Chapter 42: Chapter 42
Chapter 42
Hearing this, the beautiful lady couldn’t help but laugh. Her face, filled with scorn and disdain, was unmistakably evident when she was with the two people she trusted.
"Ah, so he intends to express his generosity by accepting me back, doesn’t he? Claiming that once we were engaged, claiming that the Qin family once favored him. But after I return, without the voluntary consent of the Qin family, all I would receive is a cold welcome, and my mother might suffer because of my return," Yueqian immediately understood.
Normally, if her husband were deceased, she would have to stay at her husband’s house. But with him coming personally, claiming he would take her back, could her husband’s relatives object? He was the general of the army, after all.
"We also fear that it might be so, Qian’er... Your desire to escape and live peacefully seems impossible now, as long as you remain powerless while those who bear you ill will wield such power," Uncle Luan said resignedly, looking at the beautiful woman with pity eyes.
While Yueqian only wanted to escape from such a brutal life, she agreed to play the role of the wicked fiancée, otherwise, she would have had to marry a man known as the Young General due to their ancestors’ agreement.
An engagement was not easily dissolved; even her escape had cost her everything—her reputation and her respectability as a woman. She received nothing but degradation in return.
Yet... it seemed someone was not satisfied with this torment. Surely, they must have seen Yueqian living happily, or perhaps they followed from the beginning. Otherwise, how could they have arrived just when the snow was falling heavily?
It appeared the Young General was just an aggressive dog that did not let go!
"Sigh, actually, no one is to blame but this Yueqian. I initially came here wanting to play the role of a grieving villainess, but the happiness I received was too great. I couldn’t bring myself to harm anyone in the village, especially not my husband and his younger siblings who were sincerely nice to me. Having been Yueqian, apart from you two who are like distant relatives to me, it was only my new family who welcomed me like this."
"I had always assumed he would be displeased, but I never thought that being out of sight would still leave him so resentful. Shouldn’t he be happy getting a chance to really spend time with his lover? Why then does he still bother with me?" Yueqian grabbed her temples.
She was thinking too simply. In fact, that vile man had no intention of letting her go so he could live happily with the heroine of the story like how she thought.
Wait a minute...
"Are you saying that this general hired bandit to attack the villagers, and then he will come himself to defeat them?" Yueqian recalled a plot from a novel.
Indeed, there was a part where, after Yueqian was exiled, the general had to go and defeat bandits, helping the villagers. Meanwhile, the heroine would travel to distribute food to the needy in remote rural areas.
It turned out that they were just following the storyline as before. What she didn’t expect was that the impoverished villagers were the village where she had been exiled.
So, their arrival according to the novel ended up being a mockery of her, but did they inadvertently lose to the bandits? Or is there more to it than that!
"Yes, have you figured something out?" Yuan Dong asked, looking excited at his sister-like figure.
When Yueqian showed such an expression, it certainly meant she was coming up with a great idea.
Yuan Dong was thrilled, and so was Uncle Luan.
Over time, how much fun they had had together, seeing terrified faces of other people, as if they had swallowed a dead fish. Being with Yueqian was truly enjoyable; sometimes her ideas were bizarre, sometimes she seemed to know the future, but her thoughts were terrifying.
Now, she was again onto something, even when facing potential danger to her life!
"Brother Dong Dong, I need you to check something for me."
"Hmm? Sure, what do you need me to do?"
"Just check who the general has hired. See if there were already bandits in the area or which bandit group it might be. I suspect we might trigger them to interfere with the general’s plans," Yueqian said with a malicious tone.
The hero of the story, who had been poisoned then assaulted the heroine, would then have to take her as a concubine—she was the one to ensure the storyline continued as usual!
If they intended to torment her, she wanted to make them suffer some discomfort in return.
Living peacefully wasn’t an option; they might slowly overcome love’s challenges. The heroine might use her capabilities to elevate her status, becoming a competent lady, possibly even the first female scholar. However, since she chose this path, her inevitable fate was to marry into a lowly concubine’s position.
Even if she was with the man she loved, such a status could hardly guarantee a peaceful life!
"Hmm? You say this... do you know if there are really mountain bandits around here?" Yuan Dong seemed to guess the situation, although he didn’t know how Yueqian knew this. Her words were never wrong; if she said there might be, then there likely were.
"I’m just speculating. From the few months I’ve been here, the locals have been quite destitute. If they were to follow the law entirely, some would starve to death... Besides, geographically, these remote mountains far from other kingdoms are quite intriguing."
"If there were any smuggling of illegal things between kingdoms, this would be an ideal location. However, I think the bandits involved in such smuggling would operate discreetly and would not rob the impoverished villagers. But if a group of bandits were to act as them, then when the army comes to clean up, we should just let them fight it out."
"This would also be beneficial for the land. After all, they’ve already taken taxes from us. How can they come for nothing just to handle some hired petty thieves? I’d rather they take down the real bandits," Yueqian smirked as she spoke.
When looking at the situation, she believed that the place where the hero and heroine of the story had arrived was exactly where she was.
They knew what the hero, the Young General, was doing. His plans were known through the Art Institute’s spy, selling art pieces as a part of their disguise, which actually had an extensive intelligence network.
Poor heroine, she also thought too little.
She probably didn’t plan to come here because of an enemy like Yueqian, who had already lost the right to compete for favor. But her reason for coming was to build her reputation, in addition to spending time with the one she loved, to make him fall more deeply in love with her. Seeing Yueqian was just an incidental benefit that would also allow her to hurt an old enemy who once intended to harm her.
The excuse of distributing food to the poor was merely a joke.
If she really wanted to help the poor, she would have donated before the winter as the weather was now better, and villagers could forage themselves. The people suffering now were those in the city without means to earn their living, while villagers would struggle during floods, drought, or before harsh winter.
Now that the winter was ending, they needed no help, everyone was busy with their farming and gardening. They had no time to wait around for death.
Especially now, Yueqian had given them hope for survival by providing them with land to cultivate first. How could they just sit around idly? Even young children were out in the fields weeding.
"Ha! I would really laugh if they encountered real bandits instead of the hired ones. I wonder how chaotic the situation would be," Yuan Dong thought along with her words, and soon he was laughing.
"But this is still very risky. If your husband..." Uncle Luan expressed with concern.
The whole thing would collapse instantly if Mu Heng died under the sword of a rogue. Would she have to suffer back in the capital after all? Even if others suffered, she would suffer too...
"If my husband really dead, then I would pretend to die along with him and escape to live with you all... Would that be okay?" Yueqian winked, teasing them playfully.
"Oh, you! Should I just kill your husband then?" Yuan Dong laughed heartily.
He really loved this plan, damn it!
Even though she was joking, Yuan Dong took it more seriously.
"Would you really kill a good man? What is your heart made of? You’re evil, truly evil," Yueqian feigned fear, but Yuan Dong just knocked her head gently in response.
"Don’t tease me like that. Or if I do end up killing someone, I did it because I’m your big brother after all, you Young Villainess Qin!" He retorted, and they both looked at each other and laughed.
The atmosphere in the room lightened considerably. It seemed that Yueqian had everything figured out already.
"Even so, I really do like my husband. I’ll try to ensure he doesn’t fall to his death. At least the bandits that were hired won’t disturb the village. If they were to kill someone, it would have to be out in the woods. If my husband doesn’t enter the forest these days, nothing would happen," Yueqian shared her thoughts.
Her reasoning was sound. No matter how much they wanted to kill, the command not to harm women still stood. They wouldn’t dare attack people right in the village because that would instantly cause chaos.
Furthermore, their instructions were to act as bandits engaging in illegal activities in the mountains who just happened to encounter villagers foraging there. If it were known that mountain bandits were raiding homes within the village, it would seem too brazen, and the penalties upon capture wouldn’t be worth the pay.
So, when the Young General issued the orders and hired them, he didn’t anticipate that Mu Heng, the husband of his former fiancée, would not enter the forest even once. Plus, the villagers were busy with their planting and seldom ventured deep into the woods.
It turned out that the killing was between groups of bandits pretending to be bandits and the actual bandits!
"Whatever you say... I would like to see your husband too. Can I come to your house tonight?" Upon seeing Yueqian’s intention to protect her husband, Yuan Dong looked at her with interest.
What kind of person was the husband she had been waiting for since childhood? And why did she had been waiting for him all this time?...
