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Chapter 67 - The fairy in his heart
Chapter 67 - The fairy in his heart
Chapter 67 The fairy in his heart
Two years later, Luo Chuanxiong brought Third Miss He Danggui back to Luo’s Mansion again. At that time, her mother First Madam Luo had passed away. Being disheartened by her two failed marriages, Luo Chuanxiong avoided meeting acquaintances whose expressions made her feel like being pricked by tiny needles on her heart. So, after she made her daughter He Danggui settled, she ran to Sanqing Temple overnight to start her meditation.
He Danggui just came to Luo’s Family a few days but had already occupied four bolts of silk patterned by “Rosy Clouds of Dawn Raising from Mountains” that the Third Lord gave to three Misses and a Younger Mistress of the first and second branches. The silk wasn’t precious, but Luo Baiqiong who was always regarded as a core thought that someone was more important than her this time. She locked herself in the room to think about that again and again with a feeling of resentment. If she didn’t vent her anger, the pretty face and the eyes full of pretending tenderness of that “wild woman” would appear in her mind repeatedly, making her unable to eat or sleep well.
Just then, her sister Luo Baishao came to her and was outraged at the injustice. So, they murmured to each other to think it over. Then their first plot came out.
Despite their clumsy plot, bad acting skills, and lots of flaws in their words, He Danggui who yearned for good sisterhood completely didn’t realize that it was a trap. That time, they also played a trick on her clothes by putting some splinters of western mirrors into the embroidered Chinese roses. At that time, He Danggui was so stupid that she had worn the clothes for a month and didn’t find anything abnormal. She was just confused about the fresh wounds all over her soft skins every day.
The plot came to light because a maid’s hands were hurt by splinters when she was washing the clothes. He Danggui tossed and turned to think all night and became convinced that the plotters were cousins in the Second Branch. But she still couldn’t figure out the reasons. She had learned that she depended on Luo’s Family for living and must keep a low profile, so she dared not spread this but suffered it by herself. From then, she became more cautious at Luo’s Mansion.
This life, Luo Baiqiong sent the clothes again, still with some sharp splinters. When He Danggui touched those thorns, she couldn’t help smiling in her heart, and thought, “Second Sister, you always stay at home leisurely. Why can’t you use your head to think more different tricks to widen my vision? You should know ‘sailing a boat upstream will go back if you don’t advance.’ You are the same person in the past, but I’m not the same as that in my previous life.”
In front of Mammy Tang, He Danggui held the thorns in her palm. Then she screamed out with tears in her eyes and pretended that she was painful but she didn’t dare to cry. She said nothing but exposed the evil intention on the clothes.
However, Mammy Tang didn’t want to think anything bad about Second Miss Luo Baiqiong, because Second Miss was the proudest daughter of Luo’s Family. In terms of appearance, character, family background, or the skill and talent of poetry and calligraphy, she was a unique and outstanding figure in the East and West Yard of Luo’s Family and she would have a promising future. So, Mammy Tang even did not want to think about it since she thought it was a kind of blasphemy to Second Miss and a kind of betrayal to Luo’s Family.
It was hard to change one’s fixed thought. In this case, if He Danggui insisted on getting Luo Baiqiong into trouble, exposing her true face which was arrogant and narrow-minded and telling that she liked collecting cactus thorns and using them to punish the maids who made mistakes, Mammy Tang would not only insist on defending Luo Baiqiong, but also doubt He Danggui and all her words. At that time, it would be very difficult for He Danggui to complain.
When He Danggui was thinking about what she should do next, she suddenly smelled a strange chrysanthemum fragrance, which immediately aroused her mind. She would never forget this fragrance, because it could remind her of painful things.
When He Danggui was at Luo’s Family in her previous life, Luo Baishao once used the itching powder with this chrysanthemum fragrance on He Danggui’s body for many times. Sometimes Luo Baishao knocked over the powder “inadvertently” and then the powder fell on her body “accidentally”. Sometimes Luo Baishao smeared the powder on the utensils that He Danggui often touched. Sometimes Luo Baishao came to talk with He Danggui with smile, saying that there were many leftovers in her kitchenette every day. As long as He Danggui held the handkerchief stained with the powder, she would provide her with the free midnight snack for a month...
Now, Mammy Tang was standing beside He Danggui and the chrysanthemum fragrance of Diaoshanyao Powder came from clothes on the table. The evidences were all there. It was a good opportunity for He Danggui to complain. So, He Danggui instantly calmed down and focused all her attention on her nose. At last, she realized that the Diaoshanyao Powder was on that set of ivory silk inner clothes.
In fact, in order to avoid being found, Luo Baishao hid only a small amount of itching powder. Only the person wearing the inner clothes could feel it, and then would be attacked by the strange itch. The person needed to scratch the body for a long time or even finally got naked because of the itch. After the trick succeeded, even if others checked the inner clothes, the powder had been smeared away by the person who had put on the inner clothes. How could the upper-class people living in the big mansions associate it with such a strange and inferior thing like Diaoshanyao Powder?
If this went well, He Danggui’s skin under her inner clothes would be seen by the men outside the sedan, and her reputation would be ruined completely. At that time, in order to maintain the family reputation, Luo’s Family might delete her name from the family tree. If “Third Miss” disappeared, “Forth Miss” would be in the upper position.
He Danggui had to admit that although Luo Baishao was young, regarding ways of tricking and harming people, she was more deliberate than her sister and braver than her mother. Actually, Second Mistress Luo hated He Danggui the most in Luo’s Family. He Danggui guessed that this time Madam Luo asked Luo’s Family to pick her up decently, and Second Mistress Luo must be the one who was most annoyed. However, though Second Mistress Luo had the authority of managing the family affairs and so many tricks and counsellors, she wasn’t going to be against He Danggui to spoil Madam Luo’s mood to make up for the granddaughter. In Luo’s family, Madam Luo’s authority was overwhelming. The people who made Madam Luo uncomfortable would suffer in the future.
Therefore, compared with Second Mistress Luo who waited and rested until she came up with a plan, Luo Baiqiong and Luo Baishao were too young and na?ve, just like two “little cabbages”. He Danggui sneered and thought, “Now that I temporarily couldn’t deal with Luo Baiqiong, I decided to deal with Luo Baishao first, as a gift to three of them.”
Following the chrysanthemums fragrance, He Danggui successfully found the itching powder hidden in the clothes’ hem. She dug some powder with her fingernail and hid it in the table’s hole. Then she pretended to be stained with the itching powder and showed a terrible pain as if she suddenly felt itchy. Her performance was so real because she had a lot of experiences of the itching powder. Gradually, she followed this line and exposed the true features of Fourth Miss Luo Baishao, kitchen’s administrator Aunt Wang and others one by one.
Mammy Tang promised that she would complain to Madam Luo about Aunt Wang’s behaviors. However, Aunt Wang was supported by Younger Mistress Luo, the “number one meritorious person of Luo’s Family” who gave birth to three kids for First Master Baiqian. Mammy Tang couldn’t overwhelm Aunt Wang’s status in Luo’s Mansion unless having the hard evidence. Therefore, He Danggui planned to deal with this matter after she went back to Luo’s Family.
Seeing Mammy Tang didn’t want to point out Luo Baishao’s mistakes, He Danggui employed her final ability. Although it was not the best way, it was the most efficient way. She didn’t originally plan these stratagems, because she not only didn’t know the clothes sent here were dangerous, but also Madam’s henchman Mammy Tang would come to the Taoist temple to pick her up. The West Lateral court of Luo’s Mansion once was the place where her nightmare began in the previous life. When she came back to Luo’s Mansion, she wanted it to disappear and chose another yard to live. So, she had already planed the plot. She immersed in it while playing a role of a dutiful actress, and disclosed slowly what she wanted Madam Luo to know to Mammy Tang who was the eyes and ears of Madam Luo.
Now that Mammy Tang ignored the matter that Luo Baishao put the itching powder to He Danggui, He Danggui could only employ her final way. So, she put Diaoshanyao Powder which was hidden in the table’s hole on her palm, and then gave Mammy Tang a water bowl with this hand so that Mammy Tang could be stained with the itching powder when she caught the bowl.
Reliving the horrible itch in previous life, He Danggui felt satisfied this time. Now that someone thought a pain which one could speak out was not unbearable, the only way to mark that painful memory in head was to experience it. And only by trying the burning pain of flame, one would never want to touch that orange-red gas jumping like the silk again. Diaoshanyao Powder was the same thing as that gas.
However, the reason why He Danggui would like to experience that extremely painful feeling again was that she knew she would not be the next one to suffer most in this storm.
???
The lynx-like eyes of Liao Zhiyuan rolled around and around. He analyzed Lu Jiangbei’s expression very carefully and said with his hand holding his chin, “Childe Duan takes He Danggui as the fairy in his heart, while Gao Jue regards her as the shadow of his dead wife. This is because they both live an uncomplete life. Childe Duan lives a quite smooth life and what he lacks is frustration, which he first experienced from He Danggui. So, he had a crush on it since then. As for Gao Jue, his life is too miserable. His most beloved woman left him, and his family members tricked him to marry a vicious woman. There is nothing for him to lose except for the affair of losing.”
Although Lu Jiangbei was calm on his face, his fingers holding the dagger were shaking unconsciously, and his palms began to sweat. He thought, “Has He Danggui gone back to Luo’s Family? Are her hands still cold?”
“The strangest thing to me is that Gao Jue and He Danggui sometimes give me a similar feeling. I feel that they’re heartless and callous, and they only care about the fact and interest instead of following their hearts. It seems that they’re dead people without hearts or feelings. Gao Jue has a cold face. He Danggui shows different masks in front of different people. The first thing I’m confused about is that judging from her age and life experience, she couldn’t act like that. Where does her sophistication come from?” Liao Zhiyuan shook his head and sighed towards the sky, “I just couldn’t figure it out after thinking for even a hundred times. She was like a delicate and fragile flower when I first met her. But when I came closer, I see a fearful poisonous vine that would never be ripped apart.”
“Yeah, she is a mystery. I wonder who can solve this mystery.” Lu Jiangbei agreed and added, “What else are you confused about?”
Liao Zhiyuan stared at Lu Jiangbei and said coldly, “I just told you. Childe Duan and Gao Jue fall in love with He Danggui who is abnormal just because they are also abnormal. The other thing I find confusing is that, you’re such a normal person, how could you fall in love with her too? You two don’t match! So, please listen to me. Stop this crush on her before you get yourself into trouble!”