Fortunate Life of the Rural Beauty
Chapter 384 - 383: Fear of Ghost Coming to the Door

Chapter 384: Chapter 383: Fear of Ghost Coming to the Door

The maids put down the chair Mrs. Chen was sitting on. Holding her walking stick in her hand, Mrs. Chen thumped it on the ground, her voice booming with authority, "You unfilial brat! Since your return to your ancestral home, you have never once bowed before me. Whenever you return to your maternal home, you never visit me in the Wanshou Hall. I hear that you came specially to celebrate my birthday today. Why didn’t you go to the Wanshou Hall but came here instead?" Her voice rang out like a church bell.

Chen Afu replied, "Granny Chen, even if you hadn’t come here, I would have gone to Wanshou Hall to see you. One was to bring you presents to celebrate your birthday, the other was to relay a message for someone." While saying that, he asked the maids to bring the gifts before her, he added, "These liquors were purchased in the Capital City, the brocade is a tribute from Princess Huachang. I didn’t dare to use it, so I brought it to you."

Seeing these gifts, Granny Chen’s face turned from pale to a shade of red, "Bloody brat, this is your idea of a birthday gift for me?"

"Of course, it’s worth hundreds of silver, it’s a generous gift." Chen Afu said, "If Granny Chen doesn’t like it, it can be given to my father and my sisters, they will surely like it."

Granny Chen’s eyes boring holes into Chen Afu, she slowly said, word by word, "Today you must bow before me. I’ve waited a while for that gowtow. You must gowtow today, whether you want to or not! Everyone is watching. If you come to celebrate and don’t bow to me, that’s an act of great disobedience."

Chen Afu said very succinctly, "Fine, I will bow to you once I finish relaying the message." Raising her voice, she said, "Granny Chen, last night I dreamt of my grandfather, he was so thin and pale. He cried, saying that he should have been cured by the happiness of my return to my ancestral home, he wasn’t supposed to die so early. It was because someone had offended the Bodhisattva that he died early. He also asked me to relay a message to you, reminding you to build up some karma in your actions and words. It was not easy for my father to reach his current position, don’t ruin his reputation completely. My grandfather also mentioned that he misses you, and will be visiting Wanshou Hall in the next few days. If you see a small white figure floating in mid-air at night, don’t be scared, that is..."

Before Chen Afu could finish her words, Granny Chen let out a loud cry, "Ghost, Ghost, Ghost, don’t come find me..." She screamed so loudly that it seemed as if the roof might be blown off, and she fell to the ground. The maids quickly helped her up onto her chair, but she still kept shouting, tears streaming down her face.

Granny Chen’s outburst caused utter chaos in the room.

Qingfeng and Mrs. Li quickly ushered Chen Afu to the farthest corner of the room, positioning themselves in front of her. Chen Yuqing and her sisters also retreated far from Granny Chen in fear.

Mrs. Song took the frightened Ms. Chu to another room. The young girl was hiccupping as she cried, continuously chanting, "I’m scared, I’m scared..."

Hearing her voice, Chen Afu was heartbroken. She regretted bringing Ms. Chu along once the drama with Granny Chen unfolded.

Mrs. Jiang and several servants remembered how Granny Chen said she had seen a ghost last year. Could it be true that the late Mr. Chen was wrongly killed and that the ghost Granny Chen had seen was actually her late husband coming to find her?

Mrs. Jiang was scared white. She quickly ordered the servants to go and fetch a doctor from the medical hall and to carry Granny Chen back to the Wanshou Hall for rest.

Granny Chen screamed, "I won’t go back to Wanshou Hall, I won’t go back to Wanshou Hall...Why did that old thing come back after he died..."

Chen Afu sarcastically said, "Granny Chen, the innocent are not afraid of ghosts. If you are so scared, could it be true that my grandfather was wrongly killed? Oh my, guilty people are always afraid of ghosts."

Ignoring Chen Afu’s sarcasm, Granny Chen seemed to have lost her mind, screaming at the top of her voice, "You’re already dead, what more do you want? You were always sick before, there’s no wonder you died early. Go and reincarnate, stop bothering me. Go, go, go..."

It was unclear whether she wanted to quickly leave, or if she was telling the ghost to leave quickly.

Mrs. Jiang noticed Granny Chen’s incessant fuss and feared the negative influence it would have, and had no choice but to bravely ordered Chen Yuhui and a few maids to forcefully take Granny Chen to another courtyard to rest. She tried to reassure Granny Chen by saying, "Granny, don’t be scared. Tomorrow, your daughter-in-law will go to the temple to offer incense for grandfather."

Chen Yuhui had no desire to deal with Granny Chen, but considering she was genuinely kind to her, she didn’t want her to be scared to death so she courageously followed along.

Chen Afu couldn’t stay here anymore. Holding the still-weeping Ms. Chu and her pregnant belly, she bid her goodbyes and left. Chen Yuqing and Chen Yuxia escorted her to the entrance of the mansion.

Chen Afu noticed their faces were pale and they looked scared. She reflected on the superstitions of ancient times, and was sure this incident would be deeply ingrained in their minds.

She said to them, "I had this dream last night, and it was hard for me to decide whether to tell Granny Chen or not. If I didn’t tell her, I’d be disrespecting my grandfather. But if I did, I feared I’d scare Granny Chen. Seeing Granny Chen as reliably strong today, I decided to tell her. But... it appears Granny may be truly... Ai, my poor grandfather looked so pitiful in my dream, as thin as a piece of paper, and cried terribly..."

As Chen Afu spoke in a convoluted manner, the faces of the two young maids and servants who were following behind turned even paler, and Chen Yuxia started to shiver.

Chen Afu touched her circumspect head and said, "Fourth Sister, don’t be scared. Grandfather is good. He knows who’s good and who’s bad. He won’t come to find Fourth Sister."

Chen Yuxia regained her bearing and finally said, "Mm, I have never done anything bad."

Chen Afu got into the sedan chair with Chu Hanyan, reassuring the little girl, and started laughing heartily with her mouth covered by a handkerchief. If she had known earlier that scaring Granny Chen with a ghost would work, she should have taken this approach a long time ago.

By the time they returned to the Senator’s Mansion, it was already midday, so they went straight to the dining hall in the main court for lunch.

The old Marquis, along with Dabao, Alu, and Li Xuan, had already begun eating.

Dabao was puzzled, "Didn’t mother and sister say that they were going to have lunch at grandfather’s place? Why did they come back?"

Ms. Chu pat her chest, still scared from the events that had unfolded, and said, "Grandfather’s house is haunted, we got scared and came back."

Chen Afu chuckled, thinking that the girl was smart and could do a lot of the speaking for her.

Dabao and Alu were taken aback upon hearing this, and they both looked at Chen Afu with wide eyes.

The old Marquis laughed, "Yan’er should not tell such stories."

Chu Hanyan ran to her grandfather’s side, tugged on his sleeve, and seriously said, "Great-grandfather, sister is not telling stories. There was an old lady who was crying and making a scene about seeing a ghost. She was really scary and she even made me cry."

Chen Afu smiled at her grandfather, "That is Mrs. Chen from the Chen family. I told her that I had a dream about my grandfather, then she started crying out and saying something about seeing a ghost..."

The old Marquis knew about Mrs. Chen’s actions and responded, "She had done too many evil deeds, thus she is worried about ghosts finding her."

Chen Afu nodded in agreement, smiling.

Dabao quickly said, "From now on, mother and sister shouldn’t go to grandfather’s house anymore, that place is not clean. I don’t want you two to get scared."