The badass hubby is online once again. (Part Two)
Translation Checker: jellypeaches
Editor: jellypeaches, Dobhsh
Another brand-new morning…
Meng Huan crawled out of bed and stood in the yard. He had stayed up late last night to finish his homework, so now his maids were brimming with excitement. “Royal Consort, Royal Consort, we can go play in the lotus pond now.”
A-Qing was also chirping, “Now that the days are getting hotter, the fish and shrimp in the pond have surely fattened up. We can wash and stew what we catch and make a delicious meal. Just imagining the smell is making me drool!”
Their happiness reached Meng Huan as he picked up his small net and ran out. “Then let’s go.”
Although there were no phones or computers in ancient times, the young nobles and ladies’ lives could compete with those of deities. Meng Huan ran all the way to the garden pond, past the mottled sunlight spilling through the treetops. Everything had this summer-like feel.
While laughing, he reached the pond, took off his shoes, lifted his robe, and stepped into the water, feeling immensely happy.
The other maids also joined in catching fish and shrimp, lifting out rocks in search of crabs. After catching them in their winnowing basket, they washed the mud off and put them in the shallow water near the shore to prevent the creatures from escaping or dying under the sun.
When the sun was near its peak, a voice suddenly called from behind, “Is the Royal Consort having a blast?”
Meng Huan turned around and saw Shan Xing, who was standing under the veranda with a smirk.
The man’s face immediately reminded Meng Huan of Lin Bozhou, which spoiled his mood slightly. He turned back and put his hands in the water.
These guest scholars sure were idle. They had no official status, no need to serve in the army, and they lived off of money from Lin Bozhou. Thus, they could spend their days in the compound at their leisure, occasionally composing poems or painting to amuse Lin Bozhou. They lived a very carefree life.
Shan Xing checked their catch and gasped, “Oh my! This fish sure is plump!”
“…”
The last time Meng Huan saw him was at the restaurant, when the others were planning to spike his drink and drug him like a pig.
Which was why Meng Huan felt somewhat guilty and was relatively friendly towards him. “There are plenty of fish. Why don’t you take some back to eat?”
Shan Xing nodded. “Many thanks, Royal Consort.”
“…”
I was just being polite, and you really took it seriously? Meng Huan ceased the conversation and went back to counting the shrimp, showing a bored expression.
Shan Xing asked, “Royal Consort, how was the trip out of the compound a couple days ago?”
Assuming he was making small talk, Meng Huan replied, “Not so good.”
“Indeed.” Shan Xing sighed. “If His Royal Highness hadn’t made it in time that day, it might have been—”
He let out another heavy sigh.
The guilt in Meng Huan increased. He agreed inside. Yes, if Lin Bozhou hadn’t come in time, you would have a wife by now.
Meng Huan continued to mess with the fish when he heard the other call him once more, “Royal Consort?”
Meng Huan said, “Yes?”
“Does the Royal Consort know who drugged the wine that day?”
An out-of-the-blue question like that made Meng Huan think he misheard. When he looked up, the sun was shining in his eyes, making his face appear paler by a shade.
“What did you say?”
Shan Xing scratched his head and said as if distressed, “These past few days, His Royal Highness has been investigating the person who drugged the Royal Consort, but with no luck so far.”
The person who… drugged the Royal Consort?
Meng Huan slowly repeated the sentence internally and asked to be certain, “Are you asking who drugged me?”
His subtext—Are you sure it’s not who drugged ‘you’?
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.
Vtjc Wlcu rtbkfv j qehhifv ibbx. “Jjc atf Ebsji Jbcrbga cba gfwfwyfg ja jii? Qtfc atf Ebsji Jbcrbga kjr ajxfc lcab atf mjggljuf ys Llr Ebsji Llutcfrr, atf vgeu abbx foofma bc atf kjs yjmx. Qf tjv ab ub jgbecv atf wjlc ragffa jcv ajxf atf rlvf gbjvr ab jnblv atf Ebsji Jbcrbga’r mbcvlalbc ogbw yflcu rffc ys bearlvfgr.”
The small fish in Meng Huan’s hands fell back into the water with a splash.
No… it couldn’t be…
How… was that… possible?
Shan Xing must be joking, right? At that time, there was only one cup of drugged wine, and he clearly poured it into the flower pot. How could he possibly be drugged?
Being in disagreement, he asked from the bottom of his heart, “What are you talking about?”
Shan Xing was silent.
His expression was very serious, with no hint of joking.
“His Royal Highness didn’t inform the Royal Consort?”
If it had been Lin Bozhou who told him, Meng Huan wouldn’t even have believed it, but the person he heard it from was Shan Xing, so he started to panic.
There was a feeling that something he had forgotten was slowly flooding into his mind, sending a numbing sensation down his back. He suddenly had the urge to tell Shan Xing to shut up because he didn’t want to hear it.
But Shan Xing was already opening his mouth to continue—
“At that time, not only was the Royal Consort drugged but also drunk. On the way back to the compound, the drug acted up, and everyone traveling together heard it. But His Royal Highness thought it would damage the Royal Consort’s reputation and told us not to make it public.”
“Left with no option but to relieve the Royal Consort of the drug, His Royal Highness carried the Royal Consort to the bedchamber.”
“His Royal Highness has been pondering over the people who could have drugged the Royal Consort for the last few days. Could it be the Young Lord and Young Master Lu? But they are the Royal Consort’s friends, so they wouldn’t do such a thing, right?”
“Who does the Royal Consort think is the culprit?”
“…”
Meng Huan’s mind went blank in the middle of Shan Xing’s words. He felt a chill rising from his back that made his head and feet ice cold.
It was just… too outrageous.
Both outrageous and strange.
He insisted, “That isn’t true; I wasn’t drugged.”
“But Royal Consort, it did happen…”
“I don’t believe it!” Meng Huan stood his ground with his teeth clenched. “As long as I don’t remember, I wasn’t drugged!”
“……”
Shan Xing had more to say, but he saw Meng Huan throw his fish basket aside and turn to leave, saying, “I am going back to my courtyard.”
By the time Shan Xing opened his mouth again, Meng Huan was already well on his way back. Even with only his departing back visible, his panic was obvious.
Thud, thud, thud—
Meng Huan’s heart was racing.
He had no impression of being drugged, but for some reason, his heart was pounding so fast, as if it were trying to jump out of his chest.
On the one hand, he doubted the ‘nonsense’ the other man was spilling out, but on the other hand, Meng Huan couldn’t stop himself from considering the possibility that maybe he had really… been drugged?
Before the idea could fully manifest, Meng Huan raised his hand first.
—And smacked it back.
Impossible! He couldn’t have been drugged! There was no way!
At that time, only Xu Ruolin possessed such drugs, but Xu Ruolin and the original host were friends; how could the Young Lord put him in harm’s way?
Impossible!
Chanting that it wasn’t possible, he returned to his courtyard and burrowed headfirst into the bed, pulling the covers over his head. He felt his muffled heartbeat crescendo under the quilt until it enveloped his ears infinitely, blocking out all other information.
…And his heart became inexplicably sad.
Because he couldn’t be sure whether or not Xu Ruolin would really harm him. This book was full of hard-working, scheming people who said one thing and did another. Why should he trust Xu Ruolin, whom he had only met once?
His chest tightened.
He thought of Lin Bozhou once more.
If he was asked to pick one person out of this group, he was beginning to want to choose the man willingly.
He was so sick and tired of this unsafe and insecure environment.
Not long after he lay down, his maids called him for food. He jumped out of bed to eat. After he got food in his stomach, his mood improved just a bit before footsteps sounded at the door.
With his usual hat, the little old man, Shan Shu, said, “Greeting the Royal Consort.”
Then, with a grim face, he announced, “It’s time to study.”
“…”
Meng Huan’s vision went black.
Snapping his eyes closed, he asked himself internally, Is this a nightmare?
He had been in a particularly bad mood all afternoon.
He couldn’t describe the irritating and throbbing feelings inside, probably caused by what Shan Xing had said earlier, but in any case, he wasn’t at his peak for today’s lesson. He already got bad grades, and unlike other people who were able to focus on their studies, when there were things on his mind, he was particularly restless.
So, when Shan Shu left, he instructed, with a very unsightly face, “One word per half a page, to be inspected tomorrow.”
“Bad” couldn’t even begin to describe Meng Huan’s current mood.
He was frustrated as hell! Incredibly upset!
After eating, he started to grind on his homework.
The paper and brush were laid out on the table. As he wrote one word at a time, his wrist began to ache. Oh, how he wanted to shout, ‘The audacity! I am the Royal Consort! How dare you assign me so much homework!’
But thinking of Shan Shu’s stern face, Meng Huan lost all courage.
…Lin Bozhou hadn’t visited today either, and so he couldn’t save him from the endless suffering.
…If Lin Bozhou had been here, Shan Shu wouldn’t have dared to discipline him. Lin Bozhou wouldn’t have let Shan Shu discipline him, period, nor would he have let the teacher assign him so much homework. Instead, the man would have lightly dismissed Shan Shu before teaching Meng Huan how to write himself.
…Meng Huan didn’t know why he had such confidence.
No one would violate Lin Bozhou’s dignity. He was the head of this feudal family, the top of the power pyramid, and the boss in everyone’s eyes.
—However!
They were all afraid of Lin Bozhou!
Yet not a single person! Feared! His! Wife!
Meng Huan: QWQ
He let his mind wander wildly while rushing to finish his homework. He grumbled, his mind still thinking about what Shan Xing had told him, which really dampened his mood as he dipped his brush in the ink and wrote frantically.
Losing track of time, a maid at the door informed him, “Royal Consort, it’s the hour of the pig.”
Meng Huan seemed to return to the moment when the class monitor rushed him to hand in his homework. “Ahhhh, I know, you guys can just go to sleep. I’m almost done!”
“Royal Consort…”
The voice gradually disappeared as the courtyard returned to being quiet.
The oil lamp on the table had dimmed, so he got up to fiddle with the lampwick so that the light would spread more. By the time he turned around, a tall figure had approached the table without him noticing.
Lin Bozhou’s dark hair was let down, and he had a coat draped over the jade-white robe he wore for sleeping. Judging by his languid display, the man was checking on him before going to sleep.
Lin Bozhou was looking down and examining the paper on the table, frowning slightly.
In a moment, a complicated feeling filled Meng Huan’s heart.
“Is madam still writing?”
Lin Bozhou sounded very disapproving.
…He was not happy.
A sobbing face with large bottom text flew across Meng Huan’s head.
He is! Feeling! Distress! For me!
Probably due to being in a bad mood all afternoon as well as the non-stop writing after dinner, he had been holding in his grievances. With this single question from Lin Bozhou, the dam in Meng Huan’s heart collapsed, crumbling thunderously and releasing a rushing torrent.
Biting his lower lip, he murmured, “Yes, there are so many words I still need to write…”
He replied in a very small voice, making his last few words hard to catch, as if they were forced out of his throat, but the tremor could still be heard.
Lin Bozhou paused the finger he had been pressing to the paper before looking up to see Meng Huan with his head down. The youth’s eyes were very bright, but they were obviously wet. He was subconsciously biting his lips with a stiff posture.
The youth felt aggrieved but didn’t dare express it.
After a brief silence, Lin Bozhou felt something in his heart sink and something else surge up. He walked to Meng Huan’s side and gazed down at his sullen little face. “If you can’t finish it, then don’t. Why does it matter?”
Meng Huan said, “I’ll g-get scolded…”
“Get scolded by who?”
The last word was dragged out, and his authority above all was self-evident.
Meng Huan didn’t know what to say. He thought Shan Shu was a good person, but the academic workload was so heavy that he really couldn’t finish it.
Not wanting to speak ill of Shan Shu, Meng Huan shook his head.
Knowing well what was going on inside the youth’s head, Lin Bozhou gestured. “Go sleep.”
Meng Huan hesitated. “But, homework…”
“Don’t write anymore. Tomorrow—” Lin Bozhou said with a little rage evident in his voice, showing a rare unpleasant mood, “This Regent will send someone to inform Shan Shu to be more lenient with you and stop being so strict.”
Meng Huan’s tense heartstrings suddenly loosened as he nodded.
A very soft sigh came from above his head with a shallow breath.
Lin Bozhou reached out his hand, and with his long fingers and bony knuckles, he caressed Meng Huan’s cheek and gently cupped his ear.
He whispered, “Huan Huan, be good and go to bed. It’s bad for your health to sleep late.”
When Meng Huan heard this, he also felt the thin calluses on the slender fingertips rubbing against his earlobe, causing a faint tickling sensation, like the ripples in his dream from a few days ago.
Ba-dump—
Meng Huan heard his heart violently skip a beat.
The author has something to say:
Huan Huan: Is th-this what it’s like to catch feelings? (blushing in disbelief)
Huan Huan (wait a minute): Did you just say that sleeping late is bad for my health?
–
Huan-bao is about to dream of the super embarrassing scene in public where he pestered his husband for kisses, huggies, and cuddles.
The translator has something to add:
Teo: Most of the edited parts (from the author) in this chapter are flushing out the details in the first part, like combining sentences or changing small details on Meng Huan’s reaction.
Thank you editor Dobhsh for the lovely meme! 😂 Thank you for the chapter!!
Yay, Huan Huan is starting to feel more comfortable around his hubby, I’m so happy 😀
Thanks for the chapter!
😂😂 my pleasure hehe
Does Shan Shu do anything besides give Meng Huan words to memorize, test him on the words, and then punish him when he gets the words wrong? Cause I’m not really sure that counts as teaching. I vote Lin Bozhou fires this guy and teaches his wifey himself.
+1 😤
I think shan shu needs to know not everyone is an academic genius😮💨… Poor our baby…
Thanks for the chapter
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
All ancient education was based on memorization and reasoning, there was no learning as such
Thank you very much for the translation 💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛
My poor bubu (｡•́︿•̀｡)
Thank You for the new chapter ♡(ӦｖӦ｡)
“As long as I don’t remember, I wasn’t drugged!” 😂 Then diving head first under his blankets too lol…it might just be an aging auntie thing, but I find him so adorable.
Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️
Yes, yes, it’s time for both of them to really start catching feelings for eachother.
❤️❤️❤️