Tiger Owl

Chapter 60 The Prospective Mistress
The next day, at the crack of dawn, Da Qiao woke Gan Ning up, saying, "General, it's time to get up!"

"Hmm! What time is it now?"

It's 1:45 AM!

It was 6:30 a.m. when Gan Ning sat up. Da Qiao quickly put his shoes and socks on him and was about to fetch the chamber pot when Gan Ning waved his hand and said, "Don't worry about that, I can do it myself. Go and call two maids to fetch hot water."

Da Qiao spent the whole night lost in thought, but she finally understood. The general felt sorry for her and didn't want to share a room with her, but since she was already his woman, she couldn't keep avoiding certain things. She could just adapt to it gradually.

She stood stubbornly to the side without moving. Gan Ning glanced at her and saw that although her face was flushed with embarrassment, her gaze was very firm.

He sighed inwardly, thinking to himself, "Women in the Three Kingdoms period were truly different!"

He had no choice but to get up to relieve himself. Da Qiao took a wet towel and silently followed him, standing to the side.

Gan Ning laughed and said, "Why don't you turn your back? If you keep looking like that, I won't be able to pee!"

Da Qiao could only blush and turn her back, while Gan Ning finally urinated freely and quickly put it away.

Da Qiao turned around, holding a damp towel, and paused for a moment. "General, shouldn't you wipe it clean?"

"No need for now, we'll talk about it later!"

Gan Ning was extremely embarrassed and hurriedly turned around and left.

Whether it was Gan Ning in his previous life or Gan Ning in this era, he was a country bumpkin who never knew that the lifestyle of the wealthy was so extravagant and elaborate.

Gan Ning's two maids, Chunshui and Qiulu, lived in a side room next to the courtyard. Logically, the room where Da Qiao lived should have been their room, but Gan Ning didn't want them to serve him. He originally wanted to send them to the front courtyard, but the two knelt and begged for a long time before Gan Ning finally let them stay.

The maid had already brought hot water, and Gan Ning washed up before sitting down to let Da Qiao comb his hair.

A question weighed heavily on Gan Ning's mind, and he finally couldn't help but ask, "Da Qiao, how did you know to wipe it clean?"

Da Qiao blushed and immediately understood. She gently pinched him and whispered in his ear with a smile, "Don't think nonsense. Mother taught me this yesterday. I've never seen that ugly thing before."

"Oh I see."

Gan Ning felt relieved, then paused and asked with a smile, "What else did your mother teach you?"

Da Qiao tapped his head with her comb. "You bad boy, I'm not telling you."

Tell me about it!

"Alright! My mother wants me to take good care of you. It's cold outside, so I need to warm your bed tonight."

“This is possible!”

Da Qiao rolled her eyes at him. "I've thought about it. I'll prepare a hot water bottle for you. It'll warm your bed tonight."

"This works too!"

Gan Ning chuckled twice. "What else?"

"There are other things I can't do right now. I'll wait until I get used to them. Anyway, she said those things are so embarrassing, I... I don't want to do them."

"Okay! Let's take it slow."

At this moment, Chunshui curtsied at the door and said, "Master, Madam, breakfast is ready."

Da Qiao was startled and was about to speak when Gan Ning took her hand and said to Chun Shui, "Have the steward call everyone here."

"Yes!" Chunshui hurried off.

Da Qiao said anxiously, "General, I am not the lady!"

"Why not? In the future, you will be Lady Qiao, your sister will be Lady Qiao, and if there are other women, they can be called Lady Zhang, Lady Wang, Lady Xu, or something similar."

During the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, due to the chaos of war, the gap between wives and concubines was not significant. Generally, a mother's status was determined by her son. For example, Cao Cao's principal wife was Lady Ding, but Cao Cao valued his concubine Lady Bian even more.

Liu Bei was the same; he valued his concubine, Lady Gan, more because she had given birth to Liu Shan. So, who was his wife and who was his concubine was not important; what mattered was his son. Whoever gave birth to a son had a higher status.

Moreover, it was quite normal to marry twice during this period. Most of Cao Cao's women were second-marriage women, including Consort Xu, Sun Quan's wife, who was also a widow. It wasn't until the later period of Cao Wei, after the establishment of the Nine-Rank System, that the distinction between wives and concubines, legitimate and illegitimate children, and scholars and commoners gradually became an insurmountable chasm.

Of course, a wife is a rank higher than a concubine, and her status is equivalent to that of a secondary wife, only slightly inferior to that of the principal wife. This is why Da Qiao was shocked. Even if she were a concubine, she could only be called Qiao Shi.

After giving birth to a son, a woman's status rises with her son's, and she may receive an official title from the court, thus being called a lady. Otherwise, only the principal wife can be called a lady.

But Gan Ning didn't care about all that; he called all his wives and concubines "Madam".

"But... I'm not ready yet!" Da Qiao said anxiously.

“I know, but these people are very snobbish. If they find out that you are not my woman yet, they will look down on you, they will be disobedient, and they might even bully you. So I have to make them understand the rules. Even if you are just a substitute mistress now, you are still the mistress.”

Touched, Da Qiao hugged Gan Ning's waist and nestled in his arms, tilting her head back and whispering, "Give me some time, and I will slowly become your true woman!"

Soon, the steward and all the servants gathered in the courtyard. Gan Ning pulled Da Qiao to the courtyard, pointed at Da Qiao and said to everyone, "This is my wife. You can call her Madam Qiao. From today onwards, she will be in charge of all matters in the mansion."

Everyone bowed in unison, "Greetings, Madam Qiao!"

Da Qiao blushed slightly, but she still mustered up her courage and said to everyone, "As long as everyone follows the family rules and doesn't make mistakes, you will gradually find that I am easy to get along with."

Gan Ning went to the government office, but Xiao Qiao sneaked over to see her sister.

Xiao Qiao asked excitedly, "Sister, are you the Prefect's wife now?"

"Who are you listening to talking nonsense behind my back!"

"Everyone in the manor is talking about it! Didn't General Gan announce in public this morning that he would call you Madam Qiao from now on?"

"I wasn't prepared for this at all."

Xiao Qiao smiled suggestively and asked, "Did you two do 'that' last night?"

"No, General Gan and I share a room but not a bed. I sleep in the next room. He said he would wait until I'm a little older before we talk about it."

"How can that be done!"

Xiao Qiao pointed out incisively, "What if he has a child with another woman? What would you be if that woman brought the child into the manor?"

Da Qiao was stunned. She had never thought of this before. Would General Gan have a woman outside?

Xiao Qiao stared at her older sister for a long time, and seeing her blank expression, she sighed and said, "Oh! I knew it. No wonder everyone calls you Qiao the blockhead. You're so clueless. Luckily, I asked."

"Little sister, you're still young. Don't worry about these things too much. You don't understand."

“I may be younger than you, but I’ve always been more knowledgeable than you. I know very well that you are Lady Qiao and I am Lady Xiao. We sisters must be of one mind! Sister, you have to tell me the truth, does he look down on you?”

Da Qiao knew her younger sister was a clever and shrewd girl, and she sighed, "General Gan didn't look down on me. He just said that I'm not fully grown yet and can't have sex, which would be harmful to me. We won't be able to sleep together for another two years."

"I've never heard of a man complaining about a small size. Don't those men just like small sizes?"

Da Qiao asked in surprise, "Who told you that?"

“In Wan County, the men would gather in Meiting all day to talk about these kinds of things. I overheard them from behind the wall. The women were the same; they would talk about sex all the time.”

Da Qiao was stunned. "How come I didn't know?"

"You're just a blockhead! All you do is write and draw all day, you don't care about this kind of thing."

After a long pause, Da Qiao said, "General Gan is truly different from ordinary people."

Xiao Qiao chuckled, "You'll only know how it's different after you try it."

Da Qiao's pretty face darkened. "A Yu, don't do anything rash."

Xiao Qiao winked mischievously, "Don't worry! I know what I'm doing, I won't let my future husband dislike me."

(End of this chapter)