The Wife is First

Ch15 - Crazy

The two people had gone playing outside for an entire day, so once they returned to their residence, it was already dark, and it had already passed dinner time. Because the womenfolk lived in the West Court, they locked up a lot earlier than in the East Court. And thus, Mu Hanzhang excused the few concubines from their evening respects, so as to not delay the lock up procedure of the West Court. 

Behind the screen, a tub of hot water was prepared, spices given as tribute from foreign lands were added into the water, and a layer of fresh peach blossom petals was also sprinkled on top.

Mu Hanzhang saw Jing Shao undressing and preparing to take a bath. He picked up a book and sat down on the Luohan couch, waiting for him to wash first and then he would bathe himself. Yet, he was caught by Jing Shao: “Jun Qing, you made me fall to the ground today, my butt is still hurting now.”

“Chen…” Thinking of the thing that happened today, Mu Hanzhang’s face flushed red again, he had already apologized to him in the afternoon, how come he was still not willing to forgive him?

“When you’re apologizing, you must do so with sincerity,” Jing Shao grabbed the other’s hand and dragged him behind the screen. “I have a wound on my body. Help me bathe.” 

Mu Hanzhang stared at him with big eyes, this was the first time that he heard that injuring one’s butt would make it inconvenient to take a bath: “I… I don’t kn…”

“No worries, I will also help you wash.” Jing Shao, who was very pleased with himself, took off his clothes until he was completely naked, taking the lead and jumped into the tub of water.  Seeing his Wang Fei that was still blankly staring and standing in his original place, not moving, he patted the wooden tub, “Hurry and come in, or else I’ll punish you to help me apply medicine in a little while.”

Apply medicine? Mu Hanzhang bit his lower lip, helping him apply medicine in that place on the bed, or sit in the tub, face-to-face completely naked together, when comparing both options, either one seemed rather dangerous, but if he was applying medicine, then he could still be fully clothed…

“Jun Qing?” Jing Shao found it funny watching his Wang Fei biting his lower lip, looking like he was thinking very hard. He only felt that it was extremely cute.

“Then… Chen will help Wang Ye to apply the medicine.” After saying that, he immediately ran out without looking back.

“Pff~” Jing Shao laughed heartily as he lay in the tub.

After Mu Hanzhang had also finished washing, when he changed into a new set of silk clothes and emerged from behind the screen, he saw a certain Wang Ye only wearing an inner garment, wearing no underwear, lying down on his stomach on the bed with a bare butt reading a military strategy book keenly.

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.

“Wang…Wang Ye…” Mu Hanzhang’s face immediately turned red. Why was this person like this… 

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Ze Ljchtjcu kjr qbkfgifrr, jcv mbeiv bcis milwy bcab atf yfv jcv qbeg rbwf wfvlmlcf lcab atf qjiw bo tlr tjcv. Obbxlcu ja atf qfgofmais megnfv qijmf lc ogbca bo tlr fsfr, atfgf kjr bcis j ilaaif ygelrlcu bc ybat rlvfr. Pc atf gfra bo atf gfulbc, atf wermifr jgf kfii-rtjqfv. Qlat bcf uijcmf, atf wermifr ibbxfv ab yf oeii bo fzqibrlnf qbkfg, jcv atfc lo sbe xfqa bc ibbxlcu vbkc, akb qfgofmais ragjluta, ijcxs ifur wfgufv abufatfg, jcv atf riffx wermifr wjvf atfrf qjlg bo ifur ibbx yfjealoei, yea jirb yglwwlcu klat vjcufgber qbkfg.

The slippery medicated fluid slid between his fingers, dripping onto that attractive, smooth and round place. Only then did Mu Hanzhang exit his trance, he stole a look at Jing Shao, and found that the man was not looking at him, he lightly sighed and placed the hand with medicine onto that place.

When the warm and soft hand touched him, Jing Shao immediately regretted it. This tactile sensation was really too satisfactory, to the extent that his body, under his Wang Fei’s kneading was rapidly reacting. He could not help but inwardly complain. Right now, Jun Qing has still not alleviated his fear of the bridal room, how could he resolve the fire stirring up in him? 

“Finished applying it.” Mu Hanzhang climbed out of bed, putting the medicine bottle back in place, and also letting his body, that had gotten somewhat hot, cool down.

“En.” The depressed Jing Shao replied with a single sound, still lying there on his stomach not moving.

“Wang Ye, let’s sleep.” Mu Hanzhang seeing him not moving, could only climb back into the interior of the bed and help cover him with the quilt.

“En, I have medicine on my behind, I will sleep lying on my stomach tonight.” Jing Shao buried his face into the pillow, suffering the disaster he brought upon himself, having to sleep lying on his stomach for the whole night. 

The next day, Jing Shao went out early in the morning to the second prince’s house, and discussed with his brother the stratagem he had formulated with Jun Qing yesterday after consulting him.  Duo Fu, according to Wang Fei’s instructions, brought all of the account books over the past years into the small study.

“Wang Fei, these are all the accounts from the past three years. Do you really want to look through them all?” Yun Zhu looked at the one-chi high stack of accounting books and gulped.

“En.” Mu Hanzhang only lightly responded, dividing the account books into three piles, starting to look through the oldest ones.

“The accounting books are what old bookkeepers should look at. Why do you have to work so hard?” Yun Zhu is somewhat puzzled. Wang Fei wanted to learn how to manage the household,    if he asked Manager Duo how to do it or went to see how the Fu Ren did it, then wouldn’t it be fine like that? 

Mu Hanzhang glanced at the frowning little book boy, laughed and said nothing. There are a lot of useful things contained in the account books, the food and clothing expenses for the manor, the relations with the people who come and go from the manor, any transfers of servants, all of these could be discovered from the account books. In fact, the administration of the country was also this way. By looking at the account books of the Ministry of Revenue, you can know whether the monarch is muddle-headed or not, and whether this dynasty was prosperous or not.

“This servant heard that Fu Ren was checking the storeroom’s inventory yesterday, and together with some servants she dilly-dallied away an entire morning.” Yun Zhu took advantage of Mu Hanzhang, who was tired of reading and was taking a break to drink some tea, and whispered to him the information he had discreetly sought out himself.

“I know.” Mu Hanzhang rubbed Yun Zhu’s head and rewarded him with a handful of pine nut candies they had bought yesterday. He couldn’t disagree that checking the inventory in the storeroom at this time, was definitely to conceal something.

“Wang Fei’s monthly portion of silver for March was not given to you by the accountant at all. Yesterday, I went to get some writing paper and almost wasn’t able to get it.” Yun Zhu ate a pine nut candy. When he spoke about this, he was somewhat angry. Fortunately, Wang Fei is a man, and lived with Wang Ye in the East Court,  and so all the usages of the East Court counted towards the Wang Ye’s account. If he was a woman who married in, then wouldn’t he not even have food to eat! 

Mu Hanzhang, only having heard this, thought about how he truly had no silver in his own hands. If there was any urgent matter, it would be difficult to handle.

The account books would not be able to be looked over in just a short while, so Mu Hanzhang had an afternoon nap after lunch, and only then did he return to the study.

“Wang Ye, you’ve returned!” When Mu Hanzhang came out of the bedroom, he bumped into Jing Shao, who was walking in with quick steps, and almost had a full-on collision with him.

Jing Shao looked straight at him, his eyes were a little red, and he didn’t look quite right. After seeing who the person in front of him was, he reached out and grabbed his wrist, turning around and walking out again. 

“Wang Ye… oh…” Mu Hanzhang, who was being pulled by him, staggered, and almost fell down. He stumbled his way along as he was pulled to the front courtyard.

The servants one after another gathered to watch with excitement, whispering about whether the Wang Fei had offended the Wang Ye or not.

Jing Shao did not say a word and pulled Mu Hanzhang up onto a horse, clamping his legs around the horse’s abdomen. Xiao Hei neighed, and rushed out as swift as an arrow.

The steed galloped on a road going outside of the capital, and Jing Shao, dazedly felt that he seemed to return to that snowy day before his rebirth, when they were fleeing. These few warm and comfortable days, allowed him to forget for a while, what frame of mind he had when opened his eyes once more. 

Mu Hanzhang, who was leaning on his back behind him, sensed the rage in his heart and slowly hugged his waist tight. Feeling the pressure on his waist, Jing Shao stretched out a hand and gripped his two overlapping hands, madly rushing all the way into his other court in the suburbs of the city, ignoring the Imperial guards’ cries of surprise in the courtyard, riding  Xiao Hei all the way to the practice platform for martial arts. With a light step, he leapt onto the wooden platform, took out a pike, and not even looking at who was on the stage, attacked the other and started to fight.

“Wang Ye!” Ren Feng who was currently on the stage demonstrating some movements to his subordinates was startled. He subconsciously raised his hand and caught the maneuver. When he saw that it was Jing Shao, he hurriedly retreated three steps. Unexpectedly, Jing Shao directly rushed over, Ren Feng turned and pulled out a long rod blocking the spear pole that hacked down above his head.

Jing Shao seemed as if he was on the battlefield, fighting for his life, and after a while, he threw Ren Feng, who was afraid of hurting him, off the platform. Without an opponent, he continued to brandish the spear on the platform. The silver colored handle of the spear seemed like a graceful dragon, slashing traces of silver through the air.

Mu Hanzhang frowned, watching the person on the platform who had gone crazy and, in a low voice, instructed Ren Feng to leave the place with the others for now. 

The sun slid down from the top of the mountain to the foot, and the originally gloomy sky began to drizzle with thin drops of rain. Xiao Hei had already been taken to the stable, and the people around the platform had all dispersed. Mu Hanzhang looked at the person on the platform who was still brandishing his silver spear and slowly walked onto it.

“Wang Ye, it’s gotten dark.” Mu Hanzhang stood on the platform, and calmly said with an even tone.

“Swish swish~” There was no sign of stopping of the actions that slashed through the air. The red tassel on the spear caused droplets of water to go flying in all directions.

Mu Hanzhang clenched his fists, turned and drew out a broad blade. He swung his arm and threw it towards him: “Jing Shao, calm down!” 

“Kuang dang!” The sound of the collision between the spear head and the steel knife recalled Jing Shao’s reason, his movements wielding the spear paused for a moment. Jing Shao looked up at him, “Ahhhhhhhhh” He screamed up at the sky once, leaping up high, the silver spear hacking at the top of a wooden stake splitting it into many pieces.

The silver spear fell to the ground, and blood dripped down Jing Shao’s fingers onto the ground, mixing with the pattering rain, quickly turning it into a diluted red color.

Mu Hanzhang ran over and clasped his right hand. The web between his thumb and forefinger had been split, and blood blisters had also appeared on his palm (due to the friction between his skin and the spear). He fished out a handkerchief from his sleeve and pressed it to the wound that wouldn’t stop bleeding. Jing Shao raised his head up to the sky, the rain fell into his eyes and slipped down his cheeks.

“Jun Qing… They caused the death of my Imperial Mother… my Imperial Mother…” Jing Shao whispered, the voice was not loud at all, only like a murmur, but Mu Hanzhang nevertheless heard it clearly. 

The Jing Shao that had used up all of his strength slipped onto the ground, and Mu Hanzhang crouched down, and slowly hugging him to his chest: “Shao… what happened?”

“Jun Qing… Jun Qing…” Jing Shao buried his face into his shoulder. Today, his brother listened to his plan. He was pleased to find that his younger brother had finally grown up and told him some things he had never said to him before. Among these matters, included the real cause of death of the Empress.