Chapter 120: Being a widow for a lifetime
"Ruozhu, Ruozhu, your uncle is in trouble!" Fang Guizhi was yelling while knocking at Bai Ruozhu’s house door, as if she was afraid the neighbors wouldn’t hear it.
The one who opened the door for her was Lin Ping’er, looking at Fang Guizhi with a surprised face, asked: "Guizhi, what happened to Ruozhu’s uncle?"
"Auntie, I only heard some general information, saying he got drunk and slept on the roadside last night, and he was also writing gibberish with a brush outside." She lowered her voice, "It seems like he was cursing you, saying something like ’go die’ and such."
"What?" Lin Ping’er screamed. She didn’t know whether she was stunned by the fact that Bai Yibo was drunk and sleeping by the roadside, or by what Bai Yibo had written, anyway, she was a bit overwhelmed.
At this moment, Fang Guizhi was quite anxious, she hurriedly said hello to her and then ran towards Bai Ruozhu’s room.
Bai Ruozhu had already heard her loud voice, hiding in her room with a smug smile. Fortunately, she had calculated it well. It was Bai Yibo’s bad luck. Just as this plan was set in motion, he fell right into it.
"Ruozhu, Ruozhu, tell me quickly how you calculated it?" Fang Guizhi rushed into the room, closed the door hurriedly, and then lowered her voice and asked.
Bai Ruozhu saw her being incredibly anxious, and said with a smile, "First, I heard that my uncle often goes to buy wine. He is a scholar now, and given his character, he would probably say ’Give me the best wine you have!’ every time."
"That seems to be the case." Fang Guizhi scratched her head, "So you are selling wine to the Old Wine House? But how do you know your uncle will get drunk after drinking that wine?"
Bai Ruozhu found it difficult to explain this point. It’s like someone who is used to drinking low-alcohol beer, who can drink a bottle at a time without any problem, but suddenly switches to liquor, without realizing it and thinking the drink is not bad, he still consumes it at the usual amount, how could he not get drunk?
"The wine I gave you had a high alcohol content, I’m sure my uncle has never had it before. Drinking it is guaranteed to get him drunk. Didn’t you see that the Old Wine House owner also liked the wine? That’s why I gave you two jars, the Old Wine House owner kept one jar, and the other one is definitely still going to be sold to him." Bai Ruozhu explained.
"But how do you know he will make a scene when he’s drunk?" Fang Guizhi asked again, she was still feeling a bit mystified.
Bai Ruozhu winked at her, showing a slightly coquettish expression, "I guessed!"
"Just a random guess?" Fang Guizhi couldn’t quite believe it. How could she randomly guess and get it right?
Bai Ruozhu laughed smugly, "He’s been in a bad mood lately, haven’t you heard that he’s been drowning his sorrows in alcohol every day? Many men can’t hide their thoughts once they get drunk. It’s already great that he didn’t sing loudly in the village in the middle of the night. Also, have you ever heard that truth comes out after wine? He accidentally spoke his mind."
The more Bai Ruozhu spoke, the more she wanted to laugh, "I just didn’t expect him to express it by writing with a brush, and even on someone else’s fence. That ink is not easy to erase."
Fang Guizhi couldn’t help but laugh along, "Now he has truly embarrassed himself, even if he sobers up it’s too late to erase it, even if he went to erase it, he wouldn’t be able to. Haha."
Bai Ruozhu teased Dengdeng, who was still laughing with his little hand waving next to her, and said, "Thinking about it, I didn’t really harm anyone, these were all his true thoughts, I didn’t force him to say or do anything."
"Yes, yes, that’s why I say you’re brilliant, I really admire you so much that I respect you from the bottom of my heart." Fang Guizhi gave Bai Ruozhu a thumbs-up, even the idiom ’respect you from the bottom of my heart’ was learned from Bai Ruozhu.
"Actually, I was just taking a chance, it was him who was really unlucky, or maybe he did too many bad things, even the heavens couldn’t stand it anymore." Bai Ruozhu added.
Fang Guizhi thought about it and it made sense, if there was even a little change in this situation, the wine wouldn’t have ended up in Bai Yibo’s hands, like if it was bought by someone else, or if Bai Yibo didn’t go out at all after drinking and just made a scene in his own yard, but it just so happened that he went out and ended up making a public spectacle of himself.
The heavens really do have eyes, Fang Guizhi thought.
Soon, Lin Ping’er told her family the news she heard, with excitement still on her face, and when Er Lang heard it, he looked thoughtful and said, "When we passed by the field later, I’ll take a look at what he’s written."
Bai Ruozhu and Fang Guizhi had already come out of the room by then, she had a look of envy on her face. God knows how much she wanted to get out and walk around, but with just a few days left, her mother wouldn’t let her go out no matter what.
"Brother, look carefully, and remember to tell me everything." Bai Ruozhu dished up another bowl of millet porridge for her brother with a flattered face.
Bai Zepei glanced at her, "Do you want me to bring a notepad and make a rubbing of it for you?"
Bai Ruozhu chuckled a couple of times, she really wanted to make a rubbing as evidence and take it out for a laugh when she was bored, of course, it wouldn’t look good to do this in public.
"Our oldest brother really doesn’t have any dignity left. He was drunk and made a fool of himself in the village. What a disgrace." Bai Yihong was more indignant, feeling that it was a disgrace to the Bai family.
Bai Ruozhu didn’t have much concept of family honor, so she didn’t care at all. The people she considered family were only her parents, her two brothers, and her future sister-in-law.
After lunch, Bai Yihong took his two sons to work the field, Bai Ruozhu stayed at home sewing clothes for Dengdeng, and Lin Ping’er went out to buy some red paper. In the village, there wasn’t a tradition of celebrating baby’s full month with a feast, just to give red dyed eggs to the villagers, the red paper was used for coloring the eggs.
Finally, when Bai Zepei returned from the field, Bai Ruozhu immediately went to bother him and ask what was written. Who would have known he suddenly fell silent? Bai Ruozhu directly pulled her oldest brother to ask: "Brother, it’s always you who treats me well, you tell me, our second brother has gotten into the habit of acting high and mighty."
Bai Zehao touched his nose and said, "It’s not that Er Di won’t tell you, it’s just that some of the words are too harsh to say."
"Even if they are harsh, they must be said. They say truth comes out through wine, I need to hear how much he hates us in his heart, to be on guard in the future." Bai Ruozhu said.
Bai Zeipei sat down at the table, picked up the herbal tea and drank it all in one gulp, and then said coldly, "Those words are too hard for eldest brother to say."
Bai Zehao sighed and also went to get a bowl of herbal tea. Bai Ruozhu looked at her dad and saw that he was also curious, indicating that Bai Zepei hadn’t told him either.
At this moment, Bai Zepei suddenly spoke up, saying coldly, "He wrote very sloppily, but I can understand some of it. He cursed our whole family to die, and cursed me to be a scholar for life, and also..."
Bai Ruozhu saw that her second brother couldn’t continue, and directly asked: "And also cursing me? Cursing me to be a widow for life?"
Bai Zepei suddenly raised his head and looked at Bai Ruozhu. He didn’t expect his little sister to be so smart, because Fang Guizhi certainly couldn’t understand the characters for "widow", it could only be that Bai Ruozhu had guessed it.
If it was because it was dark, or because of being drunk, the words were jumbled. He also had to struggle to read it for a long time because it involved his own sister. After making out the words, he had been angry until now.