Volume 8: The Days of the Ghost Marriage
Resurrection
It’s been almost a shichen1 since death……
Shen Maomao was too sleepy. Sleepy and cold, she first drilled into the quilt, preparing to close her eyes and pass out.
Lou Jingmo wouldn’t let her sleep: “You take off your wet clothes before you sleep.”
Shen Maomao unbuttoned her clothes with her eyes closed, her whole person as if sleepwalking. She fumbled for a long time without being able to undo them.
Lou Jingmo couldn’t watch anymore and started to help her undo them personally.
As she was unbuttoning, the atmosphere started to feel a little off.
The person she loved was right before her eyes, and was even obediently letting her take off her clothes……
Who wouldn’t’s heart beat faster in this situation?
Lou Jingmo very, very much liked this soft and dazed Shen Maomao who relied on her. Of course, she also liked the usual sharp-tongued and goofy Shen Maomao, but this current state would make her heart melt into a puddle of water, her whole person becoming gentle.
She turned the doll-like Shen Maomao over and over in her arms—taking off her outer coat, wiping her face and hands with a cloth, and then stuffing her entire person into the quilt. She lowered her head and said softly, “Sleep now.”
The drowsy Shen Maomao seemed to have received an order, and the sound of her breathing immediately became heavy.
When she woke up, it was already broad daylight.
When Shen Maomao woke up, she was the only one left in the room.
Lou Jingmo was nowhere to be found, and Little Fatty was also gone. She sat up from the bed, drowsily rubbing her eyes, and faintly heard the sound of crying coming from outside the window.
It wasn’t one person, but many people gathered together crying. The sound was rather quiet, so they were probably some distance away.
She quickly got up, changed into the clean clothes placed beside her, and hurriedly opened the room’s main door.
Pieces of round paper money fluttered down from the sky, like white butterflies flying with spread wings. There was clearly no one scattering the paper money, yet it fell from the sky like rain, then stuck tightly to the damp ground, difficult to separate.
After opening the door, the sound of crying became more distinct. The sound seemed to be coming from the due south of here.
Shen Maomao’s pupils shrank, and she couldn’t help but take a step back.
She truly had a trauma regarding paper money, and it wasn’t a small one.
But now was clearly not the time for her to be sentimental. After hesitating again and again, she finally took the first step.
After the first step, the rest became much easier.
She lifted her legs and ran in the direction the sound was coming from, making “pupu” sounds as she stepped on the water-soaked paper money.
The crying was coming from the Old Master’s courtyard in the due east.
When she ran to the place, she saw rows of maids and servants wearing small white flowers on their heads, kneeling in front of the door. They were the ones crying.
This is…… did someone die??
Where was Lou Jingmo? Where were Potato Chip and Su Han? Where was Little Fatty?
She didn’t see these people, but she did see Baozhu and Feicui in the crowd.
Baozhu waved at her, signaling for her to come over.
Shen Maomao quickly blended into the crowd, and in the next second, a white paper flower was pinned into her hair.
Baozhu said in a low voice: “Why did you only just arrive?”
Shen Maomao quickly said: “I got caught in the rain yesterday and couldn’t get up this morning. What happened?”
Baozhu said: “The Madam is gone.”
Shen Maomao: “???!?!”
Seeing her shocked expression, Baozhu added: “She was discovered to be gone at chen shi2. For some reason, she fell into the well. When her body was fished out, she was already out of breath.”
Shen Maomao was stunned. She suddenly remembered the scene from last night when Madam Shao asked them to take the Little Young Master away. Thinking about it now, it seemed more like she knew something would happen to her, so she entrusted her son to them in advance.
“Then what about the Little Young Master?” she asked.
Baozhu replied: “The Little Young Master and the Second Young Master are both inside…… I just don’t know why the Eldest Young Master didn’t come……”
Shen Maomao narrowed her eyes.
From the meaning in her words, it seemed the servants didn’t know that the Eldest Young Master had already completed his marriage ceremony in the middle of the night?
Thinking of this, she tentatively asked: “Then what about the Eldest Young Master’s wedding?”
Baozhu gave her a strange look: “With something like this happening, the wedding definitely can’t go on…… The Eldest Young Master was raised by the Madam’s side since he was a child, who knows how sad he must be……”
Shen Maomao thought about it carefully and suddenly felt her hair stand on end and bones chill.
The matter of the Eldest Young Master getting married in the middle of the night naturally couldn’t be known by the servants. So, how could everyone naturally ignore the wedding? That would require a reasonable excuse—for example, the death of the family’s matriarch.
All of this was so coincidental it was as if it had been arranged, so it wasn’t strange that she would overthink it.
The people around were crying more sorrowfully than the next. After talking to her, Baozhu also started to wail. However, Shen Maomao knew that most of them felt nothing about the Madam’s death. Crying so genuinely now was just putting on a show.
In order not to seem so out of place, she also wailed a couple of times. Just as she had managed to squeeze out two drops of tears, a young male servant suddenly came flying out of the courtyard. He stood in front of the servants blocking the door and said anxiously: “Stop crying! Stop crying! Those outside, quickly go and fetch a doctor! The Madam is fine!!”
The few odd-job servants at the very outside received the order and quickly got up to run outside.
Shen Maomao yanked the little white flower off her head, looking at Baozhu and Feicui with a completely dumbfounded face, only to find that they, like her, had blank expressions.
Baozhu murmured: “It’s been almost a shichen since death……”
Feicui stood up and asked the person who ran out: “What’s the situation inside?”
The young male servant said: “Just now, the Little Young Master was too grief-stricken and suddenly threw himself onto the Madam’s body, squeezing the water out of her throat! The Madam is a person of good fortune with heavenly protection, she has already woken up!!”
Shen Maomao thought to herself, is this a joke? Stopped breathing for two hours and can wake up just by spitting out a mouthful of water? Are they bullying her for not being a medical student?
The nearby servants all stood up with a clatter. Shen Maomao was instantly submerged by servants, and all she could see were human heads.
She really wanted to go inside to see, mainly to see if Lou Jingmo was there, but after trying to squeeze in several times, she couldn’t get in. Instead, her wrist was grabbed by Baozhu: “Why are you in such a hurry to go in?”
Baozhu’s fingers were icy cold, making Shen Maomao shiver, and she immediately dared not to move. She swallowed her saliva and turned back to her, saying: “Last night, the Madam entrusted the Little Young Master to me, but when I woke up, the Little Young Master was already gone. I want to hurry and apologize……”
“No need.” Baozhu and Feicui exchanged a glance, then looked at her with a smile. “For a small matter like yours, the nobles will forget about it once they get busy. It’s probably going to be chaotic inside for a while, so you shouldn’t go in and add to the trouble.”
Shen Maomao: “But……”
Baozhu smiled and grabbed her hand: “You just got up, you haven’t eaten yet, right? I’ll take you to the kitchen to see, maybe we can find something to eat.”
As she spoke, Feicui grabbed her other hand, half-forcing her and propping her up as they walked towards the kitchen.
Shen Maomao’s expression sank for a moment, then she quickly smiled again: “Alright, alright, I know, thank you then. You can put me down first, you’re holding my arms so tight it hurts……”
The two let go, and then Baozhu took her hand, leading her towards the kitchen with urgent steps.
Shen Maomao felt that she might be done for, but she had no proof.
With such a major event happening in the Shao Manor, there was naturally no one in the kitchen. Baozhu pressed her down onto a stool and said with a smile: “You wait here, I’ll go find something for you to eat.”
Shen Maomao placed her hands under the table, fiddling with her fingers while shaking her leg.
Beside her, Feicui propped up her chin and leaned against her, a smile on her face identical to Baozhu’s, which made her involuntarily think of a word—smiling-face tiger3.
She looked at the bustling Baozhu and said nervously: “This is too much trouble for you……”
Baozhu said nonchalantly: “What’s so troublesome about this? Aren’t we friends?”
“Haha.” Shen Maomao laughed dryly, instantly becoming even more nervous.
Not long after, Baozhu placed a tray in front of her. On it were two small dishes and a small bowl of rice, which was emitting a fragrant steam.
For Shen Maomao, who was only fit to eat coarse flour pancakes, these two dishes were simply delicacies. But to be overly attentive for no reason, one is either a villain or a thief4. She was afraid this meal was a Hongmen Banquet5…… or a last meal.
Baozhu personally stuffed the chopsticks into her hand, then sat down opposite her, saying with a smile: “Hurry up and eat, it won’t taste good when it’s cold.”
Shen Maomao tremblingly picked up the chopsticks: “This isn’t very good…… Shouldn’t these things be for the masters to eat?”
“What are you afraid of? There’s no one here now anyway.”
Shen Maomao said with a serious face: “No, the rules can’t be broken. Even if no one is here, I can’t go against my conscience.”
Baozhu: “……”
Feicui: “……”
The two fell silent at the same time. After a long while, Baozhu finally said: “I worked so hard to make these dishes for you. If you don’t eat them, does that mean you don’t consider me a friend?”
This was a life-or-death question.
Shen Maomao didn’t know how to answer either.
Seeing her silence, Baozhu asked again: “Could it be that you’re afraid I’ve poisoned the food to harm you?”
Shen Maomao: “!!” Now that you say that, I’m even more scared!
The two of them, one on her left and one on her right, watched her like tigers eyeing their prey, with a look that said they wouldn’t rest until she ate. This made Shen Maomao even more suspicious that there was something in the food.
But if she hesitated any longer, she was afraid these two would forcibly stuff it into her mouth……
She tightened her grip on the chopsticks, and under the two’s eager gazes, she picked up a piece of food with her chopsticks and slowly brought it to her mouth.
In an instant, a taste so salty it was bitter exploded on her taste buds. Shen Maomao held this small bite of food in her mouth, as if she were holding a mouthful of Coptis root6. She immediately wanted to spit the food out, but there was nowhere to spit it. In the end, she could only hold it, her facial features all scrunched up together.
Could it be that Baozhu couldn’t find any poison, so she planned to use salt to choke her to death?
This is too damn ridiculous!!!
Seeing her like this, Baozhu frowned and asked: “What’s wrong? Is it that bad?!”
Beside her, Feicui immediately poured her a bowl of water.
Shen Maomao quickly swallowed the food down with the water. Only then did she feel like she was alive again. She commented: “It’s not that it’s bad…… it’s that kind of very hard to say…… impossible to describe with words……”
Finally, she looked at Baozhu and asked with difficulty: “Exactly how much salt…… did you put in?”
Baozhu’s eyes widened in surprise: “Was it salty? Then don’t eat it, just drink more water……” As she spoke, she poured her another bowl of water.
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