The Wife is First

Ch42 - Wolf’s Bane

“Xiao Hei?” Jing Shao blanked, put down his bowl and chopsticks, and ran out. Xiao Hei had been fine last night; how had he gotten sick so early in the morning? 

“Wang Ye!” Mu Hanzhang looked at Jing Shao’s half-eaten meal, sighed helplessly, and also went to the stables.

“Neigh…” Xiao Hei was currently panting angrily in his stable. The fodder in the trough was scattered on the ground, trampled under his hooves. The caretaker was squatting on the side, covering his stomach; Xiao Hei had clearly kicked him.

So spirited – how was this considered ill? Jing Shao had the soldiers who were trying to placate Xiao Hei get out of the way. He kicked the wooden pillar lightly, leapt onto the horse’s back, and grabbed Xiao Hei’s reins. “Neigh ～” Xiao Hei stood up straight immediately and whinnied. Knowing that his master had come, he finally stopped tossing from side to side and puffed out a hot breath of air, but still kept stamping his hooves.

“Jun Qing, don’t come over first.” Fearing that Xiao Hei would hurt Mu Hanzhang in his frenzy, Jing Shao quickly stopped Mu Hanzhang from approaching. 

Zhao Meng came over from the other side and saw Mu Hanzhang standing three steps away. He ridiculed, “Yes, it definitely wouldn’t be good if such a smooth-skinned person got kicked.”

“Zhao Meng! Shut up!” Jing Shao glared at General Zhao, who was saying whatever he wanted. After Xiao Hei quieted down, Jing Shao jumped off the horse and looked at the mess in the horse shed. He asked the caretaker on the ground, “What happened here?”

“Replying to Wang Ye, Chen got up late this morning and didn’t have time to cut fresh grass for Xiao Hei, so I got some hay for him to eat. Unexpectedly, he spit it out after eating a mouthful and started to go crazy,” the caretaker knelt down and answered. He was afraid that the Wang Ye would blame him, which would cost him his head.

“Is this horse still being picky about food? You shouldn’t spoil these domesticated animals!” General Zhao had been scolded by the Wang Ye earlier, but he didn’t get angry. He walked to the front to pat Xiao Hei and said to Mu Hanzhang, “Why is the military advisor still afraid to go forward? If you want to go to the battlefield, you can’t be as timid as a girl.”

Mu Hanzhang ignored General Zhao, who liked to say unpleasant things. He lifted his feet and slowly walked to the manger. He looked carefully for a moment and frowned slightly. He picked up some hay and said to the caretaker, “Do all the horses in this stable eat this kind of fodder?”

The caretaker didn’t understand why the military advisor was asking this. He glanced up at the Wang Ye and replied that it wasn’t the case. He was afraid that Xiao Hei wouldn’t like hay, so he used the new fodder that had been brought in for Xiao Hei alone to eat. The fodder wasn’t completely dry yet, and half of it was still green, which tasted a little better than hay.

“Jun Qing, is there a problem?” Jingshao detected something wrong, and turned to ask Mu Hanzhang the question.

“There’s wolf’s bane in this fodder!” Mu Hanzhang gave the grass in his hand to Jing Shao. 

Zhao Meng picked up a handful of grass for a look and said, “What wolf’s bane? Isn’t this just ordinary sogon grass?”

Jing Shao looked at the grass leaves in his hand. The half-dried leaves were still a little dark green and slightly wider than sogon grass. When he touched them, they didn’t cut his hand. Horses were born with the ability to identify poisonous grass. As long as they weren’t extremely hungry, they wouldn’t eat it. Xiao Hei had eaten too much last night, so he naturally would be very picky about poisonous grass. 

“Call the left protectorate general to come here.” Jing Shao frowned. It wasn’t in Jun Qing’s nature to say anything if he wasn’t completely certain.

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.

Ktf ifoa jcv gluta qgbafmabgjaf ufcfgjir gertfv bnfg pera atfc joafg tfjglcu bo atf lcmlvfca lc atf rajyifr.

“P’nf rffc kbio’r yjcf lc Vlmtejc; atlr vbfrc’a tjnf atja xlcv bo jqqfjgjcmf.” Itjb Zfcu rjk atja atf Qjcu Tf’r fzqgfrrlbc kjr delaf ugjnf jcv mbeivc’a tfiq yeaalcu lc. Qbio’r yjcf mbeiv vfragbs bcf’r rabwjmt; ktb kbeiv erf remt j nlmlber wfatbv ab vfji klat j tbgrf?

“What grows in Sichuan is the Aconitum vilmorinianum Kom. variety – this is long leaf wolf’s bane, which grows in the grasslands,” the left protectorate general said expressionlessly. He had always loved horses, and paid special attention to their forage. 

“Neigh ～” Xiao Hei snorted, as if he was agreeing with the left protectorate general.

Jing Shao rubbed that big black head and said in a deep voice, “Investigate!”

A couple of hours later, the horse caretaker, the manager of the fodder warehouse, and the escorts for the rations and fodder were brought into the Wang Ye’s tent.

“Wang Ye, it truly wasn’t this servant ah!” they cried out loudly as they knelt down and kowtowed. Poisoning warhorses was a severe crime punishable by execution. 

“Wang Ye, this general has checked: there’s a small amount of wolf’s bane in the new fodder that was brought in, in the fodder warehouse,” the left protectorate general said.

“You guys, do you have anything to say?” The right protectorate general walked up to them with a grin. “Poisoning war horses is a crime worthy of beheading. If no one confesses, all of you will lose your heads.”

“Forgive me, Wang Ye ah! It really wasn’t this servant!” Several rounds of statements about the fodder were given. The forage had been delivered just yesterday. The warehouse was in a strategic location and no strangers had gotten close. The escorts were only in charge of transporting everything and didn’t see any exchange of items happen on the way. The accusation against the caretaker was even more unjust. He was only responsible for taking some of the delivered fodder to feed the horses; it was impossible for him to mix poisonous grass into the entire store of fodder.

Each had their own defence, but all of them were here because poisonous grass wouldn’t just fly into the fodder by itself. “Since no one has confessed, drag them all out to be executed!” Zhao Meng raised his hand; since something like this had happened, they had to make an example of these people. 

Jing Shao frowned. He also didn’t think it was anyone in the army who had done it. The poisoner wanted to poison all of the horses. Such a thing didn’t happen in his previous life, yet this happened when they were staying temporarily on the outskirts of the capital. However, there had been no problems throughout this entire process, so where did this poisonous grass come from?

“Wait!” Mu Hanzhang, who had been sitting and listening on the side the whole time, suddenly spoke up. He stopped the guards from dragging the men out. “This matter hasn’t been investigated thoroughly; these people can’t be killed yet.”

“Military advisor, this is martial law. Saying this, can it be that you’re shielding someone?” Zhao Meng just couldn’t stand the way scholars dawdled and drew things out. Investigate, what investigate? If this kind of thing was dragged out for another day, there would be an additional level of danger in the camp. If this kind of thing happened on the battlefield, they had to resolve it as soon as possible – if the people were all killed, then there wouldn’t be any more problems.

This kind of thing had happened right after the military advisor entered the camp – it was really quite suspicious. Hearing this, the surrounding people looked at Mu Hanzhang strangely. 

“General Zhao is in such a hurry to kill them – can it be that he’s concealing something?” Mu Hanzhang said as he turned the pages of the rations and fodder account book in his hand, neither too fast nor too slow.

“…” Zhao Meng choked back his words.

Mu Hanzhang closed the book in his hand, not intending to let him go so easily. He continued to analyze the situation: “The army is tightly guarded everywhere. Someone who dares mess with the rations and fodder would surely have a very high position and be able to get around the regulations.” A pair of eyes, black as paint, stared straight at General Zhao, as if they had seen through everything.

Zhao Meng was so enraged that he wanted to vomit blood. His entire face turned a deep red, and even his beard and sideburns shook. 

“Mr Jun didn’t even say who did it. What are you getting so worked up about?” Looking at the commotion, the right protectorate general didn’t mind making things worse, and put in his two cents. The left protectorate general was still as expressionless as before and didn’t speak.

Jing Shao put his fist to his lips. Though he knew he shouldn’t, he couldn’t help but muffle a couple of chuckles.

“Wang Ye, Chen thinks we should take these people into custody first, and then give a verdict after things are made clear.” Mu Hanzhang got up and cupped his fists at Jing Shao.

“If you have the ability, then you investigate this matter!” Zhao Meng said as he pointed at Mu Hanzhang. 

Mu Hanzhang’s lips curled up slightly. “That works too.”

“Then there should be a time limit!”

“Three days.”

“Fine! If you can’t reach a conclusion in three days, then you’ll be considered guilty along with them!” Zhao Meng raised his voice, angered by Mu Hanzhang’s indifferent and calm manner. 

“As long as General Zhao doesn’t interfere.” Mu Hanzhang’s tone was still the same as before. His voice was gentle and calm, and sounded more convincing than General Zhao’s loud shouts.

“Hmph! Go to prison along with them then!” Zhao Meng was so angry he was almost jumping up and down. Although he didn’t like it, he wouldn’t go so far as to create small trouble for the military advisor. “Then a military order must be issued!”

Mu Hanzhang took a look at him and thought in his heart that perhaps General Zhao wasn’t a completely brash man. He had Yun Song bring pen and paper, and he wrote down a military order in powerful and refined calligraphy. He took the lead and signed with the words “Jun Qing”. Yun Song brought the military order to Zhao Meng. General Zhao took the pen and didn’t even look at the order. He moved the brush twice to sign his formal name in bold, cursive calligraphy, grabbed the people on the ground, and turned around and left.

Mu Hanzhang folded up the military order and handed it to Jing Shao. 

After everyone left, Jing Shao couldn’t help but hug his Wang Fei in his arms. “Are you certain that you can get to the bottom of this matter?” Just now, when Jun Qing had faced off against Zhao Meng, he had been extremely handsome. Him showing off his abilities, as if he were unsheathing the treasure sword Hanzhang, left Jing Shao intoxicated.

Mu Hanzhang was embraced and placed on Jing Shao’s lap. Unused to it, he shifted a little. “It’s just a conjecture; there’s no perfect guarantee.”

“Zhao Meng is a fool. There’s no need to lower yourself to his level.” When Jing Shao heard Mu Hanzhang’s words, he frowned and couldn’t help but worry. Military orders couldn’t be executed casually. If by that time a verdict couldn’t be reached, it would be troublesome.

“What I signed were just ‘characters’, not my ‘name’. The laws and regulations of Dachen ordain that you must sign your full birth name on military orders, otherwise it will not count,” Mu Hanzhang said as he laughed lightly. 

Jing Shao was stunned for a moment, and then swallowed. He told himself that it would be best not to rashly provoke his Wang Fei in the future.

Mu Hanzhang had everyone make sure not to make this matter public, and carefully checked all the camp’s account books.

In the evening, Jing Shao came back from training the troops and took a bath. He stopped in front of the table. Mu Hanzhang had put a large pile of account books beside him and was reading them quietly in the candlelight. Jing Shao casually flipped through the account books; they weren’t just for the rations and fodder, but also for weapons, military uniforms, tents, deployment of troops, and so on.

“Why are you also reading these?” Jing Shao didn’t understand. “Don’t you just have to check the rations and fodder?” 

“I wanted to take a look at the account books for the army to begin with anyway. This was just an opportunity, so I took them all to look at.” Mu Hanzhang turned a page and lifted his pen to write a few words on a piece of paper on the side.

“Well, these aren’t urgent; you can have a look at them whenever you want.” Jing Shao reached out from behind him to pick him up in a princess carry. “It’s too late; look at them again tomorrow.”

“I want to finish reading this one!” Mu Hanzhang struggled and said.

“No, Benwang is sleepy now. The military advisor must attend upon me in bed!” Jing Shao said and threw Mu Hanzhang down on the wide bed before quickly following and pouncing on him. 

Because of the weight of the person who had pounced on him, Mu Hanzhang couldn’t breathe. He reached out and pushed at him. Suddenly, he heard the footsteps of the patrolling soldiers outside the tent. He quickly pressed Jing Shao down and didn’t let him move. Only then did he remember that right now, there were lanterns lit inside the tent, and the movements inside could be seen by everyone outside!

Jing Shao was pressed down on a chest. Separated only by their thin summer clothes, his chin rested conveniently on a little bean, so he rubbed back and forth gently.

“En…” Mu Hanzhang glared at him, then turned his head and blew out the candle beside the bed.

“Jun Qing…” Jing Shao’s eyes widened. His Wang Fei had actually taken the initiative to blow out the candle today. He was clearly tempting him ah! He thus quickly took off his outer clothes and searched for those soft lips, kissing them when he found them. 

Mu Hanzhang was kissed without warning, and he tried to push away the fellow who was trying to mess around. However, his strength seemed to have deserted him. Thus, that person became even bolder and put his hand inside Mu Hanzhang’s inner shirt, caressing his luscious chest.

“Wu…” Mu Hanzhang was aroused and began to tremble. When Jing Shao’s hand stroked inside his undergarment, he couldn’t bear it anymore and lifted his legs, positioned them at the other’s stomach, and pushed him off of him.

“Jun Qing…” Jingshao was thrown away, and he latched back onto Mu Hanzhang discontentedly.

“Not all the candles have been blown out; people can see everything in here.” Mu Hanzhang frowned and pointed to the brass candelabra in front of the table, in which eight candles crackled. 

Jing Shao quickly jumped up, blew out the candles in one breath, then buried into the blankets and held Mu Hanzhang to his chest.

“Did Wang Ye forget what he said the day before yesterday?” Mu Hanzhang pulled the quilt over to cover them. “You must hone your strength for battle later, and you still have to get up early tomorrow, so it’s better to sleep earlier.” He spoke in a gentle voice, sounding as if that was the proper and expected course of action, just like a loyal subject advising Jing Shao.

“Jun Qing…” When Jing Shao heard him mention the day before yesterday, he immediately lost his confidence. He could only bury his face in Mu Hanzhang’s chest and close his eyes quietly, as if he had already fallen asleep.

Originally, he thought it would be fine if he tricked his Wang Fei just for one night – how could he have expected his Wang Fei to take revenge like this? Jing Shao could only just gather him closer in his arms and rub a little… Sleep! 

The author has something to say: All the people who read 'wolf’s bane' wrongly, go face the wall~ hehehe.