Chapter 18
After staying up all night, the emperor and his officials washed up and rushed to court.
I had wanted to use the "friendly" discussion we had in the Imperial Study yesterday to trick Chu Huan and the system into taking them treasure hunting, so that all the saliva wasted in the debate with the scholars would not be in vain.
Unexpectedly, Chu Huan asked for leave again.
emperor:"……"
Officials: "..."
Looking at myself and then at others, I confirmed that the dark circles under my eyes were all caused by staying up late eating melons.
No matter how long you stay up late, you still have to attend court early.
The emperor suppressed the urge to yawn and listened to his ministers as they delivered their reports as usual.
In the past, he was annoyed that his ministers would scold him whenever they disagreed with him, and would even beat people when he was in a bad mood. He always hoped that one day everyone would be able to talk calmly.
Today all the ministers were exhausted from staying up late, so their voices and tones were much weaker. He also felt that it was good for the ministers to be noisy, at least it didn't sound like hypnosis, which made him almost fall asleep.
Soon, the emperor was no longer sleepy.
Jinyiwei asked Chen Jiu to pass on a message: "Your Majesty, Old Madam Chu has returned with Chu Shu. Miss Chu has to meet them at the door, so she asked for leave and did not attend the court."
emperor:?
His first reaction was: Who is Old Madam Chu? She is more important than the imperial court and the national treasury?
Then he realized that this person was Chu Huan's unreasonable grandmother who had her heart set on heaven, and Chu Shu... judging from her ranking in music, chess, calligraphy and painting, she should be Chu Huan's half-sister.
The emperor had a good impression of Chu Huan, so naturally he had a bad impression of Old Lady Chu who treated Chu Huan harshly. This also led to a bad first impression of Chu Shu: the Chu family's family tradition was really "upright" as they made the legitimate daughter specially welcome the illegitimate daughter at the doorstep.
Soon, the emperor realized something was wrong: "Given Chu Huan's unwillingness to suffer any loss, how could she possibly run to the door to greet him?"
Chen Jiu was stunned. Indeed, Miss Chu was just as stingy and vindictive as the emperor, and it was impossible for her to be obedient.
The emperor realized that there was something fishy going on and immediately became excited: "Go ask!"
Chen Jiu ran to tell the Jinyiwei that it was good to have melons, and he loved eating melons!
The officials below watched the emperor and Chen Jiu's small movements, and intuitively felt that something was wrong, but they could not be sure what it was, and kept guessing.
Could it be that the Jinyiwei discovered that an official was corrupt again and was preparing to confiscate his property to fill the national treasury?
The Minister of Revenue, who was suffering from lack of money, was excited.
Could it be that the Jinyiwei discovered that an official was visiting a prostitute and wanted to get rid of him?
The Minister of Justice, whose son-in-law has a relationship with a prostitute, has divergent thinking.
Maybe there is new news about Chu Huan?
Most officials prefer this.
After all, when the emperor first came to court, he was in the same depressed state as them, wishing the court would end quickly so that he could go back and rest. Now he is as excited as a melon-eating civet that is about to eat a melon.
Chu family, Qianhuaju.
Chu Huan lay comfortably on the chaise longue, enjoying Qingzhu's waist and leg massage service while reading the new storybook borrowed from Wen.
Seeing that the time that Mrs. Chu had given people to notify her in advance was approaching, Hongmei became anxious: "Miss, it's too late."
"What do you mean too late?" Chu Huan turned a page and read with great interest.
Hongmei: "Didn't the old lady ask the young lady to pick her up at the door?"
Chu Huan didn't even raise her head: "Qingzhu."
Qingzhu never stopped rubbing her waist and explained in the most straightforward language: "Hongmei, the relationship between the young lady and the old lady is like the east wind overwhelming the west wind. The old lady and her beloved concubine, as well as the concubine's illegitimate children, have to rely on the lady and the young lady for their daily food and clothing. She can only embarrass the young lady on such a small matter."
Hongmei:???
Small head, big question mark.
Although she had only been in the mansion for less than two months and didn't know much about what had happened between the young lady and the old lady in the past, according to ethics and filial piety, which young lady would not carefully serve and respect her grandmother? Why would she have to suppress her grandmother's west wind?
Is this... not normal?
Knowing what she was wondering about, Qingzhu began to unleash his ultimate move: "The old lady, without any basis for reason, determined that the young lady had stolen other people's things. She was biased towards the concubine and her two children. She forced the young lady to kneel in the ancestral hall in the cold winter, forced the wife to pay money to apologize, and tried every possible way to make the wife use her dowry to subsidize the concubine's family. She also made the young lady give half of the shop she had prepared for the eldest young master to the second young master..."
Hongmei:???
Hongmei:!!!
The hesitation and uncertainty on the little girl's face completely disappeared. She was so angry that her face turned red and her fists were clenched tightly. "Don't give face to such a shameless old hag!"
Chu Huan looked up in surprise: "Where did you learn those curse words?"
"I heard it on the street." Hongmei thought she had cursed too badly and Chu Huan didn't like it, so she quickly said, "I won't curse anymore in the future."
Chu Huan: "My relationship with her is like this. There's no way it can be eased. She can't do anything to me, but we'll still maintain a superficial peace. My father and brother are both officials, and we can't let the Chu family have a bad reputation. This is the principle of keeping dirty laundry out in public."
"Hongmei, you're someone close to me. You can curse me as much as you want in your heart, but you have to keep your mouth shut and don't reveal anything in your actions. Otherwise, if you say something out of turn and offend someone I can't afford to offend, I won't be able to protect you. Do you understand?"
Hongmei nodded heavily: "Miss, I remember it, I will change it."
Chu Huan nodded in satisfaction and continued reading the storybook.
Some people appeared nonchalant, unconcerned about Old Lady Chu's appearance, but inwardly they were furiously stabbing the system: "Tong'er, help me keep an eye on the old lady. If she gets sick from anger, I can send someone to call a doctor quickly."
System: [What happened to the promise that the east wind would prevail over the west wind? Why are you so concerned about her?]
Chu Hua: [Don't let your imagination run wild. If she were truly ill, she'd have a reason to torment my mother. She could even feign illness and demand my mother's care, asking her to spend money on supplements, then sell them and use the proceeds to subsidize that family.]
The system was shocked: [Why are you so biased? Aren't they all wives?]
The Chu family: "..."
Jinyiwei: “…”
It's not that I haven't seen biased old ladies before, but this is the first time I've seen one as biased as this.
Chu Hua: [The old lady looked down on my mother because she came from a merchant family. She deliberately disgusted and suppressed her, hoping to control her. Otherwise, would a normal mother-in-law insist on raising a child just two months after her son got married and during his honeymoon?]
The maids and servants of the Chu family have been replaced repeatedly over the years, and many people are unaware of what happened more than 20 years ago.
After hearing what Chu Huan said, everyone suddenly realized: It turns out that Old Madam Chu had done such a disgusting thing.
System: [Hmm? I checked, your father took a concubine six months after his marriage.]
Chu Hua: [Not even two months after our wedding, the old lady proposed to my father, but he refused. Six months later, the old lady wanted to take a concubine, claiming my mother wasn't pregnant, and my father agreed.]
What's the funniest thing? After my aunt came into the family, she didn't get pregnant for a long time, but my mother got pregnant first. And then she got a boy, which made the old lady's face swell up.
System: [Hahaha! Cool!]
Everyone applauded quietly: It’s really cool!
Chu Huan continued, "The old lady was incredibly stubborn, even at her age. She refused to believe that having a child depended on fate and insisted on human intervention. She took my aunt to see doctors every ten days or so, visited every temple and worshipped at every monastery. She filled the house with all sorts of fertility-giving Guanyin statues and drank tons of strange talismans and potions. This went on for three years!"
I really admire my aunt. She persevered through the dual physical and psychological torture. Three years later, she finally became pregnant. The old lady was overjoyed and planned a grand banquet to celebrate. Even the wife's pregnancy wasn't this arrogant. Her parents and grandfather all disapproved, so the old lady, in a fit of rage, decided to conceive the child herself. Guess what happened?
System: [What's going on?]
Everyone: What’s going on?
Chu Huan: [The old lady took out her secret stash of money, glanced at it, and then stuffed it back in. She was clearly reluctant to spend it, insisting she was saving up to have a big celebration for the child's first month. Later, Chu Qi was born, then a month old, then a year old. Even now, she still hasn't had a proper celebration banquet. The latest news is that the old lady plans to wait until Chu Qi passes the imperial examination before holding a celebration.]
The system laughed heartily, then asked, "You are seven years younger than Big Brother and four years younger than Chu Qi. How do you know so much about what happened back then?"
Even Wen Shi didn't know about these past events. She stopped embroidering her purse and was listening attentively.
Chu Huan didn't care: [What's so difficult about this?]
The old lady lived a tight life, so naturally, those around her weren't much better off. One year, her dowry nanny was often out of town, returning with a sad face and smelling of medicine. I heard her grandson was seriously ill, so I gave her some money. I even learned that the old lady had wet her bed at the age of seven.
Wen: “…”
Others: “…”
The Jinyiwei paused as he wrote down the note. "Seven-year-old still wetting the bed? Tsk tsk tsk tsk."
A cup of tea later, a green-shed carriage stopped at the gate of the Chu family.
A slender, white hand lifted the carriage curtain and said softly, "Grandma, we're here."
"Where's Chu Huan?"
"My sister may be in a hurry, so she's not here. Grandma, Shu'er is with you."
The silver-haired old lady snorted coldly and became more dissatisfied. She got off the carriage with the help of Chu Shu. As soon as she entered the gate of the Chu family, she immediately rushed to Qianhuaju in anger.
She knew that the damn girl wouldn't wait at the door obediently!
However, something seemed to have happened at home. There were few people at the gate, and the closer to Chu Huan's Qianhuaju, the more people there were.
Some are sweeping fallen leaves, some are pruning flower branches, and some are embroidering here with their embroidery booths.
What's going on?
Old Mrs. Chu didn't understand what was going on and continued forward.
At this moment, she heard Chu Huan's voice: [...We all know that the old lady wet the bed at the age of seven.]
Old Mrs. Chu:???
Old Mrs. Chu:!!!
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