CH 26

Chapter 26: Cloudy Night

The moon on the seventh day of the first month, is shaped like the upper string. It was clear and bright, accompanied by several stars hanging in the middle of the sky. After the rain, the night is deep and quiet, and many families fall asleep early.

“Ah such bad luck.” In the darkness of the night, a dark figure, bent over his arms. He was leaning close to the wall and went back to his room.

He relaxed a little in the darkness, gritted his teeth and cursed. He was just about to go to bed, when the room suddenly lit up.

The woman who was holding up the candle, who was smiling casually, put away the torch, and slowly asked the man in front of her, “You haven’t returned for an entire day and a night where have you been fooling around?”

As it turns out, the one who just returned to his room was Gu Ningran. This place is the old Gu Mansion’s Main household, and the room of the most favored eldest grandson.

Gu Ningran wiped off his cold sweat and approached his tigress wife with a smiling face and said with a smile, “I was confused last night and did something wrong, so I spent the day outside today to reflect. I’m sorry, Madam.”

“What the hell did you do again?” Madam Ran was so angry that she couldn’t help but use the candlestick to wake up her indisputable husband.

A smug look appeared on Gu Ningran’s face. He raised one hand to pinch the lady’s chin to look around, and the other hand held her wrist and pressed it on the table.

Just as he was about to speak, he “hissed” again because of the other party’s struggle, and withdrew his hand on his wife’s wrist. He screamed “Aww” in pain, and then said slowly, “Lady, be gentle, there is a wound on my arm, it hurts. It’s a long story.”

He pulled up his sleeve with a tight look, and showed Madam Ran the elbow that was wrapped with three layers of white gauze.

“Who did this? You are an official of the Hanlin Academy, who dares to pull the hair from the tiger’s head?”

Madam Ran suddenly felt distressed, She grabbed Gu Ningran’s arm, checked his wound, and gently rubbed them.

“Hey, my wife still looks good. Gu Ningxi was not only face blind but also blind when it comes to people. He can’t be content with sister-in-law alone. He even managed to get an outside room. I thought he was enlightened, but when I saw her, she was just an ordinary girl. I wouldn’t even notice her if I were on the road, nor would I dare spare her a second glance. That is, he’s been taking care of her like a child, for two or three months now. He hasn’t even touched her yet. Ah It’s taking advantage of me.” Gu Ningran tried hard to downplay it, but his boasting was beyond words.

However, his wife threw away the arms of the man in her arms, and confirmed with a cold face, “Did you hang out with someone outside last night? Having six concubines in your household is not enough for you? Besides, is Gu Ningxi like you?”

Since the ancestral worship hall happened, Gu Ning Ran held a belly of fire for Gu Ningxi. He even sent his subordinates around to inquire about him. He wanted to find out about Gu Ningxi’s shortcomings so that he could vent his anger.

He soon found out that Gu Ningxi kept an outer room, and placed both brother and sister in a secluded alley. He told his subordinates to inquire about their specific location.

It just so happens that on the sixth day of the lunar new year, someone went to the front of the new Gu Mansion and heard the housekeeper say that the main family was not in, so they left embarrassingly.

Gu Ningran’s servants hovered there, and after seeing this, they chased up and asked around, and found out that it was a neighbor of the Mo family who was entrusted by Mo Qiqi who couldn’t get out, and came to Gu Ningxi for help.

Returning in vain this time, the neighbor was quite unhappy. Facing the servant who gave him several strings of copper coins to ask for information, he complained a lot about the brothers and sisters of the Mo family. It’s too unlucky, and it’s disgusting to say that the sister was indiscreet, begging him to find his lover with a sad face.

So, last night, Gu Ningran searched for the small courtyard of Mo’s house, and found that it was exactly the same as what the servants inquired about. There was only the older brother who was sick, comatose, and unconscious, and the flimsy little girl who cried “Brother Xi” when she opened the door.

The beauty illuminated by the moonlight was quite alluring.

Seeing Mo Qiqi so pitiful, she realized that she got the wrong person and quickly lowered her head and closed the door. When he thought that this was Gu Ningxi’s hidden woman, Gu Ningran’s original thought of going to the door to scold, smash, and vent his anger suddenly disappeared.

He brought two servants along with him, one as a look out, and to consciously guard the courtyard door, and the other went to guard Mo Qi’s room, Gu Ningran swaggered and dragged Mo Qiqi back to her courtyard.

“It’s interesting to hear you call Brother Xi with that coquettish voice, little girl. I will let you see if Gu Ningxi is better or me.”

Gu Ningran lowered his voice, firmly pressed Mo Qiqi’s shoulder, kicked open the door and led her straight to the hard plank bed.

Across the wall, the neighbor’s wife pushed her husband awake, “Listen, is there any movement next door? Is Qiniang crying for help again?”

The neighbor turned over, put his arms around his wife and muttered,

“Don’t mind her. Ever since the new year, her brother had been vomiting blood and fainting for three or four times now, and she always cried out as if he were dead. We helped her find a doctor twice, and today I also went to the Gu Mansion. It’s enough for the pair of shoes she gave us. It’s really troublesome in the first month of the year, don’t pay attention to her, it’s not too late to go see her again tomorrow morning.”

The neighbor’s wife picked out her ears and said, “Why do I hear Qiniang cursing at people, what a good death, what’s hard rules? She just gave us a pair of shoes each, and every time she entrusted you to run errands, she also gave coins, so she’s a good girl. We should help. You really don’t want to go tonight?”

The neighbor went back to sleep, while his wife listened to the happenings outside. Mo Qiqi seemed to have no movement anymore, so she gave up.

❖

The candles that Mo Qiqi had originally lit in the room had already been burned out. The coldness of the sixth day was overwhelming. She could not see the face of the thief who broke into the door clearly, since the moon was hidden by the clouds. It even hid away her own miserable situation.

She simply does not understand how everything happened. Her brother’s illness suddenly aggravated, the doctor just shook his head, bluntly saying that it was time to prepare for the funeral. She didn’t dare to leave for a moment. She was cooking porridge and boiling medicine for her brother, watching over him, and she could only entrust everything to her neighbors, such as delivering a message to brother Xi today.

The neighbor said he hadn’t seen the master of the Gu family, so he left a message to the housekeeper. Mo Qiqi was helpless, thinking that her brother had been in a coma until now, and the siblings would not be able to come to the appointment on the next day, maybe Brother Xi would come. So she decided to endure it for a day.

After dinner tonight, she had just washed the pots and bowls when she heard someone knocking on the door. She instinctively thought it was Brother Xi who heard the news. After opening the door and making a call, she took a closer look, only to find that the person who came was somewhat similar to Brother Xi, but he was fierce, with a very different temperament.

Then this unknown villain turned to her… on their own… Mo Qiqi kicked and bit, screamed and hit, and when she was cursing him as “lecherous”. He got impatient and covered her mouth, the words were then distorted, It sounded like “hard rules”. Then he did not let go of his hand, almost smothering Mo Qiqi to death, let alone making a sound.

In the middle of the night, it was a foregone conclusion, Mo Qiqi’s eyes were glazed over, and she was paralyzed on the bed, with a glaring bloodstain around her waist, as if her whole figure had been split in to two.

She turned her head in a daze, looked at the man standing in front of the bed, complacently getting dressed, and heard him muttering to himself, “Gu Ningxi is such an idiot”.

In her sight, she suddenly saw the needles, scissors, and pins that she used to do needlework. It was Dark, like silent eyes, not far away. As long as she can pass him, she can get it in two steps.

❖

Gu Ningran was in his room and told his wife, “I didn’t expect that she was still a virgin, so I thought about it afterwards. If Gu Ningxi knew about it, wouldn’t he blame me for getting ahead of him, and wouldn’t he make trouble for me again? So I was kind and told that girl that I am willing to take her as a concubine, isn’t it a hundred times better than being a concubine for others?”

However, his wife held his ear, “You still want to take a concubine? The courtyard is already full of them! If someone enters again, I have no place to stand. The old lady will say that I don’t know how to advise men to move up and that I’m not virtuous enough! I don’t know what kind of granddaughter-in-law your grandmother likes, saying that I’m not virtuous. That wife of Brother Xi was dominating men and not abiding by women’s morals, huh?”

Gu Ningran pulled the wound on his arm while trying to save his ears. The image of Mo Qiqi holding a sharp pair of scissors wanting to die with him, with that ruthless look, seemed to appear in front of his eyes again, and he shuddered.

The girl first stood up and asked, “Who the hell are you? What kind of grievances do you have with Brother Xi?”

Listening to him slander Gu Ningxi happily made her even more furious. She stood limply while supporting her waist down on the ground. While he was talking, and distracted with thoughts of Gu Ningxi’s wife. She immediately grabbed those scissors and slashed at him horizontally from his back.

Men are much stronger, so when Gu Ningran’s hair stood on end. He turned around and raised an arm to block her attack. The crook of his arm was stabbed hard, and blood gushed out. He immediately threw Mo Qiqi away with a slap, the weak woman who was slapped to the ground, can no longer get up.

When he crossed over her body to go out, Gu Ningran kicked her vigorously. He watched the woman roll several times and did not move, only then did he coldly grunted and led his people away.

Looking at the white cloth on his elbows, thinking of him “Fighting wild geese all day long but being pecked in the eye instead”, Gu Ningran’s heart softened a little when he told his wife the eclectic story, and he simply explained, “Hey, she doesn’t like it, and neither do I? I left behind two silver bills, it is already considered as my utmost kindness. I left before dawn and spent a whole day recuperating in the hospital, and then I felt better, so I hurried back to my house to see my wife.”

❖

In the Tao Manor, Qingfang reported to Tao Xinhe about what happened, “Our girl went to Jichangbo’s mansion, and the master waited for the guests in the mansion for a long time, so he sent Shishu to check the situation and he reported back, saying that something happened to the Mo’s house. I don’t know how miserable it was, but I knew that I followed my master closely and chased him to the Mo’s house with Zhu Yue. As a result, the door of Mo’s house was thrown into chaos. The brother was vomiting blood and wanted to get out of bed, while his sister was lying unconscious on the ground. The servants and maidservants all listened to the master’s orders, asking for a doctor, and the neighbors. We even went to look for medicine, and inquired about the news. We were busy for a long time.”

Tao Xinhe originally thought that she would hear a story about a man’s love for a concubine, but she didn’t expect it to start like this. She panicked, and hurriedly closed her eyes and thought to herself, “Being miserable is not a reason to take them as a concubine.” After a while, she asked, “And then?”

Qingfang wiped Mo Qiqi’s body, applied medicine, and changed her clothes. She’s a woman, so naturally she felt sorry for her. Then she experienced the crying, shouting and even searching of the woman after waking up. Seeing the brilliance on her face when the master promised to take her as a concubine, she already had a prediction.

When Liu Guang came over from the Gu’s residence and took over the care of Mo Qiqi, she told the news about my lady leaving behind a separation letter, just as Qingfang guessed.

So she went back to the mansion, met the master, and asked for his mercy to let her follow the lady back to the Tao Manor, but got Gu Ningxi’s instructions instead.

Qingfang thought about this, and said, “Later, the master should have gone back to the mansion to talk to you. He asked this maidservant first to convey what he wanted to say to you. He said that husbands and wives live in the same house and die in the same coffin, and his wife will only be you in this life.”

Tao Xinhe didn’t take it seriously, and according to her understanding, “It seems that Qingfang, you know that he is going to take a concubine, right? Gu Ningxi was in the Mo’s house, saying that he wanted to take a concubine in front of you? What an embarrassment! Where is his sense of shame? Since you know the reason for him taking in a concubine, do you also feel disgusted and hypocritical when you relay these words of his?”

After she finished speaking, she gathered the silver silk charcoal stove with Ruyi pattern on her lap. She was feeling really cold.

The people of the Tao Manor also felt cold, but the coldness was fueled by the rain. Seeing the servants adding jackets and underpants, and looking larger than before, Tao Xinhe was still a little bit envious. To them, Adding more clothes was enough to combat the cold. Unlike her, it was a cold feeling from the bottom of her heart, and she couldn’t cover it with anything.

The author has something to say:

Once again, something to chat with my Baby Angel readers.

When this little author wrote that Mo Qiqi cursed the word “lecher” and because her mouth and nose were covered, I really tried it on my own in a secluded place. Covering my mouth, and realized that it does sound like it was pronounced “hard”, so I used it in the text.

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TL NOTE:

I don’t know what to say about this chapter. There’s just so many things going on, especially with the whole drama from the previous ones. It was quite overwhelming…

Anyways, See you next chapter!