Kapitel 5: Hubby Is Twenty-One. Oopsie!

Tang Yu had a basic grasp of her current society. Its beliefs were a far cry from the modern world to say the least. Being a county magistrate's daughter or a renowned merchant's daughter-in-law would indisputably put a kibosh on her hobbies.

Additionally, the pretty guy, whom the host laid her eyes on, was a debauched! A pure blooded playboy whose only hobby and aim in life was to taste new kinds of flesh everyday and blow steam off himself. So lame.

Effeminate philanderer wasn't her cup of tea, nor did she have any weird fetish to put such a 'free-spirited' creature on leash by constant observation and domestic quarrels! Nah, he was free to give others all herpes he wanted.

Tang Yanrang blanched visibly; a small portion of a muscle around his shoulders tensed up from anxiety. "Yu'er, are you still angry at me? You literally went to commit suicide for a divorce not long ago... now you don't want it?"

Tang Yu tucked a wavy hair strand behind her ear. "Father, I'm not angry at you. My fury for you is akin to water on a duck's back."

The answer couldn't get Tang Yangran to swim in relief. "Then why? You were complaining about them cohabitating with horses and cows. What about your fear of chipping away at their way of life?"

A short stretch of silence, a full minute, brooded over the room. Tang Yu's mouth hung open for a split second. Apparently, brewing explanation was a little hard, owing to the grand episode on annulment, the host carried out just yesterday.

Horses were her darlings. She amused herself with them on a daily basis, even if it meant squeezing out five minutes from a tightly packed schedule. However, nobles here would wrinkle their noses at the sight of stables. It held no appeal to them. In fact, it would be a big deal, if their egos didn't get wounded from having to pass by it.

The host didn't derail from the norms at all, when she expressed her disgust. Her life would be a laughing stock, had Mu Yunsheng not been a top scholar. Then again, the magistrate wouldn't get his daughter married off to the Mu family otherwise.

Unfurling the topic of divorce, Tang Yu started weighing up the pros and cons. Dissolving a marriage was anything but a stigma. Girls' lives, especially those of noble families, were viewed through the lens of perfectionism.

Divorce would eat through all the potentials, talents and good deeds a woman might possess. Society would wrap blindfold around their eyes, and place the clunky tag of 'disgrace' upon the divorcee.

Tang Yu settled her gaze on the weeping willow, her thoughts running fast. All the gazes had been set on her, yet, she isolated her attention.

This divorce would be a huge red flag to her passion, and career. Starting a clothing line in this era would be totally unfeasible, should she proceed with the annulment. She wasn't a fool to initiate a movement against this false stigma right after her transmigration.

Nonetheless, it didn't mean she was going to conform to this particular belief, if circumstances turned its back to her. A change on this false stigma had to be brought forth sooner or later. They say, a word from a powerful person is equal to thousands from commoners. Becoming powerful was compulsory.

"Yu'er?" Tang Yangran lightly shook her hands, his patience wearing off.

Tang Yu's gaze snapped at her father, being pulled out of her thoughts. "Father, I realized my mistake. Experiencing a life and death situation opened my eyes. I really want to give this marriage a chance, and change myself for the better."

She had to, for she wasn't someone who would wear bad habits with pride. That being said, the original owner was a factory of bad habits.

A smile was quick to work its way across Tang Yangran's lips, before spilling, and spreading twinkle in his eyes. "Good, very good! In the near future, you will fully understand your father's decision. I only have your best interests at heart."

"I believe in you." The words slid out of Tang Yu's mouth rather easily.

Feng Xuan's shrewd gaze roved over Tang Yu's face, regarding her carefully. She wrestled with her restlessness, for she knew something was amiss, yet failed to pinpoint it.

The pair of twins crossed their hands across their flat chests and raised their dark eyebrows; disbelief was coursing through them.

….

As Tang Yu soldiered on with her demand, the maidservants had to drop buckets in the dug well, and hauled water by pulling the thick ropes. They humped the buckets, jostling around the water inside, to the bathroom, and filled the round wooden tub.

Zhu Taotao pulled the screen down.

Tang Yu peeled off most of her clothes, apart from a corset and panty girdle, and discarded them in the wash basket. She climbed the makeshift steps, ready to wade in the cold water.

"Young Miss, not yet." Zhu Taotao placed her fists on her hips, firing off a warning. "I told the kitchen to boil two pots of water. We will mix it with the cold water here," she tapped her index on the edge of the tub.

Tang Yu puckered her plump lips in a pout. She really preferred cold bath to hot one, as the latter strips skin of its natural oils like a devil.

"You will catch a cold, worse yet, flu." Zhu Wan hung two towels on the wooden bar installed in the wall, along with a hanfu couture.

"Alright, it's warm water then." Tang Yu gave in.

The Zhu sisters wanted her to abide by Physician Xu's advice, and not to bathe in another two days. However, in her defense, she couldn't go a single day without shower. Bathing wasn't a choice, it was a necessity.

Two plump maidservants from the kitchen came and poured out the steaming hot water into the bathtub. Smokes emitting out of the surface hazed the previous transparency.

Tang Yu submerged two-third in, her shoulders peeking out. She rested her head on the edge, soaking in the warmth. Her thoughts drifted off.

Every era possessed its own set of principles and customs with a chain of reasonings.

If she were to launch bikinis for sunbathing in ancient China, and attempt normalizing couples spooning in the beaches, people would freak out! They would lay a long series of blames on her for pushing their moral compasses off and subject her to the harshest of punishments.

Tang Yu sighed. Then, her eyes lit up with another mischievous idea.

What if she tried to get western culture to bleed into this era, and introduce the chic lifestyle of virgin girls shacking up with handsome fellas?!

The bigwigs of the society wouldn't drown her in the pigcase, right? Yup! They would rather tear out her heart, and chew on it to extinguish their rage!

Tang Yu shuddered.

Jokes apart, she would do no such thing! Who was she to denude this 'prim and proper' era of its pride, the traditional lifestyle?!

"Young Miss," Zhu Taotao lifted her head off the edge.

Tang Yu straightened her spine on the cue. Zhu Taotao upended a pail of fermented rice water over her head, and shook the lengths of her hair to drench them thoroughly.

'What is this smell?' Tang Yu scrunched up her nose at the smell, and saw a white-ish liquid dripping off the end of her strands. Wasn't it left over from boiling rice?

Damn!

Memories answered her. This was the remedy women in this era used for cleansing and beautifying their hair. She didn't mind, as long as it treated her hair like an angel. Farewell to the plethora of commercial shampoos formulated to enhance her exact hair type.

Zhu Taotao's fingers from right hand kept wiggling on her scalp. She scooped up a tiny puddle of rice water using her left hand, and commenced to massage gently down to the roots of hair.

Zhu Wan pulled her legs out from the water, placed them atop the edge. Taking a bar soap, she applied it to a washcloth, until it became sudsy then started to scrub her.

They threw each other furtive glances --- a silent communication that didn't escape Tang Yu's eyes. She, however, feigned ignorance.

"Ah…Young Miss," Zhu Wan seemed to have plucked up courage. She kept gently lathering up her smooth legs. "Your departure is dated to this afternoon. Scholar Mu will come to fetch you to his home. Have you decided anything? You already flaked on him the day before yesterday."

Tang Yu opened her eyes, searching through her memories. This husband of hers was ten. This piece of work was personally pampered by god, for he got a smart brain and sexy brawn as well.

A positive start.

Yup, she had a type, and she wasn't ashamed to admit that at all. To top it off, this book worm husband was also a virgin.

Well, she was no prude but a lethal patient of Cypridophobia.

But, she wouldn't throw any garland around this husband's neck, nor throw herself at him. No; she, an old spinster, who was on the threshold of crossing the calendar age, was above that.

Hubby was twenty-one. Oopsie!