Chapter 229   Little fourth’s marriage

After all the people left the room, Gu Xiran automatically went to Shu Huan’s side. He wrapped his hands around her waist from behind, his chin resting on her shoulder, bit her ear and said, "What do you want to discuss? Did you agree to last night’s request?"

Those were simple sentences but it made Shu Huan’s face suddenly become red. She reprimanded, "Thinking about indecent things again. I’m asking you how it’s going with the essential oil. Aren’t you busy with this these days? Tell me when you succeed in making it. I’m still waiting to use it!"

Gu Xiran didn’t speak for a moment. He just slightly narrowed his eyes and engrossed in the soft and warm embrace.

Time flew really fast. Five years had already passed. They had been together for nearly two thousand days and nights. Sitting with each other during the day and resting together at night. It had never felt bored. Whenever he held her in his arms, he felt an unquenchable joy and excitement, as well as the feeling of peace of mind and warmth, just like the first time.

Perhaps Shu Huan felt his dependence on her, so, she didn’t move or urge him. She just let him hold her and then put her hand on his too. With her head slightly lowered, she looked at the jade rings on their fingers. The sunlight that came through the window was like the tenderness that had settled down over the years.

After a long time, Gu Xiran just chuckled and said, "It’s almost done. After more than a half year of tossing and scrapping countless drawings, the craftsman just made the compression machine two days ago. We tried it once and didn’t notice anything wrong. We may succeed this time."

He was talking about the method of extracting essential oils. In fact, when Shu Huan time-traveled to here in the beginning, those shower syrups she used for bathing were the essential oils extracted using Gu household’s complicated enfleurage method. It was just that this method was extremely labor and material-intensive, and it was also time-consuming. Therefore, the amount of the different shower syrups that Gu household sold was not only small but the price was also extremely expensive. It was considered a luxury product. Besides, when housekeeper Tong had betrayed Gu household, he spread the process of this enfleurage extraction method to others. It added more competitors for Gu household and minimized the profit margin to the lowest. Therefore, when Gu Xun took over the business temporarily, he had completely stopped making and selling the shower syrups.

This was until Gu Xiran took over the family business and figured out the distillation method to extract the essential oil. The process was simple and it greatly reduced the cost. He sold the shower syrups at a much lower price compared to before. It had crushed the rivals in business and he regained the market. It made the family business flourish. And the compression method that he thought of at the moment was used to extract sweet orange essential oil and wasn’t used for business competition. It was only to enrich the variety of essential oils. Therefore, without hurrying, the preparation took more than half a year.

When Gu Xiran thought of this long experimental process with countless of failures, he wanted to sigh. "I only know that there are these ways to extract essential oils but I don’t know anything about the specific processes and machine manufacturing. If I had known that there will be a day like this, I wouldn’t have studied law but be a perfumer; wouldn’t I have it much easier then? Not to mention the extraction methods, I would have already compounded countless kind of essential oils."

Shu Huan couldn’t help but laugh, "If you have known earlier that there would be a day like this, you wouldn’t have taken part in that island expedition trip but still be a lawyer in the modern time now."

"That won’t do!" Gu Xiran shook his head hard, lowered his voice and said, "Then I won’t be with you and there will be no Gu Yuan and Gu Nian."

It wasn’t any sweet words that could make people feel drunk but Shu Huan still felt sweet in her heart. After the two chatted a bit more, she suddenly remembered that she still had to go to old madam’s to pay her respect. She pulled out of Gu Xiran’s embrace and rushed to go lift the curtain to go out, but she had just taken a few steps when Gu Xiran shouted behind her, "Come back earlier, I’ll wait for you."

"Why?" Shu Huan was puzzled. There was nothing urgent at the moment. If there was, why didn’t he say it now?

Gu Xiran smiled evilly and said, "Don’t forget about what we talked about last night."

"Humph!" Shu Huan’s face became hot again. She turned and left

It happened that Meijing just had to follow behind her and ask curiously, "Second young mistress, what is second young master talking about?"

I didn’t hear! I didn’t hear!

How could she talk about the matters of the bedroom with outsiders?!

Shu Huan’s cheeks became more and more red. She just pretended that she didn’t hear anything. She quickened the pace, leaving Meijing utterly confused. She (M) thought that she had said something wrong and didn’t dare to ask anymore.

—

The size of Pine Crane Hall where old madam lived was slightly different than before but it still had the same name, which meant good fortune. When Shu Huan arrived, Lin shi and Fang shi were speaking with old madam while Gu Yuan and Gu Nian, under the watch of Liangchen and the wet nurse, were rolling around on old madam’s bed, making old madam smile so much that her eyes narrowed. She seemed in a very good mood.

In contrast, Lin shi’s mood was very bad. She didn’t like Shu Huan and Gu Xiran already. Now that they had given birth to Gu Yuan, a male offspring for Gu household, it irritated her even more. It was just that she herself wasn’t very capable so she was suppressed by this couple. She couldn’t make any troubles and was forced to stay low for so many years. She could only occasionally use words to criticize and vent her dissatisfaction.

At this moment, when she saw Shu Huan come in, she saw old madam’s smile became more and more amiable. Bitter words came out involuntarily, "Second young mistress is really busy. This whole day, we didn’t even catch a glimpse of your shadow and old madam also had to coax and plead for you to remember to come to pay your respect. It is not like me when I was the daughter-in-law...."

Shu Huan knew that she (L) was going to give her (L) prattle again. She (SH) could even recite it from her memory, so she was naturally impatient to wait for her (L) to finish. She (SH) only glanced at her (L) once and calmly said with a smile, "I’m clumsy, I’m just puttering around. If I have a third of madam’s cleverness, I probably wouldn’t have had to be so tired."

As soon as she said this, old madam sneered. Lin shi’s face changed a couple of times. She (L) knew that Shu Huan had stayed with Gu Xiran for a long time. That mouth of hers had also become more eloquent. She (L) knew that she was only inviting a snub if she continues to speak, so she just stayed silent and resentful.

On this side, Shu Huan paid her respect. While she was chatting with old madam, she was watching her children babbling and playing on the bed. After sitting for an hour, she saw that Gu Yuan and Gu Nian became hungry so she was preparing to get up and take the children back.

Old madam was still reluctant to part with them. Lin shi stood up, blocked the way and said, "Don’t go yet. While you are here, we can ask old madam to give justice to this matter."

There was a subtle and a faint ill meaning in her (L) words. Shu Huan couldn’t think of anything that would make her (L) say this. She couldn’t help but said softly, "Madam, please speak."

Lin shi raised her eyebrows and looked defiantly at Shu Huan and said, "It’s about Xihe! I don’t know what the matter is with him and your maid Shang Xin and I don’t want to look into whether that maid herself has errant thoughts or if she was instigated by others to hook up with him and if she wants to claim connections of higher status. In short, I want you to control that maid, and stop her from being unruly and hang around with Xihe all day. She’s turning a good boy all bad!"

Having spoken till here, before Shu Huan could speak, she took out a handkerchief, pretended to wipe her tears and said, "Old madam, please justify! Xihe is really possessed by this maid. You don’t know, he actually begged me last night to marry that maid. No matter how I scolded or beat him, he didn’t want to change his mind! What kind of family is our Gu household, how can I let a maid marry into the family? Moreover, I only have this son. I still have to rely on him for the rest of my life. I really don’t want him to marry a maid and ruin his future. Old madam, please, for the sake of your grandchild who you have always adored, pick a girl of equal social status, who is both virtuous and kind, and ask a matchmaker to go and propose marriage. Let him get married sooner to curb his playfulness!"