Chapter 68.2: Husband, I"ll Wait For You
Chen Zigong was still at that inn. He didn"t seem particularly surprised when Xiaoqi led Shanzi and came over. Xiaoqi quietly sat next to the table and had to try several times in order to stop trembling. She forced herself to speak steadily. "My husband was wrongly accused. He wouldn"t kill anyone."
Chen Zigong lifted his brows. Xiaoqi placed the all the crime proof that Song Qingyun had collected earlier onto the table. "My Father-in-Law Dad had me bring it to you."
"Why didn"t your Father-in-Law Dad come personally?" Chen Zigong hooked the corners of his lips and smiled. "And, is Song Liangzhuo wrongly accused just because you say he"s wrongly accused? How can ben w.a.n.g believe your one-sided statement?"
Xiaoqi looked at Chen Zigong in a daze. "My husband is wrongly accused."
Chen Zigong smiled and shook his head. "I"m used to being idle. I don"t get involved with matters of the court. I"m afraid you"ve looked for the wrong person."
Xiaoqi pressed her lips together and didn"t speak or make any more movements as she sat next to the table.
Chen Zigong looked at some light reading for a while. Once he got tired, he laid back down on the bed. A while later when he woke up, he saw that Xiaoqi was still sitting next to the table in the same posture as before.
Chen Zigong sighed, then poured a cup of tea and pushed it over. Before he even started to speak, Xiaoqi who was facing him already started crying with a "wah".
"Husband was wrongly accused. You, your woman, ha-has died. How could you not care about it? Wuuwuu, if it weren"t for the fact you chased her out, the-there"s no way this would have happened."
Chen Zigong pressed on his ears and knitted his brows. "Woman, crying won"t solve the problem. Ben w.a.n.g has said that ben w.a.n.g doesn"t care, that means ben w.a.n.g doesn"t care! Don"t disturb my good mood from traveling."
Xiaoqi held back her tears and stubbornly wiped them away. "Your good mood? You, your bad green plum has even died and you"re still talking about good mood. I really…"
Xiaoqi swallowed back what she wanted to say. Looking at Chen Zigong"s face that had turned a lot gloomier, she blinked her eyes. "You don"t think this way, right? You"re not in a good mood, are you? Don"t feel bad, no one would have imagined that the bad green plum would die."
Xiaoqi paused. Originally, she wanted to say that if the bad green plum hadn"t come out to block Song Liangzhuo in the middle of the road, she wouldn"t have died. However, it felt like this was complaining that the bad green plum caused trouble for her husband. Since she"s already dead, there"s nothing good to bicker about. From the start, it wasn"t like they had a death grudge between them. Xiaoqi felt her heart tremble just listening to the news of how a big living person"s existence just ended like this.
Chen Zigong sipped the tea, then started speaking in a depressed tone. "Originally, I was planning to support her for the latter half of her lifetime. It would also have prevented you from continuing to ridicule that the Hao w.a.n.g fu can"t even afford to feed one woman."
"Say, do you think that searching for someone that you can rely on is any reason to scheme and use tricks? If she had been calm and stayed stably in her place, would she have fallen to this fate?" Chen Zigong lifted his eyes and looked at Xiaoqi who was listening dumbly. He scoffed. "What"s the use of discussing this with a fool like you? If they were all like you, satisfied with just being able to eat your fill, this realm would already be the Great Community*."
"Great Community" Neo-Confucian ideology"s perfect society. Believes that everything should be collectively owned in society and the elderly, the robust, the young and the disabled should all have their own places in the society.
Xiaoqi lowered her head for a long time before she spoke, "I"m not someone that only knows to eat either. I also hope that my family would live well. When the bad green plum was living in Mother-in-Law Mom"s house, I also really hated her and wished she would just disappear forever."
Xiaoqi felt a twinge of guilt and picked at her fingers. "She really did disappear. Then I felt, I felt that, back then, I shouldn"t have cursed her behind her back." Xiaoqi peeked at Chen Zigong. "But, my husband, he couldn"t have killed anyone."
It"s the husband again! Chen Zigong angrily threw down the tea cup, frightening Xiaoqi to shrink back and freeze.
Chen Zigong slammed the table a couple times, then left the room with a humph.
Xiaoqi was a little confused with the situation. She looked at the shattered china all over the floor, then held the tray and crouched down to pick them up piece by piece. Xiaoqi thought, perhaps after he comes back from talking a walk around, he"ll be happy upon seeing the clean floor and go take charge of justice.
Xiaoqi then thought, should she kneel down to beg him? He was a w.a.n.g ye, and she was just a little ordinary person. How could they stand and sit at the same level? Xiaoqi bit her lips, vexed. She had definitely caused w.a.n.g ye to get angry because of her lack of etiquette.
Xiaoqi looked around and spontaneously decided to tidy up all the messy places in the room. Afterwards, she sat quietly next to the table waiting for him to come back. She had decided that the moment he came in, she"d kneel down to beg him. He should be a good w.a.n.g ye, otherwise he wouldn"t waste time talking with her that long.
And Xiaoqi really did do it when Chen Zigong returned from walking around. The moment Chen Zigong pushed open the door, Xiaoqi knelt onto the ground and lowered her head in a timid and fearful manner. The anger that Chen Zigong had just managed to disperse once again erupted with a "whoosh", and the amount surpa.s.sed the last time by quite a lot too.
Chen Zigong gnashed his teeth as he circled around Xiaoqi. Then, giving a heavy humph, he laid back down on the bed and didn"t move anymore. Xiaoqi aimed a glance at Chen Zigong whose back was facing her. She had just opened her mouth when Chen Zigong said, "You"re a woman who already has a husband. Don"t stay in another man"s room. The conduct is inappropriate."
Xiaoqi blinked her eyes and switched to kneeling in a different direction. She said in a quiet voice, "You"re a good person. You won"t ignore miscarriage of justice that"s right in front of you."
"That Li da ren, he directly decided on the sentence. He said that, that three days later will be the beheading. My Father-in-Law Dad, he, he said that there"s not enough time to go to the Ministry of Justice and ask them to reverse the verdict." When Xiaoqi recalled that written sentence, she couldn"t help but cry.
Chen Zigong sat up and knitted his brows. "And so what? Ben… Why should I help you?"
Why? Xiaoqi was speechless for a while. She finally spoke haltingly, "You, we, we"re acquaintances."
Chen Zigong scoffed. "Well, I didn"t know that we were acquaintances. You"ve really cursed me a fair share."
Xiaoqi opened her mouth, just about to say something when Chen Zigong lifted his hand and interrupted her. "You, get up. Come over here to talk."
Xiaoqi got up. Perhaps her movements were too sudden because she felt a wave of dizziness and had to hold onto the table for a while before she could slowly walk over. Chen Zigong looked at her pale lips and asked, "What if Song Liangzhuo died?"
"He won"t die." Xiaoqi"s face turned serious.
"If he died?"
"He won"t die!" Xiaoqi angrily glowered to the point her eyes turned perfectly round.
"He won"t die? Then what are you still coming here to me for help for?" Chen Zigong"s facial color wasn"t that good either.
Xiaoqi obstinately lowered her head and wanted to turn and leave. However, she recalled the beautiful missus" exhorts and endured.
Xiaoqi lifted her sleeve to wipe her tears. "Husband didn"t want me to know that he was imprisoned. He wanted me to leave first and said that he"ll come to Tongxu to look for me after a while. He said he"ll go look for me, so he"ll definitely go look for me. My husband has never lied to me."
Chen Zigong felt a bit envious. If one day was thrown into jail, he wondered – of the two women that eyed the w.a.n.g fei position like a tiger watching its prey in his home – who would be pure enough to rush about for him just due to affection?
Xiaoqi glanced at Chen Zigong, then pointed at the tray on the table as she flattened her mouth. "I"ve already swept the floor clean and also tidied up your room. Do you have clothes you need washed?"
"Huh?" Chen Zigong was a little taken aback.
"Do you have any clothes you need washed? I"ll help you wash them." Xiaoqi glowered as she repeated.
Chen Zigong slightly narrowed his eyes. "And then?"
"And then you should go chase that bad guy away ah. My Father-in-Law Dad said so. As long as we stall for some time, he"ll be able to find evidence. Father-in-Law Dad had already set out to find witness testimonies." Xiaoqi spoke as if it was inevitable and right.
Chen Zigong rubbed his head. As he looked at Xiaoqi"s childish face and naive expression, he couldn"t help but pinch her chin and tease, "If you marry me, I"ll save your husband."
Xiaoqi slapped away Chen Zigong"s hand, angered to the point her little face even changed color.
"What, you"re not willing? Countless girls want to enter Hao w.a.n.g fu but don"t even have the opportunity to!" Chen Zigong lifted his brows with an unruly expression.
Xiaoqi was enraged to the point she rapidly breathed heavily and had to suppress her rage for a long time before she was able to say, "I already have a baby, there"s no way I"ll be your wife. You have three thousand wives, not having me doesn"t make a shortage."
The corners of Chen Zigong"s mouth twitched. He shook his head and said, "Looks like you really don"t care about Song Liangzhuo that desperately. I"d even have to doubt whether your feelings are real."
Xiaoqi slanted her gaze and her eyes rolled as she thought. She then asked, "Then, were you serious?" It wouldn"t be a bad idea to save the person first before running off.
Chen Zigong curled his lips. "Ben w.a.n.g does not repeat words twice. Since you"ve already rejected it earlier, you no longer have that chance."
Xiaoqi laughed "hehe" and flung her hand to hit the bed post. "I just knew you were lying to me. How are you so good at joking? Come on, let"s go save my husband."
Chen Zigong froze for a moment, thinking that this Xiaoqi simply doesn"t understand his ident.i.ty at all. He was a w.a.n.g ye, yet every time he spoke, his words were treated as farts by her and ignored. That"s not right, with a fart at least you could hear a sound and smell some stink. His words, however, didn"t leave any impression and were simply automatically overlooked by her.
Chen Zigong narrowed his eyes as he looked at Xiaoqi. Xiaoqi moved closer. "Let"s go?"
Chen Zigong felt a bit gloomy. He flipped over and laid down again. Xiaoqi anxiously tugged the bed sheet and said with a trembling voice, "My husband, is, is about to die."
Chen Zigong nodded. He glanced at Xiaoqi and maliciously said, "Alright, I"ll return to the capital tomorrow. You should return as well."
The hand that was tugging the bed sheet abruptly tightened. The l.u.s.ter in Xiaoqi"s eyes was replaced instantly by deathly stillness. She had always felt that nothing would happen to Song Liangzhuo. However, it was only because she knew that this w.a.n.g ye existed. If he really didn"t care, then what else could she rely on?
Xiaoqi"s lips trembled as she looked at Chen Zigong. She couldn"t speak and could only cry. Chen Zigong wrapped the blanket around him, vexed and said coldly, "It"s about to be nightfall. Lady Xiaoqi, please return."
Xiaoqi soundlessly dropped tears for a long time. Leaning against the bedpost, she slid to the ground.
Song Liangzhuo was about to die. At the start, she felt that this couldn"t possibly come true. But now, she felt that the confidence she had earlier was nothing but a delusion. If they talked about the details, she didn"t even count as an acquaintance with this person in front of her. They had only encountered each other a couple times and talked a couple times. She has never done anything for him, so why should he help her?
That"s not right, that"s not right! He"s a w.a.n.g ye, how could he ignore a miscarriage of justice? Those are his people. Father-in-Law Dad and Husband became good officials for the sake of people like him. Husband even worked late into the night and borrowed money everywhere to build the dam. Not to mention, the person that died was his woman. How could he be this heartless? Even if it was for the sake of avenging the bad green plum, he should still find the bad guy ah!T/N2
Xiaoqi had gotten the courage from some unknown place and abruptly stood up. She seized Chen Zigong"s collar and grinded her teeth to the point it could be heard clearly. Chen Zigong was just waiting for her to fiercely punch when Xiaoqi"s eyes closed and she fell onto the bed.
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Credits: Translated by Chiyomira, Proofread by Ocelot
[Chiyomira’s Corner]
T/N2 – There"s like two conflicting reactions I have to this. First thing is, Xiaoqi is pitiful, Song Liangzhuo is pitiful, so I hope she manages to get Chen Zigong to help her. He likes her after all; there"s no reason not to make use of it when your loved one"s life is at stake, especially if your loved one not only did not do anything wrong, but was also framed by people who were truly criminals.
But then there"s her forced reasoning and kinda dumb repet.i.tion which I know is for the sake of emphasizing Xiaoqi"s simple and pure personality as well as her shock at facing this situation. How.ev.er. I can"t help but remember a certain scenario in another novel in which the MC, who transmigrates as a job, took over the body of the main male lead in a world. The main male lead is this super wealthy CEO. Then the main female lead who"s a girl from a poor family needs money because her brother is in the hospital. She works for the main male lead and the original main male lead felt this uncontrollable attraction to her that he disliked because he would agree to any of her demands like a slave, so he requested for the MC to make it so that she would get out of his life.
So the first thing the MC did was try to fire the girl. Then the girl sprouted the same lines over and over since she had a "simple" personality. I need the job because my brother is sick. You"re bullying me just because I"m poor. Then when the MC"s like, I"ll arrange for you to work at some other company, she"s like "I have to work here." No other explanation. Due to her being the female lead in that world, she had some innate feeling that the CEO "should" like her even though the current CEO didn"t.
Xiaoqi"s actions here just remind me of that scenario so much. Well, Chinese novels are filled with stereotypical scenarios after all. Everything gets stereotypical after enough time. And that particular novel was purposefully jabbing at the stereotypes and showing a more cynical outsider view of "perfect stories".
So, Xiaoqi definitely knows that Chen Zigong likes her and she does plan on using him. It"s not wrong, it"s not right… Using others is like part of how the world works, I guess. *sigh* the world is so complicated. But, if I was in Xiaoqi"s shoes, I definitely would do whatever"s the most beneficial for myself, which means I"d definitely go manipulate Chen Zigong with the female lead power.
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