Chapter 232 Teaching his wife
He Danggui gently smiled and said, “Third Childe, didn’t you get poisoned by poisonous rats when you were in jail a few days ago? You are talking nonsense now. Meng’s Family’s threshold is higher than me, and I can’t come inside even if I can fly. When I first saw you, I hated on you, let alone being a family in the future. I’m tired and don’t want to entertain you honored guests. If you don’t have anything else, please leave me alone or I’ll drive you out.” What was wrong with Meng Ying? He even said that she was everybody’s treasure and got them wrapped around her finger. Was he implying that she played with his younger brother Meng Xuan?
Before Meng Ying and Meng Xuan could answer, Chan Yi came over with a small cart from a distance. She happily filled the table with tea, dessert, Go board and Go bowls. Then she stood with her hands down behind He Danggui and enjoyed the two childes’ handsome appearances.
Ignoring that He Danggui showed them the door, Meng Ying poured tea and ate dessert on his own. He complained as he bit the crispy peach kernel cake, “Such a sweet dessert is only enjoyed by girls, and the tea is normal, which is not as good as Meng Xuan said.”
He Danggui looked back at Chan Yi who was a little abashed, and said, “Didn’t I ask you to find Xiaoyou and ask ‘that matter’? Go ahead, and then move out the 40 jin bolt in the backyard. Tomorrow is the Chinese New Year’s Eve. Even though it is quite hilarious during the Chinese New Year, it’s none of our business. We will be jealous. So, it is better to close the gate and spend a quiet New Year. We will bolt the door when all irrelevant people are gone.”
Chan Yi couldn’t figure out why He Danggui’s face was so bad as if being covered by black clouds. She said in a low voice, “But Madam Luo has already known that they had come, and asked Third Childe to play Go with you. She also invited him to have dinner with you in Tao Yao Yard and asked the kitchen to make more food...”
He Danggui glanced at Meng Ying’s proud face that said “I already knew”, and gritted her teeth, “Do as I say. I guess he won’t stay till night. He is very busy.” Chan Yi pushed the small cart away hesitantly.
The 3 people around the stone table were silent for a moment, and then Meng Ying, who had wiped out half of the dessert, spoke again, “Miss He, you must be wondering why I am so familiar with you, right? In fact, there is nothing special. Your 2 admirers, Zhu Quan and Duan Xiaolou, happen to be my friends, so I know a little bit about what happened between you and them. You must be blaming me for having a finger in every pie, right? The love things have nothing to do with me, but a few days ago, I suddenly knew that my Brother Xuan actually falls in love with you, and he wants to marry you, so now it’s my affairs and I have to step in.”
He Danggui started to set the Go board when he was halfway through his words, and then asked coldly, “Third Childe, have the people around you ever mentioned to you that you have a problem of believing all what you heard? Are you sure the words you heard are true?”
Meng Ying nodded unexpectedly, “Lord Ning has scolded me several times that I’m stupid in doing things, and I believe all others’ words. But as for the matter about you, I not only heard, but I have seen with my own eyes.” He took a sip of scented tea and said, “I was a guest at Lord Ning’s Mansion 2 months ago. I saw Lord Ning and a beauty making out in the plum forest. He kept saying ‘Yiyi’. Later, I knew that ‘Yiyi’ is the name of his beloved woman, and all of his concubines have the word ‘Yi’ in their names. An indifferent person like him can love a woman like this. I doubted that it was weird. Then when I visited Duan’s Mansion a month ago, I saw that the former thriving house was all covered with white curtains. I found out that it was also because of you. And I realized that the fairy in Lord Ning’s eyes is a fairy fox, which can kill people.” He took the Go bowls with white Go stones and played the first move.
The unhurried male voice made He Danggui feel particularly harsh. She slapped a black Go stone on the Go board and sneered, “Since you have seen through my true colors, why did you still come to Luo’s Mansion with your younger brother? If you are worried that I will take his life, you shouldn’t come. It is not too late to regret it now, or I may not control myself and kill one more person.”
After they played 20 or 30 moves, Meng Ying slowly said, “A lot of pretty women admire my younger brother, and they won’t let you succeed.” Meng Xuan behind him like a backdrop finally spoke after hearing that, “Brother, stop taking.”
He Danggui worried that “Yiyi” was a name that Zhu Quan made in estrus, or he was taken by the memory of his previous life. In the previous life, Zhu Quan called her “Yiyi” when he liked her the most. Later he began to guard against her because she was too capable and knew too many secrets from him. Then he changed to call her “Concubine He”. Damn it, he was really lingering... Many pretty women admired Meng Xuan?
He Danggui slapped a black Go stone and won many of his white Go stones, saying with a smile, “Third Childe, your Go skill is not so good. Even a little girl like me can beat you. If I were you, I would stay at home and concentrate on studying Go manual. It’s better not to visit others and avoid seeing something that you shouldn’t see.”
Meng Ying stared at the Go board and was stunned for a moment. It was wrong. His white Go stones still had the advantage 3 moves ago. How could he be completely defeated in an instant? He was unwilling to submit, “I was just talking, so I didn’t take it seriously. Let’s play another round, and I will beat you hard!” Meng Xuan behind him said again, “Brother, you are not her opponent. And be polite. She is a girl.”
Meng Ying hummed and reset the Go stones. He spontaneously took the first move again. Before He Danggui could play her move, he shamelessly put 3 white Go stones on the Go board. Then he nodded to her and said, “It’s fair now, and it’s your turn.”
He Danggui played a black Go stone among the 4 white Go stones without thinking, and said with a smile, “I don’t know that you look rude but have such a wide range of friendships. You get along well with the Commander of Imperial Guard and Lord Ning who owns large military forces and is in charge of Northwest Army. I heard that your father, Earl Baoding, is a royalist for 40 years. He never forms a clique, intrigues selfish interest and contacts privately with the Princes. Therefore, the Emperor regards him as a confidant, and he becomes a rare ‘evergreen’ in the Imperial Court... I wonder if the spy of the Emperor will go to indict that Earl Baoding’s eldest legitimate son is friendly with Lord Ning. Does Earl Baoding privately instruct? I’m curious if the Emperor will be suspicious that Earl Baoding abandons him and finds a new promising master because of his old age?”
Hearing that, Meng Ying’s face was livid, and he did not speak for a few rounds. Suddenly, he looked back at Meng Xuan and complained, “Your wife is good at talking, and I’m not her opponent. You should teach her carefully.” Meng Xuan rebuked in a low voice, “Stop talking.”
He Danggui clenched the glass Go stone in her hand and suppressed the urge to hit it on the handsome man’s forehead. He was a rascal. When he thought he was right, he aggressively asked her, and when not, he kept talking nonsense. He could even act more shamelessly than a woman! She angrily played 3 Go stones in succession, and went straight to his white Go stones team. She shattered his uncompleted layout, and defeated him completely for the second time.
Meng Ying reset the Go stones angrily while muttering, “Girl, your trick to deal with Duan Xiaolou doesn’t work in my family. There is a stipulation in Instructions of Meng’s Family that the sons of Meng’s Family must marry at least 7 women to prosper the family, and Meng Xuan’s concubine also gave birth to a son for him. After you get married, you should treat them well, and you can’t trick...” His voice stopped abruptly, and his eyelids rolled over. He became unconscious, and his jade-like face fell into a plate of crunchy pumpkin sugar. His right arm hung down and flicked half of the Go stones to the ground. Those Go stones rolled around with cracking sound.
Meng Xuan withdrew his hand and apologized to He Danggui, “I’m sorry. He drank 2 more glasses during breakfast, and then shouted that he would come to Tao Yao Yard to see you. I couldn’t stop him.”
He Danggui poured a cup of tea and held it in hand. But she didn’t drink it. She just smiled at the cup of tea and said, “I was still a little puzzled why the legendary most educated Childe Meng is misbehaving. It turns out that he is confused by the alcohol and comes to my place roaring drunk, which is too unreasonable. Meng Xuan, when did I say I want to marry you?”
Meng Xuan pulled his brother’s face out of the plate, and cleaned it briefly with the kerchief. Then he explained in a low voice, “I told Yi Tong to prepare the bride-price and the matchmaker so that I can go to Luo’s Family to propose a fake marriage. But my brother heard it. He doesn’t usually act like that. He just came over from Duan’s Family in the capital and witnessed the depression there, so he was so angry that he said those words to you... I apologize on behalf of him.”
He Danggui raised her eyelids and glanced at Meng Xuan, asking, “The depression in Duan’s Family? Why... it was depressed? Didn’t it change from Earl Mansion to Marquis Mansion...” Could it be that 2 funerals made it, a Marquis Mansion, devastated?
Meng Xuan hugged his unconscious brother and shook his head, “I don’t know too much. It seems that Duan Xiaolou dismissed all the people in the mansion. When people are gone, it will naturally become depressed.” Seeing her slender hand holding the teacup tightly, he couldn’t help but persuade, “It’s none of your business. Don’t worry about it. You and Duan Xiaolou haven’t seen each other for 2 years. You don’t have to be responsible for what happened to him, and you don’t need to feel guilty. My brother is a little confused these days, and I will find a way to wake him up.”
After Meng Xuan waited for some time, He Danggui still didn’t speak. So, he nodded at her and said, “See you.” He hugged Meng Ying who was like a body and walked away. After walking a few steps, he didn’t hear the farewell of her, and he stopped to say, “Actually, I live in Luo’s Mansion this time in order to manage the marriage proposal. Don’t worry. I will do it right so you can avoid troubles from your ‘enemy’.”
He Danggui’s heart was bittersweet. She neither refused his self-assertion kindness, nor thanked him for his help. She just stared blankly at the bright tea in the cup in her hand. Unconsciously, she, a debt collector from the previous life, also owed a huge debt. Meng Ying had come to ask for it.
Meng Xuan stood in silence for a while, but He Danggui still didn’t answer. So, he couldn’t help but ask the doubts in heart, “Your... ‘enemy’, isn’t it Lord Ning, Zhu Quan?”
He Danggui looked at him and calmly said, “Sort of. I regard him as an enemy, but I am just a nonentity in his eyes and not worthy of being his opponent. Seventh Childe, how do you know about this? Are you afraid of Lord Ning and refuse to help me anymore?”
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