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Minglan, with a water-still face, took a few steps forward and stood in front of Molan who said with hatred, “Must you act against me and defamed me out of blue? To prove my fame, I must go forward!”
Raising her arm, Minglan grabbed Molan easily and said casually, “Are you sure not to go back with us?”
Molan made her resolution and huffed, “I’m sure!”
“Alright!”
Then in a wave Minglan threw something right at Molan who screamed out and found a big patch of mud stain on her sunny-after-storm gown made of Su brocade!
“What is this?” Molan bellowed, her face turning purple.
Minglan slightly unfold a piece of handkerchief in which there was a lump of mud. It turned out that Minglan had wrapped it in her handkerchief and held in her hand as Rulan talked with Molan just now.
“You, you and you…” Molan shivered with rage and pointed at Minglan. Rulan who stood next to them was also in shock.
Minglan said leisurely, “Go ahead and meet with those noble young lords. Make a step forward, the mud will be on your face.”
“How dare you do this to me?!” Molan finally came back to reason a bit.
Minglan sneered, “I planned to wake you up with a slap on the face but gave up since we’re sisters! Now I have these words for you: You don’t want your face but we do! Father has acted with caution for his whole life and Old Madam and Madam have dedicated their lives to manage this family. I won’t allow you to ruin everything!” To be honest, Minglan had wanted to beat her up for long.
Molan raised her arm trying to beat Minglan but the latter managed to escape in a flexible move. Then, Rulan seized Molan from her back. Molan’s eyes turned red, and she cried, “I’m going to tell daddy that you two bully me!”
Rulan was amused by her, laughing, “Go ahead! If daddy knew that you showed up in public, would he praise you with applause? The best you can get is hard beating!” Thinking for a second, she added, “Sixth younger sister has always been nice and honest. Even if daddy doesn’t believe me, he will believe her!”
Molan bit her lips with rage and started ferociously at Minglan and Rulan. Minglan wasn’t a bit daunted, and turned to Rulan, “Just now when we watched the Nine-Dragon Wall, forth elder sister slipped down accidentally and made her skirt dirty. Let’s hold her back. I guess Old Madam is going back home.”
Rulan clapped and laughed, “Forth elder sister, shall we go?”
Molan stamped her feet with hatred and turned around heading back. Rulan caught up immediately, shouting, “Forth elder sister, allow me to help you.” At this moment, she hoped more people see Molan in dirt.
Minglan laughed to herself in behind and felt cheerful as if the fatigue from the all morning had disappeared. For these years, every time Molan did something irritating, Minglan, by her original temper, had wanted to stand up and give her a lesson, but she was stopped by Old Madam, who persuaded, “Women are restricted in many aspects. Unless you have hard evidence, or don’t start easily in case of impressing others as harsh and mean, which will affect your action in the future.”
Molan and Concubine Lin were of same temperament, always bad-mouthing behind one’s back and setting one against another, yet, in front of Sheng Hong, behaving as poor women that had been bullied by everyone in the mansion. Last time when Molan was punished for humiliating herself in front of Junzhu Pingning, Sheng Hong was cheated afterwards by Concubine Lin’s tears into believing that it was Wang shi who deliberately let Molan make a scene of herself in public.
The reason why Sheng Hong now was so biased toward Molan was no other than the fact that Wang shi and Rulan had left an impression of being domineering and bullying to Sheng Hong. A pair of mother and daughter as fierce as lions VS. a pair of poor mother and daughter as meek as sheep. When a man walked into this kind of scenario, his brain would break down and the protective testosterone would automatically make shitty judgement.
Therefore, she never argued with Molan, especially in front of Sheng Hong, and just got along with her like loving sisters.
Minglan shook the handkerchief, rolled it into a lump and tucked it into her sleeve. As she was about to leave, she heard a soft laughter which made her whole body tighten up. She turned around at once. Since she didn’t raise her head up, what she saw first was a pair of pink-sole and black-instep shoes and the corner of a piece of sapphire blue gown embroidered with silver lines. She looked up, finding a huge cloud of shadow was hovering over her head.
Minglan immediately took back a few steps. Squinting over, she found that sunrays at this moment were cast upon half of the man’s gown, making it bright and vivid while the other half of it was blocked by the shadow of stone wall which made it dark blue and the patterns on it enchantingly exquisite as if carved out with glaze.
“Second uncle.” Minglan bowed with all respect.
Gu Tingye pulled the corner of his mouth and satirized, “Is it proper to treat your own sister like this?”
Minglan lowered her head and still answered in a respectful tone, “Even an upright judge couldn’t make clear domestic affairs. If what I did is wrong, my father will be the judge to punish me.” What she meant was: it’s none of your business!
Gu Tingye’s eyebrows slanted up; a bit shocked, he said, “Since you call me uncle, it’s my duty to tell you right from wrong.”
Minglan looked up and smiled mischievously, saying suddenly, “I forgot to congratulate you on your wedding.” Then she gestured with her chubby fair hands in a pleasing way, “I wish you and my aunt-in-law many children and a lasting marriage!”
Gu Tingye’s face fell gloomy at once and his eyes turned sullen. Minglan regretted for what she had done and couldn’t help stepping back.
At the end of last month, Gu Tingyu married Yanran’s younger sister who had been spoiled since birth and was extremely bad-tempered. Upon getting married, she devoted herself into transforming the well-known dandy playboy across the capital. The fifth day after their wedding, she sold out her husband’s two concubines and on the tenth day, she forced Gu Tingye to either study or practice martial arts, forbidding him from hanging out. On the fifteenth day, she drove away his friends who came to find Gu Tingye to watch opera. On the twentieth, somehow getting the news, she took a bunch of male and female servants to Gu Tingye’s house out of Gu mansion and smashed and crashed it into pieces. Luckily, Gu Tingye arrived timely, otherwise Manniang and her two children would have been sold out in bags.
Gu Tingye was never a mild-tempered person, so he claimed a divorce which was naturally turned down by his father Marquis Ningyuan. Then the father and son fiercely fought over it and almost issued a case in the court. One show after another provided the capital with topics to talk about and laugh at during after-dinner tea.
Gu Tingye’s look visibly turned dangerous. Minglan’s mind alarm set off automatically, so she showed apology at once, saying gently with her head lowered down, “Don’t be upset uncle. I shouldn’t have said that.” Gu Tingye’s furry dropped a little. At the sight of Minglan’s lowered little head, he said to himself, “Why be angry at a child.” Therefore, he said, sounding sad, “How innocent Manniang is!”
Minglan readily agreed, “You’re right, uncle! Aunt-in-law acted too rashly.” She even nodded hard to display her agreement.
The words made Gu Tingye irritated again out of no reason. He watched Minglan from the corners of his eyes, overbearingly, and sneered, “Don’t be pretentious. You’re all the same snobbish and looking down upon Manniang. You don’t know how much she suffered!”
Minglan was discouraged because she found it difficult to fool this guy, so she sighed, “Uncle, it doesn’t matter how others think of Manniang as long as you yourself know how good she is! For anyone from Yu family, they naturally regard her as no simple person since she could travel from the capital to Deng Prefecture safe and sound all by herself with two little children, and she even dared to show up and make a scene in Yu mansion.”
Gu Tingyu snorted and took a glimpse of her from overhead, “She has been leading a hard life by wisdom and tactics. Of course, she is not as delicate as you young ladies!”
Okay! Another Sheng Hong here! And another Concubine Lin! Whatever Manniang did was right. Even if she killed someone or set fire, it would be others’ fault!
Minglan hated this. She raised up to look right into his eyes, tried hard to hold back her inner resentment and talked in a calm voice, “Uncle. There is something that I don’t understand. Could you help me?”
Gu Tingye was a little shocked, saying, “Go ahead.”
Minglan took a breath and said in a clear voice, “The eldest young lady of Yu family has been in the capital with Cabinet Yu until she was thirteen years old and is famous for her quietness and kindness among noble families. I bet you must have heard of it before you sincerely went for proposal many times. Therefore, if Manniang really wanted to be by your side, she could just wait until sister Yu marries you. By her mild and kind nature, even if Old Master Yu and Old Madam Yu don’t approval for the time being, they would compromise sooner or later, then wouldn’t Manniang get what she wants? Why did she bother to make a scene in Deng prefecture to upset Old Master Yu? Wouldn’t this ruin everything?”
Gu Tingyan’s lips moved a bit. He just asserted that Manninag was resourceful, so now he couldn’t say that Manniang hadn’t expected that.
Minglan sneered in her heart. She had thought about these long before.
Manniang’s real intention to show up in Deng prefecture wasn’t at all to let Yanran accept her, but instead, she was afraid that Yanran’s virtue and outstanding exterior would take Gu Tingye’s favor from her. What Manniang wanted was that Gu Tingye could marry a ferocious wife who would fight with him every day so that she, as a concubine, could gain all the love and stabilize her status!
Seeing Gu Tingye’s fickle expression, Minglan hurriedly soften her voice and said with sincerity, “Uncle, you’re an upright man and just take my words as an evil man’s wish. I just feel unfair for my friend eldest young lady Yu. Probably, Manniang really has her own unspeakable difficulty.”
After all, the reason why Minglan dared to say these was her insight of Gu Tingye’s personality. He acted to his own will defying rules and rituals. In modern times, he was just an avant-garde youth, but in ancient times where rules and rituals were strict, he was regarded as an offbeat playboy. This kind of person, even if acting evil, would be a person true to himself rather than a hypocrite, let alone a nasty obscene slob, so it couldn’t be wrong to flatter him.
Gu Tingyi was in a mental mess and got even more irritated after hearing Minglan’s insincere flattering, bellowing, “Leave now!”
The order was sound of heaven to Minglan who lifted up her skirt to slip away and disappeared in a short while.