The most foolish in the world

Chapter 59

Fan Qingbo turned back and explained to the others knowingly, "It's nothing, it's none of your business, it'll be fine tomorrow. He's just shy." As she spoke, she suddenly cupped her cheeks, blinked dreamily, and smiled sweetly, "So cute!"

The children silently stepped back three paces, rubbing their skin to smear the floor before exchanging bewildered glances: "Has Boss Fan been possessed?"

Fan Qingbo didn't hear a word she said, smiling to herself. When she finally came to her senses, she was alone in the courtyard. She paused, but didn't seem to mind, calmly walking back to the house across the street. Her intuition told her the scholar must have gone into his study, and sure enough, she found a busy figure in front of the bookshelves. The figure visibly stiffened when she entered.

At this moment, Fan Qingbo finally realized how terrible she had been. She wanted a home, a child, and to marry him, yet she kept so many things from him: an open ex-lover and a secret fake husband, both constantly annoying him. Every time she angered him, she only offered superficial solutions—kissing and hugging or trying to get him into bed—to appease him…

Wait a minute, although she only had one man, the scholar, from beginning to end, the scholar somehow came to the conclusion that she had slept with countless virgins. So in the scholar's eyes, she was simply the typical Taiwanese romance novel harem male protagonist that he despised the most?

Uh…it seems the gender is wrong…never mind this gender confusion! Today she absolutely has to make everything clear. To hell with Jie Dongfeng's death, she doesn't want the scholar to have any misunderstandings about her. She wants the scholar to know that she truly loves him…

Fan Qingbo took a deep breath, slowly stepped forward, and hugged him from behind.

After realizing she was a jerk, she was actually terrified that he would dump her. Luckily, he didn't, otherwise, given his skills, she probably would have been crippled.

His body was stiff as hell, his neck rigid and silent. She sighed inwardly, and with a shy face, she imitated Fan Bing's coquettish manner, "Husband~~~~~~" His body suddenly relaxed—he trembled.

Well, she knew Fan Bing wasn't a good role model, but she was desperate and grasping at straws.

She pressed her face against his back, clearly feeling a layer of dampness, which startled her. Noticing his slight struggle, she hugged him tighter, paused for a moment, and spoke again, "Scholar, I'm sorry." These words successfully stopped his struggles.

She found a comfortable spot to lean back and continued, "I've been too headstrong and ignored some misunderstandings, which made you uncomfortable. I'm sorry. I've been busy rushing to finish my manuscript these past few days, and I might have done something that caused you to misunderstand. I apologize for that too, okay? Just ask me when I'm having an episode, and I'll tell you. When I'm rushing to finish a manuscript, I work day and night. It's not targeting you, really. As for everything else, if you ask, I'll explain everything to you, okay?"

The scholar remained silent, but his attitude softened considerably, and his body no longer resisted her as much.

She breathed a sigh of relief, and then, taking advantage of the situation, rubbed her face against his back and said softly, "Oh, I missed you."

With the last line of defense breached, the scholar was utterly defeated. His eyes gleamed, and he forced a smile, puffing out his cheeks as he asked, "Really?"

"certainly."

The scholar finally surrendered completely, and was about to return the favor by saying to his wife that he missed her too, when suddenly his face hardened, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Wife, you'd better make it clear first, do you miss your husband, or your husband's body?!"

"Huh?"

The scholar grasped a pair of hands that should have been clasped around his waist but were instead restlessly moving up and down, and turned around.

"This...it's a habit, a habit...it wasn't intentional..." Fan Qingbo chuckled dryly, a surge of tears welling up inside her. Serves you right for being so impulsive! Serves you right for being so impulsive! Who's the womanizer here?! Waaaaah, I hope the scholar won't question her past...

The credibility of a face-to-face apology...

The scholar, with a cold expression, suddenly raised his hand. Fan Qingbo shrank back, instinctively covering his ears and closing his eyes.

After waiting for a while without any punishment, she cautiously opened one eye, only to see that he had somehow acquired a letter in his hand and was examining it with a serious expression. She blinked, somewhat bewildered, "What's this?"

"I believe you." The scholar was sparing with his words.

Where did it come from?

The scholar raised the arrow, still with the envelope stuck in it, in his other hand.

Fan Qingbo finally came to his senses. "What letter? What did it say?"

The scholar looked up, puzzled. "Wife, come and take a look. This seems to be an invitation to a weapons ranking battle. Could it have been sent to the wrong place?"

41. The Education of Love (Part 1)

Fan Qingbo accepted the invitation, and her face contorted at the first line of the salutation. How many times had these江湖 (jianghu, the martial arts world) figures been tricked by the scholar's idiocy to develop such a wary attitude, writing such a long, detailed, and undeniably foolproof title—"Surname Shu, given name Sheng, courtesy name Qin, ranked second in the jianghu, known as the Silver Pen Scholar, the Great Hero Shu." Contortion aside, a certain sense of pride welled up within her—a feeling of "I am honored to have such a husband"—wasn't it...? Is idiocy contagious?

But she was also curious. "Scholar, how exactly did you manage to tell that it was sent to the wrong address?"

The scholar replied matter-of-factly, "Since I don't have a silver pen, I'm certainly not some kind of 'silver pen scholar'."

Fan Qingbo bowed and humbly asked again, "Excuse me, sir, do you think the name 'Shuzhi' in front is just for show?"

After a moment's thought, the scholar wisely replied, "Perhaps there are others with the same name, surname, and courtesy name; who knows?"

Fan Qingbo straightened up, tugged at the corners of her mouth, and revealed a bright, fake smile. "My dear husband, do you think your name is particularly mainstream, especially suitable for the general public?"

The scholar finally realized that her tone was off and wisely shut up.

Before marriage, she would call him "Young Master Shu" or "Hero Shu" when she was being sarcastic and sarcastic. After marriage, however, the way she addressed him became more and more diverse. When she was angry, she would call him "Young Master Shu," but when she was calm, she would call him "Scholarly Fool Shu." When she was trying to be friendly, she would call him "Husband Shu," and when she was being sarcastic, she would add "Master Shu" and then the respectful "you" to it.

At this moment, three seemingly intimate words were added, clearly a veiled criticism beneath the surface, a mockery tinged with a hint of contempt, and a subtle sense of powerlessness within that contempt. Faced with such a situation, he knew that the more he said, the more mistakes he would make; only by remaining silent could he protect himself.

In his previous twenty-eight years of life, the scholar had never felt that he possessed such a talent for reading people's expressions, nor had he ever spent even a moment on it. However, when he met Fan Qingbo, whose expressions were rich and often contained multiple layers of meaning, he unknowingly activated this ability and became deeply entangled in it, unable to extricate himself. Of course, the object of his affections was only Fan Qingbo.

Seeing that he had quieted down, Fan Qingbo also calmed down.

While she wouldn't mind a more lively and colorful life, all of this had to be based on safety, so she never considered venturing into the martial world. In ancient times, chaos stemmed from two sources: the bloodshed of the martial world and political turmoil. The swordplay and intrigue of the martial world usually took place in remote, remote areas, far from the emperor's reach, and for rebellions, the capital was the last line of defense; she had never heard of a massacre of the capital in this era. In short, the capital was the safest place, which was why she chose to settle here.

If she had to label her life, she would say it's the life of ordinary people, not the life of江湖恩怨 (jianghu enyuan, a term referring to the complexities and conflicts of the martial arts world).

If she had received this invitation a few days ago, her reaction would have been, "Scholar, you don't mind if we get a divorce, do you?" But now things are different. Her mood has changed so quickly that she was caught off guard. She found herself actually thinking about how to help the scholar resolve this invitation, because she knew that his desire to avoid the world of martial arts was even stronger than hers.

"What are you doing?" she suddenly noticed him carefully folding the invitation.

While busy at work, the scholar looked up excitedly and said, "Wife, since we mistakenly received someone else's letter, let's put it back and shoot the arrow back!" As he spoke, the letter in his hand was restored to its unopened shape. Then he returned to his desk, took out an envelope from the drawer, sealed it, and then imitated the handwriting on the envelope on the arrow to write "Respectfully addressed to the scholar with silver pen." Mission accomplished!

Fan Qingbo watched the series of actions with his mouth agape, then convulsed uncontrollably.

"My lord, aren't you an upright scholar? Why are you so adept at forging letters?"

"That's why you can't accept letters from others, my wife." The scholar smiled innocently.

Fan Qingbo was completely powerless to figure out whether he was genuinely naive or just pretending to be weak; he just wanted to ask, "Where are you going to shoot this arrow back? Do you know the sender's address or the address of your so-called real recipient?"