Qi Qingyao knew what he was thinking with a glance, even if he had not spoken at all. She had been a secret agent working for the police force in her past life, or rather, what we called a spy. In the process of working as a spy more than thirty times, she had mastered many espionage skills, including psychology. Qi Qingyao said, “I don’t know how clever you were before your memories were gone, but now it seems that you must’ve been pretty stupid.”
Jiang Yeqian took a deep breath. He managed to hold his temper with all his might.
He would not argue with this woman.
He would expose himself if he did.
Qi Qingyao continued, “The clothes he’s wearing are quite high in quality, and his appearance is not one of a servant working in a wealthy family for years. It’s that of a person who has lived a good and comfortable life. His skin is delicate, and his eyebrows are as dark as ink. He’s like a noble young man. Although he looks pitiful, I don’t believe every word of his so-called pitiful background at all. He might’ve thought I’m from a wealthy family because of my appearance, and he wanted to work for my family and steal some money. He’s got the wrong idea though. I’m not from a wealthy family, and I can’t take him in.”
Jiang Yeqian, “…”
She couldn’t take him in!
He had only taken note of the aforementioned five words.
After Qi Qingyao was finished, she pointed at the wild boar and said to Jiang Yeqian, “Jiang Bai, take this boar with you, and we’ll go home.”
Jiang Yeqian was silent for a while. He said, “I can’t haul it up with my current stamina.”
Qi Qingyao remembered that only part of the venom in his body was removed and that he was not fully healthy and with an incomplete memory at that. Her face fell. “You can’t do it, and I can’t either. What should we do?”
“Do you want this wild boar?”
A crisp voice sounded from behind them.
Qi Qingyao and Jiang Yeqian turned back.
The boy’s smile was gentle, and the tips of his ears were red. He appeared to be embarrassed. “I look thin, but I’ve worked for several years. I am quite strong. With two lengths of rope and a stick, I can carry the wild boar down the mountain along with this man here.”
Qi Qingyao was inspired. “This is a great idea. You can carry this boar home for me, as a repayment for saving you earlier.”
The boy said gently, “Thank you.”
After that, Jiang Yeqian went to cut a small tree down. He dulled the two tips of the trunk and made it into a stick. Qi Qingyao unraveled the rope around her waist, and along with the boy tied the boar’s legs and head up with the rope. When Jiang Yeqian came over with the stick, they tied the legs and the head on it.
Then Jiang Yeqian and the boy walked forward, both of them carrying one end of the stick.
Qi Qingyao realized that she did not need to do anything. ‘This must be the protection of the Koi Fish God’, she thought, while she muttered excitedly, “It’s nice, having two servants with me.”
Jiang Yeqian pursed his lips.
‘This woman is really treating both of us as servants!’
There was already him, but she was still thinking about having another servant. She totally forgot how poor she was!
…
After lunch, several women visited Qi Yuancheng’s house. They sat on Qi Yuancheng’s warmed bed-stove, chatting with Madam Guo and at the same time weaving the bottoms of pairs of shoes. They masterfully held the bottom stable with a needle, while piercing another needle through the thick bottom and scraping the needle on the top of the shoe.
“Madam Guo, your family went to the east side of the village for a long time just now. What did you do there?”
“Madam Yang, I shouldn’t keep this a secret. It’s like this…”
Madam Guo and the other daughters-in-law had already conspired with their mother-in-law Madam Wu. If the women in the village brought this up, they would spread the news out through them. Everyone knew that those women loved gossiping with their families!
Madam Guo took the chance to tell them all about how they “broke off all relations” this morning at the east side of the village.
The woman from the Yang family said, “What? You broke off relations with the little fool?