Chapter 19

When Mi Yao woke up the next day, no one was beside her.

As the sky gradually brightened, she realized the advantages of Xiao Chua.

He was morally corrupt, but since there were no elders in the Xiao family, even if she married him, she wouldn't need to get up early to pay her respects or observe proper etiquette; she could simply turn over and continue sleeping.

But when she woke up again after a good night's sleep and saw the figure in front of her bed, she couldn't help but blink hard.

"I thought you died in your dream."

Xiao Chuan's voice was no longer hoarse from the night; his magnetic voice was like icicles that had formed on the eaves overnight, cold and hard.

"Get dressed and come over when you wake up."

After speaking, Xiao Chuan went to the outer room to sit down. Mi Yao rang a bell to summon a maid to serve him. Knowing that someone was waiting outside, she didn't fuss over it. In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, she was dressed up and sat down in front of Xiao Chuan.

"Does my lord not need to go on errands today?"

"My father has given me three days off. Tomorrow you will come with me to the envoy's residence."

He had originally planned to go today, but Mi Yao still hadn't woken up by lunchtime. He wasn't planning to come over, but he overheard the servants gossiping in the courtyard, saying that he had kept Mi Yao up all night and that they could hear her begging for mercy and screaming in pain.

He turned and went into the house, wanting to see what the field he had overgrown looked like now.

Before Mi Yao opened her eyes, he lifted the blanket and touched the marks on her snow-white skin, which surprised him somewhat.

Last night, he felt that he used less force than the raccoon dog when it bit the cub's neck, but who knew that after one night, red and purple hickeys covered Mi Yao's neck and chest, with a few bite marks that hadn't faded.

In this situation, he lost the idea of ​​waking her up, but to his surprise, Mi Yao opened her eyes the next moment.

Upon hearing that she was to pay her respects to Zhao Tianhe, Mi Yao immediately understood the meaning behind the disgust in Xiao Chuan's eyes when she woke up.

They probably just thought she was sleeping too long and was delaying their business.

"If there are any occasions in the future where you need me to appear, just call me a day in advance. Although I love to sleep, it's not difficult for me to get up early once in a while."

Hearing that she took sleeping in late for granted, Xiao Chuan scoffed lightly: "Have the servants clean the room next door. I don't like sleeping with others, so you'll move there tonight. Also, have someone restore this room to its original state, remove the red silk and candles, and if you like, you can move into your room."

Xiao Chuan clearly hadn't forgotten Mi Yao's promise made on the bed last night.

After giving these instructions, he moved the mother-of-pearl box next to Mi Yao and said, "Inside are the account books and the warehouse key. Now that you've had a good sleep and a meal, you can go and reconcile the accounts with the accountant. Managing the household affairs is a job you've taken on yourself. If you neglect your duties in the future, I will punish you."

How did it become a job she took on? It was clearly a compromise she made because she didn't want to be stabbed to death.

"I don't believe Xiao Lang would be willing to punish me."

Mi Yao gave a soft snort and moved her stool next to Xiao Chuan. Seeing his ambiguous smile, she simply pressed her index finger to his lips to avoid hearing anything unpleasant.

"If you've given me the power, what about the money? A man as generous and dignified as you wouldn't expect me to be treated like a servant, receiving a monthly allowance, would he?"

Mi Yao released her fingers from Xiao Chuan's thin lips and looked at him expectantly.

You may use the gold and silver in the account at will.

After Xiao Chuan finished speaking, Mi Yao waited, thinking he would mention a limitation. However, after several breaths, Xiao Chuan did not say anything more.

Unrestricted, arbitrary use?

Mi Yao's eyes suddenly lit up, bright as the rising sun: "Xiao Lang, you are so good to me. It is my blessing to have met you in this life."

She reached out and hugged Xiao Chuan's neck, and seeing that he didn't object, she kissed him on the cheek.

“My lord, you have been so good to me. If you do anything wrong in the future, I will not hold a grudge against you.”

Since he had let Mi Yao move next door, Xiao Chuan had planned to stop being intimate with her. But now, seeing her tilting her head back and pouting, his gaze traveled from her eyes down to her lips. By the time he came to his senses, he had already leaned down and bit her lip.

Mi Yao groaned in pain before he slowly raised his head.

“From now on, we will share a room on the first and fifteenth of each month, just like last night.”

Upon hearing this, Mi Yao was taken aback. Shouldn't the first and fifteenth of the lunar month be for burning incense, offering wine, and praying to gods and Buddhas? Why was it the other way around for Xiao Chuan?

Like last night, is it just rubbing against me without going in?

Their eyes met, and Xiao Chuan didn't give her a chance to object. After giving the order, he left the room decisively.

“Sister, my brother-in-law’s servant told us to clean up the side rooms in the courtyard. He said it was my brother-in-law’s order for you to move to the side rooms to live in later.”

As soon as Xiao Chua left, Yu Xiu rushed into the house. She hurriedly finished speaking, and her eyes fell on the red marks on Mi Yao's neck that were not well concealed. Seeing her abnormally red lips, Yu Xiu exclaimed in surprise, her eyes filled with tears: "Brother-in-law has bullied my sister! How could brother-in-law do such a thing? My sister is so beautiful, yet he still bullies her."

She didn't want the young girl, who hadn't reached marriageable age, to know too much about matters between men and women. Last night, she specifically instructed Yu Xiu not to go into the house with Shuang Hua and the others this morning, so as not to see anything that she would have to explain.

Who knew that she skipped changing clothes but forgot to pull up her collar to cover up her flaws.

"Moving to the side room wasn't because the town magistrate was bullying me, but because I didn't want to suffer."

Something that big can be inserted anywhere, except into her body.

Remembering Xiao Chuan's requests before he left, Mi Yao first instructed the servants to restore the house to its original state.

"Why would you take the wedding silk so early? It should be hung up for at least three days, if not half a month."

Although Mi Yao didn't say anything, Yu Xiu still found Xiao Chuan strange. He didn't love such a beautiful woman, but instead got angry with her older sister and deliberately embarrassed her, making himself a laughingstock for others.

"Whether we hang the wedding banner or not, it's all settled. We don't need to take down the red lanterns in the mansion; they'll be ready for the New Year. But we can take down the double happiness symbols."

As Mi Yao spoke, she opened the box Xiao Chuan had brought, opened the ledger, and after seeing the amounts on the ledger, she remained silent for a moment.

"What's wrong, sister?"

Mi Yao looked serious. Yu Xiu approached blankly. As a concubine's daughter, she had never learned household management or arithmetic in the Yu family, so she naturally couldn't understand the account book and didn't understand what Mi Yao had seen.

“Xiu’er, remember not to speak ill of your brother-in-law in the future. He is a very good person.”

When Xiao Chuan said to take whatever he wanted, she thought he had two ledgers, and that the Xiao family's accounts wouldn't be too few, but they wouldn't be too many either.

Who knew that the accounts showed an outrageous amount of gold and silver, including 120,000 taels of silver and 80,000 taels of gold.

Did he somehow manage to mine gold? How come he has so much gold hoarded at home?

Putting down the ledger, she opened the notebook recording the warehouse inventory. To keep herself from getting too excited, she held Yu Xiu's hand tightly.

As expected of the male lead, he's really rich.

It is estimated that this mansion was originally confiscated by Xiao Chuan, and Zhao Tianhe did not make him hand over anything, so the Xiao family's storeroom has a wide variety of items, covering rare treasures from all over the country.

However, the people who kept the storeroom records were clearly different. The earlier person recorded in detail, while the later person was not refined and would only record a piece of calligraphy or painting and a piece of porcelain vase, without describing in detail what kind of vase or calligraphy or painting it was. If the person guarding the storeroom had ulterior motives, they could easily replace the items in the storeroom.

"Let's clear out the side rooms completely first, no rush to furnish them. Let's go to the storeroom and replace whatever looks good with them."

Mi Yao became more and more excited as she looked at the items. She took a white mink fur cloak with red trim and gold flecks and planned to go to the storeroom to clean up the items.

She had barely reached the courtyard when she felt a heavy weight on her leg.

Looking down, I saw Little Radish dressed in padded cotton clothes.

"Missing me?"

Seeing Xiao Shan clinging to her leg, Mi Yao laughed.

Xiao Shan nodded vigorously, pointed to the cloak she was wearing, and then pointed to her own clothes.

The Xiao family was overjoyed. Today, apart from Xiao Chuan, who was wearing a dark green brocade robe, everyone else was beaming with happiness. Not only was Xiao Shan wearing a red jacket, but Xiao Yi and Xiao Liang were also wearing red silk gourd-patterned robes.

"Greetings, Mother. May you be blessed."

Seeing Xiao Yi pull his younger brother to kneel down as soon as he came up, Mi Yao stopped him.

Xiao Yi thought that Mi Yao was married to her father but still didn't want to hear them call her mother. He thought his younger brother would probably be sad and disappointed again. Then he heard Mi Yao say, "If you want to pay your respects, then go inside and do it properly. Why don't you do it here? I don't have anything in my pocket. Even if you pay your respects, I won't have any gifts to give you."

Upon hearing Mi Yao's words, Xiao Liang's eyes widened in surprise: "Mother is going to give us gifts?"

“Yesterday I married your father, and from now on you will be my children. Since that’s the case, you come to see me today and pay your respects, so I will naturally give you a gift.”

Once inside, Shuanghua brought her a kneeling mat. Seeing the three little boys kowtowing to her, Mi Yao truly felt like an elder.

A seventeen-year-old woman having a seven-year-old son is utterly depraved.

The gift had been prepared in advance.

After waking the three of them, Mi Yao began to present gifts to them one by one, according to their age and seniority.

Each person received a red-gold collar adorned with a mythical beast. Xiao Yi also received a set of the Four Treasures of the Study, Xiao Liang received a jade nine-linked ring, and Xiao Shan received a miniature silver tea set, a smaller version of the normal version, which could be used as decoration or for children to play house together.

The crimson gold necklace was provided by the Yu family, while the others were things she bought on her way to Yizhou that she found interesting, and now she could use them as gifts.

Aside from Xiao Yi, who remained composed and didn't examine the gift closely, the two younger children held their gifts and looked at them again and again. Xiao Shan then placed the gifts directly on the chaise lounge and started playing with them.

"Have your nanny put the things back in the house. There's no rush to play now. Let's go to the storeroom and see what good things we have at home."

She originally felt that she had made a huge mistake by compromising last night, and wanted to pretend with Xiao Chua that there was only a housekeeper and no nanny involved.

But when Xiao Yi said that they came to pay their respects to her early in the morning, they encountered Xiao Chuan, who said that she was still asleep and that he would send someone to call them over to pay their respects when she woke up.

She knew that although Xiao Chua was a military general, he was like a businessman who would hold on to his profits and wouldn't give her a chance to pretend that nothing had happened.

Since that's the case, she can't be thorough in everything, but she has to put on a good show. When she went out again, she had three bright red, cheerful radishes with her, and the group of people went to the storeroom to take stock of Xiao Chu's belongings.

*

Seeing Mi Yao's movements, Pu Qing couldn't help but say to his master with unease, "The scouts investigating Yu Nu have returned and said that Yu Nu is deeply devoted to her lover. The Yu Nu described in their accounts is different from the Yu Nu in the manor. I'm afraid that Yu Nu is putting on an act in front of the magistrate to lower his guard and avenge Huan Guanbin. The magistrate gave Yu Nu the keys to the storeroom and the manor's account books. If she has any ulterior motives..."

As Pu Qing spoke, he felt that even heroes have difficulty resisting the charms of a beautiful woman.

His master was exceptionally brave and had never been like those lustful men who had interfered with important matters.

But this time, after only consummating his marriage with Yu, he deviated from his original plan and handed over all his wealth to Yu.

As a loyal servant, he felt it was his responsibility to advise his master, so he could only speak ill of Yu Nu while feeling uneasy.

After he finished speaking, he was afraid that his master would be bewitched by Yu Nu and would scold him for being nosy. But then he heard his master say, "It would not be a bad thing if we could stir up her disloyalty."

If she doesn't reveal her disloyalty, what reason does he have to punish her?

He only intended to treat her as a decoration before marrying her, but she was too unlikable. Every word she said seemed obedient, but it made people want to beat her up.

But how could he possibly punish her for no reason?

We can only give her a chance to learn from her mistakes.