abnabooks Chapter 21 Because I'm Crazy Enough.
Chapter 21 Because I'm Crazy Enough.
Xu Ming strode across the threshold.
He was carrying a person on his shoulder.
Behind them, two officers of the Imperial Guard carried a heavy nanmu wood box, following closely behind.
Shen Zhirou was carrying a pot of freshly pruned orchids as she walked out of the west wing.
She wore a plain-colored jacket, with only a silver hairpin in her hair. Her hands were covered in mud, and her sleeves were slightly rolled up, revealing a section of her fair wrist.
Xu Fu was standing under the eaves, holding an account book in one hand and an abacus in the other, muttering to himself.
The two stopped at the same time.
It felt like someone had pressed the pause button.
Shen Zhirou almost dropped the flowerpot in her hands. She quickly held it steady, but her eyes were already fixed on the moon-white figure on Xu Ming's shoulder.
One of Xu Fu's abacus beads fell off with a "clatter," rolled to the ground, and spun around a few times.
His gaze fell on the woman on Xu Ming's shoulder, then shifted to the heavy box behind him.
"Young Master, what... what is this?"
Xu Fu asked in confusion.
Xu Ming's shoulders swayed, and his hand loosened.
"Why--!"
Qi Mingyue slipped off Xu Ming's shoulder and fell onto the bluestone slab with a cry of pain.
Her calf hit the edge of the stone slab, and tears welled up in her eyes from the pain.
But she bit her lip, refusing to let the tears fall.
She quickly shrank to the corner of the corridor pillar, crossed her arms, and stared intently at Xu Ming like a small animal cornered by a dead end.
"I brought it back while I was raiding their house."
Xu Ming patted the dust off his shoulder, as if brushing away a speck of dust.
He pointed to Qi Mingyue, who was huddled under a pillar.
"The women of the Qi family, and the future daughters-in-law of the Duke of Dingguo's mansion."
"Snap—"
The water ladle in Shen Zhirou's hand fell to the ground.
Water splashed everywhere, wetting her plain-colored skirt and leaving a dark stain.
But she didn't notice at all.
She stared at Xu Ming, her chest heaving violently.
Go and ransack their house, and snatch back the Duke of Dingguo's daughter-in-law who is not yet married to him?
This isn't doing a proper job; it's creating a huge mess.
Who was Lu Yan, the Duke of Dingguo? He was a meritorious official who helped the emperor seize power, a minister who followed the emperor into power, and one of the emperor's most trusted military generals.
The Lu family was deeply entrenched in the capital, with disciples and old friends all over the military. Even the Crown Prince and the Second Prince had to give them some face.
Her brother-in-law actually kidnapped someone's prospective daughter-in-law on the street and took her home.
Shen Zhirou took a deep breath, then another, as if trying to suppress the emotions surging in her chest.
Her fingers gripped the hem of her skirt tightly, her knuckles turning white from the force.
"You, you—"
She pointed at him, and after a long pause, managed to utter three words.
The rest of the words seemed stuck in his throat, unable to come out.
Xu Ming leaned forward and lowered his voice: "Sister-in-law, I'm the only son left in our Xu family."
"If I don't bring more women home, how can I continue the family line? How can I face my ancestors?"
Upon hearing this, Xu Fu's cloudy old eyes lit up instantly, as if someone had lit a lamp inside them.
"Young Master is right!"
His gaze towards Qi Mingyue completely changed.
It was no longer the gaze of scrutinizing a stranger, but the discerning and satisfied look of examining the cabbages in one's own field.
He looked it over from top to bottom, then from bottom to top, as if assessing a mare's fertility.
"With that figure, she's good at bearing children."
He nodded, and the wrinkles on his face smoothed out, like frozen soil finally thawing in spring.
Qi Mingyue huddled in the corner, and upon hearing this, her body trembled even more violently.
Her lips were trembling, her face was as pale as paper, and her arms, which were crossed, were now interlaced as if she were trying to lock herself away.
Her gaze shifted from Xu Fu to Xu Ming, and then from Xu Ming to Shen Zhirou, like a bird trapped in a cage searching for its only way out.
"You...you dare—"
Her voice was trembling.
Xu Ming ignored her.
He turned and walked toward the nanmu wood box, his boots making a dull thud on the bluestone slabs.
He crouched down, grabbed the edge of the box lid with one hand, and suddenly lifted it up.
"Bang!"
The lid of the box popped open, hit the ground, and kicked up a small cloud of dust.
Gold bars, pearls, jade, gemstones, emeralds... poured out of the box like a floodgate had been opened.
Shen Zhirou gasped.
They were from the Xu family and had seen the world. Back when the Xu family was at its peak, their warehouses contained more than ten times the amount of stuff they had now.
But that's all in the past. Nowadays, the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion has an annual income of less than eight hundred taels of silver, only fifteen servants, and even the money for repairing the roof has to be carefully calculated.
This box of things is enough for the Xu family to live on for ten years.
Xu Ming bent down and rummaged through the box for a moment, the gold bars and pearls jingling between his fingers.
He touched a hard object and pulled it out—it was a kingfisher feather phoenix head gold hairpin.
The phoenix head is made of pure gold with extremely fine craftsmanship, and every single phoenix feather is clearly visible. Two pigeon blood rubies are set on the crown, shimmering with a bewitching red light in the sunlight.
A string of delicate ruby tassels was held in the phoenix's beak, swaying gently with his movements and making a soft "tinkling" sound.
This hair ornament is worth at least two thousand taels of silver.
He stood up, walked to Shen Zhirou, took her hand, and placed the gold hairpin into her grasp. His actions were domineering and brooked no refusal.
"Sister-in-law, this is a good match for you."
Shen Zhirou looked down at the gold hairpin in her hand.
The workmanship was extremely fine, and the weight was so heavy that it made her hand sink slightly.
The two rubies, like two drops of congealed blood, gleamed eerily in the sunlight.
She looked up again, at the chest full of gold and silver jewelry, then at Qi Mingyue huddled under the pillar, shivering, and then at her smiling brother-in-law in front of her.
For a moment, I didn't know whether to condemn him for embezzlement or for abducting women.
Her lips moved several times, opening and closing each time, as if she were making a difficult internal decision.
Finally, she took a deep breath and clenched the gold hairpin tightly in her palm.
"You—"
She sighed.
"They're incredibly bold."
There was blame and helplessness in his voice, but more than anything, there was resignation.
I admit it.
He was the only man left in the family.
Night falls.
Candles were lit in the main hall of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion.
Two red candles, each as thick as a child's arm, burned on a bronze candlestick, their flames flickering and casting long, short shadows on the wall.
The leftovers were removed.
Shen Zhirou sat in the main seat, her fingers unconsciously fiddling with the tea lid.
"You acted far too recklessly today."
She stopped what she was doing and stared at Xu Ming sitting opposite her.
The candlelight flickered on her face, reflecting the worry between her brows.
"By confiscating property and embezzling, he offended the upright officials. By forcibly taking Qi Mingyue, he directly offended the Lu family, the Duke of Dingguo, to the point of no return."
"The Lu family are meritorious officials in the Jingnan Campaign, and their disciples and former associates are all over the army. You are putting your neck on someone else's knife."
She paused, picked up the teacup, but then put it down again.
Aren't you afraid—
"What are you afraid of?"
Xu Ming picked up the teacup, skimmed off the foam, and gently blew on it.
The emerald green tea liquor shimmered with an amber light under the candlelight.
Was this move risky?
Of course it's dangerous.
The Lu family's influence in the capital is deeply entrenched.
But Xu Ming was not afraid.
"Sister-in-law, why do you think the emperor chose me?"
Shen Zhirou was taken aback for a moment, but did not answer.
Xu Ming took over the task himself.
"Because I'm crazy enough."