Chapter 344: Beat the Battle Drum (II)
Translator: Ning LL
“What do you want me to do, Madam, just say it.” These days Tu Hu had way too much free time. His brother had specially warned her to protect Minglan well before leaving. Therefore, Tu Hu had been waiting for a chance to let him show his talents.
On one side of the screen, Minglan put down the teacup and said, “Second Master Tu, this thing is a bit difficult.”
Tu Hu got spirited as he heard those words. He stood there and held the fist in the other hand, saying, “Master is a friend to me and my brother until death, he saved our lives. Madam, just tell me what you need.” Easy tasks wouldn’t give him the opportunity to make a difference.
Also, Minglan had treated the Tu brothers very well. Besides their normal wages, they also received clothes of all seasons, festival rewards, the tiger bones and leopard tendons of the best quality and the plasters for bruises and injuries all the time. At the end of last year, she had suddenly had this idea to play matchmaker for them. Tu Hu and his brother were both tired of the lives full of danger at the outside world. Attaching themselves to Gu Tingye provided them cozy lives. As a result, they would do their utmost to work for the Gu’s family.
Minglan thought about it and weighed her words, “I don’t know how to describe the thing I want you to do. It’s just…” She felt hard to open her mouth, because she had no idea either. Tu Hu who stood on the other side of the screen stretched his neck for a long while. Then Minglan, teeth gritted, told him her suspicions in short.
“I couldn’t say what is wrong, but I just feel that something is not right.”
Minglan thumped on the arm of the chair and said slowly and clearly with a heavy voice, “When I was at school, my tutor once told me, ‘Lack of consideration is caused by negligence. Negligence is caused by laziness. As long as we investigate something with caution and diligence, we’ll eventually find the crack on the egg.”
Tu Hu put on a serious look on his face as he listened to her. Minglan paused and said, “Now, I want you to investigate these things, my aunt, Old Madam Qin, everything about them, the Kang family, the Qin family, even the Zhu family, the Sheng family, and every details, including the temples and nunneries they go, the monks and nuns they often talk with. Tell me everything that you find out. I’d like to know all the details.”
Tu Hu couldn’t help glancing to the other side of the screen, thinking, ‘This woman always stays in boudoir, why did she talk like a professional?’ He was an expert in this area, so he knew that the hardest thing to investigate was not inside the big mansion or the royal palace, but at the place where everything seemed peaceful. He gave an obeisance and said, “I see what you mean, madam. You can just wait.”
After Minglan gave the instructions, she finally felt a bit relieved. Now, Mama Cui was taking care of her food, Tu Hu did the investigation at the outside, Danju and Xiaotao would go to hear the things he said every four or five days, Momo Chang restrained the untamed servants, Hong Xiao was warned implicitly by Minglan a few times, Qiu Niang was super demoralized after suffering those beatings and nearly became a nun. As for Lady Fengxian who felt sorry for herself in Ling Ding Pavillion every day, she didn’t even dare to walk out of her room. Expect for the annoying frequent micturition, everything seemed pretty normal.—Everything should be fine.
After around a month, it was getting hotter. As Minglan was about to be in labor, all the preparations were done. The scissors, cotton cloth, copper basin, quilts had already been thoroughly checked by Mama Cui. She even scrutinized the firewood which was used to boil water. On the contrary, Minglan got stabler and ate and slept well every day. Also, she still stuck to the routine of daily stroll in order to make it easier for her to deliver the baby.
“It’ll happen at the end of this month, maybe earlier. If it’s later, it might be the next month.” After the old imperial doctor took Minglan’s pulse and calculated the time for a while. After that, he told the medical woman to touch Minglan’s belly, saying, “Madam, don’t worry. Your condition is great. The baby is just the right size, it’s just…” He added for his own safety, “Madam, it’s a dangerous thing after all, you have to be very careful.”
Minglan couldn’t help but goggle at those doctors, thinking, ‘You said all the nice things and bad things.’
Since she didn’t know when she would give birth to the baby, then nothing changed. This day, Minglan was chatting with Momo Chang. Rong happened to be on a day off from school, she sat on a stool and listened to their conversation with a plate of rose sunflower seeds in her hands. Right at this moment, Chang Nian came.
“School is over? Do you have a lot of homework today? Do you understand everything your teacher has said?” Momo Chang devoted her entire life to her grandson. She was badly educated, but gave a strict supervision to Chang Nian. The boy answered all her questions. Not long after he entered into the Hai’s family school, he had become the typical good student in his classmates and his teacher’s eyes. So everything went well with him.
“Nian grew much taller.” Minglan sized Chang Nian up with a smile.
Chang Nian had grown up in the countryside. Being exposed to the sun and rain all year round, he was taller and sturdier than the boys from the officials’ families. He was only twelve years old, but was already half head taller than Changdong. Now that he gradually turned into puberty, he didn’t dare to look straightly to Minglan and followed the rules by lowering his head and bowing. Still, there was redness on his dark face. He said, “I’ve grown older in vain and have to trouble my grandma and my mother to make clothes for me day and night.” Hearing his voice changing hoarse in his puberty, Minglan chuckled. Chang Nian was always an upright and straightforward boy, but lately he didn’t talk too much and only muttered things. Perhaps his voice was the reason for that. Momo Chang looked at her grandson with an affectionate look. Seeing him looking like a graceful young master at such a young age in the half-old green rope, Momo Chang couldn’t help but get very proud.
“Sister Rong, you are here. Nice to meet you.” As Chang Nian saw Rong there, he said with a smile. Rong gave a standard obeisance to him with her head keeping straight and said with a soft voice, “Brother Nian, nice to meet you.”
Seeing that, Momo Chang smiled gently and shook her head.
“Madam, I brought The Story of Long Water with Sir Qian Yulin’s annotation to Sister Rong, can I…” Chang Nian bowed to Minglan and cupped his hand. Before Minglan said anything, Rong already straightened up her upper body, eyes gleaming.
Minglan then chuckled and waved her hand, “I’ll talk with your grandma for a bit longer. You two can go to the side room.” The girl under the age of ten and the ten-year-old boy didn’t need to mind the boundary between male and female after all. The adults were in the next room anyway.
Momo Chang watched Rong following Nian out of the room like an excited rabbit with a complicated look in her eyes. Minglan glanced at Momo Chang, knowing the latter detested Rong’s mother a lot but also pitied the girl’s destiny.
Momo Chang turned around and said gently, “Alas, this girl… She has changed a lot during such a short period of time. Now she is educated and has a sense of proportion. She doesn’t have a good blood mother, but she’s lucky to meet you, Madam.”
Minglan moved her lips but didn’t say anything. She never asked about the things about Manniang on her initiative.
Momo Chang was a cautious person and seldom talked about Gu Tingye’s past in the ordinary times, but now she seemed to be in the mood of chatting. With a distant look in her eyes, she muttered, “That woman came to my house to badger me every day in order to find about Tingye’s whereabout, she also left Rong at my place. When she finally knew where Tingye was, she then made up her mind and took her son to south. No matter how bad a person I am, I would never hurt Tingye’s child, but that woman insisted on taking Rong away. I thought that she would bring Rong on the road. Little did I know that she sent her daughter to Gu’s mansion. Rong was so young at that time, how could that woman throw her into that dangerous place?!”