Seeing that Wang Daxia still wanted to go make trouble at the Imperial Guard office, Hundred-Household Commander Mu hurriedly persuaded: “Don’t hurt the peace over such minor house damage. The Imperial Guards are conducting official business—don’t add to their troubles. This matter has nothing to do with you.”
If Young Master Wang listened to advice, he wouldn’t be Young Master Wang.
Wang Daxia said: “How is it unrelated to me? The night before last, the Imperial Guards chased me from Wanping to Daxing! If the Shuntian Prefecture office hadn’t proven my innocence, I would have died long ago under the private torture of Imperial Guard Thousand-Household Commander Chen! Today they come to demolish my house again. If I don’t seek compensation, won’t the Imperial Guards be shitting on my neck in the future!”
Lu Ying said: “I didn’t know this was your house. Also, can’t you keep your mouth cleaner? Who wants to ride on your neck and—”
Lu Ying clenched his fists and shut his mouth. After all, he was a nephew of Imperial Guard Commander Lu Bing, born into a top noble family in the capital. He couldn’t say such words. Though both were dandies, Lu Ying wasn’t as bottomless as Wang Daxia.
“I’m going to say it!” Wang Daxia opened his mouth wide: “Shit—mmph!”
Hundred-Household Commander Mu covered Wang Daxia’s mouth in time: “If you don’t shut up, I’ll take you to your father.”
Hundred-Household Commander Mu was in great alarm: That Thousand-Household Commander Chen before had the same hereditary rank as your father, so your father could still stand up for you. But now this is Imperial Guard Commander Lu Bing! The emperor’s close minister—you still dare provoke his nephew? When the time comes, even your father can’t save you!
Actually, Wang Daxia also knew he couldn’t provoke Lu Ying, but he was worried the young widow would suffer going alone to the Imperial Guard office for trial, so he did this deliberately.
After all, that troublesome dead mouse was his mistake.
Lu Ying saw more and more onlookers gathering. If the Imperial Guards and Northern District Military Commissioner fought publicly again, it would be bad for everyone. Besides, this was their territory. So he waved his hand and said:
“Officials have always viewed the Imperial Guards like the King of Hell’s underworld. You’re the first person I’ve seen voluntarily going to the Imperial Guard office for tea. Young Master Wang, please! If you don’t dare go, stop calling yourself Wang Daxia and change it to Wang Turtle!”
Wang Daxia wouldn’t admit defeat verbally: “Let’s go then! I don’t kill people, don’t commit arson, don’t kick widows’ doors, don’t ransack houses. I have a clear conscience—what’s there to fear?”
Wang Daxia just followed Lu Ying like that.
The Imperial Guard office was far away, in Rice Alley of Dayong Ward in the southern city. They had to cross the capital from north to south. The early summer sun was vicious, so Lu Ying switched to a carriage and brought suspect Wei Caiwei into the car.
Wang Daxia had originally been following on horseback, but seeing Lu Ying call the beautiful young widow into the car—a lone man and woman—alarm bells immediately rang. He spurred his horse to catch up and called to the carriage window: “Hey, I want to ride in the carriage too. It’s too sunny outside.”
Lu Ying said coldly: “There’s no place for you in this car. If you don’t dare go to the Imperial Guard office, just say so directly. Don’t make excuses—go or don’t go, up to you.”
Wang Daxia pursued relentlessly, stretching his neck and peering into the carriage window like a turtle: “Men and women should be separate. What does Commander Lu mean by bringing a young widow alone to his side? It damages the widow’s reputation.”
At these words, Wei Caiwei’s heart warmed, and she forgave Wang Daxia for his earlier “even when beating a dog, consider the owner” comment.
Her dead ghost husband could still be saved.
Even with Lu Ying’s broad experience, he had never seen such a shameless, unreasonable dandy who lacked self-awareness.
“Get lost!” Lu Ying pushed Wang Daxia’s head out of the window with one palm: “Riding with me affects reputation? Then riding with a dandy like you who sold his dead mother’s dowry estate to save courtesans and redeem brothel women would damage reputation even more, wouldn’t it?”
The Imperial Guard office was far away in the southern city, but it seemed Wang Daxia’s courtesan-saving had spread from north to south, gaining “fame” throughout the capital.
Wang Daxia felt no shame, only pride: “I saved Miss Yingying from fire and water, lending her two thousand taels of silver for emergencies. Our relationship is pure and innocent. It’s you people with dirty minds who think in unclean directions when you see men and women together. Is that my fault?”
Lu Ying felt he had heard the funniest joke in all the capital: “You and Red Sleeve Pavilion’s top courtesan are innocent? You’re kidding ghosts.”
Wang Daxia snorted: “Believe it or not.”
Wei Caiwei, who had been silent, suddenly spoke: “I believe it.”
From last night’s cohabitation and Wang Daxia’s performance as a chaste and virtuous man, he wasn’t a lustful person. He had probably just been deceived by Miss Yingying’s coaxing and naively threw away two thousand taels of silver.
Wang Daxia said approvingly: “Did you hear? You don’t believe it, but someone does.”
Lu Ying glanced at Wei Caiwei: “She’s your tenant and has requests of you, so naturally she says nice things.”
Wang Daxia knocked on the carriage window: “I don’t have to get in the car, but the window must stay open. I need to watch you—don’t think about taking advantage of the young widow.”
Actually, with such hot weather, the windows were naturally open anyway. Lu Ying said: “You have an impure mind, so you think all men in the world lust after women.”
Wang Daxia had wanted to say “Does Commander Lu not lust after women but men instead?” But thinking that the carriage had already left the northern district and wasn’t under Northern District Military Commissioner jurisdiction, if something happened, no one would clean up the mess for him. He couldn’t act as he pleased, so he swallowed his teasing words and said instead:
“I also hope Commander Lu is a gentleman. Please don’t disappoint my expectations!”
Lu Ying sat directly across from Wei Caiwei. Caiwei carefully observed this young Imperial Guard—he was more than a gentleman, even somewhat rigid.
On such a hot day, he still wore a high-collared robe with jade dragonfly buttons fastened properly at the collar. Even though the originally crisp collar had been softened by sweat, he still wouldn’t unfasten the buttons for comfort.
His clothing was luxurious and meticulous, his posture upright, legs spread like a horse stance, hands on his knees. Lu Ying even wore boots that reached his calves! The black leather boot surface was spotless—he was a fastidious person.
Dressed like this, even Wei Caiwei felt hot for him.
Fortunately they were in a carriage—if he were riding outside, he’d surely get heatstroke.
Wei Caiwei reached into her silk pouch. Lu Ying immediately grabbed her right hand: “What are you doing?”
Wang Daxia saw this from outside the window and shouted: “Didn’t Commander Lu claim to be a gentleman? Gentlemen touch young widows’ hands? Let go of this widow!”
Lu Ying raised Wei Caiwei’s right hand: “She was trying to ambush me.”
Wang Daxia said: “Ambush you with a pill?”
Lu Ying looked closely and indeed saw a green pill.
Wei Caiwei said: “This is my homemade cooling plum. Bayberries processed with various heat-clearing and summer-relieving medicinal materials and honey, rolled in a layer of crushed dried mint leaves. Place it under the tongue—it’s most effective for generating saliva and relieving heat. I saw Commander Lu sweating profusely and took out one pill to help you cool down.”
It was actually a kind gesture?
Lu Ying was currently so hot his undergarments were soaked, but remembering that mouse of unknown cause of death, he didn’t dare accept: “No need.”
“If you don’t want it, I do!” Wang Daxia stretched his long arm through the window and snatched the cooling plum, putting it in his mouth.
The cooling plum entered his mouth like an ice cube melting. First, the strong mint leaves expelled turbid qi coming out through his nostrils, making even his throat feel cool. Then the sweet and sour plum flavor spread—more comfortable than drinking sour plum soup.
“Delicious!” Wang Daxia wolfed it down in a few bites and reached through the window again: “I want more.”
Wei Caiwei took out an oil paper package, all business: “Twenty wen each, ten per package, two hundred coins total.”
Wang Daxia was a dandy who didn’t mind the price. He gave Wei Caiwei one tael of silver: “I want five packages.”
Lu Ying observed the two of them. At first he thought there was some ambiguity between landlord and tenant, but from what he could see now, they just had a pure monetary relationship.
Wang Daxia ate two at once, calling it refreshing, making Lu Ying in the carriage salivate as well. He also gave Wei Caiwei one tael of silver: “I want five packages too.”
Lu Ying distributed four packages of plums to the Imperial Guards. Seeing everyone was fine, he finally put one in his mouth.
Once he started eating, he couldn’t stop. By the time they reached the Imperial Guard office, he had finished an entire package.
The Imperial Guard coroner performed an “autopsy” on the dead mouse, with the conclusion naturally being no poison—it was killed by blunt force.
Wei Caiwei asked: “Commander Lu, may this common woman leave?”
Wang Daxia said: “Hurry and release her—she still needs to practice medicine and do business.”
Lu Ying nodded: “You may go.”
Wei Caiwei said: “This common woman takes her leave.”
Watching Wei Caiwei’s figure disappear at the entrance, Wang Daxia tapped the table lightly: “We should settle our accounts now.”
Lu Ying wanted nothing more than to immediately drive away this plague god: “I’m very busy and don’t have time to calculate these trivial matters with you. Go back and find craftsmen to repair the house. Wherever it’s broken, fix it there. Make a list and bring it to me—however much compensation is due, I’ll pay every penny.”
Having gained an advantage, Wang Daxia pushed for more: “Empty words have no proof. Commander Lu should pay part of the compensation first. What if I spend big money repairing the house and you don’t acknowledge it afterward?”
Lu Ying slapped down ten taels of silver like swatting a fly: “More will be refunded, less will be supplemented. Now scram!”
Wang Daxia’s eyes lit up at the money. He pocketed the silver and left.
Lu Ying instructed his subordinates: “Send people to monitor Wei Caiwei and see if she has accomplices. She arrived in the capital and the Chen father and son died—it’s too much of a coincidence. Release her first and see if we can catch bigger fish.”
Just as Wei Caiwei left the coroner’s room, Wang Daxia caught up: “Wait!”
Wang Daxia gave all ten taels of compensation silver he had just received to Wei Caiwei: “Give me your black gauze hat, medicine pouch, ‘Gynecology Sage’ banner, and tiger support with bells. These ten taels should be enough, right?”
“More than enough.” Wei Caiwei asked: “What do you want these things for?”
Wang Daxia said: “Hundred-Household Commander Mu is still waiting outside the office to catch me and take me home for confinement. I want to disguise myself as a traveling doctor to escape and avoid the spotlight.”
Wei Caiwei was no longer angry with her dead ghost husband and even felt somewhat worried about him: “Where will you go?”
Wang Daxia thought for a moment: “For now, I can only seek refuge with Miss Yingying.”
“Not for sale!” Wei Caiwei exploded in fury.
Author’s Note: This story could also be titled “After Rebirth, I Want to Murder My Husband Every Day.” I have something to tell readers—my historical novel “Mu Mansion Storm” was selected for limited-time free reading. On July 12th, subscriptions will be free for 24 hours. If you’re interested in this story but haven’t subscribed before, don’t read it yet. Wait until the 12th to download the full text for free—consider it a small benefit for readers. Thank you all for your support. Remember, download the full text within 24 hours, or it will cost money after that.