Chapter 83 "Why does he miss you?"
As before, Yin Yuan arranged for her to live in a property near the Yin residence, just like before.
In the first few days after taking office in the county, Yin Yuan was very busy with all sorts of things piling up. He had no time to deal with the trivial matters of the household, let alone find time to see her.
Leng Cuizhu felt a great weight lifted from her shoulders.
"The courtyard in the southwest is yours, and you can also live in the study next to it." She took off the key and tossed it to Leng Zhen. "Don't let that room become a mess. Clean it every month, and don't bring any shady people home."
Leng Zhen spoke without any politeness: "And what about you? Why do you bring so many men back every day?"
He tied the key to his waist, together with his purse: "I would never bring back a wild man like you, nor a wild woman, nor a wild dog, pheasant, or boar."
Leng Cuizhu: "Even dead people won't do."
Leng Zhen looked up at her, then nodded in a daze.
"Okay, I understand."
"Would you like me to clean the other rooms for you?"
"ah?"
She did not rush to answer.
The days leading up to moving into the new house are used for cleaning. Last year, it took her and Leng Zhen a long time to clean the huge house together. This time, she learned from her mistake and wanted Tu Si Zi to clean by himself, since he has endless energy.
"Perfect timing, Xiao Du is coming to help too, why don't you go with him?"
Leng Zhen frowned: "What exactly is your relationship with Xiao Du?"
"Furthermore, why did Xiao Du appear in Xilin County? Why did he move here as well?" Leng Zhen suddenly sensed something was wrong.
Could it be that Xiao Du is really Leng Cuizhu's illegitimate son? Judging from the situation, he is probably born to Leng Cuizhu and Yin Yuan... Perhaps Yin Yuan knew about Xiao Du's existence all along and conspired with Leng Cuizhu to raise Xiao Du outside without letting her know, which is why Xiao Du follows them wherever they go.
"What's Xiao Du's last name?"
Leng Cuizhu: "Little."
"Stop lying to me!"
Leng Cuizhu: "Du".
"His surname is Du, and his given name is Du Du."
She said impatiently, "Oh, what does it matter to you what his last name is? If you want to know his last name, go ask him yourself. What do you mean by questioning me?"
Leng Zhen was furious, but she only glared at her without saying a word.
After lunch, Tu Si Zi and Leng Zhen cleaned the house, and she took a basket and went for a stroll on the street.
Xilin County is more prosperous and bustling than the original county town. Even in the afternoon when people should be taking a break, the streets are still crowded with pedestrians, and the vendors are full of energy as they call out their wares.
She first went to the pastry shop to buy two large boxes of pastries for the two children, Leng Zhen and Tu Si Zi, and then bought rice, flour, cooking oil, and other daily necessities, as well as a pot of sake.
After watching the street performances for a while, I was about to head home when I turned around and saw someone I knew.
Jiang Mimi's attire was slightly more plain than usual, with only a few simple silver hairpins in her hair and pale lips, unlike her usual elaborate makeup.
"My lady, you've come out to shop?" Jiang Mimi smiled and took her hand. "Perfect timing, I'm also out shopping on Madam's orders. Shall we go together?"
"Uh, I..."
She originally wanted to tell Jiang Mimi that she had finished shopping and was about to go home, but Jiang Mimi brought it up.
"My lady, Lord Chen asked me to bring you something."
"...Then, let's go."
After strolling through the streets with Jiang Mimi for an hour, she finally received Chen Xun's letter.
There were two letters. The first letter said that he missed her very much, asked how she was doing these past few days, and told her to wear more clothes to avoid catching a cold.
The second letter was hidden inside the first. She heated the letter with a candle, and the secret message hidden on the back of the letter was revealed.
Chen Xun said that the saltworks had already started production, and if she wanted to go see it, she should write to him and he could take her there.
Leng Cuizhu wasn't particularly interested in this, but when the salt fields were mentioned, she remembered something Si Qing had told her before she passed away.
Si Qing said that he had hidden a will somewhere in that place and instructed her to find it.
Jiang Mimi was very curious and asked her, "Wife, what did the master say?"
"It's nothing," she replied.
"Do you and your husband have a good relationship?"
Leng Cuizhu pondered for a long time: "Ordinary friends."
"Miss Jiang, in a few days... won't it be time for your concubine-taking ceremony?"
According to old customs, wealthy families had to hold ceremonies when marrying a wife or taking a concubine. Marrying a wife involved the traditional betrothal ceremony with a grand wedding procession and an eight-bearer sedan chair. Taking a concubine, on the other hand, required the concubine to be carried in a sedan chair made of blue clothes and enter the mansion through a side gate. After entering the mansion, the concubine had to kowtow to the principal wife and offer her tea.
She knows so much about this because she dreamed of becoming a concubine when she was young.
Unfortunately, she overestimated herself, and even more so Yin Yuan.
Even now that she has no feelings for Yin Yuan anymore, she cannot deny that she does not envy Jiang Mimi in the slightest.
If she had a better family background, a better temperament, and was still as young and beautiful as before... would she have had a better fate? She knew very well that she would.
To be a girl from an ordinary family means you won't have to fall into prostitution, and you can live a simple, poor but happy life.
If she could live her next life, she would definitely choose to be alone and live her own life to the fullest.
“Yes,” Jiang Mimi sighed, “more or less, probably in the next couple of days.”
“Lady Leng, let me tell you the truth,” she said, gripping Leng Cuizhu’s hands tightly. “I’m very nervous, not only nervous, but also scared.”
"Afraid of being discovered..."
Leng Cuizhu asked with concern, "What's wrong?"
Jiang Mimi sobbed softly, "I am no longer a virgin, and I am afraid that Lord Yin will find out about this on the night we consummate our marriage and banish me from the manor."
"This one?"
She shook her head: "It's okay, Yin Yuan... he doesn't really care about this, and he might not even find out about it, so don't worry too much."
"But, but," Jiang Mimi rolled her eyes and hurriedly said, "This concubine..."
"I am pregnant."
"What did you say?"
Jiang Mimi said in a serious tone, "I am pregnant with Lord Chen's child."
"The baby is still very young, what if it miscarries because of consummation of the marriage..."
Leng Cuizhu tried to understand: "Are you planning to give birth to the child?"
“I don’t plan to. But…” Jiang Mimi confessed, “I just don’t want to consummate my marriage with Lord Yin.”
"My love for him is pure and innocent, and I do not want to taint this feeling with any impurities."
"I see."
Leng Cuizhu nodded: "If you really don't want to, the way to avoid it is simple. Just find a doctor to prescribe a prescription that says your body is too weak to have sex."
"You think you can fool the adults with this?"
Leng Cuizhu said awkwardly, "I can't think of any other way..." She had never succeeded in making excuses. Yin Yuan was like a leech, no matter how she made excuses, it was useless. He didn't listen at all, at most he would listen to what he wanted to hear.
"If you have another solution and need my help, I will definitely cooperate."
Leng Cuizhu never expected that the day she would need her help would come so soon.
Two nights later, as she was looking through the bills in her room, a commotion suddenly broke out outside.
She put down the bill and pushed open the door: "Yin... Yin Yuan?"
Yin Yuan glanced at her and walked into the house without saying a word, while several guards behind him stopped Leng Zhen.
Take your pile of rotten fish and shrimp back! We don't want your stuff!
Leng Cuizhu hurriedly asked Leng Zhen, "What is it?"
Leng Zhen ignored her and went to look at the guards beside her.
"My lady, there's a box of deer antlers and a few parrots."
“Yes,” she nodded. “Why wouldn’t I?”
"Could you please help me carry this to the backyard warehouse? Thank you for your help."
"Mother, a person of integrity will not accept food offered with contempt!"
"Why didn't you think of that when you were packing up your food?" She waved at Leng Zhen. "It's getting late, go back and rest. Don't be sleepy when you get up for breakfast tomorrow."
She turned and went back into the house.
Yin Yuan sat upright on the soft couch in the room. As soon as she entered the room, she looked up and stared at her until she walked to the couch and asked.
"What brings you here so late, sir?"
After staring at him for so long, he suddenly looked away at this moment: "...I want to see you."
She suddenly remembered: "Isn't today the day Jiang is entering the mansion?"
"Yes," the man replied, "the person is missing."
"Gone?"
"Um."
“Miss Jiang didn’t hide here with me.”
"Um."
"I know."
"I want to see you."
She couldn't argue with him: "...Now that you've seen it, go back."
Leng Cuizhu ignored Yin Yuan and returned to her desk to look at the bills.
The bill recorded the money spent on the items purchased over the past few days. It was three pages long, and she looked at it seven times to make sure it was correct before putting it away in the box.
Just as she was about to get up, a hand reached out and picked up the envelope on the table in front of her.
"How can you just take it like that?" she frowned and scolded, reaching for the envelope in the man's hand.
Yin Yuan dodged to the side, tore open the envelope, glanced at it expressionlessly, and then gripped the letter as if facing a formidable enemy.
Leng Cuizhu then noticed the letter, the one Chen Xun had written to her a few days earlier.
Yin Yuan was looking at the side without the secret message.
"……What's the meaning?"
"My relationship with Lord Chen has always been good. Is it not allowed for him to write a letter to inquire about my well-being?"
She immediately followed up with, "Give me back the letter right away."
Why such tension over a casual greeting?
She stubbornly insisted, "Where am I nervous? I'm not nervous at all."
She retorted, "On the contrary, it's you who's been so nervous all the time."
"..." The man gripped the letter tightly, scanning the handwriting on it again and again.
She stood there, staring anxiously at the cryptic messages faintly visible on the back of the letter.
If Yin Yuan finds out about the saltworks, it will be disastrous. If he gets angry and throws her in jail, ruins Chen Xun, and destroys the saltworks... Such a big business might be ruined because of her negligence!
"Stop looking..."
The man looked up, glanced at the letter, and then continued scanning it, his hands tense, veins bulging.
She grasped the man's hand: "Stop looking."
With her other hand, she slowly reached towards her chest and quietly lifted it open: "Look at this."
“…Leng Cuizhu.” The man called out to her.
"What's wrong now?"
Why does he miss you? What did you do with him that made him miss you?
"What are you plotting now?"
"Me, scheming?" Her smile vanished abruptly. "How could I possibly be as scheming as you?"
"Are you so afraid that I'll scheme against you because you feel guilty?" She raised an eyebrow and smiled. "The thing I regret most in my life is scheming against you. I'd rather never have anything to do with you again than provoke you again."
"Lord Chen is young and successful, so it's only natural that I scheme against him. Unlike you..."
"Enough!"
The man suddenly flicked his sleeve, the long sleeve brushing against her cheek.
She touched the red marks on her face and scoffed, "I was absolutely right."
"My lord, you are old. You will not be young forever, but there will always be young people. There are so many outstanding young men who are younger and more handsome than you. Do you have to resent every single one of them?"
"You can't dump me for this." The man's brow furrowed. "What happened to you?"
"If you don't rely on me, do you expect those despicable people to bring you happiness and pleasure? Or do you expect to rely on yourself, struggling in this cesspool of the world with your indiscriminate mind? Why make yourself so miserable?"
"If you had made just one correct choice, I wouldn't be so resistant to it now."
“Yes, I’ve never made the right choice. I always choose the most difficult and winding path!” she said, biting her lip.
She didn't initially think that being with Yin Yuan was a wrong choice.
When exactly did things start to change? Was it after countless compromises and concessions, and countless hardships?
The man suddenly lost his composure.
"Give me back the letter!" she yelled as she tried to snatch the letter from the man's hand.
She didn't manage to grab the letter, but was pulled into a hug.
"Let go..." Her lips had barely opened when they were silenced by a kiss.
The man held her tightly by the back of the head, preventing her from leaving. She then grabbed his neck and bit his lip until it bled.
The letter, crumpled and torn, fluttered to the ground.
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