Becoming the Cannon Fodder Wife of Crazy and Powerful Official - Chapter 40

Lame Ma and Huo Qi heard the commotion from Shen Qingqi in the courtyard and rushed over, only to be horrified to find him collapsed on the ground.

They helped Shen Qingqi onto the kang bed. Lame Ma rolled up his trouser leg and unwrapped the bandage, revealing a swollen, red knee beneath.

“Look at this! I just said it mustn’t be knocked!” Lame Ma hurriedly began reapplying the medicine.

Shen Qingqi’s knee must have been excruciatingly painful, yet he stared fixedly at Xin Yueying, never letting go of her right hand, his grip firm.

A fine, cold sweat beaded on his pale face as he watched her unblinkingly.

“Alright, alright, I won’t go. I won’t go, okay?” Xin Yueying looked at his legs, which were trembling from the pain. His hand grew colder, but he clenched his jaw, not uttering a sound, his eyes locked on her.

“I really won’t go.” Xin Yueying was frightened, watching him helplessly and anxiously.

Huo Qi asked her in a low voice, “Where were you trying to go?”

“I said I wanted to go to the Su…”

“Don’t you dare say it.” He interrupted with a fierce, almost vicious, rebuke.

Xin Yueying flinched, quickly nodding in fear and pressing her lips together, not daring to say another word.

This incident left Xin Yueying badly shaken.

She couldn’t figure out what terrifying person or thing was hidden in the ancestral hall that could make Shen Qingqi act so abnormally. She thought about it for a long time but found no clues.

The original book hadn’t mentioned a single word about it.

The Shen Qingqi in the book never believed in gods or Buddhas, nor did he fear spirits or ghosts. Later, when he gained power, after a monk urged him to do good, he flew into a rage and issued an order to burn all temples and slaughter every monk and Taoist priest in the land.

Xin Yueying pondered this fearfully for a long time. Even after everyone else had left, Shen Qingqi still held her hand tightly. He just looked at her, his beautiful eyes filled with a gloominess she couldn’t understand.

“Don’t think about leaving,” he said hoarsely.

“I never said I was leaving,” she replied, flustered.

He let go of her hand and closed his eyes, but his eyelids trembled slightly. She had no way of knowing what was truly in his heart.

After this ordeal, Xin Yueying didn’t dare go down the mountain for nearly two months. For daily groceries, she mostly relied on Lame Ma to bring them back.

During this time, she also asked Huo Qi about the Sunü Shrine.

The two of them stealthily squatted in the wild grass of the deep forest, looking around cautiously, afraid that Xie Asheng might overhear and report back to Shen Qingqi.

But Huo Qi also found Shen Qingqi’s abnormal behaviour utterly baffling.

He stated unequivocally that there couldn’t possibly be any old acquaintance of the Second Master inside there.

As time passed, the construction of the house progressed quickly. The east wing was completed, and the framework of the west wing was also up.

Shen Qingqi, in his spare moments, would occasionally sit in the yard weaving a bamboo folding bed.

Xin Yueying had never taught him how to make one; she was surprised he could do it. He even incorporated his experience weaving rattan to create the bed’s surface with rattan strips.

He sometimes worked on it very late, and Huo Qi often had to urge him multiple times to rest.

Xin Yueying didn’t know what he was thinking. It gave her an uneasy feeling, and she was too afraid to ask Shen Qingqi about it directly.

Wanting to demonstrate her devotion, Xin Yueying spent her free time making a hanging basket swing during this period.

She wove bamboo and rattan into a semi-circular seat, suspended by a curved wooden rod. The frame underneath was also round. It was cool and lightweight to sit on.

Both Huo Qi and Xie Asheng marvelled at this never-before-seen hanging basket swing, questioning her for a long time about where she had seen such a novel thing.

She brushed them off with a random excuse, just hoping to quickly take this item to Old Yang’s carpentry shop to sell.

She was really eager to go down the mountain. She felt that if she didn’t soon experience some human bustle, she risked devolving into a wild woman.

One day, kneeling on the kang and leaning by the window, she looked somewhat ingratiatingly at Shen Qingqi in the yard outside, “So… I need to go to Old Yang’s to sell the things I made.” She quickly added, “Don’t worry, I promise I won’t go to that place.”

Still wary of setting off Shen Qingqi’s madness, she now didn’t even dare mention the words “Sunü Shrine”.

Shen Qingqi put down the half-finished folding bed he was working on, “I’ll go with you.”

Xin Yueying swallowed hard and said nothing.

Because the medicine on Shen Qingqi’s leg shouldn’t be exposed to the wind, Xin Yueying took a thin quilt from the chest. By the time she walked into the yard, Shen Qingqi had already been helped onto the cart plank by Huo Qi. She went over and carefully draped the quilt over his legs.

Glancing back inadvertently, she saw the cart plank neatly stacked with many folding beds. She looked at them, then glanced at Shen Qingqi’s expression, deciding not to invite annoyance by asking why he had made so many.

Huo Qi placed the finished hanging basket swing onto the cart.

Xin Yueying sat on the other side of the donkey cart, and the two of them set off down the mountain.

Shen Qingqi remained silent the whole way. He was a man of few words, and his mood didn’t seem particularly good on this trip. For every ten sentences Xin Yueying spoke, he might only reply with two or three.

Old Yang, seeing the couple arrive together, welcomed them warmly and moved the swing, wrapped in black cloth, inside.

He praised it repeatedly and asked Xin Yueying how much she wanted to sell it for.

Xin Yueying trusted Old Yang’s judgment. She felt this item wasn’t a necessity, so she just told him to set the price as he saw fit, as long as she got half the profit later.

Old Yang’s eyes lit up when he saw the folding beds on the cart, “You’ve made so many folding beds? Excellent! I was just about to ask you to make some!”

He asked, “How many are there?”

Shen Qingqi, “One hundred. This is just part of them; we couldn’t bring them all in one trip.”

Xin Yueying looked at Shen Qingqi, “How did you know to make folding beds?”

Shen Qingqi looked expressionlessly at Xin Yueying.

Old Yang, “Didn’t you know? In a few months, large groups of traveling merchants will pass through our Niujia Gouzi. These things are small, lightweight, and foldable for easy carrying, so they sell very well.” He pointed back into the room: “Look, I’ve made quite a few myself.”

Xin Yueying looked towards the corner of the room and saw many folded folding beds stacked there.

“Will they all sell?”

“Yes.”

Xin Yueying’s eyes shone with interest, “What else sells well?”

Old Yang scratched his head, “Not much else. Mainly because this is a small place, and the mountains produce jade, so jade is cheap here. They are usually teams specifically coming to purchase jade, so they generally don’t buy much else. They buy the folding beds for convenience during rests. Otherwise, it’s just basic necessities like shoes and clothes.”

Xin Yueying asked again, “What about wheelchairs?”

“Wheelchairs are okay, but they don’t fetch a high price. They aren’t very convenient for the merchants to carry, so they might only buy one or two to take home for someone to study. Then they make and sell them themselves back home.”

Xin Yueying certainly wasn’t willing to do others’ R&D for them.

Shen Qingqi said, “When we get back, I’ll try to see if I can combine the foldable feature of the folding bed with a wheelchair.”

Xin Yueying turned to him with an ingratiating smile, “Hehe! You’re so clever.”

Shen Qingqi looked coldly at Xin Yueying.

“…”

Old Yang nodded, “Haha! Good idea! With you two working together, combining your strengths, you’ll surely succeed.”

Xin Yueying turned to look at Shen Qingqi again. Both of them expressionlessly shifted their gazes away from each other. She smiled awkwardly at Old Yang, “Well… Old Yang, let’s settle the accounts.”

After settling the payment, the two drove the donkey away.

Xin Yueying, feeling rather timid, stole a glance at Shen Qingqi. Finally, she mustered the courage to ask him, “Are you in a bad mood?”

Shen Qingqi shifted his gaze to Xin Yueying, “Xin Yueying.”

“Huh?”

“It’s been two months. You only noticed now?”