Ich verkaufe meine Kleidung und kaufe etwas Wein, den ich mit dir trinken kann

Kapitel 11

"Ah!" I cried out, caught off guard, and instinctively tried to pull my foot away. "Don't move!" he shouted, stopping me sharply. He then started groping my foot, in a way that was incredibly suggestive—if it weren't for the fact that he was old enough to be my grandfather, I would have kicked him.

"Have you touched him enough?" I asked him in a cold voice.

The old woman sat up after a long while, looked at me again, and her eyes showed excitement. "Is this really embroidered by the 'Jade Goddess Needle' herself? Where did you get it? She has been secluded from needlework for more than ten years. How did you get something from her?"

"Huh?" I was completely taken aback by this unexpected turn of events. "What did you say? I don't understand. I want to change my clothes, so please tell me if I want to or not?"

"Is changing clothes the important thing now?" He looked at me very seriously, then suddenly grabbed my clothes, his eyes wide, his voice trembling, "This couldn't have been done by her too, could it? Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"Of course not, absolutely not!" I was terrified by his expression—it looked as if he would snap my neck if I said "yes"—so I could only nod vigorously in agreement.

"Nonsense! Look at this embroidery, look at the layout, look at the stitches, look at the seams, look at the color scheme... every single detail is a masterpiece of craftsmanship. Who else in the world could do this besides her?" Unexpectedly, he raised his voice even louder this time, his face red and neck bulging as he glared at me—what did I do to deserve this?! I'm so frustrated I could cry!

"Then I won't change it, okay? Could you please let go of my hand first?" I'm really unlucky; I never expected to run into a madman—strange things happen every year, but this year seems to be especially bad. I struggled to break free; all I wanted to do was get out of there as quickly as possible.

"Who said we wouldn't exchange?!" He became even more agitated. "What do you want to exchange? Pick whatever you want from the store, or you can come to the back warehouse and choose. Just don't leave. What do you want to exchange with me?"

Replace them all.

"Oh? Please! Please!" He quickly handed me a pair of shoes, and immediately took off my dirty shoes, holding them tightly in his arms. Fortunately, no one on the street noticed us at that moment, otherwise, such behavior, which could be described as "immoral," would have caused quite a stir.

I asked the old man for a room and had myself thoroughly cleaned from head to toe. With a mirror in hand, I finally understood why Steward Li, Ah Niu, Ah Qiang, and the others had looked at me so strangely—disheveled, unkempt, and with lifeless eyes, I looked like a ghost. No wonder Steward Li, without me having to explain, said I'd "encountered misfortune" and was "stranded in a foreign land." —With my appearance, I wanted to be someone's maid? Who would want me? I'd probably be blown away by a gust of wind. Ha!

After eating a bowl of plain noodles that the old man had specially made for me, I washed up, put on a blue scholar's robe with a cross-collar and diagonal opening, wore a trendy Dongpo scarf on my head, and tied a ribbon around my waist. I looked quite like a dashing young gentleman in this turbid world! I made a face at myself in the mirror with satisfaction, said goodbye to the old man, and walked down the street—why were all these people running in one direction? But whatever, it's none of my business, right?

What I need to do now is turn back towards Lujiazhuang and see if I can defeat that accountant who got in through connections—sigh! I never thought that using connections would be so common in every dynasty!

No way? How could this happen?! I got soaked?! Looking at my newly changed clothes, and then at the nervous young man who kept apologizing to me, I could only smile wryly and accept my bad luck.

It seems my life is truly miserable—if I go back, the old man might give me a change of clothes, but finding that shop will probably take quite a while, and I want to get into Lujiazhuang before that "parachute" arrives. Oh well, I'll just have to make do for now!

I asked around for directions as I made my way to Lujiazhuang. Then I saw Ah Qiang walking ahead of me, looking dejected. — Right, I should try finding someone first and see if they can recognize me.

"Excuse me, brother, how do I get to Lu Family Village?"

"Ah! You must be the accountant recommended by Young Master Liu? So you're not dead? That's wonderful!" I didn't expect Ah Qiang to be even more excited than me. He rushed up to me, grabbed my hand, and shook it vigorously.

Can anyone tell me what's going on here...?

This book was first published on Xiaoxiang Novel Original Website. Please retain this information when reprinting!

[Volume 1: Encounter Chapter 11 - A Glimmer of Hope]

Seriously? Am I that unlucky to be recognized by him so quickly? But I'm a complete stranger in this place, who would spread rumors to him that I'm "dead"?

"Wait a moment,,,,"

Before I could finish speaking, Ah Qiang had already rattled off a whole bunch of things: "You're not dead? That's wonderful! Steward Li sent me to pick you up, but when I got to the ferry, I found out that the boat you were on had encountered the Long Whale Gang this morning. I heard that eight or nine out of ten people on board died, and another ten percent fell into the Yangtze River and are missing. Oh! It's really tragic! I thought you were old and... hehe." He scratched his head sheepishly, looked at me apologetically, and smiled. "Luckily, you're very lucky. Otherwise, our master wouldn't know how to explain it to Young Master Liu!"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, does that mean the 'parachute' thing happened to him?" I interrupted him, suppressing the surprise in my heart, and stared intently at A-Qiang.

"A parachute? Who's that? I don't know them." Ah Qiang looked completely bewildered. "Is it your friend or family? Or, I can ask someone to help you find out."

"No need. In short, the current situation is that everyone on the ship is either dead or missing, right?" I confirmed with him again.

“Yes. The Long Whale Gang is always ruthless. Those they rob never survive.” Ah Qiang lowered his voice unconsciously and glanced around—as if to make sure no one from the Long Whale Gang was eavesdropping nearby—before continuing, “Anyway, young master, you’re really lucky!”—as if he couldn’t prove my good fortune without emphasizing it repeatedly, and nodded heavily. “Now, let’s hurry up and go. Steward Li is probably getting impatient.”

In other words, that parachute was attacked by bandits halfway and lost his life. Now, Ah Qiang mistakenly believes I am that parachute? I mentally reassembled the information and easily came to a conclusion.

Haha! This is truly a stroke of luck! Heaven has finally opened its eyes for me! — I cheered inwardly: To be honest, someone lost their life, and I'm still here being so happy, it seems a bit inappropriate. But what can I do? I'm just so happy!

"I'm sorry, sir. Please forgive my selfishness—using your name to make a living here. If you have a spirit in heaven, you'll know I was forced to do this! I hope you'll be magnanimous and not hold it against me. Anyway, you... well, you don't need this opportunity anymore, so you might as well give it to me, so it won't go to waste, right? I'll definitely ask Buddha, Guanyin, and God to take care of you, so you can live a comfortable and happy life in your next life, okay?" After silently reciting a whole bunch of things in my heart, I gave Ah Qiang a big smile. "Yes, I really am lucky."

When I arrived at the gate of the manor, I could see a crowd of people craning their necks to wait for me. I immediately spotted Steward Li standing with his hands behind his back in the crowd—I never expected that an accountant would be so highly regarded. So many people came to greet him.

"Steward Li, this is the one recommended by Young Master Liu. Uh, may I ask for Young Master Liu's name?" A-Qiang asked me, blushing.

"My surname is Ye, and my given name is... Qingyang." I tried my best to imitate the tone of voice of those ancient people on TV—it really sounded awkward!

"Oh, they've arrived. Quickly take Young Master Ye to 'Benlei Pavilion' to settle him in. A-Qiang, you stay here. Dongmei, you take Young Master Ye there." Steward Li only nodded politely to me before giving instructions to A-Qiang and Dongmei with a worried expression.

Huh! Could it be that all these people gathered here not to welcome me? What happened? I wondered to myself—but it's better if he doesn't notice me. At least I can get away with it for now and make plans later. I'm new here, so it's better to avoid trouble, right?

"Young Master Ye, please come with me." Dongmei's small face even showed a hint of worry—she had just become a maid in the Lu family, and should have been very happy.

"What happened in the village?" I finally couldn't help but ask Dongmei.

"Uh, no." Dongmei had an unnatural smile on her face, her eyes darting around and avoiding my gaze.

"Oh, really?" I looked at her slowly and deliberately. "Dongmei, it's not good for such a cute little girl to lie. Tell me, what happened to your young lady?"

"How did you know our young lady...?" Dongmei looked at me with surprise—what a silly girl, I got her to tell me so easily—I was just guessing: think about it, she only entered the manor today, and this morning I clearly heard Steward Li tell her that she could be used as long as the young lady had no objections, so it's obvious that she serves the young lady. Now that she's here, there's a high chance that something has happened to their young lady.

"It's the young lady who's gone missing." Dongmei looked at me guiltily—why? Her young lady is missing, why is she looking at me with such guilt? It's not like my wife ran away.

"How old is your young lady? Why is she still playing these runaway tricks?" I smiled at Dongmei nonchalantly.

"You...you're not angry at all?" Dongmei looked at me in surprise.

"Why am I angry? Should I be angry?" Good heavens, I was even more surprised than she was.

"You're Young Master Liu's friend. Our young lady ran away from home because she refused to marry him." Dongmei looked at me with a puzzled expression. "No matter what, Young Master Liu is the second-in-command of the number one manor in the world. Aren't you angry?"

"Why wouldn't she want a man with such good qualities?" Actually, there are many reasons why she wouldn't want him; I was just teasing Dongmei on purpose.

"Hey! You're from the number one manor in the world, how could you not know?" Dongmei seemed quite surprised! —This is strange, why would I be so sure I know about their young lady's affairs?

"Oh, I haven't been in the village for long, so I don't know about it."