The Daily Life Of Mei Furen Doting On Her Husband - Chapter 91

Mei Zhuyu’s alcohol tolerance was getting better. Seeing that he had finally tasted the flavor, Wu Zhen liked to take the opportunity to share with him all kinds of her favorite good wines.

After a few words, the hall below became lively, with people coming in one after another, and someone shouted loudly, “Is the Fifth Brother here? And where is Wu Zhen?! Why haven’t they come yet?”

Wu Zhen glanced out the window, swung her sleeves, and said to Mei Zhuyu, “Take your time eating. I’m going downstairs.”

After Wu Zhen left, Mei Zhuyu did not eat either. He listened to the sound of Wu Zhen going down the stairs, then sat down by the window and looked below. He saw Wu Zhen walking into the flower hall.

There were already five or six men sitting in the hall. When Wu Zhen entered, three more men came in. They all seemed to have known each other for a long time. After greeting each other, they sat down at the table casually. There were sumptuous dishes and wine on the table, and there were three empty seats.

The group had no intention of waiting for everyone to arrive before starting the banquet. Someone simply started pouring wine and drank a glass.

The oldest of these men looked to be in his thirties, and the youngest was about twenty-four or twenty-five. Most of them had handsome looks and good temperaments. There were weak scholars, wealthy young men, and tall and strong brave men. They all seemed to be of good family background.

Despite their handsome appearances, none of the men showed the slightest joy in attending a friend’s party. Though they were happy to meet friends at first, as everyone gathered together, sighs and depression slowly appeared on their faces.

The man who had been drinking earlier finally said, “Brothers, I am really suffering!”

He sighed, took another sip of wine, and propped up his head. “My woman did something that humiliated me a few days ago. Now my colleagues are laughing at me. Sigh! If I had known this would happen, I would never have married that woman!”

A frail young man sitting next to him patted him on the shoulder and said, “Brother, I know your difficulties. You and I are both wanderers in this world!” He sighed and wiped his red eyes with his sleeve, looking very sad, like a man trying hard to hold back his tears.

“Ah Tao and Wen Zhong, please don’t be like this. Arguing with the woman at home is just a small matter. Why lose your composure like this?” A tall, thin man said in a loud voice, “I was sent to Guang’an by that Shangguan some time ago. I suffered a lot, but I didn’t suffer like you.”

Another gentleman, with a generous and older appearance, came over, poured him a glass of wine, and whispered, “Don’t say that, Dou Qi. They have been wronged recently.”

“Alas, my father scolded me for no reason yesterday. It’s okay that he doesn’t like me at home, but he doesn’t even give me a face in the court.”

“Think about it, you and your father are both employed in the same place, so it’s better to be scolded by your father than by other superiors.”

“You don’t know, his tone was really hateful. He treats me like this only because he is partial to my eldest brother!”

“Your elder brother is not bad except for his incompetence. Look at my younger brother—he is truly restless and always causing trouble. Unfortunately, my mother and grandmother protect him. Last time he caused trouble, he insisted that I settle it for him, which caused me trouble for no reason.”

A group of men didn’t know how it started, but they began complaining to each other. One talked about his relationship problems with his wife and their daily quarrels. Another talked about his parents’ favoritism and his brother’s troubles. Someone else mentioned dissatisfaction with his work and a streak of bad luck, while another shared the unhappy marriage of his sister and the death of his beloved girl, and so on.

This group of young men, all of good status and appearance, didn’t even take a bite of the food on the table. They just drank, exchanging grievances and sighs, and eventually, they drank a toast to each other.

Wu Zhen, a woman, didn’t feel awkward at all. In fact, she found it all quite natural. However, unlike the men, she didn’t have the same complaints or sighs. She raised her eyebrows and listened to them. When a man pulled her aside to complain, she listened, then either gave him advice or ridiculed him. If the other party grew annoyed, she poured a large glass of wine and said, “Drink!”

The man, full of grievances, would then drink the wine in one gulp and continue complaining with a red face.

While they were comforting, sighing, and sometimes scolding each other, two more handsome and majestic men arrived. As soon as they did, they quickly joined in the ocean of complaints. One of them even picked up Wu Zhen and started crying—a nine-foot-tall man who wiped his tears and talked about the fights between his wife and concubine. He had been bullied from both sides for the past two days and had a hard time.

Wu Zhen, casually and with a gloating look, said, “You could marry another one. That way, at most, two of the three will quarrel, and you can go to the remaining one, so you won’t be left with nowhere to rest.”

Though Wu Zhen was joking, the young man thought for a moment and clapped his hands, praising her, “You’re right! Such a good idea, it’s worth a try!”

The last young man arrived late, and the wine had already been served before he finally showed up. He sat in the empty seat next to Wu Zhen, who promptly put her arm around his shoulder and slapped his fat belly hard. The young man, holding his belly, smiled bitterly, “Ah, no, no, no.”

Wu Zhen didn’t care, her eyes showing disdain. She bluntly said, “Second Brother, you used to be a handsome man. How did you become like this after being sent to Qing’an for two years?”

The man she called her second brother smiled bitterly, shook his head, and sighed, “I’m old now. I can’t compare with the young ones.”

“Yes, Zhen, the brothers are no longer as good as they were when they were young,” said another man in his thirties, patting his slightly protruding belly with a wry smile.

Wu Zhen curled her lips, pointed at their bellies, and said angrily, “That’s outrageous. If you have time, go horse racing and run around Nanshan Mountain. You definitely won’t get such big bellies.”

“Oh, no, no, no. I can’t take it. I’m already tired enough from work every day. I don’t have the energy,” said the earlier man, waving his hands repeatedly.

From that point, everyone talked about how a lack of energy led to disharmony and marital discord, sighing in unison. Wu Zhen joined in with their sighs, and no one found it odd.

After three rounds of drinking, some of the men were already crying at their desks, chanting poems like “Mud on the wall does not help” and “Talented people are abandoned by wise masters”.

Mei Zhuyu looked down at the group of gentlemen, who had previously been well-dressed and elegant but had now lost all semblance of dignity, howling like ghosts.

Several of the gentlemen looked very familiar to Mei Zhuyu. If he wasn’t mistaken, the one crying and shouting about divorcing his wife was the son of the Minister of Justice; the one cursing his superiors was the Vice Minister of War, who had recently fought with the Minister of War in the street, causing quite a stir. Mei Zhuyu had heard his colleagues discussing the daring Vice Minister just a few days ago.