Prescription and Medicine (Part 2)
Ye QingGe thought back to the man code named “Satan”... for her to make the wrong choice in two lifetimes, was she drunk? This lifetime she would have to make her choice carefully, at worst, she wouldn"t marry at all. Ye QingGe rose from the bed, ZhiQiu hurriedly responded. “Young Miss, didn"t the madame tell you to rest? Why are you getting up?”
Ye QingGe walked over to the vanity and sat down. “Why don"t you help me get ready, since I"ve already woken, I should go pay my respects to the Old Madame, otherwise it"ll give others a chance to wag their tongue.”
As she was speaking, ZhiLan also walked back in, hearing Ye QingGe"s words, she remarked.
“Young miss is very cunning, just this servant saw one of seven miss"s servants wandering past our courtyard. Who knows what she was doing, probably trying to suss out some information. If seven miss or six miss found out you had woken up without greeting the Old Madame they would surely start bad mouthing you to her. Second Madame is the same, she"s always had it out for Madame, they"re all so aggravating!”
Now that ZhiLan brought it up, Ye QingGe remembered a little more of what happened the first time around. The Second Madame was her uncle"s husband, he was a fourth tier official same as Ye QingGe"s maternal uncle.
Ever since the beginning of the year, the two uncles had been fighting each other for a promotion into a newly vacant position. The Second Madame had been very pa.s.sive aggressive towards Ye QingGe"s mother because she had been afraid that Ye QinGe"s father would choose his wife"s family over his own brother.
Now that she had lived two lives, she could clearly see through the situation. This entire scenario was a ploy set up by Emperor MingZong. Throughout history, every emperor had been extremely paranoid, wanting to unite the country on one hand but afraid his citizens would revolt on the other hand. The position will be filled regardless, but it will only result in the degradation of the relations.h.i.+p between two families.
In her previous lifetime, her fraternal uncle had won the position and would continue to b.u.t.t heads with her maternal uncle. This resulted in the relations.h.i.+p between the two families eroding over time.
Thinking of this, Ye QingGe said “bring out my gold inlaid jade headdress and send it to my second aunt, tell her it"s to thank her for the gifts she sent while I was sick.”
ZhiLan asked questioningly “Young Miss, did the Second Madame send you anything? Why didn"t this servant hear about it?”
Ye QingGe shook her head, this girl wasn"t as clever as ZhiQiu. Seeing her mistress shake her head, ZhiQiu immediately responded. “Just do what the Young Miss told you to do, why are you asking so many questions?”
ZhiLan and ZhiQiu have always had a good relations.h.i.+p so she wasn"t afraid to talk back. “I just want to know! ZhiQiu, you"re so smart, just tell me!”
ZhiQiu rolled her eyes at her. “If my guess is right, the Young Miss is taking a gamble on the Second House, what happens afterwards.. that I"m not sure about.”
After finis.h.i.+ng her sentence, ZhiQiu looked back at Ye QingGe. “Young Miss, do you have a plan in mind?”
Ye QingGe nodded her head, ZhiQiu"s face immediately lit up in a smile. Ever since her mistress had woken up she had been exceptionally sharp.
That headdress was given to Ye QingGe by her younger sister.
In her last life, she had worn it once to an event, by the end, her entire head had been up in flames. Now she finally understood what kind of an object that headdress was, it was filled with gunpowder and would ignite after prolonged exposure to sunlight. What a clever tactic to use against her.
Hearing the explanation, ZhiLan started packing up the headdress without any further questions. Meanwhile, Ye QingGe was also done getting dressed, she sent ZhiQiu off to deliver the present and had ZhiLan escort her to greet the Old Madame.
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So far, the story is chock filled with all the tropes I love in this genre. The whole special ability part seems a little random though, I wonder how they"ll develop that part. This chapter was a bit difficult because I had to try and translate Chinese familial relations.h.i.+ps without making it sound awkward in English. Trying to translate the officials position was also pretty difficult because I"m not very familiar with all the different jobs and ranks, I kind of gave up trying in the end and just kept it vague, hopefully it doesn"t become too big a part of the story later.
So far the chapters have been calling her by her full name “Ye QingGe” but it sounds really odd because usually people should just call her QingGe, especially if it"s someone close to her. I think going forward I"ll use whatever the text says but default to “QingGe” when it"s just the narrator talking.