Reborn: Revenge of the Concubine’s Daughter

“Oh, my god, you are back! I have been waiting here all day. Where have you been, master? Why didn’t you take me with you?”

The manservant Xiong Huang came out from the stone lion in the East Yard of Luo’s Mansion, raised his head to lift up the window of the carriage, and said in a low voice, “Come inside the mansion quickly, Master! Something big happened in our family. First Younger Mistress is going crazy looking for you! I’ve tried everywhere as well. But there was no trace of you in the Academy, the medicine shop, the other homes, or Master Ding’s Mansion. Everywhere! First Younger Mistress was so worried and determined that she would go to the government tomorrow morning to report your missing!”

Luo Baiqian seemed to have drunk a lot of wine before. When he lifted the curtain, there was a strong smell of wine surrounding the carriage. He refused to let the coachman help him. Instead, he pushed the coachman’s arm impatiently, and jumped out of the carriage alone. Seeing Xiong Huang coming towards him, he raised his arm and gave a hard slapping on him, cursing loudly, “What the hell are you yelling in the middle of the night? You want to tell everyone that I’ve just come back drinking from the brothel? And you want to promote it for me?”

Luo Baiqian was a man with some kongfu background. He was drunk and didn’t know how hard he hit Xiong Huang. Xiong Huang’s mouth was full of blood instantly. He took three or four steps back and finally held the wheel of the carriage to stand still. He covered his swollen face as his lips trembled. Then he cried, “Master, Zhu is dying. Go to see him for the last time! He’s been unconscious since this morning!”

Luo Baiqian was dully at this time. He tried to digest these words, and finally extracted the main meaning of “my son was dying”. The intoxication was gone, and he had no time to knock on the gate of the East Yard of Luo’s Mansion. He ran askew and turned into the back alley, kicking the half-covered side door open.

“It’s the middle of the night. Who are you? Stop and register yourself over there!” The manservant Ma Douling who just sent away Mammy Tang yawned to stop the intruder. In the dark, he couldn’t even recognize Luo Baiqian. Because his sweet dream was disturbed by him, his tone was very unfriendly. Anyway, most of the people who went around the side door were sneaky servants. The masters would certainly enter from the front door.

Luo Baiqian kicked away the manservant blocking the road and rushed into the yard without a word.

Ma Douling still couldn’t see the face of the man. He was attacked all of a sudden, so he thought there was a robber intruded. He shouted at the top of his voice, “There is a thief here! Come on, catch the thief! Here comes the bandit—” Before he finished, his mouth was tightly covered from behind. He thought it was the robber’s accomplice who came to kill him. He was so shocked that he broke away with all his strength. When he turned around and looked at the person, he found that the man was the servant of Master Baiqian.

“Hey, Xiong Huang, why did you cover my mouth? A strong man rushed in our house. I’m calling for help!” Ma Douling Cried.

“What nonsense are you talking about? You are blind or something!” Xiong Huang punched in the belly of Ma Douling, as if he was venting all the anger he just received from his master, and scolded fiercely, “Seeing clearly. It’s the Master who has just passed! How dare you scold the Master as a bandit! You are looking for beat!”

Xiong Huang trotted to catch up with Luo Baiqian and screamed, “Master, you should be careful about the road under your feet! At night, the dew is heavy, and the ground can be slippery!”

Luo Baiqian walked faster and faster, and then what Xiong Huang had just said really happened. He slipped and fell on all fours. Xiong Huang ran up to help Luo Baiqian in panic and said in a trembling voice, “Master, you haven’t broken anything, have you? Doctor Wu is waiting at the Liu Li Tang now. Do you want him to see if you’re okay?” After that, he went forward and carefully looked at the injury Luo Baiqian got.

Luo Baiqian ignored him, just stared at the grass in front of him, and suddenly screamed, “Ah—ah—what are those things?!”

※※※

Lu Jiangbei looked at Liao Zhiyuan who was with a cynical face doubtfully and scolded him, “When did she ever offend you that you have to give her a nickname? Either you call her by her name, or you call her “Miss He” … Well, you just said you know the secret about her? What’s the secret?”

“Damn,” Liao Zhiyuan said, digging his nostrils, “Didn’t she offend me? It was because of her that Master Duan, Gao Jue and you have become abnormal. Just now, I almost get myself killed by Gao Jue! Of course I would blame her!”

Lu Jiangbei punched him, “You are beaten because of your bad mouth. Alright, tell me now, what’s the secret of Miss He? Is there anything else I don’t know?”

Liao Zhiyuan squinted at him from the corner of his eyes, and dug his nostrils a few more times before he stopped. Then he stretched his arm to search inside a robe on the small table. After a while, he reached for a small dagger with a scabbard and threw it to Lu Jiangbei. He said in an ostentatious tone, “Tut, tut, tut… Have a look, how’s my dagger? When I get back to the capital, I’m going to use it to exchange at least 100 liang silver with Master Duan!”

Lu Jiangbei weighed the dagger back and forth doubtfully, and then pulled a little scabbard and tested the blade. Although it’s a good dagger, it’s not worth 10 liang silver.

Even if Master Duan was a little silly, he wouldn’t buy this dagger which was ten times higher than the average price. Besides, Duan’s foolishness was only manifested on matters related to women. For example, when they went back to the capital to report their work, they all lived in Baisha Mountain Villa in Yinma Town, the last stop, and wanted to spend a few days without restriction before they got back to their homes in the capital. Only Master Duan didn’t even have a cup of tea to drink in the villa. He drove up the official road to Yingtian Prefecture in a horse cart with red headlining.

Liao used his arts of lightness to catch up with him, clinging on the surface of the horse cart and followed him for half a mile before he came back happily. According to him, Duan had “over fulfilled his task” and picked up 10 women within half a month! No one believe it, so Liao counted for them with his fingers. In addition to Miss Xue, Lian and her mother, there were another 7 young women wearing yellow skirts all in one color. Most of them looked familiar. He had seen them vaguely in Shui Shang Temple. In the end, Master Liao chuckled and said that Duan’s trip to Yangzhou was really fruitful. He had not only pledged to marry with a “little lover” in the Taoist temple whose family background didn’t match his, but also taken 7 nuns of the Taoist temple away without letting anyone know. Duan’s mother must be very angry to see these girls.

“In my opinion, you can only sell this dagger for 6 liang silver. Besides, Duan has a dozen daggers. He may not buy this from you.” Lu Jiangbei handed the dagger back to Liao Zhiyuan and said with a smile, “You are the only son of Liao’s Family. Even if the annual salary of more than 700 liang is not enough for you, isn’t the income of the family’s field rental shop enough for you to spend alone?”

Liao Zhiyuan put up his hands sadly and began to share his life experience sadly, “Lu, there’s something you don’t know. Although there is no brother in my family to share the family property with me, my parents got me a younger sister when I was 7 years old. Chief, I’m telling you. This one sister alone is worse than ten brothers! Every time my heavy purse passed through her hands, there was no silver residue left in it! And her nose is better than a dog. She can find my purse out no matter where I hide it!”

Lu Jiangbei heard that and wondered, “What kind of person Liao’s parents were that they would cultivate their son and daughter into such ‘extraordinary talents’.”

Liao Zhiyuan threw the dagger to Lu Jiangbei again, and said with a smile, “You can pull out the scabbard to see if it’s worth 100 liang silver. Chief, I didn’t ask for 1,000 liang silver for the sake of the relationship of colleagues and brotherhood for many years!”

Lu Jiangbei pulled out the scabbard according to Liao’s words, thinking that there would be something strange about the blade inside. But it seemed to be a common black iron blade at first glance, so he shook his head lightly and turned over the blade. The moment he could see the pattern on the back clearly, he couldn’t help but be stun. There was a simple portrait carved in the center of the clean blade. The eyes were clearly belonging to——

“It’s her,” Lu Jiangbei lost his voice. “Miss He!”

Liao Zhiyuan smilingly introduced his dagger, “Yes, it’s the real “He Danggui character knife strokes”. Although its style is simple and its lines are countable. But almost no one can leave even a scratch on the blade of black iron all over the world. However, I have painstakingly completed a knife stroke on the hard and sharp blade! In the process of carving the painting, although I am proficient in seal cutting and concentrated a lot of Zhenqi on the nicking tool, the surface of black iron is smoother than the mirror surface. The nicking tool flew out obliquely on the spot and cut my finger!”

Liao Zhiyuan showed the bandaged index finger of his left hand and continued with a sigh, “Of course, these are not the biggest selling points of this dagger. The most precious thing about this painting is that the original painting is made by herself! Chief, how about that? Is this dagger worth 100 liang for Master Duan who was “full of lovesickness but had no place to rest?”

Lu Jiangbei rubbed the delicate figure with his fingertips and asked gently, “Where did you get her self-portrait? Is it stolen?”

Liao Zhiyuan proudly shook his forefinger and said with a smile, “The original picture of this painting is a delicate paper cut in He Danggui’s appearance. It was created by her. Later, the people of Luo’s Mansion gave it to Qi for fun. Qi found a great mystery from it, so he took down this figurine. After returning to the capital, Qi ran to Changye Tower and sent people to inquire everything about He Danggui. Before he received the report from the scout, he heard that we were also asking Changye Tower to investigate her, so he came to me. I thought the small image is lifelike, so I wanted to get it for Duan. But despite of my efforts, Qi only agreed to let me have only one copy, and resolutely refused to give me the original! Hum, he is so stingy. When Duan marries Miss He, I can have 10 baskets of paper-cuts like this!”