Aoyama

Chapter 204 Wet Nurse
There was no snow on the bluestone slab outside Mingquan Garden. Wang Gui put his forehead against the slab and felt the cold touch of the slab was like a knife, almost cutting his head open.

Wang Gui just knelt there, waiting for Chen Ji to appear.

But Chen Ji did not appear.

Not far from Mingquan Garden was Qunfang Garden where the maids lived. A maid in the bedroom heard Wang Gui's shouting and went out to watch the fun. For a moment, several heads were crowded together beside the door frame of the bedroom.

A slender maid squinted her eyes and carefully identified the figure kneeling in the night: "Hey, isn't that the housekeeper?"

An older maid said disdainfully: "He is not a housekeeper anymore, call him Wang Gui."

The thin maidservant cried out, "Wang Gui was beaten with a stick, so he gave in to the Third Young Master? Look at his back, there is still blood. If he kneels any longer, he will probably freeze to death."

The older maid spat to the side and said, "He deserves it! Apart from the first-class maids around the young master, the master, and the lady, who hasn't been touched by him over the years?"

"That's right, it's so disgusting. The Third Young Master should be made to kneel here and freeze to death."

At this time, the maids had not seen Chen Ji for a long time, and they were chattering in low voices: "Strange, the Third Young Master used to be the most soft-hearted and cowardly. Wang Gui has begged him so much, why hasn't he come out yet?"

The slender maid lowered her voice and said, "Maybe he has changed his personality after studying medicine for two years?"

The older maid sneered, "Impossible. It's easy to change the country, but hard to change one's nature. A person's temperament won't change easily."

Having said this, she turned around and looked at a little maid behind her. She had simple double buns on her hair, a round face that still looked childish, and lively eyes.

The older maid said to her, "Xiao Man, you used to serve the Third Young Master. Now that he's back, why don't you ask the Madam to assign you to the Third Young Master?"

The maid Xiaoman, who had two buns on her head, turned her eyes and muttered in a low voice, "Sister Liqiu, I won't go. I'll just be bullied by him every day."

Li Qiu touched her forehead with her fingertip in annoyance: "You useless thing, why do you have to waste your time here as a third-class maid? If you go back to him, you will become a first-class maid again, and your monthly salary will increase by 300 coins. If you despise him, just wait until you are old enough to marry out of the mansion, and you can also leave a dowry, which is better than marrying a tenant or a coachman like us."

Xiaoman lowered her head, not wanting others to see her eyes: "I don't dislike him, I just feel bad seeing him being so cowardly. Anyway, whoever wants to go can go, the monthly salary increase of 300 copper coins is not enough to make up for the cowardice... Sister Liqiu, I want to stay in Luocheng, so that I don't have to serve anyone, and I can just die here."

"Not getting married?"

"Not marrying."

Li Qiu whispered, "You may not know, but the Third Young Master has received 2,500 taels of silver from the newly established Bureau of Preparation, and his life has improved."

Xiaoman suddenly looked up: "So many?"

Li Qiu rubbed his cold hands with breath, and said casually: "Now following the Third Young Master, although you will be bullied and looked down upon by the Madam and others, he is kind-hearted. When you get married, if you beg him well, you may get a generous dowry."

As they were talking, a maidservant exclaimed, "Has the Third Young Master really changed his temper and become cruel? Is he really planning to let Wang Gui freeze to death here?"

Xiaoman curled her lips: "How is that possible?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the gate of Mingquan Garden creaked open.

Xiaoman hurriedly said, "Look, I'll tell you."

……

……

In the dark night, Chen Ji opened the courtyard gate, stood on the threshold in a cloak, and asked calmly: "What are you doing kneeling in front of my door in the middle of the night?"

Wang Gui said hurriedly, "I am no longer a housekeeper. You can just call me Wang Gui. I came here tonight only to ask you to be magnanimous and spare me."

Chen Ji said nonchalantly: "It was Lord Chen's decision to cane you. It's useless to come and beg me."

Wang Gui banged his head on the ground, his forehead bleeding on the bluestone slab. "Third Young Master, you are very magnanimous. I was wrong in the past. If you are angry, just give me a beating. But my mother is sixty-seven years old and is still waiting for me in Beijing. If you don't forgive me, I am afraid I won't have the chance to take care of her until the end of her life."

Chen Ji remained calm.

It was the ancestral teaching of Emperor Taizu that the Ning Dynasty ruled the world with filial piety. Even people like Liu Ge Lao and Wang Dao Sheng had to resign from their posts and return home to mourn for three years when their fathers passed away.

In the cold winter, Wang Gui took off his shirt and came to ask for forgiveness, wanting to return to Beijing to serve his biological mother. This showed that he had repented and was willing to sacrifice his life for the sake of benevolence.

If Chen Ji accepted Wang Gui's plea of ​​forgiveness, it would be a good story in the Confucian circle, showing Chen Ji's benevolence and righteousness; if Chen Ji let Wang Gui freeze to death here, it would be unkind, and it would damage the reputation of the Chen family if it were spread.

Wang Gui didn't really ask for his forgiveness, but wanted to play a trick on himself.

This self-torture trick was not performed for himself, but for Chen Liqin. The other party was betting that Chen Liqin would consider the face of the Chen family and the friendship of the wet nurse.

Chen Ji thought for a moment and said, "You want to serve your biological mother with pure filial piety, I am naturally willing to fulfill your wish."

Wang Gui raised his head, his eyes full of hope: "Third Master, have you forgiven me? Can I go back to the capital with you?"

Chen Ji smiled and said, "I mean, I can just send someone to bring your mother to Luocheng."

"Ah?" Wang Gui was stunned for a moment.

Chen Ji pointed at the Chen Mansion and said, "After we go to the capital, this place will be vacant. I will pay for the travel expenses to bring your mother here, and then you can settle her in my Mingquan Garden. Isn't it beautiful? Luocheng has beautiful mountains and clear waters, and outstanding people. It is a good place to retire."

"This..." Wang Gui hesitated, his eyes rolled slightly, and he quickly reacted: "Third Master, my mother is old and weak, I'm afraid she can't bear the fatigue of traveling hundreds of miles."

Chen Ji calculated the time: "If we take a fast boat through the Grand Canal, from south to north, we will arrive in ten days."

Wang Gui said with a stiff face: "My mother is seasick."

Chen Ji sighed, "There's nothing I can do. I want to fulfill your filial piety, but nothing works. Go back quickly. If you keep kneeling like this, you'll die of hypothermia soon."

Wang Gui knelt down again and said, "If you don't forgive me, I will die here on my knees."

Chen Ji was silent.

The maids in Qunfang Garden held their breath, their heads stacked outside the door frame, observing secretly.

Li Qiu sighed, "This Wang Gui is a ruthless man. Is he betting that the Third Young Master is soft-hearted and dares not cause a real death?"

Xiaoman curled her lips and said, "If it were me, I would make him kneel and die here. Just wait and see, the Third Young Master will definitely swallow this humiliation. If it weren't for this kind of personality, he wouldn't have let others bully him in the past few years."

In front of Mingquan Garden, Chen Ji asked softly, "Butler, are you really not going to get up?"

Wang Gui said: "If the Third Young Master does not forgive me, I will not get up."

Chen Ji nodded: "Okay, if you don't want to get up, then don't get up. I'll take you to see Master Chen for justice."

Wang Gui fell to the ground: "I won't go...what are you doing?!"

The next moment, Chen Ji walked out, grabbed Wang Gui's wrist, and dragged him deep into the Chen Mansion.

Wang Gui struggled and made a sound like a pig being slaughtered: "Let me go!" However, no matter how he struggled, he could not get rid of the iron-like hands.

Wang Gui could only lie on his back and let Chen Ji drag him further and further on the bluestone road.

The maids outside the door looked at each other in bewilderment. Li Qiu was in doubt: "Did I see it right? Did the Third Young Master just drag Wang Gui away like that?"

Xiaoman leaned sideways against the door frame and murmured, "They...they were dragged away like this?"

"The Third Young Master is so strong!"

They imagined ten thousand possible endings, such as Chen Ji softening his heart and forgiving Wang Gui, Wang Gui unable to bear it and leaving, or Chen Liqin arriving.

But he never expected that Chen Ji would drag Wang Gui away with his bare hands.

The maids were at a loss for a moment, and Xiaoman suddenly felt a little confused when she looked at the back of her former master.

……

……

Outside Wenhua Garden, Chen Ji dragged the crying Wang Gui and knocked hard on the door. Chen Liqin, who hadn't even put on his clothes properly, hurriedly pushed the door open and asked, "What's going on?"

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Chen Ji bowed outside the door and said, "Master Chen, Wang Gui went to Mingquan Garden in the middle of the night and knelt down to apologize. He said that if I don't forgive him, he will kneel outside my door and freeze to death. I can't make the decision on this matter, so I dragged him here to Master Chen to decide."

Chen Liqin looked at Wang Gui and said angrily, "Why are you crazy?"

Wang Gui knelt down beside Chen Liqin and kowtowed to admit his fault: "Master, I know I was wrong. I know I was wrong. Please don't leave me in Luocheng. You also know that my mother is old and she cannot be left without someone to take care of her."

Chen Liqin frowned.

Wang Gui continued, "Master, whenever my mother mentioned you, she said that you were the most kind-hearted person in the Chen family. She said that when you were three years old, you knew to give the biggest pears to your brother and mother. She also talked about taking you to the Lantern Festival, and that when you were four years old, you could guess all the lantern riddles..."

Wang Gui cried bitterly, "Master, she stayed with you until you were fourteen years old, taking care of your daily life day and night. How could you bear to see her die alone?"

Chen Liqin said in annoyance: "That's enough!"

Wang Gui kept silent.

The so-called wet nurse is not only responsible for breastfeeding, but also takes care of the child's diet and daily life, imparts basic knowledge, and accompanies the child until adulthood.

In the deep palaces, wet nurses made up for the absence of mothers. After many officials and nobles became adults, they even treated their wet nurses as half mothers.

This is the case with Chen Liqin.

At this moment, Chen Liqin recalled the past and subconsciously looked at Chen Ji's expression. Seeing that Chen Ji was calm, he carefully said, "Wang Gui seems to be regretful this time."

Chen Ji said calmly: "What does Master Chen mean?"

Chen Liqin was silent for a long time: "His mother is old... He made a mistake in a moment of confusion, but Wen Zong also punished him with a stick, and he now apologized for his crime, which means he must have repented. Of course, I will not let him continue to be the housekeeper, but just let him go back to Beijing with us, what do you think?"

Chen Ji thought for a moment and said, "Master Chen, why not return Wang Gui's deed to him, let him go home, and stop him from working in the Chen Mansion."

Chen Liqin was a little embarrassed: "I promised his mother that I would give him a job... How about this, we observe him for a while, if he shows any signs of being a bad person again, I will expel him from the house. If he really reforms, we will give him this opportunity to start a new life."

Chen Ji looked at Chen Liqin for a long time in the dark night, then stepped back, smiled and said, "It's okay, it's up to Master Chen."

Chen Liqin breathed a sigh of relief, lowered his head and angrily shouted at Wang Gui at his feet: "Get out of here! You are embarrassing yourself here! Go back to your home, and don't show up in front of Chen Ji and upset him before you return to Beijing."

Wang Gui stood up hurriedly: "I understand, I understand!"

……

……

Wang Gui returned to his bedroom, put on his clothes, and limped out of the side door of Chen's residence. He turned through several alleys and knocked on a door.

The gate opened, and a pretty woman said in surprise, "Master, today is not a day off, why are you back in the middle of the night?"

Wang Gui said tremblingly, "Help me in first."

The woman supported him and asked worriedly, "What happened to the master? Why are you limping?"

Wang Gui's face was livid. He didn't explain a word, but whispered, "Pack up and prepare to return to Beijing in a few days."

The woman helped Wang Gui lie on the bed and rubbed his cold arms and legs with her hands to keep him warm.

When she saw the wounds on Wang Gui's back and buttocks, she burst into tears: "Master, what happened to you? Who beat you like this? Let's go to the police!"

Wang Gui didn't say anything and let the woman rub him for a long time before he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Don't report it to the authorities. The authorities can't do anything about it," he said with his eyes closed. "Pack up all the gold and silver jewelry in your home. Tomorrow, call a rickshaw driver and find an escort agency to transport them to the capital. Don't go with the Chen family. Transport the jewelry to the capital alone and give them to my mother."

The woman sighed and agreed.

Wang Gui opened his eyes and said, "Where is the box I brought back on the day of the war? I want to take a look."

The woman bent down and struggled to pull out a wooden box from under the bed and opened it. It was full of gold and silver jewelry, including Liang's once most precious phoenix crown and blue flowered head ornaments.

Wang Gui's gaze stopped at the phoenix corona and blue flower ornaments on her head... This was what Liang wore on her head when she got married.

After a moment, Wang Gui's eyes were uncertain: "Put on this headdress."

The woman exclaimed, her face delighted, but she said modestly: "Master, why do you want me to wear this phoenix crown? I am not worthy of such a fine item."

Wang Gui said angrily: "I told you to wear it, so put it on. Why are you talking nonsense?"

The woman sat in front of the dressing table with a wronged look on her face, putting on her headdress in front of the brass mirror.

Wang Gui squinted his eyes and looked. In the dim room, he could no longer see the woman's face clearly. Only the phoenix crown and headdress were left, shining brightly in the weak candlelight.

The woman had just put on her headdress when Wang Gui climbed out of bed. Regardless of the pain in his body, he pressed the woman down on the dressing table and lifted up her clothes from behind.

"Master, please don't do this. You are still injured..."

"Shut up."

"Master, there seems to be a tabby cat on the window frame looking at us."

"Shut up!"

(End of this chapter)