Chapter 387 : Fight Back

Yuxi was making a cloak for Yun Qing inside the room, and her speed wasn’t slow as she was helped by Zisu, Mama Qu and Mama Xi. Yuxi intended to have the cloak ready by the end of the year.

Shiliu walked in and informed Yuxi, “Madam, Eldest Miss Fu is here again.” For Fu Qingluo, the mansion still had a lingering fear towards her, making none of them fond of her. It was just a pity that this person was too thick-skinned that she even came here uninvited.

Yuxi put down the needle and thread on her hand and said, “Let her in!”

Fu Qingluo looked at Yuxi, who looked exceptionally well, sat with a pile of things placed next to her, and said with a smile, “I thought you would be too angry until you don’t feel like eating or sleeping. I didn’t expect you would be making clothes!” Seeing Han Yuxi in this state, it was apparent she was not affected by what happened outside.

Yuxi smiled and asked, “You also heard those rumours?”

Fu Qingluo took a pear and spoke to Shiliu, “Go fetch a small knife! I’ve to say, you’re a real piece of work. If you don’t have a knife ready when you put the pear in, do you expect people to chew the skin as well?” They said Han Yuxi acted properly, but it didn’t seem like it!

Yuxi instructed Shiliu to fetch a knife, then said to Fu Qingluo, “I do not eat cold things. If you want to eat them, let my people squeeze the pear into a drink.”

Fu Qingluo looked at Yuxi up and down. Except for her bulging belly, nothing else has changed. Her figure was still as slender as ever. “My Saozi said you have a secret recipe in hand. That’s why you don’t lose your figure shape when pregnant. Is that true?”

Yuxi smiled. “There is no secret recipe. Just have more meals in lesser quantities. Don’t always sit down either; move around more.” There was indeed a secret recipe, but it couldn’t easily be given to others. Therefore, she could only deny any request for it.

Shiliu brought the knife over.

Fu Qingluo picked up the knife and waved it on the pears. How it was done could make one’s heart alarmed, trembling in fear. In no time, the pears were completely peeled.

Yuxi looked at the peeled skin, which was as thin as gauze and in a very nice long strip. Fu Qingluo handed the pear to Yuxi, but Yuxi shook her head. “I won’t eat it. You can eat it yourself.” The room had been heated with floor dragon, and it was not cold, but Yuxi still did not want to eat cold food.

Fu Qingluo didn’t mind and took a bite. Oh, it tasted good, so sweet. At that moment, she asked with a smile, “The rumours about you outside are pretty bad. You really do not care about them at all?”

Yuxi laughed bitterly. “I am not a saint. How can I not care? I’ve worked so hard, but I ended up with such a reputation. It feels like I swallowed a fly.” Yuxi was also disgusted with them.

Fu Qingluo thought that was the correct answer. If Yuxi had said she didn’t mind for a bit, Fu Qingluo wouldn’t even want to be friends with her. She didn’t even consider whether people wanted to be friends with her. She asked, “What do you want to do then? You won’t let yourself continue being passively beaten, will you?”

Yuxi was a little hesitant.

Fu Qingluo suggested, “If you trust me, then talk to me and see if I can help you. If you don’t trust me, then just forget about it.” Actually, there were some things that she hadn’t said out loud. Han Yuxi had done all these things that she admired. She had always felt that women could do what men did just as well. She fought hard for that too, and she always ended up falling on her face. But Han Yuxi’s out-of-the-ordinary construction of a girls’ school was not only not being criticised, but also praised by many, which made Fun Qingluo admire her. Therefore, the outsiders’ critics of Yuxi made her furious.

Yuxi couldn’t help laughing. “Why would I not trust you? It’s just that this matter I’m going to do will offend people. You have nothing to do with this, so I do not want you to get involved.” She could only endure injustice in the past because she had no strength to fight back. But now it was different. She would be no different than a turtle if she still let herself swallow all these insults.

Fu Qingluo snickered. “Offend people? I am not afraid of doing that. Tell me your idea.”

Yuxi’s idea was straightforward. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Since Xu Shi wanted to splash dirty water on her, she would let Xu Shi taste what it was like to be criticised.

Fu Qingluo smiled and said, “If you also want to spread rumours, you will definitely tarnish the Qin family’s prestige at that time. Aren’t you afraid that Yun Qing will not agree to this?”

Yuxi was not worried about Yun Qing disagreeing. “You don’t have to worry about that.” Yun Qing also knew about the rumours outside and was annoyed about them. Only when Yuxi said that she would solve this matter herself and did not want him to interfere did he finally give up.

Fu Qingluo laughed as she said, “They say that Yun Qing loves his wife, but now I’ve got to see it personally with my own eyes. Tell me, how are you going to do that?”

Yuxi briefly told Fu Qingluo about her idea.

After listening, Fu Qingluo looked at Yuxi and remarked, “Fortunately, I didn’t become your enemy. Otherwise, I would have been screwed by you.” Not only would Xu Shi be pitted to death, but even the Xu family would also be dragged down together.

Yuxi smiled and asked, “Didn’t you just say you’d help? Then this matter will be left to you. To make up for the scare I got last time.”

Fu Qingluo pinched the bridge of her nose and said, “Alright! Leave this matter to me. I will do it properly.”

This day in a restaurant, a big, thick man was drinking when he suddenly heard a customer next to him say that a few women had eaten more than a hundred sheep, and he laughed out loud at his. “Don’t say a few women, even dozens of men, can’t eat more than one hundred sheep.” These guys must have been kicked in the head by a donkey to believe such a thing and still had the nerve to say it here.

A thin man beside him was listening with excitement when he suddenly interrupted and immediately waved his hand as he said, “Go away, go away, go away. Don’t jack off if you don’t know anything. Brother, keep on talking!”

The man who had just spoken about the matter was a more civilised gentleman. He smilingly said to the man who had just laughed, “Brother, you have heard me wrong. I didn’t say a few women ate over a hundred sheep.”

The big man was unhappy, pointing to the thin one, saying, “I have good ears. I clearly heard him say a few women ate more than a hundred sheep just now!”

The civilised gentleman was not angry as he explained with a smile, “I just told him that an alive Poyang Lake hairy crab costs more than a sheep in the border town. A banquet with more than a hundred hairy crabs is like eating more than a hundred sheep.”

This was not a made-up story. Xu Shi did hold a crab banquet in the tenth lunar month, inviting all the ladies to eat hairy crabs from Poyang Lake. Yuxi also received the invitation at that time, but she was pregnant, and pregnant people couldn’t eat crabs, so she didn’t go. However, she knew about the situation then since Er Nainai Zhao specially told her about it. There were steamed hairy crabs, sautéed crab in hot spicy sauce, baked crab with salted egg yolk, crab congee, and wine to go with the dishes. No one who had eaten it could forget it.

Videos for the crab menu listed in the paragraph above.

Hearing this, the big man asked, “Who is so prodigal?” How could someone not call a person who consumed a hundred sheep in one meal a prodigal?

The gentleman answered with a smile, “It’s Commander-in-chief Qin’s wife. Madam Qin not only loves to eat crabs but also likes to eat lychees from southern Fujian, and she won’t eat them if they aren’t fresh. Since it’s hard to preserve lychee, they aren’t sold in Yu City market.”

The big man was a native of Yu City and did not know what the lychee was. He didn’t even care to know what the lychee was and only wished to know its price. “How much does that lychee cost per jin here?”

The civilised gentleman replied, “A jin of lychee probably costs the same as a sheep too! Alas, I also heard that Madam Qin’s clothes and jewellery always change every day and that she likes to hold banquets. She would spend no less than a hundred taels of silver every now and then on each of her banquets.” After saying that, he slung back into a bookish fool. “While those darned people wine and dine, the poor people die terribly of the cold!”

Yuxi didn’t intend to be a pin against an awl with Xu Shi. But she had schemingly let people know what kind of arrogantly extravagant life Xu Shi was living, and when everyone started to talk about it, it would also put the Xu family on the spot. She wanted to let the people know that the Xu family was living a life that was comparable to that of Madam Qin, Xu Shi.

Qin Zhao was the commander-in-chief of the northwest. His wife, Xu Shi, had already lived such an arrogantly extravagant life, while her natal family was also living in brocade garments and jade meals. More importantly, the Xu family was also responsible for supplying army provisions, bedding, uniforms, and other military supplies. As soon as the people heard these things, they would decide that the Xu family was enriching themselves and that Madam Qin must have been in the know.

Although many people talked about Yuxi’s matter earlier, they actually only paid lip service to it. After all, the school was run by Yuxi with her own money. So it was her freedom to accept a student or not. Everyone was just bored and chattered about it for a while. But this time, the matter was different, as it was about Xu Shi being arrogantly extravagant and the Xu family’s source of wealth. They were the best talking points for the public. But the soldiers in the barracks were outraged by this news. Their beddings and uniforms had not been replaced for several years since there were limited amounts of clothing and other things. Qin Zhao and other generals had been saying that there was nothing they could do about it since the Imperial Court did not send them that much money. Therefore, the soldiers had to put up with it. Now they knew that it wasn’t that the Imperial Court did not provide enough money but that it was all embezzled by these senior officers and such crooked merchants as the Xu family.

Yun Qing returned home that day with a somewhat ugly look on his face.

Yuxi put down the cloak that was half done in her hand, went over to untie the cloak on Yun Qing and asked, “What’s wrong? What’s with that stinky face?”

Yun Qing responded, “More than sixty lower ranking generals signed a petition demanding that the army’s beddings, uniforms and training equipment be replaced.”

Yuxi blinked her eyes and stated with a smile, “I heard that the bedding and uniforms had not been changed for years. They can’t train in this cold weather without warm clothes and bedding! These people’s requests are reasonable!”

Yun Qing questioned, “The soldiers have had a hard time these years, so it’s time to buy them new beddings and uniforms. But the money allocated by the Imperial Court has all been used up, so how can we buy new ones for them?”

Yuxi exclaimed in surprise and asked, “Didn’t they allocate 800,000 taels of silver? How come it’s gone so soon?” It was only been a few days since Qin Zhao returned, and the money had already run out. This was just too fast!

Yun Qing nodded. “400,000 taels are used for military pay and 200,000 taels for horses. So now there is not enough money in the account.”

Yuxi was amazed. “Didn’t the Ministry of War provide the horses? Why do you still need to buy them yourself?” After asking that, Yuxi couldn’t help but ask other questions, “What about the weapons? You don’t need to buy your own weapons either, do you?” If so, what did they need the Imperial Court for?

Yun Qing shook his head. “The Imperial Court did provide horses, except that the ones they supplied were not only insufficient in number but also in combat capability. So every year, we spend money to buy a good batch of horses back.”

Yuxi knew that fighting a war was the most costly. Army provisions, pay, horses, medicine, beddings, uniforms and other things all cost money. She asked, “The generals and soldiers below all want new uniforms and gear. Can Qin Zhao withstand the pressure? What if Qin Zhao can’t afford to do so that he must take out the money to buy the horses?” She did not expect that things would get so complicated. But Yuxi also did not regret doing so because the news she spread was all true, without any exaggeration.

Yun Qing replied in a heavy tone, “Don’t worry about this. The money has already been paid in advance.” Seeing Yuxi’s puzzled face, he explained, “When the spring starts, the horse farm will send the horses over. It’s done this way every year.” If they got the horses now, they would definitely lose a batch by the beginning of spring. Hence, they made an agreement with the horse farm that the farm would deliver these horses at the beginning of spring.

Yuxi looked at Yun Qing and suddenly got a little worried. Now the person in charge of the northwest army was Qin Zhao, and naturally, Qin Zhao should be the one worrying about these. But if Yun Qing had been at the helm, these problems would have been solved by Yun Qing. As Yuxi thought until here, she started to have some headaches.

Yun Qing looked at Yuxi’s torn look, thinking that she was still worried about this issue, and assured her. “This matter will always be resolved. You do not need to worry.”

Yuxi nodded her head. However, her heart didn’t believe so since the root of this matter could not be solved. How could the issue be settled if the Imperial Court could not provide them with enough money?