Volume 2: Eagle vs. Dragon Chapter 41: House Arrest
When the boat approached the Huacha, the fifth brother Ye Haojia deliberately came over and kindly helped Ye Youyu introduce Shenxianzhou. He vividly described the prosperous scene of the four most beautiful courtesans in Shenxianzhou in the past. The focus was of course on Tan Sanniang, and he described Wu Chengjian's favor for Tan Sanniang over and over again, adding fuel to the fire.
Dongxue couldn't listen any longer and said anxiously, "Fifth Young Master, the Third Young Lady is about to get married. Are you talking about these things... interesting?"
Ye Haojia cursed, "Get lost! I'm talking to my sister, why are you, a servant, butting in ?"
Ye Youyu quickly grabbed Dongxue and told her to stop talking. He turned around and the boat rocked, and he couldn't help but dry heave.
Ye Haojia said with a smile: "Third sister, you look like you are pregnant. Haha, the Wu family will be so happy to see this."
This joke is vulgar and vicious - Ye Youyu has morning sickness before she even gets married, how can such a joke be made?
Dongxue was both angry and helpless, and was shaking with anger.
Soon the boat approached the Hua Cha.
It was the first time that the women of the Ye family saw such a boat, and they all exclaimed in amazement.
The Huacha was originally a warship, but now it has been transformed into a water garden. The moving fleet is all small boats, but the Huacha is a huge ship, so when passing nearby, everyone has to look up, and see the huge ship with a deck like a city wall, full of flowers and plants, some withered in winter, but some plum blossoms are still blooming, and many large lights are hung, which are naturally not lit during the day, but these large lights have glass covers, reflecting the sunlight, which is very beautiful. Looking up, it is like a city hanging on the sea, a garden hanging in the air, magnificent, gorgeous and beautiful.
Ye Haoye arranged this route and asked Ye Haojia to come here. He originally wanted to use this to anger Ye Youyu, but when he saw the Huachahao, Ye Haojia couldn't help but envy him. He also heard that there were not only flowers, but also fine wine and even beauties on the Huachahao... He was a half-grown boy, and when he thought of this, he couldn't help but feel hot all over.
Ye Youyu saw it in his eyes, wiped the corner of his mouth, and smiled softly, saying, "Fifth brother, when sister gets married, I will ask your brother-in-law to take you up there to play when he has time, okay?"
Ye Haojia was only fourteen years old, just at the age of playing. After hearing this, he couldn't help but blurt out: "Okay, of course." Suddenly he remembered what he came here for, and felt ashamed. His face turned red, and he looked at the other boat nearby and jumped over .
Ye Youyu ignored him and looked up at the Huacha. Even if she didn't know or care about how good Wu Chengjian was to Tan Sanniang before, Ye Haocai had been nagging her about it for the past few days. And today, looking at this huge ship and thinking about how Wu Chengjian spent a fortune on Tan Sanniang, she suddenly thought, "She must be his sweetheart. I am the one he married and kept in his house... Maybe he had this plan in mind, but I just happened to bring up that deal, so he went with the flow..."
When Ye Youyu looked up at the Hua Cha, Dan Sanniang was also looking down from the Hua Cha. Shenxianzhou was well-informed and someone had already passed the news to Bihe, so Dan Sanniang knew that these ships were the ones for the Ye family to move, and one of them was carrying the bride who was about to marry Wu Chengjian.
For some reason, she couldn't help but come out and stand on the deck to look down. Bihe said, "I heard that this is the Ye family's ship, but I don't know which one is..." She suddenly felt that what she said was inappropriate, so she cut off her words and said, "So what? Hao Guan's heart is still with you ."
Tan Sanniang couldn't help thinking, "Even if his heart is still with me, what does it matter? After all, I am not the one who can understand his feelings and accompany him for the rest of his life."
Suddenly, a sour and bitter taste came up. She used to think that she could ignore it, but when she saw the Ye family’s small fleet, the sour and bitter taste came up involuntarily.
Tan Sanniang was thinking this on the flower messenger ship, but Ye Youyu was listening to Dong Xue saying, "No matter how favored she is right now, she is still a prostitute after all. From ancient times to the present, we have only heard of prodigal sons returning home, but never heard of a prostitute being favored for a lifetime."
Ye Youyu was thinking, "Who knows what will happen in the future? Although I have a reputation, he is sincere to the man on the boat. I can't get his sincerity for even a moment."
One of them is in a higher position, while the other is in a lower position. Although one of them has always been open-minded and the other is more thoughtful and rational, they are both girls after all. When faced with the important event of marriage, they are both unstable and hurt.
Tan Sanniang felt that the wind on the sea was suddenly too cold to bear, so she turned around and went back to the cabin.
The beeswax gourd in Ye Youyu's arms suddenly touched the injured part. Although it was just a light touch, she felt pain suddenly and burst into tears, which even scared Xu Dongxue.
The boat soon reached Ye's home. Some people were moving things, some were going ashore. Ye Youyu was arranged to live in an elegant little courtyard called Chenglu Garden. Xu half-pretended to be sick, and when she got ashore, she almost fell down. She said to Ma, "The day after tomorrow is the big day. Please don't let me pass on my illness to Youyu. Madam, please arrange another place for me to live."
Ma frowned, but still agreed.
Ye Youyu moved into Chenglu Garden by herself. The houses in the garden were brand new and the yard was spacious. There was a fish pond on the left and a flower garden on the right. The scenery was certainly nice, but the location was remote, far away from the main courtyard. She only had Dongxue with her. As soon as the two of them entered, the gate of Chenglu Garden was suddenly closed.
Dongxue was shocked and shouted, "What are you doing? What are you doing?"
The male servant outside the door said, "This is the custom in our Anhui Province. Before getting married, please take good care of yourself, Miss."
Dongxue said angrily: "What kind of rule is this? I have never heard of such a rule!"
The door suddenly opened, and when Dongxue was about to rush out, she was pushed hard by the servant outside the door. She fell back three or four steps and down the stairs, with several scrapes on her hands and feet.
The butler smiled coldly and closed the door again.
Dongxue rushed to the door again, ignoring the pain, but no matter how she shouted, no one answered. In addition, Chenglu Garden was so remote that even if she shouted until her throat was broken, it would not reach the ears of the people who could make the decision.
Dongxue cursed until her throat became hoarse, but in the end she was helpless. She turned around to look at Ye Youyu, only to see her standing in a clump of roses in a daze. It was cold at that time, and the roses had already entered a natural dormant period. The leaves had fallen off, leaving only dry branches.
Dongxue had already guessed that something bad was going to happen, and cried out in a tearful voice, "Third Miss, what should we do?"
Ye Youyu came back to her senses and suddenly laughed bitterly: "In the plays that came from the West, when a princess is in trouble, there are always heroes and princes to save her, but I don't have that. I am really not a princess. No matter what happens... I have to deal with it myself."
She had been aware of her situation since she was very young, but for some reason, she still felt sad and depressed when faced with this matter. She felt that she was being pretentious, but she couldn't help it.
Dongxue shouted, "Girl, you can't do this at this time... You should think of a solution quickly! You always have a lot of ideas."
Ye Youyu said, "Let's go see if there are enough quilts, clothes, and a small kitchen."
Dongxue quickly ran around the house and came back saying that there were clean clothes and quilts in the house, and there was a small kitchen in the corner of the yard with all the daily necessities.
Ye Youyu said: "Then there is nothing we can do."
Dongxue was puzzled: "Huh?"
Ye Youyu said, "Since we have all this, it means this has been planned for a long time. If we didn't have this, they would have to deliver food every day, and there would have been opportunities to take advantage of the time when the door was opened and closed. Now... the gate to the yard is locked, and we can't get any help from heaven or earth... There's nothing we can do."
She looked up and saw an empty yard around her and an empty night sky above her head.
"Girl... Madam, what's going on..."
"I guess I'll be kept under house arrest until the marriage is over."
"If that's the case, then who's going to get married?"
"Who's going to get married?" Ye Youyu said sadly, "Of course it's my second sister."
Dongxue suddenly screamed like a madman, rushed to the gate, pounded on it and shouted: "Open the door! Open the door! Open the door! You can't do this! You can't do this!"
Ye Dalin looked at the new study in Yejiayuan. It was much larger than the one in Xiguan, and the furnishings were arranged according to his ideas. If he could move the antiques from the north here, this place would definitely make him very satisfied.
What a pity...it will soon be used as a dowry.
Ma came in, and Ye Dalin asked without even turning his head, "Is everything arranged?"
He was not serious about this marriage and just wanted it to be over quickly.
Ma asked, "Do you really want to marry Youyu to him?"
Ye Dalin was quite displeased: "What are you talking about? We're getting married the day after tomorrow, and you're still talking about this now."
Ma said, "If it were any other marriage, it would be easy. But this marriage is of great importance. Our family has so many properties that can be transferred just by saying it's over. But it's not just the land and property that will be transferred, there are also many people who will be transferred as well."
Some farms need managers, some shops need shopkeepers and clerks, and some trade routes need escort leaders. If the Wu family replaced all the people, they would just be receiving a lot of empty shells, and their effectiveness would be greatly reduced. So this time the two families exchanged assets, not only things, but also people.
Ye Dalin snorted. He was forced into this substitution by the situation and was naturally not very satisfied with it. However, what else could he do?
Ma said, "Originally, these people were sent as dowry. When they arrived at the new home, they would naturally be close to the mistress, because the mistress is one of our own family. It's just a pity that Youyu doesn't share the same mind as us."
Ye Dalin was stunned for a moment, then turned back suddenly: "What are you going to say!"