A Few Brains Short

"I'm too tired today. We'll talk about it tomorrow," Gu Wanning said.

She would still have to summon the four women and let them choose their own time slots, avoiding their periods.

Gu Wanning was reluctant to do it.

She felt like a pimp...

Fortunately, Xu Weibei seemed to hold her in contempt, so he probably wouldn't insist on sleeping with her.

If he made her take part in his game of wives and concubines too, Gu Wanning was ready to flip the table.

She'd stop living and start over!

She had given up trying, unaware that Xu Weibei was getting no peace in the outer study.

"Yes, Marquis. It's getting late. Please get some rest."

"Mm."

Gao Lan hurried to make Xu Weibei's bed.

Before he had finished, someone outside reported, "Marquis, First Concubine requests an audience."

"I won't see her!" Xu Weibei said with a sweep of his sleeve.

What did she want to see him for in the middle of the night?

She was surely offering herself for his bed.

He hated women who couldn't behave themselves.

The person outside hurriedly sent First Concubine away.

Gao Lan muttered, "First Concubine has a gentle nature and often looks after Fourth Concubine. The two are close. She usually behaves herself; I don't know why she's so impatient tonight."

As the marquis's number one lackey, he had to know everything about the household inside and out once they returned.

A while later, Second Concubine came as well.

Xu Weibei refused to relent and sent her away too.

"The next one won't be Third Concubine, will it? Did they plan this together today?" Gao Lan couldn't help muttering.

They had been quiet enough the past few days, and now, after only a few days, their fox tails were showing?

Tsk, tsk.

The marquis was amazing. He had only just returned, and the women of the household were already fighting over him.

Gao Lan's crow mouth was half right.

Someone else did come, but it was Fourth Concubine.

Xu Weibei could bear it no longer. "Get in here!"

He wanted to see just what these women were plotting today!

He even thought Gu Wanning had been too lenient with them, letting them come to the outer courtyard one after another in the dead of night to harass him without restraint.

Were there any rules left in this marquis's manor?

If nothing else worked, he would do as Gu Wanning did: simple and brutal, have them punished by kneeling!

Chapter 7: A Few Brains Short

Fourth Concubine entered, dressed in black martial attire of all things, with an expression of... utter bewilderment.

Yes, she wore those strange clothes and looked at Xu Weibei with two bewildered, foolish eyes, without even greeting him.

Gao Lan: What exactly is Fourth Concubine up to!

Does she think being different will attract the marquis's attention?

But Linglong often dresses like this, and the marquis is already immune.

"What," Xu Weibei said, "did you come to spar with me?"

In the middle of the night, these women were each crazier than the last.

As he saw it, when the upper beam was crooked, the lower beams would be askew; Gu Wanning had led these concubines astray too.

Only then did Fourth Concubine come to her senses. She stammered, but said loudly, "G-greetings, Marquis!"

The sound gave the unsuspecting Xu Weibei such a fright that he nearly threw the teacup in his hand.

Could she be a simpleton?

He had originally intended to take only three concubines, but Zhou Yaya had been forced on him.

Otherwise, how could he have been interested in a thirteen-year-old girl?

He wasn't a beast.

"Why have you come to see me dressed like that in the middle of the night?" Xu Weibei's voice was icy.

Fourth Concubine: Can I say that?

"Tell the truth!" Xu Weibei saw her eyes darting and guessed she was going to lie, so he couldn't help reprimanding her.

Fourth Concubine said, "I, this servant went to talk to First Concubine, but her maid said, said she'd come to see you. Then this servant went to find Second Concubine, and they said she'd come to see you too... So this servant thought, if everyone else came, wouldn't it be bad if I didn't?"

Xu Weibei: "..."

She was a fool.

She doesn't think First Concubine and Second Concubine came to see me in the middle of the night for a feast, and she's come to join in, does she?

"As for these clothes," Fourth Concubine said, sounding a little aggrieved, "Madam won't let us visit each other in private, so I—no, this servant—could only sneak around."

Xu Weibei thought that having a few wits about one might not be a bad thing.

Because being short of a few brains really was deadly.

His aversion to fools was about to flare up again.

"Go back to your quarters now. You're confined there!" Xu Weibei said, enunciating each word.

The person who had entrusted her to his care should be back soon.

That person had better take her away quickly. He couldn't stand it.

Fourth Concubine was instantly aggrieved and muttered, "Must I be confined? This servant didn't know I wasn't allowed to come. If I'd known, I wouldn't have come... How about you have someone hit me a few times instead? Please don't confine me."

Not letting her go out would be the death of her.

Gao Lan took one look at Xu Weibei's expression and immediately sensed trouble. He promptly shooed her out. "Military orders are as immovable as mountains. There's no bargaining."

"If only I were one of the marquis's soldiers," Fourth Concubine muttered.

She wanted to go into battle and kill enemies too.

Gao Lan: Ancestress, could you please shut your mouth?

Of the women in the manor, only Third Concubine seemed a little smarter and less troublesome now.

Xu Weibei couldn't let it go. The next day, he sent someone to tell all the women in the rear courtyard that none of them were allowed to visit her at the outer study; anyone who disobeyed would have her legs broken on the spot!

Gu Wanning received the notice too.

Er Ya was baffled. "What's gotten into the marquis so early in the morning?"

"It's nothing," Gu Wanning said knowingly as she combed her hair. "He surely wouldn't shoot an arrow without a target. I imagine someone went to pour her heart out to the marquis last night, and he found her noisy."

She herself had withdrawn from the contest, but wasn't it only natural for the other four to compete for his favor?

Perhaps they thought Xu Weibei hadn't touched a woman in a long time and wanted to seize the advantage.

But didn't they stop to think how Xu Weibei could possibly have gone without a woman these past three years?

If she remembered correctly, Xu Weibei did have a "bedroom companion" by his side.