Chapter 55 (1/2)
Glossary
儿 | er | (lit. child) diminutive marker used as a form of endearment
[1] word | text | description
[2] word | text | description
石 | dan | dry measure for grain around one hundred liters
Yun Shi Yi saw that his wife had fallen asleep and carefully tucked her quilt around her before turning around and taking the child from Madam Ruan.
Madam Ruan was worried he didn’t know how to hold his child and hurriedly said: “Put the child’s head in the crook of your arm so that your arm supports his upper body. Yes, just like that, use your right hand to support his waist and butt. Newborns are frail, all right? When you are holding him, you must remember to be careful. If you pull his lower back, there will be trouble.”
Yun Shi Yi very carefully held his child and lowered his head to scrutinize the rosy little face that was currently sleeping. This was his son; his own offspring; someone that was connected to him by blood.
A sort of pride at becoming a father flashed in his brilliantly handsome face.
Ruan Yu walked in from the outer room. Seeing her sister’s son in Yun Shi Yi’s arms, her eyes brightened, and she happily stroked the small face with her hand. Madam Ruan lifted her hand and knocked her daughter’s away, berating: “Look at you, filthy all over yet you dare to touch the child. You have immunity so you are fine, but the child is so small. If it gets sick, what will we do then?”
Ruan Yu pouted and very unhappily stood by the side.
Lu Piao Xiang looked on with fervent eyes: “Can I hold him?”
Yun Shi Yi knew he had invited the imperial physician and wet nurse from the capital and was the reason why Ruan Zhu’s life had returned. Although he was unwilling, it was not good to refuse him, and he handed the child over to him.
Lu Piao Xiang carefully took the child and held the small and frail body. His heart immediately softened. Someday, when Zhu’er gave birth to his child, it would be like this scene, right? But thinking of how she had hovered between life and death while giving birth, his heart again pounded with pain.
“Eldest Brother, I also want to hold him.” Yun Shi Wei crowded over: “I am the child’s concubine-Father and also the child’s paternal uncle; I have the right to hold him.”
“You ah, you can touch.” Yun Shi Yi did not trust him.
Madam Ruan took the child out of Lu Piao Xiang’s arms and carried him to the outer room for her own family’s Lord Husband to see.
Ruan Zi Xu held him until his mouth that was smiling with happiness could not be closed. Taking it easy, he roared with laughter, and for a very long while, was not willing to let go.
Being busy for such a long time, everyone was tired and hungry, and the servants received an order to arrange a banquet in the main hall.
The child was handed over to Madam Ruan and Ruan Yu to look after, while Ruan Zi Xu led a group of people to eat.
During the banquet, he urged the imperial physician and midwife that Lu Piao Xiang had invited (brought/S) into the seat of honor and took out large amounts of money to thank them. The two of them only dared to accept after receiving Lu Piao Xiang’s acquiescence.
Everyone urged each other to drink and not long after, they were all intoxicated to some degree.
When the feast was dismissed, living arrangements for both the imperial physician and midwife were arranged and a male servant was instructed to lead them to their respective rooms.
The two Yun brothers and Lu Piao Xiang were currently just about to bow and ask to be excused when the residence’s Steward Yang came to report that the concubine Wei Rong was causing an outrageous racket and wanted to see Madam Ruan no matter what. Wei Rong had attempted to hang himself and also knocked his head against the wall. The servant keeping watch was afraid that if something happened, he wouldn’t be able to explain himself cleanly, thus he came to report this to the Master to ask how this should be handled.
Ruan Zi Xu had not slept for an entire night and his eyes were so tired, he could barely keep them open. Irritated, he said: “He wants to hang himself, you can just hand over rope. He wants to bang his head against the wall; if the force is not enough, you can just push him. How big of an issue is this, yet you still come find me? Aiya, shoot!……” He recalled Xuanyuan Min Zhi and slapped his forehead. How could he have forgotten such an important matter? He hastily asked Steward Yang: “That servant that had been abused by Ruan Ju, where is he currently?”
“If Master is referring to Third Miss’s newly received bedwarmer, that person’s injuries are not light and was carried by servants into the servants’ quarters. Because Eldest Miss had been in labor, this small one did not dare to ask Master for instructions and delayed the matter. In any case, that one is just a servant so this small one will later go find a doctor to take a look or so. If the medical skill is good, then that is him being lucky in this life; if the treatment is not good, then we’ll drag him outside the city and bury him in a hole somewhere.”
What Steward Yang said was not wrong. During this famine, hordes of people had died and there were numerous cases of the refugees from the south being so ill they could no longer eat. Every day in Yu Zhou, one could see poverty-stricken civilians carrying shriveled corpses outside the city walls.
Ruan Zi Xu was gloomy to death. If the situation was as uncomplicated as Steward Yang had said, then it would be easy to handle and he would also not have to be so alarmed. His wife and children, his precious grandson that had just been born–if he didn’t handle this matter well, then the lives of his entire clan would be over.
Yun Shi Yi understood his worries: “Uncle does not need to be anxious. As long as we arrange for Xuanyuan Min Zhi well, then the outcome will at least not be that terrible. What’s more, with the current chaotic situation, how many large matters does the imperial court have to manage? It is true that Xuanyuan Min Zhi is a prince, but he had been given up for adoption to the country of Nan Ling when he was young. How could the Emperor remember his appearance? Their relationship should long have become one of strangers.”
Furthermore, Xuanyuan Min Zhi was not the Emperor’s biological son as the current Emperor could not have children. It was a long public secret that the children at the Emperor’s knee were all the flesh and blood of his brothers.
What Yun Shi Yi said had some basis, but Ruan Zi Xu’s mood did not improve by much.
Lu Piao Xiang’s clear and bright eyes that were like stars slightly blinked and exposed a happy and content glow. A smile spilled forth and he suggested: “Hand over this situation with Xuanyuan Min Zhi to me. There is no need to worry. How big of a matter could a small prince that had fallen to this level cause? I will take responsibility in settling this matter.”
“You?” Ruan Zi Xu thought about how even the imperial physician of the imperial family could bow his head and obey the orders of the one in front of him. Though he was not fully convinced, he couldn’t help but to be persuaded.
Lu Piao Xiang discreetly yawned and said: “Let us return and sleep first and then discuss Xuanyuan Min Zhi tomorrow. It serves that guy right to be this out of luck; to be bought as a slave and even become a bedwarmer. When I heard all this, how much did I laugh? Just let him obediently stay in the servants’ quarters for two days, okay?”
After he finished speaking, Lu Piao Xiang bowed in greeting towards Ruan Zi Xu and turned to return to his own Zhen Xia Pavilion. He had not slept since before last night when he mounted a fast horse and traveled through the night to make a round-trip to the capital and had long felt an exhaustion that was hard to bear.
Ruan Zi Xu blankly stared at Lu Piao Xiang’s retreating figure: “How much power and influence does he actually have for even a prince to not be placed in his eyes and to be able to invite an imperial physician?”
Yun Shi Yi also thought it was strange: “I heard he is a courtesan from Lan Zhou and is the number one of the Four Great Masters in Lan Zhou. But the impression he gives people is simply unlike one.”
“A courtesan?” Ruan Zi Xu shook his head: “That is impossible. He was born in a prosperous and great family and his parents are influential people in the capital. How could he possibly be a courtesan? There must a secret here.”
“What do we do about Xuanyuan Min Zhi?” Yun Shi Yi asked. Could it be that they were really going to do what Lu Piao Xiang suggested–first throw him into the servants’ quarters and let him accumulate mold?
Ruan Zi Xu thought for a moment and then instructed Steward Yang: “Isn’t the small courtyard called Wo Xue Pavilion, next to the Zhen Xia Pavilion Mister Lu is staying in, still empty? Have some people tidy it up. After it has become warm and hospitable, invite him to stay there before going to the best medicine hall in the city and invite a physician to diagnose and treat him.”
It was true that there was an imperial physician in the residence, but he did not dare to trouble them. If by chance the imperial family knew about one being here, then there would be trouble. It was best to send out the imperial physician at the first opportunity.
………………
Yun Shi Yi returned to Furong Garden and wearily laid down next to his wife after seeing she was still asleep. He had not rested for the whole night and was also tired.
Madam Ruan was sometimes unbelievably biased, but was still considered a qualified mother and very quickly had found a wet nurse for the child.
The women in Tian Chu were respected but there were also many impoverished households that could not afford to continue living. Nowadays, there were also many refugees from the south and finding a wet nurse was very easy. In not even the span of one day, the steward had brought seven women into the residence. Madam Ruan looked for a young woman with a dignified appearance and amiable temperament and had her remain. The rest were given one tael of silver each and sent back.
Ruan Zhu really wanted to personally breastfeed her child because doing so would create more intimate feelings between them. Unfortunately, she had lost too much blood during labor and had very little milk, so she was afraid that if she personally fed him, he would starve.
Yun Shi Yi had comforted her: At worst, when the child has been weaned, we can drive out the wet nurse. The child is small so how could he remember who had fed him?
Thus, for two days in a row, Madam Ruan was busy with the matters of her eldest daughter’s delivery and finding a wet nurse for her grandson. She was so unbearably weary that she ducked inside Jin Se Hall and blackout out in the bedroom, having long pushed Wei Rong into the back of her mind and forgotten about him. Added with Ruan Zi Xu having prematurely commanded the servants to deliberately conceal the matter, she naturally did not know that her most doted on concubine was currently in deep water and scorching fire.[a]
Wei Rong, this man, had soft skin and tender flesh. His skin was even whiter than that of a woman’s and could be classified as sparkling and erotic. A pair of watery and large eyes always looked at others with tender feelings, so delicate and touching. When he interacted with Madam Ruan, there was no need for him to talk as merely using his eyes was enough to hook onto her mortal and immortal souls.[b]
There were two kinds of terms the future generation would give these sort of men, both of which were derogatory. One was ‘false woman,’ the other one was ‘a bottom.’
Only Madam Ruan would like this sort of man. If it was Ruan Zhu, she would have long strategically withdrawn and felt disgusted.
Ruan Zi Xu was the same as all of the men in his generation in believing the ‘one woman, many husbands’ system was heaven’s law and earth’s principle. If he could endure his wife’s secondary husbands, then he would do so, but if he couldn’t, then he would separate. In the past he had always looked at his wife’s side and given them a way out, but this time he thought it was time to dispose of them.
He decided to conduct a public trial and the place where he wanted to do that was strange as it was precisely in the Ruan residence’s flower garden. He sat on top of the stone bench in the pavilion, where a soft cushion had been placed underneath his buttocks. There was a brazier on the ground on either side of him as well as a small stove on top of the stone table where tea was boiling. Tea cups and everything else that could be needed was already provided and available.
He sipped the scalding aromatic tea while chatting with his daughter Ruan Yu.
On the stone platform behind Ruan Zi Xu sat his wife’s other secondary husbands, all of them looking at the person kneeling outside the pavilion and rejoicing in his misfortune.
All of the people in the pavilion were dressed very warmly in thick clothes; there was hot tea to drink; and there was a stove to warm themselves with, so even if it was cold outside, they were not.
But kneeling outside the pavilion on the snow-covered ground, there was a man. If one said he was not cold, even an immortal would not believe him.
Wei Rong had been thrown onto the snowy ground by the servants. These past few days, he had not eaten nor slept well. His facial hair was unkempt, his eyes were soulless, and his gorgeous fox fur cloak had been exchanged by who knows which servant that lacked morals for a filthy and tattered sheepskin-lined robe.
Although he was wearing cotton-padded clothing, anyone who had to kneel on the snow-covered ground for such a long period of time would also be unable to bear it. When he began to stand up, he knelt back down again after hearing the conversation between the father-daughter pair in the pavilion.
“Yu’er, you just came from the woodshed. That one called Ruan Ju is still alive, right?” Ruan Zi Xu felt that Wei Rong’s daughter taking the surname ‘Ruan’ truly insulted his noble family name.
“Of course she’s living well. Apart from her eyes being greenish black; her nose being crooked; the skin on her arms peeling; her leg a bit crippled; everything else is very good, with no broken arms or legs but that will be hard to say in these next few days. I heard there was a group of beggars that had fled from the south to the street behind our back gate and Xiao San Zi said they had worked together and demanded the blind daughter of the wonton seller to become their wife. Pa, don’t you think those beggars are truly foolish? Don’t tell me a blind wife could compare to our family’s Third Miss?”
“Have you brought up our family’s Third Miss to the beggars before?”
“Not yet, but I just let Xiao San Zi go act as the matchmaker.”
“Tell Xiao San Zi, if the beggars agree to our residence’s Third Miss, I will give them five dan of husked rice as a dowry.”
“Pa, you’re really stingy. Only five dan of husked rice; even when our servants are married their dowry isn’t this little.”