Chapter 64◇
◎Don't do that, now is not the time.◎
When Feng Ran saw the broken sleeve in her hand, her face fell, and she gave an embarrassed smile. She tried to stuff the broken sleeve into Duan Jingchuan's clothes, wanting to pretend that nothing had happened, but she met Duan Jingchuan's questioning gaze.
Her little hand paused, then she hugged the torn part of her sleeve, widened her eyes, and pouted cutely, "Waaah."
Duan Jingchuan remained expressionless, and even seemed about to laugh.
Feng Ran always had this magical power: when he was in a bad mood, she would do some ridiculous things that stirred up his mixed feelings, making him unable to taste the bitterness anymore.
Lord Duan's lips twitched, and his beard trembled. He tried to walk around Duan Jingchuan and his wife with his hands behind his back, but his path was blocked and he had nowhere to hide. So he looked up at the sky and sighed, "The sun is shining so brightly today."
The spring breeze was biting, and the howling wind whipped up Lord Duan's robes as if mocking him for being blind to reality, thinking the sun was shining even though it was almost setting.
Duan Jingchuan smiled and said, suppressing a laugh, "I won't disturb Father's sunbathing."
Lord Duan's beard twitched, and he turned away from him.
Feng Ran carefully protected Duan Jingchuan's half-broken sleeve, her ostrich-like behavior was somewhat adorable. She only breathed a sigh of relief after entering Jinghua Courtyard.
"Um, my husband, how about I help you make up for it?" Knowing that she had done something stupid again, Feng Ran lowered her arrogance and tried her best to express her willingness to make amends.
Feng Ran was very flustered. This dress should be Duan Jingchuan's favorite one. She had seen him wear it many times before.
She had only used a little more force today, but she didn't expect that these tattered clothes could not withstand the force of a single finger and would tear so easily. Feng Ran knew she was in the wrong, so she smiled in an extremely ingratiating manner.
Duan Jingchuan pressed his hand to cover the corners of his mouth that were turning up, and asked with feigned ignorance, "I didn't know that Madam was also skilled in needlework."
Feng Ran seemed to have been struck by a thunderbolt, and said softly, "I'm not good at it."
Feeling guilty, his hand loosened its grip, and the sleeve of his robe fluttered in the wind and fell down, revealing Duan Jingchuan's pure white undergarment.
Duan Jingchuan raised an eyebrow and shook his sleeve, which was half gone. "Has Madam decided how to make it up to me?"
Feeling guilty, Feng Ran covered her face with half a sleeve and tentatively said, "Or, my husband, would you just pretend I tore it in bed?"
Duan Jingchuan's waving arm stiffened, a suspicious blush crept up his ears, and he was momentarily at a loss for what expression to make.
Feng Ran thought Duan Jingchuan was dissatisfied with her words, so she put her hands on his shoulders, jumped up, and gave him a kiss. "A kiss in exchange for a sleeve, you're not at a loss."
Duan Jingchuan's face flushed red instantly, his long eyelashes trembled, and he said helplessly, "Don't do this, it's not appropriate now."
Feng Ran adored Duan Jingchuan's blushing and heart-pounding expression; he seemed so easy to bully. Feigning ignorance, she asked, "Then when would be a good time?"
"I... I have something to attend to. Madam, please go and have something to eat first." Duan Jingchuan really didn't want to see the mockery in Feng Ran's eyes, so he left as if fleeing a famine. Before leaving, he didn't forget to take the half-sleeve with him. "I won't trouble Madam with the matter of the clothes."
His intuition told him that if he wanted to see Feng Ran make a fool of herself, then Feng Ran would be the one laughing in the end, and he would become that fool!
He didn't mind being laughed at by his wife, but he wanted to minimize such laughter as much as possible, as he still wanted to leave a good image in her mind.
Zhao Yue had only spoken halfway when news came from Feng Ran that something might have happened. Duan Jingchuan had run off without a word, his face grim as he left. Zhao Yue was puzzled and didn't dare to leave, his heart pounding as he wondered what had happened to Duan Jingchuan's precious darling.
Hearing footsteps in the courtyard, he knew that the couple had returned. To avoid suspicion, Zhao Yue stayed in his study and didn't come out. He breathed a sigh of relief. Since they had returned so quickly, it meant that there was no problem. He didn't want to see Duan Jingchuan get angry, as that could be fatal.
Years ago, before Feng Ran married into the family, Duan Jingchuan was very quiet and rarely interacted with them. He mostly communicated through messengers. At that time, a girl from the orphanage was targeted by a spoiled young master. Zhao Yue had no choice but to ask Duan Jingchuan to pull some strings and see if there was any way to help.
Duan Jingchuan didn't show up. Instead, he somehow obtained eight pieces of evidence against the纨绔子弟's family and filed a lawsuit with Kaifeng Prefecture. The next day, all the storytellers in the capital were telling the story of the纨绔子弟's family. A once-powerful family fell from grace and slunk out of the capital. From then on, no纨绔子弟 dared to provoke the Hundred Flowers Pavilion or the Orphanage, for fear of accidentally offending their masters.
In private, Chunyu Zhu and Zhao Yue said that it was true that the silence was filled with murderous intent. As soon as they saw Duan Jingchuan's expression was not right, they began to reflect on themselves, fearing that they would be found out for doing something wrong and be punished by Duan Jingchuan.
Zhao Yue kept imagining what Duan Jingchuan's expression would be when he returned. If his expression was too dark, would he have to postpone what he was going to say today?
None of the thousand imagined scenarios of Duan Jingchuan materialized in Zhao Yue's mind. Zhao Yue stared blankly at Duan Jingchuan, who was blushing, flustered, and disheveled. Was he still half asleep? How come he went out with an expression that said "I'm about to explode," but came back looking so well-behaved, like "Don't bully me"?
"Jingchuan, what's with your clothes...?" Zhao Yue was very curious. Would anyone in the Dingbei Marquis's mansion dare to be violent towards Duan Jingchuan? Could it be the Marquis's wife? Even then, they wouldn't tear off half of the sleeve.
He coughed lightly, then pulled a cloak over his shoulders, saying in an attempt to cover up his misunderstanding, "It's nothing. What brings you here?"
The torn sleeve was covered, but Zhao Yue's curiosity had nowhere to go. Seeing that Duan Jingchuan didn't seem angry, he became bolder. "Jingchuan, you look so red-faced. Could it be that you were abused by the Crown Princess?"
"What nonsense are you talking about! How could Madam... Madam possibly lay a hand on me!" Duan Jingchuan's expression was extremely unfriendly, his dark eyes filled with warning, afraid that Zhao Yue would spread rumors and ruin Feng Ran's reputation.
Zhao Yue: If you hadn't stammered that one word, I might have believed you. It really was a case of domestic violence. The Crown Princess is truly a model woman. Thinking of this, Zhao Yue couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy.
Angered by the sympathy in Zhao Yue's eyes, Duan Jingchuan's face darkened. Knowing that explaining would only make things worse, he simply asked, "What brings you here today? Do you think I've given you too much money and want to be self-reliant?"
Zhao Yue, having been tricked by Wu Doumi, immediately became serious. "I always said that the Crown Princess is the kindest person in the world. She wouldn't even swat a mosquito, so how could she possibly hit someone?"
This is so fake! Duan Jingchuan pinched the bridge of his nose. Was it just his imagination? Why did everyone around him seem a little off? "Alright, let's get down to business."
When it came to serious matters, Zhao Yue became truly serious. "The clothes and food that were escorted have been delivered. It is indeed particularly cold in the north this year. If it weren't for sending some cotton-padded clothes this time, some people might not have survived the winter. However, the quantity is too small, it's really just a drop in the ocean."
Duan Jingchuan hadn't expected the disaster in the north to be so severe this year. He wondered if Feng Ran had foreseen something. The relief efforts of the Marquis of Dingbei's mansion had set off before the imperial court. By the time news of the snow disaster reached the capital, the first batch of relief from the Marquis's mansion had already been distributed. The Emperor praised the Marquis of Dingbei's mansion for serving the country and its people. Naturally, the Marquis of Dingbei attributed all the credit to Duan Jingchuan and Feng Ran. At this point, all the civil and military officials understood the Emperor's intentions and took the initiative to donate clothing and food to the Marquis of Dingbei's mansion.
Don't these people want to organize their own disaster relief supplies and send them over?
Of course I wanted to, but it was really a thankless task.
The disaster-stricken area in the north is vast, and the problem isn't scarcity but inequality. Each family's resources are limited, and they struggle to help everyone. They don't have the audacity of the Marquis of Dingbei's household, who actually sent their future heir to beg for donations. Now, with a leader willing to contribute, they only need to follow suit. The Marquis of Dingbei's household is fair; every family's contribution is meticulously recorded and clearly presented to the Emperor, leaving no room for error.
Moreover, it was Marquis Dingbei who stabilized the northern battlefield. Every person in the northern border is grateful for the kindness of Marquis Dingbei's family. No matter what Marquis Dingbei's family does in the northern border, the people will unconditionally trust and support them, which is something that others cannot match.
This is why the Marquis of Dingbei had the foresight to voluntarily relinquish his military power and is now living a life of leisure in the capital without any troops. Therefore, no matter how much his popularity is in the northern border, the emperor will not easily take action against him.
"There's nothing we can do about it. The imperial supplies from the northern border are almost here, and the donations from the officials will arrive in a few days. We can only hope that the snow will stop soon." Duan Jingchuan knew that the situation in the northern border was difficult, but he had no good solution. The heavy snow had lasted for half a month, blocking the official roads leading to the northern border and making it difficult for carts to move. The local garrison was mobilized to clear the snow.
"It's been more than a decade since we've had such heavy snow. Many houses have collapsed under the weight. The people weren't prepared, and several children were injured while trying to rescue others." Zhao Yue never imagined that such a simple task as escorting supplies would encounter a snow disaster. If he had known this would happen, he would rather not have spent the New Year at home and would have gone there personally with those children from the orphanage.
"It's really strange, the snow just happened to fall on the very county we wanted to go to. The neighboring cities were not nearly as badly affected as these two counties. But it's fortunate that we went there, otherwise, I don't know how many poor people would have been displaced." When Zhao Yue received the message by carrier pigeon, he could hardly believe his eyes. The two cities they chose in the northern snow disaster were the most severely affected. If they hadn't arrived in time, the avalanche could have endangered them. He really didn't know whether it was luck or misfortune.
Duan Jingchuan nodded slightly, recalling the scene where Feng Ran told him the destination and departure time with a map. He felt more and more that Feng Ran must have sensed something, which was why she was in a hurry to send the supplies over. But many people still died in those two counties. Would this affect Feng Ran's merit?
These things cannot be explained to outsiders.
"Perhaps it is a blessing from heaven that these people have a glimmer of hope. There is no need to worry too much about those children. They crawled out of piles of dead bodies and know better than anyone how to survive in adversity." Feng Ran once said that the people she liked did not die young. Although he did not know the reason, he believed every word she said.
At this moment, Zhao Yue had no choice but to believe. Although those children were not related to him by blood, they were all children they had taken in one by one, and they had raised them with the money that Duan Jingchuan and they had worked hard to earn. Although they were about the same age, they treated those children as their own and raised them with no shortage of worries. Thinking of what Duan Jingchuan had said before, Zhao Yue couldn't help but ask, "Jingchuan, are you going to participate in the provincial examination this August?"
“Things have changed now, and I may have to take a different path. Ah Yue, you should also find a job. There are some things you always have to face.”
A note from the author:
Socially anxious people always have to work hard to support their wives, so let's go!
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