FSCGL Chapter 5

Terms used for Chapter 5

小姐 (xiao jie) – young lady.
姨娘 (yi niang) – a term for an officialised concubine.
公子 (gong zi) – an honorific for a noble’s son.
夫人 (fu ren) – the official wife of an official, the matriarch of a family.
老太太 (lao tai tai) – the old matriarch of the family.
妈妈 (ma ma) – an older woman servant.
氏 (shi) – a suffix placed after a married woman’s name.

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It was rather common for noble daughters from rich and influential families to host tea parties, and invite a few of their close friends to their boudoir to recite poetry, paint, exchange their feelings and make friends and connections. Despite its commonality, however, the original owner had never received such invitations.

Ruan san niang had hosted four tea parties prior to this, and because she was only a legitimate daughter from an Earl’s Residence, the fellow sisters that she invited for the most part were noble daughters from the social strata, but the original owner was never invited once out of those four times.

And now that Ruan Xi had become Wen Ting Zhou’s fiancée, there were a lot of noble daughters that wanted to become acquainted with her.

Ruan san niang’s invitation would only be the beginning. Ruan Xi had reason to suspect that she might have more chances to go out and attend tea parties and banquets once her body was fully recuperated.

After Ruan Ning and Ruan Yu Wen departed, Ruan Xi caressed the suet jade hairpin in her hands. If a normal girl had received this precious gift, it was highly likely that delight would arise in their hearts and thereby cause the budding of love to germinate. But Ruan Xi’s heart was calm and tranquil, without the slightest ripple appearing.

“Wen Ting Zhou…”

Ruan Xi laughed softly as she recited his name in a low voice. A smear of interest emerged in her eyes. Truly, she was looking forward to their meeting tomorrow.

……

Like Ruan Xi had anticipated, her dinner for the night consisted of cooked meat dishes with rich and sweet scents, but greasy and cloying all the same.

Su Yu and Su Zhou found it difficult to conceal the indignance on their faces.

“Sure enough, the Furen has evil intentions!”

Owing to her congenital heart disease that Ruan Xi had prior, her staunch will and determination was stronger than most people.

“There is nothing to be angry about. The Furen is conspiring openly, which is a lot better than poisoning the rice and dishes.”

Ruan Xi gave a smile that was pregnant with meaning.

Su Yu and Su Zhu turned pale with fright. “… What, even… even using poison?” Their Young Lady’s personality was a little too optimistic, no?

“Young Lady, the Furen might actually ask someone to poison the rice and dishes?”

Su Zhu scrutinised the dishes like it was pestilence, and her eyes were brimming with fear.

“Young Lady, should we look for a physician to have a look?”

Ruan Xi glanced at them, noting that they looked like birds who would startle at the mere twang of a bowstring. Evidently, they had been badly frightened. Laughing helplessly, she said: “Do not forget that there is still a Lao Taitai in this residence.”

Of course, she could not place her hopes on Lao Taitai alone; Ruan Xi had her own measures.

In the original owner’s memories, she did not have a biological mother to protect her, so when she was around the ages of six or seven, the servants in the Residence realised that the Furen disliked the Fourth Young Lady, and they started to reduce her regulated portion of necessities and meals. Even if Mama Xu became angry over the matter, she was still utterly helpless, because the entire Earl Residence was under the Furen’s control.

But who could have known that after a few days, those bondservants would be sold away, and the Lao Taitai would rebuke the Furen for her lax management and allowing the servants to bully their master?

The original owner had always known that it was not accurate to say that her vegetarian and Buddha-revering zu mu did not care for the affairs.

• 祖母 (pinyin: zu mu) – paternal grandmother.

Since Su Yu and Su Zhu had heard of this incident from Mama Chen, they trusted Lao Taitai.

The Lao Taitai’s benign countenance emerged in Ruan Xi’s mind. The reason why this Lao Taitai was biased towards and doted on Ruan san niang, was because Ruan san niang was the most intelligent out of the four daughters born into the Earl Residence.

Although the original owner had seen through the truth of the Lao Taitai’s favouritism in her attentiveness to detail, she did not have any intention of exposing herself for the sake of pandering and ingratiating  herself to the Lao Taitai.

The original owner’s actions was correct.

Take now for instance: the original owner had been pushed to her last breath by Zhang shi solely because she had landed on a good marriage agreement.

If she hadn’t transmigrated, and the original owner were to die, the Lao Taitai would only chastise Zhang shi rather than give her a stern punishment.

Because with her legitimate eldest son and Ruan san niang around, Zhang shi would still act in a manner that was befitting of an Earl’s furen.

Ruan Xi gave her silent condolences to the original owner once more for her premature death, and hated Zhang shi for her viciousness.

“Young Lady speaks correctly, there is Lao Taitai still.” Su Zhu’s eyes brightened, and she turned optimistic in an instant.

Su Yu settled her heart as well.

Ruan Xi smiled, but her smile was not as naïve-looking as her servants. The loyalty of the original owner’s two maidservants was a confirmed fact but they were incognizant of the measures and tricks employed in the back residence, and Mama Xu was not particularly capable either.

If it were not for the original owner hiding her inadequacies by keeping quiet, thus evading a lot of shameful secrets, how could Limpid Heart Garden be this benign?

• 祥和 (pinyin: xiang he) – also means (of atmosphere or mood) happy and auspicious.

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There was a problem with the dishes tonight, and Ruan Xi managed to determine that it was the vegetable dish with one glance.

After drinking a few mouthfuls of chicken soup calmly, Ruan Xi picked up her chopsticks, her movements slow as she followed the table etiquette taught by the female master from the original owner’s memories to partake in her meal.

The food was greasy, the stir-fried vegetables also used sesame oil, and who could have expected that the only vegetable dish would be drugged with a substantial amount of infertility medicine?

Ruan Xi merely clipped up some of the meat dishes to accompany her rice, and she put down her chopsticks once she was seven parts full.

“Su Yu, get rid of the vegetable dish, don’t let anyone discover it. You can take away the remaining meat dishes; whether you distribute the food among yourselves or choose to give it to the older woman servants is of no consequence, don’t waste the food.”

Su Yu promptly agreed, delighted, and she started to clear the table with Su Zhu.

Meanwhile, Ruan Xi sat on her short couch, holding a cup of green tea as she sank into deep contemplation.

She had assumed that her foreknowledge of the plot upon transmigration was her golden finger, but she just became aware that it was not the case. Her golden finger was very practical. Since there were no “additional ingredients” in her lunch, she had not realised it then, but there was an issue with her dinner tonight, which was why her golden finger showed itself.

She was automatically aware of the substantial amount of infertility medicine added to the vegetable dish.

A bold conjecture emerged in Ruan Xi’s heart: was it possible that her golden finger would remind her every time something harmful to her body appeared?

This conjecture remained unverified.

However, she felt assured by the fact that she did not have to fear any tampering done to her food.

Ruan Xi was not afraid of the shenanigans implemented in her diet, but she feared she could not guard against the harmful schemes in the back residence in an ancient era.

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In the middle of xu shi, the coarse older woman servants carried in the hot water for Ruan Xi to take a pleasant hot bath, and then she went to bed early.

• 戌时 (pinyin: xu shi) – is a double-hour that represents 7PM to 9PM. Since it is in the middle of xu shi, it is 8PM at night.

On the other hand, the furen of Earl Chengyi, Zhang shi, tossed and turned, unable to find sleep. While it was a good thing that her oldest son could borrow the opportunity to claim connections to Wen gongzi – who had a higher social status – in his academy, the very thought that he was benefitting from his association to a concubine-born daughter made Zhang shi feel like air was being lodged in her heart, and it was only circulating and multiplying her anger ceaselessly.

This had only worsened after she heard Ning’er say that Wen gongzi had relied on her oldest son to send that yatou Ruan Xi a suet jade hairpin of superb quality, and that he was personally coming to their residence to visit her tomorrow…

• 丫头 (pinyin: ya tou) – a deprecating (but can be an endearing) way to say ‘girl’, and it also a term used for slave girls and maids.

Zhang shi was enraged to the point where her anger toppled over and the hate she felt towards the Earl for arranging such an upsetting marriage for Ning’er surged up again. Her Ning’er, the dignified legitimate daughter of Earl Residence, had her marriage matters trampled by an illegitimate daughter, and against all reason, this awkward scene was also brought about by her single-handedly. When Zhang shi thought about the mocking gaze that Lin yiniang gave her this afternoon, she secretly ordered her servant to put a substantial amount of infertility medicine inside si niang’s dishes.

This time around, she accomplished the sabotage with extreme discretion, and she managed to conceal it past the Lao Taitai’s people.

The ranks of people who could not sleep that night included the two concubines who had daughters.

On the contrary, Ruan san niang managed to sleep early like Ruan Xi, since she wanted to meet her fellow sisters with the best attitude.

Ruan san niang remembered that she had a close friend who was a cousin to the future Empress Dowager, and they had been on friendly terms ever since their times in the boudoir.

Who could have expected that the small concubine of a prince would become the Empress Dowager who was set above the masses?

When her spirit had been pacing around the imperial palace because it did not scatter after her death, she heard that the Empress Dowager would frequently invite that fellow sister of hers into the palace.

Even though that fellow sister had entered a dissatisfying marriage, the latter half of her life had been spent in a contented and blissful manner because of her familial associations.

Ruan san niang secretly celebrated the fact that she had been reborn back to the original point of her initial transmigration, and that she had yet to become enemies with the original body owner of that fellow sister.

It would be great if she could borrow her close friend to become acquainted with the future Empress Dowager before she entered the Prince’s residence.

Ruan san niang continued to have her beautiful dreams.

It was not that she never thought of using her rebirth, the knowledge she had gained prior to her transmigration, and her healing abilities to match herself to that Prince and become his woman.

However, when Ruan san niang thought about how her fourth sister would be marrying Qi Yue An again once she broke off the engagement and be pampered by Qi Yue An for the rest of her life, while she had to fight with other women endlessly for favour, she felt unreconciled in her heart.

Qi Yue An had belonged to her from the start. Thus, Ruan san niang gave up on being that Prince’s woman and decided to be on friendly terms with the future Empress Dowager instead.

Fortunately, Ruan Xi was unaware of the fact that Ruan san niang had decided to hug the female protagonist’s big thighs, or she would have expressed her stupefaction. 

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Translator’s Note:

In hindsight, I’m really not surprised that Ruan Ning has a personality similar to that of Zhang shi – something about ‘the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, yes? – where they absolutely can’t stand seeing someone else have a better life than them. Somehow, it never occurs to them that they could attempt to improve their own lives instead of constantly pushing others down…