CH 11

Chapter 11 Rumors

Zhao Chunxi was very ill. She even took a few doses of strong medicine to lower the high fever. She needed to lie in bed and rest for ten days to half a month to regain her vitality. When Guan Suyi learned about the situation from the imperial physician Cheng, she secretly said ‘serve you right’ in her heart, but on the surface she looked very distressed and brought soup to visit every day. Now she has developed a new hobby, that is, silently admiring Zhao Chunxi’s apparent resistance to hatred, but having to pretend to be grateful.

On this day, she put the stewed turtle soup in the food box, and led Minglan to walk towards Penglai Garden. As for Mingfang, as early as the day after the wedding, she offered herself to take care of the seriously ill eldest miss. At the moment, she might be dreaming of becoming a concubine.

The two talked while walking, walking slowly, not afraid that the soup would be cold, Zhao Chunxi never drink it anyway, only find an excuse to put it aside, then pour it into the bucket when they leave.

Minglan rubbed her nose and couldn’t bear the smell of the turtle soup. “Miss, why do you stew turtle soup every time? This smell is so strong that most people don’t like to drink it.”

Guan Suyi chuckled, “Turtle’s grandson should drink turtle soup. The ordinary people say to supplement shape with shape. As long as master comes to have a meal in the future, you have to serve this dish, remember it?” It’s fun to supplement ten thousand years old turtle! (t/n: let’s simplify, turtle = bastard)

Minglan didn’t know why her mistress hated the master so much. Although she smiled and spoke with a gentle tone, but there was a big problem with her words. What kind of beasts, turtle, and turtle grandson, one was more slanderous than the other. As if like the master dug her ancestral grave in the previous life.

Even though there were thousands of doubts in her mind, Minglan didn’t dare to ask anymore, but guarded the food box more carefully.

“Miss, you are here.” As soon as the two of them stepped into Penglai Garden, Mingfang hurriedly greeted her, raised the curtain while smiling, “Please come in, just now the young miss still talking about you, asking this servant when will you come. The marquis has just arrived, with a lot of snow grain on his body, and he is changing his clothes inside.”

The door curtain made of shells and jade beads clashed for a while, and then a crimson beautiful shadow moved lightly and stepped in, illuminating the dim inner room. Zhao Chunxi quickly sat up and called affectionately, “Mother, daughter has been ill for a long time, it’s really drags you down. Piaoxu, move the embroidered stool to the bedside so that my mother can sit closer to me, then we mother and daughter can hold hands and talk.”

Guan Suyi unobtrusively stroked the back of her hand, feeling that it was covered with goose bumps. Zhao Chunxi probably already knew that her dowry was sent to the main house by the old lady, so her attitude changed drastically. She remember that in the previous life, before taking back the dowry, she was also fawning like this, acted like a baby, and coaxed herself round and round. Thinking about it now, the age difference between the two was not that big, one was thirteen and the other was eighteen, it was only five years. Why her thinking was so deep, that she almost couldn’t see the bottom of it?

This point probably followed after Ye Zhen, and Ye Fan was also not bad, indeed originally from family learning.

As soon as Guan Suyi sat down on the embroidered stool, Zhao Luli came in. Seeing Minglan carrying a bowl of turtle soup to feed his daughter, he hurriedly said, “I’m hungry too. Give me a bowl first.” After taking a sip, he put it down, said “It tastes good, but it’s a bit hot, so let it cool before eating it.”

Would you drink it after it was cold? Guan Suyi smiled and agreed, but her heart was clear. The father and daughter could not decide how to guard against her in their hearts. In the previous life it was probably the same, but at the time she was full of gratitude to the Marquis Mansion, and didn’t think much about it. The bastard drinks the bastard soup, which matches very well.

Zhao Luli felt that his new wife’s smile was a little weird, but he couldn’t say how, so he quickly put it aside. Before he was sure that the other party was harmless, he would not let his children get too close to her. The three of them gave the false front, and when the snow stopped outside, they each breathed a sigh of relief.

Stepping out of Penglai Garden, making sure that there was no one around, Minglan complained, “Look at lord marquis being so polite, really don’t treat you as his own person. And Miss Zhao, on the surface, looks very proper and affectionate, the words are also beautiful, not one drop of water can leak out. But this servant thinking in private, always felt something was wrong.”

Guan Suyi brushed off the goose bumps on the back of her hand, and smiled without saying a word. When the two walked to a warm pavilion area, they saw a handsome boy in a mink fur coat running up and down, seeing the master and servant, his eyes widened immediately, “Are you Guan shi? That day I hid under the window of the joy room and secretly saw you.”

Guan Suyi was about to answer, he spontaneously rushed over, took her one arm and shook it, “My sister is sick, and my dad wants to accompany her. No one is playing with me. Walk around and go skating with me.”

“Are you Zhao Wangshu? If I remember correctly, you should be in the clan school at this hour?” Guan Suyi bent down to look at him with a joking expression.

Now that Confucianism was prevalent, the emperor released a message a few days ago that he wanted to use the imperial examination to select officials. This was the first step to break the dominance of noble families and the first step to abolish the Nine-grade Zhongzheng system. Although the big noble clans had many ways to obstruct, but they had lost too much of their heritage in the flames of war, and they were unable to resist the new emperor, and there were so many poor scholars in the world that it would be best to support them. Therefore, within three years, the imperial examinations system would become the most important way to become officials. Although Zhao Luli was a living turtle, but at any rate he has some insights, so he established clan school on the day the decree came out, and hired a great scholar as a master for his son, hoping that one day he would be able to rely on his learning to pursue official careers.

But Zhao Wangshu didn’t appreciate it, and tried his best to play truant and be lazy. He was ten years old this year, at the age when he loves to play around and be lawless. He drag his stepmother into the frozen lotus pond, “I went to school in the morning. Hurry up, there is a sled board made by Zhao Erbao for me buried in the snow over there, it’s fun!”

Guan Suyi was stumbling, with great difficulty stood up and said, “You will go to the clan school with me first, if you really went to school, I’ll take you to play again. But if you lie to me, I’ll tell your father.”

“I said I went to school means I went to school. Why are you so stubborn?” Zhao Wangshu was a little angry and stomped his feet, “Your dad and grandfather’s official posts were obtained by my father begging to the emperor. You married to the Zhao’s family is climbing higher branch. You should be obedient and humble everywhere. How can you you screw it up with this young master? Will you play with this young master or not? Give me your word!”

“Not playing. Go, I’ll take you back to school.” Guan Suyi stepped forward to pull Zhao Wangshu, but he broke away after a few tugs, in an instant ran ten meters away, yelling angrily, “Okay, you Guan shi, actually dare to defy this young master! I don’t want you to be my mother, so daddy will divorce you! And your grandfather and your father don’t even think about becoming an official, this is the fate of offending this young master!” He stomped his feet and ran away quickly, seemed to be afraid of being dragged back to the clan school.

Guan Suyi stared at his distant back with an unpredictable expression. In the last life, she had a headache for this stubborn stepson and spent countless energy to teach and persuade him. Because her grandfather devoted his whole life to teaching and educating people, she was exposed to some methods, slowly brought her stepson into proper order, and brought him up very well. Unexpectedly, he not only didn’t know how to be grateful, but also falsely accused his stepmother of having an affair with an outside man, and forcibly erased the last trace of warmth she had towards the Marquis Mansion.

To start all over again, where did Guan Suyi have the leisure to teach this little devil, just to watch him grew up and became crooked, and finally ruined by Ye Fan’s hands. The snowflakes that had just disappeared began to fall again and again. She took one, covered it in her palm, and whispered , “Let’s go back.”

Minglan tremblingly followed, and asked in a low voice, “Miss, what if you chase the young master back, then play sledding with him? Even if you don’t like lord marquis, you still have to think about Master and the Old Master. Their official positions depend on lord marquis…”

Before the little girl finished speaking, Guan Suyi sneered, “Who tell you that the Guan family need to lean on the Marquis Mansion?”

“But everyone say that.” Minglan whispered.

“It seems that this rumor has spread throughout the Marquis Zhenbei Mansion?” Guan Suyi smiled, with a cold expression, “If it change to a short-sighted and ignorance woman, chances are she will be fooled by this rumor, then she will be grateful and fearful toward the Marquis Mansion. I don’t know what the people behind this rumors think of Guan Suyi, a fool? With Zhao Luli’s good-for-nothing behavior, he can find super-first-grade official post. He thinks he can fly?”

“Miss, isn’t the master and old master’s official post asked by lord marquis?” Minglan couldn’t believe that the Guan family, who came from a poor and humble family, would be valued by the high above emperor, after all, there were so many noble families in Yanjing.

Guan Suyi denied it unhesitatingly but didn’t explain it anymore, because Minglan wouldn’t understand it at all. But this was not to blamed on her, the Nine-grade Zhongzheng system had been popular for hundreds of years, and only the disciples of the noble family could hold high positions, and even if poor scholars with ambition were talented, they couldn’t make advancement. There was no such thing as an example of sudden wealth like the Guan family. It was like a mythical story in the ears of ordinary people. If this story was related to Marquis Zhenbei, it would become credible. Without the help of Marquis Zhenbei, how could there be Guan family like today? This was roughly the consensus of ordinary people.

However, behind the outward appearance, who would have thought that this was a magnificent emperor paving the way for his own eternal world? Not to mention the common people trapped in the world below, even many scholars, afraid that they would not have thought of such far-reaching idea. Thinking of certain someone sitting on the dragon chair, Guan Suyi couldn’t tell whether she should admired or resented him more. After all, the tragedies of her two lifetimes were inseparable from him.

But he was too far away from her, as far as the sky, so she could only look up, resentment was out of the question.

—–

Guan Suyi did not trace the source, did not kill the chickens and curse the monkeys to suppress the rumors, only on the next day, when Zhao Luli and she returned to her family’s house and attended a family banquet, she suddenly raised a wine cup to toast, “The people in the mansion said, grandfather’s and father’s official position was requested by the marquis, This Concubine is grateful for this. Both of them enter the officialdom for the first time, and they don’t understand everything, will troubled the marquis to take care of it. This one cup This Concubine drink first, my lord as you wish.”

Zhao Luli, who was still smiling, became stiff in an instant, and didn’t know how to respond to these words.

Old Master Guan and Father Guan both looked at him, their eyes full of scrutiny. They were so good at teaching Guan Suyi, they were naturally not short-sighted, they had long understood the emperor’s intention to put the Guan family in high position, and they knew how to deal with themselves in the future. This official position was not requested by anyone, it was based solely on their true talents. But Zhao Mansion had spread such rumors, wasn’t it mean the face of his granddaughter (daughter), and even the face of Guan’s family, had been trampled to the ground?

The Guan family’s father and son, who had a good impression of Zhao Luli, who was well-mannered and dignified, now showed a little contempt.

Zhao Luli looked at his new wife, and then at the others, slowly tightening his knuckles, almost crushing the wine cup. Where did he have the ability to seek the position of Emperor’s teacher and one of The Nine Ministers for Guan’s family? If this word reaches Huo Shengzhe, how could he not laugh at his boasting and ridiculousness? Especially the father and son of the Guan family were now close ministers of the emperor, it was very possible to say a few words before him. That scene was equivalent to abruptly pulling his face off and stepping on it, which was painful.

Guan Suyi’s toast, Zhao Luli would not dare to respond, he wished to escape into the ground and flee back to Marquis Mansion, strangling all the people who spread the rumor to death. He was embarrassed enough, and Huo Shengzhe must not be allowed to see him even more embarrassed.