Chapter 152: Flower Wedding (1)
Translator: Iris
When Rulan returned to Sheng family after three days of the wedding, her family threw a huge feast for her. There were six tables being set in the mansion. Not only did lots of relatives and friends come, even Molan and her husband as well as Aunt Kang were here. Old Madam Sheng was displeased with that. During the meal, she stared at Wang shi with cold expression in her eyes, which made Wang shi lower her head without daring to say anything. Meanwhile, Aunt Kang who sat beside Wang shi still remained gentle and tender, as she usually did.

After the meal, Old Madam Sheng and Wang shi called Rulan over to ask about her condition after the wedding. Then the three sisters left the elders and went to have a chat.

Molan and Rulan both came to their former room to recall the past memories. After that, they gathered together in Minglan’s House of Clear Dusk. Seeing those two girls in her room, Minglan got terrified right away. However, she still had to force herself to ask Danju to serve tea for her sisters.

The fresh cucumber slices in the tea showed glittering green color after Danju had poured the boiling water in the cup twice. Molan, who was wearing a lake blue gauze jacket, looked quite elegant and charming in the prospering early spring weather. Right now she was facing the ceramic white-ware tea cup with a piece of sadness on her face while saying, “I know that sooner or later, someone else will live in our yards. I just didn’t realize that our rooms would be emptied so quickly with nothing left. As the saying goes, ‘A married daughter—Split water.’”

After Molan had been married, all her stuffs in the House of Mountain Moon were moved away. Now there was only a little maid taking charge of the cleaning. This place which used to be filled with happy laughters and cheerful voices were completely empty. Actually, people of Sheng family had already started the work of moving out Rulan’s stuffs in the House of Carefree too. They just didn’t have enough time to empty the whole place.

Every time Rulan saw Molan, she was like a game fowl which only waited for a war with all of its feathers ruffled. Hearing Molan’s words, Rulan immediately wanted to retort. Then Minglan opened her mouth ahead of Rulan and said smilingly, “Eldest sister-in-law is about to give birth to her second child. Our third brother and fourth brother are also going to get married. After we were all married, our nephews and nieces would definitely live in our rooms. Isn’t it a good thing that we could have more family members?!”

Molan stared at Minglan attentively for a while. Then she chuckled and said, “Sixth sister, you surely is a sweet talker. Now wonder why you could marry into a more prestigious family than us. I have to say that you are the luckiest one among all of our sisters.”

Minglan put on a stern face right away, saying, “Sister, I was only obeying our parents’ decision about my marriage.”

Rulan grinned with her hands covering her mouth and said instantly, “Of course! Only our parents could decide who we can marry to. How can we make decisions by ourselves?” Minglan couldn’t help but glance at Rulan. Clearly, the latter had forgotten how she had managed to marry to her husband.

Surprisingly, Molan was perfectly calm and only said with a smile, “Sisters, you both are right… By the way, my fifth brother-in-law has already passed the Imperial Examination. Has he made any plans for his career?”

Rulan blushed slightly, showing that kind of enchanting expression which only could be seen on a newly-married woman with joy on the corner of her eyes. Minglan started to let her imagination run wild with her head tilted. ‘They must have amazing sex.’ She thought.

“… He will be a tutor in the Imperial Academy at first. After that, he will try to look for a job in the government. But we are still not certain about the future.” Rulan said that proudly with redness on her face. Although Wen Yanjing had not been chosen as an optional Reviser like Changbai, he still had a promising future since he was able to work in the Imperial Academy.

Molan laughed with light flickering in her eyes and said, “Don’t worry, my sister. You can fawn on our sixth sister when your husband wants to find a job. Then your husband would easily get the position of a magistrate of a prefecture, or even a position higher that that!”

Rulan changed the expression on her face at once while glaring at Molan with anger. Then Minglan stopped imagining Rulan’s married life instantly and said seriously with a severe look on her face, “Fourth sister, don’t talk nonsense. Granting positions to the officers is an important affair to our country. How can we make jokes about that? If some other people heard your words just now, they would assume that my fourth brother-in-law… no, the official positions of all the officers in my fourth brother-in-law’s family were achieved by seeking help from their relatives.”

Now it was Molan’s turn to change the expression on her face. And Rulan started to giggle with her handkerchief in her hands.

Minglan then decided to stop right there because she didn’t want Molan to feel too humiliated. So Minglan changed the subject in a hurry, “It was so bustling in our mansion the day when fifth sister got married. It’s such a shame you couldn’t be here, fourth sister!”

There was a weird look showing on Molan’s face, which was mixed up with happiness and fury. Then she said calmly, “Just some family affairs… It’s something about Concubine Wan, so I couldn’t withdraw myself from that.”

As Minglan still wondering blankly who Concubine Wan was, Rulan already reacted quickly and asked in spirits, “Concubine Wan had already given birth to a baby? It’s a boy or a girl?” Having taken a sip of the tea with a smile, Molan said slowly, “It happened before the New Year. A girl.” Molan’s smile seemed very reluctant while she was saying that. She also didn’t tell her sisters that the doctor had diagnosed that Concubine Wan had been pregnant again yesterday.

Rulan took a deep breath with a disappointed look on her face. Meanwhile, Minglan suddenly realized that Concubine Wan was Chunge.

Having put down the cup and used her handkerchief to wipe the corner of her mouth leisurely, Molan said sadly with concerned look on her face, “The doctor also said that it would be hard for Concubine Wan to give birth again due to the difficulties she had in delivering the baby last time… Alas…”

“Why did she have difficulties in that?”

Molan sighed slightly and said, “The doctor said that the baby was too big…”

Minglan suddenly got alarmed. She had also heard that Molan had been a virtuous woman in Liang family. During Chunge’s pregnancy, Molan had offered many nutritious food like cubilose or ginseng to Chunge for every meal. Sometimes Molan had even used the money in her dowry to buy expensive food for Chunge. Those kind postures had brought numerous compliments to Molan.

However, Minglan still remembered that the reason for Concubine Wei’s prematurely delivery had been her oversized baby and the cold food she had eaten. At that time, the midwife hadn’t come in time, so Concubine Wei had died.

Minglan lowered her head, not willing to say a word anymore.

Nonetheless, Rulan was not able to figure out anything and only felt bored. So she found another topic, “Sixth sister, what is Aunt Kang doing here? Hasn’t mother said that Aunt Kang was forbidden to enter our house forever?”

Minglan sighed and said, “Aunt Kang only had a chance to visit us because of your wedding. Though I didn’t see it for myself, I heard that she had cried and talked a lot in Madam’s room. It seems that… eh…, cousin Yuan’er didn’t live a good life in Wang family. After all, Aunt Kang and Madam are sisters. So at last, Madam got softhearted and accept Aunt Kang again.”

“What happened to Yuan’er?”

“Why didn’t she live a good life?”

Only at this moment did Molan and Rulan showed their tacit understanding as sisters. They both concentrated on the crucial part of Minglan’s words and asked at the same time. After that, they looked at each other and coughed embarrassedly, waiting for Minglan’s answer.

Minglan was speechless about them. Then she organized her thoughts before she spoke, “I heard that Cousin Yuan’er, oh, I should call her cousin-in-law actually. Anyway, she has contradicted our aunt. Then our aunt went furious and beat several maids and servants of cousin Yuan’er. Grandmother also got annoyed. She commanded cousin Yuan’er to study the rules of etiquette and transcribe the Women’s Commandments over hundreds of times. Now cousin Yuan’er has to follow our grandma everyday to learn the rules. If she dares to obey the order again, she would be forbidden to eat anything… That’s what Aunt Kang said.”

Rulan put on a leisurely look with complacent expression on her face at once, saying, “I knew it! Cousin Yuan’er always has a short fuse. She knows nothing about how to be a daughter-in-law! No wonder our aunt would look down on her!”

Minglan sighed and said, “I have heard from Old Madam that our grandma from Wang family was a reasonable and tolerate person. But even a person like that was irritated, I guess it must be our cousin-in-law’s fault.”

Molan curled the corner of her mouth. It seemed that she disdained Cousin Yuan’er’s bitter experience. Then, she rolled her eyes and came up with an idea. Suddenly, she sighed deeply and said sorrowfully, “Even if Yuan’er has done something wrong, she still has chance to make things right. I only pity… my mother…, I heard that she didn’t eat or sleep well in that mansion. Now that we all got married and she was already punished, I couldn’t help wondering when she could come back. Sixth sister, you are an important person to our family now, can you plead for mercy for my mother?” On these words, Molan’s eyes were welling up with tears again.

Rulan snorted and sneered, “Fourth sister, you have already married into another family. I suggest you leave our own family’s matters alone and mind your own business first. I have heard that Liang family was having a bad time these days. His majesty already sent the imperial edict to scold Liang family twice. Why did such a great family run into so many setbacks lately? Is it because some poisonous woman has entered their family?”

With Molan’s face turned extremely red, she flew into a rage and sneered back, “I know I am a loser. But I could still rely on my husband’s family to live a good life. Unlike someone who has to use her dowry to support her husband’s whole family! Now I understand why people always say that a daughter is a money-losing proposition!”

“What did you just say?!”

“Just human words! Don’t you understand?”

——Minglan looked up and sighed heavily. This was their last sister reunion before her wedding. And it ended with Molan and Rulan’s parting on bad terms. After the fight, Minglan made an inventory of the things her sisters had damaged. There were two tea cups, three tea plates and a pair of flower style snack plates being smashed.

“That’s too close, too close!” Danju patted her chest and said, “Luckily I have acted fast. When I saw Fourth Lady and Fifth Lady come, I put away that highest grade Hitmo Frozen Stone Banana Leaf pattern tea set which was presented by Old Madam right away… It’s just I must have scared Xiaotao. She was having tea in the room when I took away the tea pot and tea cup abruptly. Haha, sorry that I have broken your cup. Don’t be mad at me, Xiaotao.”

Xiaotao who was cleaning the table said embarrassedly, “Well… actually, I was using your cup.”

Minglan, “…”