[Edited: 1/14/23]
“So what about…? Oh..”
When Gong Zhuoliang looked at the handkerchief again, he finally understood what was wrong with it. The atmosphere became awkward for a while.
Originally, he planned to throw the handkerchief away after using it, but when he finally knew what the thing was originally used for, he couldn’t do it anymore. He really had screwed up here.
“How could you have been so stupid?!”
Feeling so ashamed and angry, Qiao Yingze instantly snatched the handkerchief away then stuffed it inside the quilt, before he wrapped himself with the quilt, faced his back to Gong Zhuoliang, and sulked.
“I’m very sorry, Yingze. I really didn’t mean to do it…. Husband? Husband, please don’t be mad at me”
Gong Zhuoliang is afraid to anger the little beauty further so he made use of his cute little appearance and started acting coquettish, leaning and hugging Qiao Yingze at the back. As for why he called him ‘Husband’, because it shares the same meaning of ‘Wife’. ***
“Get off from me… Don’t make trouble anymore. It’s already late, so let’s go to bed now”
Qiao Yingze tried to get Gong Zhuoliang off from him for a long time yet to no avail. He was desperately clinging to his body and couldn’t be pulled off. Left with no strength to struggle, he could only helplessly smile towards Gong Zhuoliang’s shameless act of coquetry, and his anger just now slowly depleted.
“You’re really not mad at me anymore? Then let’s go to sleep”
Gong Zhuoliang instantly stopped his actions before he goes too far, and helped Qiao Yingze take off his outer red nightdress and did the same thing to himself as well. After that, he got off the bed, put down the curtains, then laid down under the quilt, beside Qiao Yingze.
After having spent the entire day moving around, Gong Zhuoliang was totally exhausted; mentally and physically, though this should be quite reasonable, considering how he’s in the body of a child.
Once his whole body slackenedー due to fatigue, his eyelids quickly shut together.
“… Umm…. Since you’re not Gong Zhuoyan, can you tell me your name?”
Suddenly, Qiao Yingze asked a question after a moment of silence, and his back was still facing Gong Zhuoliang.
“..Gong Zhuoliang… The ‘Liang’ from 'Good and Honest'…”
While his eyes were closed, Gong Zhuoliang responded in a low voice, then he turned over to Qiao Yingze, shifting to a comfortable position.
After an another moment of silence passed, Qiao Yingze slowly turned over to face Gong Zhuoliang and lowered his eyes then asked another question.
“You didn’t like being called ‘wife’, so how about Zhuo Zhuo?”
‘Yan’ is not his name. He can’t call him ‘Liang’ either. So he’s only left with ‘Zhuo’.
“Ah?….Mmm…”
Gong Zhuoliang was already on the verge of falling asleep when he heard Qiao Yingze’s question. He forced his eyes to open up again, and was satisfied with the nickname Qiao Yingze had came up for him so he embraced him with half of his body laying on top of him, as though he is hugging a pillow, them finally slept peacefully
“…”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Gong Zhuoliang was pressed so close to Qiao Yingze so he did not dare move. After a while of being in a frozen stiff state, he noticed that Gong Zhuoliang had really fallen asleep already and so he slowly relaxed his body.
Lf rajgfv ja atf mtliv’r fzdelrlaf ilaaif ojmf obg j wbwfca, atfc rfmgfais rabif j xlrr klat j yiert, jcv tf ribkis ofii jriffq jr kfii….
…..
Ktf cfza vjs, Hljb Tlcuhf kjr revvfcis kbxfc eq fjgis lc atf wbgclcu ys j xcbmx bc atf vbbg. Qtfc tf kbxf eq, tf ofia j tfjns kfluta bc abq bo tlr ybvs jcv qjclmxfv obg j ktlif, ecali tf ibbxfv vbkc bc tlr ybvs jcv rjk Xbcu Itebiljcu riffqlcu rbecvis bc abq bo tlw, ktbrf tjcvr gfjmtlcu yfcfjat tlr bkc mibatfr jcv abemtlcu tlr mtfra…..
“Zhuo Zhuo….. Time to wake up …”
Qiao Yingze grabbed the naughty little hand off his clothes, softly pats Gong Zhuoliang’s shoulder, then he saw the red marks on half of his face ーprobably due to his sleeping postureー which made him chuckle.
“… Ngh… It’s way too early, ahh…”
Gong Zhuoliang moaned with displeasure, and rubbed his eyes as he sat up in daze, his little face scrunching with resentment.
“Come on, you have to get up. Today, we must make a visit to the elders and serve them tea. If we have free time in the afternoon, we’ll go back to sleep again.”
Qiao Yingze smiled and pinched the red mark on Gong Zhuoliang’s face. When he was finally completely awake, as soon as he sat up, he suddenly felt something strange from his lower body. Then recalling about the handkerchief buried under him from last night, he blushed and snatched it out, crumpling it into a ball, but then he didn’t know what to do with it.
“Uh, this…. I-I’ll look for an opportunity to wash it later on”
When Gong Zhuoliang saw this, he immediately snatched the handkerchief from the other and shoved it inside an exquisite casket from the cabinet.
The casket was brought by his husband’s family that contains patches of four seasonal flower ornaments. It had a key that Qiao Yingze had given to him last night, and so he was not afraid of others discovering what’s inside of the casket.
“..Oh…”
Qiao Yingze gave a perfunctory reply in a low voice, then hurriedly pulled the red rope that was tied along with the bell hanging from the head of their bed to cover up his embarrassment.
Gong Zhuoliang hurriedly locked the cabinet, sat back by the bed again, and waited for the maidservants to come attend them.
Right at this moment, they decided to forget about the incident with the handkerchief for now.
The door was slowly pushed open, following a lovely young girl wearing a sweet smile stepping in first, and four girls walking both on her sides. There was Ruo Lan and Ruo Zi on the left, and another two young girls on the right who seemed to be around 11 to 12 years old. Each of the girls were carrying a basin, clothes, towels, and other things.
On the faces of these three unnamed girls were unconcealed happiness. Ruo Lan and Ruo Zi also seemed to be smiling as well, but they looked more different than the rest.
Ruo Lan was looking at Gong Zhuoliang with concern, while Ruo Zi’s attention was only directed towards the luxurious furniture inside the room with an obvious fascination….
Although the Gong Family should be considered as one of the wealthy households as well, they did not come from any special background. They forbid the fine stuff to be employed, but when they finally entered the Qiao Household, now they could truly understand what being rich meant.
“Congratulations to the young master and to the young madam. I, your servant, Han Shu, shall bow to the Young Madam”
Han Shu ーone of the eldest maidservant among the three girlsー walked beside Gong Zhuoliang, and knelt down in front of him as soon as she finished congratulating them. This indicates that Gong Zhuoliang had now been officially recognized by her as her new master.
“You should get up now”
Gong Zhuoliang, who’s sitting by the bedside, accepted her courtesy, grabbed a red envelope and a small pouch that he prepared recently and filled to the brim with six silver beads, then handed it over to the girl.
In this era, gold and silver were very valuable for the people here. But that did not count to an influential family like the Qiao Family. In addition, the amount of salary they give to maid servants was around half a top-grade of silver.
“I, your slave, Qinghua and Yuhua, shall bow to the Young Madam”
Following Han Shu, were the two younger maidservants who also knelt down and kowtowed to Gong Zhuoliang. He then also grabbed two small pouches containing three silver beads, and then gave it to the girls. One bashfully accepted it, while the other cheerfully accepted it.
“I, your slave, Ruo Lan and Ruo Zi, shall bow to the Young Master-in-law”
As soon as the husband’s maidservants finished kowtowing, it was now the turn of the wife’s dowry maids. Ruo Lan hung her brows and knelt down with a smile, while Ruo Zi ーwho’s secretly glancing at the graceful Qiao Yingzeー leisurely and shyly knelt down .
“….”
Gong Zhuoliang resisted his urge to roll his eyesー This mere servant really couldn’t stop disgracing her own young master! Is she that afraid nobody would notice her hunger towards his new Master?
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Han Shu and the two little maids keenly observing Ruo Zi’s actions, which gave Gong Zhuoliang even more motivation to get rid of this girl.
The conduct of the dowry maids emblematizes the demeanor of the daughter-in-law. If the dowry maids had shown well-behaved and frank manners, the public would naturally expect that the daughter-in-law is a capable and independent person. If the maids were charming and more outstanding, then it obviously meant that the daughter-in-law is completely the opposite, and she only had to rely on the maid to earn the favor instead.
However, if the maid was a filthy temptress, then that only means her own family background should be filthy as well, which will end up for the daughter-in-law to become a victim of disparagement by the public.
Gong Zhuoliang couldn’t understand the aesthetics and IQ of that vixen Madam Gong, but this Ruo Zi is really annoying him. But even if he really couldn’t stand keeping up with these vicious people around him, this girl is his dowry, and for the sake of maintaining his prestige, he couldn’t harm her at all, which would only end up slapping his own face instead.
He really needed to find a way to deal with her soon.
“You can stand up now. Han Shu has been the one attending to me all over these years, so if you wanted to ask something about our courtyard, simply heed to her arrangements. As for your monthly allowance, let us start with a second-rate salary for the time being”
Qiao Yingze frowned imperceptibly and observed Ruo Lan and Ruo Zi.
Instead of grabbing the two small pouches that were handed over by Han Shu, he gestured her to hand them over herself, hinting to these two girls her status as the superior among all of them.
When he learned about Gong Zhuoliang’s identity, naturally, Qiao Yingze would not have any favorable impressions towards these two dowry maids from the Gong Family. He feared that Gong Zhuoliang may not be able to control them, so he decided to promote Han Shu’s status so she would be the one to punish them if something happened in the future.
“This servant understood”
Ruo Lan and Ruo Zi looked at each other in astonishment for a while before they heeded to the Master’s command and turned to Han Shu to salute her as their elder sister, with a strained smile.
Ruo Lan was feeling anxious for Gong Zhuoliang and feared that he might offend Qiao Yingze in the future, and so she felt very oppressed just now. As for Ruo Zi, she was now aware of her actions, and so her face slightly scrunched with both dissatisfaction and apprehension. But afterwards, her demeanor became more well-behaved this time.
“Zhuo Zhuo, let us hurry up too. Grandmother must be really looking forward to meet her granddaughter-in-law soon”
As soon as Qiao Yingze finished speaking to Ruo Lan and Ruo Zi with a stern face, his line of sight made its way to Gong Zhuoliang, and then his expression immediately softened, also giving him a destructing gentle smile; as though the stern image just now was just an illusion. While he spoke, he even embraced Gong Zhuoliang’s waist intimately as they washed and dressed together.
“Mn…..”
Understanding that Qiao Yingze made those actions in order to protect himself, Gong Zhuoliang praised him in his heart, then he started assisting his acting by pretending to be docile and bashful, which greatly added contrast to Qiao Yingze’s image as the courtyard’s Master.
When the three maid servants of the Qiao Family saw this scene, they instantly regarded their young master’s actions as a suppression for Ruo Lan and Ruo Zi, and also to let them become aware about their own position. In contrast to their new Madam, they’re just maidservants. This simply meant that they have been rejected to work as dowry maids inside this house.
Qiao Yingze’s maid servants always knew about their Young Master’s temperament. He is not a hypocrite who never keeps his word at all. Right at this time, he should’ve already etched these two new maids in his mind, and his attitude towards Ruo Zi became even more cold.
Ruo Lan and Ruo Zi are also smart. When Ruo Lan recalled Qiao Yingze’s act of assertion just now, although she didn’t know what just happened last night, still, she felt a lot more eased.
However, on the other hand, Ruo Zi was still in great disbelief. This man couldn’t be swooned over beauty? He actually never showed any hints of lusting over her and cheating on his wife? No! His acts should’ve been superficial!
The four maidservants started serving each of their own Masters, leaving Han Shu, who was in charge of taking care of the beddings when suddenly, she saw a handkerchief after lifting the bed sheets. This was the handkerchief that she nervously placed inside the bed sheets last night, but then when she saw the red stains on it, Han Shu let out a soft cry of surprise.
She hurriedly grabbed the tray beside her, untied the red silk around it, then placed the handkerchief inside the tray and not forgetting to fix it in a flat position, before covering it back with a red silk and hurriedly carrying it up again.
When she walked towards Qiao Yingze and Gong Zhuoliang, she cheerfully congratulated them once again and then happily trotted out of the room.
“Han Shu!”
While Qiao Yingze and Gong Zhuoliang were still in the middle of washing up, they suddenly saw Han Shu bringing a tray. Seeing what’s inside the tray, Qiao Yingze’s expression changed and he immediately wanted to stop the little maid from leaving, but the girl ran off so fast that he didn’t have time to stop her. In the end, he could only stand there with a red face, and his mind had already churned until it turned into a mush.
Meanwhile, the calm Gong Zhuoliang, who was standing not far from him, only pretended to be shy by turning his head to the side and covering his face in a shy manner, but he’s actually feigning to suppress a smile.
As the ‘newly-wed wife’, he must express a ‘very shy’ reaction when he is faced with this situation! Ah, he’s so shy!
When Qing Hua and Yu Hua saw Qiao Yingze’s reaction, they thought that he was just so shy and so they immediately congratulated him with a kind smile; but they didn’t know that their family’s Young Master had been vomiting blood in his heart.
Ruo Lan and Ruo Zi were also somewhat bewildered, however, when they saw Gong Zhuoliang’s casual expression, they only both sighed and proceeded to smile with the others.
Meanwhile, Han Shu, who was carrying the tray with her, had already arrived at the courtyard where the Old Madam Qiao lived.
There was an old lady in her festive gown, standing and waiting inside the hall for a long time. But when she saw Han Shu being welcome by the old maids outside and was happily trotting to her with evident joy in her face, with a cane in her hand, she wobbly stood up from her chair by the assistance of her maidservants, and came to meet the maidservant herself who’s walking to her.
When the old lady removed the red silk that was covering the tray and saw what’s inside the tray, she felt such great relief.
“Ohh, Bless the Heavens! Finally, there is hope for my good grandson!…. There is hope for my Yingze!”
The wrinkles on the old woman’s face moved along with her smile. After old Madam Qiao finished conjoining her palms together and saluting to the heavens, she generously rewarded Han Shu and every maidservants around the room with luck money, then listened to everyone’s praises and thanks as the old lady sat back down on her chair once again, extremely contented that her smile never left her face even once.
Whenever she remembered the danger Qiao Yingze just faced some time ago, Old Madam Qiao still experienced fear in her heart. She decided to arrange a good-luck marriage for him so as to stray him away from danger. Otherwise, if she leaves things as it is and allow her son and his wife to proceed making actions as they wished, her beloved grandson may not be able to make it today.
Fortunately, what she feared the most had been finally avoided today, and not only her little Yingze survived, but he also became a real man himself! How could she not be delighted, ne?
“Faster! Bring Yingze and my granddaughter-in-law here! Also, bring out the best purse that Zhu Qi had embroidered, as well as my casket filled with top-grade jewelries from my cabinet! I must bless my grandson’s wife with luck!”
The more she pondered over it, the more she felt like her decisions were very brilliant!
Old Madam Qiao was smiling as she held the purse that her maid servants had rebundled together with the other gifts, looking at the exquisite design of the two Mandarin ducks on it, and in her heart, she complimentedー What a beautiful purse, ah! Over the next few years, she will be seeing her great grandson next, hahaha!
“The eldest Young Master and the Young Madam has now arrived to serve tea”
From outside the door came the voice of an old maid. Old Madam Qiao arched a genuine smile once again, and then when she ordered for them to come in, she saw a pair of a young couple walking in slowly while one of them carried a small Bì, together with a number of maidservants surrounding them.
Translator’s Notes
I had a bad flu last Saturday. When I was worrying whether to post an announcement or just force myself to translate despite my flu, the next day I was better again. During that day, I immediately grabbed my phone and started this chapter. Fortunately my flu never came back again XD (and hopefully I won’t jinx lol)
Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! (♡ω♡ ) ~♪
One of my favorite parts to translate was Ruo Zi’s haha! I love minor antagonists who does stupid things~ (〃ﾟ3ﾟ〃)
Next chapter will be our little newlywed couple and old Madam Qiao~
Hopefully you’ll look forward to it (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤
I’ve always preferred stories where MC is the Gong.. But here I’m kinda hoping for Gong Zhuoliang to be the Shou .. lol
Hope you’re doing well now ~
This is literally what I’ve been feeling the whole time! 😂😂
I adore stories where the Shou was referred to as the ‘Wife’, and GZL was totally in that position right now that I can’t help but wish he’s the Shou (｡・////・｡)
How ironic since the reason why I chose this story is because I thought the MC was the gong XD
And yes! I’m pretty much doing well now~ᕙ (° ~ ° ~)
Ikr !!! Let’s see what happens in the future..
Stay well ^.^
thank you for the chapter.
(and i like stupid cannonfodders as well.)
It’s satisfying to see them faceslap themselves 😂😂😂
Thanks for the chapter!
No problemo! ~ Hope you enjoyed~ ♡(ӦｖӦ｡)
thank you for the chapter <3
we can always wait for chapters! please focus on taking care of yourself when you’re sick <33
I will certainly do that next time! But hopefully I won’t get sick again… It sucks not being able to do anything other than sleep all day (･ัω･ั)
Thanks for the update ❤️🤣 Take care and get better!
Thank you very much~ (*＾3＾)/～♡
And I’m glad you enjoyed ( ◜‿◝ )♡
That fool RZ need to know her place soon! (눈‸눈) And poor QYZ 🤣🤣 I would die from shame haha~
Thank You for the new chapter (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤
I forgot to write that I hope You will be better soon, take care and best wishes! ❤
RZ attempting to seduce QYZ is the funniest thing ever, because I know she’ll fail 😂😂
And yes! And it’s even more embarassing when all they thought you banged, yet instead, you were the one who get banged 😂
Thank you for your care! And I’m glad you enjoyed the chapter~ ꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡