The Lady’s Sickly Husband

Chapter 16: Laugh, This Unkind Woman! Translator: Antonia

Tianxiang City was still that prosperous with people flooding in and out on the streets, but the layout was a little different.

The front door of the restaurant Yingkexuan was busy and bustling while another restaurant Baiyunju, opposite Yingkexuan, also welcomed many visitors.

When Mo Qianxue just arrived at the city, she heard that this street was now the most prosperous place downtown.

Yingkexuan had invited prostitutes and singers and bands for performance every day, making the restaurant really boisterous!

The new dishes of Baiyunju were good in terms of color, fragrance, and taste. They also specially invited story-tellers to talk about anecdotes of extraordinary people, making the place scholarly elegant!

Xiaoxiao, when led into the wing room, couldn’t help getting dumbfounded. Her tofu feast contained altogether eight different dishes, but now all of the plates were empty. What greeted her shocked eyes was an embarrassed cough.

The seventh young lord cleared his throat and pointed to Alu next to him, looking as if regretful for Alu’s childish improperness, “Um…Mrs. Ning, tofu is really unique food you make, so I gave Alu the honor to have a taste, but to my surprise, this undisciplined servant should eat all the tofu.”

This would have been a reasonable statement, yet…

Alu’s disappointing stomach started to scream again and again.

Trembling, Alu bowed his head at once, and the young lord’s face, thicker than copper coins, totally flushed at once.

He folded his small fan and tapped on Alu’s head, “I told you not to. Look at you. You must suffer diarrhea from eating too much. Leave here right now. So embarrassing!”

Alu’s eyebrows twitched twice. He swore to heaven that he hadn’t been that hungry, but young lord’s eating manner and the beautiful color of the dishes made him hungry all of a sudden, and then…

Shouldn’t a servant take over blames from the master?

Alu lowered his head, not wanting to argue anything.

His young lord in the capital and in the Su family was definitely a little bully.

At the age of three, he burned an aunt’s hair. At the age of nine, he beat up the youngest son of an imperial lord. At the age of ten, he…left the capital, for many years…

A few months ago, he came back to the capital city. Although with a notorious fame, his identity and good-looking face and graceful composure attracted a bunch of young ladies pouncing at him like wolves one after another. In order to avoid the engagement his mother made for him, the seventh young lord started a challenge with eldest young lord. Only in this way could he flee to this small city of Tianxiang.

In front of the young ladies in the capital, he often deliberately ruined his own image.

Why did young lord begin to care when in front of a village woman?

Alu stopped thinking about what he didn’t understand, bowing his head and leaving quickly like wind.

Mo Qianxue understood of everything at once. It turned out this seventh young lord is a eater. Yet, was it that difficult to admit?

Fighting back her impulse to burst into laughter, Mo Qianxue took a glance at his stomach.

It was flat. This guy had a fit figure, neither fat nor thin. With such an appetite and nice body, how did he keep fit? So enviable!

Soon, they agreed upon many issues about tofu. The seventh young lord, with his lively expression and soft voice, wanted to continue to chat with her, but Mo Qianxue stood up and bade farewell.

A man and a woman alone, it would be inconvenient to stay together for two long.

Under repeated requests from the seventh young lord, she agreed that all tofu made this year would be sent to Baiyunju regardless of amount. In the future after this year, the tofu supplied to Baiyunju would be at a price twenty percent cheaper than that provided to others. Mo Qianxue decided that the twenty percent money meant commercial fee paid to Baiyunju, so she nodded.

As soon as she got out, Mo Qianxue, holding the evergreen tree, bent from laughing. If she continued to fight back the laughter, she was afraid that she might suffer internal injuries.

The seventh young lord, standing behind the door, shattered the fan haddle.

To be honest, he truly enjoyed delicious food, but on the other hand, he had been really hungry.

Since he had arrived at Tianxiang city, he didn’t have good meals for many days. As for the dishes on the four menus Mo Qianxue had given them, though their cooks made the dishes not bad, but not as delicious as Mo Qianxue. He didn’t want to eat more after a few chopsticks of dishes.

Today, the tofu was really appetizing. He had planned to leave some, but the chopsticks wouldn’t listen to him. The tofu was too slippery that it slid into his throat upon entering his mouth. And this happened before he could realize. Should he be the one to blame?

This woman was really unkind!

After laughing, Mo Qianxue was led out of the backyard by Qi. The hall was bustling with busy trading. Mo Qianxue began to appreciate the unusual seventh young lord.

It took merely a week before the business ran well. She had to admit that this eater was indeed talented.

This time, Mo Qianxue came here alone. The kind sister Fang had proposed to go with her, but Mo detained her at home to cook lunch for Ning Shaoqing in the pretext of his dislike of dried finished food.

She had to get to know this city and this world. She also wanted to buy many staff. It would be inconvenient with sister Fang around her.

For example, just now she strolled in a bookstore for a long time and managed to find a few good books. She also bought herself a set of writing tools, costing many taels of silver. If sister Fang was here, she would definitely stare at her with a grieving look, to say she would ruin her family.

For example, she was now browsing at a tea ware store. If sister Fang knew that a little teacup was sold at a price a dozen times higher than a big bowl, she would absolutely drag her out.

Mo Qianxue, wearing a silver hairpin and new clothes, looked, though not luxurious, pretty graceful. In addition to her composure, the shop assistant was eagerly attentive.

……

*

At the Village of Wang Clan.

It was noon. Sister Fang saw her son Zhuzi came back carrying his backpack. She put the meal she just made into bowls and then put them into a hamper and let Zhuzi take care of his sister to have lunch. Then, sister Fang, taking the hamper, went to Mr. Ning’s home.

She just arrived at the door when she met aunt Fang and her daughter Fang Taoer.

“My niece-in-law, where are you going?” Aunt Fang instantly stopped sister Fang, asking all smiles.

What was wrong with this aunt today? Usually, because her husband was an elder and senior, she always looked down upon others. The sun came out from the west? Sister Fang suspected something wrong, but she still replied politely, “Mrs. Ning goes downtown for business, so she asked me to cook for Mr. Ning. I’m sending the meal.”

Aunt Fang grabbed over the hamper at once and gave it to Fang Taoer while pushing sister Fang back to her house, “My niece-in-law, just let Fang Taoer help you send the meal. The embroider sample you gave me last time is really pretty. Taoer wanted to embroider based on that, but I’m too old to remember where I put it, so help me draw another one please.”

“It’s not proper to bother you, aunt. I can draw you another one afterwards.” She was a little shocked since aunt Fang suddenly took the hamper away from her. Yet she didn’t yield but stepped forward, prepared to take back the hamper from Taoer.

Seeing her approached, Taoer flashed aside, smiling, “Do you regard me as a eater to eat the meal on the way? Or Are you unwilling to give the sample?”

When the conversation became like this, sister Fang had to compromise regardless of her suspicious. She enjoined a few words and then was pulled back by aunt Fang.

Ning Shaoqing was a bit surprised when he saw Fang Taoer but relieved hearing Taoer telling him that sister had to take care of her daughter Yaya who wasn’t well. Besides, the hamper was indeed sister Fang’s.

Naturally, a mother must take care of her children when they fell ill.

Last time when elder Fang had made a proposal, he turned him down unsparingly, and later this Fang Taoer had come to ask for reasons and been scolded and driven away by him. Now, he already got married. It would be better to keep a distance from her.

Thinking of this, Ning Shaoqing took over the hamper and said coldly, “You can leave now.”

“Then, please enjoy sir. I’ll wait outside. When you finish, just call me in to gather the bowls and chopsticks and give the hamper back to my sister-in-law.”

Ning Shaoqing’s freezing eyes were full of chill and distrust, but at the sight of Taoer’s shy and hesitating retreating back, he shook his head, persuading himself: here wasn’t Ning Mansion. There weren’t schemes and conspirations. The villagers were simple. Don’t be over alert…

He had already married a wife. He was now merely a sick and poor scholar while Taoer was an innocent unmarried girl. What could she expect from him? To be his concubine? He shook off those messy thoughts and began to eat.

Recently, Ning Shaoqing had used to the delicious varieties of food Mo Qianxue made. How could he enjoy the meal sister Fang made? After having some soup, he called in Fang Taoer to gather the table wares and then he stood up and headed for his room.

Unexpectedly, the moment he stood up, the usual smell from Taoer triggered a sudden wave of annoying heat within his body and made him dazzle.