Repudiating a Good Wife Is Out of the Question

33. Scheming Cao Le

Translator: Sissy That Walk

“How dare you to be shrewish and make a scene?” Xiao Yugui fumed, Lady Lu scratched Xiao Yugui on the face mercilessly, leaving a long red wound.

Xiao Yugui slapped Lady Lu on the face, “What a shrew! How dare you!”

Xiao Yugui covered his face in a hurry, this was such a scandal, his own wife scratched him on the face, how could he bear the thought of ‘good deeds always stay indoors, while scandals travel a thousand miles’.

Lady Lu was in shock, she couldn’t believe her husband had slapped her on the face in front of so many people.

“You… have you slapped me?” asked Lady Lu with disbelief.

Xiao Yugui tried to collect himself, but the fury was plain on his face, “That’s just the beginning, if you dare to meddle in Jin’s marriage any more, I’m afraid I’ll have to ask Mr and Mrs. Lu to pick you up, for I cannot have a wife who disobeys her own husband. Servants, take Lady Lu back to her house, and lock Qiushuang up till further instruction!”

Xiao Yugui touched his face and looked at Xiao Yi, “You too, what are you doing there still kneeling down? Rise and talk to me.”

Xiao Yi picked himself up from the ground with some effort.

Xiao Yugui showed a faint smile and asked, “Tell me son, why are you protecting your wife like this?”

“Please wait here, father, let me show you something that Mo has made.” with that Xiao Yi asked Moqi to pick up the stuff from the bedroom while he led Xiao Yugui to the study.

Moqi walked in holding the stuff in the chest while Xiao Yi was pouring Xiao Yugui some hot tea.

“What are you holding in your arms, Moqi?” asked Xiao Yugui curiously.

Xiao Yi smiled, “This is one of Mo’s little invention. Lady Lu punished him to transcribe The Classic of Filial Piety for a hundred times, Mo came up with this excellent idea to do the job. It’s not quite finished yet, but please allow me to show you how this works.”

Xiao Yi put the template on the table and put the characters in the template, then he applied a layer of ink on the template, with that he covered the template with a piece of paper, the next second he covered the paper with a lid.

And the next second, a minor miracle happened. It was The Classic of Filial Piety on the paper with some scratchy handwriting.

Xiao Yugui looked at the paper and sneered, “that’s some lousy handwriting.”

Xiao Yi chuckled, “This is Mo’s handwriting, but you know what I’m trying to show you, father? We can always write some nice characters and carve them.”

Xiao Yugui found what Xiao Yi suggested quite fascinating, “Isn’t this the art of printing?”

Xiao Yi nodded and said, “Father, this is all Mo’s doing, he struggled so much transcribing it, so he came up with this idea. The tricky part is the ink, but Mo had worked it out. Father, I know His Majesty will be happy if you present this to him.”

Xiao Yugui nodded repeatedly in approval and thought, ‘this is a good opportunity to seek reward from His Majesty.’

Xiao Yugui tried so hard to suppress the laughter and continued his lecture, “I see, I will spare Mo’s punishment this time. Just one more thing, tell him to stay out of trouble, this is going to be the last time that I’m so lenient.”

“Father, how about the pedigree?” Xiao Yi made the best of the moment and asked this question while Xiao Yugui was in a good mood.

“Don’t worry about it, I will put his name on when we hold the sacrificial activity on New Year’s Eve. Tell him to behave himself, otherwise I won’t protect him any more.” said Xiao Yugui gnashed his teeth.

… …

In Lotus House where Liu Heng and Xiao Yuzhen resided, Cao Le was kept there temporarily, he rolled over and woke up.

Cao Le was so thirsty, he looked around only to see a young page dozing off by the other side of his bed, it was Mohua, one of Liu Heng’s pages.

“Go pour me some water, you rascal! I will give you a good beating if you keep slacking off!” shouted Cao Le.

Mohua had been waiting on Cao Le for the whole night and he just dozed off due to tiredness, he sprang up from the bedside when he heard Cao Le, “Please forgive me, Childe Cao, it won’t happen again!”

Mohua poured some tea from the pot on the table and served him, Cao Le poured the tea on Mohua’s face and cursed Mohua, “What a useless slacker! I asked you for tea and you slighted over me by pouring me cold water! You think there’s nothing I can do to you because you are not my servant, let me tell you you are wrong!”

Cao Le threw the tea cup on the ground.

A shattering sound came as the cup was smashed into pieces.

It was deafening at night.

Soon other pages knocked on the door and checked whether everything was all right.

Mohua trembled in fear, he was the youngest page that had been serving Liu Heng, Liu Heng and other pages had been nice to him and barely would anyone ask him to serve.

Liu Heng asked Mohua to serve Cao Le because he was the youngest, and Liu Heng was worried Cao Le might do something horrible if he sent the maturer pages to serve him.

Mohua knew all Liu Heng’s tea cups came in a set, now Cao Le threw one on the ground, surely the whole set was ruined.

The other pages saw Mohua trembling with fear, they took him away to see Liu Heng.

Liu Heng and Xiao Yuzhen listened to Mohua carefully, Xiao Yuzhen mumbled in frustration, “What a twat! Poor Mohua, it’s okay, it’s not your fault, don’t fear. If that twat really marries into our family, I’m afraid we won’t have one moment of peace. Heng, I’ll tell mother tomorrow and let her take the twat away, this is none of our business in the first place!”

Liu Heng frowned, “Cao Le and Cao Mo are brothers, but why are they so different in every possible way? This baffles me!”

Xiao Yuzhen narrowed his eyes when he heard how much Liu Heng appreciated Cao Mo, “Yeah yeah yeah, Cao Mo is great and Cao Le is a twat. But heng, now that we are up, let’s finish what we were doing a couple of hours ago… …”

Liu Heng couldn’t believe his husband just threw himself at him right in front of Mohua, he looked at Mohua and told him it was okay to withdraw the room now.

Poor Mohua wiped his tears and didn’t know what to do, he dared not to go back to serve Cao Le.

Cao Le tossed and turned in bed, no one came back for him.

Cao Le picked up a piece of porcelain on the ground and cut his own wrist, it bled profusely.

Cao Le cried for help.

Mohua hurried back, “Now you are back, I’m so interested to see how your masters will do about this!”