Chapter 63 An aunt was half a mother
Gan Cao was arguing with Mammy Tang, advising that even if she had something urgent to tell, she’d better wait until Madam Luo woke up the next morning. But she was scared when the door bounced open all of a sudden.
Mammy Tang’s expression changed from anxiety to comfort, and she hastened to help Madam Luo into the room. Although Mammy Tang was 4 years older than Madam Luo, she could not change the habit over the years. Once she saw Madam Luo standing alone, she could not help rushing forward to support her.
“Madam, don’t worry, the Taoist temple is very good, and Third Miss lives there well. I come back by myself to tell you something.” Mammy Tang helped Madam Luo into the room and turned to enjoin the maid, “Gan Cao, light the lamps quickly, half open the window of the outside room, and serve Madam Luo a bowl of fresh coix seed congee with two teaspoons of honey.” Gan Cao agreed.
Madam Luo’s heart still hung in the air. She asked anxiously, “Hong Jiang, you are not kidding me, are you? If everything is fine there, why don’t you pick her up and come back tomorrow morning? Or something bad happened!”
Mammy Tang helped Madam Luo back to the soft couch, and pulled over her legs before she said softly, “Just rest assured. I have gone to the Taoist temple to see the Third Miss. She lives there very well now and the Taoist nuns are kind to her there. After this big disaster, she is much cleverer than before, speaks clearly, and looks like a little adult. I’d say she is more pleasant than before.”
Just then, Miss Ji came in from outside with a red plate in her hands. She served a bowl of warm honey coix seed soup to Madam Luo first, and then put a cup of red jujube tea on the small table by the head of bed. She whispered to Mammy Tang, “Mammy, the cup is very hot. Please drink it after a while. I told Gan Cao to light a moxibustion box to Madam Luo to warm her feet. As for the staff you just gave me, I have given it to Jiu Gu and explained the reason.”
Mammy Tang nodded, “Now I’m in no mood to deal with that staff. Just let Jiu Gu check it. Ji, sit outside for a while, and take over the moxibustion box when Gan Cao gets here. Tell her to go to sleep.” Miss Ji answered and left.
Miss Ji was the first-class maid and the small storehouse steward in Madam Luo’s room. She was also the adopted daughter of Mammy Tang. Several decades ago, when Mammy Tang was still young, Madam Luo and Lord Luo always wanted to find a good match for her. There were several men with good conditions, but Mammy Tang didn’t agree to marry. Madam Luo privately advised her and told her that men were the same. They were all unfaithful, and they all shared the same characteristics like sleeping, snoring, eating and scratching itches. As women, marrying anyone was marrying beneath themselves. The most important thing for them was to have a son or a daughter in the future to rely on.
Mammy Tang kept Madam Luo’s words in her mind. After a while, she adopted two little boys and a baby girl. She set up an incense table and burned yellow papers to recognize them as adopted sons and daughter. She swore not to marry in her whole life and raise them until they became adults, hoping that god would bless the three children to be dutiful and sensible when they grew up and could support her in her old age. Seeing her so determined, Madam Luo stopped forcing her, just raised her monthly allowance to 10 liang silver.
Miss Ji was that adopted baby girl, and now she had turned 26 years old. Like her foster mother, she was also not married at such an old age. She was smart, careful, and tactical. She started from a four-class maid to the small storehouse steward of Madam Luo’s yard step by step. Mammy Tang asked her to call her Mammy in front of people, and call her mother at home. Their relationship was more than mother and daughter, and they both felt grateful to Madam Luo for taking care of them for many years. Therefore, now they were Madam’s reliable assistants.
Madam Luo held the bowl but didn’t want to drink. She asked insistently, “No. It must be something wrong about Yi! I know you. I told you to take care of Yi before you left. You cannot come back alone if everything went well there! My right eye has twitched since dinner tonight. Tell me, what happened?”
Mammy Tang also insisted, “You take a drink first and I will start talking, otherwise after we talk a while, the soup will get cold.”
Madam Luo swallowed a little, and then stared at Mammy Tang. The latter finally started talking, “When I arrived at Shui Shang Temple in the evening, Third Miss was sitting in the room quiet well. She got nasal obstruction, so she wore a veil. I asked Third Miss if she needed a doctor, but she said it would be better if you treat her at home than get a doctor outside. I saw that after Nanji Xianweng’s guidance, she is not only safe and sound, but also cleverer, brighter and even more decent than before!”
“And then? Why did you come back alone?” Madam Luo still refused to believe that things were going well in the Taoist temple.
Mammy Tang sighed, opened her swollen palms, and said in a deep voice, “Madam, I heard that there is a kind of itching powder called ‘Diaoshanyao Powder’, which was used in the brothels. The procuress would use it on the disobedient prostitutes. However, when I followed your order and gave Third Miss the clothes, hairpins and cosmetics, the most unexpected thing happened. Those clothes were stained with Diaoshanyao Powder! However, Third Miss and I were not aware of this at first, so we both touched the Diaoshanyao Powder on the clothes, and our hands felt extremely itchy immediately!”
Madam Luo also heard a little about the powder before, so she asked Mammy Tang angrily, “How could these clothes get stained with it? Where did it come from?” Seeing Mammy Tang’s hands, which had always been kept well, now became red and swollen, Madam Luo lost her voice, “Yi also touched the powder! Is that serious? Hong Jiang, what are other reactions of this medicine besides itch? Is it poisonous?”
Mammy Tang first shook her head, and then nodded and sighed, “You are right. It is said that this medicine is harmless. However, the itching would last for two or three days. If you cannot bear the itch from the bones, you would grasp it hard with your hands. You will soon scratch the flesh, but it is still itchy. By then, you can’t either scratch it or rub it. You’ll have to endure it for two or three days. I’m afraid even a healthy person would lose a great sapping of vitality!”
Madam Luo grasped the middle finger of her right hand with her left hand. She was shocked.
“Speaking of the Third Miss, she is even more pitiful. She was so happy to know that the clothes were given by you, so she put a few clothes on the table gladly to touch around. Suddenly, her hand was pricked!” Mammy Tang gestured the bleeding spot of He Danggui’s hand, and said sadly, “I shook off the cloth that she touched, and a bunch of sharp and thin white thorns fell out, seeming like a cactus called the prickly plant! After a while, Third Miss began to scratch the back of her hands hard, and then scratch from her arms to her shoulders. If I had not stopped her, she would have injured her two tiny hands at that time!”
Madam Luo was so angry that she thumped the bed again and again. She said sharply, “Who did this on my clothes for Yi? Who was she provoked?! I am not dead yet, but this person has already bullied her in front of me. No need to mention how he or she cursed me secretly! No wonder I am always not comfortable recently. There is such a dark-minded ghost in this house!”
Mammy Tang patted on Madam Luo’s back hastily to smooth her breath, and served the coix seed soup on the small table to her, advising, “Miss, please calm down, take care of your body! Everyone in this family respects you, and even if there are one or two servants making some troubles secretly, it doesn’t matter. Miss, take care of yourself. Don’t bother yourself being angry with those villains. Otherwise who would this family depend on?”
Although Madam Luo was not close to the word “Miss” now, Mammy Tang still called Madam Luo “Miss” occasionally when they were alone. Also, at this time, she usually started to say something of heart.
“Servants? Who?” Madam Luo caught the word in Mammy Tang’s words, and her eyes focused on Mammy Tang’s face. “Do you know who did this?” She asked.
Mammy Tang sighed, “Although the culprits are some servants, Madam, think carefully. Second Miss sent a set of outmost clothes to Second Mistress’s place, while the middle clothes and inner clothes were directly taken from the warehouse to Second Mistress. I went to Bao Qin Ge to take all these staffs personally. Everything had been wrapped in the hall, and then I gave it to Third Miss when I arrived at the Taoist temple. I didn’t give these to anyone else in the middle. The only period that someone could put the poison on the clothes was in Bao Qin Ge. I remember clearly that in the whole mansion, there are only several pots of prickly pear cactus in Second Miss’s courtyard, and they are Second Miss’s beloved thing. Who dares to pluck its thorns? That Diaoshanyao is the secret medicine in the brothel. One can’t even buy it in the medicine shops. I think that one can only get it in the black market in the north of the city, and the price of this power is not as cheap as Hedinghong Poison, Kongquedan Poison and so on. How could an ordinary servant afford it?”
Madam Luo frowned, saying, “You think one of the Luo’s Family did this? You suspect that second daughter-in-law did this?”
Mammy Tang waved her hands, “Impossible! Second Mistress Luo takes charge of Luo’s Family day and night. How could she be in the mood to buy the itch powder and spread it on others’ clothes? Even if she doesn’t like Third Miss, she could remonstrate as much as she wants as her elder. Why bother to do this? Miss Chuanxiong is not at home all the year round, so Third Miss does not have her mother by her side. Therefore, First Mistress and Second Mistress may be regarded as her half mothers. Besides, everything was taken from Bao Qin Ge. If there was any problem, Second Mistress would be the first one to be blamed. How could she set a trap for herself? It can’t be her!”
“So, who did this? Bao Qin Ge belongs to my second daughter-in-law, and the inner hall is her bedroom. How could any outsider get in? If it’s not her, it can’t be Chuangu. He is Yi’s uncle!” Madam Luo suddenly understood, looked at Mammy Tang with wide eyes, and asked urgently, “Hong Jiang, do you suspect Miss Qiong and Miss Shao?”
Mammy Tang sighed and nodded, “I dare not to deceive you, Madam Luo. I am quite sure that Fourth Miss did this! Second Miss is demure and kind-hearted. It should have nothing to do with her.”
Madam Luo liked her granddaughter Luo Baishao very much. Although She knew Mammy Tang never had lied to her or gossiped about Luo’s Family, and she must have evidence to support her assumption, Madam Luo still found it very hard to contact “special medicine of the procuress” with “her 9-year-old lovely granddaughter”.
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