The next day at Yin-zheng (3:00 AM), Jiang Chun got up to slaughter pigs. After busying for one hour and finishing the slaughter, she loaded the pork into a bamboo basket and placed it on a wheelbarrow. Then she fetched water to wash her hands and face.
At this time, the sky was already faintly bright. While washing her face in the courtyard, she vaguely noticed that something seemed off on her neck.
She stopped scooping water, let the surface of the water in the wooden basin settle, then fixed her gaze and took a closer look.
Good gracious — on her neck, there was actually a kiss mark red to the point of turning purple, like a red plum blossom!
Was this the masterpiece that Song Shi’an made yesterday afternoon?
This guy had always been passive. If it hadn’t been for her pretending to be drunk and crazy yesterday — begging and threatening him, pestering him until he had no way out — he absolutely wouldn’t have kissed her neck.
Even when he bit down, he had a reluctant expression, yet she hadn’t expected that his bite would be so ruthless — he actually gave her a strawberry mark.
No wonder during dinner last night, he didn’t even dare to raise his head and look at her. She had thought he was shy because he kissed her neck, and so didn’t tease him too much.
Turns out this brat had a guilty conscience like a thief!
Jiang Chun tiptoed back into the room, took off her outer clothes, took a stand-collar shirt (li-ling shan, 立领衫) from the clothing chest, and changed out of the cross-collar underclothes (jiao-ling zhongyi, 交领中衣) she was wearing underneath.
People’s words are fearful. If she went to sell meat with a strawberry mark like this, within half a day the entire town would have heard about it.
After returning home from selling meat and discovering that Jiang He had gone to collect pigs again, she decisively took off the stand-collar shirt and changed back into the cross-collar underclothes.
Wearing that purplish-red plum blossom mark while going in and out of the west room, she made Song Shi’an wish he could bury his head under the kang table — his face was more flushed than the evening glow at dusk.
But Jiang Chun wasn’t going to let him off so easily. Pretending to be surprised, she asked, “Husband, how come you don’t even dare to look me in the eye? Could it be that you did something with a guilty conscience?”
Song Shi’an glanced at her sideways, suspecting that she had already discovered the clue — and even had full evidence in her hand.
This morning, she was wearing a cross-collar undergarment that exposed her neck, yet when going to town to sell meat, she changed into a stand-collar shirt that could cover her neck. After coming back, she switched back to the original cross-collar undergarment.
If there wasn’t a reason, she wouldn’t toss back and forth like that for no good reason.
That being said, he still decisively shook his head. “No.”
What if he was just overthinking it?
He absolutely couldn’t confess of his own accord.
“Really no?” Jiang Chun paced in front of the kang, leaned her body forward toward him, raised her hand to point to the side of her neck, and smiled as she looked at him sideways: “Then who planted this purplish-red plum blossom on my neck? Don’t tell me it was a mosquito bite.”
Song Shi’an had wanted to make up an excuse, but since she delivered the excuse herself, he directly opened his eyes and told a blatant lie: “That’s right, it was a mosquito bite.”
Jiang Chun gave a snort of laughter: “Then this big mosquito sure knows how to pick a spot — didn’t bite anywhere else, just had to bite where husband had kissed.”
Song Shi’an, who was called a “big mosquito,” pressed his lips together and didn’t make a sound.
Seeing him pretending to play dead to the end, Jiang Chun leaned even closer, laughing as she said, “Husband, have you ever heard the saying, ‘Leniency to those who confess’?”
“Never,” Song Shi’an answered instantly.
Confession was impossible. Absolutely impossible.
If he confessed, with this brat’s personality of not letting go when she has the upper hand, who knows what excessive request she might propose?
“Really?” Jiang Chun looked at him with a half-smile, half-sneer.
Song Shi’an was being stared at so much that his face felt hot, his guilty conscience was overwhelming, and he almost couldn’t resist anymore — but still forced himself to endure.
This guy planned to resist to the end?
Jiang Chun curled her lips slightly, a bit disappointed, but still decided not to force him with questions — a person cannot be pushed too hard.
Yesterday, his performance had already been quite unexpected. He had actually kissed her neck strictly in the way she requested — simply a “child who can be taught.”
If she slowly trained him completely, then how blissful a little woman she would be for the rest of her life!
That really gave her full motivation.
But that’s a matter for later — for now, she needed to hurry and finish making Song Shi’an’s cotton-padded clothes.
Earlier, she bought two bolts of fabric, planning to make two sets of winter clothes and one cotton quilt for him. In the end, she had only just managed to finish the first cotton-padded jacket; the pants hadn’t even been started yet.
If she kept delaying, and there was a sudden temperature drop one day, and Song Shi’an had no cotton pants to wear, he’d have no choice but to stay huddled under the blanket on the heated brick bed.
But before that, she had to take stock of her current property.
Yesterday, she went to the county town to custom-order a stove, buy medicine, and purchase coal flowers — all of which cost quite a bit of silver. But from clocking in and signing in, she also received a bunch of items.
Plus, Song Shi’an handed over the fifty taels of gold gifted by the county magistrate.
This left Jiang Chun unsure of her financial status — for someone with obsessive tendencies, this was absolutely unbearable.
She first tallied the expenditures.
Custom stove: paid a deposit of two taels; buying medicine for Song Shi’an: two taels; coal flowers: one tael and 350 wen.
Total: five taels and 350 wen.
Then came the income.
Yesterday’s luck was very good — several shops revealed valuable items, and even the money house produced an SSR — three taels of gold.
In the past, clocking in at the money house would usually give just a few dozen to five hundred wen in copper coins; even if silver appeared, it would only be a few qian. It had never reached a full tael.
But yesterday not only produced gold — it was three taels of it.
Converted to silver, that was a full thirty taels!
As for reward items, aside from those two wolf-hair lake brushes which Song Shi’an said were worth twenty or thirty taels, the pawnshop also gave a fox-fur cloak and a red-gold spittoon, which clearly were also very valuable.
However, these two items were too distinctive. If taken to the pawnshop, the sharp-eyed old shopkeeper might catch on to something.
So the red-gold spittoon could only be thrown into the system warehouse for now.
As for the fox-fur cloak, it could be modified — an extra layer of fine cotton cloth sewn on the outside, and it could be worn by Song Shi’an during severe cold.
The pair of shiny jadeite bracelets from the jewelry shop probably could fetch a few dozen taels of silver too.
But the water content of each piece of jade differs. Anyone who knows the goods can spot the differences at a glance, so if she didn’t want trouble, she could only toss them into the system warehouse for the time being.
The two bolts of silk from the fabric shop and the six taels of black pepper from the pharmacy, on the other hand, could be sold freely.
The two bolts of silk were of average quality — each worth about one tael. If the pair could sell for three taels total, it would already be considered extremely lucky.
The pepper was much more valuable. In Hongye County, one jin of pepper could sell for over thirty taels of silver. Six liang of pepper could easily sell for sixteen or seventeen taels.
She could already exchange it for a mule cart.
As for the leftover white cotton paper, silk thread, velvet flowers, silver ear fungus, huangqi (黄芪, astragalus root), and xiyangshen (西洋参, American ginseng) — they were either not worth much, or she planned to keep them for home use. None of them would be sold.
She casually added things up — the three taels of gold from the money house, plus the items that could be sold for silver, totaled about seventy taels of silver.
Subtracting the five taels and a bit spent, the remaining balance was around sixty-three taels.
It was practically a harvest-filled day.
And that’s not even counting the fifty taels of gold Song Shi’an gave her. If that were included, plus the five hundred tael silver note from the Liu family earlier, and the original thirty-something taels from the Jiang family — she actually had a huge sum of over one thousand taels of silver in her hands!
She didn’t realize it before — but now that she did the math, it gave her a big scare.
She was rich now!
Song Shi’an looked up from the kang table and glanced toward Jiang Chun, the corner of his mouth couldn’t help but twitch.
He had originally thought she would resort to every possible means to interrogate him, until he couldn’t resist and confessed — then she would hold onto that leverage to make even more demands.
But he didn’t expect her to give up halfway, leaving him enough face.
This couldn’t help but make him see her in a new light.
He secretly let out a breath of relief, returned the heart that had been hanging to his belly, then took out a piece of pine soot ink gifted by Lu Zhengheng, and seriously began grinding it on the duan yan (端砚, a type of premium inkstone) — also a gift from him.
As he ground and ground, he suddenly heard Jiang Chun let out a “hehehe” silly laugh from her mouth — her mouth almost grinning all the way to her cheeks.
She looked just like someone who picked up money on the road.
He couldn’t hold back his curiosity and asked, “What are you giggling about?”
Jiang Chun didn’t hide it from him, and told him the truth: “I was just doing the accounts, and found out that our family actually has over a thousand taels of silver in savings.”
Saying this, she restrained her smile and looked at Song Shi’an seriously, saying, “This money was either earned directly by husband, or earned thanks to husband’s blessings. If husband wants to use it to search for news about his relatives, I support you one hundred percent.”
Song Shi’an fixed his eyes on her.
How much Jiang Chun loved money — as someone who spent every day with her, he couldn’t know better.
She was just like a hamster — the moment she earned money, she’d stash it into the kang tunnel.
On days when she earned just three or five more wen, she’d be happy like anything.
But when it came to spending money on him, she was never stingy. Anything good for his body — she’d throw out handfuls of silver without a second thought.
Now she finally got two big sums of money — one of which was even earned at the risk of being kidnapped and losing her innocence.
She didn’t keep it for herself as a safety net — instead, she took the initiative to offer it for him to use in finding his relatives.
Saying she had poured her heart out to him would be an understatement.
It could be called picking her bones and sucking the marrow.
His pair of phoenix eyes blinked once, then blinked again — and for some reason, he actually felt his eyes turning a little sore, and his eye rims gradually turned red.
Jiang Chun was startled.
Wait — what? Why did his eye rims suddenly turn red? And why was there shimmering moisture in his eyes? Could it be… he was touched to tears by what she just said?
She originally wanted to say a few words of comfort, but when the words reached her mouth, she still held back.
He was such a proud and aloof person — for him to have such a vulnerable moment was already rare. If she exposed it, he surely wouldn’t be able to maintain face.
Might as well pretend not to have seen it. She walked over to the wall by herself, opened the cabinet, and took out that bolt of indigo fine cotton fabric.
She compared it to the measurements she had noted down earlier, used a chalk block to mark the lines, then picked up the scissors and began cutting bit by bit.
She spoke to “lighten the mood”: “But my money isn’t so easy to spend. If you spend my money, then if I tell you to kiss me, you have to kiss me. If I tell you to kiss me somewhere, you have to kiss me there. You can’t make excuses to refuse, got it.”
Song Shi’an turned to the side, used his sleeve to wipe the corner of his eye, then turned around and gave a snort of laughter: “You’re dreaming. I don’t dare to use your silver that comes with such an expensive price.”
If he wanted to search for his relatives, he could just paint another picture and sell it to Lu Zhengheng. There was no need to touch her savings.
Though his other family members were not in good conditions, none of them were in mortal danger. The only one in urgent need of rescue was a female cousin who had been sold into a brothel.
But that matter wasn’t pressing.
Mainly because — even if it were — it wouldn’t help.
Given that the Song family currently held the status of guan-nu (官奴, government-registered slave), if he entrusted the task of redeeming someone to an escort agency [镖局 (biao ju) — a traditional Chinese security escort company], chances were no escort agency would dare to take it.
Even if one dared to risk it, he worried that something might go wrong during the process. Not only might he fail to redeem the person, he might even cause his cousin to end up in a worse situation.
He could only wait until his health was fully recovered, and then personally make a trip to Shaoxing Prefecture.
Jiang Chun’s gaze lifted from the fabric and slanted a look at him, surprised.
Song Shi’an placed great importance on family affection. In the original novel, because his body wasn’t well cared for, he left behind chronic illnesses. With even the slightest breeze, he would fall sick. He could barely survive himself, and though he wanted to find out the whereabouts of his relatives, he was powerless.
Now, his health was gradually improving, and she was even willing to offer money to support his search for family. By reason, he should be deeply touched and accept at once.
But while he was indeed moved, he outright refused her offer.
Could it be that he’d rather give up on finding his family than be willing to kiss her?
Then what about the strawberry mark on her neck?
Something was fishy!
After furrowing her brow and thinking for a while, she suddenly came to a realization and said: “You plan to paint another picture and sell it to the county magistrate?”
Song Shi’an didn’t say a word.
In Jiang Chun’s eyes, that was clearly default admission.
She ground her teeth and pretended to be angry: “Hmph, aren’t you capable — of course you wouldn’t look at my measly bit of silver. It was all me being sentimental, made a fool of myself in front of you!”
Even used the formal “nin” (您), obviously furious and embarrassed.
Song Shi’an didn’t want her to misunderstand. He originally intended to explain a few words for himself, but she was clearly in a fit of anger now — most likely wouldn’t listen even if he did.
He sighed, put down the ink stick, wiped his fingers clean with a cloth towel, then got up from the kang and walked toward the end of the bed.
Jiang Chun put down her scissors, assumed a wary posture, and huffed: “What are you doing? Fine, don’t use my money then. I didn’t press your head down and force you to use it. Don’t tell me you even want to hit me to vent your anger?”
Song Shi’an: “……”
The corner of his mouth couldn’t help but twitch.
Beat her up to vent his anger?
Let alone the fact that he had never had such a thought — even taking ten thousand steps back, even if he did have that thought, he’d have to be able to beat her first.
He wasn’t stupid — why would he do something as foolish as smashing an egg against a rock? [以卵击石 (yi luan ji shi) — “to smash an egg against a rock,” meaning a hopeless or self-destructive action.]
He walked in front of her, knelt on one knee on the kang, then one hand wrapped around her slender waist, the other hand cupped the back of her head.
He bent down and lowered his head, lips parting — suddenly took her red lips into his mouth.
Jiang Chun’s pair of apricot eyes suddenly widened, like a startled little deer, her pupils filled with complete shock.
He was being this proactive?
Song Shi’an had a photographic memory, and his learning ability was top-notch. With Jiang Chun’s lips in his mouth, he both sucked and licked, playing with them thoroughly.
And didn’t forget to lightly nibble with his teeth from time to time.
He had fully mastered the techniques Jiang Chun used earlier — a ten out of ten.
Jiang Chun was kissed until her small face flushed red, her brain was spinning, and for quite a while she couldn’t come back to her senses.
His complexion was fair, phoenix eyes half-narrowed, long eyebrows into the temples — he looked at her with focused gentleness, such a stunningly beautiful person was kissing her. Who wouldn’t be dazed?
She stayed dizzy for quite some time before finally regaining consciousness.
Then she fiercely despised herself — thought she had really embarrassed the reputation of a transmigrated woman. Even if she had never eaten pork, she had at least seen no less than hundreds or thousands of pigs running around. How could she act so inexperienced?
She must take the initiative and turn from guest to host! [反客为主 (fan ke wei zhu) — to turn from passive to active]
So she reached out to wrap her arms around Song Shi’an’s neck, stuck out her tongue, and while he was unprepared, directly broke past his teeth and slipped into his mouth.
Then found his tongue — and tangled with it.
Song Shi’an’s half-narrowed phoenix eyes suddenly widened, his whole person froze on the spot.
She — her tongue went into his mouth?
And — was chasing and blocking his tongue from all directions…
Song Shi’an felt a numbness down his spine, his limbs went a bit weak — he nearly couldn’t hold onto her.
But it didn’t stop there. After Jiang Chun’s tongue caught his, her lips directly clamped down on his tongue, sucking and licking it.
Song Shi’an’s breath hitched, his brain turned into a pile of mush, his legs gave out, and he directly dropped to both knees on the kang — solidly giving Jiang Chun a full ceremonial bow.