Chapter 45: Cremation Truly Fragrant
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation.
“Yah… dolly…” Lu Chao Chao held the rag doll in her small arms, showering it with kisses.
Madam Xu sighed helplessly. “Yan Shu made it for you last night,” she explained, her expression tinged with distaste. “But why is this doll so ugly? One eye, a gaping mouth full of teeth… Truly hideous.”
Lu Chao Chao puffed out her cheeks. “Hmph!”
Her wide, round eyes glared at Madam Xu, her face a mix of defiance and indignation.
Deng Zhi couldn’t help but chuckle. “It was the little miss who sketched it secretly, and the young master made it exactly as she drew.”
Madam Xu smiled knowingly. She tried to coax Lu Chao Chao, but the little girl was unyielding, her temper as fiery as ever. Biting the doll in her mouth, she used her hands and feet to crawl out of the room.
“Let her crawl. Crawling at nine months is good for her body. By spring, when she’s out of the thick cotton clothes, she’ll be walking,” said Madam Xu with a resigned tone. “Ying Xue, Jue Xia, follow the little miss.”
Lu Chao Chao, with gloves on her tiny hands, crawled effortlessly. The little dumpling resembled a fluffy ball of fur, even capable of provoking the estate’s dogs into barking contests as she passed by. When she tired of crawling, she held onto walls to wobble a few steps.
“Huff, huff…” She huffed as she crawled unknowingly into the Virtue and Kindness Hall.
The faint scent of incense lingered in the air—a testament to the candles burned over the years. Pushing open the doors to the Little Buddha Hall, she found the room dimly lit due to its perpetually closed windows and doors.
A prayer mat lay near the entrance, with incense burning in the center, its smoke curling lazily upwards. The shadowy outline of a Bodhisattva statue stood faintly visible.
“Little miss, let’s go back. If the Old Madam finds out, she’ll be furious,” Ying Xue whispered nervously.
Lu Chao Chao glanced at her briefly before swiftly climbing onto a stool, then onto the offering table. She considered her plan before sliding the Bodhisattva statue to her side and replacing it with her rag doll. The height and size matched perfectly.
Grinning broadly, she revealed her two budding baby teeth before tugging on Ying Xue’s sleeve.
“Ah? You want me to take the statue away?” Ying Xue’s eyes widened in alarm. If the Old Madam discovered this, she’d surely faint from rage.
Lu Chao Chao’s lips pouted as her brows furrowed, her little face full of earnest pleading. Joining her palms together, she silently begged, [Please, please!]
Her large, blinking eyes and thick lashes fluttered like two small brushes, impossible to resist.
Jue Xia, braver than Ying Xue, quickly scooped up the statue and hid it in her robes. Lu Chao Chao spread her arms wide, and the trio stealthily scurried out of the hall. They skillfully avoided patrolling guards and sneakily returned to Listening Wind Courtyard.
On their way back, they spotted a lone duckling by the lake, no larger than a palm. Lu Chao Chao’s eyes lit up with joy, and she seized it eagerly.
“How did a duckling end up here in this freezing weather?” Madam Xu asked, puzzled.
The duckling’s soft white feathers were irresistibly smooth to the touch. Lu Chao Chao cradled it like a treasure.
[Found it by the lake. So cute!] She nuzzled it repeatedly, her delight evident. The two little beings together were almost unbearably adorable.
“Quack, quack… what?” she pointed at the duckling and offered it some snacks she had hidden in her pockets. The duckling glanced at the food but waddled away with its tail in the air.
“Ducklings need grain,” Madam Xu explained. “Deng Zhi, fetch some for it. If the little miss wants to play, make sure it’s cleaned thoroughly.”
After a thorough scrubbing, the duckling exuded a pleasant scent, much to Lu Chao Chao’s delight. She even insisted on letting it sleep beside her that night.
“Little miss, ducks can’t sleep on beds. It’ll stink!” Ying Xue protested, her face contorted with unease.
The little girl had already prepared two pillows: one for herself and one for the duckling. “Good… friend. Together…” she declared, hugging the duckling close.
Nestled in her embrace, she quickly drifted off to sleep. Ying Xue tried several times to move it but stopped when Lu Chao Chao stirred drowsily, forcing her to give up.
The next morning, Lu Chao Chao woke up bleary-eyed, only to burst into tears.
“Cold!!” she wailed, snot and tears streaming down her face as she pointed at the stiff duckling. “Waaa… ducky… dead!”
The air was heavy with tension as the soft, childlike wail filled the room. “It’s dead… wuuu… wuuu…,” the tiny voice sobbed, laden with an innocence that made it hard not to laugh and cry simultaneously.
Madam Xu had noticed the frail state of the duckling ever since it was brought home yesterday. It seemed unlikely to survive, but now it lay lifeless, and the crying Lu Chao Chao was inconsolable.
“Don’t cry now. You didn’t mean to, did you?” Madam Xu comforted, attempting to soothe the distressed child. “How about we bury the little ducky?” Lu Chao Chao’s nose bubbled as she cried harder, her small hand pointing to the ground. “Cold…” she murmured through her tears.
“Then let’s cremate it, shall we? That way, it can reincarnate into a human in its next life,” Madam Xu suggested, holding her close as Chao Chao’s sobs gradually lessened.
Ying Xue picked up the duckling and headed outside, but Chao Chao wriggled free from Madam Xu’s embrace, her tiny feet pattering after Ying Xue.
[Wuuu, I have to say goodbye properly…] she thought to herself, her baby-like exterior betraying her growing frustration. The confinement in this infant body was slowly stripping away her composed nature, leaving behind an unfiltered version of herself.
Madam Xu, meanwhile, returned to reading a letter. It was from Lu Zheng Yue, who announced his return home in three days. Her face brightened at the news. This separation had been their first prolonged one, and her eldest son, Lu Yan Shu, now seventeen, and second son, sixteen, had been away for quite some time.
Not long after, Ying Xue returned, carrying a soot-covered Lu Chao Chao. The child’s eyes, though puffy from crying, now sparkled with a clarity akin to the sky after a rainstorm.
“Why is your face so dirty?” Madam Xu asked.
“Did you cremate the duckling?” She shot another question without waiting for an answer. The maids remained silent, shifting uneasily.
“We burned it…” Jue Xia admitted hesitantly, her expression bitter. “But the young miss knelt down, apologizing to the duckling, crying harder and harder. As it burned, the smell… well, the roasted aroma grew stronger and stronger. Her tears stopped, but… her saliva started dripping.”
Ying Xue added dryly, “When the feathers burned off, the skin turned golden, the fat sizzling away. In the end…”
Madam Xu’s eyes widened in horror. “She ate it?!” she shrieked.
Ying Xue shook her head quickly. “No, no! She didn’t eat it. She only managed to grab a handful of ashes.”
Madam Xu pinched the bridge of her nose, a vein throbbing visibly on her forehead. “Take her to wash up immediately. Zheng Yue will be home in three days, and he hasn’t even met Chao Chao yet,” she instructed, gently patting the child’s head.
[Oh dear, Second Brother is coming back with his true love in tow…]
[My lovesick fool of a Second Brother…]
Madam Xu glanced at Chao Chao, her tiny face brimming with mischief, and sighed as Deng Zhi entered the room. “Three months ago, when Second Young Master fell off that cliff, I nearly died of fright,” Deng Zhi confessed, clutching her chest.
Madam Xu nodded, her own fears resurfacing. When Lu Zheng Yue had disappeared after the fall, three agonizing days passed before word arrived that he had been rescued. He’d decided to recover before making the journey home.
Chao Chao’s attention drifted to the sky. Her big, curious eyes blinked at a cluster of black specks fluttering in the distance. “Wha… what that?” she pointed, her childish voice full of wonder.
Deng Zhi sneered. “Just some wild birds making a fuss,” she said dismissively, but Madam Xu shot her a warning glare. Lowering her head, Deng Zhi muttered an apology for her careless words.
The recent scandal surrounding Pei Jiao Jiao, who was exposed as someone’s mistress, had left her the target of public ridicule. Even worse, people speculated on whose mistress she truly was, fueling further gossip and disdain.
“Lu Jing Yao is probably trying to uphold her mother’s honor,” Deng Zhi grumbled. “She’s only nine months old, but her speech is already fluent. They say she’s so beloved by birds that flocks gather around her, creating a spectacle in the capital. Even the palace has taken notice.”
Chao Chao’s eyes sparkled with sudden excitement.
Madam Xu shivered. “My Chao Chao is a little troublemaker,” she muttered, feeling a premonition of impending chaos.
Somewhere, someone was about to suffer.