Chapter 145 Long hair floated in the wind
He Danggui reluctantly crawled out of the quilt and continued to drink the Distilled Osmanthus Drink at the table. Then she picked out the eggs in the noodles and ate them. She asked Chan Yi, “Why do you like sugar so much?”
“Miss, you are so lazy that you even don’t make the bed. If you don’t make the bed, don’t pull it at random!” Chan Yi replied as she made the bed, “I don’ know. But I think that sugar was the most delicious in the world when I was a kid. Yet I couldn’t afford it at that time. My grandmother knew I like it, so she bought a jar of it with her own money and put it under the bed. Every day at meal time she would put a handful of sugar into my bowl. But no one gives me sugar after she died. A few months later before meal, I found that the sugar under the bed was all eaten by rats.”
He Danggui was silent for a moment, and apologized suddenly, “Chan Yi, I’m so sorry that I just got angry with you.”
Yeah, childhood memories and preferences were always difficult to change. Chan Yi couldn’t eat sugar at her young age, but for her, He Danggui, was salt.
Qian Laowu’s Family where she lived on the farm, was the poorest, whose food was watery and scarce, without salt all the year around. It was probably the first time at one day’s lunch when she lived one year later there, she had tasted something like vegetable porridge and pickles which was so salty. Since it was so delicious, so she asked Mrs. Qian, the wife of handicapped Qian Laowu, what it was. And then she got that the salty stuff was called “Salt”.
Mrs. Qian held up a broken stean for her. She pointed to the white stuff inside and said, “The master of our farm, Luo’s Mansion in Yangzhou City, dispensed it, and each family has four jin! We can eat porridge with salt the whole year! After eating it, you’ll feel more energetic during work!”
When she was 5 years old, she crept out of the bed in the middle night and ran to the kitchen to find that stean. She grabbed a handful of “delicious” salt and curiously observed it. This was the gift from her home, wasn’t it? After observing, she put it into the mouth... Even though her mouth was burned to swollen by that salt for half a month, she was still like to eat salty food.
“As long as you like, you can add any sugar in your bowl from now on.” He Danggui said gloomily, “Remember to gargle with halite after eating, and then drink two cups of tea to cleanse the palate. After all, too much sugar is bad for health.”
“Don’t you like sugar?” Chan Yi said regretfully, “Second Childe Peng presented you a lot of sugar, but all of it fell to the ground!”
“Fell to the ground? It’s dirty, so just throw it away.” He Danggui looked at Chan Yi and added, “By the way, next time when Peng Jian comes here, don’t treat him too warmly. Just let him alone. Then he will get bored and leave. In this case, he won’t come next time. Also, from now on, we can’t take anything he presents. Return them.” That bloke was dull but was full of enthusiasm. Possibly because it was a new place for him, he would like to make some new friends. However, if it was seen by Madam Luo and Mammy Tang, they would facilitate the marriage between him and her. That would take a lot of troubles even though it would be rejected by his parents eventually. Therefore, it would be better to nip it in the bud as early as possible.
Hearing what she said, Chan Yi rushed over and explained, “You can’t throw it away, Miss. That plates of Zongzi-shaped sugar and Sesame seed sugar were both packed in the boxes, which all fell on the ground after Second Childe Peng fainted. Although two plates inside were broken, the sugars were still clean! I’ve tasted them, which is so good. Why do you ask me to throw them away?!”
He Danggui’s canthi couldn’t help but twitch after she heard it. It turned out Chan Yi did it for sugar. She thought Chan Yi rushed up to defend Peng Jian... “What? Peng Jian fainted? Was he sick?”
“I don’t know. In the morning, he was walking into our yard with boxes and smiled. However, First Childe Peng suddenly sprang out from behind Peng Jian and hit Peng Jian’s neck.” Chan Yi gesticulated with a fierce expression on her face, which immediately let He Danggui think of Peng Shi’s sullen face, “The boxes fell to the ground after hearing ‘bang’. What a pity! The plates inside look so valuable. However, two of them were smashed into pieces, and some of them even had holes!” Chan Yi shook her head and sighed. And then she took off her apron and knelt down beside the bed to pick up He Danggui’s long hair on the pillows.
He Danggui waited for a long time. Did what Chan Yi said come to an end like this... “So, what happened after Peng Jian fainted?”
“Miss, you’re so stupid! Of course, he was dragged away!” Chan Yi answered carelessly. A moment later, she walked to the door with seven or eight long hairs in her hand. She looked at hairs through the early morning light for a long time and exclaimed, “Miss, look, there is something wrong with your hair!”
He Danggui frowned. Did Meng Xuan’s hair fall into her hands? Just as she was about to explain, she heard that, “Look, there are split ends of your two hairs. Let me cut them!” She pulled out a pair of scissors out of somewhere and held it up to walk toward He Danggui as she said. She took He Danggui’s hairpin and loosed He Danggui’s chignon. Then she began to cut He Danggui’s hair.
He Danggui’s hair was still uneven after several times cutting. So, Chan Yi had to comfort her, “Just a minute, I’m almost done.” A couple of times later, the ground had been covered with black hairs. When He Danggui turned around, she was concerned about her hair but also enjoyed that leisure moment.
She was living in a big, dry and warm house in the sun. She didn’t have to worry about dressing, eating and living. In addition, there was no need to please a man by working her heart out. Besides, she didn’t need to deal with women who were also suffering like her day and night. Besides, it made no sense to struggle with those women for getting that man’s little impermanent fake love.
It was so nice in her own quiet courtyard, basking in the autumn morning sun without seeing anyone she didn’t want to see. She just stayed with Chan Yi who was careless but kind-hearted to enjoy the rhythm of the time with scissors’ sound...
Scissors’ sound…
For a while, He Danggui’s mind went blank. Finally, she couldn’t help taking back her over-knee-length hair that could be used as coverlet at night, looking at it with tears. Now the longest part of it was only around her waist, which was seemingly gnawed by a dog.
“Why are you crying... Your hair will be better and grow faster. It’s easy to comb…” Chan Yi murmured. She put the scissors into He Danggui’s hand and went out despondently, letting herself do the ends. After taking two steps, she came back and said, “Look, Mammy Tang is coming.”
When He Danggui raised her head, she saw Mammy Tang was coming from the far side of the gate. Feng Jiugu followed Mammy Tang, holding a painting scroll in her hands. Behind Feng Jiugu, there were a lot of maids such as Gan Cao, Deng Cao, Shi Liu, Pu Gongying, Xiang Chunya and so on. Their hands were filled with gifts… Did they come to see me a patient? Or a hero who rescued Madam Luo?
“Third Miss, you performed meritorious last night, and were also frightened. Why don’t you have a rest?” Said Mammy Tang, who ran to press He Danggui to the stool with a smile. Her action, however, was in contrast to what she said. She kept Chan Yi and maids of Madam Luo away, except herself and Feng Jiugu, with the closed door, which was sneaky that there would be a secret talk between them.
He Danggui put down the scissors. She poured two cups of Distilled Osmanthus Drink for them and said, “I have no time to burn hot water this morning, so I can’t serve you with hot tea. Please just take some Distilled Osmanthus Drink. I made it with Osmanthus’s stamens and ground Lotus leaves.” She had to serve them with cold Distilled Osmanthus Drink in winter because the hot water room didn’t send her water.
Every year in the autumn, the number of people in the hot water room immediately increased nearly 100. They needed to boil hot water day and night. All the courtyards were given a cart load of hot water every two hours (Tao Yao Yard was exclusion of it 10 days before), which was available for all kitchenettes in Luo’s Mansion to make snacks and tea, and for people to wash and take a shower. Besides, servants’ rooms also received hot water three times a day. The rule was created by Madam Luo when she was young to benefit local people. The unified-serviced hot water supply not only saved firewood, but helped every yard to boil water for bathing without smoke.
Of course, Madam Luo, Ms. Sun, as well as Luo Baiqiong, Luo Baishao and Luo Baiying didn’t have to worry about something like taking a bath, because there were three Ganjiu hot springs in Luo’s Mansion. One of them was for Madam Luo; one was for Ms. Sun; the last one was for Luo Baiqiong, Luo Baishao, as well as Luo Baiying. As the old saying went, “Hot spring water can smooth the glistening jade-like body.” It seemed that the five peoples’ skin was plastered in balsam with hot spring water.
When Ms. Dong just married into Luo’s Mansion, she was envious of the hot springs of Luo’s Mansion. As early as living in Dong’s Mansion in Fuzhou City, she had heard that bathing in hot spring provided some benefits to health, and Ganjiu hot springs and Yuhua hot springs were good for skin. But there were no hot spring people talked widely in Dong’s Mansion, and she only bathed in a few carts of water from Yuhua hot spring that had been sent from other mansions. After all, ladies differed from gentlemen. As long as he had money, he could go outside bathhouse for hot spring bath as possible as he could. While Ms. Dong even didn’t see the Ganjiu hot spring which was more luxurious than Yuhua hot spring. Luo’s Mansion, however, got three, which motivated her.
In Ms. Dong’s mind, as the first daughter-in-law of the First Branch, naturally, she could enjoy the hot spring water. She counted off her fingers and thought how to get it. Madam Luo was an elder, so she couldn’t share with her. She heard Ms. Sun got serious mysophobia, and even her daughters were refused to share it with her. Humph, pretentious bitch! Luo Baiqiong, Luo Baishao and Luo Baiying were at her age and generation. They had been sharing one hot spring anyway, so it was not a big deal for her use it with them.
Therefore Ms. Dong ran to ask her Third Aunt Ms. Zhao whether she could take the same hot spring with them or not. Her Third Aunt said that even she just only occasionally took some water from the hot spring to wash in the room. Not to mention her, a new comer junior. Staring at Ms. Zhao, Ms. Dong asked why. Ms. Zhao was First Younger Mistress Luo who was the best qualified to use hot spring! Ms. Dong heard bathing in hot springs would help give birth to a boy!
Ms. Zhao sighed and confided in her niece. Luo Duzhong, the master of Luo’s Mansion who had passed away, had been a pair of lovers with Madam Luo. Master Luo would ask her the proposal of marriage when he got a great career. However, Madam Luo had an elder sister, who was ten years older than her. Because of her sister’s temperament, her sister had not found a local man to marry yet, even her sister was known as “The First Beauty in Sichuan Prefecture”. Their mother loved her elder daughter, so she seized the opportunity of the master’s visit. She let him stay at mansion that day and schemed him to violate her elder daughter, so that he could marry her two daughters.
It was out of Ms. Dong’s expectation that there was such a love a love affair from the older generation. So, she could not help but listen with interest, wondering why her Third Aunt was shaking her head and sighing.
Ms. Zhao continued, “The reason why Chai’s Mansion treated this son-in-law so well was that the Luo’s Mansion was superior to Chai’s, and the master was also the eldest legitimate son with unlimited talent, who was also a very nice and dashing gentlemen. Besides, when the Emperor offered sacrifice to Heaven, the Emperor said, ‘Kill all the corrupt officials in the world.’ After killing them, the Emperor made the skulls of the corrupt officials into a signing box for death warrant, and put it on the court where he once sat for the next official to use, which made everyone feel upset and was in fear–no one could say ‘My hands are clean’. After a few years in officialdom, even if one who was incorrupt, he would be afraid of being framed by his political enemies. In addition, the Emperor would rather accuse someone unjustly than let you go. Once you did anything to do with ‘greed’, you would be a cranium in a day or two–However, you may know the relationship between Grandpa Luo and the Emperor–I mean that the master had two wives, First Madam Luo and Madam Luo.”
Ms. Dong then asked why she had never met First Madam Luo. She vaguely heard someone said that she was still alive.
Ms. Zhao glanced at the door and whispered to her that First Madam Luo was under house arrest and was about to die... The “contrary” battle, which had lasted for decades, was finally won by Madam Luo! “Our First Branch came from First Madam Luo, so Lan, you know our position in Luo’s Mansion… I think you got what I’m saying.”
At that time, Ms. Dong was still a little woman who newly married and did not even hear such a terrible family history of struggle! Hearing those words, she immediately blanched. How did it happen? They two were sisters! In this way, she was just having a good-sounding name “First Younger Mistress Luo”. But in fact, she was divided into collateral, wasn’t she? So, her hot spring plan fell through, didn’t it? No, Baiying was also from First Branch. How could she go to use hot spring?
Ms. Zhao shook her head and didn’t say anymore. She went to her room for snacks. Ms. Dong clenched her teeth. Why? It was undeliverable! She determined to have a try! So, she ran to Madam Luo and asked for a bath in the hot spring.
At same time, Ms. Sun and Luo Baiying were also present. Ms. Sun smiled but did not speak. Luo Baiying immediately thought that Ms. Dong wanted to share the spring with their three sisters... She felt Madam Luo peeked at her from the corner of her eyes, which was like asking her if she agreed with that. Luo Baiying suddenly mentioned his brother Qian, who was recently frequent in and out of brothels.
Madam Luo was shocked to hear that. She pounded bed and scolded this bad boy. How could he go to such a place? She was so worried. What if Qian got ill or tired? Meanwhile, Ms. Dong was angry about that damn Luo Baiqian who said he was going to the academy to study for fame with all day long outside, putting her in the empty room. But actually, he went out for vixens! Childe Pan, who was introduced for her last time before she married into Luo’s Mansion, now was Jinshi. You Luo Baiqian, however, even was not a Xiucai! She felt shameful for him. She felt she was blind to marry him!
Ms. Sun suddenly sighed and said in a low voice, “Men just like cats who always eat meat. If his wife came along with him and supported him, he would not run out to find other women.”
Ms. Dong was horrified. Clearly it was a metaphor for the fact that she and her Third Aunt had been keeping a tight rein on Luo Baiqian. They didn’t let him marry a concubine...
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