You Promised to Be an Idle Son-in-Law, How Could You Become a Land Immortal?

Xiaodie rubbed her forehead as she watched him disappear out the door, a smile blooming on her fair, youthful face.

”Our second son-in-law, who dislikes fame, is now renowned throughout the world, hehe.”

Aside from keeping up with the major and minor affairs inside and outside the mansion, she spent most of her days listening to all sorts of rumors about Chen Yi.

For example, she’d hear about the reactions of talented scholars and great Confucian masters when his famous poem, ”Song of the Water Melody,” spread to another state capital.

Or how Chen Yi had joined the ranks of the Great Wei Dynasty’s contemporary Calligraphy masters with his Perfect Realm Calligraphy Dao.

And other rumors, some plausible and some not.

Whether they were words of praise or criticism, she listened with great interest.

Xiaodie even took the most brilliant compliments and recorded them in a special little booklet, along with all the things, big and small, that Chen Yi did.

She would flip through it from time to time.

Xiaodie had even given the booklet a title: *Biography of the Marquis’s Mansion’s Second Son-in-Law*.

But in her heart, she preferred its full title: *Biography of the Marquis’s Mansion’s Second Son-in-Law and His Little Maid*.

However, just thinking such a thing made her face burn.

In the end, she compromised on the title.

’When I get married someday, I’ll give it to the second son-in-law... hmm... If only I didn’t have to marry and could just stay by his side forever...’

”Ah!”

Xiaodie’s face flushed red. She quickly looked away from the door, tidied up the study, and left with the small bowl in hand, her steps light and quick.

’How shameless, how shameless... My heart is overflowing.’

...

Late that night, once the wooden building had fallen silent, Chen Yi listened intently for a moment before changing into a set of black clothes. By the faint light, he altered his appearance to look like Liu Wu.

He had much to do tonight, so he had to leave Spring Lotus Garden early.

’Wang Ji should have spread the news that Lv Jiunan was not yet dead to those grain stores this afternoon.’

’Even if they prepared in advance, they would likely just pay more attention to the movements within the city. It’s unlikely they’d think to go looking for Cui Qingwu.’

’Ultimately, I’ll have to make Lv Jiunan show himself.’

Chen Yi had been plotting for days and knew the plan by heart; he was quite confident.

The goal of this step-by-step scheme was singular: to make those grain stores cough up their grain as quickly as possible.

Otherwise, how could he dig a pit and bury the people from the Ji State Trading Company?

That was the plan, anyway.

But when Chen Yi, after taking a roundabout route, finally arrived at the Spring Rain Building, the news he received from Cui Qingwu was startling.

”Are you saying that Lin... that Lin’s Grain Store and the others have already sold all their grain to you?”

Seeing his surprised expression, Cui Qingwu couldn’t help but frown.

”Isn’t this the result of your scheme? I was about to ask you how you did it.”

Chen Yi didn’t answer right away. He lowered his head in thought for a moment, then suddenly shook his head and started to laugh.

”It seems I underestimated those people’s intelligence.”

”To think there were such characters who thought themselves so clever.”

Cui Qingwu and Lou Yuxue exchanged a glance, and Cui Qingwu couldn’t help but ask, ”What? Did something unexpected happen?”

”You were the one who instructed me to agree to their request without fail if they came looking for me.”

”If you back out now, you’ll have to compensate me for the silver I lost.”

Hearing this, Chen Yi waved his hand. ”I’m not backing out. I just didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.”

Cui Qingwu’s brow furrowed slightly. ”They didn’t come because of you?”

”Yes and no.”

Chen Yi said, holding back a laugh, ”I only spread the news that Lv Jiunan wasn’t dead. My original intention was to make them slow the pace of their grain price hikes. Forcing them to seek you out was supposed to be the next step.”

”But I never imagined they would sell the grain to you without even waiting to verify if the news was true.”

”This is good, too. It makes my plan even more certain.”

”It’s just that...”

”Wait!”

Before Chen Yi could finish, Lou Yuxue seized on the key point of his words, staring at him and demanding:

”Who did you say isn’t dead?”

Chen Yi stopped and repeated with a smile, ”Lv Jiunan isn’t dead.”

Cui Qingwu reacted as well. ”Lv Jiunan? Isn’t he dead?”

Lou Yuxue nodded. ”You were the one who killed him with a single spear thrust that day.”

The smile on Chen Yi’s face grew wider. ”It’s not wrong for you to think so.”

”He was indeed on the brink of death that day, but I saved him afterward.”

”Saved... You...”

Cui Qingwu’s mouth fell open. She thought of his Medical Dao and understood that such a thing was indeed possible.

But what surprised her even more was that Liu Wu had already been planning all of this back then.

Otherwise, why would he have saved Lv Jiunan?

Lou Yuxue was equally shocked. ”You, you, you...”

”Lv Jiunan not being dead is huge news! Why didn’t you say so earlier?!”

”Do you know how close we were? I... King Nalandu was about to hire other masters to deal with you!”

Chen Yi glanced at her and asked with a smile, ”The General came to see you last night, right?”

The agitated look on Lou Yuxue’s face froze. ”How did you know?”

”Did you follow me last night?”

Chen Yi let out a laugh, shaking his head. ”I don’t have that much free time.”

”Then how did you find out?”

”It’s simple. You used the signal we agreed upon last night, appearing at the entrance of the Prefectural Magistrate’s Office at noon today. It clearly wasn’t because you had found Du Cang.”

”Thinking it over, the only possibility was that you had something to discuss with me.”

Lou Yuxue understood, but her words were still stubborn. ”Then tell me, what business did Lord General have with me?”

Chen Yi shot her a look, a half-smile on his face. ”Do you really want me to say it?”

Lou Yuxue turned her head away. ”You could never guess.”

Seeing her still acting stubborn, Chen Yi had no choice but to say, ”I’m guessing he came to you to discuss joining forces with King Landu’s band of horse bandits to ambush and kill me.”

”You...”

Before Lou Yuxue could speak, Chen Yi continued, ”But I don’t think someone with your intelligence would have agreed.”

”But as his subordinate, you couldn’t refuse him outright, so...”

”So you gave him that letter?”

Lou Yuxue’s eyes went wide as she stared at Chen Yi, her pointing finger trembling as if she were looking at a monster.

”You... you... you guessed all of that?”

Chen Yi raised an eyebrow slightly. ”From your reaction, it seems that letter is quite important to you all.”

”Important enough to make the General give up his deal with King Landu?”

Hearing this, Lou Yuxue’s face turned pale, then red. After a long moment, she said dejectedly:

”I don’t know.”

She truly didn’t know the General’s intentions; she could only guess.

Chen Yi smiled at her but didn’t press the matter.

’A single letter in exchange for all that grain from Cui Qingwu... that’s comparable to three hundred thousand silver coins. It’s a good deal either way.’

He was, however, curious how the White Tiger Guard would handle that letter.

’Use it to investigate Zhu Hao, the Deputy Commander of the Shu State Capital Commandery?’

’Or keep it as a trump card?’

Chen Yi couldn’t know for sure, but he guessed that after the White Tiger Guard gave up their deal with King Landu, they would certainly come up with another plan.

”So, tell me, what does your ’Lord General’ have planned?”

Lou Yuxue subconsciously glanced at Cui Qingwu, who was listening with pricked ears, then gritted her teeth and said stiffly:

”The Lord wants to join forces with you to ambush and kill Du Cang.”

Chen Yi wasn’t surprised. He clapped his hands with a smile. ”Now that’s something the White Tiger Guard ought to be doing.”

”Tell me, what’s the plan?”

”The Lord has already sent a message to King Landu, pretending to agree to his request. He will leak your whereabouts to Du Cang to lure him out.”

Chen Yi understood. ”So you want me to be the bait?”

Lou Yuxue grunted in affirmation. ”If you want to find Du Cang, this is the fastest way.”

Chen Yi didn’t deny this point.

It was just that he was always the one scheming against others. To suddenly be ”schemed against” himself felt a bit strange.

He thought for a moment.

He nodded. ”Alright, we’ll do it your way.”

”Then what should we tell them?”

”Just say... that in five days, I will have another sparring match with Liu Lang at the Chishui River.”

”Another one?”

Lou Yuxue thought of the traces left by the Chishui River outside the city. ”So it really was you and Liu Lang.”

After listening to their conversation, Cui Qingwu spoke up with a smile, ”Besides him, who else could create such a massive disturbance?”

In Shu State Prefecture City... no, in the entire Jianghu of Shu State, besides ”Dragon Spear” Liu Wu, who else could shatter a hundred zhang with a single spear thrust?

There was a moment of silence.

Lou Yuxue finally calmed down. Remembering something, she said, ”There’s one more thing from today.”

Chen Yi raised a hand, gesturing for her to just say it.

”At noon, someone came to Bright Moon Building and paid a hefty deposit.”

”For what?”

”The person wants to find the Barbarian Prince, Asutai!”

”Oh?”

Chen Yi looked at her with some surprise, thought for a moment, and asked, ”What do you think his identity is?”

Lou Yuxue thought back for a moment and shook her head. ”The person didn’t reveal anything at all.”

”But... he shouldn’t be very old.”

”Anything else?”

”Anything else...”

”There was an old servant with him... his eyes were very familiar. I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere before...”