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Chapter 77 - Dad, stop beating my mom
Chapter 77 - Dad, stop beating my mom
Chapter 77 Dad, stop beating my mom
Dong’s Family was a scholarly family in Fuzhou City, and there were several men in the family who were officials in the Imperial Court. But generally speaking, Dong’s Family was still not as noble as Luo’s Family in Yangzhou City. So, even if the legitimate daughter of Dong’s Family married the son of a concubine of Luo’s Family, it was still an honor for Dong’s Family. The Lord of Dong’s Family was a pedantic scholar. He didn’t want others to feel that he attached to dignitaries, so he refused the marriage proposal of Luo’s Family, claiming that he couldn’t bear to let his daughter marry far to Yangzhou City. He even scolded Mrs. Dong afterwards.
Ms. Zhao thought that it was over. So, she went back to Luo’s Mansion in Yangzhou City in dejection. The next day, she began to find the manuscript of her family tree again, wishing to find a girl among the younger generation who was close to her blood relationship as a candidate of her daughter-in-law.
However, after a long time of searching, her eyes were dazzled, but she could not find a more suitable person than her niece, First Miss of Dong’s Family. Some girls were estranged from her, some girls were not suitable because she had old disagreements with their elder generations, and some girls were too young to married in 2 or 3 years. Even if they got married, they were just child brides. However, Luo Baiqian had turned into an 18-year-old adult, and she had been procrastinating to arrange a waiting-maid in his room. Nowadays, if she didn’t get him a wife to take care of him, maybe he would go out and find girls secretly. At last, Ms. Zhao was so worried that she lost a few hairs. But she still couldn’t find a suitable daughter-in-law on her family tree.
Half a month later, during the Double Ninth Festival, Mrs. Dong and First Miss Dong went back to Zhao’s Mansion in Zhenjiang City to visit their relatives. They detoured to Luo’s Mansion in Yangzhou City because the 2 places were not far away. Although Lord Dong did not agree with this marriage, Mrs. Dong and First Miss Dong were both very enthusiastic about what Ms. Zhao said. But they couldn’t stand up to that stubborn old man, so they wanted to stay in Luo’s Mansion for a few days, having a blind date in the name of visiting relatives.
Ms. Zhao heard that her second sister and niece were waiting for her on the gharry outside Luo’s Mansion. She rejoiced immediately like rain fell after a long drought and greeted the two in person. After their talking, Ms. Zhao agreed with Mrs. Dong, and they managed to let Luo Baiqian and First Miss Dong meet in the next day. But First Miss Dong was a bashful lady. Although she really wanted to see what kind of talent her cousin Luo Baiqian was, she didn’t want him to see her.
So, the next day, Ms. Zhao asked Luo Baiqian to drink tea and chat with her, then she arranged Mrs. Dong with her daughter in a nearby wing-room where they could peep. When First Miss Dong glanced him once at the small hole, she became shy because she had never seen such a good-looking man whose dashing eyebrows grew towards temples and eyes were shining like the stars and the moon. Under the nose, his thin lips rose up and down from time to time… When she thought she could marry such a husband, she was so excited that she gave up her restraint. After Luo Baiqian left, she pulled up her mother, begging her third aunt to find a way to make the marriage work.
It was clear that Ms. Zhao was willing to do this. So, she made a plan with Mrs. Dong at the moment. Under their schedule, Luo Baiqian happened to see a scene of First Miss Dong changing clothes. So, they took this “accident” to Lord Dong as a reason to propose a marriage and successfully let Lord Dong agree with this marriage. In this way, one month later, under the hasty arrangement of the 2 elders, Luo Baiqian married First Miss Dong as his wife.
From the perspective of others, First Miss Dong was a beauty of a scholarly family. As the legitimate daughter of her family, she was talented and well-mannered. There was no doubt that they were really a good match after the marriage.
But from the perspective of Luo Baiqian, he was led to a guest room by his legitimate mother and inexplicably saw a woman wearing only an inner clothes, naked arms and thighs. He only glanced vaguely and was scared away by the scream of the woman. After 2 or 3 days, his legitimate mother said to him suddenly that she had made a marriage for him and he would get married within that month. After his legitimate mother left, he asked his confidant manservant to ask about that woman’s information and learnt that he was going to marry the woman who had ruined her reputation on that day by himself. And this woman was not someone else, but his legitimate mother’s niece.
Suddenly, Luo Baiqian had a feeling of being fooled and framed, so he didn’t like the cousin Dong Xinlan who was one year younger than him. In his opinion, if a woman had used such a shameless means to marry someone, and even had ruined her own reputation, the most likely reason was that the woman’s original boudoir reputation was not good, and her reputation had been damaged a long time ago. It was very likely that she could not marry someone in Fuzhou City before, so she came to Yangzhou City, begging her aunt to find a husband for her. So, his legitimate mother arranged this marriage, and made himself a sucker.
With such misunderstanding, after marriage, Luo Baiqian often suspected that Dong Xinlan was misbehaved. So, he secretly let his confidant manservant notice whether Dong Xinlan had close contact with other men in the mansion. If Dong Xinlan had talked a few words with a manservant, a butler, or a coachman, Luo Baiqian’s closest manservant would immediately run to Luo Baiqian to sue Dong Xinlan, then Luo Baiqian would blame her.
Over time, Dong Xinlan didn’t dare to talk to other men anymore, so she was full of grievances. Even before she was engaged, her old-fashioned father did not restrain her that much! Therefore, when they quarreled, Dong Xinlan often said that East Yard of Luo’s Mansion was a “dark and horrible place” and often complained that Ms. Zhao, the main matchmaker, had deceived her.
Generally, after the childes of wealthy and influential families got married, they could take concubines formally. The custom in Yangzhou City was that 3 or 4 months after the first marriage, the elders should be responsible for taking some maids or mid-class young girls for the childes, just like a teapot pairing with several tea bowls. But Luo Baiqian never got any. He saw that Dong Xinlan and his legitimate mother were inseparable, so he blamed this on Dong Xinlan, thinking of her as a jealous woman who stopped his legitimate mother from taking concubines for him secretly, then he hated her even more.
Later, Dong Xinlan delivered twins for him, and the relationship between the unhappy couple eased. However, after Luo Baiqian had two sons, he found that his legitimate mother still didn’t mention anything about taking concubines for him. Then he had a clever idea and ran to complain with Madam Luo several times. The main idea was that his wife was very busy all day, and the 2 baby sons either cried or urinated. Especially at night, they made so much noise that he couldn’t sleep, which directly affected his study efficiency the next day, and he had made mistakes in bookkeeping several times.
Madam Luo felt pitiful for him when she heard it. Ordinary workers worked hard to earn money, and they could buy a concubine or a maid after earning more money, then they would have 1more or 2 more children. No need to mention the children and grandchildren of East Yard of Luo’s Mansion had always been scarce. In the generation of Luo Baiqian, only he and his brother Ji were males. Ji was still very young, so he should wait a few more years to get married and have children. How could Qian who bore the heavy responsibility of the procreation not even have a concubine?
Thinking that during the 10 months of Dong Xinlan’s pregnancy, Luo Baiqian had been “idle” all the time, Madam Luo immediately felt his energy was “wasted”. So, she gave her maids Zi Zhi and Zi Cao to Luo Baiqian as concubines. And she scolded Ms. Zhao severely and ordered her to take concubines for Qian.
After Ms. Zhao was reprimanded, she went back to discuss with Dong Xinlan, and finally took 4 mid-class young girls for Luo Baiqian as concubines.
Luo Baiqian felt very angry after meeting these 4 people. The first woman had a big eye and a small eye. The second woman’s nose was crooked. The third woman had a large mole on the side of her lips. Although the fourth had regular features, her figure was short and thick, and she was not even taller than his chest! The appearance of the 4 people together did not look like the half of Zi Zhi that Madam Luo gifted him. It was clear that the ugly girls were selected by his legitimate mother under the egging of the jealous woman, Dong Xinlan! What’s even more irritating was that his only beautiful concubine, Zi Zhi, provoked Dong Xinlan after a few days, and then Ms. Zhao gave Zi Zhi a bowl of sterilization soup, so that she would not have a baby in the future.
As a result, Luo Baiqian hated Dong Xinlan and his legitimate mother even more. Since then, he had no hope for his family to take concubines for him. So, he quietly bought a big manor beside the academy. Usually, he would ask his manservant to get him some beautiful women from the Qingcaoniu market, and those women would be sent to the manor as concubines living outside. Until now, the number had gradually reached 30, among which 4 people had been pregnant in the second half of this year. Therefore, although Luo Baiqian was depressed for the loss of his son Zhu, the thought that he would have 4 more children after a few months easily eased his pain. Even if one of the upcoming babies was regarded as a substitute of Zhu, he still had 3 more children. Now he was not so sad.
Now that Luo Baiqian had the evidence of Dong Xinlan’s adultery, he was almost exhilarating. And he felt that as long as he divorced the jealous woman, he could marry another good and generous wife. Then he would take back more than 30 concubines living outside to Luo’s Mansion, and his 4 unborn children would not be illegitimate. By then, Madam Luo would get so many great-grandchildren at once, and she would certainly not blame him for doing these privately. Maybe she would praise him for his great ability to have 4 children in succession and then give him more beautiful maids.
With this idea in his mind, Luo Baiqian was intent on convicting Dong Xinlan and said various unpleasant words to her. He wished she could take the initiative to divorce him and return to Fuzhou City with her luggage!
Dong Xinlan didn’t know the source of the belt, but just cried loudly. Later, hearing that Luo Baiqian was going to divorce her, she thought a lot. She had suffered so many grievances after marriage: the maid Zi Zhi had been unable to have children, but Luo Baiqian still often went to Zi Zhi’s room to spend the night; Dong Xinlan herself had married Luo Baiqian for 4 years and gave birth to 2 sons and one daughter to Luo’s Family. Now, because of a belt, he decided to divorce without considering her great achievements in the past. In order to marry Luo Baiqian, she sacrificed a dozen years of her reputation as a woman, which provoked her father. In the past 4 years, every time she returned to her natal family, her father refused to meet her. Now if she divorced Luo Baiqian with the reputation as a “prostitute”, her father would beat her out of Dong’s Mansion with a stick. Then she would be homeless!
Dong Xinlan couldn’t eat and sleep well for his son’s affairs recently, and her emotions were in a state of impending collapse. Now the idea of “homelessness” had inspired the potential of a vixen. She flung into Luo Baiqian’s body for an unreasonable mess and completely gave up on the etiquette of a lady.
When Luo Baiqian was 16 years old, he went to Madam Luo’s hometown, Sichuan Prefecture, and learnt martial arts for 2 years. Although he was not a senior, how could he be defeated by a woman in a fight? He had firmly believed that Dong Xinlan was guilty after committing adultery, and that’s why she made such a fuss. Therefore, when he saw Dong Xinlan’s face covering with hair, he hated her more and showed no mercy to her. He hit her hard. She was pushed to the ground and howled like a pig was being killed. Luo Baiqian was also furious at the moment. Coldness appeared in his beautiful eyes. He caught Dong Xinlan and kept hitting and kicking her, as if he couldn’t control himself.
It was all this bitch’s fault! Because of her, he didn’t want to return home. Even if he wanted to take a concubine and have a child, he had to do it secretly like a thief! This bitch not only complained about his constant failure in his official career, but grumbled that Second Mistress Luo held the power of the house and did not give a little to the First Branch. Even if Second Mistress Luo’s brother had died, she would not have given up... He was extremely irritated and increasingly felt that Dong Xinlan could never be compared with Qi Sanniang.
He and Qi Sanniang, the concubine of his uncle who lived in the West Yard, were truly in love with each other. Most of the time, they could only miss each other. Even if his uncle went out for business, they could only stay together secretly. Every moment they spent together, they were on tenterhooks. For this reason, they cherished the time more, and every time they met each other, they could not bear to fall apart like that was the last time for them to meet.
On the contrary, he and his wife, Dong Xinlan, were bored with each other. He loathed Dong Xinlan for her intolerance, her disloyalty, her meanness and everything about her; while Dong Xinlan loathed his lack of success on his career and his inability to help her get the right to take charge of the family, which involved a lot of money to get. Such two mutually loathing people had to be together day and night. As a result, they gradually loathed each other more and more. Fate was so good at playing tricks on people!
Thinking about this, Luo Baiqian was so angry that he kicked Dong Xinlan in her stomach with all his strength. He even thought of killing her.
In the Ming Dynasty, adultery was a felony for a married woman who would be punished by hanging. Even if he had killed Dong Xinlan in a fit of rage, he would not have to be responsible for her death. He only needed to go to the government afterwards and reported the fact that his wife was so angry after her fornication had been exposed, so she suddenly attacked him, with the intention of murdering her own husband. Then he could get rid of Dong Xinlan once and for all. As for Dong’s Family, they had raised such an unscrupulous daughter that they would not only have no face to stand up for her, but expel her from the family.
After a while, Dong Xinlan’s face was covered with blood for the hits, and her breathing, screams and cries grew fainter.
“Mom! Dad, stop beating mom, please!” A little boy in a green cotton vest ran in Liu Li Tang from outside, and he hugged Dong Xinlan’s head and cried loudly, “Stop beating my mom! Stop beating my mom! Boohoo...”