Chapter 182.1
Chapter 182.1
When Jin Wang came back from the palace, Yaoniang was sitting cross-legged on the Kang, reading the account books.
Noticing Jin Wang walking in, she didn’t even turn her eyes to look at him.
Hong Chou and the others came in to help Jin Wang wash up and change his clothes. Afterwards, Jin Wang sat down opposite Yaoniang. Hong Fei brought some tea over before retreating with the other maids.
From the beginning to the end, Yaoniang didn’t say a single word.
She was angry. She had been angry ever since she came back from the palace that day. However, she didn’t do anything drastic, she just ignored Jin Wang. Her two sons followed her in ignoring him too. She didn’t rope in the maids though, plus those maids wouldn’t dare.
Yaoniang was angry that Jin Wang had known about what would happen in advance, yet he didn’t give her any kind of warning. She was very happy to be able to come back safely from Kunning Palace that day, and after she came back, she pondered over what had happened. She realized that he had known what would happen, but he would rather play the oriole stalking behind the mantis.
Although she rationally told herself that Jin Wang did the right thing, she still couldn’t accept it emotionally. Jin Wang had also explained to her that although he knew the people behind the scenes would make a move, he didn’t know when they would make a move. What he was sure of was that he would be able to keep her safe no matter what happened. When the situation finally happened, the outcome was actually not bad. Although there were some losses, the losses were negligible.
There were thousands of reasons to justify his actions, but this time, Yaoniang was no longer willing to play the kind and considerate person.
While Jin Wang drank his tea, Yaoniang stared at the account book without shifting her gaze.
“Doctor Liu sent a letter, saying that Madam Sun’s illness has been completely treated, so she can return to the capital in a few days.”
Now, Yaoniang could no longer pretend to be cold. She hurriedly put down the account book and asked, “Really? When will they be back?” “
“Tomorrow.”
“That’s great! These days, Yueyue has been asking me when her mother will come back, and I have been running out of excuses to hide it from her…” Only then did Yaoniang realize that she had responded to Jin Wang. For her to stop suddenly and return to her previous silence would be too much of a challenge for her thin skin. She could only return to holding the account book and pretend to read it.
Jin Wang stretched out his hand across the Kang and pinched her. “Still angry?”
To be honest, Yaoniang hadn’t been angry for a while already. However, she felt lazy and she didn’t want to do work, so she pretended to be still angry.
“I’m not angry.”
The problem was that even though Yaoniang was telling the truth, Jin Wang didn’t believe her. Although he didn’t say anything, his eyes accused her of lying.
“Next time if something like this were to happen again, I will definitely tell you in advance.”
Yaoniang waved her hand, but there was no way she could shake away Jin Wang’s tight grip. His hand was warm and dry. His large hand wrapped around her tightly.
She blushed and made a sound, wanting him to let go of his hand, but he refused to let go. Instead, he started playing with her hand.
“Where’s Huahua?” Jin Wang was very busy these days, so he forgot about Huahua. Now that he thought about it, he realized that he hasn’t seen the stupid cat lingering around him for a while lately.
“Huahua?” Yaoniang choked on her saliva, “Why did you bring it up?”
Seeing Jin Wang’s questioning gaze, she continued, “I heard people say that two wild cats from who knows where came to our manor. Huahua always likes to sneak out to play with these wild cats. An Shi asked me if I wanted to do anything about it. I thought that since wild cats don’t hurt people, I arranged for someone to periodically prepare food for them at the woodshed in the northern corner of the manor. Now the two wild cats just stay here and aren’t willing to leave. Every day, Huahua will go out to play with them and I often don’t even see its shadow for days.”
“Maybe it’s in heat.”
Yaoniang looked over in surprise, as if surprised that she would hear such words from Jin Wang’s mouth. Jin Wang felt a little uncomfortable and coughed softly, “Both wild animals and domesticated animals have estrus. Huahua is also no longer young.”
“So you mean to say that Huahua would always go to play with the wild cats because—” Yaoniang couldn’t continue, and her face turned even redder. Immediately she became anxious, “If you hadn’t mentioned this, I wouldn’t have thought of it. I used to have a neighbour who had a cat. It refused to stay quietly at home and would run outside every now and then. But that cat really was unusual. Once it left for over ten days. During this time, its family members would always go out to look for it. They thought it was lost, but that it would definitely come back after a few days. Eventually, the cat did return, but it returned with a big belly.
The more Yaoniang spoke, the more her head started to hurt. “Cats are very fertile and can give birth to four or five kittens in one litter, and conceive several times a year. Before the kittens that the cat gave birth to even grew up, it got pregnant again and gave birth to another dozen kittens that year. That family had a terrible headache over this and couldn’t even give them out. They even sent some kittens over to my house, asking if we wanted them. My mother refused, saying that the food in the house was barely enough for us to eat. How could there be any extra food to feed the cats? “
The two looked at each other, and couldn’t imagine Huahua giving birth to over a dozen kittens.
“Then I’ll ask Doctor Liu to make some contraception soup for him?” said Jin Wang hesitantly.
“Can he?” Doctor Liu was a doctor, not a vet.
“He can try. Otherwise, how will we know if we don’t try? “
Like so, by shifting the subject of the conversation to Huahua, the two of them managed to divert the topic away from whether Yaoniang was angry or not.
The next day, Qiao-shi returned to the capital. Before she even returned to Duke Zhenguo Manor, she came to Jin Wang Manor first.
Her complexion was much better than before, and her entire body seemed to have grown rounder. Only after listening to her talk did Yaoniang know that as she stayed in the countryside villa these days, eating and sleeping all day long, she naturally gained some weight.
Besides, Doctor Liu was highly skilled in medicine and took this as an opportunity to help her recuperate her body. Qiao-shi’s body was now much healthier than before.
Yaoniang was very happy for Qiao-shi, and Qiao-shi was also very grateful to Yaoniang. She had already seen Yueyue and noticed that her daughter was more outspoken than before. She had also gained some weight and seemed more sensible than before.
For the adults, this was good news and something worth celebrating, but for Xiaobao, it made him very sad. Indeed, even Yueyue could see that Xiaobao Gege was unhappy.
“Xiaobao Gege, what’s wrong with you?”