The Daily Life Of Mei Furen Doting On Her Husband - Chapter 96

On that day, even the busiest ladies would take a break, go out with their neighbors or good sisters, and visit the stalls set up everywhere. Therefore, Chang’an was particularly lively, and women with smiles on their faces could be seen everywhere, gathered together in groups, laughing and talking sweetly. Walking around the market, one could smell the fragrance of powder.

Wu Zhen and her party were not at all conspicuous among the crowd. They walked from one shop to another, and almost went through the entire city in a thorough manner. The servants who followed them all had their hands full of things, but the group of ladies still felt that they were not satisfied enough.

Mei Zhuyu was originally beside Wu Zhen, but as they walked, he was pushed behind her. The ladies holding delicate hairpins and brocades approached Wu Zhen to ask which one was better. At that moment, they had no one in their eyes, only a pile of beautiful things. Even if their husbands were present, they would be waved away and scolded to stay out of the way.

The festival was a battlefield for women. When Wu Zhen got away to look for Mei Zhuyu, she found that her husband was holding a lot of things and walking at the end of the team. He could not be seen without paying attention. He looked at the excited women around him with awe in his eyes. In such a crowded place, these women were as nimble as fish and squeezed through the crowd. Mei Zhuyu felt that his body skills could not be used, and he was not as good as them.

The group returned to Mei Zhuyu’s house with a great harvest. They immediately ordered people to bring in a long table and a bench, spread mats on the ground, hung curtains around, and hung insect repellent sachets. They also placed the various fruits and snacks they bought on the table and put fresh flowers in a vase. Someone even found the good wine that Wu Zhen had hidden at home and put out the wine chips to play games.

Among the ladies present, only three who seemed gentle sat aside and chatted, while the others were already standing on the tables and stools and shouting. One of them, a lady with a dark complexion and wearing a large-lapel men’s suit, was particularly generous. She had a pot of wine beside her and drank it as if it were water. It was said that this lady had been stationed in the border town with her husband before, and when small groups of foreign enemies invaded the border, she would pick up a knife and kill people.

Among these people, Mei Zhuyu only knew one — the round-faced lady named Madam Fu, who lived in the family where Wu Zhen had taken him to take shelter from the rain and change clothes when it rained.

The ladies had looked at Mei Zhuyu enough and drove him back to the room, saying that he was not allowed to interfere in the secret meeting between women. Mei Zhuyu followed suit and avoided them, giving the place to the ladies. However, his room was very close to where they set up the table, separated by only a wall, and he could hear all kinds of laughter coming from there.

Mei Zhuyu was flipping through a book and occasionally heard Wu Zhen’s voice. He stopped and listened for a while. When Wu Zhen stopped talking, he started reading seriously.

After a while, Mei Zhuyu suddenly felt something hit him. Without even raising his eyes, he reached out and caught a red peach as big as his palm. Mei Zhuyu looked up and saw a smiling lady on the wall.

She was holding a fruit plate in her hand, and when she saw Mei Zhuyu looking up at her, she picked up a peach and threw it over.

“This peach is very sweet, my dear, please try it,” Wu Zhen said with a smile while lying on the wall.

Mei Zhuyu took a bite as instructed, and it was indeed sweet and delicious. At that moment, Wu Zhen screamed and staggered, as if someone was grabbing her and trying to pull her down. Seeing it, Mei Zhuyu leaned forward and subconsciously wanted to stand up to help, but Wu Zhen had already fallen down and was cursing at the wall on the other side.

“You are such a jerk, Wang A’man! You almost ripped my skirt off, just wait, stand there and don’t run!”

There was loud laughter and footsteps. Someone said, “Oh, don’t do this. We agreed to have fun today. Why can’t you leave your husband? You’re climbing over the wall to talk to him. This won’t do!”

“Yes, yes, if Sister Zhen climbs over the wall again, we will pull her down again!”

Wu Zhen cursed a few times, and then she really didn’t climb the wall again. Mei Zhuyu slowly sat back down and ate the two peaches Wu Zhen threw to him.

It was always very noisy on the other side of the wall. It became even noisier after the children who were taking a nap woke up. The older children were just becoming disobedient, and it seemed that the children were quarreling with each other, crying one after another, and there was also the scolding of the women, but it was of no use. A boy was crying and wailing at the top of his lungs, and the more he cried, the more his voice raised, almost breaking people’s eardrums.

But after a while, Mei Zhuyu saw a figure flash on the wall, and Wu Zhen jumped over the wall holding the boy who was still struggling.

Wu Zhen ran to Mei Zhuyu and put the boy, who had stopped crying and was now observing the situation, in front of him. 

“This boy was bullying two little sisters. He is very disobedient, noisy, and annoying. My dear, please watch him.” 

After saying this, she ran away without any awareness that she was causing trouble for her dear.

Without the troublesome child, there was laughter and joy on the other side of the wall. The boy, finding himself abandoned by his mother and aunt, rolled on the ground after a moment of shock, crying and making a scene, determined to make a big fuss.

Mei Zhuyu looked at him coldly and suddenly put down the book in his hand. When it came to naughty children, except for Wu Zhen, he had never encountered a problem he couldn’t solve.

The ladies on the other side of the wall were laughing and talking, but they were all listening to the noise coming from Mei Zhuyu’s side. One lady frowned when she heard the boy crying. She was the boy’s mother. She rolled her eyes at the sympathetic looks around her and whispered in disdain, “He’s so naughty. I’m so angry. I want to give him away.”

Though she said she would give the naughty child away, with worry in her eyes, she asked Wu Zhen softly, “Why don’t I bring him back? Otherwise, he will bother your husband.”

Wu Zhen crossed her legs leisurely, took a sip of wine, and shook her head. “It’s okay, just wait. My husband is the best at teaching children. Don’t worry.”

At that moment, the crying stopped abruptly and never resumed. The ladies looked at each other, and one of them asked, “What’s wrong? Every time that boy cries, he can blow off the roof, and he usually cries for a long time before he stops. Why did he stop crying all of a sudden? Did your husband knock him out?”

After waiting for a long time, there was still no movement. Several heads slowly appeared on the wall, secretly looking to the other side. The ladies were dumbfounded when they saw the naughty child sitting in front of Mei Zhuyu, lying on a small table, holding a brush and writing, sobbing with his shoulders hunched. The jade-white little face was wrinkled, and his big eyes, like black grapes, were watery, looking very pitiful and cute. 

Mei Zhuyu had no intention of being lenient and said coldly, “Sit up straight.”

The little boy hiccupped and tried to straighten himself up.

All the ladies turned their heads to look at Wu Zhen, all showing envious expressions. “Second Lady, you weren’t joking. Mr. Mei really knows how to teach children. How did he do it?”

Wu Zhen smiled and said, “Maybe it’s because my husband works in the Ministry of Justice, and his stern face is too scary.”

Only when all the ladies had their fun and returned did Mei Zhuyu let the little boy go. He rushed to his mother’s side as if he had suffered a great injustice, hugging his mother’s thighs and wanting to cry loudly. But then he remembered something, looked back, and met Mei Zhuyu’s gaze. It was as if he saw the King of Hell. He immediately stopped crying and stayed obediently beside his mother.

The boy was so well-behaved that his mother was secretly amazed and felt secretly happy. She was planning to send him there to stay for a day if he became disobedient again.