Chapter 77 Unbearable Desire

"Have you thought it through?" Sheng Yunche asked.

"Hmm." Ye Mingzhu pointed towards the window. "Sir, what do you think about sending him there?"

Sheng Yunche followed her finger and looked up in surprise: "He's gay. Are you sure sending him to the Nanfeng Pavilion is a punishment, not a reward?"

Ye Mingzhu blinked, cleared her throat, and said, "Before, he always forced others and did whatever he wanted. But what if... he were to do the bottom position?"

Sheng Yunche: "..."

Ye Mingzhu felt he didn't understand and prompted him further: "How he treats others is how others can treat him, right?"

Sheng Yunche's lips twitched, and he looked at her with a complicated expression: "Okay."

Hearing the conversation between the two, Zhang Shuheng, who was tied up like a dumpling, writhed wildly on the ground, his "woo-woo" cries growing increasingly pitiful.

But no matter how loudly he shouts, it won't change anything.

Sheng Yunche glanced at him indifferently and coldly instructed Bu Xi: "Choose a suitable Nanfeng Pavilion and secretly send him there. Find a way to conceal his identity and prevent any possibility of him committing suicide. If anything goes wrong, you will be held responsible."

He quickly withdrew the ghost-like expression from his face and nodded vigorously in terror, "Yes!"

He skillfully put a burlap sack over Zhang Shuheng's head, then carried the sack outside.

After taking a couple of steps, he suddenly turned to Ye Mingzhu and asked with great enthusiasm, "Madam, do we need to find some patrons for Zhang Shuheng? What if no one hires him? Wouldn't that just leave him idle?"

Suddenly, Bu Bei, who had been silent all along, kicked him hard, seemingly trying to stop him from talking nonsense.

Ye Mingzhu's eyes lit up, and she nodded with a smile, saying, "Great idea!"

If you don't like it, scratch your head and chuckle.

Sheng Yunche: "..."

He silently took a sip of tea, then closed his eyes, his head aching.

...

After returning to his residence, Sheng Yunche went to Su Xuetang to handle official business.

I don't know why, but he walked in a hurry when we parted.

Ye Mingzhu returned to Linfeng Hall and, before even sitting down, instructed Baozan to tell the kitchen to prepare more of Sheng Yunche's favorite dishes for dinner, and also to prepare a bottle of plum wine.

After dealing with Zhang Shuheng, she felt relieved.

Sheng Yunche had been a great help, so in return, she decided to pay more attention to him.

Hearing that Bu Xi said he liked to drink, she decided to have a drink with him tonight.

A light rain suddenly began to fall outside the window. Just as Ye Mingzhu was about to ask Ruyi to close the window, she heard Yufu announce from outside the door, "Miss, the second master of the Sheng family has arrived."

The Second Master of the Sheng Family?

Ye Mingzhu paused for a moment before realizing that the Second Master of the Sheng family was referring to Sheng Huai'an.

"What is he here for?" she asked.

Yu Fu said, "They said they came to ask for medicine."

Ye Mingzhu was somewhat surprised: "He came alone, but Fu'an didn't come?"

"yes."

Ye Mingzhu walked to the door, looked at the courtyard gate through the rain curtain, and said to Yu Fu after thinking for a moment, "Go and tell him that you can't buy the longevity pills for five hundred taels of silver. If he wants to buy medicine, he should bring six hundred taels of silver."

She was calculating the time in her mind.

After Liu Rumei fell into the well, she thought Sheng Huai'an would be heartbroken and come to her immediately to buy medicine, but he didn't come for a long time.

He didn't even come to buy the medicine for Liu Rumei's cough, which was given every two weeks.

She had previously thought that if Sheng Huai'an came to ask for medicine again, she would definitely raise the price for him, but she only had the chance to ask for it today.

Does Sheng Huai'an no longer care about Liu Rumei's health? In her past life, how could she have thought that he was deeply devoted to Liu Rumei, even unto death?

Looking at it now, it doesn't seem like there was much affection involved.

Ye Mingzhu stood idly at the door waiting, and Yu Fu returned soon after.

"How is it?" Ye Mingzhu asked.

Yu Fu said, "Sheng Huai'an didn't complain at all. When I told him it was six hundred taels, he readily gave it to us and bought the medicine we had prepared."

Ye Mingzhu exclaimed in surprise, "So agreeable?"

Something feels off.

Baozan felt it was such a pity: "Oh dear! Miss, why didn't you ask for more silver? I think if you asked for seven hundred or eight hundred taels of silver, he would have agreed."

Ye Mingzhu smiled and said, "Why are you in such a hurry? It's just a matter of slowly boiling a frog in water. It's only painful to cut flesh with a dull knife."

“Hmm…is that so?” Baozan said thoughtfully. “That makes sense.”

Seeing her like this, Ye Mingzhu's smile became even brighter.

She would never give the Zi Gu to Sheng Huai'an.

The longevity pills she gave Sheng Huai'an were still just flour balls; only the fifteen extra packets of cough medicine were made with real ingredients.

However, considering Liu Rumei's current physical condition, she prepared several extra doses of medicine to replenish her qi and blood as a cover-up.

In this way, it would be even less likely that Sheng Huai'an would discover that the Zi Gu he bought for six hundred taels of silver was a fake medicine.

But she didn't expect that her attempt to conceal this would be seen by Sheng Huai'an as evidence that she treated him differently.

Ye Mingzhu went back to her room and called Lianyu, asking her to fetch Yanzhi.

After being ambushed and falling into the water, she hasn't been feeling well these past few days and hasn't paid much attention to Sheng Huai'an and Liu Rumei's situation. It's time to start paying more attention to them.

Sheng Huai'an is acting a bit strangely today.

...

Sheng Huai'an walked along the road, his heart filled with mixed feelings.

The fine autumn rain fell on him, wetting his eyebrows and eyes. He took a deep breath of the earthy air and felt a lot of the invisible dirt on his body being washed away.

The image of that beautiful woman I had just seen unconsciously came to mind.

A slender woman stood by the door, gazing towards the courtyard gate. Her almond-shaped eyes were bright, her skin was fair, and her lips were cherry-red. The golden hairpin on her head trembled, as if it trembled into his heart.

For some reason, he felt his eyes getting hot and sore.

He wiped his eyes hard and quickened his pace.

Back in his study in the front courtyard, he put down the medicine packet in his hand. Yu Shu, dressed in plain clothes, came to his side and asked softly, "Master, where did you come from? Why didn't you bring an umbrella?"

A hint of disgust flashed in Sheng Huai'an's eyes, but he didn't reply.

Having grown accustomed to being ignored, Yu Shu didn't care.

She took a handkerchief and wiped the rainwater off Sheng Huai'an's hair, then brought him a set of dry clothes and helped him change.

After he sat down at his desk, she handed him a cup of tea and said gently, "Although the weather isn't too cold yet, a sip of hot tea will warm you up and make you more alert when you study tonight."

Sheng Huai'an indeed planned to study hard by lamplight tonight, took the teacup, and drank it all in one gulp.

He composed himself and began to read.

But after reading only a few pages, he began to feel hot.

He stopped turning the pages of the book, and images of Ye Mingzhu standing by the door, looking at him with such delicate beauty and affection, flashed through his mind.

She still had feelings for him, but could only confide in him in the most discreet places. She would throw tantrums at him, ask him for more money, yet give him even more medicine in return.

He never imagined that he, who had always kept himself pure for his sister-in-law, would now have slept with a lowly maid so many times... How could he be so shameless?

If he had known this would happen, he would have preferred to have Ye Mingzhu.

In this way, Sheng Yunche would definitely not want a withered woman, so she would have no choice but to marry him. As long as she is obedient to him and manages the household well, even if he cannot give her affection, he will still respect her.

Although she was just a merchant's daughter, doing that with her was better than doing it with a lowly maid, wasn't it?

Ye Mingzhu, a merchant's daughter, actually received the title of Duchess, while his life became increasingly worse...

Thinking about this, Sheng Huai'an became even more agitated, feeling as if his heart was on fire.

He took a couple of deep breaths, then suddenly looked at Yu Shu, who was grinding ink, with a gloomy expression.

Unable to suppress the unbearable desires deep within him, he grabbed her wrist, pressed her head down and shoved her under the desk, then lifted his robe.

"Open your mouth."