Ning Shu acted as if she didn’t notice the loathing in Wen Ruhua’s eyes and asked, “Cousin, what should we eat?”


  Wen Ruhua replied coldly, “Don’t you have a lot of money? Just find a villager and give them some money for food.”


  Ning Shu asked, “Then what will you eat?”


  “It’s none of your business. Bai Qinxiang, I have no objections to you staying here. I don’t have the right to tell you what to do anyways, but don’t try to get involved in my life. You’re just trying to make things up to me in order to ease the guilt in your heart, but I won’t do as you want!” said Wen Ruhua coldly.

  Who the hell would want to make things up to you? You were actually taking that made up excuse seriously? Ning Shu inwardly expressed her disdain. Why didn’t it occur to him that she was here for revenge, that she was here to make his life miserable?

  However, since he had already said that, there was no way she’d continue to trouble herself. She grabbed Yue Lan and prepared to go get food. Before she left, she asked insincerely, “Cousin, why don’t we go together? It’s probably been a long time since you’ve had meat. I’ll pay them some extra so that they’ll cook a chicken for you. You should nourish your body well so that you can focus on studying for the exams. It couldn’t be that you’re seriously about spending your entire life here in the middle of nowhere, right?”


  Wen Ruhua’s facial color became very unsightly. “You’re just an abandoned wife! A woman that a man has abandoned! After that person decided they didn’t want you anymore, you came to me for help, yet you still have the nerve to criticize my life? Whatever I do, you don’t have the right to comment on it!”


  “Whether I take the imperial exams or not is none of your business! Bai Qinxiang, I’m warning you, don’t bring up the imperial exams in front of me again! I refuse to step foot into the dark path of being an official. I would rather stay here and struggle through each day!” Wen Ruhua declared his resolution with his chest puffed up.

  Ning Shu: …


  Wasn’t he overthinking things? The way he spoke, it was as if he was sure he could pass on his first try. His thoughts had even gotten to the dark path of corrupt officials… It was unbelievable.

  The way he acted as if he was second only to the Heavens was seriously delusionally chunni.

  Her face twitched as she said, “Could it be that Cousin has never thought about becoming a good official in order to get justice for the commoners? Although many officials are corrupt, doesn’t it just mean that Cousin should hurry and take the exam in order to clean the field of the corrupt officials?”


  Wen Ruhua furrowed his brows. “You have a point, but the world is as black as a crow’s feathers and since antiquity, officials have protected their own. I’m just a single person, how could I beat such a large black organization? That’s why I’ve given up all hope in the bureaucracy.”


  Ning Shu looked at him in surprise. It seemed that he wasn’t really dumb. However, all he knew to do was talk big. In truth, he was just afraid of taking the exams and making up all sorts of excuse in order to avoid going through the experience and failing.

  There was no point talking to someone like this, so Ning Shu prepared to leave with Yue Lan. However, she suddenly smelled the fragrance of meat. She turned around and saw that two people were standing outside the fence.

  Once of them was He Xiaohua. She was holding food in her hands as she shouted towards Wen Ruhua, “Mister Wen, I brought you some food.”


  “Welcome, welcome. Please come in.” Ning Shu hastily greeted them.

  “Oh, so you’re the beauty that quack scholar brought back? You’re not bad. Why did you decide to follow Wen Ruhua, that inflexible dolt of a man?” Next to He Xiaohua was a stout man that was holding a fan. That elegant accessory was a sharp contrast against his chubby face.

  His excessively proud and haughty manner just made the scene even more disharmonious. Ning Shu recalled the way Qi Sheng looked when he was a fan. That was true elegance. This? Seeing those chubby radish fingers pinching a delicate fan was a blinding sight.

  It was practically a public offense.

  #comment: I keep forgetting to make this comment… To the more recent readers who weren’t around when I was testing out different ways to stop bots from copying chapters, the method I’ve settled on now is to have the release post link to old chapters. However, at the bottom of the release post, I make a comment w/ emoticons in disqus and the emoticons contain links to the actual chapters in consecutive order. So just click on the emoticons, and if they lead you somewhere, it should be the correct chp, unless I made a mistake. Thank you to all the sweet readers who have been helping me guide the occasional lost reader! <3