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Chapter 203: Before and After the Feast (124.1)

Translator: Iris

The next day, people in Gu’s mansion all started to get busy before the daybreak. It was the first time Minglan had woken up earlier than Gu Tingye. Before she got up, she kissed on his straight nose and said gently, “Enjoy your rare day-off. Later you have to drink wines with the guests. Have a good rest now.”

Gu Tingye was not willing to let her go. After he had held her slender waist in his arms, he suddenly pressed her under his body with his flexible hands reaching into her clothes expertly. These days he had made allowance for Minglan’s difficulties and restrained his desire every night. However, there still had been a few times he had nearly lost control after he had touched and bit Minglan’s body. Therefore, he had had to take his wife by the hand and teach her to ‘do it’ in another way.

Little did he know that the clever girl would learn so quickly that she had made him go into ecstasies every time.

Minglan couldn’t catch her breath being pressed by him. Then she pinched on his waist fiercely. However, he only bit on her earlobe and pounced on her again with his burning hot body. After they had tossed in bed for a while, Minglan finally got rid of him. Having covered her ears and got off the bed, she then started to order someone to help her get dressed.

She never really liked the heavy formal wear. Thinking of her workload today, she decided to dress herself up as simply as she could. Then, she put on a brand-new purple slanting gown embroidered with entwined magnolia flowers with two digits width bright purple edge, which made her look slender and graceful, and a purple pleated long skirt. She shaped her hair into a loose bun, anchored by a hairpin with a gold phoenix on top inlaid with a thumb size emerald which sparkled in the sunlight.

Normally, the family which moved to a new mansion had to offer sacrifice to God and invite a sorcerer to practise magic arts in the midnight before the home warming day. Nonetheless, since Gu’s mansion used to be another official’s mansion (Cheng Garden), it had only been through some renovations. Therefore, there was no need for a whole set of the sacrifice ceremony. Minglan only picked the time in the broad daylight to open all the sixteen red doors of the Morning Sunlight Hall and set out the immolation including a whole pig, fish, chicken and duck on red plates, twelve basins of fresh fruits and nuts from both the south and the north area, plus twenty-four kinds of famous dishes.

After all those work had been done, Gu Tingye finally came out slowly. The indigo-blue long embroidered rope with golden streaks he wore today made him look extremely handsome and graceful. His arms were strong and huge but his waist was rather slim. When this tall man walked slowly, he carried himself in a super refined way.

The candles had been lit up in the hall. Gu Tingye burnt the incense to worship the God in the middle without any other families of him beside him except for his wife. Meanwhile, there were servants standing on both sides of the hall– Minglan had suggested to let Rongjie’er move into their mansion early to prevent the hall from being too empty when they worshiped the God. However, Gu Tingye had only shook his head without saying anything. Seeing the depressed look on his face, Minglan had stopped saying anything else.

However, after a short while, Gu Tingye had suddenly got excited. He had stood in the spacious Morning Sunlight Hall and said smilingly, “After eight or ten years, this room will be full of my children!”

Then, he stared at Minglan with passionate and encouraging look in his eyes. Minglan shivered right away and almost spitted out something like ‘I will definitely live up to your expectation, boss.’ After that, she glanced at the Morning Sunlight Hall which was as large as half of a basketball playground, feeling herself having a long way to go and needing to share out the work and cooperate with others.

After they had finished the worship, Gu Tingye led a few people to the outer yard. In the meantime, Minglan was engaged in listening to the reports of a bunch of servants and maids. The snacks and the tea had been set out on the tables. The instruments and the musicians were ready. The servants who were in charge of guiding the guests had already lined up by the door... At this moment, the sound of firecrackers came through from the front door. After that, Wang Gui’s wife came here from the second door to report, “Fourth Old Master, Fifth Old Master as well as other masters from Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion were already here. They are chatting in the front hall now.”

After all, as the members of the Gu family, they should be the first to arrive. In this regard, those people were still reliable. Therefore, Minglan decided to put more efforts in entertaining the female guests of Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion.

After she led the crowd into the flower hall, she ordered someone to serve the tea, fruits and all kinds of seasonal snacks. As everyone started to talk with each other, Minglan called the maids to serve the guests while observing the people in the room. She found that almost all the madams had come today except for Madam Shao from the First Family. At present, the room was full of women with splendid jewels and their laughter. Actually, Minglan had only met those relatives of her for a few times, so she didn’t know what to say except for ‘Please make yourself at home.’ Then she just played the trick which she was best at– Playing dumb.

When Fourth Old Madam praised the mansion as a splendid and elegant place, Minglan then doubled the complimentary remarks towards the buildings in Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion. When Zhu shi praised Minglan’s family being harmonious and well governed, Minglan said modestly, “I have learned from the best. The elders in our family are always my model.” In this way, she also showed a great respect to the three old madams’ ways of managing the family. When Second Madam Di from the fifth family made joke of Minglan’s married life and described Minglan and Gu Tingye as an overly sweet lovers, Minglan only lowered her head with redness on her face and pretended to be shy.

“Second Brother Ye truly is promising now. His Majesty has rewarded him servants and silvers to establish his own mansion. That really is a special grace!” Second Madam Bing from the fourth family laughed loudly while saying that. Her laughter which was as loud as the copper bell(Attention, no the clear and pleasant kind of sound) only made Minglan’s ear tingle. Meanwhile,this woman still held Minglan’s arms with her thin eyebrows dancing on her face, saying, “Don’t forget about his own brothers in the family. Let us share the glory!”

Second Madam Bing had spoken out the minds of lots of the guests there. So they all looked at Minglan, finding the latter only lowering her head and saying softly, “Second Sister-in-Law, you are right.”

That was all? All the guests were speechless.

Second Madam Bing didn’t want to give up so easily. Then she dragged Minglan’s hand and said with a smile, “I am taking your words seriously. Don’t push me away when I ask you a favor in the future!” Although her husband Gu Tingbing was an illegal son, Fourth Old Master actually preferred him than Gu Tingxuan, the legal son of their family. What’s more, Gu Tingbing’s mother, a concubine who was favored by Fourth Old Master a lot was still alive. She had given birth to two sons and daughters, but half of her children had died young.

Minglan, feeling a bit displeased, only replied her with a hum. Then she looked to the guests with a vaguely appealing look. Second Madam Bing was not satisfied with Minglan’s answer and still wanted to say something more. Then Fourth Old Madam coughed lightly and said in an angry tone, “You are here to have the meal or press for payment of debts. Just stop.”

Second Madam Bing blushed and closed her mouth reluctantly. She, having glanced at Fourth Old Madam secretly with a disdainful look in her eyes, sat back on her seat at last. Gu Tingyan looked over and then brought all of her cousins to the House of Hundred Treasure to have a chat.

Minglan looked at Fourth Old Madam who was in the crowd and expressed her thanks with a smile. Fourth Old Madam nodded slowly– Minglan knew that not all the people in Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion were her enemies. As powerful as Gu Tingye was right now, there would definitely be someone who wanted to make up to him. So Minglan only needed to see which one of those people could stand up for her in critical moments.

Obviously, Fourth Old Madam was the one Minglan was looking for, so was her Eldest Daughter-in-Law. The first time Minglan had met Sister Xuan-in-law, the latter had shown a kind attitude toward her. And while the women were still talking, Sister Xuan-in-law even retorted lots of reasonable or unreasonable scoffs toward Minglan.