Chapter 5- Professor Li
Although they had bought a new residence and the two residences were connected to become one, Grandmother Li liked to call the new residence, the West Courtyard for conveniences’ sake.
After all the guests were sent away, the three aunts of the Bai family and the Li family cleaned and cleared the banquet quickly, dividing the leftovers among the guests that were being sent away.
The tables, chairs, benches, bowls, chopsticks, pots and dishes would be returned to their lenders tomorrow.
Matriarch Sun had worked all day and now rested on a soft, plush cushion that was laid out on a well-heated platform.
The old lady hadn’t eaten big meat for a long time. Today, because of the wedding, she was a little more greedy than usual and had eaten a few more bites of meat than she should have. Now her stomach was feeling a little bloated.
Bai-shi brewed her a cup of strong tea and Matriarch Sun took a few sips to wash down the greasy meat and queasy stomach.
After a little bit, Matriarch Sun, as if the thought had just popped into her mind, asked suddenly, “How are things going in the West Courtyard?”
Eldest Aunt opened her mouth when the Third Aunt beat her to it.
A sharp and hearty voice replied, “They’re doing very well. I just sent them some food and the maid beside the lady was very sensible and polite as she thanked me for coming!”
Eldest Aunt rolled her eyes secretly and then turned her head towards Matriarch Sun as she curled her lips, her tone a little bit irritating as she said, “I took a look and the Young Lady from the Marquis household is indeed very lavish! I did a quick count and there are about ten servants who came with her dowry! Which is much more than the masters of the actual residence and all of them are there to serve only her.”
The woman was clearly pouring oil onto the fire.
After hearing this, Grandmother Li and Bai-shi’s faces darkened.
The Third Aunt was not afraid of her elder sister as she immediately stabbed back: “What’s wrong with the number of people serving her? Da-jie is not the one raising those servants. Da-jie may have seen her many servants but may not have seen the dowry that filled up an entire yard! The Young Lady does not lack any money and if we carelessly run over there and tell her she shouldn’t have any, we will be seen as short-sighted! When others hear of this, they will mock us for our shortsightedness!”
Eldest Aunt almost jumped up and started cursing when the Third Aunt called her short-sighted.
Bai-shi listened to the arguments between the two when finally she interrupted them with a stiff smile, “Which ‘Young Lady’ are you referring too? Since she has married into our household, she is now family. Da-gu, Xiao-gu, should be calling her niece-in-law instead.” Bai-shi said, her appearance looking gentle and virtuous.
The conversation finally reached its stopping point and the two aunts could no longer argue lest they bring about their mother’s wrath.
Meanwhile, Matriarch Sun was currently wondering what kind of temperament this Young Lady from the Marquis household possessed and whether she would be able to discipline such a child in the future. If the girl tries to hold her status over Ze-er’s head in the future, it would not be a good thing.
Tomorrow morning, the newcomer would have to pay respects to her elders and serve them tea.
Tomorrow, she planned on taking a good look at this new granddaughter-in-law of hers and kicking her face down a little so she wouldn’t become too arrogant because of her family’s high status.
Matriarch Sun did not intend to keep her three daughters in the residence overnight and tiredly waved her hand to let Li Baode escort his three sisters out.
The aunts lived not too far away so they would be able to conveniently arrive home in just half an hour if they took a carriage or cart.
Bai-shi gave them some untouched meat dishes to take with them and then also saw them off.
After the people had left, Bai-shi waited upon Matriarch Sun for a little while and then finally returned to her own room after the old lady turned in for the night.
She snuffed the candles and laid down, with Li Baode snoring loudly like thunder next to her in less than a quarter of an hour. However, Bai-shi couldn’t sleep as she tossed and turned in her bed.
She kept thinking about the Young Lady who had just moved into the West Courtyard.
These past few days, she had been getting every piece of news she could get on the Marquis household and she knew just how noble and distinguished a household it was. She had heard all about how precious and unattainable such a household was, but she didn’t understand the specifics of it until now.
Had it not been for the incident, such a person would’ve never had entered their household in this lifetime.
This sentence has been repeated over and over again, and although she understood this in her heart, it was another thing seeing it with her own eyes.
Everything was true.
Tied in expensive red silk, the dowry flowed into the courtyard like water and when they were opened for everyone to see, Bai-shi could not tear her widened eyes away from it.
She had never seen so many treasures in her entire lifetime.
Jade vases, various precious ornaments and jewelry, emerald green agates, white pearls….those precious items sparkled so brightly that it blinded her astounded eyes.
Then there were the boxes full of silk fabrics and finely crafted silk brocade clothes.
Then she looked at the person sitting in the sedan, wearing a luxurious and dazzling outfit made of a material Bai-shi had never seen before. The girl had only said a single word, “Good.”
Of course they were ‘good’ things, even those who didn’t understand the preciousness of it could tell.
Then when the veil was uncovered, Bai-she laid her eyes on Gu Qingci’s appearance for the first time.
At the time, Bai-shi felt like she couldn’t breathe.
How do you describe that feeling? Bai-shi had lived on the west side of the city for decades and she had seen so many ordinary and beautiful girls. Each of those teenage girls had fresh and tender skin, courtesy of the good capital diet they grew up on. However, no matter how outstanding those girls were, they can not compare to the person in front of her.
With just a glance, Bai-shi finally understood the unbridgeable gap between the rich and the poor.
That person just sat there with a cold face, covered in blinding gold and arrogance.
A delicate person who could only be cultivated and raised in a rich nest of gold and silver.
Her bright and charming face, even if not fully matured, revealed hints of the stunning woman she would become in the future.
Bai-shi was shocked to the core.
She was never a vain person, she had only felt proud and happy for her son to have attached himself to such a prominent family that would bring about countless benefits for the family.
But now she was a little worried. This Young Lady Gu did not look like a good-natured person. If she could not be controlled, don’t even mention taking advantage of her, it would be hard to stop her from lording over them all at this rate.
And as the mother-in-law, she naturally believed that Gu Qingci should serve her respectfully and obediently subject herself to any scolding her mother-in-law gives her.
At least that’s what Bai-shi believed before Li Chengze married the girl into the household. Even when she learned that the new bride was the daughter of the Marquis’ household, she had never changed her mindset and never for a second believed she was wrong.
She had even thought about the matter many times. She believed that a Young Lady from a big family probably followed an even stricter set of rules when it came to caring and serving the mother-in-law. Such as, waking up early in the morning to pay respects to the mother-in-law, helping the mother-in-law dress and freshen up, serving tea and snacks, and waiting upon them during dinner.
She heard that in a big family, the daughter-in-law must follow these rules every day. She must also later on write down all these rules and memorize them verbatim. Then in the future, she must abide and follow them perfectly. This was the duty of a daughter in-law.
And naturally her dowry will also belong to the mother-in-law. In the future, the dowry will be put into the public funds and if anything is taken out, she would have to make a record of it. This was also a way to make sure that Gu Qingci didn’t spend money lavishly.
One must understand that once a woman marries into the household, not only does she belong to her husband but everything she owned now belongs to the husband’s family.
However, it seems that at that moment, Bai-shi seems to have forgotten that when she had married over, she had never put her own dowry into the public account and instead held onto it tightly while using the meager amount she had slowly accumulated over a long period of time.
Yet, ever since Li Chengze was recognized as an official scholar, Bai-shi began to change.
When she spoke, she deliberately added a magnanimous and virtuous tone to her voice and she no longer went out to buy things. Then with a bit of scheming in her heart, she slowly became more lazy with her household chores while praising that Matriarch Sun was a friendly and talkative person. Thus, with a happy face and eyes squinted happily with praise, Matriarch Sun took up the act of buying groceries so she could go out and chat with her old friends. Since she is apparently a ‘friendly’ person after all, according to Bai-shi.
Furthermore, Bai-shi believed that her son would definitely go even further in the future and become a high-ranking official.
Then she would become a Lady of an official’s family and the mannerisms of an official’s family must be learned one by one. She could not carelessly go out and lose face for her son.
Therefore, Bai-shi was very in favor of marrying a noble Young Lady into the family because of the rules and styles she could learn from the distinguished Marquis household. This was exactly what she needed and it was also what her two daughters who were rapidly approaching marriageable age needed.
These thoughts swirled in her mind and she stayed up until midnight thinking about it before falling asleep in a daze.
Meanwhile, in the West Courtyard, the night should have been full of beautiful moments between the new lovers, but all was not peaceful.
No one knew that the personality and very core of the new groom had completely changed.
The current Li Chengze was a university professor and because of his occupation, he always maintained a rather blank, no-nonsense face.
Li Chengze once mocked himself with having a face that was too sanctimonious.
It gave him a very serious and self-sufficient appearance, as if inside his head held a plethora of deep knowledge and he always came across as a very scholarly and detailed individual.
This scholarly impression was 80% be attributed to his good looks, his self-restraint, his air of nobleness, and his words that were full of political and profound wisdom every time he spoke.
Then adding onto when he wore a stiff suit and a pair of gold half-frame glasses that hung on the bridge of his nose, he would become an object of fascination to some women.
By the time he was forty, a bit of maturity and elegance was brought about by the passing years and attracted many women, practically those looking for stability in their relationships.
There were many female college students who confessed their love to Professor Li.
Fortunately, Li Chengze’s basic morals and professional ethics were top-notch, and so it was impossible for a person like him to cross the invisible lines of morality.
Instead, he would frown and reject those women with a serious expression, but that only made him all the more popular.
To Li Chengze, it was tiring. He understood that those young and impulsive students were only tricked by the cold mask of a face he had deliberately maintained.
Before he transmigrated, Li Chengze and a friend went to a bar privately opened by another friend for drinks. Since it was the holidays, he didn’t worry about waking up early and drank a few more glasses than usual.
When he went home, he was dizzy and could barely stand as he took off his clothes to go take a shower.
He only remembered being dizzy and didn’t pay attention to anything else at the time. Thne, somehow, a sudden electric current passed through his body and then he fainted promptly.
When Li Chengze opened his eyes and woke up, everything had changed.
There was now another person’s memories stuffed into his brain, seemingly pulled out of thin air, and he opened his eyes to see a strange scene in a strange place.
At that point, he realized that something big had happened.
He must’ve been electrocuted to death, but he did not know what fate had in mind for him as his soul transmigrated through time and space to wake up in the body of a man who had just died.
He had lost his life in vain, only to wake up in the body of a man with the same first and last name as his. A man who had died on his wedding night in the joyful bridal chamber.
The old doctor cleaned up the wound on Li Chengze’s forehead and rubbed some medicinal paste on it before wrapping it up cleanly in bandages.
He instructed the patient to not let the wound touch any water and to apply ointment for external use twice a day. He also administered medicine to be ingested everyday in a bowl of hot soup everyday for any lingering internal damage.
Xiao-man wrote down the prescription and followed the doctor to get the medicine. That’s when Zhang-momo came over. She looked at Li Chengze’s unfathomable and silent appearance with a bit of uneasiness in her heart.
However, for her mistress, she had no choice but to bite the bullet and politely invite him back to the main chamber. She also took the opportunity to say a lot of good things for Gu Qingci while adding that the girl was young and ignorant and that in a moment of impulse, her hand slipped and accidentally hit the Master. She asked for him to be the better person who doesn’t harbor grievance for past wrongs and to forgive her mistress this one time.
Li Chengze hid his thoughts deeply inside his head and raised his phoenix eyes to look up frigidly.
He glanced at Zhan-momo, but did not speak, then shifted his cold gaze to the servant girl behind her: “Go get a bucket of water.”
Gu Yu didn’t dare disobey and so she ran out quickly.
Zhang-momo felt awkward and embarrassed but did not say anything more and retreated with the slight bow of her head.
Li Chengze took off his crimson red robe and stepped into a wooden barrel to take a bath.
He changed into a set of clean clothes and then returned to the East Chamber.
He stared at his long black hair for a while and then frowned.
He raised a hand to rub his aching temples and then sighed deeply.
Author’s notes:
This is historical fiction so the history of the story is not real.
T/N:
Note*: When “West Courtyard” is capitalized it is referring to the new residence but if it is not then ‘the west courtyard’ refers to the ‘west courtyard’ of either the new/old residence depending on the context.
Da-jie: Eldest sister
Da-Gu: older sister-in-law (husband’s side)
Xiao-Gu: younger sister-in-law (husband’s side)
Edit 3/22: This novel has been dropped. No reason other than TL got bored of it.
Twin Dragons Translations 
Thabks for translating the first chapters~♡
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