a stroll in the garden and then send the girl back.
As Minglan saw the back of Rong, she was lost in thought-- ‘Should I move Gong Hongxiao out of the House of Cardamon Fragrance?’
Last night she had a poor sleep, and now she had to consider something like this. She couldn’t help but get a headache again.
Minglan leaned on the bedside of the mottled bamboo bed and read the book by the light which filtered through the window. As she wanted to take a nap, she suddenly glanced at the needle box. Then she sighed and picked up the clothing for babies which she hadn’t finished sewing. Although Minglan was a lazy girl, she still had to make something for Rulan’s unborn baby to express her concern. Also, Rulan was quite familiar with Minglan’s needlework, so Minglan couldn’t cheat on this by asking someone else to do it.
Perhaps because it had been too long since Minglan did the needlework, her movement seemed a bit awkward. It took her almost an hour to embroider the outline of a clump of green bamboos. Then she yawned and tried to find the threads of jade green, light green and blackish green color.
At the moment, a figure flashed past the window. Gu Tingye opened the curtain and strode in.
Minglan was startled and thought that she had a delusion. Then she took a look at the hourglass, finding it was just the Si Hour(9 a.m.).
“Why did you come back so early today?” Minglan said that with a smile and tried to get up.
Gu Tingye stepped forward in a hurry and pressed her back on the bed, saying, “You didn’t sleep well last night. Stop doing the needlework. You should have a rest.” After saying that, he also sat down on the bed and said, “I came back to change my clothes. I have to go to the drill ground later.”
Minglan then wanted to ask Xiazhu to come in to help him get dressed. However, he stopped her right away and said, “There’s no hurry to do that. Just sit with me for a while.”
Minglan could only sit on the bed quietly. As she turned her head, she saw the sun had already shined brightly in the sky. The dazzling sunlight came through the newly-pasted green screen window and fell on his bright red court robe, his body and his face. However, the look on his face was still gloomy.
As she was thinking about how to ask him, he suddenly started to speak, “After we finished the morning report today, I went to the royal palace to meet His Majesty.”
“... Oh.” Minglan said.
“I pleaded with His Majesty for them. I said that although the Gu’s people are guilty, I still hope that His Majesty could show mercy to them.”
Minglan lowered her head while asking herself secretly why she wasn’t surprised at all.
The room was quiet, so were the side rooms. As long as Minglan and Gu Tingye were together, the maids would be sensible enough to leave the room quietly. Only a few of them would stay in the wing-room or the water room to wait for the couple’s orders.
“... I wasn’t softhearted or persuaded by his nice speech. They don’t deserve my pity! It’s just, just...” Gu Tingye suddenly felt extremely annoyed and stood up. Then this tall and sturdy man started to walk around in the room like a fierce trapped beast which was eager to give vent to its feelings.
Minglan rubbed her temples, feeling her head aching more badly now.
“But, but...” He was a resolute man. However, right at this moment, it seemed that he was not able to speak out all of his grievance. The only thing he could do was thumping on the sandalwood table the surface of which was as glossy as the mirror. Even the celadon tea ware with pink petal patterns on the table were bounced away.
“I wish they could experience the feeling of wandering from place to place and being wronged!” He said that with his teeth gritted and an indignant look in his eyes. After a long while, his chest gradually stopped heaving up and down.
“... It’s just this is,” He flopped down on the bed next to Minglan dejectedly, saying, “this is better... for our future.”
Minglan understood why he was so angry now.