CH 5

Chapter 5: Resolution 

Tao Xinhe didn’t seem to hear what he, she didn’t approach or respond.

Gu Ningxi didn’t know if the lady was angry, he tried focusing on Tao Xinhe’s side face, but his eyes were still blurry. So he moved closer towards her cheeks, and continued to express his feelings:

“After entering the house, I wasn’t able to recognize you. I couldn’t recognize you by your clothes. I alarmed the servants on duty at night because I panicked and it embarrassed the lady. This is the third mistake. My lady, this husband would like to apologize to you. Please forgive me.”

He made an exaggerated salute like a scholar on the stage bowing his hands and bending his feet a little, matching the protracted tone of “forgive me, please forgive me”, hoping to make his lady laugh while explaining the matter.

But it was just a one-man show.

Gu Ningxi was a little dizzy, Reluctantly got up, and finally stood still. He must’ve been still hangover.

He tried blinking his eyes a couple times. Trying to figure out the appearance of the lady in front of them. However, all he see was blurred.

Enduring a headache with his eyes swollen, Gu Ningxi walked over, grabbed Tao Xinhe’s body and looked at the strange maid’s clothes she’s wearing, and didn’t let go.

Sighing softly, Tao Xinhe patted her husband’s upper arm, pulled back the corner of his clothes, and responded lightly: “So it’s Zhang Shangshu’s banquet. It’s natural that you should go. Since my husband fell asleep in the wine shop, why didn’t you come back at dawn tomorrow instead, it’s so cold to ride the carriage at night. ”

Her voice didn’t have any trace of warmth. It didn’t show whether she was concerned, or indifferent.

Gu Ningxi felt relieved since he believed that the lady was as considerate as ever based on her words.

As he walked towards the bathroom, he untied the tie of his robe and said,

“It’s not cold when you enter the room, it’s quite warm and fragrant. I miss my wife, and I think you miss me too. When I went back to the house, the lady was waiting for me. If I didn’t come back overnight, won’t it make the lady stay up all night?”

Tao Xinhe was a bit dumbfounded, and thought to herself, she would have to catch up with Qingfang in ginger yellow clothes and wait with her all night if that happened.

Gu Ningxi asked casually, “Who is the woman sitting in the room just now? Why is she wearing my lady’s dress, and why is she also wearing a bun with her tail up? It’s quite like Dongshi’s imitation1.”

He was wiping his face with a cleansing towel, so his tone came out vaguely.

“It’s Qingfang. The dowry maid I brought from the Tao family.”

“I didn’t smell the fragrance of aloe water when I got close to her just now, but I told her to stand up and felt that she was out of shape. She should be two inches shorter than you, and there are differences in her shoulders, waist, etc. Are you master and servant working together to play a prank on me? However, I remember you said that this maid is loyal and capable, I’m afraid I scared her. Tomorrow try to comfort her for this husband.” Gu Ningxi explained in detail.

“Mmm,” she responded vaguely. She then heared the rustling of clothes nearby.

Tao Xinhe couldn’t help thinking, that it was her own negligence, She didn’t know whether Qingfang forgot or didn’t remind her on purpose. She forgot to use Agar wood2.

What if? According to the action of her Husband just now, if he smelled the familiar fragrance, would he really hug Qingfang?

With their master-servant relationship, Qingfang knew that she could not share her husband with others, and she knew that Qingfang wanted to marry a small family and become a regular wife. If she was really hugged by her husband, how will Qingfang marry someone else in the future?

I was so angry that I didn’t think about it carefully. She almost harmed her, so I have to accompany Qingfang tomorrow.

Gu Ningxi suddenly walked out of the bathroom, he looked around and saw a figure on the canopy bed. It should be the lady.

Tao Xinhe had already changed into her night pajamas. Lying on a side of the canopy bed and then she tightly covered herself with a quilt. She closed her eyes as if falling asleep.

Through the raised bed curtain, Gu Ningxi could only see a blurred silhouette. He was still holding the cloth towel that was dripping with water which was stained red. He then asked bitterly, “My lady, there are rouge marks on my face! Have you seen it?”

Naturally, I saw it. I saw it as soon as you entered the door. Bright red, it was not my usual color. Now that you have ‘Qiniang‘, maybe you have provoked some eight or nine niangs from other places, and act pretentiously on your face. What’s so strange?

Tao Xinhe really wanted to confide these feelings, but what she said instead was

“The lights are dim, I didn’t pay attention.”

After speaking, she turned around, leaving a view of her back to Gu Ningxi.

“I’m tired, take a rest.”

Like a discouraged Cuju ball3, Gu Ningxi was left speechless by the lady’s understatement. He was stunned for a moment, and hummed lightly.

After drying his hands and face and putting down the cloth towel, he laid back on the bed, staring at Tao Xinhe’s motionless and exquisite silhouette. He was unable to sleep for a long time.

In fact, he didn’t know where he got the rouge on his, let alone explain it.

But the lady who was always caring and concerned for him said that she didn’t see it, and she didn’t bother to ask more about it, so Gu Ningxi knew something was wrong.

Another thing is that master and servant exchange of clothes tonight. Gu Ningxi recalled that three years ago, four days after the wedding was his mother’s funeral, and in the twelfth lunar month, when the hundred days of mourning was over, the whole house removed the heavy filial piety and plain clothes. The color of the lady’s clothes was light and gloomy for a while, such as indigo, ink purple, deep blue, etc. .

Later, she happened to be wearing a ginger yellow dress, and I praised it a few times. Ever since then, the lady has always been wearing ginger yellow. The servants and maids in the house gradually avoided this color.

In this way, On the main courtyard, Ginger yellow became the lady’s exclusive color. It has firmly rooted in Gu Ningxi’s memory. If he were to ran into a female family member dressed in ginger yellow outside, he would pay special attention to distinguish her appearance and figure.

Later, even the lady’s hair style and incense were fixed. Even rough men like Gu Ningxi, who didn’t care about the details of women’s clothing, knew about the it.

So tonight, in the couple’s room, he was hangover and didn’t make any further distinctions. He directly assumed the ginger yellow figure was the lady, which seems to be excusable right?

Gu Ningxi shook his head, laughing at himself for making excuses involuntarily in his heart. He was not being honest at all.

However, why does the lady dress up the maid like that? This is more suspicious than the lady not pursuing the rouge marks on my face. Is it a temptation? Or a silent inquiry?

Gu Ningxi was apprehensive, he turned over, staring at the ceiling with his hands on the pillow. Listening to Tao Xinhe’s steady breathing, relieving his ridiculous actions over the past two months. He sorted things out on his mind.

Ever since he saw a woman’s clear appearance at the gate of the Gongyuan4 Last September, Gu Ningxi had planted it on his mind, thinking about it for a whole month.

After the Jinshi examination5. On the day he returned to the mansion, he had made up his mind to tell his wife about this adventure. But he couldn’t explain that the face imprinted on his mind was not the person next to his pillow, but a strange woman whom he had only met once. Gu Ningxi himself felt ironic, and he couldn’t say anything about what the lady’s reaction would be.

Two days after that incident, he couldn’t resist the impulse, and with the twin boys shishu and shihua, he found Mo Qi according to the address of the Mo’s house that he had written down long ago, and he also met the young girl named Mo Qiqi again.

He tried to visit for three days in a row, and he also tried to go again on the ninth, eleventh, or twelfth day of the month. He could see Mo Qiqi’s appearance clearly on different times, whether it was in the morning, noon, and dusk. At the same time, he paid more attention to the faces of the people around her, wanting to seek a second miracle.

Until he was completely sure that there were many wonders in this vast world, and that he and Mo Qiqi were neither close nor related, but he could only clearly see the girl’s appearance. Other than that, everyone else, including He Niang, whom I keep in my heart, has a blurred face like tiles.

This fact made Gu Ningxi at a loss as to what to do.

He was naturally surprised, it turns out that this is the feeling of seeing a human face clearly. He was inexplicably relaxed in front of Mo Qiqi, this girl doesn’t need to tell him her family name every time, he recognizes it.

However, he was more at a loss. He was guilty of this relax attitude, and felt that he was sorry for the gentle and virtuous lady, so he didn’t want to go back to the house early, lost his mind in front of the lady, dodged and even lied about his whereabouts.

He counted on his fingers, in the past two months, he has seen Mo Qiqi eight times in total, except for today when Qiniang sent her off to the alley for an unprecedented time, the two of them were never alone, this is still a gentleman.

Even though he went to the Mo’s house a couple of times, there was still a clear distinction between men and women, so he didn’t talk to her much. They mostly nodded and exchanged greetings.

In the past two months, he had talked with Mo Qi the most, and he became more and more appreciative of this Juren’s knowledge and character.

Most of the time when he was not in the mansion, Gu Ningxi sat in the teahouse not far from the cramped small courtyard rented by the Mo’s family. He would sit for half an hour or two, lost in thought on the teacup, until he was carefully urged by the servant.

No matter what, it’s wrong to go see both Mo Qi’s brothers and sisters by making up a reason like a madman and hiding about it from his wife.

Gu Ningxi knew that he had made a mistake first, and was full of melancholy that he had nowhere to vent. He finally broke out on a snowy night at the beginning of the month. He got up in the middle of the night and poured snow on his head, hoping for a cold sobriety.

Who knew he even fell ill? Which also caused the lady to take care of him for more than ten days. Even though she never complained, Gu Ningxi knew that He Niang had worked hard, so he felt more guilty.

What haunted him during his illness was still the Mo’s family affairs until he made a rough decision.

When he recovered today, with great ease, the moment he held He Niang’s hand, Gu Ningxi made up his mind to discuss the arrangements with Mo Qi first, and then he would come back at night and tell his wife everything.

As if the mist was cleared away, Gu Ningxi was so excited that he forgot to bring his servant and didn’t even use the carriage in the mansion. So he left the mansion and went straight to the Mo’s small courtyard.

This afternoon, He and Mo Qi talked for a long time. Mo Qi is willing to recognize Gu Ningxi as a righteous brother with his younger sister 6, and accept Gu’s support and help. In the future, they will help each other in the officialdom after he becomes a Jinshi. The younger sister’s marriage is also entrusted to Gu Ningxi. Since most people get married before the age of twenty, he was supposed to help find a suitable household.

Gu Ningxi solemnly agreed, relieved of the heavy burden in his heart, the relationship has passed, he doesn’t have to worry about it anymore, and he just regards Mo Qiqi as a somewhat special younger sister, what’s wrong with that?

At that time, Gu Ningxi naturally didn’t know that the young servant Shishu was detained, and he didn’t know that Tao Xinhe was watching him and Mo Qiqi’s farewell at the entrance of the alley.

Now that it’s past half of the night and everything is quiet, I have to wait until dawn to talk to the person next to me.

Gu Ningxi sighed softly, turned to the lady, wanted to hold her on his arms, but he saw that she wrapped herself tightly with the quilt, so he decided to just brush some strands of her hair, which was scattered on a blue silk.

Taking advantage of the cold moonlight, looking at the dark silky hair of his wife, he felt that even the strands of her hair were beautiful, and if he paid attention closely, no one else could compare.

He secretly reminded himself that the mistake made tonight must not be repeated, otherwise he would be too stupid.

The drowsiness after drinking finally struck. Gu Ningxi imagined that when the lady heard the ins and outs of the situation and found out that she had recognized some new relatives, and the husband happened to be able to see the face of the female family member clearly, would she make fun of him or be flirtatious and coquettish?

No matter what, I’ll just take care of it myself. There is also the matter of the rouge marks, which cannot be separated from the laughter and teasing of my colleagues in the wine shop. I have to figure it out before I could explain about it to my wife. Gu Ningxi meditated and gradually fell asleep.

After letting go of his worries, Gu Ningxi fell into a deep sleep very quickly, but he didn’t notice that Tao Xinhe gently reached out from under the quilt, flicked her black hair from the side of her husband’s face and hands, and tied it back to her chest.