Chapter 18: Admonitions to a Junior Brother

  What was originally just a normal gathering of guests ended up becoming such a big commotion. When Chen Lan walked out of the Lianxiang Institute, he only felt a bit dizzy and his feet felt light, as if he was walking on cotton. Even Hongluo, who had already expected this in her heart, looked very unhappy. Although she used to be a person from the Lianxiang Institute, after all, she had been transferred to another place. Just now, she was locked up with Su Mu, Hu Jiao and other young masters and misses in the west wing, and now she still looked a bit dispirited.

  After turning the corner, Su Mu, who had been silent all along, finally couldn't bear it and hurried forward two steps to ask in a low voice: "Miss, will our Hou Mansion... will our Hou Mansion really be searched?"

  As soon as the words fell, a red spiral that was suddenly awakened immediately rebuked: "What search and seizure, don't talk nonsense!"

  In the main hall of Lianxiang Institute, Chen Lan had been sitting for a long time and now only felt his neck stiff, but he could only move slightly without drawing attention to himself. Seeing Hongluo's face pale with fright, Sumu also biting her lip, she forced herself to smile and said: "Don't look so scared, our family has gone through many things in the past hundred years, didn't we even get arrested by the Imperial Guards when Old Master was alive? Huchao, you two go back home first and tell them, Xinfang will be fine, but Yuner is hot-headed, who knows what she'll do. It's daytime, no need for so many people to follow us. Hongluo, come with me to see Fourth Brother."

  Chen Yan's courtyard was originally the Fangfei Building, which had been occupied by the Chang family for a long time. However, when Ziningju took over the main house, only three rooms were left in the main building, and the east wing had become a wall. There were only three rooms in the west wing, making the entire courtyard very small. Moreover, due to the constant comings and goings of people from the second house, Chen Yan developed an aggressive and combative personality. In his opinion, this was the only way to protect himself and his sister.

  However, today he returned from the Lianxiang Institute, but was unusually quiet, and went straight into the warm pavilion, where he immediately fell onto the kang and couldn't help but laugh out loud. Previously, Lu Zhu and Chun Yu, who had been locked in the Xier House and suffered a great fright, were so tense that they thought he had been scared silly, but Chen Yan chased them out without hesitation.

  So, as soon as Chen Lan entered the door, Lu Zhu hurriedly came forward to greet her. After exchanging greetings, she hastily said: "Third Miss, you'd better go take a look at our young master right away! As soon as he got back, he lay down on the kang and wouldn't answer any questions or listen to anyone. He just kept laughing and crying there, scaring us all to death!"

  This kid must have come up with that idea again!

  Chen Lan felt helpless and gestured to Hong Luo to wait outside, then pulled the curtain open and entered the inner room. Seeing Chen Yan lying on the large kang by the window, lost in thought, she didn't make a sound, but walked up and gently patted his forehead. The next moment, Chen Yan sprang up, a happy expression immediately appearing on his face.

  "Sister, you've finally arrived!"

  Chen Yan pulled Chen Lan to sit beside him without saying a word, glanced at the door curtain, and then asked in an extremely low voice: "Sister, why did Old Lady keep you behind, is there something important to say?"

  Chen Lan's thoughts these days have been focused on familiarizing herself with the environment and people, as well as her younger brother. She is happy that their relationship has always been very close, but worried that due to losing both parents at a young age, Chen Yan's temperament is prone to being extreme and impulsive. If she doesn't put in great effort to discipline him, he may suffer greatly. Therefore, looking at his face which couldn't hide its schadenfreude, she calmly asked: "Do you think that this time Second Uncle was imprisoned and the Imperial Guards came to our doorstep, our family will benefit from it?"

  "That's natural, this title should have been ours from the start!"

  Facing Chen Yan's righteous and majestic attitude, Chen Lan took a deep breath and sneered: "Was it originally our family's? Although one should not speak ill of their father, when Father lost his title, even if someone had plotted against him, wasn't it also because he had given those imperial historians something to grasp? Moreover, who told you that Second Uncle would definitely lose his title this time he was imprisoned? Furthermore, what if the Emperor became enraged and directly stripped our family of its hereditary title? How old are you? In the history of our dynasty, how many people have been able to inherit a title at such a young age as yours? Think again, is your contribution to the imperial court greater or is Third Uncle's achievement greater?"

  A barrage of questions left Chen Yan stunned. He sat stiffly there, and after a while, he managed to squeeze out an indignant sentence: "Sister, how can you say that, don't you know the order of seniority..."

  "What a strict order of seniority, now that the current Jun'an Bo is in power. Think back to when the old master passed away, how many times did he fight for the title in front of the emperor? Originally, the title should have been inherited by the eldest son of the main house, but they insisted that the wife of the main house was a remarried woman who had previously married another man and therefore shouldn't be considered the legitimate heir. So they forcibly took the title away from him and gave it to the current Jun'an Bo. But in the end, isn't the current Jun'an Bo also born to a younger wife? Where is the legitimacy? It's just that he has powerful relatives!"

  This was said by Yun'er, who used to be good at gossiping about the East House and the West House. Chen Lan brought out what she had just learned, and it indeed made Chen Yan quiet down again. She still feared that this scolding was not enough, so she said in a low voice: "You should know that our maternal family is not prominent, and we have no backing in this household. You are also young, and even if you really inherit the title, can you be sure to keep it for long?"

  Chen Yan was finally gradually persuaded, and his face involuntarily revealed a disappointed expression: "But the old lady seems to have that intention..."

  "This matter, relying solely on Old Lady's power is not enough, let alone now that Old Lady may not be able to see clearly what's going on." Chen Lan thought of Zhu Shi's vastly different behavior earlier today and had already made a judgment. At this moment, she couldn't help but gently stroke Chen Yun's temples, "Fourth brother, you're too young. If you were a few years older or already held an official position, we could afford to compete, but now if you don't understand the situation and just step in like this, it might not be worth it. Listen to your sister's words, don't show it on your face, interact with your brothers as usual, don't bring out that despicable expression from earlier again. Second Uncle is after all a senior, if people see you looking so gleeful, the four words 'disobedient and unfilial' can make you suffer for eternity!"

  Although there was still a bit of depression in his heart, Chen Yan wasn't completely unreasonable, and he nodded silently. After talking for a while, seeing Chen Lan smile slightly with relief, he stood up to leave, but suddenly remembered something else, hurriedly reached out to hold her back, and jumped down from the bed himself. He rummaged through the multi-drawer cabinet at the other end for a moment, then grabbed two thin old books and hastily handed them over to Chen Lan with a smile.

  "Sister, didn't you ask me to find some books for you to take a look at? I've been keeping an eye out. These were secretly given to me by the head of Wenhanfang when he came to our school with book lists last time. One is a miscellaneous note left by a eunuch during the founding of our Chu dynasty, but it wasn't printed for some reason and couldn't be sold at a good price because it was written by a eunuch. However, if you want to know about the customs and people of that time, this is the best one. The other one is a treasure collected by this eunuch, I don't know what kind of Western devil script it's written in. In the past, some people said it was the handwriting of our great ancestor emperor, but those who recognized it all refuted it as fake. So both books were bundled together with brushes, ink, paper and inkstones as a gift."

  Chen Lan hadn't read tens of thousands of books these days, but she had read hundreds of them. So, she naturally accepted her brother's gift with a smile. However, when she habitually flipped through the book, she found that the one filled with strange symbols seemed suspicious. After realizing what it was, she suddenly gasped and rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't mistaken. Closing the book in a fluster, she forced a smile at Chen Yan and thanked him again.

  "What's there to thank me for? Even if you wanted the moon in the sky, I could help you pick it down!" Chen Yan looked up with a face full of excitement and pride, his previous disappointment swept away. He glanced at the green parrot door curtain, then suddenly pulled Chen Lan again, and leaned in to whisper, "Sister, Hong Luo is Old Lady's person, have you got her under control? If not, I'll think of a way..."

  Chen Lan saw his brother's worried face and couldn't help but suppress the sudden fear in his heart, slightly scolding: "What can you do? Don't come up with another bad idea."

  "Nine out of ten maids in the house want to be taken in as daughters-in-law. At worst, I'll just tell her that as long as she serves my sister faithfully, when I grow up, I'll take her in..."

  He hadn't finished speaking when he felt a heavy blow to the back of his head, and immediately shut up, pitifully raising his head. Chen Lan was truly angry this time, coldly staring at him, and then sternly scolded: "At such a young age, don't think about these wicked and evil schemes. If you want to win people's hearts, there's no need to use these unrefined methods. Fourth brother, listen up, I sent you to school not expecting you to become a saint or a sage, but to learn the proper way of being a person, not this! From now on, if you say one more sentence that is so shameless, don't blame me for being impolite!"

  Chen Yan had never seen his sister lose her temper before, and although she had just been questioning him, she hadn't really turned red with anger. But this time was different, she was so angry that even her shoulders were shaking, and she turned around and walked out the door. This suddenly made Chen Yan's excuses die in his throat, and he stood there stupidly for a long time before realizing he had to chase after her. However, when he got out of the main hall, he saw that Chen Lan had already left the courtyard with Hong Luo, and he couldn't help but scold the little servant who had egged him on in his heart. He hastily chased after them out of the courtyard.

  "Sister! Sister!"

  Chen Lan stormed out in a rage, not saying a word as she left the yard. Hong Luo felt strange and heard someone calling from behind. She saw Chen Lan still not turning her head, so she had to go forward and stop her, and advised: "Miss, even if Fourth Master said something wrong, you should give him a chance to change..."

  Chen Lan finally stopped in her tracks, seeing Chen Yan rush up to her, panting and saying pitifully: "Sister, I know I was wrong, isn't that enough...?"

  Staring at the young man in front of her, Chen Lan felt a sudden dizziness. She lightly bit the tip of her tongue and felt her head clear up. Only then did she stretch out both hands to press on his shoulders: "From now on, remember that small tricks are always auxiliary and can't be relied upon to achieve things. Remember one thing I say, when interacting with people, don't use your brain all the time. It's like maids, for example. Some maids think about serving their masters, getting promoted to concubine, and then not being a slave anymore; some maids are purely devoted from childhood, only thinking about serving for a lifetime; but there are also maids who would rather be slaves than become concubines, using all their strength to try to escape; and there are those who just want to mix in with the master's family to get a meal... Some people can be used but not trusted, some people can be trusted but not used. However, when dealing with those who can both be used and trusted, you must first take out your true heart."

  Hong Luo listened quietly beside him, seeing Chen Yan initially dazed, gradually nodding unknowingly. She couldn't help but feel a pang in her heart. After drifting outside for many years and entering the Hou's household for two years, except for that one time of pouring out her heart, when had she ever remembered the words "true heart"?

  PS: Update is here...... To repay everyone for the 30-40 Christmas socks given in the past two days, today's update of two books and one chapter exceeds 10,000 words, my wrist...

  To get back to the point, I chose this title because I think this poem has a lot of feeling, no matter which dynasty, Beijing is indeed full of powerful people. To get back to the point, the Chen family in this article is based on real people, hehe, thanks to my diligence in translating the Ming Shi and Ming Shi Lu ^_^

  Finally, Liu Liu's new book is out! The title is "Sister is Toxic", it's very good and powerful, reminds me of the old "Nanny Loves You"...... link below