Chapter 19 – She was itching to…

Her hair was in disarray, her forehead was bruised and her face sported two bright red handprints. The Second Madam stared in shock and disbelief, “You-You, what kind of sorcery is this?!”

Ning Xuemo slowly took out a handkerchief and wiped her hand. After she wiped her hand, she threw it at the other’s face , smiling happily while replying with one word, “Guess.”

Second Aunt was silent. Her face was inflamed and two of her teeth had been knocked out. Her mouth was full of bloody foam. Upon hearing Ning Xuemo’s words, her complexion turned livid as she hatefully glared at Ning Xuemo.

Ning Xuemo sat cross-legged on the gold ingot chest, crooking her finger, “Do you still want to teach me a lesson?”

Her hands really itched!

Although her small body was weak, her limbs were still considered flexible, that added to her excellent close combat skills, and what she excelled in was “borrowing strength to counter”. Not to mention this vulgar Second Aunt, even if a lion came over she could still send it flying!

Second Madam ate such a big loss that, naturally, she was unwilling to admit defeat. She felt that when she was sent flying previously was due to luck as she had felt something trip her up.

It must have been that she tripped herself. It couldn’t have been this damned girl who suppressed her.

She once again pounced over like an evil wolf.

After the time it took to brew a cup of tea, the Second Madam had experience all manner of falls and suffered countless bruises. Finally the flames of her anger had extinguish and she was now sprawled out on the ground, bursting into tears, “Aiyo, you want to beat me to death! My own niece wants to beat her aunt to death!”

Her shrill voice sounded like the howling of a wolf, clearly portraying her shrewish character. That shrill voice echoed out of the hall.

This time Ning Xuemo had a real smile on her face.

This shrew made her think of that character created by the Chinese writer, Lu Xun[1], a great beauty who could hide the moon and shame flowers, was acerbic and, if she couldn’t have any small gains, she would look like she suffered losses[2]. Although her Second Madam was thin as bamboo, she possessed a lung capacity and a high-pitched tone that would surprise people!

Ning Xuemo knew that this body’s relatives were on their way to the Marquis’ House, and would seek ‘justice’ for this Second Madam who was still howling. Then she would be able to cleanly end this! It would save her from future troubles.

So she merely sat on top of the chest filled with gold, gesturing at Old Zhong, “Tea.”

Second Madam thought that Ning Xuemo was finally afraid and raised her voice, howling even louder, “Even if you want to offer tea as an apology right now, I won’t accept it! You commit such outrageous acts and now you’re feeling guilty and want to write off what you did with a cup of tea?”

Ning Xuemo took the tea that Old Zhong passed to her, and while using the lid to push aside the froth on the surface, she gave her aunt a smile, “Who wants to give you tea? Are you worthy? You can howl louder, if your howl is good enough to make me happy, I will reward you.”

The Second Madam was so angry that she trembled and couldn’t say a word. Howling now won’t do, but not howling also won’t do.

Thinking on it a bit, it was better to keep bawling!

She once again began bawling her eyes out.

Ning Xuemo simply act as if she was deaf and leisurely drank tea. Sometimes, she even asked, “Bawling for so long, aren’t you thirsty? Do you want a cup of tea?”

At first, Second Madam kept a strong front and refused to drink.

Afterwards she cried till her voice turned hoarse, when Ning Xuemo asked again, she subconsciously accepted it. Unexpectedly Ning Xuemo upended the hot cup of tea on her face.

The Second Madam was in a sorry state, the hot tea pouring on her face felt like scalding oil. She yelped while leaping up from the ground.

[1] Lu Xun or Lu Hsun is an important figure who contributed a lot to modern Chinese literature. He was someone who had live and was marked by many events that had changed his country throughout the years, from the Xinhai Revolution which ended the Qing Dynasty and started the founding of the Republic of China, the Mao era, the Shanghai Massacre in 1927 to the many events contributing to tension between China and Japan, but he died the year before the full blown Second Sino-Japan War. Thus, his literature work was marked with satire and irony with characters that were extremely flaws, portraying the turmoils and changes of the society during that period of time. For more details on his biography, here are the short version and the long version.

[2] The character Xuemo was mentioning is called Yang Ersao (杨二嫂) which could be loosely translate as Yang Family second older sister-in-law. That character appeared in the short story “Hometown” which was part of a book named “Call to Arms”. Yang Ersao was the embodiment of an extremely beautiful woman, but also a pitiful person who lived a harsh life in the Capital because she had to fend for herself alone which, in turn, caused her personality to be acerbic and was always greedily searching for small gains. It reminds me of Oscar Wilde’s book “The picture of Dorian Gray“; outside beautiful, inside shit.