MHNEB 33 (1/2)

Book 2: Generals die after a hundred battles; heroes return after ten years’ time.

Chapter 33: The Biggest Inconveniences of Ones’ Life [Part 1 of 2]

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"Mulan......" Yuan-shi was pushed out by Hua father and went to the kitchen with her daughter. She saw that her daughter grabbed another bowl. She cannot help but wonder what her daughter was doing with the two bowls. At the same time, she asked her daughter with some hesitation quietly: 

"Yesterday's child is your companion’s son. Today's little gentleman is…..."

With this child sitting by their dining table, how can people eat peacefully?!

By looking at his eating posture, all of them felt that they are servants that accidentally climbed up the table!

By looking at his eating posture, her whole family appeared to be cavemen that were caught from the mountains!

He Mulan also regretted that she kept the child without consulting her father and mother. The main reason she kept him was that she could not stand You Ke’s pleading eyes. Moreover, she thought that if You Ke needs to go to the capital for a long period of time, the child would be troublesome to deal with. 

In case the child was to be left without a home, a dandy like him would definitely have even his pants stripped cleanly and the child would be sold to others. If that were the case, she would have greatly sinned.

But since he had already stayed here, it would be useless to keep discussing this matter. 

"This is He Guang, the cousin of County Magistrate You. Because of the matter of the LuShuihus, he is going to the capital. For this period of time, he has no choice but to place him here, his family will pick him up after a couple of days." He Mulan handed the rice bowl to her mother. "Mother, add more rice for little Zhuo. I think he didn't have enough."

"Eh? I think he's full......"

No one would put down his chopsticks when he is not full.

"I saw that he is constantly staring at He Guang's bowl. He is not full."

"It's really……Haiz, I thought......" Yuan-shi took the bowl and filled the bowl to the brim for A-Dan Zhuo. "I thought that the son of your companion or this young master came to be your son…..."

After He Mulan heard what Hua Mother said, the bowl in her hands almost slipped out. 

"Mom, you’re speaking nonsense again, in their family, they also have a mother, why would they run over to my home to become my son in perfectly good condition! Besides, I can't afford to raise such a tender young lad like He Guang.”

"I’m merely thinking about it. I don't think it's strange that even the Yulin lads that were stationed by the Emperor came to ask you to marry them. It wouldn’t be strange if there were a few other young boys that came to be your son..." Yuan-shi murmured while helping He Mulan support the bowls in her hands. 

"You think too much! That can be the same!"

"This young man can speak the Xianbei language so well, I thought he learned it especially for you…..."

Yuan-shi is no longer surprised by her daughter's powerful fans, but she also by the tendency blindly imagining. 

One is afraid that even if the Emperor stands at her door and asks her to return to become a general tomorrow, the entire Hua family would not be surprised.

He Mulan grabbed the rice bowl and returns to the room. She hands the bowl to A-Dan Zhuo. 

"Eh? Aunt Hua, I am full! I-I...... "

"What are you talking about? You ate three bowls last night, and why are you eating only one bowl today? Now, it’s the period of time where you’re growing. It's only right to eat more. " He Mulan frowned and stared at A-Dan Zhuo, who did not dare to speak again. He took the bowl obediently and bowed his head as he started to eat. 

"I'm full." He Guang also puts his chopsticks down and nodded politely to the several adults of Hua family.

"Eh, little brother, why did you just eat vegetables and not meat…..." Hua younger brother has been paying attention to He Guang and found that he has never touched his family’s meat and fish dishes. "At your age, if you don’t eat meat, you’d have no strength!” 

He Mulan also topped up another bowl of rice to herself. When he heard Hua younger brother's words, she couldn't help looking to He Guang.

His bowl is really clean. He only asked for half a bowl of rice, but the bowl after eating is not greasy at all. Come to think of it, it would make Hua Mother’s task of washing the dishes easier. 

He Mulan looked at A-Dan Zhuo again.

There was a small heap of meat bones in front of him on the table.

How terrible!

A-Dan Zhuo has felt his heart tightened. He stealthily covers the bones with a bowl.

This kid is so cunning! He actually used the tactic of not eating meat!

He Mulan's personality is rather straightforward. Seeing that He Guang doesn't eat meat, she directly asked: 

"Why? Is our meat not to your taste?"

To be honest, she doesn't like to eat the meat here. In this era, the way of making meat is simple, mainly cooking and steaming, and the meat is mainly mutton. Therefore, what she likes most is the dried meat here. At least it tastes delicious and does not smell greasy.

However, since the Hua family is relatively well-off, with the financial support of He Mulan who is not happy without eating meat, the number of times they ate meat was more than an ordinary family. What is more, there is also the problem of a different point of views. He Mulan, who has been used to having meat in every meal, has not yet adapted to the habit of only eating meat before the Spring Festival in the countryside. When eating meat, or at least pork, she has no psychological burden as well. 

Hua family members always thought that Hua Mulan who had been able to climb up to become the Valiant General, would not worry about her food and drink, so they would rather suffer a little and so that their daughter would not suffer hunger or not eat her fill. Also, Hua Mulan gave the Hua family enough cloth to support their meal expenses, so Hua family would not try to scrimp and save.

Although there is Hua Mulan's financial support provided to A-Dan Zhuo's family, they would not be at peace using other people’s money after all. Besides, the monthly cost of A-Dan Zhuo's learning of a craft is not small. If he wants meat every day, then he would not even need to think about learning a craft. 

A kid who is seventeen or eighteen years old is at the age where he could even eat grass. Seeing the meat dish, naturally, he wouldn’t be able to resist eating it. 

Compared with A-Dan Zhuo, whose age differs by a little, He Guang's behaviour becomes strange.

But when he heard He Mulan's question, he didn't show any change in expression. Instead, he calmly puts his hands together and whispered with devout countenance: "My paternal grandmother passed away a few years ago. She believed in Buddhism when she was alive. I vowed to be a vegetarian for my grandmother for three years to be filial."

"Ah, that's why you wear your hair…..." A-Dan Zhuo has always wondered why the young man was dressed in the clothes of the Han-ren, but he wore his hair up. He did not look like he did not obey the rules, but he was actually being filial! 

When He Guang heard A-Dan Zhuo's words, he did not answer his questions straightforwardly. He Guang just made a few random humming sounds.

Han-ren really emphasizes on filial piety, but Xianbei-ren does not pay so much attention to this. But in any case, people who are willing to be filial are always worthy of praise.

Filial children should not be too bad. Hua family member suddenly felt a sense of goodwill for him. They immediately praised him. 

After He Guang finished his meal, he watched with curiosity as He Mulan’s family started to eat again. 

He Mulan was who had been stared till she felt her hair stood up placed her chopsticks down. 

"What are you looking at?"

"I'm looking at the famous General Hua. The manner that she eats is no different than that of ordinary people……”

He thought that people with such great strength should eat four or five bowls in a meal. As a result, she did not eat as much as the tanned skin boy next to her. 

He Mulan rolled her eyes in annoyance. 

"If we the amount of food we eat is equalled to how big our strength is, my little brother, will be the strongest in our family."

Hua MuTuo looked up and foolishly giggled.

He has to do a lot of work during the day. If he really wants to be able to openly eat, he can eat three or four bowls of millet rice more.

Fang-shi is now having morning sickness. Whenever she smells any smoke or grease, she would vomit badly. She eats alone in the room every day now and life is very hard for her. He Mulan is considerate for Fang-shi that was carrying a baby in her body. Now, Hua mother needs to take care of the old ones as well as the small ones. When all the people finished eating, she took A-Dan Zhuo and He Guang to her big house and cleaned up the room beside her room. She pointed one chi high short bed.

"I'm the only one living in my house, so I haven't cleaned other rooms. Temporarily, the other rooms would not be able to be stayed in. There is only a platform bed here, but it's big enough to sleep for both of you. From this day on, both of you can sleep together. " She looked at the faces that were as bitter as a bitter melon of the two children, and blinked, "What’s the problem?"

He Guang doesn't dare to say that he wants to sleep alone. Hua Mulan is the kind of cold tempered and persistent person. He has tried. It's useless for him to be coquettish, and it's useless to be good-natured, but he’d be appreciated by her more if he acts like this tan-skinned lad A-Dan Zhuo, who is sincere. 

There is a ready-made example here, he naturally looked at A-Dan Zhuo honestly: "I sleep alone at home, if I suddenly need to sleep with others, I’d be very not used to it."

"Me too…..." A-Dan Zhuo scratched his head.

When He Mulan saw that the two children were unwilling, she folded her arms and stood up. She raised her chin slightly and asked He Guang.

"Do you snore? Grind your teeth? Pick your feet? Talk in your sleep? Sleepwalk? "

He Guang was given a shock and shook his head.

"Very good. What about you? " He Mulan asked A-Dan Zhuo.

A-Dan Zhuo swallowed a mouthful of saliva and replied in an indeterminate way: "I-I…...have sweaty feet. My mother said when I was very tired, I would snore. As for grinding my teeth, I will not do it. Talking in my sleep……I don’t know if I will talk in my sleep. "

Every time A-Dan Zhuo said a something, He Guang's face would wrinkle more. When A-Dan Zhuo finished speaking, his face was almost wrinkled into a small bun. 

"When both of you enlist, you will find that your companions are all strange people who snore, grind their teeth, pick their feet, talk in sleep, have bad breath, blatantly hug people, and would suddenly sit up and run around in the middle of the night." He Mulan sneered. "It's a good thing to get used to it now. At that time, no one would allow you to change your barracks."

A-Dan Zhuo is frightened by the description of "Aunt Hua", but He Guang gazed at He Mulan thoughtfully and asked her, "If we meet such a situation, what should we do?"

"Bear with it!" He Mulan knelt on the ground and took a dog skin quilt that she pulled out of the cupboard. She gave a pat to the quilt, "If you really cannot bear it, try to rise up in your ranks. When you rise up to the rank of Martial Calvary Military Officer, the tent would only be shared by two people.”

A-Dan Zhuo took the skin quilt and nodded his head hurriedly.

"Aunt Hua, I'll try my best to rise up to Martial Calvary Military Officer as soon as possible!"

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Fleur's Corner:

Please let me know if anyone of you spots any grammatical errors or any sentence that does not make sense. When I'm translating, I tend to miss out on certain errors from time to time (orz, sorry I'm just a careless person), so if anyone of you spots it, feel free to let me know so I can make the necessary edits. 

Next Update: 3/5. 

[Also, for people intending to retranslate my translated chapters, please read this. Please do not contact me through the comments section regarding the re-translations again. Once again, I'd like to emphasize that contact me through my ASK on Tumblr! Thank you!]

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