The General's Delicious Wife Chapter 067: Ears Behind The Wall
Although he was beaten until he had a bruised nose and swollen face, no one would recognize him wrongly.
This thief who sneaked into the house turned out to be Xue Yong.
The few of them looked at each other and the silence was finally broken with Madam Sheng shrieking.
"Aiyo my son ah! What's the matter with this?"
Xue Yong raised his bruised and swollen head, spit out saliva that was mixed with blood foam and said sluggishly, "Mother, I, I came back late tonight. I just entered the house and I didn't even know what happened, I was beaten up just like that."
Madam Sheng saw that her son was injured everywhere and her heart was in severe pain, ignoring to validate if Xue Yong's words were reasonable, she immediately pointed the arrow head towards Xia Yue Chu and Qin Zheng.
"You two little sons of tortoise, you haven't even checked properly and screamed blindly, is he a thief? How is he coming back to his own home becoming a thief? Look at how badly injured this child is now? You are just looking forward to watch misfortune fall upon me before you are happy right?"
Qin Feng threw the door latch and the piece of iron sheet in front of Madam Sheng, and said solemnly, "Why is he not a thief? Someone from the own family would, in the middle of the night, unlock other's people room latch with a piece of metal? Not going straight to bed and sleep after opening the door, instead, be searching haphazardly through the trunk?"
Madam Sheng saw the scratches on the door latch, yet still remained defensive, "Who knows who did it, maybe you did it yourself to frame my son."
"Do you think I am a deity? I can foretell the future? I knew earlier on that your son would come here in the middle of the night? Make these arrangements in advance to set him up?"
Madam Sheng opened her mouth, it seemed that even such an excuse was too unreasonable.
Xue Yong changed his words again at this moment, he complained, "I, I went out to play cards tonight and lost some money. I was going home to pick up some money to continue playing, who knows that I had a couple too much drinks, actually mistaking the wrong door, and you hit people without distinguishing what's green or red or black or white (Meaning: not discerning the truth)."
"You live in the East Wing and we live in the West Wing. The door to your house is facing the north side, and our door is on the south side. Don't say that you have drank a few glasses of wine. Even if you had drank to your death, your mistake can't be so far off!" Qin Feng continued after a spit, "Besides, if we really had wronged you, why didn't you shout aloud? Weren't you holding onto the sack by yourself because you are afraid to be seen by us?"
Right when Madam Sheng wanted to say something, heavy footsteps could be heard outside.
"Xue Yong! You, did you go gambling again? Didn't you promise me previously?" Madam Zhou hauled herself in with her big belly, holding her waist with one hand and another on the door frame, trembling with anger. The big belly trembled as her body did, and it looked particularly alarming.
Madam Zhou was currently Madam Sheng's treasure at the top of her heart, and she could not spare anymore concern for her son. She hurriedly went up to help Madam Zhou and told her, "Good child, don't be angry, please don't be angry, be careful not to affect the fetus condition, Mother will scold him for you!"
Xue Yong rolled himself to Madam Zhou's feet, repeatedly apologizing, even slapping himself in the face, attempting to get away with his deed of stealing money just now.
Xue Zhuang said chillingly, "In the middle of the night, is it interesting to create such a scene? What plans you have in your mind, needless to say, everyone is clear about it, with this kind of ridiculous reason, are you treating the people here to be as silly as yourself?"
He knew in his heart that with Xue Liang Ping and Madam Sheng's protection, this incident would definitely be swept under the carpet in the end, but seeing Xue Yong's adamant attitude in refusing to admit his mistake and how he tried to excused himself, it was truly making people angry.
"You--" Xue Yong was so angry that he almost jumped up, he hadn't even steal anything and had received a harsh beating over nothing, and now, even a cripple dared to mock and criticize him.
"You shut up!" Xue Liang Ping exploded suddenly and slapped Xue Yong in the face which flung him to the ground.
Xue Liang Ping turned his head to face Xue Zhuang, lowered his head and rubbed his hands together, sighing deeply, "Da Zhuang, it was Da Yong in the wrong today, its because this father didn't teach him well. But he didn't steal anything, and he had received his beating, I think it should be enough for him to grow his memory (Meaning: to make him remember for a long time), no matter what, we are a family, when the mess gets uncontainable, everyone would not look good on the face (Meaning: they would lose their surface peace). In the future, this father will definitely discipline him well, you can just take it as giving this father face (Meaning: for his father's sake), and spare him this once."
When Madam Sheng heard this, she immediately lost it, jumped to her feet and said, "Dead old man, what did you just say! Da Yong said that he accidentally went to the wrong house, do you have to attach the nasty label of a thief onto your own son?"
Seeing that Madam Sheng was still so hard-mouthed (Meaning: stubborn), Xue Zhuang said, "I am not a person who ignores family ties, but there should be logically reasoning for everything, if you honestly admit his mistake, we can say that everything is well. But if you insist on denying it, let's simply go to court and see how the governor will judge!"
Upon hearing that he was going to see the governor, Xue Yong suddenly lost his strength.
Madam Sheng's face also changed. Now Madam Zhou was about to give birth in about one month's time. What would they do if something happened to Xue Yong at this moment.
She immediately increased her volume and said, "We are one family, what are we seeing the governor for? Do you think the governor Sire would be doing nothing everyday and step into this pitiful chicken feather and garlic skin (Meaning: small and insignificant) matters of yours?
Xue Zhuang did not response to Madam Sheng who was feeling guilty and foolishly stubborn, he raised his head slightly and met Xue Liang Ping eye to eye.
However, Xue Liang Ping lowered his eyes upon the eye contact, his face was full of fatigue and guilt, and he did not dare to look towards Xue Zhuang.
Xue Zhuang retracted his gaze in disappointment, but quickly regained his expressionless expression, and said in a ridicule tone "What Father said is true, we are all a family. As long as the third son agrees not to sneak in again in the middle of the night it will be okay!"
"Da Zhuang" Xue Liang Ping called him helplessly and a little desperately, with a faint begging intention in his voice.
Xia Yue Chu was behind Xue Zhuang all this time not making a single sound. At this moment, she saw that Xue Zhuang had been impelled by Xue Liang Ping, but because of his face (Meaning: dignity and pride), he did not want to take the initiative to back down, so she opened her mouth to give him a step down ladder.
"Father, it's getting late, there a lot of work to be done in the field early morning tomorrow, so everyone should go back to sleep as soon as possible."
Xue Liang Ping nodded gratefully at Xia Yue Chu and said, "Yes, Spring is starting, there will be a lot more work immediately. Let's all rest early, otherwise we will be out of energy for work tomorrow."
Xue Zhuang did not appreciate it, swept a glance at her, and turned his head away coldly.
Xia Yue Chu ignored Xue Zhuang's tantrum, while the rest were heading out like sardines, she raised her voice instructing Qin Zheng, "Ah Zheng, quick, go fix the door latch properly, remember to use a bar to secure it every night in the future. You cannot be lazy about it!"
Xue Yong had been staggering while walking, when he heard what was said, his left foot hindered his right foot and he almost fell to the ground.
Xue Liang Ping stretched out his hand to support his son, and sighed secretly.
But both of them were his own sons, the palm of his hand and the back of his hand were all flesh*, how should he balance this bowl of water**?
He did not know what he should do to satisfy both sides.
Xue Zhuang's lips was originally pressed tightly in a thin line, it suddenly curved into a bend which was quickly suppressed again.
Nonetheless, the displeasure were gone from his eyes, instead a teasing laughter seemed to linger.
She knew that he was not a lamp that was oil-saving***, his usual docile image was merely what he pretended to be on the surface, he would secretly stretch out his paws while others were unprepared.
Qin Zheng took two wooden sticks and firmly held down the door latch of the room, even when he got back into the bed, he was still seething with angrily and commented "Big Brother, they are really overboard in their bullying! A thief stealing from the house of his own family member, if I have the say, we should have sent him to the governor court."
Xue Zhuang was silent for a moment, then lowered his voice and said, "Don't forget why we are here! I think you have been getting more and more lazy and ill-disciplined recently. If you are really so free and bored, you can go to the mountains and run a few more laps. It hasn't been long since we left the army and you are already so rowdy like this?"
Qin Zheng suddenly went silent and only after a while did he reply with a hoarse, "Big Brother, I know my mistake!"
The two of them did not know that the wooden door of the inner room had been used for too long its time.
On the surface, it was quite neat, but in fact, there were already thousands of holes and two cracks.
Xia Yue Chu closed the door and had yet to get onto her brick bed, so she listened to everything that they had said.
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Translator Notes:
In this entire sentence, Xue Liang Ping was thinking about both of his sons through the analogy of his hand, and his attitude towards them through the analogy of balancing a bowl of water.
*the palm of his hand and the back of his hand were all flesh, if he were to side with one side and punish the other, its either hitting the palm of the hand or the back of the hand. To Xue Liang Ping, there is no difference because the pain is the same to him, which was why he is in this dilemma.
**balancing a bowl of water, if the bowl is tilted, the water will spill. Just like how favoritism will react, if one's heart is tilted, it becomes impossible to have any balance in fair treatment. So Xue Liang Ping was wondering how he could keep this balance. You might be prone to think that he had already lost the balance when he disappointed Xue Zhuang, but honestly he is still struggling here, he made an effort to serve out punishment to Xue Yong, slapping him to the ground and getting him to shut up and suck it up. Was that enough? I don't know but don't deny his clumsy effort.
***oil-saving lamp, needs low maintenance. So in analogy, describing a person as someone who is not an oil-saving lamp refers to someone who requires high maintenance, requires more effort to deal with.
Translated by YellowBean.