Kapitel 5: Discovery of a treasure
Having a hearty late night dinner, the next time Chou Lian woke up the sun had already been shining bright for hours now, but no one had come to wake her up, or to bring over her any breakfast. In three days time it was the main wife's( the concubine who rose up after Shi Lian's mother died) birthday for which her daughter and son-in-law, along with the other two concubines's daughters and their husband were visiting today.
The current main wife was called Duan Tong Yen, and her father, Duan Tong Feng, is the shifu of the prime minister. Duan Tong Feng is a senior teacher at the famous Wenxue De Academy, which is like the national university in modern times, where every scholar of the nation dreams of entering to study; but very rare talents could enter and those with strong family backgrounds. It was when the prime minister was studying under Duan Tong Feng that he met his daughter and fell in love despite having a marriage contract with Shi Lian's mother. Dong Tong Feng knowing that the prime minister was ambitious and talented did not stop his daughter from having an affair with him. Soon after marrying Shi Lian's mother, who came from a well known merchant family, the next day he married the Dong Tong Yen letting the whole capital know how he detested the marriage with a merchant's daughter as he was a scholar and above those low class people.
Dong Tong Yen has two daughters and a son, the son 'Shen Bing Chen' is the eldest of the three and is the heir of the prime minister and the apple of his eyes. The son was engaged to the rites minister's youngest legitimate daughter. While the daughter Shen Shi Bing was two years younger than Shi Lian, and at the age of 16 got married to the assistant Revenue minister's son as a legitimate wife.The second daughter Shen Rou Meng was a year younger than Shen Shi Bing and as soon as she also turned 16 got married to a sixth ranking official in court who was an apprentice under the prime minister. They could get such good marriages owing to the fact that Dong Tong Yen became the main wife thus, they became the legitimate children just like Shi Lian.
Prime minister also had two other concubines who each had a daughter who were at the same age as Shen Rou Meng, and consecutively got married to well known merchant's sons in capital as legitimate wives. In this nation being the main wife was a symbol of status and pride for the females and all the official families tried to makes their daughters official wife to maintain good social face.
Chou Lian yawned and then stretched her arms to become fully awake. Near her courtyard there was a well which Chou Lian used to draw water in a bucket then took it in to fill the wooden tub, she then took a bath and felt refreshed wearing clean clothes. It wasn't strange that she had to do things like this all by herself. Shi Lian and her mother truly was treated as a servant in this house which made Chou Lian sigh in regret for her. It wasn't like her life was any better. Honestly, it was worse. She had to bear the responsibility of the nation since she learned to walk, and yet it was the nation who pushed her to the deaths's door. Well, not necessarily the nation's innocent people but the greedy for power influentials to be precise.
Chou Lian shook of this gloomy thoughts and she looked curiously through the room to find anything that could catch her eyes to get rid of her boredom. Abruptly, the wooden door was again kicked by the same old woman who splashed water to wake her up. Chou Lian sighed and thought, "Didn't anyone teach her how to enter a room properly?"
"You slut! How dare you make the prime minister, the madam, the young masters and ladies wait for you?! Follow me quickly! Really a good for nothing!", the servant spat before turning to leave and signaling Chou Lian to follow her.
Chou Lian shook her head and hurried behind. It was her first time seeing the mansion in broad day light, and even though her face portrayed no emotion, her eyes kept darting around taking in the surrounding. The mansion has several courtyards with gardens on each side that held blooming flowers as it was spring time. The courtyards were designed more complexly and were more grand than Shi Lian's. The servants were hurrying as today the young ones of the family came for celebration of the Duan Tong Yen's birthday.
Upon entering the dining hall even before she looked she could feel heated gazes on her. She ignored all those states and looked straight where the prime minister was sitting arrogantly on the main wooden seat which was higher than the others in the room to show off his authority, and in the second higher seat Duan Tong Yen was sitting with her chin held high as if looking down on the whole world, and her eyes looked as if she was disgusted by Chou Lian's presence. While daughters and their husband sat in either side surrounding them, along with the concubines.
Chou Lian following Shi Lian's memories saluted, "A-die, A-niang, Shi Lian came under your grace."
"Hmph! Did your mother fail to teach you proper etiquettes?! How dare you keep making your elders and youngest wait for you?! Do you keep your head in the clouds and keep no one in your eyes?!", the prime minister wrongly accused her looking really displeased with Chou Lian, or mainly with Shi Lian.
Hearing all these nonsense it made Chou Lian frowned as she screamed in her mind, "When did I made you guys wait? F*ck off! No one came to call me! Don't you think I know what you guys are playing off!"
Chou Lian kept her composure and then calmly retorted, "A-Die is right. This is truly the daughter's fault for not having proper etiquette. I should not have kept you respected elders and loving juniors waiting. This sure would not have happened if the daughter reprimanded her servants more sternly so that they would not forget to call me when you guys asked for me. I will keep A-Die's teachings in mind and make sure this never happens again."
Everyone present looked at Chou Lian complicatedly as they never expected the always silent fool to suddenly speak up for herself and to push all the blames on the servants so cleverly.
Duan Tong Yen's eyes sharply fixed at Chou Lian as she spoke icily, "So you think I did not assign proper servants to you? Are you blaming me now?"
Before Chou Lian could respond to that the prime minister hit the table with the back of his hand before shouting, "You dare blame your mother for your negligence! You unfilial daughter! On such a special occasion you had to ruin it, right? Go and kneel in the ancestral hall, and don't get up till I tell you to do so!"
"As A-Die says.", Chou Lian kept her face neutral as she saluted and turned around to leave.
Kneeling for the whole day on empty stomach Chou Lian felt so weak. Chou Lian angrily thought, "If you guys wanted to celebrate on your own then you could have do so! Why did I have to go through such nonsense? Aghh! If I knew earlier I should have added something in your food last night to teach you guys some lesson!"
As she felt so stimulated and her body ached badly from kneeling for so long on a washboard at that. It was pure torture. To be honest, if it was her original body it would not have been a problem, but Shi Lian's body was weak from the fact it lacked enough nutrients, and that when she drowned no body fetched a doctor for her, and no one took care of her which led to her eventual death. Even though she circulated her 'qi' to her knees the body being still so weak it was not easy to suppress the pain.
As she kept listening to the hustle and bustle outside which she felt was so noisy, and the mouthwatering smell of food was flowing with the wind was tormenting her. As she kept being stimulated suddenly she felt her world spinning and as if she was floating. A curtain of darkness fell on her vision for a moment before the whole surrounding lighted up brilliantly, and what she saw before her made her speechless. Her phoenix eyes widened and mouth were wide opened as she found her standing in a field of blossoming sunflowers. They were bright and swaying with the gentle breeze. The breeze was also caressing her making her feel so refreshed.
Chou Lian turned in circle to find herself in a place that felt so magical. It was large open ground where flowers were blooming at one side, while their seemed vegetables to be growing on the other. A sparkling clear water river was passing by one side. While the sky was the color of the lightest blue with hues of pink and purple making it seem so ethereal. At the core of the place Chou Lian could see a glass house. She took deep breaths, and slapped her once with her martial power to make her believe she wasn't dreaming, which she wasn't, and it hurt like hell.
"Did I again transmigrate to a new place?", Chou Lian thought as she took light steps towards the house.
As she walked to the entrance of the house she found something written on the glass door, in what seemed like gold, "Welcome our precious younger generation of 'Du' family who entered the 'space' built specially for the 'chosen' members of our clan. We hope to pass on the blessings of our elders to our beloved 'chosen' younger ones. Live a good life."
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein