Do you know? Do you know? It should be Green is Fat and Red is Thin Episode 37

  Mrs. Sheng was lucky on her first matchmaking attempt, and Mrs. Kang personally went to meet Zhang Yu. Wang Dajie had been disappointed by book-smart but incompetent and lecherous men all her life, so she immediately took a liking to Zhang Yu when she met him. He had long hands and feet, a majestic demeanor, was warm and enthusiastic towards others, and although he wasn't particularly handsome or refined, he had an honest and sunny disposition. It was already late spring, and the Kang family agreed to the marriage. Given that both the man and woman were no longer young, both families agreed to expedite the wedding arrangements.

  It's smooth sailing on this side, but the Yu family is in a dire situation. Although Old Master Yu has been retired for many years, he still has connections in the capital. No matter how beautifully Princess Pingning speaks of it, after several investigations, the situation is not optimistic at all. It really fulfilled Mo Lan's ominous words - the second son of Duke Ningyuan is indeed 'unlucky'.

  Since he was young, he has been arrogant and overbearing, often riding horses in the streets, fighting and causing trouble. He would frequently hang out with a group of idle sons from noble families, watching flowers and appreciating beauty. As he grew older, he surprisingly became friends with some lowly street performers, sleeping around and keeping mistresses, getting into all sorts of trouble. The Gu family had finally arranged a marriage for him, but the second young master was not satisfied and wanted to call off the engagement. However, the old lord and his wife refused to agree. He then went to their house on the day of a grand banquet, in front of many guests, and publicly humiliated and ridiculed them, making them so ashamed that they almost took their own lives. The marriage was naturally cancelled. After this incident, no respectable family in the capital dared to marry their daughter to him. It wasn't until then that the Gu family extended their reach outside of the capital.

  Minglan furrowed her brow and gazed out the window, with no one to confide in. So, every three to five days, she would invite Minglan over for a chat, discussing the news from Yu Ge's old acquaintances and her own emotions. These pieces of news were like a series of ominous reports. The latest news said that he seemed to have a fondness for men, and was particularly close with several famous young masters in the capital who shared his inclinations, often visiting brothels together!

  Good heavens, as a professional legal worker, Minglan was very clear that the real world is not YY at all. A bad person is just a bad person, there are no hidden circumstances or reformed rascals, and a bent man is just a bent man, it's not easy to change him straight. Haven't you seen the tragic life of Misako, the wife of the famous Japanese writer Yukio Mishima? She also had the beautiful dream of changing Mishima into a straight man when she married him, but what was the result? Two sons were born, and Mishima still remained as bent as ever, his name resounding throughout the world.

  In the few BL dramas I've seen, the romance between the two male leads is beautiful and touching, but the female characters are almost all cannon fodder, liking to watch girls who are willing to marry GAY?

  Minglan didn't like it, and Yanran probably didn't have this hobby either.

  On this day, Minglan was invited to the Yu residence again. She held back her tears and cried intermittently for a long time. Recently, Old Master Yu and Master Yu had a fierce argument over their letters. Old Master Yu wanted to cancel the engagement, but Master Yu refused to agree. He said that children should obey their parents' decisions regarding marriage matters, implying that it was none of Minglan's business! Old Master Yu said fine, if parents were in charge of children's marriages, then he would send a blank divorce letter without his signature, saying that the daughter-in-law was disobedient and unfilial, and wanted his son to sign and divorce her.

  On one side, Yu Hou's mother cried and wanted to take her children back to their maternal home. On the other side, Old Lady Yu cried and asked the father-son duo to stop fighting. Yanran was the ignition point, how could she not be heartbroken? She said directly: "…Minglan sister, I am really unfilial, causing trouble in our family, so I might as well marry him!"

  Minglan urged her on desperately: "Perseverance is victory! What fault does sister have, it's all your stepmother's instigation, ruining a good flower in the mud. They want to climb high branches, why don't they use your younger half-sister for marriage? She's only two years younger than you and can also be married off, but they're pushing you forward instead, isn't this harming people?!

  Yanran has been crying for several days, almost to the point of collapse, and looks extremely weak: "Grandfather is old, can't withstand the turmoil, has been lying in bed for many days, if something happens..."

  "Alas, what's the use of getting angry? Your father isn't a traitor, he just wanted to curry favor and got talked into it. Who hasn't made mistakes in life? I even stole fruit from my grandmother's Buddhist altar and got slapped on the hand when I was young. Can't we just get over this hurdle? As long as you marry well and live a good life for ten or eight years, and then bring your husband and children back to our home with gold, silver, and treasures, would your father still not acknowledge you?"

  Yanran's eyes welled up with tears as she let out a sob, her heart filled with longing: "Can it really be so?"

  "Take heart! Your grandfather was once the prime minister, and he's been through many storms. How could he capsize in a small ditch? Cough, cough, I'm not saying your father is a small ditch, oh dear! You must also cheer up and take good care of your grandfather, serving him well by his bedside. Don't wear that mournful face, put on a smiling one instead! It's no big deal, they haven't finalized the engagement or held the wedding ceremony yet, it doesn't count as a broken engagement!"

  Actually, in Minglan's view, this matter still has room for maneuver. Yu Ge Lao is so angry that he must not dare to disobey the Yu family in the capital too much. With that divorce letter on hand, Madam Yu also does not dare to act rashly. Otherwise, they would have finalized the marriage long ago and it would be troublesome to divorce later! After listening to Minglan's detailed analysis, Yanran finally felt a little relieved.

  The situation was stuck in this way, Minglan was like a bright lamp in the dark, every time she felt lost and shaken, she would pull Minglan over, tell some jokes to comfort her, and temporarily alleviate her anxiety. As a confidante, Minglan couldn't refuse, so she went back and forth, and eventually, Yu Ge's parents and even Yu Jia's uncle and aunt all praised Minglan, saying that she was kind-hearted and had a good temperament.

  It's unclear whether it was due to the extreme measures or not, but after a few more days, the situation started to improve. It's said that Second Master Gu came in person with great sincerity to visit Minister Yu and proposed to him face-to-face. Old Duke Hou also wrote a heartfelt letter asking for the marriage, and when Minister Yu and his wife saw it, they began to waver. After all, he is a young nobleman from a prestigious family; if he's willing to reform himself, this might not be a bad marriage after all.

  She was gentle and soft-spoken by nature, and hearing her grandparents talk about it also moved her heart a little; Minglan's mouth was pursed, but she didn't say anything.

  An ox taken to Beijing is still an ox. Minglan often sat in on court cases and took notes. She believed in a saying by the old drunkard Gu Long: Women may change for men, but men will never change for women; it's just a matter of how long they pretend.

  Sheng Hong set the date for the wedding with Chang Bai to be at the beginning of next year, and it will be held in the capital. As the end of the year is approaching, the Sheng household began to take stock of their property and servants again from the summer. Some were sold or given away, while others were bought locally and then dismissed. Minglan also started talking to the maids in the Musou Hall one by one, asking if anyone was unwilling to follow her.

  At home, it goes without saying that the children are not to be mentioned. Outside, only a few maidservants were bought, including Xiaotao and three other little girls. The Sheng family treats their servants with kindness, and Minglan is also a good-natured person, so none of the maidservants want to leave. After asking around among the ten or more girls, only two wanted to stay behind with their parents.

  Then Minglan began to take stock of her own property, and in fact she didn't have much private money. Although Old Madam gave her a lot of pocket money every day, she also spent a lot on the maidservants. There were only a few dozen taels of silver, but according to the prices at that time, it was enough for a family of six or seven to live for two or three years. It seemed like a lot, but in an official's household, it wasn't enough to do many things. However, over the past few years, she had accumulated quite a few gold, silver, jade and precious stones, as well as decorative items. Her brother Changbai gave her calligraphy and paintings, books that were really worth a lot of money. Minglan decided to make an inventory of her belongings, categorizing and recording each item one by one, checking them off as she entered them into the ledger.

  Last year, before she moved into the twilight hut, Old Lady Sheng sent over a set of nine jewelry boxes from her old mansion in Jinling. The largest one was a foot high, with 49 transparent compartments and 18 hidden ones. The smallest box was only the size of a palm, but when opened, it also had nine small compartments. Each box fit into another, and each compartment could be disassembled. All were made from top-grade black wood with haitang flower-patterned translucent carvings and gold and silver inlays. They came with nine pairs of large double-fish locks and 18 small half-fish locks of varying sizes.

  The whole set looks old, but the wood is still bright and shiny, the white copper and yellow copper are polished like new, showing a beautiful color under the light. The delicate and elegant craftsmanship makes it hard to close one's mouth. It was made by several master craftsmen who worked day and night for a month during the heyday of the Tian Gong workshop - it was one of the dowry that Old Lady Sheng brought with her when she got married!

  When this thing moved into the twilight studio, it was still good as orchid. Wang's family had a certain status to accompany her and she had seen many of them, but she was sour for two sentences, just looked at Minglan with white eyes for a few days. However, Mo Lan almost turned red in front of everyone, hated to eat Minglan alive, went back and cried with Lin Niang again, and Lin Niang also cried with Sheng Hong.

  Sheng Hong spread his hands: "The old lady's dowry, she loved to give it to whoever she wanted, what could he do? To say something unpleasant, after the old lady entered the Sheng family, she didn't have any children. If the old lady's family came to ask for the remaining dowry and marriage property after her death, he wouldn't dare to intervene."

  Lin's aunt was in great pain, and she decided to get up wherever she fell. She wanted to go to Shou'an Hall to pay her respects, but was stopped by Fang's mother at the door. Lin's aunt knelt down and cried, attracting everyone in the house to come and see. Soon, Old Lady Shen fell ill and went to bed, and after the doctor took her pulse, he only said two sentences: "Her heart is depressed, and her meridians are blocked."

  In simpler terms, the old man was unhappy! Sheng Hong hurriedly pulled Lin Niang away.

  At first, Minglan felt apologetic and thought she had brought trouble to Lin's mother-in-law. But unexpectedly, Old Lady Shen said nonchalantly, "This isn't the first time, every time she wants something from me, she comes over to make a fuss!"

  Minglan was very curious and asked what's going on?

  The old lady didn't hide anything, and said bluntly: "...That year she appeared, the madam wanted to drive her out, but the old master protected her and wouldn't let her go. He said that if he wasn't allowed in the door, he would set up a separate household outside. The madam refused to drink the tea she offered, so she came crying to me, kneeling on the ground for several hours without getting up, begging me to fulfill her foolish heart. She cried day and night, saying that if I didn't help her, she would have no choice but to die by hitting her head against something. I was exhausted from the commotion, so I dismissed everyone and asked her one question alone: 'Why do you want to be a concubine for the old master?' She insisted that it was because she admired his talent and character! Hmph, if she had said it was because she was poor and afraid of hardship when she was young, and coveted wealth and glory, I would have swallowed my pride. But she had to come up with some nonsense about true love! She just measured me by my former reputation, so everything she did was done in the name of true feelings! Hmph, what does she know about true feelings? True feelings should be...True feelings should be..."

  "Sincerity is indeed when wealth and honor cannot corrupt, poverty and lowliness cannot move, and military might cannot bend!" Minglan interjected.

  "Hehe, Meng Shengren's words, you're actually using them like this, aren't you afraid of Master hitting you with a ruler!" The old lady secretly praised her, but pretended to be angry and slapped Minglan's palm several times.

  "What's next?" Minglan asked with sparkling eyes.

  "I found it disgusting, so I brought the old master to say it to his face. I can make them whole, but from then on, don't let me see her again! If she agreed, I would immediately take charge and let her in the door, but afterwards, she is not allowed to come before me! At first, she cried and pretended to be pitiful, after a few days of pretending, she half-heartedly agreed. I forced my wife to let her in."

  Minglan didn't speak, and the old lady sighed again, saying: "She's not credible at all when she speaks. In the few years after she entered our household, hasn't she come to me to apologize, cried, begged, and kowtowed like a beggar, asking me to forgive her sincere emotions, asking me to pardon her unintentional mistakes... I directly found your father and told him that if she came again to disturb my wife, I would move out and live alone. Your father then issued a strict order forbidding her from coming over!"

  Minglan listened for a while, then let out a long sigh. From a long time ago, she had sensed a strong and intense emotion beneath the calm surface of Old Lady Sheng, who was a proud woman with extreme emotions - loving fiercely and hating fiercely. This kind of extremity often hurt others, but more often, it hurt herself.

  Contacting the original Mo Lan to discuss her affairs, Minglan gradually discovered that Sheng Lao Tai had a strange temperament. If someone didn't want something, she would be willing to give it, but if someone deliberately tried to calculate and take advantage of her, she wouldn't give in even at the cost of her life. Thinking about this, Minglan secretly felt fortunate.

  At that time, Minglan was in her prime years with a bright future ahead of her, but it was all ruined by a landslide. After reincarnation, her career situation was also very poor, so she became a thorough pessimist. From the day she entered Shou An Tang, she never asked for anything, and always estimated everything from the most pessimistic angle. She saw that Shou An Tang didn't have snacks like Wang's place, not even saving up pocket money to buy some treats to share with Old Lady Sheng, which made Old Lady Sheng cry and laugh at the same time.

  Lin Yiniang and Mo Lan are equally matched in every way, with cunning and cleverness added to their ambition, but they just don't know that the old lady's favorite is actually 'no contention'.