Volume 3: The Lotus Does Not Spare Its Rouge Colour, Nor Does It Wait for a Golden House to Recommend Its Splendid Hall Chapter 105

  The two of them didn't calm down until deep into the night, Minglan was exhausted and limp, even though her body felt sticky and uncomfortable, she didn't want to move at all, her eyelids were as heavy as Mount Tai. Gu Tingye had been living a rough life outside for years, sleeping in the wind and rain, he also didn't feel like getting out of bed to take a bath, instead he just held Minglan close, half asleep.

  Minglan slept extremely soundly, and in her daze, she felt as if she had returned to her university military training days. One day of training for eight hours, standing at attention and walking in lockstep, and as soon as her head hit the pillow at night, she was out cold. Her entire body felt like it had been beaten up, her waist was soft, her legs were sore, her bones felt like they had been disassembled and reassembled, and her brain was a mess. The only difference was that one place that shouldn't hurt was hurting particularly badly.

  The sky was bright, and Minglan was pressed awake. She gasped for air with difficulty, like a carp out of water, her eyes closed as she searched around. Her hands touched a huge Jinhua ham on her stomach, and she struggled to suppress the urge to scratch the man's face. She tried to turn her body to move it away, but unexpectedly startled Wushi Mountain beside her. He stretched out his arm and firmly held Minglan in his embrace, lowering his head to kiss her cheek gently. The sensation was warm, soft, and smooth, and he couldn't help but caress and rub against her some more.

  Gu Tingyan slowly woke up, and he was a bit restless. Minglan was like an octopus, tightly clinging to the bedding, her head buried in the pillow. Gu Tingyan didn't try to flip over the octopus cover, but instead pressed down on top of it, stacking himself on top of her like a totem pole, kissing his way down along the girl's slender back, his stubbly chin brushing against her skin, and immediately a patch of pink appeared on her snowy white back.

  At this moment, Minglan was pressed down, breathing in less and out more, almost fainting, and turned her head with difficulty: "You, you, you, move away a bit!…… I'm going to suffocate!" Gu Tingye laughed and flipped over, putting his small wife on himself as well. Minglan lay on his chest, panting, seeing the man laughing happily, and in addition to her anger, she punched him twice with her fist. Unexpectedly, he was hard as iron, and instead hurt her own fingers. Minglan couldn't help but cry out in pain: "Let go, I'm going to find some ointment!"

  "It doesn't matter, I'm not in pain."

  Ming Lan burst into anger: "I'm in pain!"

  The two most promiscuous places under the sky, Jianghu and military camps, Gu Er Ye has been through both, and he's even made a name for himself. As expected, Gu Ting Yan immediately misunderstood, his eyes dimmed, and he gently rubbed Ming Lan's cheek, softly cooing: "It won't hurt anymore from now on."

  Minglan paused for two seconds before she realized what was going on, her face burning like a fire, and she choked out: "It's not that part that hurts!"

  "Does it... hurt?" Gu Ting Ye's eyes lit up again, his voice filled with hope, and his hands irregularly moved downwards.

  Minglan panted, using force to press down his hand, her upper body aching and numb, her beautiful eyes staring sideways: "I won't do it!" The words had a double meaning, Minglan herself felt that she had spoken with profound intention.

  The morning light was shining, and the sun's rays passed through the bed curtains. Inside the embroidered quilt, the spring light was hazy. Gu Ting Ye sat up with his back to the light and looked at Ming Lan. He saw that her small face was pale, and the dark circles under her eyes were even more pronounced. Only her big eyes still sparkled, looking both happy and annoyed. Gu Ting Ye liked this look, so he pulled over her small hand and gently blew on it, his deep and handsome eyes shining with a gentle smile.

  This fell into Minglan's eyes, and she felt that this gaze was extremely suggestive. Suddenly, her cheeks were on fire, and she searched her mind for a long time before spitting out a sentence: "That... um... as long as the green hills are still there, we won't worry about having no firewood to burn..." The more she spoke, the softer her voice became, and it was considered an apology.

  Gu Tingyan burst out laughing, and with a swoop, he wrapped Minglan in his arms, rubbing her into a ball, and kissed her recklessly, his chest shaking with muffled laughter.

  At this time, a maid outside called out softly from behind the door screen: "Second Master, Second Madam, it's time to get up."

  It took Minglan a while to realize that she was being called, and she quickly got up. However, Gu Tingye on the side was still chuckling softly. Minglan clenched her small fist and punched his broad shoulder blade with force, saying in a low voice: "Don't laugh! Someone is coming... You're still laughing? Still laughing? ... If you laugh again, I'll get the constable to arrest you!"

  Back then, Yao Yiyi had intimidated her four-year-old nephew from the older brother's family by saying: "If you cry again, I'll call the police to take you away!" Now that the situation was urgent, she blurted out this old trick.

  Gu Tingyan laughed even harder, lying on the bedding and shaking violently. Minglan was buried under the embroidered quilt, covered by his tall body in the shadows. She was so angry that she wanted to bite him, baring her teeth and clawing like a small beast that had just grown its milk teeth, but without any threat, only making people love her more. After a long while, Gu Tingyan finally stopped, calling for someone to come in and serve them tea and help with their toilette.

  Cui's mother was well-prepared and led Danju and Xiaotao into the bathing area first, wrapping Minglan in a large cloak to bathe and wash her hair. Only then did she call for the maids and servant women outside to bring in basins of water, towels, and other items, with one group attending to Gu Tingye and another group attending to Minglan.

  After finishing her toilette, Minglan came out wearing a camisole and undergarments. She saw that Gu Tingye had also washed up and was having Xiahe help him tie his hair. When they were almost done, a motherly-looking servant came in, retrieved the white silk handkerchief from the inner room, examined it with a smile, and put it away in an intricately carved red lacquer wooden box.

  Her head was dressed in a magnificent attire, with Minglan wearing a bright red peony-embroidered golden silk dress. A five-phoenix gold-threaded pearl-encrusted crimson tassel hairpin adorned her hair, and a pair of ruby earrings with red agate drops hung from her ears. Around her neck, she wore a double-fish-shaped auspicious lock pendant made of crimson agate and gold, while on her wrists were stacked seventeen or eighteen dragon-and-phoenix gold bangles. This elaborate headdress almost overwhelmed Minglan, who was still feeling the aftereffects of last night's exertions - every muscle in her body ached, and even lifting her hand or foot caused pain. Mrs. Cui felt a pang of sympathy for her, recalling the patches of blue and red bruises on Minglan's skin, and cast a somewhat unfavourable glance at Gu Tingye.

  Gu Tingyan was also wearing a bright red festive robe, with golden silk bat-shaped flowers embroidered from the shoulders down. He had a light green jade-inlaid belt around his waist and was standing in front of a full-length mirror, letting Xia Zhu adjust his sleeves.

  Minglan turned her head to look, and couldn't help but praise: such a rich and intense red color, like fire, always has a hint of femininity, but he is a tall and straight man, with a broad back and shoulders, which makes him look majestic, and a heroic spirit emanates from his body.

  Gu Tingyan saw Minglan looking at herself in the mirror, so she turned around to look at her, sizing her up from head to toe before smiling and saying: "You look great like this." Minglan nodded slightly, a hint of mischief in her eyes, but her face was very serious as she said softly: "You look great too."

  Gu Tingyan pretended to be fierce and glared at her, but Minglan held up her sleeves with a pitiful smile. In an instant, the two of them exchanged a glance and smiled, without any awkwardness or strangeness between them. It seemed that there was indeed such a thing as "old habits die hard" in this world.

  Inside the house, all the maids and servant girls lowered their heads in silence, secretly shocked in their hearts. The Sheng family's thoughts were "The young lady is surprisingly familiar with the young master". The Gu family's thoughts were "When have we ever seen Second Master being so good-tempered?" Moreover, several sharp-eyed ones stole glances at Minglan a few times, thinking that this beautiful and charming new mistress must be extremely liked by Second Master.

  According to the normal procedure, the process of the first day of a new marriage is as follows: First, pay respects to direct relatives by kowtowing, then recognize collateral relatives, followed by entering the ancestral temple and recording in the genealogy. In between, there is time to eat; because of the special circumstances of the Ningyuan Marquis's estate, Minglan had previously asked quietly, and Gu Tingye only replied with one sentence: "Of course, first pay respects to father and mother."

  This sentence is too profound and too vague. Firstly, his father died early, secondly, his mother died even earlier, thirdly, his current mother is his stepmother, and rumor has it that the relationship between him and his stepmother is not very harmonious.

  Ming Lan was very puzzled, how should she understand the implication of the new leader's words in this situation.

  Just then, a housekeeper in a dark brown dress with a white apron appeared outside the door. The maid standing beside the door curtain curtsied slightly: "Greetings, Housekeeper."

  She faced her mother with a pale complexion, gentle eyebrows and eyes, and entered the door to greet Gu Tingyan and Minglan. She smiled and said: "Second Master, Second Madam, Old Madam said that you should go to the ancestral hall first to pay respects to Old Master Hou and Madame Bai, she has gone ahead to wait."

  Gu Tingyan smiled and replied: "Thanks, Mom. We'll go now." The smile was warm but didn't reach his eyes.

  Minglan hastily asked Danju to hand over the red envelope to Xiang's mother, who received it with a smile and then retreated respectfully. It seemed that she had smiled too enthusiastically at Xiang's mother, which caused Gu Tingye to glance at her faintly before leading the group towards the ancestral hall.

  What is referred to as an ancestral hall is a place where ancestral tablets are placed and people make offerings, in ancient times it was an era that emphasized ancestry and lineage, it is said that the more ancestral tablets one has, the more glorious their ancestors were, indicating that their family had a long and illustrious history.

  At first, when attending the ancestral worship in Youyang, Minglan was bored and counted the number of ancestors' tablets in the Sheng family, with the result... Ah! No wonder, despite the Sheng family's reputation and wealth, they still didn't dare to act as the leader in their hometown.

  Listen to Pinlan's gossip, it is said that Old Man Sheng was originally a small beggar, and he didn't even know his own surname or name. One day, he heard a part-time fortune teller say that a prosperous era was about to arrive. A group of starving beggars had hope in their hearts, and the old man managed to survive by gritting his teeth. Later, he took "Sheng" as his surname and gave himself a name. However, 90% of Pinlan's gossip is fabricated, because she couldn't bear to kneel for long periods in the temple, so she made up rumors out of boredom.

  Actually, Sheng Lao Taigong was orphaned at a young age and wandered around begging since childhood. It is said that he still vaguely remembers his parents, but as for his ancestors, he can't even remember them if he died trying; He didn't have the guts of Wei Du Tong, who dared to ask his wife to compile three generations of ancestors and report to the imperial court for a title, so the ancestral tablets in Sheng's family temple are really quite shabby, not even adding up to a string of calabazas.

  So when Minglan stood in the ancestral hall of the Gu family, a sense of inexplicable inferiority arose.

  The solemn and majestic high hall, the entire wall facing north was cast into an altar for worship, with layer upon layer of stepped plaques, as many as seventeen or eighteen layers high. Looking at the dense array of plaques, Minglan couldn't help but feel a little short of breath.

  Madam Qin had already arrived at the ancestral hall. As soon as she saw Gu Tingye and Minglan, she took a few steps forward, smiling warmly: "You must have been exhausted yesterday, come quickly to burn incense and kowtow."

  The maid had already prepared the cushions and incense sticks in front of the offering table. Minglan's gaze swept over, and she saw that on the lowest row, right in the middle, there was a relatively new one with the words "First Father Gu Gongyan's position". Minglan understood in her heart, and followed closely beside Gu Tingye, respectfully kneeling down on the cushion, then burning incense and praying. Only after putting the incense sticks into the cauldron did she finish paying respects. Minglan turned her head to the side, and saw that Gu Tingye was steadily gazing at an old plaque on the lowest row to the right, with the words "First Father-in-law Gu Men Baishi's position". His eyes were slightly dim.

  Minglan looked again and saw that next to Old Master Gu's memorial tablet were two slightly smaller ones. One was her own proper mother-in-law, Madame Bai, and the other, more exquisitely crafted with golden inlays, read "Memorial Tablet of the Late Madam Qin of the Gu Family". Minglan couldn't help but steal a glance at Lady Qin beside her, thinking to herself that if she were to pass away as well, what would be written on her memorial tablet? In this day and age, it's not common for women's names to be engraved on memorial tablets; wouldn't that easily lead to a collision of names?

  Gu Tingyan quickly came back to his senses and turned around to face Tai Furen, saying: "I should pay respects to you, Tai Furen."

  Madam Qin sat on the side, her expression sorrowful, holding a handkerchief to wipe away tears, and gently waved her hand: "No need, no need."

  "Etiquette must not be abandoned, Madam, please do not decline." Gu Tingyan's voice was very low, but his attitude was very firm. Minglan, being a virtuous and obedient wife, hastily ordered Danju to place the two cushions in front of Madam, preparing to kneel down.

  Madam Qin looked at the refusal to leave, so she sat up straight and smiled to accept it. After the two finished their courtesy, Minglan also received a pair of extremely transparent jade inlaid gold silk bangles, plus a heavy autumn-colored embroidered pearl gourd-shaped purse.

  This head-bashing is quite valuable.

  "Go take a look at your elder brother." Madam Qin gazed at the two with comfort, her eyes welling up with tears. "He hasn't been doing well for these past two years and got even sicker since New Year's; he can't even leave his bed now. Seeing you've settled down, I'm sure he'll be overjoyed."

  Gu Tingyan's expression was gloomy and he seemed rather distressed, saying in a low voice: "This is inevitable."

  Immediately, the group of people walked towards the main hall, with Qin Tai's wife occasionally muttering a few words about Gu Da-ge's illness. However, as an elder, she couldn't say too much and appear unstable, so after saying a few words, she fell silent. Minglan was a newlywed daughter-in-law and didn't dare to speak much, so she just closed her mouth and pretended to be shy. Gu Tingyan didn't want to talk at all, his face pale and gloomy, and Minglan bet that if asked, he would say: "My brother is seriously ill, I'm worried sick."

  Minglan glanced sideways and observed that this guy's words did not match his heart.

  After a while, Minglan and her group finally arrived at the main courtyard. As soon as they entered the second courtyard, they smelled a strong medicinal scent. Minglan followed Old Madam into a large bedroom with blue bricks on the floor and a thick blanket covering it. There were no decorations in the room, but instead, various medicine jars and stoves were placed from the desk by the wall to the bedside. Even the shelves of the treasure pavilion on the east side were filled with bottles and jars. Although it was already late March outside, there was still a burning fire in the stove.

  A man lay on a bed with a carved wooden frame, adorned with patterns of wisteria, birds, insects and flowers. Beside the bed sat Lady Shao, secretly wiping away tears. Hearing footsteps, she hastily wiped her face clean and stood up to greet the newcomer.

  "Yu'er, your second brother has come to see you!" Madam Qin called out softly. Seeing that Gu Tingyu wanted to sit up, she hurriedly went forward and pressed him down, holding his hand and gently patting it, while softly muttering to herself and her eyes reddening.

  Although Minglan was dissatisfied with Mrs. Wang's behavior of ignoring her, she smiled and stepped forward, following Gu Tingye's honest bow: "Greetings, elder brother. Greetings, sister-in-law."

  Mrs. Shao hastened to return the courtesy, while Gu Tingyu slightly raised his body, and Mrs. Shao helped him lean against the pillow. He nodded towards Gu Tingyan, then smiled at Minglan: "I've made a fool of myself in front of my sister-in-law, I'm really useless."

  "Of course not, brother," Minglan hastily replied. "You need to focus on recovering from your illness." As she raised her eyes, she was shocked to see that despite Gu Tingyu's frail and weak appearance, with a sallow complexion and only skin and bones left, his eyebrows and eyes were surprisingly similar to those of Qin Tai Fu Ren, and even more delicate and refined. Among all the people Minglan had met since coming to ancient times, only Qi Heng's appearance could be compared to Gu Tingyu's.

  The difference lies in the fact that Qi Heng's appearance is handsome and elegant, while Gu Tingyu has a more delicate and subtle beauty. After finishing speaking, he coughed softly several times, and on his pale neck, several sickly blue veins stood out, and an abnormal flush appeared on his cheeks.

  "My son, just rest for now." Madam Qin's heart seemed to be shattered, stroking Gu Tingyu's hand gently trembling, this kind of mother-son affection, seems to be completely genuine concern.

  Gu Tingyu smiled and held the lady's hand, his eyes fixed on Gu Tingyan, from his tall figure to his face full of anger, with a hint of envy and gloom in his eyes. After taking a few deep breaths, he finally spoke: "You've finally come to see me, it doesn't matter, it's all fate, those who should step down will eventually step down, once is like this, twice is also like this."

  Gu Tingyan also looked at his elder brother for a while, then comforted him with a gentle expression: "What you said, big brother, is just that your body isn't feeling well lately. Once you've recovered, everything will be fine."

  Gu Tingyu smiled wryly: "You've finally made progress and learned to say such things. It seems that these years of training outside haven't been in vain. Well, now it's just you who can hold up this household."

  Gu Tingyan lowered his head and remained silent, after a while, he smiled and comforted him with a few words, showing deep brotherly affection. Gu Big Brother said a few more words before starting to cough and run a fever, drowsily falling asleep. The crowd quietly retreated.

  Old Mrs. Tao looked worried and turned back to say to Shao's wife, "You probably haven't eaten yet, have you? Tell the maid to keep an eye on Rui Ge, you come and eat with us first."

  Mrs. Shao declined a few times, then followed the order and went out, the crowd followed her to the east wing of the house, as soon as they stepped inside, they saw that there was a full table of food laid out inside, and a young woman was busy arranging things.

  The woman had a lotus seed pod face, wearing a rose-purple satin jacket with all over embroidered lotus flowers, and on her slanted bun was inserted a gold-mounted red ruby peony-shaped hairpin. She looked lovely and charming. As soon as she saw that everyone had arrived, her big eyes curved into a smile, saying: "Mother, elder sister-in-law, second brother, second sister-in-law, you've all finally come! If you hadn't arrived, I would have been so hungry that I would have eaten by myself!"

  As soon as the words were spoken, Mrs. Shao's face lit up with joy and she burst out laughing, but Old Lady Tao remained expressionless, not showing any warmth towards Mrs. Shao, merely saying: "Let's start dinner, everyone is hungry."

  "Mrs. Shao pulled over the woman and introduced her to Minglan, saying: 'This is your third brother's wife, Wei Ge's daughter-in-law, from the Zhu family of Chengping Bo. She is usually very enthusiastic, so if you're feeling bored in the future, just go talk to her, she'll be more than happy.'"

  As soon as she heard the words "Wei Ge", Minglan almost choked on her saliva, then suddenly remembered that in ancient times it wasn't called that name, probably referring to Gu Jia San Di Gu Tingwei, Qin Tai Furen's biological son.

  Minglan smiled and nodded, but suddenly became hesitant. In terms of age, she was several years younger than Zhu Shi, but in terms of generation, she was Second Aunt. Just as she was thinking about how to address her, Zhu Shi came over with a carefree attitude, smiling and bowing, saying: "Second Aunt is well, please take care, Second Aunt."

  Minglan's face turned red, and she could only say: "My younger brother and sister are also well." Then she took the handbag from Danju's hand and handed it over. Zhu Shi's expression was natural and gentle, and she happily accepted the handbag: "Being a young daughter-in-law is good, if there were several older brothers and sisters, it would be even better!"

  Everyone burst out laughing, and even Lady Tai couldn't help but force a few smiles.

  After the meal was served, everyone took their seats. Minglan saw that both Shao Furen and Zhu Shi were still standing, so she also stood aside, intending to serve the dishes. However, Tai Furen hurriedly waved her hand and said: "You all sit down and eat too, don't say that on the third day of a wedding there's no distinction between old and young, besides my family doesn't have such rigid rules. Come, sit down." Then she pointed at Gu Tingye and said: "You go to the outer room, your third brother is waiting for you. You two brothers haven't seen each other in many days, so take this opportunity to have a good chat. Later, after we've finished eating breakfast, we'll recognize our relatives again."

  Gu Tingyan nodded and walked to Minglan's side, saying in a low voice: "I'll go first, you... eat well." Although his face was expressionless, the concern was evident in his tone.

  The old lady turned her head to instruct the maid on something, seemingly not having seen anything, but with a hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth. Mrs. Shao smiled and looked on, feeling a slight pang of envy in her heart. Zhu Shi, however, couldn't help but laugh out loud, saying: "Second Brother, we won't be able to eat Second Sister's!"

  Gu Tingyan bowed slightly to the ladies and smiled as he went out the door.

  Ming Lan's face turned red as she stood with her head down, somewhat at a loss for what to do - very good, very good, now she can basically control the blushing, when she can freely control the degree of blushing, she will be considered graduated.

  Minglan slightly raised her eyelids and stole a glance at the crowd of women. From what she could see, everything seemed normal. Her mother-in-law was kind and amiable, her elder sister-in-law was dignified and virtuous, her younger brother and sister were lively and affectionate, and the atmosphere among the relatives was harmonious and warm. If all this was true, then her luck was indeed not bad.

  However, since being flooded by the mudslide, Minglan realized that life is always full of surprises, and she didn't know what surprise the Ningyuan Marquis's residence would bring to her.