Reborn: Revenge of the Concubine’s Daughter

Mammy Tang proposed, “As I told you on the way before, this time we have to discipline Fourth Miss strictly in secret. Don’t let Second Mistress and Second Lord know about this, or it will be useless!”

Madam Luo frowned and asked hesitantly, “Do you want to cheat Shao away and then send her to a Taoist temple for discipline? Is … Is there any better way?”

“Madam, please think about it. Third Miss had only been in the mansion for a few days, but Fourth Miss drugged her and wanted her dumb. What’s the feud between her and Third Miss who just met her for the first time? Or just for fun? We must know that some dumb drugs are temporary, but some are permanent! If she had used the drug wrongly, Third Miss would have become a mute girl for good!” Seeing that Madam Luo didn’t have the heart to blame Fourth Miss, Mammy Tang did her best to convince her, “Now she is only 9 years old, but she has already used this kind of trick to frame her cousin. When she gets married in the future, there are many disputes among her mother-in-law, sisters-in-law and concubines. Even if she doesn’t look for trouble, she will have troubles. Besides, she always stirs up troubles.”

Madam Luo couldn’t deny that, “Yeah, our daughters are treasures in our family, but when she married someone else, she would mean nothing! Although she has a strong temper, I’m afraid Shao would grow up to be an outwardly strong, inwardly weak, and stupid daughter-in-law, who only knows how to play some tricks. Once she is pressed by a more capable concubine, she will be in danger of losing the favor of her husband.”

Mammy Tang lowered her voice, “I heard that the nuns, who did not have emotions and desires, have a special way to manage people. Look at the Third Miss, Madam Luo,” She pointed at He Danggui. “She’s able to write after she came to the Taoist temple for half a month. It’s obvious that the Taoist temple is really a good place to teach children, much more effective than the female teachers at home. Moreover, there is no temptation from the outside world, and there is no chaotic and strange ‘series’. Fourth Miss would be able to concentrate on more serious things and practice her calligraphy for several months.”

Madam Luo was a little moved. She touched the nail cover of her right hand with the tip of left finger slowly, and said, “It’s not that I don’t want to do this. I just…”

“All in all, Grandma is loath to part with Fourth Sister.” He Danggui gave Madam Luo another cup of Hawthorn tea and smiled, “It’s easy to understand. There are few young people in the family. Cousin Baiji from the Third Branch went to the north with Third Uncle, and Nephew Zhu from the First Branch passed away. Now Mammy suddenly suggested that Grandma should send Fourth Sister of the Second Branch away, even if it is beneficial for Fourth Sister in the future, Grandma still couldn’t bear it!”

“By the way!” Madam Luo just took a half mouthful of tea. When she heard that He Danggui mentioned Zhu again, she put down the cup and asked, “Yi, what dream did you have? How do you know the way to save Zhu?”

“Oh, here’s the thing.” He Danggui smoothed her hair with her little finger and said, “I dreamed these in the night before Mammy Tang came to the Taoist temple. In the dream, I had already returned to the West Lateral court of the East Yard of Luo’s Mansion. At the midnight, the mice in the kitchenette and Aunt Wang’s gambling house were too noisy, so I put on my clothes to the garden…”

“Mice in the kitchenette? Gambling house too noisy?” Madam Luo repeated in surprise, “Where are the mice from?”

Mammy Tang explained, “Wei kept them in Third Miss’s kitchenette as pets, and then they reproduced and now become a disaster. I’ll talk more about it later. Anyway, Wang Qi’s wife is the one to be blamed.” Then she turned to He Danggui and said, “Third Miss, go on with your dream.”

He Danggui nodded and continued, “So, I put on a dress and went for a walk in the garden. I met an old Taoist priest who called himself a celestial. He said that Luo’s Family has twin sons. Within three days, one of them would have a red rash on his chest. His body would be in a low fever, and he would become increasingly gaunt and emaciated. At last, he would lose his energy and die. Out of shock, I asked the old celestial if there was a way to save him. He replied that there was one way, but it was not for free. I had to pay the price. When I asked him what the price was, the old celestial pointed to my face and said that he was going to attend the birthday party of the Queen of Fairyland. But he had gathered herbs in Penglai Island a few days ago and his skin got suntanned there. So, he wanted to exchange his skin with mine so that other celestials wouldn’t laugh at him.”

“Exchange… Exchange skin?!” Madam Luo and Mammy Tang cried out together, then they got closer to He Danggui. After a close look, each of them held one of He Danggui’s hands and rubbed it carefully. They wondered if it was the skin of the celestial.

He Danggui nodded, stretched out her arms for them to stroke, and said in a naive voice, “Although I was not fully conscious in my dream at that time, I didn’t know whether what the old celestial said was true or not, nor what the so-called ‘exchange skin’ thing meant. I was muddleheaded and only worried about the two nephews, so I agreed with his request. Then I just felt the bright light shining on the whole garden like daytime, and then I felt my whole body as warm as being immersed in hot water. When I looked down again, I found my white hands, which used to be that way even when I did farm work all year round, had turned into the dark wheat color.”

Madam Luo held He Danggui’s hand and sighed, “I can’t imagine it was the celestial who turned you black. Will your skin color recover later?”

Mammy Tang comforted Madam Luo and said, “Don’t worry, Madam Luo. Third Miss is still a standard little beauty. When she grows up in the future, her appearance will be more beautiful than now. Even if her skin color turns a little yellow, it won’t hurt. What happened later, Third Miss?”

He Danggui looked up at the sky and recalled, “When I looked up to see the old celestial again, he had become a handsome boy. His skin was extremely crystal white, and his eyes were bright as water, as if we had known each other… Then, he told me how to cure Nephew Zhu. I have written down all the steps on the paper and handed it to Uncle Nie. I believe he has sent them to Luo’s Mansion now. I hope he can save Nephew Zhu and make him come back to life like me.”

※※※

“Damn it, Nie Chun, what are you doing in Liu Li Tang?”

Among the rustle and bustle, Luo Baiqian’s ears were very sensitive to notice a sarcastic voice of a man. Turning around suddenly, as expected, he saw the most annoying face in his mind. Luo Baiqian immediately pointed to Nie Chun’s nose and scolded angrily, “What are you doing in my yard, you wicked man?! Did you hear that my son died and come to enjoy how I suffer in this?”

Nie Chun replied coldly, “Master, I’m not as bored as you are. I don’t like watching other people’s sons mourning. I’m here to send a letter. Don’t ever think I want to come to you. Taking two more steps would pollute my feet. It’s the writer who emphasized on giving the letter to you in person. Hum, I’ll have to wash my boots and feet immediately after sending the letter.”

Ms. Dong who was black and blue got up from the ground and ran to it. She looked at Nie Chun with great vigilance and asked in a sharp voice, “Who wrote to him, a man or a woman?”

Although Ms. Dong and a dozen servants were in the middle of them, Nie Chun still threw the letter into the forepart of Luo Baiqian from the top of their heads with great precision. “A woman whose surname is He”. After he said that, he turned around and walked out of the gate. Then he went far away in a moment, leaving others with a back beyond reach.

“What letter? Who wrote to you? Luo Baiqian, where did you meet a woman with a surname of He?” After Nie Chun left, Ms. Dong pushed the crowd aside at the first time and cried out discontentedly, “Luo Baiqian, I worked hard at home to take care of our sons and daughter, but you go out and associate with other women! What does she do? What do you have to do with her?”

Without paying attention to Ms. Dong, Luo Baiqian opened the letter and glanced at it in a hurry. He was full of doubts after a glance. Thinking for a while, he immediately ran to catch up with Nie Chun who had gone far away. After walking around the path a few times outside Liu Li Tang, he finally found the bright red figure beside a lotus pond near the rockery in the distance, so he went forward frowning.

This lotus pond used to be a very popular scenic spot in the Mansion. People fed carps in spring, gathered lotuses in summer, scooped up water chestnuts in autumn and fished for carps in winter. 2 years ago, a girl named Qin fell into the water. Her body was found and salvaged to be swollen the next day. Since then, this beautiful lotus pond had always sent a sense of cool feeling. The timid ones even dared not come near here, not to mention anyone wanted to eat the seedpods of the lotuses, water chestnuts and carps they got here. What they used to eat was fresh and wild. Now, no matter how sweet the taste was, they couldn’t help but think of the old story of salvaging the female corpse. Immediately, these were hard to swallow.

Luo Baiqian looked closer, and then he found that Nie Chun was actually “performing the promise he made before”. He had gone beside the lotus pond and was washing his feet. Beside him was a pair of large fast boots that had been cleaned.

Luo Baiqian was filled with anger. He strode over and kicked off the pair of boots that were lazily basking under the sun. He pointed to Nie Chun’s side face and shouted, “Just go if you can! Don’t stay in Luo’s Family if you can, then you won’t have to step on the floor of Luo’s Family!”

Nie Chun heard that the boots behind him were kicked away by the man, but he neither looked back nor worried. He said coldly, “Living in Luo’s Family is just a side product of a trade between me and Lord Luo. As his grandchild, it’s not your turn to interrupt. Besides, there are only a few places in Luo’s Mansion that are particularly dirty, and I have to wash my feet every time I step on these places. The rest of the places can still be stepped on.”

Luo Baiqian raised the letter to Nie Chun’s cheek and shook it as he ground his teeth. He asked sharply, “What the hell was the letter? At the beginning, it said, ‘after doing the following steps one by one, your son, Luo Shizhu can come back to life’? Bah! Bah! Nie Chun, aren’t you always the safeguard of Grandma? When did you change your job to be a mystical conman?”

Nie Chun pulled his big feet out of the pond, took a handkerchief out of the armhole and wiped his feet carefully. He answered unhurriedly, “Madam Luo asked me to come back as soon as possible. She said something like it would be useless if I sent it late, but it seems like it’s still useless even if I sent it early. Anyway, the useless letter written by a little girl is no different from the waste paper.” After that, he suddenly supported the edge of the lotus pond with his hands, turned back two somersaults, flew to the nearest boot, put on his left foot, and then jumped to the right boot under the rockery.

After hearing this, Luo Baiqian was surprised. He took the letter and read it again, then asked Nie Chun, who was jumping on one foot, “Do you mean the letter was sent by Grandma? Didn’t she go to the Taoist temple to pick Third Sister up? And the woman whose surname is He… Is the woman Third Sister? Did she write the letter?” The clumsy handwriting could tell that she wrote it, but what did these messy sentences mean?

“After doing the following steps one by one, your son, Luo Shizhu can come back to life.”

It was like the words from the mouth of a mystical conman no matter what!