Chapter 29 "Just kidding?"

A few days later, Cuscuta finally found a small bottle of aphrodisiac in some unknown corner. The drug had a very strong smell, and Leng Cuizhu initially thought it was chicken droppings.

But the dodder insisted that it was a fragrant aphrodisiac, and there was nothing she could do about it.

After obtaining the medicine, Leng Cuizhu's next plan required her to deceive Yin Yuan. Therefore, she had no choice but to pay attention to that unyielding man for the sake of the mission.

However, Yin Yuan inexplicably ignored her attempts to be friendly.

“My lady, you’ve been standing here for quite a while now. Master won’t get off the carriage to see you. You should go back now and avoid getting caught in the rain and catching a cold.”

"Master has to go to the yamen and really has no time to see you, Madam."

Leng Cuizhu stood in the rain, with her guards holding umbrellas for her and offering her advice.

She gazed at the carriage parked not far away, its silhouette blurred by the rain and mist.

What happened to Yin Yuan?

She touched the hibiscus flower hairpin in her hair, her hair disheveled, and lowered her head, saying, "Alright, then I'll go back."

She turned and walked into the mansion, braving the rain to return, while the guards holding umbrellas beside her remained frozen in place.

"Hey, my lady, no... are you really going back? No, please, please, please..."

The rain was heavy, and she wasn't using an umbrella. She was soaked to the bone in no time, and the flower in her hair wilted and fell to the ground with a thud.

She acted as if nothing had happened, bending down to pick up flowers, raindrops dripping from her eyelashes.

The light rain and mist suddenly stopped, and the hibiscus on the ground were no longer battered by the raindrops.

Her gaze remained fixed on the shadow of the umbrella on the ground; she did not rise, but instead lowered her head to fiddle with the petals.

The small oil-paper umbrella slowly tilted towards her.

No matter how fierce the downpour outside the umbrella was, it was no longer her concern.

She has a peaceful corner.

"Didn't my lord say... he was leaving?"

Yin Yuan remained silent with a cold expression.

Feeling intimidated by her gaze, she awkwardly tucked her wet hair behind her ear, holding the flower in her hand, and stood there without saying a word.

She didn't understand what was wrong with Yin Yuan today, nor did she want to understand. Yin Yuan had always been like this before. She could ponder it for a long time but couldn't figure it out, so she might as well not ponder it at all.

Men are often unreasonable and have empty hearts. Love is just a woman giving her all to fill the void in a man's heart, so it is always the woman who suffers. Of course, it will hurt when someone breaks their mind and heart for another.

"Then, I'll be going now."

She lifted her damp skirt and took a step, but was pulled back by her wrist.

Where to?

"Go change your clothes, I'm completely soaked."

The man stared at her for a long time before replying, "Hmm."

She went back to her room to change her clothes, loosened her hair, letting her dark hair fall loose, and opened the window while wiping her hair with a handkerchief.

I had only opened a corner when I noticed Yin Yuan silently watching the rain in the long corridor.

He didn't leave.

She didn't go out. After drying her hair, she sat on the couch with her long hair down, playing the pipa and occasionally plucking out a few melodious notes.

Gradually, the music flowed into a melody, its notes melancholic and sorrowful, yet her eyes held a smile.

The rain outside the window has lessened a bit, leaving only a few soft pattering sounds. Raindrops patter against the window frame, and a misty haze hangs in the air.

Finally, on the carriage heading to the yamen, sat Leng Cuizhu and Yin Yuan.

Leng Cuizhu's hair was not completely dry, simply tied back with a wooden hairpin, and her clothes were also very plain.

"I had a floral design drawn on my forehead, but the rain washed it all away." She smiled helplessly and sipped her tea.

"Um."

Yin Yuan sat in the main seat, ignoring her, his eyes fixed on the teacup on the table.

The teacup, filled with clear, bright tea, had a crescent-shaped dot of bright red lipstick covering its rim.

"How long are we going to stay there?" she asked, covering her mouth as she yawned.

"Um."

"We'll have someone take you home later."

"But I want to stay with my husband..."

"Um."

"Never mind then."

Yin Yuan: "...If you're tired, just rest in the car."

Do you want to see Leng Zhen?

“Ah…” She didn’t know how to answer.

Yin Yuan was unaware of her relationship with Leng Zhen, so his question might genuinely indicate that he wanted to take her to see the child.

Or perhaps, he was testing her.

Yin Yuan interrupted her hesitation: "Leng Zhen has passed away."

Thus, Leng Cuizhu was mostly certain.

"Ah...how could this be...it's only been a few days since we last met, how could this be..."

The man looked her up and down.

"I forgot to tell you."

She covered her face and sobbed softly, her whole body trembling.

"how so……"

That faint gaze still lingered on her.

"The body was buried by the people in prison."

"...Are you unhappy?"

She's not as inhuman as Yin Yuan; how could a mother who has lost her child be happy?

However, she covered her face and cried for a long time, but still couldn't cry. She could only pretend to be sad.

"How can you say such a thing, my lord..."

“Oh, I was just kidding, he’s not dead,” the man nodded, “he’s just missing, and we’ve sent people to look for him.”

"Really?" She looked up, overjoyed.

"Um."

“How could you lie to me about something like this…” She pouted, turning her eyes away from him. “You always know me; I can’t stand being scared like this by my husband.”

"You really cried?"

"No," she said truthfully, though her tone was a little timid. "No, not at all."

"You didn't cry when you left me alone in the rain, why are you crying now?"

The man froze for a moment.

I thought you would leave soon.

“If you had kept me waiting, I would have left.” She smiled, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. “I did leave, thanks to you for condescending to get off the carriage and holding an umbrella for me.”

"If I'm the only one waiting in the end, things won't turn out well between us."

Her tone was calm, as if stating a fact, yet there was a hidden tenacity in it, a strange kind of tenacity.

It was as if she was threatening him.

However, her smile was clearly so serene and gentle.

How could that be a threat?

Yin Yuan went to the yamen to do his work, while Leng Cuizhu stayed in the carriage to take a nap.

The carriage was spacious enough that she could lie comfortably on the couch and even hug a round pillow in her arms.

She wasn't actually sleepy, but the incense in the carriage made her dizzy. Bored, she picked up a book and opened it, only to find it filled with words she couldn't recognize, like dense ants.

"I thought it was some kind of comic book..."

She muttered to herself as she was about to put the book aside, when a fire-avoidance diagram fell out from between the pages.

No, it's not a fire avoidance diagram.

From a distance, it looked like a group of naked people entangled together. But upon closer inspection, it became clear that some of them were headless or armless, and some even had seven or eight legs. Their bodies were covered in suckers, making them look like ghosts. Further back, you could even see several skeletons intertwined together.

She was startled and dropped the books and scrolls on the ground, her heart pounding.

How could Yin Yuan possess such a bizarre drawing...?

After a while, she calmed herself down, and with trembling hands touched the book on the ground. She stroked the wrinkled, waterlogged cover, and opened it to find Leng Zhen's name written on the inside page.

Only then did she smell the faint scent of herbs, left behind after her fingertips touched the book.

Is this Leng Zhen's book?

How could Leng Zhen have such a strange thing?

...That seems plausible. Leng Zhen's behavior has become increasingly strange since she turned eighteen, perhaps due to the influence of these evil paintings.

No one would force him to see these things; he would only see them voluntarily. Leng Zhen really surprised her. Ironically, she used to think he was kind and innocent, but it turns out he was just good at hiding things.

When Yin Yuan returned from his work, he noticed the old books on the floor.

“I asked you before how you were teaching him.”

"Since you've never supervised him, of course you don't know how I taught him."

Leng Cuizhu had wanted to say this for a long time.

Yin Yuan never cared about Leng Zhen or asked about her. A child needs not only a mother, but also a father.

When he used the excuse of going back to his hometown to see his elderly parents, didn't he think about how much Leng Zhen needed a reliable father? Perhaps his muddled brain simply couldn't think that far ahead.

"..."

"I want to take care of things now, but you don't want to. You want him to die. I do what you want, but you blame me. No matter what I do, you're never satisfied."

“Why didn’t I take care of him before? His bed is messy, didn’t I tell you to clean it up? He left the bowls by the window, didn’t I tell you to throw them away…”

Leng Cuizhu interrupted him: "Yeah, did you go? All you do is talk, I do all the work."

"Yin Yuan, don't try to make up for what you never had. If you have even a sliver of love, the first person you'll remember isn't you, it's me, and the one who will be etched in your heart is me."

The atmosphere between the two had just eased somewhat, but now it suddenly collapsed again.

Originally, she wanted to get along well with Yin Yuan and take the opportunity to advance her plans with Tu Si Zi. Unexpectedly, the two parted on bad terms as soon as they talked about the child and the past.

She turned her head away, gazing at the sparse crowd outside the window, and wiped away her tears.

I don't know when it started, but she became a conflicted, resentful woman with an insatiable hatred.

However, she was not like this more than ten years ago. Back then, she still had hope and was not so desperate, unable to extricate herself from love, hate, and passion.

"Ling Niang, so you betrayed me?"

Why have you come looking for me again?

"Are you just here to tease me?"

"Teasing you? My husband is enjoying it too." She sneered, her eyes filled with glistening tears. "I could have teased you a little longer, but you were the one who said those things that made me angry."

"...I didn't know you would be upset."

"This servant is leaving."

"Where are you going? It's still raining outside."

The man frowned: "Can't you stay a little longer? Even just a little while makes you feel like you're sitting on pins and needles?"

The man grabbed the hem of her skirt.

She turned around and said, "Why must you humiliate yourself, my lord?"

“This isn’t about humiliating yourself,” Yin Yuan said calmly. “I’m just asking you a question.”

She took a deep breath; “I’ve answered the same question many times.”

"Um."

"Then you can go. The coachman has an umbrella."

She took a step, but couldn't move. Looking back, she saw the man still holding onto her skirt, not letting go at all.

He didn't want her to leave, Leng Cuizhu could tell.

Yin Yuan has always been like this. Perhaps, it's not good for the two of them to know each other too well; their stubbornness and flaws are all on full display, and the ambiguity of their relationship is long gone.

"You said you were very busy today, and I could tell. I've been waiting for you here, but when you came back, we ended up arguing like crazy."

Leng Cuizhu secretly resolved that she had to use this man, or at the very least, she had to keep him hooked and make him experience the feeling of uncertainty and anxiety. So she spoke softly, "This is not my intention."

"……Um."

His usually icy tone softened slightly: "I didn't know you would be upset about this."

Her face was completely unadorned, except for her eyebrows, which gave her a beautiful and fresh appearance.

"Then, when are you not busy?" she smiled gently. "I just want to be alone with you."

There seemed to be a glimmer of hope in his eyes, and a faint smile appeared on his sullen face, but it was a forced and forlorn smile.

In the end, he only hummed in agreement: "It's all up to you."

With Yin Yuan's matter resolved, there are no further issues.

Dodder: "When the time comes, you should secretly put an aphrodisiac in the wine, watch them drink it, and then come out and lock the door."

Leng Cuizhu: "...Will this really work?"

"Of course it can!" the rooster puffed out his chest. "These kinds of books usually have plots like this."

"It feels so despicable." She touched the chicken's head. "Doing this will be a lifelong trauma for me."

The rooster tiptoed and rubbed against her hand, squinting comfortably: "Oh dear, there are hardly any morals in this book. Your husband and your son are far less moral than you. Kindness is bullied by dogs, host."

"As for the psychological trauma... actually, this task only required you to administer aphrodisiacs, not that you could only administer one type. You understand what I mean, right? I didn't guide you in any way, haha."

Inspired by the dodder seed, Leng Cuizhu mixed some sleeping potion into the aphrodisiac. Worried about potential adverse effects, she added goji berries, shiitake mushrooms, lotus seeds, and red dates...

Dodder: "Why don't we just make soup? Chicken soup is the best, it tastes so good."

The dodder seed's suggestion was very useful, and she adopted it, adding trace amounts of [unspecified substance] to a large amount of chicken soup and tonics. It just so happened that the family of three hadn't eaten together in a long time, so they could also have a meal together.

Dodder said it didn't violate any rules, it was just a bit outrageous, and then he wanted to help her taste it.

After preparing the soup, she tricked Yin Yuan into getting into the carriage to the thatched hut in the suburbs, with the coachman being Dodder in disguise.

Perhaps because the dodder plant made too many small movements after turning into a human, scratching its head and swinging its arms, Yin Yuan suddenly stopped in front of the carriage when Leng Cuizhu led him onto it.

He stared at the hat-wearing coachman sitting on the cart for a long time.

"...Are you a servant in this household?"

“Yes,” Tu Si Zi nodded and bowed to Yin Yuan in a pretentious manner, “Master, I was just recruited yesterday and was sent by the Madam to serve Lady Leng.”

Although he was wearing a straw hat, revealing only half of his face, it was still clear that he was a handsome and energetic young man.

"Ah, yes, that's how it is." Leng Cuizhu secretly felt something was off and secretly glanced at Yin Yuan's expression.

Yin Yuan's expression was very unpleasant.

Not only did he look haggard and dazed, but his eyes also held a hint of anger and... self-loathing.

"You don't need to come tomorrow; someone will pay your wages."