Chapter 63
It was also very lively here in Yehu and Aiye. A group of young sisters who hadn't seen each other for a long time gathered in the tea room, drinking tea, eating melon seeds and chatting.
Ailan, who was to accompany the bride to Mengmeng as a dowry, smiled and sighed, "We entered the mansion together when we were young, and were both chosen to be the young lady's dowry. I thought our sisterly bond would last forever, but I didn't expect you to be sent to the Tusi Mansion instead. You're more fortunate than us!"
Ai Ye peeled peanuts and said, "We are lucky to follow the young lady. She studied in a foreign school and never scolded or beat us. She also said that when we return to Kunming, we can go to school and serve her at the same time. You know Kunming? There are theaters with foreign films, lights that light up at the push of a button, and huge iron horses that run on oil. The young lady said that she doesn't need to carry water at home. Water will flow out just by turning on the faucet."
A girl didn't understand what she was saying and asked in surprise, "Does your lady have a water faucet at home? Can it spray water by twisting its head?"
Ai Ye laughed so hard that the peanuts in her hand fell all over the floor. She finally found the feeling of the young lady laughing at her, and proudly showed off to the girl: "It's not the water dragon in the river, it's the iron pipe that brings the water in, and the valve is called a faucet."
The girls seemed to understand but found it very interesting and kept pestering her to tell them more. Ye Hu saw that her sister was talking with great enthusiasm and saliva flying, and her words were so many that they could fill the well. She tried to interrupt several times but couldn't get a word in. In the end, she could only shake her head helplessly.
While listening to the opera, the maidservant beside her asked Ai Ye in a low voice, "Isn't your young lady going to marry the second young master of the Tusi Mansion? Why is she going back to Kunming? Does the second young master want to go with her?"
A little maid interrupted, "How is that possible? If he follows her, wouldn't that mean he's marrying into a commoner's family? How could the second young master of a prominent chieftain's mansion marry into a commoner's family?"
Another maid retorted, "Master Kelan's family is rich!"
Everyone immediately thought of the horse team sent by Master Lan. Ever since the arrival of this team, life in the mansion had been getting better and better. If Master Lan had given away such a profitable team, he must have had an even more profitable business.
For a moment, they couldn't tell whether Miss Yueming, who was lucky to marry into the chieftain's mansion, was more fortunate, or Master Han, who was more fortunate to marry the only daughter of the wealthy God of Wealth Lan.
On the way to Mr. Tao's courtyard to pick up the young lady, Ye Hu scolded Ai Ye, "Sister, you are so careless with your words. Why do you tell them everything? They are all servants from different rooms. I don't know what gossip they will spread."
Ai Ye was unconvinced and said, "When we were sent to the Tusi Mansion to serve the young lady, so many people in the mansion laughed at us. They said nice things, saying that it was a pity that we couldn't go to Mengmeng to serve and had to serve the young lady of a common doctor's family. But in fact, they looked down on our young lady and gloated over her misfortune. Today I want to vent my anger and let them know that we will have a better life if we follow the young lady."
Ye Hu was furious: "You were so busy bragging that you didn't notice that the fourth lady's maid kept asking you about Master Yunkai and the Tusi Mansion. You kept answering every question. I almost wanted to twist your mouth."
Ai Ye glanced at her and said, "Of course I noticed. Didn't you hear me talking about how good Master Yunkai is to our young lady? He always thinks of our young lady and is willing to do anything for her. As soon as she opened her mouth, I knew what she and her master were planning. She gets lustful when she sees a man with a good reputation, and she is also a young lady if she keeps an eye on a man with a job? She doesn't care at all that our young lady and she are cousins."
Ye Hu felt that his elder sister was really naive. Once a person sets his mind on something, no matter what you say, she will not back down. The more he talked about how gentle and considerate Master Yunkai was to the young lady, the more the fourth young lady's heart was moved.
She wouldn't understand if she told her elder sister, and it was hard to tell the young lady directly. She just prayed that the fourth young lady wouldn't lose her mind and do something unmanageable.
The wedding the next day was a lively affair. The new son-in-law was a handsome man, and the bride had a generous dowry. Everyone's face was beaming, except for the fourth young lady of the Tao family. Her eyes kept wandering to Yunkai.
In the past, when she and her sister hid behind the screen and peeked at the young master of Mengmeng Tusi Mansion, she envied her sister for finding a good husband. But since she saw the second young master of Han Tusi Mansion,
She used to think that her brother-in-law, no matter how good he was, was not as good as a hair of the Second Young Master Han. Especially after the maid came back yesterday and told her how much the Second Young Master Han doted on the little girl Yueming and how he protected her, her heart was completely devoted to the Second Young Master Han.
During the banquet, she chatted and laughed with the other guests, fanning herself and smiling elegantly, looking very graceful and elegant. Lan Yueming was caught drinking secretly by the Second Young Master Han. He looked at her coldly and scornfully, and she felt ashamed for her. But the little girl even stuck her tongue out at him, showing a complete lack of manners and upbringing.
Seeing Yueming's disgrace, she felt a mixture of emotions. In terms of status, Yueming wasn't even qualified to sit on equal footing with her. A half-Dai, half-Han bastard, the mansion wouldn't even acknowledge her, yet she was able to sit next to the Second Young Master Han, a position she needed to look up to.
She refused to accept this! In terms of status and upbringing, she was superior to that little girl. Why was she so lucky as to enter the Tusi Mansion? However, given her status, she couldn't be the legal wife. If the Second Young Master dared to disregard the rules and etiquette established by their ancestors and marry Lan Yueming, the spit of the officials in the yamen would drown him. Her new brother-in-law's family had an example of someone who preferred beauty to power, and gave up the Tusi position for nothing for a common woman. The Second Young Master also wanted to be a prince, but if he forced himself to marry Lan Yueming, he didn't know whether he would be demoted to Mengquan.
Her heart skipped a beat at the thought. She wasn't qualified to be a chieftain's wife, but as a young lady with a prominent family name, she could still have a shot at being the grand master's legal wife.
Although the bride had left home early with the groom, the banquet at the mansion continued into the evening. Yueming, holding her cousin in one hand and her cousin in the other, watched the singing and dancing. The dancers were graceful, their delicate, boneless hands holding candles between their fingers, their fingers curved in astonishing curves beneath their long nails.
Yueming stretched out her palm and tried to bend her fingers upwards, wanting to see if she could bend them like the dancer. After a few attempts, if the dancer's fingers were rolling mountains, hers was a small slope.
Seeing her look like she was about to break her fingers, her cousin laughed and said, "Cousin, these dancers have been using narrow, deep bowls to bind their fingers since they were young. The fingers and palms can almost be bent in half. You can't do that."
Yueming was surprised: "That would be as painful as foot binding."
My cousin had heard that Han Chinese girls had to bind their feet with cloth when they were young to prevent them from growing bigger, and that girls who didn't bind their feet couldn't even get married. She glanced down at Yueming's skirt and asked curiously, "Cousin, why don't you bind your feet?"
Yueming scratched her nose and said, "It's a different era now. Foot binding is no longer popular. But the old maids in Kunming did bind their feet, and their feet were only this long."
Yueming separated her thumb and index finger to measure a small distance.
My cousin was shocked: "So short? Not even as big as my palm!"
The boy had no interest in listening to such topics, nor was he impatient to watch the singing and dancing. He pulled himself out from under Yueming's arms, saying, "I'm going to set off some firecrackers," and then he ran away.
Yunkai was chased by the leaders who came to celebrate and toasted him all night. After a few rounds of drinking, he was dizzy. Subconsciously, he looked around for Yueming, but seeing the three cousins having a good time, he felt unhappy.
Thinking about how he had taken good care of her along the way, she was so drunk but she was only concerned with playing with her younger brothers and sisters.
When he was unhappy, he wanted to find trouble with her. He stumbled over and sat in the seat vacated by his little cousin, pinched her earlobe with two fingers, and said in a bad tone: "Lan Yueming, can't you see that I'm drunk?"
Seeing that his eyes were bloodshot from drinking, Yueming felt very distressed, but she said viciously, "If you're drunk, just go to sleep. Why are you making trouble here? Today I finally understand why it's called drinking cat urine. You smell worse than a cat slave's urine. Stay away from me."
Listen to what kind of cruel and heartless words are these? Yun Kai was furious. He exerted a little force with his fingers, changing the pinch to a pull and twisting it.
It really hurt! He couldn't scream in public, so Yueming gritted his teeth and grabbed a piece of skin on his arm and twisted it hard.
Yunkai gasped in pain, hissing and urging Yueming to let go. Yueming bared his teeth, telling him to let go first. Neither trusted the other's character, each holding a piece of flesh in a stalemate. The little cousin blinked for a moment, then reacted and the two began fighting. Although the outcome of the battle was unclear, she couldn't let her cousin suffer, so she ran to her father to complain.
Mr. Tao, dragged along by his daughter to support his cousin, was left in a state of confusion as he watched the two of them tug at each other. After learning about Yunkai and Yueming's affair, he automatically relegated Yunkai to the younger generation, favoring his own niece. Acting like a senior, he asked Yunkai to let go first, but once Yueming's ears were free, he took the opportunity to pinch Yunkai again.
Yun Kai hissed and wanted to fight back, but was stopped by Master Tao, who then had his servants help him back to the guest house to sober up.
Seeing Yun Kai leave, the fourth lady of the Tao family, who had been staring at him, also quietly retreated with her maid.
Yunkai was only about 60% drunk to begin with. After lying in bed for a while and drinking a few cups of tea, he was almost sober. Once sober, he began to think about Yueming. These past few days, he'd been busy traveling or attending social events, so he hadn't had the chance to kiss her or chat with her. The moon was dark and windy, and his lustful desires followed the moon.
He called Feng Xiaosai in and asked him to tell Yueming that he was drunk and feeling very uncomfortable, and asked her to take care of him.
Feng Xiaosai thought that the young master was really creative. Knowing that Miss Yueming's father was a doctor, he asked the daughter to play the game of taking care of the patient.
He looked at the sky outside and said with some embarrassment: "Master, even the banquet outside has ended now, and Miss Yueming is probably asleep. If you feel uncomfortable, I will serve you.
Can I kiss your face? Yun Kai glared: "Just go when I tell you to. Why are you talking so much nonsense?"
Feng Xiaosai had no choice but to ask Yueming for help. Yunkai remembered Yueming saying that the smell of alcohol on her body was worse than the urine of a raccoon slave. He raised his arm and sniffed it. There was a slight smell, but it was not as bad as she said.
To be on the safe side, he asked the servants to bring him some water. It would be better to wash it clean, so she wouldn't find an excuse to cause trouble later.
The master and servant who were guarding not far from the guest house saw Feng Xiaosai go out and go to the courtyard where Yueming lived. Miss Tao Si hurriedly sent her maid to knock on the door.
The maid hesitated and said, "Miss, I think we should forget it. The master will beat us to death if he finds out."
Miss Tao Si poked her forehead with her fingertips and cursed, "So what if Master finds out? It's a done deal. It's a great honor for the Tusi Mansion for me to be able to enter. I'll be fine."
"What if the Second Young Master bullies you and you don't admit it?"
"You stay outside and wait. If I don't come out, then the plan is done. If it doesn't work out, I'll yell, and you go call Grandma and Mother over right away. Then even if it doesn't work out, it will be done. Can he still deny it?"
"But......"
Miss Tao Si interrupted her hesitation impatiently: "But what but? If we wait a little longer, his followers will be back. Go and call them."
The maid helplessly carried the plate and went to knock on the door.
The servant inside heard someone shouting outside and asked loudly, "Who is it?"
The maid also raised her voice and answered, "It's me. Madam asked the young lady and me to bring hangover soup to the second young master Han."
The servant opened the door and saw the fourth young lady outside. Her maid was holding a plate with a bowl of lukewarm honey water on it.
He went to Yunkai's room door and reported: "Master, the young lady is here to bring you some hangover soup."
Yun Kai, who was undressing to take a shower, was taken aback. How could it be so fast? Or did she prepare the hangover soup to take care of him before Feng Xiaosai arrived?
Looking at the tub, was he still going to take a bath? He suddenly had a bad idea, so he stripped naked and soaked in the tub, then said to the servant, "Let the young lady in!"
He scooped up water and splashed it on his shoulders, laughing in his heart. If Yueming came in and saw him taking a bath, she would probably scream so hard that the roof would blow off.
The door creaked open and closed again, and the sound of footsteps echoed through the room. Yunkai heard the clink of a spoon hitting a bowl after a plate was placed on the table. The person behind the screen, who must have heard him showering, stood quietly outside.
This is not her style. Shouldn't she be yelling and cursing, "Han Yunkai, you are shameless?"
He pretended to be displeased and said, "Why are you standing outside like an idiot? Come in!" After that, he listened carefully and heard the sound of footsteps coming towards the screen.
Not angry yet? Yun Kai suddenly started to daydream.
He turned his back to the screen and thought of Yueming standing behind him, looking at him. He suddenly said, "Why are you standing there? Rub my back!"
He closed his eyes and tensed his muscles, ready for Yue Mingyang's slap. If she dared to hit him, he would drag her into the tub with him.
A pair of soft, boneless hands climbed up his wet shoulders and then moved down to caress his pectoral muscles. Yun Kai's muscles trembled. He didn't dare open his eyes, wondering, was Lan Yueming drunk?
What should she do with such audacity? Should she sternly push her away, or actively cater to her? She was a young girl with a thin skin, and couldn't afford to lose face. Otherwise, should she give in to her?
"Second Young Master." Just when Yun Kai was in trouble, a delicate call exploded in his ears, making his scalp numb and his heart almost stop beating.
This was not Lan Yueming's voice. He panicked and picked up a cloth to cover his chest, then looked back.
That night, the screams of the second young master Han were so loud that the tiles on the roof of the guest house shook.
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