My Naive Ginseng Spirit Wife and My Cultured, Scheming, Delicate Husband

chapter26

The last time she slept with Qi Yun, she got him all worked up with internal heat, and he'd moped around the house for almost a full month before it faded completely. Ye Jiao really didn't want him to go through that again.

Little Ginseng was so anxious that she didn't care about anything else. She scurried over and draped herself over Qi Yun, held onto his wrist firmly, didn't even dare breathe too hard, and closed her eyes slightly to feel his pulse.

Afraid her pulse-taking wouldn't be accurate, Ye Jiao also leaned in and gently felt Qi Yun's neck, behind his ears, sensing the faint throb under her fingertips.

She rubbed his neck for a long time, only letting out a breath of relief when she was sure there was nothing wrong with Qi Yun's body.

Thinking back, the last time Qi Yun ran a high fever was because Ye Jiao had tonified him too recklessly. Now months have passed, Ye Jiao has been careful in how she gets along with Qi Yun, watching over his body closely, and Qi Yun's constitution is much better than before.

Seeing now that even after staying close together for so long there were no signs of his weak body being unable to handle the tonic, Ye Jiao was truly relieved.

Once she'd relaxed, the arm she'd been holding up gave out, and her soft body collapsed right against the man's chest.

She reached out and poked Qi Yun's chin, thinking, thank goodness he doesn't have a fever. Even if I just scared myself for nothing, it's still a good thing.

She tilted her head and rested it on the man's chest. At first it was fine, but quickly Ye Jiao could clearly hear his heartbeat speed up several beats.

Ye Jiao thought she'd pressed on him uncomfortably, so she propped herself up and sat up, carefully pulling the quilt back over him.

Seeing the sky was already light, Little Ginseng quietly slipped on her outer clothes and got out of bed, not wanting to wake Qi Yun. She slowly lowered the thick bed curtains before stepping off the bed, relit the charcoal brazier, and only after the room warmed up did she smooth her hair and leave.

But right after Ye Jiao walked out of the inner room, the man lying on the bed opened his eyes.

Yesterday, because Ye Jiao was leaning against him, Qi Yun couldn't bear to wake his wife. After her hair dried, he carried her to bed, and laid down beside her himself. He'd originally meant to read a book, but somehow he fell asleep.

This nap, Qi Yun slept extremely well.

No dreams, no night terrors. It seemed like the first time in Qi Yun's life he'd experienced what it meant to sleep like a log.

He slept soundly, and the quality was great, so he woke up earlier than usual.

Who would have thought that right after waking up he'd have a warm soft beauty in his arms, leaving his whole body stiff.

Even though they were under the same quilt, Qi Yun clearly remembered that before going to sleep they'd both laid down properly, with space between them. Who knew that once asleep you have no control over yourself, and when he woke up he could feel his wrist being held by the woman.

Qi Yun didn't open his eyes. He couldn't even say himself if it was fear of awkwardness or wanting to hold onto this tender feeling a little longer. In any case, Qi Yun chose to pretend to be asleep, and Ye Jiao didn't notice.

And when the woman was leaning on him, Qi Yun could even smell the sweet osmanthus scent on her.

Osmanthus scent again. She clearly didn't eat any osmanthus flavored snacks yesterday... Oh right, the hair oil Ye Jiao uses is osmanthus scented. It was even a gift he bought for her.

His mind wandered through all sorts of messy things to distract himself, but he still couldn't stop his heart from racing.

Even after Ye Jiao left, Qi Yun could still hear the thunderous thumping in his ears, and his mouth felt inexplicably dry.

He took a deep breath and sat up, but he lowered his head, lifted the quilt to look inside, and quickly lay back down again.

Second Young Master Qi was going to lie still a little longer, so that Ye Jiao wouldn't notice anything wrong.

Compared to Qi Yun's nervousness, Ye Jiao was much more at ease, and in a very good mood.

That he could spend a night with her without running a fever was obviously the result of his body gradually getting better.

What Ye Jiao had always looked forward to most was her husband being healthy. Now that Qi Yun's body was improving, of course she was happy.

She fixed her hair into a bun, picked out a lilac-colored robe to put on. Seeing it was still early, she went outside first to check on the newly planted medicinal herbs and flowers.

As soon as she went out the door, she saw Mistress Fang standing by the courtyard gate holding little Stone.

Ye Jiao hadn't run into Mistress Fang for a long time. When she saw her now, Ye Jiao smiled and said: "Sister-in-law, you're up early." Then she waved her hand at little Stone, "Stone, call me auntie."

Stone immediately answered in a crisp voice: "Auntie!"

Mistress Fang also smiled and nodded at Ye Jiao, looking very amiable, and said to Ye Jiao: "Mother says the end of the year is coming up, the whole family needs to get together to talk about things for the New Year. I've come to find you to go with me."

Ye Jiao heard this and said: "Sister-in-law, go wait in the small reception room, have some tea to warm up, I'll be right there." As she spoke, she turned to the porch and called Xiaosu over.

Xiaosu trotted over to Ye Jiao: "Second Young Madam."

"Where did you put the two pots of lucky flowers I brought back yesterday?" Ye Jiao asked as she scanned the area on both sides.

Xiaosu stretched out a hand and pointed to the side room: "That flower looked very delicate. Yesterday Second Young Master told me to put them in the side room, afraid they'd freeze if left out in the yard."

Hearing this, Ye Jiao breathed a sigh of relief, thinking thank goodness for my husband. I forgot about the lucky flowers yesterday, if it wasn't for Qi Yun giving the order, I probably wouldn't have a single one of the two pots left after one night.

She took Xiaosu with her to the side room, squatted down and touched the red petals of the lucky flowers, and found they were still wilted.

These flowers are supposed to grow in water. Now that they're buried in soil of course they won't grow well.

Ye Jiao stood up, looked around, and pointed at the large fish tank: "Can I use that?"

Xiaosu originally wanted to ask what it was for, but she suddenly remembered what happened a while ago when Qi Yun had the entire garden's flower beds cleared out for Ye Jiao, so she immediately shut her mouth and nodded quickly: "Anything Second Young Madam wants to do is fine. Should I dump the fish out?"

Ye Jiao was stunned when she heard this, then laughed: "No need, why throw them away? In this weather they'd probably freeze to death if thrown out. Just leave them there to keep living. Later you take these two flowers out, don't damage the roots, shake off the dirt and put them in. Also, don't put them outside, if the water freezes it'll be bad, keep them inside the house."

When Ye Jiao was still Little Ginseng, she called lucky flowers Fengyuan flowers. They can live on their own just placed in water, don't even need tending. Give them a little sunlight and a little warmth and they'll grow rough and wild on their own. Madame Dong couldn't get them to grow because she put them in soil, just like the stone bud grass from before, it never lives long buried in soil.

Xiaosu heard this and nodded in agreement. Ye Jiao gave her a couple more detailed instructions, and not wanting to keep Mistress Fang waiting too long, she grabbed a purple-black fur-lined cloak wrapped around herself, and went out to find Mistress Fang.

But Mistress Fang hadn't gone to wait in the small room. Instead she was wandering around Ye Jiao's courtyard, and the more she walked the more shocked she was.

Mistress Fang had been to this courtyard before. She wasn't a well-read talented woman, but she did enjoy viewing flowers and scenery. Even though she was terribly afraid of Qi Yun, she still really appreciated Qi Yun's taste in arranging the courtyard.

Especially the two precious "Purple Dragon Sleeping in Snow" chrysanthemums in Qi Yun's courtyard—one side of the petals was orange-red and the other bright yellow, they looked particularly rich and beautiful. Today Mistress Fang came by figuring if she didn't see them now they'd wilt soon, so she took a detour past here to pick up Ye Jiao to go find Madam Liu together.

Who would have thought that when she looked, the entire courtyard had changed completely!

Not to mention the "Purple Dragon Sleeping in Snow", all the other flowers were gone too. In their place were what looked to Mistress Fang like weird wild flowers.

Small flowers, strange shapes, they just looked too unrefined.

This made Mistress Fang's eyes ache with heartache. When Ye Jiao came over she asked: "Jiaoniang, how did your courtyard end up like this?"

Ye Jiao was hugging her hand warmer, heard this and smiled: "I wanted to plant some medicinal herbs, so my husband had people clear the courtyard."

...Cleared it?

Mistress Fang's eyes went wide as she looked at Ye Jiao, thinking how can such a nice girl be so wasteful!

Ye Jiao smiled again: "Medicinal herbs are actually useful. Those flowers and plants are just pretty to look at, but they can't help my husband's body. It's better to plant something useful."

Mistress Fang was probably so heartbroken that she didn't think before she spoke: "If Second Brother wants medicinal herbs he can just get them from the apothecary, why go through all this trouble. Those flowers... they're such nice things, it's such a shame to clear them."

If it had been before, Ye Jiao would have just smiled and let it go. She never cared much about anyone other than Qi Yun.

But after seeing that dispute in front of the wine shop yesterday, and hearing Qi Yun say so much last night, Ye Jiao had picked up on some things.

She was lucky, she got a good husband. As for other people, Little Ginseng thought, just like there are man-eating spirits and healing spirits, not all people have good intentions.

Some things need to be said clearly.

Ye Jiao looked at Mistress Fang, her voice just as soft and gentle as ever: "Sister-in-law, this is my husband's courtyard, and it was my husband who wanted to clear it. If you like looking at flowers you can go to the main garden, the flowers there are also beautiful."

Little Ginseng thought it was strange of her. Like her husband said before, this is the business of their own courtyard, it has nothing to do with other people. Why is Sister-in-law upset about it?

But Mistress Fang was used to Ye Jiao always being soft and gentle, so she didn't think much of it. Coincidentally little Stone shouted that the plum blossoms over there were pretty, said he wanted to pick one for mother and auntie, which made both of them laugh. They distracted Stone with looking at flowers, and quickly forgot about the courtyard clearing. The two sisters-in-law walked all the way to Madam Liu's courtyard without incident.

Today Madam Liu called the two daughters-in-law here to plan out New Year's preparations together.

With the end of the year right around the corner, there are a lot of things the family needs to prepare.

Not to mention the bonuses for the tenant farmers, just the feast preparations, fireworks, new clothes to sew, all that is money flowing out like water.

The Qi family is wealthy, that's true, but they've always been kind people, never harsh to the tenant farmers, give generous bonuses at the end of the year, and as wealthy people there are a lot of bribes and gifts to hand out, all the money that needs to be paid comes out of the family accounts.

Usually the family never treats their own badly, gives them whatever they need for food, clothing and daily use, so the money comes in a lot, and goes out just as fast.

Madam Liu turned the prayer beads in her hand, let her gaze drift over Ye Jiao's and Mistress Fang's faces, and said in a gentle tone: "This year has had many happy occasions. Second Brother married Jiaoniang, little Stone is growing up well, and both the estates and the shops have been doing better and better."

Ye Jiao kept a smile on her face, while Mistress Fang was figuring that her mother-in-law wouldn't have called them here just to compliment them for no reason, so she held little Stone and pretended to be feeding him snacks to distract him, but actually her ears were pricked straight up, listening to what Madam Liu would say next.

Then, they heard Madam Liu say: "But next year we're opening new estates and new shops, I'm afraid there won't be enough money in the account. Your father and I discussed this yesterday. The family is doing well, and we've had lots of happy events this year, we really ought to prepare a couple more feast tables. Besides the money in the main account, should you two households each contribute some? We'll take it based on your annual income, half a percent of each household's income, one out of twenty. How does that sound?"

Since this is a family matter, Madam Liu was first asking the two daughters-in-law for their opinions.

Ye Jiao didn't see anything wrong with this suggestion. Over these days Qi Yun has gradually told her everything about the Qi family's situation, so Ye Jiao knows the general idea.

Now the whole family lives together, even the snacks I eat are made by the small kitchen, and Madam Liu said the family will spend money to build new shops next year. Little Ginseng thinks taking out some money at the end of the year to celebrate is a good thing.

But Mistress Fang didn't think that way.

Her personality, to put it plainly, is "if you don't pick up extra money when you go out, you've lost money."

She's not a bad person, just stingy, and always calculating everything.

In her opinion, Qi Yun's shop and Qi Zhao's estate are completely different things.

Recently the wine shop's income went up a bit, Mistress Fang chalked it up to an accident. After all, doesn't every family have a good month once in a while? The shop was quiet for so long, an occasional boom is normal.

At the end of the day, the estate is what makes the money, so if we have to pay, my family will end up paying more.

In previous years at the end of the year, sometimes Madam Liu would ask this same question. Back then Mistress Fang would just look at Qi Yun, and at that time Qi Yun only thought about waiting to die, didn't care about running the shop, his income was just average, so Madam Liu wouldn't ask him to contribute. Qi Ming was studying and also had no extra money, so to keep things fair she wouldn't ask Qi Zhao to contribute either.

Now that the shop has money, her mother-in-law brings this up again, and it's even based on proportion.

The estate makes more money, if we really calculate it as one out of twenty, wouldn't I be getting the short end of the stick?

Actually, taking out half a percent of the income isn't that much money, and Mistress Fang isn't even short that little bit of money. She just feels uncomfortable in her heart, if she pays more than others she feels like she lost out, and losing out makes her miserable.

So, Mistress Fang looked eagerly at Madam Liu, and asked quietly: "Mother, can we change it?"

Madam Liu looked at her: "Change it to what?"

Mistress Fang's little abacus clicked away in her head as she said: "Let's skip the one out of twenty thing. How about this, both families contribute the same amount. It's all our filial piety, one shouldn't contribute more than the other anyway." Her voice paused, "I'll go back and tell Dalang, whatever Second Brother contributes, we'll contribute the same. We won't be a copper short."

It sounds like she's looking out for Second Brother, but what Mistress Fang is really thinking is that this way she won't lose out herself.

In Mistress Fang's opinion, Qi Yun's income can't be that high. If they match the amount, that satisfies Madam Liu's wish to keep everything fair, and also lets her family pay less. Killing two birds with one stone.

Anyway, Mistress Fang never even considered that Qi Yun's shop could out-earn Qi Zhao's estate. That possibility didn't even exist in her mind.

Madam Liu actually knew better than anyone how well each household's business was doing now, but she didn't say anything. Instead she turned her head to look at Ye Jiao: "Jiaoniang, do you agree?"

Ye Jiao has always been obedient in front of Madam Liu, she answered: "My husband told me to listen to Mother, if Mother agrees then I agree."

Madam Liu heard this, nodded, then looked deeply at Mistress Fang, didn't explain anything, and said gently: "Since that's what you want, we'll do it your way."

Mistress Fang's round face broke into a bright smile, thinking to herself, saved another sum of money, wonderful.