A little girl rushed into the room hurriedly. Minglan held that girl in her arms right away and gave the kid a big kiss on the forehead, saying, “My good girl. Let me see your hands.”

Zhuang reached out her hands shyly, with a fearful look which could only be seen on an adult’s face. There were a few dark rose red spots on her white and tender finger pulps. The little girl took back her hands bashfully and said in an innocent voice, “Aunt, I don’t feel hurt anymore. My brother was wounded more seriously than me.”

Minglan then checked the boy in Cuichan’s arms right away. He was sleeping soundly right now. On that fair and delicate face, there were a large area of red swelling, which should be caused by the fall. From the right of his eyebrow to his cheek, there was a row of dotted dark red scars. What scared Minglan the most was that one of the scars were on his right eyelid, which meant this boy almost lost one of his eyes!

Shi seemed to be alarmed and wept slightly. Zhuang stepped forward instantly and patted on her brother while coaxing him in a soft voice, “Good boy, good boy…” The little boy seemed to recognize his sister’s voice and then fell into asleep again.

Minglan, being heartbroken, couldn’t help but hold Zhuang in her arms tightly with tears running down on her face. Hualan looked at her two kids and was also overcome by the feeling of sorrow. She lied on the bed and started to weep. Cuichan put the boy in the wet nurse’s arm immediately and held Hualan up to wipe her tears, saying, “Second Madam, you can’t cry right now. That will give you a chronic disease!”

Minglan, having wiped her tears right away, held Zhuang up and said proudly, “Good girl, you have shared your mother’s burdens and saved your brother. You are the best daughter and the best sister. Sixth Aunt is so happy for you! Don’t be afraid that you will be humiliated or wronged. You are the eldest legal daughter of Yuan family and the granddaughter of Sheng family! No one will dare to bully you!”

Zhuang put on a smile on her little face while nodding heavily.

After that, Cuichan sent the two kids out. Minglan watched them leave and then turned around while saying with tears in her eyes, “Sister, you have taught your children well. You will definitely enjoy a wonderful life in the future!… Eh, what happened next?”

Hualan also felt proud of her children while smiling in relief. After she had calmed down, she said slowly, “I thought that old bitch would feel guilty. But never have I realized that she would shift the blame to Zhuang! She claimed that Zhuang was the one who knocked the censer over and hurt Shi! She even wanted to punish Zhuang!”

“Bullshit!” Minglan couldn’t help but abuse, “All in all, the accident only happened because there was no adult in the room. If someone guarded the kids at that time, even if Zhuang has knocked the censor over, Shi wouldn’t be injured!”

“Exactly!” Hualan gave out a wry smile and said, “Then my family was in chaos. After your brother-in-law came back, he flew into a rage right away. He even wanted to whip the servants who had been absent at that time to death! However, his mother stopped him and scolded him for being unfilial. She even ordered him to kneel before the memorial tablets of their ancestors in the ancestral temple! After my father-in-law had known about that, he punished those servants right away and said he would send my mother-in-law to our manor to ‘have a good rest’;Then my mother in law tried to hang herself with a rope, don’t know where she learned that idea. She kept saying ‘no man in this world would mistreat his wife for his daughter-in-law’. My father-in-law who was so angry almost fainted! And that matter just left unsettled. Luckily I got my son back.”

Hearing that, Minglan was completely speechless. With a smile showing on Hualan’s face, she said, “After your brother-in-law saw Shi’s wounds, he was so scared that his whole body came out in a cold sweat. Since he couldn’t vent his anger on his mother, then… ha ha” Hualan let out a weird laughter, “That old bitch has sent seven or eight Tong Fang to my room. Your brother-in-law beat two outstanding girls of them fiercely. After the two girls were half dead, they were straightly thrown out of our mansion! After that, he ordered someone to undress other two girls’ clothes and let them kneeling in the yard nakedly for a whole night. The second day, the two girls both got sick and were kicked out too. The rest of the Tong Fang behave themselves well. They are so scared that your brother-in-law would vent his anger on them that they don’t even dare to show themselves.”

MInglan couldn’t help laughing, “I never expected that.”

“After that old bitch knew about that, she came here to make a scene again. At that time, I held a hairpin against my neck and told her, ‘If you dare to say a word about taking away my children, I’ll die here.’ Then she could only hit and abuse her son. You brother-in-law’s face was covered with scratches during those days and couldn’t even go out.”

After Hualan had told that soul-stirring story, the two sisters both remained silent and rested with their heads next to each other, feeling sorrowful together. After a long while, Hualan said, “When will this stop? I am worried all day that she would have some evil ideas again.”

“Well… there is a way to solve your problem once and for all.” Minglan said slowly.

Hualan straightened up right away with light flashing in her eyes. Then she grabbed Minglan’s hand and asked closely in a low voice, “What is it? Tell me! Tell me!”

Minglan still kept silent. Hualan who got impatient kept asking while shaking Minglan’s body. The latter got too dizzy and said reluctantly, “This is not a good solution. More like a lousy idea.”

“Lousy idea is the best for that lousy old bitch!” Hualan said that with passion in her eyes.

Minglan then gritted her teeth. All right, this was the first time she had plotted something big; She said, “Recently, I heard something happened in our family. Madam… she wanted eldest brother to take a concubine. Our eldest sister-in-law got sick the moment she knew of that.”

With a scornful look on Hualan’s face, she said, “Our sister-in-law is much more lucky than me. It wouldn’t kill her if our brother has a new concubine.”

Minglan sighed secretly. She understood why Hualan would feel like that. Then she continued, “Not only was eldest brother unwilling to do so, even our dad also felt madam was only trying to make troubles. Then… ah-hem, ah-hem, dad has taken in a few Tong Fang girls in his room.”

Hualan seemed to get Minglan’s point. She asked gently, “So…?”

Minglan threw up her hands and spoke out the final result reluctantly, “Now madam don’t have the time to deal with eldest sister-in-law.”

With Hualan’s eyes wildly open, she finally understood what that idea was.

“Is that, going to work?” Hualan said that in hesitation.

Minglan replied her in a flat tone, “Will your mother-in-law be divorced by her husband?”

Hualan sat down on the bed dejectedly while shaking her head, saying, “No. She has sons and daughters. Divorcing her would be a humiliation for Marquis Zhongqin’s mansion. That divorce letter is merely for threatening her.”

“Then, will your father-in-law leave your mother-in-law ‘having a good rest’ in the manor forever?”

With desperation in Hualan’s eyes, she responded, “No. Even your brother-in-law can’t bear to see my mother-in-law having a rough time in the manor.”

“Then what other solutions do you have?” –Actually, on the other hand, Hualan would never be divorced by her husband either.

“That’s right! That’s right!” Hualan thumped on the bed while saying in a low voice, “I won’t let her live at ease! It’s time to send a few beautiful girls to my father-in-law!… But my mother-in-law has always kept a close eye on the concubines of my father-in-law!”

Minglan shook her left hand and approached to Hualan, trying her best to keep her voice down, “First, how can a daughter-in-law find girls for her father-in-law? That’s just too ridiculous to hear. Second, the candidate of your father-in-law’s future concubine couldn’t be any girl. She must be a person whom your mother-in-law would never bully or punish.”

As a clever girl, Hualan understood Minglan’s words after she had pondered for only a short while, “You want me to ask favor from my father-in-law’s sister?”

“Yes.” Minglan said, “Go to Countess Shoushan.”

“Will she help me?” Hualan was suspicious of how feasible that would be. Although Countess Showshan liked her, still,…

Minglan dispelled Hualan’s suspicion directly, “She will do that not to help you but to help her own family! When she comes back from her hometown, she will definitely come to visit you. By then, you can dismiss everyone else and tell her everything frankly. Tell her about your difficulties, your grievances. Show her your wounded child. Don’t forget to exaggerate Shi’s injury! Then tell her the story about Duke Zhuang of Zheng and Gong Shuduan…”

“I know that story!” Hualan’s eyes finally sparkled, the she continued, “In Chunqiu period, Duke Zhuang and Gong Shuduan were two blood brothers! But their mother, Empress Dowager Wu Jiang showed great partiality to Gong Shuduan. And what was the cause of such a perversion? The two brothers finally turned against each other…”

“At last, Duke Zhuang killed Gong Shuduan, his blood brother, by himself! But that is all Empress Dowager’s fault!” Minglan added, “This is not just the fight between you and your mother-in-law. If Old Madam Yuan continues to act like this, her two sons will eventually become enemies even if they don’t want to. By then, Yuan family will definitely fall apart.”

After Minglan’s had said that, the whole thing was raised to another level. And Hualan would restore the unity of the Yuan family.

Hualan thought about Minglan’s idea over and over again and found that really was a great solution. She could let Countess Shoushan found a girl from a poor family with a clean background. That girl had to be pretty, gentle and clearheaded. After she became the concubine of Old Master Yuan, she would become Countess Shoushan’s helper. And no one would judge anything as long as Old Master Yuan agreed to that, since Countess Shoushan didn’t do anything wrong to send a girl to serve her brother. If Old Madam Yuan created disturbances, she would be accused of violating the ‘Seven Reasons’– When Old Madam Yuan sent girls to her own son, she always loved to use that excuse to gag Hualan.

Old Master Yuan who had endure Old Madam Yuan for almost his whole life was very likely to like that girl. Also, it didn’t matter if that girl would give birth to a boy or not. Because, she wouldn’t get too much of the family property as a concubine no matter what. After all, a mother-in-law could be hard on her daughter-in-law every day, but the daughter-in-law couldn’t tell her mother-in-law off to her father-in-law all the time. So the best solution was to place a trusted woman who could do pillow talk to Old Master Yuan in his room. Hualan would like to see if Old Madam Yuan would have the strength to pick a quarrel with her every day by then!

The more Hualan thought of that, the more she felt joyful. Now, she was in high spirit and could even walk around in the room.