His uncles whom Old Master Gu had entrusted with the letters felt extremely ashamed, especially his legal uncle in the clan in the Qing City who raised the question directly, “When you guys told us to give the letters, you claimed that you would only guard the property for Tingye in case he would squander wantonly. Even if he did have acted absurdly before, he is already an outstanding man after he joined the army. Why haven"t you given him back his property yet?”

The people of the Fourth and the Fifth family all felt awkward and didn"t dare to reply. Only Gu Tingyang yelled rashly, “Eldest Uncle was already beyond recovery at that time. Who knows if he has done those things with a clear mind? What if he gets confused with age…”

Before he could finish his words, he met with disdainful gazes of everyone in the room at once. Then, he was slapped on the face by Fifth Old Master.

After that, everyone started to condemn this affair, which even affected Old Madam Qin"s long-standing good reputation, although she had already returned her share of the property. An aunt of Gu Tingye from Jinling was always a mean woman. What"s more, others always compare her with the virtuous and gentle Old Madam Qin since the two women are sister-in-laws. This time this aunt of Gu Tingye finally had a chance to sneer at Old Madam Qin, “I have really thought that she is a once-in-a -generation great step-mother!”

Gu Tingye felt super glad to hear that and didn"t even notice that Fifth Old Master had also returned his share: one third of the property.

Only Fourth Old Master kept playing dumb like a dead pig which didn"t not mind the hot water.

After Old Madam Qin had heard Minglan"s words, the look on her face turned sullen at once. Then she said stiffly, “Anyway, we should set a date.”

Minglan stirred the tea leaves slowly while saying in a soft voice, “Your are right. However, Master said that it"s not a small deal beginning the construction work and he would supervise the construction process by himself when he is free. But he really is busy lately, so the construction work might have to wait for a few years to be started.

Old Madam Qin gasped in shock, “A few years? Are you kidding?!” Then she flew into a rage immediately, “That will only bring humiliation to our family!”

Minglan still replied in an eased tone, “Don"t worry. Master said that he plans to proceed the construction on a large scale and wouldn"t only demolish the walls. Marquis Ningyuan"s mansion hasn"t been repaired for generations, some of the houses are too old. He"d like to take this opportunity to restore the gate, the walls and some other places.”

Old Madam Qin asked immediately, “So, the houses where Fourth and Fifth Old Master live will also be repaired?”

“I don"t know that. It depends on the opinions of the construction workers.” Minglan played dumb.

Old Madam Qin only stared at Minglan with a gruesome look in her eyes.

Minglan gave a tender smile, “It is stated on the imperial edict that the affair of combining the two mansions together should adapt to the circ.u.mstances. Old Madam, you should take it easy. We are neighbors now and it wouldn"t take you very long to arrive at the Cheng Manor. If there"s anything you"d like us to know, just send someone to pa.s.s the message.”

Seeing the gloomy look on Old Madam Qin"s face, Minglan only looked right into her eyes with a calm expression.

“… Your words make sense. There"s no hurry doing that.”

After saying that, Old Madam Qin stopped talking about that topic and then leaned on the arhat bed again while only chatting about the household stuff with Minglan. The latter also never mentioned that topic while totally engaging herself in the chitchat.

This time Minglan had avoided the trouble, but she was still in alarm while reminding herself, "This bone is tough, I should watch out."

After that, Minglan"s life went on as usual. Sometimes she would go to check Shao shi"s condition and bring some small toys for Xian to play. Most of the time, she stayed at her own mansion to deal with her family affairs and check Rong"s study. All the invitation cards sent to the Cheng Manor had been rejected by her because she chose to observe mourning at home the whole time.

At the beginning of August, Minglan bid farewell to Changbai and Hai shi with tears in her eyes. Considering the poor medical condition in the less developed area, Changbai"s children had been left in the Sheng"s mansion. Quan would stay in the House of Peaceful Ages under the guard of Old Madam Sheng while the little girl would be looked after by w.a.n.g shi.

The official explanation was that Old Madam Sheng was too old to take care of two kids and needed w.a.n.g shi to share the burden.

Qing was a cute pretty girl. The chubby girl crawled around all day chuckling and giggling, looking super adorable. Seeing the cute baby, w.a.n.g shi could temporarily forget about her bitterness. Once, when Minglan came back to the Sheng"s mansion, she even found that w.a.n.g shi was gentler than before with a plumper face and held the baby girl in her arms the whole time. Perhaps it was because this woman finally knew what was worth treasuring.

That was good for the family harmony.

During these boring days, all the entertainments were forbidden. The best news was that Rong had finally made some achievements in her poor study. Minglan eventually saw the light of hope.

One morning, when Minglan asked Rong to recite the "Being Respectful and Cautious", the third article in Women"s Commandments, the latter not only managed to recite the article, but also volunteered to write it down.

There was not a single mistake in the article the girl wrote from memory. Although her style of writing was still a bit rigid, all the words she had written down looked neat and tidy, which showed clearly that the girl had worked hard on this— A few days ago, the girl had still miswritten the words "Youyu Taotang" as "You Yu Tao Tang". Now seeing Rong"s big achievement, Minglan got both surprised and cheerful, thinking, "Thank G.o.d, I almost got desperate. Now it seems she could at least finish studying the Four Books For Women before she gets married."

Then, Minglan heaped praises on Rong at once, making the latter blush bashfully with her head lowered. When Minglan took out a pair of delicate crystal earrings with rosy gold clasps from the drawer and presented them to Rong, the girl, although she wanted the earrings a lot, still refused while asking in a low voice if she could invite Xian to play with her in the Cheng Manor.

This was the first time Minglan changed her opinion of Rong.

Rong was a stubborn and active girl who didn"t like to study at all. This time it must be very hard for her to make that request to Minglan for her friend. What was more, Minglan also liked Xian because of the latter"s sensible and tame character. Ever since Xian"s father died, she had to bear the helpless and sad feelings while comforting her widowed mother. In the meantime, the little girl also disciplined the servants in her yard strictly, like an adult.

"It"s good to bring the girl here to let her relax herself." Thinking of that, Minglan agreed with Rong while pondering how to persuade Shao shi.

Rong was quite excited and made huge progress in her study in the next few days. After Xian had arrived, Rong behaved like a little host by playing with the thin and sad girl all day. Sometimes they played chess, and sometimes they played puzzles. During the ten days of Xian"s stay, they had solved four ring puzzles and Minglan had bought them three sets of building blocks. Now it was summer time, and the garden full of beautiful flowers became their amus.e.m.e.nt park.

Minglan was afraid that they would get burnt under the sun. Then she tried to use food to tempt them.

Then, the two little girls went to the pond to gather lotuses and then picked the lotus seeds to make White Fungus Soup, which tasted super sweet and cool with some ice blocks inside. After that, they pulled out the lotus roots to make Sugar Candy Lotus Root Slices with sticky rice. This dish tasted even better when being sprinkled with honey… The two girls made so many summer desserts that they even left some to the elders in Marquis Ningyuan"s mansion.