The Possession of My Beloved - CH 32

Miantang couldn’t figure out what the account book was, but she intuitively said, “Don’t report it to the Young Master first, I’ll sort out the accounts…”

Next, she buried her head in front of the table and began to rearrange the accounts one by one. Somehow, Miantang knew that she was making a short turnover of the accounts and made a false account again, and the mountain of silver immediately turned into countless trickles and was allocated from the general ledger…

Then, she watched the carriages passing in front of her. Although she couldn’t see the objects in the boxes, she was clear in her heart that they were boxes of silver teals and silver notes on the carriages…

When Miantang woke up with a burst of splitting headache, in addition to feeling a little tired of being busy in the dream, she also feel that the dream is too absurd. Even if she smashed and sold all her husband’s stores, how could she have so much money? And she is also like a corrupt official, making false accounts and embezzling… Is it that she was confused and had a messy dream after listening to the bandit’s words?

But the dream seems to be too real, letting people unable to walk out of a trance…

She opened her eyes and stared at the beam.

“Are you awake, do you want to drink some water?”

Cui Xingzhou, who had been sitting aside, put down his book and asked.

At this time, the night has turned dark, and the candlelight on the table is like beans, emitting a weak light.

Miantang turned her head weakly and looked at him. For a moment, she seemed to be in a trance again. When she first woke up from a serious illness, looking at her husband showed endless unfamiliar feelings. She tried to get up, but she doesn’t have the energy. Thus, she just asked weakly, “How did I end up fainting?”

Cui Xingzhou said calmly, “The thief who was knocked unconscious by you woke up and attacked you secretly… How do you feel? Do you recall anything?”

Miantang looked at her husband’s handsome and elegant face, her heart moved slightly, and she felt that she was being too suspicious. Why would she want to ask if it was her husband who knocked her unconscious with his hand for a moment?

She also thinks that such words are too absurd, so she swallowed them and didn’t say anything. She just asked hoarsely, “I have a bad headache… Who are those people… How dare they be so bold? They were still asking me so directly for money?”

Hearing her question, Cui Xingzhou remembered the secret sentry who had just interrogated the prisoner.

Those people turned out to be tough characters. Nine out of ten didn’t say anything, but one was served with a soldering iron and a stick and finally told the truth.

According to them, when Liu Miantang first ran away from the mountain of Yang, she made an empty account herself and took away a large amount of money and silver from the mountain fastness. Because the accounts made are flawless, and the mountain fastness industries chain is located everywhere, the accounts will only be submitted every mid-year, so no one found out at all before.

It was only this time that a woman named Yunniang, who took over her account, found the mistake, so she ordered them to come down the mountain to find Liu Miantang.

When the secret sentry wanted to ask who Yunniang was, what was the origin of their Master, and why Liu Miantang had access to this large amount of accounts, the bandit hoarsely said, “Our Master is…”

Before he finished speaking, another bandit at the side who is barely breathing suddenly looked up, spit out a hidden poison needle from his mouth, and nailed the confessor at once. Then, after looking at each other, the rest of them bit their tongues and killed themselves.

The secret sentry did not expect that a group of mountain bandits should be so determined as well-trained warriors. It was also unprepared, and there was no one alive.

Cui Xingzhou listened to the report of the secret sentry calmly and sorts out a general story.

That Lu Wen is a weirdo. He has the habit of letting his woman take care of the accounts. What’s more terrifying is that these mountain bandits have huge assets and industries chain everywhere… So it seems that their ambition is not small. How can they be so obedient and surrender to the offer of amnesty and enlistment to rebels?

What exactly is Lu Wen’s origin?

As for Liu Miantang, she took away a large amount of money and silver. Cui Xingzhou does not doubt that according to Liu Miantang’s current performance, she has such courage and skills. No wonder she was cut off on her hands and legs hamstring at the beginning…

But now, Liu Miantang doesn’t remember what happened when she was in the bandit’s nest at all, but those bandits don’t know that she has lost her memory. If they happened to catch Liu Miantang, he can imagine that her fate must be worse than death.

Since Lu Wen’s recruitment was decided, Cui Xingzhou has always wanted to withdraw from the Mansion on North Street. Just tired and lazy for a moment, he thought about looking at the situation again. He didn’t expect to lead to such a shocking secret.

It seems that the North Street Mansion can’t be revoked. It’s even more necessary to step up the guard and continue fishing to see if he can find out the details of the Young Master Ziyu and the Yunniang in the mouth of the bandits.

More importantly, he had to figure out what role Liu Miantang played in that Mountain of Yang!

……

Somehow, Miantang found that the number of times her husband came home had suddenly increased since she was attacked by bandits when she went out of the street.

In addition to going out for half a day at noon, generally after lunch, he doesn’t go out in the afternoon. He plays chess and reads books with her, how leisurely and carefree! Showing the look of being tired and lazy after the lesson in the chess house and returning home.

But there were many times when he looked at her with his eagle-eyed, which seemed to have more meaning of exploration.

Although it’s good for her husband to be at home, Miantang always wants to ask him why.

When asked about him, Cui Xingzhou said faintly, “I’ve learned chess for so long, but I’m no better than you. I should stop learning.”

The virtuous wife Miantang was extremely shocked when she heard this. She didn’t expect that she had hurt her husband’s enthusiasm to learn chess. But she also wondered, “I couldn’t play chess before. Do you know who I learned from?”

Cui Xingzhou just finished a game with her. He looked at her while taking the chess pieces. The corners of his mouth were slightly cold. He casually said, “I don’t know. Maybe you learned from that Young Master Ziyu…”

Miantang thought about his inexplicable familiarity when watching Young Master Ziyu play chess at the beginning, and couldn’t help thinking that what her husband said might be true. What on earth is she thinking at the beginning? How could she hang out with a man who is not her husband while her husband’s away? How many games of chess does she have to play and practice to have this skill of chess currently!

At this moment, the elegance of playing chess is gone. Miantang wants to amend the situation for her wrongdoings, grabbed the cloth in the broken basket, and starts to measure Cui Jiu.

Summer is coming to an end. It’s time to add some clothes for her husband when the weather turns cooler. The coat naturally needs to be bought to fit and be decent. But the inner shirt must be made by the woman herself, and it’s only intimate to wear.

Because of her serious illness, she completely forgot how to be a wife.

Fortunately, Miantang often sits on the bench at the door of each house in North Street normally. When she eats melon seeds and puts the sole on her shoes, she got to know the period of cold and warm during the four seasons, and those women’s livelihood. Instead, she can follow the group of women to make clothes and innerwear for her husband.

Because Mo Ru brought back a box of her husband’s clothes, Miantang found a previous blouse of Cui Jiu, cut the cloth as it was, and sewed it carefully every day. After working so hard for several days, it finally looked like something.

Cui Xingzhou stood up and allowed Miantang to gesture back and forth with him.

Although Miantang’s stature is taller than that of women in the regions south of the Yangtze River, compared with his majestic height, she looks like a lovable little woman.

Unlike the experienced and capable look in business, this willow lady is very clumsy in sewing! The sleeve has already been changed three or four times…

He hung his eyes and looked down at Miantang slightly. First, she frowned slightly. After carefully measuring the waistline, she was very satisfied, her red lips slightly opened, and she smiled very clearly.

But such an intoxicating smile fell into the eyes of Cui Xingzhou was even worse.

These days, he has been thinking, Is this woman living with that Young Master Ziyu wrongfully in degradation, or does she come to have a tender feeling for each other like a married couple to that Young Master Ziyu after being together for a long time?

Even if she was a lady from a good family at first, was it true that she was taken prisoner by such a refined Young Master to be a wife or concubine? Otherwise, how could she be willing to take care of his accounts?

However, thinking that later, the woman was bold enough to run away with the anti-bandit silver money, Cui Xingzhou’s heart slightly forgave Miantang.

At the very least, she knows that she should not be associated with those anti-bandits.

It’s just that it’s so much silver money. How dare she? They have been a fake married couple for so long, and he can feel her conduct. Although she loves money, she is by no means a greedy person. Moreover, how would a weak woman be so greedy for such a large sum of money?

And no one had ever looked for her before. Until that Ziyu found that she was still alive, no one came to her door.

Cui Xingzhou snorted coldly when he thought of the bandit talking about the woman called “Yunniang”.

As expected for a bandit. Unexpectedly, he has the habit of letting the bedside person take care of his accounts. It is thought that Miantang fell out of favor and his new love was in charge. The account book was transferred to the hands of the new wife of the brigand chief.

He doesn’t know who his new love colluded with to covet money, but she framed it onto Liu Miantang, an abandoned woman.

Such a vicious woman that loves scheming against other are seen in his father’s residence. Cui Xingzhou was used to their dirty methods since childhood. After a little thought, he figured out the possibility.

Thinking of this and looking at Miantang again, he recalls when she was floating in the river barely breathing… What’s the use of being able and efficient? She was taken advantage of when she met unsophisticated people, and she was wiped away being thrown into the river like garbage…

Miantang measured his clothes and looked up seeing her husband looking directly at her, but his eyes were cold and unspeakable indifference.

She couldn’t help hesitating and then raised her hand to look at her clothes. After a while, she found that the two sleeves were unbalanced on both sides.

“Ah!” She cried out in shame. No wonder her husband looks at her like this. Why is this sleeve wrong again?

“Husband, will you dislike me for my clumsiness?” She no longer looked up at him but threw the clothes back into the broken basket in frustration.

At this time, Cui Xingzhou also shifted her mind from meditation. Looking at her look of ashamed and angry to drill into the ground, he felt a little funny and said gently, “Isn’t you good at using the abacus? A little clumsiness for needlework is okay, so you will be comprehensive. Otherwise, all the dexterity in the world belongs to you. How can other girls live?”

This word was like bean candlelight, which suddenly lit up Miantang’s gloomy face. Her eyes were bright, and she looked at her husband, and her heart was more loving. She felt that even when her husband praised others, he was reserved, which made people feel particularly pleasant to hear.

However, since her husband has abandoned his mind to learn chess, he will be in charge of the shop in the future.

“Husband, since you think I’m good at the abacus, how about I teach you abacus tomorrow? The account books in the shop give me a headache. It will be the best if you can take over.”

Cui Xingzhou didn’t expect that she would change to this topic. He couldn’t help frowning slightly and hesitated, “You can just be fully in charge of the things in the shop.”

Miantang was undressing for him. After hearing this, she first blushed and then said shyly, “Mrs. Yin on the street always asked me when will the Cui Mansion have a baby… The women said that copper and silver are of the nature of Yin. If we want to conceive in one go, we should avoid it… I thought that husband is not young anymore, and you should have a baby under your name, so I wanted to have a good rest and recuperate my body…”

The more the words come to the back, the softer the sound. Although what she said was reasonable, it shouldn’t be said from her mouth. But what worried her is that her mother-in-law died early, and no older generation in the family is urging them to have children. She has to say it by herself with a face that is blushing like red cloth…

God, will her husband mistakenly think that she is lonely in bed, forcing him to untie his heart knot and be an affectionate couple who always keeps each other’s company?

Cui Xingzhou misunderstood. He lower his head down and fixed his looked at Miantang’s face. The touch of red was like a sunset glow, and layers of dizziness had been extended to her neck…

To sum up, this woman has been sleeping with him for more than a month, although he abides by the courtesy of a gentleman and does not touch her at all. But her reputation was damaged.

If it was in the past, Cui Xingzhou will ask her to enter the temple. Later, he was kind and allowed her to establish her own family and business.

But now it seems that the bandits in the Mountain of Yang are not willing to let her go. Even after the bandits are cleared, there is no guarantee that there will be some bandits that slipped through the net. If someone finds her again and puts a knife on her neck as before, how can she protect herself, a woman with both hands and feet being weak?

For a time, Cui Xingzhou took some time to think of good candidates of husband for her. Zhao Quan, Marquis Zhennan, has a special liking for this woman, but with his lazy and loose temperament, how can he protect the safety of Miantang? He might even end up being captured together with her.

After thinking about it for a while, Cui Xingzhou was too lazy to think about it again. He only slowly reached out and touched her head. Like coaxing a child, he said, “You are still weak and need to be recuperated. In the future… I will give you a child…”

TL/Notes: !!!???  Prince Huaiyang wants to give Miantang a baby!!

Miantang didn’t expect that her husband had been considerate of her body, so he had been unwilling to share a room with her. She just felt that she was too eager. Now, no longer ashamed, she just grabbed his thin waist and buried her face in his chest, giggling.

Cui Xingzhou looked at her helplessly and suddenly felt that things were all cleared in the future. It was all right to take this helpless woman as a mistress outside.

Anyway, his future father-in-law’s family had already made an unannounced visit. It was misunderstood that he had been having this North Street Mansion outside, and his cousin Lian Binglan didn’t even ask. As long as the Lian family’s children are settled and given enough benefits, the Lian family seems to acquiesce in this matter.

In this way, he shall just let things go naturally! Anyway, in the future, he won’t be bringing Miantang into his family and hit the face of Lian Binglan, the future Princess Consort of The Prince’s Residence.

As for Liu Miantang, he will tell her the truth in the future. As long as she wants, he will give her decent wealth, safeguard her, prevent evil people from taking her life, and let her live a full and peaceful life.

With this in mind, Cui Xingzhou suddenly felt relieved, and his recent unhappiness seemed to be easily solved.

For a time, the North Street “married couple” had relieved a lot of their own heart knot, and then lay back on the bed together.

The two didn’t fall asleep immediately, so Miantang snuggled up in Cui Xingzhou’s arms and said some trivial things about the mansion. In a few words, she comes to the topic of her recent miscellaneous dreams.

Maybe it’s because she was knocked unconscious by that b*stard bandit last time. She has always dreamed of that recently, but her dreams are fragmented and incoherent. Just transporting silver money and changing silver notes had her busy for several nights.

It’s just that she always wakes up alone in bed, and she will have a feeling of being at a loss.

Fortunately, her husband has always been at home recently and will sleep with her at night. Every time she dreams, he will carefully wake her up and ask her what she dreamed of.

When the moon is half waning, someone speaks next to him, which dispels the feeling of loneliness.

However, although it was a dream, Miantang was still a little uncomfortable. Finally, she couldn’t help but hesitate to ask her husband, “Husband, did the government say what the origin of those people was? Why did they block the way and rob? Did… I really run away with other people’s money?”

Cui Jiu casually rolled her hair and replied, “It’s just a dream, but will you take other people’s money privately?”

Miantang thought carefully, “Why will I take someone else’s? It’s not mine. I don’t want it even if it’s for free, whether it’s money or people!”

When she said this, she also confessed to her husband that she would not even look at the Young Master Ziyu and men with groups of wives and concubines like Zhao Quan again, let alone be seduced by their sweet talks!

Cui Jiu raised the corner of his mouth without saying anything.

However, compared with the quiet days in North Street, Yunniang in a secluded house in the Mountain of Yang was a little angry.

She smashed a cup in her hand and said viciously, “How can it be? She has lost her martial arts skills, and she married an ordinary merchant. How can those Dragon Deadly Guards who went have no returns?”

Her confidant Yan Chi carefully said, “I inquired afterward. It is said that someone did stop the carriage in the streets that day. Unfortunately, they met a group of soldiers in the military who were out of the street in civilian clothes near Lingquan Town, so he was caught by them and interrogated. However, on the same day, someone saw their bodies carried out from the prison of Lingquan Town. It should be that they didn’t mention what is held and betrayed…”

Yunniang gritted her teeth and frowned tightly. “Liu Miantang was so brave that she not only shifted the account of the shop secretly operated by the mountain fastness, but also the private property left by The Crown Prince at the beginning. She… She was so greedy that she failed to live up to the Young Master’s deep love for her!”

After saying this, Yunniang was anxiously pacing around. There were many soldiers and horses in the Moutain of Yang. If the money could not be found, there would be not much money left in the mountain fastness. If they don’t have enough money to distribute to the subordinates, are they really going to take them to rob?

Just then, someone outside the door said, “Lady Sun, the Young Master has invited you to his study for a chat…”

The servant girl Hua Ping was a little flustered. After the person outside the door left, she quietly asked her young lady, “What should we do? Will the Young Master find the issue of the Commander’s silver money being transferred away?”

Sun Yunniang glared at her fiercely and said, “What’s there to panic about? Just push it on Liu Miantang. Compared with the huge amount of money she hid, those my father took are just a drop in the bucket!”

After saying that, she also calmed down a lot, only changed her clothes, combed her hair, and then walked to the Young Master’s study.

Ziyu’s taste is not bad. Outside the study is a cluster of precious emerald-thin bamboo. If one were to look closely, the calligraphy and paintings hanging in the study are all made by famous people and great masters, and each one is invaluable.

Ziyu is standing in front of the window listening to the report of his subordinates. Wearing black fox fur, although it is summer at this time, it is cool in the mountains, and it seems that he’s not resistant to the cold after the rain.

Yunniang looked at him looking straight at the green bamboo outside the window. She couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable again for no reason other than that the bamboo was specially planted by Liu Miantang for the Young Master.

She walked slowly over, slightly greet him with vented knees, and said, “It has just rained, you should stay away from the window to avoid getting cold…” with that, she walked over and wanted to tidy Ziyu’s collar.

But the always gentle Young Master waved her hand away slightly rudely, and then stared at her tightly and said, “Why do you secretly send someone down the mountain to find trouble with Miantang?”

Yunniang bit her lips, tears accumulated in her eyes, looking delicate and attractive, “Young Master, how can you think of me like this. If it weren’t for the lack of silver money in the account book of the mountain fastness now, how could I be so anxious to check the accounts and find Sister Liu’s mistakes? Also, I just ordered someone to look for her to beg for the whereabouts of a large amount of silver money, how could you say that I was looking for her trouble?”

Although Sun Yunniang’s appearance is beautiful and charming, it’s far worse than Liu Miantang’s bright and colorful appearance. However, her small jasper appearance is very gentle and virtuous, which makes men unconsciously be gentle too, so as not to be abrupt and weak women.

At this time, Yunniang’s voice trembled slightly, like a frightened rabbit. Anyone who is not hard-hearted will involuntarily restrain his voice.

Young Master Ziyu seemed to feel that his tone was too strong just now. Looking at Yunniang’s eyes had turned red, and he couldn’t help but lower his tone, “Miantang has always been methodical in doing things. Why do you make your own decisions without asking me? As a result, such a mess was caused, which alerted the officers and soldiers, and six of our deadly guards died because of this. How do you deal with it?”

Yunniang had no way to clean up, but her voice was weak, and said, “I just asked them to ask. I didn’t mean to make things difficult for my sister. Why is my sister forgetting about our former relationship and calling officers and soldiers to deal with the loyal subordinates in the past…”

“Shut up! Didn’t the people who went to inquire about the news say that they were unlucky and were bumping into the military subordinates of Prince Huaiyang who went out of the street in civilian clothes? How can Miantang have the ability to command the subordinates of Prince Huaiyang at any time?”

Hearing Yunniang’s accusation against Miantang, Ziyu was angry again.

At this time, Mr. Qin, the confidant who is studying countermeasures with the Young Master, said, “Young Master, Lady Sun is just anxious about the wrong accounts. This is why she asked people to go down the mountain in a hurry. She didn’t expect such a result, and you don’t have to be too angry.”