92

Chapter 92

Glossary

儿 | er |(lit. child) diminutive marker used as a form of endearment

时辰 | sichen |time system comprising of 12 two-hour periods of the day; one sichen is the equivalent of two modern hours

Wan Zi Yu? Ruan Zhu was startled: “But he is Ming Xiang Cui Yu’s young master, a highly eligible bachelor with both an exquisite appearance and wealth. Why on earth did he run into a brothel to be a courtesan?”

“In search of a thrill, maybe!”

Xuanyuan Zong Zhi had long become accustomed to his wife’s manner of speaking. Removing his clothes, he allowed his wife to wipe off his sweat with a towel moistened with warm water, a smile in his eyes. Other families’ wives all waited for their men to attend to them; his own family’s wife was a treasure that always took care of them men. Virtuous, warm and kind, with good moral character–As the number of females in the world decreased, those words had fallen into the depths of the sea to grow mold, yet his wife displayed them and embodied them perfectly.

“Because he’s searching for a thrill, he can, without a care in the world, become a flower thief, and become a mister of a brothel; destroying his reputation? Don’t tell me he’s not afraid of being discovered by others?”

Ruan Zhu threw off her husband’s trousers and wiped his member clean. She was afraid of catching a gynecological disease so she always demanded her husbands to be fresh and clean before they indulged in passion.

“Whenever Liu Fei Xu went to the brothel, he always wore a muslin veil and almost no one knew of his appearance; it was a mistake that I found out. While he had been working, his favored patron’s principal husband rushed over to catch them in the act. That husband’s martial arts skill had not been low and he had viciously beat him, tearing off his veil in the process. However, Liu Fei Xu was also truly ruthless. After his injury had healed, he spent an enormous sum to hire some people, sending them to the favored patron’s home and castrating that principal husband.”

“Nothing happened to you after you discovered his secret, right?”

Xuanyuan Zong Zhi smiled and pulled his wife into his arms, placing her properly on his lap while pushing aside her lapel and lightly touching the skin inside: “Your man is not so weak that even a flower thief cannot be beaten. I promised to keep his secret and the matter could be considered concluded.”

Ruan Zhu thought back to several years ago when she had gone to the Lan River to go sightseeing with Yun Shi Yi. She had unexpectedly came across Yu Lian Hua, who had said that with one light stare from Wan Zi Yu, any woman who sees him would have no resistance, but it was a pity that he always wore a veil as no one had ever seen the face behind it.

“Liu Fei Xu is of a different class in this era and super high quality. However, even if his activities had been better concealed, there would inevitably be a day when everything was exposed.” Ruan Zhu did not extremely dislike that person and shook her head: “A pity. The only fault was that he was born in the wrong era.”

Just like what she had previously thought, everyone had lewd thoughts and the ones who were bold turned them into reality. In her past life, she had seen news about an United Kingdom hooker called Jenny Thompson, whose father was an oil engineer with a considerable income. She had gone to a very good school since she was young and basically didn’t lack anything in her life. In search of excitement, she could have affairs with a hundred men, and because her sex life was so chaotic, she had an unexpected pregnancy and wasn’t even clear on who the father was.

“Our family currently only has four males and is still lacking a fifth that you must accept before you turn twenty. Even if you are my princess consort, you cannot go against the rules. There are so many pairs of eyes watching and previously, Prime Minister Wang even brought up having his bastard son attend to you. I gave an excuse of needing your opinion and delayed the proposal.”

Ruan Zhu listened quietly. The candidates for her Number Five must be honest and well-behaved as the tranquility of her home must not be undermined because of a stupid man.

Xuanyuan Zong Zhi peeled off each piece of his wife’s clothing. There was geothermal heating underneath and the inside of the room was nice and warm so he was not afraid she would catch a cold. He continued: “Every time Liu Fei Xu appeared in the brothel, he was very well-received. The women were completely infatuated with him and all dreamed to tear off that veil of his. Has my Zhu’er also come to be fond of him?”

“What are you saying? I am not a stallion female. If that kind of man were to ever join our family, pandemonium would break out. Also, who knows whether he has those dirty disease or not? If he spread it, I might not even be able to have children in the future.”

In her previous world, there were countless women who had gynecological diseases and gave birth to children that were both mute and deaf. Ruan Zhu absolutely would not allow that sort of situation to occur. “If I must have five men, I am actually not opposed to Nuan Chun taking that position, but men with unrestrained and improper conduct are absolutely out of the question.”

“Not liking is good. I was also afraid you would like that, and to be honest, that man is very annoying and I look down upon him. However, Nuan Chun’s status is too low and is insufficient to be the fifth.”

“What do you mean his status is too low and he is insufficient? I can remove him from the slave registry and then he would also have the identity of a freed man. Or how about we find a wealthy family to adopt him?”

“We can discuss this in the future, let us do something more honorable and proper first.”

One of Xuanyuan Zong Zhi’s hands was one top, one was below as he teased his wife’s sensitive spots. His finger that had gone to explore her depths both prodded and thrust back and forth, causing her entire face to be full of arousal and her breathing to become hurried and delicate.

He saw it was nearly about time and positioned her so that she was straddling his crotch, holding his stiff member as it entered inside her. The warmth and tightness attacked him, and his entire body felt both heated and limp, completely free of worries……He supported her buttocks. While he twitched inside her, he got up from the chair and headed towards the bed in a position like they were watching flowers from horseback.

“Don’t……Stand just like that……I want it like this……” Ruan Zhu’s legs were wrapped around his waist while her arms embraced his neck as she softly moaned out her demands: “So arousing……so good……I like it……”

Xuanyuan Zong Zhi heard her words and stood there, supporting her derriere with his hands while his shaft continued to fiercely thrust in and out of her.

Both people received immense satisfaction and pleasure.

Half a sichen later, both of them were lying on the bed.

Ruan Zhu had been pulled by her husband into his arms, and she mused after thinking about what had happened today: “Big Brother Lu, none of the Four Great Masters are ordinary. Lu Piao Xiang’s guqin; Wan Zi Yu’s looks; Feng Qing Bai’s verses; Shen Cong Yun’s sword. Because my poems were good, Feng Qi Bai greeted me today and expressed his earnestness to be friends……” Ruan Zhu saw that her husband was deeply considering something and hurried to add: “Don’t think too much, I don’t have any other meaning.”

Xuanyuan Zong Zhi laughed: “I think it is you whose thoughts have gone in the wrong direction as I was not even considering that possibility. I was thinking about this morning’s court–we had just been dismissed and I had yet to leave when I was called back by Xiao Zhou Zi and led to Emperor-Father’s palace where I was handed some newly circulated poems to read. There was one regarding an unknown celestial palace and two verses on plum blossoms that he said was your work. Wife, you are genuinely skilled; look at how a few casually spoken poems were able to cause such a sensation in an extremely short amount of time.”

The current emperor liked dance and literature. So much so, that every time he discovered there was a new and popular poem in Tian Chu, he would rush to hear and appreciate it. Even if he had been sleeping, he valued hearing the new verses over getting properly dressed first.

Ruan Zhu yawned: “Today I was put in a tough spot by the madam of the prefectural magistrate. I hadn’t wanted to be too pretentious as there was no bit of meaning in being so.”

The Chinese have always placed too much importance on literary works, which actually caused their science and technology to lag behind. On the contrary, she was currently interested in that high-tech experimental field on the banks of the Lan River. Spending money for people to gather various forms of rice seeds from all over the country, she had then used the seeds to create multiple rice hybrids and find the hybrid seed with the most yield. Rice wasn’t all she had done–a new type of pear had been formed after grafting apple trees with pear trees, and apple trees grafted with grape vines resulted in plump grapes that were sweet and refreshing.

“Did the madam of the prefectural magistrate especially made it difficult for you?”

“She really does want to make it difficult for me, but she fails every time and probably hates me to death in her heart. Up to now, she still owes me two hundred taels of gold and hasn’t honored it yet!”

“Would you like this husband to step in and resolve the matter?”

“No need! She’s merely a brainless fifth-rank madam who is not as talented in literature as I am or have as extensive experiences as me. Your wife is not so below average that she cannot deal with that kind of person. Let’s sleep! Lord Husband, I’m tired.”

Xuanyuan Zong Zhi’s eyes lingered on his wife’s sleeping face, a bit of gloominess in his heart. It had been ten days before it was his turn so how could one round be enough? He sneezed. Forget it, he would ask for compensation early tomorrow morning. Cuddling his wife, he soon entered dreamland.

Ci Ji Hall was this era’s charity. Ruan Yu was too lazy to make friends with some brainless women and had been friends with Dong Fang Hua for a while now. After Xuanyuan Zong Zhi’s information network, Tian Wang Embassy, had been established, Nangong Xun had assumed its heavy responsibility and Dong Fang Hua had been so busy assisting her husband, she hadn’t had time to call upon Ruan Yu.

Ruan Yu was isolated and was also unwilling to have dealings with opinionated women, so if she was free, she would roam around Ci Ji Hall. Under the flag of doing charity, she would contribute money and donate clothing. In the beginning, it was to pass the time but she became obsessed after she ran into a man.

“That mister is very young and handsome, but I do not know what his clan name is. The first time I met him was in the back street of Ci Ji Hall. I was afraid they had closed the city gates, and because I was rushing home, I used the back door and ran into him.”

Guan Ju Villa was on the banks of the Lan River, outside of the city. Although Ruan Yu had a pass token given to her from her Brother-in-law, she rarely used it because of the inconvenience it would bring.

“You can’t have simply liked him without anything happening; something had to have happened, right!”

The two sisters were sitting in the carriage. They had just entered the city when unexpectedly, something troublesome occurred.

Because the new year was approaching, the commoners had all come out to shop and the streets were extremely crowded. Carriages followed carriages, workers hauled poles on their shoulders, and the teeming streets buzzed with people pushing small carts.

Ruan Zhu called for the coachman to reduce the speed; they absolutely could not hurt anyone. They approached a narrow stone bridge with pedestrian using either sides while carriages drove by in the middle. Two vehicles could cross side-by-side with no problem but three carriages would result in an accident.

There were numerous noble clans underneath the Son of Heaven’s feet and some of the insanely proud ones would inevitably appear. A carriage directly appeared in front of them. Perhaps they were in a rush to get on the road, as they very quickly, attempted to charge at the gap between the vehicles of Ruan Zhu’s and another family’s.

The other vehicle was a donkey cart that was truly out of luck. They flipped over in an instant, blood-curdling screams coming from the cart, and it could be assumed their injuries were not light.

The Ruan carriage was superbly made from mahogany and pulled by four horses that were all good colts from central Asia that had received training. The expert coachman was highly skilled. When they were forcefully struck by the carriage in front, he backed up their carriage by two meters and the carriage quickly stabilized.

But the two sisters inside the carriage had still been thrown about. A corner of the skin at Ruan Yu’s forehead had split and blood flowed out. Ruan Zhu crawled up from underneath the seat and fished out a handkerchief to wipe her blood before using ning xiang lu on the injured areas.

Ruan Yu endured the pain and wanted to go outside to demand for justice. She hadn’t yet left the carriage……The coachman who had caused the accident got down from his own vehicle and slashed his whip towards Ruan Zhu’s driver: “You blind dog slave didn’t see a carriage coming? This is but the carriage of the wife of Shun Tian Hall’s magistrate. Are you able to compensate after injuring my family’s Eldest Miss?”

Everyone wore thick cotton clothes in the cold winter and the whip slash did not hurt too much. But ever since his Eldest Miss had become a Princess, the Ruan residence’s coachman had even been praised by those above in being one with ability and his face shone with light. Whenever he went in and out of the neighborhood, who among the neighbors didn’t place him highly in their eyes? He had never been slashed by a whip in the middle of the street before.

The Ruan clan’s coachman glared as he hollered abuse back: “You’re the one that’s blind. You can’t even properly follow the road; you must be urgently heading towards reincarnation, ah? Has your head been kicked by a donkey? What kind of status does the magistrate’s Young Miss have, ah? Fuck, you’re all brainless.”

Ruan Zhu came down from the carriage at that time. Hearing those sentences, she gloomily supported her forehead with her hand. How come even the servants had picked up her way of speaking?

The owners of the carriage that had caused the accident descended, and Ruan Zhu was stunned as there was someone she recognized–among them was a man gorgeously dressed with a handsome complexion, who was also a blood relative.

Wei Jia! Ruan Zhu thought she had already long forgotten that name.

Standing next to Wei Jia was a young female who was rather familiar-looking. Oh right, wasn’t this the daughter of Shun Tian Hall’s magistrate?

The magistrate was the Crown Prince’s henchman so his daughter had been promised to the crippled Zhao Hai. During that time in the capital, Zhao Hai’s life had been caught in her plan for him to ride the wooden donkey and the magistrate’s daughter had also become a laughingstock.

The magistrate’s daughter’s face was entirely tinted with anger: “From where did these untouchables come from to dare disturb this lady’s mood of going to see the plum blossoms with my concubine?”

Wei Jia had become the magistrate’s daughter’s secondary husband and knew how to curry favor just like his father! Ruan Zhu silently cursed them in her heart.

The Wei Jia on the side opened his mouth: “This slave recognizes these two females; they are from a lowly merchant family.” When he saw the two Ruan sisters coming down from their carriage, his face instantly became gloomy.

Disgust was all over the magistrate’s daughter’s face: “So they are of the merchant stratum; I was thinking how they could be so coarse. Zhou Er, go over and viciously slap them for me. If they die, they deserved it.”

The coachman called Zhou Er sprang towards the Ruan family’s driver, fists flailing, and the two men came to blows.

But how could Ruan Zhu’s coachman be ordinary? He had grown up together with the two Yun brothers and had learned a few martial arts moves. He very quickly restrained the other onto the ground and fiercely beat him up.

Ruan Zhu also smiled. Copying the words of the magistrate’s daughter, she directed towards her coachman: “Viciously slap them for me. If they die, they deserved it.”

She had only said that to scare the magistrate’s daughter and didn’t actually mean for him to fatally hit anyone. She knew that her coachman normally acted with propriety, which is why she had specifically worded it that way.

But Ruan Yu was not concerned with any of that and coldly sneered: “If you wish to hit, then you ought to hit the master. I would actually like to see how disgusting the appearance of Shun Tian Hall’s magistrate’s wildly arrogant Eldest Miss is when she’s beaten such that she’s sprawling on the ground.”

The stone bridge became a cacophony of noise as the commoners encircled them to watch the scene.

When the patrolling officials discovered this, they loudly yelled for the crowd to disperse and came over to ask the reason for the trouble.

Ruan Zhu had been sitting in Yun Shi Yi’s carriage that was without any marking of a princess, but the engraving on the carriage of the magistrate’s daughter was clearly visible. Thus when the officials saw it, smiles immediately stretched across their faces as they spoke a few pleasant pandering phrases.

Wei Jia had long been waiting for a day when he could take revenge. His heart bursting with a proud anger, he coldly looked at Ruan Zhu before bursting into laughter: “Thirty years of the river in the east turns to thirty years of the river in the west.[a] It hasn’t even been two years and I can trample you Ruan clan to death like ants. That so-called ‘civilians do not fight with the officials’–this nobleman offers you the advice of hurriedly kneeling and begging for forgiveness. If my mood is good, perhaps I may only invite all of you inside Shun Tian Hall’s prison. If my mood is not good, even if all of you are killed on the spot, it would be in vain.”

How could there be so many narcissistic people in this world? He even calls himself a ‘nobleman’?

Ruan Zhu indifferently responded: “Wei Jia, my Ruan family does not owe you. Raising you to this age was already showing extreme benevolence and doing one’s utmost duty. It is all of you that do not know how to be grateful. All right then. I would actually like to see what ability you have to be able to send me into prison or even kill me on the spot.”

Ruan Yu’s anger had long been ignited: “You bastard without a conscience, you lowly thing, unable to tell good from bad. We should have sent your entire family to be sold off in a distant place so that the dog would not come back to bite Lu Dong Bin[b].”

[a] 三十年河东三十年河西 is an expression meaning the pendulum has swung back, basically saying the world has its ups and downs. The basis of the saying lies in the Yellow River of China that naturally changes course over time because of an increase in sediment along the bottoms of its channels, forming natural dams. So, the river may flow along the west for a few decades then switch to flowing along the east and so on.

[b] 吕洞宾 Lu Dong Bin is one of the Eight Immortals. (Wikipedia) His name was probably thrown in here because he is like a Western equivalent of a saint.

Chapter 92

Glossary

儿 | er |(lit. child) diminutive marker used as a form of endearment

时辰 | sichen |time system comprising of 12 two-hour periods of the day; one sichen is the equivalent of two modern hours

Wan Zi Yu? Ruan Zhu was startled: “But he is Ming Xiang Cui Yu’s young master, a highly eligible bachelor with both an exquisite appearance and wealth. Why on earth did he run into a brothel to be a courtesan?”

“In search of a thrill, maybe!”

Xuanyuan Zong Zhi had long become accustomed to his wife’s manner of speaking. Removing his clothes, he allowed his wife to wipe off his sweat with a towel moistened with warm water, a smile in his eyes. Other families’ wives all waited for their men to attend to them; his own family’s wife was a treasure that always took care of them men. Virtuous, warm and kind, with good moral character–As the number of females in the world decreased, those words had fallen into the depths of the sea to grow mold, yet his wife displayed them and embodied them perfectly.

“Because he’s searching for a thrill, he can, without a care in the world, become a flower thief, and become a mister of a brothel; destroying his reputation? Don’t tell me he’s not afraid of being discovered by others?”

Ruan Zhu threw off her husband’s trousers and wiped his member clean. She was afraid of catching a gynecological disease so she always demanded her husbands to be fresh and clean before they indulged in passion.

“Whenever Liu Fei Xu went to the brothel, he always wore a muslin veil and almost no one knew of his appearance; it was a mistake that I found out. While he had been working, his favored patron’s principal husband rushed over to catch them in the act. That husband’s martial arts skill had not been low and he had viciously beat him, tearing off his veil in the process. However, Liu Fei Xu was also truly ruthless. After his injury had healed, he spent an enormous sum to hire some people, sending them to the favored patron’s home and castrating that principal husband.”

“Nothing happened to you after you discovered his secret, right?”

Xuanyuan Zong Zhi smiled and pulled his wife into his arms, placing her properly on his lap while pushing aside her lapel and lightly touching the skin inside: “Your man is not so weak that even a flower thief cannot be beaten. I promised to keep his secret and the matter could be considered concluded.”

Ruan Zhu thought back to several years ago when she had gone to the Lan River to go sightseeing with Yun Shi Yi. She had unexpectedly came across Yu Lian Hua, who had said that with one light stare from Wan Zi Yu, any woman who sees him would have no resistance, but it was a pity that he always wore a veil as no one had ever seen the face behind it.

“Liu Fei Xu is of a different class in this era and super high quality. However, even if his activities had been better concealed, there would inevitably be a day when everything was exposed.” Ruan Zhu did not extremely dislike that person and shook her head: “A pity. The only fault was that he was born in the wrong era.”

Just like what she had previously thought, everyone had lewd thoughts and the ones who were bold turned them into reality. In her past life, she had seen news about an United Kingdom hooker called Jenny Thompson, whose father was an oil engineer with a considerable income. She had gone to a very good school since she was young and basically didn’t lack anything in her life. In search of excitement, she could have affairs with a hundred men, and because her sex life was so chaotic, she had an unexpected pregnancy and wasn’t even clear on who the father was.

“Our family currently only has four males and is still lacking a fifth that you must accept before you turn twenty. Even if you are my princess consort, you cannot go against the rules. There are so many pairs of eyes watching and previously, Prime Minister Wang even brought up having his bastard son attend to you. I gave an excuse of needing your opinion and delayed the proposal.”

Ruan Zhu listened quietly. The candidates for her Number Five must be honest and well-behaved as the tranquility of her home must not be undermined because of a stupid man.

Xuanyuan Zong Zhi peeled off each piece of his wife’s clothing. There was geothermal heating underneath and the inside of the room was nice and warm so he was not afraid she would catch a cold. He continued: “Every time Liu Fei Xu appeared in the brothel, he was very well-received. The women were completely infatuated with him and all dreamed to tear off that veil of his. Has my Zhu’er also come to be fond of him?”

“What are you saying? I am not a stallion female. If that kind of man were to ever join our family, pandemonium would break out. Also, who knows whether he has those dirty disease or not? If he spread it, I might not even be able to have children in the future.”

In her previous world, there were countless women who had gynecological diseases and gave birth to children that were both mute and deaf. Ruan Zhu absolutely would not allow that sort of situation to occur. “If I must have five men, I am actually not opposed to Nuan Chun taking that position, but men with unrestrained and improper conduct are absolutely out of the question.”

“Not liking is good. I was also afraid you would like that, and to be honest, that man is very annoying and I look down upon him. However, Nuan Chun’s status is too low and is insufficient to be the fifth.”

“What do you mean his status is too low and he is insufficient? I can remove him from the slave registry and then he would also have the identity of a freed man. Or how about we find a wealthy family to adopt him?”

“We can discuss this in the future, let us do something more honorable and proper first.”

One of Xuanyuan Zong Zhi’s hands was one top, one was below as he teased his wife’s sensitive spots. His finger that had gone to explore her depths both prodded and thrust back and forth, causing her entire face to be full of arousal and her breathing to become hurried and delicate.

He saw it was nearly about time and positioned her so that she was straddling his crotch, holding his stiff member as it entered inside her. The warmth and tightness attacked him, and his entire body felt both heated and limp, completely free of worries……He supported her buttocks. While he twitched inside her, he got up from the chair and headed towards the bed in a position like they were watching flowers from horseback.

“Don’t……Stand just like that……I want it like this……” Ruan Zhu’s legs were wrapped around his waist while her arms embraced his neck as she softly moaned out her demands: “So arousing……so good……I like it……”

Xuanyuan Zong Zhi heard her words and stood there, supporting her derriere with his hands while his shaft continued to fiercely thrust in and out of her.

Both people received immense satisfaction and pleasure.

Half a sichen later, both of them were lying on the bed.

Ruan Zhu had been pulled by her husband into his arms, and she mused after thinking about what had happened today: “Big Brother Lu, none of the Four Great Masters are ordinary. Lu Piao Xiang’s guqin; Wan Zi Yu’s looks; Feng Qing Bai’s verses; Shen Cong Yun’s sword. Because my poems were good, Feng Qi Bai greeted me today and expressed his earnestness to be friends……” Ruan Zhu saw that her husband was deeply considering something and hurried to add: “Don’t think too much, I don’t have any other meaning.”

Xuanyuan Zong Zhi laughed: “I think it is you whose thoughts have gone in the wrong direction as I was not even considering that possibility. I was thinking about this morning’s court–we had just been dismissed and I had yet to leave when I was called back by Xiao Zhou Zi and led to Emperor-Father’s palace where I was handed some newly circulated poems to read. There was one regarding an unknown celestial palace and two verses on plum blossoms that he said was your work. Wife, you are genuinely skilled; look at how a few casually spoken poems were able to cause such a sensation in an extremely short amount of time.”

The current emperor liked dance and literature. So much so, that every time he discovered there was a new and popular poem in Tian Chu, he would rush to hear and appreciate it. Even if he had been sleeping, he valued hearing the new verses over getting properly dressed first.

Ruan Zhu yawned: “Today I was put in a tough spot by the madam of the prefectural magistrate. I hadn’t wanted to be too pretentious as there was no bit of meaning in being so.”

The Chinese have always placed too much importance on literary works, which actually caused their science and technology to lag behind. On the contrary, she was currently interested in that high-tech experimental field on the banks of the Lan River. Spending money for people to gather various forms of rice seeds from all over the country, she had then used the seeds to create multiple rice hybrids and find the hybrid seed with the most yield. Rice wasn’t all she had done–a new type of pear had been formed after grafting apple trees with pear trees, and apple trees grafted with grape vines resulted in plump grapes that were sweet and refreshing.

“Did the madam of the prefectural magistrate especially made it difficult for you?”

“She really does want to make it difficult for me, but she fails every time and probably hates me to death in her heart. Up to now, she still owes me two hundred taels of gold and hasn’t honored it yet!”

“Would you like this husband to step in and resolve the matter?”

“No need! She’s merely a brainless fifth-rank madam who is not as talented in literature as I am or have as extensive experiences as me. Your wife is not so below average that she cannot deal with that kind of person. Let’s sleep! Lord Husband, I’m tired.”

Xuanyuan Zong Zhi’s eyes lingered on his wife’s sleeping face, a bit of gloominess in his heart. It had been ten days before it was his turn so how could one round be enough? He sneezed. Forget it, he would ask for compensation early tomorrow morning. Cuddling his wife, he soon entered dreamland.

Ci Ji Hall was this era’s charity. Ruan Yu was too lazy to make friends with some brainless women and had been friends with Dong Fang Hua for a while now. After Xuanyuan Zong Zhi’s information network, Tian Wang Embassy, had been established, Nangong Xun had assumed its heavy responsibility and Dong Fang Hua had been so busy assisting her husband, she hadn’t had time to call upon Ruan Yu.

Ruan Yu was isolated and was also unwilling to have dealings with opinionated women, so if she was free, she would roam around Ci Ji Hall. Under the flag of doing charity, she would contribute money and donate clothing. In the beginning, it was to pass the time but she became obsessed after she ran into a man.

“That mister is very young and handsome, but I do not know what his clan name is. The first time I met him was in the back street of Ci Ji Hall. I was afraid they had closed the city gates, and because I was rushing home, I used the back door and ran into him.”

Guan Ju Villa was on the banks of the Lan River, outside of the city. Although Ruan Yu had a pass token given to her from her Brother-in-law, she rarely used it because of the inconvenience it would bring.

“You can’t have simply liked him without anything happening; something had to have happened, right!”

The two sisters were sitting in the carriage. They had just entered the city when unexpectedly, something troublesome occurred.

Because the new year was approaching, the commoners had all come out to shop and the streets were extremely crowded. Carriages followed carriages, workers hauled poles on their shoulders, and the teeming streets buzzed with people pushing small carts.

Ruan Zhu called for the coachman to reduce the speed; they absolutely could not hurt anyone. They approached a narrow stone bridge with pedestrian using either sides while carriages drove by in the middle. Two vehicles could cross side-by-side with no problem but three carriages would result in an accident.

There were numerous noble clans underneath the Son of Heaven’s feet and some of the insanely proud ones would inevitably appear. A carriage directly appeared in front of them. Perhaps they were in a rush to get on the road, as they very quickly, attempted to charge at the gap between the vehicles of Ruan Zhu’s and another family’s.

The other vehicle was a donkey cart that was truly out of luck. They flipped over in an instant, blood-curdling screams coming from the cart, and it could be assumed their injuries were not light.

The Ruan carriage was superbly made from mahogany and pulled by four horses that were all good colts from central Asia that had received training. The expert coachman was highly skilled. When they were forcefully struck by the carriage in front, he backed up their carriage by two meters and the carriage quickly stabilized.

But the two sisters inside the carriage had still been thrown about. A corner of the skin at Ruan Yu’s forehead had split and blood flowed out. Ruan Zhu crawled up from underneath the seat and fished out a handkerchief to wipe her blood before using ning xiang lu on the injured areas.

Ruan Yu endured the pain and wanted to go outside to demand for justice. She hadn’t yet left the carriage……The coachman who had caused the accident got down from his own vehicle and slashed his whip towards Ruan Zhu’s driver: “You blind dog slave didn’t see a carriage coming? This is but the carriage of the wife of Shun Tian Hall’s magistrate. Are you able to compensate after injuring my family’s Eldest Miss?”

Everyone wore thick cotton clothes in the cold winter and the whip slash did not hurt too much. But ever since his Eldest Miss had become a Princess, the Ruan residence’s coachman had even been praised by those above in being one with ability and his face shone with light. Whenever he went in and out of the neighborhood, who among the neighbors didn’t place him highly in their eyes? He had never been slashed by a whip in the middle of the street before.

The Ruan clan’s coachman glared as he hollered abuse back: “You’re the one that’s blind. You can’t even properly follow the road; you must be urgently heading towards reincarnation, ah? Has your head been kicked by a donkey? What kind of status does the magistrate’s Young Miss have, ah? Fuck, you’re all brainless.”

Ruan Zhu came down from the carriage at that time. Hearing those sentences, she gloomily supported her forehead with her hand. How come even the servants had picked up her way of speaking?

The owners of the carriage that had caused the accident descended, and Ruan Zhu was stunned as there was someone she recognized–among them was a man gorgeously dressed with a handsome complexion, who was also a blood relative.

Wei Jia! Ruan Zhu thought she had already long forgotten that name.

Standing next to Wei Jia was a young female who was rather familiar-looking. Oh right, wasn’t this the daughter of Shun Tian Hall’s magistrate?

The magistrate was the Crown Prince’s henchman so his daughter had been promised to the crippled Zhao Hai. During that time in the capital, Zhao Hai’s life had been caught in her plan for him to ride the wooden donkey and the magistrate’s daughter had also become a laughingstock.

The magistrate’s daughter’s face was entirely tinted with anger: “From where did these untouchables come from to dare disturb this lady’s mood of going to see the plum blossoms with my concubine?”

Wei Jia had become the magistrate’s daughter’s secondary husband and knew how to curry favor just like his father! Ruan Zhu silently cursed them in her heart.

The Wei Jia on the side opened his mouth: “This slave recognizes these two females; they are from a lowly merchant family.” When he saw the two Ruan sisters coming down from their carriage, his face instantly became gloomy.

Disgust was all over the magistrate’s daughter’s face: “So they are of the merchant stratum; I was thinking how they could be so coarse. Zhou Er, go over and viciously slap them for me. If they die, they deserved it.”

The coachman called Zhou Er sprang towards the Ruan family’s driver, fists flailing, and the two men came to blows.

But how could Ruan Zhu’s coachman be ordinary? He had grown up together with the two Yun brothers and had learned a few martial arts moves. He very quickly restrained the other onto the ground and fiercely beat him up.

Ruan Zhu also smiled. Copying the words of the magistrate’s daughter, she directed towards her coachman: “Viciously slap them for me. If they die, they deserved it.”

She had only said that to scare the magistrate’s daughter and didn’t actually mean for him to fatally hit anyone. She knew that her coachman normally acted with propriety, which is why she had specifically worded it that way.

But Ruan Yu was not concerned with any of that and coldly sneered: “If you wish to hit, then you ought to hit the master. I would actually like to see how disgusting the appearance of Shun Tian Hall’s magistrate’s wildly arrogant Eldest Miss is when she’s beaten such that she’s sprawling on the ground.”

The stone bridge became a cacophony of noise as the commoners encircled them to watch the scene.

When the patrolling officials discovered this, they loudly yelled for the crowd to disperse and came over to ask the reason for the trouble.

Ruan Zhu had been sitting in Yun Shi Yi’s carriage that was without any marking of a princess, but the engraving on the carriage of the magistrate’s daughter was clearly visible. Thus when the officials saw it, smiles immediately stretched across their faces as they spoke a few pleasant pandering phrases.

Wei Jia had long been waiting for a day when he could take revenge. His heart bursting with a proud anger, he coldly looked at Ruan Zhu before bursting into laughter: “Thirty years of the river in the east turns to thirty years of the river in the west.[a] It hasn’t even been two years and I can trample you Ruan clan to death like ants. That so-called ‘civilians do not fight with the officials’–this nobleman offers you the advice of hurriedly kneeling and begging for forgiveness. If my mood is good, perhaps I may only invite all of you inside Shun Tian Hall’s prison. If my mood is not good, even if all of you are killed on the spot, it would be in vain.”

How could there be so many narcissistic people in this world? He even calls himself a ‘nobleman’?

Ruan Zhu indifferently responded: “Wei Jia, my Ruan family does not owe you. Raising you to this age was already showing extreme benevolence and doing one’s utmost duty. It is all of you that do not know how to be grateful. All right then. I would actually like to see what ability you have to be able to send me into prison or even kill me on the spot.”

Ruan Yu’s anger had long been ignited: “You bastard without a conscience, you lowly thing, unable to tell good from bad. We should have sent your entire family to be sold off in a distant place so that the dog would not come back to bite Lu Dong Bin[b].”

[a] 三十年河东三十年河西 is an expression meaning the pendulum has swung back, basically saying the world has its ups and downs. The basis of the saying lies in the Yellow River of China that naturally changes course over time because of an increase in sediment along the bottoms of its channels, forming natural dams. So, the river may flow along the west for a few decades then switch to flowing along the east and so on.

[b] 吕洞宾 Lu Dong Bin is one of the Eight Immortals. (Wikipedia) His name was probably thrown in here because he is like a Western equivalent of a saint.