Chapter 341 : Zijin’s Betrothal (2)

Yun Qing saw that even after he had said a lot, Yuxi still did not look good and added, “Yuxi, there is really nothing between Fu Qingluo and me. Don’t think too much about it.”

Yuxi shook her head and said, “I just thought that Madam Fu gave birth to his children while his concubine tried to put Madam Fu in harm’s way. Instead of doing justice for Madam Fu, he defended that concubine instead. General Fu’s behaviour is really gut-wrenching.”

Yun Qing froze for a moment. He didn’t expect Yuxi to defend Fu Qingluo. He argued, “General Fu’s actions were certainly wrong, but Fu Qingluo’s actions were too aggressive. Not only did Old Madam Fu suppress the incident, she even threatened General Fu with her death to stop him from punishing Fu Qingluo. The Old Madam Fu loved her so much. Even if not for the sake of the Old Madam Fu’s face, Fu Qingluo should also consider the face of the Qu family.”

Yuxi asked, “Did Old Madam Fu pass away because of this incident?”

Yun Qing shook his head and replied, “No, Old Madam Fu passed away before that happened.” Fortunately, she had passed away. Otherwise, she would have died of anger.

Yuxi believed that men and women indeed had different thoughts. Although she didn’t like Fu Qingluo, she really didn’t consider Fu Qingluo had done anything wrong in this matter.

Yun Qing looked at Yuxi and cautioned her, “You should stay away from her in the future. When you go out, you should take Zijin with you!”

When Yuxi heard him talk about Zijin, she told him she wanted to match Zijin with Yu Zhi. “Although Zijin isn’t Master Yang’s formal apprentice, in reality, it is no different from that. The two of them already considered each other as senior brother and junior sister, and Yu Zhi is also suitable with Zijin’s temperament.”

Yun Qing asked while feeling baffled, “How did Zijin become your maid?” He was very curious about Zijin’s origins.

Yuxi smiled a little and answered, “Zijin has always been my maid. Since she was six years old, she has been serving by my side.” Seeing Yun Qing’s face of amazement, she told him roughly why Zijin had her current skills.

After hearing this, Yun Qing asked Yuxi another question, “Do you know who Master Yang is?” Seeing Yuxi shake her head, Yun Qing felt that fortune truly favoured fools. “Master Yang is a famous swordsman, with the reputation as the Willow Sword. I don’t know how many people wish to be his apprentice, but he turns his nose at them.” If people knew that Master Yang was currently working as his wife’s personal guard, with a monthly salary of twenty taels only, they would probably go crazy. T

/C

Although Yuxi did not know the details of Master Yang’s life, she knew that he must have a history. Otherwise, her Er Ge would not have worshipped Master Yang as his teacher. Yuxi smiled and said, “Then I’ve been blessed by having Zijin around me.” She wasn’t that foolish enough to reveal the real reason she took Zijin as her maid.

Yun Qing disagreed with this statement from her. If it wasn’t for Yuxi, Zijin would have been in a nook and cranny somewhere and wouldn’t be in her current situation. “By the way, besides Zijin, has Zisu’s marriage been decided?” He asked because he was surrounded by bachelors, and he wanted to solve their marital problems one by one.

Yuxi shook her head and said, “No. That girl says she won’t marry anyone, so I just put this matter off for now.” She wouldn’t mention marriage to Zisu before Zisu set her mind on it.

Yun Qing said nothing more.

The next day near noon, Da Nainai Fu dropped by, and she came to apologise to Yuxi. Regarding her xiaogu, who liked to cause trouble and was unwilling to get married, Da Nainai Fu, Chen Shi, also felt awfully miserable. “Dimei, I’m really sorry. I also just found out about this, or I would have come to apologise yesterday.” Yuxi’s housekeeping skill was quite impressive for blocking this matter from spreading out. Only today, Fu Tianlei ran into Yun Qing at the military camp. He learned from Yun Qing that his sister had injured Yuxi’s personal guard. He hurriedly asked his page to inform his wife. Once Da Nainai Fu heard about this, she immediately picked up some wound medicine and went to apologise.

Yuxi responded with a bitter smile, “Da Nainai Fu, it’s not that I’m being unreasonable. It was just that Miss Fu had been too cruel. It was just a sparring match, but she took advantage of Zijin’s unpreparedness and whipped her so hard that her back turned bloody. Those who didn’t know would think there was some kind of blood feud between them!”

Da Nainai Fu said with an apologetic face, “She was too reckless. Please don’t mind her!” She spoke this way because Fu Qingluo was not hitting Yuxi but Zijin. Since a maid had been beaten, she had come here to apologise to save their face.

However, Yuxi’s complexion turned quite unsightly. “Da Nainai Fu, Miss Fu came to my house without giving prior notice, said a bunch of inexplicable things to me, and then laid such a heavy hand on Zijin. After beating a person up, how could she say that it was inevitable that Zijin would get hurt in a sparring match? Tell me, is there such a reason in this world? Those who don’t know would think that our Yun family is easily bullied!”

Da Nainai Fu didn’t expect Yuxi to make a mountain out of a molehill.

Yuxi still said furiously, “Da Nainai Fu, I am not an unreasonable person either. I know this matter has nothing to do with you, so you don’t need to apologise to me either.” Her meaning was obvious. The individual concerned who should come to apologise. Why should one ask for forgiveness through another person?

Yuxi returned the medicinal herbs to let Da Nainai Fu take them back.

In less than a day, this matter spread out. But when the rumour passed from mouth to mouth, the story changed its flavour. The talk altered to Fu Qingluo visiting Yuxi to provoke her because of her love for Yun Qing and hatred towards Yuxi. She then beat Yuxi so much that Yuxi couldn’t get up from bed. Everyone stretched their necks to see how Yun Qing would handle the matter.

Yuxi didn’t take any offence when she heard this rumour. She knew that the more exaggerated the stories were, the more attention would they attract. She approached Han Ji and asked, “Did you find out who leaked the news?” Yuxi did not care much about this rumour but was worried that people from their residence could be responsible for spreading the news. If one was not strict in ruling one’s household, it would easily lead to a big disaster.

Han Ji nodded and said, “I’ve found out about it. The news came from the Fu family’s servant.”

Yuxi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “I didn’t expect it would come from the Fu family.” Even the affairs of their own master could be passed on at will, thus showing how chaotic the Fu Residence was.

Er Nainai Zhao, a good friend of Yuxi, heard the rumours and immediately sent a visitation notice. When she got a reply, she came to visit Yuxi. Seeing that Yuxi was intact, she covered her chest and said, “I thought you were injured by Fu Qingluo.”

Yuxi laughed. “Fu Qingluo is not that careless. Moreover, the guards in my residence aren’t just a bunch of people who only know how to eat cooked rice.” If Fu Qingluo had dared to hit her, she would not have been allowed to leave the house in one piece.

Er Nainai Zhao nodded, but she was still curious and asked, “What is going on? There’s a lot of buzzes out there.”

Yuxi hid the previous events and only told her about the two of them sparring in martial arts. After telling her that, she showed a regretful expression. “If I had known she would strike that hard, I wouldn’t have let Zijin compete with her then.”

Er Nainai Zhao advised Yuxi, “You should not let her come to your door in the future. Just directly let the guards stop her. Otherwise, there will be endless trouble in the future.” As for Fu Qingluo’s gossip, she did not tell Yuxi about it. This thing must have been known to Yuxi for a long time. Thus, there was no need for her to say anything.

Yuxi laughed bitterly. “With what happened this time, how would I dare let her come to my door.” If Fu Qingluo came to apologise, it was possible to let her drop by. If not, it would be better to avoid her. She did not want to be the topic of conversation in Yu City. Once was enough.

Er Nainai Zhao avoided the topic and asked about another matter. “I heard that your steward is looking for a store. Is this true?” The fact that Yuxi was looking for a store was known not only to the Zhao family but also to the Qin and Xu families. But everyone didn’t know exactly what kind of store Yuxi would open, so they were all just waiting to see what happened next.

Yuxi nodded and answered, “It’s true! The residence expenses are too high. I want to open a store to earn some money to supplement the family. But I’m not too familiar with things here in Yu City, so I’ll just let the steward ask around and see what kind of business is good to do.”

Er Nainai Zhao said with a smile, “If there is anything you need to do, you can just ask me. No need to be polite.”

Yuxi really did have a favour to ask from Er Nainai Zhao. “I want to buy an estate, but my husband doesn’t care about such trivial matters. Besides, I don’t know many people, so I have to trouble Jiejie to inquire about it.”

Er Nainai Zhao smilingly asked, “How big of an estate do you want to buy?” Smaller estates were easy to buy, but larger ones were not. After all, no one in their right mind would sell interest-bearing ones.

Yuxi smiled as she answered, “Not much. A hundred eighty mu will do. I just want to have a farm to plant all the available vegetables. Otherwise, we would have to pay even for an egg, which is too much of an expense.” She had gotten used to eating things like chickens and ducks from her own hamlet.

Er Nainai Zhao smilingly praised, “Meimei really knows how to live her life. General Yun is fortunate to have you as his wife.” Just by listening to how Yuxi talked, one could tell that she was an expert in managing her household.

After chatting for a while, Er Nainai Zhao got up to say goodbye, and before she left, she stated with a smile, “I will give you a reply when there is any news on this.”

Yuxi smiled and said, “Thank you very much, Jiejie.”

Yuxi began to prepare for Zijin’s engagement in the next few days. Although there was no need to make a big deal of it, all the procedures should still be followed.

Yu Zhi also didn’t want to cause Zijin to feel wronged, so he did whatever Yuxi told him to do. He even gave Zijin the little silver money he had saved so that she could buy some more jewellery.

Zijin threw the money bag back at Yu Zhi, but her face was as red as a boiled shrimp.

When Yuxi found out about this, she was so happy that she deliberately teased Zijin, saying, “Silly girl, why are you giving him back the money? You should take it to buy some clothes for yourself. Otherwise, he would have spent it on himself.” Seeing that Yu Zhi was so devoted to Zijin, Yuxi was also very happy. She just wanted everyone around her to have a good life.

After listening to Yuxi’s words, Zijin thought about it seriously. After a while, she shared her idea with Yuxi, “Miss, why don’t you instruct the account room to give me all of Yu Zhi’s salary for safekeeping so that it won’t all be spent by Old Man Yang.”

Yuxi laughed. “Alright, as long as Yu Zhi is fine with it. You can go directly to the account room to get his salary in the future. If possible, it is also not a problem for you to draw Master Yang’s salary.”

Zijin shook her head and said, “Forget it. As gentlemen, they still need to have some silver on them.” In fact, a monthly salary of twenty taels was already very high. Ten taels of silver were enough for a medium-sized family to spend a year in the border city. It was sufficient for them to have twenty taels of silver for pocket money.

Yu Zhi didn’t feel anything unusual with Zijin’s request. After Master Yang found out about it, he poked Yu Zhi’s head and complained, “In the future, you will definitely be eaten to death by that girl.”

Yu Zhi said nervously, “Master, what are you talking about? Doesn’t what belongs to me also belong to Zijin, and vice versa?” Therefore, he understood why Zijin did this.

Master Yang completely lost this battle of words with this statement from Yu Zhi.