Who Cares

Who Cares – Chapter 72

Chapter 72 Concubine

 

The carriage drove into the inner lane and gradually approached the mansion. Zhao Luli had only been away from home for dozens of days, but it seemed that half his life had passed, he couldn’t help but lift the curtain and stared in trance.

Sensing that the coachman wanted to stop at the west gate, Guan Suyi instructed, “The master of the east mansion is back, what are you doing taking him to the west gate? Go to the east gate.”

Now that the wall of the two mansion have been built, because Zhao Luli was stripped off his title, many things above the regulation in the East mansion could no longer be used, the redundant pavilions and halls were banned, some noble utensils were put on the high cabinet, and the plaque of “Masquis Zhenbei Mansion” hanging on the door beams had been replaced with ordinary word “Zhao Mansion”. On the contrary, the West Mansion was still magnificent and majestic, and even the plaque of “General Zhengbei Mansion” was extraordinary.

The carriage stopped at the west gate for a while, and then slowly circled around to the east gate. Zhao Luli stared at the five powerful characters on the plaque and asked, “Whose handwriting is this? It actually have a lustrous sound with killing spirit. With this sign, the momentum of the West Palace has risen a lot.”

“This is written by mom.” Zhao Wangshu glanced at his stepmother with a blushing face, and said obediently, “Dad, I will never be naughty again, I will practice calligraphy, study hard, and earn back the title of our family.”

“Good, Wang Shu has grown up.” Zhao Luli was very happy, he couldn’t help but grasped his wife’s white fingertips and sighed, “Suyi, thanks to you, our family didn’t break up. I will not say any words of apology and vows,  you just see how I will perform in the future.”

Guan Suyi smiled lightly, but she was very alert in her heart. When the carriage stopped, she immediately jumped out of the carriage, slapped Zhao Luli’s outstretched hand, and hugged Mu Mu instead. Zhao Luli was not annoyed at all, but smiled softly and stepped forward to help his elderly mother. There were many misunderstandings and estrangements between their husband and wife, which could not be solved overnight. As the saying goes, gold and stone yield to the power of sincerity*, as long as he treated the other with sincerity, as long as Madam was not hard-hearted, sooner or later, she would forgive him.

While thinking like this, the east gate squeaked open, and Minglan greeted her with a smile, followed by a servant with a brazier in her hand.

“Miss is back? Quickly cross the brazier to get rid of the bad luck.” She only greeted her master, without even looking at Zhao Luli.

“Master, you cross first.” Guan Suyi turned to the side, let everyone cross the brazier one by one, and only went in by herself at the end, then ordered the servants to prepare water and pick grapefruit leaves, let everyone who went to Heavenly Prison to soak for one or two quarter of an hour and ask for peace of mind.

Everyone went back to the room to take a bath without saying a word. After a while, they all came out with water vapor and went to the main hall to eat the reunion dinner. Before the dishes were ready, they heard the sound of gongs and drums from outside, interspersed with women’s cry.

“Is this a wedding or a mourning?” The old madam was displeased. “Housekeeper, go out and see who is this demon, and let them go away!”

The housekeeper took the order and left, only to came back with a bitter face after a short while, followed by the smiling Zhou Tian and the pitiful Ye Fan. Ye Fan seems to have been groomed, wearing a brand new pink dress with a set of emerald pearl hairpins on her head, her dark yellow cheeks were slightly flushed, and before she could stand still, she bowed down and choked out, “This lowly concubine Ye Fan has seen husband, has seen Madam, has seen old madam.”

“Why are you back?” The old madam jumped up in shock and glared at Zhou Tian viciously.

“Why can’t she come back? Didn’t the Ye and Zhao families already agree that they would accept her after the first month? When the Ye family has bad luck you don’t recognize her, very beautiful of you! If you don’t accept her, this official will let people from all over Yanjing come to judge and see what a treacherous thing you, Zhao Luli, are!” Zhou Tian sneered.

Zhao Luli had just returned home, he didn’t want to cause more trouble, and the excitement just now must have attracted many spectators. If Ye Fan was kicked out on the spot, his reputation would be bad, so he couldn’t help but look at Madam. Ye Fan knew that the current Zhao family was relying on Guan Suyi as the master, and even Zhao Luli couldn’t speak up, so she walked over on her knees, hugged the other person’s legs and cried, and when she saw her indifferent, she kowtowed vigorously until there was a line of blood on her forehead, looking like a sorry figure.

Guan Suyi stared at her for a while, then said coldly, “Don’t kowtow, get up. Jinzi, Yinzi take her down to wash up and put her in Nanyuan. General Zhou, your goal has been achieved, please go back.” Once the words fell, she slightly tossed her wide sleeves, ordering someone to see guests off.

Zhou Tian didn’t expect her to give in so easily, so he couldn’t help sneering, “Madam has agree? This general thought you were too difficult to deal with, but I can’t see it today.”

Before Zhao Luli could speak, Zhao Chunxi cried out, “Mom, you must not be soft-hearted on this kind of thing. My third aunt is not a fuel-efficient lamp, and she will disturb the whole family, it’s like luring the wolf into the house. It’s better to spend some silver to send her away.”

The old madam glanced at her admiringly, and agreed, “Yeah, she’s just a cheap concubine, just order someone to sell it.”

Guan Suyi tapped her finger on the table and said indifferently, “Since General Zhou sent the person here, in any case he must want her to stay, no matter how we take the person out or whether we sell her far away, I’m afraid General Zhou will not be tire bringing her back and throwing her into the mansion. Rather than tossing and turning back and forth, it’s better to just accept it, so as not making people see the joke over and over again. Besides, Ye Fan has no other place to go except the Zhao family, and in order to stay, she will do whatever it take. This cry is the first step, the second is to make nuisance, then the third is to tie a rope on the door beam of our house to attempt suicide, and let passers-by to see. How many years will it take for our house to clean up this pot of sewage?”

Speaking until here, she smiled coldly, “You came prepared, one big drama after another must have been arranged, just to counter my every moves. How stupid will I be if I’m still messing around with you? Wouldn’t it be more efficient to simply accept and keep the person under the nose, so you can’t use her as a raft and keep making waves.”

Zhou Tian was dumbfounded for a moment, then gave a clasp-hand salute and said, “It’s good if Madam knows, this general is leaving.”

Guan Suyi patted the angry old madam, while sneering, “General Zhou is an important member of the court, but his eyes only focused on the inner house of other people, don’t you feel ashamed to play with these women’s tricks? Besides, you are here to give a gift, but you only give the wooden basket, not the actual goods, which seems really petty.”

Zhou Tian stumbled and almost tripped over the threshold. He turned back and glared at Madam fiercely, then took out a life contract from the front of his clothes and threw it away before flung his sleeves. If it wasn’t for His Majesty’s order, how could he use such an insufferable trick? He would just  slashed Zhao Luli with a knife long time ago! He only hated that His Majesty had been poisoned too deeply by the Emperor Teacher, and he had to be some kind of wise monarch. Wouldn’t it be nice to kill anyone who wasn’t pleasing to the eye like in the past?

If His Majesty’s wishes come true one day, and brought Madam Guan into the palace, wouldn’t she become more annoying? Benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, and faith are indeed some misguided things!

After the door closed with a bang, isolating the crowd watching the liveliness outside and the gong and drum troupe were drifting away, only then did Zhao Luli speak bitterly, “It’s all because husband was not thoughtful, misused sympathy, and brought disaster to the family. And now one thing after another came to the door, and still have to rely on Suyi to deal with the aftermath, which is really shameful.”

“You are indeed confused and have made Suyi miserable!” The old madam planned to teach her son a good lesson, but she heard the housekeeper shout from outside, “Madam is not good, your maid is here too, and is waiting outside the door now.”

“Maid, Mingfang?” Guan Suyi laughed, raised the cup and shook it gently, “Zhao Luli, you are on the first day of the month and I will be on the fifteenth, you take one and I also take one. Now that the great catastrophe have just passed, they come one by one, and no one can hide. Forget it, what’s the different between accepting one than accepting two, let her in. ”

Zhao Luli’s cheeks flushed with shame. The old madam quickly soothed, “This cannot be blamed on you. It was Chen Guang who made mistake first, so you just put a little pressure, otherwise, wouldn’t you let a lowly concubine bully the head of the main room? Come, come, give her a bite of food to eat, although our Zhao family is down, but not lack this much of money, you don’t need to blame yourself.”

“Yes, sister-in-law, don’t think too much. When the wind blows over, send those two to village estate far away and it will be over.” Ruan shi comforted her gently. Several children also looked at their mother eagerly, for fear that she would be angry.

Zhao Luli, who was sitting in the main seat, became a lonely man and was squeezed out by everyone. All the faults were caused by him. Madam was good everywhere, she was perfect, even if the servants encounter major events, they only knew that Madam was in charge of the mansion, and the master was not counted.

The situation seemed to be very bad, afraid the husband’s dominance couldn’t be established, but Zhao Luli was not dissatisfied, instead very impressed. Madam’s words were all gems of wisdom. Listening to her words could never be wrong. No wonder everyone said virtuous wife make husband have few misfortunes, filial children make father reassure, which had been passed down for hundred years and it still a profound philosophy.

While thinking like this, Mingfang came in with a small package, and was about to show her loyalty, but Guan Suyi waved her hand to interrupt, “Let’s save the beautiful scene, I know all the bad things in your family. Since your father has lose all the dowry I gave you, you should write a deed and sell yourself as a lowly concubine.”

Mingfang was horrified and cried, “But Miss, you clearly said that you wanted me to be a noble concubine, how can you go back on your word?”

“A noble concubine not only needs to be a good citizen, but also has a dowry, can you afford it?” Guan Suyi said coldly, “Your father have gambling addiction, and he already wasted everything. When he saw the Zhao family was about to die, he thought he could promise you to others and cheat a betrothal gift, but because he couldn’t find a higher rank than the Zhao family, he had no other choice but abandon this idea. When the Zhao family was in trouble, I didn’t see you back. Now that the catastrophe has just passed, you hurriedly stick yourself here, how can there be such a cheap thing in the world? I said that I wanted to accept you, but I didn’t leave any evidence, and now I refuse, what can you do to me? It’s you who betray first, and now still dare to question me? If you don’t want to be a lowly concubine, you can go out of this door, just find a farmer to marry, and be the main wife.”

If Mingfang really had the guts to marry a poor farmer, she would not be the Mingfang who framed her master in order to get rich in her previous life. Although the Zhao family had lost the title of Marquis Zhenbei, they still hung up the name of General Zhengbei. After she left this gate, where would she find a wealthier family? Besides, her appearance could only be regarded as ordinary, and it would be disgusting to marry a merchant, so she gritted her teeth and wrote a body deed to became a lowly concubine.

After going around in a circle, the old enemies of the previous life were alive again. Guan Suyi had thousands of ways to get the people gone, but she had to change her mind when she thought of Zhao Luli’s intimacy. You don’t cherish the people’s heart when it’s still alive, and want to take it back when it’s already dead, how can it be so easy? She threw these two into the East Mansion to play with him, forgive her for not accompanying in this life.

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7 thoughts on “Who Cares – Chapter 72

  1. Hahahahaha that Mingfang is really shameless but our girl welcomes these two schemers to keep that husband from pestering her🤣

    Thanks for the chapter

  2. And all this trouble in this chapter was sponsored by the king’s desire for the mc. Smh. He doesn’t care about the trouble that he’ll cause for her — just as long as he gets what he wants. Even if the MC doesn’t care, this just is so controlling.

    1. Yep. He doesn’t truly know what she feels. That ancient era women had to follow a man whatever type of trash he was …. How was the emperor so sure his love interest wouldn’t have been heartbroken?

  3. Hahaha as expected! Mingfang will make a comeback. I know it. Human nature, when you already nurtured it close to 2decades (20years), it is hard to change. Just like Mingfang, Ye Fan and obviously Zhao Luli. What happened in the pastlife isn’t a nightmare like what previous Suyi wanted, but it is a reality that she had lived on. So the characters still stay true to their nature. I wonder how Zhao Luli going to mess up after this “redemption”. He believed he “faked” his cowardice but took solace on his wife dominance.. I mean while in jail it is fine. But right now, seeing her, he should feel heartache and motivation to rise up again 😅. But he was all like, “yeah, as expected. Madam is right. With madam doing all work, my household will be great”. Like what?? 😅🤪

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