Chapter 3 ~~Finding faults and slapping faces~~
Zhuo QingYan guided by MoYu returned to MeiYuan, inside of which was a small wooden two-story building. The courtyard was pitch-black, and lifeless. MoYu pulled her into the house. Afterwards, Zhuo QingYan looked around as MoYu lit a candle. "Miss,this servant will go to find food…", MoYu whispered. Seeing Zhuo QingYan"s nod, she hastily left. MoYu found several steamed buns, that were harder than a rock. She had also brought back a mama(1).
"Miss!" The mama dashed over with tears streaming down her face.
"Qiu mama…", Zhuo QingYan naturally called out and smiled sadly.
"Mama, Miss is hungry. Hurry up…", MoYu promptly reminded her.
"Oh, fine. Eat quickly! Faster! Eat a little more until your stomach hurts!", Qiu mama said, while taking food out of her basket. Finished, Qiu mama wiped QingYan"s face. There was hot food in her stomach. This caused her body to start to warm up. By that time, it had already started to brighten, but the night had not fully turned over. After changing her clothes, she sat in the hall, waiting for someone to come to her door.
Sure enough, at around 7:00am-9:00am(2) after an hour had pa.s.sed, a group of people charged into the courtyard. Then, a woman"s shrill voice could be heard saying, "Bring her out! I want to see if she"s a human or a ghost!"
"Yes, Third Miss!", several voices of men could be heard answering. Then, the door was kicked open. The four men who rushed in barely had time to see who was inside of the room before they felt a pain in their face and received a kick to their chest. Afterwards, they all retreated to the door and fell.
"Very good! You"ve got some guts! This Miss may be of no use, but she is a Miss of this house. You group of d.a.m.ned slaves! Do you dare to do it again?! Do you want to live?", a cold, husky voice came from the room.
Everyone outside of the door was stunned. What amazed them was a young girl in beautiful brocade clothes. The one who was most amazed was MoYu. This girl was the Third Miss who was born from the legal wife. Her name was Zhuo QingLin.
When Zhuo QingYan stood at the door with her hands clasped behind her back, she saw fear, confusion and gloominess in the ruthless eyes. The two of them stared at each other. The more Zhuo QingLin stared, the fiercer her eyes became. Zhuo QingYan remained indifferent, but her eyes were full of endless coldness.
"How bold, you s.l.u.t. How can you look at Third Miss like that? Be careful to gouge your eyes out!", beside Zhuo QingLin, a maidservant Zhu Xin said sternly.
Zhuo QingYan suddenly laughed. Yet the laugh made there hearts fearful and they grew apprehensive. Their bodies unintentionally shivered.
"Third Miss, the dog by your side truly barks loud!", Zhuo QingYan"s voice was still indifferent.
Zhuo QingLin swallowed her spit and straightened her neck. "What do you want?"
"You are my third older sister, right? What do ~you~ want?", Zhuo QingYan leaned against the door way with playful eyes.
"Fool. Don"t play games. Third Miss asked you if you killed Steward Tong.", Third Miss pointed furiously. However, she had no confidence in her mind. Just a moment ago, QingYan had beat up those four people. She really didn"t believe that the fool in front of her did it. Was there a master in her room? Could the person who saved her yesterday evening still be in the room? If she really forced her way in, would she still have her life? She didn"t want to die yet!
"What if I say I didn"t?" Zhuo QingYan raised an eyebrow and questioned. Because Zhuo QingLin was scared, she has already looked into Zhuo QingYan"s eyes. It seemed that this girl wasn"t a schemer, so there was only one reason why she could be so arrogant. She must have someone backing her.
Zhuo QingLin naturally thought it was unlikely she would admit it. But right now, she could not back out, nor could she slip out of the courtyard. Listening to Zhuo QingYan"s reply, she had finally found a chance to extricate herself from the situation. "This young lady believes you. It would seem that yesterday evening, gangsters had entered the mansion. The entire mansion is strictly being searched from top to bottom. You should step aside and let them look around so that they can get a confession.", Zhuo QingLin"s tone of voice was a little soft. "What if I say that only me and MoYu were in the room? Oh, by the way, Third Miss, I want to ask you, Xiaoshengzi and Mo Yan have been called by you for some time? Isn"t it time to return them?", Zhuo QingYan abruptly asked.
Zhuo QingLin clasped her hands unnaturally. At that moment, standing beside her, Zhu Xin understood her hint and answered, " Those two servants were not obedient. They were taken away by Steward Tong to be trained. You will have to ask him."
"Steward Tong? Fine, then we will ask him.", Zhuo QingYan suddenly raised the corners of her mouth. She looked at the pair of master and servant, who"s hearts trembled and their scalps tingled as they swallowed their saliva. "Since…since Fourth Younger Sister said no, then it"s no. Let"s go!" Zhuo QingLin"s heart was rather scared. She feared that she would never be able to leave the courtyard.
Even though she had brought a lot of people, if they ran into a formidable opponent, a master, then none of these people would be enough based off of the skill of the people who killed Steward Tong yesterday. There must be a master in Zhuo QingYan"s room! There must be something, there must be!
"Wait a moment, Third Miss.", Zhuo QingYan said.
"What else do you want?", Zhuo QingLin"s heart trembled. At that moment, she really was pretty afraid of the younger sister in front of her, who she had thought was just a fool.
"The weather is getting colder and my courtyard does not have any charcoal. Send someone to get us some. Also, I heard that Second Elder Brother will be returning, right?", Zhuo QingYan raised her eyebrows. Zhuo QingLin listened and glared at her angrily. She was enraged for several seconds(3), then said, "Yes, I will send someone to deliver it to you in a moment. Fourth Younger Sister, what else do you need? Let"s talk to each other!"
"No need for anything else. Just send someone to fix my courtyard"s door right away. Don"t bother to see me out!" Zhuo QingYan"s smile was cold.
"Go!", Zhuo QinLin angrily led the people away with much noise. Only when the courtyard was empty did Zhuo QingYan"s body start shaking. She held the doorframe tightly with one hand while cold sweat dripped. MoYu immediately moved to hold her up and looked at her face which was as white as paper. She worriedly asked, "Miss, are you ok?"
"Not good…", Zhuo QingYan"s vision began to blur at that moment. When MoYu cried out in alarm, Zhuo QingYan fell into her arms and saw darkness. (4)Zhuo QingYan had pa.s.sed out. In her brain, more and more things came out. A woman stood under a plum tree wearing white clothes and a kind smile. She held tanghulu(5)and smiled as bright as the sun. A handsome man beckoned her forward.
They were all fragments that could not be connected. It would seem that the owner of this body could not remember anything. Someone fed her medicine, she knew. Someone took her to have fun, she knew. Someone taught her to practice the sword, she knew. Someone taught her how to read, she knew. Someone taught her how to sing….. "pebbles lining up with a 田 inside bites (off?) the hand on the top 口, and the bottom 口 squeezes 肉 don"t forget to move three steps forward and five steps back, and you"ll open the treasure box!"(6) This song was not much like a song, but was instead more like a riddle.
(1)Māma/嬤嬤= wet nurse
(2)chénshí/辰时=period of time between 7am-9am.
(3)for proofreader-kun
(4) for proofreader-kun
(5)tanghulu- Sugar coated/candied Hawthorn(sometimes other fruit too) picture below.
(6)A riddle that relates to a later part of the story. Anybody wanna guess what it means? I received a lot of help from the translating discord server(Mittens_220, HayateButler,Frozen, and Elephant No. 5). Like I legit receive so much help with this riddle.
I"m sorry it"s taken so long to post. I have been sick. I"ve also caught a cold so now my lungs feel like they are hurting and burning. Please notify me of any mistakes. I"m pretty sure there might be a lot of grammatical errors. I"ve edited it, but my head feels pretty hazy. My proofreader is going to look over it in a bit so I"ll edit the post when I"m less sicky sick. I"m actually really happy with the MC so far. She"s strong, but she"s also having major issues with the after affects of transmigrating. I totally sympathize with her headaches. MoYu is also a sweetheart. The more she freaks out, the more I want to hug her. Also the 3rd Miss is a loser. Both her and her little minion are dummies. Does she seriously think she can get away with her weak lies to escape the situation?? She obviously came to hara.s.s. I don"t like how they"re underestimating her but PLOT.