Chapter 42

TRANSLATED BY MYPEN_22

When Yan Shi and his party left the county office, they saw Mrs Zhou waiting at the door with her children. When she saw Yan Shi come out, she pulled the three children to the ground and kowtowed "Thank you, my lady." The three children also said words of thanks.

It turned out that after the verdict of the Zhou family case, the three children born to Mrs Zhou did not want to stay in the Zhou family, so they left with Mrs Zhou secretly. The Zhou family was in such a state of chaos that no one noticed that they had gone.

Although her parents were no longer with her, the house was still there and it would be convenient for her to come to Tonglin County to see the children. But now that the children have sneaked out, she naturally needs to change her place, so that the Zhou family won't have to go to the neighbouring county to look for her afterwards.

"Is it to join your sister?" Yan Shi asked.

Mrs Zhou smiled and shook her head "I'm afraid I'll cause her trouble if I take the children with me, I'm going to walk south and stay if I come across a place the children like."

As for the shop here, Mrs Zhou left a reliable old man to help sell it, and then reopen it when she found a place to settle down.

The Zhou family's business was over, so Yan Shi said goodbye to Madam Zhou and took Hua Ling to the carriage and continued on his way.

In the carriage, Hua Ling happily tried to lean his head on Yan Shi's shoulder, but when he saw Qu Liujing sitting opposite him reading a medical book, he sat up straight again. It was fine when he didn't sleep in the same bed with Yan Shi in the past, but now that he was sleeping in the same bed with him, he always wanted to be more intimate during the day, but there was someone else in the carriage, so he couldn't be too intimate.

"Brother," Hua Ling suddenly came up to Yan Shii's ear and whispered, "can you let Mr. Qu sit outside?"

Qu Liujing coughed lightly, "Is your Highness talking about me?"

Hua Ling was caught whispering about someone else, so he quickly admitted it "How do you know?"

Qu Liujing laughed "If Your Highness hadn't been staring at me when he was talking to His Highness, I wouldn't have been able to guess. Let me guess, does your Highness want me to go out and sit?"

"Brother..." Hua Ling buried his face shyly in Yan Shi's arms and covered his head with his wide sleeve robe.

"There, there." Yan Shi fished him out and laughed lightly, "It's not too stuffy to be covered up like that."

Hua Ling was still a little embarrassed, so he lifted the curtain and looked out, pretending he wasn't inside the car.

Yan Shi gently stroked Hua Ling's back, like soothing a cat that had exploded, "There's no room outside the carriage, why don't we buy another carriage?"

"I'd rather not," he said, still sounding a little sullen, "that would be a nuisance." He wanted to be a gentle, considerate and understanding princess.

Qu Liujing slowly shaded the book over his eyes, practically eyeless.

"By the way Doctor Qu," Yan Shi suddenly said, "did you move something on Zhou Yongyan's body in the lobby yesterday?"

Hua Ling immediately pulled his head back and looked at Qu Liujing with a gleaming gaze.

Qu Liujing heatedly smiled "I just sent him a worm, so that he could never stand up again."

Yan Shi pursed his lips and laughed, but Hua Ling was laughing quite hard, holding his stomach and giggling. Yan Shi was afraid that he would lose his breath from laughing, so he used his hand to gently rub his stomach.

When Hua Ling had finished laughing, his eyes turned to look at Qu Liujing and said, "What if a bug accidentally crawls out of the bamboo tube and burrows into your body?"

The corners of Qu Liujing's mouth twitched, "No."

The first thing he did was to use an analogy, but what if?"

Qu Liujing gritted his teeth "I raised them all, so I naturally have a way to cure them."

Hua Ling nodded in confusion "Oh, that's right."

The carriage was quiet again when Hua Ling suddenly asked "Does that mean you have a lot of parasites with you?"

"That's natural."

"Brother, he has big worms there!" With a sobbing voice, the young princess threw himself into the not-so-thick but solid embrace, desperate for comfort.

Qu Liujing "..."

This bitch!

The carriage traveled for almost a day and finally arrived in a quaint countryside.

It was almost evening and it was getting dark. Hua Ling took Yan Shi's hand and jumped out of the carriage.

"Brother, where is this place?" Hua Ling had eaten a lot in the carriage, and now he was not very hungry when he smelt the smell of rice.

Yan Shi looked around and said, "This place is called Ping'an Village, and there is a Jie Yuan in the village named Jiang Tanglang, we are here to find him."

It was dinner time and there was no one on the village roads, only a child squatting and playing in front of a house. Zhao Chunhai gave the child a few coins and asked him to lead them to Jiang Yiang's house.

On the way, the child told them about the Jiang family, who were not particularly poor in the village, but not rich either.

Jiang's father died young and he only had an old mother and an older brother. Jiang Tang was in his twenties, and both he and his brother had become biological sons.

It didn't take long to arrive at the door of Jiang Tangdang's house, where Yan Shi and others were waiting outside. The door was unlocked, so the child pushed it in and told Jiang's family that there were some very beautiful and well-dressed young men outside who looked very rich and were looking for Jiang.

The Jiang family was sitting around the table, preparing to eat, when Jiang Yi heard that someone was looking for him, he was very puzzled, he did not know such people. He didn't know anyone like that, but Jiang's old lady's eyes lit up at the news and she hurried out of the house.

Jiang's wife, pushed her man and let him follow her out.

The two brothers and sister-in-law looked at each other and also went out to see what was going on.

When Jiang came out and saw Yan Shi, he hugged his fist, "My name is Jiang Yi, I wonder what you want to do here?"

Yan Shi also cupped his fist, "I am Yan Jingchu, a native of the Imperial City, and I was passing through here on my study tour.

Qu Liujing and Hua Ling also gave their names, but Hua Ling deliberately emphasized that he was the male wife of that beautiful gentleman, which was quite obvious.

Jiang Yi said, "How can I disturb you? Please come in."

Old Mrs Jiang pushed Jiang aside with a flattering smile on her face, "Come in quickly, gentlemen, let's talk about what you have to say inside. We're about to eat, so if you haven't eaten either, let's sit down and eat together."

They said they were eating together, but with five people suddenly coming, there would not be enough food.

Yan Shi caught a glimpse of the food on the table through their open door to the hall, something that the young princess would definitely not be used to eating. His eyes immediately fell on the hen that was leisurely walking into the chicken rack, so he said to Old Mrs Jiang, "Old man, can you sell me two of those hens?" The hen was thin and small, and had little meat. There were five of them, and one chicken would not be enough to share.

Although Yan Shi was an imperial son, he did not have much of a stature. If he had been outside, he would have eaten the same food as his subordinates, so he soon gained a lot of followers after arriving at the Da Lisi.

This was not a pretense on Yan Shi's part, it was in his bones. When Empress Yuan was still alive, she often taught him to be generous to others. After her death, there were many palace maids and eunuchs who did not take him seriously, but he had also received favours from some of them. Therefore, apart from those people, Yan Shi always treated others with generosity and kindness.

Old Mrs Jiang's eyes were shrewd, "What do you mean by selling or not selling, if you eat my chicken, you are looking up to me. Lao Er, go and kill the chicken for the gentlemen, and Lao Er's daughter-in-law, go and fry some more dishes."

Old Mrs. Jiang said she didn't want any money, but she still smilingly took the coin handed over by Zhao Chunhai.

Yan Shi and the other three went into the hall, while Zhao Chunhai and Wu Jinde stood guard outside like two gods of the gate.

In the hall, apart from Yan Shi, there was also old Mrs Jiang and the four members of Jiang's family. The women in the countryside work in the fields like the men, so they are not as concerned about avoiding suspicion between men and women as the big families are.

Hua Ling stretched his neck to look outside and tugged on Yan Shi's sleeve, his voice small and soft, "Brother, we are here to find Jiang Xieyuan.

Why has he gone out."

Old Mrs Jiang said, "He has gone to kill some chickens for the gentlemen." Each of these young gentlemen was better looking than the other, especially this one, when she first saw him she thought he was a woman, how lucky she was to have been so good looking in his last life.

But Hua Ling was not convinced by her, he looked at Jiang Lao Dao, "Then why don't you let this big brother kill the chicken?"

Old Mrs. Jiang smiled, "He is the boss, so naturally he has to stay with the guests."

Hua Ling nodded and stopped talking, lowering his head and began to play with the spike of the jade pendant on Yan Shi's waist, which he had still knitted.

Yan Shi stroked Hua Ling's hair and spoke to the Jiang family in a polite manner, when Jiang Xieyuan entered the room from outside, he nodded at Yan Shi and sat on the chair next to him.

Old Mrs Jiang said, "Is my daughter-in-law's food ready?"

Jiang said, "Not yet, I've just finished the chicken for her."

Old Mrs. Jiang glared at him, "Why are you sitting here if you're not helping my daughter-in-law with the cooking?"

Jiang stood up and said a few words to Yan Shi, then went out again.

Old Mrs Jiang pushed the plate of melon seeds on the table in front of Yan Shi and was immediately full of smiles, she could see that she was the head of the group.

Yan Shi asked Hua Ling in a low voice if he wanted to eat them, and Hua Ling nodded. The first of these is a small handful of melon seeds, which the young princess can pick up one by one.

Hua Ling suddenly raised his head and asked, "Why is Jiang xieyuan cooking?"

Old Mrs. Jiang said, "He is going to help so that the prince can eat sooner."

Hua Ling looked at Jiang's wife and said, "Then why doesn't she go and help? Jiang Xieyuan is a man."

Old Mrs Jiang replied, "She has to look after the children."

Hua Ling's eyes fell on the little boy squatting in the courtyard, who looked two or three years old, much younger than Jiang's two children, and he stretched out a jade finger to point at the boy and asked, "Why does he need to be watched by an adult?"

Old Mrs Jiang said, "Aren't his parents cooking for the gentlemen?"

T/N: there are some conversations in this chapter that I don't quite understand so I just had to translate and proof read it like that