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Chapter 179 – Temple Incense
Gu Xi couldn’t help but smile lightly.
Her smile was sweet and gentle.
All the more so, at this time, she would appear modest and composed, making others feel that she was trustworthy, matured, capable of accomplishing great things.
This was the correct attitude.
Yu Tang was smirking.
She knew that the moment she said it, everyone would think that she was trying to include Gu Xi and have her lead things. Although she came up with the idea but Gu Xi was the one who would gain a virtuous name instead. It could have been seen as her being overly kind, foolishly so. If the Pei family’s young ladies were the same as the rest and went along with the flow, others may feel that she had foolishly acted with no merit. However the Pei family’s ladies were upright and pure, and would certainly remember her contribution.
Speaking of which, she only discovered these tactics from carefully observing Gu Xi’s actions from the past.
She learned all these from Gu Xi.
As expected, Gu Xi couldn’t hold back her joy when she heard this. She pretended to stay silent as she waited for someone to suggest that she should step forward. Thereafter, she would modestly refuse for a few moments, before taking over and presiding over this matter. The Pei family’s young ladies, upon hearing YuTang’s words all widened their eyes in surprise.
When the gazes of the Pei family’s several young ladies fell on Gu Xi, and after Gu Xi avoided Yu Tang’s eyes for a little while, Yu Tang became even more cheerful as she smiled inwardly, and nonchalantly remarked, ”How can I be so bold as to trouble Lady Gu? When I was accompanying my father in his studies, I saw a few ancient formulas for making temple incense, but as I was not interested, I didn’t pay much attention. This time, I suddenly thought of it. I wondered if we could make the temple incense based on those ancient formulas, and then teach the nuns and residents in the temple how to make it, so that not only can it improve the lives of the people in the temple, but also give them something to pass the time with.”
As Yu Tang’s words fell, Gu Xi and the Pei family’s young ladies were all dumbfounded.
Fifth Young Lady even jumped up and exclaimed, “Sister Yu, is your incense formulation reliable? My maternal grandfather said that many learned scholars often share their knowledge with everyone, but their personal formulations were never revealed to the public. What if those ancient formulas were just randomly written out by those writers?”
Fourth young lady, however, had completely different thoughts, but her words were just as direct as fifth young lady’s, saying, “Sister Yu, have you ever made this kind of incense before? What if it’s not good enough? Wouldn’t it be a waste of manpower and resources? Sister Gu made incense before, so she must have the experience, I think we might as well entrust Sister Gu to help teach those nuns and residents how to make incense. Why bother to go to such an extent?”
Third Young Lady frowned.
She felt that if this was really the case, Yu Tang was a little narrow-minded.
Yu Tang understood their thoughts, but before she could reply, second young Miss spoke up, saying in sincerity, “Lady Yu, I feel that it’s better to have Sister Gu work with you on this. Sister Gu could teach those nuns and residents how to make the incense and Lady Yu can explain this idea to the two Grand Madams, We can all discuss and decide how to sell the incense. As the saying goes “Excellent wine, without capable marketing and distribution, would be unsellable. If we rely on Bitter Nunnery to sell the incense by themselves, I am afraid that they wouldn’t be able to use the funds to sustain themselves. My family also can’t possibly use so much of the incense.”
Yu Tang smiled.
She genuinely liked all young ladies of the Pei Family very much.
Even if Second Young Miss favoured Gu Xi, she would still be reasonable.
Unfortunately, as she was targeting Gu Xi, she wouldn’t let Gu Xi escape so easily.
“It’s not that I don’t wish for Lady Gu to help!” Yu Tang deliberately made a look like she was in a difficult situation, “Do you know the reason why it’s not a good idea to let Lady Gu teach the people in the Bitter Nunnery how to make incense?”
Several of the Pei family’s young ladies shook their heads, and Gu Xi was also listening on, looking as though she wanted to call her out on her mistake.
Yu Tang replied, ”Lady Gu’s incenses do smell good. I have received them as gifts from Lady Gu, and I know that she is skilled in making incenses. However, Lady Gu’s incenses are considered as products for use by noble ladies of the inner courtyards, therefore it is not good if such products are widely distributed among the public. Moreover, if the incense formula was taught to the nuns and residents of the temple, and production was carried out on a large scale, I would feel uncomfortable about it. It would be better if we can find a new incense formula. Lady Gu could also suggest another suitable incense formula, but on our side we have to keep it as a secret, and no one is allowed to speak a word of it.”
If the good deeds were to be done anonymously, then what’s the point?!
Gu Xi instinctively wanted to object, but fortunately when she was about to speak, she quickly snapped out of it and refrained from speaking.
As for the young ladies of the Pei family, after hearing Yu Tang’s explanation, all of them nodded their heads in agreement. Even second young lady who didn’t like Yu Tang very much, also said with some embarrassment, “It’s still Sister Yu who is more prudent than the rest of us… Indeed, we can’t allow Sister Gu to have her reputation marred for such a thing.”
Gu Xi was furious, but she couldn’t refute Yu Tang’s words. Her gaze towards Yu Tang sharpened, and in her heart, she resolved that if Yu Tang really made her do it anonymously, she had to find an excuse to shirk this responsibility, and let Yu Tang and the Pei family manage it on their own, and realise it’s not easy to do benevolent deeds for the good of others.
Yu Tang was secretly pleased when she saw Gu Xi’s anger, pursing her lips, she smiled, then said aloud with a firm voice, “Thank you second young Miss for your compliment. However, I’m still young, and for something this big, we should consult the elders. Why don’t we speak with Second Madam, and see if she thinks it’s viable?”
Pei family’s ladies were a little startled when they heard this, but then they let out cheers, saying in a chorus of voices that this was the way to handle things.
Although it was good to have a kind heart, but a kind heart may not be able to achieve success.
The Pei family’s young ladies then began to engage in lively discussions about this matter.
One asked Yu Tang if the incense formula was reliable, another asked about the production of incense and whether the ingredients were easy to obtain, yet another asked whom they should send to Bitter Nunnery to manage things…… It was still uncertain if this plan was feasible or not, but in such a short period of time, they had already thought ahead to a time when the Bitter Nunnery’s incense would be so popular in Lin’an that even people in Hangzhou would know about it.
Gu Xi sat there with a smile plastered on her face, neither participating nor discussing, but only observing from the sidelines.
Yu Tang, on the other hand, was overjoyed.
It was impossible for her to have paid attention about incense formulations from books when she was studying.
She disliked them ever since she was a child. Therefore, the incense formula she suggested to the Pei family was actually offered by Gu Xi five years later to Zhaoming Temple for charity purposes.
The incense sold by Zhaoming Temple was very popular. For Zhaoming Temple, that 1000 taels of donations raised was only a small amount, so Buddha wouldn’t blame her if she gave it to Bitter Nunnery which was in greater need of it.
She quietly chanted “Amitabha Buddha” a few times in her heart.
Chen Daniang came in and lightly restrained them with a smile, “Keep your voices down, I could hear you as soon as I left the hall. I’ve been ordered by the two Grand Madams to lead Gentleman Yang over.”
Second Young Miss blushed.
Third, Fourth and Fifth Miss all looked towards Second Young Miss and giggled in unison.
Secong Young Miss was so embarrassed that she wanted to burrow her head into the ground, and only then did the three Pei ladies let her off.
Gu Xi watched them with a slightly scornful look.
Yu Tang, however, found it amusing and occupied a good position by the window ahead, creating a small opening and tried to see what Yang Yan looked like.
Fifth and fourth Miss being the two youngest, laughed as they pressed against her back and stayed by the window pane with Yu Tang.
Yu Tang had no choice but to relent, saying “Each of us will watch for just two breaths of time, and the rest of the time will be reserved for Second Miss, how does that sound?”
Second Young Miss, shy and annoyed, retorted, “Hmph, I don’t care how he looks!”
“That’s true.” Yu Tang teased, “Second Young Miss can go into the hall later on to serve tea, but we can only sneak a peek here.”
The three Pei young ladies smiled knowingly at Second Young Miss.
Second Young Miss’s face was so red that it could drip blood, and Fourth Young Miss quickly urged them, “Hurry! Quit talking, Gentleman Yang is coming.”
Yu Tang didn’t continue the conversation any further as she stood on her tiptoes to peer out the window.
She saw Chen Daniang leading a young man wearing a royal blue embroidered robe made of fine Hangzhou silk.
He was tall, with a dignified appearance and an elegant temperament. He seemed to be in his early twenties, with a steady and calm presence.
Yu Tang felt that this person was pretty good.
However, in her two lives, she has yet to see a more handsome man than Pei Yan.
She retreated after two glances and said to Third Young Miss, who wanted to look but couldn’t squeeze in, ”Hurry and take a look too. Otherwise, Gentleman Yang will be entering the hall.”
Third Young Miss grinned and squeezed in with Fourth Miss and Fifth Miss.
Yu Tang smiled with curved eyebrows, but when she looked up, she was met with Gu Xi’s somewhat frigid gaze.
She didn’t avoid it.
She didn’t do anything wrong and wasn’t afraid of Gu Xi’s scrutiny.
Gu Xi was startled.
She thought of the time when Yu Tang first arrived at the Pei Residence…. When did Yu Tang become this bold? Or was it because of Pei Yan?
Gu Xi sneered.
Yu Tang gazed at her calmly, her expression relaxed, until fourth young lady let out a long sigh that echoed in the teahouse, and only then was her attention diverted.
“What’s wrong?” Second young lady asked. She hasn’t seen the person yet, and hearing the slightest sound made her nervous.
Fourth young miss sighed long and hard and said, “Second sister will be getting married soon ……”
It was a offhand remark, but it indirectly praised Yang Yan.
Second young miss was preoccupied with her worries and hadn’t reacted, but Yu Tang and the others already heard and understood, and all of them were giggling. When second young miss finally realised, Chen Daniang arrived and asked Second young miss to go and serve tea. Second young lady hurriedly ran away as if she was fleeing with Chen Daniang, causing Yu Tang and the rest to burst out laughing again.
Yu Tang then remembered her elder aunt’s cousin wife, and upon seeing that they could leave, she wanted to return to her room. She said “I’ll go and write the incense formula, so that when we see Second Madam, we’ll have something to hand over, and we won’t make the elders feel that it’s only a fleeting whim.”
Third Young Miss was very agreeable and unexpectedly suggested, “Sister Yu, I’ll accompany you on the way back too.”
Fourth and Fifth Miss also clamoured to follow along.
Gu Xi couldn’t stand the way people were circling around Yu Tang, She also wanted to avoid getting caught up in this matter, inwardly thinking, ‘Yu Tang, aren’t you a ‘capable’ one? Then I won’t say a word, and let’s see what kind of Buddhist incense you can come up with.’ Furthermore, whether the outcome was good or bad, it had nothing to do with her and she can’t be blamed when things go awry.
She replied: ”I didn’t rest well in the afternoon, so I won’t be joining. Let me know when you all are going to see Second Madam later.”
Gu Xi was curious to know the attitude of the Pei family’s elders.
xkurohana 
This scene made me feel bad for Gu Xi because Yu Tang has an entire lifetime of experience over her (well, a few more years but a lot of up close experience) and played her using that. Aaaaand- done! Only felt sorry for her for a moment, because Gu Xi is a piece of work and Yu Tang was such a naive kid manipulated by everyone around her in the last life that she deserves this win against her (former life) sister in law.