The Lady’s Sickly Husband

Translator: Antonia

“What a nice girl Qingyou is! Graceful and beautiful with good family background and learning. Why did you act as if to bite her and scare her away?”

Sending away the horse carriage of Jian family, Mo Qianxue displayed an unforgiving face to Ning Shaoqing.

“Bite?” Instantly, Ning Shaoqing’s expression became a violent storm, eyes shooting out coldness.

Don’t think that he didn’t see her and Jian Qingyou making eyes at each other when he was talking with lord Jian.

He didn’t question her, but now she should come to accuse him and said bite… What was him? A monster? Besides, even if he was a monster, he only wanted to bite her. As the thought flowing in his mind, he actually spelled it out, “Now, I only want to bite you to death!”

Then, the woman was carried into the inner room.

Since when did lord become such a fretful man? And since when did he become so rude?

The shadow guard couldn’t figure it out and only had to block his ears with cotton pods. It would be better for him not listen to certain sound.

In a while, the monster got quiet.

The woman tried to conceal with her hands a few red marks on her face, stroking her heated neck and sighing: why did she keep saying wrong words recently?

No, she couldn’t just let him go. She must bite back. Then, she dashed over and pressed the monster under her body.

At closer glance, his lips seemed more alluring. She grinded her teeth, opened her mouth to…

When the door was knocked.

It was Asan, “Lady, the gifts are checked off. Please take a look.”

He saw Jian’s carriage had left and thought that he should let lady check gifts, so he hurriedly come to find her.

Mo Qianxue found it both funny and annoying.

She climbed off Ning Shaoqing’s body.

Ning Shaoqing turned murderous, shouting, “Leave!” However, though Asan instantly ran away, the chemistry between the couple also disappeared, not to be restored.

Ning Shaoqing sat up and coughed.

The two pairs of eyes clashed into each other. The burning pain in her neck made Mo Qianxue angry out of shyness. She raised her little fists and began to beat Ning Shaoqing up.

*

Due to the running water, the river wasn’t frozen. It was quite warm inside, so the business of Mo Qianxue’ restaurant was better than usual.

Since a few days ago, after she called a meeting in the restaurant, every day Mo Qianxue only showed up for a while to check the account book and food and give orders…

Yunyao now was the manager sitting behind the counter and keeping accounts and would help clean the tables when she was free. She didn’t need to assit Juniang in the restaurant because now it was the job of Yunniang, Juniang’s friend.

When Mo Qianxue had asked Juniang to recommend someone, the main purpose was to let her get a friend here, which was both a favor to her and a way to avoid conflict in the kitchen. Mo Qianxue herself would also have less troubles to tackle with.

Xiaolei acted as a waiter. He was still a quick-doer as before. When there were no people in the restaurant, he would go to solicit customers or advertise for their food at the dock.

Sometimes, when the ship passengers didn’t want to disembark, he would also send the food onboard. When the restaurant had more business, his income went up too, a win-win scenario.

The clever child Xixi was no longer the shy girl she had been months ago. Now every day she ran about in the restaurant to help with odds and ends. An excellent assistant.

When Mo Qianxue came, everything in the restruant was in order, the same as when she stayed here the whole day. This gave her great relief.

She planned to remove her hands off the restaurant step by step. This was the art of management. If she needed to be fully dedicated to everything she did and stayed there all day long, then even ten of her wouldn’t be enough.

The most significant factor was her. Now she had a big thing to do.

Since the beans were already in the warehouse, she must get down to make preparation for the soy sauce factory.

She was looking for a large vacant lot to build the factory near the dock so that in the future either the transportation or management could be much more convenient. Otherwise, if the products had to be transported a long way over hills or mountains, it would be not only troublesome but also increase labor cost.

Then, the restaurant would be a distribution point.

This was also the reason why she had insisted to build the restaurant at the dock.

When soy sauce and vinegar were produced, she could just wait to count money. Only with a stable source of income would she feel relieved to take Ning Shaoqing to visit all famous doctors in the country, worry-free about the medical fees and other expenses.

As for sales channel, she could advice Su Qi.

One reason was to repay his favor of the huge-amount bean business that he bridged for her last time, and what was more, with his background, he must have a marvelous network of relationship.

She lacked money, workers and land… Everything was most difficult at the beginning! She must deal with these one by one.

Money.

She felt the jade at her chest. Must she sell it out?

No! She couldn’t beat it!

She must find another way. In the end, things would mend. At least she could rent a lot of land instead of buying one.

Besides, what she needed for the factory was a huge field, which wouldn’t be more expensive than two thousand taels of silver that the jade was worth.

Workers.

This issue was easy. Now she had earned a good name in the Wang village. Her workers had worked for many months and they were all paid on time.

Every day there were people coming to beg for a job, but sister Fang returned them down in mild and roundabout ways.

The main problem now was land.

First, the site for factory must be one with sufficient sunlight because the beans needed to be sun-dried before making sauce. Good sauce required enough sunrays.

Second, water source.

Third, the land should be flat and huge.

Forth, it shouldn’t be far from the dock.

Fifth…

*

During these days, Awu had driven the oxcart and taken Mo Qianxue to a dozen of mountains nearby. He couldn’t figure out why lord didn’t persuade lady to stay at home. Was it for money? No, lord had more than enough money.

Finally, they found a suitable valley.

There was plenty of sunshine and a pool of water not far away. The entire valley was flat and big, not distant from the dock.

Such a big vallege should be vacant inside without tall trees to block the light nor wild rushes. The whole picture of it was accessible at one glance. No doubts, this valley must be specially taken care of on a regular basis.

However, Mo Qianxue didn’t know what the owner was going to do with such a vacant lot.

Mo Qianxue stood there, contemplating how she could find out the owner of this land.

At this time, a rider galloped over, and Awu quickly flashed to before Mo Qianxue.

Seeing them, the youth on the horse at once unceremoniously ordered them to leave, “This is a private land. Please leave immediately.”

Judging from his tone and clothes, he should be a yard guard.

It would be strange that the owner of such a strange valley wasn’t weird, so Mo Qianxue didn’t mind his impolite manner and asked straightforwardly, “Where is your master? Take me to meet him.”

“Sorry, my master says he doesn’t receive guests.”

“Then tell him that I want to buy this valley.” She planned to intrigue the owner with a big bait. Other things could be discussed after she met him.

“My master says that this valley doesn’t sell or rent. Please leave at once.”

Not for selling or renting?! Write off all possibilities?

Who was this aloof owner? Even his servant acted so arrogantly. Mo Qianxue touched her nose. She didn’t saw any chance of negotiation from the youth’s eyes.

Awu was a little upset when he saw the youth’s disrespect towards lady. He stepped forward, asking in a cold tone, “What are you going to do if we don’t leave?”

Lady had waited long to find a satisfactory land. He’d like to fight with the youth if this could get the mysterious owner out. After all, it was merely a piece of land.

The youth on the horse wasn’t daunted at all, sitting there, his back straight and hands reaching for the sword at his waist. At the moment, the air pressure seemed to be intensified with hostility.

In view of this situation, Mo Qianxue coughed and pulled Awu, “Since his master finds it inconvenient, we shouldn’t stay for any longer. Sorry to have bothered you.”

Then, she turned away and got onto the oxcart. Awu was still at dagger drawn with the youth, but the hostility in the air was much lower by her reaction.

“Awu.” Mo Qianxue urged him. Then Awu took two steps back, jumping onto the oxcart and drove out of the valley.

Of course, Mo Qianxue wouldn’t give up so easily. There weren’t such words as ‘losing a battle before fighting’ in her life dictionary.

This was a roundabout tactic.

The oxcart just made out of the valley, Mo Qianxue ordered Awu to ignore her and secretly follow the rider youth in order to figure out the whereabout of the valley’s owner.

She knew that Awu had excellent Light-Feet which made him easily march at a high speed.

But Awu insisted that she be sent back to the restaurant before he went to track for the owner. If he left lady alone in this wild mountain, his lord would have the interest to take off his head and kick it for fun.

The reason why lord allowed lady to run about in the city was because Awu followed to protect her.

Usually Awu was obedient, but Mo Qianxue didn’t expect him so stubborn on key issues. Thinking that a woman traveled alone in the wild was indeed unsafe, so she listened to him. Luckily, this wasn’t far from the restaurant.

It was late. Juniang, Yunniang and Xiao had finished their work and ready to go home, so Awu entrusted the oxcart to Xiaolei and let him drove Mo Qianxue home, then he went out and was quickly out of sight.

Wang Xiaolei stared at Awu’s disappearing figure with admiration. Since Asan and Awu came here, the villagers became increasingly respectful toward Ning Shaoqing.

Mo Qianxue, Juniang and Yunniang all took the oxcart while Wang Xiaolei painstakingly pulled the oxcart along the mountain road, swearing to himself that one day he would be an expert driver.