Chapter Sixty-Four: The Lobster

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“Yuting, haven’t you seen a doctor about this? Gotten some medicine or something?” Gu Xiaoxiao held Gao Yuting’s hand, her heart full of sympathy. This was just too unfortunate—her face was ruined, what would she do now!

Gao Yuting, her face drawn in misery, replied, “I’ve already gone. The doctors all say it’s an allergy, but have you ever seen an allergy like this? I’ve been using rouge and powder for years, I know which brands are good and which aren’t. But the moment I used the rouge from the Deng family’s shop, this happened!”

“It makes me so mad!” The more Gao Yuting thought about it, the angrier she became—she was about to explode!

“So what are you going to do now?” Gu Xiaoxiao was at a loss. Surely she couldn’t just sit and wait!

“There’s nothing else I can do. If it gets worse, I’ll have to go see Master Wuneng for treatment. Why am I so unlucky?” Another round of tearful complaints.

Gu Xiaoxiao thought, Poor kid! After comforting her, Gu Xiaoxiao noticed something.

“Hey, where did those two little ones go?” She realized the two children who had been trailing behind her had vanished without a trace.

“They probably went off to play somewhere,” Gao Yuting replied, still feeling low.

“All right, don’t worry. Why don’t you take me to your house? I heard your brother brought back some strange little creature from trading in the East—some kind of shrimp. Let’s go see it, maybe it’ll lift your spirits.” Gu Xiaoxiao pulled Gao Yuting along in search of this so-called creature.

“What creature? It’s got a proper name—it’s called a crayfish. The people from the East call it ‘Kesi’,” Gao Yuting rolled her eyes at Gu Xiaoxiao’s repeated “creature” remarks.

“Crayfish? Now I really want to see it. Let’s go!” With that, Gu Xiaoxiao dragged Gao Yuting off to see the famed crayfish.

Meanwhile, Lady Gao, her belly round and heavy, was slowly strolling through the garden. The child within had grown increasingly lively, keeping her awake with its antics. Today, seeing the fine weather, she decided to go out for some air, attended by Xiaocui.

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“By the way, how is Yuting’s face doing?” Thinking of her sister-in-law’s face, Lady Gao shook her head. She’d believed rumors and now was paying the price.

“Madam, Miss’s face is still the same. It doesn’t look any better,” Xiaocui answered honestly.

“How can that be? The medicine should have worked by now. Why isn’t it having any effect?”

“I wouldn’t know, Madam.”

“Sigh! It’s so worrying. Oh, right—how did my husband arrange that batch of goods he brought back?” Lady Gao remembered the bright red little creatures with their big pincers and couldn’t help but shudder.

“Madam, yesterday I overheard the young master’s servant saying those things are easy to keep. Just feed them a little and that’s it.”

“Is that so? Let’s go take a look—it’s not like there’s anything else to do.”

“But Madam, the young master—”

“No need to tell him. We’ll just be gone a little while,” she said, and the two of them headed to the back garden, where a special pond had been dug for the crayfish.

Fubao and Gu Li, meanwhile, were enjoying themselves, bouncing and skipping into the rear garden. As soon as they entered, Fubao caught a whiff of something.

“Ugh—what a terrible smell!” Fubao waved her hand in front of her nose.

Gu Li smelled the fishy odor too. Was there a fish farm here?

There were only a few servants in the yard. Perhaps the creatures were so easy to keep that no one bothered to steal them, and life was quite peaceful.

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Fubao was blocked by a crayfish, its bright red pincers raised and its antennae sticking out defiantly.

Fubao stared. Wait—this thing looked familiar!

Spotting the little creature in their path, Gu Li moved protectively in front of Fubao.

“Fubao, be careful. Let me handle this.” Gu Li had never seen such a thing before. It looked small, but those pincers could surely pinch someone. They weren’t just for show.

Gu Li circled behind the crayfish, planning to pick it up like a crab.

But the moment those tiny pincers clamped onto his thumb, Gu Li had only one thought—he wanted to call for his mother.

A howl escaped his lips.

Fubao was taken aback—oh dear!

This thing was annoying, always eating fish fry.

Troublesome!

Really, she could just stomp it flat! That was Fubao’s thought.