Delicate Flower – Chapter 177

Chapter 177 – Opinion

Yu Tang quickly caught up with Pei Yan. Naturally, it wasn’t because Yu Tang was a fast runner, but rather Pei Yan was waiting for her up ahead.

“I still have things to ask!” Yu Tang gasped for breath and said unhappily, “Why aren’t you being considerate!”

Pei Yan gave her a look as if saying she was an idiot, and wasn’t interested in continuing the conversation.

They were clearly standing downwind, and Lady Gu’s scent blew straight up his nose with the wind, but Yu Tang had no reaction at all……. Was she still a girl?

Shouldn’t ladies be particularly sensitive to scents?

Pei Yan asked, “What more do you want to ask?”

Yu Tang said, “When did the Bitter Nunnery…… start being financed by the Pei family? Will the Pei family continue to do so in the future?”

The Pei family’s ladies were all keen on perform these good deeds, as doing these good deeds was said to be easier to get others to join and could even encourage others to start the same. Pei Yan guessed that Yu Tang felt the same. He replied, “Five years ago, my father inadvertently discovered this nunnery. There were two nuns with seven or eight homeless residents, and felt that they were quite pitiful, so he began to support them. He helped them rebuild the main hall and the supporting hall, and also bought the surrounding 20-odd acres of land and two hills and gave them to the temple. This would enable the nuns in the temple to eat well and wear warm clothes. As for the future, we would certainly continue to support them as well. This is a good deed after all.” After speaking, he asked in curiosity, “Why are you asking about this? Are you planning something?”

“No, no.” Yu Tang waved her hands repeatedly and said hurriedly, “I’m just asking. I’m saw that the people in the temple looked miserable and pitiful, and I’m afraid that your family might find it meaningless to continue supporting such a temple, so I made it a point to ask you.”

“How could it be meaningless?” Pei Yan frowned at this and said unhappily, “Did you hear something from someone? Since you said that the nuns and residents in this temple are pitiful, you must also feel that it’s not easy for them to make a living, right? On this point, I think the same as my father – it’s not easy being a woman, and it’s ever more tragic if they encountered wicked people. We should help them as much as we can. You don’t have to worry that the Pei family would stop funding the Bitter Nunnery. Unless the people in the temple stop caring about the Pei family’s funding and create trouble, otherwise, as long as I live, I would fund this Bitter Nunnery.”

In other words, in her previous life, she had indeed received mercy from the Pei family, and had been sheltered by Pei Yan.

For a moment, Yu Tang was overwhelmed with all sorts of emotions.

It turns out that in her previous life, she was able to live until the age of twenty-four as she had received numerous favours she didn’t know about, and received help that she wasn’t aware of.

Yu Tang’s eyes were a little moist, and she emotionally murmured “Thank you.”

She was afraid that she would tear up in front of Pei Yan. She quickly bent her knees towards Pei Yan to perform a blessed curtsey, and hurriedly fled with Shuang Tao.

Pei Yan was perplexed as he stood there for a while and couldn’t understand her actions. He then called Pei Man over saying “Go and check if there’s someone in the Yu family who became a nun or a resident in the Bitter Nunnery.”

Pei Man complied.

An attendant then ran over with a letter, gasping for air, “Third Master, a letter from Sixth master of the Gu family in the capital arrived.”

Usually people referred to Gu Chang as the Gu Family’s Sixth Master.

Pei Yan absentmindedly opened the letter, and after a few quick glances, he couldn’t help but snort coldly and instructed Ah Ming, who had reappeared by his side at some point, and said, “Where is Grand Madam? Go and report that I’ll be visiting her.”

However, Ah Ming replied, “Third Master, the Yang family is here. Both Grand Madam and Grand Madam Yi are talking with them.” After speaking, he added, partly out of curiosity and partly as a reminder, “Third Master, do you want to see the people of the Yang family? Master Yan came along with them, and I heard their steward say that he is eager to meet you!”

The Yang family likely intended to sell their tea through the Pei family.

Nevertheless, Yang Yan is a smart one. There are many people who want to use the Pei family’s name and connections, so if he is able to help, he would do so after Yang Yan and second young miss gets married.

Pei Yan replied, “Very well. Send him over.”

Ah Ming respectfully acquiesced.

Second young lady, however, sat nervously in the teahouse chatting with third, fourth and fifth young ladies, “The Yang family’s madams are all adorned with gold jewelleries, and they look quite kind, so I think their family members should be nice people.”

Third Young Miss agreed, “The matchmaker is also an astute one. Clearly, the people working with the Yang family are honest people, therefore their family should be one with good morals and integrity.”

Fifth Young Miss, however, was not convinced and said, “This kind of thing requires further examination. Grandmother said before that it’s one thing to observe a person’s character, but one must also inquire about them carefully. At any rate, we have to know the person’s character fully, and Head Aunt wouldn’t randomly marry off Second Sister either.”

“That’s a valid point.” Third young lady said solemnly, “Look at eldest sister, when she was unmarried she was living a good life. However, after she got married and gave birth to a daughter, her mother-in-law was unhappy. Every family wants to have the firstborn be a girl, as it is an auspicious sign, yet Eldest Sister met with such a poor reaction. (TL: ‘好’ (good) the first character is 女 meaning girl and the second character 子 meaning boy, therefore if the firstborn is a girl and second born is a boy, the outcome will be ‘good’  ‘好’ )

“Despite that, as eldest sister got her husband firmly wrapped around her finger, her mother-in-law was only frustrated but couldn’t do anything to her. Therefore I feel that it doesn’t matter what kind of family you marry into, as long as you and your husband are united in heart, otherwise it’s useless even if the family you marry into is a good one.”

“Nonetheless, it is always better to have a family with a well-cultured background right?” Fourth Miss piped up, “Otherwise, there would be relatives coming around all the time to squeeze out various kinds of benefits off of you.”

Without the elders around, the three ladies could say whatever they wanted, with no scruples at all, and Second Miss, who listening nervously, got more frustrated, and chided them lowly, “You’re all young ladies who haven’t even stepped out of the inner courtyards, what nonsense are you yammering about? Do you want me to send someone and let head grand aunt hear about it?”

They lowered their heads and didn’t dare to speak.

Second young miss was still frightened of what the future held, so she anxiously raised her voice and called for maid to come in and asked about Gu Xi’s whereabouts, “She was just here a minute ago. Why was she gone in the blink of an eye?”

Before the maid could reply, they heard Gu Xi’s voice sweetly saying, “Didn’t I just go to the official’s room? Why? What happened?”

“Nothing.” Second young miss was instantly relieved to see Gu Xi, she took a few steps forward and pulled Gu Xi’s hand, whispering, “Sister Gu, you told me before that one should take matters into one’s own hands. If a girl is weak, even if she has a well-connected father and capable brothers, she would still be bullied all the same. If you are strong, even if you don’t have a single person to support you from your maiden’s family, you will still be able to live well in your in-laws’ family. Is that true?”

“Of course it’s true.” Gu Xi smiled as she looked towards second young miss with a bright and firm gaze, “The kind of life a woman wants to live is something she has to obtain herself.”

It was thus the same reason why she hasn’t been able to strike up a conversation with Pei Yan, as Yu Tang took the lead, wasn’t it?

Gu Xi continued, “These are the words my mother said when she was alive. I think they make a lot of sense and I always keep them in my mind, hoping that one day I would be able to live the life I want.”

“Sister Gu, you’re really capable!” Several Pei ladies praised.

Gu Xi, however, laughed, “I left to go to the official room, but where did Lady Yu go? Why I haven’t seen her?”

Fifth Miss smiled as she replied, “Sister Yu had something to enquire of Third Uncle, so she left to meet him. She should be coming back soon.”

Gu Xi froze.

Yu Tang went to see Pei Yan …… so everyone knew …… she thought she was the only one who knew.

Gu Xi’s smile was a bit forced as she replied, “Is that so? What matter of hers was so important that she needed the help of Third Master? Can’t she find Grand Madam?”

Fifth Miss replied, “I don’t know either! Chen Daniang told us we had guests and asked us not to move around freely. When we went to ask Sister Yu to join us at the tea room for tea, Sister Yu’s attendant, Liu Shu, said that Sister Yu had something to ask third uncle. It should be something important, right? Otherwise, Sister Yu would have gone to grandmother. Either that, or there was a sudden arrival of a guest in the temple and it wasn’t convenient to find Grand Madam, so she went to look for Third Uncle.”

There was no suspicion of Yu Tang harbouring ulterior motives at all.

Gu Xi coldly sneered in her heart. She recalled Pei Yan’s words and it was like a slap to the face.

She had never experienced such humiliation in her life.

If it wasn’t because of her strong will and relentless spirit to return, wanting Pei Yan to explain further, she wouldn’t have known that Yu Tang also met Pei Yan, and that Pei Yan’s attitude towards Yu Tang was completely different from her.

What’s so good about Yu Tang? That made her worthy of his gentle voice and kind words?

She merely relied on her beauty to elevate herself.

The fact that Pei Yan could fancy this sort of person showed that he wasn’t a good catch either.

Gu Xi thought to herself and finally felt a little better in her heart, but she still couldn’t help but smile at fifth young lady, saying ”What you said makes sense. When Lady Yu returns, I’ll have to ask her what exactly she encountered ……”

Just before she could finish her words, Yu Tang appeared at the door of the teahouse and interrupted Gu Xi, “What does Lady Gu want to ask me?”

“Sister Yu!” Third Miss, Fourth Miss and Fifth Miss all greeted her cheerfully, “We were concerned that you’d be late. Later on, Gentleman Yang will come to greet the two Grand Madams.”

The implication was that if she came late, she wouldn’t get to see Gentleman Yang.

Yu Tang couldn’t help grin.

Second young lady, however, got a bit irritated and snapped at her three younger sisters, “Can you all just stop talking about it? What’s there to see? Doesn’t Lady Yu have something else to do? Do you think everyone is as idle as you all?”

The three little girls laughed cheekily and did not argue with Second young miss.

Yu Tang, however, was slightly annoyed with Gu Xi’s pretentiousness, and worried that Gu Xi might lay a trap for her in front of everyone like what she often did in her previous life. She adored the Pei family’s several young ladies, and didn’t want them to misunderstand her.

“What does Lady Gu wish to ask?” She smiled, “I’ve only just rejoined the conversation, so I don’t know exactly what Lady Gu wants.”

Gu Xi was secretly irked.

She could feel a change. Previously, Yu Tang somewhat avoided her, but the current Yu Tang was unrelenting, as if she suddenly developed the courage and backbone to confront her. And it was evident who gave her this courage and backbone.

Gu Xi always despised these sort of women.

She raised her eyebrows and laughed if she was implying something, “We were just saying how Lady Yu wasn’t here, but it turns out that Lady Yu went to look for Third Master, so we were guessing what was so important that Lady Yu had to find Third Master for, that not even Grand Madam could resolve?”

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