Chapter 14
Chapter 14: A Joyous Event, Also a Hidden Danger
Luo Ning knelt on the prayer mat, eyes closed in deep thought.
Her mind drifted back to her previous life.
During the Little New Year Festival, two things had happened. The first was that, in Old Madam’s Little Buddha Hall, the most precious white jade Guanyin statue had been smashed to pieces.
It had been pushed down.
No one knew whether it was the wind, a person, or the gods.
Old Madam had been so frightened that her legs went weak, and for a long time no one could help her up.
After Luo Ning fell into the water and developed a fever, Old Madam brought her to the West Main Courtyard to recover. On the day of the Little New Year Festival, her serious illness had not yet healed, and she had forced herself to get up.
Old Madam had called her to the Little Buddha Hall to kowtow and pray for Ping An’s health. That was when she saw this scene.
Everyone’s face changed.
Old Madam cried: “What sin have we committed?”
Luo Ning’s mother took the chance to say to Old Madam: “We should quickly move A’Ning out. Old Madam, she is too precious. Maybe our manor cannot hold someone like her.”
Her mouth said “precious,” but what she really meant was that Luo Ning brought disaster and was a curse.
Old Madam did not answer her.
But because she was badly shaken, Old Madam fell ill and could no longer make decisions for Luo Ning.
Only when Luo Ning’s cold and high fever had just gotten a little better was she sent back to Wenqi Courtyard.
The servants looked down on her even more and made things hard for her, both openly and in secret.
Everyone in the manor gossiped: “The eldest miss has only just come back, and something like this already happened. She really must be a disaster star.”
“When will they send her away? The Lord Marquis and Madam should have decided long ago.”
Because Old Madam was sick and Luo Ning’s old illness relapsed, all the social matters in the First Lunar Month were handled by the Marchioness, Madam Bai.
She used this chance on purpose to promote Bai Ci Rong.
Bai Ci Rong had only held her hairpin ceremony in the second month of this year. Next First Lunar Month would be the first spring banquet after her hairpin ceremony. Before that, the Marchioness had spent a lot of money to buy her a good reputation, and this time she would attend in great style, almost pushing her to the high position of a noble daughter from a prestigious family.
But the truly respected noble households still did not want to marry a merchant’s daughter.
After all, Bai Ci Rong was not the legitimate young lady of the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s manor. She was the legitimate daughter from Madam Bai’s first marriage in Yuhang.
Now, the current household mistress of the Bai family in Yuhang was only her stepmother.
An empty title could only fool people. The noble households with real power and influence still looked down on her.
Yet she and the Marchioness, Madam Bai, still wanted a marriage with a very high family and refused to lower their sights even a little.
They were too greedy.
Luo Ning thought that if the Marchioness and Bai Ci Rong had not been so proud and tried to cling to the great prestigious clans, then with the title they had created for her back then, Bai Ci Rong might have married a pretty good newly risen noble.
A few years later, after the New Emperor ascended the throne, he suppressed the old clans and lifted up the new nobles. The new nobles’ power in the imperial court became far greater than that of the old clans.
In this life, Luo Ning changed this one thing.
She had Nanny Kong go to the market to buy a cheap, ordinary white jade Guanyin statue. Then she asked Auntie Hong to help her switch it with the truly expensive statue at dawn.
Half an hour ago, someone had quietly slipped into the Little Buddha Hall and pushed the Guanyin statue over.
That person had moved very fast.
It was someone close to Old Madam, very familiar with the Little Buddha Hall.
Nanny Kong and the others were afraid of alerting the snake by beating the grass, so they had not dared to squat nearby. They did not see the person’s face clearly.
The fake white jade Guanyin shattered. Nanny Kong and Auntie Hong hurried to clean up and carried the real one back to the altar.
They also broke a finely carved Jade Ruyi Scepter and let the Marchioness, Madam Bai, see the shards of precious white jade.
When Luo Ning went into the inner room that morning, she had told Old Madam ahead of time that her maidservant had broken a Jade Ruyi Scepter in the Little Buddha Hall.
Old Madam had not minded. She had said: “That took the misfortune for you.”
So this scene had been set up.
The white jade Guanyin was fine, Old Madam would not fall ill again, and all of the Marchioness’s plans had failed.
Thinking of this, Luo Ning bowed down again.
“May the Bodhisattva bless us.”
The Little Buddha Hall was very quiet.
Under the surface, the currents were fierce. A few people who had started all this knew the truth. Everyone else, including Old Madam, only saw a few small ripples on the lake.
The Marchioness glanced at Luo Ning twice.
Luo Ning did not meet her eyes.
At lunch, the men of the family also came.
Three tables were set up in Old Madam’s West Hall. Luo Ning and the others sat at the second table. A cousin sat in the seat just below Luo Ning, a place better than where her other cousin and younger half sisters were sitting.
Her younger half sister Luo Xuan followed Bai Ci Rong’s lead in everything. The twin younger half sisters were only seven and did not really understand any of this. Only Cousin Luo Wan was very unhappy.
“Grandmother, how is your Little Buddha Hall? I heard there was some accident,” her older brother Luo Yin suddenly said.
His words made the main table fall briefly silent.
The Marquis of Zhen Nan was surprised: “What happened to the Little Buddha Hall?”
The Marchioness gave a light cough: “Nothing happened.”
Old Madam looked over at them and paused before saying: “Something was broken in the Little Buddha Hall.”
“What was broken?” the Marquis of Zhen Nan asked.
“Grandmother, was it something very valuable?” Luo Yin asked.
The Marchioness, Madam Bai, again rushed to answer: “A’Ning wanted to offer a Jade Ruyi Scepter, but she accidentally dropped and broke it. That small matter even spread to the Outer Courtyard. We really should discipline our servants more strictly.”
The Marquis of Zhen Nan was displeased: “Do you have to bring up such trivial things at the table?”
He gave his eldest son a dissatisfied glance.
Luo Yin was startled.
After being scolded by his father, he still feared him and also hated him. His cheeks twitched slightly.
[When he became the Marquis of Zhen Nan, he would dig up the Luo family’s ancestral graves to vent all the anger he had held since he was a child!]
[But what about the Guanyin statue…]
Luo Yin turned his head and looked toward Luo Ning’s table.
Luo Ning was eating quietly, her expression calm. She was steady, and her eyes never wandered. Her bearing was actually better than Bai Ci Rong’s.
Luo Yin’s brows furrowed again.
He cursed in his heart: [Disaster star! Unfilial thing!]
The Marchioness stayed calm and suddenly said to Old Madam: “Mother, I have some happy news to tell you.”
“What happy news?” Old Madam asked.
“Concubine Song is pregnant. The Lord Marquis will have a child in his later years. That is a sign of great prosperity,” the Marchioness said with a smile.
Concubine Song and the other concubines were sitting at the last table. Hearing the Marchioness mention her, she gave a shy smile, stood up, and bowed to Old Madam.
The Marquis of Zhen Nan had not yet heard this good news. His eyes lit up with joy: “When was this diagnosed?”
“This morning,” the Marchioness, Madam Bai, said with a smile.
Old Madam also smiled in relief.
Adding another child to the family was a good thing.
If something went wrong with this good thing, someone would surely have to take the blame.
The Marchioness, Madam Bai, had not planned to bring it up yet. She had wanted to wait until “everything was settled.”
But her eldest son’s news had come late and almost caused a mistake. She had no choice but to use this matter now to shift Old Madam and the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s attention.
Luo Ning ate quietly.
After lunch, everyone scattered and went back to their courtyards to rest.
The Marquis of Zhen Nan sat in the Outer Study, chatting with his advisors. It was the Little New Year Festival, and the advisors would soon go home for the New Year, so the Marquis of Zhen Nan had to give them rewards.
The atmosphere in and outside the study was good. Everyone was happy.
The Marquis of Zhen Nan was in a very good mood.
Although there had been some unpleasant things since his legitimate daughter returned to the capital, overall things were going very well.
This time, the Bai family of Yuhang had given him New Year gifts worth ten thousand taels of silver. When the Marquis of Zhen Nan thought of that sum, his mood almost floated away.
He valued his principal wife, Madam Bai, even more.
Bai Ci Rong, who was staying in the Marquis Manor as a guest, was also his God of Wealth.
Bai Ci Rong lived better than the legitimate daughter and used things more expensive than the legitimate daughter’s. In the servants’ hearts, her status was above the legitimate daughter’s, and he felt that was only natural.
Could Luo Ning give him ten thousand taels of glittering silver?
She could not.
In his good mood, the Marquis of Zhen Nan thought about what to give Bai Ci Rong as a reward for the New Year. Then he remembered the Marchioness mentioning that Luo Ning had a bolt of the capital city’s newest and most precious “Shimmering Jade Brocade,” and an idea came to him.
Just as he was feeling proud of himself, a maidservant rushed in: “Lord Marquis, something has happened.”