Chapter 9 — The Husband and Little Uncle Fake the Disaster, My Sister and I Clean Up the Marquis' Palace

The day he moved in, Tieu Ngoc Xu stood in the courtyard and rotated three times.

“This is our house?”

"No need to look at anyone's face anymore?"

"No need."

“Sleep until you want to sleep until then?”

"You sleep until it's dark and no one takes care of you."

She stood in the courtyard for a long time, then squatted down, burying her face in her knees. I went over and sat down next to her. She didn't cry out, her shoulders shook for a long time before stopping. When she raised her head, her eyes were red, but the corners of her lips curled up.

“Tham Tri Vi.”

“Thank you, sister.”

I nudged her with my elbow: "Stop talking uselessly, go boil some water, I want to wash my hair." She laughed, kicked me, got up and walked towards the kitchen. The days just passed like that. There was no mother to urge him to go and ask for peace, no Mr. Revenue Department to come with the books and ask questions, no creditors blocking the door and banging on the door. In the morning, I slept until the sun rose three meters high, at noon I went to town to buy food, bargained with the fish seller, and at dusk, I sat in the courtyard, watching the shadow of the Pipa tree gradually lengthen. Tieu Ngoc Xu said, before she didn't know how life felt like this. I said I don't know either. It's like the two of us are learning how to live day to day all over again. Learn how to light the stove without filling the yard with smoke, learn how to buy vegetables without being cheated by people, learn how to borrow soy sauce from the man next door and then remember to return it. These things at the Marquis Palace are all done by subordinates, we have never touched them before. The first time Tieu Ngoc Xu stir-fried a plate of green vegetables, the vegetables turned black. I ate one bite and didn't vomit. She herself ate a piece and immediately vomited.

“This is too hard to eat!”

“Next time just add a little salt.”

“Do you think there will be a next time?”

"Yes. Continue tomorrow, stir fry until you can eat it."

She glared at me, then took the command to dump that plate of dark green vegetables into the bucket of leftover rice water. The second day, the vegetables she stir-fried were still black. The third day is golden. Day four, finally green. When she brought that plate of green vegetables to the table, her whole body looked like she had just won a battle. I picked up a chopstick, chewed it twice, and gave her a thumbs up. She smiled even more happily than that year when she was in Hau denying that brocade dress woven with gold thread. That dress was later given to someone else by her father. But no one can take this plate of green vegetables away. Tieu Thua Duc was the one who arrived three months later. He came alone. Not carrying any entourage, not riding in a carriage, wearing an old blue shirt that was half worn out, standing in front of our house, completely skinny. His eye sockets were sunken, his cheekbones were high, he looked like he had walked all the way here. The person who opened the door was Tieu Ngoc Xu. When she saw Tieu Thua Duc standing outside the door, her first reaction was not surprise, but frown. After three months of not seeing each other, the eldest son of the Marquis Palace, who was always dressed neatly and followed everywhere by his entourage, was now wearing an old, faded blue shirt, with dust on the hem of his shirt, his cheekbones were so thin that they were clearly prominent, and his whole body looked like a layer of skin had been rubbed off by the wind and frost on the official road. Tieu Ngoc Xu held the door, not moving to the side.

“What did you come for?”

Tieu Thua Duc looked at her, his voice was very hoarse: "Big sister, I want to see Tri Vi."

“Big sister?” Tieu Ngoc Xu burst out laughing, "The morning I erased my household registration at the house, you heard clearly. I am no longer Tieu, nor am I your big sister. As for Tri Vi, she is not the person you want to meet."

Tieu Thua Duc's eyes glanced over her shoulder and looked into the yard. The small yard is not large, only has three main rooms, a square sky and a pipa tree that has not yet produced yellow fruit. Under the eaves, a few piles of medicinal herbs were dried. The wind blew, the faint smell of medicine mixed with the smell of just-cooked rice drifting out, so normal that it was not like the place that once housed the two women who came out of the Marquis Palace. He stood for a long time, and finally said in a low voice: "The house has been raided." As soon as this sentence fell, the yard was quiet for a moment. Tieu Ngoc Xu was still standing at the door, his expression unchanged: "Oh." Tieu Thua Duc looked at her, seemingly not believing that she only had this one word.

"Father was imprisoned, the evidence in the hands of the royal historian was too complete, no one in the capital dared to stand up to defend him. Thua Trach was also implicated, sentenced to exile three thousand miles away. Mother was sent back to her mother's house, the clansmen in the past rushed to the Marquis Palace to demand a share of the profits, but now they don't even dare to accept the door."