Fortunate Life of the Rural Beauty
Chapter 545 - 536: Transparency

Chapter 545: Chapter 536: Transparency

The old Marquis Chu Guangche moved out of Anrong Hall when he was fifteen and moved into Jin Court in the outer court. Then, he began to renovate Anrong Hall. The first, second and third houses didn’t need renovation, only the furniture in the main room of the third house needed to be changed. The key was that the fourth and fifth houses needed to be renovated.

In the future, Chu Lingxuan and Chen Afu would live in the third house, their two young brothers would live in the fourth house, and Chu Hanyan and Yu’er would live in the fifth house.

Chu Hanyan, as a grown girl, should have her own courtyard, but she clearly didn’t want to. Chen Afu also wanted to keep her around to learn more about the world, so she let her be until she turned twelve and then live separately.

There is no north room in the fourth house, only the east and west rooms. Yu lived in the east room and Ming lived in the west room.

Chu Hanyan and Yu’er both lived in the back rooms of the fifth house, the middle hall was shared by both. The east room was Chu Hanyan’s bedroom, and the east side room was her living and study room. The west room was Yu’er’s bedroom, and the west side room was her living room.

A few lilac trees were planted in the courtyard of the second house, so it was called Lilac Hall, specifically for entertaining guests, or for dining when there were important matters at home.

Anrong Hall alone was so big, let alone the whole Yong’an Marquis Manor. When the three families moved out, such a large house had only one family left, which was too spacious. Even if the old Marquis and old master occasionally returned to the mansion to live, they would not take up much room.

In this life and the last one, Chen Afu was worried about her house being too big for the first time. When she thought of He Royal Mansion, which was even larger, and that Shiyi was living there alone, Chen Afu felt even more distressed.

She told Chu Lingxuan her thoughts, and he laughed and said, "Then we’ll just have to have more children. When the children grow up and marry, they’ll have more grandchildren, and the house will become bigger. As for Prince He, our daughter clearly inherits your luck with plentiful offspring, and she will surely give us many grandsons to liven up He Royal Mansion."

Thinking of Prince He and Chu Hanyan followed by a string of children, Chen Afu couldn’t help but laugh, albeit somewhat unkindly.

Chu Lingxuan continued, "After my father and grandfather have settled the family affairs, they will go to the countryside to stay. The main purpose of my father is to persuade my mother to return to secular life. Alas, my mother has been in the temple for so many years, her temperament has changed, and she holds a lot of grudges against my father, so he may not get his wish. After I’m done being busy, let’s go and persuade mother together..."

Chen Afu nodded, she also wanted Liao Chen to return to secular life, to give the old Marquis a complete home. In a sense, they were both unfortunate. One experienced loneliness for half her life, the other endured silently, if they could let go of their grievances and comfort each other in their later years, it would be a happy ending. However, this wonderful wish may not be easy to achieve. Or perhaps, it would take a great deal of effort to realize.

She thought about it and concluded that her own mother, Mrs. Wang, was the most clear-hearted. Although she deeply loved Chen Shiying, she was able to put down the feelings that shouldn’t exist anymore and live a good life with Chen Ming. Mrs. Jiang was also clear-hearted, she loved Chen Shiying so much that she even lost her own self and dignity. But she handled her relationship with Chen Afu and Mrs. Wang very cleverly, which moved Chen Shiying and made him cherish her more.

These two women, they both had their misfortunes, but through their efforts and planning, they made their lives increasingly better. Especially Mrs. Wang, who had a life full of hardship in the first half, but gritted her teeth and raised her sick husband, a foolish daughter, a weak son and a grandson, making their lives better and better.

As for Liao Chen, even though she had left home, she had always been cared for by her maternal family and her son. No matter how difficult her situation was, it wouldn’t be worse than Mrs. Wang’s. Character determines fate, perhaps Liao Chen had lived a too comfortable life before or she demanded too much from relationships. Her actions brought not only pain to her family, but also to herself...

On the evening of the eighteenth, Chu Lingqi suddenly came to the marquis’ mansion. It turns out that when Liao Chen learned that the Second Prince’s party was completely defeated, she insisted on moving back to Yingxue Nunnery and Manager Luo and some servant also moved back to Tang Garden.

He was terribly embarrassed and said, "...I and Manager Luo were afraid that the aunt would have any thoughts, we dared not mention the victory of the rebellion in front of her, and also forbade servants to speak of it. But the day before yesterday, when the servants were secretly discussing the matter, my aunt heard it, she...I’m sorry, I let my uncle and older brother down."

Now there was no fear of the remnant of the Second Prince party or Rong Zhao harming her, but her firmness has brought heaviness to the relaxed mood of the old Marquis and Chu Lingxuan.

The old Marquis’s previous idea was that he and his father would go to Dingzhou together, persuade Mrs. Luo to return to a secular life, and then live together in Tang Garden or Fu Garden in the countryside. The scenery there was picturesque, not too far or too close to the Capital City, which both fulfilled the previous promise of retiring to the countryside and allowed them to pay attention to the movement in the capital and provide strategy for their brothers and sons...

Now that Mrs. Luo had moved to Yingxue Nunnery, he had to first move to Fu Garden and take his time.

Chu Lingxuan said, "Thank you, second brother. My father and I know that you have done your best. You are the closest to my mother, so I hope you can take care of my mother in the future."

Then, he had food and wine prepared and asked Chu Lingqi to stay in the mansion for a drink.

On the morning of April 20th, Prince He did send someone to invite the Chu family to have a meal at the Royal Mansion. He also invited Grand Princess Rong Jing and the Prince Li Xuan, the Crown Prince of Rui. Grand Princess Rong Jing was the former Princess Li Cheng.

Chen Afu was too busy with the renovation of Anrong Hall and the planning and arrangement of the yards left vacant after the two families moved out. Although these didn’t require her to do the work herself, she needed to make decisions and occasionally check on things. The third madam was busy with the west wing of the Marquis Manor and didn’t have time to go either. Chu Lingxuan and several men were even busier, Chu Lingwei and Chen Alu who were on leave had to go out to meet friends, so only Chu Lingzhi led Chu Hanyan and her two younger siblings to go. Yu’er was too young, Chen Afu didn’t feel at ease letting her go, so she had someone take her outside to play.

Yu’er, despite her young age, was quite cunning. When she heard from a young servant girl that her sisters, brothers, and uncle were all going to visit He Royal Mansion and she was the only one that didn’t go, she protested. She asked the servant girl to bring her to Chen Afu, who was in Rong’an Hall at the time, and burst into tears, saying, "I want to visit, Yu’er wants to visit."

Despite Chen Afu soothing her with gentle words, Yu’er continued to cry, her little face swollen and red. This child was spoiled by her grandfather and was usually stronger and more fierce than her siblings, who all treated her gently. Chen Afu had long wanted to correct her temperament, so she firmly said, "No, Yu’er will stay at home with mother."

When Yu’er saw that her mother wouldn’t relent even after she had cried so much, she ran behind a big tree to sulk. Chen Afu didn’t pay her any attention and continued to discuss the arrangement of the rooms with the servants.

After a while, there was suddenly a cry of alarm from the servant girl who looked after her, "Where is the second young miss, I looked away for a moment and now she’s gone."

The servant girls were all scared, they looked everywhere in Anrong Hall but couldn’t find Yu’er.

Chen Afu also became nervous, the child couldn’t be lost in this mansion, but she was afraid that she might accidentally fall into the lake or a well.

The servant girls and old women quickly went to find people, mainly looking around the lake and where wells were located.