Three Wives and Four Concubines in the Dream of the Red Chamber

Page 9

Now that they were preparing to go to Suzhou, Gu Yu sent these people to Jinling to keep watch and closely monitor the human traffickers in the city and the young masters of the Feng and Xue families, so that they could buy a maid with a rouge mark between her eyebrows.

...

Seeing that Daiyu was blinking and about to shed tears again, Gu Yu sighed and made a sad expression, which successfully attracted Daiyu's attention.

Although she knew it was somewhat inappropriate, Daiyu still gave Gu Yu a reproachful glare.

This wicked person always sighs and laments when they're feeling sad, but when they actually do, they're always worse off than you. You can't say anything to them, and you can't say anything to them either. It just makes you seem a bit pretentious.

Despite receiving a glare, Gu Yu didn't mind. Instead, she winked smugly at Xueyan, teasing this future maid of Lin Daiyu.

Poor Xueyan was caught in the middle between these two bad guys, her face turning red with frustration.

After Gu Yu's playful banter dispelled her homesickness, Daiyu felt a sense of novelty about the journey and pulled Gu Yu aside to tell her some interesting stories.

Although she had basically been lying down the whole way last time, Gu Yu wouldn't expose her embarrassing side. After briefly mentioning the scenery on the water, she steered the conversation to the people.

"The Zhen family of Jinling has a young master named Baoyu, who is tyrannical, impetuous, unruly, and foolish, as everyone knows. He used to say that girls' names are noble and that men's foul mouths cannot be used to say anything about them. Before saying anything, they have to rinse their mouths with fragrant tea."

"Does my cousin think that girls should be treated with contempt?"

Gu Yu's expression remained unchanged, as if she hadn't understood the barb in Daiyu's words, and she continued:

"I used to agree with this statement, but now that he's grown up, he still only hangs out in Neiwei and loves to eat the rouge off people's lips. He hates reading and only reads occasionally when a girl is with him. Even when he gets beaten, he needs to call out to his sisters to relieve the pain."

Daiyu finally shut her mouth, and after thinking for a moment, said with some confusion:

"It's normal for wealthy families to have纨绔子弟 (sons of wealthy families) who like to flirt, but why does he spend all his time among the sisters? Even if they know it's just sibling affection, what will people think if word gets out? What will become of the Zhen family's daughter in the future…"

Seeing that Daiyu had taken the bait, Gu Yu chimed in:

"Who says otherwise? But his grandmother dotes on him so much that it's common for her to scold him and his teacher, so no one dares to discipline him. Besides, this playboy has been around for a long time and is even better at pleasing girls, so all the maids in his household are happy to give him rouge."

"Does Brother Yu know how?"

Gu Yu blinked and chuckled, "Doesn't Lin Meimei know what kind of person I am?"

"spit!"

Daiyu blushed and turned her head away, ignoring the wicked man. Only she knew what she was really thinking.

“These spoiled brats usually have a set routine when they pick up girls. If it’s the first time they meet and they don’t know the girl well, they’ll just say, ‘This girl looks familiar. I think I’ve seen her before.’”

What if I say I've never seen it before?

"That means even if we haven't met before, if our faces look familiar, we can treat each other as old acquaintances and consider it a reunion after a long separation. Wouldn't that make us feel closer?"

Daiyu gritted her teeth secretly, looked at Gu Yu who was talking eloquently in front of her, squeezed her handkerchief, and deliberately struck up a conversation, wanting to see how skilled he was!

"...These ignorant and incompetent young men have another method: they make up stories. With their family background and limited knowledge, they can deceive naive girls. They can just make up some book and say that there is something in the far north, the southern miasma, or the west or overseas that is just right for you, as a way of flattering you. Since there is no basis for their claims, they can just make up whatever they want."

Seeing that Gu Yu was getting more and more excited, Daiyu gave a soft hum and said:

"No matter how much of a scoundrel I am, I will never run into him. But I am so familiar with Brother Yu. If anything happens to you in the future, I will definitely tell my father and discipline you properly."

"Ahem, I was just telling you some of the tricks these playboys use, how does that make me someone who's supposed to be deceiving people?"

"Oh dear!" Daiyu exclaimed softly, a hint of bitterness appearing between her brows.

"I often heard my mother say that my maternal grandmother's second aunt gave birth to a cousin who was born with a jade pendant in his mouth. He was exceptionally unruly, hated studying, and loved to hang out in the inner quarters. Unfortunately, my grandmother doted on him so much that no one dared to discipline him. Isn't that..."

"That's it!"

Gu Yu was secretly delighted and deliberately said in a teasing tone:

"Then you need to be even more careful. People with similar bloodlines often look alike. Your aunt and your cousin's father are siblings. You might find him very familiar, and if he tries to trick you with his words, you'll fall for his tricks and have your rouge stolen."

"Pah! From a dog's mouth..." Daiyu was so anxious that she burst into tears before she could finish speaking. Gu Yu had no choice but to humble himself, but he was still kicked out.

Eight days later, Gu Yu and her entourage returned to the Gu family mansion. Gu Zhong entrusted most of the affairs to the servants and personally accompanied Gu Yu and Daiyu on a tour of the Gu family ancestral home.

Listening to Gu Zhong's introduction, this was where Lin Hai stayed back then, and where Master Gu taught them, and what interesting things happened during that time, he knew it all like the back of his hand.

Gu Yu matched the scenes in her memory with reality one by one, and finally felt a sense of peace, like a wanderer returning home.

Daiyu looked around the ancestral home, which had weathered hundreds of years of storms, with curiosity. Listening to the interesting stories her father had told here, she felt a little more lively.

After visiting the ancestral home and paying respects at the ancestral hall, Gu Yu could only hide in a side courtyard for the next few days to observe a period of fasting and could not go out to see anyone.

……

"Forty taels for a maid?! Master, you can't do this! A pretty maid would only cost five taels of silver at most, how can you spend forty taels to buy one! If this continues, you'll squander the family fortune left by our ancestors!"

"Don't stop me, old man Xu! I'll let it slide this time because of your decades of service to my family. I promise this is the last time!"

"Once I buy her home, I promise I'll live a peaceful life, take good care of the family business, and stop fooling around with those people playing with rabbits."

"……,really?"

“Realer than real gold!”

"…well!"

……

Li Lao Er weighed the heavy bag in his arms, grinning from ear to ear. But then he glanced at the bewildered expression on the girl's face behind him and suddenly the bag didn't seem so appealing anymore.

"It's hateful that someone with such a good foundation is so stupid. After being taught for several years, he still can't learn those performing arts. Otherwise, if he were sold to Qunyu Tower and trained for another two years, he would definitely become a top courtesan, earning at least two hundred taels of silver!"

Upon discovering that he had still lost 150 taels, Li Lao Er immediately became sullen.

Just then, the girl behind him nudged him and asked, "Father, why did that young master say he would come to pick me up in three days?"

"Why worry so much? You're lucky. It looks like the master bought you to make you his concubine, so you won't have to do any work."

"Oh."

Just then, a commotion arose ahead, and some people rushed over. Upon asking, they learned that it was Xue's tyrant causing trouble again.

Li Lao Er was startled, then suddenly thought of something, and his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

Just as he was about to turn around and grab the girl to rush forward, several people suddenly came from behind, covered his mouth and nose, and dragged him into a side alley.

Two other men stopped the girl and led her to a carriage not far away.

Several passersby were so shocked they were about to scream, but when they were glared at, they were so frightened they almost couldn't catch their breath and quickly covered their faces and scattered.

The girl turned around and asked, "Where is my father?"

A burly man next to him laughed and said, "What father? He's just a damned kidnapper! Daughter, don't be afraid. He won't be able to hit you anymore. This kind of scumbag wants to be your father. He's really disgracing you."

The girl remained silent, but before getting into the car, she turned back and asked, "But I was already sold to a young master."

"Don't worry, the paperwork hasn't been given to him yet. We'll just return the money to him later. Now that you've been bought by my young master, go and enjoy your life!"

After watching the carriage leave, the two returned to the alley and quietly joined the battle.

Only after Li Lao Er's muffled groan was barely audible did everyone tacitly stop.

The burly man at the head of the group gripped the official seal in his arms and ordered several men to drag Li Lao Er toward the yamen like a dead dog.

After the constables realized that the man lying on the ground, looking like a dead dog, was a kidnapper, they were happy to gain some credit for nothing and helped introduce him to the prefect.

When the man secretly revealed his identity, the old prefectural magistrate, who had been in Yingtian Prefecture for nearly thirty years, suddenly seemed to come alive again.

He personally and quietly helped make a contract of servitude, keeping only one copy for his records and giving the rest to the big man to take back.

After finishing this matter, before leaving, the burly man left one more man behind. In front of everyone, he took out forty taels of silver and said:

"My young master is considerate of his servants, so I ask you all to keep an eye out. If anyone knows of any missing girl from the Zhen family in the Suzhou area, with a rouge mark between her eyebrows, and has any clues, you can take this reward. I will stay at Yingfu Inn on East Street for a few days. If I get any clues later, I can report to the Prefect and receive a reward as well."

The constables were all talking amongst themselves, their eyes filled with envy for the forty taels of silver the man was holding, but unfortunately they had no leads and could only watch with longing.

The man didn't mind, cupped his hands in farewell and left. Even late at night, he was still sitting in the inn quietly drinking tea.

Suddenly, there was a soft knock on the door three times. He went to open it and saw a black mole on the person's nose. It was the same person from the yamen during the day.

"I thought no one was coming. You're being a bit too cautious."

"Hehe, I am but a worthless man, and forty taels is far too valuable. You should understand the principle of not flaunting your wealth."

The newcomer gave a fawning smile, but his eyes kept glancing at the man's waist, and he didn't say much.

The man smiled knowingly, realizing that this was a case of not acting until he saw the benefit, and took out the package and tossed it over.

The visitor tossed the item in his hand, revealing a sliver of light. A look of delight appeared on his face. He stepped forward, whispered something, and then quietly slipped out the door, disappearing into the night.

Go home!

I went to visit relatives today and didn't bring my phone. I just got back. Let's see how much I can update. If I can't keep going, then I'll write two chapters tomorrow.

Chapter Sixteen: Entering the Jia Mansion

……

On the seventh day of the tenth month, as they gradually approached the capital, the banks of the canal became increasingly populated, naturally attracting Daiyu and her entourage, who had been on the boat for a long time, to admire the scenery on both banks.

Unlike in the original novel, where Lin Hai entered the Jia family alone with only Wang Mama and Xueyan, Lin Hai, though unable to accompany Daiyu to the capital with a large entourage due to circumstances, couldn't resist the effort that Gu Yu was willing to put in.

Since finishing her mourning period, Gu Yu has become more uninhibited and even brought several of her family's cooks with her to the capital.

Once on the boat, Daiyu learned that he had also bought a maid named Xiangling. Although she was only ten years old, she was already very pretty, with a touch of rouge between her eyebrows, a true beauty in the making.

After spending just a few days together, Daiyu had grown quite fond of Xiangling's innocence, naivety, and charm.

Xiangling was initially worried about what the future would hold, but after seeing Gu Yu and Daiyu's attitudes, she finally felt at ease, and her smile grew brighter every day.

Gu Yu was very happy to see that Xiang Ling had finally come to his pot.

Gu Zhong had to stay in Suzhou to oversee the ancestral home. Although his son was waiting for Gu Yu in the capital, Gu Yu had been without anyone to serve him for some time. Now that someone had been chosen, he could finally rest assured.

As for the young master of the Feng family, although he cried and wailed in grief over the loss of his beloved, at least he saved his future life, and Xue Pan was spared a murder charge.

Jia Yucun doesn't need to take the first step into the abyss because of this. Consider it payment for the half-day lesson he taught. So, he's already won big!

Only Daiyu was very sad. When she learned that Xiangling had been kidnapped by abductors since childhood and had been beaten and scolded incessantly, and that if she hadn't been so nervous when she was beaten and scolded that she couldn't learn many things, she would have been sold to a brothel as a top courtesan long ago, she couldn't help but shed many tears.

In his excitement, he coughed up a large amount of blood, which frightened Xiangling, who was seeing this scene for the first time and thought she had caused a great disaster. She cried for almost an hour without stopping, which made Lin Daiyu feel embarrassed to cry.

As they drew closer to the dock, Gu Yu noticed several ornate carriages parked there, with a dozen servants and sedan chair bearers waiting.

Because they had to detour through Suzhou, only two of the Jia family servants who had delivered the message a while ago stayed behind to meet them; the rest went back to report.

Now that they had arrived in the capital, the two men, who were getting restless on the ship, began to stir a little as they descended to the lower deck.

In the otherwise quiet top floor, Daiyu frowned and secretly glanced at Gu Yu.

Although she was just a servant in her maternal grandmother's house, she inexplicably felt that she had lost face in front of Gu Yu and became somewhat uncomfortable.

As the faces of the group of people on the dock became clearer, each of them was dressed far more elegantly than the passersby, and their faces subtly revealed a hint of arrogance.

Gu Yu narrowed her eyes, but said with a smile:

"My sister is about to see her maternal grandmother. Why don't we finish crying here first before going down? So that they will know that I, Lin, am also a man of unyielding integrity who sheds blood but not tears!"

"Tch! You wicked little devil, you're always making fun of me!"

Daiyu blushed, and, filled with embarrassment and anger, clenched her fists and punched him relentlessly.

Ever since she once saw flowers on the riverbank fall into the water and sink, she couldn't help but shed tears for a while, feeling melancholy. Her naughty cousin would deliberately say these strange things to tease her, and every time she did so, she would feel much better.

Daiyu naturally knew that Gu Yu was doing it for her own good, but she just didn't want to see Gu Yu smug, so she deliberately acted against him, so as to teach him what it meant to be a woman's heart, unfathomable!

After the servants finished making their arrangements and everything was ready, Gu Yu and Daiyu went down together, got into a sedan chair, and headed towards the Jia Mansion.

Gu Yu looked at the bustling street with great interest. The capital city was teeming with pedestrians, and the stalls on both sides stretched endlessly, but it was still relatively clean.

Although the Cheng-Zhu school of Neo-Confucianism was not as prevalent in this dynasty as it was in the Ming and Qing dynasties of the past, young ladies from wealthy families like Daiyu still could not easily show their faces in public. Therefore, she could only secretly lift the curtain and observe the bustling scene of the capital through the gauze window.

Gu Yu naturally had no such concerns. If he weren't too young to ride a horse and the journey wasn't too long, he wouldn't want to be cooped up in the sedan chair at all.

Fortunately, Xiangling obediently massaged his temples, her strength becoming increasingly skilled, allowing Gu Yu to lean back on the cushion and close his eyes to enjoy it.

As Xiangling gazed at Gu Yu's jade-like profile, a blush spread across her face. Although she was naive, she had gradually come to understand the ways of the world by the age of ten and knew that she had been bought to be a personal maid.

As she gradually got used to warming Gu Yu's bed every day, a naive hope began to form in her heart: that she could become a favored concubine in the future, so that she wouldn't be sold off at will.

If Gu Yu knew that Xiang Ling was still thinking about whether he would sell her off again in the future, he would probably be so angry that he would beat her to a pulp.

"Xiangling is so pretty and cute, do you think I'm some kind of tyrant who'll just play with her and then abandon her?!"

Perhaps only Xue Pan, that two-way plug, could not cherish Xiang Ling after getting her, allowing this elfin girl to end up in such a state.

Who is Gu Yu? He's a womanizer, leaving nothing behind. He's got Xiangling for life; not even Jesus could save her!