Legend of Concubine’s Daughter Minglan - Chapter 229
229. Momo Chang and Her Affairs (2)
Translator: Iris
Momo Chang turned around and pointed to the woman behind her, “This is my daughter-in-law. Her family name is Hu.” The middle-aged woman stepped forward to give her obeisance to Minglan with her head lowered and bent knees. Minglan smiled and returned an informal obeisance, “Sister-in-law Chang, it’s nice meeting you.”
“It’s an honor to meet you, Madam.” Chang-Hu shi raised her head slightly. This woman was quite pretty but her skin was a bit swarthy. What’s more, the corner of her mouth drooped the whole time, which made her face look bitter. The moment she started to speak, she praised Minglan with a grin right away, “Madam, I have wanted to see you for a long time. I never believed when they all said that you were like a fairy. Now I see you today, oh my, I wonder why the queen of heaven has let you leave the fairyland!”
As Minglan saw Chang Hu shi’s dress, she couldn’t help curl the corner of her mouth. The dark red color didn’t fit this woman’s skin at all. What a courage to dress like that! After hearing the woman’s compliments, Minglan burst into laughter and said, “Sister-in-law Chang, you do have a sense of humor! Please have a sit.”
Chang Hu shi didn’t sit down right away but glanced at her mother-in-law. Meanwhile, Momo Chang pointed to the two kids, saying, “This is my granddaughter, Chang Yan. This is my grandson, Chang Nian. Yan, Nian, come give obeisance to Madam.”
The two children stepped forward at once and bowed to Minglan together. This time Minglan could finally feel at ease to receive the obeisance. When they raised their heads, Minglan couldn’t help but get dazed.
The boy and the girl looked quite alike with the same slightly dark skin and pretty faces, but their temperaments were completely different. Chang Yan was just like the ladies from the ordinary families and even seemed a bit rustic, perhaps because she had lived in the countryside over the last few years. Chang Nian, on the contrary, was well-behaved and graceful. He spoke clearly and conducted himself nobly. Although he was from an ordinary family, he wasn’t inhibited at all when arriving in a rich family.
Everyone sat down to talk. Even the boy and girl were offered two foot-stools to sit.
It seemed that it was the first time Chang Hu shi and her children came here. After the three of them had sat down, they couldn’t help glancing at all the decorations in the hall. Chang Hu shi, the most enthusiastic one among them, felt the decorations in the hall quite refined and delicate but remaining a modest luxury style.
There was only a one foot high suet-jade vase which looked totally flawless being placed in the shelf. The two rows of rosewood chairs carved with flower patterns were placed in the two sides of the hall. The color of the wood was dark, but the surface of the chair was glossy. Chang Hu shi kept stroking the chair she was sitting on and praised, “Madam, your place truly is wonderful. I have a feeling that I am in the fairyland right now. Alas, look at the pot plant… the pot isn’t made with jade, is it? And the sleep mat, from which kind of bamboo was it woven…”
The way Chang Hu shi spoke showed her vulgar character. Momo Chang, with her eyebrows slightly knitted, took a glance at her daughter-in-law but still bit her words back. After that, Momo Chang looked at Minglan, finding the latter showing no impatience on the face at all. However, Momo Chang could also feel that Minglan wasn’t trying to play up to her either. The whole time, Minglan only made jokes with a slight smile on her face as if she truly was amused by Chang Hu shi’s words.
“I don’t remember very clearly.” Minglan tried to remember, “The bamboos might from State Shu. They cut the tall bamboos into slices and then picked the pieces with the finest texture. After they made those slices into bamboo sticks, they would use round white stone to grind those sticks over and over again. I guess it would take them thousands of times to grind the sticks into bamboo filaments. At last, they wove the bamboo filaments into the bed mat.” After all those procedure, the mat would be soft and white like the satin.
Chang Hu shi exhaled deeply. With a jealous look in her eyes, she shouted, “Oh my my my, how many works it has taken! It must cost a lot of money! No wonder it touches so smooth. Alas, our ordinary people will never be able to enjoy such a good thing…”
Minglan couldn’t be modest about that. She did not live in a commodity society now. Sometime money couldn’t buy everything. In the feudal period, the real good stuff were all contributed to the imperial family and made by the craftsmen from the imperial workshops.
Ever since the summer had begun, the supplies for cooling had been sent from the imperial palace constantly, most of which even Minglan hadn’t seen before. For example, if Minglan hadn’t been afraid that the bamboo had been easy to get mildewed once being stored for too long, she really had wanted to hide it into the storeroom.
Momo Chang’s eyebrows wrinkled even more tightly. She cast her daughter-in-law a stern glance and managed to shut the latter up. Minglan was actually fine with Chang Hu shi’s chatter and had chimed in with the latter from time to time. After Chang Hu shi stopped talking, Minglan turned to Momo Chang and asked, “… I heard you are living in the Cat Ear Alley right now. How’s the mansion? Is the location convenient for travel?”
With the look on Momo Chang’s wrinkled face softened, she said, “Thanks to Master Ye, the mansion is great. We have two yards and two gates. Even when Nian gets married and has children, the mansion is big enough for our family, not to mention that there are only four of us now. Our neighbors are all decent families. On the front and back of the Alley are two main roads. It’s very convenient for us to take the coach or sedan.”
“That’s good. Master and I can rest assured now…”
Minglan picked a fresh fruit on the green plate and wanted to continue with a smile. However, Chang Hu shi got in a word again, “Not everything’s good there. The location is a bit remote and the place is desolate. Every time I want to buy some writing brushes and papers for Nian or some new clothes for Yan, I have to spend a long time on the road. If we could…”
“Shut up.” Momo Chang, with an angry look on her face, thumped the tea cup on the table and scolded, “Stop talking nonsense!”
Chang Hu shi closed her mouth right away. Minglan looked over curiously, finding that although Chang Hu shi stopped saying anything, she wasn’t ashamed at all. Maybe this woman was thick-skinned and had already got accustomed to being criticized by her mother-in-law, it seemed that she felt nothing being reproached in public. After that, Chang Hu shi even started to eat the snack as if nothing had happened.
Having goggled at her daughter-in-law, Momo Chang turned her head and said to Minglan, “Madam, please don’t bother for us. We have already brought lots of troubles to Master Ye. Gosh… An old woman like me is not afraid of being embarrassed. I’ll just say it.” She sighed and continued in a depressed tone, “It’s all because of my unpromising son! He was not good at study and only wanted to learn to do business. Not only did he lose everything we have after he had been set up, he was also beaten half-dead. When our whole family was about to be implicated, I finally decided to bring my family to the capital regardless of my own pride. Little did I know that my lady had died dozens of years ago. We are lucky to have Master Ye. He has presented the farmland and the house for us. That’s why we can live until today.”
Hearing that, Minglan couldn’t hide the surprised look anymore.
She wasn’t surprised about Momo Chang’s story but the fact that Momo Chang had just spoken out her family scandal in public.
Gu Tingye had never told Minglan anything about that, but Minglan had already had an assumption.
In ancient times, people tended to revert to their origins instead of leaving their native place. If Momo Chang had lived a good life in Hai Ning, why had she brought her whole family to the capital? After all, she had broken off contact with her old master’s family for over ten years, it was not likely for her to show her loyalty all of a sudden. Besides, Chang family didn’t have any scholar who needed to take the imperial examination or any business man who wanted to open a shop in the capital.
So, Minglan came up with only one conclusion. The people in Chang family couldn’t stay in their hometown anymore and had only come to seek refuge with Bai family.
From Minglan’s wedding until today, Minglan was still confused about lots of things such as Yanhong’s death, Manniang’s story and the other kid of Gu Tingye. If Gu Tingye was willing to explain for her, she would like to hear. However, she never asked about those things on her own initiative. Even they were a couple, there was still some secrets that they wanted to keep to themselves. Also, Gu Tingye had no intention to mention about those things either.
Momo Chang had arrived at the capital for almost ten years and must know lots of the secrets, which made her a perfect breach. Therefore, from long ago, Minglan had already tried to figure out Momo Chang’s character.
So, what kind of a person was she?
