Chapter 98 His dark gray curly hair was already soaked by the light rain…
The next day, I went to the bottom of the extinct volcano and unexpectedly ran into Daio. Daio smiled at me and said, "I heard that your husband has been pampering his youngest mistress lately, the one without children, you know, she has the best figure."
"oh."
Daio leaned close to my ear and said mysteriously, "I heard that you two have been married for a month and there hasn't been a sound in the room."
“Yes,” I laughed, readily admitting, “nothing happened between us.”
Daio was somewhat surprised. "Oh, my uncle isn't impotent, is he? No way, where did his two daughters come from?"
“It’s not that he’s incompetent,” I said, “it’s that I don’t want to.”
"Why?" Daio pressed on relentlessly.
I didn't answer, and turned to walk down the mountain. Daio followed closely behind, "Hey, you still haven't told me?"
"What's there to say? I just don't want to."
That evening, Artis came to me in a rage. I saw his unfriendly expression and was about to speak when he interrupted, "How could you tell Daio about what happened between my husband and me?"
I was momentarily speechless, unsure how to respond.
"Now the whole clan knows, and they're all laughing at me behind my back. Several elders are also scolding me. Don't you know that you can't just say things like that?"
"So what if I said something?" It was the first time he had ever scolded me, and I felt really uncomfortable. "I'm already doing you a favor by marrying you, so why do you still have demands on me?"
He looked at me in disbelief. "Is this all you've got?"
"Yes, so what if I have this brain?" I felt humiliated.
He slammed the door and left.
That night, I had a strange dream. In the dream, I was as if invisible, standing beside him and one of his guards. This guard must have been one of his trusted confidants.
His room was a suite, divided into an inner room and an outer room, while my room was just a single room.
The inner room was carpeted with a soft, light red carpet. Lying on the large bed was a beautiful woman, her clothes disheveled, her long hair scattered across the pillow. It was clear she had fallen asleep exhausted after a passionate night of lovemaking. It was the childless mistress I had seen before.
He was talking to his confidant in the outer room, his voice was very low, but I still heard him.
"Rest assured, my lord, I have already secretly ordered the clansmen not to discuss this matter in private anymore," the confidant said in a very low voice.
"I never expected her to be such a brainless and undignified woman," he said coldly.
"But my lord has still made some gains. The treasure found in the cave is enough for us to support another large army. Now we've also discovered copper and coal mines, so it's quite a haul," the confidant reassured him.
"Now you can secretly look for buyers. Have the Seven-Colored Bird spread the word that we are willing to sell copper and coal at a price slightly lower than the market price, so we can take control of these two markets first."
"Won't this provoke a backlash from the original sellers?" the confidant asked worriedly.
“Copper and coal are not high-profit markets, and those sellers are not top nobles, but just the king’s illegitimate sons. We don’t need to worry about offending them, as they have no army to attack us.”
"yes."
A while after his confidant left, the mistress in the inner room awoke and softly called out, "Artis." Artis went over and asked gently, even more so than when he spoke to me, "Why are you awake?"
“I had a nightmare,” the mistress said, tears streaming down her face. “I’m afraid you won’t want me anymore.”
"How could that be?" He gently stroked her soft, beautiful hair.
"Do you know? The day you got married, I was so scared that I couldn't sleep for several nights, not at all." The mistress's voice was almost incoherent.
"Don't worry, I won't abandon you." His voice was even gentler.
"I heard a rumor that nothing happened between you and her, and that she said it was because she didn't want to. Is that true?" the mistress asked pitifully.
He laughed. "Not only does she not want to, but I don't really want to either. Her figure is far inferior to yours."
"Oh?" The mistress was not very convinced.
“Her buttocks aren’t as round and firm as yours, not perky enough; her breasts aren’t big enough, and her legs aren’t long enough,” he thought for a moment, “In short, I’m not particularly interested.”
The mistress burst into laughter through her tears, wrapped her arms around his neck, and said sweetly, "Luckily, she wasn't good enough."
I woke up again in the early morning and found that it was raining outside. This was the first time I had experienced rain since I came to the island.
The rain was heavy, constantly hitting the window with a loud pattering sound.
I had just finished washing up when Attis, wearing a hooded long coat, pushed open the door and came in. He took off the soaking wet coat and handed it to the maid, but his hair was still mostly wet.
"Aren't you going to patrol?" I was a little surprised to see him.
He smiled slightly, "I'm here to apologize to you. I shouldn't have treated you that way last night."
I laughed and picked up the comb from the dressing table. "I've already forgotten about it."
"You're really not angry with me?" he asked.
I combed my hair in front of the mirror and smiled in response, "Didn't I say I'd already forgotten?"
That day, I went on an inspection tour with him. Inside the treasure cave of the extinct volcano, I secretly took some pearls and put them in my pocket.
I discovered it myself, so taking some is only natural.
Having once been a homeless person, I know all too well that you can't do anything without money.
In the dead of night, I hid by the side of the fireplace and counted the pearls. There were about ten or so, but that was still a bit too few.
He took out a small cloth bag, put the pearls inside, and kept it close to his body.
Just as he finished setting it up, there was a light knock on the door, and Artis surprisingly pushed the door open and entered.
I was taken aback and stood up. "What brings you here?"
Artis smiled gently, "I missed you, so I came."
I smiled gently and said, "If I had known you were coming, I should have made the bed for you."
He pulled me into his arms and asked softly, "How about I sleep with you tonight?"
I smiled and gently pushed him away, saying, "I'm not ready yet."
We were still one in bed and one on the floor. During our casual conversation, I "casually" mentioned to him how beautiful his mistress's necklace and bracelet were.
"If you like it, I'll give it to you too," he said with a smile.
"Thank you then." I didn't refuse.
The next day at noon, when he put a sparkling ruby necklace around my neck, I looked on with great surprise, much like a country girl who had never seen the world before. He looked at me and laughed.
That night, unable to come over, he spent the night in Ya-dai's mother's room, and surprisingly brought her a diamond bracelet as a consolation prize. I beamed with joy.
No wonder women like to date rich men. He got two good things in one day, which can be exchanged for a lot of money.
“I’m not taking your money for nothing,” I told myself. “I helped you get away from the guillotine, helped your families escape danger, and even helped you discover a treasure cave. Next, I’ll help you find a hidden passage connecting this island to the outside world. To be honest, this amount of money is far from enough.”
Then I indirectly asked him for a lot of nice things: a jade bracelet, pearl earrings, an emerald necklace, a turquoise bracelet, and a gold hairpin inlaid with jade. I put them in small pockets and hid them in an inner garment with a hidden pocket.
I also found a pair of boots that could be used to store items, so I could put some of the jewelry inside as well.
Two days later, one midnight, perhaps seeing that I was still ignoring him and never looked at him properly while lying in bed, Artis, lying on his cot on the floor, suddenly said to me, "Did you think I was the one who proposed the marriage exchange?"
I froze, turned around and sat up. "What do you mean?"
He sat up halfway and said casually, "When you and Daio were about to get married, I was very disappointed, but I didn't want to compete with the king for the bride, so I decided to marry the king's original bride. Coincidentally, this bride also wanted to marry me. Her noble rank is one level lower than mine, but her maternal grandfather secretly has a large private army and is willing to use this private army as his eldest daughter's dowry. So I am willing to marry her."
I held my breath and listened to him continue. He then slightly pulled back the bed curtains, climbed onto my bed, and sat next to me. Just as I was about to object, he laughed and said, "If you don't want me to come up here, I won't continue."
I had no choice but to acquiesce.
“Unexpectedly, on the morning of your wedding, after I said some harsh things to you,” he shrugged before continuing, “when I got back to the room, Daio was waiting for me. He demanded a swap marriage; he wanted to marry the bride who had a private army, and he wanted me to marry you. I agreed.”
"Is he afraid that you have a private army and will overthrow him?" I asked.
"Maybe so," he said with a gentle smile. "Anyway, he ended up marrying the woman he wanted, and I married the woman I wanted."
After a long silence, I asked him, "Are you telling me all this now to try and keep me away from Daio?"
“Yes,” he answered honestly, “I don’t want you to get too close to him; he’s not a good match for you.”
“I’m not a good match for you either,” I said with a laugh, pushing him off the bed. “Let me work on getting my butt perkier and my breasts bigger before I get close to you.”
Without even glancing at his expression, I quickly pulled the bed curtains shut.
Then, I slept soundly until dawn.
I never dreamed that this would be the last time I had a midnight "heart-to-heart talk" with him on the island.
On the day we left, the island was shrouded in mist, with thick white fog enveloping the beaches, forests, orchards, fields, and our residential area.
Later, the fog dissipated, but a light rain began to fall, and the wind was quite strong. Artis originally did not want to take me on the tour, but I insisted, so he had no choice but to give up.
While Artis and his guards lingered in the treasure cave, I shook off my two henchmen and quickly made my way to the bottom of the extinct volcano. This was my nth time searching for underground passages.
Holding onto the mountainside, stepping over loose stones, I searched with difficulty within the mountain. I had searched all the mountain paths at the bottom, and this time I started all over again, beginning with the first path.
After searching for a while without success, I was about to head to the second mountain path when someone suddenly grabbed my back. I was startled and turned around to see Artis.
"Did you use your special abilities to see something? Or hear me speaking?"
His dark gray curly hair was wet from the light rain, a few strands of bangs fell on his eyebrows, and his dark eyes were as bright as stars.
"What's the meaning?"
"Buttocks and breasts," he said bluntly.
I just smiled; he still remembered what I said last night.
He hugged me tightly, almost embedding me into his chest.
"Is this why you haven't been intimate with me for months since we got married?" He rubbed his warm face against my cold cheek.
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Author's Note: Thank you all for your support! Mwah! Hope you'll continue to support me! Also, please feel free to follow "Cinderella Wants a Thrilling Novel Script" and "A Love of Ice and Fire," both of which are completed. This story updates daily around 6 AM, so please follow along!
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