CH 6

There were people currently gathered at Feng Yang Main Street, on which the Imperial College was situated, and it was incomparably lively with noise and activity. There were young students who were mutually grabbing and pulling at each other while brandishing their fists, and a spectating crowd of people at one side who were clapping their hands and calling out, “Good!” There were also busybodies who were helping both sides scold the other. Of course, the masters had already started fighting, so the young boy servants who accompanied and served the master at school and the family’s servants could not stand by idly. Consequently, the battle of the little masters became more intense, and the servants were beaten up in their masters’ steads.

“Move aside. Hurry up and move aside!” Venerable Su He, a senior staff member who was in charge of the Imperial College and already 70 years old this year, rushed over with the support of his servants. Upon his arrival to the fight, he almost fainted from seeing the scene before him. The old Lord kept shouting, and his voice was even trembling. He hated that he wasn’t 40 or 50 years younger. Otherwise, he would personally teach a lesson to this wretched group of disciples who brought dishonor to the educated.

It wasn’t that no one went forth to break up the fight. It was just that the two parties involved in the quarrel had already beaten each other until their eyes became red, and their servants had grabbed hold of an assortment of weapons. What was this called? It was called an armed crowd! Having an armed fight in the Imperial City with ten or more people could be a cause for alarm and attract a criminal charge. Was this a matter that could be resolved just with a few people stepping forward to break up the fight? This was a matter for the manor(Fu) of commander of the capital’s Nine Gates1Nine Gates: the inner part of the capital city has nine gates. North: Deshengmen, Andingmen. Dast: Dongzhimen, Chaoyangmen. South: Chongwenmen, Zhengyangmen, Xuanwumen (also known as the front three gates). West: Xizhimen, Fuchengmen. ‘men’ being gate; he had to dispatch soldiers from the capital’s battalion to come and “break up” this fight!

“Stop, stop! All stop for this old man!” Old Lord Su yelled.

The members of the spectating crowd at the side were very sympathetic toward Old Lord Su and commented softly to the people beside them: “The old lord’s throat is already about to burst, yet I haven’t seen anyone pay him any attention.”

Hearing the comments, Old Venerable Su suddenly felt that it was difficult to breathe.

“Oh no, Master’s having an asthma attack.” Old Venerable Su’s servants realized that their master’s breathing did not sound right. When they raised their heads to look, they found their master was suffocating so much that his face had turned a faint purple. The servants panicked and yelled out, “Quickly, go and invite a physician over, a physician!”

As a result, there was yet another wave of chaos at the Imperial College’s faculty.

Old Madam Xu, accompanied by her two granddaughters, arrived at this very moment. “Little calves2Little calves: calf as in young cow. it’s just like calling them “little kids” . slightly derogatory/crass way of calling kids.,” Old Madam Xu scolded and then jumped off the carriage.

Jiang Yue’e was about to follow Old Madam Xu and get down from the carriage, but Jiang Mingyue held her back.

“What’s the matter?” Jiang Yue’e was so anxious that her native accent had leaked out.

“Sister, don’t get off, lest Ningguo Gongfu find trouble for you.” Jiang Mingyue left her sister in the carriage while she herself pushed open the carriage door and jumped off the carriage.

These words, ‘Ningguo Gongfu’, were like a controlling spell3controlling spell: Specifically, it says ‘Band-tightening Spell’. It’s referring to the incantation used with golden bands to control/restrain Sun Wukong in the Journey to the West (a famous Chinese legend). The moment Jiang Mingyue mentioned them, they overwhelmed Jiang Yue’e’s mind. She could hear a racket coming from outside the carriage, so there was likely to be many people present. If those at Ningguo Gongfu found out that she came here and even followed her grandmother into a fight… Doing all this in public… Ningguo Gongfu’s Old Matriarch (lao taijun) and Jiang Yue’e’s mother-in-law would certainly not let her off.

“You—” Inside the carriage, Jiang Yue’e reached out her hand like a claw, wanting to give a couple of warnings to Jiang Mingyue. However, in just the blink of an eye, this younger sister of hers had already disappeared.

After getting off the carriage, Jiang Mingyue was unable to catch sight of the old madam of her family. Nevertheless, the Jiangs’ second miss did not bother searching for her grandmother and went straight toward the part of the crowd where the yells for hits and kills were the loudest.

Standing beside the carriage were two old servants. Upon seeing their family’s second miss go toward the crowd, the two people exchanged a glance. Then, one of them grabbed the coachman and said urgently, “You stay here and protect the Eldest Married Miss4Eldest Married Miss (Da Gunainai) is what it says, but this title might be confused with Nainai (grandmother), so we decided to use an English title..”

After hurriedly throwing down those words, the two old servants ran after Jiang Mingyue. The coachman who was left behind just…… Twenty-odd people had come along with them. Yet in the blink of an eye, he was the only one remaining to protect the Eldest Married Miss and the carriage…?

Inside the carriage, Jiang Yue’e felt worried. So she rushed toward the outside of the carriage and asked, “How’s the situation?”

The coachman stood outside the carriage door. This docile person did his best to put on a fierce appearance while he stammered to his family’s Eldest Gunainai, “S-Second Miss… I haven’t seen Second Miss, b-but Old Madam is s-scolding people.”

“Wei’s third son!” Old Madam Xu had, at this moment, already grabbed the sleeve of Wei’s third young master, Wei Ziting. She scolded him loudly, “It was only today that I found out that the Wei family could raise such a brazen little calf like you! Come, come. Hit this old grandmother. Hit me!”

Before Wei Ziting had even gotten a look at the person, they had already grabbed hold of his left sleeve. Wei’s third young master instinctively turned and raised his right hand to hit the person. However, the moment he saw who it was, his expression immediately changed, and he did not dare to bring down the hand he’d raised up high.

How could he beat an old lady in the streets? Furthermore, the current emperor’s adoptive mother?

“You dare touch my grandmother?” Jiang Yu, who had already been beaten until his head was like a big steamed bun, dashed out at this moment from who knows where. He cried out loudly and jumped, throwing a fist straight toward Wei Ziting’s face.

Wei’s Third Young Master merely felt pain at his nose, and a dyehouse5dyehouse: a place where they would bleach and dye cloth. presumably, this is meant to be imagery of his face getting “dyed” red, due to blood was opened on his face.

When the people from Weixiang Fu saw their third young master’s face covered in blood, they rushed up to him hurriedly. Simultaneously, they all inwardly had expressions as if they were drinking water mixed with the bitter Chinese goldthread root. Today’s matter had gotten so big. A senior staff member fainted from anger, the whole street of people had come over to see the commotion, and Third Young Master had been beaten till his face was covered in blood. Regardless of how the master in the manor was going to punish Third Young Master, there definitely wouldn’t be anything good waiting for them when they returned!

Old Madam Xu was full of anger and shouted loudly, “The people of Weixiang Fu are hitting people!”

“You are not allowed to hit my grandmother!” Jiang Yu also yelled.

Everyone from Weixiang Fu: “……”

Did this grandparent-grandson pair have no sense of shame? Did they have no sense of shame at all?! The ones who did the hitting yelled that they got hit. Even something like this worked?

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