Chapter 31 : Shameless
“Mum, are you serious? You want to marry me to Qiu Yunping?”
Su shi turned her fingers towards her and counted Qiu Yunping’s good points: “He’s a scholar who doesn’t even have the strength to truss a chicken, at that time you helped to pay for his parents’ burial and gave him food, which should be a great favor for him. Moreover, he’s an orphan and doesn’t have other relatives. He’s all alone and easy to handle, it can be assumed that he won’t dare to say things carelessly outside. After he enters our Bai residence and once you give birth to a son and raise him until he’s older, why should we worry about having no way out?”
Bai Zhenting had no successor, the breaking of joss sticks1 was a matter that had been gnawing at Su shi’s mind for many years.
Bai Shiqi only felt horror: “So you’re serious?”
Su shi had already discussed this matter with Bai Zhenting when she had been away to escort provision up north and they felt that there were spaces they could manipulate as long as Bai Shiqi cooperated.
“Is there anything wrong with this?”
“Yours and Dad’s eyesights are very good ah!” She laid down again with one leg raised at the edge of the couch, and the other leg dangling and shaking: “Qiu Yunping is a drunkard string of cash and he’s as weak as a chick. Aren’t you and Dad afraid that I’ll push this kind of child to death?”
Su shi hit her angrily: “Where did you learn this kind of bad thing? Try to push him for me to see then?”
In reality, many men of the shipping group were poor-stricken and homeless, without a roof to cover their heads, so they went to the river for a living. They were not that much different from fugitives. Sometimes when a confrontation between gangs occurred, casualties were unavoidable. They were usually brave and fought fiercely, even the younger ones could not be excluded. Teaching them to be modest would prove difficult.
Bai Shiqi had been staying with these kinds of men for a long time. Sometimes she did not only rely on her silver tongue to reconcile their contradicting views but rather used violence to curb violence. From seeing and hearing often, one would be affected inconspicuously, so she did not look highly at delicate and feeble men.
Indeed, Qiu Yunping was easy to handle, but he was not Young Leader Bai’s type.
Therefore, Young Leader Bai stretched out five fingers in the air and slowly made a squeezing gesture, as if choking someone’s neck, then she said lightly: “When the time comes I’ll just randomly throw him to any river, if the body doesn’t even realize that it is already dead, then the ghost won’t feel…”
Hearing this, Su shi’s hair straightened all over. A good and proper, gentle and soft married woman from the waters of Jiangnan was forced to turn into a bitch by the father and daughter Bai Zhenting and Bai Shiqi: “Get out, get your ass out of here! Get your ass back to your own room to sleep, I don’t like hearing you say this!”
Bai Shiqi had a stubborn temper, she really wanted to dispel her of her ideas. Maybe she could completely tear down the entire roof of the big Bai family residence.
“Turning your back on me the moment I returned!” Bai Shiqi grudgingly stood up, once more wearing the skintight flexible soft armor and covered it with the wide-sleeved robe, then walked outside: “If Mum doesn’t love me anymore, there are still the several aunts who love me dearly. If that doesn’t work as well, I still have the pretty concubine I just took in, tonight I’ll accompany her to sleep.”
Su shi was on the last straw. She grabbed the spice bag used to keep mosquitoes away by the bedside and threw it over. It was caught nimbly by Bai Shiqi, she sniffed it, then said smilingly: “Smells good. Thanks, Mum!”
“Shameless!”
Su shi was made almost insane by her!
Bai Shiqi had been driven out by her biological mother, so she wandered around in the big Bai family residence. Along the way she met a little servant girl whose face flushed after she greeted her. She then winked at her, and as the result, the little servant girl’s face reddened even more, which made her companion pulled her to the side and splashed her with cold water: “If this appearance of yours is seen by Master or Madam, be careful that they’ll punish you with the plank before drag you out and sell you off!”
The little servant with flushed cheeks tried to justify: “But… Young Leader is clearly not so young anymore, however, Master and Madam have never mentioned his marriage, even his backroom is still empty.” She suddenly became eager: “I heard that this time around, Young Leader has taken in a concubine back home and she has already entered the residence. Doesn’t this mean that Master and Madam won’t prevent Young Leader from adding people to his backroom anymore?”
The adviser was also surprised by this possibility and was slightly moved: “… Is it true?”
In the big Bai residence, there was only Bai Shiqi the sole sprout, who was born with red lips and white teeth, coupled with a charming face, gentleness towards the fairer sex, and never abused the servant maids. As time passed, there were many servant girls whose hearts were stirred. If not because of Bai Zhenting’s ruthless method when dealing with Bai Shiqi’s four beauties, perhaps in this residence alone, there would be many servant girls who would throw themselves into the arms’ of Young Leader Bai.
Bai Shiqi had thoughtlessly stirred the spring2 water pond but she was not aware of it and went to Miss Song Si’s dwelling place for an inspection in a carefree manner. Seeing that the servant maids who were assigned to serve did not laze around, she was satisfied. She turned around and headed to the worrying brother Zhao Ziheng’s room, and finally, she arrived at Zhao Wujiu’s room.
***
Zhao Wujiu had just finished his bath. He was sitting on the wheelchair with loosened hair draped on his shoulder, reading quietly. The wooden stump-like Shu Changfeng leaned against the wall, looking like one of the pieces of furniture inside the room.
Bai Shiqi had been standing at the doorway for a long time. She was thinking that even though he was always accompanied by someone, he still looked very lonely when she heard his voice came from inside: “Why don’t you come in?” before she came to.
She entered in large strides, took the book from Zhao Wujiu’s hand, and threw it to the side randomly. Then she sat down with a big smile and opened up a subject, leading him to talk: “I once heard an old tale about an old lady called Qiu Qianchi, whose four limbs were cut off and left underground for many years. She practiced unique internal strength and had a hidden weapon called date nails3, has Cousin Brother ever heard about it?”
Shu Changfeng was secretly amazed. Bai Shiqi was getting more and more outrageous. The close-fitting guards had been following Master for so many years, who had ever dared to take away the book in Master’s hand as one pleased?!
On contrary, his family’s master regarded it as a normal occurrence, and asked the question with another question: “The old lady was inside a dried-up well, how did she develop the date nails?”
He was a rational and logical person, so he thought about that almost instinctively.
Bai Shiqi stood up spiritedly and gestured towards the roof: “Look, there was a huge sour date tree growing up above the dry well and it provided her with sour dates to eat, she had eaten a lot for 18 years.”
Zhao Wujiu: “She only ate sour dates?”
Bai Shiqi: “There was nothing else to eat ah. How about… snakes, worms, rats, and ants?”
Zhao Wujiu: “Her four limbs were cut off, how was she going to catch those things?”
Bai Shiqi, grudgingly: “Then… She only ate sour dates.”
Zhao Wujiu: “Sour dates are only available in autumn, how did she survive in the other 3 seasons?”
Bai Shiqi were showing signs of crumbling inwardly: “… By storing dried dates?”
Zhao Wujiu looked serious, however, inside his eyes, there were traces of smile: “How about water? She only ate dates and didn’t have any drinks, wouldn’t she feel thirsty?”
Bai Shiqi stroked her forehead, secretly regretting the suffering, and maintained her composure: “… There was an underground river below, so there was water.” Fearing that he would interrupt her again, she immediately barraged with more explanation: “When that old lady saw her opponent, she threw an object from her mouth. It slammed into the opponent’s weapon with a loud bang. The man’s arm that was supposedly super strong, shook and made him unable to hold his weapon anymore, so he let it go. In terms of speed and strength, date nails could be considered as the best.”
Zhao Wujiu: “… Did her mouth have some kind of a mechanism? How was it so powerful?”
Bai Shiqi deeply felt that he was spoiling the fun: “Cousin Brother, this is just a legend! A legend!”
Zhao Wujiu: “She only ate sour dates for several years, why didn’t she starve to death? And still have so much power to practice internal strength instead?” He continued: “You’re making such a huge roundabout, in the end, what do you want to ask?”
Bai Shiqi did a facepalm and felt that her face had reddened, however in the end she still could not bear it: “I’m telling you this old tale in exchange for—“ Even if the old tale was completely nitpicked into disorder by Zhao Wujiu, however, she was a person who was eager to learn and make progress, her heart did not easily die: “I’ve been admiring you since I saw you hitting those mice with walnuts… Cousin Brother, can you teach me?”
Shu Changfeng, who was standing at the side, was completely dumbfounded—Such a way to force an exchange exists?
The corner of Zhao Wujiu’s mouth was slightly bent, nevertheless, with a deadpan expression, he said: “Why don’t you catch a few mice tomorrow, then I’ll personally demonstrate it for you?”
Bai Shiqi suspected that he was teasing her: “Cousin Brother, are you deceiving me?” But Zhao Wujiu still maintained the impartial head instructor’s solemn face, really did not look like he was joking: “For real?”
Zhao Wujiu explained: “To practice this kind of hidden weapon, naturally we will need living targets. What’s the use of still targets? Tomorrow you’ll catch 100 mice and bring over a basket of walnuts.”
“O… kay?” Bai Shiqi suddenly recalled the practice of catching sparrows by Yang Guo, a child of Gu Mu Faction, and thought to herself that could it be that every expert had this kind of an obsession with taking the lives of living creatures?
Qiu Yunping’s voice came in from the outside: “Shiqi, Leader is looking for you to verify the accounting records.” Bai Shiqi said goodbye and left at once.
Once her figure disappeared from the doorway, Shu Changfeng stared stupidly and asked: “Master, are you seriously going to let Young Leader Bai catch 100 mice tomorrow?”
Zhao Wujiu could not help smiling: “Isn’t she mischievous? If she loves catching it so much, then let her catch it until she’s satisfied!”
Suddenly, a loud, angry voice came in from the doorway: “I knew there was something fishy! Cousin Brother, you’re actually scamming people!” Bai Shiqi who had gone outside came back. Or perhaps she had never left in the first place, only kept herself hidden by the doorway. Zhao Wujiu and servant pair did not even notice it, and she had actually heard them.
From a place not too far away, Qiu Yunping was urging her: “Young Leader, hurry up, Leader is pressing us!”
Bai Shiqi left a sentence: “I’ll settle this debt with you when I return!” Then finally, she left.
The room was quiet in an instant. Zhao Wujiu helplessly shook his head, he also laughed while doing so: “This unruly girl!”
In Shu Changfeng’s heart: Before meeting Bai Shiqi, Master didn’t smile much. Every day he shut himself in the room. Aside from the visiting imperial physicians who exchanged a few lines with him to discuss the illness, he also didn’t talk much. It’s good now that he can laugh to his heart’s content like this.
The proud son of Heaven had broken his wings of flight, which was probably harder to accept than normal people.
FOOTNOTE
1 breaking of joss sticks: Chinese people light up joss sticks in front of their ancestors’ tablet (We still have them in my grandma’s house) to pay respects, so this sentence implies the end of Bai family as they lack “successors” to light the joss stick.
2 spring: is often used to implies love (season).
3 date nails: in reference to Legend of the Condor Heroes series. Qiu Qianchi is the villain in the story who is tricked by her husband into taking some drugs and breaking her arms and foot veins. Then he throws her into an abandoned crocodile pool. Although the martial arts are lost, the internal strength still remains, and she uses her internal strength to shake the date tree above and live from the dates. She develops her internal strength and creates the “date nails” skill.
It is a nail-like weapon shaped like a date pit.
Chapter 31 : Shameless
“Mum, are you serious? You want to marry me to Qiu Yunping?”
Su shi turned her fingers towards her and counted Qiu Yunping’s good points: “He’s a scholar who doesn’t even have the strength to truss a chicken, at that time you helped to pay for his parents’ burial and gave him food, which should be a great favor for him. Moreover, he’s an orphan and doesn’t have other relatives. He’s all alone and easy to handle, it can be assumed that he won’t dare to say things carelessly outside. After he enters our Bai residence and once you give birth to a son and raise him until he’s older, why should we worry about having no way out?”
Bai Zhenting had no successor, the breaking of joss sticks1 was a matter that had been gnawing at Su shi’s mind for many years.
Bai Shiqi only felt horror: “So you’re serious?”
Su shi had already discussed this matter with Bai Zhenting when she had been away to escort provision up north and they felt that there were spaces they could manipulate as long as Bai Shiqi cooperated.
“Is there anything wrong with this?”
“Yours and Dad’s eyesights are very good ah!” She laid down again with one leg raised at the edge of the couch, and the other leg dangling and shaking: “Qiu Yunping is a drunkard string of cash and he’s as weak as a chick. Aren’t you and Dad afraid that I’ll push this kind of child to death?”
Su shi hit her angrily: “Where did you learn this kind of bad thing? Try to push him for me to see then?”
In reality, many men of the shipping group were poor-stricken and homeless, without a roof to cover their heads, so they went to the river for a living. They were not that much different from fugitives. Sometimes when a confrontation between gangs occurred, casualties were unavoidable. They were usually brave and fought fiercely, even the younger ones could not be excluded. Teaching them to be modest would prove difficult.
Bai Shiqi had been staying with these kinds of men for a long time. Sometimes she did not only rely on her silver tongue to reconcile their contradicting views but rather used violence to curb violence. From seeing and hearing often, one would be affected inconspicuously, so she did not look highly at delicate and feeble men.
Indeed, Qiu Yunping was easy to handle, but he was not Young Leader Bai’s type.
Therefore, Young Leader Bai stretched out five fingers in the air and slowly made a squeezing gesture, as if choking someone’s neck, then she said lightly: “When the time comes I’ll just randomly throw him to any river, if the body doesn’t even realize that it is already dead, then the ghost won’t feel…”
Hearing this, Su shi’s hair straightened all over. A good and proper, gentle and soft married woman from the waters of Jiangnan was forced to turn into a bitch by the father and daughter Bai Zhenting and Bai Shiqi: “Get out, get your ass out of here! Get your ass back to your own room to sleep, I don’t like hearing you say this!”
Bai Shiqi had a stubborn temper, she really wanted to dispel her of her ideas. Maybe she could completely tear down the entire roof of the big Bai family residence.
“Turning your back on me the moment I returned!” Bai Shiqi grudgingly stood up, once more wearing the skintight flexible soft armor and covered it with the wide-sleeved robe, then walked outside: “If Mum doesn’t love me anymore, there are still the several aunts who love me dearly. If that doesn’t work as well, I still have the pretty concubine I just took in, tonight I’ll accompany her to sleep.”
Su shi was on the last straw. She grabbed the spice bag used to keep mosquitoes away by the bedside and threw it over. It was caught nimbly by Bai Shiqi, she sniffed it, then said smilingly: “Smells good. Thanks, Mum!”
“Shameless!”
Su shi was made almost insane by her!
Bai Shiqi had been driven out by her biological mother, so she wandered around in the big Bai family residence. Along the way she met a little servant girl whose face flushed after she greeted her. She then winked at her, and as the result, the little servant girl’s face reddened even more, which made her companion pulled her to the side and splashed her with cold water: “If this appearance of yours is seen by Master or Madam, be careful that they’ll punish you with the plank before drag you out and sell you off!”
The little servant with flushed cheeks tried to justify: “But… Young Leader is clearly not so young anymore, however, Master and Madam have never mentioned his marriage, even his backroom is still empty.” She suddenly became eager: “I heard that this time around, Young Leader has taken in a concubine back home and she has already entered the residence. Doesn’t this mean that Master and Madam won’t prevent Young Leader from adding people to his backroom anymore?”
The adviser was also surprised by this possibility and was slightly moved: “… Is it true?”
In the big Bai residence, there was only Bai Shiqi the sole sprout, who was born with red lips and white teeth, coupled with a charming face, gentleness towards the fairer sex, and never abused the servant maids. As time passed, there were many servant girls whose hearts were stirred. If not because of Bai Zhenting’s ruthless method when dealing with Bai Shiqi’s four beauties, perhaps in this residence alone, there would be many servant girls who would throw themselves into the arms’ of Young Leader Bai.
Bai Shiqi had thoughtlessly stirred the spring2 water pond but she was not aware of it and went to Miss Song Si’s dwelling place for an inspection in a carefree manner. Seeing that the servant maids who were assigned to serve did not laze around, she was satisfied. She turned around and headed to the worrying brother Zhao Ziheng’s room, and finally, she arrived at Zhao Wujiu’s room.
***
Zhao Wujiu had just finished his bath. He was sitting on the wheelchair with loosened hair draped on his shoulder, reading quietly. The wooden stump-like Shu Changfeng leaned against the wall, looking like one of the pieces of furniture inside the room.
Bai Shiqi had been standing at the doorway for a long time. She was thinking that even though he was always accompanied by someone, he still looked very lonely when she heard his voice came from inside: “Why don’t you come in?” before she came to.
She entered in large strides, took the book from Zhao Wujiu’s hand, and threw it to the side randomly. Then she sat down with a big smile and opened up a subject, leading him to talk: “I once heard an old tale about an old lady called Qiu Qianchi, whose four limbs were cut off and left underground for many years. She practiced unique internal strength and had a hidden weapon called date nails3, has Cousin Brother ever heard about it?”
Shu Changfeng was secretly amazed. Bai Shiqi was getting more and more outrageous. The close-fitting guards had been following Master for so many years, who had ever dared to take away the book in Master’s hand as one pleased?!
On contrary, his family’s master regarded it as a normal occurrence, and asked the question with another question: “The old lady was inside a dried-up well, how did she develop the date nails?”
He was a rational and logical person, so he thought about that almost instinctively.
Bai Shiqi stood up spiritedly and gestured towards the roof: “Look, there was a huge sour date tree growing up above the dry well and it provided her with sour dates to eat, she had eaten a lot for 18 years.”
Zhao Wujiu: “She only ate sour dates?”
Bai Shiqi: “There was nothing else to eat ah. How about… snakes, worms, rats, and ants?”
Zhao Wujiu: “Her four limbs were cut off, how was she going to catch those things?”
Bai Shiqi, grudgingly: “Then… She only ate sour dates.”
Zhao Wujiu: “Sour dates are only available in autumn, how did she survive in the other 3 seasons?”
Bai Shiqi were showing signs of crumbling inwardly: “… By storing dried dates?”
Zhao Wujiu looked serious, however, inside his eyes, there were traces of smile: “How about water? She only ate dates and didn’t have any drinks, wouldn’t she feel thirsty?”
Bai Shiqi stroked her forehead, secretly regretting the suffering, and maintained her composure: “… There was an underground river below, so there was water.” Fearing that he would interrupt her again, she immediately barraged with more explanation: “When that old lady saw her opponent, she threw an object from her mouth. It slammed into the opponent’s weapon with a loud bang. The man’s arm that was supposedly super strong, shook and made him unable to hold his weapon anymore, so he let it go. In terms of speed and strength, date nails could be considered as the best.”
Zhao Wujiu: “… Did her mouth have some kind of a mechanism? How was it so powerful?”
Bai Shiqi deeply felt that he was spoiling the fun: “Cousin Brother, this is just a legend! A legend!”
Zhao Wujiu: “She only ate sour dates for several years, why didn’t she starve to death? And still have so much power to practice internal strength instead?” He continued: “You’re making such a huge roundabout, in the end, what do you want to ask?”
Bai Shiqi did a facepalm and felt that her face had reddened, however in the end she still could not bear it: “I’m telling you this old tale in exchange for—“ Even if the old tale was completely nitpicked into disorder by Zhao Wujiu, however, she was a person who was eager to learn and make progress, her heart did not easily die: “I’ve been admiring you since I saw you hitting those mice with walnuts… Cousin Brother, can you teach me?”
Shu Changfeng, who was standing at the side, was completely dumbfounded—Such a way to force an exchange exists?
The corner of Zhao Wujiu’s mouth was slightly bent, nevertheless, with a deadpan expression, he said: “Why don’t you catch a few mice tomorrow, then I’ll personally demonstrate it for you?”
Bai Shiqi suspected that he was teasing her: “Cousin Brother, are you deceiving me?” But Zhao Wujiu still maintained the impartial head instructor’s solemn face, really did not look like he was joking: “For real?”
Zhao Wujiu explained: “To practice this kind of hidden weapon, naturally we will need living targets. What’s the use of still targets? Tomorrow you’ll catch 100 mice and bring over a basket of walnuts.”
“O… kay?” Bai Shiqi suddenly recalled the practice of catching sparrows by Yang Guo, a child of Gu Mu Faction, and thought to herself that could it be that every expert had this kind of an obsession with taking the lives of living creatures?
Qiu Yunping’s voice came in from the outside: “Shiqi, Leader is looking for you to verify the accounting records.” Bai Shiqi said goodbye and left at once.
Once her figure disappeared from the doorway, Shu Changfeng stared stupidly and asked: “Master, are you seriously going to let Young Leader Bai catch 100 mice tomorrow?”
Zhao Wujiu could not help smiling: “Isn’t she mischievous? If she loves catching it so much, then let her catch it until she’s satisfied!”
Suddenly, a loud, angry voice came in from the doorway: “I knew there was something fishy! Cousin Brother, you’re actually scamming people!” Bai Shiqi who had gone outside came back. Or perhaps she had never left in the first place, only kept herself hidden by the doorway. Zhao Wujiu and servant pair did not even notice it, and she had actually heard them.
From a place not too far away, Qiu Yunping was urging her: “Young Leader, hurry up, Leader is pressing us!”
Bai Shiqi left a sentence: “I’ll settle this debt with you when I return!” Then finally, she left.
The room was quiet in an instant. Zhao Wujiu helplessly shook his head, he also laughed while doing so: “This unruly girl!”
In Shu Changfeng’s heart: Before meeting Bai Shiqi, Master didn’t smile much. Every day he shut himself in the room. Aside from the visiting imperial physicians who exchanged a few lines with him to discuss the illness, he also didn’t talk much. It’s good now that he can laugh to his heart’s content like this.
The proud son of Heaven had broken his wings of flight, which was probably harder to accept than normal people.
FOOTNOTE
1 breaking of joss sticks: Chinese people light up joss sticks in front of their ancestors’ tablet (We still have them in my grandma’s house) to pay respects, so this sentence implies the end of Bai family as they lack “successors” to light the joss stick.
2 spring: is often used to implies love (season).
3 date nails: in reference to Legend of the Condor Heroes series. Qiu Qianchi is the villain in the story who is tricked by her husband into taking some drugs and breaking her arms and foot veins. Then he throws her into an abandoned crocodile pool. Although the martial arts are lost, the internal strength still remains, and she uses her internal strength to shake the date tree above and live from the dates. She develops her internal strength and creates the “date nails” skill.
It is a nail-like weapon shaped like a date pit.
