Repudiating a Good Wife Is Out of the Question

15. Being Mrs. Xiao (4)

Translator: Sissy That Walk

Auntie Lu soon asked Lvzhu to clean up a room and paid sacrifice to and burned incense Buddha.

“Smallpox is contagious, whoever has contacted Concubine Wu and Third Sister should be self isolate for at least ten days, all of their clothes and blankets should be burned. I guess the silver lining here is once you have smallpox and get cured, you won’t suffer it any more for your whole life. Therefore we need to ask for maids and pages who had smallpox before to wait on Concubine Wu and Third Sister.” said Cao Mo calmly.

Auntie Lu soon asked Lvzhu to inform all the houses about this.

Xiao Yi asked Cao Mo with curiosity, “why are you so knowledgeable about this?”

Cao Mo blinked and avoided Xiao Yi’s stare, “I read.”

Xiao Yi shook his head and said, “now you are lying.”

Cao Mo asked in surprise, “how can you tell?”

“Ha, you look nervous and you are blinking so much.”

“No I’m not.”

“Yes you are.”

“No.”

“Yeah.”

… …

Xiao Li meanwhile was vomiting and soon she fainted in the snow, she was too weak now.

A mammy who had smallpox before was assigned to look after Xiao Li.

Cao Mo told the mammy to wash her hands with vinegar or alcohol before she contacted anyone else thus to stop the spreading of the disease.

The doctor who went to feel the impulse of Concubine Wu now came out and said, “Concubine Wu is too weak now, she will have a miscarriage soon, it’s just a matter of time and Concubine Wu herself now is in severe condition.”

Cao Mo was so frustrated that the doctor couldn’t do a c-section to Concubine Wu, how he missed medical technology back at home.

There came the grievous news that Concubine Wu died right after when Xiao Yugui came back to Rain House.

Cao Mo was devastated by it, he felt helpless! Xiao Li screamed and threw herself at Cao Mo when he was saddened by the news, she bit him on the hand!

Xiao Yi soon asked people to wash Cao Mo’s hand with alcohol, Cao Mo comforted Xiao Yi with a smile, “Don’t worry, I’m a healthy young man I’m sure I will power through this.”

Cao Mo suffered a mild fever after he was bitten, Xiao Yi was worried sick, but Cao Mo still was in the mood of joking, “Give me your hand, I will bite you thus we can power through this together, and we don’t need to worry about getting it for the rest of our lives.”

Xiao Yi however took it seriously, he nodded and gave Cao Mo his hand, “Yeah, as we’ve agreed, thick or thin!”

Cao Mo swore he saw pink bubbles when Xiao Yi said this, he caught hold of his husband’s hand and whispered tenderly, “I have a better idea.”

With that he kissed Xiao Yi deeply and Xiao Yi responded passionately.

The two both ended up having a fever, luckily they didn’t show any other symptoms like vomiting or blebs breaking out, but they were very cautious. Cao Mo asked the pages to burn everything he and Xiao Yi had used thus to make sure no one else in Magnolia House would contract it.

Concubine Wu didn’t die a natural death, Xiao Yugui deemed it as ominous and he ordered the whole mansion to not mention about Concubine Wu and her death! Concubine Wu’s funereal was pathetically simple and crude.

The more Cao Mo thought about this, the more his heart fluttered with fear. Two human lives! He dared not to imagine what would happen to him if Xiao Yi had not asked Auntie Lu to be an observer. That served as a perfect chance for Lady Lu to slander him and Xiao Yi.

Xiao Yugui also found this was not as simple as it looked like. He marched down to Osmanthus House to confront Lady Lu, but before he entered Lady Lu’s room, he had already heard “ouch” “ouch”.

It was Lady Lu who claimed she sprained her ankle when Lvzhu came to report her about Concubine Wu’s situation.

But today she ouched because of her migraine.

Xiao Yugui’ eyebrows furrowed deeply, “It seems like you are always confined to bed whenever there is a mishap. Is this really a coincidence?”

Lady Lu covered her face with a hankerchief and cried, “Please punish me, Your Lordship, I feel sorry for Concubine Wu too, but why don’t you ask me why Concubine Wu, out of everyone, had contracted smallpox?”

“Oh? You know the reason?”

“That is just my guess.” Lady Lu said coyly, she acted like she wished to speak but stopped on a second thought.

Xiao Yugui didn’t have the time and patience, “Just tell me!”

“Concubine Wu visited me the other day when I was organizing the old books in the study, Concubine Wu said she should help out.”

“She has always been very respectful to you.” Xiao Yugui nodded in approval, but he didn’t know what exactly Lady Lu wanted to say.

“But Your Lordship, she had a fever right after she went back to her own house, and she didn’t want to report this to me because she didn’t want to bother anyone. I panicked and I went to arrange a doctor as soon as I heard of it, but I slipped and sprained my ankle just outside the study.” Lady Lu was choked with sobs.

Her maid chimed in, “Someone deliberately spilled water outside the study!”

Xiao Yugui sneered, he didn’t buy it.

“You sprained you ankle, and that caused you a headache?”

Lady Lu panicked, her story didn’t add up so she continued, “I… I actually sprained my ankle and also I had knocked my head on the ground… …”

Xiao Yugui produced an account book from his sleeve and threw it on the ground, “Have a look! I was curious before how could Bailu, a maid, have the means to embezzle as mush as six thousand tales of silver, it turns out it is you, Lady Lu, who is behind the scene! And what, you have spent the money on my Second Brother! You’ve paved the way for his official career with silver and gold!”

Lady Lu narrowed her eyes, she knew this was crucial moment, so she gave way to a storm of wailing, “Your Lordship, you want me to kill myself to prove my innocence?”

“Prove it!” Xiao Yugui gritted his teeth, he was furious his wife was having an affair with his own brother Xiao Yuqi.