Chapter 19 Mingyan's Training of Her Husband

Xie Zechuan looked at the woman in pink who rushed in front of him and Zhou Tinglan and asked, "What on earth are you going to do?"

The pink dress was scolded by Xie Zechuan again, and she could no longer hold back her tears and shed: "General Xie, please don't talk to me like this, okay?"

"Why, you keep disturbing me and Lan'er, why can't I talk to you like this?"

The woman in the pink dress said tearfully, "General Xie, do you remember that a few years ago you saved a man from being robbed in the west city market?"

Xie Zechuan thought for a long time: "It seems that this is true, but wasn't the person whose wallet was robbed a man?"

The pink-dressed woman's lips moved as she uttered a few words, "General Xie may have recognized the wrong person. That person is me."

"It's you!" Xie Zechuan said in surprise.

Zhou Tinglan saw the aggrieved and tearful look in the eyes of the woman in the pink dress. She patted Xie Zechuan to signal him not to speak.

Although she was unhappy about someone coveting her fiancé, Zhou Tinglan didn't say much as everyone had equal rights to pursue love. Besides, the woman in the pink dress didn't do anything to hurt her feelings.

Xie Zechuan looked at Zhou Tinglan with some grievance: "Lan'er..."

Zhou Tinglan ignored Xie Zechuan, took out a clean handkerchief from his pocket, and gently wiped the tears of the woman in the pink dress.

"Do you like Xie Zechuan?"

Her hand was shaken away by the woman in the pink dress: "I don't want you to be so kind. I really did like General Xie the first time I saw him, but..."

"There's nothing wrong with loving someone." Zhou Tinglan recalled the marriage laws of the Great Zhao Kingdom and continued, "Although men are allowed to have three wives and four concubines, are you willing to give your beloved to someone else?"

The woman in the pink dress choked up and said, "Of course I don't want to."

If she could be with General Xie, she would never give him to any other woman. That's not right.

The woman in the pink dress realized that she seemed to have been tricked by Zhou Tinglan. She glared at her with red eyes and said, "You are fooling me."

Zhou Tinglan was slightly stunned, but he reacted quite quickly. It seemed that he was not going to be fooled, so he had to change his words.

"I'm not kidding you. Think about it, if you were with Xie Zechuan..."

She was interrupted by Xie Zechuan's cough. Zhou Tinglan looked over and realized there was something wrong with her words. She smiled awkwardly and said, "I was just giving you an example. I didn't really let you out."

"Giving examples won't work either." Xie Zechuan disagreed.

Well, seeing Xie Zechuan's awkwardness, Zhou Tinglan wanted to change the words to talk to the girl in the pink dress, but when he turned around, he saw that she was crying even harder.

"Hey, don't cry. What I want to say is, if you are successfully together with the person you love, but the other person doesn't like you, what will you do?"

The woman in the pink dress stopped crying and asked suspiciously, "How could such a thing happen?"

Seeing that she didn't believe him, Zhou Tinglan thought to himself that this was a good opportunity and made up a story: "How could it be impossible? I once heard in Shangjing that a noble lady fell in love with a young man from another family and hanged herself to beg her family to be engaged to her."

This story has to be made into something melodramatic, well, that's how it would be realistic.

"There really is such a woman." The woman in the pink dress said in disbelief.

She was indeed infatuated with General Xie in the past, but she never thought of using this to force General Xie to marry her.

"Of course." Zhou Tinglan confirmed: "Later, under pressure from their families, the women finally married the men as they wished. However, their lives after marriage were not as they wished."

The woman in the pink dress nodded in agreement. "This woman's approach is too radical. Even if it succeeds, it will disgust men."

"That's right, the man later took several concubines, causing unrest in his family." When saying this, Zhou Tinglan glanced at Xie Zechuan, put his hands on his neck, and his eyes hinted that if you dare to imitate him, you will be dead.

Xie Zechuan hurriedly expressed his devotion and said, "I dare not."

"Aren't your actions of making things difficult for me just like the woman in the story who wanted to force something on Xie Zechuan?" Zhou Tinglan changed the subject and said seriously.

"I didn't." The woman in the pink dress argued, but her voice became lower and lower.

Yes, what she is doing now is nothing.

Seeing her downcast expression, Zhou Tinglan comforted her, "You are such a good person. You will definitely find your ideal husband in the future."

The woman in the pink dress still didn't react. Zhou Tinglan was surprised. Is she so fragile?

Just at this moment, Zhou Tinglan heard someone calling her. She turned around and saw Su Mingzhuo walking towards the three of them.

Xie Zechuan stood sideways in front of Zhou Tinglan, trying to create distance between them, but was pushed away by Zhou Tinglan in a funny way.

childish!

"Miss Zhou, long time no see..." Su Mingzhuo stopped talking. He pointed at the woman in the pink dress and asked, "Did she give Miss Zhou a hard time again?"

Again? Zhou Tinglan felt that his previous speculation had made a breakthrough: "Mr. Su, you know her. What did you mean by what you just said?"

"This is my younger sister. She's been in love with General Xie for a long time. She was the one who came to me during the Flower Goddess Festival to compete with Miss Zhou for the Lantern King title. I reprimanded her after we got back, but she persisted and came to the forging exhibition without telling her family. I wonder if she's made any serious mistakes?"

Zhou Tinglan suddenly realized: "No, your sister is very cute."

"No, I've been spoiled by my family." Su Mingzhuo walked over to the woman in the pink dress and said loudly, "Su Mingyan, stop crying. What nonsense!"

Unexpectedly, Su Mingyan exploded immediately when she heard what Su Mingzhuo said.

Su Mingzhuo is so annoying, always ruining her plans.

"Su Mingzhuo, it's you again. Nothing good happens to me every time you come!"

Su Mingzhuo was also unconvinced: "If I hadn't been bothering Miss Zhou all the time, would I have done this?"

“…”

The brother and sister started arguing with each other. Zhou Tinglan chuckled when he saw this, and his laughter attracted the attention of the two brothers and sisters.

They all asked, "What are you laughing at?"

Then, he realized what the other person said: "Su Mingzhuo, why are you imitating my speech?"

"It's obviously you who imitated me!" Su Mingzhuo refused to be outdone.

"You two siblings have such a good relationship." Zhou Tinglan joked.

"Who has a good relationship with him?" The two voices overlapped again, causing Zhou Tinglan to laugh on the spot.

Xie Zechuan, who was ignored, chuckled when he saw Zhou Tinglan laughing happily.

Su Mingzhuo took Su Mingyan, who was crying so hard that she almost gasped for breath, away. Before leaving, he said to Zhou Tinglan, "Tomorrow I will bring my younger sister to apologize to Miss Zhou."

He simply ignored Xie Zechuan beside Zhou Tinglan and turned away.

Xie Zechuan pointed at Su Mingzhuo who was walking away and said angrily, "Lan'er, look at him!"

"Alright." Zhou Tinglan hurriedly comforted Xie Zechuan: "The sword forging exhibition is over, and we still have a lot of things to do."

As Zhou Tinglan expected, after the knife forging exhibition ended, blacksmith shops all over the city began selling a kind of mini improved knife souvenirs.

The owner of the blacksmith shop asked Zhou Tinglan why he made such a meaningless object, and whether it would be better to just sell knives.

Zhou Tinglan was speechless when she heard the shopkeeper's question. However, the term "hand-made figures" didn't exist in the Great Zhao Kingdom at that time, so she patiently explained to them, "These miniature knives are called hand-made figures. They are like travel souvenirs. Many people who come to our Northern Frontier City don't stay here for long, and the hand-made figures are proof that they have been to Northern Frontier City."

The shopkeeper immediately understood Zhou Tinglan's intention: "Selling figurines can also increase the income of our blacksmith shop. If someone takes the figurines home, we can also use it to promote our improved knives and attract more people to Beijiang City."

"That's right." During the preparations for the sword-forging exhibition, the shopkeepers often came to Zhou Tinglan for advice. Through his observation and listening, they learned many modern business skills.

**

The next day, when Zhou Tinglan was discussing the sword-forging exhibition with Xie Zechuan, Su Mingzhuo and Su Mingyan came in person.

She looked at Su Mingyan, who was being forcibly held by Su Mingzhuo, and asked, "Mr. Su, what are you doing?"

"We agreed at the sword-forging exhibition yesterday that I'll bring her here to apologize to you." After saying that, Su Mingzhuo nudged Su Mingyan and said, "Mingyan, apologize."

Although Su Mingyan was still very unconvinced, she also truly agreed that Zhou Tinglan's sword-forging skills were indeed unmatched.

She lowered her head and didn't move, but was once again ordered by Su Mingzhuo beside her: "What did I tell you yesterday? Apologize to Miss Zhou."

Su Mingyan curled her lips and muttered softly, "I know."

She then turned to Zhou Tinglan and said, "Miss Zhou, I have done some bad things to you recently. I hope you can forgive me."

Zhou Tinglan waved his hand: "It's all in the past. Miss Su is actually very cute."

Seeing Su Mingyan's cheeks slightly red, Zhou Tinglan laughed in his heart, thinking that the little girl was shy.

"No matter what, I was wrong before, but I won't give up." Su Mingyan said, turned around and ran out.

Su Mingzhuo wanted to call her back but failed. He apologized, "I'm sorry, my sister has been spoiled by my family. Please forgive me."

"That's fine. Master Su, won't you go after your sister?"

"She is not young anymore and knows her way home."

Despite this, Su Mingzhuo was still a little worried and said, "I'll go take a look."

"If it's convenient, bring them here. I'll ask my mother to prepare more food." Zhou Tinglan suggested.

Su Mingzhuo agreed and then went out to look for Su Mingyan.

Zhou Tinglan looked at Xie Zechuan who was standing nearby and asked in surprise, "Your barracks is pretty idle?"

"Lan'er is chasing me away?" Xie Zechuan asked back, his tone tinged with disappointment.

"After Lan'er had a long conversation with other men, she finally remembered me and chased me away?"

Zhou Tinglan was helpless. Why did she feel that Xie Zechuan was becoming more and more like a green tea girl? Was she wrong in the direction of training her husband?

"Don't be like this."

While the two were talking, Qin Sinian came in with an unhappy look on his face. Seeing Zhou Tinglan, he asked, "Miss Zhou, was that girl who just left the scene the one who caused trouble at the swordsmithing exhibition yesterday?"

"Um."

After getting the answer, Qin Sinian poked his back teeth and said, "You little guy, you look good, but you have a bad temper."

Seeing Qin Sinian like this, Zhou Tinglan smiled and said, "Could it be that Vice General Qin has taken a fancy to Miss Su?"

If this is true, she will become the matchmaker for the two of them, and she will have to ask for more wedding wine and candy.

"How is it possible? I would like her. Even if all the women in Beijiang City were dead, there is no way I would like her." Qin Sinian said angrily as if he thought of something.

He looked at Xie Zechuan who was still sitting in the chair and said dissatisfiedly: "Zechuan, the military affairs on your desk are piled up like a mountain, why don't you go and deal with them?"

"Right away."

Zhou Tinglan and Xie Zechuan looked at each other. There was something wrong with these two people. Something must have happened just now that they were not aware of.

Xie Zechuan was going back to deal with military affairs, and Zhou Tinglan was going to go to his mother to ask her to buy more food to entertain the Su brothers and sisters.

The sound of hurried footsteps came from outside the tent, and Zhou Yiming rushed into the tent panting heavily.

When he saw Zhou Tinglan, he said in panic, "Lan'er, something happened, something serious?"

Zhou Tinglan stood up and supported Zhou Yiming, and asked Xie Zechuan next to him to pour him a glass of water.

She handed the teacup to Zhou Yiming and patted him on the back: "Father, please speak slowly. What happened?"

Zhou Yiming didn't take the teacup. He calmed down for a moment and said anxiously, "Lan'er, your mother has been missing since she left home this morning."

Missing, why missing?

Zhou Tinglan asked, "Father is sure that Mother is missing, not that she went out shopping and hasn't returned home yet."

It is impossible for my mother to disappear in Beijiang City for no reason. Could it be a misunderstanding by my father?