Chapter 79 - Nie Chun popped up from above
Chapter 79 Nie Chun popped up from above
In the previous life, He Danggui, who had lived in Shui Shang Temple for half a year before returning to Luo’s Family, had heard such an anecdote.
Her nephew Zhu had “died” once. At that time, the whole family was very sad, and the whole East Yard put on plain-color layout. Senior Lord Luo didn’t travel afar. To be precise, Senior Lord Luo set up a stall to sell quack medicines at the door of Luo’s Mansion. When he realized something happened at home, he took the stall back home. It was said that Zhu, the son of his grandson Luo Baiqian, died and his thin body was scary. Then Senior Lord Luo said that he wanted take a look at Zhu’s body.
At that time, Zhu had been dead for 3 days. After touching, Senior Lord Luo said Zhu’s heart was not cold. Zhu just ran out of energy, but he could be saved. So, Senior Lord Luo soaked Zhu’s body in warm sesame oil for several hours, and then poured several precious medicinal materials into the sesame oil, transferring its medicinal properties to Zhu through the sesame oil. 6 hours later, Zhu miraculously resurrected, and even his eyes opened. It was said that he was still very thin and needed to be carefully nursed for 6 months to recover.
Everyone was ecstatic and wondered what happened to Zhu? How did a good kid lose so much flesh in a blink of an eye?!
Luo Baiqian, who had always been adored his great-grandfather’s medical treatment, made a bow with his hands folded in front, and asked Senior Lord Luo about it. At that time, Senior Lord Luo was sitting in Zhu’s bedroom, drinking tea. After drinking half a cup of chestnut tea, he suddenly wrinkled his nose and said that there was a smell of urine in the room. Everyone felt dumbfounded, but it was true when they smelt it carefully. Dong Xinlan embarrassingly explained to all that it was normal to smell baby burps in a little kid’s room.
Second Mistress Luo shook her head and said with a sharp voice, “It doesn’t smell like that. It’s quite irritant. It smells like it comes from under Zhu’s bed.” Then Fourth Miss wrung her handkerchief with a smile and said that she was disappointed to hear her nephew peed under the bed even at the age of 3! Impertinent for him!
Dong Xinlan rushed forward Zhu’s bed with a humming sound. She lifted the mattress, knelt down on the ground, pierced her head under the bed and wanted to smell it in person to prove her son’s innocence. But everyone only heard Dong Xinlan screaming before they saw her passing out.
Holding the spirit of “who would risk his life to do that if I don’t”, Luo Baiqian also probed under the bed, and wanted to see what cute things scared his wicked wife. And then everyone heard Luo Baiqian’s scream. He ran behind Madam Luo in great fear and shouted bluntly, “Mice! A lot of mice! A nest of mice! Mice!”
Most of these noble characters in the family were afraid of mice. When they heard that, they rushed out of the room and just left Dong Xinlan fainted there. Madam Luo panicked and shouted “Nie Chun”. Then Nie Chun popped up from above. Under the command of Madam Luo, he destroyed the mouse nest under the bed with his wizardly power.
The crowd, led by Madam Luo, were frightened. They hurriedly ran to the next room to find Zhu, who was still very weak, asking him why there were so many mice under his bed. Zhu was so thin that his eyes looked very big. He told everyone weakly, “They are... the babies of my brother, Wei... Wei said that mother was very disgusted with his babies, but he didn’t feel comfortable giving them to others… So, Wei had to leave them under my bed... Wei said he was willing to eat the vegetable leaves that I left in the bowl. So, I agreed...”
Hearing this, everyone looked around again and finally found Wei hiding behind the door. Wei was staring at the invincible one, Nie Chun, with an almost hateful gaze, complaining fiercely that Nie Chun killed his babies! Nie Chun was a killer! Big devil! Nie Chun snorted “stupid boy” and disappeared.
Luo Baiqian scolded Wei, “How could you put such dangerous and dirty thing under your brother’s bed?”
Wei told everyone innocently that because his mother had said that sleeping with them would make him sick. He was afraid of getting sick, so he had to let his brother sleep with them. Then Wei continued to say that these mice were not dangerous at all, because these mice were everywhere in his aunt’s yard, but his aunt lived very well.
Everyone was stunned for a moment. Then Fourth Miss reacted first, and screamed, “Ah— Why were there mice in He Danggui’s yard? Ah—I often play in the West Lateral court, ah—”
As a result, they went to West Lateral court. On their way there, Madam Luo realized Senior Lord Luo disappeared, so she whispered to Mammy Tang about Senior Lord Luo’s trace. Mammy Tang said in a low voice, “The manservant called Ma Douling was guarding the door just now. He came to report again that Senior Lord Luo put on a beggar outfit out of nowhere, shaved his beard and got out of the mansion through the side door. Although Senior Lord Luo had no white beard at that time, his behavior was so vivid that Ma Douling recognized him at a glance.”
Madam Luo sighed because something had happened at home, but Senior Lord Luo was still in the mood to disguise as a beggar to travel. She decided not to think about that now. Then she asked Mammy Tang again, “Hong Jiang, why is there a few of us while walking? Where is Chuanbai? Where is my first daughter-in-law? Where is First Miss? Where are Second Miss and Fourth Miss? Where is Concubine Mei of the Third Branch?”
Mammy Tang answered with a smile, “Senior Lord Luo and First Mistress Luo were over-stunned just now, so they had a sudden headache and now went back to rest. Besides, the ladies can’t bear to see the dirty things, so they go back to study. Don’t you remember, Madam Luo? Today Mammy Shangguan from the palace will come to our mansion, and give our ladies etiquette lesson and needlework lesson.”
Madam Luo touched her head and said she felt so sad for Zhu these days, so she forgot about it and almost neglected Mammy Shangguan. Then she said to Hong Jiang, “Hurry up, go to welcome and greet her for me!”
Mammy Tang nodded and left.
On this side, the original large group of masters and maids had only left Madam Luo, Second Mistress Luo, Luo Baiqian, and a group of fully armed servants. Madam Luo felt a little shuddering to think of what Wei said about “everywhere in the yard”, so she called Nie Chun to help her. Luo Baiqian was afraid of mice the most. In fact, he wanted to run away desperately, but the incident was originally caused by the First Branch. If there was no one from First Branch went to West Lateral court, it would be too unreasonable. After all, Second Mistress Luo was frightened by mice just now, but she still came with Madam Luo without hesitation. He felt that both his father and legitimate mother slipped too fast, and now he had to step up.
Luo Baiqian suddenly thought of what happened 2 days ago. When he heard Zhu was critically ill, he ran to Liu Li Tang but fell down on the way. Then he saw a large group of mice in the garden. So, he reported this to Madam Luo instantly, but Madam Luo decided to go to West Lateral court to see the situation first.
After arriving at West Lateral court, they found it occupied and derelict. In the previous life, He Danggui was still left in the Taoist temple for self-cultivation at this time. The last couple of maids in the courtyard couldn’t wait to find a new master. Therefore, with no one living there for a month, the West Lateral court was like a deserted house for many years. Under the guidance of Nie Chun’s amazing hearing, everyone successfully found mice in the kitchenette, warehouse, front hall and side hall. Madam Luo, Second Mistress Luo and Luo Baiqian immediately left there because of fear.
Madam Luo pinched her fingers, whispered, and enjoined the servants to kill every mouse in West Lateral court first; then search every corner of East Yard and kill every mouse there. After that, they were ordered to buy some strong and fierce big cats so that these mice would be kept in the garden. Be sure to kill every mouse completely!
It occurred to Luo Baiqian that Wei got these dirty things from this place, then put it under Zhu’s bed and got the latter killed once. If Senior Lord Luo in the family hadn’t had high medical skills to save Zhu, he would have lost a dear son! Wei was a 3-year-old kid, so it didn’t matter if he didn’t understand the situation. But He Danggui was already a 10-year-old teenager. There were so many such things in her yard. Why didn’t she tell everyone early? If she had eliminated the scourge quickly, the First Branch wouldn’t have got so near to almost lose a beloved boy!
Thinking of this, Luo Baiqian felt very furious and immediately make a complaint against He Danggui. He told Madam Luo that depending on the situation of the yard, these mice had caused troubles for more than one or two months! But his Third Sister didn’t tell anyone about this, so Wei came to her yard and took these things back to Liu Li Tang, and he almost killed Zhu! Third Sister had gone too far!
Madam Luo was terrified to see mice crawling around, so she joined Luo Baiqian to blame Yi for having no sense of priorities! If she had gone to tell her Second Aunt about this and had got these things cleaned up earlier, the situation would not have turned out like this. Wei was always a good boy, but he liked these mice in her yard and put them under Zhu’s bed. He must have got some terrible disease because of these mice and then got Zhu killed. Look how thin Zhu had become!
In fact, when Wei said there were mice in He Danggui’s yard, Ms. Sun (Second Mistress Luo) had already remembered that He Danggui had told her half a year ago that there were mice in her kitchenette, so she asked for some rat poisons. And Wei was there with them at the time. He cried and stopped He Danggui, saying that these mice were all his baby pets. His mother forbade him from keeping them in Liu Li Tang. Later, when his mother saw him crying all the time, she had to compromise that he could keep them elsewhere. Therefore, he carefully selected He Danggui’s kitchenette in West Lateral court as the home of these mice.
At that time, He Danggui was angry and astonished, but she didn’t dare to question them. Seeing her expression, Ms. Sun felt pleased, so she comforted Wei and said, “Don’t cry, we won’t give her poison to kill your babies. On the contrary, we’ll go to the kitchenette and give them some delicious food!” Then with the excuse that “I am too busy to deal with your stuff. Yi, don’t mess things up”, she drove He Danggui away.
Later, He Danggui came to ask for rat poisons now and then. Ms. Sun was happy to see her anxiety and fear. Although she also knew that mouse infection was disastrous, West Lateral court was in the most remote corner of Luo’s Mansion, which was far away from the place she lived. These mice could not fly to her! She also thought of He Jingxian, “He Jingxian, you could never see this scene, could you? Your daughter is living with mice all day, and maybe she would be beaten to death by these mice in a few days! What you owed me is now repaying by your daughter bit by bit!”
Looking at Madam Luo and Luo Baiqian who were dull and angry, Ms. Sun sneered that they mixed up the perpetrators and victims. Because in fact, it wasn’t Wei who took the thing from He Danggui’s yard, but he put that thing in her yard. Not only did she know the truth, but also Wei’s mother knew. However, the matter had now gone too far that they certainly did not dare to admit it. Wei’s mother would definitely tell Wei to say nothing about the truth, so...
Ms. Sun pretended to feel scared, saying she had no ideas how these terrible dirty things came home! And she blamed that Yi was so excessive that she had a yard of mice! Was she going to kill them all? Zhu was killed today. Who’s going to be the next? He Danggui’s heart was so stingy, and she was an unlucky person who killed people everywhere!
Hearing Ms. Sun describing the incident so seriously, Luo Baiqian was a little bit apologetic to blame Yi that much. So, he said that maybe Yi had wanted to report the incident, but she hadn’t reported it yet because she had an accident and was sent to the Taoist temple. He continued to explain that Yi talked the least at home, maybe she thought slower than others, so she reported it late ...
Madam Luo interrupted him indignantly. In any case, someone must take responsibility for the matter! Since it happened in Yi’s yard, she must undertake it. Anyway, a few days ago, Ms. Zhao invited Fortune-teller Huang to interpret Yi’s dream of “picking up the jelly beans dropped by 3 young kids, and eating before she came back to life”. The explanation was very unpleasant, and Madam Luo was a little worried. What’s more, Yi had made such a big mistake now. So, Madam Luo punished Yi for staying longer in Shui Shang Temple because Taoist temples were the best places for self-cultivation!
Given the above, He Danggui in her previous life was placed in the Taoist temple for more than half a year. According to Madam Luo, Ms. Sun should send someone to see Yi twice a month to see if Yi needed anything. Besides, she should devote 8 or 10 liang silver to the Taoist temple, asking them to be more attentive.
However, Ms. Sun took the money from public accounts on a monthly basis in the name of “caring fee”, but she never sent the money to the Taoist temple, not even once. So, “dull” He Danggui was bullied thoroughly by others, such as Tai Shan and Tai Chen in the Taoist temple.