Who Cares

5

Chapter 5 Old Friend

After successfully persuading her mother not to rush finding husband for her, Guan Suyi really spent a few days leisurely. That day, she was sitting in the warm pavilion practicing calligraphy, the maid Minglan came in, holding a cotton cloak, “Miss, the carriage is ready to set off, madam is waiting for you at the front hall.”

Because Emperor Sheng Yuan especially admired Confucianism, he built a Confucian Temple in Minde Mountain in the southern suburbs, people below do what people above do, so these days people who went to worship Confucius were endless. As the masters of the Confucian school, of course, Old Master Guan and Father Guan couldn’t be left behind. They had ordered Zhong shi to cook lamb meat for the sacrifice. To showed their sincerity, the two people already carried the lantern and went out at yinshi (3-5am), preparing to climb the mountain step by step, leaving the mother and daughter behind to ride in the carriage.

Guan Suyi put on the big cloak and walked into the fluttering snowflakes. Although her feet at ease, her thoughts kept surging. Only with a small change, everything seems to be different. That day, her grandfather was not so angry that he fell sick in bed, nor was he ridiculed and teased because of his awkward speech, nor even lost his reputation. Now he was still a leader of the Confucian school, and he was also admired as literary giant. Her father didn’t have to wait by the bedside every day, and eventually got the nickname ‘Turtle with head shrunk’, and since then he was ashamed and unable to show his face.

Now they used literature to make friends and made good connections, even if they didn’t become officials they could still live a stable life.

Remembering her grandfather in the previous life holding his sick body to come to Marquis Zhenbei Mansion to seek justice for her, but he was so angry that he fainted; Remembering that her parents were resolutely unwilling to believe in the Zhao family’s slander, they were so desperate that they wanted to let her divorce and almost expelled from the clan; Remembering that her maternal grandparents had come to the other people’s house to take her back to their hometown and then were hurled with verbal abuse, Guan Suyi’s eyes were full of tears.

In this life, the humiliation and torture that she shouldn’t have to bear had probably gone away. Thinking of this, she quickly blinked away the tears in her eyes and walked towards the smiling Zhong shi who was standing in the corridor.

The mother and daughter got on the wupeng carriage and drove slowly towards Minde Mountain. Although the heavy snow was still falling, due to Emperor Sheng Yuan’s several homages to Confucius, the road had long been flattened by the passing armored horses. There were also labors who cleaned it every two hours, so it was not difficult to travel. At the foot of the mountain, the carriage slowly stopped by the side of the road, there seemed to be a little girl crying outside.

“What’s the matter?” Zhong shi asked through the bamboo curtain.

“Madam, don’t know whose carriage broke down, now it stuck in the middle of the road. The young lady of that family is crying with cold. It’s really pitiful.” The coachmen said with pity.

Zhong shi opened the bamboo curtain for a moment. She saw a well-used wupeng carriage parked in front of her, the coachmen meandering around looking anxious, seemed to be at his wit’s end. The master was afraid to get out of the carriage for fear of freezing, but the cries of grievances came from time to time, which was indeed heartbreaking.

Zhong shi was infected by her father-in-law and husband, and always used to the words “Don’t think that bad thing are small and do nothing, don’t think that good things are small and don’t do it”, and then said, “Li Wen, go and help them see if the carriage can be repaired. Tao Hong, you go ask, if all are womenfolk in the carriage, please invite them to ride together.”