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

66. One-day Tour Around Marquis Xiangyang's Mansion (4)

The zigzagging paths and corridors came, seemingly endless, one after another. Minglan felt depressed so she decided to just get out of the corridors and stride along the stone-paved byway scattered with snow, but she didn't manage to shake off the depression on her mind.

It was approaching noon. The sun climbed higher towards its peak and shone bright after snowing. Near or far there planted many plum trees. The plum flowers' subtle fragrance, accompanied by the coldness of icy snow, slowly seeped into Minglan's nose. She took a deep inhalation of it which then suffused her chest with cool freshness, making her a little better and slow down.

As Minglan walked bowing her head, sounds of footsteps came over and a deepened male voice sounded from above her head, "Sheng...sixth young lady?"

Minglan was taken aback and instantly looked up. What she saw was a man coming cover from behind an old thick plum tree. He was wearing a dark-red long robe embroidered inconspicuously with cloud and bats. The edges were wrapped up with two-finger width golden brocade and over the robe he wore a brown fur coat. He took a few steps forward in the opposite direction of the sun, and a huge shadow was cast down, locking Minglan up in it.

Minglan stepped aside and finally saw clearer his face. He was around twenty years old. The straight nose left on the fair cheek a small patch of shadow. His eyes were squinted into a line which were unexpectedly slim and long but with a little impatience and cruelty.

Something occurred to Minglan and she finally remembered, asking tentatively, "Second...Uncle?" Just now when Sheng family's daughters did their greetings, the addressing terms were based on Junzhu Pingning.

The man nodded and said in a low voice, "You're familiar with eldest young lady Yu?" He looked a bit unpleasant and resentful and his eyes were as sharp as nails. Though the sentence ended with a raised tone, it didn't sound like a question.

Minglan's heart beat so fast that she hardly calmed herself down and greeted him with respect, replying, "Old Madam Yu and my grandmother went worship Buddha together, and Miss Yu also often visited me." She said nothing informative.

The man sneered twice, "How well Prime Minister Yu has put on airs! Now that his family has promised to make a match with Duan family in Dali, why didn't he send a letter there first but only began to 'remember' when Duan came and questioned them?" The tone was full of oppressed anger and grievances.

Minglan, lowering her head, was thinking fast to herself. She knew the candidate for Yanran's marriage was the second young master, Gu Tingye, son of Marquis Ningyuan. Though the son had a far-reaching bad fame, he was well-behaved during the time he proposed to Yu family and demonstrated his sincerity while visiting Yu Mansion. However, after all this effort, he didn't get the legal eldest daughter but just a second daughter of a concubine.

He was not a good-tempered person and had been tortured by his own resentment until now, but he just couldn't figure out why when he was just about to agree on the marriage, they had changed their minds and married the daughter to Yunnan lightening-fast.

"It seems that Cabinet Yu is a person who keeps his word! But why he didn't tell me earlier. You have to know I don't have to marry just her!" Gu Tingye sounded sarcastic, punched his fist onto the plum tree and shook off a pavement of petals from old thick branches.

Minglan stepped a few steps back, still feeling his suppressed outburst of rage. She, terrified and trembling, saw tendons standing up on his fist, a scene somehow reminded her of Officer Lu Punches Zhen Guanxi, a story in middle-school textbook. She could feel the trembling of her heart, and thinking for a while, she knew that this man wouldn't buy the words she had used to deceive Lian.