Didn't Know General Was Female Chapter 36

[Alternate t.i.tle: You Jinru
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“Ah-Luo, how about we set up a little banquet this time?” The frequently-idle Rong Jiahui suggested, stemming from a recent overwhelming victory.

She also really wants to invite extra people for a sit-down so she can practice her skills for it in advance. Being the future hostess of Marquis Dingyuan's household, she'll want to be a step better at it when she has to prepare feasts and deal with people.

Yet, this time, there doesn't really need to be ‘extra' people invited; she can just casually invite a few who she's familiar with. Jiahui's of n.o.ble birth, after all, and even if she didn't learn something well, she's still learned it. It's not bad enough to the point where she wouldn't be able to make all this happen.

Zhongli Luo always listens to whatever she says, so she nods in response without any hesitation at all. “Do as you like. You don't need to ask me like this in the future, if you want to do something then you can just do it.”

“Those are your words, then,” Jiahui said coyly. “If the day comes where I blow the roof off, you can't say a thing to me!”

“I won't say anything to you even if you blow up the house,” Zhongli Luo follows up.

Jiahui promptly punched her in rebuke. What c.r.a.p is that? Seriously? Is that what kind of person she is?

Though normally not much of one to rely on, Jiahui genuinely didn't have any slip-ups when making up her little banquet. This is the Northwest anyways, so there's no importance attached to customs. There's basically no customs at all, in fact. She simply invited everyone, even their wives.

At this event, all the men are Zhongli Luo's colleagues and all the women are Rong Jiahui's sisters, resulting in greatly harmonious circle they're all sitting in.

However, none of them expected that, in the middle of everyone's eating, a surprise guest would appear at the doorway.

Jiahui walked over, looking at Mu Qian with some confusion. How odd. Did she invite him?

Those that had been dining with gusto in the courtyard saw him come in and reined themselves in in an instant. Mu Qian's rank is extremely high, and the disparity he has between the rest of them isn't short.

“General Mu,” everyone greets stiffly, cupping their hands.

He acted as if he didn't see them and paid them no attention. He smiled somewhat shyly, pa.s.sing a paper bundle he held over to Jiahui. “I just happened to be on the way when I saw this and bought it. It's not Gui Yunzhai's work from the capital, but it'll do…”

She stared at the neatly laid-out pastries wrapped in oiled paper. Gui Yunzhai? She has some kind of recollection of that name, as her papa had bought her a cake from them once when she was little. However… she also recalls that that store's been shut down for nearly ten years now. It seems like he isn't aware of that, judging from his tone.

She sniffs at the contents of the bundle. Seems to be an ube pastry…

“Sorry, General,” she speaks up, wrinkling her nose, “I never eat ube pastries. I appreciate your offer of this snack, but you can have it back.”

He paused, somewhat awkwardly and slowly withdrawing his hand. “Sorry.”

He had thought that what she had liked back then would also be liked by this girl with a striking resemblance to her. His want to see her smile as she holds something she loves is something he now realizes is nothing more than wishful thinking.

At this moment, Tan Jun, who had been observing The Enemy's status, tugged at Zhongli Luo, who was leaning forward after only drinking two cups again. “Zhong, my boy, what'll you do? Looks like there's someone who wants to dig out your corner over there! General Mu's background is better than yours, and so is his rank! You're a bit left to dry, here!”

Zhongli Luo just looked at him, head tilted. “Huh?”

Tan Jun lifted her dim-witted-looking self and pointed in Jiahui's direction. “Look, you! Listen to your brother here! Your lady hasn't married and gone home with you yet! Hurry, get up! You're a bit shorter than him, but you look way better!”

With his constant droning in her ear, Zhongli Luo looked past him somewhat impatiently, then about 80% of her intoxication was immediately done away with. What was someone like Mu Qian talking to Jiahui about? She had thought before that the b.a.s.t.a.r.d didn't have any good intentions, but didn't expect it to actually be true.

Jiahui noticed Mu Qian's sad look and found it difficult to look at, thusly deciding to probe something out. “General Mu, are you thinking of someone you used to know through me? Is she… surnamed Yu?”

This guy… can't be after Yixiang's skirts, right? The age gaps seems a bit too big.

Mu Qian shook his head. “She isn't.”

She's actually not? That promptly confounded her. If her surname wasn't Yu, what was he doing asking if that was her own surname before? It scared her to death at the time.

Mu Qian looked down at the ube pastries he held, then suddenly asked, “Miss, are you Minor General Zhongli's wife?”

Jiahui quickly shook her head, but then nodded after thinking about it. “Not yet, but I will be soon,” she said with a grin.

His brows creased. Just as he went to say something, Zhongli Luo had already come over with a slightly teetering gait. She wrapped her arms around Jiahui's neck and whispered a question, “Jiahui, what are you doing here?”

Jiahui nearly tumbled and fell from being abruptly pounced on, helplessly patting the head of the one behind her. “Was it two cups or three?”

“Two,” Zhongli Luo said with complete honesty.

Jiahui has no words. That alcohol tolerance is even worse than her own…

Mu Qian felt that the way the two looked right now was hurting his eyes. But…

“What did you call her, General Zhongli?”

As if she just now noticed he was here, Zhongli Luo raised her head with astonishment. “Oh? Oh, General Mu's here too. It's below your honor to step into my humble home, you truly bring light to this place with your presence…”

He ignored her drunk rant and kept on asking, “Did you call her Jiahui?”

“Jiahui, Jiahui…”

Mulling over the name for a long time, he seemed to think of something, then asked Jiahui, “What's your relations.h.i.+p with Marquis Zhenguo's household, and with Rong Jiaze?”

Jiahui… Jiaze…

Shouldn't he have thought of this long ago, really? The You family had no girls for several generations until a Young Mistress of the Yu family married into it, and only then was there finally his Jinru, who resembled her mother. That's why his first thought was that this young lady was a daughter of the Yu family, and when he knew that she wasn't, he was slightly disappointed. What he hadn't thought of then was the other possibility that she was the daughter of Marquis Zhenguo's family, and in that case, their similarities make sense. He'd also simply never thought that a Marquis's daughter would be over here; how could one ever fearlessly travel over from countless li away to come and suffer in this d.a.m.ned place? He just thought– he just thought that she was a woman from a side-branch of the Yu family due to the haunting bit of visage of her bloodline making her look somewhat like Jinru, but it turns out it's because she's the child of a Yu woman, isn't it?

As he'd already brought out the names of Marquis Zhenguo and her little brother, her typically-frank self didn't think much of it and readily admitted to it all. “He's my little brother, General. Do you know him?”

Mu Qian shook his head. “I don't know him personally, but I went to his first birthday.”

He remembers back then, at the Marquis's son's birthday party, he'd met Count Guangding's eldest daughter, You Jinru. She was the younger maternal cousin of the Marquis's wife, Mrs. Yu. The cousins were close, and their appearances were so similar that they looked like true sisters. It's little wonder, then, that the Marquis's Young Mistress currently looks quite a bit like Jinru.

However, upon recalling what transpired afterwards, it feels like something sharp is caught in his throat. It seems like he can still see the maddened look the reigning emperor had way back when, and through the l.u.s.ter of blood at the corner of his eye, saw that emperor's Third Prince talking to him; saying that he would take away his power, his n.o.bility, his true love…

Having his heart ice over completely.

And the reason why that all was so is only because he was subjected to praise for his rare talents in all aspects, only because the Imperial Teacher had determined very early on that he would have the ability to rule the world if he could, only because the Late Emperor had once made many half-jokes that it was a shame he wasn't born of the imperial family…

“Miss Rong, how is the Imperial Concubine?”

There has only ever been one Imperial Concubine in the Emperor's palace, so Jiahui knows exactly who he's referring. The shroud that'd been covering everything immediately lifted.

She bit her lip, the knuckles on her hand that was holding Zhongli Luo going faintly white.

She didn't really want to answer, but how can she effectively conceal it from him now that he's asked? All that'll be is unnecessarily suspicious. “General Mu,” she says, face pinched, “she was never a concubine. My aunt's already pa.s.sed for almost two years now, and the emperor… gave her the t.i.tle posthumously…”

She's already pa.s.sed… not a word of whatever content followed reached Mu Qian. Quite a time later, he pressed a hand to his face, unable to keep a cold laugh from leaking out. He laughed and laughed, yet there was no sound.

So she's dead.

It's been so long, and no one ever told him.

Beyond that, in these dozen or so years, no one's ever brought up half a sentence about in her in front of him, as if what had happened that year never was and was nothing more than a daydream of his.

He still remembers that time, the wind and snow heavy. He endured the cold and braved the large drifts to snap off a branch of the most beautiful plum blossoms for her. He'd given her a solemn vow that when the blossoms withered, he would come to their door to ask for her hand in marriage. He had said it like it was set in stone, but at the end of it all, it was reduced to a futile wish.

He never dared to ask Jinru even half a question about this. He didn't know if that move would spread to outward ears, or if it would bring harm to her, so he chose to say nothing. There's endless li between the Northwest and the capital, and the majority of the people here are impoverished commonfolk, so of course no one would come and tell him about things happening in the latter place. Only now does he suddenly understand, upon seeing Rong Jiahui's strong resemblance, how deeply he misses her…

His terrifying appearance scared Jiahui a bit. Thinking of how to console the other, she asked, “General Mu, do you know about the hairpin she left behind?”

Mu Qian was shocked. “What did you say?”

“The last time she saw my mother, my aunt gave her something to keep safe,” Jiahui said. “I'm guessing you might know of it.”

It really wasn't any sort of rare object, and Jiahui hadn't understood the meaning behind it in the past. All her mother would say when asked is that she didn't know, either. As of today, she gets the sense that it might have something to do with the man in front of her.

Mu Qian startled for a moment, then let out a bitter laugh. So he wasn't the only one suffering for so many years. Even with exceptional looks, being the most favored of the imperial harem, and the subject of everyone's envy, she was actually bitter, too, in the innermost depths of her heart…

Jinru…

After giving Jiahui a powerless look, he softly sighed.

“Sorry for bothering you,” was all he could say.

He turned around, holding You Jinru's favorite ube pastries like a treasure, each step containing extreme weight as he walked away.

Jiahui watched his retreating figure. “Ah-Luo,” she spoke up, “should I not have said that? Did I do something wrong?”

No one replied.

She pursed her lips and swiveled her head around, wanting to get angry, only to see that the person hanging on her had already fallen asleep and wasn't moving a muscle. Not a single ounce of shame in this one, really.

The author says: All this nonsense just for big sister to get her promotion and salary raise ASAP. Her big military action is on the way~
The translator says: That's rough, buddy.