The two beautiful men looked at each other awkwardly.
A moment later, Fu Chengfeng said, "I'll take twenty-seven taels; you take three."
"Okay." Qin Muzhi accepted Fu Chengfeng's offer without a second thought.
Once again, Rong Yi was dumbfounded. No haggling at all? She was already prepared to spend three hundred or three thousand taels.
If others did not bargain, she naturally had no reason to raise the price herself. Thirty was thirty. Rong Yi readily forked out thirty taels for the two of them to split the spoils.
Qin Muzhi, who had recovered the owed money, said to Rong Yi, "Miss Rong, I'll see you in the flower garden."
Rong Yi nodded, feeling that jianghu people were easy to deal with. If you were in the palace, you couldn't even get rid of a eunuch with thirty taels of silver, let alone two eunuchs......oh, that was wrong. It was supposed to be two men.
"Honestly, it was only three taels of silver only. Why did you refuse to return it to him?" Rong Yi asked.
Fu Chengfeng's eyes flashed, and he said, "I like the feeling of owing him money and not paying him back."
"......" What an odd hobby that was. Rong Yi suddenly felt that Master had wronged her too much in the past and that her hobbies were nothing compared to Fu Chengfeng. She just loved whatever job she saw and loved putting it aside. To put it bluntly, she was fond of learning a little bit of everything, only a little bit. It was not that she had much affection, but there were so many true experts around her that she had so much to learn to be on par with them, but her energy was limited. So, in order not to leave everything behind, she had to divide everything she needed to learn evenly. She decided to study only a little bit of everything. If someone asked her about it, she could say that she 'happened to know' about it, without the need for her to answer 'don't know' to whatever questions they asked.
As a direct result of this even distribution, in her fourteen years of life, the only skill that Rong Yi could show off was her luck.
Not everyone was as lucky as she was. Rong Yi often felt smug about this. But when she followed Fu Chengfeng to the Moon Manor's flower garden and heard Yun Ni say the words 'poem relay', she could no longer be confident with her luck.
poem relay
For someone who only 'knew' everything, reciting poems was not that scary. The scariest thing was having to recite many poems and connect them with many sentences!
Rong Yi had only prepared a single poem in all her life! It was like only playing one piece of music. It would become an impromptu performance on certain occasions, such as the palace banquet or when Yun Ni came to provoke her yesterday.
"The chosen words should be precise, not how many words one uses. How about we use the flowers in the flower garden as the theme, and each picks a flower to write a poem about?" Rong Yi tried to turn the rules of the game in her favour.
Qin Muzhi: "That's very good."
"Not good at all." Fu Chengfeng and Qin Muzhi did not see eye to eye. He would oppose what Qin Muzhi agreed to until the end, even if he had to risk his life.
Rong Yi poked him with her elbow when everyone wasn't looking, signalling him not to be an ugly person who would do all kinds of weird things just to get attention.
After receiving the hint from Rong Yi, Fu Chengfeng knew that if he did not consider the overall situation and continued to oppose it, he would upset her again, so he added, "There must be no duplication of flowers. If I recited a poem about plum, you must not create another one about the same thing again." He wasn't afraid of Rong Yi's anger. What he feared the most was her pressing curse. He had already been abused a thousand times yesterday by the words 'breaking her faith' and did not want to be abused the second time.
Rong Yi was overjoyed. "No problem, I'll go first."
"It's better for me to have a go first. I am the host, and Miss Rong is a guest. There is no such thing as letting a guest do it first." Yun Ni said.
Rong Yi knew that Yun Ni was well-intentioned and that in a win-or-loss game like this, where the winner was determined once, whoever came would usually be at a disadvantage. But since Rong Yi had always regarded 'being at a disadvantage was a blessing' as a wise saying, she was not afraid of being in that situation. Now, for example, she was very, very willing to be the one to be put at a disadvantage!
However, Yun Ni was too upright, and the other two men were very gentlemanly. Therefore, Rong Yi became the last one to compose a poem.
That was not the worst part. The most frightening part was that Yun Ni chanted a poem about lotus flowers as soon as she opened her mouth. That was the flower Ring Yi was planning to chant! It was also the only flower she had ever written a poem about!
Rong Yi knew that the literati were fond of showing off their literary excellence and always liked to chant poems about this and that. For the sake of the royal family's face, she had asked her Master to create a custom-made poem. The topics included the four seasons, flowers and plants, wind and rain, mountains, floating clouds and other high-frequency lists of words for improvisation. This list of words could be used for all topics, whether they were chanting about things or people, lamenting over the passing of spring or feeling sad when autumn came.
But Rong Yi never imagined that one day her personal paid words would collide with someone else's. If she had known, she would have asked her Master to add more flowers to her list of words. Rong Yi secretly sighed, not even bothering to listen to the poems written by Fu Chengfeng and Qin Muzhi until Yun Ni reminded her that it was her turn.
Faced with three pairs of expectant eyes, Rong Yi was tempted to play dead. She wondered if anyone would believe her if she was suffering from heatstroke at this time. Rong Yi raised her eyes to the thick clouds in the sky, and her heart was incomparably miserable. Even Heaven was not being cooperative! Before she came to the flower garden, the sun was blazing, but now the sky was filled with dark clouds. Rong Yi wondered if she had inadvertently done something to make Heaven unhappy. Otherwise, why had a sunny day suddenly become cloudy that she could not even pretend to have a heat stroke?
Rong Yi's mind was racing while Fu Chengfeng, Qin Muzhi and Yun Ni looked at each other, wondering why she wasn't speaking.
It was because Rong Yi couldn't open her mouth! If she opened her mouth, she would be exposed. If she were exposed, she would lose her face. If she lost her face—no, she must not lose her face. Others could snap her head or shed her blood, but she couldn't tarnish Murong Mansion's reputation.
Just when Rong Yi was racking her brains for a solution, a man in black jumped out from among the flowers, grabbed her and flew away with lightning speed, leaving Fu Chengfeng and Qin Muzhi far behind.
Such an awesome qinggong! Rong Yi secretly sighed in admiration and was also secretly pleased with herself. What an unexpected blessing! It seemed that Heaven had not abandoned her yet.
When the man in black released Rong Yi, the two had already left the Moon Manor and arrived at a small wooden hut.
"Where is this place?" Rong Yi curiously looked at the furnishings inside but could not find any familiarity and concluded that her captor was not an acquaintance. Why did he want to kidnap her if he was not an acquaintance? She didn't remember offending anyone.
"You don't need to know." The man in black answered coldly.
"Alright." Rong Yi wisely stopped asking questions and smiled, "Thanks a lot. You've done me a great favour."
"You're thanking me?" The man in black obviously did not expect her to thank him, and his eyes showed surprise.
"Yes. I was worried about how to get out of that awkward situation, and you came out halfway and took me away, so I'm really grateful." Although she didn't know the other party's intentions, she should be grateful for helping her save her reputation. She had always been clear to whom she should show her gratitude and against whom she should feel resentment. "Ahem, here you go." Rong Yi took out one silver ingot from her pocket to express her gratitude.
The man in black's expression changed from amazement to shock. He stared at Rong Yi for a long time before cursing indifferently, "Idiot!"
Rong Yi stared wide-eyed and exclaimed excitedly, "Hey! You don't have to attack me personally if you don't want it! Although I am not the smartest person in the world, I am not stupid either. Aren't you the stupid one for rejecting the silver? The world's greatest fool!"
The man in black's eyes moved slightly, and the meaning of this fluctuation in Rong Yi's eyes was—he found out that she wasn't actually an idiot.
What an insult! Rong Yi's pride received an unprecedented blow. She angrily put the silver away and said, "Forget it."
The man in black gave her a faint look before dropping the phrase 'Don't go out of the wooden house' and swaggered off.
"Strange man." Rong Yi muttered. She walked to the door in a huff, continuously stamping her around until she finally gave up her childish temper.
Mom said that if one was unfortunate enough to be kidnapped⸺this was very likely because jianghu people always acted peculiarly⸺one must be calm and not get emotional. It was best if one only lost money to avoid further calamity. If one could not bribe the kidnapper with silver, one could just smash him with it. In short, you must never let yourself suffer.
At sunset, the man in black returned with a lunch box.
Looking at the savoury, steaming meal, Rong Yi, who had been hungry all day, was immediately overjoyed. She picked up the chopsticks and immediately gorged herself on them. She was in a great mood, utterly unaware of herself being held hostage.
A noob translator, きつね, translated this noob translation. Please read this chapter at xin-shou.site. If you read this in another location other than the site stated, it has been taken without the translator's permission. Please don't support this kind of act.
When Rong Yi was full, she took the initiative to clean up the dishes and put them back into the lunch box, smiling, "The food is to my liking, thank you."
The man in black frowned. "I kidnapped you."
"I know! Speaking of which, I was going to ask you why you kidnapped me. For money? Actually, you don't have to kidnap me for that purpose. I'm a very charitable person. Just tell me how much money you need, and I'll give it to you."
The corners of the man in black's eyes twitched momentarily.
Rong Yi asked again, "Is it for the sake of s*x? But the world's most beautiful woman was right next to me. Wouldn't it be better to catch her?"
The corners of the man in black's eyes twitched again.
Rong Yi shook her head. "Definitely not for that. If it was, when you snatched me, you should have...... uh, that is...... you wouldn't have left me alone here anyway and bought me food....... wait, you're not trying to fatten me up and sell me to traffickers, are you? I'm telling you, if you want to trade me for money, just send a letter to my mom. Selling me to a trafficker isn't worth it, really." [T/C]
The man in black said coldly, "You're not an idiot. You're just a young rich girl who hasn't seen the world. No wonder she's having a crisis."
She had long ago informed you that she wasn't stupid, okay! Rong Yi glared at him, then noticed the deeper meaning in his words. Her eyes narrowed slightly. She looked him straight in the eye and asked, "Could it be that I'm in someone else's way?"
The man in black was slightly surprised. "You are very smart."
"Thank you for the compliment. Can you take that mask off your face for a moment? It feels odd talking with you while you look like that. Don't worry; as long as you don't mistreat me, I won't retaliate against you."
The man in black hesitated for a moment before he finally removed the scarf on his face.
Such a striking appearance. This was the first impression the man in black gave to Rong Yi.
"Do you have a name?" Rong Yi asked.
"Liu Yidao."
"My name is Rong Yi. The róng is from huāróng-yuèmào and the yì was taken from guòmù jiē yì. Overall, they mean beautiful in appearance and unparalleled wisdom." It felt so great to say this sentence finally!
Liu Yidao looked at Rong Yi. Perhaps because he found her smile too dazzling, he coldly turned his head, saying, "You should stay here properly. I will let you go after five days."
"But I can't wait that long." Rong Yi sighed in embarrassment as she explained, "I still have important things to do." In five days, the heroes' meeting at the Moon Manor would be over, so where else could she find her number one husband? "Or we'll make a deal." Rong Yi continued, "You can let me go back to Moon Manor first, and then I'll come back in five days for you to kidnap me. You can lock me up for eight to ten days after that."
きつね's Musing
Another chapter...I'm trying to catch up with the releases. My target was to release four chapters per month, but I missed releasing two chapters last month. So, these are the two chapters. 😅
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Black Belly Wife