Legend of Concubine's Daughter Minglan 知否知否 应是绿肥红瘦

C8 - Hualan, Molan, Rulan, Minglan...

The end of summer gave way to the beginning of autumn. Since the north differed from the south, the temperature slowly became drier and colder. Due to the temperature, the Sheng household began to make sweet syrupy soups to soothe the lungs and stop coughs.

Every since Minglan came to this place, she spent half of her time in illness, and when the temperature changed, her condition only became worse. She kept on coughing and wheezing.

There were doctors that came to attend to her, but they could only prescribe medicines for her nutrition. But unfortunately, Minglan hated the smell of traditional medicine the most. She missed the days where she could just take cough drops and loquat syrup. The more she wished for cough drops and loquat syrup, the more she hated traditional medicine. If she drank a bowl, then she would puke out half the bowl. She spent all her days sickly and weak, without any kind of strength. She was so far different compared to her old self, who had a strong body and even practiced self-defense arts.

Sheng Hong and Wang shi contemplated for a while and investigated, to learn more about Yuan Wenshao's character and talents before finally deciding on him. Thus, they accepted the formal proposal for the marriage and sent out the eight characters of Hualan's birthday to the Yuan family [1].

Wang shi's thought process was very unusual. She had separately invited a well respected Buddhist Monk, as well as a well respected Taoist Priest to look at the eight characters. Wang shi was only relieved when both the monk and the priest had said that the eight characters from both sides of the match have signs of a well blessed and fortunate life.

When Sheng Hong saw a prayer table in Wang shi's room, he noticed that on the left of the table was a fly-whisk, and on the right was a wooden fish. He couldn't help but laugh, "Does Madame believe in Buddha or the Dao? You should at least pick the correct one, so that your prayers can be realized."

Wooden fish

A wooden round object that Buddhists will tap on while they pray.

Fly Whisk

A symbol of Taoism, the practical function is to whisk away insects instead of killing them.

Wang shi knew that her husband was making fun of her and replied, "I'll pray to whatever power that works best. If they're good luck to Hua'er, I'll even pray to the grass and the wall."

Sheng Hong gathered his expression and said, "I know that you're the picture of kind motherhood, and you have the most generous heart. Recently, I've noticed that Ming'er isn't doing so well, so you should take more care of her. If she continues to cough this much, I'm afraid that she might pass away."

"Yesterday, a letter came from the capital, it states that the household of Earl Zhongqing will be sending out their betrothal gifts any day now. Hua'er knows that I've been very busy, so she took up the task of looking after Girl Ming," Wang shi said.

Sheng Hong shook his head, "Hua'er is only a child, what does she know? It's better if you yourself look after things."

Wang shi laughed, "Listen to your own words! How is Girl Hua still a child? As long as everything goes smoothly, she'll be married either by the end of next year or the beginning of the year after. Afterwards, she'll have to take care of her husband and her in-laws. That's why she should start learning how to look after people. For this past few days, she's been giving her portion of pear soup and walnut soup to Girl Ming. And she's even watching Girl Ming eat her medicine every day. If she throws half a bowl up then she'll make her drink another bowl. Girl Ming was frightened that she's not throwing up medicine anymore."

Sheng Hong's heart was put to rest. He nodded happily, "Good, good. Sisters should be like this. Hua'er has the attitude of an eldest sister, this is very good, indeed this is very good."