The Wife is First

Ch49 - Returning to Camp

“Tsk, what king of the mountains?” The sturdy madam got up and pinched some chopped meat from the wooden block for the little tiger cub to eat. “His family already declined in his grandfather’s generation.” 

“Brother Hao’s physique is so suitable for martial arts, but it’s used to kill pigs. Don’t you think it’s a waste of talent?” Mu Hanzhang sat down on the wooden bench in the yard, took the piece of meat, and put it in his palm for the little tiger to eat.

The plump lady looked at him and said angrily, “That stubborn fool has always listened to me, except on this one point. I told him to take the martial arts exam, but he just stubbornly won’t. He only knows how to butcher pigs. It’s really hopeless!”

Mu Hanzhang’s lips curled up gently when he heard this. This lady seemed quite coarse, but she was actually very insightful. She knew long ago that they had come to persuade Hao Dadao. She had let him in to wash the tiger, but in fact, it was to advise them not to insist on it anymore. “Sure enough, elder sister is a sensible person. However, the world changes quickly now. That former general was of the Hao family, but the previous emperor always praised them highly, and didn’t identify the Hao family as traitors. Furthermore, big brother Hao was born in the Dachen dynasty, so naturally, he is a person of the Dachen dynasty, and can accomplish things with his own abilities.”

Hearing these words, the plump madam looked at the little tiger as it ate, but didn’t respond. 

The little tiger shook its wet fur and clung to the piece of meat as it ate extremely happily. Its teeth hadn’t all grown in; it would bite and bite, and an empty space would appear, so it had to bite in another direction.

Mu Hanzhang didn’t disturb it when he saw that it was eating happily. He just spread out the cloth and let the sun shine on the small body to dry its fur. “Elder sister is so hardworking and thrifty in running the household; after a lifetime, you may end up just a wealthy butcher. I don’t know if elder sister has thought about it before, but if you have heirs in the future, will you have them become butchers too?”

Hearing this, the plump lady couldn’t help but get angry again. “I scold him every day about this. Even if he only becomes a constable, won’t the children still have some hope for the future? If we have a son, then great: he can still be a butcher. But if we have a daughter, no one will dare marry her!”

“Elder sister must also know our purpose for coming here. Wang Ye is a man who cherishes talent. Nowadays, if military men not born in aristocratic families want to find success, it’s best to follow Wang Ye.” Mu Hanzhang held the little tiger that had eaten its fill in his arms and rubbed its fur.

“Hu…” The little tiger lay on its stomach in Mu Hanzhang’s arms. It had resisted at first, but when that gentle and slender hand stroked its fur again and again, it gradually calmed down; soon, the little tiger cub, who had been on edge for a day and night, fell asleep.

Mu Hanzhang saw that it was about time to leave; when it came to some things, saying too much actually wasn’t good. He stood up with the furball in his arms. “Wang Ye will not insist on this matter, but it truly would be a pity given Brother Hao’s talents, which is why Wang Ye specially came here this time. It’s just that the army is marching right now; we cannot tarry for too long, so we will leave tomorrow. If big brother Hao really doesn’t want to, it’s all right.” After Mu Hanzhang finished speaking, he put a piece of silver on the rattan chair for the help in washing the little tiger and for that minced meat. Without waiting for the plump lady to say anything more, he turned around and left.

When the two left, the robust lady grabbed Hao Dadao’s ear and dragged him into the house.

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.

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“That may not be the case. I can see that he treats that military advisor very well, and even bought him that tiger. I think a master who treats his subordinates as dearly as he does his wife is much better than those two-faced literati!” This Wang Ye had come all the way to Shanxia village for Hao Dadao, which proved that he was truly sincere. Moreover, they were leaving tomorrow; after this village, there were no other inns they could possibly stop at. The madam was rather anxious.

“Wawu ～” Lying on the roof, the tiger excitedly pounced on the bedspread and scrambled around on it. Jing Shao grabbed the furball with two fingers. “if you keep making trouble, we’ll throw you down!”

The little tiger struggled and turned its head to bite Jing Shao’s fingers, but it was to no avail as its neck was too short to even reach. Thus, it could only wave its limbs.

“Eh, it’s a little boy ah!” Jing Shao poked the little tiger’s penis, which was hidden in the white fluff of his abdomen, with a finger. 

“Is it?” Mu Hanzhang, who was resting his head on Jing Shao’s arm, looked up. He couldn’t see clearly, so he reached out and placed the little tiger in the gap between the two of them.

“Ao…” The little tiger was flipped on its back and was very unhappy. It grabbed the quilt and turned over as it stuck its butt out at the two people who kept touching it.

“Where shall we send it?” Holding the long tail that was swaying back and forth, Mu Hanzhang pursed his lips, slightly unwilling to part with the little thing. It was truly unreasonable to bring along a useless tiger cub on the march, but he was also truly reluctant to give it up.

Jing Shao could see that his Wang Fei was reluctant to give it up; he had bought it for him to play with, anyway. Jing Shao said, “If you give me a kiss, I’ll let you raise it.” 

“Really?” Mu Hanzhang turned to look at him.

Jing Shao nodded solemnly, closed his eyes, and pointed at his lips. After waiting for a long time, and not feeling the person beside him move, he was just about to open his eyes, when he felt nice and warm breath getting closer and closer. Then, a slightly cool, soft and fluffy thing bumped against his mouth. He abruptly opened his eyes to meet a pair of innocent amber ones. “Wawu?”

He lifted his head to look, and Mu Hanzhang, who was holding the little tiger, fell on him, laughing.

The next day, when Jing Shao and Mu Hanzhang went over again, the plump lady was chopping meat at the pork stall, and there was a horse next to her. 

“Here you are!” The sturdy madam was very happy to see them. She had been afraid that they had lost patience and left right away today. She wiped her hands on her apron. “I’ll go call him!” After that, she turned to enter the shop, and they heard a loud racket inside. After a long time, Hao Dadao’s wife dragged him out; he was carrying the Hun Yuan blade that was passed down in his family.

Jing Shao hurried forward and grabbed the rather reluctant Hao Dadao. “Brother Hao is willing to come out of the mountains to help me. This young prince has the blessings of three lifetimes!” His tone was sincere. It also didn’t lack the heroic quality of a military leader, which gave people a favorable impression of him.

“Wang Ye is praising me too much. Hao is just a brute. I’m truly lucky that Wang Ye thinks I’m worthy.” Hao Dadao was a little uneasy. He secretly thought that this Cheng Wang was so young, but the way he spoke and did things was very calm and experienced. Thinking about the details of their private conversation in the butcher shop the other day, Hao Dadao thought that the Cheng Wang perhaps really was a good master. Maybe he could just follow him for a bit and see how things went.

“Once I transfer this pork shop to someone else, I’ll go to the army to find you,” said the robust lady as she waved at the three men on horseback with knives for butchering pigs in her hands. “This old one can also fight with these two pig-butchering knives!” 

They had to catch up to the troops that were taking the roundabout way as soon as possible. Hao Dadao took them through the Dahang mountains to meet up with the head of the troops.

Having obtained this fierce general Hao Dadao, Jing Shao was in a good mood. Among the three vassals, the king of Huainan was the most difficult one to deal with. That person’s strategies and schemes didn’t lose out to Jing Shao’s, some of his plots even proving superior. Even though the Huainan army wasn’t as big, the imperial court’s army was still defeated repeatedly. Without Hao Dadao’s help, the Huainan fiefdom might last another eight or ten years of fighting without suffering a defeat. Now that Jing Shao had gotten Hao Dadao ahead of time, it was likely to be a much shorter fight when they fought in the southeast and southwest later.

Hao Dadao gave Mu Hanzhang, who was sitting in front of the Wang Ye on the same horse, a strange look. “Why doesn’t the military advisor ride on his own?”

“He’s not good at riding. When the army is on the march, he usually rides in a carriage,” Jing Shao explained. 

Mu Hanzhang jabbed him with his elbow. His horsemanship was good, but Jing Shao never let him ride on his own, always feeling that he would fall down and hurt himself.

Hao Dadao glanced at them with a look of disapproval. Since the Wang Ye was already officially married, it really wasn’t good to act like this with some military advisor of dubious background. Hence, following the reasoning that “what the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over”, he decided to ride ahead of them.

“The little tiger still doesn’t have a name. What should we call it?” Seeing Hao Dadao riding in front of them, Mu Hanzhang relaxed and leaned against the chest of the man behind him. He rubbed the tiger cub that was pressed to his chest. It had been trying to grab hold of Xiao Hei’s mane for a while now.

“Call it Xiao Huang.” Jing Shao reached out a hand and flicked the fluffy round head. 

“Wawu!” The little tiger shook its head, resentfully grabbed Jing Shao’s hand, and bit down with all its strength. However, its teeth hadn’t grown in completely, and Jing Shao’s finger got stuck in a gap between its teeth, causing the little guy to whine.

“It sounds like a name for a cat.” Mu Hanzhang frowned.

“All the animals in the palace have names starting with Xiao.” Jing Shao jerked his chin at Xiao Hei, who was walking along.

“Xiao…” Mu Hanzhang swallowed down the “Xiao Shao” that had been on the tip of his tongue. “Xiao Huang; that works.” 

Using small paths as shortcuts, the three men crossed the Dahang mountains in less than a day and got some rest in a small town next to the public road before immediately catching up to the army.

Back in the camp, Mu Hanzhang was worried that Zhao Meng and the others would reject Hao Dadao. However, when Zhao Meng saw Hao Dadao’s Hun Yuan Sword, he pulled the man over to spar with him. Jing Shao gave Hao Dadao a reassuring look. This was the so-called birds of a feather flocked together; it was actually the easiest for these big and rough men to get along. A sparring match or a jar of alcohol was enough for them to soon become brothers.

The two quickly traded blows in the open space in front of the camp, attracting the attention of many people, who stopped to watch.

The right protectorate general, who was also there to watch the excitement, saw a small yellow thing in the military advisor’s arms. He went over excitedly. “Military advisor, what’s this?” 

“Wawu?” The little tiger, who had been sleeping soundly, woke up. It opened its big hazy eyes and looked at the right protectorate general. Its round ears were turned inside out from sleep, and it looked rather comical.

“Yo! A tiger cub!” the right protectorate general cried out in surprise. He picked up the little tiger and held it up in front of him to examine it more closely.

“Ao~” The little tiger was shy with strangers and struggled incessantly. However, the tiger was small and had no strength, and couldn’t free itself. Thus, it raised its little paw and swiped at the right protectorate general’s handsome face with its claws.

“Ouch!” The right protectorate general was caught off guard by the scratch. He started to wail that it hurt, and as he subconsciously loosened his grip, the tiger cub started to fall to the ground. 

Just as Mu Hanzhang was about to catch it, a blur of a shadow streaked over, and the yellow furball landed safely in Ge Ruoyi’s arms.