Chapter 45 Sister-In-Law

The next day at maoshi (5-7am), in Jingzhe Tower, a servant knelt by the bed and lightly called, “Eldest young master, it’s getting late, you still have to go to the main house to greet Madam. Wake up, eldest young master, eldest young master?”

“It’s so noisy! Get out of here!” Zhao Wangshu was in a daze and smashed over a pillow, scaring the boy back a few steps. After hesitating for a moment, he bravely called again, “Eldest young master, Madam is waiting for you right now. If you don’t get up again, we the servant will be accused of not doing our job.”

“Guan shi, Guan shi, everything is said by Guan shi, it’s really annoying!” Zhao Wangshu couldn’t sleep anymore, got up with messy hair, and said angrily, “She said it herself that she won’t care about me and my sister, so why should I go over there? Besides, my sister also said that we don’t need to pay attention to her, just get close to my grandfather and eldest aunt. No matter how strong her family is, can it be more powerful than Jieyu niangniang? Can she be better than imperial-in-law? My maternal grandparents’ family is the  serious emperor’s relatives!”

Zhao Wangshu snorted a few times with his nostrils facing up the sky, and then went down to the ground with his bare feet, gurgling a few sips of tea. He only knew how to eat, drink and play since he was a child, and his brain became more and more chaotic after not using it for a long time. Yesterday, such a big incident happened in the Ye family, but he didn’t think about it at all. He just thought that if the emperor knew about it, he would naturally send someone to investigate, and it would be over after the thief was caught, and it would have no effect on the Ye family. Therefore, when Zhao Luli and Zhao Chunxi were so worried they couldn’t sleep, he seemed to eat, sleep, and play as usual, and was secretly happy to get rid of Guan shi’s “torture” as if nothing had happened.

The little servant was also uninformed, and hesitantly said, “Then we won’t go to the main house in the future? We don’t need to pay respect to Madam? And we don’t need to go to her place to do the homework?”

“Go fart, let her play by herself!” Zhao Wangshu washed up and dressed neatly under the service of the maid, and laughed, “Go to the street and buy a few jars of spirits for the Master, tell him that I won’t go to the clan school today, and ask him to help with everything. Without Guan shi controlling and holding me all day, I finally alive again! Go, go, go, let’s go to West Street to watch people fight dogs!”

Although the little servant was a little uneasy, thinking about the Ye family’s glory and favor in recent days, he put his mind at ease and went to the market to buy the wine without mentioning it.

In Penglai Garden, Zhao Chunxi had already woken up and was sitting in front of the dressing table while getting dressed. She didn’t have to go to the main house and the main courtyard to pay respect, and she didn’t have to follow Guan shi left and right to study common affairs. She actually felt confused, staring at the blurred face in the bronze mirror, and slowly became a little crazy.

He Xiang and Xue Liu put on the pearl hairpins, earrings, bracelets and other items on her body one by one, and kept praising her, “Miss is getting more and more beautiful, with such talent and appearance, why worry about future marriage? As long as lord marquis send out the words, afraid even the Iceman would crash the gate of our Zhao’s mansion.”

Zhao Chunxi twitched the corners of her mouth and instructed, “You two assigned a few handymen to the street to see if there are any rumors about the Ye family spreading today. My heart is beating wildly, and it’s so uncomfortable. I always feel that something big is going to happen.”

Although she was the granddaughter of Ye’s family, she couldn’t find out much information yesterday, only that the red coral was broken, and her mom went to the emperor to complain, but she was not allowed to enter. When she left the palace, all the troops had been withdrawn. The yamen officials also scattered like birds and beasts. They originally thought it was a catastrophe that pierced the sky, but when they entered the palace, it turned into chicken featherstrivial matter, and they just had to pick up the broom and cleaned it up.

The more Zhao Chunxi thought about it, the more she felt that everyone’s reaction was very unusual, especially the emperor, who didn’t even care or comfort at all, which was completely inconsistent with the rumor that said he only favored her mom alone.

“How could this be? No, it shouldn’t be!” She leaned back on the chair and chewed on Guan Suyi’s assertions that the Ye family would be suppressed. She felt like she was walking on thin ice and felt cold all over her body.

At the same time, Guan Suyi was sitting by the window, flipping through a few books sent by Marquis Zhenxi in the morning light, the corners of her mouth curved slightly, very comfortable. Minglan stood outside the courtyard and looked around, seeing that the time had passed, she said angrily, “With the Ye family gaining power, those two really didn’t come!”

The rough maid in charge of the sweeping heard this and rolled her eyes secretly, slandering: the people of Ye Mansion is the serious emperor’s relative, and Jieyu niangniang may be pregnant with a little prince in her belly, who want to get close to your Guan family? Emperor Teacher, Chief of Ceremonies, this name is really nice, but have the emperor reward you with a national treasure to play with? People in Yanjing, who is powerful and who has a false reputation, cannot be seen on ordinary days, but when there’s actual confrontation, it will be clear as bell. You lift up a maid to suppress other people’s pampered daughter, and the people directly dropped down a Buddha, then one finger can crush you!

The rest of the maids and grannies also winked and made trouble in private. When Minglan looked back, they pretended to be busy, but their heart still grumbled: The Ye family is so powerful that even a national treasure can be used as a dowry, with the support of Jieyu niangniang and the emperor, won’t Concubine Ye still fly to heaven? In the end, she is a relative of the emperor’s relative, even if she is a concubine, she has more face than the mistress, and the main house is neither favored nor powerful, not a place to stay for a long time, let’s find another way out!

They didn’t know that these kinds of ugly attitudes and dark thoughts have long been seen by Guan Suyi by the window, but she was just too lazy to take care of it.

“Minglan, don’t look anymore, pack up and go to the main courtyard to greet the old madam.” She put the book back on the bookshelf, and inserted the hairpin while holding the side of her temple in front of the bronze mirror, and then walked out slowly.

In her previous life, while she was teaching Zhao Wangshu, when did she ever moved the ruler? When she saw that he was stubborn, she compiled her knowledge into short stories, guided him systematically and patiently, balancing study and rest, made the learning fun, and finally made him a talent. And with Zhao Chunxi she did not neglect for a moment, thoroughly analyzed the common affairs, human relationships, sophistication, and even political opinions one by one. Her title of Huaguang XianzhuPrincess of fourth rank, and her half-powerful husband, which one was not come from her painstaking efforts? At the end of the day, she ended up with a disastrous end.

In her previous life, she could create them, and in this life, she could naturally ignore them, and see how much splash the two of them could make. After thinking about it, she arrived at the main courtyard. Guan Suyi saluted the old madam, served tea, and sat down to talk to her.

“Wang Shu didn’t come?” The old madam looked behind her.

“I just sent someone to ask, they said he had already gone to the clan school.” However, no one knew the truth better than Guan Suyi. Zhao Luli was blind, and the woman he loved was a red apricot that leaning out of the wall, and the master he invited was just a trash with false reputation, and in the previous live almost taught Wangshu into a waste. She made a lot of effort to replace the man, but in the end, she fell into infamy.

She would never do such thankless job again.  Zhao Wangshu became a dragon or a worm, what it have to do with her?

The old madam shook her head, her tone a little disappointed, “Maybe he was bewitched by some people, intending to alienate you and get closer to his maternal family. He has no one to teach him since he was a child, so it is inevitable to be a little ignorant. Let’s correct it slowly and one day it will be fine .”

Guan Suyi chuckled and said, “After all, he and the Ye family is connected by blood, it is understandable for him to be closer to them. Don’t worry, old madam, I will not shirk my duty.”

“You’re a good one, I know.” The old madam patted the back of her daughter-in-law’s hand and changed the subject, “Today, your sister-in-law is coming back. She’s also a good one, just has some physical inconvenience, you should take more care.”

Ruan shi is coming back? Guan Suyi was in a trance for a while. She didn’t know much about this younger sister-in-law. Although she lived under the same roof, they hadn’t even seen each more than a few times. Suddenly one day, Ruan shi had a premature birth, and she died of blood loss shortly after. She was buried in a hurry, like a wisp of green smoke, disappeared without a trace.

Ruan shi met Zhao Luli’s younger brother Zhao Jinyu when he was poor. One was the daughter of a small official at the border and the other was a son of convicted official. Because the old marquis got into some trouble, he needed Ruan’s father to intervene from the inside, so the two of them made a marriage contract. A few days ago, she went up the mountain to redeem a vow for her pregnancy, and also meant to prevent the new madam from contracting her bad luck.

During the conversation, someone came to report that the second madam had returned, and after a while, a woman with a slightly bulging belly led a five-or six-year-old boy in. The old madam waved to greet her, while looking at the expression of her eldest daughter-in-law, for fear that she would be frightened.

Ruan shi didn’t dare to look up, she just pushed the boy beside her, and said softly, “Hurry up and pay respect to grandmother and adoptive mother.”

The child’s name was Mu Mu, and it could be seen from the surname that he had no blood relationship with the Zhao family, rather a child leave behind by Zhao Luli’s comrade, due to the death of his parents and separated from his whole relatives, he was fostered in Marquis Mansion. Zhao Luli already recognized him as adopted son, but he had no intention of taking care of him, so he asked Ruan shi to take him with her.

The boy didn’t like to talk, so he knelt down and kowtowed three times, making the old madam overjoyed. Accustomed to seeing the bear-like appearance of her own grandson, she naturally cherished a well-behaved and obedient child like Mu Mu, then pulled Guan Suyi to introduce, “This is your younger sister-in-law Ruan Lin, a native of western Yunnan, who is three or four years older than you this year. She has a gentle and soft temperament, the two of you will definitely get along well. This is Mu Mu, the adopted son recognized by lord marquis. He didn’t like to talk since he was a child, and he is also afraid of meeting strangers, so don’t blame him.”

Guan Suyi naturally understood that children who have been devastated by war would always become extraordinarily silent. She waved at Mu Mu and called, “Little Mu Mu, come over quickly, let mother take a look.”

Mother? Mu Mu tilted his head to look at her, his eyes were round and big, with clear black and white, which made people feel soft inside. Guan Suyi’s eyes were wet, inevitably thinking of Mu Mu’s fate in her previous life. If the memory was not wrong, the child suddenly developed a high fever after half a month later, and died suddenly before the doctor could give him medicine, so he had to be buried in a thin coffin.

Since she could start all over again in this life, she would let Mu Mu grow up safely; as for Ruan shi, she should do her best to keep the mother and child safe.

Ruan shi, who was standing on the side, saw that her sister-in-law only paid attention to Mu Mu and ignored her. She had no dissatisfaction on her face, only felt at ease. She was accustomed to the fearful and contemptuous eyes of everyone, but she preferred the normal treatment of her sister-in-law. The women who came from a scholarly family were indeed more open-minded and more sympathetic. Thinking like this, she couldn’t help touching the blue-black birthmark occupying most of her face, and a wry smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.

TN: there are two new characters, to be honest how they were introduced seems a little abrupt, like here is your brother-in-law’s wife and your adopted son that actually lives here but just happened to be away until now. But nevertheless they are very important to the plot development later on, so stay tune!

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