Continued from the previous chapter →
"You are not a foolish person. Say it. What is your wish?" Chu Changge felt that if he allowed these two women with strange personalities to fight any longer, the victim would only be him.
Qiu Shuiyin glanced at Murong Yunshu and said, "I want to follow the army and practise medicine."
Chu Changge: "Okay, I will tell King Sheng to let you go to the front line."
Qiu Shuiyin's eyes twitched slightly. "You're not going to ask me why I want to be an army physician?"
"Why do I need to ask?" Chu Changge asked instead of answering.
"It's nothing." Qiu Shuiyin coldly averted her eyes and said, "Thank you for doing this favour of mine."
Chu Changge countered, "There is no need to thank me. This is what I should pay you back." Then he said to the maid who had sent Qiu Shuiyin to the guest courtyard, "Take this Miss Qiu to see the king and tell him to grant her request."
"Yes." The maid led the way.
Qiu Shuiyin hesitated momentarily, turned and went out with the servant girl. She only took a few steps before stopping and looking back at Chu Changge. After a few seconds, she said, "I only have you as a friend. If I am unfortunately killed, please help collect my body and bury me in a place far away from the water source." In this life, she had heard enough of the water sound.
Chu Changge was stunned for a moment and stated, "You are wrong. I am not your friend. If you want someone to collect your corpse after you die, go and make some friends while you are still alive."
At these words, Qiu Shuiyin's heart ached. She had known that he was a heartless man, but she had never expected him to be this cruel. He was the only person she knew in this world. She thought that even though he was indifferent, he still saw her as a friend in his heart at least. She was so naive. Granny was right. You could ride on his head if a man's heart was in you. If he were not into you, even if you were willing to stick to the bottom of his feet as a speck of dust, he would hate seeing it so much that he would wash his feet regularly.
"I know." Like a lost soul, Qiu Shuiyin turned back in dismay and was about to leave when she suddenly heard someone behind her say, "If you want to befriend a man......" Qiu Shuiyin paused in her steps. She did not turn around and waited quietly for the following words.
"Just become friends with his wife first."
If you want to befriend a man, you must first become friends with his wife. Qiu Shuiyin chewed on these words in her heart and gradually realised. Yes, Chu Changge loved his wife so much. How could he hang out with other women? Unless that woman was his wife's friend. A man who loved his wife would not mistreat his wife's friend.
Qiu Shuiyin laughed bitterly in her heart. She had really forgotten how to interact with people.
After long contemplation, Qiu Shuiyin turned around and faced Murong Yunshu. She looked earnestly at her, almost stubbornly. "Why are you telling me this? Aren't you afraid that I'll steal him away?"
Murong Yunshu curled her lips and smiled. The laughter in her eyes was robust as if she had heard a big joke, "If he were snatched away, it would be me, Murong Yunshu, who is blind. And as far as I know, no blind man has ever come out of the Murong family, and I will not be an exception." After a pause, she added, "As for why I told you all that, it's probably because――you saved my husband. So I returned a friend to you. It's not a loss for you."
Qiu Shuiyin looked at her for a long time and stated, "You are really confident."
"I'll take that as a compliment." Murong Yunshu laughed.
The corner of Qiu Shuiyin's mouth moved a little before she finally said, "From this moment on, you are my first friend. Although I am still unclear about what exactly a friend means, it is my principle that I will never covet my friend's husband. So you can rest assured that I will not steal him from you."
The corner of Murong Yunshu's mouth slightly curled up. She smiled without saying a word.
*
After Qiu Shuiyin left, Chu Changge felt uneasy in his heart. "Why are you making friends with her?"
"Why not?" Murong Yunshu raised her dark eyebrows and said, "She is someone who I can befriend with."
"But she......" has designs on your husband, me! Chu Changge was frustrated. Did she have too much faith in him, or did she simply not care?
Murong Yunshu seemed to have read his mind and said with a smile, "You are the first hen she sees when she opens her eyes. You're not the indispensable one."
"......can you not use the hen as a metaphor?" Even if you have to use a chicken, you should at least use a rooster.
Murong Yunshu gave him a look and continued, "She just doesn't know that there are many good men in this world yet. That's why she relies solely on you."
Chu Changge's eyes narrowed, "Better than I am?"
Murong Yunshu rolled her eyes at him. "No one will say that you are a good man."
"You don't think so either?" Chu Changge's voice changed its tone.
Murong Yunshu stared at the tea leaves floating in the teacup and calmly said, "No one will think that their own things are bad." She hung her head, trying to hide her blushing cheeks.
This answer satisfied Chu Changge. It didn't matter what others thought. It was enough that she thought he was a good man. [+]
Suddenly, as if he had thought of something, Chu Changge knitted his sword brows and said, "I have just thought of a problem."
Murong Yunshu slightly raised her eyes. "What?"
"Why did you agree to marry (嫁) me in the first place?"
"......it's actually 'marry (娶)'."
"Okay, marry (娶). Why did you agree to marry (娶)......this marriage in the first place?" Chu Changge really could not say the words 'marry (娶) me'.
An example of using the two words.
Murong Yunshu lowered her eyes at his words. She silently turned the teacup in her hand. After a long time, she finally said, "Because at that time, I needed a shoulder to lean on, and you happened to be willing to lend it to me."
"If it was someone else, would you have said yes too?" Chu Changge frowned, not entirely satisfied with her answer. The thought that she would have said yes even if he hadn't gone to propose marriage at that time didn't sit well with him.
Murong Yunshu thought for a moment and asked rhetorically, "If it were someone else, would you also propose marriage?"
Chu Changge was rendered speechless by her question. If it were someone else, would he have proposed marriage? Perhaps not, and perhaps he would. Who could say what someone's fate was? Whether by chance or fate, he had asked her to marry him, and she had agreed. All he could say was that if he had known he would fall in love with her, he would never have asked anyone else for her hand in marriage.
Chu Changge suddenly felt that it was a gift from the heavens that he could meet the last person who could make his heart flutter.
If she hadn't washed off her cosmetics to show her natural beauty when they first met, or if he hadn't gone through a change from seas into mulberry fields, would they still value each other as if their lives depended on it?
No, definitely not. If there had ever been a Murong Yunshu in his life, there would only be that one from then on.
Fortunately. Indeed, fortunately, she was the first and the last.
"Thank you." Chu Changge said softly as he suddenly dropped a kiss on her head.
Murong Yunshu was stunned. "Thanking me for what?"
Chu Changge smiled and silently held her in her arms.
Thank you for appearing so promptly, not a step earlier and not a step later, for meeting me at the time and place we were meant to meet, and for staying with me ever since.
"Yunshu."
"Hmm?"
"It's nothing. I just wanted to know if you were still around."
Murong Yunshu's heart warmed, and she blushed tenderly, "You're here. Where else can I go?"
At these words, Chu Changge's dark eyes, which were as deep as night, shone with a soft light like the white moon. He believed in destiny, in a godsent marriage, in the vow to live and die together, in the vow he made with his son where they would hold his son's hand and grow old with him.
*
Huberg waited three days in Sheng Wang Residence before meeting Murong Yunshu and Chu Changge.
"It's harder to meet you guys than to meet the Emperor." Huberg lamented this as soon as they met.
"We've been relatively busy these past few days." Chu Changge explained in a rare moment. His explanation caused Murong Yunshu, originally very calm and undisturbed, to have her cheeks burned, and her gaze drifted away, embarrassed beyond belief.
Very busy indeed. Busy doing immoral things.
She didn't know what was wrong with Chu Changge. He had been so enthusiastic for the past few days, causing her barely get out of bed.
Murong Yunshu's cheeks grew even hotter when she thought of those lingering days. She blushed to the roots of her ears as his tender words of love and wanton teasing flashed in her mind......
"Miss Murong, looking at your rosy complexion, you seem to be in good health." Huberg looked like a fortune-teller with his eyes looking at her in an unfathomable manner.
Murong Yunshu immediately removed those indecent images from her mind. After a pause, she said, "Nothing unusual has happened to me yet. Did you come here just to see if my body is okay?"
"Of course not." Huberg smiled and said, "I have come to join Miss this time."
Murong Yunshu slightly raised her brow, and her face was surprised. "You want to rely on me?"
Huberg nodded. "Yes."
Murong Yunshu muttered to herself for a long time before saying, "Murong Mansion doesn't hire people now. Even if we want to recruit, we won't recruit strange people like mister. Murong Mansion opens private banks and earns real money. A noble person like mister who knows about destiny and understands heaven and earth is useless in Murong Mansion."
[+]
But Huberg did not take her words seriously and spoke to Chu Changge instead. "Now that there is great chaos under heaven, all the kings have rebelled. Furthermore, many local tyrants and copycat overlords have made themselves kings. Has Leader Chu ever thought of doing something great?"
Chu Changge smiled disdainfully. "What kind of thing is considered a great deal?"
Huberg: "Win the Central Plains and unify the whole country." If these sonorous words were thrown on the floor, they would make a sound.
"I'm not interested in the world."
"But the world is interested in you."
"Is that so?" Chu Changge raised his sword eyebrows, his cynical face showing a little unrestrained tenderness. "My world has long been in my hands. What does someone else's world have to do with me? If it is interested in me, then it has chosen the wrong person."
Huberg: "The world is so big. How can the Mojiao Sect be regarded as the world? I didn't expect Leader Chu willing to be ordinary. "
Chu Changge asked, "Who said that the Mojiao Sect is my world?"
"So, what world are you talking about?" Huberg wondered.
"Naturally, it's something you won't understand." Chu Changge said with a smile, then glanced at Murong Yunshu.
Huberg didn't understand his glance. Murong Yunshu, however, could see it clearly. She grabbed Chu Changge's hand excitedly and then said to Huberg, "Although mister mistook the wrong person, your trip to Yanzhou will not be in vain. I will introduce you to King Sheng."
"No need." Huberg said with a smile, "I believe in my vision, and I don't misread people."
Murong Yunshu wanted to persuade him. But on second thought, a good general recognises his master as well as a good horse. Any more persuasion would only be futile. So she directly instructed, "Lu-er, see the guest off."
Noob Translator's Musing
At one moment, I always imagined that Qiu Shuiyin was Murong Yunshu's long-lost sister. But on second thought, no siblings in this world have the same temperament, even if it's fiction. That would be illogical. Plus, Old Master Murong was a loyal husband. How would he dare to have an illegitimate daughter outside, right?
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Black Belly Wife