Mu Yunsheng's frown deepened.
Feng Xuan rejoiced inside, but she didn't dare to stop. "Yu'er never peeled a fruit here, and your sister-in-laws want her to clean all the cow dung and horse manure. She just couldn't take it."
"She said it?" His face, reflective of his thoughts, now bore an expression of gloom.
"Of course!" Feng Xuan almost did a victory dance; the fish finally bit the hook baited with a distorted version of truth. "I'm not bringing words from thin air… what more, my husband hired chefs from Jade restaurant to cook her meals. She was raised on meat and bird's nest with all the delicacy this town has to offer. Now, you tell me, how can her tongue deign to taste an unhygienic, and shabby cooking? Your mother, Yu'er said, is very unclean. She even vomited her guts out after describing it to us."
Feng Xuan's vicious words left their colors on Mu Yunsheng's face, darkening it like the sky of a stormy night. "My mother is not unclean." He articulated each word.
"What! She is not?" Feng Xuan eyes reflected joy, then they relapsed into a confused state. "Yu'er said my co-in-law cooks in an insanitary condition. She doesn't even bother to wash her hands, and serves everyone with grubby hands reeking of fish stench." She kept adopting and changing expressions between ten shades of helplessness, worry, and befuddlement. Amidst them, her truth fought to surface on her face.
Earwigging on the father-daughter conversation did wonders on her revenge plan! Now, the little shrew's own utterance would bite her on the butt, very hard!
Mu Yunsheng remained quiet, his mind sending forth the bitter words his mother, sister-in-laws and sisters hurled at him regarding Tang Yu. They raised a hue and cry about her arrogance, and disorderly conduct, and... it somehow aligned with what her step mother had said so far.
"Yunsheng," Feng Xuan called sweetly to grab his attention.
Mu Yunsheng bent his austere gaze at her. The biting chill of his gaze crushed the woman's courage, but still, she persisted.
"Did you allot Yu'er a dingy room with begrimed window bars? What about the bed that is stone hard and sports a threadbare sheet? The old pillows — she complained — were padded with coconut coirs."
Mu Yunsheng chiseled jawline hardened, a raging storm began brewing inside his heart. "If she says so…"
Right at that moment, Tang Yangran's stern voice, coated with rage boomed, "Feng Xuan, what are you doing here?!" His words cut through the heavy air, also Feng Xuan's happiness.
….
Tang Yu rushed back to her room, and flung open the cupboard doors. Her scholar husband had been waiting, and the clock was ticking on her for getting ready. "Damn! This is…" Rest of her words couldn't even find an outlet. Not a single piece of clothing was hung inside the closet, instead, they had been neatly folded and stacked in the shelves, one on top of the other.
Tang Yu's stupefied gaze roved from the bottom to the top. All the garments inside appeared not only to be crowding the space, but also suffocating one another! She could almost imagine them gasping for some air. Apparently, the lazybones didn't declutter the closet in years. To add more misery, all the dresses were pink! No other colors—only fifty shades of pink! Did she have the entirety of her life dressing only pink or what?
Tang Yu had to drop her thoughts, lacking time to entertain them. She randomly pulled out a baby pink dress from a tightly stacked pile, exerting a little force, but with it, another one rolled out and fell down.
A sweater?
She could at least tell the girls to sort the clothes into different piles based on their types.
Tang Yu slammed her hands on her curvy hips, thinking fast. Then, she rushed headlong into pulling everything out and throwing them on the bed. The host had the face to be a self-proclaimed clothes horse!
Duh.
"Young Miss, you've done it again…! Didn't we plead with you like a thousand times to just call one of us? I know which one is where, I could bring it out for you." Zhu Taotao nagged. "Now, we have to organize the closet again."
"Didn't you complain a while back about having nothing to do here in my absence? It's a job to keep you both occupied for a few hours." Tang Yu clapped it back at the girl. "Do me a favor, next time, please organize them in piles according to the types."
Selecting five 'comparatively simple' dresses, Tang Yu quickly threw one on her. They were minimalist by the host's standard. "Pack these four, I'll take them with me." She craned her neck, briefly regarding the book-shelf, before throwing another order. "Do one more thing, pack those blank parchments and ink as well."
Zhu Taotao nodded and briskly tripped around the room, running the errands.
"Young Miss, let me do your hair. Scholar Mu is having a conversation with the Master. He won't mind waiting a few more minutes." Zhu Wan said, standing beside the mirror with a bronze comb.
"A few more minutes? Nope, I'll do that in a jiffy." Tang Yu refused.
"Let him snack on some fruits at least. If you go out now, he won't touch them. I cut them with effort." Wan Wan reasoned out an excuse.
A thought flitted across Tang Yu's mind. Would it seem alright, if Mu Yunsheng left her home with an empty stomach and dry mouth? Nope, it might sour the bad impression into a spoilt one. She already scored bad in his book, and couldn't afford to worsen it. Not after all the unpleasantness that had transpired between them. "Okay, do it." She approached the stripe of mirror, studying her reflection. Puberty did the host grand justice. She shot up to five foot eight inch from five-four into a year, since her monthly visitor's first appearance. Still sixteen, she might go through a few more growth spurts, and stand over five-ten.
"Young Miss, take your seat, I can't reach your head this way." Zhu Wan's two 'slit' eyes peeked out from behind her back.
"Oh," Tang Yu displayed her pearl white, even teeth in an apologetic smile, before dropping to the stool. Wan Wan was barely five.
Just as Zhu Wan uncoiled her bun, the coal-black thick hair cascaded down, and touched the floor. Some silky strands sprang to the front, framing her face beautifully. The velvety, fresh, and healthy-looking snow-white skin contrasted the dark hair. It added an irresistible allure to her look.
Although, outer appearance didn't really matter, having it felt great! Thanks whoever carted her off to this era and body.
Suddenly, Tang Yu's eyebrows furrowed in a bit of confusion. Why was Zhu Wan suspending herself between fully erecting up and crouching down? She rotated her neck, and bent her gaze downwards. Her eyes enlarged, the sight they caught prompted her to stand up immediately.
Holy shit! This hair was extending below her calves! How long had the host been growing her hair for?
"Young Miss, why did you stand up?!" Zhu Wan asked, being caught off-guard.
Tang Yu blinked. "My hair...they were picking up dust particles from the floor."
Zhu Wan slitted her eyes to clock her master; dumbfounded at the strange reaction. "That's not anything new."
Tang Yu swept her tongue from side to side across her lower lip. "It will be in my better interest, if I make it new then." She ran off to the chest of drawers situated against the wall to the left, pulled out the first drawer, and rammanged through it. Her eyebrows creased, as she brought out a pair of iron cast spring scissors.
'Such a weirdo it is!' Tang Yu observed the pair of iron blades connected by a thin, curved iron strip at an end. It didn't have the handles to pull the blades together or push them apart. However, thanks to the memories, she knew how it worked. She squeezed the blades, and it brought them together, the sharpened edges sliding into each other. In the next second, just as she released them, they sprang open again.
Pain in the ass, however, she had to make do with it. As long as consequences were safe, she would chart her own path in fashion. Before the girls could wrap their heads around the happening, Tang Yu snipped approximately fifteen inches off her hair.
Both Zhu Wan's and Zhu Taotao's eyebrows rose up to their forehead, eyeballs almost popping out. They stared aghast at the thin black tendrils sprinkling down and littering the floor. Shock set in, weakening their knees, and almost shoving them to the ground.
"Young Miss!"
"Young Miss!"
Both screamed out in unison. "Why in the devil are you hacking off your long hair?!"
Zhu Wan instantly waged a war against the grand sin unfolding before her eyes, lunged fast at the scissors in Tang Yu's hands. Grabbing the open blades, she closed them. "Give it to me right now! Give…" She grunted out the words, pulling the scissors towards her, employing her all might.