Chapter 101 A virtuous woman—Dong Xinlan
At the hall of Ting Zhu Yard, Dong Xinlan cried to Madam Luo and said, “Grandma, Zhu is so pitiful, and he is quite skinny now. After waking up, Zhu was treated by my husband and Dr. Wu in turn. They both said that his disease came from the things under his bed. Zhu is only 3 years old and has no reason to suffer such a big pain. I don’t know how long it would take for him to recover. It’s really painful for me. Please punish the one who raised those things severely for the justice of Zhu and me...”
Madam Luo nodded but spoke nothing. She turned to Luo Baishao and frowned, “What are you doing here in the midnight? Did you finish facsimileing Ms. Wang’s regular script copybook (in small characters, as used in Chinese calligraphy exercises) which your Third Uncle brought to you the other day?”
“Grandma,” Luo Baishao went up to shake Madam Luo’s arms and said with a smile, “it’s too small, which makes me feel dizzy, so I don’t want to facsimile it. Besides, I haven’t seen my third sister for a month and I miss her very much. Is she okay on her way back? Did you have a safe trip… when you went to pick up third sister this time?”
Mammy Tang came up to Madam Luo, put a thin blanket on her knees and then continued the topic timely, “Thanks for your concern, Fourth Miss. We have had a good trip and have brought back the great heroine of our family.”
“Great heroine?” Dong Xinlan and Luo Baishao asked in unison, “Who?”
“Best wishes, Grandma. Elder Sister-in-law, forth sister, long time no see.” Before arriving, a girl’s voice, as crisp as a silver bell with a smile, came from behind the screen, “I miss you the most in the Taoist temple. And I’m happy to see you again.”
Dong Xinlan and Luo Baishao looked together, and saw a smiling peach-faced girl who came in from behind the screen. It was clear that the girl was He Danggui, but... Luo Baishao shouted in surprise, “Hey, why does your face become like this? Are you tanned? Or you took the wrong medicine?” However, Dong Xinlan stared at that girl, turned to look at Madam Luo and said, “He Danggui is here. Grandma, you must give justice for Zhu!”
He Danggui said with a smile, “Earlier I heard firecrackers were set off in the mansion, seeming like people were celebrating something. Did Nephew Zhu wake up? That’s very gratifying, and I’m also very happy!”
Dong Xinlan snorted and turned her face aside. Luo Baishao smiled in a good mood as she looked at the yellow face of He Danggui. Miss Ji brought a cup of tea (which could strengthen people’s body) to Third Miss, and then stood behind Third Miss as Mammy Tang instructed to support her silently.
As a spectator, Miss Ji saw the situation in the East Yard clearly. In the East Yard, Dong Xinlan and Second Mistress Luo had always been at odds. Most of the servants naturally supported Second Mistress Luo who was now in charge. 10 days ago, Second Mistress Luo’s brother of her natal family died and she went back to attend his funeral. At the same time, the Taoist temple delivered the message about the rebirth of Third Miss. After Second Mistress Luo failed to stop Madam Luo picking Third Miss up, her attitude changed a lot. She made all the courtyards decorated with colorful lights to celebrate Third Miss’s rebirth.
Second Mistress Luo came back from her natal family with pale cheeks and red eyelids. When she entered the door, she almost hung on the beams for seeing red lanterns everywhere. Later, hearing that it was all for Third Miss, Second Mistress Luo was uneasy. So, she went to find Madam Luo and said some bad things about Third Miss, asking Madam Luo to keep the girl with different family name away. Madam Luo usually was not particularly good to Third Miss. This time, for some reason, Madam Luo was determined to reject Second Mistress Luo, although her words were always taken well in front of her.
In the last few days, Zhu’s disease was getting worse. So, Second Mistress Luo had suddenly realized that Ms. Dong used her last time to speak bad words of Third Miss. It was clear that Ms. Dong took her as a tool. Therefore, she revenged Ms. Dong the same way. While Zhu had the chance to be saved, Second Mistress Luo had already prepared his funeral in the mansion in full swing. Although many servants felt it was too early, they still wanted to flatter and gain fair of Second Mistress Luo by putting on the whole set of mourning dresses and filial piety hats. Ms. Dong was still feeding her son medicine and food, burning joss sticks to every Bodhisattvas and praying that her son’s strange disease would be cured soon. She was very angry when she heard that those snobbish people were running around in the mansion. Later, Zhu really died, so she thought that those people had cursed her son and hated them very much.
Today, in the daytime, Master Baiqian made quite a mess in the mansion, and even soaked Zhu’s body with hot oil. At first, everyone thought that he was crazy because his son died. No one had expected that such a strange thing happened, and Zhu came back from death! Although Zhu was still very weak now, his face was getting pink and his eyes were becoming brighter. Hearing the news, those servants took off their mourning dresses on the spot, took out all the firecrackers used to celebrate festivals from the warehouse and lit them, hoping to get Ms. Dong’s forgiveness in this way.
Not long after Madam Luo had lunch, everyone in Ting Zhu Yard heard the sound of firecrackers. Madam Luo was happy to think of the preface of Third Miss: “If Nephew Zhu is really lucky to reborn, there will be a grand celebration in the mansion. It is necessary to play gongs and firecrackers.” If the Immortal didn’t instruct her to stay at home for 2 days, Madam Luo would not wait to put on wings to see how Zhu was like after being saved by the Immortal’s magic. Yi took the pills of Immortals in her dream. She not only gained rebirth, but also became smart and cute. Also, she became livelier than before. Now, Zhu also gained rebirth. Was he also awakened by the Immortal? Could the Four Books and the Five Classics be blurted out of his mouth? Could he get a scholar for Luo’s Family?
Madam Luo was eager to reward Third Miss. Hearing Mammy Tang saying that Third Miss had a miserable experience of “starving for half a year”, she immediately ordered people to prepare a table of exquisite food, and asked Gan Cao and Pu Gongying to call Third Miss to eat. However, according to the reply of Third Miss’s maid, Third Miss was so frightened in the street that she cried a lot under the quilt. Now her eyes were even more swollen than the steamed bread. So, she would like to see the rest after the swelling subsided.
Before Third Miss coming out for the meal, Ms. Dong suddenly came here and shouted furiously, which frightened Madam Luo a lot, because she thought Zhu was dead again. Therefore, she couldn’t care about the Immortal’s explanation that “she must stay at home for two days”, urging maids to call in Ms. Dong, and at the same time letting Xiang Chunya call Third Miss.
After hearing Ms. Dong’s words, they knew Zhu was safe and Ms. Dong were here to arrest Third Miss, the one who had killed Zhu before.
Ms. Dong told them in tears: people from the First Branch found a nest of mice under the bed of Zhu. Master Baiqian also found thousands of such things in the West Mountain Garden and West Lateral court in the daytime. Most of them were in the West Lateral court and now it had been burned down. After careful analysis and reasoning, now they could be completely sure that someone had raised this kind of things in a large amount in the West Lateral court and lured Wei to put them under the bed of Zhu, which caused the disease and evil, making Zhu suffer such pain.
Miss Ji picked her eyebrows. Third Miss lived in West Lateral court, so it was obvious that “someone” was referring to her. Third Miss had lived in the mansion for half a year and was always tearful like a little wronged daughter-in-law. Therefore, Miss Ji always felt sorry for her. It was hard to imagine that Third Miss had done such a thing.
At this time, Mammy Tang quietly pulled Miss Ji, explained the brief story that Third Miss told her in Shui Shang Temple and said sadly, “Madam Luo also knew the whole story”.
But Madam Luo said, “Though Wei put all those things around, and he accidentally caused a disaster at last; though Ms. Dong knew that Wei had put them in the kitchenette of West Lateral court, and she had not stopped Wei at that time; though Second Mistress Luo knew that there were many mice in West Lateral court, and she didn’t approve the rodenticides at that time... After all, Third Miss is the true master of the West Lateral court, so she has to bear some responsibility for it happened in her yard. Madam Luo understood the principle of “a house divided against itself cannot stand”, and she didn’t want to embarrass all the people. Especially, Second Mistress Luo is the wife in charge of the family. It’s good for the whole family to maintain her prestige...”
So, Madam Luo decided to let Third Miss bear the responsibility and let everyone know it was Third Miss’s fault. Besides, Madam Luo decided to let Third Miss kowtow and pour tea for Ms. Dong in public to make amends.
In Madam Luo’s opinion, in this mouse chaos, Zhu was the biggest victim, and his mother was also frightened. It was better to punish Yi with a symbolic punishment, and let the little girl kowtow to her elder brother and sister-in-law to compensate for these things. Then it was over, Zhu had gained rebirth, and the whole family would be happy again. After a few days, she would fire the unruly Wang Qi’s wife. In addition to the 400 liang silver which was embezzled from West Lateral court, she would appropriate another 400 liang silver from the public expense to gather a lucky number for Yi as her dowry, which was also a compensation for her to some extent. After all, Yi was such a pitiful little girl and didn’t do anything wrong.
As for the whole matter of “the Immortal entrusted the dream to Yi and taught her the solution to save Zhu”, Madam Luo absolutely did not intend to make it public.
There were 2 among the young generations died in Luo’s Family and then both had been revived by the Immortal. This kind of thing was too surprising to shock those villains. If there was any rumor that “the best medicine family, Luo’s Family, had a secret medicine to bring the dead back to life”, all the thieves, relatives, friends and powerful people, even the Emperor would ask Luo’s Family for the medicine in various ways. The consequences would be unimaginable... All in all, this thing must not be known to the outsiders.
Madam Luo had made up a set of words by herself. Externally, they would say that Zhu was not dead before, but was temporarily collapsed and dizzy. Everyone was so sad that they didn’t even check his body carefully. Senior Lord Luo who was travelling outside heard about this, so he came back quietly to diagnose Zhu. However, he didn’t like to meet people, so he left a letter to teach Qian the method. Based on that, Qian saved his son. In private, Madam Luo would tell Qian and his wife about “Yi dreamed about an Immortal who told her the way to save her nephew’s life at the cost of her beautiful face”. Qian and his wife would naturally double their love for Yi. In this way, Yi, who was lack of her mother’s love, could grow up with the love of her brother and sister-in-law. Madam Luo would see her family nice and harmonious. It was a happy situation!
But the only unexpected thing was—on this side, Madam Luo had just made this arrangement with Mammy Tang. But before she could discuss with He Danggui, Dong Xinlan was coming.
When Madam Luo knew that Dong Xinlan was here to get justice for Zhu, she was in a bit of dilemma. At first, she agreed to return the First Branch justice, and also planned to let Yi make an apology. But now, if she suddenly asked Yi to kowtow to her granddaughter-in-law and make amends, Yi would feel aggrieved. If Yi thought that her deeds outweighed her faults, she would tell the truth that the Immortal taught her how to save Zhu. The situation would be terrible. Therefore, Madam Luo planned to mediate with both sides tonight to ease their anger. After everyone left, she would persuade Yi to apologize to her sister-in-law the next day. Lan was a virtuous and reasonable woman. How could she seriously badger with a child?
Mammy Tang also agreed with Madam Luo’s idea. After handling this way, all people of Luo’s Mansion would be decent. People in all branches would be satisfied: First Branch got justice for Zhu; Second Mistress Luo of Second Branch’s dereliction of duty would be ended in silence; the poor Third Miss in Fourth Branch would get a huge sum of 800 liang silver. Even if she had to suffer a little grievance in the beginning, she would be happy when these silvers were sent to her.
In fact, such arrangement was for the sake of Third Miss. After all, in such a large mansion, people couldn’t take full care of her, and the good reputation of rescuing others selflessly couldn’t be compared with heavy silver. Although it would be a spot for her future marriage that “she raised mice to hurt her nephew, kowtowed in public and confessed guilt”, her future was still promising. Given her good family background, high rank, and Madam Luo’s love, Madam Luo would naturally find a good family for her and give more dowries to compensate her.
After Dong Xinlan storming in, Mammy Tang was afraid that Dong Xinlan would say some excessive words in her anger. With the soft temper of Third Miss, she definitely could not bear the excessive words. So, Mammy Tang sent Ji to stand behind Third Miss and told Ji that if the situation was not good, she should bring Third Miss back to the room first. The bad situation would be dealt with later.
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