Chapter 133 - All men were so heavy
Chapter 133 All men were so heavy
In He Danggui’s opinion, it had been a very long time before Ning Yuan finally released the hand covering her mouth. But he didn’t get up. Instead, he propped himself up on one elbow against the grass and hung over her in an ambiguous pose. His emotional eyes were tightly locked on her.
He Danggui felt her ears burning with the look that she was extremely familiar with. She gave him a push and said, “Move away! You’re too heavy!” Her voice trembled unconsciously. She wondered why she was behaving like that.
Ning Yuan took off his veil and threw it aside, exposing his pale thin lips and a blood trace next to them. But as his face was disguised, he still looked healthy with white and powdery cheeks. Ning Yuan arched his back a little and put his head on her ear again. As he opened his mouth, he sprayed a hot breath on her ear which was already burning hot. Then he whispered in her ear, “Of course, I’m heavy because I’m a man… You will have a deep understanding of this in the future.”
Hearing this, He Danggui gave him a shove on the chest and succeeded in pushing some blood out of his mouth.
Ning Yuan glared at her angrily, “You’re an ungrateful woman! I just saved your life, and now you’re murdering your husband. Let me teach you a lesson!” As he spoke, his bloody lips moved toward her.
He Danggui put her hand over her mouth, and looked at the back of Ning Yuan. Then she said surprisingly, “Xiaoyou, why are you here?”
Ning Yuan also heard the breath of someone behind him. With a low murmur of discontent, he raised himself on his palm and pulled her up from the ground. Then he turned around and saw a comely teenager of about 14 years old who was one head lower than him and wore like a manservant. The teenager stared at He Danggui in a strange way. Ning Yuan glanced down and asked, “Who is he?”
The manservant also looked at He Danggui with shining eyes, “Miss, do you know who I am? Tell me now!” From his accent, it seemed that he was from Shandong Prefecture.
He Danggui chuckled, then stepped forward and patted the manservant’s cheeks with her hands. (The smoke of anger came out of Ning Yuan’s head.) She patted a blade of grass off the manservant’s face and smiled, “I guess it was you hiding in the grass and spilling blood on that masked man. Good job! Xiaoyou!”
“Xiaoyou? My name is Xiaoyou!” The manservant touched his head and smiled, “What’s your name, Miss?”
He Danggui smiled at the best and only friend in Luo’s Mansion in her previous life. Her eyes bent like two little crescents and told him patiently, “You are from Zou County, Shandong Prefecture. Later you fled from famine to Yangzhou City. One day, you were injured by a carriage and was taken to Luo’s Mansion for treatment. But you hit your head and lost all memory, so you can’t remember your name and who you are. ‘Xiaoyou’ is the name I gave you, and your last name followed mine, which is ‘He’. Therefore, your full name is ‘He Dangyou’. My name is He Danggui. I style myself Qingyi, so you can call me Yi or Sister Qingyi. From now on, you are my friend and younger brother. Let’s go! Follow me back to Tao Yao Yard.”
This comely teenager who named “He Dangyou” by He Danggui was the beggar encountered by First Master Luo Baiqian at the gate of East Yard of Luo’s Mansion. At that time, Luo Baiqian was on his way back from Qing Ya Yard in the West Yard after he enjoyed himself with Qi Sanniang, a concubine of his uncle. Then he ordered his manservant Xiong Huang to bring the beggar into the mansion and arranged him in a servant’s room in the northern yard. In less than half a day, the little bagger was sober. He wasn’t hurt badly, so he could get up from the bed after eating the compound soup of astragalus and black date.
While Xiong Huang thought the problem had been trivialized, the little beggar touched his head and smiled foolishly, “Who… who am I?”
After a short conversation, Xiong Huang found that although the little beggar’s smile was a bit silly, his brain worked normally. He just lost his memory. According to his northern accent, Xiong Huang thought he was a beggar from a northern area. When he saw that the little beggar became like this after being hit by his carriage, Xiong Huang couldn’t help feeling gloomy. Should he throw the beggar back to the street or let him stay in the mansion? Xiong Huang wanted to ask for Luo Baiqian’s opinion, but he ran across Luo Baiqian’s waking-up temper and was rebuked by him. He simply imitated his master and pretended not to see the little beggar. Anyway, the beggar was still alive. And he should blame himself for standing outside the gate. Any person like him couldn’t put his dirty feet on the precious land of Luo’s Mansion!
Although Xiong Huang “didn’t see” the little beggar, the beggar did not disappear in the world. Suddenly, there was a strange boy of 15 years old in the servants’ room. As people passed by, they could not help turning their heads and looking at the black boy. After all, servants in Luo’s Mansion were mostly fat and white. A black and thin boy was indeed more eye-catching.
At first few days after he lived in Luo’s Mansion, he was injured, so he just lay in his bunk, smiling at the people who came and went. When his wound was almost healed, he went to exercise and twisted his neck and waist. When others chopped for firewood, he would chop with another axe; when others carried water, he would help carry water with another bucket; and when it was the time to eat, those who had been helped by him would give him two steamed buns to eat. By the time of distributing the fall uniform, there was one extra uniform which didn’t fit others. Finally, it was given to him.
After putting on a blue servant uniform, the youth worked harder, and the food for him was better. But he was not on the roster, and Administrator Bao who was in charge of personnel had not found his existence. Therefore, he was like a temp without a payroll, also without regular jobs.
Every day he wandered casually inside the mansion and from time to time hummed a song from his hometown with satisfaction. He was very diligent and could always find work to do. As soon as he saw others working, he followed them up and did it with them. When he had finished, he wiped his sweat and smiled, and left without leaving a name (He didn’t know who he was). Over time, he won the good feeling of many people in the mansion. He was living a much more comfortable life than he had ever lived before. After only half a month, he began to “do as the Romans do”, becoming fat and white, and he also grew taller. He looked tall and handsome, and would grin when someone stared at him.
One day, he woke up early. He jumped out of the bunk which could contain 10 people but now 11 people were sleeping on, and then ran out to find work. It was still dark. He walked in the mansion for a long time but didn’t see anyone. Then he turned around and came to a pavilion called “Yu Ya Hall”. He saw a man and a woman kissing and crossing their legs in the pavilion. The woman threw her clothes on the floor despite the cold weather and shook off the jewels on her head. Therefore, he wanted to go closer and ask if they needed any help. Before he had put his idea into action, a man-looking monster flew down from the sky.
At that time, the man in the pavilion was caught by that monster to suck his blood, while the woman was stunned on the spot. The monster’s eyes were purple. After sucking the man’s blood, he sucked a passing pig. Then he flew after two men and a woman. This frightened Xiaoyou so much that he lay in the grass feebly. After the monster flew away, he immediately ran back to the bunk in the servants’ room and asked the oldest Uncle Zhou about how to conquer the monster. Uncle Zhou was in a good dream, and told him, “You can douse the monster with the blood of a dog mixed with urine, and then the monster will disappear...”
Today, the monster appeared again. Its purple eyes and clothes remained the same, even though it had a mask on its face. Therefore, Xiaoyou immediately ran to the kitchen’s back alley to find a barrel of pig blood, and added some ingredients according to the instructions of Uncle Zhou, then carrying the barrel to Xin Rong Hall to kill that monster. He saw that the masked monster and a girl were running into the garden arm in arm like a couple, so he followed them with his barrel.
He had seen that girl once today, and knew that she was one of the Misses of Luo’s Family. When he passed the greenhouse this afternoon, he saw everyone carrying two or three pots of chrysanthemums. Therefore, he ran into the greenhouse, carried six pots of chrysanthemums and followed them. When he came to a beautiful yard, he saw a girl standing far away in the middle of the yard. She was smiling and like a peach flower fairy in the peach petals all over the sky. For a moment he was shocked. He had dropped five of the six pots of flowers. Fortunately, neither the fairy lady nor the mammy beside her had noticed the scene or rebuked him. Then a small maid with a round face came to pick up all the broken chrysanthemums on the ground and said that she wanted to make some chrysanthemum tea. He saw that the little maid looked familiar, much like one of the three who had been chased by the monster that day.
Later, in order to save the fairy girl, he poured the bucket of water on the monster. Probably the pig blood was not as useful as dog blood. That monster didn’t “disappear” but ran away at last. Later on, he saw a boy pin the fairy girl down in the grass and didn’t know what to do. Therefore, he wanted to come near and ask the two people if there was anything that he could do for them. But before he could put his thought into action, the fairy lady recognized him immediately and called him “Xiaoyou”. Then she let him call her “Sister Qingyi”, claimed that he was her “friend and younger brother”, and even planned to take him back to her yard!
“Sister Qingyi?” He asked confusedly, “No one here knows my story. Where did you get it, sister?” Somehow, the word “sister” came out as he opened his mouth. But he didn’t feel embarrassed to call this fairy girl who was one head lower than him.
He Danggui stood on tiptoe and patted his head, saying softly, “Come. I’ll explain these things to you later. In a word, you will only listen to me in the future, and I’m your only family in the world. Just tell me what you want, and I’ll bring it to you. But, if someone bullies you, you just tell me that and I’ll make them pay. Xiaoyou, remember this.” It seemed that she wanted to make up for what she had owed to him in the previous life.
The fairy girl spoke so close that the fragrance from her hair caught the mind of Xiaoyou. The youth nodded dully, “Yes, I will. Sister is my only family, and from now on I only listen to you.”
She nodded with satisfaction. As she planned to tell him a few words about “Luo’s Mansion is a dangerous place” and “several of most typical dangerous people”, she felt that her waist was held suddenly and then her body fell into the arms of Ning Yuan again. After she struggled twice to get out of his arms but failed, she was angry, “Childe Ning, we’re not acquaintances. Please speak normally when you want to speak. On the one hand, my ‘brother’ is watching. Don’t do such things in front of a child. On the other hand, have you forgotten the oath you took that day?”
Ning Yuan was full of anger and thought, “I am a lord! I saved her life twice, but she always shows an attitude of indifference. On the contrary, she is quite enthusiastic towards a silly manservant. She not only made him a brother in a few seconds, but also touched his face and head so gently! Even if he was her biological brother, she should follow the manners, not to mention that the silly brother who looks like a manservant is obviously about 6 years older than her! Doesn’t she know what ‘forbidden physical contact between men and women’ is, or is it just ‘forbidden’ for me? What’s more, no matter how good the relationship between master and servant is, I have never heard any master and servant would become brothers and sisters. Master is master, and servant is always the servant. If you mess up, you’re breaking the rules of etiquette. Hum, when I get you into my mansion, I will teach you some manners!”
He Danggui was distracted by the smell of ambergris in his arms, and more agitated by the memory of the man who betrayed her in her previous life since the ambergris was his favorite. Therefore, she let out a low roar and used the move of “open the door and see the mountain” of Huashan Sect to push Ning yuan away. She didn’t know how to use her internal force. But because at this moment, she was very angry, she should use fifty or sixty percent of her internal force and pushed Ning Yuan who was defenseless so badly, making him move backward a dozen steps and fall unsteadily on the lawn.
“You know kung fu? You should hit me!” After complaint, Ning Yuan gave her an indignant look, and then closed his tired eyes slowly.