Chapter 80 - Group blind dating
Later, on the Tomb-Sweeping Day of the next year, Luo Chuanxiong went back to Luo’s Family to burn papers money for her dead father. She went to the West Lateral court to see her daughter who rose from the dead, which she was told six months ago. However, she saw that the West Lateral court was chaotic as if it had been robbed by bandits several times, and the ground was covered with lime dust. But she couldn’t see her ten-year-old daughter. Then she realized that Luo’s Family had never brought her daughter back from Shui Shang Temple. Although she was a little annoyed, she couldn’t complain about anyone. After thinking about it, she went to see Madam Luo and got the latter’s consent, sending Mammy Song to pick He Danggui up to Luo’s Family, and she would still live in the West Lateral court when she got back.
He Danggui came back with a bellyful of grievances. And she ran to Madam Luo and her mother to complain as soon as she came back.
On the one hand, Madam Luo was still angry at the little girl for keeping a group of mice in her yard, which eventually caused the rodent problem at Luo’s Family six months ago. On the other hand, she felt that He Danggui was exaggerating too much. The life in the Taoist temple was a little poor and simple. But with greens and tofu all day, she was not hungry, right? Besides, the Taoist nuns letting her do a bit of physical works, like cleaning the table and sweeping the floor, were supposed to toughen her disposition and enlighten her spirits. The reason why she said so was because she was too weak to bear even a little hardship. Therefore, Madam Luo didn’t care much about what He Danggui had complained. Seeing Madam Luo’s indifferent attitude, Luo Chuanxiong had no reason to speak. So, she told Madam Luo that she was exhausted and then went to the back hall to read Scriptures.
Later, the servants of Madam Luo came to report Second Mistress Luo, saying that the Third Miss ran to tell Madam Luo that Taoist nuns had been abusing her, and no one of her family went to visit her for half a year. Second Mistress Luo thought that the fact she had withheld the “caring fee” had been uncovered, but Madam Luo didn’t blame her only for the sake of her honor as the master of the family. Therefore, Second Mistress Luo was furious and blamed that on He Danggui again, doubling down on her food and clothing expense publicly or secretly. Anyway, everyone knew He Danggui was awkward with people. For a poor speaker like her, she couldn’t even get any advantage even if she snitched others.
Luo Chuanxiong went back to Sanqing Temple again after Tomb-Sweeping Day. Therefore, He Danggui could complain to nobody afterwards. And she could only wipe her tears all day liked a little woman who was wrongly treated. In this way, He Danggui lived in the dilapidated West Lateral court, which had once been full of rats, until she was married at the age of 14. Therefore, this West Lateral court became the place where most of her memorable nightmares began.
If this court couldn’t be burned to the ground, she would never forget the cold and helpless memories of the past life, and there would be no real sense of a fresh start. So, this time, she must burn the West Lateral court before stepping into the gate of Luo’s Family.
“Wow, the Hawthorn tea tastes so good! It’s so much better than the fruit tea I used to drink!” With the annoyance caused by thirst disappeared, Madam Luo smiled at Mammy Tang and said, “It tastes so good, even better than the fruit tea made by Gan Cao. Maybe I will miss this favor when I drink Gan Cao’s plum tea next time!”
historical
Mammy Tang also held a cup of the Hawthorn tea up to her nose and smelled. She didn’t start drinking until Madam Luo had finished drinking. Although He Danggui had prepared 5 large bamboo slips of tea, which was enough for two cows, not to mention two people. But Mammy Tang had been used to satisfy the masters’ needs first for many years.
After having a cup of the Hawthorn tea, Madam Luo couldn’t help having another one cup and bottomed up. She acted totally different from the way she acted at home. In the mansion, there were always several little maids who had to take turns persuading her to eat. And finally, she just took a little grudgingly.
Seeing Madam Luo was fond of the Hawthorn tea so much, Mammy Tang also felt honored because she had recommended that to Madam Luo before, so she said delightedly, “Like I said, it tastes much better than fresh fruit soup. If you drink a cup of it, you will feel refreshed and want more. Hence, I asked Third Miss for her secret recipe. Third Miss not only told me the secret, but also said she would send me some if she gets good materials, ha ha. Now that you like it so much, all we need to do is to find some more fruits and honey, so that Third Miss will make the Hawthorn tea for you to drink every day.” After she finished, she sipped a bit and was surprised, “This is much better than the last one. I can’t imagine a little bit of Schisandra chinensis could change the flavor so much! You’re enjoying not only the tea with its original sweet and sour, but also an unforgettable aftertaste!”
He Danggui fiddled with the tea set on the small tea table, which sounded as clear as a pearl falling on a jade plate, “This is a tea-making method that I learnt from a book. Schisandra chinensis was involved originally. But I only need some tea to quench my thirst, so I didn’t bother myself to look for it specially. Master Tai Shan happened to ask me to go to the Medicine Pavilion and get her some medicine for her leg pain. So, I brought more than 1 liang Schisandra chinensis for making tea. I didn’t expect that Grandma also likes it. Please take this as a gift. Just remember, it’s a good appetizer in autumn and winter, but it’s a bit dry in spring and summer. I will make other kinds of teas for you by then.”
Madam Luo was so happy that she touched He Danggui’s head and said, “After the guidance of Xianweng, you really changed. You had never said so much in one month totally before. However, now you’re enlightened! Because of clumsy tongue, Chuanxiong had never reasoned for herself even if she suffered a lot of losses. I always thought that Yi would follow her mother.” Hearing the pharmacology knowledge from He Danggui’s words and she had found medicines to deal with the Taoist nun’s illness, Madam Luo could not help wondering, “Sweat kid. Where did you get this ability to recognize medicine? You didn’t know anything about it before, huh? You just said you have read books? When did you become literate, Yi?”
He Danggui was indeed illiterate in her previous life at this age, so the letter sent by Nie Chun just now was wrote with her left hand. She tried her best to write and pretend to be a beginner who wrote four or five shapes of the same word as well as plenty of misspelled words. The whole letter was barely “recognizable.” So, just now, Madam Luo did not have doubts about the fact that He Danggui wrote a letter without any educational background.
“Grandma, here’s something you don’t know. Although I don’t know much, I just happened to know the words on the recipe for this kind of fruit tea. But I don’t know many other words. For example, I couldn’t even recognize the title of the book containing the recipe.” He Danggui poured hot Hawthorn tea into two bamboo slips, explaining to Madam Luo, “As for medicine recognition, I just saw, heard and learnt it in Luo’s Mansion in the past six months. However, my knowledge is probably not as good as any boy sweeping the floor of Medicine Pavilion in Nanyuan Yard. It would only be a joke if I told anyone about that, so I never mentioned it to you.” Later, she opened the curtain of the carriage and handed the two bamboo slips to Chan Yi, who was resting on the carriage, and asked her to share it with Miss Ji and Huai Hua. After all, she had a lot to say to Madam Luo, and it was not good for three persons to wait in thirst. This action also won some favors from Mammy Tang, because she knew that her adopted daughter, Ji, had been hurried to get here all night without drinking a drop of water. Although she wanted to give her daughter a cup of tea to quench her thirst, she had to serve her master first.
After listening to He Danggui’s explanation, Madam Luo suddenly recognized that her words were very reasonable. She also didn’t know a little bit of medical pharmacology when she married into Luo’s Family.
But her husband Luo Duzhong was the Sixth-Grade Commissioner of the Imperial Hospital. What’s more, they owned San Qing Tang, the first medicine pharmacy with 80-year-old long history in Ming Dynasty. In this way, she had to deal with medicine all day long. And gradually, she learnt more. Among the three sons of Senior Lord Luo Maitong, Luo Duzhong was the eldest, so since Senior Lord began to wander around 15 years ago, San Qing Tang was taken over by East Yard of Luo’s Family. At that time, Madam Luo was the master of East Yard. Therefore, she gradually learnt some skills of pulse diagnosis and prescriptions from her husband. And her skill was even more excellent than the eldest son Luo Chuanbai and the second son Luo Chuangu.
Later, her granddaughters gradually grew up and learnt to read. In Madam Luo’s opinion, she only took place of her elder sister and took charge of the family because of her knowledge of economy, accounting and medicines. So, she just hoped that those granddaughters could set her as an example to acquire some skills. In this way, they would not suffer after they got married. Consequently, Madam Luo invited some renowned female tutors to give those young ladies lessons at home, and sometimes she invited a lot of aged mammies who had retired from the imperial palace to give them etiquette lessons and tell them the anecdotes of Yingtian Prefecture for expanding their horizons.
Chengxu Academy, located in Yangzhou City, was classified into all-male and all-female schools, which was a general advantage for all the ladies from aristocratic families. It meant women could study in school and learn about economics, which would be useful in the future when they took charge of housework and checked account books. Although many young ladies were not interested in learning and they usually would like to sit at home and listen to dramas and embroider Mandarin Ducks (representing a loving couple in China), the annual “Feast of Qushui Liushang” held at Chengxu Academy 3 times yearly was the welfare of all young ladies and gentlemen, which also attracted many idle young ladies to apply to the academy.
The “Feast of Qushui Liushang” was a kind of ancient poetry reception. Beside a stream with a wooden wine cup placed on its surface, people would sit around the ground. If this wine cup stopped in front of anyone, the one would need to drink it up and write and recite a poetry. At most, they would organize some poetry competitions, i.e., the chosen one was required to obey the rhyme and verse of the former person. Or, they would be asked to write a poetry with a given topic.
However, the benefit of attending “Feast of Qushui Liushang” was that male and female students could participate together. And there was no need to drink for the female students, but they had to give a talent show. For males, in addition to write poems, they also had to compete in martial arts competition. Although it couldn’t compare with the real sword fighting in the martial arts world, it was so interesting to see those handsome gentlemen brandishing sword. All in all, this sodality held 3 times a year was just like a group blind dating in a sense.