Chapter 3, Chapter 3: "Playing Xie Jianing once costs two thousand taels of silver..."
So her husband realized she was being cheated on so quickly?
From whom did he acquire this "charm" rating? Cang Shu?
Xie Yushu glanced at Cangshu blankly.
The tall, thin servant's face was mostly covered by a bamboo hat, so his expression could not be seen. Only when he lowered his head and looked at the blue handkerchief on the back of his hand could be seen. He paused for a moment before taking the handkerchief and saying, "Cang Shu dares not defile Madam Pei's handkerchief."
I wanted to return it to her, but I found that the soft handkerchief was already stained with rainwater.
"It's just a handkerchief, throw it away when it gets dirty," Xie Yushu said casually, but her mind was on the system interface. Cang Shu seemed to say something to thank her again, but she didn't hear it clearly.
The carriage drove out of the alley.
The system explained to her, "The 'charm value' was also obtained from Pei Shilin. He sensed that you were seducing the servant Cangshu, and Cangshu accepted your handkerchief because you had seduced him, so you gained 1 point of 'charm value'."
Xie Yushu understood. When he felt a little green on his head, wasn't it because he felt that she was attracting other men?
"Yes, so it's said that you can also gain 'popularity points' while you're getting cuckold points." The system then asked her if she wanted to redeem them.
Sitting in the carriage, Xie Yushu decisively converted all his "green hat value" and "popularity value" into life points, prioritizing survival.
Her current health points are 3.
She immediately felt much lighter, and her persistent symptoms of chest tightness and shortness of breath also lessened.
"Your current lifespan is 30 days," the system told her. "Once your lifespan exceeds 50 points, you will be completely free from pain."
This is easy to do.
Xie Yushu couldn't wait to max out his health points so he could exchange them for 50 million!
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The carriage sped through the rainy night; even in the rain, many shops and vendors in Bianjing stayed open.
Cangshu avoided the bustling streets and took a shortcut to the Prime Minister's residence. In less than a quarter of an hour, the carriage stopped at the back gate of the residence.
The young maid Jinye helped Xie Yushu down from the carriage, and they were led into the courtyard by four burly servants. The courtyard was large and quiet, and as soon as they entered, they heard terrible barking dogs, which sounded like wolves or wild beasts.
She was so frightened that she gripped the young lady's hand tightly, afraid to breathe loudly.
Xie Yushu put his arm around her thin arm, signaling her not to be afraid.
This Prime Minister's mansion is much more frightening than what was depicted in the short drama. It is lush with trees, large and secluded, and there is not a single maid or servant girl to be seen along the way. There are only cold and stern-looking sword-wielding attendants guarding some intersections, and the barking of dogs rises and falls.
In the original drama, Song Jie kept many greyhounds and a fierce Tibetan mastiff. When the female supporting character Xie Yushu was first brought over, she screamed in fright when she saw the lion-like Tibetan mastiff. As a result, the Tibetan mastiff knocked her to the ground and almost bit her. The damned Song Jie even said unreasonably, "You disturbed it, so it will naturally attack you."
Therefore, Xie Yushu covered Jin Ye's mouth before entering the main courtyard.
A giant, lion-like dog with dark fur stood at the doorway, staring at them. Its gleaming green eyes terrified Jin Ye, causing her to whimper and drop her umbrella. She trembled and clung tightly to Xie Yushu.
"Don't be afraid. The more afraid you are of it, the fiercer it will be to you," Xie Yushu said softly, stroking Jin Ye's thin back.
Cangshu looked at Xie Yushu, whose hair was quickly soaked in the drizzle. Instead of blaming the little maid, she comforted her like an older sister. Seeing that the little maid was really scared, she told her to wait for her in the small pavilion outside.
Cangshu picked up the umbrella and held it over her head: "Madam Pei treats her servants well."
"My mother was also born into a servant family," Xie Yushu said without any hesitation.
To Cang Shu's surprise, he thought that this illegitimate daughter of the Yong'an Marquis's family would be wary of her birth mother and only regard the Marquis's wife as her mother. After all, it was rumored that she was a person who would grovel and do anything to climb into the Marquis's family.
He led her up the stone steps, and the mastiff immediately came over warily, sniffing around her skirt.
She wasn't afraid. She stopped and let it sniff. When it raised its head, she opened her hand for it to smell again and whispered, "Your name is Panpan, right?"
The mastiff tilted its head in surprise as it heard its name called.
Cangshu was also surprised; how did she know Panpan's name?
A sound came from the dimly lit room, and a slender figure moved on the bamboo curtain. "Jia Ning?"
The weak voice was very soft and low, as if it was hesitant to believe it, or afraid of waking someone from a dream by making a loud noise. The person even stood behind the curtain, not daring to step out.
"Your Excellency," Cangshu hurriedly bowed, "You're awake?"
The mastiff also turned its head and wagged its tail at the person behind the curtain, its huge tail sweeping Xie Yushu's skirt like a broom.
Oh ho, the number one money tree has arrived.
Xie Yushu raised his head, looking at the figure behind the curtain from an angle most like Xie Jianing's, and asked, "Should I call you Prime Minister? Or Little Taoist Priest?"
This is the first thing Xie Jianing, the female lead, says to the villain Song Jie after learning his true identity.
Sure enough, with the help of these words, the person behind the curtain became even more dazed and directly lifted the curtain, leaning on the door frame as they walked out.
“Jianing…” Song Jie reached out and grabbed the arm of the person in front of him in a daze, almost thinking that she was Xie Jianing.
She raised her eyebrows and said, "Your Excellency has mistaken me for someone else again. I am Xie Yushu."
The wind blew in the rainy night, and Song Jie seemed to be awakened by it. He let go of his hand and coughed violently. His loose black hair fell to his shoulders, and his thin body swayed as he vomited a mouthful of blood.
"Prime Minister!" Cang Shu hurriedly reached out to support him, and hastily grabbed a handkerchief to wipe away the blood.
The mastiff huddled anxiously against Song Jie's leg, whimpering.
Xie Yushu looked at Song Jie's pale face and blood-stained lips. He had to admit that she was indeed the villainous, sickly beauty from the original drama, whose beauty could shame the moon and flowers. Even when she coughed up blood, she was breathtakingly beautiful and pitiful.
But as he coughed, he suddenly collapsed.
He's passed out?
Xie Yushu was startled.
"Prime Minister!" Cang Shu caught him and immediately carried him into the room.
Xie Yushu was standing outside the door when he heard a clanging sound, like water being poured.
Then came Cangshu's anxious voice urging, "Prime Minister, please open your mouth and drink the medicine. How can you get better if you don't drink it..."
The mastiff outside the door was whining anxiously and trying to push against the bamboo curtain, wanting to go in, but it didn't dare to push the curtain too hard.
Xie Yushu kindly reached out and lifted the bamboo curtain for it.
The mastiff tilted its head and glanced at her with a very intelligent look. Before it could enter the house, Cang Shu quickly came over and whispered to Xie Yushu to come in, saying, "Madam Pei, please feed the Prime Minister the medicine."
In the sweltering heat of midsummer, with the windows closed, the air was stifling. A bitter, herbal scent mingled with the aroma of sandalwood, as if someone had just burned incense.
Only one lamp was lit beside the bed curtains. Song Jie lay on the bed like a paper doll, trembling all over, his jaw clenched.
In the original drama, Song Jie's "stubborn illness" was actually caused by a poison called the Bone-Eating Ice Toad when he was 12 years old. Every time the poison took effect, he would lose body temperature, become unconscious, and vomit blood. Although he was saved by an old Taoist priest named Xuanzhen, the residual poison had not been eliminated, and he would have several attacks every year, relying on the medicine given to him by Xuanzhen to get through it.
"Could you... could you pretend to be Miss Xie Jianing and feed him the medicine?" Cang Shu felt a little guilty for some reason, but had no other choice but to say to Xie Yushu, "When the Prime Minister is ill, he will only respond to Miss Xie Jianing..."
That's why we invited her.
Xie Yushu knew that Song Jie and Xie Jianing first met when Song Jie was recuperating at a Taoist temple during the course of his poisoning. Xie Jianing thought he was a young Taoist priest and kept talking to him. She even personally fed him medicine, which moved Song Jie deeply because he had no mother and she was the first woman to feed him medicine.
"Sure," Xie Yushu readily agreed, but did not take the medicine bowl from Cangshu. He added, "Since I agreed to come to the Prime Minister's residence, I understand your purpose, but I also have a request."
“I understand.” Cangshu nodded and said, “Lord Pei wants to ask the Prime Minister to help handle the case of the second young master of the Pei family…”
“That was Pei Shilin’s request, not mine,” Xie Yushu interrupted him, saying directly, “I only want the money.”
"Silver?" Cangshu didn't understand.
"Two thousand taels of silver for playing Xie Jianing once." Xie Yushu would take whatever she could get. Pei Shilin had no money, but Song Jie had plenty. Two thousand taels wasn't much, was it? She couldn't just serve tea and medicine for free: "You can write an IOU first, and then send it to me when your Prime Minister wakes up."
Cangshu was stunned.
"You must have heard that I, a concubine's daughter, am very greedy for wealth and luxury," Xie Yushu said.
Cangshu had never met such a "frank" person before, and for a moment, instead of disliking him, she admired him...
Two thousand taels of silver was not much for the Prime Minister's residence, and Cang Shu immediately agreed.
Xie Yushu then took the medicine bowl, walked to the bedside, and, using a voice like the female lead's when she was young, gently called him, "Little Taoist Priest?" She then reached out and touched his face with the back of her hand, saying worriedly, "Why is he so cold? Don't scare me, Little Taoist Priest."
Cang Shu was stunned. This was the first time the Prime Minister had been fed medicine by Xie Jianing! Every word and every tone was exactly the same! How did she know all this?
Song Jie, lying on the bed, seemed to have heard this, frowning slightly and muttering in his sleep, "Jia Ning? Jia Ning..."
"It's me." Xie Yushu dutifully grasped his cold hand, perfectly recreating the scene between the female lead and him, and gently rubbed his palm while holding his hand: "I'll warm it up for you. When I was little, my hands would freeze when I played in the snow, and my mother would warm them up like this for me. Do you feel any better?"
Is it Jia Ning...?
In his dazed state, Song Jie felt a warm hand patiently rubbing his palm, just like Jia Ning had done before. Was Jia Ning back? He struggled to move his fingers, trying to grasp the hand he had regained, but instead touched the thin calluses on that hand…
Do Jia Ning have calluses on her hands?
"Why is it still so cold?" Her voice rang in his ears again, the words and tone overlapping with the Jia Ning in his memory, confusing him. Was it Jia Ning? Who else but Jia Ning could know about their past?
That hand took his hand again and pressed his cold palm against her cheek.
"Is this any warmer?" she asked him.
His cold palms felt like they were holding a piece of warm jade, so soft and warm.
This was something Jia Ning had done to him before, but her cheeks were much warmer than Jia Ning's before, warming his palms like a small heater...
Is that Jia Ning? She didn't die, she was found?
He struggled in his daze, trying hard to open his eyes. Several attempts only managed to pry open his eyelids a crack. He vaguely saw a face in front of him, with slightly drooping eyes and full lips... Wasn't that Jia Ning?
"Jia Ning..." He tried harder to see clearly, to call her name, when a spoon was brought to his lips, as if to feed him something.
He tried to pull away, but a small, warm hand cupped his face.
"This is medicine, young Taoist priest." She said to him in a very gentle voice, "You will get better if you drink the medicine. It's not bitter."
He knew she was lying to him, but that hand was so warm. He was terribly cold and couldn't bear to leave her. He could only let that hand hold his face and pour a spoonful of bitter medicine down his throat, making him frown from the bitterness.
Her hand gently rubbed his lips with her fingertips, as if wiping away medicine stains or comforting him. The thin calluses on her fingertips tickled him.
He vaguely heard her chuckle, and the rubbing of her fingertips seemed to be teasing him with a mischievous glint in her eye.
"The next spoonful won't be bitter." She lied to him again, prying open his mouth with a spoon and pouring in another mouthful of bitter medicine.
It's not a dream, Jia Ning really came back, right...?
In his dazed state, he struggled to grasp her hand, wishing he could hold her with all his might and keep her here: "Don't go... Jia Ning..."
She gently took his hand in return and whispered to him, "I won't leave, I'll always be with you."
A note from the author:
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When Song Jie woke up, the sky had fallen.
We're continuing to give out red envelopes today! The first 100 will receive them; I hope everyone enjoys the lively atmosphere!
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