Higher Level Wife

CH 60

Default Dyslexic Roboto Lora

Chapter 59: The Young Marquis Gets Stung

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Translated by Pill Bug

Edited by Gumihou

“Is the jujube tree the only fruitful tree in the garden? Does Lord Husband eat fewer peaches and apricots during summer days? Although it is not something especially good, after being reminded by Lord Husband, this humble woman has also sent some to every house.”

At the mention of this, Fu Qiuning suddenly became angry.
She remembered the day when Jin Fengju came to her house and she kindly washed two peaches for him.
However, just because he found that they tasted good, he had her send some to the Old Madam.
When he heard that Fu Qiuning already sent peaches to the Old Madam, he proceeded to order her to send peaches to Madam Fang and Madam Jiang’s place.
In the end, not only the elder madams but even those random wives and concubines of Jin Fengju were given some.

In fact, not a single courtyard or pavilion in the marquisate was left out of the largess.
After sending them around, there were only a few left.
In the past, she could have sold these peaches for 400 or 500 coins.
This year, they were all spent purchasing favours.
Luckily, the rice, flour, eggs, meat as well as other necessities for Night Breeze Pavilion had been taken care of by Jin Fengju and this reduced the need to spend money.
Otherwise, Fu Qiuning would have died from heartache.

When Jin Fengju heard her say so, he merely gave a faint smile before leaving the room.
Not long after that, Fu Qiuning heard the Jin sibling’s happy cheers from the yard.
She stood up to look out the window and saw Jin Ming hurrying over through the door, showing something to Jin Fengju.
Jin Fengju nodded, said something in a muffled voice and Jin Ming scuttled towards the house.
She guessed that he must have something to pass to her and sat down again.

Sure enough, a few moments later, Jin Ming came scuttling through the door with a box in his hands.
He presented the box respectfully to Fu Qiuning and said in a soft voice, “These are the jade pendants that the twins broke two months ago.
Master had them sent to Song’shi’s store and turned into gold-inlaid jade ornaments.
The work was not easy and they were only done today.
I have shown them to Master and received his approval for the work.
These will now be handed to Madam for safekeeping.
He also mentioned that, as the brother and sister will be harvesting jujubes today, they can wear these tomorrow.”

“Very well, I have troubled Steward Jin for having to take this trip,” Fu Qiuning smiled her thanks.
Jin Ming repeatedly said ‘This servant does not dare, this servant does not dare’ before retreating after another salute.

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Once he was gone, Fu Qiuning finally opened the box.
A glance inside, and she could not help but hiss out a cold breath of air.
These really were the twins’ jade pendants.
The pieces have been reattached with gold.
[a] Its flaws were artfully covered with beautifully patterned gold designs.
While their market value might have fallen, to Fu Qiuning’s eyes, they were even more exquisite and excellent than before.

She cannot help but be reminded of the Beijing Olympic gold medals back in modern times.
Naturally, these gold-inlaid jade pendants were far more exquisite than a medal.
The soft and gentle white jade shot through with dazzling gold, woven in a complex and beautiful pattern, gave them a glittering and exquisite feel.
Aunt Yu and Yu Jie happened to enter the room at the same time, so Fu Qiuning showed the pendants to them.
The two maids had nothing but praises for the pendants.

Fu Qiuning turned her eyes towards the courtyard and saw that Jin Fengju was already in the tree.
He must have some martial arts skills to climb trees so easily.
He shook the tree a few times, and jujubes, as well as branches and leaves, fell like rain.
Meanwhile, Jin Ming and the two children stood far away from the tree.
This guy must have remembered her instructions and made the children wait at a distance for fear of having insects stinging them.

“The Young Marquis will be having his meal here today.
You two go and have a quick look at the kitchen and make the necessary preparations.”

Fu Qiuning gave out instructions gently, but she was secretly sighing, thinking: Jin Fengju, this slag man, actually acts a bit like a father now.

The affection he showed towards Jin Changfeng and Jin Changjiao is really not ordinary love or spoiling, but she could not help but think: If these two children had not studied sagely books, qin, chess and calligraphy from her, if these two children had always been that kind of “grandma does not kiss, uncle does not love” type of children, would they still be able to evoke a deep affection within that man’s bloodline?

After thinking over the matter for half a day, she still did not know the answer.
After all, they were living in a present where she had educated those children and they managed to catch their father’s favour.
There was no point indulging in ‘what ifs’.
However, thinking back to how quickly Jin Fengju transferred his affections from his other children to the twins, whatever softening she had felt for Jin Fengju halted and her heart froze back to solid ice again.

Think about it, the man currently shaking the tree and smiling happily at his children was the same one that abandoned his wife and children ruthlessly for over five years.
Cold ruthlessness dwelt deep in his bones.
She could never give her heart to such a man.
After all, one would never know whether he would suddenly switch back to being a scum bastard again.

The two large jujube trees in the courtyard were soon bare.
Most of the jujubes had been shaken off.
The mats placed below the trees were now filled with large red and green fruits.
The sibling cheered and was about to rush forward when Jin Fengju said, “Wait.
Wait for Father to dispose of these stinging caterpillars [1].
It would be painful if you get stung.”

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With that, he picked up a branch and began to jab at the wriggling caterpillars.
Once satisfied that they had all died, he finally allowed Jin Ming to pick up the jujubes with the children.

[b] Amused and a little concerned, Fu Qiuning came over to look at the twitching little grubs.
Then, in a gentle voice, she said, “What happened? Were you stung? Let this humble woman take a look.
We happen to have some ointment in the house for this, do come and apply it quickly.”

“N-no, who said anything about being stung.
Nothing happened,” Jin Fengju waved his hand so quickly that he might as well be flapping it.
Are you joking? He had just boasted to Fu Qiuning about how these measly insects would never touch him.
If he went and applied ointment then, wouldn’t this drag down his manly image? Therefore, he could only harden his mouth like a duck’s beak and keep waving his hand at her.
In fact, the back of his neck was really hot and painful.

Fu Qiuning looked at all the partly squelched caterpillars that had been viciously stabbed to death, and she knew that he must have been stung.
Also, this playboy was usually very smooth with his words.
So what was that stutter just then? Realisation dawned on her quickly, but her mouth continued to help this Young Marquis maintain his face.

Feeling amused and irked, she could only say, “If that’s the case, would Lord Husband please accompany this humble woman to the living room? There’s something this humble woman wishes to show Lord Husband.
Jin Ming can help the children pick up the jujubes.”

Jin Fengju knew that she had seen through him.
Moreover, his neck was really hot and painful.
No matter what, he was still a delicately brought-up young marquis with tender skin and precious flesh.
Although he was trained in martial arts, he had never suffered war and had barely been injured.
If he had suffered knife and sword wounds in his life, this kind of insect sting would have been nothing.

Therefore, he obediently went with Fu Qiuning to the living room.
Suddenly, he said, “Don’t keep saying ‘this humble woman’ ‘this humble woman’ anymore.
It sounds so distant.
No matter what, we are officially husband and wife.
How about addressing yourself with ‘I’?”

When Fu Qiuning nodded, he quickly looked around to see if there was anyone around.
When he saw no one, he sighed with relief [c] and finally allowed himself to contort his body in order to relieve the pain in his neck.
He was in the middle trying to dare himself to touch the painful spot when he heard Fu Qiuning’s voice, “Where is the sting? You-”

[c] Jin Fengju twisted his head and saw Fu Qiuning with a container in her hand.
He had already pulled the back of his shirt away, exposing the angry red nape.
Since he had immediately gone to the Night Breeze Pavilion after court, his hair was still up.
Otherwise, the wretched stinging caterpillar would not have the opportunity to fall into his collar.

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He crouched a little and pointed to his neck, “These things really don’t bother me, but who would have thought that one would fall into my collar.
For such a tiny thing, it’s kind of painful.”

[Gumihou: Fallen into his collar? Good job caterpillar! Also, Note c.
Because Gumi is evil and did not like this slag man]

Pill Bug TL Notes:

[1] Author used 杨揦子, but I think she meant 洋辣子, which is the “stinging nettle slug caterpillar” form of the Parasa consocia moth larvae: https://www.flickr.com/photos/itchydogimages/6198672200