Read Novel Full Chapter 28 - An Open Breakdown
Chapter 28 An Open Breakdown
“Eldest Miss is going to throw Young Master into the water. What are you waiting for? Go and stop her!” An’s face was ferocious and she tore apart her camouflage.
Her cold and piercing voice stimulated all the young and old maids around, and they all hurried towards Su Muge and circled her around.
Su Muge adjusted the position of little Wenmo in her arms.
“Miss, you go first with Young Master. I’ll stay and fight against them.” Yueru insisted on protecting Su Muge and her brother even though she was afraid herself. Her lips were trembling with fear.
“You are indeed very brave, but with your arms and legs thin like this, you’d better take Young Master with you and let me stay.” Su Muge put little Wenmo in Yueru’s arms, and kept them behind her.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and grab them!” An stared at Su Muge with her face twisted. She believed that with so many people stopping them, Su Muge would be defeated with the inferior in number!
Su Muge kicked an old maid who was fighting in the most front. “Ouch!” The maid fell on the ground, hitting two younger ones.
“I’ll open a gap for you, and you go back directly to the Peach Blossom Courtyard after you go through them.”
“What about Miss yourself…”
“They can’t hurt me.”
Su Muge took an accurate hold of the clothes edge of one maid, and pushed her to the other maids that was rushing forward. The maids staggered and fell down one after another. A gap occurred in the circle of people, and Yueru ran out just in time.
“Don’t let that cheap servant run away. Come on and get her!” Witnessing that Su Wenmo was carried away, An went ballistic.
After Yueru left the courtyard, Su Muge rushed to the gate, two steps at a time, closed the gate door and stayed over there.
Those young and old maids had been hit heavily by Su Muge, and none of them dared to step forward with Su Muge standing at the gate like a door-goddess.
“Su Muge, let me see, to what extend can you rebel against me!”
An was so mad at Su Muge, and she almost rushed forward on her own!
“How can I be that dumb to stand still and wait for your people to hit me?”
“Fine, fine, you are fine! Everybody, come on and catch her for me! That fearless little bitch!”
Su Muge sneered, quickly opened the gate and slipped away. She locked the gate from the outside, leaving the young and old maids inside with no time to react.
“Open the door! You little bitch! How dare you locked the gate of my courtyard! I shall watch you die in violence!”
Su Lun acted modestly and apologized several times to Meng Changde before he finally left.
Just as he was about to have a look at what was going on in An’s courtyard, he already heard the screaming and scolding inside from a distance.
Su Lun’s face turned as dark as the bottom of a pan.
“What are you waiting for! Go and open the gate!”
The menservants were quiet as cicadas in late autumn. They hurried to the courtyard gate with their bodies bent. After a while of turmoil and chaos, the courtyard was finally back in quietness.
…
In the Meng Mansion of Shunyang prefecture.
Meng Sun held Old Lady Meng and helped her enter the courtyard. The maids were signed out by Old Lady Meng after their busy work inside. Meng Sun was taking care of Old Lady Meng alone and knew that she had something to say.
“I heard that, you are in favor of the second daughter of Su Lun? Old Lady Meng spoke slowly and leisurely, without any anger showing on her face.
Meng Sun was stunned and she was about to reply. Old Lady Meng waved her hand and stopped her.
“I am not going to find out what plans you had before, but from now on, you may never have that kind of consideration.”
“Yes.”
…
Zhao was told that Su Muge had brought little Wenmo back, and asked someone to bring him to her. Looking at that tender and white face of her son, she couldn’t let him go. At last, Su Muge urged Yueru to take him to her own room considering that it might affect the recovery of Zhang as she was too tired.
Su Muge felt the pulse for little Wenmo, gave a close inspection to him and then asked Yueru to take him to sleep.
Though the child had been brought back, the one who was in charge of the daily goods and materials of the whole mansion was An. Even if Su Lun ordered her to assign enough goods for the child, An could still complete the mission as a vanity project.
The most urgent thing right then was to have enough money, otherwise nothing could be easy for them.
“It seems that we need to find a way to make money.”
However, the requirements on women were quite harsh back in that era, especially when one was the daughter of a public official. If she could not get enough freedom in her action, it could be a big obstacle to whatever she was going to do next.
“Yueru, you take good care of the courtyard. Lock the gate door and don’t let anybody in until I come back.”
After that incident in the Flowery Brook Courtyard, she was somehow emboldened and she didn’t even ask where Su Muge was heading to. “Eldest Miss, don’t worry. I won’t let a single person in.”
Su Muge smiled. “Great. I can count on you.”
Su Muge put her veil on and went all the way to Su Lun’s study room. She ran into Su Lun on the road. He had just come out from the Flowery Brook Courtyard.
Seeing Su Muge with a veil on her eye, the blue veins stood out on Su Lun’s forehead.
“How dare you have the face to see me!”
Su Muge looked at him behind the veil with coldness.
“Father, I come here to talk with you about Old Lady Meng.”
Hearing this, Su Lun choked on the words that he had no time to utter. He glared at her, snorted heavily and turned into his study room.
“You! Get in now!”
Such an attitude did not bother Su Muge at all. She followed him in.
Su Lun was seated on the chair once he entered the study room. His eyes were set on Su Muge. “Say it out.”
Su Muge found a chair and sat down too, motionless. Su Lun saw this and bit his lips, but didn’t say a word.
Su Muge looked down with a smile of irony. Staring at the direction that Su Lun was back from, she assumed that he had been in the place of An. She made quite a disturbance in An’s place, and it was no surprise that An had complained to Su Lun about it. But this time, Su Lun held his anger back and did nothing. Perhaps he was recalculating the value of his chess piece, Su Muge.
“Father, I suppose that you know I took my brother back to the Peach Blossom Courtyard.”
Su Lun snorted with his nose. “You were really bold!”
“It’s my fault that I had not been so considerate before. Madam An has to manage the whole Su Mansion which is enormous, and educate her own daughter. It was so inconsiderate of me to leave my brother to her to look after.”
“It’s a good thing that you are now aware of it!”
“So I decided to take my brother back to the Peach Blossom Courtyard. I heard that my second sister is going to pick herself several maids two days later. I’m wondering if it would be ok for me to go on that day, too, to pick up some helpers?”
Su Lun frowned upon those words, but his was less angry when he saw the half-worn dress on her.
“After all, you are the Miss of our Su family and need to be looked after by someone. Pick as many maids as you need then. As for your brother, you can keep raising him in the Peach Blossom Courtyard. Just also take with you the person who has been looking after him.”
Those words were unexpected, and Su Muge felt slightly surprised. It didn’t come to her that Su Lun had suddenly become so affable.
“Thank you very much, father.”
Su Lun coughed lightly.
“How did you meet Old Lady Meng? I was told that you saved her life, and was it real? When did you learn those medical skills? And why did I know nothing about it?”
Su Muge understood that most of the reason behind that change of her father’s attitude was because the Meng family.
“I went to visit my grandma and was on my way home back to our mansion. Then I met a group of people together with Old Lady Meng in the nearest town from the Zhao village. At that time, Old Lady Meng had a relapse and I treated her with what I had read from the medical books in my spare time.”
Su Lun looked at Su Muge with his eyes filled with doubt. He had been working his way out in the officialdom for years, and he could never believe that only with a few medical books read, a person could save a patient from the verge of death!
“When did you read those medical books? And where are they?”
Su Muge was in no panic even with those sharp eyes of Su Lun stared at her. She was aware that anyone with normal intelligence would not believe in those words, but so what?
“If father would like to have a look, then I’ll go back to find them and bring them to you.”
Su Lun waved his hand and showed no interest. “Can you cure that old illness of Old Lady Meng?”
Su Muge straightened her back and shook her head. “No. I can’t.”
“You can’t?!”
“Old Lady Meng had that illness for years, so it cannot be cured but only be controlled.” So old as Old Lady Meng was, she had high blood pressure and other illness that most aged people got. How could it be easily cured?
Unsurprisingly, Su Lun’s face hardened when Su Muge finished those words.
“But…”
“But what?”
“If Old Lady Meng keeps taking care of herself as what I said, it’ll be no big problem for her to live another twenty years.”
Old Lady Meng was about fifty years old this year and it could be considered as a long life in the ancient times. If she could live on for another twenty years, that would be a real longevity.
“Are you sure?”
“Eighty percent sure.”
“Great. I will take you to the Meng Mansion to express our thanks. You may go back now.”
Su Muge was pleasant that her first step was out. For things coming up next, she just needed to keep her pace and make her progress little by little.
She was surprised that An did not send anybody to cause her any trouble all that night. It was quite peaceful. Perhaps it was Su Lun that had suppressed this.
Early next morning, a maid in a peachy long dress came to the gate of the Peach Blossom Courtyard with a tray in her hands.
Shortly after, Yueru pulled away the curtain and entered the room.
“Miss, the Lord has sent something to you.”
Su Muge played with little Wenmo for a while with her head down. “Let her in.”
“Yes.”
The maid came in as the curtain was opened.
“Eldest Miss, these are from the Lord. He said you could get prepared with them for your visit to the Meng Mansion later.”
Su Muge glanced at the tray. There lied a water-colored full sleeve long dress with flabella. Along with it were some jewelries.
“Ok, I know.”
“Then I’m leaving, Eldest Miss.”
After the maid left, Yueru looked at the clothes and jewelries with delight on her face.
“Eldest Miss, see, the dress is so pretty. I have never seen any cloth as good as this.”
Su Muge watched her simple laugh and kept playing with little Wenmo’s tiny hands.
“Tell the wet nurse to take Young Master to my mother’s room when I leave.”
“Yes.”
Yueru helped Su Muge to put on the dress that Su Lun had sent her. She was so thin that the dress looked too large on her, making her look like a coat hanger. If she were right, the clothes were originally made for Su Jingwen, and now there was no other choice since Su Muge needed some descent clothes for her visit to the Meng Mansion.
With clothes dressed up, Yueru reached out for the veil cap and was about to put it on Su Muge’s head. Su Muge stopped her.
“There’s no need.”
Yueru was a bit stunned. “Eldest Miss… Are you sure?”
Su Muge looked at her delicate face in the mirror. The birthmark on her eye was quite outstanding in an unpleasant way.
“There’s no need. It’s not any shame after all.”
Su Muge stood up. “Let’s go.”