Chapter 266 - To scare playboy
Chapter 266 To scare playboy
Chang Nuo was surprised, “Do you miss He Fu’s mother? Was she kind to you back then?”
He Danggui smiled, “Since they were not nice to their neighbors, how could they be nice to me? I’m just her young stepdaughter. But Zhoushi, after hearing what you said, I really want to see her face to face. If when I drink tea in the Yi Hong Brothel and look downstairs, I can see her running around for a living, I will be really delighted.”
Chang Nuo thought for a while, “It’s not difficult. I will ask someone to give money to the servants taking charge of the shackles, and ask them to take the four people to Yangzhou City. In this way, you can have a good look at them.”
“Thank you.” He Danggui smiled at the shadow on the other side of the screen.
Chang Nuo added, “Just look at them from a distance. They are attacked by the epidemic disease, and their whole bodies are covered with red rashes. It’s terrifying. The outbreak of the epidemic was in the winter. Although it is less liable to spread, and will be contagious only through close contact, it is extremely difficult to cure. Even Xuanyu has no way of that kind of disease.”
“Oh?” He Danggui tilted her head, “Doctor Qi is as effective as Immortal, but couldn’t he do anything about the disease?” While she asked, she suddenly took out the small cloth bag from the cloak lining. Fortunately, she took her makeup box with her, so she could change her look anytime and anywhere. Otherwise, as she was locked in the Depositary, Chang Nuo or Zhu Quan might forcibly remove her veil, revealing her true colors.
Chang Nuo looked curiously at the wiggling figure behind the screen. He couldn’t help standing up and approaching. Then he asked, “Qingyi, what’s wrong with you? Let me see your face, so I can go back and ask Xuanyu for advice on your weird disease.”
“Stay back,” He Danggui hurriedly shouted, “I was undressing because I suddenly felt hot. I even took off my shoes and socks. Are you sure you want to see me? According to your ‘way of Jianghu’, won’t you pierce your feet with a knife?” Seeing that the man on the other side of the screen stopped, He Danggui gave a sigh of relief. She turned her back to the screen and began to make up. At the same time, she said to herself, “Is there anyone obeying the ‘way of Jianghu’ that Chang Nuo mentioned? When a man sees a woman naked, will he apologize for an offence by self-harming? Well, men in the world usually choose to marry an extra concubine.”
She opened the dazzling glass mirror, and there was a beautiful but pale face in it. Several red pimples appeared on her face covered by the veil, which looked so real that couldn’t be found out even if they were so close to the mirror. She suddenly came up with this great idea of make-up when she hid in the secret place in the yard of Sun Meiniang and watched the scene of people lifting the hoes and picking the ground. She originally intended to pretend to be ill, so that Zhu Quan could relax his vigilance or give her a little pity and give her a little time to turn the tables, which was very important to her.
But such a strategy was based on the affectionate Zhu Quan that Chang Nuo said. Although she didn’t believe it, she still wanted to command his sympathy and take a try. Anyway, she was much weaker than Zhu Quan, and it was not shameful for her to occasionally keep a low profile. However, this afternoon, when Zhu Quan mentioned her in front of Qi Xuanyu, he gnawed his teeth in hatred, and he said in an indifferent and cold manner. Such a man would definitely not be “affectionate”.
When He Danggui also reminisced about Zhu Quan’s act of manipulating herself in dreams and planning to do bad things to her that day, she suddenly realized that Zhu Quan had very high demands on women’s appearance. For him, women should not be old, fat, ugly, blowsy and untidy. At that time, many concubines in his mansion were abandoned for this reason, and a few others were because they were at an age when their face was greasy. In addition to improper diet, they washed their faces in a wrong method, resulting in acne. Acne was not an incurable disease and was very likely to be cured in a few days, but Zhu Quan sent all concubines with acne to the South Mansion and never met them again.
What a sorrow! Just a few pimples ruined the lives of those women, and they were kept under house arrest for the rest of their lives. He Danggui thought of this when she was staying in Bao Qin Ge to join in the fun. While sighing for the women’s fates, she couldn’t help laughing. She ran to Sun Meiniang’s dressing table, took some cosmetics, and put on a vivid makeup for herself. Compared with Luo Baiqiong’s face when she had the most serious acne, He Danggui had a lot of makeup on her fair face.
She smiled when she thought that the lustful Zhu Quan would be shocked after lifting her veil. Her make-up skills were learned from Bai Yangbai’s disguise skill, which was similar to a mask. Even if someone touch it, he or she couldn’t find any flaws. She must scare away Zhu Quan at the first time he saw her face, so that he would never dare to come Yangzhou City again. Even if he remembered Concubine He from the previous life, he couldn’t find any similar point from He Danggui.
In addition, when she heard that the highly skilled doctor Qi Xuanyu had nothing to do with the epidemic in the north, she immediately thought of a better idea, so that Zhu Quan would not even dare to touch her anymore. As long as she pretended to be infected with the epidemic disease, Zhu Quan would no longer have any intimate behavior with her even if she recovered later. He was such a cautious person.
Chang Nuo was not good at dealing with women. Looking at the shadow of the girl on the screen, he said worriedly, “How could you take off your clothes? You may catch cold. Wait. I’ll find some quilts for you.” As he said, he left the room from the transom window quickly.
He Danggui thought that Chang Nuo was such a simple and warm-hearted person, but he was deceived by Zhu Quan and accompanied Zhu Quan in dreams of hegemony. In the end, they didn’t get what they wanted. Zhu Quan ruined the lives of many people.
She was a skillful make-up girl. With a very short time, she had a face covered in acne and rash, and even her arms and chest were covered with rash. After she put on her clothes and the veil, she began to think about defeating Sun Meiniang. And after that, she might continue to stay in Luo’s Family and wait for the imperial decree of the capital to call Grandpa Luo into the palace, or take her mother to leave Luo’s Family and live in another place in the capital.
A rustling rang into her ears, and it sounded like someone was creeping here. She was about to get up to check the situation when a ball-like object wrapped in bright green brocade had even climbed onto her knees.
“Aunt! Aunt!”
While yelling, Zhu crawled on her knees, trying to get into her arms.
He Danggui sighed. The boy was more than 10 jin when he was three years old. At that time, he stretched his arms and asked her to embrace him. She did it because the little boy was fat and cute. But the kid was seven years old now. Since he ate well, he was even fatter 40 jin. He still wanted her to embrace him all day long. He Danggui felt tired to hold such a fat nephew.
She pulled him into her arms. Seeing that the fat boy was wearing a streak of snot, she took out the handkerchief and covered his nose reddened from the cold, asking him, “How could you find the Depositary? How did you come in?”
Zhu wiped his nose, twisting like a silkworm in her arms to warm himself. When he turned around and saw the snacks on the desk, he played cute and said, “Auntie, I want to eat that. You feed me!” He stretched out his short arms, wrapped around the waist of He Danggui, and laughed, “Auntie, you are finally willing to see me. I don’t want to eat anymore without you. I’ve been so hungry for the past few days.”
He Danggui also embraced him and adjusted his sitting posture. For the first time, she found that this kid’s waist was thicker than her own. If he ate like this, he would be regarded as the grandson of the First Madam Zhao... Compared with Wei, whose mouth sticked out and who had a chin like an ape’s, Zhu was really chubby. Zhu and Wei were indistinguishable twins when they were babies, but there was a huge difference in their body size when they grew up. It seemed that He Danggui was their biological mother who loved them, while Dong Xinlan was a mean stepmother.
“Chubby Zhu, how did you enter the Depositary?” He Danggui fed him a snack, and repeated her question. “Chubby Zhu” was the name she used when they were alone with each other. He Danggui gave him this infant name on a whim.
Then Zhu narrated his winter night adventures carefully, including how to escape from Tao Yao Yard, how to came here with difficulty, and how to enter the room through the narrow window… Finally, he spread his white palm and handed her a crumpled note. He said that it was delivered by Aunt Qing’er’s personal maid tonight, and she repeatedly said that it must be handed over to her.
He Danggui opened the note and frowned immediately, “All the writing is illegible! I can’t read a word clearly. What’s the matter?”
“Ah!” Zhu chewed a mouthful of snacks with a smirk. He looked up at the note, and said a little apologetically, “The words are illegible! It must have been blurred by my sweaty hands. I’m sorry, aunt! I met some big cats on the way. Those cats are as big as tigers and as tall as me. I was so scared.”
He Danggui was concerned about Qing’er and Sister Zhenzhu these days. She had sent the servants to Lu’s Mansion twice, but they could not find the master. It was said that Lu’s Mansion was very chaotic, and it was as lively as a market day. He Danggui was puzzled and worried about that. Now, she finally received a note from Qing’er, with three lines of tiny characters written on it, but it was wet by the sweat of Zhu’s hands!
He Danggui looked angrily at Zhu who was choking on the chicken roll and rolled his eyes. How could she have such an unreliable nephew? How could Qing’er’s maid hand over such a crucial note to this little fat boy? She was very worried about Sister Zhenzhu.
He Danggui asked patiently, “Chubby Zhu, have Chan Yi and Xiaoyou read this note? Have you read it yourself?” The chubby boy nodded and said, “I saw it.” She was then relieved, “Come on, tell me!”
Zhu continued to apologize, “I’m sorry, aunt. I was too frightened along the way, so I have forgotten everything.”
He Danggui saw there was a flash of shrewd light in Zhu’s black eyes, so she wondered if this kid was on purpose, but why?
Just at this moment, He Danggui heard footsteps outside, so she immediately covered Zhu’s mouth, and raised her voice and asked, “Well, Childe Feng, He Fu is now being arrested in jail. He doesn’t know how his families are going, right?” She heard a muffled grunt as a reply. Then she couldn’t help but smile, biting her lip, and slowly said, “Would you mind disclosing this information to him? He must be worried about his family.”
The male voice outside the screen was elegant and low, but it wasn’t Chang Nuo’s voice, “Okay. My pleasure.”