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Chapter 253 - We were all cursed
Chapter 253 - We were all cursed
Chapter 253 We were all cursed
When it was dark in the late afternoon, the maids in Luo’s Mansion ran back and forth between Xin Rong Hall and the kitchen with joy. Madam Luo entertained distinguished guests today, including Third Childe Meng Ying of the Meng’s Family, Childe Feng Yang of Feng’s Family and Childe Ning Yuan. The three handsome and noble childes were all honored guests. It was most suitable to describe the scene that humble house was honored by their presence. It was the third day of the Lunar New Year. With the occasional sound of firecrackers on the street and the aroma of cooking food in the air, it had already been filled with strong festival atmosphere, though people had not eaten the food.
Two maids walked over with the fruit plates. One comforted the other, “It is the Spring Festival now. Even if you want to burn joss paper for Gan Cao, you should wait until the tenth day of the Lunar New Year. These things are taboos during the New Year and even should not be mentioned.” It was Pu Gongying that was speaking, the first-class maid of Madam Luo.
The other was Deng Cao, the newly appointed maid to serve tea. She gloomily said, “The tenth day of the Lunar New Year? Then it will past the first seventh night. I hear that the soul of the suicide will dissipate without performing a religious rite during the seven days.”
Pu Gongying frowned, “When we serve in the hall later, you should not mention a word. Gan Cao took it too hard, and who else could she blame? Since Second Lord made out with her on the corridor where someone passed by, he could not deny with the evidence. However, Gan Cao didn’t fight for a concubine, but choose to suicide. Who else could she blame?”
Deng Cao was upset with experience of her peer, “It’s easy for you to say that. If it happened to you, would you like to be a concubine under Second Mistress Luo?” Second Mistress Luo’s most intimate maid, Run Xiang, came to no good end, let alone someone else.
Pu Gongying didn’t know how to response. They brought the fruit plates into the hall and waited on the guests. First Master Luo Baiqian, Second Master Luo Baiji and First Miss Luo Baiying were accompanied in the hall. Originally, other misses were also invited, while they all made excuses to opt out of the banquet. Madam Luo looked much better when she saw her first grandson Luo Baiqian also come over who hardly left his yard. And she also did not care about other misses who didn’t come.
Madam Luo was talking happily with Meng Ying, Feng Yang and Ning Yuan. Halfway through the banquet, Second Mistress Luo, Sun Meiniang, rushed into the hall and dragged the drunk Second Lord Luo Chuangu. They rushed at Madam Luo. Then Sun Meiniang said, “Madam, something bad happened in our yard. Please go and see! You have to intervene in this matter!”
Madam Luo was talking high-spiritedly before, while Sun Meiniang disturbed it. Besides, Madam Luo did not want to see Sun Meiniang recently, so Madam Luo was unhappy. She lowered her voice and said, “Don’t you see who today’s guest is? Third Childe of Meng’s Family! What an honored thing for us since he is willing to celebrate the New Year together! However, you just make trouble at this time. Do you do it on purpose!”
Although Sun Meiniang had expected that Madam Luo disliked her since the matter that she drank abortifacient more than once was exposed, she could not help being chilled while thinking of Madam Luo’s tender love for her before. However, that was the reason why she deliberately brought drunk Luo Chuangu with her. He could come in handy at this time. Sure enough, when Sun Meiniang cast a glance at him who breathed alcohol fumes with red cheeks, he said immediately, “Mother, something serious really happened in Bao Qin Ge. You can’t leave it alone.”
Gan Cao, Madam Luo’s maid for serving tea for nearly ten years, committed suicide because of Luo Chuangu. If he weren’t her son, Madam Luo must have punished him. Right now, seeing her son shrinking behind Sun Meiniang like a timid rabbit, Madam Luo was so angry that she cursed in a low voice, “Look, what do you look like now! The nearly 40-year-old master ran to the outer hall. There are guests and young members of the family, while you just wore an old cotton coat and soft shoes. Even the little administrators outside wear more formal than you!”
When she looked at Luo Chuangu’s head, there were also straws on his untidy hair, which made the Madam Luo think of the suicide Gan Cao. She suddenly burst with anger and scolded him, “Where are you going to fool around and come back with straws on your head? Don’t you want to be a Lord but a beggar instead? I really don’t understand what I have done so that I give birth to you, a good-for-nothing son!”
This rebuke immediately reached the ears of everybody in the banquet. Although everyone was eating and drinking as usual, they all focused on this episode actually.
Meng Ying said, “Ha-ha, Madam Luo, don’t be angry. It’s good to be happy during the New Year, and there is no need to worry about your son, as long as your daughter or granddaughter make good.”
The remark didn’t make any sense. Her daughter made good? Luo Chuanxiong was born to be coward. Her granddaughter made good? Luo Baiqiong, who was the most promising, still didn’t want to go out to meet people. However, Madam Luo immediately realized that the person he was talking about was her granddaughter, Yi. Today, Feng Yang came as a matchmaker to talk about marrying Yi to Ning Yuan as a Junior Wife. Although they still unanimously said that Ning Yuan was a jeweler and Madam Luo only got along with the nineteen-year-old Ning Yuan for a moment, she concluded that Childe Ning was not simple and was at least a Seventh-Grade magistrate.
When Madam Luo thought that her granddaughter would marry such an outstanding man as a Junior Wife, she didn’t anger any more. She just waved her hands impatiently to drove the couple, “Don’t disgrace yourselves. Go out! Don’t damp our spirits!” Originally, everyone was waiting for Fortune-teller Li to foretell marriages for the young people with a marriage plate, which was disturbed by them.
It was the first time that Sun Meiniang had lost her face in public. She was awkward with red face. Then she said decisively in public that she should have avoided everyone, “Madam, it’s incredible. Something horrible is found in our yard. Someone hates our Second Branch and wants us to die without a buried place!”
The first reaction of Madam Luo was to bang on the desk, “Bah, bah, bah! Whoops, what you say is what is forbidden. You are cursed, aren’t you!” How could the word “die” be spoken during the Chinese New Year!
Unexpectedly, Sun Meiniang and Luo Chuangu nodded together and said, “Madam, we are cursed truly. Not only we, but Qiong and Shao are also cursed. Someone curses our whole family to death!”
Whole family to death? Madam Luo was irritated so that she almost vomited blood. Such words were taboos. They should be decent but even said those words in such an occasion. Madam Luo decisively left the table and said to Luo Baiqian who sat beside her, “Qian, accompany the guests. Make sure to let everyone have fun. No unsatisfactory thing could happen.”
Then Madam Luo looked sullen and took the them out of the side door. Walking for some distance, she turned around to face them. She suppressed her anger and asked, “What’s the matter? What’s dug out of the yard? When did this happen?”
Sun Meiniang moved close and said, “There are many things, like dolls used for witchcraft, joss paper, Taoist magic figures, human bones, and the thing like parts of corpses! All kinds of dirty things!”
Madam Luo stared at Sun Meiniang. Her upper and lower teeth kept clashing while she said, “Sun Meiniang! What are you talking about? How it is possible to find these things in the yard? You are crazy! You, a wife in charge of the family, should be glamorous and decent, but you are even related to these things!”
Sun Meiniang complained in injured tones, “My intelligent Madam, whether I am the wife in charge of the family or not, I am a woman and a mother first. How could I put those things in my yard? Even if I don’t want to live, I can’t take these things to hurt Qiong and Shao!”
There was a folk saying that witchcraft harmed three generations, and if someone collected or was framed with those dirty things, not only the person, but the person’s children would suffer disasters. In Yangzhou city, it was especially believed because of the Governor Wei Hong’s corruption case a few years ago. When he was checked his family property, it was found that large amount of joss paper was plastered on the walls of his bedroom, and there were a plenty of water with Taoist magic figures. Many people speculated that Wei Hong was practiced witchcraft. That was why he changed from an upright official to a corrupt official who embezzled the Imperial Court’s relief funds and harmed his family. When Wei Hong was discovered, his corpse had no head.
Madam Luo suddenly realized that if someone really hid the dirty things of witchcraft in Bao Qin Ge, she was one of the people who were practiced witchcraft. So, Madam Luo forgot the taboos during the New Year immediately and cried, “Who is so malicious to hide these dirty things? Dolls! Human bones! Parts of corpses! Were there ever been missing people in our Mansion?” It was a case of murdering and burying the corpses!
Luo Chuangu thought Sun Meiniang’s words were a bit exaggerated, so he quickly pulled it back at the right time, “Meiniang is timid. When those things were dug out, she fainted with just one glance, so she didn’t see that clearly. The corpses are just some guts of dead chickens or fishes. However, the joss paper is real thing of witchcraft, and each has a breach in the direction of the Qian Diagram. They are buried in our yard. It is clear that those dirty things will make us lose our vitality and be possessed by misfortunes!”
Sun Meiniang wiped her tears with sleeves, “I have always been physically strong. Qiong and Shao were born smoothly. But since Shao was born and there were other people to move in our house, my lower body gradually became numb. The doctor also could not figure out the reason. Later, I was pregnant for the third time, while the pregnant ended in miscarriage at the second month. Not only me, none of ten concubines has a son, they are young and easy to have children though.”
At this moment, a light rain suddenly began to fall. The cold rain hit on the three people’s faces coldly. With rain hitting on Sun Meiniang’s haggard appearance, she looked very miserable with no need to squeeze tears. She continued to cry, “In the past, we didn’t understand why. So, we prayed to Buddha, gave money to beggars, and often drove a cart of steamed buns to the riverside to help poor family. We have been done that for dozens of years, but it’s still useless. Now the truth has come to light. Someone envies our second Branch in charge of family and secretly curse us to die without descendants, so that we will have no right to take away family property!”
Madam Luo asked hoarsely, “Who? Who are you talking about? Who has cursed you ten years ago so that Second Branch couldn’t have a son?”
When it comes to allocating the family property, Third Branch had already set aside northern property which was worth of 40 thousand liang many years ago. Therefore, when the family was separated in the future, Third Branch would basically stay out of the business. They have nothing except a few ancestral houses in East Yard of Luo’s Mansion. Madam Luo had hinted at her third son, and he had no objection to this. Besides, the third son Chuanpu and Chuangu were siblings of the same mother, so how could he harm his own brother and his brother’s families?
First Branch would divide the family property with Second Branch in the future. But the first son Chuanbai was careless, and often misplaced his own money. He rarely cared about how much he took away, and he just took as much as he was given. How could he be so malicious? Might it be the eldest daughter-in-law Ms. Zhao? Or the eldest granddaughter-in-law Dong Xinlan? Or a dissatisfied servant who laid a curse upon the master out of a private malice but not money?
“Madam,” Sun Meiniang approached and handed a small note, “Please take a look at this! What is honest on the surface but wicked in the heart? I know it today!”
Madam Luo took the note, squinted at it and read the note by the light of the big red lantern in the distance, “This is the date of birth and eight characters of a horoscope of Chuangu... This handwriting is very familiar... The words are written by Chuanxiong!”