The luxurious carriage drove slowly on the street.
"Lord, why did you give the village woman eight hundred taels? Though the sculpture piece is good, didn't we decide the price beforehand? For your identity, the village woman wouldn't dare to turn you down."
Xin Yiming, eyes closing, appeared taking a nap, but Gao Lang knew he wasn't, "It's all lord Su's fault. Otherwise, we don't have to pay more. He seemed like a wing man…"
"Don't talk nonsense. Is it possible that lord Su should cheat us for merely three hundred taels? Are you stupid or something?"
Xin Yiming opened his eyes, expression complex, "Besides, don't underestimate the village woman. She's not simple! Gao Lang. The eight hundred taels were not for her, but for the master behand her."
"The master? Oh! I see."
"Hurry find someone to investigate the origin of Mrs. Ning. Our Yipinxuan in the capital is being far outperformed by the Jingpinlou of Ning family. Now we are in urgent need of the support of that kind of master."
"Excellent idea! I'm getting down to it right away."
*
When she got back to Wang village, it was already dusk. Sister Fang and sister Guihua were busy in the kitchen.
The drama played yesterday was over, but motivated by interest, there must be more people who had vicious thought. She needed to find a way to get them to her side.
Ning Shaoqing came back from school and found plaids of tofu all over the yard. Instantly, he understood and teased with a smile, "Are you planning to send tofu to every household one by one across the village?"
Mo Qianxue at once got dissatisfied about his teasing, "Yes! I'm not like you that act like nothing happened after producing hostility with others. I'll send some tofu personally to he village head, elders and those who visited you when you were ill. I'll give them more. Sister Fang and Guihua will handle the rest. Let's do our parts first, then gradually get them to our side."
Ning Shaoqing didn't care about the slight sarcasm in her words. Whether those people died or pissed off was none of his business.
Instead, he found her tone amusing and cut, so he raised eyebrows, laughing, "How to get them to our side?" His wife regarded here as a battlefield.
Seeing him laughing, Mo Qianxue realized that her words went a little far and also burst into laughter.
After laughing, she summoned the cheeks, "Let's first throw out a large sum of meat; it would definitely cause conflicts among them. Then, to those willing to befriend with us, we give them meat; to those who make enemies with us, we give them bullets."
"Bullets? What are those?"
"You don't know?"
Seeing her calming expression, he knew that bullets could not be a good thing. Then, he was convinced that those who treated her bad deserved to eat bullets. The thought of the fact that someone might bully her made Ning Shaoqing's face cooled down too.
"What? You think I'm a bad woman?" At the sight of Ning Shaoqing's gloomy expression, Mo Qianxue was a bit annoyed and restless.
Ning Sahoqing stared into her clear and sparkling eyes on the flushed cheeks and the pair of involuntarily clenching hands, aware that this woman seemed tough but in fact fragile and anxious.
He suddenly wanted to take her into his arms and protect her from all wind and rain. However, he knew from inside and out that Mo Qianxue was not one of the kind of women that tended to hide behind someone else and cry and only sought for comfort from others.
She wouldn't be satisfied to be restricted within one yard of household doing domestic chores every day. Neither was she a woman who regarded her husband as almighty heaven.
Just because of his thorough analysis, Ning Shaoqing was able to give her a smile and say sincerely, "No way! Meat or bullets. Give them whatever you wish."
Mo Qianxue secretly breathes a long sigh of relief, curving her lips. She didn't feel herself doing a wrong thing to defend for her legitimate rights.
However, she still worried that this nominal husband might regard her as a vicious and evil woman.
Fortunately, he didn't let her down.
In Tianqi Dynasty, in the eyes of men, a good woman should be weak, gentle, fragile and kind. And when faced with difficulties, she should hide behind her husband's back and shed tears.
She, however, could not become a woman like that.
She preferred to depend on herself and change everything with her own hands.
Ning Shaoqing discovered that her face turned cold for one moment and then lost for next. He patted her forehead, smiling, "Little fool! What are you thinking? Usually you're wise, but now you seem very foolish."
"Why pat me and call me stupid? Are you clever?" Mo Qianxue stoked her forehead, pretending to be angry.
Ning Shaoqing took back his hand, his eyes full of love and lips smiling.
"This village is called Wang village, so of course people listen to those whose surname is Wang. Though there are also many people living here whose family name is not Wang and many outsiders also became village elders, after all, Wangs have the final say."
Her cute look in a daze amused him again, and as he spoke, he could not help poking her forehead with fingers again, inspiring her, "You girl! You should spend more time in finding a way to hire more Wangs into your camp and work for you. That's the simplest way. You'd better also let them take the initiative to join your camp…"
Mo Qianxue was poked in the forehead, but she wasn't annoyed at all. Her eyes sparkled, continuing his analysis, "Once the Wangs get a share of the cake, they will naturally defend for us. Even afterwards other people have opinions, they cannot make big troubles. What an excellent idea!"
Ning Shaoqing nodded and smiled, "Well, you're not too stupid…"
Mo Qianxue was a quick doer, sticking out her tongue to him, and left him with one sentence, "I'm making baits to wait for fish now." Then turned to the kitchen right away.
Ning Shaoqing shook his head, laughed and went to the inner room.
*
When sister Fang arrived at elder Wangsan's house, they just finished dinner. Seeing sister Fang was here, aunt Wangsan hurriedly let her take a seat. Their new daughter-in-law Chunyan was a nice woman and also hurriedly to make tea for her.
Elder Wangsan was known in the village as a good-good man. He was the younger brother of elder Wanger, brought up by the latter, so the two were more like father and son than brothers. But he never took advantage of elder Wanger's power, always acting in a modest way.
He had two sons and two daughters. Now the two daughters were married and moved out. The elder son was exactly Wang Tiansong who had helped Mo Qianxue invite the village head that day when the incident happened. He just got married. The younger son Wang Xiaolei just turned eighteen, so they still lived together.
Sister Fang took over the tea and handed them tofu, then started to chat with aunt Wangsan, "Mrs. Ning asked me to give you some tofu. Your daughter-in-law is really a nice and clever person."
Aunt replied proudly with a few modest words. Her gaze at the new daughter-in-law was teemed with smile. Chunyan didn't join their conversation out of courtesy and just shily collected the bowls and chopsticks on the table and took to the kitchen.