CH 42

Chapter 42: Zhu Ruomei

The maid’s face reddened at her words and she stood frozen on the spot.

Ren Yaoqi smiled and said to Ren Yaohua: “She’s not from our Baihe Town, so I’m afraid she doesn’t know the rules of Bingxi competition. Third sister, can you lend me a dime[1]? Just take it as a favor.”

Ren Yaohua stared coldly at the maid for a while, and finally ordered Xiang Qin to give the maid a dime of silver. The servant girl bowed as if she had been pardoned and withdrew.

“Xiang Qin stays, you all go over there and play.” After Ren Yaohua sent all the people behind her away, she looked at Ren Yaoqi a few times and said with a frown, “Do you recognize that Young Master Yun?”

Ren Yaoqi shook her head: “I met him and his cousin once in the corridor when they entered the house, and said hello to them and went to my grandmother’s place to ask for peace. After that, I seldom went out of the courtyard, and did not speak again when I saw them from afar.”

Ren Yaohua looked at Ren Yaoqi, as if she was judging the truthfulness of her words: “I saw him looking towards you several times before, originally I didn’t know he was watching the game”

Ren Yaoqi was slightly surprised, she did not expect Ren Yaohua to be so attentive.

She felt Yun Wenfang’s sight before, her heart was secretly strange. Not quite sure who Yun Wenfang was looking at, she obviously did not provoke him in this life. Usually she was not even deliberately avoid the occasion with him, and thought she was acting very natural. What has caught his attention?

“Stay away from that person in the future!” Ren Yaohua said with a stern face.

Ren Yaoqi could not help but smile bitterly, she also wanted to stay away from him as far as possible.

However, Ren Yaohua thought that Ren Yaoqi’s expression was disapproving, and said with a sneer, “He’s not some kind of Young Master Yun, he’s the second young master of the Yun family. I only asked people to inquire about it after hearing a few words from the Eighth Sister. This mansion knows there are many people with his identity. Have you not seen the attitude of the Fifth Aunt towards him? Everyone knows what she is up to. Apart from the Fifth Aunt, there are also many people staring at this Young Master Yun. The Fifth Aunt’s natal Lin family, The Second Aunt’s natal Su family and the Yun family are both in Yunyang City. The Su family and the Yun family are even more related by marriage.”

Ren Yaoqi nodded: “Mm, I know.”

Ren Yaohua was not used to Ren Yaoqi’s obedience and continued to lecture, “You know what kind of family the Yun family is, and there is a county princess in the Yanbei royal family who is still in her boudoir. This Young Master Yun may not be able to make his own decisions.”

Ren Yaoqi smiled sincerely towards Ren Yaohua and said, “I understand, Third Sister, thank you.”

Ren Yaohua was taken aback for a moment, then turned away her face uncomfortably and snorted coldly: “I don’t want mother to be sad and worry about your ignorance in the future.”

At this time outside the sound of loud gongs and drums again, Xue Li and Wu Jing ran over with a somewhat dejected face and said, “That Young Master Yun won, Fifth Young Master won the fifth place.”

Ren Yaoqi was a bit surprised: “How is the fifth? Isn’t it the fourth?”

How could the followers of the Ren family dare to compete with their masters for the ranking? The top four should be the young masters.

Wu Jing seems to have thought of something funny: “A big guy ran very fast, and he was ahead of everyone with Young Master Yun before, but when he got to the other side, he was tripped by someone for some reason, fell and slipped out. It’s far away. I don’t want him to catch up after getting up, and finally ran second.”

Ren Yaoqi smiled faintly and did not care.

Next is the hockey competition, Third Miss, Fifth Miss, which team do we choose this time?” Wu Jing asked with great interest.

Ice hockey is when several teams compete for a colored ball. The team that gets the ball last wins. There will be several rounds, which can be regarded as the climax of the game. The previous scramble is a warm-up.

Ren Yaoqi thought for a while, and discussed with Ren Yaohua: “Third Sister, shall we still choose Fifth Brother’s team?”

The maids were a little disappointed when they heard the words, obviously they felt that Ren Yijian had little chance of winning.

Qing Mei, who came back with the others, hurriedly said to Ren Yaoqi: “Miss, Eighth Miss gave a gold ingot to Young Master Yun’s team. This servant looked at it at least three or two times. Ninth Miss also gave Young Master Yun and Young Master Qiu five taels of silver each for the two teams.

Obviously, she is not satisfied with her master giving only 10 cents of silver for the lottery, and betting on the Fifth Young Master’s team that is unlikely to win at first glance.

After thinking about it, Ren Yaoqi asked Xue Li, “How much did everyone else give?”

“Except for the Third Young Lady and you, the Eldest Young Madam gave five taels of silver to each team, the Fourth Young Lady gave one tael of silver to each team, the Seventh Young Lady gave two taels of silver to Young Master Han’s team, and Miss Han gave one tael of silver to each team. Several young masters side of the Eldest Young Master in the name of the Fifth Master gave twenty taels to the Fifth Young Master’s team, he himself gave fifteen taels to the Young Master Qiu’s team. The Third Young Master…only the Third Young Master did not give silver, the other few young masters all gave less than the eldest.”

Ren Yaoqi nodded, and asked Ren Yaohua, “So, the dime we give is indeed a little less. Third Sister, how much do we think is appropriate for this one?”

Ren Yaohua thought about it and instructed Wu Jing, “Then we should give the same as Fourth Sister and the girls, one tael for each team.”

Ren Yaoqi nodded to Xue Li and told her to follow suit.

Ren Yaohua glanced at Ren Yaoqi and got up, “I’ll go over and take a look.”

In the past, when the elders were around, the amount of silver was given according to their seniority. The elders gave big money, and they gave a small amount of money occassionally. Generally speaking the amount was not too much different, so Ren Yaohua and Ren Yaoqi did not care much. Therefore, Ren Yaohua and Ren Yaoqi didn’t care much about it before, but today the elders are not here, so some people have messed up the rules.

Ren Yaoqi knew that although Ren Yaohua did not want to be in such a shape today, but she also does not want to lose face. Thinking about what she said before, Ren Yaoqi knew that she was a person who knew what was in her heart and wouldn’t be disorderly, so she nodded and said, “Third Sister go first, I’ll go change.”

The temporary dressing place of the Ren family was a thatched-roof house not far from the river bank, which was tidied up very neatly, with incense and floor coverings.

When Ren Yaoqi finished dressing and came out, she saw dozens of people fighting on the ice. The onlookers outside the colorful flags were cheering vociferously, the atmosphere was very enthusiastic.

Ren Yaoqi stood high up on the river bank and watched for a while. She saw clearly a few people who grabbed the ball in the center of the field, and also saw Ren Yijian fall on all fours because he couldn’t squeeze into the center.

After walked on the river bank for a while with a few strong and powerful women arranged by Nanny Zhou and Xue Li, she was about to go around inside the warm shed. But suddenly there is a faint rustling sound coming from nowhere. Then someone shouted in a low voice, “Fuck! Zhu Ruomei! If you don’t let go, my arm will be broken!”

Several women behind Ren Yaoqi were alarmed, but Ren Yaoqi immediately waved her hand to stop their shouting.

“Yuan Dayong, you stupid grandson! If you hadn’t tripped me, I would have won when I was waiting. Do you know how much money those lottery prizes have?” A man gasped and said angrily.

Yuan Dayong grinned his teeth in pain: “If I hadn’t tripped you, you would be kicked out of the coal mine by the manager as soon as you go back today! Do you think that money can still be in your hands?”

“Why can’t I get my hands on the silver I won? Who dares to rob it?”

“Yes, you are amazing! But what about your mother and your sister? Follow you and run away? Your mother is too sick to come to bed!”

“You also know my mother, she is very sick…what do you think I am trying so hard for?” Zhu Ruomei raspy voice with some choking.

Yuan Dayong sighed, and softly comforted him: “I just asked my father to let you come instead of someone else. You know that many people can’t ask for it because of the rich rewards for winning the game. You people in the coal mine can only guarding the perimeter, most of the servants who can come in are the servants of the Ren family. So everyone understands the rules and knows that as long as the master is present, you can’t win when you are waiting. The housekeeper is familiar with it, so it’s not just that you and I were kicked out.”

The two over there said that they had already climbed up from the bushes under the river bank, and before they got up, they saw Ren Yaoqi and his party standing not far away.

Ren Yaoqi also saw them. They were two men wearing Ren family uniforms, with a red belt and a yellow belt tied around their waists.

The man wearing the red belt looks fair and looks very refined. The one wearing the yellow belt was very tall and strong, with a dark face, but with an extremely decent look.

The white looking man was obviously startled. His face a little pale, busy pulling the person next to him kneeling on the ground, burying his head down, not daring to look this way.

The tall and strong man also obediently knelt beside the white man.

“Fifth Miss, look.” The woman who was in front of Ren Yaoqi turned her head and asked in a soft voice if she wanted to call someone to come and punish the two people who did not follow the rules and came to the place that was classified as “no entry for idlers[2]“.

Ren Yaoqi shook her head: “Tell them to leave quickly, don’t be seen.” With that, she walked over.

The servants[3] ran to the two men and sent them away.

At this time, Ren Yaoqi had already remembered why the name “Zhu Ruomei” sounded familiar when she heard it.

Three years ago she had heard of this person, because the name “Zhu Ruomei” is somewhat special so she remembered it.

These are words that can’t translated well by machine translation so I just shoot in the dark and hope for the best:

[1] 一角银子

[2] 闲人免入

[3] 婆子