Legend of Concubine’s Daughter Minglan

Old Madam Sheng was wearing a brand new six Fu (T/N: Fu meant fortune in Chinese) greeting doors pattern sapphire blue dark striped coat today. With a stern look on her face, she stared at Gu Tingye who was kowtowing to her and took over the tea which was served by him. Then without saying a word, Old Madam Sheng pa.s.sed a red packet to him while sizing him up and down with lightning-like expression in her eyes. Thanks to Gu Tingye"s years of military career during which he had seen too many people in his life, even the dead ones, he managed to remain calm with a smile under Old Madam Sheng"s gaze.

When seeing Gu Tingye again, w.a.n.g shi only felt complicated with bitterness in her mouth. So she could only sit there dignifiedly while putting on some courtesy words. At last, Sheng Hong showed up to take charge of the situation. As a great actor, when Sheng Hong said the phrase "I feel so gratified", he even managed to force out some tears at the corner of his eyes. With his flawless expression and gesture, he made himself look exactly like a kind old father.

After Gu Tingye had served tea and given his obeisance to Sheng Hong and w.a.n.g shi, the bride in the gorgeous dress with a red bridal veil on her head who was led by Old Madam Bo entered into the hall slowly. Gu Tingye who was not distracted only kowtowed and bid farewell to Sheng Hong and w.a.n.g shi with Minglan. At that moment, Sheng Hong who almost burst into floods of tears said repeatedly, “Great! Remember this, love and respect each other, devoted to each other through your whole lives, have lots of children and teach them well.”

Meanwhile w.a.n.g shi finally got this emotion coming, so she said gently, “Minglan, you have to be respectful and prudent. Always listen to your husband and the elders. Remember not to act recklessly.” After saying this, w.a.n.g shi was quite satisfied with herself. She was not good at speaking cla.s.sic words after all. When Rulan had got married, w.a.n.g Shi had almost fainted due to her cry and failed to say anything at last.

Before Minglan left, Old Madam Sheng finally couldn"t retrain herself. She held Minglan"s hand firmly with tears flashing in her eyes. With a red bridal veil on Minglan"s head, she could only see the area around her feet so she had no idea about the expression on Old Madam Sheng"s face. As Minglan lowered her head, she saw a wrinkled and skinny hand with its knuckles slightly turning white holding her chubby hand tightly. Suddenly, Minglan had a lump in her throat. Then a huge teardrop from Minglan"s eyes fell on both her hand and her grandmother"s hand which were holding together.

Old Madam Sheng then released Minglan"s hand right away as if she had been burnt. After that, she tried very hard to open her mouth and said in a low voice, “From now on, live a good life…”

Hearing those words, Minglan felt her chest filling with soreness and couldn"t utter a single word. So she could only nodded heavily, which nearly shook her red bridal veil off.

Minglan tried her best to lower her head in order to let her tears fall straightly on the ground, in case her make-up would be ruined. She didn"t know who was leading her now, but she knew she was still heading to the outside. When she arrived at the gate, her brother Changbai carried her on his back to bridal sedan chair. After she got in the sedan chair, the curtains of the chair were closed and the chair started to shake. Minglan realized that they were setting out. Then she hastened to pull out a fine cotton handkerchief from her sleeve and used the corner of it to wipe out the tears on the corner of her eyes.

The large bridal sedan chair with pearls and jades decorations and gorgeous paintings inside was now carried by eight guys. Those guys did their job quite well cause the bridal sedan chair kept moving forward without much shaking. Minglan heard deafening sounds of the drums and firecrackers as well as the happy laughters and cheerful voices on the street.

Only until then did Minglan feel her face a bit hurt. Old Madam Bo seemed like a fragile woman, but she had displayed her great strength when she had done Minglan"s make-up. As Minglan recalled that procedure, she felt her face more and more aching. Then she hissed and uttered, “Awe!”

Xiaotao who was walking outside the sedan chair heard it at once, then she approached the curtain and asked gently, “My lady, do you have a stomachache out of hunger? I have food here!”

Minglan couldn"t help but laugh—— Xiaotao really was a foodie! Then Minglan scolded gently, “I"m not hungry at all!”

Xiaotao who was still quite concerned about Minglan said, “My lady, you don"t need to endure hunger!”

Minglan was speechless now. Then she argued, “I am not!”

The Feng Shui(T/N: Geomantic Omen in Chinese) of the ancient times had a common rule. In the outer city of the capital, the rich families lived in the east and the west while the poor families lived in the south and north. While in the inner city lived all the royal or influential officials families. Thanks to Old Master Sheng who had a sharp insight in purchasing the estate, the Sheng"s mansion was situated in the inside area and was not far away from Marquis Ningyuan"s mansion. After Minglan had stayed in the sedan chair for about two meals" time, she arrived at her destination.

Minglan walked forward confusedly with one of her hands on Danju"s wrist while the other holding the bright red satin which had been thrusted into her hands again. The moment she stepped into Marquis Ningyuan"s mansion, she heard the sounds of noisy firecrackers right away. There was a long wedding carpet laying on the ground until the main wedding hall. Minglan stepped on the carpet and walked slowly. As she saw the color painting carving doorsill, she knew that she finally arrived.

In the next period of time, Minglan was like a puppet. She bowed down, stood up, turned around and then repeat the whole procedure again and again under the instruction of the wedding moderator. After a moment of dizziness, she was dragged away like a little puppy. However, it never occurred to her that her bridal chamber was even more clamorous than the hall. Minglan was pressed on the wedding bed while hearing the loud laughters of the all the women in the room.

Compared to Minglan who was in a rather awkward situation, Gu Tingye was the calmer one. He took over an ebony steelyard with silver inlaid which was also wrapped with red satin expertly and then used the beam to remove the brilliant red veil—— Being a man who had already married once, he surely managed the wedding procedure with ease.

Minglan felt a beam of light shooting in her eyes, then she saw a tall figure upon her head. As she lifted her eyes, she looked right into Gu Tingye"s eyes. The expression in his eyes was always deep and calm. That was one specific thing about Gu Tingye. The look on his face always seemed meaningful when he squinted someone with that pair of long and narrow eyes. Minglan seized the chance to blush in time. Then she lowered her head and showed a perfect bashful look. Gu Tingye flashed a smile in his eyes with the corner of his mouth twitching.

After that, he sat down besides Minglan while murmuring something. And Minglan could vaguely hear his words, “… What have happened to your face?” Minglan only shouted in her heart——  "Do you know how exhausted I am until now?! How dare you mind about my make-up!”

“Wow! What a beautiful bride!” A women in a flower pattern pomegranate red brocade coat said that smilingly. Then all the other women started to laugh and make jokes.

Minglan raised up her head to have a look at those women. They were all wearing silks and satin clothes and precious jewelries. As Minglan heard the compliments from those women, she couldn"t help but choke up with redness on her face, thinking, “Nonsense! You sure you can tell I"m a beautiful bride with this make-up?!”

Next, someone scattered some peanuts and jujubes onto Minglan and the bridegroom"s heads. Minglan didn"t dare to move a bit, so she had to endure that. In the meantime, Gu Tingye responded instinctively and caught some of the objects, which aroused a boat of guffaw.

“Hey! Brother Ye, this is the bridal chamber, not the arm field. I don"t think your excellent Kungfu can help you now!” It was still that plump women who wore the pomegranate red coat who teased Gu Tingye. The whole room burst into laugher. Then Gu Tingye drooped his hands slowly and smiled without saying anything.

All the women in the room didn"t dare to carry the jokes too far in consideration of Gu Tingye"s position and temper. Then a woman came over with a plate of food in her hand and picked up a piece of something like the dessert to Minglan"s mouth. Minglan was aware of that tradition, so she forced herself to bite a bit of that pastry. As expected, what was inside of the pastry was raw. Then the woman grinned and asked, “Is it raw?”

Minglan, who was cursing inwardly said gently with her head lowered, “Yes, it"s raw.”

Then the room was exploded with laughter again. The woman who had served the dessert said, “All the ladies, you have heard that the bride just said that she would give birth to babies. Let"s look forward to her lots of babies. Remember, the more children, the more happiness.” (T/N: In Chinese, the word "raw" sounds like "give birth".)

With Minglan"s face turning extremely hot, she joined all those women by laughing blankly. However, deep down she was still reminding herself that she lived in an age where there was no birth control. Praying to Songzi Guanyi (T/N: a G.o.ddess in Chinese tale who could bring child to a family) was really not a meaningful thing.

The final procedure was drinking the cross-cupped wine. There were a pair of fleur-de-lis pattern porcelain wine gla.s.ses being tied up with a red rope in a golden begonia pattern rosewood round tea tray. Minglan, with her face turned red again, leaned slightly to one side and drank the wine together with Gu Tingye. As they were getting closer to each other, Minglan lifted her eyes and saw the featurely chin of the man in front of her, which caused a flutter of her heart.

—— "After all, this one was a first-cla.s.s looking guy. After the lights were turned off and my eyes were closed, nothing wouldn"t be overcome." Minglan thought.

After the ceremony had finished, Gu Tingye was sent to treat the guests. Before he stepped out of the door, he turned around and seemed to have something to say. However, he decided to close his mouth and leave when he saw all those women in the room. That plump woman had been trying very hard to hold back her laughter. Seeing Gu Tingye going out, the woman walked toward Minglan and said affectionately, “Second sister-in-law, I"m your eldest sister Xuan-in-law. Don"t be afraid. Now that we are all families now!”

To thank to this woman"s kindness, Minglan also returned a smile and said, “Sister Xuan-in-law.”

At this moment, a woman who was standing beside the table suddenly chuckled and said with her handkerchief covering her mouth, “Eldest sister Xuan-in-law, you are being too impatient. Don"t you see that Minglan"s real eldest sister-in-law hasn"t say anything. And you have already come cosying up to the new bride!”

Another woman teased instantly, “That"s so unreasonable. I heard that the impatient woman is not able to have sons. But look at our Eldest sister Xuan-in-law, she already has two sons. So I"m telling you, our Eldest sister-in-law Xuan only becomes impatient in the perfect timing!”

All the other women in the room all laughed out loudly. Meanwhile Sister Xuan-in-law pretended to be angry with her hands crossed behind her back and said with her mouth curled, “Fine fine fine! I"m an old woman now. You guys have always made fun of me over all these years and I"m already resistant to that!” On these words, she pointed to a woman who was sitting quietly by the two-Xi-words lantern and said to Minglan smilingly, “Sister-in-law, you see, that is your legal eldest sister-in-law!”

That woman who seemed to be around thirty was wearing a dark red fortune words pattern striped coat with two fingers width velvet edge. Her fair and clear oval face had no make-up on it but still looked very elegant and pretty. Right now she was smiling tenderly, however, there still seemed to be a little sullenness on her face. She didn"t wear too many jewelries either. As Minglan was still observing this woman, the latter already stood up silently and walked toward Minglan. Then all the other women in the room gradually turned quiet and stopped chatting and laughing.

Minglan knew that this woman was the legal eldest daughter-in-law of Gu family, the wife of Gu Tingyu and the Madam of Marquis Ningyuan"s mansion, Shao shi. Minglan still couldn"t get off the bed now, so she nodded to Shao shi instantly and greeted with respect, “Eldest sister-in-law!”

Having walked over, Madam Shao held Minglan"s hand gently. Minglan only felt that Shao shi"s hand was super cold. Then Shao shi said slowly, “We will be families from now on. I believe we will be more familiar to each other in daily lives. You don"t need to be reserved.” Shao shi didn"t talk too much. Her words sounded composed but still contained an unspoken feeling of solitary and indifference.

Then Madam Shao turned around and said to other women, “Let"s go to the front hall now. There are so many guests here today. After all we are still the hosts, we can not make jokes of the bride the whole time when the guests are out there.” All the other women smiled and agreed to her. After that, sister Xuan-in-law led all the other women out of the room.

Madam Shao turned around again and talked to Minglan with a soft voice, “I know you have your maids. But Second brother-in-law didn"t live here before, so the servants he has brought here might not be very skillful. I will leave you two maids by the door. If you need anything, just tell them. You must be tired now. I have already told the servants to prepare some food for you. They will serve the dishes later, don"t get hungry.”

After saying this, Madam Shao smiled to Minglan. Then she also left after Minglan had given thanks to her.

Minglan was staring at the closed door while feeling quite surprised. Madam Shao and Old Madam Qin surely gave people completely different impressions. The former one was kind, gentle, thoughtful, but always carried with a piece of indifference as if she wanted to shut everyone down. Maybe others might find that uncomfortable, but Minglan kind of liked that. She always felt at ease when someone stopped their considerations where it should stop.

Now that all those women had gone, there were only Danju, Xiaotao as well as the other two maids being left here to serve Minglan.

Danju had already been worried about Minglan"s condition since Minglan had sat tight for too long. After all the other women had gone, Danju approached Minglan and asked in a low voice in a hurry, “My lady, are you hungry now? Do you want to have a cup of tea?”

“I"m fine.” Minglan replied that while touching her waist which almost went stiff. She could really use a good stretch right now. However, the other two maids which had been left by Madam Shao were still there, Minglan didn"t want them to see that. So she said to Danju, “I need to wash my face, fetch me some hot water.”

All those thick powders on her face were killing her. Danju answered Minglan"s request and left.