Seeing Minglan kept rubbing the back of her waist, Xiaotao walked over and kneaded Minglan’s waist. Xiaotao really had a gift in massaging with the pressure she gave being always to the point. Minglan hummed inwardly because of the comfortable feeling. However, since the two new maids were still standing in the corner of the room, she could only put on a dignified smile and called them over, “What’s your name?”
The two maids seemed to be terrified. Then the older one of them stepped forward reverently and answered, “Madam, my name is Xiahe and her name is Xiazhu. We were sent by the Master to serve you.”
After all, Minglan had lived ten years of high-fed life in Sheng family. When she observed the two girls, she found them being very respectful and prudent but also a little bit nervous and lacking the natural and graceful manner. Then Minglan realized that those two girls hadn’t been officially trained as the inner yard’s maid. She made an assumption that they might have only been trained over the past six months.
Generally speaking, all of the maids of the prestigious families were trained from their childhood. They would enter into the inner yard when they were around ten years old and learned the appropriate manners. There were rules about how to eat, behave, make tea, dress the lady, do the cleaning, balance the account. Even the way they spoke or treat the guests would be taught. Besides, they were around the noble ladies all day, so they were also to be influenced by what they constantly saw and heard.
As the saying went, ‘Man would rather marry a maid from a respectable family than a lady from a normal family. Minglan used to turn up her nose at that saying. However, after she had seen Mama Fang’s strict and detailed training, Minglan had to admit that all the sayings made senses. Moreover, Mama Fang had also claimed regrettably that the training in Sheng family had already been simplified. She also said that if Minglan lived in Marquis Yongyi’s mansion, at least half of the maids who were serving Minglan now would be driven away!
Xiaotao had been scared by Mama Fang’s words a lot that she couldn’t even sleep for several nights, having feared that she might be kicked out.
Therefore, the chapter in those films when a Childe saved a girl who wanted to sell herself to someone in order to bury her dead father and later the girl felt so grateful and begged the Childe to serve him for her whole life would never happen in the real rich families. Even if a Childe did have saved a girl, he would let the Mama in his family to train the girl first. Then the girl had to learn the rules and the manners from the beginning. So by no means would the girl be able to serve the Childe right away! In case the only thing the girl wanted was to seduce the Childe instead of repaying the debt of gratitude! The people in the ancient times were quite sharp-sighted. Those stupid soap operas were just so unrealistic.
So far, it seemed that Gu Tingye didn’t trust the person in Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion so he had chosen to recruit the servants by himself. It was said that the emperor had also rewarded him lots of servants along with the country estates and the manors. However, Minglan still didn’t know where those two girls had come from.
Seeing Minglan remaining silent, Xiahe showed a terrified look on her face. Minglan glanced at her and then said with a smile, “You have a beautiful name. Who named you this?”
Xiahe let out a sigh of relief secretly and answered, “It’s Momo Chang. She named me that because we were picked up in the mansion in summer.(T/N: In Chinese, Xia meant summer)
Minglan remembered their names to herself. She kind of liked those two girls because of their quick tongue and easy manners. At the same time, Xiaotao couldn’t help but voice her opinion, “You two have good, I mean, perfect names.”
Minglan rolled her eyes to Xiaotao, knowing that the latter were still minding about her overly simple name.
After Minglan talked with the two new maids for a while, Danju brought in a washbasin with two other maids following her who were carrying the water bottle, the soap and the towel.
Xiaotao stood up instantly and took over the towels. Having put on the longer towel on Minglan’s chest, Xiaotao took out a small half-transparent shell hair brush from her personal embroidery bag to smooth the hair on Minglan’s temples. After that, Xiaotao soaked the other towel. Meanwhile, Danju took off the ring, jade bracelet and other eight gold bracelets on Minglan’s hands and put those jewelries in a safe place.
Minglan lowered her head slightly to let them wash her face and hands. Only after they had changed to the third basin of water were all those powders on Minglan’s face washed away. After that, Danju opened her personal little box and took out a few delicate porcelain bottles. Then she dipped some of the flower cream and applied it onto Minglan’s face, neck, and hands while massaging those parts gently.
At last, Danju helped Minglan change into a brand new informal dress while Xiaotao tidied Minglan’s hair and clothes.
Danju and Xiaotao had done those things too skillfully, which meant that they had already been familiar to those works. Xiahe and Xiazhu opened their mouth slightly and the other two maids who had been assigned here by Madam Shao looked at each other with a bit surprised look in their eyes because it never occurred to them that an illegal daughter from a fourth grades official’s family could possess such an imposing manner. Then all the maids didn’t dare to look down upon Minglan anymore.
After Minglan washed herself with the help of Danju and Xiaotao, the door was opened again. A few maids and servants served a few dishes and desserts. Mama Cui followed them in and set the table. After that, she sent all the maids away besides Danju and Xiaotao.
Mama Fang had taken care of putting all the suitcases and packages of Minglan in order at the outside. Since she had finished her job, she then stepped into the room. As she saw Minglan’s face, she laughed immediately, “My lady, you always hates those makeup on your face. Look at you now, already washed all of those things away.”
Minglan had just picked up her chopsticks. Hearing Mama Cui’s words, she bulged her cheeks and said, “Mama, do you know that I have used three basins of water to wash those powders away!”
Cui Mama watched Minglan eating food with fond glance. Then she called Danju and Xiaotao over to have some desserts. Xiaotao whose mouth was filled with food asked, “Mama, has everything finished at the outside? Where do we sleep tonight?”
Mama Cui pinched Xiaotao’s nose while saying, “Have you seen any maid like you? So the first thing came to your mind was not our lady’s affair but your own residence?... Everything has been settled now. After all, you won’t live too long here. As long as the trousseau and the packages are well reserved, we don’t need to worry about anything. There were only a few suitcases being opened. We can wait until we arrived at General Gu’s mansion to open the rest.”
“You’ve had a long day, Mama.” Minglan said that while swallowing a piece of lotus flower cake, “You should have been relaxing yourself right now. But I still have to drag you into all of this.”
Cui Mama used her handkerchief to wipe out the food left on the corner of Minglan’s mouth like she had always done when Minglan had been a little girl. Then she said smilingly, “My lady, don’t talk nonsense. If my body is strong enough, I wouldn’t leave you even if you drive me away.”
Having smiled to Mama Cui, Minglan lowered her head and continued to goggle the food. Seeing that, Mama Cui couldn’t help saying, “I heard they were drinking lots of wines outside, tonight... my lady, you have to be... careful. No matter what... you can not let General Gu do whatever he wants.”
Mama Cui had already tried her best to organize her words. But Minglan still blushed at once.
After Minglan had been completely full, she turned calm and relaxed again. It was such a shame that she was in Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion so she had to behave herself well. Otherwise she would have played poker game with Xiaotao and Danju. That surely was a good way to kill time. While she was waiting there, she could only let her imagination run wild like that. As one third of the pair of huge red candles which were the same size of baby’s arms burned out and Minglan almost fell asleep while lying on the bed, she suddenly heard noisy sounds coming from the outside. Then someone shouted, “Second Master is back!”
Minglan regained her consciousness all of a sudden and jump out from the bed like a jumping shrimp. Having pondered for a while, she sat back in a hurry.
The smell of booze spread in this room the moment the door was pushed open heavily. Two strong old women servants tried very hard to carry Gu Tingye inside. Then they put him on the bed slightly. Minglan told herself not to look at the drunkard beside her while saying to the two servants calmly with a calm smile, “Mama, you two must be exhausted. Danju, present them two red packets.”
Danju was quite familiar with giving red packets right now. As the two servants wiped the sweats on their foreheads, they weighed the heavy red packets in their hands and realized that there must be at least five ounces of silvers inside, which excited them a lot. After that, they bid farewell to Minglan and left.
The moment the two servants stepped out of the room, Minglan got off the bed right away. However, the guy beside her suddenly woke up with a very sober look while murmuring, “Those guys are so mean!”
He stank of alcohol now, which made Minglan couldn’t help but frown to that. After he had shaken his head and tried to sober up, he leaned his huge figure on the bedrail and opened his long and narrow eyes slightly to look at Minglan with a meaningful smile on his face. Suddenly, he said with his eyebrows knitted, “I will go take a shower. Why don’t you take off those jewels too?”
Xiahe and Xiazhu who were standing beside them went to the next room instantly to prepare the bathtub and hot water. With his hand waving, Gu Tingye stood up and left. At first he was still staggering, but after that he walked quite steadily.
Minglan was standing behind him in a trance. Mama Cui who came back to her sense immediately directed Xiaotao and Danju to take off all the jewelries on Minglan while she hanged up Minglan’s wedding dress and helped Minglan put on a soft cotton sleeping dress. After that, Mama Cui dragged Danju and Xiaotao who were still hesitating out of the room.
Minglan started to bite her fingers now. She felt those brilliant red quilts on the bed quite an eyesore. After a while, Gu Tingye came back alone in a white satin sleeping clothes with his hair still a bit wet. After this tall and strong man had fallen right onto the bed, he leaned on the pillow while looking at Minglan with meaningful look in his eyes without saying anything.
Under that passionate gaze, Minglan only felt her body burning and her throat totally dry. Then she coughed and said, “I just ate some night snacks, I, I... I will gargle again.” As saying this, she rushed to the next room.
Next, Minglan gargled for five times and comforted herself over eighteen times behind the door. She even recited the regulations about the duty of the couples in the marriage law repeatedly. At last, she walked back in a brave and decisive way. When she returned to the room and tried to get in the bed, she saw Gu Tingye already fall asleep with his back on the head of the bed.
Minglan was totally relieved then and felt ease instantly. Having walked by the table with her bare feet, she poured a cup of tea for herself and drank that up quickly. Before she could let out a sign of relief, a voice came through from her behind, “You have finished washing yourself?l
Minglan almost chocked herself with that tea. Then she put down the cup hastily and turned around to have a look while coughing constantly. It turned out that Gu Tingye had already been awake somehow and was staring straightly at her with his black and deep eyes which were as sharp as the glass flakes. The light from the dragon and phoenix pattern red candles shined on his face, which made his eyes seemed dazzling.
Minglan was in a daze for a few seconds. Then she poured a cup of tea right away and served the tea to him, saying tamely, “Please, have a drink, have a drink!”
Seeing Minglan’s jade-like pretty wrist, Gu Tingye felt his throat getting dry. So he also drank up the tea after taking over the cup. Then he gave the cup back to Minglan. After putting the cup back on the table, Minglan just stopped right there. Gu Tingye chuckled and said with an affectionate look in his eyes, saying, “Still don’t want to go to bed?”
Minglan took a deep breath and aid loudly, “There is something I need to tell you!”
Gu Tingye waved his hands and ignored her words, “Lets wait until tomorrow. We should have a rest first.” On these words, he got off the bed. With his tall figure and long legs, it only took him two steps to reach to Minglan. Then he grabbed Minglan’s hand right away.
“Actually, I have something important to tell you!” Minglan was making her final struggle.
“It can wait.”
After he had raised his strong arms, Minglan only felt her feet being high up in the air. The next thing she knew was that she had been held up by Gu Tingye. To put it more precisely, she had been carried by him. With her face down, she got a bit scared when looking at the ground. So she could only grabbed him tightly. After that, she was thrown to the bed gently.
Gu Tingye dragged a quilt while tearing down the two-layer red brocade pomegranate seeds gauze and the thick brocade curtains. Then he turned around and only found Minglan shrank herself at the corner of the bed and kept trembling.
“I, I, I, I...” She went totally tongue-tied.
“You’ve had a long day. You must be so tired. Come rest yourself.” Gu Tingye held the girl’s hand while touching her fine skin carefully. Her hand felt very soft, as he kept touching her, he could feel clearly of her slender finger bones.
“I’m not tired!” With her face turned completely red, Minglan finally took a deep breath after she had been suffocated for a long while.
“Not tired?” There was almost green light flashing in Gu Tingye’s long and narrow eyes. Then he added, “That’s perfect!”
… (After one night, you know what have happened!)
“Didn’t you have something to tell me before?” Gu Tingye suddenly remembered that.
“I don’t have the strength to say it.” Minglan, who was nearly half-dead said that.
“But you said it was important.” The man said that with loving expression in his eyes.
“I don’t remember anything...”
Seeing Minglan kept rubbing the back of her waist, Xiaotao walked over and kneaded Minglan’s waist. Xiaotao really had a gift in massaging with the pressure she gave being always to the point. Minglan hummed inwardly because of the comfortable feeling. However, since the two new maids were still standing in the corner of the room, she could only put on a dignified smile and called them over, “What’s your name?”
The two maids seemed to be terrified. Then the older one of them stepped forward reverently and answered, “Madam, my name is Xiahe and her name is Xiazhu. We were sent by the Master to serve you.”
After all, Minglan had lived ten years of high-fed life in Sheng family. When she observed the two girls, she found them being very respectful and prudent but also a little bit nervous and lacking the natural and graceful manner. Then Minglan realized that those two girls hadn’t been officially trained as the inner yard’s maid. She made an assumption that they might have only been trained over the past six months.
Generally speaking, all of the maids of the prestigious families were trained from their childhood. They would enter into the inner yard when they were around ten years old and learned the appropriate manners. There were rules about how to eat, behave, make tea, dress the lady, do the cleaning, balance the account. Even the way they spoke or treat the guests would be taught. Besides, they were around the noble ladies all day, so they were also to be influenced by what they constantly saw and heard.
As the saying went, ‘Man would rather marry a maid from a respectable family than a lady from a normal family. Minglan used to turn up her nose at that saying. However, after she had seen Mama Fang’s strict and detailed training, Minglan had to admit that all the sayings made senses. Moreover, Mama Fang had also claimed regrettably that the training in Sheng family had already been simplified. She also said that if Minglan lived in Marquis Yongyi’s mansion, at least half of the maids who were serving Minglan now would be driven away!
Xiaotao had been scared by Mama Fang’s words a lot that she couldn’t even sleep for several nights, having feared that she might be kicked out.
Therefore, the chapter in those films when a Childe saved a girl who wanted to sell herself to someone in order to bury her dead father and later the girl felt so grateful and begged the Childe to serve him for her whole life would never happen in the real rich families. Even if a Childe did have saved a girl, he would let the Mama in his family to train the girl first. Then the girl had to learn the rules and the manners from the beginning. So by no means would the girl be able to serve the Childe right away! In case the only thing the girl wanted was to seduce the Childe instead of repaying the debt of gratitude! The people in the ancient times were quite sharp-sighted. Those stupid soap operas were just so unrealistic.
So far, it seemed that Gu Tingye didn’t trust the person in Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion so he had chosen to recruit the servants by himself. It was said that the emperor had also rewarded him lots of servants along with the country estates and the manors. However, Minglan still didn’t know where those two girls had come from.
Seeing Minglan remaining silent, Xiahe showed a terrified look on her face. Minglan glanced at her and then said with a smile, “You have a beautiful name. Who named you this?”
Xiahe let out a sigh of relief secretly and answered, “It’s Momo Chang. She named me that because we were picked up in the mansion in summer.(T/N: In Chinese, Xia meant summer)
Minglan remembered their names to herself. She kind of liked those two girls because of their quick tongue and easy manners. At the same time, Xiaotao couldn’t help but voice her opinion, “You two have good, I mean, perfect names.”
Minglan rolled her eyes to Xiaotao, knowing that the latter were still minding about her overly simple name.
After Minglan talked with the two new maids for a while, Danju brought in a washbasin with two other maids following her who were carrying the water bottle, the soap and the towel.
Xiaotao stood up instantly and took over the towels. Having put on the longer towel on Minglan’s chest, Xiaotao took out a small half-transparent shell hair brush from her personal embroidery bag to smooth the hair on Minglan’s temples. After that, Xiaotao soaked the other towel. Meanwhile, Danju took off the ring, jade bracelet and other eight gold bracelets on Minglan’s hands and put those jewelries in a safe place.
Minglan lowered her head slightly to let them wash her face and hands. Only after they had changed to the third basin of water were all those powders on Minglan’s face washed away. After that, Danju opened her personal little box and took out a few delicate porcelain bottles. Then she dipped some of the flower cream and applied it onto Minglan’s face, neck, and hands while massaging those parts gently.
At last, Danju helped Minglan change into a brand new informal dress while Xiaotao tidied Minglan’s hair and clothes.
Danju and Xiaotao had done those things too skillfully, which meant that they had already been familiar to those works. Xiahe and Xiazhu opened their mouth slightly and the other two maids who had been assigned here by Madam Shao looked at each other with a bit surprised look in their eyes because it never occurred to them that an illegal daughter from a fourth grades official’s family could possess such an imposing manner. Then all the maids didn’t dare to look down upon Minglan anymore.
After Minglan washed herself with the help of Danju and Xiaotao, the door was opened again. A few maids and servants served a few dishes and desserts. Mama Cui followed them in and set the table. After that, she sent all the maids away besides Danju and Xiaotao.
Mama Fang had taken care of putting all the suitcases and packages of Minglan in order at the outside. Since she had finished her job, she then stepped into the room. As she saw Minglan’s face, she laughed immediately, “My lady, you always hates those makeup on your face. Look at you now, already washed all of those things away.”
Minglan had just picked up her chopsticks. Hearing Mama Cui’s words, she bulged her cheeks and said, “Mama, do you know that I have used three basins of water to wash those powders away!”
Cui Mama watched Minglan eating food with fond glance. Then she called Danju and Xiaotao over to have some desserts. Xiaotao whose mouth was filled with food asked, “Mama, has everything finished at the outside? Where do we sleep tonight?”
Mama Cui pinched Xiaotao’s nose while saying, “Have you seen any maid like you? So the first thing came to your mind was not our lady’s affair but your own residence?... Everything has been settled now. After all, you won’t live too long here. As long as the trousseau and the packages are well reserved, we don’t need to worry about anything. There were only a few suitcases being opened. We can wait until we arrived at General Gu’s mansion to open the rest.”
“You’ve had a long day, Mama.” Minglan said that while swallowing a piece of lotus flower cake, “You should have been relaxing yourself right now. But I still have to drag you into all of this.”
Cui Mama used her handkerchief to wipe out the food left on the corner of Minglan’s mouth like she had always done when Minglan had been a little girl. Then she said smilingly, “My lady, don’t talk nonsense. If my body is strong enough, I wouldn’t leave you even if you drive me away.”
Having smiled to Mama Cui, Minglan lowered her head and continued to goggle the food. Seeing that, Mama Cui couldn’t help saying, “I heard they were drinking lots of wines outside, tonight... my lady, you have to be... careful. No matter what... you can not let General Gu do whatever he wants.”
Mama Cui had already tried her best to organize her words. But Minglan still blushed at once.
After Minglan had been completely full, she turned calm and relaxed again. It was such a shame that she was in Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion so she had to behave herself well. Otherwise she would have played poker game with Xiaotao and Danju. That surely was a good way to kill time. While she was waiting there, she could only let her imagination run wild like that. As one third of the pair of huge red candles which were the same size of baby’s arms burned out and Minglan almost fell asleep while lying on the bed, she suddenly heard noisy sounds coming from the outside. Then someone shouted, “Second Master is back!”
Minglan regained her consciousness all of a sudden and jump out from the bed like a jumping shrimp. Having pondered for a while, she sat back in a hurry.
The smell of booze spread in this room the moment the door was pushed open heavily. Two strong old women servants tried very hard to carry Gu Tingye inside. Then they put him on the bed slightly. Minglan told herself not to look at the drunkard beside her while saying to the two servants calmly with a calm smile, “Mama, you two must be exhausted. Danju, present them two red packets.”
Danju was quite familiar with giving red packets right now. As the two servants wiped the sweats on their foreheads, they weighed the heavy red packets in their hands and realized that there must be at least five ounces of silvers inside, which excited them a lot. After that, they bid farewell to Minglan and left.
The moment the two servants stepped out of the room, Minglan got off the bed right away. However, the guy beside her suddenly woke up with a very sober look while murmuring, “Those guys are so mean!”
He stank of alcohol now, which made Minglan couldn’t help but frown to that. After he had shaken his head and tried to sober up, he leaned his huge figure on the bedrail and opened his long and narrow eyes slightly to look at Minglan with a meaningful smile on his face. Suddenly, he said with his eyebrows knitted, “I will go take a shower. Why don’t you take off those jewels too?”
Xiahe and Xiazhu who were standing beside them went to the next room instantly to prepare the bathtub and hot water. With his hand waving, Gu Tingye stood up and left. At first he was still staggering, but after that he walked quite steadily.
Minglan was standing behind him in a trance. Mama Cui who came back to her sense immediately directed Xiaotao and Danju to take off all the jewelries on Minglan while she hanged up Minglan’s wedding dress and helped Minglan put on a soft cotton sleeping dress. After that, Mama Cui dragged Danju and Xiaotao who were still hesitating out of the room.
Minglan started to bite her fingers now. She felt those brilliant red quilts on the bed quite an eyesore. After a while, Gu Tingye came back alone in a white satin sleeping clothes with his hair still a bit wet. After this tall and strong man had fallen right onto the bed, he leaned on the pillow while looking at Minglan with meaningful look in his eyes without saying anything.
Under that passionate gaze, Minglan only felt her body burning and her throat totally dry. Then she coughed and said, “I just ate some night snacks, I, I... I will gargle again.” As saying this, she rushed to the next room.
Next, Minglan gargled for five times and comforted herself over eighteen times behind the door. She even recited the regulations about the duty of the couples in the marriage law repeatedly. At last, she walked back in a brave and decisive way. When she returned to the room and tried to get in the bed, she saw Gu Tingye already fall asleep with his back on the head of the bed.
Minglan was totally relieved then and felt ease instantly. Having walked by the table with her bare feet, she poured a cup of tea for herself and drank that up quickly. Before she could let out a sign of relief, a voice came through from her behind, “You have finished washing yourself?l
Minglan almost chocked herself with that tea. Then she put down the cup hastily and turned around to have a look while coughing constantly. It turned out that Gu Tingye had already been awake somehow and was staring straightly at her with his black and deep eyes which were as sharp as the glass flakes. The light from the dragon and phoenix pattern red candles shined on his face, which made his eyes seemed dazzling.
Minglan was in a daze for a few seconds. Then she poured a cup of tea right away and served the tea to him, saying tamely, “Please, have a drink, have a drink!”
Seeing Minglan’s jade-like pretty wrist, Gu Tingye felt his throat getting dry. So he also drank up the tea after taking over the cup. Then he gave the cup back to Minglan. After putting the cup back on the table, Minglan just stopped right there. Gu Tingye chuckled and said with an affectionate look in his eyes, saying, “Still don’t want to go to bed?”
Minglan took a deep breath and aid loudly, “There is something I need to tell you!”
Gu Tingye waved his hands and ignored her words, “Lets wait until tomorrow. We should have a rest first.” On these words, he got off the bed. With his tall figure and long legs, it only took him two steps to reach to Minglan. Then he grabbed Minglan’s hand right away.
“Actually, I have something important to tell you!” Minglan was making her final struggle.
“It can wait.”
After he had raised his strong arms, Minglan only felt her feet being high up in the air. The next thing she knew was that she had been held up by Gu Tingye. To put it more precisely, she had been carried by him. With her face down, she got a bit scared when looking at the ground. So she could only grabbed him tightly. After that, she was thrown to the bed gently.
Gu Tingye dragged a quilt while tearing down the two-layer red brocade pomegranate seeds gauze and the thick brocade curtains. Then he turned around and only found Minglan shrank herself at the corner of the bed and kept trembling.
“I, I, I, I...” She went totally tongue-tied.
“You’ve had a long day. You must be so tired. Come rest yourself.” Gu Tingye held the girl’s hand while touching her fine skin carefully. Her hand felt very soft, as he kept touching her, he could feel clearly of her slender finger bones.
“I’m not tired!” With her face turned completely red, Minglan finally took a deep breath after she had been suffocated for a long while.
“Not tired?” There was almost green light flashing in Gu Tingye’s long and narrow eyes. Then he added, “That’s perfect!”
… (After one night, you know what have happened!)
“Didn’t you have something to tell me before?” Gu Tingye suddenly remembered that.
“I don’t have the strength to say it.” Minglan, who was nearly half-dead said that.
“But you said it was important.” The man said that with loving expression in his eyes.
“I don’t remember anything...”
