Ask the Nine Ministers

Chapter 12 Peace is Safety
Everyone in the room exchanged glances, some covered their mouths and laughed, while others were waiting to see the show.

Mrs. Fu laughed and said, "How could your sixth sister, who grew up in such a filthy place, know how to do needlework? You should not embarrass her."

Xue Yueying said, "When the sixth sister gets married, she will also have to embroider her wedding dress. What should we do now?"

Fu snorted with a sarcastic look on her face and clinked her teacup with a crisp sound.

A concubine is not as good as a wife. She can be sent away with two feet of red silk and a sedan chair. Why would she need a wedding dress?
This is a joke to Xue Liu.

Girls in the room, you look at me and I look at you.

Xue Sui smiled slightly, as if he couldn't understand other people's expressions, "If the fourth lady is not afraid of having a nightmare after covering herself with the wedding quilt I embroidered, then send someone to bring it to Lixiangyuan later."

Xue Yueying didn't expect her to really agree, "Can you do needlework?"

Xue Sui just smiled and said nothing.

She is more than just good at needlework.

All three masters have extraordinary abilities. She has mastered all the ten arts of Jiulingzhao.

But perhaps because she felt guilty, no one except Xue Ji asked her about her experiences in the past ten years since she came back.

Xue Yueying found it incredible. "Embroidering a happy quilt is not just patching up tattered clothes. Sixth sister, don't try to be stubborn..."

Xue Sui said, "I think there is no difference between embroidering mandarin ducks and embroidering skulls. What's the difficulty?"

Embroidered skulls? Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.

The room became eerily quiet.

Xue Yuechen gave Xue Yueying a lukewarm look.

"You are the only one who is nosy. There are so many fruits on the table, can't you stop talking?"

Xue Yueying bowed and apologized quickly, "Big sister, please forgive me. I didn't control my mouth. Sixth sister, don't take it to heart..."

Xue Sui smiled slightly: "Fourth Miss, it is more important to take care of your belly than to control your mouth. If you can't wear your wedding dress when the wedding date comes, and you are pregnant, it will be a disgrace to the Xue family."

Xue Yueying's eyes went dark.

Xue Liu was so vicious that he exposed her past in public.

Seeing that everyone in the room was looking at her, Xue Yueying's face turned green with anger.

"You are talking nonsense! Sixth sister, you were hanging out with those filthy people in the Old Mausoleum Swamp, and I haven't even said that you are unclean, but you come to insult my innocence?"

Xue Sui: "I am living in the old mausoleum, and I still know the rules of propriety and honor. The fourth girl was raised in the Shangshu Mansion, and she didn't know that she had sex out of wedlock and got pregnant. Is this adultery?"

Xue Yueying was so ashamed, "You, you... you are so sweet and rude, you are tarnishing my reputation..."

Xue Sui calmly took off an antique old wooden bracelet from his wrist.

"This is a sacred artifact from the Old Mausoleum Marsh, called the Lingxi Bracelet. When a pregnant woman touches it, it will emit a humming sound. Miss Four, are you willing to give it a try?"

Xue Yueying: "Who doesn't know that the old mausoleum is full of ghost tricks?"

Xue Sui smiled, put the ordinary bracelet back on, and looked at Xue Yuechen indifferently.

"The fourth young lady is weak in heart and has a strong fire in her body. Be careful not to disturb the fetus. Princess, why don't you call the palace doctor to take the fourth young lady's pulse?"

Xue Yueying: "No! Big sister, don't listen to her. She wanted to marry Gu Lang but failed, so she framed me..."

Xue Sui smiled and looked at her belly: "How can I do this?"

Xue Yueying was embarrassed and angry, her face flushed, but she couldn't speak.

Everyone understood immediately.

No matter how much Xue Liu wanted to harm her, he would never let her get pregnant. She kept refusing, which meant she was really pregnant.

Fourth Miss Xue has always presented herself as pure and innocent, always displaying her ladylike manners, and from time to time she would quote some female virtues and teachings to admonish her younger sister. However, who would have thought that she had already crossed the line with Gu Wulang and was secretly pregnant?

There were many girls in the room, and they were all too embarrassed to say a word.

Mrs. Cui was annoyed when she saw that Mrs. Fu didn't ask any questions, obviously she knew about it a long time ago.

"Shut up! How can you allow a girl's reputation to be slandered? It's disgraceful for sisters to quarrel with each other and spread it out!"

The sky is big and the earth is big, but it is not as big as the face of the Xue family.

It doesn’t matter what Old Lady Cui thinks of Fourth Miss Xue, but protecting her means protecting the reputation of the Xue family.

"Stop making noise!"

She turned it over without leaving a trace and waved to Xue Sui with a smile.

"Sixth sister, come and sit next to your eldest sister and get close to her."

After standing for so long, she was finally asked to sit down.

Xue Sui responded with a smile, walked past Xue Yueying and sat next to Xue Yuechen.

There were several thread-bound scrolls on the wooden table, which Xue Yuechen had brought back for several young masters in the mansion. Xue Sui glanced at them unconsciously, and Xue Yuechen noticed it.

She asked, "Sixth sister, can you read?"

Xue Sui said, "I know a few of them."

Xue Yuechen smiled and said, "That's just right. I was just telling my mother that you should have a proper name now that you are old. Come and take a look. Do you have any names you like?"

Xue Sui: "Thank you, Princess. I have a name."

As he spoke, he dipped his fingertips in the tea and wrote a word.

"Sui..."

Xue Yuechen frowned slightly, then smiled gently.

"What a good name. Sui means peace. Those who are close to Sui will be safe."

It was exactly what she wanted, protecting her from disaster and ensuring her safety.

Xue Sui saw through her thoughts and said, "My name is Ping An."

Xue Yuechen smiled brightly and generously, took out a contract in full view of everyone and spread it flat on the table.

"Come and take a look. Do you recognize it?"

The deed read: "To purchase a prosperous shop at No. 8, West Third Street, Pingkangfang, for 1,500 strings of cash, both money and goods paid."

Xue Sui lowered his eyes, "I know the amount of money. This is the sales contract."

Xue Yuechen smiled and pushed the contract in front of her.

"This is a small gift from my elder sister. Just treat it as a subsidy for your dowry."

Fu was shocked and couldn't suppress the anger in her eyes.

A dancer's daughter became Prince Duan's concubine, which was already a great honor for her. What was wrong with her? She even got a dowry subsidy. Mrs. Fu was very angry and suspected that her eldest daughter had lost her mind.

The girls in the room also looked unhappy.

The gifts that the elder sister gave them were all things suitable for girls.

Rouge, powder, silks and satins are indeed expensive, but how can they be as valuable as a prosperous shop?

The sisters were dissatisfied.

The ninth girl pouted and complained.

"Big sister is partial..."

Xue Yuechen smiled and scolded her, "When you get married, I won't treat you badly either."

Fu's face became uglier and uglier.

Seeing this, Old Lady Cui turned the beads in her hand a little faster, "We are all sisters, don't be jealous. You can't write two Xue characters with one stroke, you should be more friendly and harmonious."

"Yes." All the sisters said in unison, "We all listen to our ancestors."

Third Madam Qian watched for a long time and her lips almost shrank.

She couldn't stand the first wife, and she acted like a whore and pretended to be a virtuous woman. She clearly treated the concubine's daughter badly, but she insisted on pretending to be very kind and virtuous.

"Old lady, the Xue family has been a family of scholars for generations. Even if it is a concubine's daughter, it is unreasonable for her to be a concubine. Sending the sixth girl to the Prince Duan's Mansion is not a good idea..."

The atmosphere was broken by the third lady's words.

Fu's face looked ugly, and Xue Yuechen was also embarrassed.

Old Mrs. Cui almost choked up, "You are the troublemaker!"

The old man of the Xue family has three sons.

With the help of his father, Xue Qingzhi was promoted to the position of Minister of Justice and had a firm foothold in the court.

Xue Qinglian was born out of wedlock. He entered the officialdom through the imperial examination and became a fifth-rank official of the Zuosi. He was then exiled to Jiangzhou with his two sons and their families.

The third son, Xue Qingxiu, is the most unsuccessful. He has no hope of taking the imperial examinations, is incapable of being recommended, and has done nothing till now. Every day he can hear the shouting of the third wife, Qian, from the courtyard of the third room.

But this dissolute and prodigal son is from the same mother as Xue Qingzhi.

Old Mrs. Cui felt sorry for her youngest son, and no matter how much she disliked him, she could do nothing about it.

Qian's temperament was similar to Xue Qingxiu's. She never cared about the seriousness of her words. She would hit the eldest wife wherever she was unhappy and never gave her face.

"Madam, my daughter-in-law is also thinking about the reputation of the Xue family. Those who know this will praise the eldest sister-in-law for her kindness and for choosing a rich and prosperous place for the concubine. Those who don't know will think that the eldest sister-in-law can't tolerate the concubine and deliberately humiliates her."

The old lady coughed lightly, glared at Qian, and asked Xue Sui in a friendly manner.

"Prince Duan has a good character and is deeply loved by His Majesty. If Sixth Sister goes to the palace, she will be a good concubine. Will it be unfair to you?"

(End of this chapter)