Chapter 345: Beat the Battle Drum (III)

Translator: Ning LL

A gust of happy laughter came through from the next room. The little girl and the big boy laughed without a care. The girl’s clear and childish voice and the boy’s raucous voice sounded strangely melodious together. Momo Chang couldn’t help smiling, but still coughed heavily on purpose. The children stopped laughing abruptly like the goose which got its neck stuck in something. For the moment, there was a total silence.

Minglan could nearly picture the two children shrinking their necks and covering their mouths, which made her want to chuckle. Then she took out her handkerchief and covered her mouth to titter.

When Momo Chang took her grandson back home, Minglan moved slowly to the door to send them off while saying, “A few days ago, Steward Hao reported that he has already asked someone to inspect the construction work. The footings of the walls are firm, the tops of the walls are delicate. The construction work could finish now. I prepare to hold a feast on the day after tomorrow, Momo, you have to come.” Groundbreaking was a huge thing. The start date and the end date should all be decided according to the almanac. Therefore, Minglan couldn’t cancel the feast like this.

“Attending a banquet is a good thing, I won’t miss it.” Momo Chang turned around with a smile.

The next day, Minglan got up with a rosy face. Then she started to listen to Danju reading the name list of the guests. Since the master of this family was not at home, the feast wasn’t in a large scale and only the relatives of the family were invited. After that, Liao Yong’s wife read the list of the dishes and fruits. It depended on the number of the guests how much food and drinks they would purchase and how many seats they would reserve. Because of the hot weather, the ice cubes in the cellar needed to be taken out. Certain servants had been assigned to put the drinks and fruits in the well next day in the morning. Another thing that needed to be decided was the number of the masons and how to arrange the tables of them. Anyway, the construction work this time only included the reparation of the edge of the wall and part of the yard and was not considered as a large-scale project like building a house, then the sacrificial offerings as well as the candies and wheaten food to throw in the air could stay simple… There had already been a few banquet being held in Cheng Manor, so the stewards and the servants were all experienced in this. This time, they had the former rules to follow, so none of them were flustered.

While Minglan was dealing with those affairs, someone came in to report that someone of the Sheng family came. Minglan told Lvzhi to greet the guest at once.

“Mama Fang, you are here. Come have a sit!” Minglan, surprised and happy, tried to stand up with the support of the arm of the chair. Mama Wang stepped forward to support Minglan and kept saying, “My darling, you sit tight!”

“Mama, how are you doing lately? How’s my grandma doing? And Quan, how many words can he read now? Is Hui able to speak?” Hardly had Minglan sat down, she already held Mama Fang’s hands and asked all those questions.

Mama Fang took over the teacup that Danju handed to her and stroked Minglan, saying with a smile, “They are fine. Everything’s fine. Hui is a smart girl who could already call people’s name. Quan started to get naughty. He always runs about in the room like a calf and none of us could catch him. Old Madam doesn’t use her ebony walking stick very often now and had to roar several times a day, but she actually got stronger. A while back, the imperial doctor did a regular check on her and said that she would live long enough to see Quan getting married!”

Hearing her grandmother staying healthy, Minglan was overly joyful. After all, Minglan had only pretended to be a little girl at that time and been a bit too sensible. A real kid should be like Quan who would act wildly, get naughty, cause disturbance and made a whole room of people stamp on their feet in anger.

“Sixth Lady, Old Madam went to Guangji Temple yesterday to get an amulet for you. She said that you should always take it with you to keep you and the baby safe and fortunate!” Mama Fang took out a purse and handed it to Minglan respectfully…

Minglan took over the purse, feeling quite touched. As she held it in her arms, she felt both sweet and sour. After she turned away to hold back the tears in her eyes, she then turned to Mama Fang with a smile and asked, “How’s father and Madam Wang?”

Before the New Year’s Eve, Sheng Hong had been transferred to the Ministry of War from Court of Censors and started to assist handling the affair of the army provisions in the northwestern area. Mama Fang said smilingly, “Madam is good. Lately Master has been in a good mood and also has time to monitor Third Young Master’s study and even chats with Old Madam sometime.” As speaking of that, she sighed and chuckled, “Our master is the kindest person. For all these years he was in his former positions, he has never made any enemies. Everyone praises him to be a gentle and kind person. Being a censor who needs to indict others all the time truly is difficult to him. Now it’s so great that he changed a post! Amen!”

Minglan held her belly and bit her lips to restrain her laughter. One should never laugh at his or her parents. Anyhow, the job as a censor truly didn’t suit him well. He was born to be a peacemaker. It would be fine for him if he only needed to find faults with others and play some tricks behind others’ backs. Indicting and offending others openly did have given him a lot of pressure. “Then… what about my Third Brother and Third Sister-in-law?” Minglan blinked her eyes, looking forward to the answer.

“They are a sweet and affectionate couple right now.” Mama Fang said seriously.

“Really?!” Minglan was taken by surprise.

Ever since this couple had got married, they had found each other unpleasant to the eyes. Changfeng didn’t like his rigid and serious wife and Liu shi also didn’t hide her detest toward her husband’s frivolity. Five days after their wedding, Changfeng started to sleep in his Tongfang’s room and Liu shi didn’t care about it at all.

Wang shi was glad that the couple had turned on each other. However, no matter how stupid Changfeng was, he still wouldn’t treat Wang shi whom his blood mother had fought for over twenty years as a family. The only supports he had in the family, Sheng Hong and Old Madam Sheng, both took part with Liu shi— They said that everything that Liu shi had proposed was right and everything she had done must have a meaning. As a result, Liu shi also got hold of Changfeng’s money.

No woman, no money, that is the real tragedy.

Sheng Hong was strict on Changfeng’s study and lectured the latter three times a day. Old Madam Sheng blamed Changfeng for all the conflicts between he and his wife. She repeated the words that Sheng Hong had said, “The eldest son of the Sheng family must be a legal son.”, and then sent four of Changfeng’s Tongfang to the estate. Those days, Changfeng truly lived in misery. He had been a weak and tender boy since his childhood. Under circumstances like this, he couldn’t help shedding tears sorrowfully. He felt that there was no one caring about his feelings in this world and couldn’t live a life like this for another day.

Right at this moment, Liu shi offered a warm hand to Sheng Changfeng who was pressed hard from every side.

“On that day, Third Young Master was scolded fiercely by Master and got so sad that he couldn’t even eat dinner. Third Young Madam brought food to the study to find Third Young Master.” Mama Fang kept her voice low, “I don’t know what Third Young Madam has said, but heard from the maids that Third Young Mater threw himself into Third Young Madam’s arms and cried bitterly. The next day, Third Young Madam stopped putting on a long face and uttered harsh words and turned soft. The couple suddenly becomes very affectionate to each other. After that, Third Young Master brought those Tongfang back. Third Young Master was grateful for Third Young Madam’s generosity and treated her even better. He also sent two Tongfang away on his own and kept two honest ones in the mansion. Now, Third Young Madam is encouraging Third Young Master to study hard.”

Their relationship really was full of twists and turns.

Minglan couldn’t help complimenting her Third Sister-in-law. Sheng Hong and Old Madam Sheng were both so wise to find such a good woman for Changfeng!

“Did Third Sister-in-law plan this with father and grandmother?” Minglan approached to Mama Fang and whispered.

With a meaningful look on Mama Fang’s face, she said, “Clever people don’t need to collude.”

Minglan applauded and laughed. Then she peeled an orange for Mama Fang in order to hear more stories from the latter—Rising after restraining truly is a great idea. Wisdom is always needed in daily lives!

Liu shi played the bad guy and the good guy in turns and tried every mean to win her husband’s favor. At last, she finally turned her bad situation around. Comparing to her, Seventh Lady Gu was like an innocent child who didn’t know about the difficulties of life and squandered every chance she had.

Mama Fang told a few other interesting things which had happened in the Sheng family. Mama Cui also listened there with a smile and Danju and the other maids joined the conversation from time to time. When the room was full of joy, Xiazhu suddenly came into the room with a panicky face, “Madam, something bad happened. Nian ran into an accident.”

Minglan was astonished and nearly lost her voice, “What happened?”

“This morning when Nian was halfway to the school, there were two wild horses rushing out and knocking his coach over. Nian was injured and hasn’t woken up yet. Then Momo Chang sent someone to report you in a hurry.”

Minglan put on a stern look and stood up, saying with a deep voice, “Go take my name card and visit imperial doctor Lin.”

Minglan’s nerves were suddenly stretched to the breaking point. If anything bad happened to Chang Nian, Minglan didn’t know what Momo Chang would do.